MTG Salvation

I decided to do a commons cube because it was a way to create a cube that was unique from anyone else's in my local area and it could be done relatively cheap. It ended up costing more to sleeve the cube than to get the cards and there has only been one card that I haven't been able to track down yet. I cube with Usman quite often and he said he was going to hassle me until I posted it on these forums. He tells me that this is a great cubing community and that you all will have great input.

This is a first draft of the cube, and my general philosophy was to go for power above anything else. That is not to say that I just threw in the best cards and called it a day. I added quite a few cards that are admittedly weaker than some cards that could be put in, but were added because I thought they were interesting or added a unique effect to the cube. I decided to go with 50 of each color.

I did my best to keep the cube balanced, but for the most part I'm going to play around with it a little before I decide if the power level of each color is acceptable. I did do some things like cut down the number of red pingers since before I did so there was a lot more of them than I was comfortable with.

The lands are pretty slim, but with borderposts serving as pseudo-lands it's not so bad. There is plenty of fixing to allow for decks to expand beyond 2 colors if they wish to prioritize picking it. But there are also plenty of incentives to commit heavily to one or two colors, for example to basic land affinity golems.

I may add some more to this post later, but for the most part I would like people to take a quick look and start discussions that I can get involved with. I'll be happy to answer any questions, and I am open to any suggestions. Thanks for your time.

COMMONS CUBE (370 Cards Total)

WHITE (50)

BLUE (50)

BLACK (50)

RED (50)

GREEN (50)

MULTI (60)

ARTIFACTS & LANDS (60)

Like he said in the post, I draft with him and bugged him to post his common cube list here because the input that I've gotten on mine has been really good, so play nice.

I didn't know you were running that many multi cards, I could see it going to 6 per instead of 7 and the pairs overall, especially the enemy ones, should be better overall.

Aven Redeemer may be better than Loxodon Anchorite as the former's easier to cast and gains flying at the cost of -1 toughness. I'm not too huge on Nantuko Shaman and think that Wild Dogs or Gemhide Sliver may be better.

Ponder may be worth a shot over one of the two-drops in blue, which I think there may be too many of, although I think there may be too many creatures for blue in general as there are more creatures than non-creatures in blue.

I'd drop 20 gold cards and 5 from the artifact/lands to make a rounded 360 card cube. It will pull a lot of the weaker gold stuff out and increase the quality of the packs significantly.

Maybe I should drop 1 card from each multicolor set. I think it is deep enough to only drop one because I"m really only reaching for some of the enemy color combinations. t

I think this cube will be quite a bit like normal drafting, and ponder is usually around one of the last cards to make it in my normal drafts. I've liked serum visions in draft because it actually allows you to get 3 cards deeper into your deck and scrying lands or dead cards to the bottom can be a gain in card quality that approaches actual card advantage. Ponder is better if you need a card immediately, but that usually won't be important. I think impulse is the best of those effects that I currently don't have in the cube, but I really wanted to occupy the 2cc slow with other effects.

I think a 2/1 for G just isn't very exciting if it has a pretty significant drawback, it's just going to be cycled all the time late game, against red decks, etc. This cube already has enough creatures that tap to add mana so I don't really want to add gemhide sliver. It can add every color of mana, which is nice but I don't think you can just consider a 4 drop w/ card advantage and a mana source interchangeable. Also, at worst it's a 3/2 for 3. Generally if a color like green has a way to get card advantage, it's going to be hard for me to cut it, particularly if I think it's a strong card. I mean I even have gift of the gargantuan in the cube.

Aven Redeemer vs Anchorite- They are pretty close, I may just be remembering how Anchorite was better in it's draft format than Redeemer was. I think the anchorite is a better defensive creature, which works better with it's ability, but I may change this one.

Wild Dogs is pretty strong. Much better than Mtenda Lion, IMO.

No love for Priest of Titania? Agree on the Wild Dogs. They are pretty good.

Quote from wtwlf123

Wild Dogs is pretty strong. Much better than Mtenda Lion, IMO.

I think it's a judgement call, one is dead in more situations, but can cycle. I think i'm starting to lean in your direction.

Quote from Goodking

No love for Priest of Titania? Agree on the Wild Dogs. They are pretty good.

If I just has some more elves in this cube. There is really a surprisingly low amount in green. She would be good if I really made the tribe a lot more prominent in green. Which might happen. Right now I think there are only about 4-5 green elves. So right now now I'd say the fact that you can potentially add 2 mana is less upside than werebear or wall of roots.

It's not that I don't like a lot of these cards, but you can only add so many 2 mana accelerating creatures and there is quite a bit of competition. That being said, I'll gatherer for common green elves and see if anything can be done to make them a mini theme.

I need to figure out what is exactly in green again, since I know rootwalla (the 3cc one) got cut a while ago.

I could add wild dogs, but I'm not sure what I'd cut, definitely not the nantuko shaman. Maybe centaur courser? It is just a dumb vanilla guy.

Ok, made a few changes

By popular demand

centaur courser -> wild dogs

Because when I was looking for wild dogs I noticed this card

fistful of force -> symbiosis

Because I wanted more equipment

springleaf drum -> vulshok guantlets

Because I'm indecisive

wee dragonauts -> torch drake

I think the Dragonauts are better than that drake. I also like Fistful better than Symbiosis. The latter requires 2 targets to be played at all. Sometimes that means pumping your opponent's creature early game... that = bad combat trick lol.

Quote from wtwlf123

I think the Dragonauts are better than that drake. I also like Fistful better than Symbiosis. The latter requires 2 targets to be played at all. Sometimes that means pumping your opponent's creature early game... that = bad combat trick lol.

Well if someone likes dragonauts more than drake I'll switch back, because I couldn't be more 50/50 on them. There is also leap of flame. It might not matter since I'm thinking of cutting 1 from each multicolor, or at least 1 from each enemy color.

I realize symbiosis is a little tricky, but it can also lead to much bigger blowouts than the normal pump spell. Which is why I like it, it takes a little effort to make it work properly.

Fistful is really good if you win the clash, and not really worse than symbiosis, it's just that symbiosis is just a more unique effect that I want to put in the cube.

EDIT: More changes

Cloudcrown oak -> Jungle Lion

Did not know this card was a common, a simple oversight. Had too many 4 drops and this was the one I liked least. He is the worst of the 2 four toughness reach guys at the 4 slot. Unfortunately you can never block with this guy, because you will be too busy attacking.

Silkwing Scout -> Vigean Hydropon

Has a lot of synergy w/ persist guys and token producers like sprout swarm (it can even convoke for it). Silkwing scout loses a lot by not being able to stack damage. An nobody in their right mind is going to use removal on it.

Crabapple cohort -> Phantom Tiger

A little shuffling of the curve, I've got a lot of late game cards and I felt I needed another 3 drop. Citanul Woodreaders doesn't really count as a 3 drop as it rarely goes unkicked. Also, there are about 5-6 aura's or equipments that can make him immune to damage. Really shouldn't have forgotten about this guy.

gaze of the gorgon -> rendclaw trow

A card I REALLY didn't like for a card that should be pretty solid, at least it will be annoying to deal with. Trow is a little boring but at least it's another card that arcane teachings is good on.

stonybrook angler -> gossamer phantasm

I like the angler, but blue simply can't occupy 2 mana tapping a guy with all the instants it has. I want to put gossamer phantasm in to make blue in aggro more viable

Rendclaw Trow is in my fully powered cube, so I'd definitely say that he's good enough for a commons cube.

Are Ambassador Oak or Nantuko Disciple good enough?

And Ramosian Rally/Glorious Charge as an anthem effect?

White
You are running alot of soldiers (12/32 of your white creatures are soldiers), maybe play Veteren Swordsmith and Veteren Armorsmith. If you take out non soldiers for them you are up to 14/32,

You should probably be running Icitian Javlineers and Deftblade Elite, that would put you to 16/32 soldiers, or half of your creatures are soldiers. Javlineers is good in both control and agro decks.

Run Raise the alarm, its as close to spectral procession as you are going to get. and it works with my smiths that I want you to add.

I would definitly cut
Welkin Guide
Plover Kngiths
Troubled Healer


Green
Your Green creatuers look pretty good.
Aerie Ouphes doesn't look up to your standards.

First thoughts is you are running alot of giant growth effects, but oddly not running giant growth. Giant growth is better than quite a few of your spells I would drop Ferocious Charge for Giant growth.

Rampant growth is another good effect that you should be playing. Maybe take out predator's strike.

Multicolor
I mirror many peoples thought in that you are playing quite a few multicolored cards. In the average draft you are going to see more multicolored cards than you are going to see a mono white colored card. This is something that most people try to avoid. I would work to cut 2-3 cards from each color

GW
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Sigil Blessing (too many pump spells!)
Thrill of the Hunt (This looks horrible, paying 1GW for giant growth, no thanks.)

WU
Not your fault, but UW looks really bad. UW sucks in general.
I would play

Momentery Blink
Dismantleing blow
Esper Cormerants
Master of Impediments
and something else

I need to look up more things, but I think it's a good start.

Are Ambassador Oak or Nantuko Disciple good enough?

And Ramosian Rally/Glorious Charge as an anthem effect?

I don't think green can really add another 4 drop, and while those guys are good I just don't think I could find room.

I had thought about marshalling cry, but ended up not finding room for it. It's a sorcery but flashback, vigilance, and cycling all made it pretty useful when I played it in limited a few times. If I end up not being happy with the number of pacifisms I may cut one for it. I think vigilance is very good because there are a lot of tap abilities to take advantage of in white and other colors.

White
You are running alot of soldiers (12/32 of your white creatures are soldiers), maybe play Veteren Swordsmith and Veteren Armorsmith. If you take out non soldiers for them you are up to 14/32,

You should probably be running Icitian Javlineers and Deftblade Elite, that would put you to 16/32 soldiers, or half of your creatures are soldiers. Javlineers is good in both control and agro decks.

I do like deftblade elite and Javlineers, but if I were to add them I know one of the cuts I will make is infantry veteran which is also a soldier.

Veteran Armorer is a pretty average dude in my cube, and I'm not really interested in adding a narrower version when white has the best 2 drops to choose from of any color.

I don't really like the soldier plan too much. We do a lot of 4 man drafts and a quick bit of math tells me if I add javlineers and deftblade elite and even consider cenn's enlistment a soldier you have about 6.5 other white soldiers on average in the card pool in addition to the 3/2 gives all soldiers +1/+0. And while in addition to other color's soldiers that's not bad it's still probably about as good as in m10 drafts where this guy is pretty good but not really good enough in my opinion. And since I'm really only willing to run him if he's incidentally good enough, I can't really see adding him because the 3 drops are really tight right now.

Run Raise the alarm, its as close to spectral procession as you are going to get.

Eh, it's much closer to dragon fodder. It's fine for surprising people, but can't really see what I'd cut for it just yet.

I would definitly cut
Welkin Guide
Plover Kngiths
Troubled Healer

Welkin Guide is certainly cuttable, as white naturally has a lot of evasion and it shines mostly when giving a creature evasion. Plover Knights is one of the best 5 drops in the game and really one of the dragons in this format, I can't really see cutting that, particularly since it is one of the better late game white cards I don't want to make white a 1 dimensional aggro color.

Troubled Healer is a card I think you are overlooking, it was considered a pretty overpowered common in it's limited format (I realize this is masques block we're talking about) because short of black removal it makes all of your guys really really hard to kill the second it hits the board. Trading a land to save a guy is a steal. I also think it's a pretty challenging card to play, which is always a plus.

Aerie Ouphes doesn't look up to your standards.

Really, I think it's the best green 5 drop. I guess it's another card you'd have to draft with to appreciate. Persist is a very powerful ability and so is the ability to kill fliers. Perhaps you aren't approaching this with enough of a limited player's mindset. This isn't going to be like playing normal cube, where the games have quite a bit of a constructed feel to them. 5 mana 3/3's are going to be acceptable if the abilities are good enough.

First thoughts is you are running alot of giant growth effects, but oddly not running giant growth. Giant growth is better than quite a few of your spells I would drop Ferocious Charge for Giant growth.

Rampant growth is another good effect that you should be playing. Maybe take out predator's strike.

Green has a lot of pump, white has a lot of pacifism effects, black has a lot of removal, red is filled with burn. It's the nature of commons that most of the good commons are very similar. And while later on I may attempt to tone down each of these, it's hardest with green because a lot of the non pump spells are crap and I've got enough rampant growth effects, particularly if you count the artifacts. What I did try to do is add unique enough pump effects so that they aren't just replacements for each other. There are a few token producers but that is just like adding more creatures, which there is already a ton in green. I may cut a pump spell for avoid fate.

Predator's strike is probably the best mono green pump spell in the cube currently. I wouldn't say giant growth is strictly better than any other pump spell in the cube currently.

Multicolor
I mirror many peoples thought in that you are playing quite a few multicolored cards. In the average draft you are going to see more multicolored cards than you are going to see a mono white colored card. This is something that most people try to avoid. I would work to cut 2-3 cards from each color

To sum this up, I like drafting multicolor, personal preference. I think the only card that is really a reach is putrid warrior, the rest are either powerful enough effects or unique enough to be played as niche cards.

Thrill of the Hunt

And lastly, Thrill of the Hunt is IN-FREAKING-SANE as Evan Erwin would put it. I've written a lot in the post, but anyone else who drafted a substantial amount of TSP limited can back me up if the want to. Hell, it even made it into extended zoo sideboards for the creature mirror.

Still, valuable input. And I think I'm going to make these changes.

Gather Courage -> Rampant Growth

I'm hearing I have too many pump spells, so I guess I'll make a minor change. We'll see how it goes.

Welkin Guide + Infantry Veteran -> Deftblade Elite + Icatian Javlineers

Pretty good one drops, there are a lot of good 1 toughness creatures. Deftblade Elite is also very good with all the combat manipulation in white and the pump spells in green. Deftblade Elite was an oversight, and I forgot provoke actually can untap the creature, which makes it a little better.

I forgot that Aftershock isn't in your list (over Burn Trail?), that card definitely should go in. Similarly with Seal of Fire and Mogg Fanatic, the latter loses punch with m10 but I think is definitely still cubable, similarly with Blink, and Fireblast is something I also forgot that you hadn't used, which should probably be in as well. I also think that Rolling Thunder should come in as an X spell over Disintegrate, because I think that it even with the additional R, it can either go to the dome or just go plague wind an opponent.

Honestly, I'd rather have Reclaim than Rampant Growth, but even then if you're deadset against running Reclaim, I'd rather have Search for Tomorrow over Rampant Growth.

(I thought that you had decided on running Vulshok Sorceror instead of stinger.)

Carnophage also should probably go in to help black aggro, and Innocent Blood should help black control, on the other side of the spectrum and Duress may be worth a look, depending on the strength of the non-creature spells.

I don't think seal of fire is really worth running over any other burn spell I've got currently. Aftershock is pretty good, but I imagine burn trail being pretty game breaking when conspired, so I want to keep it in for now.

Rolling thunder is pretty good, and should probably replace disintegrate. I don't want to take out anything but another blaze effect because giving red anything more than about 2 blaze effects seems a little too good.

I do have Vulshok Sorcerer in over Stinger, just another error I've got to fix in my original post.

I like tortured existence, black has too many removal spells even for black currently IMO. I'll cut capsule because it seems to be my least favorite of them all. Nice little card, didn't know it existed. I've also considered unearth and will probably add it when I think of what to cut.

I guess I should add carnophage, have an extra 5 drop anyways.

So

Disintegrate-> Rolling Thunder

executioner's capsule -> tortured existence

soul scourge -> carnophage

deft duelist -> momentary blink

I think I ended up w/ more 187's than I expected.

and I think..

violet pall -> unearth

EDIT:

wildsize -> gilt-leaf ambush

cutting down the pump spells, but this is that last one that goes.

rampant growth -> search for tomorrow

riddle of lightning -> fireblast

I didn't realize fireblast was a common!

recumbant bliss -> marshaling cry

I felt I had too many pacifism effects, even though they are really good I wanted a little more diversity.

Temple Acolyte over Samite Pilgrim? how good is domain?

also, no Aven Riftwatcher?

how often do you buyback Elvish Fury? Wildsize seems better to me.

Fire Ambush > Flame Jab.

I don't know if I said this in my opening post, but I don't want any functional reprints. So I can't have a second version of volcanic hammer. I don't really see flame jab and a volcanic hammer clone as interchangable anyways.

I don't think you need a bunch of different basics to make samite pilgrim good, it takes about 2. From there it only gets better.

I don't have Temple Acolyte or Riftwatcher because I just don't value lifegain that high. I used to love when people played Riftwatcher against me in draft because aside from whitemane lion or search out with rebels tricks (even then it wasn't that good) it would usually just do about 4 to me and kill itself. This loss of card advantage generally swung games in my favor more than the life swing. I think Riftwatcher and acolyte at best a SB card against really quick aggro, and considering the other white 3 drops doesn't make the cut.

EDIT: LARGE Update

I decided the multicolor side as a little unbalanced. Some colors, particularly U/W got more hybrids than others, which was sloppy on my part but I really figured it would sort itself out. In addition, cards like strangling soot and agonizing demise were just way more black than red. It was just like adding cards to black that were a little better if you happened to have red. They are great cards, but not really in the spirit of multicolor or hybrid. Cards like dismantling blow or Orim's Thunder are fine, as I don't really see giving white a few more disenchants being too much of a problem. At the very least players who could get both colors will value them much much more.

So I cut down to 5 cards for each multicolor combo and 1 of each hybrid.

The Changes are

G/W: loses Pale Recluse and Sigil Blessing, gains Safehold Elite
R/G: loses Tin Street Hooligan
U/G: loses Gaea's Skyfolk
U/B: Recoil and Soul Manipulation, gains Gravelgill Axeshark (This combo gets hosed pretty bad on this one, but I wouldn't shed a tear for U/B. It's still really good overall.)
U/W: loses Minister of Impediments and Curse of Chains, gains Soulsworn Jury
B/W: loses Putrid Warrior (addition by subtraction)
R/W: loses rally the righteous (see above, just really not good enough without enough gold creatures)
B/R: loses Strangling Soot and Agonizing Demise, gains Cultbrand Cinder
U/R: loses Wee Dragonauts
G/B: loses Rendclaw Trow

A lot of the good hybrids were already pre-existing in the cube. U/B doesn't exactly have the best hybrids, but I'd rather have Gravelgill Axeshark in the cube than take out 9 hybrid cards I like.

Also

Bogardan Firefiend -> Keldon Berserker

explosive growth -> giant growth

I liked the ability to lava axe your opponent with explosive growth. But elvish fury bought back and played the same turn does about the same thing for the same amount of mana. Ever fearful of being redundant and looking for a slot to put ol' reliable in I made this switch.

I forgot about Mind Stone, Skittering Skirge (which I think should replace Disciple of TZ), Skittering Horror, Mesmeric Fiend and Pyrotechnics (what were they thinking in 6th?)

Sinkhole is also really good, but it costs a billion dollars. Boo.

Ray of Command may be worth a shot, but it's +1 mana over Threaten for the instant, so it may just be overcosted.

You know, I'm not sure what I was thinking to be honest when I said that, to be honest...

I'd definitely run it.

Hmm, Ray of Command does something similar to what I what leaden fists to do. I didn't know it was an instant. I'll give it a try. Going to try and fit fists back in, I like it a lot. It's very interesting. You can keep a guy from untapping, use it to deal the last point of damage in a game, or put it on a blocker to kill a guy and have a giant wall the rest of the game.

I don't really like the scourges downside in this format, especially on low drops. There is no way you can stop playing guys for a while starting turn 2 or 3, and if you are going to wait to play them then, there is no sense in them costing 2.

Sinkhole doesn't seem good, fun, or interesting enough in this cube. I've never played an ld spell in draft, and this format should resemble draft pretty closely. I just drafted it in your cube last time, and played it to try it out. It didn't really do anything, and your cube is closer to constructed. For one thing LD kind of gets better the more of it you have, because if the first time I draw an LD spell is around turn 6 (which I did plenty of times that night), it does next to nothing unless I've already been attacking their resources. In the times were it's good, it's far more frustrating than anything. I would play an LD spell if were attached to a more versitile card, but sinkhole isn't going anywhere near my cube.

I think I'm going to take out all 10 signets, and put in mind stone and springleaf drum and seeing what happens. The reason being it really does give green one of it's main advantages back, the ability to search out lands. It also places more of a premium on the existing mana fixers. I want people to open a pack, see a bounceland, and consider taking it. If only for a second.

Pyrotechnics. I think red is emerging as one of the better colors, and this is just another ridiculous effect it really probably doesn't need. But, might as well put it in and see if people don't like it first.

Soooo...

10 signets -> springleaf drum + mind stone

Might add another mana producter, but the rest are pretty weak so who knows. There is still a good deal left.

burn trail -> pyrotechnics

leaden fists -> ray of command

Being an instant makes it 10x better. Not very good as a sorcery, which is what I thought it was.

Disciple of Tevesh Szat -> Wicked Akuba

I could run the other 2 power shadow guy, but that's a little redundant. Besides I like interaction and that means avoiding a lot of shadow creatures. Cuombajj Witches is pretty good but I feel 1 toughness creatures have to much to fear to begin with, which is the main reason why I'm cutting desciple. I also thought that black could lose a 4 drop and 2 could gain a creature. Generally I won't replace a creature with one of a different CMC unless I thought the curve could use it.

Wicked Akuba is a pretty interesting card. He's doesn't have evasion, but I think he'd be a pretty neat creature to put in the cube.

EDIT:

Covert Operative -> leaden fists

urborg uprising -> Shade's Form

I like urborg uprising, but there is are enough raise dead effects already. I just like the idea of either putting it on your guy, or putting it on their guy, killing it and stealing it.

Death Denied is better than Urborg Uprising right?

i would most definitely NOT remove the signets. they are fantastic. having plenty of colorless fixing is an absolute necessity, imo.

Death Denied seems much better than Urborg Uprising. although Uprising is a fine card.

and i had never heard of Shade's Form. i will be trying that out in my common/uncommon cube.

I was just remembering this guy had a really bad t2 deck w/ shades form he used to play when I first started. And remember at the very least is was pretty funny when he stole guys with it.

I think I will be fine on fixing, this is a smaller cube and it still has a lot of fixing. I even gave each color not including green it's land cycling spells from conflux.

A small change

Bloodpyre Elemental -> Chartooth Cougar

Bloodpyre Elemental really isn't a creature, it's just a bad sorcery. And I don't want that, I want a creature. Chartooth Cougar is a guy I've actually played in T2 and liked, so I was hoping to put him in here eventually.

I would definitely NOT remove the signets. Fixing + Ramp = good.

I just don't see justification for having 41 non-green mana fixers in a 374 card cube.

41 fixers, 50 multicolored cards. Hard to justify.