Oath of Druids (odd card to put here, but storm actually makes use of this card extremely well, you can go get a giant fatty against aggro such as Wurmcoil Engine or Sphinx of the Steel Wind for life gain, Palinchron to set up a kill, you can play an Eldrazi as a secondary strategy if your deck can produce a ridiculous amount of mana, -- it also fills up the graveyard for big Yawgmoth's Wills, works very well with Past in Flames and Recoup when you have a ton of mana, and is also an interesting strategy on its own -- if you are thinking about supporting storm in your cube, definitely try Oath of Druids)
360 powered storm.dec may be improved by adding these cards: Bubbling Muck - I'll be keeping track of how much mana Bubbling Muck would produce while going off. If it's high enough, it may warrant testing. This only needs two untapped swamps after this resolves to be a Dark Ritual. Desperate Ritual - I'm adding some arcane cards to the cube in the next update (Through the Breach, Ideas Unbound), and I already have Kodama's Reach and something else that I can't remember off the top of my head. Adding a +1 mana ritual can make Yawgmoth's Will and Past in Flames slightly better, so I'm okay with adding one and seeing how it goes. Doomsday - I just thought of this card so I'm putting it here to do some research later. Truth be told, I have no idea if this is cubeable or not. Probably not, but whatever imma explore this option. Exploration - Fastbond has been absolutely incredible for us. Exploration is significantly worse, but may warrant testing. Gush - Gush combos extremely well with Fastbond, and is decent with Oracle of Mul Daya. Other than that, I'm not excited by the card. It's very high risk - high reward. Cutting a blue card for it would be the real big issue, I just don't see that happening at this point. Guttersnipe - I've held off testing this guy for a bit. Storm really needs a critical mass of mana, draw, tutoring and ways to replay all three. Guttersnipe helps with storm count because it deals damage as you're going through the motions, but most of the time I'd rather just have another card that makes mana or draws cards. The nice thing about Guttersnipe is he can go into multiple decks, so he may warrant testing. High Tide - I'll be keeping track of how much mana High Tide would produce while going off. If it's high enough, it may warrant testing. This only needs two untapped Islands when this resolves to be as good as a Dark Ritual on mana production. Ideas Unbound - This card may be good. It's a two mana draw 3, which is great, and helps with reanimator substrategies. It's also arcane, so I may be able to include Desperate Ritual if I have this and Kodama's Reach in. Ill-Gotten Gains - It's possible this card is good enough. Black Lotus, Lion's Eye Diamond, Storm spells in general, and Mind's Desire make me really tempted to try this out. This will likely be added soon. Null Profusion - This card may be good enough to warrant testing. The problem I have with it is it is a six mana enchantment that does not assure victory the same turn you play it or the one after. That being said, it's pretty sweet and other than getting jammed up on lands, it could create some very beastly plays, particularly with Fastbond. Merchant Scroll - It's a tutor for Frantic Search mostly. Also works well with Ancestral Recall, Mystical Tutor, Fact or Fiction, and Gifts Ungiven, as well as maybe some other stuff I'm not thinking of right now. Just putting this up so I remember to test it. Omniscience - This can get into play via Show and Tell (sweet), Academy Rector (sweet), Shelldock Isle (do-able), Dream Halls (do-able but somewhat redundant), Mind's Desire (do-able but meh), and ramping (difficult). I may try this card because I'm crazy like a cat and that's why they call me Whiskers. Subnote: This makes infinite storm and colorless mana with Grinning Ignus. Recycle - See Null Profusion above. Replenish - I'm going to start testing Replenish. Not sure what to cut for it yet. It's very good with Gifts Ungiven and now that we run Personal Tutor in addition to all the ones more powerful than it, we may be able to build a deck featuring Replenish as a comborific win condition. We're adding in Omniscience next round too, so if you discard Omniscience in the first three mana (very do-able) you'll be able to Replenish it back once you hit 3W and then cast everything else in your hand. Obviously very good with Necropotence, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Mirari's Wake, Mana Reflection, Dream Halls, Control Magic, Treachery, Cadaverous Bloom and Pernicious Deed). It's also good with enchantments if they get discarded via an enemy Hymn to Tourach or disenchanted too. Getting back an Oblivion Ring/Banishing Light, Faith's Fetters, Moat, Sylvan Library, Fastbond, Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Overgrowth, Survival of the Fittest or Bitterblossom is decent. It's particularly relevant in reanimator where enchantment destruction is boarded in against you. Even getting back a Sneak Attack can be sweet. I don't know how many decks that play those cards will want to play Replenish too -- I think it will be at its best in storm. I know a lot of cube managers don't cube with some of the cards we do that are amazing with Rector or Replenish, like Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necropotence, Mirari's Wake, or Mana Reflection, but a lot of people play enchantments that we don't (Journey to Nowhere, Detention Sphere, Spear of Heliod, and Seal of Cleansing off the top of my head) that might give Replenish some value in their eyes. I'll report back with some testing reports after Friday where I'll try to get a few drafts together and seed Replenish and draft it myself. Rift Bolt - It's efficient and gives an extra storm, but I'm not sure how many storm decks would actually play this card. If we added it, it may get played in mono-red or boros/rakdos aggro, but it would be a subpar option for all those decks. Snap - With the addition of some mana-ramping enchantments (Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Overgrowth) this card may be good enough to test as it can be replayed off of Yawgmoth's Will and has some other interesting applications. I'd have to cut a blue card for it though which is basically impossible. Summer Bloom - Like Exploration, this card may be worth it. May warrant testing. Wheel of Fate - It's slow. That being said, it does help with Storm, and is castable off Mind's Desire, Dream Halls, and Shelldock Isle. May warrant testing.
