I began playing Magic during Ice Age and quit during Kamigawa. A couple of years ago, I made a group of friends who were into magic. Most of them started playing during Alara block, but a couple had been playing since Odyssey. They loved my old cards, but didn't like the way my old pro tour decks were extremely powerful, and I didn't want to start spending money on Magic again. I thought cube would be a great way to show off a lot of my favorite older cards, as well as teach some of the newbies what makes cards good. So, I combined my old cards with some of the other veterans' newer cards to build a pre-Alara cube, and we're having a blast with it. Since it's focused on older cards, we use pre-M10 rules for it. No proxies
This cube is kind of a mish-mash of the best cards I have, balanced over colors of course, but I also tried to have a lot of variety and a set that makes a good limited environment. Since I'm not as familiar with Ravnica, Lorywn, and Shadowmoor, the gold set might need some work. Since I'm new to cube, I'm interested in how this cube compares to others.
Basic Information
[B]Cube Size: [/B] 540
[B]Breakdown: [/B] 68 each color, 70 gold, 60 artifact, 70 land
[B]Standard or Theme: [/B] Pre-Shards of Alara, Pre-M10 Rules
[B]Snow Lands[/B]: Freely available in land stack
[B]Average Number of Players:[/B] 8-10
[B]How Often Drafted:[/B] Once every week or two
Card Selection
[B]Proxies:[/b] None
[B]Powered:[/B] No
[B]Portal:[/B] Sort of (Volcanic Hammer)
[B]"Un" Cards: [/B] Yes
[B]Banned Cards for Power-Level[/B]: No
[B]Banned Cards for Time Constraints:[/B] No
[B]Banned Cards for "fun" factor:[/B] Many of the more annoying Unglued cards were cut from consideration
Cube Design
[B]Standard or Multiplayer:[/B] Both
[B]Sideboards?:[/B] Yes
[B]Color Balance:[/B] Yes
[B]Gold Balance:[/B] Yes
[B]Hybrid/Split/Kicker as Gold:[/B] Yes
[B]Color Triggers as Gold:[/B] No
[B]Perfectly Balanced CMC:[/B] No
With a lot of my "uncommon" cards being two-mana knights, it seems like my cube has a little more of a weenie focus. This wasn't really intended but it doesn't surprise me that, with my tastes, I would pick great two-mana creatures as white's "good" creatures. I'm a little surprised that Orim's Chant is an "uncommon" card in cube, that card is boss. I considered and cut Catastrophe, and Mirror Entity is a card I overlooked (not knowing lorywn); it's likely I'll take out one of the weenie knights for it.
(There was a typo in my original list. Crusade and Mana Tithe are cards that I cut from the cube but forgot to remove from the list, which is why the cube was 542 cards.)
[b]White Weenies:[/b] 20, 4 Pro-black, 3 Pro-red, 1 Pro-green, 4 First Strike, 2 Flying, 2 Pump, 2 Shadow, 1 Vigilance, 1 Lifelink. How can I turn these little guys down?
[b]Mass D:[/b] 4 Creatures, 1 land, 4 Multi
My "uncommon" cards here are some of the "less good" card draw. I think that without power, this is more helpful than Miscalculation or Condescend, which I also don't think are better than the counterspells I already have.
I'm not really seeing a pattern in my "uncommon" cards. Nightscape Familiar might get axed in favor of Skinthinner or Shadow Guildmage, but I think they're mostly pretty solid cards. I might remove a spot removal for Barter in Blood or Innocent Blood, just for a little variety.
Just like black, this color is a case where cards that are definitely good enough to be in the cube got cut for variety, or creature-to-spell balance. I debated Starstorm vs Earthquake, and I think I'll probably go back to Earthquake, it's just so powerful and iconic. I'd also really like to use Pyroclasm, which is one of my favorite cards, and Smash to Smithereens. Not sure what should get cut though.
[B]Burn:[/b] Creature and/or Player 29, Player 4, Creature 2
[b]Destruction[/b]: 4 artifact, 4 Any land, 2 Nonbasic land (not counting Obliterate)
[b]Ball Lightnings[/b] 4
Should I swap out Search for Tomorrow for Harrow? Like Orim's Chant, I think Skyshroud Elite and Restock are power enough that they would be pretty common in cubes, shows what I know. Indrik, Woodfall Primus, and Twinblade Slasher also look pretty nice, maybe I should ditch the Kavu Titan, Spectral Force and Masked Admirers. On the other hand, I've got a few Disenchant creatures besides Indrik already.
There's three reasons that the gold is probably the area of my cube that could use the most improvement
1) I wasn't playing during Ravnica, Lorwyn, or Shadowmoor blocks, so I'm unfamiliar with those cards
2) This is a pre-shards cube, so the vast majority of cubes, with half of their gold from Shards, aren't good for comparison.
3) Since drafting over the history of Magic works better when the gold is limited, and gold cards tend to be powerful and/or fun, there seem to be a lot more gold cards (compared to the other colors) that I really want to include but don't have space for. I might knock the colors down to 66 of each color, and thus have 8 cards of each color pair, but I don't want to have too much gold.
When I built this cube, I was just using the cards I had; not really knowing much about building a cube, I didn't consider theme cubes or power/non-power or anything, if I had power, I would've used them. Figuring most cubes would have moxes and lotus, I was tempted to put the Mirrodin talismans in to replace that artifact mana, but they're not that good, so I decided against it. I'm really not sure if that would improve the cube or not. It's a total coincidence that there's the same number of utility and mana artifacts.
I've got three dualies (two of one and one of another) but I didn't want to use just two duals, so I didn't put them in the cube. The mirage fetchlands are an iffy choice, like the talismans, I'm really not sure how to determine if using a less powerful mana-fixer is worth cutting something else that's more interesting.
Thanks for the analysis and the sorty-thing. Let me try to get a better formatted list here, with a little more discussion now that I've looked through some of the other cubelist threads on this site and have the analysis.
Basic Information
[B]Cube Size: [/B] 540
[B]Breakdown: [/B] 68 each color, 70 gold, 60 artifact, 70 land
[B]Standard or Theme: [/B] Pre-Shards of Alara
[B]Snow Lands[/B]: Freely available in land stack
[B]Average Number of Players:[/B] 8-10
[B]How Often Drafted:[/B] Once every week or two
Card Selection
[B]Proxies:[/b] None
[B]Powered:[/B] No
[B]Portal:[/B] Sort of (Volcanic Hammer)
[B]"Un" Cards: [/B] Yes
[B]Banned Cards for Power-Level[/B]: No
[B]Banned Cards for Time Constraints:[/B] No
[B]Banned Cards for "fun" factor:[/B] Many of the more annoying Unglued cards were cut from consideration
Cube Design
[B]Standard or Multiplayer:[/B] Both
[B]Sideboards?:[/B] Yes
[B]Color Balance:[/B] Yes
[B]Gold Balance:[/B] Yes
[B]Hybrid/Split/Kicker as Gold:[/B] Yes
[B]Color Triggers as Gold:[/B] No
[B]Perfectly Balanced CMC:[/B] No
With a lot of my "uncommon" cards being two-mana knights, it seems like my cube has a little more of a weenie focus. This wasn't really intended but it doesn't surprise me that, with my tastes, I would pick great two-mana creatures as white's "good" creatures. I'm a little surprised that Orim's Chant is an "uncommon" card in cube, that card is boss. I considered and cut Catastrophe, and Mirror Entity is a card I overlooked (not knowing lorywn); it's likely I'll take out one of the weenie knights for it.
