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?
That's a tough question. Vortex is the much better card and RW aggro is much better than BW, but if that's my only non-white card by the end of the draft and I didn't prioritize fixing enough to splash a RR card, than I feel bad. Confidant is pretty incredible in the aggro builds too and helps out the BW deck more than the other decks he falls in IMO since that deck relies more on going wide and evasion than the reach on burn. If it's pack 2, I would prob try to go into harder boros since RW really is that much better than BW for an aggro build, but I could see the confidant here as well.
You can't go wrong with either pick, but I'd lean towards the Vortex unless I had multiple good black aggro cards in the pack I could see myself wheeling.
If possible, I ask that everyone include [BFZ] when posting the spoiler for the upcoming thread. This is important when there's multiple set spoilers at the same time, as I might move the wrong set cards to the main forum without the set tag. Only 1 thread so far had this tag, so I edit every threads to add the tag. Please include the tag in the future. If I see two thread, one with tag and one without, I'm more likely to give the OP of the spoiler to the one with the correct tag, regardless of the OP posting time. You can never tell when there could be commander spoiler coming, and it's useless to only have some threads correctly tag when some is not. For example, Liliana spoiler was up during earlier set spoiler and it get confusing on what thread I should move over.
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?
That's a tough question. Vortex is the much better card and RW aggro is much better than BW, but if that's my only non-white card by the end of the draft and I didn't prioritize fixing enough to splash a RR card, than I feel bad. Confidant is pretty incredible in the aggro builds too and helps out the BW deck more than the other decks he falls in IMO since that deck relies more on going wide and evasion than the reach on burn. If it's pack 2, I would prob try to go into harder boros since RW really is that much better than BW for an aggro build, but I could see the confidant here as well.
Orzhov and Rakdos (and Mardu, my favourite) aggro have a better win rate than Boros in my cube. Personally I would take the Confidant which is the better card in a vacuum and leaves more archetype options and is more splashable than the Vortex. Even though it's a great early pick, Vortex has been known to wheel small tables if no-one's gone into aggro in red by that point, so you never know - I could build my fave B/W/R aggro deck.
Sounds like there'll be more aggro dude from now on, which is totally awesome.
I'm glad to see the direction actually taking place. We're now at the point where there are too much 2 power 1 drop for White/Black at 360. I'm Waiting for red and green to catch up.
It's nice to have about 16. However, I have no problems playing it with about eight. Generally, the decks I play Shackles in have nine or more, but I've run it with as few as seven (and it was fine). Eight or more would be my preference, though.
Stocking Tiger is apparently being mass released and is no longer a $200 card.
For cube this seems bonkers. Draw 15 when he dies? ShiZAM (even if 8-9 of the 15 are useless; but in most cubes there's plenty of signets and 5 color color fixing).
Stocking Tiger is apparently being mass released and is no longer a $200 card.
For cube this seems bonkers. Draw 15 when he dies? ShiZAM (even if 8-9 of the 15 are useless; but in most cubes there's plenty of signets and 5 color color fixing).
Where did you get the news?
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Vintage Workshops
Legacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH: Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!
Urza, Lord High Artificer
An interesting question I've gotten about Ulamog is why his original card in Rise of the Eldrazi had an anti-reanimation rider while the new version does not. The big answer is we've made a conscious choice to put the responsibility of reanimating giant creatures not on each giant creature but rather on the reanimation spells. That's why we've made them more expensive and moved them up in rarity. This felt like a better plan than having to add an extra clause onto every big creature.
So good news, we might get more cubable reanimate fatties from now on. Bad news is of course that we might not see cubable reanimation spells for a long while, not that any exist in the recent year anyways.
Featuing over fifteen thousand magic cards, now you can draft any deck that you ever wanted to.
I uploaded every set one at a time. I didn't upload alpha, beta, and unlimited though, just beta. Sets with no new cards weren't added. So no revised-xth core sets. I bulk added all the M201X core sets and removed all the duplicates. (same thing happened with starter and portal). I only added the new commander cards but I did add the entirety of conspiracy.