Cards that support storm that we DO NOT use: Ad Nauseam - Although we haven't tested this card, most of our storm kills work via untapping enhanced lands, which makes our average converted mana cost very large. Cloud of Faeries - Not enough bang for the buck. Producing two mana (with a land doubler) can be excellent, but we'd have to cut one of our blue cards for this, and I just don't see that happening. The fact that it plays as a ritual which cannot be re-cast off of Past in Flames or Yawgmoth's Will is the nail in the coffin. Demonic Consultation - I'm not sure I would play this even if it didn't exile 6 right off the top. This is the riskiest potentially amazing card you can play in storm. Diminishing Returns - Exiling the top 10 cards of your library is pretty terrible. Unless you have 3 win conditions, I wouldn't even think about playing this, and I rarely play 3 win conditions in a storm deck. Gauntlet of Might - Only affects mountains and is terrible against mono-red. Straight pass. Ignite Memories - We played with this card for about two weeks (about ~10ish total decks were made with the card). For whatever random reason, we actually saw Ignite a lot as our primary and only kill condition in most of the decks it was played in. While it did accomplish a kill or two, it is extremely unpredictable and a very bad win condition compared to most of the other things we've tested. I actually stormed for 15 then cast Ignite (16 total copies) and couldn't manage to bring my opponent below 8 life because Time Spiral filled his hand with lands (his exact hand was 3x lands, Black Lotus, two 3 mana spells and a Skullclamp). The card has a bad relationship with draw-7s. I've cut it because it was very underwhelming. I wouldn't be opposed to testing it again in the future, but we are much happier with Grapeshot for the time being. Infernal Tutor - This card is horrible in cube, as hellbent is an absolute requirement for it being cast. It's great with Lion's Eye Diamond but horrible without it. I will not cut a black card that is decent in multiple archetypes to get a subpar card for one archetype, but if you are running literally every card that can be good in storm, this one I guess makes the list. Peer Through Depths - I often need a mana producing enchantment to start storming off. This is unimpressive. Reset - If this was able to be played on my turn, it may be good enough to test. As is, this card is unimpressive. Serum Visions - I would play this at a larger cube size, but at 360 we cannot afford a blue cut for another one mana manipulation cantrip. Sleight of Hand - See Serum Visions above. Turnabout - This card does not have many functions except in storm, and blue cards are the hardest ones to cut. Rude Awakening has another mode that can be played in green ramp. Pristine Talisman - The extra life provided each turn can be relevant, but we would have to cut an artifact for this. We just don't have room. Vernal Bloom - 3G for a mana doubler is great, but unfortunately this only affects forests.
Any ritual or one-time use effect that produces only one mana (Rite of Flame, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, etc) is not good enough. +1 mana rituals that can be replayed off of Yawgmoth's Will are decent in storm, but really bad in other decks and I'm not cutting cards to make room for them. Desperate Ritual may be a small exception because of the Splice-Onto-Arcane clause, I'll be testing that soon to see if it's good enough.
If you know a great storm card that isn't in my cube or on the list above, please let me know!
I may have overlooked a very cubable storm card and would love to make the archetype better!
This list is just so I don't forget what I'm doing, but feel free to enjoy.
We always toss cards in and out and recently its been all 2-mans so we don't have a set list, but a card that is way better than Necropotence is Necro-Impotence. You probably aren't using UN-cards but I keep singing the card's praises because its probably the second best black card in Cube behind only Contract from Below. Yet everyone thinks its bad! Its like Ad Nauseam but for your whole deck on a one turn delay.
On a side note, I agree with most of the cards you don't play. I think that the perception that you have to play bad/inferior cards is much greater than the reality. I actually think Storm HELPS Cubes in this regard because otherwise you have cards filling the same slots that are technically "good" but everybody knows they are going 13-15th. So why not replace them with strategy specific cards that are likely to be valued by at least one drafter?
Gitaxan Probe has been very usefull here in our spells matter and storm based decks. It also sees random play in other decks that don't mind the 2 damage.
KBH - If we ever add un-cards, I for sure will cube with Necro-Impotence. Thanks for the recommendation.
Hicham - How high is Probe drafted on average, and what specific deck archetypes utilize it other than Storm? I haven't even considered Probe as I figured it would only find a home in storm, and it may not even make the cut many times.
Your Cube is making me want to force my brother to sit down and write up our best list. We sub cards in and out constantly and when other kids play they always want us to throw in stuff as well. But we normally only proxy tons of cards in our test games so some of our results are a bit disjointed. It might help us to actually have a set starting point.
But sometimes we like having Un-set cards and sometimes they are just horribly tiresome.
We're both the creative but totally disorganized types (touch of ASD) so its extra difficult for us.
Anyway, I'm really interested in how our Cube would compare to yours because we'd have to make the tough choices rather than just having a bunch of cards in a nebulous state of sometimes in/sometimes not.
Of course, it also depends on how we're feeling about various strategies at a given moment. When we're having fun playing friends, the blowout loses aren't so bad. But man do I get pissed playing the mtgo cube and losing to turn 2 Channel-->Emrakul/turn 3 Channel-->Emrakul.
The modo losses might be frustrating because you have a small amount of money on the line. We really love blowouts, it's part of the reason we play a powered 360.
I'm going to type up the list I'm working with right now tonight.
I'll update this thread so you can see everything we're working with!
Have you ever put the Kiki package in? Pestermite isn't the worst card since blue tempo can have some pretty subpar creatures in it and still be quite the force. Kiki-Jiji is popular in our drafts but we don't always put him in just because if he isn't well supported whoever gets him will be massively disappointed.
Have you ever put the Kiki package in? Pestermite isn't the worst card since blue tempo can have some pretty subpar creatures in it and still be quite the force. Kiki-Jiji is popular in our drafts but we don't always put him in just because if he isn't well supported whoever gets him will be massively disappointed.
Our playgroup doesn't think it's worth testing. Here are the cards we'd test if we wanted to go with that package:
We already have Restoration Angel in, so Kiki would already combo with her.
The problem is the only cards that really do anything on their own are Kiki-Jiki and Pestermite. Pestermite is only really good in a blue tempo deck -- but we don't utilize that strategy.
So we'd be removing cards for other archetypes to support a combo deck that only has cards that work for that combo. I actually don't mind that at all, but my playgroup thinks we have enough combos in the cube as is.
I'd honestly like to test it out soon.
I'd definitely run this package at 450 powered or unpowered, but the cuts we have to make for any of these cards are really difficult at powered 360.
EDIT: The red cards aren't incredibly difficult to cut for that package, but as for blue cuts, I'd have to cut Remand and probably Venser, Shaper Savant. Not too sure I want to be adding Exarch and Pestermite for those cards, but maybe.
DOUBLE EDIT: I'm actually gonna make those changes and see how my playgroup reacts. I want less counterspells anyway so storm is better and controlling blue decks are a little weaker.
Updated the OP cube post with the current cube we're playing with.
I cut a guild card from each section to free up some room for the conspiracies. I had figured I would cut a card from the monocolored sections, but that proved extremely difficult. I'm not sure what I want to do here in the near future, as many of the guild cards I cut were awesome.
I personally don't think Kiki-Jiki does that much by his lonesome, most of the time he is just a harder to cast Splinter Twin
Our playgroup loves two card combos in cube decks. We're a bunch of guys that love living the dream. Kiki-Jiki does enough with other things that I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm not gung-ho on the twin combo because it takes up 4 cards in the draft list.