(There was a typo in my original list. Crusade and Mana Tithe are cards that I cut from the cube but forgot to remove from the list, which is why the cube was 542 cards.)
[b]White Weenies:[/b] 20, 4 Pro-black, 3 Pro-red, 1 Pro-green, 4 First Strike, 2 Flying, 2 Pump, 2 Shadow, 1 Vigilance, 1 Lifelink. How can I turn these little guys down?
[b]Mass D:[/b] 4 Creatures, 1 land, 4 Multi
My "uncommon" cards here are some of the "less good" card draw. I think that without power, this is more helpful than Miscalculation or Condescend, which I also don't think are better than the counterspells I already have.
I'm not really seeing a pattern in my "uncommon" cards. Nightscape Familiar might get axed in favor of Skinthinner or Shadow Guildmage, but I think they're mostly pretty solid cards. I might remove a spot removal for Barter in Blood or Innocent Blood, just for a little variety.
Just like black, this color is a case where cards that are definitely good enough to be in the cube got cut for variety, or creature-to-spell balance. I debated Starstorm vs Earthquake, and I think I'll probably go back to Earthquake, it's just so powerful and iconic. I'd also really like to use Pyroclasm, which is one of my favorite cards, and Smash to Smithereens. Not sure what should get cut though.
[B]Burn:[/b] Creature and/or Player 29, Player 4, Creature 2
[b]Destruction[/b]: 4 artifact, 4 Any land, 2 Nonbasic land (not counting Obliterate)
[b]Ball Lightnings[/b] 4
Should I swap out Search for Tomorrow for Harrow? Like Orim's Chant, I think Skyshroud Elite and Restock are power enough that they would be pretty common in cubes, shows what I know. Indrik, Woodfall Primus, and Twinblade Slasher also look pretty nice, maybe I should ditch the Kavu Titan, Spectral Force and Masked Admirers. On the other hand, I've got a few Disenchant creatures besides Indrik already.
There's three reasons that the gold is probably the area of my cube that could use the most improvement
1) I wasn't playing during Ravnica, Lorwyn, or Shadowmoor blocks, so I'm unfamiliar with those cards
2) This is a pre-shards cube, so the vast majority of cubes, with half of their gold from Shards, aren't good for comparison.
3) Since drafting over the history of Magic works better when the gold is limited, and gold cards tend to be powerful and/or fun, there seem to be a lot more gold cards (compared to the other colors) that I really want to include but don't have space for. I might knock the colors down to 66 of each color, and thus have 8 cards of each color pair, but I don't want to have too much gold.
When I built this cube, I was just using the cards I had; not really knowing much about building a cube, I didn't consider theme cubes or power/non-power or anything, if I had power, I would've used them. Figuring most cubes would have moxes and lotus, I was tempted to put the Mirrodin talismans in to replace that artifact mana, but they're not that good, so I decided against it. I'm really not sure if that would improve the cube or not. It's a total coincidence that there's the same number of utility and mana artifacts.
I've got three dualies (two of one and one of another) but I didn't want to use just two duals, so I didn't put them in the cube. The mirage fetchlands are an iffy choice, like the talismans, I'm really not sure how to determine if using a less powerful mana-fixer is worth cutting something else that's more interesting.
Cube Size: 540 Breakdown: 68 each color, 70 gold, 60 artifact, 70 land
70 gold cards seems like a lot. The rule of thumb is 10%, so at minimum I would cut 1 gold card in each color combination and go up to 70 colored cards
70 is too many even when that includes hybrid/split cards? I hate to cut gold when there's a lot of gold I want in that already isn't in, but balance is important, I don't want to force people into two/three colors.
Cube Size: Standard or Theme: Pre-Shards of Alara
(Before I get to a comment on the rest of the cube) Are you intending to get some of the new cards at some point as well, or is everything from SoA+ irrelevant for you?
The main reason I built the cube is so that my players could play with older cards. I may put newer cards in at some point, but I don't plan to right now.
Not to give the impression that I'm a super-pro player or anything, but for my part, I'm trying to use the cube to teach them about good cards. I'm sure most of you are familiar with how newer players are attracted to Timmy cards, especially ones they haven't seen before, and I'm showing them how Sol Ring, Recurring Nightmare, Masticore, or Strip Mine are much more dangerous than an Akroma or a Ball Lightning. I don't want junk cards that "look" good to a bad player in the cube, but I can at least show them WHY something like SDT is way more ridiculous than darksteel colossus and how a dual land can often be a great pick.
You'll probably want to ignore basically all my advice. I missed the 'pre shards' theme.
Haha, my fault for not putting that right in the thread title. Anyways, a lot of your advice gave me quite a bit to consider, and even the "post-shards" advice has some mentions of the types of cards I might want to include more of. I agree that going with the "guild" thing most cubes are doing is a good idea, I was already planning to make some adjustments in where I've put Kird Ape, Vedalken Shackles, etc.
I can definitely see the advantage of more counterspells; counters are important with all the powerful cards and while I don't want to go overboard with one "type" of card, I'll defer to those with more cube experience if you guys think more counters are more called for than more draw. (I've already got Arcane Denial in.)
Mageta's really fun to play, I'm not sure if he's more powerful than say, Adarkar Valkyrie, and the other white creatures I considered are even more two-drops, which I think I have enough of
We had little success with Mageta outside of the super slow casual formats Commander / Munich Highlander / FFA multiplayer.
In a regular cube where you are playing 1:1 it is just a wrath that can not be played before turn 6, costs more than twice as much as a regular one, can be "countered" b a simple removal spell and isn't even CA most of the time.
