Due to a lack of response and my goal of cutting to 810 cards, the update was delayed by a fair bit. No worries though - much thinking and consideration went into these changes, so follow me as I try to wing my way through as coherent an explanation as I can manage!
First, the subtractions to reduce my cube from 840 to 810:
Taurean Mauler was a relatively subpar three-drop in a color with a wealth of choices there.
Skred is the victim of my decision to remove all snow-related cards from cube for ease of play. I have no snow-covered lands and it removes the pre-draft hassle of reminding players that their fancy textless lands are all snowed in.
Wild Ricochet was a tremendously bad resource drain as very few reddish decks ever wanted to keep four mana up and stifle their development, even in the ideal UR counterburn deck.
Demonfire was the tenth and therefore presumably most superfluous X-cost burn spell.
Crusade is a victim of reduced support for token strategies. The WW was an irritation. And no token deck wants to see their anthems help opposing creatures out.
Warrior en-Kor was basically obsoleted by Loyal Cathar. It really needed an extra ability to hang on, like vigilance, first strike or flanking, but Outrider en-Kor already does the job better and he's too expensive.
Akrasan Squire is the least relevant one-drop in white. I am currently theorizing that I could remedy the lack of one-drops available for aggro decks by increasing the density of two-drops.
Reprisal: The least useful removal spell in white. It's a guaranteed mana advantage, but the lack of flexibility reduces its value.
Tithe: White card advantage that proved difficult to exploit properly.
Hyena Umbra would rather be another creature. Loyal Cathar's predecessor.
Phyrexian Rebirth is the victim of reduced support for control. The token is usually worthless in the late-game and would get obsoleted by virtually any creature the opponent played after the sweeper.
Body Double was not as useful as expected. Also the victim of reduced support for reanimator.
Pestermite is the victim of reduced support for blue aggro and tempo strategies.
Tradewind Rider // Opposition are the victims of reduced support for token strategies. It feels like blue is the worst color to provide token support for. Neither of these were ever useful. Tradewind Rider is too slow and blue decks generally did not want Opposition unless they were heavy aggro, a very infrequent outcome of drafts.
Eyeblight's Ending could have been Rend Flesh, but after looking at my creatures I feel that Rend Flesh is the more flexible removal spell. There are approximately the same number of Spirits as Elves, but some of the biggest-priority Spirit targets have protection from black anyway (Chameleon Colossus, Phantom Centaur) which means there are technically more targets available than the Ending's. Spirits are scattered across all five colors, whereas Elves are concentrated in green. So the probability of encountering a single Spirit in a particular deck should be lower than the probability of encountering an Elf in a green deck.
Exhume is the worst reanimation spell of the bunch and is a victim of reduced support for this archetype.
Scepter of Fugue, while a personal favorite, requires enough initial investment for its effect that it becomes one of the less powerful discard spells.
Life's Finale is a victim of reduced support for control. It may eventually find its way back in, as the additional extraction effect is a massive blow to any deck without graveyard recursion or noncreature win conditions.
Utopia Sprawl is another personal favorite that I am reluctant to let go.
Gaea's Revenge was not what green decks wanted. The haste is not aggressively costed, making it less likely to swing on an empty board or create the conditions that lead to such. The low toughness meant that it would trade sooner rather than later.
Gigapede is a synergistic beater that worked well with discard outlets (Survival of the Fittest comes to mind) but is outclassed in raw power by modern creatures (Vorapede comes to mind).
Ant Queen: The worst of the five-drops. Also a victim of reduced support for tokens.
Mtenda Lion: Following my current theory of removing subpar one-drops for better two-drops, this was the worst of the section. I'm sorry, but this Lion sleeps tonight and every night to come.
Lots of fun funky artifacts get the boot this time. A few highlights:
Phyrexian Ironfoot // Coldsteel Heart are gone as a result of snow exclusion.
Chimeric Idol required some gimping of your playstyle. I think there are better options now.