Time Vault only takes up one spot and combos with two cards already in the cube (Tezzeret the Seeker and Ral Zarek). I've kept Voltaic Key in because it produces mana with many "big" artifacts in the cube (Grim Monolith, Everflowing Chalice, Coalition Relic, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Basalt Monolith, Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo) as well as fixes mana with moxes. It also has some odd but sweet applications (Sensei's Divining Top, Winter Orb, Isochron Scepter, untapping Wurmcoil Engine, Myr Battlesphere, Sundering Titan).
Our storm decks love playing Vault + Key as a result of all these interesting little interactions between all the cards, and the fact that it only takes two slots away from their deck.
Compared to Time Vault and Voltaic Key, Twin pieces take up a disproportionately large amount of the cube while providing cards that aren't spectacular with the rest of it. I want to test it, but if Twin is as good as I expect, it will likely be cut in a week or two. Still, fun to test!
I want to try out Champion of the Parish. Always interested in more potentially great one drops. Cloistered Youth is a 3/3 for 1W that is also a human that will make Champion better. Mentor of the Meek is a card that may give a bit of card advantage to the white weenie deck, plus is another human for Champion.
With the addition of Council's Judgment, Journey has gotten redundant. I'm running a lot of ways to get rid of creatures in white. Soltari Priest is a great creature, but I'm trying to remove all the WW guys from the cube and Cloistered Youth is sometimes better, sometimes worse. Flickerwisp is an awesome card, but we don't have a lot of the blink-archetype cards that a lot of other people run.
Deep Analysis (and all flashback spells) got a big boost with the addition of conspiracies, so I want to get the card back in. Thirst for Knowledge has probably seen its last day in the cube with the re-addition of Bazaar of Baghdad (it largely served as a draw spell combined with discard outlet). Deep Analysis actually combos very well with Bazaar and other looting type effects for the decks that want it. Thirst was never great as a replay off of Yawgmoth's Will or Past in Flames, so it usually didn't make the cut in storm.
If Deep Analysis isn't as good as we expect it to be, we'll start using Gifts Ungiven instead (which honestly might make it in over something else soon).
Cutting any blue card makes me feel like I've made a grave mistake.
Dance of the Dead will help reanimator, which hasn't seen a ton of play recently (a lot of these additions are to help that deck). I want to move away from black controlling decks and Diabolic Edict saw more play in controlling decks than in aggro decks. Black cuts are difficult.
Imperial Recruiter combos very well with Kiki-Jiki, Deciever Exarch, and Pestermite, but also has other applications. Searing Spear is just the 3rd redundant Incinerate. I'd rather have other more interesting stuff in it's place. Grapeshot is a card we tested and didn't like very much, but storm has gotten better since the last time we used it. Ignite Memories has been very underwhelming for us, so we'll make that switch and see which one we like more.
Hunting Pack is another possible storm kill I passed over. When storm goes off, producing 7 mana for the kill isn't necessarily super difficult to do, and it has the upside of being good with only a few storm generated as opposed to needing 5-8 storm to be valuable. Tooth and Nail has consistently been our worst green ramp card and has been boarded in that strategy more than it has been maindecked.
I would like to find another green fatty worth playing for Natural Order, Ramp, Reanimator, and Oath of Druids. Our playgroup doesn't like Hornet Queen as we don't feel like it does enough (and we already run and enjoy Avenger of Zendikar more). It's great in Recurring Nightmare decks, though. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger may be a better fit for my playgroup.
I just wish there were something else universally appreciated like Terastodon and Woodfall Primus.
Bazaar is a favorite for my playgroup and they've been petitioning me to put it back in for some time. It's really only good in reanimator, but it's an all-star in that deck and definitely a reason to keep your eye out for the deck. Gaea's Cradle is simply a test to see if it can produce a good amount of mana for ramp or any other strategy willing to give it a go. Ancient Tomb is pretty good, but we don't really need the card in a lot of our combo decks (we have a lot of life loss and mana acceleration in them already). Everflowing Chalice is the worst mana artifact in the cube so it's a fine cut for Cradle.
Hornet Queen does better than Avenger in a lot of boards, and especially in the early game when land counts are low. If you're trying to push reanimator (I see the Dance coming in) it may give you more value than it did previously. It can also be targeted by Imperial Recruiter (which you also just brought in) making it a prime target for Sneak Attack shenanigans and the like. I'd recommend giving her another go, especially with the newly added support that makes her better.
I agree about Hornet Queen - I like it a lot more than the Avenger.
Not sure on Hunting Pack. 7 mana is a huge amount for a storm kill card, no? Mind you, I have little experience with the deck.
Bazaar is niche support unplayable in nearly every other deck as you say, but you're obviously OK with that, and it's certainly the nuts in its deck. My thoughts on Gaea's Cradle are pretty well known, it's been in and out my cube for ages now. It's wildly unpredictable. It could be great against Storm where the deck doesn't interact with your creatures too much.
I like the other changes, but I think Mentor of the Meek is just too low powered. Flickerwisp is an efficient flying beater and supports blink.dec if you want, and generally gives some random value on most boards. I think it's one of the best white three drops in a very good selection.
Nice list though! Supporting Storm takes a lot of space and cuts look even tougher than in my cube.
Hornet Queen does better than Avenger in a lot of boards, and especially in the early game when land counts are low. If you're trying to push reanimator (I see the Dance coming in) it may give you more value than it did previously. It can also be targeted by Imperial Recruiter (which you also just brought in) making it a prime target for Sneak Attack shenanigans and the like. I'd recommend giving her another go, especially with the newly added support that makes her better.
I may have to try her again, hopefully my playgroup gives her some maindeck play!
I agree about Hornet Queen - I like it a lot more than the Avenger.
Not sure on Hunting Pack. 7 mana is a huge amount for a storm kill card, no? Mind you, I have little experience with the deck.
It's really not that bad. We run a lot of mana doublers (Mirari's Wake and crew). I like that you don't have to cast many spells before it to get huge value. We'll see how it goes.
Bazaar is niche support unplayable in nearly every other deck as you say, but you're obviously OK with that, and it's certainly the nuts in its deck. My thoughts on Gaea's Cradle are pretty well known, it's been in and out my cube for ages now. It's wildly unpredictable. It could be great against Storm where the deck doesn't interact with your creatures too much.
I like the other changes, but I think Mentor of the Meek is just too low powered. Flickerwisp is an efficient flying beater and supports blink.dec if you want, and generally gives some random value on most boards. I think it's one of the best white three drops in a very good selection.
We'll see how he does!