We play the cube as singleplayer or multiplayer depending on the mood, now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen anyone play Mageta in singleplayer
I haven't had a chance to do a really in-depth consideration of some of the Card Analysis differences or look over your big advice post yet eidolon (thanks btw), but I'm going out to cube tonight and I've already made some changes, based on things I overlooked that I saw while looking at the card analysis. I think most of these should be pretty much no-brainers. So, the cube adjustments are unfinished and under construction, but this is a start:
-Hand of Honor (I frankly just have too many White Knights, this one's WW and not that great)
+ Mirror Entity (Amazing, can't believe I missed this when going through Lorwyn cardlists)
+ Catastrophe (I had decided to cut this pretty late when I originally built the cube and it's getting much love, in it goes)
+ Flickerwisp (I haven't really decided what will go in this slot, but this guy's fun so I'm going to try him out)
BLUE
-Opt
-Forsee
-Counterbalance
-Mystical Teachings
(When I was building the cube, I didn't want to have too many counterspells because I didn't want a lot of one of the same "type" of card over and over, and I wanted to give people a chance to play with their powerful cards, favoring destruction effects over counters. I still included a good-size selection of powerful counterspells of course, that's one of there areas blue shines and there needs to be a lot of control to fight the powerful cards, but I was a little over-paranoid about making the cube interactive and fun. It hasn't been a problem so I'm removing some of these sub-par cards for sweet counterspells that aren't in.)
Like I said, I was pretty unsure of my "gold" section. I think cutting it down is good advice, this is where the "extra" cards in the colored sections come from
I am probably talking to the wrong person, when I am suggesting that you run even more artifact/ enchantment removal, but in case you change your mind, Uktabi Orangutan, Nantuko Vigilante and Creeping Mold are really useful cards.
I do want to comment on this really quick, I certainly don't have anything against adding more artifact/enchantment removal, I'm just trying to include a lot of variation. When I said I might not include indrik because I already have art/ench removal, what I meant was that if I like both Indrik and Masked Admirers I might lean towards the Admirers just for variety, but if I decided Indrik was a better overall card than Admirers I'd definitely go with the Indrik. Likewise, I would lean against using Uktabi AND Viridian Shaman, or Harmonic Sliver AND Quasali Pridemage (if I were using Shards), IF there were another card of suitable power level, but you'll notice I'm using both Llanowar and Fyndhorn Elves. If, through recommendations or testing, I think more artifact and enchantment removal would be good for green, I'll definitely go for it
typo-correction update:
There is only one Force of Will in the deck, the added Puppeteer Clique should have been Makeshift Mannequin (I either don't own or can't find a Necromancy )
e:
My cube actually DOESN'T have a black vise in it, that's not a typo but I thought I had one in there, taking out Lotus Bloom for it.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
Two quick things:
1) This is a pre-Shards cube, and we play it with Pre-M10 rules. I've actually found that contrary to confusing the new players, it makes them pay MORE attention to some of the details and specifics of mtg rules, especially highlighting the differences in damage assignment really helps them remember how combat works in the "real" world, which is kind of neat. Spike Feeder all the way, baby
2) I don't want this to be an "Unglued" cube; we rarely have enough players to use all the cards in it and so there's just a very small number of un- cards that might come up every couple drafts for giggles. I know a lot of the advice here is to avoid creating "cycles" for the sake of having them, but it feels wrong to not have an unglued card for each color meaning that Timmy and Infernal Spawn get spots despite there probably being better cards there, they're the best "Non-Goofy" cards I came up with in their colors. I may consider removing Timmy, Infernal Spawn, and Mise, and adding Rare-B-Gone. Kind of conflicted over this.
More changes:
I knew I had a lot of two-drops, but until you said it, I really didn't notice the sick amount of WW cards I had.
Watch List:
-I'm thinking about adding Time Spiral and Daze, there's a handful of U cards I'm considering cutting to I'm keeping an eye out here
-I don't have a Lu Xun, who would replace the Thieving Magpie
Watch List:
-Maybe cutting Zombie Cutthroat or Kagemaro for Mirri the Cursed
-Maybe cutting Smother for Last Gasp
-Keeping an eye on the whole Urborg/Cabal Coffers/Heavy Black card situation, I thought I'd include a few cards that boost Monoblack which I think is a fun archetype, maybe I misunderestimated their usefulness.
I still need to consider the artifacts and lands. I certainly don't intend to run "mediocre" utility lands just to match their colors, but I thought I had a pretty good set even with "color cycles." Convince me a little more on these and I very well could change them out.
Feel free to repeat your suggestions and criticisms at me if you think I need more convincing. Thanks.
I think you will be impressed with just how good Mistral Charger is. I think the card is underrated. I would try to find room for Stormfront Pegasus too if you could.
Oona's Prowler->Thrashing Wumpus wait, you are taking our the Prowler or am I missing something? I don't see anything wrong about a 3/1 flyer for 1B.
When I made the first set of adjustments, I added Oona's Prowler. However, Oona's Prowler was already in the cube! So, I'm removing the second copy for Wumpus.
I've finished this round of adjustments to the cube:
I was already heavily considering Gauntlet of Power and Static Orb to be cut. I think Erratic Portal and Ring of Gix are nice replacements. Gauntlet of Power->Erratic Portal Static Orb->Ring of Gix Voltaic Key->Ankh of Mishra (I like Voltaic Key, but some of your suggestions are just much better cards in the cube) Gilded Lotus->Zuran Orb (I was going to give Lotus more testing to determine if I thought it was too slow, but in the face of a better card like Zorb, it gets cut)
Lands were one of the parts of the cube I was really happy over, but now you've got me considering a major overhaul.
Firstly, I can understand why Corrupt and Consume Spirit could be bad choices for the cube, so I'm keeping an eye on them. But Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth seem good even outside of mono-black. A lot of my black cards require double-B, there's Nantuko Shade... I don't want to "trick" myself with "well if you get this one-in-a-thousand situation Coffers is really good!!" but it seems like it's useful enough to include. Thoughts?
Do you think it's worth abandoning my "land cycles" and just doing the whole thing without cycles? I like the structure I have right now, but it's more important to me that I don't have crappy lands just for the sake of filling a hole.
Looking down the cube comparison thread, let me list other lands I looked at while building the cube:
Any comments on where I got things right/wrong here?
Changes: Karakas or Flagstones of Trokair->Kor Haven (Haven't decided which of the two to cut. I actually have a casual deck that plays Kor Haven but forgot about the card when making the cube, how embarrassing)
Watch List:
-Vesuva->??
-Possibly removing one cycle of color aligned lands for five colorless lands
The artifact changes look great, No worries there.
However, I wouldn't cut Grand Coliseum, Ancient Tomb, Gemstone Mine, Terramorphic Expanse or Faerie Conclave. Those are all likely to be maindecked every single time you Cube, with the possible exception of the Conclave, which makes up for it by being a beating in the decks that want it. You should absolutely get rid of one of those White lands for Kor Haven, which is excellent. Horizon Canopy is well worth running in G/W, as a dream aggro land.
