Hey errybody, I've been recording Holiday Cube drafts and hope to at least have a few done by the end of the Holiday Cube season. All will probably be swiss, as losing rd 1 to ridiculous stuff does not make for good viewing. Let me know what you think! --Sam
This is a cool direction to take this from one of bunch that we could have done. OKay, here's what I would have done differently building the deck with the cards we have:
With the current configuration -- what is our deck trying to do? I feel like it's a little too random cluttered up with good stuff rather than focusing on how we're going to get the enemy dead.
I see we're including Mother of Runes, Figure of Destiny, Riftwing Cloudskate, Vendilion Clique, Elspeth, FTK. I also see we have a lot of sweet tempo interactive cards like Memory Lapse, Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, So are we trying to attack them to death and tempo them out?
If so, why are we playing cards like Izzet Signet, Upheaval, Jace Beleren, Impulse, Preordain, etc?
Are these better than what's in our sideboard? I feel like Porcelain Legionnaire and Delver of Secrets are better than at least two of the cards above if we're trying to tempo them out. Even Thada Adel is probably better than Jace Beleren in tempo decks.
If we're not trying to do that, and we're playing more of a controllish Jeskai deck -- there are a few better options in the sideboard. Porcelain Legionnaire is a decent blocker that needs to eat removal. I think that's the mediocre option -- the more interesting, likely more fun, and IMO better option would be to also play Isochron Scepter + Lightning Strike.
Figure of Destiny I think is an easy cut for the extra interaction between scepter -- Lightning Strike might actually be better to the deck here than Figure regardless, since we're not an early game deck, and Figure requires a lot of splash mana to get ridiculous. Lightning Strike stops some of our opponent's more explosive draws, which would be better in general, I think.
The other cut would probably be Elspeth. She's difficult on the mana and I don't necessarily want to be tapping out on turn 4 with her most of the time anyway with this deck. I think your mana gets better, and as a result you lose less games because you didn't find a splash color.
I probably would have built it more controlling and added Isochron Scepter + Lightning Strike. You get a 6th target and Isochron Scepter itself becomes a really interesting gameplan for your deck sometimes. My cuts would be Figure and Elspeth, and I'd also tweak the mana a little accordingly.
This definitely looks awesome though, excited to see the rest.
----------
Gah, he had the nuts both games. Time Vault + Key is a really silly interaction that I think most people don't get until they see.
Oh well. Didn't draw islands or counterspells at the same time. Haha. Oh well. Sometimes Time Vault decks do that.
Thanks for the big response! It's great to get thorough feedback!
I am not a delver fan, there are very few builds where I'd include it. From my experience, it almost never flips as it does in constructed. And I like Thada from the sideboard, but if we're not facing Islands or heavy artifacts then she's pretty underwhelming, not a card I want to carry into a game 1blind.
Isochron was definitely the hardest card to not play. I'm still torn about whether I made the wrong decision, but I'm OK with not facing hands where it does nothing, even if that means I avoid a pretty high ceiling. I don't know, hard to say. I can be a pretty conservative player with deckbuilding at times, but then I also jam Elspeths into decks like this lol
Izzet Signet, Upheaval, Jace Beleren, Impulse, Preordain...I think all those cards are good in what is a tempo-ish build. Like, Upheavaling and then dropping one of my cheaper creatures to finish off that last bit of damage seems good, and also acts as a wrath against more creature-oriented decks without wiping out my threats; jace is pretty cheap for how much he draws; and the card selection is cheap enough where I don't think it's hogging all my mana and will find my the counter/threat/bomb that I'm looking for. I think no matter whatever build I end on, all four of those make it.
I felt my mana was good enough to play the Elspeth, which is worth playing. Sure, playing some number of plains kind of sucks, but my red was pretty effortless so I didn't need to focus on that and really only in the first round was I ****ed by mana--where I would've been ****ed regardless as I just didn't draw any. It would've been easier for me to go a more controlling route if my control option was more consistent instead of isochron.
In hindsight, I think Lightning Strike definitely needed to go in. The figure was probably the right cut there, for sure. I just have a sick love for planeswalkers and will run any that's remotely playable
----------------------------
SORRY ABOUT ROUND 1, DAMN YOU TIME VAULT!! Should've I mulligained that first hand?
And thank you so much for the feedback. You make a lot of good points; magic is sometimes a hard game to see from all angles, and it's interesting what another set of glasses let's me see. Should have more up in the next coming week once christmas sha-nay-nays are over.
Hey man, great content, in the middle of a draft as we speak with mono red (boring lol). I've only watched one draft, but you do a great job of always being vocal of your thought process, something I think would be hard. I did cringe once when you detention sphere'd the wurmcoil instead of the faith's fetters (which would of allowed you to use Dack's control magic ability on the Wurmcoil) but other than that it was pretty solid
Hey man, great content, in the middle of a draft as we speak with mono red (boring lol). I've only watched one draft, but you do a great job of always being vocal of your thought process, something I think would be hard. I did cringe once when you detention sphere'd the wurmcoil instead of the faith's fetters (which would of allowed you to use Dack's control magic ability on the Wurmcoil) but other than that it was pretty solid
Thanks! Someone else pointed out the d-sphere play--it was bad, for sure. Speaking and playing/drafting is tough, and while I would never call myself a "good" player at the standard I hold myself to, my play does indeed suffer while doing this kind of stuff and it is always embarrassing. BUT, you live/learn/improve, and that's the main goal whenever I do anything involving magic. (Living is always a general goal, fwiw.) Again, thanks for watching!
Salmo, I've been watching every single one of these drafts in between doing other stuff IRL. Great resource, love seeing your thought process going into decks.
Great entertainment and really happy to see someone from this forum doing cube drafts for us. Great resource.
Noticed you were wanting more constructive criticism from your opening statements in draft #4: Salmo, here's actually a thing I was writing up on draft 3. I was doing other stuff, so I actually didn't get to complete it, but I watched it and the games afterwards:
I hope you like constructive criticism! (Hey, why else even post these? Constructive feedback is great! I'll try to make it as constructive as possible.)
Okay, so I watched this draft for a bit and started disliking it on pick #3. You really don't need a Sword in a Ancestral Recall / Force of Will deck, they go later the more powered a cube is, and you're not really a creature deck after committing to heavy blue. I tried to get on board with what you were doing, until you took Shriekmaw over Hero of Bladehold / Path to Exile (clearly more open color, IMO). So, I fast forwarded ahead to see you take a Baleful Strix over a Vampiric Tutor when you have an Ancestral Recall.
So, I'm rewinding it and going with my picks instead as they happen. I don't know what my final decklist will/would have been, because obviously taking some cards gets you access to other ones and vice versa.
P1: Ancestral: Definitely the right card.
2: Force of Will is fine, but this is actually the absolute most ideal time to get Isochron Scepter. I think there is a good chance we can wheel it, but we can attempt to get one and two mana instants and craft our deck around something of that nature. I would actually probably take Dark Ritual here, as we can ramp into an early Scepter + activation earlier that way. It also gives us mana ramp possibilities (making Isochron Scepter into a bad Mind Stone), or the subplan to go storm (which is relatively viable in this cube, moreso than other cubes anyway). I think FoW is a fine choice here though, because Scepter will probably wheel. Metalworker is also a solid option, since the artifact deck is often blue base, and Ancestral has some synergy with Metalworker. Mana Acceleration of any kind I think is undervalued, and I really like Dark Ritual.
3: Sword is one of the worst options here. Talrand is actually a great option, and we've had a lot of success with it in a very similar cube. It is expensive, but it is very difficult to deal with once it gets going. He's like Young Pyro's big brother -- the tokens off of him are much more difficult to deal with, although Talrand does have to live the turn. But Talrand wouldn't even be my pick. Your deck at this point is two spells, so Talrand definitely has some merit. That being said, he'll probably wheel.
Here's the cards I'm considering: Memory Jar, Solemn Simulacrum, Imperial Recruiter. I think all of these are better than Sword or Talrand. If we took the Dark Ritual, I think Memory Jar would be an easy snap-up. I like Imperial Recruiter a lot, especially with possible access to Splinter Twin combo stuff. I think with Ancestral + Force of Will, we should definitely go with Imperial Recruiter -- it's branching out, but blue has a lot of great creatures with 2 power or less, and I think the possibility of getting all the izzet combo pieces is very tempting. Solemn Simulacrum is the next card I think you should have taken -- it ramps, chumps, replaces itself, etc. Great card.
4: Treachery easy pick.
5: I think Meloku is fine here. We have a sword to throw on tokens, and we might be able to prioritize a token strategy from here too.
6: Uh oh, no blue. I think out of the colors displayed to us, white is by far the most open. You just talked about possibly getting an opposition -- but you're not taking Hero of Bladehold? Why is Shriekmaw a better option than Path to Exile? I don't think the interaction with Sword of Light and Shadow dictates that Shriekmaw is superior to the other options -- are we really trying to be a dimir aggro deck that's attempting to get Shriekmaw back? I would prefer to be blue/white aggro or control. Shriekmaw is branching out into a completely different color for no reason other than an interaction with a piece of equipment that needs to deal combat damage to an opponent -- which we may not even play. The white cards are superior, imo. Also, we might be able to wheel the Isochron Scepter. Path to Exile would be fantastic here. Hero of Bladehold is the stronger option with token strategies, a tempo gameplan, any type of mana acceleration, etc.
7: Frost Titan, easy pick, we need to prioritize everything but finishers now.
8: I would take the Underground River over the Braids. Your ways to combo with Braids at this point are few and stretching, while Underground River gives you the capability to splash Shriekmaw and other possible black stuff that comes your way, which is up your alley anyway since you seem to be building a decent Dimir control deck (apart from the Sword).
9: !!!! Recurring Nightmare WHEELED? What? Take this. Change strategy immediately, we're now doing reanimator.
10: Scepter wheeled, sweet. You took Messenger? Really? Awww. We're gonna need to really improve our black fixing if we want to play Braids, Messenger, Recurring Nightmare, etc.
I'd still take Scepter here. You can put Ancestral on it!!! You might get tutors for either piece. You might get multiple tutors for both pieces. You might find a bunch of great cards to put on Scepter, like Impulse, Counterspell, Remand, etc.
11: Talrand, Disenchant, or Wall of Omens is fine.
12: Enlightened Tutor can fetch us our Recurring Nightmare AND Treachery, not even counting all the sweet stuff we can find in pack 2 and 3. I hope you take this. Nope, you took Crucible, and didn't even mention this. -.- We don't have to be heavy black. We have a Braids and a Geralf's Messenger at this point. Enlightened Tutor would be fantastic, and opens up future lines. In my theoretical draft, this is also something to find Scepter and put on Scepter.
13: I think Masticore is fine. He's a discard outlet at worst if we stick with the gameplan, and maybe we can get Survival / Fauna Shaman and Squee. Bloodsoaked Champion is also fine here since it can do fun things with Recurring Nightmare. If you would have taken the Enlightened Tutor, it could go get Masticore too.
14: HERO OF BLADEHOLD WHEELED? What are people doing in this draft? Seriously? Oh man, if we would have taken Path to Exile, Scepter, Enlightened Tutor...
Cube has a lot about potential synergies -- generally I'm trying to figure out what the most ridiculous thing my deck wants to do in the first pack is, then build that in the 2nd and 3rd pack.
I do not like our deck right now, haha. I think we could have been a lot better off going for more combos and/or white.
Pack 2:
1: You're taking Trinket Mage over BAZAAR OF BAGHDAD? Do you know how ridiculously powerful that card is with Recurring Nightmare? Woodfall Primus is a premium fatty that we need to take if we're looking to do busted things with Recurring Nightmare too. I think Sneak Attack and abandoning all our black cards except for Recurring Nightmare is also a fine pick. Trinket Mage is my #4 option. You don't even mention these three cards. -.-
2: Well, in my world, I'd be scooping up Animate Dead here. I'd have Enlightened Tutor to go grab it too. Vedalken Shackles is the next best card for us with this current deck though for sure. We're heavy blue. You're taking all these (relatively) fair cards over broken stuff. 11:45: "I'm not really sure what I'm trying to do here..." Haha, yeah. I think we should be on the Reanimation plan, since we got Recurring Nightmare to wheel in the first pack. That's a dream scenario, Salmo. Jump on it.
3: Pack Rat for sure, nothing else is even remotely desirable other than maybe Disfigure. We already have Treachery (ugh, another thing we could get with Enlightened Tutor I just noticed), Shriekmaw, and Vedalken Shackles, so we don't necessarily need to prioritize removal, but early game decks can give us some problems at this point. Pack Rat also helps a little bit on that front, but it's just so much better and a discard outlet for a fatty (which we do not have so far) that we need to take it.
