I don't know the best place to put this but I wanted to show off one of my cats' favorite new cube cards. Pucatrade has been a blessing for getting older cards "without spending money".
So sets Mirage onwards are possible to "remaster", even Masques (though you end up having a lot of really awful rares). I honestly think Mirage is already a pretty fun set, it just has a bunch of unplayable chaff and some really bad rares. If I was to cut it down it would not likely be much more different. Maybe a bit more aggro. Urza's Saga could use a revamp (like, uh, pestilence to rare and half of the black kill spells to uncommon).
I was thinking of trying to see if I could "remaster" Ice Age. The card quality is beyond horrible, but it might be fun to try. If I added coldsnap the set would be "Coldsnap + the least terrible parts of Alliances and Ice Age". Might make more sense to add Homelands as the block was originally. Whats yous thinks? What if I added Fallen Empires to the mix? There's some fun themes there. I could add The Dark too. Story-wise The Dark is basically a prequel to Ice Age.
I like the new Godless Shrine and (especially) Sacred Foundry. Otherwise, I prefer all the originals. Some it's close (Watery Grave/Hallowed Fountain), others the old one by miles (Breeding Pool).
I love having Gold cards, and the more WOTC prints, the more I love them.
I honestly was super worried about how having too much would impact the cube. I really did not want there to be so many that players had a bunch of them wheel and not do anything.
My view on them has recently shifted from what is the common Gold section paradigm of selecting the best cards in those color set ups, to selecting the best archetype supporting cards in that section. It has really encouraged me to try and expand my gold section where I can and when I can as it helps me indirectly encourage the players to push certain archetypes because those gold cards exist. I have even dipped into 3 color cards to encourage players to do this as well.
Rather than just include the best cards for each guild, shard, and wedge, I have found so much more fun and value in using those cards to push certain archetypes instead of just offering value slots for decks that happen to be in those colors.
It's a day of celebration! Today I completed a 5 1/2-year journey by buying the last card that de-proxies my powered Cube. After selling a bunch of games last month, I made some big purchases for a CE Black Lotus, the last 2 Onslaught fetchlands, Moat, and Liliana. But for whatever reason, it was the Savannah that was the last purchase.
I started lurking on here nearly 6 years ago, and built my Cube in 2010. I started with 69 proxies out of 450 cards, and today I feel so immensely proud of having completed my 5-year project.
A huge thanks to this community as a whole, and especially to wtwlf123 for being such an inspiration to those of us just starting out with Cube drafting. I get to play it so infrequently, but every time I do, it brings a huge amount of entertainment to our playgroup. It's one of my most prized possessions, and something I know I'll keep the rest of my life.
Thanks for indulging this post, and understanding this geeky moment of celebration.
Ok, so I'm trying to build a cube with a focus on archetype rather than my traditional focus on the three main theaters. I think where most people get this wrong is they try to build a cube with an archetype for each of the 10 color combinations. I think that is probably too many archetypes to support fully.
So instead I'm doing one archetype for each of the enemy color pairs and then paying attention to what the other three colors can do to help out. Also I'm ignoring the singleton rule. Not enough Astral Slides and Spider Spawnings in the world. I also want to keep budget in mind. Which I think will be fun so I have to use some of the more interesting lands rather just shock/fetch/revised.
BG: Creatures in Graveyards matter
BW: Creatures GOING to the graveyard matters (this is going to be tough to differentiate from BG, and I'm worried about too much cross synergy)
UR: Non-creature spells matter
WR: Astral Slide Cycling shenanigans.
UR: I have absolutely no idea what the hell UG does that is interesting.
I've had a couple of ideas. Turbofog could be possible, but seems like it would be too hard for all the pieces to come together and very little cross support with the other colors. +1/+1 counter shenanigans seems dull. Tempo is so boring and is more of a good stuff.dec strategy that I want to avoid. Proliferate is my leading contendor.
Depends on the card. Something important to the archetype like astral slide or Spiderspawning will get 2-3 copies. Something not all that important like Staggershock for the UR spell matters deck would only get one copy.
Also depends on the casting cost. There are a ton of 2-3 drops that help the "I want creatures to die" deck. But not so many white one drops. So probably will have atleast two copies of Doomed Traveler.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
That's an interesting idea. Instead of doing enemy colors I split it up and did RW/BG/UR/GW/UB so each color is represented twice. GW is enchantress and UB is artifact based.