Cards I considered but decided weren't powerful enough:
Terramorphic Expanse
Dust Bowl
Vivid lands
Krosan Verge
Urza's Factory
Undiscovered Paradise
Cards I considered and liked but decided I thought the colorless/color-aligned lands I had were better:
Grand Coliseum
Ancient Tomb
Gemstone Mine
Fairie Conclave
Windbrisk Heights
Cards I didn't notice/consider at all:
Horizon Canopy
Any comments on where I got things right/wrong here?
Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds are great mana fixers, and I like them in cubes > 450 cards. The shuffle effect, landfall triggers and deck-thinning are all other incremental advantages of those lands too.
Dust Bowl is great. Repeatable LD that doesn't take up a slot during deckbuilding is stellar.
Undiscovered Paradise is a great land for 3-color aggro. You don't need bunches of lands out, but you do need mana-fixing. I rank it just behind City of Brass and Gemstone Mine in terms of aggro fixing. And it's fun with landfall cards.
The artifact changes look great, No worries there.
However, I wouldn't cut Grand Coliseum, Ancient Tomb, Gemstone Mine, Terramorphic Expanse or Faerie Conclave.
The question is what to cut for them - Aside from Vesuva, I don't know what colorless lands I already have that I would cut. Should I cut, say, Karakas+Shelldock+Coffers+Megaliths+Bosk? Are some of my colorless lands less good than I think they are? Should I abandon color cycles in the lands and just go nuts with the best ones?
Look good? (Assuming I own an Ancient Tomb, and assuming testing hold up these changes.)
Anything else in the lands stick out as something I might want to remove for Horizon Canopy? I'm thinking the balance of the cube wouldn't be hurt much by removing Brushland and giving G/W a little bonus, it's not like G/W is already the most powerful color combination.
e:
@eidolon: I really like Shelldock too. Should I consider removing either of the Academies for it?
Yeah, of course every card gets tested and retested, but I'm not sure how I would even compare the two in testing :/
"Often get a free spell that owns bones" vs "Land that makes two-three U mana and makes loads of mana if you get it early and build around it" And Academy ruins is usually a friggin reusable artifact tutor.
Look good? (Assuming I own an Ancient Tomb, and assuming testing hold up these changes.)
Anything else in the lands stick out as something I might want to remove for Horizon Canopy? I'm thinking the balance of the cube wouldn't be hurt much by removing Brushland and giving G/W a little bonus, it's not like G/W is already the most powerful color combination.
Previously, I looked for/added good cards I've overlooked, in this round of edits, I'm cutting cards that aren't as good as I like. Hopefully this adjustment isn't too full of typos as I swap cards around...
Overall, this is a good update. Here are my quibbles:
I don't think Whipcorder is that great, but he's not bad.
I wouldn't use Vendetta when black has so much other great removal. I'd like Disfigure or Inquisition of Kozilek in this spot much more.
I like all the red cards coming in more than the ones leaving, but some of the ones coming in are lackluster IMO: Kumano, Mogg War Marshal, and Word of Seizing.
Search for Tormorrow was too weak for my cube and I cut it. Still, it's not terrible. You are missing Cultivate, which is an excellent ramp spell.
Firespout is much better than Tattermunge, although Firespout isn't a care RG usually needs. You should have Sarkhan Vol here, but if you can't get your hands on that, there's Hull Breach and Tin-Street Hooligan.
The artifact changes are killer!
Did the artifact deck not come together for you? Tolarian Academy is pretty busted, but you need to push artifacts for it to happen.
Overall, this is a good update. Here are my quibbles:
I don't think Whipcorder is that great, but he's not bad.
I wouldn't use Vendetta when black has so much other great removal. I'd like Disfigure or Inquisition of Kozilek in this spot much more.
I like all the red cards coming in more than the ones leaving, but some of the ones coming in are lackluster IMO: Kumano, Mogg War Marshal, and Word of Seizing.
Search for Tormorrow was too weak for my cube and I cut it. Still, it's not terrible. You are missing Cultivate, which is an excellent ramp spell.
Firespout is much better than Tattermunge, although Firespout isn't a care RG usually needs. You should have Sarkhan Vol here, but if you can't get your hands on that, there's Hull Breach and Tin-Street Hooligan.
The artifact changes are killer!
Did the artifact deck not come together for you? Tolarian Academy is pretty busted, but you need to push artifacts for it to happen.
Cheers,
rant
Remember, this is a pre-Shards cube
In this update, I was mainly focusing on cutting sub-par cards rather than adding excellent cards I'd overlooked, it's possible that I'm overlooking better cards to add, advice is appreciated.
Kataki was rarely having an effect on games, and I think I've got most of the good 1-3 drops in white in already. I think Whipcorder is better than any of the assorted white knights I cut earlier.
With pre-Shards, I don't have access to Disfigure. However, I've been testing with Last Gasp for a while and forgot that it wasn't in my "official" list, so that will probably go in instead of Vendetta. I think Smother and Last Gasp are both better than Vendetta.
As you can see, there was a lot of red that I thought wasn't holding up in my cube. I'm testing with the cards I've added, and considering Ravenous Baboons and Ghitu Slinger, but I kind of feel like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel with playable red :/
Search for Tomorrow was a card I had, then cut for Harrow, and now that I've freed up some room in green I'm giving it another try.
Firespout just wasn't very effective. Maybe I'll swap out Tattermunge for Tin-Street.
It's been suggested to me that "color-aligned" lands be associated with their respective colors, but right now I'm counting them as land cycles. Blue has four excellent lands, and although Tolarian Academy can be absolutely explosive if the fates allow you to draft a deck that can utilize it, the other three blue lands are extremely good in just about any blue deck.
This cube is kind of a mish-mash of the best cards I have, balanced over colors of course, but I also tried to have a lot of variety and a set that makes a good limited environment. Since I'm not as familiar with Ravnica, Lorywn, and Shadowmoor, the gold set might need some work. Since I'm new to cube, I'm interested in how this cube compares to others.
Basic Information
[B]Cube Size: [/B] 540
[B]Breakdown: [/B] 68 each color, 70 gold, 60 artifact, 70 land
[B]Standard or Theme: [/B] Pre-Shards of Alara, Pre-M10 Rules
[B]Snow Lands[/B]: Freely available in land stack
[B]Average Number of Players:[/B] 8-10
[B]How Often Drafted:[/B] Once every week or two
Card Selection
[B]Proxies:[/b] None
[B]Powered:[/B] No
[B]Portal:[/B] Sort of (Volcanic Hammer)
[B]"Un" Cards: [/B] Yes
[B]Banned Cards for Power-Level[/B]: No
[B]Banned Cards for Time Constraints:[/B] No
[B]Banned Cards for "fun" factor:[/B] Many of the more annoying Unglued cards were cut from consideration
Cube Design
[B]Standard or Multiplayer:[/B] Both
[B]Sideboards?:[/B] Yes
[B]Color Balance:[/B] Yes
[B]Gold Balance:[/B] Yes
[B]Hybrid/Split/Kicker as Gold:[/B] Yes
[B]Color Triggers as Gold:[/B] No
[B]Perfectly Balanced CMC:[/B] No
With a lot of my "uncommon" cards being two-mana knights, it seems like my cube has a little more of a weenie focus. This wasn't really intended but it doesn't surprise me that, with my tastes, I would pick great two-mana creatures as white's "good" creatures. I'm a little surprised that Orim's Chant is an "uncommon" card in cube, that card is boss. I considered and cut Catastrophe, and Mirror Entity is a card I overlooked (not knowing lorywn); it's likely I'll take out one of the weenie knights for it.