4: Entomb is so ridiculously powerful. Definitely the right card. Animate Dead actually has a good chance of wheeling, since Recurring Nightmare wheeled in the first pack.
Salmo, I've been watching every single one of these drafts in between doing other stuff IRL. Great resource, love seeing your thought process going into decks.
Great entertainment and really happy to see someone from this forum doing cube drafts for us. Great resource.
Noticed you were wanting more constructive criticism from your opening statements in draft #4: Salmo, here's actually a thing I was writing up on draft 3. I was doing other stuff, so I actually didn't get to complete it, but I watched it and the games afterwards:
I hope you like constructive criticism! (Hey, why else even post these? Constructive feedback is great! I'll try to make it as constructive as possible.)
Okay, so I watched this draft for a bit and started disliking it on pick #3. You really don't need a Sword in a Ancestral Recall / Force of Will deck, they go later the more powered a cube is, and you're not really a creature deck after committing to heavy blue. I tried to get on board with what you were doing, until you took Shriekmaw over Hero of Bladehold / Path to Exile (clearly more open color, IMO). So, I fast forwarded ahead to see you take a Baleful Strix over a Vampiric Tutor when you have an Ancestral Recall.
So, I'm rewinding it and going with my picks instead as they happen. I don't know what my final decklist will/would have been, because obviously taking some cards gets you access to other ones and vice versa.
P1: Ancestral: Definitely the right card.
2: Force of Will is fine, but this is actually the absolute most ideal time to get Isochron Scepter. I think there is a good chance we can wheel it, but we can attempt to get one and two mana instants and craft our deck around something of that nature. I would actually probably take Dark Ritual here, as we can ramp into an early Scepter + activation earlier that way. It also gives us mana ramp possibilities (making Isochron Scepter into a bad Mind Stone), or the subplan to go storm (which is relatively viable in this cube, moreso than other cubes anyway). I think FoW is a fine choice here though, because Scepter will probably wheel. Metalworker is also a solid option, since the artifact deck is often blue base, and Ancestral has some synergy with Metalworker. Mana Acceleration of any kind I think is undervalued, and I really like Dark Ritual.
3: Sword is one of the worst options here. Talrand is actually a great option, and we've had a lot of success with it in a very similar cube. It is expensive, but it is very difficult to deal with once it gets going. He's like Young Pyro's big brother -- the tokens off of him are much more difficult to deal with, although Talrand does have to live the turn. But Talrand wouldn't even be my pick. Your deck at this point is two spells, so Talrand definitely has some merit. That being said, he'll probably wheel.
Here's the cards I'm considering: Memory Jar, Solemn Simulacrum, Imperial Recruiter. I think all of these are better than Sword or Talrand. If we took the Dark Ritual, I think Memory Jar would be an easy snap-up. I like Imperial Recruiter a lot, especially with possible access to Splinter Twin combo stuff. I think with Ancestral + Force of Will, we should definitely go with Imperial Recruiter -- it's branching out, but blue has a lot of great creatures with 2 power or less, and I think the possibility of getting all the izzet combo pieces is very tempting. Solemn Simulacrum is the next card I think you should have taken -- it ramps, chumps, replaces itself, etc. Great card.
4: Treachery easy pick.
5: I think Meloku is fine here. We have a sword to throw on tokens, and we might be able to prioritize a token strategy from here too.
6: Uh oh, no blue. I think out of the colors displayed to us, white is by far the most open. You just talked about possibly getting an opposition -- but you're not taking Hero of Bladehold? Why is Shriekmaw a better option than Path to Exile? I don't think the interaction with Sword of Light and Shadow dictates that Shriekmaw is superior to the other options -- are we really trying to be a dimir aggro deck that's attempting to get Shriekmaw back? I would prefer to be blue/white aggro or control. Shriekmaw is branching out into a completely different color for no reason other than an interaction with a piece of equipment that needs to deal combat damage to an opponent -- which we may not even play. The white cards are superior, imo. Also, we might be able to wheel the Isochron Scepter. Path to Exile would be fantastic here. Hero of Bladehold is the stronger option with token strategies, a tempo gameplan, any type of mana acceleration, etc.
7: Frost Titan, easy pick, we need to prioritize everything but finishers now.
8: I would take the Underground River over the Braids. Your ways to combo with Braids at this point are few and stretching, while Underground River gives you the capability to splash Shriekmaw and other possible black stuff that comes your way, which is up your alley anyway since you seem to be building a decent Dimir control deck (apart from the Sword).
9: !!!! Recurring Nightmare WHEELED? What? Take this. Change strategy immediately, we're now doing reanimator.
10: Scepter wheeled, sweet. You took Messenger? Really? Awww. We're gonna need to really improve our black fixing if we want to play Braids, Messenger, Recurring Nightmare, etc.
I'd still take Scepter here. You can put Ancestral on it!!! You might get tutors for either piece. You might get multiple tutors for both pieces. You might find a bunch of great cards to put on Scepter, like Impulse, Counterspell, Remand, etc.
11: Talrand, Disenchant, or Wall of Omens is fine.
12: Enlightened Tutor can fetch us our Recurring Nightmare AND Treachery, not even counting all the sweet stuff we can find in pack 2 and 3. I hope you take this. Nope, you took Crucible, and didn't even mention this. -.- We don't have to be heavy black. We have a Braids and a Geralf's Messenger at this point. Enlightened Tutor would be fantastic, and opens up future lines. In my theoretical draft, this is also something to find Scepter and put on Scepter.
13: I think Masticore is fine. He's a discard outlet at worst if we stick with the gameplan, and maybe we can get Survival / Fauna Shaman and Squee. Bloodsoaked Champion is also fine here since it can do fun things with Recurring Nightmare. If you would have taken the Enlightened Tutor, it could go get Masticore too.
14: HERO OF BLADEHOLD WHEELED? What are people doing in this draft? Seriously? Oh man, if we would have taken Path to Exile, Scepter, Enlightened Tutor...
Cube has a lot about potential synergies -- generally I'm trying to figure out what the most ridiculous thing my deck wants to do in the first pack is, then build that in the 2nd and 3rd pack.
I do not like our deck right now, haha. I think we could have been a lot better off going for more combos and/or white.
Pack 2:
1: You're taking Trinket Mage over BAZAAR OF BAGHDAD? Do you know how ridiculously powerful that card is with Recurring Nightmare? Woodfall Primus is a premium fatty that we need to take if we're looking to do busted things with Recurring Nightmare too. I think Sneak Attack and abandoning all our black cards except for Recurring Nightmare is also a fine pick. Trinket Mage is my #4 option. You don't even mention these three cards. -.-
2: Well, in my world, I'd be scooping up Animate Dead here. I'd have Enlightened Tutor to go grab it too. Vedalken Shackles is the next best card for us with this current deck though for sure. We're heavy blue. You're taking all these (relatively) fair cards over broken stuff. 11:45: "I'm not really sure what I'm trying to do here..." Haha, yeah. I think we should be on the Reanimation plan, since we got Recurring Nightmare to wheel in the first pack. That's a dream scenario, Salmo. Jump on it.
3: Pack Rat for sure, nothing else is even remotely desirable other than maybe Disfigure. We already have Treachery (ugh, another thing we could get with Enlightened Tutor I just noticed), Shriekmaw, and Vedalken Shackles, so we don't necessarily need to prioritize removal, but early game decks can give us some problems at this point. Pack Rat also helps a little bit on that front, but it's just so much better and a discard outlet for a fatty (which we do not have so far) that we need to take it.
4: Entomb is so ridiculously powerful. Definitely the right card. Animate Dead actually has a good chance of wheeling, since Recurring Nightmare wheeled in the first pack.
You said quite a bit--awesome! I want to give you the time you gave me, so for now I'm just reserving this, but thank you for all this.
I was complaining more about the "you lost me at such and such pick" and "you took that, you're the worst" comments, which is definitely not an issue with the awesomely thorough feedback you've left. Pretty much say whatever you want about my picks as long as you tell me what you would've done instead is the gist of what I was complaining about...so, thank you for always doing that!
-----------------------------------------------
White was indeed open and perhaps I should've taken either Path or Hero over Shriekmaw. Probably one of the bigger mistakes I've made in all my videos. I love Shriekmaw, and I'm not sure what my exact thinking was, but I think I might have been trying to avoid another UW deck. But that's a poor way to draft--it's amazing how much a mic can warp your mind at times. Now, I'm not sure if the white cards are actually superior to Shriekmaw, but seeing both is probably a clearer signal that white is open than black is.
I hate Isochron Scepter. p1p1, p3p15...there are few worlds where I will play that card. There have been so many times where my opponent has played scepter, and it's either underwhelming, I can play through it, or I remove it and get the easiest 2-for-1 ever. Most of the time I would've rather played the spell I was imprinting the one time then lose it because I wanted to go deep. To each one's own.
Solemn would've been a pretty good choice, but I ended up with a creature deck like I thought I would and sword was pretty good there. I'm usually pretty OK taking swords, but it easily could've been anything else, for sure.
Hero wheels a *lot* on the holiday cube. Like, the amount of times this season where a hero has wheeled in a pack for me is absurd. I don't think this is some hidden-message coming from the cube cards saying Hero is actually bad or whatever, and it can't be "swiss drafts means awful players", it's just some bizarro world where no one wants to play 7 power 4 drops. I don't know what to say, I think I remember audibly sharing my shock as well.
One of my biggest faults while recording is not being adventurous in fear of looking awful. How do you play Bazaar of Baghdad, as a land or a spell? It's one I've always wanted to try but then haven't because...well, I don't know, I'm scared of it sucking and hating myself when it does? Not sure.
That being said, I think Trinket Mage is a fine card at that point to take. There are a lot of 1-or-less costed artifacts that I'd never pass and always play in this cube, and having a wood elves in your U/x deck is really sweet, especially if you have multiple targets. I didn't feel like a dedicated reanimator deck so I avoided those other options, but I think I should've gone more in that direction in hindsight.
I was hesitant taking that Strix over Tutor, but I really liked that pick after the fact. While having multiple copies of all my sweet cards would've been insane, by the end I felt like the Strix really pulled together the Recurring Nightmare package. It was also one more card that was blue, helping force be great. If you listen to my commentary I was pretty pained over taking that Strix, but for what I was trying to do at that point I felt like I really needed that Strix. I know, it seems crazy, but I'm not too upset about that one. Perhaps it's wrong because I have the recall and all the other high-impact cards, but Strix was such a key component whenever I went off that it felt good having it.
' "I'm not really sure what I'm trying to do here..." Haha, yeah.' .........yeeeeahhh, lol don't know what to say. *shrugs* YA LIVE YA LEARN AMIRITE?!
Isochron Scepter is great, especially when you have an Ancestral and know you have a possibility of wheeling it in the first pack. It's literally ideal scenario for Scepter since you can adjust your whole draft around it. Being blue base is best for it initially too, s ince a ton of the stuff you want to put on Scepter that is game-breaking is blue. Mana Drain, Counterspell, Ancestral Recall, etc. I would be worried about getting 2-for-1'd too: But i always slot Scepter as a 4 mana card. It's definitely possible to play stuff before that, but in general I want to have at least one activation with it.
Bazaar of Baghdad doesn't produces mana, so it's definitely a spell.
Trinket Mage isn't bad, I just thought the other options were a bit better.
You passed Enlightened Tutor and Vampiric Tutor so quickly! The higher power the cube is, the better these cards are -- both of them would have been absolutely nutty in your deck, and I think they're easily the two biggest mistakes you made imo (the cards you took were fine though, don't get me wrong!). Baleful Strix is also multicolored, so there's the chance it even could have wheeled - but even if there is a 100% chance it doesn't wheel, Vampiric is still leagues better than this card IMO. It could be because my cube has used both of these cards to such ridiculous potential that I'll never get away from them in nearly any cube, but at the same time, I don't think that's a mistake.
I'm exactly with you up until Elspeth (p1p3). I would rather go with Time Spiral or Coalition Relic here.
I don't want to pass Spiral, since I want people in my left to drop out of that plan. It's also decent / good with the cards we have so far, and even if it's a big thing to do, it gives us a bit more of a gameplan -- big powerful blue spells. We can do a lot with that.
Elspeth is jumping into another color for no reason at the moment, I think. With our current deck, Elspeth isn't necessarily going with the flow -- if anything it's probably taking away from what we've been doing to put it in a more aggressive shell. FoF isn't the best card in an aggressive shell, and I don't know if I want to be topping off my aggressive deck with a Bribery.