Currently I'm a little heavy on this section with 55/50 cards.
Black: It was a little difficult to get to enough black cards. I'm considering adding a second Disciple. Some of the odd creatures like Moriock Rigger/Scavenger probably aren't going to be permanent additions. Doubt Priest of Yawgmoth is good enough, but I've had one sitting in a box for years that I've always wanted to do something with.
Blue: Blue has so many good cards for this section it was hard to keep it down to this few. In all honestly this entire section could easily just be blue cards. I'm not sure if Academy is going to be too good or not so I'm keeping it on the side for now. Ensoul Artifact is a cute enchantment so it might come in at some point.
Tinker is a card I'm normally worried about. Currently it doesn't have a knock out amazing target like Inkwell Leviathan, Blightsteel, or Wurmcoil. The scariest things you can get are Bosh (which requires other expensive artifacts to be out), Memnarch (which requires a large mana requirement before it starts getting busted, Mindslaver (which is scarry) and Thopter Assembly (which is safe) I honestly think this si going to be used more so to grab a steel overseer, cranial plating, or Thopter foundry/sword fo the meek.
Red: Goblin Welder and atog are obvious inclusions. I'm sure there is a sac an artifact: deal X damage spell somewhere that could see play here also but I decided to go with Bosh.
White: Salvager is correct, I'm sure of that. Myrsmith probably is, Sanctum Garcoyle is probably not. Though I remember loving it with Esporza in Shards block draft. Esporza is a card I don't have enough ETB effects to warrant.
Green: Are there any pro-artifact green cards, I couldn't find any.
Multicolor: Foundry is a shoe in. Time Sieve I could see cutting. And I'm not sure if I want to include both Tezz 1 and 2 or not.
Lands: I decided to double up on Citadels and only include one snod/whispers. Academy is intentionally missing. I have it sitting to the side and I might include it after some real games happen.
Artifacts: The difficulty in this section (which wasn't that hard) was making sure these were artifacts that the other four archetypes would want to swipe. Seeing as I want these to be slower games I've decided to not go with more aggressive strategies. That being said I'm not sure if the Affinity cards should stay or not. (Memnite, Arbound worker/ravager, menite, myr enforcer) I'm ok with Mindslaver lock existing with Skeletal Shard/Ruins/ and Welder so that isn't an issue.
Sideboard Cards
Tolarian Academy: A little scary to include out of the gate.
Ensoul Artifact: Doubt its good enough
Karn, Silver Golem: Not sure what this would do, but attacking with mindslavers sounds fun.
Metalworker: See Academy
Master Transmuter: I think I have enough ways to cheat artifacts into play, but I could see including this.
Transmute Artifact I think I have enough search effect currently.
Re-sleeving the cube soon most likely.. A friend of mine bought a large amount of KMC Hyper Mattes and didn't like them for some reason, and got dragon shields instead so I'm buying the played "once" sleeves for about half price.
I can't wait to spend hours on this.
On another note, my cube is 1 year old this month! I know that's not a lot compared to most of you, but it's very interesting to see how far it's come.
Yeah I have Hyper Mattes and I'm not sure why someone wouldn't like them. They're a little stiff when double sleeved I guess? I love them though, and I'd gladly take them off the hands of anyone who didn't want them.
Yeah, I currently have mine in hyper mattes right now, but they're looking pretty cloudy and a lot of the bottom corners are starting to fray and stuff. Besides, a whole year in sleeves is well worth whatever it cost to sleeve it up.
I'll have to see if I can get around to scanning or taking pictures of my cube during the re-sleeving part. I'll have to get the cards I have sent out being altered back too for that.
I've been drafting on CubeTutor and using the 2015 MTGS Cube Rankings to see if I can challenge myself to re-evaluating certain cards. One of the surprising things (for me) was to see Sulfuric Vortex as Red's #1 card. It's probably because I haven't seen it in action before.
If you're solidly in W aggro in pack 1, with lots of good stuff (White 1-drops, Sword, Skullclamp), and then you see Dark Confidant and Sulfuric Vortex P2P1, which are you more likely to draft, and why?