(There was a typo in my original list. Crusade and Mana Tithe are cards that I cut from the cube but forgot to remove from the list, which is why the cube was 542 cards.)
[b]White Weenies:[/b] 20, 4 Pro-black, 3 Pro-red, 1 Pro-green, 4 First Strike, 2 Flying, 2 Pump, 2 Shadow, 1 Vigilance, 1 Lifelink. How can I turn these little guys down?
[b]Mass D:[/b] 4 Creatures, 1 land, 4 Multi
My "uncommon" cards here are some of the "less good" card draw. I think that without power, this is more helpful than Miscalculation or Condescend, which I also don't think are better than the counterspells I already have.
[b]Counters: [/b] 16
[b]Card Draw: [/b] 23
[b]Creature Steal:[/b] 9
[b]Bounce: [/b] 3 Creature, 6 Permanent
I'm not really seeing a pattern in my "uncommon" cards. Nightscape Familiar might get axed in favor of Skinthinner or Shadow Guildmage, but I think they're mostly pretty solid cards. I might remove a spot removal for Barter in Blood or Innocent Blood, just for a little variety.
[b]Tutor:[/b] 3
[b]Discard[/b]: 9
[b]Draw:[/b] 6
[b]Creature Resurrection:[/b] 11
[b]Spot Creature Removal:[/b] 9
Just like black, this color is a case where cards that are definitely good enough to be in the cube got cut for variety, or creature-to-spell balance. I debated Starstorm vs Earthquake, and I think I'll probably go back to Earthquake, it's just so powerful and iconic. I'd also really like to use Pyroclasm, which is one of my favorite cards, and Smash to Smithereens. Not sure what should get cut though.
[B]Burn:[/b] Creature and/or Player 29, Player 4, Creature 2
[b]Destruction[/b]: 4 artifact, 4 Any land, 2 Nonbasic land (not counting Obliterate)
[b]Ball Lightnings[/b] 4
Should I swap out Search for Tomorrow for Harrow? Like Orim's Chant, I think Skyshroud Elite and Restock are power enough that they would be pretty common in cubes, shows what I know. Indrik, Woodfall Primus, and Twinblade Slasher also look pretty nice, maybe I should ditch the Kavu Titan, Spectral Force and Masked Admirers. On the other hand, I've got a few Disenchant creatures besides Indrik already.
[b]Mana Acceleration:[/b] 13
[b]Draw:[/b] 6
[b]Graveyard Fetch:[/b] 4
[b]Artifact/Enchantment Destruction[/b] 5
[b]Creature Pump:[/b] 10
There's three reasons that the gold is probably the area of my cube that could use the most improvement
1) I wasn't playing during Ravnica, Lorwyn, or Shadowmoor blocks, so I'm unfamiliar with those cards
2) This is a pre-shards cube, so the vast majority of cubes, with half of their gold from Shards, aren't good for comparison.
3) Since drafting over the history of Magic works better when the gold is limited, and gold cards tend to be powerful and/or fun, there seem to be a lot more gold cards (compared to the other colors) that I really want to include but don't have space for. I might knock the colors down to 66 of each color, and thus have 8 cards of each color pair, but I don't want to have too much gold.
When I built this cube, I was just using the cards I had; not really knowing much about building a cube, I didn't consider theme cubes or power/non-power or anything, if I had power, I would've used them. Figuring most cubes would have moxes and lotus, I was tempted to put the Mirrodin talismans in to replace that artifact mana, but they're not that good, so I decided against it. I'm really not sure if that would improve the cube or not. It's a total coincidence that there's the same number of utility and mana artifacts.
[b]Creatures:[/b] 10
[b]Equipment:[/b] 6
[b]Mana:[/b] 22
[b]Other:[/b] 22
I've got three dualies (two of one and one of another) but I didn't want to use just two duals, so I didn't put them in the cube. The mirage fetchlands are an iffy choice, like the talismans, I'm really not sure how to determine if using a less powerful mana-fixer is worth cutting something else that's more interesting.
Basic Information
[B]Cube Size: [/B] 540
[B]Breakdown: [/B] 68 each color, 70 gold, 60 artifact, 70 land
[B]Standard or Theme: [/B] Pre-Shards of Alara
[B]Snow Lands[/B]: Freely available in land stack
[B]Average Number of Players:[/B] 8-10
[B]How Often Drafted:[/B] Once every week or two
Card Selection
[B]Proxies:[/b] None
[B]Powered:[/B] No
[B]Portal:[/B] Sort of (Volcanic Hammer)
[B]"Un" Cards: [/B] Yes
[B]Banned Cards for Power-Level[/B]: No
[B]Banned Cards for Time Constraints:[/B] No
[B]Banned Cards for "fun" factor:[/B] Many of the more annoying Unglued cards were cut from consideration
Cube Design
[B]Standard or Multiplayer:[/B] Both
[B]Sideboards?:[/B] Yes
[B]Color Balance:[/B] Yes
[B]Gold Balance:[/B] Yes
[B]Hybrid/Split/Kicker as Gold:[/B] Yes
[B]Color Triggers as Gold:[/B] No
[B]Perfectly Balanced CMC:[/B] No
With a lot of my "uncommon" cards being two-mana knights, it seems like my cube has a little more of a weenie focus. This wasn't really intended but it doesn't surprise me that, with my tastes, I would pick great two-mana creatures as white's "good" creatures. I'm a little surprised that Orim's Chant is an "uncommon" card in cube, that card is boss. I considered and cut Catastrophe, and Mirror Entity is a card I overlooked (not knowing lorywn); it's likely I'll take out one of the weenie knights for it.
(There was a typo in my original list. Crusade and Mana Tithe are cards that I cut from the cube but forgot to remove from the list, which is why the cube was 542 cards.)
[b]White Weenies:[/b] 20, 4 Pro-black, 3 Pro-red, 1 Pro-green, 4 First Strike, 2 Flying, 2 Pump, 2 Shadow, 1 Vigilance, 1 Lifelink. How can I turn these little guys down?
