MTG Salvation

So, this is my cube! I appreciate any feedback, questions, suggestions, etc. I recently did a massive overhaul of the cube. One thing that makes my cube special is a large multicolored section. My playgroup loves gold cards, three-color decks, etc. so I went ahead and made my cube favor it. Cube is a lot of hard work! More than I had previously anticipated when I began this journey! Pictures will come eventually!


The Cube:

Fun looking list! I'm eidolon will be here soon to give you some nice deck numbers.

Meanwhile, I'm curious why you run power but based on power level ban a sword? And why body and mind in particular?

I'm also curious about channel and fastbond being unfun. Welcome!

I mixed the two up in my post, it should be the other way around.

General consensus among players at my table is that losing to a double activation of a mill ability is unfun.

Also that Channel and Fastbond are too powerful. Turn One, Sundering Titan, Sword, Equip through Channel is not something they want to play against. And Fastbond is pointless without Bounces and insanely stupid with.

Good question!

Quote from Truesight

I mixed the two up in my post, it should be the other way around.

General consensus among players at my table is that losing to a double activation of a mill ability is unfun.

Also that Channel and Fastbond are too powerful. Turn One, Sundering Titan, Sword, Equip through Channel is not something they want to play against. And Fastbond is pointless without Bounces and insanely stupid with.

Good question!

Welcome to the forum.

I disagree with these points, but to each their own. SoBaM is really good, but I think if you can get a creature to connect twice with any Sword you are likely to win and probably should. Two hits with SoFI or SoWaP is usually game too.

Jace 3.0 is not nearly as powerful as ~40 other cards in cube. I'd pick a bunch of stuff over it.

I think Fastbond is kinda weak but Channel is likely OK. I just readded Channel to my cube and am looking forward to what it does. Channel is pretty all in and if something goes wrong with your all-in turn, you are down a lot of life and card advantage.

White needs Catastrophe and Soltari Trooper.

Blue should have Time Spiral and probably one fewer 6-drop (I'd cut Draining Whelk).

I'd like to see Hero of Oxid Ridge and Hellrider in red. I don't think red Akroma is very good anymore.

I think Woodfall Primus and Hornet Queen are the best green fatties. I like them much more than Avenger of Zendikar, Rampaging Baloths, and Terastodon.

Cheers,
rant

I say down with my playgroup two days ago and went over the list with a fine tooth comb. We made many changes and updates to cards that were, for lack of a better excuse, simply forgotten to have existed. Since the last two updates (I did a solo update shortly before posting) are essentially the only updates our cube had had since Scars, a lot if drafting strategy has changed in it.

Last night we had two 8 man drafts fire. The first was won with BUG Durdle beating Orzhov 18 Creatures. We also saw the Splinter Twin list played but because he valued Ponder Preordain etc so low he had card selection problems. I was thrilled with the success of the Orzhov list I drafted though. We also had 3 people basically valuing Burn over things like Bitterblossom and Recurring Nightmare (both going to the BUG player as late as fifth).

The second was won by Bant Durdle beating Grixis Durdle.

It was after these two drafts that the payers and I discussed the power of the midrange bombs in the cube and summarily decided that we'd like to see many cut in favor of completely new strategies (Pox, Stax, Reanimator, and Counter Burn were all approved). Once I post my updated list (tomorrow afternoon, around 2 MST) I'd love to receive feedback and suggestions on how to increase the power of aggor, change over to new strategies, and simultaneously depower midrange (specifically midrange Blue). Thus far I seem to be the only person happy with where Black is in the aggro department and even had one player state that MonoRed Burn was exactly 0% a strategy in my cube (granted I blame him for passing Bitterblossom Nightmare in pack 1), which I'm not particularly upset about because I'd rather see RW or RB drafted.

So, thanks to those who provide their insight I really do want my cube to be the best it can be.

List is updated. Fixed my numbers in Colorless and Land. Considering moving Crystal Shard and Vedalken Shackles to be considered Blue cards. My group thinks that in order to fix the overpowering strength of midrange we should reduce the number of mind control effects and green ramp spells and creatures. Change log below.

Needed to cut land and felt that the additional fixing may be part of the issue with making the 3-color midrange decks or durdle decks so powerful. So we left in the filters that were for the more aggressive colors.

Reasoning for not liking Liliana of the Dark Realms? I can see arguments for the others, but also Exclude was cut in an attempt to lower the saturation of counterspells.

Hey man, the one thing I'd advise is taking a look at your curve in red. It looks like you have way too much at 3 in the non-creature section (e.g. Urza's Rage is pretty bad imho) and way too much at 2 and 4 in your creature section. Having four creatures at 3 cmc and seven at 4 cmc seems like a bad idea.

Hope that helps,
m

Thank you, metagame, that's actually really helpful.

I've not added in Imperial Recruiter due to not having one but as I'm using proxy Power and Library already I think I may be able to swing proxy Recruiter. I could certainly use Manic Vandal as well, I suppose. Guttersnipe is another I have considered. In general, though, it seems that most of the red 3-drop creatures are rather lackluster.

Quote from Truesight

Thank you, metagame, that's actually really helpful.

I've not added in Imperial Recruiter due to not having one but as I'm using proxy Power and Library already I think I may be able to swing proxy Recruiter. I could certainly use Manic Vandal as well, I suppose. Guttersnipe is another I have considered. In general, though, it seems that most of the red 3-drop creatures are rather lackluster.

Red three drops aren't the best, but if you want pure beatdown you could consider Hell's Thunder. Inner-Flame Acolyte is versatile, and I like the way Zo-Zu the Punisher puts the screws on control decks.

In terms of non-creatures I'd take a look at Forked Bolt, Searing Spear, and Pyroclasm.

Quote from Truesight

Reasoning for not liking Liliana of the Dark Realms?

She's been a great cube card for us. Repeatable black card advantage, securing extra land drops and doubling as removal and pump. And a great engine card for black Stax decks with Braids, Smokestack and the Pox effects. If you can protect her through a single activation, she'll grab a Swamp, kill a creature and then go on to grab Swamp after Swamp if your opponent can't regain the upper hand. At the very worst, she can be a 4cc removal spell. I highly recommend her.

So, while still working on the cube (haven't updated the list, have only changed 2 or 3 cards since my last update), I've discovered that Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal are rarely played. I was considering moving Crystal Shard to Blue, but then thought about simply removing it altogether. Same for Erratic Portal. Thoughts?

Thread closed & archived on OP request.
—Lanxal