I love your cube, and I'm using this list, as well as a few others on here, to craft my own EDH cube. Is there a resource or discussion thread about EDH cubes? There's a ton of places to talk about powered, unpowered, and pauper/peasant but nothing about EDH.
Last night I met up with some friends for a 3 player sealed game. I first organized all of the generals into their respective guilds, shards, or wedges and then pulled one at random to form a stack of 20. I dealt 6 to each player, returning the remaining 42 commanders to the box, unseen. I next dealt 100 main-cube cards to each player and we proceeded to build 60 cards decks + 1 general. The final decks were maelstrom wanderer, alesha, who smiles at death, with myself piloting rafiq of the many.
Game 1 had the alesha player rocketing out the gate with their general and a tag team of ashling the pilgrim, imperial recruiter, and fiend hunter, suppressing board while equipped with a combination of lightning greaves and whispersilk cloak. Eventually the wanderer player and myself were able to stabilize the board and chip away at the artifacts with cards like return to dust. The next phase of the match though revolved around the undisputed MVP card of the evening, scourge of the throne. The alesha player used this card to incredible effect, leveraging a consistent number of extra attack steps by manipulating their own life totals with fire covenant, ancient tomb, and other pay life effects.
The MW player and I were forced to gang up on alesha, although I felt a bit like collateral damage in the war between alesha and the wanderer. The final round saw me eliminated and the MW player seemingly on death's door. Surprisingly, the wanderer player managed to land a sarkhan vol on the table and, by using his threaten ability, stole an incredibly fat, 10+ power scourge, completely turning the game around and killing the alesha player in two steps.
Game 2 started out somewhat similarly with a rapid assault alesha, ashling, recruiter and fiend hunter, this time backed up with whip of erebos. The surprising presence of Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon almost put me on the ropes immediately, racking up 8 poison counters in a game where we agreed 10 would be the threshold for elimination. Fortunately, I was able to take the infector completely out of circulation with a curse of the swine. Scourge of the throne once again made its entrance and contributed to an impressive number of extra attacks, this time in tandem with thundermaw hellkite. It was really a shame the alesha player wasn't playing kaalia, given the number of red fatties they dropped mid to late game.
By mid game, the maelstrom wanderer player has established themselves as the match's biggest threat, cultivating an impressive, eldrazi-crapping board state with kruphix + frontier siege. Their next attempt at closing the game warrants mentioning as the biggest whiff I have ever seen using genesis wave. Cast using over 11, the card managed to produce only a series of lands, mana rocks, enchants, and then finally bane of progress, eating at least 5 of the other 10 cards + the seige and other assorted enchantments.
My recollection of the game's end is a bit fuzzy, but IIRC, the game progressed in a pretty standard fashion, with haymakers being traded left and right, before the wanderer player managed to close out the final.
All in all it was a pretty successful session, and I was very pleased to see an alesha reanimation engine emerging out of even a sealed pool. One of the players at the game mentioned they felt removal seemed light in the cube, but I think this was more a luck-of-the-sealed-pools phenomenon.
I think I'm nearing the end of my DTK-era changes. Here's what I've been working on for the past month or so:
The first major change was cutting back on my tutor suite and weak-link WUBRG cards to make room for all 10 of the theros temples. My group has voiced concerns over the years that access to color fixing land is a bit light in the cube.
Generals:
- maelstrom wanderer - this card has been deemed too strong and uninteresting by my group. With it's relentless and inevitable card advantage, it's practically always picked as someone's commander when they get it.
+ yasova dragonclaw - I like this card a lot in regular cube, and it will remain to be seen how she plays out in the edh cube. Surrak Dragonclaw is another, uninteresting option if yasova lands up being a dud (hopefully not though!).
Blue
- spell crumple - other members of my playgroup want to conform to the tuck rule changes, so hinder and spellcrumple are getting cut in favor of different counters.
- hinder
+ counterspell
+ stratus dancer
Red
- reforge the soul
+ volcanic vision - members of my group are not as into wheel cards as I am, I guess. The one-sided wrath of volcanic vision is a card that has been requested I test
- stingscourger
+ dragon whisperer - testing, but not expecting much beyond a low CMC placeholder. Love that godzilla-looking art though!
- gratuitous violence - Cutting GV achieves my two goals of curve reduction and reducing the incidence of triple mana symbols.
+ impact tremors - I'm excited to see how this card works out!
Colorless
- masterwork of ingenuity - an under performer
+ mutavault - included in anticipation of future tribal effects and synergies. I love man-lands too!
Some cards in limbo: commune with lava - I'm interested to hear feedback before looking for space for this one nature's lore - in my cube, but may receive the same treatment as skyshroud claim enduring scalelord - I have been thinking of bolstering my +1 counters theme, but I am not certain if I have the room for this one joraga warcaller - I'm examining whether elves are a robust enough theme to accept this card. He may get added if +1 counters also get more love
Thanks for looking! I'll probably repost the cube here on mtgs after Origin's changes.
I love seeing the tutors going away! Games got more fun when they disappeared, but I also don't support combo at all... AT ALL.
Adding BG Garruk should be well received. I don't think most people use him in normal EDH, but in Cube I've loved how versatile he is.
My playgroup has asked that we keep the tuck rule in place though so the counters are staying still for now. But, we haven't even played the Cube in something like 3 months and I'm in the process of putting it back together now. Not a lot from the new set appeals to me, but a couple things will probably sneak in over the next week.
Thanks for the response! I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any changes you post!
I feel like I'm at a point where most of the things I add and subtract have nothing to do with whether or not they're good... mostly in my head I'm thinking "Eh, I bet this will be fun to play with." A few of the things I'm putting in: Sway of the Stars - Let's see what the big deal is. Common Courtesy - 4 mana Rattlesnake counterspell? Okay. Chaos Orb - I think I might actually have one coming in this week and A) It's cool. B) Colorless spot removal is always welcome.