Honestly, if we're looking to go another color at this point, it's either green so we can ramp into our big stuff, or a more controlling black, white, or red other part.
I probably would have taken Time Spiral here, but I might go with Coalition Relic too. Both keep us mono-colored which is huge. Elspeth is actually not even my #3 choice here -- I'd probably go with Searing Spear, The Abyss, Flametongue Kavu, or Baleful Strix before Elspeth. It's way too committal for basically no reason.
p1p4: Tamiyo I think is the clear winner here. Steam Vents would have been nice if we had taken a red card, Yawgmoth's Bargain would be nice if we took Time Spiral or Necropotence and wanted to do something more combo-y. With our deck, I think Everflowing Chalice or Tamiyo is correct. I think you'll take one of these two. Yep.
p1p5: Mana Leak, not close IMO. Again, if we were more combo, there'd be a Wheel of Fortune for us... oh how I love the combo decks. Cool to see a Eureka here in the first pack, someone will probably be playing something big for our Bribery at least.
I think it's really surprising to hear your commentary on taking Spiritkeeper over Mana Leak but you're not going to because you're not sure if you're going to play the Elspeth. I think you should be less committing early on - you could have had a Coalition Relic or Time Spiral for this deck instead at this point.
p1p6: Remand. I don't like passing Survival, but we have almost nothing working with it right now. Terminus is possibly a second option, but I can't see taking that over Remand, even if we have an Elspeth.
p1p7: Scroll Rack or Revoker. I'd go with the Scroll Rack since I think we're shaping up to being a little more controlling, but I can see taking the Revoker here because you still might want to go tempo with Elspeth. I didn't even consider the Magma Jet.
p1p8: No more blue cards, hmm. Well, we just took Revoker, we might want to start getting into a white little guy plan and go with Mana Tithe here. Elspeth isn't looking so bad anymore. In my world, I'd be looking at Breeding Pool or the more likely Regrowth. Regrowth is really awesome and I love playing with it. We could still take Breeding Pool over Mana Tithe here if we want to go Bant or end up just getting more green cards.
p1p9: You're highlighting Garruk this early? Wow! You love jumping all over the place. I'd be going with Talrand here. 5/8 cards of ours trigger him, and he's an opportunity to do something different but within color. I would also rather have Trygon Predator here rather than Garruk - what are we trying to do with Garruk? Are we just taking an off-color card because it's the best in the pack? Let's take the one that has the highest potential of making our deck. We also cut off blue drafters to the left. Garruk isn't necessarily bad though because he goes pretty decently with our blue options. I think he's the #2 out of this pack.
p1p10: Well, in my draft deck here we're going with Goblin Electromancer, haha, but that's not really what we're doing here. Hmm. Well, we just took Garruk, we could go with Treetop Village. I think the other option would be three mana Ajani. We already have the Mana Tithe and Elspeth. I think I'd probably take Ajani here and just ignore green. Wow CHANDRA? Why? That's so mana committal.
At this point in the draft, I think you have your finger dipped in way too many pots. We know we're blue, but are we white, green, red? I think we could have had a much better near-mono-blue deck at this point and we could be looking at actual things to push us in different directions at this point.
When it's the first pack, and I'm not sure what my secondary color is -- it's usually just better to take good/mediocre on-color options. When the second back gets cracked, we'll have a much better idea of where to go - and we won't have to worry about hitting playable count. We'll also have a better idea of what our actual deck is trying to do.
Right now, the cards we're positive we're playing are:
Mana Leak
Remand
Fact or Fiction
Bribery
Tamiyo
That's it. We're on pick 11. With those cards, I'm still looking towards ramping. Our white additions make us look significantly more aggressive.
Our blue/green and blue/red decks at this point are just completely guesswork. I like the blue/green deck much more than the blue/red one though, especially considering we've been seeing some decent green.
p1p11: Well, with our current deck, this pick actually gives us a lot of options. I think I'd honestly go with the Wooded Foothills at this point. We need to be able to cast our spells. Acidic Slime would be my second option, we still don't have that effect. I'm fine with dropping the white at this point, and I still don't understand the Pyromancer pick.
p1p12: Reclamation Sage not close, even after picking up an kAcidic Slime. Sweet, blue/green which is what I wanted to be originally. We got a direction. Lost out on a few picks, but I think we're really well positioned at this point to go into pack 2.
p1p13: Ajani seems fine here, I don't think it really matters since none of these cards are probably going to make our deck. Ajani is the best, and it's theoretically able for us to play him still, so it's the best pick.
p1p14: I'd actually take Sarcomancy, I don't want to play against that more than the Peeks.
"Well, I know I'm definitely blue..."
Yep. I think one of the things I've noticed about your drafting style in these drafts is that you tend to go a bunch of different ways without committing to something too early. You can get away with that in cube much more easily than in other formats, but you tend to not know when to stick with a gameplan rather than abandon it.
In draft #3 we had Ancestral Recall and Force of Will and you took a Sword. It doesn't make any sense with the rest of the cards you've been drafting. Similarly, in this draft, we had FoF + Bribery and then we take ... Elspeth?
Neither Sword or Elspeth is a reason to abandon what you're doing. I think you have too many options open for too few good reasons. I'm fine with taking an ultra powerful card that is off color but still works well with our overall strategies.
For instance, let's say we had Goblin Guide + Sulfuric Vortex for our first two cards. Would it be worth it to jump into white for Mother of Runes or Sword to Plowshares? Maybe. Would it be worth it to abanadon what we're doing get a Recurring Nightmare? No! I don't think you're doing anything ridiculous like that -- but you are closer on that end of the spectrum.
I'm fine with a speculative pick, but you seem to be doing that a lot from pick 3 to pick 11, which is where you really want to be figuring out what your gameplan is -- are we aggro? control? combo? etc. The guys to your left are going to pick up on a lot of the cards you passed -- sending that Talrand in particular might have lost you 1-2 great cards in pack 2. You could have sent those players into white, which would give you two additional picks (from the white cards you took) and affect literally every single card that gets passed to you.
Pack 2, Pick 1: Wow, all the combo cards here. Okay, well, we actually have a ton of red in our sideboard at this point -- but I don't think any of these red cards are really worth taking. In my draft, I'd definitely be blue/red/something at this point though, haha. Maybe RUG. Anyway: As lame as it is, I think Yavimaya Coast might be the pickup here. We can try to wheel it and take an Elves of Deep Shadow, Serendib Efreet, a Top, or a Garruk here, but I think I'd rather just take the safest option and start working on my mana. We already passed a Breeding Pool. Strip Mine is actually also somewhat decent, if we can get ways to combo with it, or if we get some ways to untap/ramp more so the drop doesn't hurt us. I think I might actually go with Strip Mine here. I have no idea what you're gonna take. For me, I'd probably take the Coast, Strip Mine, or Elves. I think with our current setup, we don't have any mana acceleration, so I'd probably actually go with the Elves of Deep Shadow. This first pick is horrible for us, honestly. Strip Mine, good pick, I like it.
p2p2: Why are we taking Sword over Archmage here? At this point, we have one creature at 3cmc or less. You also have multiple ways to kill swords. Archmage looks fantastic for us. Simic Signet is also probably better for us here, especially after taking a Strip Mine. Sweet, you came to the same conclusions I did. Haha.
p2p3: Mulldrifter vs. Life From the Loam vs. Dismember. LftL is looking really sexy with that Strip Mine there. It's still early in pack 2, we could get a lot of ways to combo with that LFTL. I think it's the risky pick, but maybe the one I'm looking at doing. We have a Fact or Fiction which works well with Strip Mine and LFTL too, so we're not even completely starting off on that. I think the safe pick is Dismember, since we don't have any creature removal (and we're likely not going to being blue/green), and we also don't have anything crazy awesome to do with Mulldrifter at this point. I'd probably take LFTL #1 (because I like synergy), Dismember #2, Mulldrifter #3. Ehh, you took my #3 which I expected actually, lol. LFTL might actually wheel though, so maybe I'd take Dismember over it and hope it wheels.
p2p4: Phantasmal Image, not close especially after taking that Mulldrifter. Combos well with Sage + Slime too. P. Image is so amazing, I almost never pass this mid-pack. Myr Battlesphere would be my distant #2.
p2p5: Well, this pack is garbage. Stunted Growth + prioritizing ramp (which we already kinda want to do) would be a fine option here. I could also see going with Tarmogoyf if you wanted to do a more dude-centered plan. We do have a Strip Mine and some cheap stuff. I could even see taking a Pernicious Deed and trying to make something work there. Sunpetal Grove? Really? IDK, I think the white ship has sailed and there's not too much stuff I would want to splash for in this deck.
p2p6: Elvish Mystic, not even remotely close.
p2p7: I think this is a clear Llanowar Elves too, but Enlightened Tutor and Gaea's Cradle are worth considering.
p2p8: Harmonize is okay, but I'm actually more interested in Lodestone Golem. It's an actual threat, and we have a Strip Mine already. We're blue, so it's actually more advantageous for us to start looking towards artifacts. We're also taking away ramp from people because we're that deck, so he's even better here. We can do better with card draw options in blue.
p2p9: Yavimaya Coast, easy pick, I think anything else at this point would be a mistake. Serendib Efreet is my #2. I don't think Primal Hunter here is even worth considering.
p2p10: Simic Signet wheeling is absurd.
p2p11: Flooded Strand? What are you playing white for at this point? Why are you going all in on this white plan? LFTL actually gives us a sweet way to win, especially if we pick up something like Crucible too. Oh man, if I see Crucible in the third pack, I am going to feel so dirty.
Rest of the pack: Wow, a lot of stuff wheeled. Sweet.
Pack 3, Pick 1: WOW. How is this pack real for us right now?
So, I think we're going with Sol Ring or Black Lotus and I don't think it's actually even that close, but wow, look at all those other cards for us. Here's my card order for our deck:
Best
Sol Ring
Black Lotus gap
Mana Drain gap
Treachery
Karn gap
Elf
Worst
p3p2: Options: Treespeaker, Preordain, Trop Island, Garruk Relentless. I think we're good on mana production, so Treespeaker isn't what we really need, especially after picking up a real Sol Ring. I'd probably go with Preordain. It's cheap, it gets us into our good stuff, etc. Relentless is fine too though, and we do have a lot of ways to ramp into him. We already have a 4 mana Garruk, but this one is strong. I'm fine with either Preordain or Relentless here.
p3p3: Primeval Titan. We have a Strip Mine (UGH LFTL) and we need a way to win. We have a bunch of ways to ramp. I think this is better than Memory Lapse. Natural Order is also a possibility, but we don't have any giant green fatties. Misty Rainforest is also fine here, but we're just two colors, we have plenty of fixing, and Prime Time is a way to win.
p3p4: Grim Monolith vs. Avenger of Zendikar vs. Meloku vs. Crucible.
WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE THE LIFE FROM THE LOAM?
No really though, I think I'd probably go with Grim Monolith. It's so powerful and will help us do some really ridiculous plays. Turn 2 Garruks off of mana elf -> Grim Monolith could be a thing. Crucible might wheel too. Grim Monolith is just so powerful. If you look at the top end, especially something like Turn 3 Primeval Titan or Bribery or whatever, etc. I think it's the best card and I don't think it's particularly close.
p3p5: We're blue green, I'd just take Opposition. It's not the most insane in our deck, but blue green is it's home. We have a pretty good mana denial subtheme. Strip Mine, Reclamation Sage for killing artifacts, Acidic Slime for taking out whatever but very often killing mana stuff, etc. I think it's better than the other options. I think with Edric, you're not looking at your deck quite hard enough. You don't have a ton of early game where Edric coming down on three is going to provide you a giant boost for your attacks -- AND you're not doing the worst on card draw right now. We're really not that aggressive. I think Opposition is going to win you more games just from tapping down your enemies giant things, rather than Edric propelling you through the mid-game, but who knows.
p3p6: Polkrunos is fine here. Shoutout to Wake, but we have nothing to do with it.
p3p7: I like Wall of Roots a lot here. It gives us early-D and also ramps us. Much better than Search for Tomorrow. If you were still really keen on your white plan, Hallowed Fountain could be good here. You have Wayfarer, so you can go get that Strip Mine a little easier, but that's really idealistic. We don't even know if we're gonna wheel the Crucible yet.
p3p8: Wasteland not close. Perfect card.
p3p9: Daze might be better than another elf here. We have a lot of ramp already. I think because we have Edric, elf is probably a little better.
p3p10: Isochron Scepter is scary and you don't want to face it? OH IS THAT SO.
p3p11: Natural Order is definitely way better than Misty Rainforest here. We can go get Primeval Titan (which essentially gives us two copies, which also allow us to go get Strip + Waste), but it can also get Acidic Slime or even Reclamation Sage if we need that effect, and it can also go get Polukranos or Eldric if we need them.
p3p12: CRUCIBLE WHEELED. YES. I NOW LIKE THIS DECK. Why couldn't you have taken the LFTL?