Nice list though! Supporting Storm takes a lot of space and cuts look even tougher than in my cube.
What about Epic Experiments. I had a casual storm deck that included that and with reforge the soul, past in flames, and friends;it was awesome as long as I could get big mana, which is what your cube has in spades. While it was alwqays to niche for my cube I think it may serve you better than one of the 2 izzet planeswalkers.
And no grapeshot? It was too low impact for me but it seems like it could be great as it could go in your hyper aggro decks, burn only decks, and the storm.
Epic Experiments is a card we hadn't considered! I may have to try it out!
We put Grapeshot in recently. It's done a good bit more work for us than the last time we played it and we're excited to keep it in over Ignite Memories, at least for now.
Deep Analysis was good, as expected. I'm going to try out Gifts Ungiven in its place to see which one we prefer. Gifts helps reanimator a bit more, and is about the same with combo. We're adding in Recoup in this round, so Gifts will have a fun toy to play with in combo. We'll see how it goes.
I'd like to test Entomb to specifically encourage reanimator. Black aggro has been great, it doesn't need Duress. Grim Tutor is merely a test, I thought Vampire Hexmage would be a good cut just to see how it goes. Black cuts are very, very difficult.
Reckless Waif has been just okay for us, I'm excited to see Gorilla Shaman in its place. Ignite Memories is by far the worst storm kill we've ever tested. Testing Storm Entity in its place, I don't have high hopes but maybe it's a beast. Recoup needed in for testing purposes, Burst Lightning seemed like the best cut.
The mana-ramp enchantments will help storm a bit while keeping ramp on-par. Oath of Druids gets significantly better with this change. Garruk Relentless and Scavenging Ooze cuts were very difficult to make, but we're moving away from green aggro and mid-range into just ramp and combo. My playgroup has been petitioning for this change for some time. The Ooze cut was particularly brutal. We're testing Omnath to see if he can help both ramp and storm, we know he's bad against burn but we're willing to play high risk/reward cards. Avenger for Hornet Queen is a like-for-like swap recommended here, excited to test it.
There is a lot of redundancy with Detention Sphere effects in the cube right now, looking to move away from that effect to make Oblivion Ring and crew more valuable for azorius drafters. Sphinx's Revelation is a unique effect that also helps storm.
Green aggro is dead in our cube. Red aggro has very little reason to splash for green other than BBE, I'm adding in Xenagos to encourage more planeswalker control decks as well as giving the green ramp deck an additional ramping option.
This is just a test. Cadaverous Bloom is extremely strong in storm and may be better in the ramp deck as well. Instead of cutting pulse, I may want to craft a storm section and cut some colorless cards. I'm not sure what I want to do with the guilds and colorless section permanently quite yet.
Lotus Bloom was added as a high risk/reward card for combo. It was terrible the vast majority of the time. Gaea's Cradle was not awesome for us, and since we're taking out the mana elves it will get worse. May test it again in the future. Ankh of Mishra is actually very good in our cube, but we want to hinder aggro a little bit since it's been winning a plurality of the drafts, and it can be oppressive to both the ramp and combo decks. Æther Searcher has been getting rave reviews, so we're excited to test him out. Mox Opal is getting tested as a potential replacement for Lotus Bloom. A few players in my playgroup really wanted Scroll Rack back, so I found a way and we'll see how it goes.
I never liked Gifts Ungiven in cube. It's wonderfully powerful in constructed since you can just take away all of your opponents options, but it's a little harder to do in cube (though still possible). Personally, I think Deep Analysis is the better card.
Storm Entity looks awesome actually. That is going to be broken in a storm deck. Nice find. I don't like the cut of Burst Lightning though. It's just a really good card that is great in any red deck.
Man I dislike Hornet Queen (but from a flavor perspective). It's a powerful card.
Ouch on losing Bloodbraid. That's a card that helps your storm count and it's good in pretty much any RG deck.
Looking forward to your Storm primer. I really want to get some flavor of it in my cube, but I never have 8 drafters so I'm not convinced I can do it without doing more harm than good. Your spin on storm though (including it with ramp/big mana strategies) seems more flexible so I'm intrigued. I've not seen anyone successfully integrate storm in a non-poisonous way, but I still hold out hope that it can actually be done because I'm a big fan of combo in general.
Gifts Ungiven is actually great in Reanimator -- it's essentially an instant speed 3UBuried Alive that gets two guys instead of three. The knock against it there is the 1 mana more, not the fact it only gets two guys. Here are some cool reanimator Gifts piles:
1. Terastodon / Woodfall Primus (if you need guys in the yard to reanimate, you just get two things and they have to put both of them in the yard)
2. Animate Dead / Dance of the Dead / Reanimate / Regrowth (substitute a random card or take one out for any of these)
3. Animate Dead / Exhume / Random Fatty / Tinker
4. Animate Dead / Fatty / Fatty #2 / Frantic Search (perhaps you have a reanimation spell in hand)
The possibilities are endless. It also has other applications in various combo decks. Some of the piles you can make with it are super interesting, here are some examples without interesting board states: (interesting board states make Gifts even more interesting)
1. Recoup / Regrowth / Yawgmoth's Will / Time Vault (opponent has to think if you have Voltaic Key in hand)
2. Dark Ritual / Cabal Ritual / Black Lotus / Seething Song (imagine having a Yawgmoth's Will and tutor in hand or Time Spiral)
3. Vampiric Tutor / Demonic Tutor / Mystical Tutor / Dark Ritual (imagine having a Time Spiral in hand)
4. Recoup / Yawgmoth's Will / Mana card / Mana card (this sets up a powerful Yawgmoth's Will no matter what)
5. Kiki-Jiki / Animate Dead / Pestermite / Regrowth (if you have a piece in hand you can do some odd things to get your opponent)
Gifts is very hand and board dependant, so it's a very odd card to kind of petition for in an abstract manner. Deep Analysis was very good for us though, so I definitely want to get it back in there, I just have no idea what I'd cut for it.
Bloodbraid Elf was never played in our storm decks, four mana for a largely irrelevant spell and a random something (which can actually hurt you -- imagine Bloodbraid Elf into Yawgmoth's Will!) just doesn't do enough to get played in that deck. We're excited to try Xenagos as it's replacement for now.
The storm primer will likely be done by sometime tonight, I'm excited you're excited for it, haha!