A couple of the new Commands - I love modular spells that don't totally blow. Angus McKenzie - Finally got one of those on Pucatrade and figure Derevi's a piece of ***** no matter how you define piece of *****. In Cube she's just not good enough to work with until she is and then she's way too good. Damnable Pact, Commune with Lava, and Secure the Wastes. Cards that are okay early game but huge later on? Sign me up for X spells.
A few of my players are still dissatisfied with the amount of land-based fixing, so I took the opportunity to pick up cheap foil MM2 bounce lands. These have been straight up added to the cube, without any substitutions. There are definitely a few weak links in the colorless section, so I may eventually add the 5 mirage fetchlands.
EDIT: I've run a few practice drafts on cubetutor using the bouncelands, and I have been pleasantly surprised at how much better the cube feels when drafting. The bouncelands' inclusion seems to make the draft feel smoother, and decreases the amount of dead-pick time between packs.
-Graveborn Muse
+Corpse Augur - more of a 1:1 swap here, but I'm interested in seeing whether augurs more immediate CA payout is better than the muses incremental gain.
-Shattering Spree
+Fiery Confluence - I'm betting there is more versatility in confluence than spree, and for only a mana or two more.
-Commune with Lava
+Mizzix's Mastery - commune never showed up in any sessions. While I;ve systematically cut cards like past in flames, mizzix's intrigues me as a more efficient package for this kind of spell-recursion effect.
-Azusa, Lost but Seeking - better as a constructed general than edh cube card.
+Skullwinder - another eternal witness-style card. Always welcome.
-Obzedat, Ghost Council - While this is a neat card in draft and regular cube, it just hasn't pulled any weight in my edh cube. Probably better in a constructed edh deck.
+Karlov of the Ghost Council - an inexpensive, voltron-ish creature. Will round off the orzhov section of the cube nicely.
White
+ Emeria Shepherd - a bit of a controversial swap, but the angel's tribal affiliation and potential in reanimator-style decks prompted this swap.
- Luminate Primordial - the exile effect and blink potential are very powerful on this card, but I think there are plenty of wrath cards out there that do the same job and cheaper.
Blue
+ Thopter Spy Network
- Tezzeret the Seeker - was briefly gigantoplasm. A bit of an unfortunate swap. Tezz was cut due to high CMC and to reduce tutors. If I'd known that I would have been adding in the thopter token package, I probably wouldn't have sold the card off...
+ Whirler Rogue - thopter support
- Undead Alchemist - I had high hopes for this one actually. Never got to see if it could spit out an unholy number of zombie tokens.
black
+ Drana, Liberator of Malakir - dropped to $7 when I picked the card up, so it seemed like a good card to test out
- Diabolic Servitude - I've seen this card pull a lot of weight in a friend's sheoldred deck, but it never seemed to do much good in the cube
+ Ob Nixilis Reignited - a pack acquisition that I decided to add to the cube. probably should have replaced ob nixilis PW 1.0, but the "can be your commander" clause is just too unique for me to cut any of the comm 2014 generals yet
- Sever the Bloodline
+ Asylum Visitor
- Plaguebearer - the switch was briefly bearer of silence, which just landed up being less impressive than fleshbag marauder. I figured plaguebearer would work well as an anti-token machine gun, but the opportunities to test this theory never materialized. I have high hopes for asylum visitor, which is probably my favorite card from SOI.
red
+ Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh - inexpensive creature + planeswalker in red? check
- Wild Ricochet - too similar to high cost counters: signals too much, and is simply too much mana to constantly have to leave open
+ Stalking Vengeance - the newly printed blade of selves prompted me to re-add this card to he cube. Would need a sac outlet in play though, to realize it's full damage potential
- Hellkite Tyrant - just didn't perform as well in cube as I'd hoped
+ Goblin Piledriver - test with goblin tribal support
- Shocker - I'd read some convincing arguments that the shockers were great cards for breaking up control stalemates, but I never saw them live up to their potential. Both were also just a tad to small, p/t-wise, for their costs
+ Sylvan Advocate - an inexpensive creature with decent mid-late game potentials. Bolsters the cube's newly added collection of man-lands
- Troll Ascetic
+ Great Oak Guardian - reports made it sound like this card performed better than expected for cubers
- Increasing Savagery - under performed; too risky for blow outs
+ Mycoloth - token and +1 counter support
- Vorapede - reduces # of tri-mana symbol cards
+ Duskwatch Recruiter - a conveniently low cmc creature that is relevant at any stage of the game
- Wall of Blossoms - great card, but too low impact these days
colorless + lands
+ Thopter Assembly - part of the U/R thopter token support package
- Canal Dredger - was briefly seer's lantern. While Ilove most of the conspiracy construct cards, the color identity restrictions of edh cube frequently get in the way of their operating at full potential
+ Mirrorpool - neat utility land
- Buried Ruin - had a long tenue in the cube, but was still a chronic under performer. Artifact recursion has just never been a popular or well utilized aspect of my group's edh games
+ Endbringer - test;interested to see how this thing's untap and voluntary tap abilities work in tandem with other cube cards, especially splinter twin
- Grafdigger's Cage - was Matter Reshaper briefly. Cage was added to the cube a long time ago to tamp down some wild graveyard based decks. Since then, I haven't seen quite as much abuse in that area.
+ Sea Gate Wreckage - test
- Metalworker - the density of artifacts necessary to fuel this little guy never seems to come together. Cut and put in a Daretti constructed deck
gold
+ Man-lands IN - with the completion of the man land cycle in Oath, I pulled the WWK and BFZ lands from another cube, and transferred them to this one.