I'll watch this draft soon and let you know my thoughts on it ! Those are my drafting thoughts!
You wrote a lot and hopefully I can find time to comment on it all, but some quick thoughts:
I think Elspeth was easily the best card in that pack, strong enough to go into the second color potentially as I see it as a clear signal that maybe I should be taking white cards, even this early. I don't see any issue running a UW deck that has Recall/Bribery/Elspeth; in fact, those cards totally seem to work well together. Like, I don't see Elspeth as a card that needs to be aggressive or even in a deck with other creatures, as it can power out a dude to win on its own, use them to block until we can control the board, etc. if that's the direction we're going here. Like, Coalition Relic could've been the better pick, at least the safer, but Elspeth is a gross card that wins games on her own if I can give her baseline protection, the type of thing my control decks certainly want.
Also, you like Talrand, I think it's very bad. It also wheels all the time, so I don't think many other players see it as a signal, so I have no problem shipping it along as if it's a colorless card.
I'm not too high on LFTL in decks with only a couple options and w/o any GY strategy, which is where I was both times I saw it. I'd rather just get the 1-of use of my strip mines/fetches then potentially mill something I need more than a Strip Mine. In unpowered cubes it's a lot better, but it can be awkward when everyone is playing artifact mana or aggro and prob not caring too much about their lands beyond the first couple of turns.
Good point on Daze, I will remember that next time I'm making this style of deck! The island issue would've only been a problem in a couple of the games.
'p3p10: Isochron Scepter is scary and you don't want to face it? OH IS THAT SO. :p' IT IS. ...I mean, it's a good card when it works, I just don't want to be responsible for either side of it at this point.
I should've considered Dismember more. The Mulldrifter was good--as it always is--but Dismember would've been better.
"Yep. I think one of the things I've noticed about your drafting style in these drafts is that you tend to go a bunch of different ways without committing to something too early. " This is very much on purpose. Cube is the perfect place to do this, and signals are much tougher to figure out since you can get ridiculous cards in a color late and that color can be completely closed otherwise. If my main color is drying up or everything is not going as planned, I like have the best cards from packs as it's really easy to wright any ship once you figure out what you should be doing. I mean, I'm not jumping around in packs 2 or 3 really, as by that point you should have a better idea/you should know what you're doing, but I'm really OK taking the best card from a pack in pack 1 as long as there isn't too much of a contender in another color, which to me never seemed to be the case in that first pack. Like, that Coalition Relic is good, but taking Elspeth speaks to how high I rate that card regardless of the style of deck she goes in. With the Chandra, the amount I'm losing from not taking either of those colored cards seems less to me than the amount I would gain by having Chandra if red was the actual color that I'm OK taking an off-color card in that chance that that's the color I need to be in. The Garruk is the better card by p1p9, and that's a *clear* signal that I should be green--I'd rather take that and step towards firmly committing to green here then taking a two-colored card which means almost nothing in signaling and start sending someone strong into green with that Garruk, which I think is head and shoulders above everything else in that p1p9. Like you say, this is much easier to do in cube than other formats, and I'm ready to use that to my advantage.
Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoyed me playing with a 10/10 pro-everything as much as I enjoyed playing with it!
Congrats on this video series, you manage to be articulate while drafting in real time, which I can't imagine is easy.
I didn't read the comments above to avoid bias.
My opinions on video 1 (quick notes with very light editing):
D1P1P1 Ancestral Recall - Agree
D1P1P2 Bribery (FTK/Kozilek/Path) - Agree (but close with both Path & FTK)
D1P1P3 Vendilion Clique (Mind's Desire/Resto Angel) - Agree
D1P1P4 Glen Elendra Archmage (Lotus Cobra) - Agree
D1P1P5 Impulse (Solemn) - Agree
D1P1P6 Upheaval (Spinx's Rev) - Agree
D1P1P7 Shadowmage Infiltrator (Koth/GftT) - Disagree - I think U/R is the best archetype in this Cube and it's not very close. Koth is in the top 5 Red cards in the list, and you really don't have to be heavy Red to play it. At this point I take Koth and jump into U/R and don't change course for any reason.
D1P1P8 Swords to Plowshares (Bolt/Splinter Twin) - Matter of taste; Plow is a better card than Bolt, but U/R is a better deck than U/W or Esper (see above). Splinter Twin is actually very good also, so that would also be a defensible pick.
D1P1P9 Caves of Koilos (Shivan Reef/Bonfire/Stormbreath Dragon) - Agree given your previous two picks.
D1P1P10 Flametongue Kavu - Agree (what an enormous gift - you should now jump into Red and not look back, which you kind of did).
D1P1P11 Lightning Strike (Helix/Gargadon) - Agree
D1P1P12 Kami of Ancient Law - Agree
D1P1P13 Figure of Destiny (Reveillark) - Disagree - Figure is really only good in an aggro deck that's heavy Red or White. Your deck fits none of the criteria, and Reveillark is actually really good (you already have Archmage and more targets will almost certainly come around).
D1P1P14 Plateau - Agree
D1P1P15 Seething Song
D1P2P1 Mox Sapphire (Treachery/Karn) - Agree
D1P2P2 Riftwing Cloudskate (Steam Vents/Sarkhan/Chrome Mox/Hero of Bladehold) - Matter of taste - Passing Steam Vents could be ok with only one real Red card, but I would have personally taken it. Cloudskate is not a must-have for your deck.
D1P2P3 Izzet Signet (Strip Mine/Memory Lapse/Dimir Signet/Talrand) - Strongly agree
D1P2P4 Dack Fayden (Simic Signet/Timetwister) - Agree
D1P2P5 Tezzeret the Seeker (Tangle Wire/Brimstone Volley/Manic Vandal) - Agree - It's a speculative pick since you're basically only playing the card if you get Time Vault or at least 4 more artifacts, both of which are unlikely, but you're not giving up much.
D1P2P6 Counterspell (Lodestone Golem/Blightsteel/Bloodstained Mire) - Agree
D1P2P7 Burning of Xinye (Metalworker) - Agree
D1P2P8 Jace Beleren (Mana Leak/Tundra/Sulfur Falls/Chandra) - Disagree - A super strong pack for you and a very close pick, but I would have taken Mana Leak. Cheaper cards are better, generally. I think I'd also take Tundra over Jace if Mana Leak wasn't there.
D1P2P9 Porcelain Legionnaire (Underground River) - Disagree - You might open Mind Twist or Demonic Tutor, or be forced somehow to play Infiltrator, so I'd take the painland.
D1P2P10 Steam Vents (Chrome Mox/Frantic Search) - Agree (how lucky)
D1P2P11 Memory Lapse (Talrand) - Agree (how lucky again, although I suppose you were going to wheel something anyway - Talrand would be quite nice as well)
D1P2P12 Delver (Searing Spear) - Disagree - You're not a Delver deck (almost no Cube deck is), so I'd take the generic burn spell; it's marginal obviously.
D1P2P13 Manic Vandal - Agree
D1P2P14 Weathered Wayfarer - Agree
D1P2P15 Pattern of Rebirth
D1P3P1 Scalding Tarn (Inferno Titan/Academy) - Agree
D1P3P2 Flooded Strand (Opposition/Thada Adel) - Agree (not close)
D1P3P3 Elspeth (SoFI, Supreme Verdict, Preordain, Gruul Signet) - Very close, but I disagree. Elspeth is very good, but I don't think it's worth warping the mana base for. Preordain would be my pick. The Signet could actually be correct given that you have Upheaval and Wildfire.
D1P3P4 Mother of Runes (Battlesphere, Image, D-Sphere, Chain Lightning) - Disagree strongly. By far the worst pick in the draft. You have about 4 creatures you're definitely playing at this point, why worry about protecting them? Phantasmal Image is the clear pick here, with Battlesphere a relatively close second (but you have little ramp and a pretty good lategame already).
D1P3P5 Dungeon Geists (Worn Powerstone) - Agree (close)
D1P3P6 Snapcaster Mage (Kiora, Ravages of War) - Agree
D1P3P7 Isochron Scepter (Serendib Efreet) - I almost had a heart attack when you waited until the last second to take it over Serendib Efreet (the definition of "solid, but thoroughly unexciting"). You have five absolutely premium targets already (plus the Lightning Strike).
D1P3P8 Volcanic Island (Brainstorm/Day of Judgment) - Agree
D1P3P9 Inferno Titan (Looter il-Kor/Maze of Ith/cliftop Retreat) - Agree
D1P3P10 Thada Adel (Opposition) - Agree, very close (Opposition wasn't going to be great in your deck and Thada Adel is a pretty nice sideboard card)
D1P3P11 Preordain - Agree (lol, now I look like a fool for what I wrote above)
P1P3P12 Detention Sphere - Agree
P1P3P13 Unexpectedly Absent - Agree (another gift since you have Scepter, strange that you didn't even consider playing it).
P1P3P14 Spirit of the Labyrinth (Garruk W) - Disagree (but whatever)
P1P3P15 Spear of Heliod
Scepter is the best non-power 9 card in your deck! Not playing it is absolutely criminal.
It's not worth warping the mana for two subpar and one very good White card. I don't think there's ever been a Cube deck where it was correct to play both Upheaval and Figure of Destiny, and it certainly wasn't here.
D2P1P1 - Ancestral Recall - Agree (lol, again?)
D2P1P2 - Simic Signet (Koth/Timetwister/Polluted Delta) - Agree (very close)
D2P1P3 - Glen Elendra Archmage (Stryx/O-Ring) - Agree
D2P1P4 - Opposition (Goblin Guide/Survival) - Agree
D2P1P5 - Izzet Signet (Geist of St Traft/Sarkhan/Courser/Vindicate) - Agree (not close)
D2P1P6 - Zealous Conscripts (Awakening Zone/U.River) - Agree
D2P1P7 - Hero of Bladehold (Talrand/Terastodon/Repeal/Troll Ascetic/Guttersnipe/Sundering Titan) - Agree (I think - Talrand is probably close)
D2P1P8 - Young Pyromancer (Tangle Wire/Wall of Blossoms/Shardless Agent) - Agree (another close one, Tangle Wire is insane, but you might not end up be aggresive enough)
D2P1P9 - Electrolyze (Land Tax/Grand Architect/Firebolt) - Agree
D2P1P10 - Koth of the Hammer (Scroll) - Agree
D2P1P11 - Borderland Marauder (Hallowed Spiritkeeper) - Disagree - I'd still be flexible to play White at this point and the Spiritkeeper is sufficiently more powerful than the Marauder, especially with Opposition. Your pick is definitely defensible as well.
D2P1P12 - Goblin Guide - Agree
D2P1P13 - Figure of Destiny (Avalanche Riders) - Agree
D2P1P14 - Falkenrath Aristocrat (Awakening Zone) - Disagree, Zone is rather nice with Opposition, but it's probably a moot point.
D2P1P15 - Guttersnipe - Score! Now regretting the Hero over Talrand pick, but hindsight is 20/20 obviously.
D2P2P1 - Mox Emerald (FoF/Bolt) - Agree
D2P2P2 - Skullclamp (SoFI/Scepter) - Matter of taste - Sword is so good both in your deck and against it, and you might have trouble getting enough creatures to Clamp. Skullclamp is the more broken card, though. Very close, but I think I'd take SoFI most of the time.
D2P2P3 - Tinker (Kiki-Jiki/Steam Vents/Ancient Grudge) - Matter of taste. I would end up taking Kiki-Jiki. While both him and Tinker are speculative picks, you already have Zealous Conscripts, and the Pestermite/Exarch that you might pick up kind of work better with the rest of your deck. Strange you didn't consider him at all. The actual correct pick might be Steam Vents though - I'd be pretty worried about my mana situation at this point.
D2P2P4 - Faithless Looting (Cryptic Command/Jace, Architect of Thought/Force Spike) - Disagree - I'd take Force Spike since you're shaping up to be an aggro-control deck, not a combo deck.
D2P2P5 - Spellskite (Incinerate/Metalworker/Stormbreath Dragon) - Matter of taste - I'd take Incinerate as a spell for YP and Guttersnipe. Since you have Tinker your pick is defensible as well.
D2P2P6 - Fire//Ice (Sphinx of the Steel Wind/Shrine of Burning Rage) - Matter of taste (again) - Shrine is actually really good, but not at its best in your deck. I'd probably take Sphinx for Tinker at this point though.