[b]Mass D:[/b] 4 Creatures, 1 land, 4 Multi
My "uncommon" cards here are some of the "less good" card draw. I think that without power, this is more helpful than Miscalculation or Condescend, which I also don't think are better than the counterspells I already have.
[b]Counters: [/b] 16
[b]Card Draw: [/b] 23
[b]Creature Steal:[/b] 9
[b]Bounce: [/b] 3 Creature, 6 Permanent
I'm not really seeing a pattern in my "uncommon" cards. Nightscape Familiar might get axed in favor of Skinthinner or Shadow Guildmage, but I think they're mostly pretty solid cards. I might remove a spot removal for Barter in Blood or Innocent Blood, just for a little variety.
[b]Tutor:[/b] 3
[b]Discard[/b]: 9
[b]Draw:[/b] 6
[b]Creature Resurrection:[/b] 11
[b]Spot Creature Removal:[/b] 9
Just like black, this color is a case where cards that are definitely good enough to be in the cube got cut for variety, or creature-to-spell balance. I debated Starstorm vs Earthquake, and I think I'll probably go back to Earthquake, it's just so powerful and iconic. I'd also really like to use Pyroclasm, which is one of my favorite cards, and Smash to Smithereens. Not sure what should get cut though.
[B]Burn:[/b] Creature and/or Player 29, Player 4, Creature 2
[b]Destruction[/b]: 4 artifact, 4 Any land, 2 Nonbasic land (not counting Obliterate)
[b]Ball Lightnings[/b] 4
Should I swap out Search for Tomorrow for Harrow? Like Orim's Chant, I think Skyshroud Elite and Restock are power enough that they would be pretty common in cubes, shows what I know. Indrik, Woodfall Primus, and Twinblade Slasher also look pretty nice, maybe I should ditch the Kavu Titan, Spectral Force and Masked Admirers. On the other hand, I've got a few Disenchant creatures besides Indrik already.
[b]Mana Acceleration:[/b] 13
[b]Draw:[/b] 6
[b]Graveyard Fetch:[/b] 4
[b]Artifact/Enchantment Destruction[/b] 5
[b]Creature Pump:[/b] 10
There's three reasons that the gold is probably the area of my cube that could use the most improvement
1) I wasn't playing during Ravnica, Lorwyn, or Shadowmoor blocks, so I'm unfamiliar with those cards
2) This is a pre-shards cube, so the vast majority of cubes, with half of their gold from Shards, aren't good for comparison.
3) Since drafting over the history of Magic works better when the gold is limited, and gold cards tend to be powerful and/or fun, there seem to be a lot more gold cards (compared to the other colors) that I really want to include but don't have space for. I might knock the colors down to 66 of each color, and thus have 8 cards of each color pair, but I don't want to have too much gold.
When I built this cube, I was just using the cards I had; not really knowing much about building a cube, I didn't consider theme cubes or power/non-power or anything, if I had power, I would've used them. Figuring most cubes would have moxes and lotus, I was tempted to put the Mirrodin talismans in to replace that artifact mana, but they're not that good, so I decided against it. I'm really not sure if that would improve the cube or not. It's a total coincidence that there's the same number of utility and mana artifacts.
[b]Creatures:[/b] 10
[b]Equipment:[/b] 6
[b]Mana:[/b] 22
[b]Other:[/b] 22
I've got three dualies (two of one and one of another) but I didn't want to use just two duals, so I didn't put them in the cube. The mirage fetchlands are an iffy choice, like the talismans, I'm really not sure how to determine if using a less powerful mana-fixer is worth cutting something else that's more interesting.
70 is too many even when that includes hybrid/split cards? I hate to cut gold when there's a lot of gold I want in that already isn't in, but balance is important, I don't want to force people into two/three colors.
The main reason I built the cube is so that my players could play with older cards. I may put newer cards in at some point, but I don't plan to right now.
Not to give the impression that I'm a super-pro player or anything, but for my part, I'm trying to use the cube to teach them about good cards. I'm sure most of you are familiar with how newer players are attracted to Timmy cards, especially ones they haven't seen before, and I'm showing them how Sol Ring, Recurring Nightmare, Masticore, or Strip Mine are much more dangerous than an Akroma or a Ball Lightning. I don't want junk cards that "look" good to a bad player in the cube, but I can at least show them WHY something like SDT is way more ridiculous than darksteel colossus and how a dual land can often be a great pick.
Noted, I'll think about them when I make adjustments.
Haha, my fault for not putting that right in the thread title. Anyways, a lot of your advice gave me quite a bit to consider, and even the "post-shards" advice has some mentions of the types of cards I might want to include more of. I agree that going with the "guild" thing most cubes are doing is a good idea, I was already planning to make some adjustments in where I've put Kird Ape, Vedalken Shackles, etc.
I can definitely see the advantage of more counterspells; counters are important with all the powerful cards and while I don't want to go overboard with one "type" of card, I'll defer to those with more cube experience if you guys think more counters are more called for than more draw. (I've already got Arcane Denial in.)
Mageta's really fun to play, I'm not sure if he's more powerful than say, Adarkar Valkyrie, and the other white creatures I considered are even more two-drops, which I think I have enough of
We play the cube as singleplayer or multiplayer depending on the mood, now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen anyone play Mageta in singleplayer
-Hand of Honor (I frankly just have too many White Knights, this one's WW and not that great)
+ Mirror Entity (Amazing, can't believe I missed this when going through Lorwyn cardlists)
+ Catastrophe (I had decided to cut this pretty late when I originally built the cube and it's getting much love, in it goes)
+ Flickerwisp (I haven't really decided what will go in this slot, but this guy's fun so I'm going to try him out)
BLUE
-Opt
-Forsee
-Counterbalance
-Mystical Teachings
(When I was building the cube, I didn't want to have too many counterspells because I didn't want a lot of one of the same "type" of card over and over, and I wanted to give people a chance to play with their powerful cards, favoring destruction effects over counters. I still included a good-size selection of powerful counterspells of course, that's one of there areas blue shines and there needs to be a lot of control to fight the powerful cards, but I was a little over-paranoid about making the cube interactive and fun. It hasn't been a problem so I'm removing some of these sub-par cards for sweet counterspells that aren't in.)
+Glen Elenda Archmage
+Kira, Great Glass Spinner
+Miscalculation
+Condescend
+Vedalken shackles (moved from artifacts)
+Crystal Shard
-Hand of Cruelty
-Desolation Angel (Moved to Gold)
+Oona's Prowler
+Innocent Blood
+Snuff Out
+Makeshift Mannequin
(Pretty much just adding some good stuff here)
-Goblin Cadets (I'm sure I had some reason for including this. Anyone? Anyone?)