- Bounce lands OUT - these were a bit of a placeholder anyway, and they found a new home in my 1-drop cube, where i think they will perform adequately
+ Fathom Mage - a card I have always been interested in trying, just never had the room in my simic section
- Prophet of Kruphix - taken out in conformance with the commander format ban. Not as easily abused in the cube of course, but keeping banned cards out limits the amount of explaining I have to do with new players.
+ Savage Ventmaw - sad to cut this guy, but he never really saw play, and my gruul section was extremely top heavy in creatures
- Huntmaster of the Fells - re-added to the cube
+ Utter end
- Vindicate then
+ Vindicate
- Utter end - I got lured into trying UE due to it's instant speed. Convincing arguments were made though the LD capabilities of vindicate made it worth the sorcery speed. Since making the swap, I've witnessed instances where blowing up an urborg, or cabal coffers would have made the difference between winning and losing the game. So vindicate is back in.
+ Goblin Trenches - test with goblin tribal, token doubling, and Purphoros-blowout potential
- Sunforger - just too expensive and unwieldy in the cube environment. Probably a better card in constructed or a dedicated rav cube
+ Sire of Stagnation
- Consuming Aberration - I personally like this card, but it had such a consistenly low cube tutor rating, that I decided to cut it in favor of another interesting U/B fatty.
I'll hopefully update the OP cube in a few days.
EDIT: the site wouldn't accept my color coding of +'s/-'s, so I removed those.
I was able to put together a 5-person, FFA session together last Tuesday evening; five packs of 15 main cube cards were drafted, with 1 random general seeded per pack. We started drafted from 730-815, and the epic game that followed lasted until 1130-ish.
The group of generals we selected included rasputin (me; W/U control w Karn as Ugin as my big guns), Narset (a bonkers collection of super friends), Animar (ramp, praetors, fatties, and genesis wave), Damia (light reanimator & tokens), and Thrax (control w thrax finisher).
The ensuing game was an orgy of wraths and removal. Almost nothing, whether creature, artifact or planeswalker, survived more than an entire turn. There were periodic breaks in the massacres, where folks could start to accumulate some board presence, but this generally lasted only as long as it took players to draw 3-4 cards, and straight into answers.
The animar player was the first to be bumped off. They had accumulated too many enemies off of a vorinclex that managed to stick. A potentially game ending genesis wave for 10 (one that would have resulted in a jin gitaxias and oracle of mul daya hitting the board) was thwarted by a well timed containment priest. They seemed pretty spent and on tilt (and drunk) after that play, and quickly succumbed to retaliatory strikes from the other players.
I eventually managed to eke out a (probably undeserved) win, when I finally hit a pocket of cards including ugin, sun titan, fiend hunter, and gilded drake in my deck. I was down to 10 life, and for much of the game seemed too pathetic to finish off. Despite at least 3 firings of land tax, I was constantly, and frustratingly still top decking basics. The gilded drake enabled me to steal my opponent's damia, and I started casting and drawing successive turns worth of 5-7 cards.
In the end, both the narset and damia players had decked themselves, and the thrax player was slowly but surely chopped down from 39 life (off the back of an exsanguinate).
I wish I had kept more diligent notes during the session, including the narset player having as many as 4 active planeswalkers on the board at the same time, and some insane creature blinking/doubling escapades (hornet queen for instance). Fortunately for us, one of the players worked at the LGS we were occupying, and was able to lock up for the employees that needed to go home.
If I'm able to remember some more things that happened during the session, I will try and post some edits.
EDIT 1: At my group's request, I'm switching up some of my cube's generals:
Out: Geist of Saint Traft - voltron generals are slowly but surely getting outclassed in the cube, and geist is really one of my few remaining hold outs.
In: Daxos of Meletis - probably a temporary replacement until dragonlord ojutai rotates. I am interested in seeing if the changes to edh's mana production rules may allow cards like daxos or sen triplets to flourish in edh cube.
Out: Zur the Enchanter - just too much of a constructed-only card. Never really lived up to its potential in this environment. He was practically worthless in the draft if selected late, and testing via cubetutor was really mixed.
In: Merieke Ri Berit - part of a "thieves guild" package of generals I will be trying out for a little while. Recommended by members of my group until a better option gets released by wizards.
Out: Mayael the Anima - much better in a dedicated deck. Virtually never picked as a final general.
In: Gahiji, Honored One - gonna give this guy another shot in the naya section, and see if it performs better this time around. My group also felt that rith, the awakener may be worth a look again, but I feel that there would be too much overlap between Rith and the vastly superior hazezon tamar.
Out: Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest - just never materialized as a worthwhile general. Not enough cheap, relevant support for this guy to make him a functional voltron.
In: Zedruu the Greathearted - been reading about this card again, and I'm willing to give her another shot. Posters here on mtgs discussing the benefits of even marginal CA via Zedruu have made me interested in seeing if she'll hold her own.
Additional generals changes likely to occur over the next few months:
Out: Atarka, World Render - I actually like this card quite a bit, but it has just never shown up in a session as a final pick.
In: Dragonlord Atarka - Planning to try out this splashier and more at-a-glance impressive legend.
Out: Vela the Night-Clad - occassionally does something interesting, but rarely draws anyone into dimir over, say, grixis or BUG colors.
In: Dragonlord Silumgar - part of the "thieves guild" package. I've been impressed by this card in constructed edh sessions, and I think he might make for a nice, comprehensible addition to dimir.
Out: Phenax, God of Deception - was a nice experiment in the cube, but mill is not really a strategy I want to fully support nor cultivate in the edh cube.
In: Wrexial, the Risen Deep - another thieves guild inclusion, and a nice finisher for sneaky dimir decks. Will hopefully draw more players into pure dimir, rather than defaulting to tri-color U/B decks...
Reposted the current cube contents in the OP ~ basically encompassing all of 2016's changes.