D2P2P7 - Greater Gargadon (Wildfire) - Agree (close though)
D2P2P8 - Preordain - Agree
D2P2P9 - Lightning Bolt - Agree
D2P2P10 - Isochron Scepter (Firedrinker Satyr) - Agree
D2P2P11 - Steam Vents (Kiki-Jiki/Daze) - Agree - your fixing just isn't good enough at this point and you also just passed Shivan Reef.
D2P2P12 - Force Spike - Agree (and again I look stupid for wanting to take it the 1st time around).
D2P2P13 - Stormbreath Dragon (Incinerate) - Disagree strongly. You realize burn gets better the more of it you have, right? You also just picked up a Scepter.
D2P2P14 - Boros Reckoner - Agree
D2P2P15 - Desecration Demon
D2P3P1 - Prophetic Flamespeaker (BBE/Augur of Bolas/Daretti) - Agree, but close with BBE (very disappointing first pick though)
D2P3P2 - Umezawa's Jitte (Pestermite/Thundermaw/Burst Lightning) - Agree
D2P3P3 - Sower of Temptation (Scalding Tarn) - Disagree - You really need the mana fixing IMO.
D2P3P4 - Mana Vault (Time Vault/Smash to Smithereens/Dungeon Geists) - Agree
D2P3P5 - Dack Fayden (Char/SGC) - Agree
D2P3P6 - Riftwing Cloudskate - Agree (but at this point, *I* would have had a sweet Twin Combo deck, including Time Vault!)
D2P3P7 - Volcanic Island (Remand) - Agree, even though Remand is so good under a Scepter.
D2P3P8 - Arid Mesa (D-Sphere) - Agree
D2P3P9 - Augur of Bolas (Goblin Electromancer) - Agree
D2P3P10 - Thundermaw Hellkite (Burst Lightning) - Debatable, but ultimately I think I agree.
D2P3P11 - Goblin Vandals - Agree
D2P3P12 - Manic Vandal (Rift Bolt) - Agree
D2P3P13 - Char - Agree (nice)
D2P3P14 - Ghitu Encampment (Jackal Pup) - Actually close I think, I'd take the Pup to be able to side into a more aggro configuration if the matchup warrants it.
D2P3P15 - Birthing Pod
This was a draft with lots of close decisions. I think you kind of failed to follow up on a couple of speculative picks you made, but at least you were in the right colors.
Deck building is difficult too, but I would find a way to get Opposition in there. It's a really broken card and you have just enough creatures to take advantage, I think.
Again, congrats on these videos, they're pretty high quality.
Thank you on the thorough feedback! I like seeing the breakdown of my picks, that's pretty sweet. I get the reasoning for a lot of your disagreements; and you must be a pretty smart dude otherwise to agree with so many of my choices but in all seriousness, thank you!
Hey everyone, I'm back with more videos, this time on XMage! If you're not familiar with XMage and like drafting cube online, I suggest downloading the program because 1) it's awesome, and 2) I want more reliable people to play with! Belo ware the two I've posted so far, but there will be more coming up for sure. These links will be in the OP as well.
This is awesome. I didn't know that this even existed, so thanks for these videos and showing us this software. I've just installed and I'm drafting my first cube now.
This is awesome. I didn't know that this even existed, so thanks for these videos and showing us this software. I've just installed and I'm drafting my first cube now.
It's really incredible, isn't it? I resisted downloading it for the longest time, but since I have it's been mostly positive experiences. fwiw I used the 1st of the xmage servers as I think it has the most people no matter the hour. Sometimes you may only get 1 round, but I find you typically get at least 2. Also the single elims are nice because people don't usually drop as the rounds go shorter with less people. I play as Salmoilla on there, hopefully Ill see you in a draft!
XMage Cube Draft with the recent iteration of the holiday cube! Definitely could do better in certain spots, especially with my play in the last round. Let me know what you would do differently in the draft!
How does XMage work exactly? Is it a free software or kind? You install it and play, that's it?
And what does WotC think about all this?
It's free, and there are tutorials to help set it up (which is pretty easy fwiw). It's like MODO in that you join a queue or a room, and when that queue is full, it launches.
I'm not sure what WOTC thinks, frankly not too interested in asking them as I enjoy XMage quite a bit
Draft 1
Draft 2
Draft 3
Draft 4
XMage Draft 1
XMage Draft 2
XMage Draft 3
XMage Draft 4
XMage Draft 5
XMage Draft 6
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
This is a cool direction to take this from one of bunch that we could have done. OKay, here's what I would have done differently building the deck with the cards we have:
With the current configuration -- what is our deck trying to do? I feel like it's a little too random cluttered up with good stuff rather than focusing on how we're going to get the enemy dead.
I see we're including Mother of Runes, Figure of Destiny, Riftwing Cloudskate, Vendilion Clique, Elspeth, FTK. I also see we have a lot of sweet tempo interactive cards like Memory Lapse, Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, So are we trying to attack them to death and tempo them out?
If so, why are we playing cards like Izzet Signet, Upheaval, Jace Beleren, Impulse, Preordain, etc?
Are these better than what's in our sideboard? I feel like Porcelain Legionnaire and Delver of Secrets are better than at least two of the cards above if we're trying to tempo them out. Even Thada Adel is probably better than Jace Beleren in tempo decks.
If we're not trying to do that, and we're playing more of a controllish Jeskai deck -- there are a few better options in the sideboard. Porcelain Legionnaire is a decent blocker that needs to eat removal. I think that's the mediocre option -- the more interesting, likely more fun, and IMO better option would be to also play Isochron Scepter + Lightning Strike.
Figure of Destiny I think is an easy cut for the extra interaction between scepter -- Lightning Strike might actually be better to the deck here than Figure regardless, since we're not an early game deck, and Figure requires a lot of splash mana to get ridiculous. Lightning Strike stops some of our opponent's more explosive draws, which would be better in general, I think.
The other cut would probably be Elspeth. She's difficult on the mana and I don't necessarily want to be tapping out on turn 4 with her most of the time anyway with this deck. I think your mana gets better, and as a result you lose less games because you didn't find a splash color.
I probably would have built it more controlling and added Isochron Scepter + Lightning Strike. You get a 6th target and Isochron Scepter itself becomes a really interesting gameplan for your deck sometimes. My cuts would be Figure and Elspeth, and I'd also tweak the mana a little accordingly.
This definitely looks awesome though, excited to see the rest.
----------
Gah, he had the nuts both games. Time Vault + Key is a really silly interaction that I think most people don't get until they see.
Oh well. Didn't draw islands or counterspells at the same time. Haha. Oh well. Sometimes Time Vault decks do that.
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
I am not a delver fan, there are very few builds where I'd include it. From my experience, it almost never flips as it does in constructed. And I like Thada from the sideboard, but if we're not facing Islands or heavy artifacts then she's pretty underwhelming, not a card I want to carry into a game 1blind.
Isochron was definitely the hardest card to not play. I'm still torn about whether I made the wrong decision, but I'm OK with not facing hands where it does nothing, even if that means I avoid a pretty high ceiling. I don't know, hard to say. I can be a pretty conservative player with deckbuilding at times, but then I also jam Elspeths into decks like this lol
Izzet Signet, Upheaval, Jace Beleren, Impulse, Preordain...I think all those cards are good in what is a tempo-ish build. Like, Upheavaling and then dropping one of my cheaper creatures to finish off that last bit of damage seems good, and also acts as a wrath against more creature-oriented decks without wiping out my threats; jace is pretty cheap for how much he draws; and the card selection is cheap enough where I don't think it's hogging all my mana and will find my the counter/threat/bomb that I'm looking for. I think no matter whatever build I end on, all four of those make it.
I felt my mana was good enough to play the Elspeth, which is worth playing. Sure, playing some number of plains kind of sucks, but my red was pretty effortless so I didn't need to focus on that and really only in the first round was I ****ed by mana--where I would've been ****ed regardless as I just didn't draw any. It would've been easier for me to go a more controlling route if my control option was more consistent instead of isochron.
In hindsight, I think Lightning Strike definitely needed to go in. The figure was probably the right cut there, for sure. I just have a sick love for planeswalkers and will run any that's remotely playable
----------------------------
SORRY ABOUT ROUND 1, DAMN YOU TIME VAULT!! Should've I mulligained that first hand?
And thank you so much for the feedback. You make a lot of good points; magic is sometimes a hard game to see from all angles, and it's interesting what another set of glasses let's me see. Should have more up in the next coming week once christmas sha-nay-nays are over.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
(CubeTutor & MTGS)
360 Peasant Cube!
Custom Cube
RWU Miracles RWU
Thanks! Someone else pointed out the d-sphere play--it was bad, for sure. Speaking and playing/drafting is tough, and while I would never call myself a "good" player at the standard I hold myself to, my play does indeed suffer while doing this kind of stuff and it is always embarrassing. BUT, you live/learn/improve, and that's the main goal whenever I do anything involving magic. (Living is always a general goal, fwiw.) Again, thanks for watching!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Great entertainment and really happy to see someone from this forum doing cube drafts for us. Great resource.
Noticed you were wanting more constructive criticism from your opening statements in draft #4: Salmo, here's actually a thing I was writing up on draft 3. I was doing other stuff, so I actually didn't get to complete it, but I watched it and the games afterwards:
It's not complete, but I didn't have time.
I hope you like constructive criticism! (Hey, why else even post these? Constructive feedback is great! I'll try to make it as constructive as possible.)
Okay, so I watched this draft for a bit and started disliking it on pick #3. You really don't need a Sword in a Ancestral Recall / Force of Will deck, they go later the more powered a cube is, and you're not really a creature deck after committing to heavy blue. I tried to get on board with what you were doing, until you took Shriekmaw over Hero of Bladehold / Path to Exile (clearly more open color, IMO). So, I fast forwarded ahead to see you take a Baleful Strix over a Vampiric Tutor when you have an Ancestral Recall.
So, I'm rewinding it and going with my picks instead as they happen. I don't know what my final decklist will/would have been, because obviously taking some cards gets you access to other ones and vice versa.
P1: Ancestral: Definitely the right card.
2: Force of Will is fine, but this is actually the absolute most ideal time to get Isochron Scepter. I think there is a good chance we can wheel it, but we can attempt to get one and two mana instants and craft our deck around something of that nature. I would actually probably take Dark Ritual here, as we can ramp into an early Scepter + activation earlier that way. It also gives us mana ramp possibilities (making Isochron Scepter into a bad Mind Stone), or the subplan to go storm (which is relatively viable in this cube, moreso than other cubes anyway). I think FoW is a fine choice here though, because Scepter will probably wheel. Metalworker is also a solid option, since the artifact deck is often blue base, and Ancestral has some synergy with Metalworker. Mana Acceleration of any kind I think is undervalued, and I really like Dark Ritual.
3: Sword is one of the worst options here. Talrand is actually a great option, and we've had a lot of success with it in a very similar cube. It is expensive, but it is very difficult to deal with once it gets going. He's like Young Pyro's big brother -- the tokens off of him are much more difficult to deal with, although Talrand does have to live the turn. But Talrand wouldn't even be my pick. Your deck at this point is two spells, so Talrand definitely has some merit. That being said, he'll probably wheel.
Here's the cards I'm considering: Memory Jar, Solemn Simulacrum, Imperial Recruiter. I think all of these are better than Sword or Talrand. If we took the Dark Ritual, I think Memory Jar would be an easy snap-up. I like Imperial Recruiter a lot, especially with possible access to Splinter Twin combo stuff. I think with Ancestral + Force of Will, we should definitely go with Imperial Recruiter -- it's branching out, but blue has a lot of great creatures with 2 power or less, and I think the possibility of getting all the izzet combo pieces is very tempting. Solemn Simulacrum is the next card I think you should have taken -- it ramps, chumps, replaces itself, etc. Great card.
4: Treachery easy pick.
5: I think Meloku is fine here. We have a sword to throw on tokens, and we might be able to prioritize a token strategy from here too.
6: Uh oh, no blue. I think out of the colors displayed to us, white is by far the most open. You just talked about possibly getting an opposition -- but you're not taking Hero of Bladehold? Why is Shriekmaw a better option than Path to Exile? I don't think the interaction with Sword of Light and Shadow dictates that Shriekmaw is superior to the other options -- are we really trying to be a dimir aggro deck that's attempting to get Shriekmaw back? I would prefer to be blue/white aggro or control. Shriekmaw is branching out into a completely different color for no reason other than an interaction with a piece of equipment that needs to deal combat damage to an opponent -- which we may not even play. The white cards are superior, imo. Also, we might be able to wheel the Isochron Scepter. Path to Exile would be fantastic here. Hero of Bladehold is the stronger option with token strategies, a tempo gameplan, any type of mana acceleration, etc.
