This is basically just a thread for various ideas of cards that you would want WotC to print that they would feasibly print, so you can add the card to your cube. What cards do you think are needed to improve cubing? Please keep all ideas at common and uncommon, and specify rarity.
Any ideas posted in this thread are owned by the cube forum, and can be used by anyone anyway that wants to.
I think it's probably too good to be a common given its hybrid cost, but the pauper gang might know better. Akrasan Squire is just on the border of being playable, so I figure just a little nudge would make it a good card.
I'd rather run Ancient Ziggurat than that land. Hitting all 5 colors > being able to activate creature abilities. I'd love to just see a cycle of enemy tri-lands to balance the Alara ones.
For non-ETB tapped lands, I've wanted to do a cycle that takes the shock half of shocklands to mirror the guildgates - like this:
Fire Swamp
Land - (C)
When Fire Swamp enters the battlefield, you lose 2 life.
T: Add R or [MANA]B[/MANA] to your mana pool.
The jackal seems fine, but it seems more like a pure red card than a Boros hybrid to me. I think it's a tough combination to make a playable, aggressive hybrid 1-drop for since white gets some of the best and red has some of the worst at that CMC.
Cascade is a green, red, and blue multicolor ability, so it probably shouldn't go on an Azorius card unless you're intentionally moving mechanics around the color wheel.
Since people love 1drops so much I'll post some I've designed, I like making spin-offs of existing magic cards...
Young Calciderm W
Creature - Beast
Exalted, Exalted, Vanishing 4
0/1
Cloudfin Tyranosaurus U
Creature - Bird Mutant
Flying
Spellvolve (Whenver you cast a noncreature spell whose converted mana cost is greater than the power or toughness of this creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature)
0/1
Dark Ritualist B
Creature - Human Cleric
Sacrifice ~: Add BBB to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells.
1/1
Kiln Friend R
Creature - Elemental Beast
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Kiln Friend gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
1/2
Thelonite Socialite G
Creature - Elf Shaman
Plant creatures get +1/+0
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, put a 0/1 green Plant token onto the battlefield.
1/1
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I write about cube and run cube drafts on magic online.
Given the creatures it gets at 1 and 2 mana these days, red could probably get a vanilla 2/1 in Wizards current design philosophy. Alternatively, I could see a french vanilla 1/1 for R with regular firebreathing as a counterpart to Stonewright:
Rakdos Firebreather - R
Creature - Human Warrior (U) R: Rakdos Firebreather gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
"Audience members in the front row leave with a good story, but without their eyebrows."
1/1
Snapcaster Apprentice - R
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Sacrifice Snapcaster Apprentice: Target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
1/1
The original Snapcaster should've been red, so here's my remedy. I feel like dealing with flashback is a good way to give red some variety without just more burn (even if the flashback is used to snag a burn spell, heh).
Snapcaster Apprentice - R
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Sacrifice Snapcaster Apprentice: Target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
1/1
The original Snapcaster should've been red, so here's my remedy. I feel like dealing with flashback is a good way to give red some variety without just more burn (even if the flashback is used to snag a burn spell, heh).
I love this card and would run it in a heartbeat. This is exactly the type of card/effect I love in red.
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A card from the 1st set of the block I am designing, I don't know the flavor of the set yet but the codename (gotta have a codename!) is 'Misery Loves Company' because I am designing it to be as grindy and noob-unfriendly as possible. Call me a sadist. Who doesn't love a shuffling-matters theme?
Shuffle Shock R
Instant
~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player. While you're searching your library, you may cast Shuffle Shock from your library.
Would probably be really good in GR ramp because it adds the ability to turn every land fetching card into a removal spell as well.
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This is a card I posted in another thread a while back. Dunno if it could be printed at un/common but it is a good one. It might have to be a 3/3 to be realistically printable at non-rare rarities.
Vengeful Nacatl B
Creature - Zombie Cat Warrior
~ gets -1/-1 as long as an opponent controls a Forest.
~ gets -1/-1 as long as an opponent controls a Mountain.
~ gets -1/-1 as long as an opponent controls a Plains.
4/4
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I write about cube and run cube drafts on magic online.
The problem with black Nacatl is that you have no real control over its size, whereas Wild Nacatl directly scales with your ability to consistently stick some combination of green mana source, Plains, and Mountains. I just don't like situational matchup abilities like that. It'd probably make more sense scaling down with just Plains and Forest as a 3/3, as those are traditional enemies with black rather than hating on Naya.
InsultBB
Sorcery
Target player discards two cards.
/// Injury1R
Sorcery
~ deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
Man of War 2RR
Creature - Human Berserker
When Man of War enters the battlefield, return target creature an opponent controls to its owner's hand.
