Since this is my first time cubing, how does drafting strategy change when you are in a cube? How high do you take color fixing or removal? Do you usually play or draw? Any tips would be appreciated.
This is a pretty huge question and you might find good resources in the Cube forum on this very site or with one of the Cube videos on Channel Fireball. LSV and Paulo Vitor both post decent Cube videos, the last one perhaps a month or two ago. Basically, your strategy is going to vary a lot depending on the deck you're building and the cube you're working with. It's much more complex and much more open than other limited formats, and so broad questions like 'how important is fixing?' will vary to a large extent. In a world where 5 color control is going up against mono-colored decks, the pick orders are pretty hard to catalog.
I wouldn't advise taking it so seriously. Cube is an opportunity to draft whatever off-the-wall strategy you can find. Mana fixing is pretty important to certain types of decks, particularly control decks that want to run the best cards they can possibly get. Also, many good cards happen to have difficult casting costs, which makes duals/fetches pretty key. As for strategies, anything goes. Whatever happens, you should still end up with a good deck.
My first cube draft was the other day and I made some bad mistakes myself. I ended up with a U/W control deck playing FOUR Wrath effects. It seemed like a good idea initially, but I found that the opponent would usually just stick one ridiculous threat at a time and the wraths were often worse and less versatile than targeting removal. I still made it to the finals, but I lost out to Sword of Light and Shadow there. (All my blockers are white... Stupid sword pissed me off when I failed to draw my artifact destruction repeatedly and just have to sit and watch the opponent slowly out-card-advantage me with the sword.)
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2. In cube, the cards are extremely powerful and look accordingly, but don't be flashed by splashy cards. Oftentimes, a solid, but unexciting card is just as good. Most importantly: Don't get tempted by an absurd off-color card in a booster, take the solid on-color card instead. Especially in this cube, fixing is hard to come by and you would probably like to stick to 2.5 colors tops.
3. On the other hand, don't try to feel super sneaky by winning with unexciting cards. If there's a Kokusho, JTMS or similar, go for it, it's gonna win you a few games all by itself.
4. Take fixing pretty highly. The power curve is pretty flat and you can expect playables even in the last picks of a pack. That isn't true, however, for fixing, so go for it soon enough.
5. Try things out. Most probably, they work (except storm, I've heard that never works and I'm inclined to believe it).
6. Don't forget to draft enough threats, especially if you're control. You can always get a ton of answers, but you might end up unable to actually win before he lands his next threat.
That's already pretty much it. I might write some more, but I fell these are the basics. Most importantly: Have fun!
(You might want to try swiss queues. The level of the players is a little lower and you get to experience your deck in 3 matches instead of 1.5ish.)
Specialities about the cube: U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
I've been having success drafting 4- and 5-color control in the modo cube, but you definitely need to understand when to take mana fixing and how to draft a color-friendly curve. Don't take anything in your 4th color that you need to play before turn 6-7, etc.
For reference, I ended up with 7 dual lands/fetches in my last winning 5-color draft. If you don't have the discipline to pick them over solid cards, and pick them quite highly, stick to 2-3 colors.
Every cube plays different.
-This particular list is really big, which means that it is harder to build decks that rely on a certain combo, since you have less redundancy or good card selection / tutors.
-The mana curve is rather high and there are relatively few aggro only cards, so it might be good to position yourself at the extreme position either by trying to build a slow control deck that can go over the top of what your opponents are trying to do or if the pool allows it build an aggressive deck and run them over.
-There is a below average amount of mana fixing in this cube, so you should either take oncolor fixing really or pick green higher than you usually would. This has also the advantage that you might be able to splash a 3rd color, since you can some ridiculous bombs late in the pack, because few other drafters are familiar with this format.
-Don't commit too early, especially when it comes to choosing your second color.
-Focusing on strategies (aggro/ midrange/ control) is more important when it comes to analyzing the cards in a pack than the color of the cards.
-You will get way more playables than in a regular draft, so utility lands, sideboard cards or even hate picking is much more appealing.
This is perfect advice, and reflects how the drafts with the MTGO list have played for us.
Since this is my first time cubing, how does drafting strategy change when you are in a cube? How high do you take color fixing or removal? Do you usually play or draw? Any tips would be appreciated.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=341469
Just went 2-1 with a RBG Pod deck, and 2 out of my 3 matchups were RB aggro.
RB seems pretty common place
2. In cube, the cards are extremely powerful and look accordingly, but don't be flashed by splashy cards. Oftentimes, a solid, but unexciting card is just as good. Most importantly: Don't get tempted by an absurd off-color card in a booster, take the solid on-color card instead. Especially in this cube, fixing is hard to come by and you would probably like to stick to 2.5 colors tops.
3. On the other hand, don't try to feel super sneaky by winning with unexciting cards. If there's a Kokusho, JTMS or similar, go for it, it's gonna win you a few games all by itself.
4. Take fixing pretty highly. The power curve is pretty flat and you can expect playables even in the last picks of a pack. That isn't true, however, for fixing, so go for it soon enough.
5. Try things out. Most probably, they work (except storm, I've heard that never works and I'm inclined to believe it).
6. Don't forget to draft enough threats, especially if you're control. You can always get a ton of answers, but you might end up unable to actually win before he lands his next threat.
That's already pretty much it. I might write some more, but I fell these are the basics. Most importantly: Have fun!
(You might want to try swiss queues. The level of the players is a little lower and you get to experience your deck in 3 matches instead of 1.5ish.)
450, Peasant*, unpowered**
Specialities about the cube:
U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
For reference, I ended up with 7 dual lands/fetches in my last winning 5-color draft. If you don't have the discipline to pick them over solid cards, and pick them quite highly, stick to 2-3 colors.
Oh and don't splash Cloudthresher.
This is perfect advice, and reflects how the drafts with the MTGO list have played for us.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
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My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!