*no un-cards but if people want I would add them in.
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That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
I don't even think the glimpse drafts take that long, at least compared to other options. The ends of packs go quick, the set up really doesn't take that long, and the more experienced the group is the faster it tends to be. You could do sealed and put a time limit on it, but drafting is more fun.
With people new to Cube and also relatively new to Magic, playing the Cube will not be fast regardless of which option you choose. The cards and especially the interactions between cards are quite complex, and naturally people try to figure out what the cards do which is bound to take some time. For your situation, a Cube with reduced complexity may be worth considering (reduce the number of complex cards from sets your players don't know, at FNM that may be older cards, playing with your buddies from way back when that may be newer cards). The fewer cards players have to spend time on to figure out what they actually do, the earlier they can start thinking about which card they want to pick in a draft/add to their sealed deck.
Don't know if this deserves its own thread so I'll ask here:
What are the fastest ways to play cube, esp. with 2-5 players. Often at FNM we're a bit squeezed for time but I'd love to get a few games in with the people interested in Cube when we can. They often are interested but not up for a long (read, glimpse) draft where we may not finish or have time to play, which has happened before. So I think it's between Winston (or maybe Winchester) or Sealed but I haven't timed it so I figure you guys with years of cubing experience might have a better list. Keep in mind this is with people fairly new to cube so Sealed is not going to necessarily be super fast.
I'll answer the 2-player bit. If you're into fastfood cube, just grab a bunch of basics (about 5 of each) and put into one pile (called the land pile). Then grab a bunch of random cube cards and shuffle into another pile (the nonland pile). This format is what I call abundance (after the card Abundance). Play the format like you would in a normal Magic game, just that the 2 piles of cards are shared, but not graveyards.
To start a game, the starting player rolls a six-sided die to determine the number of lands he'll draw. Then he makes up the shortfall (of 7 cards) from the nonland pile. Then the opponent does the same. To draw a card, he simply chooses which pile to choose from. To draw multiple cards, we restrict it to choosing from one pile to avoid confusion and potential brokenness.
To mulligan, the decision starts after drawing from the land pile. Let's say we rolled a 1 and we draw a Plains. No keep, so we reroll and get a 3, and draw 3 from the land pile. Then we draw an additional 3 from the nonland pile, which totals to 6 cards (like a normal mulligan). Just make sure each mulligan brings your total card size down by one. But always start with the land pile.
An advancement of abundance is by adding fetches (whether the common ones like evolving wilds and/or rare fetches) to the land pile. For my own, I added all printings of Evolving Wilds and the sole Terramorphic Expanse, as well as the gainlands of KtK. These land suite are solely created for my Abundance which I play every week without fail. For real fastfood cube, basic lands from your cube will suffice. Adjust for your own enjoyment/playing level.
If there's an effect in which both players get to draw, the nonactive player gets to go first.
Playing abundance for months make me discover certain powerful cards and effects. Scry and Brainstorm are one of the major quirks to the format. Other than letting you filter, you can potentially fateseal the opponent. Of course he can draw from another pile, but it's suddenly a supplementary effect.
Delver of secrets is another awesome play, as is Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya.
Woo, after neglecting my cube for the last year I finally got around to making my real cube match my cube tutor cube. Now to order the dozen or so cards I need and the 20 or so tokens.
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That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
That's a bold statement. I think there are about 5 blue cards alone that I'd take over it.