-Kird Ape (Moved to Gold)
+Pyroclasm (Totally one of my favorite cards)
+Earthquake
+Crater Hellion
+Smash to Smithereens
-Spectral Force (Just not doing it for me)
-Search for Tomorrow
+Woodfall Primus
+Indrik Stomphowler
+Twinblade Slasher
+Harrow
Like I said, I was pretty unsure of my "gold" section. I think cutting it down is good advice, this is where the "extra" cards in the colored sections come from
-Windreaver
-Mistmeadow Witch
-Spite/Malice
-Hit/Run
-Burning-Tree Shaman
-Tattermunge Maniac
+Kird Ape
-Glare of Subdual
-Death Grasp
-Angel of Despair
+Desolation Angel
-Grave-Shell Scarab
-Cold-Eyed Selkie
-Invoke the Firemind
-Firemane Angel
-Vedalken Shackles (Moved to Blue)
+Grafted Wargear
edit:
I do want to comment on this really quick, I certainly don't have anything against adding more artifact/enchantment removal, I'm just trying to include a lot of variation. When I said I might not include indrik because I already have art/ench removal, what I meant was that if I like both Indrik and Masked Admirers I might lean towards the Admirers just for variety, but if I decided Indrik was a better overall card than Admirers I'd definitely go with the Indrik. Likewise, I would lean against using Uktabi AND Viridian Shaman, or Harmonic Sliver AND Quasali Pridemage (if I were using Shards), IF there were another card of suitable power level, but you'll notice I'm using both Llanowar and Fyndhorn Elves. If, through recommendations or testing, I think more artifact and enchantment removal would be good for green, I'll definitely go for it
There is only one Force of Will in the deck, the added Puppeteer Clique should have been Makeshift Mannequin (I either don't own or can't find a Necromancy )
e:
My cube actually DOESN'T have a black vise in it, that's not a typo but I thought I had one in there, taking out Lotus Bloom for it.
-Lotus Bloom
+Black Vise
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
1) This is a pre-Shards cube, and we play it with Pre-M10 rules. I've actually found that contrary to confusing the new players, it makes them pay MORE attention to some of the details and specifics of mtg rules, especially highlighting the differences in damage assignment really helps them remember how combat works in the "real" world, which is kind of neat. Spike Feeder all the way, baby
2) I don't want this to be an "Unglued" cube; we rarely have enough players to use all the cards in it and so there's just a very small number of un- cards that might come up every couple drafts for giggles. I know a lot of the advice here is to avoid creating "cycles" for the sake of having them, but it feels wrong to not have an unglued card for each color meaning that Timmy and Infernal Spawn get spots despite there probably being better cards there, they're the best "Non-Goofy" cards I came up with in their colors. I may consider removing Timmy, Infernal Spawn, and Mise, and adding Rare-B-Gone. Kind of conflicted over this.
More changes:
I knew I had a lot of two-drops, but until you said it, I really didn't notice the sick amount of WW cards I had.
Order of the White Shield->Blade of the Sixth Pride
Leonin Skyhunter->Mistral Charger
Knight of the Holy Nimbus->Soltari Trooper
White Shield Crusader->Celestial Crusader
Whipcorder -> Goldmeadow Harrier
Hallowed Burial->Seal of Cleansing
Aven Mindcensor->Galepowder Mage
Crovax, Ascendant Hero->Pianna, Nomad Captain
Watch List:
-I'm keeping an eye on Academy Rector now to gauge his worth.
-I may possibly swap out Wing Shards for Temporal Isolation
Fathom Seer->Willbender
Dissipate->Frantic Search
Watch List:
-I'm thinking about adding Time Spiral and Daze, there's a handful of U cards I'm considering cutting to I'm keeping an eye out here
-I don't have a Lu Xun, who would replace the Thieving Magpie
Stromgald Crusader->Dauthi Marauder
Knight of Stromgald->Fledgling Djinn
Persecute->Barter in Blood
Oona's Prowler->Thrashing Wumpus (Somehow I accidentally took Oona's Prowler, Puppeteer Clique, and Braids out of my offline list, resulting in me adding them back in, I caught the Braids right away, then eidolon caught the Clique and now I caught the Prowler)
Watch List:
-Maybe cutting Zombie Cutthroat or Kagemaro for Mirri the Cursed
-Maybe cutting Smother for Last Gasp
-Keeping an eye on the whole Urborg/Cabal Coffers/Heavy Black card situation, I thought I'd include a few cards that boost Monoblack which I think is a fun archetype, maybe I misunderestimated their usefulness.
Lava Dart->Rift Bolt
Obliterate->Aftershock
Magus of the Moon->Keldon Vandals
Watch List:
-Words of War is pretty cool, keeping an eye out for a weak link to cut for it, maybe Heat Shimmer
Skyshroud Elite->Wild Dogs (You convinced me on the Elite)
Kavu Titan->Caller of the Claw
Timbermare->Nantuko Vigilante
Might of Oaks->Jungle Lion
Watch List:
-Might cut Unmake for Gerrard's Verdict
I still need to consider the artifacts and lands. I certainly don't intend to run "mediocre" utility lands just to match their colors, but I thought I had a pretty good set even with "color cycles." Convince me a little more on these and I very well could change them out.
Feel free to repeat your suggestions and criticisms at me if you think I need more convincing. Thanks.
[Remixes] - [The Brutal Cube - 360 Powered] - [My Cube Article] - ['Print-This' Wishlist]
done.
When I made the first set of adjustments, I added Oona's Prowler. However, Oona's Prowler was already in the cube! So, I'm removing the second copy for Wumpus.
I was already heavily considering Gauntlet of Power and Static Orb to be cut. I think Erratic Portal and Ring of Gix are nice replacements.
Gauntlet of Power->Erratic Portal
Static Orb->Ring of Gix
Voltaic Key->Ankh of Mishra (I like Voltaic Key, but some of your suggestions are just much better cards in the cube)
Gilded Lotus->Zuran Orb (I was going to give Lotus more testing to determine if I thought it was too slow, but in the face of a better card like Zorb, it gets cut)
Watch List:
-Powder Keg (or possibly Engineered Explosives, but most likely the Keg) for Smokestack.
Lands were one of the parts of the cube I was really happy over, but now you've got me considering a major overhaul.
Firstly, I can understand why Corrupt and Consume Spirit could be bad choices for the cube, so I'm keeping an eye on them. But Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth seem good even outside of mono-black. A lot of my black cards require double-B, there's Nantuko Shade... I don't want to "trick" myself with "well if you get this one-in-a-thousand situation Coffers is really good!!" but it seems like it's useful enough to include. Thoughts?
Do you think it's worth abandoning my "land cycles" and just doing the whole thing without cycles? I like the structure I have right now, but it's more important to me that I don't have crappy lands just for the sake of filling a hole.