I tend to play mostly UB reanimator and I usually need reanimation spells or answers not fatties (and those generally need to go in my hand). So unless I'm running unburial rites or I have enough dudes in play to trigger the flashback on dread return, I find Gifts Ungiven just doesn't get me what I want where I want it often enough. You cited some cool examples though and I often forget I don't have to get 4 cards (especially nice if you want to force the graveyard on specific cards). Still, I'd rather just have a spell that digs and nets me CA without needing the right card combinations to get super value. Again, in constructed this card it completely ridiculous. But it's a little harder to break in cube.
I'm considering removing all the two-card combos from the cube to see how it goes.
All the Splinter Twin pieces are likely to get cut soon. They do very little in other decks and our players have not enjoyed drafting them or playing with them. I'm going to give them another chance tonight, but we may see some cuts happening soon.
If I do decide to cut them, these will likely be the changes:
I want to try Future Sight. Our cube may be a great playground for the card and I know a lot of players who love it. Deep Analysis was great the last time we tested it, so that's an easy inclusion.
I'm not sure what I would bring in quite yet, and our players do like Time Vault / Key, but it may be hurting storm more than help it. Our players will take Time Vault very early and then draft every draw 7 and tutor they can get their hands on without committing to storm.
Semi-Broken Artifact Mana: (we run all the super-broken artifact mana too)
Rituals:
Lands:
Land Enhancements Enchantments:
Land Untappers:
Suspend cards and storm count help:
Assorted broken cards and storm-support help cards that may not be found in a 'normal' powered 360:
Conspiracies and draft-altering cards that help storm:
- Advantageous Proclamation
- Backup Plan
- Brago’s Favor
- Cogwork Librarian
- Deal Broker
- Double Stroke
- Iterative Analysis
- Lore Seeker
- Power Play
- Unexpected Potential
We also play Time Vault combo with Voltaic Key/Tezzeret the Seeker/Ral Zarek, so we value the draw 7s and card search like Impulse pretty highly around here.CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
Bubbling Muck - I'll be keeping track of how much mana Bubbling Muck would produce while going off. If it's high enough, it may warrant testing. This only needs two untapped swamps after this resolves to be a Dark Ritual.
Desperate Ritual - I'm adding some arcane cards to the cube in the next update (Through the Breach, Ideas Unbound), and I already have Kodama's Reach and something else that I can't remember off the top of my head. Adding a +1 mana ritual can make Yawgmoth's Will and Past in Flames slightly better, so I'm okay with adding one and seeing how it goes.
Doomsday - I just thought of this card so I'm putting it here to do some research later. Truth be told, I have no idea if this is cubeable or not. Probably not, but whatever imma explore this option.
Exploration - Fastbond has been absolutely incredible for us. Exploration is significantly worse, but may warrant testing.
Gush - Gush combos extremely well with Fastbond, and is decent with Oracle of Mul Daya. Other than that, I'm not excited by the card. It's very high risk - high reward. Cutting a blue card for it would be the real big issue, I just don't see that happening at this point.
Guttersnipe - I've held off testing this guy for a bit. Storm really needs a critical mass of mana, draw, tutoring and ways to replay all three. Guttersnipe helps with storm count because it deals damage as you're going through the motions, but most of the time I'd rather just have another card that makes mana or draws cards. The nice thing about Guttersnipe is he can go into multiple decks, so he may warrant testing.
High Tide - I'll be keeping track of how much mana High Tide would produce while going off. If it's high enough, it may warrant testing. This only needs two untapped Islands when this resolves to be as good as a Dark Ritual on mana production.
Ideas Unbound - This card may be good. It's a two mana draw 3, which is great, and helps with reanimator substrategies. It's also arcane, so I may be able to include Desperate Ritual if I have this and Kodama's Reach in.
Ill-Gotten Gains - It's possible this card is good enough. Black Lotus, Lion's Eye Diamond, Storm spells in general, and Mind's Desire make me really tempted to try this out. This will likely be added soon.
Null Profusion - This card may be good enough to warrant testing. The problem I have with it is it is a six mana enchantment that does not assure victory the same turn you play it or the one after. That being said, it's pretty sweet and other than getting jammed up on lands, it could create some very beastly plays, particularly with Fastbond.
Merchant Scroll - It's a tutor for Frantic Search mostly. Also works well with Ancestral Recall, Mystical Tutor, Fact or Fiction, and Gifts Ungiven, as well as maybe some other stuff I'm not thinking of right now. Just putting this up so I remember to test it.
Omniscience - This can get into play via Show and Tell (sweet), Academy Rector (sweet), Shelldock Isle (do-able), Dream Halls (do-able but somewhat redundant), Mind's Desire (do-able but meh), and ramping (difficult). I may try this card because I'm crazy like a cat and that's why they call me Whiskers. Subnote: This makes infinite storm and colorless mana with Grinning Ignus.
Recycle - See Null Profusion above.
Replenish - I'm going to start testing Replenish. Not sure what to cut for it yet. It's very good with Gifts Ungiven and now that we run Personal Tutor in addition to all the ones more powerful than it, we may be able to build a deck featuring Replenish as a comborific win condition. We're adding in Omniscience next round too, so if you discard Omniscience in the first three mana (very do-able) you'll be able to Replenish it back once you hit 3W and then cast everything else in your hand. Obviously very good with Necropotence, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Mirari's Wake, Mana Reflection, Dream Halls, Control Magic, Treachery, Cadaverous Bloom and Pernicious Deed). It's also good with enchantments if they get discarded via an enemy Hymn to Tourach or disenchanted too. Getting back an Oblivion Ring/Banishing Light, Faith's Fetters, Moat, Sylvan Library, Fastbond, Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Overgrowth, Survival of the Fittest or Bitterblossom is decent. It's particularly relevant in reanimator where enchantment destruction is boarded in against you. Even getting back a Sneak Attack can be sweet. I don't know how many decks that play those cards will want to play Replenish too -- I think it will be at its best in storm. I know a lot of cube managers don't cube with some of the cards we do that are amazing with Rector or Replenish, like Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necropotence, Mirari's Wake, or Mana Reflection, but a lot of people play enchantments that we don't (Journey to Nowhere, Detention Sphere, Spear of Heliod, and Seal of Cleansing off the top of my head) that might give Replenish some value in their eyes. I'll report back with some testing reports after Friday where I'll try to get a few drafts together and seed Replenish and draft it myself.
Rift Bolt - It's efficient and gives an extra storm, but I'm not sure how many storm decks would actually play this card. If we added it, it may get played in mono-red or boros/rakdos aggro, but it would be a subpar option for all those decks.
Snap - With the addition of some mana-ramping enchantments (Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Overgrowth) this card may be good enough to test as it can be replayed off of Yawgmoth's Will and has some other interesting applications. I'd have to cut a blue card for it though which is basically impossible.