What would you pick over Jace
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
That's a tough question. Vortex is the much better card and RW aggro is much better than BW, but if that's my only non-white card by the end of the draft and I didn't prioritize fixing enough to splash a RR card, than I feel bad. Confidant is pretty incredible in the aggro builds too and helps out the BW deck more than the other decks he falls in IMO since that deck relies more on going wide and evasion than the reach on burn. If it's pack 2, I would prob try to go into harder boros since RW really is that much better than BW for an aggro build, but I could see the confidant here as well.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
It's far more important to the cube forum than the [Cube] tag, since from now on every post that's in the wrong format will be contain in another thread. And it should be common sense that posts in cube forum would be about cube anyways. As per this thread
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/615384-removal-of-non-cube-related-discussion-in-scd
My cube
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I'm OP_Forever. I'll be putting this in my signature for a while so everyone know I change my nickname.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Orzhov and Rakdos (and Mardu, my favourite) aggro have a better win rate than Boros in my cube. Personally I would take the Confidant which is the better card in a vacuum and leaves more archetype options and is more splashable than the Vortex. Even though it's a great early pick, Vortex has been known to wheel small tables if no-one's gone into aggro in red by that point, so you never know - I could build my fave B/W/R aggro deck.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I'm glad to see the direction actually taking place. We're now at the point where there are too much 2 power 1 drop for White/Black at 360. I'm Waiting for red and green to catch up.
My cube
My cube on Cube tutor
I'm OP_Forever. I'll be putting this in my signature for a while so everyone know I change my nickname.
How many Islands do you all need before you play Vedalken Shackles?
My Eternal Cube on CubeTutor| |My Reject Rare Cube on CubeTutor| |My Peasant Cube on CubeTutor
I used to write for MTGS, including Cranial Insertion and cube articles. Good on you if you can find those after the upgrade.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
For cube this seems bonkers. Draw 15 when he dies? ShiZAM (even if 8-9 of the 15 are useless; but in most cubes there's plenty of signets and 5 color color fixing).
Where did you get the news?
WorkshopsLegacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH:
Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!Urza, Lord High Artificer
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/battle-zendikards-part-2-2015-09-28
So good news, we might get more cubable reanimate fatties from now on. Bad news is of course that we might not see cubable reanimation spells for a long while,
not that any exist in the recent year anyways.My cube
My cube on Cube tutor
I'm OP_Forever. I'll be putting this in my signature for a while so everyone know I change my nickname.
Ever wanted to draft anything* in magic? Well now you can.
Big Box Cube
Featuing over fifteen thousand magic cards, now you can draft any deck that you ever wanted to.
I uploaded every set one at a time. I didn't upload alpha, beta, and unlimited though, just beta. Sets with no new cards weren't added. So no revised-xth core sets. I bulk added all the M201X core sets and removed all the duplicates. (same thing happened with starter and portal). I only added the new commander cards but I did add the entirety of conspiracy.
*no un-cards but if people want I would add them in.
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
"What am I looking at? Ashes, dead man."
I'll answer the 2-player bit. If you're into fastfood cube, just grab a bunch of basics (about 5 of each) and put into one pile (called the land pile). Then grab a bunch of random cube cards and shuffle into another pile (the nonland pile). This format is what I call abundance (after the card Abundance). Play the format like you would in a normal Magic game, just that the 2 piles of cards are shared, but not graveyards.
To start a game, the starting player rolls a six-sided die to determine the number of lands he'll draw. Then he makes up the shortfall (of 7 cards) from the nonland pile. Then the opponent does the same. To draw a card, he simply chooses which pile to choose from. To draw multiple cards, we restrict it to choosing from one pile to avoid confusion and potential brokenness.
To mulligan, the decision starts after drawing from the land pile. Let's say we rolled a 1 and we draw a Plains. No keep, so we reroll and get a 3, and draw 3 from the land pile. Then we draw an additional 3 from the nonland pile, which totals to 6 cards (like a normal mulligan). Just make sure each mulligan brings your total card size down by one. But always start with the land pile.
An advancement of abundance is by adding fetches (whether the common ones like evolving wilds and/or rare fetches) to the land pile. For my own, I added all printings of Evolving Wilds and the sole Terramorphic Expanse, as well as the gainlands of KtK. These land suite are solely created for my Abundance which I play every week without fail. For real fastfood cube, basic lands from your cube will suffice. Adjust for your own enjoyment/playing level.
If there's an effect in which both players get to draw, the nonactive player gets to go first.
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
last night purphoros + meloku made an appearance... that was a lot of instant speed damage to the face!
Delver of secrets is another awesome play, as is Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya.
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
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
What would you pick over Jace
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i