Played a (probably inadvisable) session last weekend where, in honor of the commander 2016 partner mechanic, we granted partner to all mono and bi colored legends in the cube, provided at least one color matched (example Jhoira of the Ghitu + Prime Speaker Zegana = Temur landed up being what I played).
We had 6 players and opted to play as one large group rather than two pods of 3. The 2 games we were able to play were extremely nutty and lethal, with players barely able to establish board states before, 2-3 players down the line, a wrath would go off, forcing players back to square one again.
The partner mechanic wasn't too horribly abused, but it was a definite mistake opening partner to mono colored legends, resulting in Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite getting partnered with Vish Kal, and Thalia, Heretic Cathar being partnered with Gisela. Having both of those mono white cards always available to bi-colored decks presented many challenges to tempo and creature survival!
Public enemy card #1 goes to Expropriate, which has got to be the most disgusting card I have ever seen played. It's resolution secured the game for the Atraxa player at the table, and game 2 was basically spent entirely keeping an eye out for whether that player had enough mana to cast it again. I'd like to keep it in the cube for at least another session, but I can definitely see where folks reservations about the card are coming from!
Red
- thopter engineer - weak link red card
- thunderbreak regent - on the chopping block for a while; not strong or useful enough for edh cube
- dragon whisperer - low cmc placeholder; may restore as pet card
+ Kari Zev, Skyship Raider - test for low cmc red + tokens + purphoros/pandemonium style decks
- Savageborn Hydra - unfortunate cut, but a super low pick in drafts and frequent cut during deck building
- Arlinn Kord - weak link in my gruul planeswalker section
- Saheeli Rai - better in constructed edh
- Epic Experiment - under performed; would need to reevaluate a lot of the cube to ensure that the critical mass of spells is available for this to be a relevant threat card
Artifacts and colorless
- Animation Module - recent addition, but cut
- mindcrank - never became as relevant to reanimator decks as I had hoped
- surveyor's scope - too slow and unreliable ramp for non-green decks
- trading post - may restore
- gauntlet of power - too mono colored focused; better in constructed
- deal broker - not worth the slot unfortunately; end of draft deals usually underwhelming
- thopter assembly - high cmc cut
- command beacon - better in a constructed, very commander-centric build
- mirrorpool - under performer
- sea gate wreckage - under performer
- staff of nin - high cmc cut
+ paradox engine - test; will need to see if this becomes oppressive though...
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/193777-the-multiplayer-edh-cube-thread
and this one:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/526700-edh-cube-generals-and-general-drafting
There are also between 10 and 20 edh cubes in the "cube lists" forums, also a great place for discussion and theory crafting.
-D
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Last night I met up with some friends for a 3 player sealed game. I first organized all of the generals into their respective guilds, shards, or wedges and then pulled one at random to form a stack of 20. I dealt 6 to each player, returning the remaining 42 commanders to the box, unseen. I next dealt 100 main-cube cards to each player and we proceeded to build 60 cards decks + 1 general. The final decks were maelstrom wanderer, alesha, who smiles at death, with myself piloting rafiq of the many.
Game 1 had the alesha player rocketing out the gate with their general and a tag team of ashling the pilgrim, imperial recruiter, and fiend hunter, suppressing board while equipped with a combination of lightning greaves and whispersilk cloak. Eventually the wanderer player and myself were able to stabilize the board and chip away at the artifacts with cards like return to dust. The next phase of the match though revolved around the undisputed MVP card of the evening, scourge of the throne. The alesha player used this card to incredible effect, leveraging a consistent number of extra attack steps by manipulating their own life totals with fire covenant, ancient tomb, and other pay life effects.
The MW player and I were forced to gang up on alesha, although I felt a bit like collateral damage in the war between alesha and the wanderer. The final round saw me eliminated and the MW player seemingly on death's door. Surprisingly, the wanderer player managed to land a sarkhan vol on the table and, by using his threaten ability, stole an incredibly fat, 10+ power scourge, completely turning the game around and killing the alesha player in two steps.
Game 2 started out somewhat similarly with a rapid assault alesha, ashling, recruiter and fiend hunter, this time backed up with whip of erebos. The surprising presence of Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon almost put me on the ropes immediately, racking up 8 poison counters in a game where we agreed 10 would be the threshold for elimination. Fortunately, I was able to take the infector completely out of circulation with a curse of the swine. Scourge of the throne once again made its entrance and contributed to an impressive number of extra attacks, this time in tandem with thundermaw hellkite. It was really a shame the alesha player wasn't playing kaalia, given the number of red fatties they dropped mid to late game.
By mid game, the maelstrom wanderer player has established themselves as the match's biggest threat, cultivating an impressive, eldrazi-crapping board state with kruphix + frontier siege. Their next attempt at closing the game warrants mentioning as the biggest whiff I have ever seen using genesis wave. Cast using over 11, the card managed to produce only a series of lands, mana rocks, enchants, and then finally bane of progress, eating at least 5 of the other 10 cards + the seige and other assorted enchantments.
My recollection of the game's end is a bit fuzzy, but IIRC, the game progressed in a pretty standard fashion, with haymakers being traded left and right, before the wanderer player managed to close out the final.
All in all it was a pretty successful session, and I was very pleased to see an alesha reanimation engine emerging out of even a sealed pool. One of the players at the game mentioned they felt removal seemed light in the cube, but I think this was more a luck-of-the-sealed-pools phenomenon.
TL;DR Generals
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
Maelstrom Wanderer
Rafiq of the Many
2 games, won my MW
MVP card = Scourge of the Throne
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
The first major change was cutting back on my tutor suite and weak-link WUBRG cards to make room for all 10 of the theros temples. My group has voiced concerns over the years that access to color fixing land is a bit light in the cube.