Summer Bloom - Like Exploration, this card may be worth it. May warrant testing.
Wheel of Fate - It's slow. That being said, it does help with Storm, and is castable off Mind's Desire, Dream Halls, and Shelldock Isle. May warrant testing.
Ad Nauseam - Although we haven't tested this card, most of our storm kills work via untapping enhanced lands, which makes our average converted mana cost very large.
Cloud of Faeries - Not enough bang for the buck. Producing two mana (with a land doubler) can be excellent, but we'd have to cut one of our blue cards for this, and I just don't see that happening. The fact that it plays as a ritual which cannot be re-cast off of Past in Flames or Yawgmoth's Will is the nail in the coffin.
Demonic Consultation - I'm not sure I would play this even if it didn't exile 6 right off the top. This is the riskiest potentially amazing card you can play in storm.
Diminishing Returns - Exiling the top 10 cards of your library is pretty terrible. Unless you have 3 win conditions, I wouldn't even think about playing this, and I rarely play 3 win conditions in a storm deck.
Gauntlet of Might - Only affects mountains and is terrible against mono-red. Straight pass.
Ignite Memories - We played with this card for about two weeks (about ~10ish total decks were made with the card). For whatever random reason, we actually saw Ignite a lot as our primary and only kill condition in most of the decks it was played in. While it did accomplish a kill or two, it is extremely unpredictable and a very bad win condition compared to most of the other things we've tested. I actually stormed for 15 then cast Ignite (16 total copies) and couldn't manage to bring my opponent below 8 life because Time Spiral filled his hand with lands (his exact hand was 3x lands, Black Lotus, two 3 mana spells and a Skullclamp). The card has a bad relationship with draw-7s. I've cut it because it was very underwhelming. I wouldn't be opposed to testing it again in the future, but we are much happier with Grapeshot for the time being.
Infernal Tutor - This card is horrible in cube, as hellbent is an absolute requirement for it being cast. It's great with Lion's Eye Diamond but horrible without it. I will not cut a black card that is decent in multiple archetypes to get a subpar card for one archetype, but if you are running literally every card that can be good in storm, this one I guess makes the list.
Peer Through Depths - I often need a mana producing enchantment to start storming off. This is unimpressive.
Reset - If this was able to be played on my turn, it may be good enough to test. As is, this card is unimpressive.
Serum Visions - I would play this at a larger cube size, but at 360 we cannot afford a blue cut for another one mana manipulation cantrip.
Sleight of Hand - See Serum Visions above.
Turnabout - This card does not have many functions except in storm, and blue cards are the hardest ones to cut. Rude Awakening has another mode that can be played in green ramp.
Pristine Talisman - The extra life provided each turn can be relevant, but we would have to cut an artifact for this. We just don't have room.
Vernal Bloom - 3G for a mana doubler is great, but unfortunately this only affects forests.
Any ritual or one-time use effect that produces only one mana (Rite of Flame, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, etc) is not good enough. +1 mana rituals that can be replayed off of Yawgmoth's Will are decent in storm, but really bad in other decks and I'm not cutting cards to make room for them. Desperate Ritual may be a small exception because of the Splice-Onto-Arcane clause, I'll be testing that soon to see if it's good enough.
I may have overlooked a very cubable storm card and would love to make the archetype better!
This list is just so I don't forget what I'm doing, but feel free to enjoy.
maybe Idylic Tutor
maybe Pelakka Wurm
maybe Soul of New Phyrexia
maybe 1U 5/5 artifact card I forget the name
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
On a side note, I agree with most of the cards you don't play. I think that the perception that you have to play bad/inferior cards is much greater than the reality. I actually think Storm HELPS Cubes in this regard because otherwise you have cards filling the same slots that are technically "good" but everybody knows they are going 13-15th. So why not replace them with strategy specific cards that are likely to be valued by at least one drafter?
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
Hicham - How high is Probe drafted on average, and what specific deck archetypes utilize it other than Storm? I haven't even considered Probe as I figured it would only find a home in storm, and it may not even make the cut many times.
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
But sometimes we like having Un-set cards and sometimes they are just horribly tiresome.
We're both the creative but totally disorganized types (touch of ASD) so its extra difficult for us.
Anyway, I'm really interested in how our Cube would compare to yours because we'd have to make the tough choices rather than just having a bunch of cards in a nebulous state of sometimes in/sometimes not.
Of course, it also depends on how we're feeling about various strategies at a given moment. When we're having fun playing friends, the blowout loses aren't so bad. But man do I get pissed playing the mtgo cube and losing to turn 2 Channel-->Emrakul/turn 3 Channel-->Emrakul.
I'm going to type up the list I'm working with right now tonight.
I'll update this thread so you can see everything we're working with!
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Our playgroup doesn't think it's worth testing. Here are the cards we'd test if we wanted to go with that package:
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- Splinter Twin
- Deceiver Exarch
- Pestermite
We already have Restoration Angel in, so Kiki would already combo with her.The problem is the only cards that really do anything on their own are Kiki-Jiki and Pestermite. Pestermite is only really good in a blue tempo deck -- but we don't utilize that strategy.
So we'd be removing cards for other archetypes to support a combo deck that only has cards that work for that combo. I actually don't mind that at all, but my playgroup thinks we have enough combos in the cube as is.
I'd honestly like to test it out soon.
I'd definitely run this package at 450 powered or unpowered, but the cuts we have to make for any of these cards are really difficult at powered 360.
EDIT: The red cards aren't incredibly difficult to cut for that package, but as for blue cuts, I'd have to cut Remand and probably Venser, Shaper Savant. Not too sure I want to be adding Exarch and Pestermite for those cards, but maybe.
DOUBLE EDIT: I'm actually gonna make those changes and see how my playgroup reacts. I want less counterspells anyway so storm is better and controlling blue decks are a little weaker.
- Thundermaw Hellkite (out)
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (in)
- Goblin Patrol (out)
- Splinter Twin (in)
- Remand (out)
- Pestermite (in)
- Venser, Shaper Savant (out)
- Deceiver Exarch (in)
Those blue cuts hurt.CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
I cut a guild card from each section to free up some room for the conspiracies. I had figured I would cut a card from the monocolored sections, but that proved extremely difficult. I'm not sure what I want to do here in the near future, as many of the guild cards I cut were awesome.
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Our playgroup loves two card combos in cube decks. We're a bunch of guys that love living the dream. Kiki-Jiki does enough with other things that I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm not gung-ho on the twin combo because it takes up 4 cards in the draft list.