7: Frost Titan, easy pick, we need to prioritize everything but finishers now.
8: I would take the Underground River over the Braids. Your ways to combo with Braids at this point are few and stretching, while Underground River gives you the capability to splash Shriekmaw and other possible black stuff that comes your way, which is up your alley anyway since you seem to be building a decent Dimir control deck (apart from the Sword).
9: !!!! Recurring Nightmare WHEELED? What? Take this. Change strategy immediately, we're now doing reanimator.
10: Scepter wheeled, sweet. You took Messenger? Really? Awww. We're gonna need to really improve our black fixing if we want to play Braids, Messenger, Recurring Nightmare, etc.
I'd still take Scepter here. You can put Ancestral on it!!! You might get tutors for either piece. You might get multiple tutors for both pieces. You might find a bunch of great cards to put on Scepter, like Impulse, Counterspell, Remand, etc.
11: Talrand, Disenchant, or Wall of Omens is fine.
12: Enlightened Tutor can fetch us our Recurring Nightmare AND Treachery, not even counting all the sweet stuff we can find in pack 2 and 3. I hope you take this. Nope, you took Crucible, and didn't even mention this. -.- We don't have to be heavy black. We have a Braids and a Geralf's Messenger at this point. Enlightened Tutor would be fantastic, and opens up future lines. In my theoretical draft, this is also something to find Scepter and put on Scepter.
13: I think Masticore is fine. He's a discard outlet at worst if we stick with the gameplan, and maybe we can get Survival / Fauna Shaman and Squee. Bloodsoaked Champion is also fine here since it can do fun things with Recurring Nightmare. If you would have taken the Enlightened Tutor, it could go get Masticore too.
14: HERO OF BLADEHOLD WHEELED? What are people doing in this draft? Seriously? Oh man, if we would have taken Path to Exile, Scepter, Enlightened Tutor...
Cube has a lot about potential synergies -- generally I'm trying to figure out what the most ridiculous thing my deck wants to do in the first pack is, then build that in the 2nd and 3rd pack.
I do not like our deck right now, haha. I think we could have been a lot better off going for more combos and/or white.
Pack 2:
1: You're taking Trinket Mage over BAZAAR OF BAGHDAD? Do you know how ridiculously powerful that card is with Recurring Nightmare? Woodfall Primus is a premium fatty that we need to take if we're looking to do busted things with Recurring Nightmare too. I think Sneak Attack and abandoning all our black cards except for Recurring Nightmare is also a fine pick. Trinket Mage is my #4 option. You don't even mention these three cards. -.-
2: Well, in my world, I'd be scooping up Animate Dead here. I'd have Enlightened Tutor to go grab it too. Vedalken Shackles is the next best card for us with this current deck though for sure. We're heavy blue. You're taking all these (relatively) fair cards over broken stuff. 11:45: "I'm not really sure what I'm trying to do here..." Haha, yeah. I think we should be on the Reanimation plan, since we got Recurring Nightmare to wheel in the first pack. That's a dream scenario, Salmo. Jump on it.
3: Pack Rat for sure, nothing else is even remotely desirable other than maybe Disfigure. We already have Treachery (ugh, another thing we could get with Enlightened Tutor I just noticed), Shriekmaw, and Vedalken Shackles, so we don't necessarily need to prioritize removal, but early game decks can give us some problems at this point. Pack Rat also helps a little bit on that front, but it's just so much better and a discard outlet for a fatty (which we do not have so far) that we need to take it.
4: Entomb is so ridiculously powerful. Definitely the right card. Animate Dead actually has a good chance of wheeling, since Recurring Nightmare wheeled in the first pack.
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
You said quite a bit--awesome! I want to give you the time you gave me, so for now I'm just reserving this, but thank you for all this.
I was complaining more about the "you lost me at such and such pick" and "you took that, you're the worst" comments, which is definitely not an issue with the awesomely thorough feedback you've left. Pretty much say whatever you want about my picks as long as you tell me what you would've done instead is the gist of what I was complaining about...so, thank you for always doing that!
-----------------------------------------------
White was indeed open and perhaps I should've taken either Path or Hero over Shriekmaw. Probably one of the bigger mistakes I've made in all my videos. I love Shriekmaw, and I'm not sure what my exact thinking was, but I think I might have been trying to avoid another UW deck. But that's a poor way to draft--it's amazing how much a mic can warp your mind at times. Now, I'm not sure if the white cards are actually superior to Shriekmaw, but seeing both is probably a clearer signal that white is open than black is.
I hate Isochron Scepter. p1p1, p3p15...there are few worlds where I will play that card. There have been so many times where my opponent has played scepter, and it's either underwhelming, I can play through it, or I remove it and get the easiest 2-for-1 ever. Most of the time I would've rather played the spell I was imprinting the one time then lose it because I wanted to go deep. To each one's own.
Solemn would've been a pretty good choice, but I ended up with a creature deck like I thought I would and sword was pretty good there. I'm usually pretty OK taking swords, but it easily could've been anything else, for sure.
Hero wheels a *lot* on the holiday cube. Like, the amount of times this season where a hero has wheeled in a pack for me is absurd. I don't think this is some hidden-message coming from the cube cards saying Hero is actually bad or whatever, and it can't be "swiss drafts means awful players", it's just some bizarro world where no one wants to play 7 power 4 drops. I don't know what to say, I think I remember audibly sharing my shock as well.
One of my biggest faults while recording is not being adventurous in fear of looking awful. How do you play Bazaar of Baghdad, as a land or a spell? It's one I've always wanted to try but then haven't because...well, I don't know, I'm scared of it sucking and hating myself when it does? Not sure.
That being said, I think Trinket Mage is a fine card at that point to take. There are a lot of 1-or-less costed artifacts that I'd never pass and always play in this cube, and having a wood elves in your U/x deck is really sweet, especially if you have multiple targets. I didn't feel like a dedicated reanimator deck so I avoided those other options, but I think I should've gone more in that direction in hindsight.
I was hesitant taking that Strix over Tutor, but I really liked that pick after the fact. While having multiple copies of all my sweet cards would've been insane, by the end I felt like the Strix really pulled together the Recurring Nightmare package. It was also one more card that was blue, helping force be great. If you listen to my commentary I was pretty pained over taking that Strix, but for what I was trying to do at that point I felt like I really needed that Strix. I know, it seems crazy, but I'm not too upset about that one. Perhaps it's wrong because I have the recall and all the other high-impact cards, but Strix was such a key component whenever I went off that it felt good having it.
' "I'm not really sure what I'm trying to do here..." Haha, yeah.' .........yeeeeahhh, lol don't know what to say. *shrugs* YA LIVE YA LEARN AMIRITE?!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Isochron Scepter is great, especially when you have an Ancestral and know you have a possibility of wheeling it in the first pack. It's literally ideal scenario for Scepter since you can adjust your whole draft around it. Being blue base is best for it initially too, s ince a ton of the stuff you want to put on Scepter that is game-breaking is blue. Mana Drain, Counterspell, Ancestral Recall, etc. I would be worried about getting 2-for-1'd too: But i always slot Scepter as a 4 mana card. It's definitely possible to play stuff before that, but in general I want to have at least one activation with it.
Bazaar of Baghdad doesn't produces mana, so it's definitely a spell.
Trinket Mage isn't bad, I just thought the other options were a bit better.
You passed Enlightened Tutor and Vampiric Tutor so quickly! The higher power the cube is, the better these cards are -- both of them would have been absolutely nutty in your deck, and I think they're easily the two biggest mistakes you made imo (the cards you took were fine though, don't get me wrong!). Baleful Strix is also multicolored, so there's the chance it even could have wheeled - but even if there is a 100% chance it doesn't wheel, Vampiric is still leagues better than this card IMO. It could be because my cube has used both of these cards to such ridiculous potential that I'll never get away from them in nearly any cube, but at the same time, I don't think that's a mistake.
I'm exactly with you up until Elspeth (p1p3). I would rather go with Time Spiral or Coalition Relic here.
I don't want to pass Spiral, since I want people in my left to drop out of that plan. It's also decent / good with the cards we have so far, and even if it's a big thing to do, it gives us a bit more of a gameplan -- big powerful blue spells. We can do a lot with that.
Elspeth is jumping into another color for no reason at the moment, I think. With our current deck, Elspeth isn't necessarily going with the flow -- if anything it's probably taking away from what we've been doing to put it in a more aggressive shell. FoF isn't the best card in an aggressive shell, and I don't know if I want to be topping off my aggressive deck with a Bribery.
Honestly, if we're looking to go another color at this point, it's either green so we can ramp into our big stuff, or a more controlling black, white, or red other part.
I probably would have taken Time Spiral here, but I might go with Coalition Relic too. Both keep us mono-colored which is huge. Elspeth is actually not even my #3 choice here -- I'd probably go with Searing Spear, The Abyss, Flametongue Kavu, or Baleful Strix before Elspeth. It's way too committal for basically no reason.
p1p4: Tamiyo I think is the clear winner here. Steam Vents would have been nice if we had taken a red card, Yawgmoth's Bargain would be nice if we took Time Spiral or Necropotence and wanted to do something more combo-y. With our deck, I think Everflowing Chalice or Tamiyo is correct. I think you'll take one of these two. Yep.
p1p5: Mana Leak, not close IMO. Again, if we were more combo, there'd be a Wheel of Fortune for us... oh how I love the combo decks. Cool to see a Eureka here in the first pack, someone will probably be playing something big for our Bribery at least.
I think it's really surprising to hear your commentary on taking Spiritkeeper over Mana Leak but you're not going to because you're not sure if you're going to play the Elspeth. I think you should be less committing early on - you could have had a Coalition Relic or Time Spiral for this deck instead at this point.
p1p6: Remand. I don't like passing Survival, but we have almost nothing working with it right now. Terminus is possibly a second option, but I can't see taking that over Remand, even if we have an Elspeth.
p1p7: Scroll Rack or Revoker. I'd go with the Scroll Rack since I think we're shaping up to being a little more controlling, but I can see taking the Revoker here because you still might want to go tempo with Elspeth. I didn't even consider the Magma Jet.
p1p8: No more blue cards, hmm. Well, we just took Revoker, we might want to start getting into a white little guy plan and go with Mana Tithe here. Elspeth isn't looking so bad anymore. In my world, I'd be looking at Breeding Pool or the more likely Regrowth. Regrowth is really awesome and I love playing with it. We could still take Breeding Pool over Mana Tithe here if we want to go Bant or end up just getting more green cards.
p1p9: You're highlighting Garruk this early? Wow! You love jumping all over the place. I'd be going with Talrand here. 5/8 cards of ours trigger him, and he's an opportunity to do something different but within color. I would also rather have Trygon Predator here rather than Garruk - what are we trying to do with Garruk? Are we just taking an off-color card because it's the best in the pack? Let's take the one that has the highest potential of making our deck. We also cut off blue drafters to the left. Garruk isn't necessarily bad though because he goes pretty decently with our blue options. I think he's the #2 out of this pack.
p1p10: Well, in my draft deck here we're going with Goblin Electromancer, haha, but that's not really what we're doing here. Hmm. Well, we just took Garruk, we could go with Treetop Village. I think the other option would be three mana Ajani. We already have the Mana Tithe and Elspeth. I think I'd probably take Ajani here and just ignore green. Wow CHANDRA? Why? That's so mana committal.
At this point in the draft, I think you have your finger dipped in way too many pots. We know we're blue, but are we white, green, red? I think we could have had a much better near-mono-blue deck at this point and we could be looking at actual things to push us in different directions at this point.
When it's the first pack, and I'm not sure what my secondary color is -- it's usually just better to take good/mediocre on-color options. When the second back gets cracked, we'll have a much better idea of where to go - and we won't have to worry about hitting playable count. We'll also have a better idea of what our actual deck is trying to do.
Right now, the cards we're positive we're playing are:
Mana Leak
Remand
Fact or Fiction
Bribery
Tamiyo
That's it. We're on pick 11. With those cards, I'm still looking towards ramping. Our white additions make us look significantly more aggressive.