Cut Enlightened tutor, mystical tutor, vampiric tutor, gamble, & worldly tutor + windborn muse, control magic, reassembling skeleton, dragon-style twins (weap), & great sable stag
Added: Theros block temples
Generals:
- maelstrom wanderer - this card has been deemed too strong and uninteresting by my group. With it's relentless and inevitable card advantage, it's practically always picked as someone's commander when they get it.
+ yasova dragonclaw - I like this card a lot in regular cube, and it will remain to be seen how she plays out in the edh cube. Surrak Dragonclaw is another, uninteresting option if yasova lands up being a dud (hopefully not though!).
White
- sunblast angel - I like this card but it's a nonbo with kaalia
+ sunscorch regent
Blue
- spell crumple - other members of my playgroup want to conform to the tuck rule changes, so hinder and spellcrumple are getting cut in favor of different counters.
- hinder
+ counterspell
+ stratus dancer
Black
- mortivore - was an overdue cut probably
+ sidisi, undead vizier
Red
- reforge the soul
+ volcanic vision - members of my group are not as into wheel cards as I am, I guess. The one-sided wrath of volcanic vision is a card that has been requested I test
- stingscourger
+ dragon whisperer - testing, but not expecting much beyond a low CMC placeholder. Love that godzilla-looking art though!
- gratuitous violence - Cutting GV achieves my two goals of curve reduction and reducing the incidence of triple mana symbols.
+ impact tremors - I'm excited to see how this card works out!
Green
- seeds of innocence
+ ainok survivalist
- wolfbriar elemental
+ den protector My Two Mommies with champion of lambholt and eternal witness!
- skyshroud claim - just not as reliable as I would like in cube; better for constructed, where you're more assured of having duals or shocks in-deck.
+ explosive vegetation
Gold
- huntmaster of the fells - I don't really feel that this card got a proper test, but I wanted to add the ventmaw, and there were no other cuts I was comfortable with at this juncture...
+ savage ventmaw - I will have to see how this card performs in the absence of combo pieces like hellkite charger and aggravated assault.
- deadbridge chant
+ garruk relentless - part of some misc changes
Colorless
- masterwork of ingenuity - an under performer
+ mutavault - included in anticipation of future tribal effects and synergies. I love man-lands too!
Some cards in limbo:
commune with lava - I'm interested to hear feedback before looking for space for this one
nature's lore - in my cube, but may receive the same treatment as skyshroud claim
enduring scalelord - I have been thinking of bolstering my +1 counters theme, but I am not certain if I have the room for this one
joraga warcaller - I'm examining whether elves are a robust enough theme to accept this card. He may get added if +1 counters also get more love
Thanks for looking! I'll probably repost the cube here on mtgs after Origin's changes.
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/219
-Dolono
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Adding BG Garruk should be well received. I don't think most people use him in normal EDH, but in Cube I've loved how versatile he is.
My playgroup has asked that we keep the tuck rule in place though so the counters are staying still for now. But, we haven't even played the Cube in something like 3 months and I'm in the process of putting it back together now. Not a lot from the new set appeals to me, but a couple things will probably sneak in over the next week.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Sway of the Stars - Let's see what the big deal is.
Common Courtesy - 4 mana Rattlesnake counterspell? Okay.
Chaos Orb - I think I might actually have one coming in this week and A) It's cool. B) Colorless spot removal is always welcome.
A couple of the new Commands - I love modular spells that don't totally blow.
Angus McKenzie - Finally got one of those on Pucatrade and figure Derevi's a piece of ***** no matter how you define piece of *****. In Cube she's just not good enough to work with until she is and then she's way too good.
Damnable Pact, Commune with Lava, and Secure the Wastes. Cards that are okay early game but huge later on? Sign me up for X spells.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
A few of my players are still dissatisfied with the amount of land-based fixing, so I took the opportunity to pick up cheap foil MM2 bounce lands. These have been straight up added to the cube, without any substitutions. There are definitely a few weak links in the colorless section, so I may eventually add the 5 mirage fetchlands.
EDIT: I've run a few practice drafts on cubetutor using the bouncelands, and I have been pleasantly surprised at how much better the cube feels when drafting. The bouncelands' inclusion seems to make the draft feel smoother, and decreases the amount of dead-pick time between packs.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
My Commander 2015 first pass:
- Oblation - bored of this card. It may make its way back in if this type of permanent removal seems lacking.
+ Oreskos Explorer
-Banishing Light
+Grasp of Fate - upgrade over BL.
-Graveborn Muse
+Corpse Augur - more of a 1:1 swap here, but I'm interested in seeing whether augurs more immediate CA payout is better than the muses incremental gain.
-Shattering Spree
+Fiery Confluence - I'm betting there is more versatility in confluence than spree, and for only a mana or two more.
-Commune with Lava
+Mizzix's Mastery - commune never showed up in any sessions. While I;ve systematically cut cards like past in flames, mizzix's intrigues me as a more efficient package for this kind of spell-recursion effect.
-Azusa, Lost but Seeking - better as a constructed general than edh cube card.
+Skullwinder - another eternal witness-style card. Always welcome.
-Edric, Spymaster of Trest - I've been waiting to cut this card for a while.
+Ezuri, Claw of Progress
-Obzedat, Ghost Council - While this is a neat card in draft and regular cube, it just hasn't pulled any weight in my edh cube. Probably better in a constructed edh deck.
+Karlov of the Ghost Council - an inexpensive, voltron-ish creature. Will round off the orzhov section of the cube nicely.
-Sisters of Stone Death - a cool but too expensive general.
+Meren of Clan Nel Toth - very excited to see this card in action.
-Sword of Kaldra - it saddens me to break up the kaldra cycle of cards, but the sword is just too expensive to equip.
+Blade of Selves
-Strionic Resonator - a cool card in theory, but just never saw play.
+Thought Vessel
-Arcane Lighthouse - under performer.
+Command Beacon
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Generals
+ Surrak Dragonclaw - Maelstrom Wanderer is too powerful to re-add at this point. Surrak is what I've got to work with really.