Time Vault only takes up one spot and combos with two cards already in the cube (Tezzeret the Seeker and Ral Zarek). I've kept Voltaic Key in because it produces mana with many "big" artifacts in the cube (Grim Monolith, Everflowing Chalice, Coalition Relic, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Basalt Monolith, Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo) as well as fixes mana with moxes. It also has some odd but sweet applications (Sensei's Divining Top, Winter Orb, Isochron Scepter, untapping Wurmcoil Engine, Myr Battlesphere, Sundering Titan).
Our storm decks love playing Vault + Key as a result of all these interesting little interactions between all the cards, and the fact that it only takes two slots away from their deck.
Compared to Time Vault and Voltaic Key, Twin pieces take up a disproportionately large amount of the cube while providing cards that aren't spectacular with the rest of it. I want to test it, but if Twin is as good as I expect, it will likely be cut in a week or two. Still, fun to test!
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In:
+1 Champion of the Parish
+1 Cloistered Youth
+1 Mentor of the Meek
Out:
-1 Journey to Nowhere
-1 Soltari Priest
-1 Flickerwisp
I want to try out Champion of the Parish. Always interested in more potentially great one drops. Cloistered Youth is a 3/3 for 1W that is also a human that will make Champion better. Mentor of the Meek is a card that may give a bit of card advantage to the white weenie deck, plus is another human for Champion.
With the addition of Council's Judgment, Journey has gotten redundant. I'm running a lot of ways to get rid of creatures in white. Soltari Priest is a great creature, but I'm trying to remove all the WW guys from the cube and Cloistered Youth is sometimes better, sometimes worse. Flickerwisp is an awesome card, but we don't have a lot of the blink-archetype cards that a lot of other people run.
In:
+1 Deep Analysis
Out:
-1 Thirst for Knowledge
Deep Analysis (and all flashback spells) got a big boost with the addition of conspiracies, so I want to get the card back in. Thirst for Knowledge has probably seen its last day in the cube with the re-addition of Bazaar of Baghdad (it largely served as a draw spell combined with discard outlet). Deep Analysis actually combos very well with Bazaar and other looting type effects for the decks that want it. Thirst was never great as a replay off of Yawgmoth's Will or Past in Flames, so it usually didn't make the cut in storm.
If Deep Analysis isn't as good as we expect it to be, we'll start using Gifts Ungiven instead (which honestly might make it in over something else soon).
Cutting any blue card makes me feel like I've made a grave mistake.
In:
+1 Dance of the Dead
Out:
-1 Diabolic Edict
Dance of the Dead will help reanimator, which hasn't seen a ton of play recently (a lot of these additions are to help that deck). I want to move away from black controlling decks and Diabolic Edict saw more play in controlling decks than in aggro decks. Black cuts are difficult.
In:
+1 Imperial Recruiter
+1 Grapeshot
Out:
-1 Searing Spear
-1 Ignite Memories
Imperial Recruiter combos very well with Kiki-Jiki, Deciever Exarch, and Pestermite, but also has other applications. Searing Spear is just the 3rd redundant Incinerate. I'd rather have other more interesting stuff in it's place. Grapeshot is a card we tested and didn't like very much, but storm has gotten better since the last time we used it. Ignite Memories has been very underwhelming for us, so we'll make that switch and see which one we like more.
In:
+1 Hunting Pack
Out:
-1 Tooth and Nail
Hunting Pack is another possible storm kill I passed over. When storm goes off, producing 7 mana for the kill isn't necessarily super difficult to do, and it has the upside of being good with only a few storm generated as opposed to needing 5-8 storm to be valuable. Tooth and Nail has consistently been our worst green ramp card and has been boarded in that strategy more than it has been maindecked.
I would like to find another green fatty worth playing for Natural Order, Ramp, Reanimator, and Oath of Druids. Our playgroup doesn't like Hornet Queen as we don't feel like it does enough (and we already run and enjoy Avenger of Zendikar more). It's great in Recurring Nightmare decks, though. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger may be a better fit for my playgroup.
I just wish there were something else universally appreciated like Terastodon and Woodfall Primus.
In:
+1 Bazaar of Baghdad
+1 Gaea's Cradle
Out:
-1 Ancient Tomb
-1 Everflowing Chalice
Bazaar is a favorite for my playgroup and they've been petitioning me to put it back in for some time. It's really only good in reanimator, but it's an all-star in that deck and definitely a reason to keep your eye out for the deck. Gaea's Cradle is simply a test to see if it can produce a good amount of mana for ramp or any other strategy willing to give it a go. Ancient Tomb is pretty good, but we don't really need the card in a lot of our combo decks (we have a lot of life loss and mana acceleration in them already). Everflowing Chalice is the worst mana artifact in the cube so it's a fine cut for Cradle.
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Not sure on Hunting Pack. 7 mana is a huge amount for a storm kill card, no? Mind you, I have little experience with the deck.
Bazaar is niche support unplayable in nearly every other deck as you say, but you're obviously OK with that, and it's certainly the nuts in its deck. My thoughts on Gaea's Cradle are pretty well known, it's been in and out my cube for ages now. It's wildly unpredictable. It could be great against Storm where the deck doesn't interact with your creatures too much.
I like the other changes, but I think Mentor of the Meek is just too low powered. Flickerwisp is an efficient flying beater and supports blink.dec if you want, and generally gives some random value on most boards. I think it's one of the best white three drops in a very good selection.
Nice list though! Supporting Storm takes a lot of space and cuts look even tougher than in my cube.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I may have to try her again, hopefully my playgroup gives her some maindeck play!
It's really not that bad. We run a lot of mana doublers (Mirari's Wake and crew). I like that you don't have to cast many spells before it to get huge value. We'll see how it goes.
We'll see how he does!
Thank you! Yeah, the cuts are ridiculously hard.
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And no grapeshot? It was too low impact for me but it seems like it could be great as it could go in your hyper aggro decks, burn only decks, and the storm.
We put Grapeshot in recently. It's done a good bit more work for us than the last time we played it and we're excited to keep it in over Ignite Memories, at least for now.
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New round of changes: (some additional changes were made that I forgot to log, but I tried to get all of them)
- Deep Analysis
+ Gifts Ungiven
Deep Analysis was good, as expected. I'm going to try out Gifts Ungiven in its place to see which one we prefer. Gifts helps reanimator a bit more, and is about the same with combo. We're adding in Recoup in this round, so Gifts will have a fun toy to play with in combo. We'll see how it goes.
- Vampire Hexmage
- Duress
+ Grim Tutor
+ Entomb
I'd like to test Entomb to specifically encourage reanimator. Black aggro has been great, it doesn't need Duress. Grim Tutor is merely a test, I thought Vampire Hexmage would be a good cut just to see how it goes. Black cuts are very, very difficult.
- Reckless Waif
- Ignite Memories
- Burst Lightning
+ Gorilla Shaman
+ Storm Entity
+ Recoup
Reckless Waif has been just okay for us, I'm excited to see Gorilla Shaman in its place. Ignite Memories is by far the worst storm kill we've ever tested. Testing Storm Entity in its place, I don't have high hopes but maybe it's a beast. Recoup needed in for testing purposes, Burst Lightning seemed like the best cut.
- Fyndhorn Elves
- Elvish Mystic
- Scavenging Ooze
- Garruk Relentless
- Avenger of Zendikar
+ Wild Growth
+ Utopia Sprawl
+ Overgrowth
+ Omnath, Locus of Mana
+ Hornet Queen
The mana-ramp enchantments will help storm a bit while keeping ramp on-par. Oath of Druids gets significantly better with this change. Garruk Relentless and Scavenging Ooze cuts were very difficult to make, but we're moving away from green aggro and mid-range into just ramp and combo. My playgroup has been petitioning for this change for some time. The Ooze cut was particularly brutal. We're testing Omnath to see if he can help both ramp and storm, we know he's bad against burn but we're willing to play high risk/reward cards. Avenger for Hornet Queen is a like-for-like swap recommended here, excited to test it.
- Detention Sphere
+ Sphinx's Revelation
There is a lot of redundancy with Detention Sphere effects in the cube right now, looking to move away from that effect to make Oblivion Ring and crew more valuable for azorius drafters. Sphinx's Revelation is a unique effect that also helps storm.
- Bloodbraid Elf
+ Xenagos, the Reveler
Green aggro is dead in our cube. Red aggro has very little reason to splash for green other than BBE, I'm adding in Xenagos to encourage more planeswalker control decks as well as giving the green ramp deck an additional ramping option.
- Maelstrom Pulse
+ Cadaverous Bloom
This is just a test. Cadaverous Bloom is extremely strong in storm and may be better in the ramp deck as well. Instead of cutting pulse, I may want to craft a storm section and cut some colorless cards. I'm not sure what I want to do with the guilds and colorless section permanently quite yet.
- Gaea's Cradle
- Lotus Bloom
- Ankh of Mishra
+ Æther Searcher
+ Mox Opal
+ Scroll Rack
Lotus Bloom was added as a high risk/reward card for combo. It was terrible the vast majority of the time. Gaea's Cradle was not awesome for us, and since we're taking out the mana elves it will get worse. May test it again in the future. Ankh of Mishra is actually very good in our cube, but we want to hinder aggro a little bit since it's been winning a plurality of the drafts, and it can be oppressive to both the ramp and combo decks. Æther Searcher has been getting rave reviews, so we're excited to test him out. Mox Opal is getting tested as a potential replacement for Lotus Bloom. A few players in my playgroup really wanted Scroll Rack back, so I found a way and we'll see how it goes.
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
Storm Entity looks awesome actually. That is going to be broken in a storm deck. Nice find. I don't like the cut of Burst Lightning though. It's just a really good card that is great in any red deck.
Man I dislike Hornet Queen (but from a flavor perspective). It's a powerful card.
Ouch on losing Bloodbraid. That's a card that helps your storm count and it's good in pretty much any RG deck.
Looking forward to your Storm primer. I really want to get some flavor of it in my cube, but I never have 8 drafters so I'm not convinced I can do it without doing more harm than good. Your spin on storm though (including it with ramp/big mana strategies) seems more flexible so I'm intrigued. I've not seen anyone successfully integrate storm in a non-poisonous way, but I still hold out hope that it can actually be done because I'm a big fan of combo in general.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
1. Terastodon / Woodfall Primus (if you need guys in the yard to reanimate, you just get two things and they have to put both of them in the yard)
2. Animate Dead / Dance of the Dead / Reanimate / Regrowth (substitute a random card or take one out for any of these)
3. Animate Dead / Exhume / Random Fatty / Tinker
4. Animate Dead / Fatty / Fatty #2 / Frantic Search (perhaps you have a reanimation spell in hand)
The possibilities are endless. It also has other applications in various combo decks. Some of the piles you can make with it are super interesting, here are some examples without interesting board states: (interesting board states make Gifts even more interesting)
1. Recoup / Regrowth / Yawgmoth's Will / Time Vault (opponent has to think if you have Voltaic Key in hand)
2. Dark Ritual / Cabal Ritual / Black Lotus / Seething Song (imagine having a Yawgmoth's Will and tutor in hand or Time Spiral)
3. Vampiric Tutor / Demonic Tutor / Mystical Tutor / Dark Ritual (imagine having a Time Spiral in hand)
4. Recoup / Yawgmoth's Will / Mana card / Mana card (this sets up a powerful Yawgmoth's Will no matter what)
5. Kiki-Jiki / Animate Dead / Pestermite / Regrowth (if you have a piece in hand you can do some odd things to get your opponent)
Gifts is very hand and board dependant, so it's a very odd card to kind of petition for in an abstract manner. Deep Analysis was very good for us though, so I definitely want to get it back in there, I just have no idea what I'd cut for it.
Bloodbraid Elf was never played in our storm decks, four mana for a largely irrelevant spell and a random something (which can actually hurt you -- imagine Bloodbraid Elf into Yawgmoth's Will!) just doesn't do enough to get played in that deck. We're excited to try Xenagos as it's replacement for now.
The storm primer will likely be done by sometime tonight, I'm excited you're excited for it, haha!
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
CUBE TOP 10 - Help us vote for the best cards in cube
All the Splinter Twin pieces are likely to get cut soon. They do very little in other decks and our players have not enjoyed drafting them or playing with them. I'm going to give them another chance tonight, but we may see some cuts happening soon.
If I do decide to cut them, these will likely be the changes:
- Deceiver Exarch
- Pestermite
+ Future Sight
+ Deep Analysis
I want to try Future Sight. Our cube may be a great playground for the card and I know a lot of players who love it. Deep Analysis was great the last time we tested it, so that's an easy inclusion.
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- Splinter Twin
+ Wildfire
+ Burning of Xinye
I want to give the Wildfire deck another shot.
I'm less sold on this change:
- Time Vault
- Voltaic Key
I'm not sure what I would bring in quite yet, and our players do like Time Vault / Key, but it may be hurting storm more than help it. Our players will take Time Vault very early and then draft every draw 7 and tutor they can get their hands on without committing to storm.
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