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I was thinking of trying to see if I could "remaster" Ice Age. The card quality is beyond horrible, but it might be fun to try. If I added coldsnap the set would be "Coldsnap + the least terrible parts of Alliances and Ice Age". Might make more sense to add Homelands as the block was originally. Whats yous thinks? What if I added Fallen Empires to the mix? There's some fun themes there. I could add The Dark too. Story-wise The Dark is basically a prequel to Ice Age.
This. I think the only shockland that got improved art was Godless Shrine and even that's debatable. The reprints are all worse or at best equal art.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
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I like the new godless shrine, breeding pool and watery grave art more.
I myself use all original though. There’s just something magical about it.
Next time you can use this thread for this kind of question, just for future reference.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/191127-card-aesthetics-evaluation-thread?page=127
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My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
I honestly was super worried about how having too much would impact the cube. I really did not want there to be so many that players had a bunch of them wheel and not do anything.
My view on them has recently shifted from what is the common Gold section paradigm of selecting the best cards in those color set ups, to selecting the best archetype supporting cards in that section. It has really encouraged me to try and expand my gold section where I can and when I can as it helps me indirectly encourage the players to push certain archetypes because those gold cards exist. I have even dipped into 3 color cards to encourage players to do this as well.
For example:
If a player is drafting GW Aggro (or UG Aggro), I want them to see Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Rafiq of the Many, and Edric, Spymaster of Trest and seriously consider dipping into U to take advantage of some of the blue aggro and tempo cards in the cube as well.
Rather than just include the best cards for each guild, shard, and wedge, I have found so much more fun and value in using those cards to push certain archetypes instead of just offering value slots for decks that happen to be in those colors.
I started lurking on here nearly 6 years ago, and built my Cube in 2010. I started with 69 proxies out of 450 cards, and today I feel so immensely proud of having completed my 5-year project.
A huge thanks to this community as a whole, and especially to wtwlf123 for being such an inspiration to those of us just starting out with Cube drafting. I get to play it so infrequently, but every time I do, it brings a huge amount of entertainment to our playgroup. It's one of my most prized possessions, and something I know I'll keep the rest of my life.
Thanks for indulging this post, and understanding this geeky moment of celebration.
Also, is your name based on M.U.L.E., one of the greatest games ever?
Public service announcement: Go play M.U.L.E.
-AA
I use descriptive language. Assume that I'm being nice and respectful. (I'll tell you when I'm not.)
My Cube: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/9029
Agree on all of the above, especially the congrats. Although I liked Archon slightly more than M.U.L.E. Both were the best.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
So instead I'm doing one archetype for each of the enemy color pairs and then paying attention to what the other three colors can do to help out. Also I'm ignoring the singleton rule. Not enough Astral Slides and Spider Spawnings in the world. I also want to keep budget in mind. Which I think will be fun so I have to use some of the more interesting lands rather just shock/fetch/revised.
BG: Creatures in Graveyards matter
BW: Creatures GOING to the graveyard matters (this is going to be tough to differentiate from BG, and I'm worried about too much cross synergy)
UR: Non-creature spells matter
WR: Astral Slide Cycling shenanigans.
UR: I have absolutely no idea what the hell UG does that is interesting.
I've had a couple of ideas. Turbofog could be possible, but seems like it would be too hard for all the pieces to come together and very little cross support with the other colors. +1/+1 counter shenanigans seems dull. Tempo is so boring and is more of a good stuff.dec strategy that I want to avoid. Proliferate is my leading contendor.
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
Also depends on the casting cost. There are a ton of 2-3 drops that help the "I want creatures to die" deck. But not so many white one drops. So probably will have atleast two copies of Doomed Traveler.
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
Currently I'm a little heavy on this section with 55/50 cards.
Black: It was a little difficult to get to enough black cards. I'm considering adding a second Disciple. Some of the odd creatures like Moriock Rigger/Scavenger probably aren't going to be permanent additions. Doubt Priest of Yawgmoth is good enough, but I've had one sitting in a box for years that I've always wanted to do something with.
Blue: Blue has so many good cards for this section it was hard to keep it down to this few. In all honestly this entire section could easily just be blue cards. I'm not sure if Academy is going to be too good or not so I'm keeping it on the side for now. Ensoul Artifact is a cute enchantment so it might come in at some point.
Tinker is a card I'm normally worried about. Currently it doesn't have a knock out amazing target like Inkwell Leviathan, Blightsteel, or Wurmcoil. The scariest things you can get are Bosh (which requires other expensive artifacts to be out), Memnarch (which requires a large mana requirement before it starts getting busted, Mindslaver (which is scarry) and Thopter Assembly (which is safe) I honestly think this si going to be used more so to grab a steel overseer, cranial plating, or Thopter foundry/sword fo the meek.
Red: Goblin Welder and atog are obvious inclusions. I'm sure there is a sac an artifact: deal X damage spell somewhere that could see play here also but I decided to go with Bosh.
White: Salvager is correct, I'm sure of that. Myrsmith probably is, Sanctum Garcoyle is probably not. Though I remember loving it with Esporza in Shards block draft. Esporza is a card I don't have enough ETB effects to warrant.
Green: Are there any pro-artifact green cards, I couldn't find any.
Multicolor: Foundry is a shoe in. Time Sieve I could see cutting. And I'm not sure if I want to include both Tezz 1 and 2 or not.
Lands: I decided to double up on Citadels and only include one snod/whispers. Academy is intentionally missing. I have it sitting to the side and I might include it after some real games happen.
Artifacts: The difficulty in this section (which wasn't that hard) was making sure these were artifacts that the other four archetypes would want to swipe. Seeing as I want these to be slower games I've decided to not go with more aggressive strategies. That being said I'm not sure if the Affinity cards should stay or not. (Memnite, Arbound worker/ravager, menite, myr enforcer) I'm ok with Mindslaver lock existing with Skeletal Shard/Ruins/ and Welder so that isn't an issue.
Sideboard Cards
Tolarian Academy: A little scary to include out of the gate.
Ensoul Artifact: Doubt its good enough
Karn, Silver Golem: Not sure what this would do, but attacking with mindslavers sounds fun.
Metalworker: See Academy
Master Transmuter: I think I have enough ways to cheat artifacts into play, but I could see including this.
Transmute Artifact I think I have enough search effect currently.
1 Myrsmith
1 Auriok Salvagers
1 Sanctum Gargoyle
Blue (12)
1 Courier Capsule
1 Etherium Sculptor
1 Fabricate
1 Master of Etherium
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Faerie Mechanist
1 Thopter Spy Network
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Reshape
Black (10)
1 Disciple of the Vualt
2 Executioner's Capsule
1 Painsmith
1 Puppet Conjurer
1 Priest of Yawgmoth
1 Moriok Rigger
1 Nim Lasher
1 Moriock Scavenger
1 Mephetic Ooze
Red (2)
1 Goblin Welder
1 Atog
1 Time Sieve
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Thopter Foundry
Land (5)
1 Academy Ruins
2 Darksteel Citadel
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
Artifacts (20)
1 Mox Opal
1 Memnite
1 Ornithopter
2 Arcbound Worker
1 Hex Parasite
1 Arcbound Ravager
1 Cranial Plating
1 Dimir Signet
1 Steel Overseer
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Etched Champion
1 Skeleton Shard
1 Frogmite
1 Lodestone Myr
1 Mindslaver
1 Thopter Assembly
1 Memnarch
1 Myr Enforcer
1 Bosh, Iron Golem
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Ensoul Artifact
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Master Transmuter
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
I can't wait to spend hours on this.
On another note, my cube is 1 year old this month! I know that's not a lot compared to most of you, but it's very interesting to see how far it's come.
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Yeah I have Hyper Mattes and I'm not sure why someone wouldn't like them. They're a little stiff when double sleeved I guess? I love them though, and I'd gladly take them off the hands of anyone who didn't want them.
I'll have to see if I can get around to scanning or taking pictures of my cube during the re-sleeving part. I'll have to get the cards I have sent out being altered back too for that.
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The maximum I managed to get was 'only' 5.
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@bonda That's gross. The new jace is pretty good in cube, I like him a lot.
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If you're solidly in W aggro in pack 1, with lots of good stuff (White 1-drops, Sword, Skullclamp), and then you see Dark Confidant and Sulfuric Vortex P2P1, which are you more likely to draft, and why?