Haste
2/2
Definitely cubable. Maybe a 3/1? I'm thinking a color shifted mist raven here, with haste instead of flying. Fervent Cathar already exists, but this could be a step up and not stretch the bounds of the imagination.
Some cubable threshold enablers would be cool as well. It would power up some goodies such as Werebear (name is too awesome for it not to get used), Grizzly Fate, Nantuko Monastery, Nimble Mongoose, and Shower of Coals. Unfortunately, most of the enablers are in blue, and not in green (the strongest threshold color).
Maybe something like:
Ramp Reanimator Enabler - G
Creature - Elf
Discard a card and put the top card of your library into your graveyard: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
0/1
Maybe this guy is a little pushed. It would be too powerful for normal limited, but I think it would be great in a cube environment. My cube pushes a graveyard/ramp theme and this guy kills two birds with one stone.
A thought exercise: How much should a one-sided Howling Mine cost to be cubable. I have been running Honden of Seeing Winds and company with great success, but 5 might cost too much if you did not draft at least one other Shrine. Is Phyrexian Arena cubable? Is 1UU too low for this effect, or even 2UU? Azure Mage is cubable and charges 3U per turn and can trade with X/2s/beat for 2/carry equipment/vulnerable to removal.
Maybe a Crystal Ball variant as a blue enchantment:
Blue Crystal Ball - 2U
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
I don't think I'd run Basking Mongrel. It doesn't threaten enough damage by itself if you aren't throwing cards to it. If its activation cost was 1G OR Discard a card, I'd definitely go for it. Alternately, Black would like a discarding mongrel better cause it always wants more reanimation enablers.
@tReason:
This split card would be rare. Booth parts have to be a little bit overcosted, to make it balanced.
A mix of Mind Rot and Yamabushi's Flame would still be great and worth UC. Booth effects for cc6 would be great, but for cc4, they would be close to mythic.
It's a shame that the power level of a utility spell still scales so much with the rarity of the card.
In my opinion, Mind Rot is overcosted, and so is Yamabushi's Flame. I'm using Hymn to Tourach as a jumping point for the discard side, and Searing Spear as the reference for the burn side.
If we're going to use a more recent discard example, Wrench Mind is something I look at. If we were going with that instead, I'd bump up the discard side's cost to 1BB.
Hymn to Tourach isn't a great measure since no other discard effect has come close to being as efficient as it since seeing print 15 years ago. Two mana for two cards needs to have some downside/payment aside from double black in the casting cost.
This card already has an upside with the split and fuse abilities, so Mind Rod really should be the baseline, for better or worse.
Man of War 2RR
Creature - Human Berserker
When Man of War enters the battlefield, return target creature an opponent controls to its owner's hand.
Haste
2/2
Definitely cubable. Maybe a 3/1? I'm thinking a color shifted mist raven here, with haste instead of flying. Fervent Cathar already exists, but this could be a step up and not stretch the bounds of the imagination.
ah good this got posted. the name is too perfect btw.
This thread isn't necessarily for cards they'd actually print, just ones that are justifiably similar to printed cards. Slaughterhorn 2.0 with an additional toughness could likely be printed at uncommon given that the original was a common.
Any ideas posted in this thread are owned by the cube forum, and can be used by anyone anyway that wants to.
Cubetutor link - 380 Peasant Cube
Twilight Initiate - {W/B}
Creature - Human Cleric (U)
Exalted, extort.
1/1
I think it's probably too good to be a common given its hybrid cost, but the pauper gang might know better. Akrasan Squire is just on the border of being playable, so I figure just a little nudge would make it a good card.
Nature's Core
Land
T: Add R, G, or W to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells or activate abilities of creatures.
For non-ETB tapped lands, I've wanted to do a cycle that takes the shock half of shocklands to mirror the guildgates - like this:
Fire Swamp
Land - (C)
When Fire Swamp enters the battlefield, you lose 2 life.
T: Add R or [MANA]B[/MANA] to your mana pool.
Bug Collector - UW
Creature - human - [u]
First strike
Cascade
2/1
Cascade is a green, red, and blue multicolor ability, so it probably shouldn't go on an Azorius card unless you're intentionally moving mechanics around the color wheel.This is wrong and I am dumb.
Unless it has to have at least 1 of those colors?
Thanks for spiderboy4 of High~Light_Studios for the kick ass avatar.
Thanks for DarkNightCavalier of HotPS for the exceptional signature.
Young Calciderm
W
Creature - Beast
Exalted, Exalted, Vanishing 4
0/1
Cloudfin Tyranosaurus
U
Creature - Bird Mutant
Flying
Spellvolve (Whenver you cast a noncreature spell whose converted mana cost is greater than the power or toughness of this creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature)
0/1
Dark Ritualist
B
Creature - Human Cleric
Sacrifice ~: Add BBB to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells.