- Yasova Dragonclaw - under performed, never picked
White
+ Emeria Shepherd - a bit of a controversial swap, but the angel's tribal affiliation and potential in reanimator-style decks prompted this swap.
- Luminate Primordial - the exile effect and blink potential are very powerful on this card, but I think there are plenty of wrath cards out there that do the same job and cheaper.
+ Gift of Immortality - misc change to facilitate sac/EtB shenanigans
- Imposing Sovereign - under performed
+ Eldrazi Displacer - fantastic blink card
- Stonehewer Giant - sad to cut, but part of an ongoing effort to reduce the number of tutors in the cube
+ Thalia's Lieutenant - test for human tribal
- Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - was serene steward in the interim. Under performer
Blue
+ Thopter Spy Network
- Tezzeret the Seeker - was briefly gigantoplasm. A bit of an unfortunate swap. Tezz was cut due to high CMC and to reduce tutors. If I'd known that I would have been adding in the thopter token package, I probably wouldn't have sold the card off...
+ Thing in the Ice - test
- Kederekt Leviathan - was briefly ixidron - nice card, but too difficult for my group to mobilize effectively
+ Crush of Tentacles
- Devastation Tide - swapping out a similar card
+ Whirler Rogue - thopter support
- Undead Alchemist - I had high hopes for this one actually. Never got to see if it could spit out an unholy number of zombie tokens.
black
+ Drana, Liberator of Malakir - dropped to $7 when I picked the card up, so it seemed like a good card to test out
- Diabolic Servitude - I've seen this card pull a lot of weight in a friend's sheoldred deck, but it never seemed to do much good in the cube
+ Ob Nixilis Reignited - a pack acquisition that I decided to add to the cube. probably should have replaced ob nixilis PW 1.0, but the "can be your commander" clause is just too unique for me to cut any of the comm 2014 generals yet
- Sever the Bloodline
+ Asylum Visitor
- Plaguebearer - the switch was briefly bearer of silence, which just landed up being less impressive than fleshbag marauder. I figured plaguebearer would work well as an anti-token machine gun, but the opportunities to test this theory never materialized. I have high hopes for asylum visitor, which is probably my favorite card from SOI.
+ Big Game Hunter - neglected good card
- Agent of Erebos - was briefly essence depleter
+ Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- Bojuka Bog - great filler card in constructed, but a wasted slot in cube
+ Wake the Dead - interested in seeing this thing's potential for an EtB effect blow out, or mass altar sac
- Smothering Abomination - too unreliable. Should probably rather have re-added graveborn muse.
red
+ Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh - inexpensive creature + planeswalker in red? check
- Wild Ricochet - too similar to high cost counters: signals too much, and is simply too much mana to constantly have to leave open
+ Stalking Vengeance - the newly printed blade of selves prompted me to re-add this card to he cube. Would need a sac outlet in play though, to realize it's full damage potential
- Hellkite Tyrant - just didn't perform as well in cube as I'd hoped
+ Dragonmaster Outcast - reduced $ from the reprint made this an attractive pick up
- Felhide Spiritbinder - trimming the over-crowded red 4 CMC slot
+ Howl of the Horde - test
- Destructive Force - voted out by my group due on un-fun LD grounds
+ Goblin Piledriver - test with goblin tribal support
- Shocker - I'd read some convincing arguments that the shockers were great cards for breaking up control stalemates, but I never saw them live up to their potential. Both were also just a tad to small, p/t-wise, for their costs
+ Taurean Mauler - re-added for +1 counters and tribal support
- Barbed Shocker - ''
+ Shattering Spree - I like that SS can come down a bit earlier
- Vandalblast
+ Thopter Engineer - thopter support
- Markov Blademaster - pet double strike card. Carries a sword well, but was probably an overdue cut.
green
+ greenwarden of murasa
- soul of the harvest - I still like this card but it fell into that same camp as Primordial Sage; a 6-drop is not the spot on the curve you want to see the gas pedal kicked.
+ Giant Adephage
- Worldspine Wurm - never saw play, not even in a mega ramp or sneak attack deck
+ rampant growth - works better with the small number of wastes I added to my basic lands section
- nature's lore
+ Sylvan Advocate - an inexpensive creature with decent mid-late game potentials. Bolsters the cube's newly added collection of man-lands
- Troll Ascetic
+ Great Oak Guardian - reports made it sound like this card performed better than expected for cubers
- Increasing Savagery - under performed; too risky for blow outs
+ Mycoloth - token and +1 counter support
- Vorapede - reduces # of tri-mana symbol cards
+ Vile Redeemer
- Gaea's Anthem - less useful in light of the increased number of creature-based p/t boosters out there
+ Tireless Tracker - support for tokens and +1 counters
- Wood Elves
+ Cryptolith Rite - test
- Animist's Awakening - I want the ramp to come down a little earlier than this card
+ Duskwatch Recruiter - a conveniently low cmc creature that is relevant at any stage of the game
- Wall of Blossoms - great card, but too low impact these days
colorless + lands
+ Thopter Assembly - part of the U/R thopter token support package
- Canal Dredger - was briefly seer's lantern. While Ilove most of the conspiracy construct cards, the color identity restrictions of edh cube frequently get in the way of their operating at full potential
+ Mirrorpool - neat utility land
- Buried Ruin - had a long tenue in the cube, but was still a chronic under performer. Artifact recursion has just never been a popular or well utilized aspect of my group's edh games
+ Endbringer - test;interested to see how this thing's untap and voluntary tap abilities work in tandem with other cube cards, especially splinter twin
- Grafdigger's Cage - was Matter Reshaper briefly. Cage was added to the cube a long time ago to tamp down some wild graveyard based decks. Since then, I haven't seen quite as much abuse in that area.