Our blue/green and blue/red decks at this point are just completely guesswork. I like the blue/green deck much more than the blue/red one though, especially considering we've been seeing some decent green.
p1p11: Well, with our current deck, this pick actually gives us a lot of options. I think I'd honestly go with the Wooded Foothills at this point. We need to be able to cast our spells. Acidic Slime would be my second option, we still don't have that effect. I'm fine with dropping the white at this point, and I still don't understand the Pyromancer pick.
p1p12: Reclamation Sage not close, even after picking up an kAcidic Slime. Sweet, blue/green which is what I wanted to be originally. We got a direction. Lost out on a few picks, but I think we're really well positioned at this point to go into pack 2.
p1p13: Ajani seems fine here, I don't think it really matters since none of these cards are probably going to make our deck. Ajani is the best, and it's theoretically able for us to play him still, so it's the best pick.
p1p14: I'd actually take Sarcomancy, I don't want to play against that more than the Peeks.
"Well, I know I'm definitely blue..."
Yep. I think one of the things I've noticed about your drafting style in these drafts is that you tend to go a bunch of different ways without committing to something too early. You can get away with that in cube much more easily than in other formats, but you tend to not know when to stick with a gameplan rather than abandon it.
In draft #3 we had Ancestral Recall and Force of Will and you took a Sword. It doesn't make any sense with the rest of the cards you've been drafting. Similarly, in this draft, we had FoF + Bribery and then we take ... Elspeth?
Neither Sword or Elspeth is a reason to abandon what you're doing. I think you have too many options open for too few good reasons. I'm fine with taking an ultra powerful card that is off color but still works well with our overall strategies.
For instance, let's say we had Goblin Guide + Sulfuric Vortex for our first two cards. Would it be worth it to jump into white for Mother of Runes or Sword to Plowshares? Maybe. Would it be worth it to abanadon what we're doing get a Recurring Nightmare? No! I don't think you're doing anything ridiculous like that -- but you are closer on that end of the spectrum.
I'm fine with a speculative pick, but you seem to be doing that a lot from pick 3 to pick 11, which is where you really want to be figuring out what your gameplan is -- are we aggro? control? combo? etc. The guys to your left are going to pick up on a lot of the cards you passed -- sending that Talrand in particular might have lost you 1-2 great cards in pack 2. You could have sent those players into white, which would give you two additional picks (from the white cards you took) and affect literally every single card that gets passed to you.
Pack 2, Pick 1: Wow, all the combo cards here. Okay, well, we actually have a ton of red in our sideboard at this point -- but I don't think any of these red cards are really worth taking. In my draft, I'd definitely be blue/red/something at this point though, haha. Maybe RUG. Anyway: As lame as it is, I think Yavimaya Coast might be the pickup here. We can try to wheel it and take an Elves of Deep Shadow, Serendib Efreet, a Top, or a Garruk here, but I think I'd rather just take the safest option and start working on my mana. We already passed a Breeding Pool. Strip Mine is actually also somewhat decent, if we can get ways to combo with it, or if we get some ways to untap/ramp more so the drop doesn't hurt us. I think I might actually go with Strip Mine here. I have no idea what you're gonna take. For me, I'd probably take the Coast, Strip Mine, or Elves. I think with our current setup, we don't have any mana acceleration, so I'd probably actually go with the Elves of Deep Shadow. This first pick is horrible for us, honestly. Strip Mine, good pick, I like it.
p2p2: Why are we taking Sword over Archmage here? At this point, we have one creature at 3cmc or less. You also have multiple ways to kill swords. Archmage looks fantastic for us. Simic Signet is also probably better for us here, especially after taking a Strip Mine. Sweet, you came to the same conclusions I did. Haha.
p2p3: Mulldrifter vs. Life From the Loam vs. Dismember. LftL is looking really sexy with that Strip Mine there. It's still early in pack 2, we could get a lot of ways to combo with that LFTL. I think it's the risky pick, but maybe the one I'm looking at doing. We have a Fact or Fiction which works well with Strip Mine and LFTL too, so we're not even completely starting off on that. I think the safe pick is Dismember, since we don't have any creature removal (and we're likely not going to being blue/green), and we also don't have anything crazy awesome to do with Mulldrifter at this point. I'd probably take LFTL #1 (because I like synergy), Dismember #2, Mulldrifter #3. Ehh, you took my #3 which I expected actually, lol. LFTL might actually wheel though, so maybe I'd take Dismember over it and hope it wheels.
p2p4: Phantasmal Image, not close especially after taking that Mulldrifter. Combos well with Sage + Slime too. P. Image is so amazing, I almost never pass this mid-pack. Myr Battlesphere would be my distant #2.
p2p5: Well, this pack is garbage. Stunted Growth + prioritizing ramp (which we already kinda want to do) would be a fine option here. I could also see going with Tarmogoyf if you wanted to do a more dude-centered plan. We do have a Strip Mine and some cheap stuff. I could even see taking a Pernicious Deed and trying to make something work there. Sunpetal Grove? Really? IDK, I think the white ship has sailed and there's not too much stuff I would want to splash for in this deck.
p2p6: Elvish Mystic, not even remotely close.
p2p7: I think this is a clear Llanowar Elves too, but Enlightened Tutor and Gaea's Cradle are worth considering.
p2p8: Harmonize is okay, but I'm actually more interested in Lodestone Golem. It's an actual threat, and we have a Strip Mine already. We're blue, so it's actually more advantageous for us to start looking towards artifacts. We're also taking away ramp from people because we're that deck, so he's even better here. We can do better with card draw options in blue.
p2p9: Yavimaya Coast, easy pick, I think anything else at this point would be a mistake. Serendib Efreet is my #2. I don't think Primal Hunter here is even worth considering.
p2p10: Simic Signet wheeling is absurd.
p2p11: Flooded Strand? What are you playing white for at this point? Why are you going all in on this white plan? LFTL actually gives us a sweet way to win, especially if we pick up something like Crucible too. Oh man, if I see Crucible in the third pack, I am going to feel so dirty.
Rest of the pack: Wow, a lot of stuff wheeled. Sweet.
Pack 3, Pick 1: WOW. How is this pack real for us right now?
So, I think we're going with Sol Ring or Black Lotus and I don't think it's actually even that close, but wow, look at all those other cards for us. Here's my card order for our deck:
Best
Sol Ring
Black Lotus
gap
Mana Drain
gap
Treachery
Karn
gap
Elf
Worst
p3p2: Options: Treespeaker, Preordain, Trop Island, Garruk Relentless. I think we're good on mana production, so Treespeaker isn't what we really need, especially after picking up a real Sol Ring. I'd probably go with Preordain. It's cheap, it gets us into our good stuff, etc. Relentless is fine too though, and we do have a lot of ways to ramp into him. We already have a 4 mana Garruk, but this one is strong. I'm fine with either Preordain or Relentless here.
p3p3: Primeval Titan. We have a Strip Mine (UGH LFTL) and we need a way to win. We have a bunch of ways to ramp. I think this is better than Memory Lapse. Natural Order is also a possibility, but we don't have any giant green fatties. Misty Rainforest is also fine here, but we're just two colors, we have plenty of fixing, and Prime Time is a way to win.
p3p4: Grim Monolith vs. Avenger of Zendikar vs. Meloku vs. Crucible.
WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE THE LIFE FROM THE LOAM?
No really though, I think I'd probably go with Grim Monolith. It's so powerful and will help us do some really ridiculous plays. Turn 2 Garruks off of mana elf -> Grim Monolith could be a thing. Crucible might wheel too. Grim Monolith is just so powerful. If you look at the top end, especially something like Turn 3 Primeval Titan or Bribery or whatever, etc. I think it's the best card and I don't think it's particularly close.
p3p5: We're blue green, I'd just take Opposition. It's not the most insane in our deck, but blue green is it's home. We have a pretty good mana denial subtheme. Strip Mine, Reclamation Sage for killing artifacts, Acidic Slime for taking out whatever but very often killing mana stuff, etc. I think it's better than the other options. I think with Edric, you're not looking at your deck quite hard enough. You don't have a ton of early game where Edric coming down on three is going to provide you a giant boost for your attacks -- AND you're not doing the worst on card draw right now. We're really not that aggressive. I think Opposition is going to win you more games just from tapping down your enemies giant things, rather than Edric propelling you through the mid-game, but who knows.
p3p6: Polkrunos is fine here. Shoutout to Wake, but we have nothing to do with it.
p3p7: I like Wall of Roots a lot here. It gives us early-D and also ramps us. Much better than Search for Tomorrow. If you were still really keen on your white plan, Hallowed Fountain could be good here. You have Wayfarer, so you can go get that Strip Mine a little easier, but that's really idealistic. We don't even know if we're gonna wheel the Crucible yet.
p3p8: Wasteland not close. Perfect card.
p3p9: Daze might be better than another elf here. We have a lot of ramp already. I think because we have Edric, elf is probably a little better.
p3p10: Isochron Scepter is scary and you don't want to face it? OH IS THAT SO.
p3p11: Natural Order is definitely way better than Misty Rainforest here. We can go get Primeval Titan (which essentially gives us two copies, which also allow us to go get Strip + Waste), but it can also get Acidic Slime or even Reclamation Sage if we need that effect, and it can also go get Polukranos or Eldric if we need them.
p3p12: CRUCIBLE WHEELED. YES. I NOW LIKE THIS DECK. Why couldn't you have taken the LFTL?
I'll watch this draft soon and let you know my thoughts on it ! Those are my drafting thoughts!
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
I think Elspeth was easily the best card in that pack, strong enough to go into the second color potentially as I see it as a clear signal that maybe I should be taking white cards, even this early. I don't see any issue running a UW deck that has Recall/Bribery/Elspeth; in fact, those cards totally seem to work well together. Like, I don't see Elspeth as a card that needs to be aggressive or even in a deck with other creatures, as it can power out a dude to win on its own, use them to block until we can control the board, etc. if that's the direction we're going here. Like, Coalition Relic could've been the better pick, at least the safer, but Elspeth is a gross card that wins games on her own if I can give her baseline protection, the type of thing my control decks certainly want.
Also, you like Talrand, I think it's very bad. It also wheels all the time, so I don't think many other players see it as a signal, so I have no problem shipping it along as if it's a colorless card.
I'm not too high on LFTL in decks with only a couple options and w/o any GY strategy, which is where I was both times I saw it. I'd rather just get the 1-of use of my strip mines/fetches then potentially mill something I need more than a Strip Mine. In unpowered cubes it's a lot better, but it can be awkward when everyone is playing artifact mana or aggro and prob not caring too much about their lands beyond the first couple of turns.
Good point on Daze, I will remember that next time I'm making this style of deck! The island issue would've only been a problem in a couple of the games.
'p3p10: Isochron Scepter is scary and you don't want to face it? OH IS THAT SO. :p' IT IS. ...I mean, it's a good card when it works, I just don't want to be responsible for either side of it at this point.
I should've considered Dismember more. The Mulldrifter was good--as it always is--but Dismember would've been better.
"Yep. I think one of the things I've noticed about your drafting style in these drafts is that you tend to go a bunch of different ways without committing to something too early. " This is very much on purpose. Cube is the perfect place to do this, and signals are much tougher to figure out since you can get ridiculous cards in a color late and that color can be completely closed otherwise. If my main color is drying up or everything is not going as planned, I like have the best cards from packs as it's really easy to wright any ship once you figure out what you should be doing. I mean, I'm not jumping around in packs 2 or 3 really, as by that point you should have a better idea/you should know what you're doing, but I'm really OK taking the best card from a pack in pack 1 as long as there isn't too much of a contender in another color, which to me never seemed to be the case in that first pack. Like, that Coalition Relic is good, but taking Elspeth speaks to how high I rate that card regardless of the style of deck she goes in. With the Chandra, the amount I'm losing from not taking either of those colored cards seems less to me than the amount I would gain by having Chandra if red was the actual color that I'm OK taking an off-color card in that chance that that's the color I need to be in. The Garruk is the better card by p1p9, and that's a *clear* signal that I should be green--I'd rather take that and step towards firmly committing to green here then taking a two-colored card which means almost nothing in signaling and start sending someone strong into green with that Garruk, which I think is head and shoulders above everything else in that p1p9. Like you say, this is much easier to do in cube than other formats, and I'm ready to use that to my advantage.
Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoyed me playing with a 10/10 pro-everything as much as I enjoyed playing with it!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
I didn't read the comments above to avoid bias.
My opinions on video 1 (quick notes with very light editing):
D1P1P1 Ancestral Recall - Agree
D1P1P2 Bribery (FTK/Kozilek/Path) - Agree (but close with both Path & FTK)
D1P1P3 Vendilion Clique (Mind's Desire/Resto Angel) - Agree
D1P1P4 Glen Elendra Archmage (Lotus Cobra) - Agree
D1P1P5 Impulse (Solemn) - Agree
D1P1P6 Upheaval (Spinx's Rev) - Agree
D1P1P7 Shadowmage Infiltrator (Koth/GftT) - Disagree - I think U/R is the best archetype in this Cube and it's not very close. Koth is in the top 5 Red cards in the list, and you really don't have to be heavy Red to play it. At this point I take Koth and jump into U/R and don't change course for any reason.