1/1
Kiln Friend
R
Creature - Elemental Beast
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Kiln Friend gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
1/2
Thelonite Socialite
G
Creature - Elf Shaman
Plant creatures get +1/+0
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, put a 0/1 green Plant token onto the battlefield.
1/1
peasantcube.blogspot.com
Rakdos Firebreather - R
Creature - Human Warrior (U)
R: Rakdos Firebreather gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
"Audience members in the front row leave with a good story, but without their eyebrows."
1/1
Slaughterhorn V2 2G
Creature - Beast
Bloodrush - G, Discard ~: Target attacking creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
3/3
And another card I would've liked to see:
Vastwood Menace 5G
Creature - Wurm
Hexproof
Bloodrush - GG, Discard ~: Target attacking creature gets +4/+4 and gains Hexproof until end of turn.
4/4
Cubetutor link - 380 Peasant Cube
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Sacrifice Snapcaster Apprentice: Target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
1/1
The original Snapcaster should've been red, so here's my remedy. I feel like dealing with flashback is a good way to give red some variety without just more burn (even if the flashback is used to snag a burn spell, heh).
I love this card and would run it in a heartbeat. This is exactly the type of card/effect I love in red.
---
A card from the 1st set of the block I am designing, I don't know the flavor of the set yet but the codename (gotta have a codename!) is 'Misery Loves Company' because I am designing it to be as grindy and noob-unfriendly as possible. Call me a sadist. Who doesn't love a shuffling-matters theme?
Shuffle Shock
R
Instant
~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player. While you're searching your library, you may cast Shuffle Shock from your library.
Would probably be really good in GR ramp because it adds the ability to turn every land fetching card into a removal spell as well.
---
This is a card I posted in another thread a while back. Dunno if it could be printed at un/common but it is a good one. It might have to be a 3/3 to be realistically printable at non-rare rarities.
Vengeful Nacatl
B
Creature - Zombie Cat Warrior
~ gets -1/-1 as long as an opponent controls a Forest.
~ gets -1/-1 as long as an opponent controls a Mountain.
~ gets -1/-1 as long as an opponent controls a Plains.
4/4
peasantcube.blogspot.com
Insult BB
Sorcery
Target player discards two cards.
///
Injury 1R
Sorcery
~ deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
Cubetutor link - 380 Peasant Cube
Man of War 2RR
Creature - Human Berserker
When Man of War enters the battlefield, return target creature an opponent controls to its owner's hand.
Haste
2/2
Definitely cubable. Maybe a 3/1? I'm thinking a color shifted mist raven here, with haste instead of flying. Fervent Cathar already exists, but this could be a step up and not stretch the bounds of the imagination.
Some cubable threshold enablers would be cool as well. It would power up some goodies such as Werebear (name is too awesome for it not to get used), Grizzly Fate, Nantuko Monastery, Nimble Mongoose, and Shower of Coals. Unfortunately, most of the enablers are in blue, and not in green (the strongest threshold color).
Maybe something like:
Ramp Reanimator Enabler - G
Creature - Elf
Discard a card and put the top card of your library into your graveyard: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
0/1
Maybe this guy is a little pushed. It would be too powerful for normal limited, but I think it would be great in a cube environment. My cube pushes a graveyard/ramp theme and this guy kills two birds with one stone.
A thought exercise: How much should a one-sided Howling Mine cost to be cubable. I have been running Honden of Seeing Winds and company with great success, but 5 might cost too much if you did not draft at least one other Shrine. Is Phyrexian Arena cubable? Is 1UU too low for this effect, or even 2UU? Azure Mage is cubable and charges 3U per turn and can trade with X/2s/beat for 2/carry equipment/vulnerable to removal.
Maybe a Crystal Ball variant as a blue enchantment:
Blue Crystal Ball - 2U
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
It's a shame that the power level of a utility spell still scales so much with the rarity of the card.
In my opinion, Mind Rot is overcosted, and so is Yamabushi's Flame. I'm using Hymn to Tourach as a jumping point for the discard side, and Searing Spear as the reference for the burn side.
If we're going to use a more recent discard example, Wrench Mind is something I look at. If we were going with that instead, I'd bump up the discard side's cost to 1BB.
Cubetutor link - 380 Peasant Cube
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
This card already has an upside with the split and fuse abilities, so Mind Rod really should be the baseline, for better or worse.
ah good this got posted. the name is too perfect btw.
There's no way they'd invalidate their own card with a block mechanic in just the next set
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article