Phyrexian Processor: Potentially the most controversial cut. Initially perceived as a control finisher, it slowly shifted to become a curve topper in aggro. I just felt like players would often cast it, pay X amount of life, and then watch while their opponent untapped and Smashed it. Paying less than 3 life was usually not worth it, considering the hefty activation cost. Even with a few unhindered activations at 3 life or more, I found it wasn't performing well at all. Vanilla tokens at 4 per turn was just not what most decks wanted. Most decks wanted value and flexibility out of their 4+ costed drops. It stunted your development with a kind of "false" board advantage where your opponent could easily play around these tokens, leaving you scrambling for answers.
It seems similar in that regard to Isochron Scepter, which has lost most of its luster in recent times. It requires a hard investment which can potentially jump you ahead or set you back severely if the opponent has the answer. And I would rather my cube threats not set me back severely.
Another round of multicolor cuts, this time to try and fit in Dark Ascension's heavy hitters. For the first time, I'm trying an unbalanced multicolor section. This was due to certain guilds like UG and UR where the choices were much weaker than the stacked guilds. I am sticking to a couple of makeshift rules for unbalanced guilds:
1. There must be a difference limit of +/-2 cards. My biggest guild is Rakdos with 8 cards; there are three guilds with 6 cards.
2. There can be no more than three guilds at the highest or lowest points simultaneously. I don't want half the guilds getting 8 cards and the other half getting 6 as that leads to severe unbalancing.
Additional notes: Spectral Lynx moves into white. The guild crown previously disputed by the Selesnya and Gruul is now firmly in the hands of the Orzhov usurper.
And now the shiny new DA toys for our reduced 810 cube:
Not much to add here either. The Loyal Cathar I consider on the cusp of playability due to the overpopulated WW slot, but he gets a freebie as I still played a couple subpar creatures there.
I'm cheating a little bit on Spectral Lynx and Lingering Souls, but I think both cards provide so much value that they could be considered playable even without the multicolor. Just as I'd gotten rid of the previous cycle of off-color cards (Momentary Blink, Mystical Teachings) I get a new bunch that I can't fit into multicolor. Sigh.
Stonecloaker is here as an added bit of functional grave-hate. Should play a bit better than Relic of Progenitus, which I often didn't want to include even though it essentially allowed me to cheat and play 39-card decks.
Unfortunately, because I'm so late to the Dark Ascension update party, I really have not a whole lot to add that you can't find anywhere else on the forums, but - 1 drop, 2 power. In with ye.
Mayor of Avabruck is a replacement for Mtenda Lion, again going with the idea that a strong 2-drop is better than a mediocre 1-drop (although I consider the Lion to be far from mediocre, it's the worst of the bunch and I think the Mayor just goes into more decks).
Ice Storm and Creeping Mold are here to help re-assert green's identity alongside red as a land-destroyer.
Colorless: No additions. Elbrus, the Binding Blade That Almost Could.
The two multicolor DA cards are bombs, plain and simple. Huntmaster will almost never lack for targets, and getting several transformations should put the game firmly in its owner's favor. Sorin is the card that puts Orzhov over the top.
Tidehollow Sculler is mainly here as an aggressive helper and to provide a bit of extra fun with Gravecrawler.
Venser replaces Plumeveil thanks to the growing number of ETB creatures (also works nicely with other effects like Undying/Persist and opponent's theft effects).
Honorable Mention: Havengul Lich
I ultimately decided the Lich wasn't particularly worth the cost required to get value out of him, and that he compared poorly to other UB finishers like Nemesis of Reason and Oona, Queen of the Fae. Although the payoff is potentially huge, there's just too many flaws to it - it has no evasion, very little protection (to be fair, it is black with a butt of 4, which protects slightly against black removal and burn) and a medium-sized body that won't get through many of the creatures that can land when he does; it requires colored mana to cast creatures, which severely limits your options against non-UB decks; and it requires creatures in the yard, which is dissynergistic with UB decks and dependent on the opponent's deck design as well.
It's worth noting that I'm still looking for a cut to include Contagion [EDIT: also Mwonvuli Acid-Moss!], so feel free to make suggestions there!
I'm good with all of that except cutting Processor. I run it in my 500-card cube so I think it makes the cut at this size. Yeah, you can get screwed if your Processor gets blown up before you make a token. OTOH, it provides your deck with a completely separate win condition. When you can make a 6/6 every turn, you don't need many turns to win.
I also don't like Spectral Lynx in white. You need black to get reasonable value out of the card.
Thanks rant, I've stuck with Processor since it was first printed, so I understand its potential to just run away with the game. But the rise of artifact removal has drastically decreased the likelihood of Processor sticking around.
I mean, I very much enjoy the minigame of casting Phyrexian Processor. There are so many factors involved in the payment, so many opportunities to gain an edge with the correct decision - How much life can I afford to pay in this matchup? Do I have lifegain to offset the cost? What are the chances of Processor getting destroyed before I can activate it? What is my back-up plan if I lose the Processor? How many activations at X life do I need to gain the advantage? What is the average size of my opponent's creatures? Should I match their size or raise it?
Ultimately, the skill-testing nature of the card meant it was too much work for the result, since I can just drop a Masticore or Juggernaut instead and not worry about the consequences of playing a high-risk, low-reward card (or is that high-reward? :P) like Processor. But on a side-note, if you feel there is a better cut to keep the Processor, I'm always willing to consider your suggestions.
I don't like Spectral Lynx in white either. It messes with my plan to keep pseudo-multicolor cards out of monocolored sections. After the vertiginous drop from multicolor to white, it will most likely make a swift exit once I get another cubeable bear.
Phyrexian Processor is extremely solid and better than staff or mindslaver. And none of those do anything if they get blown up right away. (Granted you lose 5+ life with processor)
Yeah, the Staff and Mindslaver were both on the block alongside Processor for the update. But as we mentioned, the downside to losing them is much less severe. They got the nod because they work a bit better with proven cube cards (Staff with Metalworker and Mindslaver with Academy Ruins). If we could identify some added value for the Processor similar to the other two cards I could definitely see it coming back in.
Instead of Lynx, what about going in a totally different direction and using Galepowder Mage?
Cheers,
rant
I didn't think you were a fan of blink! I cut the Mage ages ago. Even with all the new ETB critters around, I'm not sure he's good enough. I'm hoping they upgrade him by printing a new version that provides the effect upon entering the battlefield too. But I'd really rather use the slot for a more aggressive creature. A bear with blink and some kind of evasion would make me very happy indeed. I love Whitemane Lion, and I think he just needs a tiny push to become amazing.
I didn't think you were a fan of blink! I cut the Mage ages ago. Even with all the new ETB critters around, I'm not sure he's good enough. I'm hoping they upgrade him by printing a new version that provides the effect upon entering the battlefield too. But I'd really rather use the slot for a more aggressive creature. A bear with blink and some kind of evasion would make me very happy indeed. I love Whitemane Lion, and I think he just needs a tiny push to become amazing.
I like blink a lot, although I don't push it in my cube. I mostly suggested it because you run very few 4-drops in white and I thought that looked like the next best one to the stuff you are already running. I know some other cubists use the Mage and have some success with it. The other card I thought of was Thunder Spirit (or Pegasus Charger or whatever the Innistrad version is). That's a reasonably aggressive card for a cube of this size. Whitemane Lion is so close to being good enough.
A small update today, mostly focused on cleaning up my land section and trimming the cube down to a mildly obese 795 cards. Some notes on the changes:
- Land section has been switched to a guild-ish system. Each color combination gets eight mana-fixing cards. This involved cutting from the allied guilds and adding to the enemy guilds, hopefully alleviating any imbalances during draft. This is generally a non-issue at smaller cube sizes, but I just noticed it could be a problem for larger lists.
- Half the filterlands are out, and six out of ten karoos are gone.
Control decks are very strong at this size and don't really need the Haven. I could see cutting Perimeter Captain for it, perhaps? I think a first-turn Captain could be way better than what the Haven offers though.
The Ring has been super hit-or-miss. It's been pretty difficult to turn on threshold. It usually comes online too late to matter, or the self-inflicted pain makes racing a dangerous proposition. The times where it just wins you the game aren't as numerous. I'll make sure it gets a grace period though!
EDIT: I remembered it also has value against protection creatures (Paladin en-Vec, Silver Knight, Soltari Priest, Mother of Runes). But since mono-red is a rarity in draft, it would be unusual to see a deck whose other half doesn't have an out to these creatures.
Control decks are very strong at this size and don't really need the Haven. I could see cutting Perimeter Captain for it, perhaps? I think a first-turn Captain could be way better than what the Haven offers though.
The Ring has been super hit-or-miss. It's been pretty difficult to turn on threshold. It usually comes online too late to matter, or the self-inflicted pain makes racing a dangerous proposition. The times where it just wins you the game aren't as numerous. I'll make sure it gets a grace period though!
EDIT: I remembered it also has value against protection creatures (Paladin en-Vec, Silver Knight, Soltari Priest, Mother of Runes). But since mono-red is a rarity in draft, it would be unusual to see a deck whose other half doesn't have an out to these creatures.
I am probably going to cut the Elephant to try out the Angel, but I could argue for the Sledge as well.
Kor Haven is super sweet in my cube and I don't think I am close to cutting it (I would probably end up cutting Outpost before cutting Haven). I would definitely swap the Captain for the Haven.
Barbarian Ring is one of those cards where I find you easily forget the games when it works, and remember the games when it doesn't. There is no more frustrating feeling than never hitting threshold so those games tend to stick in your memory. Leave the Ring in - try cutting: Rorix Bladewing, Thunderblust, Hammer of Bogardan, or Stigma Lasher instead.
I can see where you're trying to make improvements with the suggested cuts, but I like Rorix and Thunderblust more than analogues like Flameblast Dragon and Kumano, Master Yamabushi. Hasty creatures are one of the biggest advantages red currently has over the other colors in the cube and I feel like reducing their number would be reducing the color's power.
So, erm. It’s quite a tumble from 795 cards to 765. Like the lead-up to Dark Ascension, I gradually cut cards in successive rounds until I felt like I’d reached an ideal size. I think the current size retains the power level I wanted while discarding most of the chaff. I can run a full 16-player draft, or an 8-player sealed, and have almost the entire cube in use for it.
This is a temporary change. Over the next year, I plan to slowly build back up to 780. I’ll be expanding by five cards per set which translates to about one freebie slot per color from each set. This proposed plan is here to alleviate any final decisions on future additions and cuts. The last few cuts to get this cube down to 765 were extremely difficult compared to the initial cuts from 795, and doing it again for the next block is not something I want without a little leeway.
Hit the post below for the highlights on my changes:
1. There are less answers. Agony Warp, Dromar’s Charm, Soul Snare, Hurricane, Seal of Primordium, Victim of Night, Sever the Bloodline, Broken Ambitions, Beacon of Destruction – mostly subpar answers, but better than none. I am very interested in finding out how this changes the game dynamic as well as drafts.
2. There are more threats. An interesting feature of modern set design is that the overwhelming majority of good cards are creatures. This stopped me and made me think. With Wizards encouraging use of the red zone in their set design, one emerging trend for cubes may eventually revolve around the removal of noncreature spells for creatures. With Avacyn Restored, I found myself upgrading certain cards that were the same card types. But mostly, I was cutting noncreature spells for creatures. This trend is probably already known at smaller cube sizes, but I didn’t see anyone call attention to it.
3. The multicolored section has been rebalanced to include an even six cards for each guild, with only two exceptions – Orzhov get an extra card (Tidehollow Sculler) as a bonus for Gravecrawler, and Simic retain the two cards that were on the chopping block (Voidslime and Spitting Image) due to the relative weakness of Simic cards compared to other guilds. I’m quite proud of the solution to keep them in – to retain the 74 card cap for multicolor, I had to dip into the tricolor cards for a cut, which allowed me to reinforce their philosophy; big, splashy, attractive enough to play, and absolutely game-changing. Comparing Voidslime to Spitting Image was difficult, but comparing Voidslime to Dromar’s Charm was a cinch. For a tricolor card, the Charm went against this philosophy; it eschewed high-impact value for high flexibility, and Voidslime does almost as good a job despite being easier to cast. Trading the charm’s creature removal for Voidslime’s Stifle ability is a trade-up for me due to the unique value of Stifle compared to yet-another-removal-spell.
4. I still need to make a cut in red and one in green to bring the cube fully up to par. If you made it this far, I would be more than happy to get suggestions.
EDIT: After browsing the forum and poring over my red and green sections, I have some prospective cuts:
My red section is clogged with 3CC spells, so I just picked out the worst of them. Green's four-drops recently saw a ranking discussion in the card evaluation thread, and the two dudes above landed near the bottom of the list. Initial feelings are that Baloth is the cut; green already has a plethora of beefy ground-pounders with upsides at that cost. Oracle of Mul Daya provides a unique outlet for ramp decks, and is a source of cumulative card advantage in green, raising its value above the Baloth's.
EDIT 2: Burn comes at a premium in large cubes, and creatures that cost 3CC... don't. Sorry, Kruin Outlaw. And Baloth loses out as well. See reasoning just above this edit.
I like the idea of shrinking the cube down. Eventually I think 720 would be an ideal round number to hit, after you test this size long enough to see what's best.
The cuts and adds look solid -- I might hold onto Gerrard's Verdict if you can though, it's pretty darn good. I like it more than Sculler and Mortify if I had to pick a card to axe.
Oh man, 720 seems unlikely after that last round of cuts, but it's not impossible. It still lets me run 16-man drafts and 8-man sealeds. Getting another year of cubing to identify weak spots in the structure would help. But the near-entirety of the cube's contents feel like they've earned their place for now. I don't know if future changes will be any less hair-rippingly difficult to implement. I might even have to come up with an alternate solution - a second (third, since I keep a pauper one) cube? A no-size-limit cube?
I'm still surprised by the love for Gerrard's Verdict. I've always valued targeted discard over mass discard - we cubed with Castigate until halfway through the cube's lifespan, when it turned into Verdict. The color requirements can push those cards into a third-turn play, and that feels like Mind Rot and Coercion territory to me. I'm not sure I'd play Mind Rot if it came with the Verdict's lifegain clause. I lean towards the Sculler's targeted discard because the effect it provides is either neutral or good - the Sculler will either be a speedbump in the opponent's plan, or take their best card and leave them high and dry. Verdict's choice can occasionally backfire against graveyard lovers like Squee, Obstinate Baloth, Genesis, Volrath's Stronghold or reanimation. I don't know about keeping cards that have a chance of backfiring. Sculler also has the advantage of doing things even when your opponent has no cards. I know Verdict has the dubious benefit of being able to target yourself if you're in need of life, but in that kind of desperate situation a body will be superior to lifegain most of the time anyway. What am I missing here?
Thank you, pkedu. I actually don't. But since you asked, I will try and remember photos with the M13 update. That update's been lagging behind, since I'm still looking for ways to shrink the list down to 720 at the same time. I think the best I can do right now is 735. So close!
Phyrexian Scuta, Juzam Djinn, Plague Sliver, Knight of Stromgald, Last Gasp, Nameless Inversion, The Abyss, Innocent Blood.
Some of these I would never maindeck and the others have better versions available already in your cube and are very expendable. The Djinns are OK but I'm not convinced I'd run a vanilla 5/5 for 4 sans lifeloss at this point.
Due to a lack of response and my goal of cutting to 810 cards, the update was delayed by a fair bit. No worries though - much thinking and consideration went into these changes, so follow me as I try to wing my way through as coherent an explanation as I can manage!
First, the subtractions to reduce my cube from 840 to 810:
Taurean Mauler was a relatively subpar three-drop in a color with a wealth of choices there.
Skred is the victim of my decision to remove all snow-related cards from cube for ease of play. I have no snow-covered lands and it removes the pre-draft hassle of reminding players that their fancy textless lands are all snowed in.
Wild Ricochet was a tremendously bad resource drain as very few reddish decks ever wanted to keep four mana up and stifle their development, even in the ideal UR counterburn deck.
Demonfire was the tenth and therefore presumably most superfluous X-cost burn spell.
White: Crusade, Warrior en-Kor, Akrasan Squire, Reprisal, Tithe, Hyena Umbra, Phyrexian Rebirth
Crusade is a victim of reduced support for token strategies. The WW was an irritation. And no token deck wants to see their anthems help opposing creatures out.
Warrior en-Kor was basically obsoleted by Loyal Cathar. It really needed an extra ability to hang on, like vigilance, first strike or flanking, but Outrider en-Kor already does the job better and he's too expensive.
Akrasan Squire is the least relevant one-drop in white. I am currently theorizing that I could remedy the lack of one-drops available for aggro decks by increasing the density of two-drops.
Reprisal: The least useful removal spell in white. It's a guaranteed mana advantage, but the lack of flexibility reduces its value.
Tithe: White card advantage that proved difficult to exploit properly.
Hyena Umbra would rather be another creature. Loyal Cathar's predecessor.
Phyrexian Rebirth is the victim of reduced support for control. The token is usually worthless in the late-game and would get obsoleted by virtually any creature the opponent played after the sweeper.
Blue: Body Double, Pestermite, Tradewind Rider, Opposition
Body Double was not as useful as expected. Also the victim of reduced support for reanimator.
Pestermite is the victim of reduced support for blue aggro and tempo strategies.
Tradewind Rider // Opposition are the victims of reduced support for token strategies. It feels like blue is the worst color to provide token support for. Neither of these were ever useful. Tradewind Rider is too slow and blue decks generally did not want Opposition unless they were heavy aggro, a very infrequent outcome of drafts.
Black: Eyeblight's Ending, Exhume, Scepter of Fugue, Life's Finale
Eyeblight's Ending could have been Rend Flesh, but after looking at my creatures I feel that Rend Flesh is the more flexible removal spell. There are approximately the same number of Spirits as Elves, but some of the biggest-priority Spirit targets have protection from black anyway (Chameleon Colossus, Phantom Centaur) which means there are technically more targets available than the Ending's. Spirits are scattered across all five colors, whereas Elves are concentrated in green. So the probability of encountering a single Spirit in a particular deck should be lower than the probability of encountering an Elf in a green deck.
Exhume is the worst reanimation spell of the bunch and is a victim of reduced support for this archetype.
Scepter of Fugue, while a personal favorite, requires enough initial investment for its effect that it becomes one of the less powerful discard spells.
Life's Finale is a victim of reduced support for control. It may eventually find its way back in, as the additional extraction effect is a massive blow to any deck without graveyard recursion or noncreature win conditions.
Green: Utopia Sprawl, Gaea's Revenge, Gigapede, Ant Queen, Mtenda Lion
Utopia Sprawl is another personal favorite that I am reluctant to let go.
Gaea's Revenge was not what green decks wanted. The haste is not aggressively costed, making it less likely to swing on an empty board or create the conditions that lead to such. The low toughness meant that it would trade sooner rather than later.
Gigapede is a synergistic beater that worked well with discard outlets (Survival of the Fittest comes to mind) but is outclassed in raw power by modern creatures (Vorapede comes to mind).
Ant Queen: The worst of the five-drops. Also a victim of reduced support for tokens.
Mtenda Lion: Following my current theory of removing subpar one-drops for better two-drops, this was the worst of the section. I'm sorry, but this Lion sleeps tonight and every night to come.
Colorless: Relic of Progenitus, Phyrexian Ironfoot, Darksteel Colossus, Artisan of Kozilek, Chimeric Idol, Phyrexian Processor, Karn, Silver Golem, Puppet Strings, Platinum Angel, Voltaic Key, Journeyer's Kite, Coldsteel Heart, Pentad Prism, Contagion Engine
Lots of fun funky artifacts get the boot this time. A few highlights:
Phyrexian Ironfoot // Coldsteel Heart are gone as a result of snow exclusion.
Chimeric Idol required some gimping of your playstyle. I think there are better options now.
Phyrexian Processor: Potentially the most controversial cut. Initially perceived as a control finisher, it slowly shifted to become a curve topper in aggro. I just felt like players would often cast it, pay X amount of life, and then watch while their opponent untapped and Smashed it. Paying less than 3 life was usually not worth it, considering the hefty activation cost. Even with a few unhindered activations at 3 life or more, I found it wasn't performing well at all. Vanilla tokens at 4 per turn was just not what most decks wanted. Most decks wanted value and flexibility out of their 4+ costed drops. It stunted your development with a kind of "false" board advantage where your opponent could easily play around these tokens, leaving you scrambling for answers.
It seems similar in that regard to Isochron Scepter, which has lost most of its luster in recent times. It requires a hard investment which can potentially jump you ahead or set you back severely if the opponent has the answer. And I would rather my cube threats not set me back severely.
Multicolor: Hull Breach, Plumeveil, Wilt-Leaf Liege, Temporal Spring, Spitemare
Another round of multicolor cuts, this time to try and fit in Dark Ascension's heavy hitters. For the first time, I'm trying an unbalanced multicolor section. This was due to certain guilds like UG and UR where the choices were much weaker than the stacked guilds. I am sticking to a couple of makeshift rules for unbalanced guilds:
1. There must be a difference limit of +/-2 cards. My biggest guild is Rakdos with 8 cards; there are three guilds with 6 cards.
2. There can be no more than three guilds at the highest or lowest points simultaneously. I don't want half the guilds getting 8 cards and the other half getting 6 as that leads to severe unbalancing.
Additional notes: Spectral Lynx moves into white. The guild crown previously disputed by the Selesnya and Gruul is now firmly in the hands of the Orzhov usurper.
And now the shiny new DA toys for our reduced 810 cube:
Brimstone Volley, Stone Rain
Not much I can say about the DA inclusions that hasn't been said before.
Brimstone Volley replaces the underwhelming Dead//Gone.
Stone Rain is part of red's newly re-established role as destroyer of lands.
White: Loyal Cathar, Lingering Souls, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Stonecloaker, Spectral Lynx
Not much to add here either. The Loyal Cathar I consider on the cusp of playability due to the overpopulated WW slot, but he gets a freebie as I still played a couple subpar creatures there.
I'm cheating a little bit on Spectral Lynx and Lingering Souls, but I think both cards provide so much value that they could be considered playable even without the multicolor. Just as I'd gotten rid of the previous cycle of off-color cards (Momentary Blink, Mystical Teachings) I get a new bunch that I can't fit into multicolor. Sigh.
Stonecloaker is here as an added bit of functional grave-hate. Should play a bit better than Relic of Progenitus, which I often didn't want to include even though it essentially allowed me to cheat and play 39-card decks.
Blue: Dungeon Geists
Miscalculation
Dungeon Geists is the shiznit, and I'm happy to see it perform well.
Miscalculation is a solid cube card that I'm happy to include.
Black: Gravecrawler
Unfortunately, because I'm so late to the Dark Ascension update party, I really have not a whole lot to add that you can't find anywhere else on the forums, but - 1 drop, 2 power. In with ye.
Green: Wolfbitten Captive, Strangleroot Geist, Vorapede
Mayor of Avabruck, Ice Storm, Creeping Mold
The three DA cards are fantastic additions.
Mayor of Avabruck is a replacement for Mtenda Lion, again going with the idea that a strong 2-drop is better than a mediocre 1-drop (although I consider the Lion to be far from mediocre, it's the worst of the bunch and I think the Mayor just goes into more decks).
Ice Storm and Creeping Mold are here to help re-assert green's identity alongside red as a land-destroyer.