D1P1P8 Swords to Plowshares (Bolt/Splinter Twin) - Matter of taste; Plow is a better card than Bolt, but U/R is a better deck than U/W or Esper (see above). Splinter Twin is actually very good also, so that would also be a defensible pick.
D1P1P9 Caves of Koilos (Shivan Reef/Bonfire/Stormbreath Dragon) - Agree given your previous two picks.
D1P1P10 Flametongue Kavu - Agree (what an enormous gift - you should now jump into Red and not look back, which you kind of did).
D1P1P11 Lightning Strike (Helix/Gargadon) - Agree
D1P1P12 Kami of Ancient Law - Agree
D1P1P13 Figure of Destiny (Reveillark) - Disagree - Figure is really only good in an aggro deck that's heavy Red or White. Your deck fits none of the criteria, and Reveillark is actually really good (you already have Archmage and more targets will almost certainly come around).
D1P1P14 Plateau - Agree
D1P1P15 Seething Song
D1P2P1 Mox Sapphire (Treachery/Karn) - Agree
D1P2P2 Riftwing Cloudskate (Steam Vents/Sarkhan/Chrome Mox/Hero of Bladehold) - Matter of taste - Passing Steam Vents could be ok with only one real Red card, but I would have personally taken it. Cloudskate is not a must-have for your deck.
D1P2P3 Izzet Signet (Strip Mine/Memory Lapse/Dimir Signet/Talrand) - Strongly agree
D1P2P4 Dack Fayden (Simic Signet/Timetwister) - Agree
D1P2P5 Tezzeret the Seeker (Tangle Wire/Brimstone Volley/Manic Vandal) - Agree - It's a speculative pick since you're basically only playing the card if you get Time Vault or at least 4 more artifacts, both of which are unlikely, but you're not giving up much.
D1P2P6 Counterspell (Lodestone Golem/Blightsteel/Bloodstained Mire) - Agree
D1P2P7 Burning of Xinye (Metalworker) - Agree
D1P2P8 Jace Beleren (Mana Leak/Tundra/Sulfur Falls/Chandra) - Disagree - A super strong pack for you and a very close pick, but I would have taken Mana Leak. Cheaper cards are better, generally. I think I'd also take Tundra over Jace if Mana Leak wasn't there.
D1P2P9 Porcelain Legionnaire (Underground River) - Disagree - You might open Mind Twist or Demonic Tutor, or be forced somehow to play Infiltrator, so I'd take the painland.
D1P2P10 Steam Vents (Chrome Mox/Frantic Search) - Agree (how lucky)
D1P2P11 Memory Lapse (Talrand) - Agree (how lucky again, although I suppose you were going to wheel something anyway - Talrand would be quite nice as well)
D1P2P12 Delver (Searing Spear) - Disagree - You're not a Delver deck (almost no Cube deck is), so I'd take the generic burn spell; it's marginal obviously.
D1P2P13 Manic Vandal - Agree
D1P2P14 Weathered Wayfarer - Agree
D1P2P15 Pattern of Rebirth
D1P3P1 Scalding Tarn (Inferno Titan/Academy) - Agree
D1P3P2 Flooded Strand (Opposition/Thada Adel) - Agree (not close)
D1P3P3 Elspeth (SoFI, Supreme Verdict, Preordain, Gruul Signet) - Very close, but I disagree. Elspeth is very good, but I don't think it's worth warping the mana base for. Preordain would be my pick. The Signet could actually be correct given that you have Upheaval and Wildfire.
D1P3P4 Mother of Runes (Battlesphere, Image, D-Sphere, Chain Lightning) - Disagree strongly. By far the worst pick in the draft. You have about 4 creatures you're definitely playing at this point, why worry about protecting them? Phantasmal Image is the clear pick here, with Battlesphere a relatively close second (but you have little ramp and a pretty good lategame already).
D1P3P5 Dungeon Geists (Worn Powerstone) - Agree (close)
D1P3P6 Snapcaster Mage (Kiora, Ravages of War) - Agree
D1P3P7 Isochron Scepter (Serendib Efreet) - I almost had a heart attack when you waited until the last second to take it over Serendib Efreet (the definition of "solid, but thoroughly unexciting"). You have five absolutely premium targets already (plus the Lightning Strike).
D1P3P8 Volcanic Island (Brainstorm/Day of Judgment) - Agree
D1P3P9 Inferno Titan (Looter il-Kor/Maze of Ith/cliftop Retreat) - Agree
D1P3P10 Thada Adel (Opposition) - Agree, very close (Opposition wasn't going to be great in your deck and Thada Adel is a pretty nice sideboard card)
D1P3P11 Preordain - Agree (lol, now I look like a fool for what I wrote above)
P1P3P12 Detention Sphere - Agree
P1P3P13 Unexpectedly Absent - Agree (another gift since you have Scepter, strange that you didn't even consider playing it).
P1P3P14 Spirit of the Labyrinth (Garruk W) - Disagree (but whatever)
P1P3P15 Spear of Heliod
Build
+ Isochron Scepter
+ Lightning Strike
+ Thada Adel (or Unexpectedly Absent)
- Mother of Runes
- Figure of Destiny
- Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Scepter is the best non-power 9 card in your deck! Not playing it is absolutely criminal.
It's not worth warping the mana for two subpar and one very good White card. I don't think there's ever been a Cube deck where it was correct to play both Upheaval and Figure of Destiny, and it certainly wasn't here.
Analysis of video 2 coming up.
A Comprehensive list of Cube Archetypes
D2P1P2 - Simic Signet (Koth/Timetwister/Polluted Delta) - Agree (very close)
D2P1P3 - Glen Elendra Archmage (Stryx/O-Ring) - Agree
D2P1P4 - Opposition (Goblin Guide/Survival) - Agree
D2P1P5 - Izzet Signet (Geist of St Traft/Sarkhan/Courser/Vindicate) - Agree (not close)
D2P1P6 - Zealous Conscripts (Awakening Zone/U.River) - Agree
D2P1P7 - Hero of Bladehold (Talrand/Terastodon/Repeal/Troll Ascetic/Guttersnipe/Sundering Titan) - Agree (I think - Talrand is probably close)
D2P1P8 - Young Pyromancer (Tangle Wire/Wall of Blossoms/Shardless Agent) - Agree (another close one, Tangle Wire is insane, but you might not end up be aggresive enough)
D2P1P9 - Electrolyze (Land Tax/Grand Architect/Firebolt) - Agree
D2P1P10 - Koth of the Hammer (Scroll) - Agree
D2P1P11 - Borderland Marauder (Hallowed Spiritkeeper) - Disagree - I'd still be flexible to play White at this point and the Spiritkeeper is sufficiently more powerful than the Marauder, especially with Opposition. Your pick is definitely defensible as well.
D2P1P12 - Goblin Guide - Agree
D2P1P13 - Figure of Destiny (Avalanche Riders) - Agree
D2P1P14 - Falkenrath Aristocrat (Awakening Zone) - Disagree, Zone is rather nice with Opposition, but it's probably a moot point.
D2P1P15 - Guttersnipe - Score! Now regretting the Hero over Talrand pick, but hindsight is 20/20 obviously.
D2P2P1 - Mox Emerald (FoF/Bolt) - Agree
D2P2P2 - Skullclamp (SoFI/Scepter) - Matter of taste - Sword is so good both in your deck and against it, and you might have trouble getting enough creatures to Clamp. Skullclamp is the more broken card, though. Very close, but I think I'd take SoFI most of the time.
D2P2P3 - Tinker (Kiki-Jiki/Steam Vents/Ancient Grudge) - Matter of taste. I would end up taking Kiki-Jiki. While both him and Tinker are speculative picks, you already have Zealous Conscripts, and the Pestermite/Exarch that you might pick up kind of work better with the rest of your deck. Strange you didn't consider him at all. The actual correct pick might be Steam Vents though - I'd be pretty worried about my mana situation at this point.
D2P2P4 - Faithless Looting (Cryptic Command/Jace, Architect of Thought/Force Spike) - Disagree - I'd take Force Spike since you're shaping up to be an aggro-control deck, not a combo deck.
D2P2P5 - Spellskite (Incinerate/Metalworker/Stormbreath Dragon) - Matter of taste - I'd take Incinerate as a spell for YP and Guttersnipe. Since you have Tinker your pick is defensible as well.
D2P2P6 - Fire//Ice (Sphinx of the Steel Wind/Shrine of Burning Rage) - Matter of taste (again) - Shrine is actually really good, but not at its best in your deck. I'd probably take Sphinx for Tinker at this point though.
D2P2P7 - Greater Gargadon (Wildfire) - Agree (close though)
D2P2P8 - Preordain - Agree
D2P2P9 - Lightning Bolt - Agree
D2P2P10 - Isochron Scepter (Firedrinker Satyr) - Agree
D2P2P11 - Steam Vents (Kiki-Jiki/Daze) - Agree - your fixing just isn't good enough at this point and you also just passed Shivan Reef.
D2P2P12 - Force Spike - Agree (and again I look stupid for wanting to take it the 1st time around).
D2P2P13 - Stormbreath Dragon (Incinerate) - Disagree strongly. You realize burn gets better the more of it you have, right? You also just picked up a Scepter.
D2P2P14 - Boros Reckoner - Agree
D2P2P15 - Desecration Demon
D2P3P1 - Prophetic Flamespeaker (BBE/Augur of Bolas/Daretti) - Agree, but close with BBE (very disappointing first pick though)
D2P3P2 - Umezawa's Jitte (Pestermite/Thundermaw/Burst Lightning) - Agree
D2P3P3 - Sower of Temptation (Scalding Tarn) - Disagree - You really need the mana fixing IMO.
D2P3P4 - Mana Vault (Time Vault/Smash to Smithereens/Dungeon Geists) - Agree
D2P3P5 - Dack Fayden (Char/SGC) - Agree
D2P3P6 - Riftwing Cloudskate - Agree (but at this point, *I* would have had a sweet Twin Combo deck, including Time Vault!)
D2P3P7 - Volcanic Island (Remand) - Agree, even though Remand is so good under a Scepter.
D2P3P8 - Arid Mesa (D-Sphere) - Agree
D2P3P9 - Augur of Bolas (Goblin Electromancer) - Agree
D2P3P10 - Thundermaw Hellkite (Burst Lightning) - Debatable, but ultimately I think I agree.
D2P3P11 - Goblin Vandals - Agree
D2P3P12 - Manic Vandal (Rift Bolt) - Agree
D2P3P13 - Char - Agree (nice)
D2P3P14 - Ghitu Encampment (Jackal Pup) - Actually close I think, I'd take the Pup to be able to side into a more aggro configuration if the matchup warrants it.
D2P3P15 - Birthing Pod
This was a draft with lots of close decisions. I think you kind of failed to follow up on a couple of speculative picks you made, but at least you were in the right colors.
Deck building is difficult too, but I would find a way to get Opposition in there. It's a really broken card and you have just enough creatures to take advantage, I think.
Again, congrats on these videos, they're pretty high quality.
A Comprehensive list of Cube Archetypes
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
XMage Draft 1
XMage Draft 2
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
Follow me. I tweet.
It's really incredible, isn't it? I resisted downloading it for the longest time, but since I have it's been mostly positive experiences. fwiw I used the 1st of the xmage servers as I think it has the most people no matter the hour. Sometimes you may only get 1 round, but I find you typically get at least 2. Also the single elims are nice because people don't usually drop as the rounds go shorter with less people. I play as Salmoilla on there, hopefully Ill see you in a draft!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
XMage Draft 4
XMage Draft 5
One was done a couple months ago, and the 2nd I did today! Hoorah!
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Holiday Cube Draft 2015 #1
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
XMage Draft 6
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
And what does WotC think about all this?
Zetsu's Cube on CubeTutor.com
Zetsu's Ebay MTG Online Store
Zetsu's Poker Draft Method
It's free, and there are tutorials to help set it up (which is pretty easy fwiw). It's like MODO in that you join a queue or a room, and when that queue is full, it launches.
I'm not sure what WOTC thinks, frankly not too interested in asking them as I enjoy XMage quite a bit
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Zetsu's Cube on CubeTutor.com
Zetsu's Ebay MTG Online Store
Zetsu's Poker Draft Method
Unfortunately they haven't implemented a use-your-own-cube function, but there are like ~10 to choose from. Not ideal, but cube is cube.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic