Wurmcoil and Gideon Jura are not good if you want to support aggro in an un-powered environment
I see statements like this quite often and they really confuse me because from what experience I have with powered and unpowered cubes, I think you should have as much if not more powerful anti-aggro cards for control decks in unpowered as in powered, definitely not less than in powered.
I think aggro is generally a bit better in unpowered. In powered cubes, aggro decks don't necessarily benefit that much from the most degenerate fast mana because aggro decks tend to have tight requirements for colored mana. Sure the aggro decks in powered can be a bit faster than in unpowered, but this is balanced by the fact that the control and midrange decks have more "unfair" tools available. In unpowered, aggro is still really, really fast, but control most likely just can't Tinker into Myr Battlesphere on turn 2. I think the biggest argument for running Signets in unpowered is that it allows for control decks to Wrath on turn 3.
Bottom line: nine times out of ten my aggro decks in powered are about as fast as my aggro decks in unpowered, so I don't see a reason to specifically protect aggro in unpowered.
Yeah, if you're properly supporting aggro, you shouldn't need to cut cards that are good against aggro except for dedicated anti-aggro cards. (See: Perimeter Captain. Seriously--that card is *insane* against aggro.) Powered cubes really mitigate the speed aspect of aggro decks with artifact mana. Not that they don't or can't exist--again, proper support means proper prosperity--but like you say playing your big answers or road blocks ahead of the curve happens a decent amount in a powered cube that, if I was solely drafting to win, an aggro deck wouldn't be my first choice for a powered cube.
*facepalm* ugh yeah i meant mystic confluence not mystical tutor lol.
but still stapling a 3/3 body to any of the spells in my cube wouldn't make the game an automatic scoop. anything in blue like mystic confluence i would probably just run along side savant and exile something off colour with him that i normally wouldnt be able to cast. find it suprising that he would need to be cut from unpowered cubes for being too strong.
360 Multiplayer. I've banned Recurring Nightmare, Tinker and Sylvan Primordial. Sol Ring, Mana Vault, the Swords and Wurmcoil Engine all remain in, and are fine enough (albeit high picks).
I have left a few cards out on purpose too, Balance being one of them. In Multiplayer, there is more setup room for the big payoff. I've actually been asked by someone in my playgroup to please not bring it in... you don't hear that about too many cards.
Same goes for Limited Resources for me, though that should be fine in 1vs1 play.
If I had JTMS, I'd be running him. He's fine too.
I'm also going to cut arcane savant soon. It has basically always read "3UU: Win the game" in my experience. I don't think I've ever seen someone cast it and lose.
Thats interesting that Arcane Savant has been so strong for you! I havent gotten to test it yet but just put it in. I dont understand how it can be so strong as its only as good as the card exiled with it and i dont have many instants or sorceries that really end the game on the spot. best target is probably mystical tutor which will just be in the deck instead of exiled with savant.
What has been exiled with it that is so game breaking?
I don't run mind twist or library of Alexandria or fast mana rocks better than grim monolith or true name nemesis. I recently re-added plow under and cut mana drain as well. It's totally a preference thing. I know ppl that don't run Jitte in their unpowered lists but we like it just fine.
One card I cut from my unpowered cube that other people run is Treachery. In addition to using the broken untap lands mechanic, it also helps control decks crush midrange decks with an easy 2-for-1.
Our take on some of the cards mentioned (for unpowered cube):
Fast mana in general is basically power as far as we are concerned. Mana Vault, Crypt, Ring, etc. Monolith was OK, because it comes down later and gives you an actual possibility of answering it. We are presently running everything, but were running an environment without fast mana better than Monolith for a couple of years. Library gets even better in that environment and would suggest avoiding it.
Wurmcoil Engine: Easy to answer, but carries a lot of near-guaranteed value. If your group isn't OK with that, Thragtusk falls foul too. If you are running Tinker, there are bigger and more degenerate targets.
Jace the Mind Sculptor: Fairer when it's not being powered out. Top-shelf card, but something is always going to be, right?
Swords: Not a problem in our estimation. Not only do they require five mana in two installments, and a creature to equip to, AND hitting a player to get the effect - plus with instant speed removal you can get blown out in combat, so there is an element of risk. We are generally packing good levels of artifact removal, but an unpowered cube could do that too. Protections can be an issue for some colours, but answering the artifact itself, sweeping, discarding etc. kept them comfortably in check regardless of whether our cube was powered/unpowered or in-between. They aren't at all problem cards IMO. Unlike...
Umezawa's Jitte: Four mana to equip and swing is a lot different than five, and it also only needs to connect to a creature OR player. Jitte is unreasonably impactful in most games it comes down, and gives a smaller window in which to answer it, compared to the Swords. Would avoid.
Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond: Both fine, I would play Chrome Mox is not running 'broken' fast mana, and Diamond is fine and fair either way.
True-Name Nemesis: There are answers to this guy, but we cut him for being so very boring, and not feeling blue in the slightest. Flavour and feel are important to us, so he got the boot. I would suggest he's probably too strong for a lot of folks on an objective level, too.
Bribery: Objectively, probably fine. Keeps some broken decks honest. But the card brought feel-bad and logistical issues, since you get to spend a bunch of time memorizing the opponent's deck. Overall, felt too much like an Un-card without the entertainment value of an Un-card. Unpopular opinion, but whatever.
Treachery: Kind of strong, but not significantly better than other theft options since you don't have the means to abuse the untap other than possibly just playing another spell in the same turn, which seems like a pretty fair cube play. Also a nice answer to the big fatties.
Arcane Savant: I can understand the issues, but I would rather put the Upheaval in my deck and attach something off-colour to the Savant, which is usually what happens. He's been strong but fair here. Depends what you are running as targets, though. You could always run a gentlemen's/ladies' agreement about not attaching bounce/Upheavals to him for repeated recursion, I guess.
Moat: B/R does really struggle with it besides discard, but we're fine with that. YMMV.
Nether Void/Armageddon/Ravages of War: If control can have game-enders, why not aggro? These require set-up and curving out, and seem like fair pay-off. Not a problem IMO.
Balance: I can see this being cut for fun/power reasons. Personally, I love it.
Recurring Nightmare: More of a puzzle piece than inherently totally degenerate. I think it's fine in unpowered. Again, top-tier, but there will always be top tier cards.
Mind Twist: I consider this degenerate with fast mana, but actually it was fine in unpowered/semi-powered. A big Hymn to Tourach is fine and dandy on T3-4; on T1, not so much.
Karn Liberated: Not even close to oppressive, was cut here for not doing enough.
Eldrazi in general: They kind of balance themselves by the obscene costs, so an aggro deck can chew your face off before you get close to 12 mana. In the cheaty deck, they are good dedicate targets. Probably fair and worth it to run one or two. I used to be very much against Eldrazi as they are so niche; you can't Tinker, Natural Order, Reanimate (the old ones) them, but there are enough ways to use them to warrant running one or two, and it's nice for those decks to have an exclusive pick available. Emrakul, the Promised End is my favourite one by some distance.
Mind Twist: I consider this degenerate with fast mana, but actually it was fine in unpowered/semi-powered. A big Hymn to Tourach is fine and dandy on T3-4; on T1, not so much.
This is interesting - I've largely stayed away from Mind Twist in my unpowered cube at the suggestion of others, but have never tried it. I may test it to see how it feels.
These are the only ones I'd consider too good that aren't power
Sol Ring (It's better than all the power, so yeah) / Mana Crypt / Mana Vault / Grim Monolith. And I think the last three are OK if your group likes them.
Edit - Oh right, Library isn't power either. That also needs to be out.
Edit 2 - On mind twist - Agree this is fine without super fast mana. If you do run vault/crypt/monolith, it may feel oppressive, but otherwise it's fine.
The designation of 'power' is arbitrary, if that's just taken to mean the original power 9. There are a bunch of cards more powerful than Timetwister, for example, and Sol Ring, Mana Crypt and LoA are probably more disruptive than the 'powered' Moxen. Probably Mana Vault too. But as with all things cube it comes down to preference.
Super high variance cards
Library and Sol Ring (most fast mana) will give you a huge unfair advantage early in the game but get much weaker if drawn late (Library is a useless top deck for example). But the games you open with LOA and Sol Ring, you usually will win. How often will you open with them though? So it boils down to what kind of variance is acceptable to you and your group.
Other things are just super situational. Bribery in my original dragon cube was the most broken card in the list to the point where there was an all out revolt to get it removed. In modern power cubes, guys are cutting it and wondering what the fuss was about.
Meta specific
Probably the largest category. Jitte/Recurring Nightmare are exceedingly good in a creature dominated meta. The slower the meta the more broken these cards are. YMMV quite a bit here. With Nightmare in particular, I have found it got oppressive in my midrange list as more and more creatures had ETB tacked onto them. Nightmare decks built themselves. In my retro list, Nightmare is much weaker since you have to go out of your way to get tons of value.
Swords are slow and are not broken in fast metas or slower ones with a lot of artifact removal. I think these are a poor fit in non-powered cubes personally because disenchant effects are bad if you have no targets (and you won't always have one without things like mox floating around in every deck). If you have to run a sword, make it one or two of them and not the entire set. My 2 cents.
Big fat undercoated stuff is a category all by itself. Wurmcoil is particularly offensive because it costs 6 for what amounts to way more than 6 mana of value. And it's colorless, so any deck that will get to 6 mana can and should run it. It's never wrong to play this card (unless you know they have Bribery I guess). If you want autoslam picks like that, there are few better though.
Basically, if you have a really high powered cube, it's a combo cube. In those types of cubes, midrange is not really a thing. Either you are making a really fast deck to go under all the broken stuff, you are playing some kind of control strategy that prevents your opponent for doing anything while you win, or you are making a combo of some kind to break the game and win that way. Efficient "fair" decks just lose in a combo cube.
The other kind of cube is a midrange one. This has a much lower power level. Combo is not supported for the most part, and in this type of cube efficient midrange takes the place of combo.
Most cubes on Riptide are midrange cubes. Most cubes on MTGS are combo cubes. Many cards that are broken in a midrange cube are totally fine in combo cubes. Wurmcoil is an example. Anyone building a generic midrange deck that curves into Wurmcoil will have a crap matchup against control decks and combo decks. It's just not a good deck to build unless you know everyone else at the table is playing aggro. Same can be said about things like the titans, even cards like Wolfir Silverheart and similar. Wolfir is 12 power for 5 mana. And in combo cube, it's not even getting played anymore for the most part, yet in many midrange cubes people are can't run it because it does too much there.
So end of the day, you really have to know what kind of cube you are running and what your players gravitate towards. There is no longer one-size-fits-all with cube design. There are a lot of really interesting things you can do now that the (non-junk) card pool has expanded so much.
I like the post and you bring up a lot of interesting points/ideas, but FWIW there are a lot of unpowered cubes/posters here, and not sure if most cubes around here are 'combo cubes' in the way you describe them. I like the wide variety of ideas and cubes that are represented here, and never really feel like we are pigeonholed to only talking about one cookie cutter.
That being said, I absolutely agree with there no longer being one-size-fits-all with cube design. Cube is amazing because it's the only format that is undoubtedly always improving as long as you're always working towards improvement and keeping the choices changing & evolving.
Things might be evolving now. I haven't posted in awhile. But for a very long time there were two rare cubes - powered and unpowered. Both of which ran essentially the most powerful cards at all combinations. I still see most evaluations done on the basis of why a new card is more powerful and what it replaces. Any cube that is running the most powerful cards at all slots is combo by definition (even if there are cards excluded on the basis of power).
Midrange cube design is more focused on the collective versus cards in a vacuum (or within a single archetype). The intent being to support specific things. It's much more akin to how Wizard's approaches set design. If they want to push multi-colored, they focus on guild/shard/wedge mechanics and (usually) have above average fixing to facilitate that. In a set focused less on this, running the very best fixing may not be ideal.
Take for example something like Volt Charge. In a traditional powered/unpowered cube, this is not in consideration due to the myriad of more powerful options for 2R burn. But in a cube focused on counter synergy, this card is very desirable (despite being weaker at being straight burn).
While this type of design may be happening on MTGS now, I think it's still in the minority. Hence why I said most.
Things might be evolving now. I haven't posted in awhile. But for a very long time there were two rare cubes - powered and unpowered. Both of which ran essentially the most powerful cards at all combinations. I still see most evaluations done on the basis of why a new card is more powerful and what it replaces. Any cube that is running the most powerful cards at all slots is combo by definition (even if there are cards excluded on the basis of power).
Midrange cube design is more focused on the collective versus cards in a vacuum (or within a single archetype). The intent being to support specific things. It's much more akin to how Wizard's approaches set design. If they want to push multi-colored, they focus on guild/shard/wedge mechanics and (usually) have above average fixing to facilitate that. In a set focused less on this, running the very best fixing may not be ideal.
Take for example something like Volt Charge. In a traditional powered/unpowered cube, this is not in consideration due to the myriad of more powerful options for 2R burn. But in a cube focused on counter synergy, this card is very desirable (despite being weaker at being straight burn).
While this type of design may be happening on MTGS now, I think it's still in the minority. Hence why I said most.
Ah, I see, I misunderstood what you meant by combo. But I wouldn't necessarily say that's an evolution, just a different way of looking at things.
With more and more cards being printed, it seems like the logical path for cube design to go though. 10 years ago, how many cubes could you realistically even make? Today, the options are magnitudes larger in my mind.
I'm not suggesting one is better than the other. Just that we have a different avenue now we didn't have originally when cube was conceived.
With more and more cards being printed, it seems like the logical path for cube design to go though. 10 years ago, how many cubes could you realistically even make? Today, the options are magnitudes larger in my mind.
I'm not suggesting one is better than the other. Just that we have a different avenue now we didn't have originally when cube was conceived.
For sure, there is a lot you can do in cubing, and at the end of the day any cubing is good cubing. Powered, unpowered, lower powered, tribal, multicolored, pauper/peasant...at the end of the day, if you're drafting a set of cards that works together, you're probably going to have a good time.
I don't think much of that mtgcube article. The writer - no disrespect to them - went in with a lot of preconceived assumptions/notions, many of which are demonstrably untrue for anyone running any kind of cube. Seems like they subscribe to that old preconception of what they probably call 'powermax cubes', except that they are calling it something different 'combo cube', apparently. Midrange not being viable in cube is eyebrow-raising at the very least.
I don't think the writer of that blog follows the cubing community at all, which is what makes his input interesting. Some of it overlaps well while other things he writes seem to come from left field. But he clearly plays a lot of cube and I've gotten a lot of good ideas from his list and posts, many of which aren't being discussed here or at Riptide for that matter. I think outside thinking like this is hugely valuable.
Regarding midrange vs combo... my guess is it's a semantics/terminology thing. How are you and others here defining midrange? I think the writer is applying that descriptor towards "fair" creature based strategies (think limited). Which have a really bad matchup in your typical high power cube meta (fair just does't win games, let's be honest here).
Think of how high the stats on a 4-5 drop creature needs to be to really even be worth it in your average cube list (hell, Wolfir is 12 power for 5 mana - 4 of which you get the turn you cast it - and that's not enough anymore). Ask yourself why that is. Any strategy that just lays out beefy threats and expects to win on T7 with that gameplay is losing to 90% of the decks they will face. It's just not a viable strategy. Any deck relying on 4-5 drop creatures to win is looking to add something else to the deck. Denial strategies (discard, land destruction, etc) or it's focused on some form of combo (breaking the game mechanics somehow - like getting those 4-5 drops on T1 or making them do 20 points of damage for very little mana, etc). In common/uncommon cubes, midrange strategies can be more straight forward and just based on building a lead on the board and holding it - more traditional "midrange" if you will. The same is also true for a lower powered rare list, though mileage varies here since rare cards are broken by design. My own midrange cube list has been all over the place and decks that are viable now were not viable in the past and vice versa.
Basically, the easier it is to break the rules of the game with decks you can construct from the cube, the less viable fair midrange strategies get. And because of this, card evaluation can change significantly with respect a lot of different cards. That IMO is all the author is trying to express. And a great deal is going to be dependent on how the cube is drafted, the skill level and tendencies of the drafters too, so it's certainly going to vary from group to group. The basic principle is sound though.
I see statements like this quite often and they really confuse me because from what experience I have with powered and unpowered cubes, I think you should have as much if not more powerful anti-aggro cards for control decks in unpowered as in powered, definitely not less than in powered.
I think aggro is generally a bit better in unpowered. In powered cubes, aggro decks don't necessarily benefit that much from the most degenerate fast mana because aggro decks tend to have tight requirements for colored mana. Sure the aggro decks in powered can be a bit faster than in unpowered, but this is balanced by the fact that the control and midrange decks have more "unfair" tools available. In unpowered, aggro is still really, really fast, but control most likely just can't Tinker into Myr Battlesphere on turn 2. I think the biggest argument for running Signets in unpowered is that it allows for control decks to Wrath on turn 3.
Bottom line: nine times out of ten my aggro decks in powered are about as fast as my aggro decks in unpowered, so I don't see a reason to specifically protect aggro in unpowered.
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but still stapling a 3/3 body to any of the spells in my cube wouldn't make the game an automatic scoop. anything in blue like mystic confluence i would probably just run along side savant and exile something off colour with him that i normally wouldnt be able to cast. find it suprising that he would need to be cut from unpowered cubes for being too strong.
Sol Ring, Mana Vault, the Swords and Wurmcoil Engine all remain in, and are fine enough (albeit high picks).
I have left a few cards out on purpose too, Balance being one of them. In Multiplayer, there is more setup room for the big payoff. I've actually been asked by someone in my playgroup to please not bring it in... you don't hear that about too many cards.
Same goes for Limited Resources for me, though that should be fine in 1vs1 play.
If I had JTMS, I'd be running him. He's fine too.
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
I've a few weird card choices in my cube so your mileage may vary but so far it cast the following
rite of replication (targeting itself for infinite 3/3s)
cruel ultimatum
army of the damned
decree of annihilation + a planeswalker
living end (in a birthing pod, etb value creature deck)
The Ur-Dragon (WUBRG) - Changeling Combo Tribal
Chromium (WUB) - Artifact Beats
Progenitus (WUBRG) - Dredge
Damia, Sage of Stone (GBU) - Elf-storm Tendrils
My Cube Unpowered
My Peasant-ish/Tribal-ish Cube
Fast mana in general is basically power as far as we are concerned. Mana Vault, Crypt, Ring, etc. Monolith was OK, because it comes down later and gives you an actual possibility of answering it. We are presently running everything, but were running an environment without fast mana better than Monolith for a couple of years. Library gets even better in that environment and would suggest avoiding it.
Wurmcoil Engine: Easy to answer, but carries a lot of near-guaranteed value. If your group isn't OK with that, Thragtusk falls foul too. If you are running Tinker, there are bigger and more degenerate targets.
Jace the Mind Sculptor: Fairer when it's not being powered out. Top-shelf card, but something is always going to be, right?
Swords: Not a problem in our estimation. Not only do they require five mana in two installments, and a creature to equip to, AND hitting a player to get the effect - plus with instant speed removal you can get blown out in combat, so there is an element of risk. We are generally packing good levels of artifact removal, but an unpowered cube could do that too. Protections can be an issue for some colours, but answering the artifact itself, sweeping, discarding etc. kept them comfortably in check regardless of whether our cube was powered/unpowered or in-between. They aren't at all problem cards IMO. Unlike...
Umezawa's Jitte: Four mana to equip and swing is a lot different than five, and it also only needs to connect to a creature OR player. Jitte is unreasonably impactful in most games it comes down, and gives a smaller window in which to answer it, compared to the Swords. Would avoid.
Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond: Both fine, I would play Chrome Mox is not running 'broken' fast mana, and Diamond is fine and fair either way.
True-Name Nemesis: There are answers to this guy, but we cut him for being so very boring, and not feeling blue in the slightest. Flavour and feel are important to us, so he got the boot. I would suggest he's probably too strong for a lot of folks on an objective level, too.
Bribery: Objectively, probably fine. Keeps some broken decks honest. But the card brought feel-bad and logistical issues, since you get to spend a bunch of time memorizing the opponent's deck. Overall, felt too much like an Un-card without the entertainment value of an Un-card. Unpopular opinion, but whatever.
Treachery: Kind of strong, but not significantly better than other theft options since you don't have the means to abuse the untap other than possibly just playing another spell in the same turn, which seems like a pretty fair cube play. Also a nice answer to the big fatties.
Arcane Savant: I can understand the issues, but I would rather put the Upheaval in my deck and attach something off-colour to the Savant, which is usually what happens. He's been strong but fair here. Depends what you are running as targets, though. You could always run a gentlemen's/ladies' agreement about not attaching bounce/Upheavals to him for repeated recursion, I guess.
Moat: B/R does really struggle with it besides discard, but we're fine with that. YMMV.
Nether Void/Armageddon/Ravages of War: If control can have game-enders, why not aggro? These require set-up and curving out, and seem like fair pay-off. Not a problem IMO.
Balance: I can see this being cut for fun/power reasons. Personally, I love it.
Recurring Nightmare: More of a puzzle piece than inherently totally degenerate. I think it's fine in unpowered. Again, top-tier, but there will always be top tier cards.
Mind Twist: I consider this degenerate with fast mana, but actually it was fine in unpowered/semi-powered. A big Hymn to Tourach is fine and dandy on T3-4; on T1, not so much.
Karn Liberated: Not even close to oppressive, was cut here for not doing enough.
Eldrazi in general: They kind of balance themselves by the obscene costs, so an aggro deck can chew your face off before you get close to 12 mana. In the cheaty deck, they are good dedicate targets. Probably fair and worth it to run one or two. I used to be very much against Eldrazi as they are so niche; you can't Tinker, Natural Order, Reanimate (the old ones) them, but there are enough ways to use them to warrant running one or two, and it's nice for those decks to have an exclusive pick available. Emrakul, the Promised End is my favourite one by some distance.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
This is interesting - I've largely stayed away from Mind Twist in my unpowered cube at the suggestion of others, but have never tried it. I may test it to see how it feels.
Sol Ring (It's better than all the power, so yeah) / Mana Crypt / Mana Vault / Grim Monolith. And I think the last three are OK if your group likes them.
Edit - Oh right, Library isn't power either. That also needs to be out.
Edit 2 - On mind twist - Agree this is fine without super fast mana. If you do run vault/crypt/monolith, it may feel oppressive, but otherwise it's fine.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Super high variance cards
Library and Sol Ring (most fast mana) will give you a huge unfair advantage early in the game but get much weaker if drawn late (Library is a useless top deck for example). But the games you open with LOA and Sol Ring, you usually will win. How often will you open with them though? So it boils down to what kind of variance is acceptable to you and your group.
Other things are just super situational. Bribery in my original dragon cube was the most broken card in the list to the point where there was an all out revolt to get it removed. In modern power cubes, guys are cutting it and wondering what the fuss was about.
Meta specific
Probably the largest category. Jitte/Recurring Nightmare are exceedingly good in a creature dominated meta. The slower the meta the more broken these cards are. YMMV quite a bit here. With Nightmare in particular, I have found it got oppressive in my midrange list as more and more creatures had ETB tacked onto them. Nightmare decks built themselves. In my retro list, Nightmare is much weaker since you have to go out of your way to get tons of value.
Swords are slow and are not broken in fast metas or slower ones with a lot of artifact removal. I think these are a poor fit in non-powered cubes personally because disenchant effects are bad if you have no targets (and you won't always have one without things like mox floating around in every deck). If you have to run a sword, make it one or two of them and not the entire set. My 2 cents.
Big fat undercoated stuff is a category all by itself. Wurmcoil is particularly offensive because it costs 6 for what amounts to way more than 6 mana of value. And it's colorless, so any deck that will get to 6 mana can and should run it. It's never wrong to play this card (unless you know they have Bribery I guess). If you want autoslam picks like that, there are few better though.
Midrange vs combo cubes
Explained better in this blog than I will in this post.
http://mtgcube.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-two-kinds-of-cube.html
Basically, if you have a really high powered cube, it's a combo cube. In those types of cubes, midrange is not really a thing. Either you are making a really fast deck to go under all the broken stuff, you are playing some kind of control strategy that prevents your opponent for doing anything while you win, or you are making a combo of some kind to break the game and win that way. Efficient "fair" decks just lose in a combo cube.
The other kind of cube is a midrange one. This has a much lower power level. Combo is not supported for the most part, and in this type of cube efficient midrange takes the place of combo.
Most cubes on Riptide are midrange cubes. Most cubes on MTGS are combo cubes. Many cards that are broken in a midrange cube are totally fine in combo cubes. Wurmcoil is an example. Anyone building a generic midrange deck that curves into Wurmcoil will have a crap matchup against control decks and combo decks. It's just not a good deck to build unless you know everyone else at the table is playing aggro. Same can be said about things like the titans, even cards like Wolfir Silverheart and similar. Wolfir is 12 power for 5 mana. And in combo cube, it's not even getting played anymore for the most part, yet in many midrange cubes people are can't run it because it does too much there.
So end of the day, you really have to know what kind of cube you are running and what your players gravitate towards. There is no longer one-size-fits-all with cube design. There are a lot of really interesting things you can do now that the (non-junk) card pool has expanded so much.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
That being said, I absolutely agree with there no longer being one-size-fits-all with cube design. Cube is amazing because it's the only format that is undoubtedly always improving as long as you're always working towards improvement and keeping the choices changing & evolving.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Midrange cube design is more focused on the collective versus cards in a vacuum (or within a single archetype). The intent being to support specific things. It's much more akin to how Wizard's approaches set design. If they want to push multi-colored, they focus on guild/shard/wedge mechanics and (usually) have above average fixing to facilitate that. In a set focused less on this, running the very best fixing may not be ideal.
Take for example something like Volt Charge. In a traditional powered/unpowered cube, this is not in consideration due to the myriad of more powerful options for 2R burn. But in a cube focused on counter synergy, this card is very desirable (despite being weaker at being straight burn).
While this type of design may be happening on MTGS now, I think it's still in the minority. Hence why I said most.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
Ah, I see, I misunderstood what you meant by combo. But I wouldn't necessarily say that's an evolution, just a different way of looking at things.
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With more and more cards being printed, it seems like the logical path for cube design to go though. 10 years ago, how many cubes could you realistically even make? Today, the options are magnitudes larger in my mind.
I'm not suggesting one is better than the other. Just that we have a different avenue now we didn't have originally when cube was conceived.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
For sure, there is a lot you can do in cubing, and at the end of the day any cubing is good cubing. Powered, unpowered, lower powered, tribal, multicolored, pauper/peasant...at the end of the day, if you're drafting a set of cards that works together, you're probably going to have a good time.
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On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Regarding midrange vs combo... my guess is it's a semantics/terminology thing. How are you and others here defining midrange? I think the writer is applying that descriptor towards "fair" creature based strategies (think limited). Which have a really bad matchup in your typical high power cube meta (fair just does't win games, let's be honest here).
Think of how high the stats on a 4-5 drop creature needs to be to really even be worth it in your average cube list (hell, Wolfir is 12 power for 5 mana - 4 of which you get the turn you cast it - and that's not enough anymore). Ask yourself why that is. Any strategy that just lays out beefy threats and expects to win on T7 with that gameplay is losing to 90% of the decks they will face. It's just not a viable strategy. Any deck relying on 4-5 drop creatures to win is looking to add something else to the deck. Denial strategies (discard, land destruction, etc) or it's focused on some form of combo (breaking the game mechanics somehow - like getting those 4-5 drops on T1 or making them do 20 points of damage for very little mana, etc). In common/uncommon cubes, midrange strategies can be more straight forward and just based on building a lead on the board and holding it - more traditional "midrange" if you will. The same is also true for a lower powered rare list, though mileage varies here since rare cards are broken by design. My own midrange cube list has been all over the place and decks that are viable now were not viable in the past and vice versa.
Basically, the easier it is to break the rules of the game with decks you can construct from the cube, the less viable fair midrange strategies get. And because of this, card evaluation can change significantly with respect a lot of different cards. That IMO is all the author is trying to express. And a great deal is going to be dependent on how the cube is drafted, the skill level and tendencies of the drafters too, so it's certainly going to vary from group to group. The basic principle is sound though.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/