+ Kozilek, the Great Distortion - read a lot of threads on how dynamic and powerful the new kozi is
- Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - my least favorite of the original three titan cards
+ Sea Gate Wreckage - test
- Metalworker - the density of artifacts necessary to fuel this little guy never seems to come together. Cut and put in a Daretti constructed deck
+ Wild-Field Scarecrow - Burnished Hart number 2. Too bad it can't carry and equip and attack in a pinch
- Agent of Acquisitions - tough cut, but same issues as the aforementioned canal dredger
+ Krark-Clan Ironworks - ramp and thopter tokens support
- Shield of Kaldra - last of the kaldra pieces to go...
+ Foundry of the Consuls - thopter tokens support
- Tower of the Magistrate - under performed
gold
+ Man-lands IN - with the completion of the man land cycle in Oath, I pulled the WWK and BFZ lands from another cube, and transferred them to this one.
- Bounce lands OUT - these were a bit of a placeholder anyway, and they found a new home in my 1-drop cube, where i think they will perform adequately
+ Fathom Mage - a card I have always been interested in trying, just never had the room in my simic section
- Prophet of Kruphix - taken out in conformance with the commander format ban. Not as easily abused in the cube of course, but keeping banned cards out limits the amount of explaining I have to do with new players.
+ Savage Ventmaw - sad to cut this guy, but he never really saw play, and my gruul section was extremely top heavy in creatures
- Huntmaster of the Fells - re-added to the cube
+ Utter end
- Vindicate
then
+ Vindicate
- Utter end - I got lured into trying UE due to it's instant speed. Convincing arguments were made though the LD capabilities of vindicate made it worth the sorcery speed. Since making the swap, I've witnessed instances where blowing up an urborg, or cabal coffers would have made the difference between winning and losing the game. So vindicate is back in.
+ Reflector Mage - blink target test
- steel of the godhead - a definite pet card of mine, and a sad cut, but its time was up.
+ Goblin Trenches - test with goblin tribal, token doubling, and Purphoros-blowout potential
- Sunforger - just too expensive and unwieldy in the cube environment. Probably a better card in constructed or a dedicated rav cube
+ Far // Away - test
- Whispering Madness - under performer
+ Sire of Stagnation
- Consuming Aberration - I personally like this card, but it had such a consistenly low cube tutor rating, that I decided to cut it in favor of another interesting U/B fatty.
I'll hopefully update the OP cube in a few days.
EDIT: the site wouldn't accept my color coding of +'s/-'s, so I removed those.
Late changes:
+ arlinn kord
- domri rade
+ nahiri, the harbinger
- waves of aggression
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
The group of generals we selected included rasputin (me; W/U control w Karn as Ugin as my big guns), Narset (a bonkers collection of super friends), Animar (ramp, praetors, fatties, and genesis wave), Damia (light reanimator & tokens), and Thrax (control w thrax finisher).
The ensuing game was an orgy of wraths and removal. Almost nothing, whether creature, artifact or planeswalker, survived more than an entire turn. There were periodic breaks in the massacres, where folks could start to accumulate some board presence, but this generally lasted only as long as it took players to draw 3-4 cards, and straight into answers.
The animar player was the first to be bumped off. They had accumulated too many enemies off of a vorinclex that managed to stick. A potentially game ending genesis wave for 10 (one that would have resulted in a jin gitaxias and oracle of mul daya hitting the board) was thwarted by a well timed containment priest. They seemed pretty spent and on tilt (and drunk) after that play, and quickly succumbed to retaliatory strikes from the other players.
I eventually managed to eke out a (probably undeserved) win, when I finally hit a pocket of cards including ugin, sun titan, fiend hunter, and gilded drake in my deck. I was down to 10 life, and for much of the game seemed too pathetic to finish off. Despite at least 3 firings of land tax, I was constantly, and frustratingly still top decking basics. The gilded drake enabled me to steal my opponent's damia, and I started casting and drawing successive turns worth of 5-7 cards.
In the end, both the narset and damia players had decked themselves, and the thrax player was slowly but surely chopped down from 39 life (off the back of an exsanguinate).
I wish I had kept more diligent notes during the session, including the narset player having as many as 4 active planeswalkers on the board at the same time, and some insane creature blinking/doubling escapades (hornet queen for instance). Fortunately for us, one of the players worked at the LGS we were occupying, and was able to lock up for the employees that needed to go home.
If I'm able to remember some more things that happened during the session, I will try and post some edits.
EDIT 1: At my group's request, I'm switching up some of my cube's generals:
Out: Geist of Saint Traft - voltron generals are slowly but surely getting outclassed in the cube, and geist is really one of my few remaining hold outs.
In: Daxos of Meletis - probably a temporary replacement until dragonlord ojutai rotates. I am interested in seeing if the changes to edh's mana production rules may allow cards like daxos or sen triplets to flourish in edh cube.
Out: Zur the Enchanter - just too much of a constructed-only card. Never really lived up to its potential in this environment. He was practically worthless in the draft if selected late, and testing via cubetutor was really mixed.
In: Merieke Ri Berit - part of a "thieves guild" package of generals I will be trying out for a little while. Recommended by members of my group until a better option gets released by wizards.
Out: Mayael the Anima - much better in a dedicated deck. Virtually never picked as a final general.
In: Gahiji, Honored One - gonna give this guy another shot in the naya section, and see if it performs better this time around. My group also felt that rith, the awakener may be worth a look again, but I feel that there would be too much overlap between Rith and the vastly superior hazezon tamar.
Out: Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest - just never materialized as a worthwhile general. Not enough cheap, relevant support for this guy to make him a functional voltron.
In: Zedruu the Greathearted - been reading about this card again, and I'm willing to give her another shot. Posters here on mtgs discussing the benefits of even marginal CA via Zedruu have made me interested in seeing if she'll hold her own.
