MTG Salvation

MAJOR UPDATE

Bomo's 360:

A lot of my inspiration originally came from TheGeb's 180 Card travel cube, and is definitely worth checking out (here).

Small Cube, Small Budget, No Problem
This cube has had a few iterations to get to its current point, and it’s certainly not done evolving yet. It originally started out as a sleeved up box of Modern Masters. I was able to get a box, but not being a huge modern player and wanting to experience what was apparently one of the best draft environments made by Wizards, I decided to slap the cards in some sleeves. It was fun, but the box I had bought wasn’t terribly powerful (two Dragon Storms… and hardly any dragons…).

From there it evolved into a 180 card travel cube. I liked the idea of keeping the cube small, idealy it meant keeping the budget from going wild and since my play group isn’t huge, it would fit perfectly. The 180 card cube was awesomely fun. It wasn’t balanced well, and certainly had flaws, but it did exactly what my friend and I wanted to do. Have an interesting stack of cards for us to do 2 player drafts from while we drank beer and ate dinner. After a momentary bump to 270, it’s finally settled at 360.

Currently the cube resides in a small travel box that I keep my Standard, Modern, Legacy and EDH decks in:


Driving Vision
This cube's main type of play is Winston and Winchester drafts with one of my friends at a bar. Occasionally it gets drafted with more than that, but the driving goal behind it is to keep it fun for me and the other guy I play with most often.

This means that some cards that many see as an autoinclude have been cut, and many that some people might raise an eyebrow to have been included.

We like our games to be interactive, but blow outs can be fun too just so long as it's not a regular occurrence. Things like Storm and a lot of combo aren't really welcome in the environment we play (plus we only see about 1/4 of the cube each time we draft, so they'd be dead cards more often than not).

With all of that in mind, I am always open to suggestions. I'll definitely listen, and if anyone is curious as to why particular cards are used, feel free to chime in and ask.

Card List:
WW White WW

UU Blue UU

BB Black BB

RR Red RR

GG Green GG

WUBRG Multicolored WUBRG

123 Colorless 321

With the update to a full 360, I've started work on a 180 pauper travel cube. I figure I'm more willing to actually travel with cards that are worth around $50 in total, so I'm making my travel bit in the pauper vein.

Wishlist
Current wish list:

• Liliana of the Veil
  
• Wheel of Fortune
  
• Sword of Fire and Ice
  
• Stoneforge Mystic
  
• Dark Confidant
  
• Gamble
  
• Awakening Zone
  
• Blade Splicer
  
• Sensei's Divining Top
  
• Snapcaster Mage
  
• Mana Confluence
  
• Ancient Tomb
  
• Batterskull
  
• Wurmcoil Engine
  
• Chain Lightning
  
• Wasteland
  
• Sphinx of Jwar Isle
  
• Sundering Titan
  
• Inkwell Leviathan
  

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Man I really appreciate the shout out! I love my 180 cube if for no other reason that a lot of folks said that it was impossible to make a good one ;). We play mine fairly often over a lunch where I work and despite it getting a little more expensive than I intended, it goes on every trip I take with my family.

I think you have a lot of great card choices in here, and the best way to figure out what's working for you is to draft it often. A few cards I love in my 180 that would fit within the budget are:

Primal Command for the flexibility. Cards that do multiple things are critical to the 180 cube.
Mystic Snake it comes into play whenever (flash) and counters a spell to boot.
Nekrataal a great creature with its ETB effect
Skullclamp powerful card that can be used in multiple ways depending on what you need at the time
Reveillark Sun Titan great for reusing ETB effects. These have been super fun in my 180
Phyrexian Metamorph Porcelain Legionnaire are great because they can be cast by anyone in a pinch.
Flametounge Kavu is a solid 4 drop in red that does great duty as a kill spell and a creature.

Anyway just some cards that I like. A 180 cube is a challenge to design with so little space, but for me I have had some of the most fun tweaking this cube over time.

Welcome to the travel cube club!

My friend and I have been drafting it quite a bit. We try to get it in at least once per week and it's been pretty fun. We generally stick with Winston draft (a little modified, in that you can start with any of the 3 piles when starting your choices, rather than having to always look at stack 1 first). It's worked out pretty well, and it's doing one of the things I had hoped it would do, which is help my friend in card evaluation and deck building. It's actually gotten the attention of some of my other friends who play, and I'm actually going to expand it by 90 cards. At 180, it's still draftable by 4 people, but we get up to 6 at time, so I'd like to be able to accommodate everyone, while still keeping it small enough to take places. 270 seems like the sweet spot I'm going to try and hit. Though, I want to keep a 180 list for a mental exercise.

I'll update the list sometime this weekend to reflect the 270 pool I'm working with. Not a lot of notable additions, though I'm going for more elves in Green, since Black and Red both have Zombie and tribal stuff.

One of the things I'm trying to replace is the Sol Ring. It's very good, probably too good for this cube since it outclasses everything by SO much. It's lead to turn 2 Xenagos and other stuff that's just too difficult to recover from.

Updated the original post to the 270 list. It's essentially brand new but it's where I'm going to keep it for the time being (had this list for about 3 weeks, give or take 1 or 2 cards). This will be the platform that I start updating with better cards.

Delver of Secrets and Think Tank are on the chopping block. Delver isn't performing like I'd hoped (understandably so, since most decks that use it effectively have a crap ton of instants and sorceries, this cube doesn't really allow that. Think Tank was just a filler card to try and help Reanimator decks a bit. Though Reanimate itself is performing slightly worse than I'd hoped. These areas will need to be touched up going in, along with the mentioned boosts to red.

Some Recent Changes:

Out---->In
Duskmantle Seer ----> Nightveil Specter
Mogg Flunkies ----> Foundry Street Denizen
Frontline Medic ----> Brimaz, King of Oreskos
Ajani, Caller of the Pride ----> Elspeth, Sun's Champion


Brimaz, King of Oreskos will either replace Frontline Medic or Fiendslayer Paladin. More than likely he'll replace the Paladin, but currently testing without the medic.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion replacing Ajani is a permanent change. Ajani was pretty good in the 270, but Elspeth edges him out just slightly. I could see swapping them out for certain drafters, though I think Elspeth is a more enjoyable card.

Nightveil Specter is being included because one of the people in the play group likes it a lot. It's not a bad card, and it feels like a more playable card than Duskmantle Seer.

Mogg Flunkies was never played, nor has most of Red really (it's still by far the weakest color). Foundry Street Denizen was a recent addition, that I don't expect to push Red to playable, but is still a better card for Red aggro than flunkies was.

Still looking to give Red the push it needs. On the immediate acquire list are Firedrinker Satyr, Goblin Guide, Sulfuric Vortex and Black Vise. Flametongue Kavu is something I'll definitely look into (thanks TheGeb).

Out ----> In
Delver of Secrets ----> Deceiver Exarch
Think Tank ----> Pact of Negation
Rift Bolt ----> Magma Jet

Some big changes happening. Gunna write them here, then I'll put them up in the main thread when it's finished.

WWWhite
Out ---> In
Fencing Ace ---> Isamaru, Hound of Konda
Knight of Glory ---> Kor Skyfisher
True Believer ---> Steppe Lynx
Serene Master ---> Mother of Runes
Luminate Primordial ---> Sun Titan
Heliod, God of the Sun ---> Reveillark
Angel of Serenity ---> Restoration Angel
Darksteel Mutation ---> Mana Tithe
Terminus ---> Balance

I think the most surprising of those changes is removing Terminus. Terminus is an awesome card, but it just wasn't seeing play. I tend to go for Akroma's Vengeance and Wrath of God, simply because they're not as atrocious as second draws, and the cycling of Akroma's Vengeance means it has early game options as well.

UUBlue
Out ---> In
Diluvian Primordial ---> Frost Titan
Talrand's Invocation ---> Phyrexian Metamorph
Dissolve ---> Psionic Blast
Pact of Negation ---> Mystical Tutor

Pretty predictable and explainable choices there. A bit too much counter magic existed, having colorless clone is useful. Titans are more fun than Primordials.

BBBlack
Knight of Infamy ---> Bloodghast
Sepulchral Primordial ---> Grave Titan
Dark Tutelage ---> Demonic Tutor

Dark Tutelage ended with a recent "feel bad" situation of killing it's user. While that's the risk that it's designed for, I don't think the group as players are in a situation that we can play it the way it's meant to. Replaced with Demonic Tutor.

RRRed
This got the most overhaul. A lot of changes here, and it's still being worked with.
Out ---> In
Krenko, Mob Boss ---> Ogre Battledriver
Foundry Street Denizen ---> Firedrinker Satyr
Ember Swallower ---> Goblin Guide
Legion Loyalist ---> Kird Ape
Archetype of Aggression ---> Flametongue Kavu
Reforge the Soul ---> Thundermaw Hellkite
Lava Spike ---> Sulfuric Vortex
Reverberate ---> Grim Lavamancer

Reforge the Soul will most likely be put back in. But it wasn't seeing a lot of play and I needed slots to test the newer red cards.

GGGreen
Out ---> In
Experiment One ---> Thragtusk
Sylvan Primordial ---> Primeval Titan
Garruk, Primal Hunter ---> Garruk Relentless
Naturalize ---> Bramblecrush

Garruk Relentless is a bit of an experiment. He's easier to splash than Primal Hunter, but is weaker. He might come out.

Gold and Colorless are still in the works. I'll have those updates posted shortly, then I'll edit the main post.

Some pretty massive changes. Don't have the time to detal them in a post, but the list in the OP has been updated. Cubetutor also has what's been taken out, so you can find that information there.

Won't have any more massive changes like the last couple. It's settling out right where I like it.

Went ahead and made the bump to 360. Added a lot of cards, took out a lot of cards and have found a spot I like at 360. The next upgrades will be getting the ONS/ZEN fetches and ABU duals. More likely I'll proxy them while I acquire them slowly.

Outside of the Fetches/ABU duals, any recommended upgrades? Comments and Criticism are very welcome!

Small changes recently. First I decided against proxies for the ABU and Fetch lands. I'm going to keep my cube as traditionalist as possible, which means only real cards, no custom errata, and singleton through English card name (though not card effect, for example Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds are both fine).

Second, I made some changes after getting a few cards from Conspiracy/LGS/Modern Event Deck:
Out ---> In
Opportunity--->Stifle
Talrand's Invocation--->Misdirection
Steam Augury--->Dack Fayden
Falkenrath Aristocrat--->Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
Prophet of Kruphix--->Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Myr Sire--->Basalt Monolith
Grafted Wargear--->Sword of Feast and Famine

Stifle is the card most likely to be swapped back. While Opportunity was a great card, it was lacking a bit behind the creatures that can draw cards (Lu Xun and any of the looters) in terms of being main decked. Though I'm also a bit iffy on Stifle being extremely useful without Fetches.

Still no pictures, they're to come. I'll also be making a thread for my [180] Peasant Travel Cube eventually, but it's still being developed.

As always, comments questions and criticism are very welcome

Some more changes today:

Out ---> In
Fettergeist ---> Capsize
Foil---> Compulsive Research
Izzet Charm---> Dack's Duplicate
Swiftfoot Boots---> Worn Powerstone
Olivia Voldaren---> Falkenrath Aristocrat
Thespian's Stage---> Thawing Glaciers
Hound of Griselbrand---> Hero of Oxid Ridge
Elvish Archdruid---> Sakura-Tribe Elder

Went to my LGS and found a couple cards for fairly cheap. I'm a bit sad to see Fettergeist go, but it hasn't been pulling its weight recently, and I'd like to give Capsize a shot. Elvish Archdruid is another card that I had hoped to push with more elves, but it just wasn't working at all. Hound of Griselbrand, while an awesome sword carrier, tended to be kinda bleh on its own. Hero of Oxid Ridge should be a great replacement.