Looking down the cube comparison thread, let me list other lands I looked at while building the cube:
Cards I considered but decided weren't powerful enough:
Terramorphic Expanse
Dust Bowl
Vivid lands
Krosan Verge
Urza's Factory
Undiscovered Paradise
Cards I considered and liked but decided I thought the colorless/color-aligned lands I had were better:
Grand Coliseum
Ancient Tomb
Gemstone Mine
Fairie Conclave
Windbrisk Heights
Cards I didn't notice/consider at all:
Horizon Canopy
Any comments on where I got things right/wrong here?
Changes:
Karakas or Flagstones of Trokair->Kor Haven (Haven't decided which of the two to cut. I actually have a casual deck that plays Kor Haven but forgot about the card when making the cube, how embarrassing)
Watch List:
-Vesuva->??
-Possibly removing one cycle of color aligned lands for five colorless lands
However, I wouldn't cut Grand Coliseum, Ancient Tomb, Gemstone Mine, Terramorphic Expanse or Faerie Conclave. Those are all likely to be maindecked every single time you Cube, with the possible exception of the Conclave, which makes up for it by being a beating in the decks that want it. You should absolutely get rid of one of those White lands for Kor Haven, which is excellent. Horizon Canopy is well worth running in G/W, as a dream aggro land.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds are great mana fixers, and I like them in cubes > 450 cards. The shuffle effect, landfall triggers and deck-thinning are all other incremental advantages of those lands too.
Dust Bowl is great. Repeatable LD that doesn't take up a slot during deckbuilding is stellar.
Undiscovered Paradise is a great land for 3-color aggro. You don't need bunches of lands out, but you do need mana-fixing. I rank it just behind City of Brass and Gemstone Mine in terms of aggro fixing. And it's fun with landfall cards.
These:
Should all go in.
And Horizon Canopy is the best WG land that's not a dual/shock/fetch.
Hope that helps!
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!
The question is what to cut for them - Aside from Vesuva, I don't know what colorless lands I already have that I would cut. Should I cut, say, Karakas+Shelldock+Coffers+Megaliths+Bosk? Are some of my colorless lands less good than I think they are? Should I abandon color cycles in the lands and just go nuts with the best ones?
Yes.
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!
Flagstones of Trokair->Kor Haven
Shelldock Isle->Faerie Conclave
Karakas->Grand Coliseum
Vesuva->Ancient Tomb
Cabal Coffers->Gemstone Mine
Keldon Megaliths->Dust Bowl
Murmuring Bosk->Terramorphic Expanse
Look good? (Assuming I own an Ancient Tomb, and assuming testing hold up these changes.)
Anything else in the lands stick out as something I might want to remove for Horizon Canopy? I'm thinking the balance of the cube wouldn't be hurt much by removing Brushland and giving G/W a little bonus, it's not like G/W is already the most powerful color combination.
e:
@eidolon: I really like Shelldock too. Should I consider removing either of the Academies for it?
"Often get a free spell that owns bones" vs "Land that makes two-three U mana and makes loads of mana if you get it early and build around it" And Academy ruins is usually a friggin reusable artifact tutor.
All of that looks excellent, IMO.
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!
-Academy Rector
-Tithe
-Kataki, War's Wage
+Mystic Crusader
+Mana Tithe
+Whipcorder
-Tradewind Rider
-Brine Elemental
-Legacy's Allure
-Braingeyser
+Compulsive Research
+Draining Whelk
+Merfolk Looter
+Time Spiral
-Corrupt
-Skeletal Scrying
-Consume Spirit
+Vendetta
+Corpse Dance
+Contagion
-Tin Street Hooligan
-Lava Hounds
-Arc-Slogger
-Seal of Fire
-Seething Song
-Pulse of the Forge
-Heat Shimmer
+Goblin Welder
+Fire Imp
+Kumano, Master Yamabushi
+Puncture Blast
+Mogg War Marhsal
+Word of Seizing
+Words of War
-Moment's Peace
-Elves of Deep Shadow
-Lignify
-Masked Admirers
+Search for Tomorrow
+Creeping Mold
+Life from the Loam
+Uktabi Orangutan
-Firespout
+Tattermunge Maniac
-Darksteel Colossus
-Felwar Stone
+Bottle Gnomes
+Smokestack
-Vesuva
-Murmering Bosk
-Tolarian Academy
-Flagstones of Trokair
-Karakas
-Cabal Coffers
-Keldon Megaliths
-Brushland
+Gemstone Mine
+Ancient Tomb
+Grand Coliseum
+Kor Haven
+Terramorphic Expanse
+Dust Bowl
+Faerie Conclave
+Horizon Canopy
I don't think Whipcorder is that great, but he's not bad.
I wouldn't use Vendetta when black has so much other great removal. I'd like Disfigure or Inquisition of Kozilek in this spot much more.
I like all the red cards coming in more than the ones leaving, but some of the ones coming in are lackluster IMO: Kumano, Mogg War Marshal, and Word of Seizing.
Search for Tormorrow was too weak for my cube and I cut it. Still, it's not terrible. You are missing Cultivate, which is an excellent ramp spell.
Firespout is much better than Tattermunge, although Firespout isn't a care RG usually needs. You should have Sarkhan Vol here, but if you can't get your hands on that, there's Hull Breach and Tin-Street Hooligan.
The artifact changes are killer!
Did the artifact deck not come together for you? Tolarian Academy is pretty busted, but you need to push artifacts for it to happen.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Remember, this is a pre-Shards cube
In this update, I was mainly focusing on cutting sub-par cards rather than adding excellent cards I'd overlooked, it's possible that I'm overlooking better cards to add, advice is appreciated.
Kataki was rarely having an effect on games, and I think I've got most of the good 1-3 drops in white in already. I think Whipcorder is better than any of the assorted white knights I cut earlier.
With pre-Shards, I don't have access to Disfigure. However, I've been testing with Last Gasp for a while and forgot that it wasn't in my "official" list, so that will probably go in instead of Vendetta. I think Smother and Last Gasp are both better than Vendetta.
As you can see, there was a lot of red that I thought wasn't holding up in my cube. I'm testing with the cards I've added, and considering Ravenous Baboons and Ghitu Slinger, but I kind of feel like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel with playable red :/
Search for Tomorrow was a card I had, then cut for Harrow, and now that I've freed up some room in green I'm giving it another try.
Firespout just wasn't very effective. Maybe I'll swap out Tattermunge for Tin-Street.
It's been suggested to me that "color-aligned" lands be associated with their respective colors, but right now I'm counting them as land cycles. Blue has four excellent lands, and although Tolarian Academy can be absolutely explosive if the fates allow you to draft a deck that can utilize it, the other three blue lands are extremely good in just about any blue deck.
Crap. I always forget those things. Sorry about that.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
Word of Seizing -> Invoke the Firemind
Countryside Crusher -> Goblin Trenches
Mogg War Marshal -> [/c]Hit/Run[/c]
Kumano -> Firespout