Out: Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
In: The Gitrog Monster - a request from my group
Additional generals changes likely to occur over the next few months:
Out: Atarka, World Render - I actually like this card quite a bit, but it has just never shown up in a session as a final pick.
In: Dragonlord Atarka - Planning to try out this splashier and more at-a-glance impressive legend.
Out: Vela the Night-Clad - occassionally does something interesting, but rarely draws anyone into dimir over, say, grixis or BUG colors.
In: Dragonlord Silumgar - part of the "thieves guild" package. I've been impressed by this card in constructed edh sessions, and I think he might make for a nice, comprehensible addition to dimir.
Out: Phenax, God of Deception - was a nice experiment in the cube, but mill is not really a strategy I want to fully support nor cultivate in the edh cube.
In: Wrexial, the Risen Deep - another thieves guild inclusion, and a nice finisher for sneaky dimir decks. Will hopefully draw more players into pure dimir, rather than defaulting to tri-color U/B decks...
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Played a (probably inadvisable) session last weekend where, in honor of the commander 2016 partner mechanic, we granted partner to all mono and bi colored legends in the cube, provided at least one color matched (example Jhoira of the Ghitu + Prime Speaker Zegana = Temur landed up being what I played).
We had 6 players and opted to play as one large group rather than two pods of 3. The 2 games we were able to play were extremely nutty and lethal, with players barely able to establish board states before, 2-3 players down the line, a wrath would go off, forcing players back to square one again.
The partner mechanic wasn't too horribly abused, but it was a definite mistake opening partner to mono colored legends, resulting in Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite getting partnered with Vish Kal, and Thalia, Heretic Cathar being partnered with Gisela. Having both of those mono white cards always available to bi-colored decks presented many challenges to tempo and creature survival!
Public enemy card #1 goes to Expropriate, which has got to be the most disgusting card I have ever seen played. It's resolution secured the game for the Atraxa player at the table, and game 2 was basically spent entirely keeping an eye out for whether that player had enough mana to cast it again. I'd like to keep it in the cube for at least another session, but I can definitely see where folks reservations about the card are coming from!
Generals ~Archetypes:
1. Prime Speaker Zegana + Jhoira of the Ghitu ~ Suspend, planeswalkers, & Doubling Season
2. Lazav, Dimir Mastermind + Meren of Clan Nel Toth ~ Reanimator/Control with some Notion Thief + Geier Reach Sanitarium Shenanigans (Won game 2)
3. Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter + Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite ~ Mid-Range-ish/Control
4. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight + Thalia, Heretic Cathar ~ tokens, control, stax
5. Dragonlord Atarka ~ tokens, voltron
6. Atraxa, Praetors' Voice ~ board police + haymakers (Won game 1)
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
White
- sigarda's aid - under performed; voltron support in the cube continues to diminish.
- sunscorch regent - high cmc cut
- Nahiri, the Lithomancer - under performed
+ Sram's expertise - test for tokens
Blue
- rapid hybridization - victim of cube size reduction
- dramatic reversal - was a test case; better in a dedicated constructed combo deck
- chief engineer - under performer
+ Baral, Chief of Compliance - test
Black
- bloodsoaked champion - under perfomer; frequent cut when at the deck building stage
- Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon - pet card; moved to my constructed edh box (atraxa/saskia infect decks)
~ I will be keeping an eye out for reports on Herald of Anguish and Yahenni's Expertise in edh over the coming months...
Red
- thopter engineer - weak link red card
- thunderbreak regent - on the chopping block for a while; not strong or useful enough for edh cube
- dragon whisperer - low cmc placeholder; may restore as pet card
+ Kari Zev, Skyship Raider - test for low cmc red + tokens + purphoros/pandemonium style decks
Green
- sylvan advocate - under performed in the multiplayer theater
- bow of nylea - under performed; may restore if its multi-part utility becomes relevant again
- see the unwritten - removed to test rishkar's expertise
+ Rishkar's Expertise - test
~ will probably add Rishkar, Peema Renegade to the cube in the next few months.
Multicolored
- Narset Transcendent - under performer
- drogskol reaver - high cmc cut
- shadowmage infiltrator - under performer (shame)
- sire of stagnation - high cmc guild cut
- mind grind - may restore to support reanimator and Lazav strategies
+ breathstealer's crypt - test option for stax/reanimator decks
- master of cruelties - better in constructed
- Sarkhan the Mad - acknowledged weak link card in multiplayer edh
- Savageborn Hydra - unfortunate cut, but a super low pick in drafts and frequent cut during deck building
- Arlinn Kord - weak link in my gruul planeswalker section
- Dauntless Escort - redundant effect with selfless spirit
- Armada Wurm - high cmc cut
- vizkopa guildmage - less relevant than expected
- Kaya, Ghost Assassin - under performer
- Saheeli Rai - better in constructed edh
- Epic Experiment - under performed; would need to reevaluate a lot of the cube to ensure that the critical mass of spells is available for this to be a relevant threat card
- Deathreap Ritual - under performer
- Garruk Relentless - weak link golgari planeswalker
- Goblin Trenches - under utilized; pet card
- Slayers' Stronghold - weak link boros card
- Cold-eyed Selkie - under performer
- Mystic Snake - test, may restore eventually
Artifacts and colorless
- Animation Module - recent addition, but cut
- mindcrank - never became as relevant to reanimator decks as I had hoped
- surveyor's scope - too slow and unreliable ramp for non-green decks
- trading post - may restore
- gauntlet of power - too mono colored focused; better in constructed
- deal broker - not worth the slot unfortunately; end of draft deals usually underwhelming
- thopter assembly - high cmc cut
- command beacon - better in a constructed, very commander-centric build
- mirrorpool - under performer
- sea gate wreckage - under performer
- staff of nin - high cmc cut
+ paradox engine - test; will need to see if this becomes oppressive though...
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."