Colorless: No additions. Elbrus, the Binding Blade That Almost Could.
Multicolor: Huntmaster of the Fells, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Tidehollow Sculler, Venser, the Sojourner
The two multicolor DA cards are bombs, plain and simple. Huntmaster will almost never lack for targets, and getting several transformations should put the game firmly in its owner's favor. Sorin is the card that puts Orzhov over the top.
Tidehollow Sculler is mainly here as an aggressive helper and to provide a bit of extra fun with Gravecrawler.
Venser replaces Plumeveil thanks to the growing number of ETB creatures (also works nicely with other effects like Undying/Persist and opponent's theft effects).
Honorable Mention: Havengul Lich
I ultimately decided the Lich wasn't particularly worth the cost required to get value out of him, and that he compared poorly to other UB finishers like Nemesis of Reason and Oona, Queen of the Fae. Although the payoff is potentially huge, there's just too many flaws to it - it has no evasion, very little protection (to be fair, it is black with a butt of 4, which protects slightly against black removal and burn) and a medium-sized body that won't get through many of the creatures that can land when he does; it requires colored mana to cast creatures, which severely limits your options against non-UB decks; and it requires creatures in the yard, which is dissynergistic with UB decks and dependent on the opponent's deck design as well.
It's worth noting that I'm still looking for a cut to include Contagion [EDIT: also Mwonvuli Acid-Moss!], so feel free to make suggestions there!
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
I also don't like Spectral Lynx in white. You need black to get reasonable value out of the card.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
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I mean, I very much enjoy the minigame of casting Phyrexian Processor. There are so many factors involved in the payment, so many opportunities to gain an edge with the correct decision - How much life can I afford to pay in this matchup? Do I have lifegain to offset the cost? What are the chances of Processor getting destroyed before I can activate it? What is my back-up plan if I lose the Processor? How many activations at X life do I need to gain the advantage? What is the average size of my opponent's creatures? Should I match their size or raise it?
Ultimately, the skill-testing nature of the card meant it was too much work for the result, since I can just drop a Masticore or Juggernaut instead and not worry about the consequences of playing a high-risk, low-reward card (or is that high-reward? :P) like Processor. But on a side-note, if you feel there is a better cut to keep the Processor, I'm always willing to consider your suggestions.
I don't like Spectral Lynx in white either. It messes with my plan to keep pseudo-multicolor cards out of monocolored sections. After the vertiginous drop from multicolor to white, it will most likely make a swift exit once I get another cubeable bear.
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Instead of Lynx, what about going in a totally different direction and using Galepowder Mage?
Cheers,
rant
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[Remixes] - [The Brutal Cube - 360 Powered] - [My Cube Article] - ['Print-This' Wishlist]
I didn't think you were a fan of blink! I cut the Mage ages ago. Even with all the new ETB critters around, I'm not sure he's good enough. I'm hoping they upgrade him by printing a new version that provides the effect upon entering the battlefield too. But I'd really rather use the slot for a more aggressive creature. A bear with blink and some kind of evasion would make me very happy indeed. I love Whitemane Lion, and I think he just needs a tiny push to become amazing.
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
I like blink a lot, although I don't push it in my cube. I mostly suggested it because you run very few 4-drops in white and I thought that looked like the next best one to the stuff you are already running. I know some other cubists use the Mage and have some success with it. The other card I thought of was Thunder Spirit (or Pegasus Charger or whatever the Innistrad version is). That's a reasonably aggressive card for a cube of this size. Whitemane Lion is so close to being good enough.
Cheers,
rant
My Cube
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5f5d0310ed602310515d4c32
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1963
- Land section has been switched to a guild-ish system. Each color combination gets eight mana-fixing cards. This involved cutting from the allied guilds and adding to the enemy guilds, hopefully alleviating any imbalances during draft. This is generally a non-issue at smaller cube sizes, but I just noticed it could be a problem for larger lists.
- Half the filterlands are out, and six out of ten karoos are gone.
- Rishadan Port is now in.
- Gaea's Cradle, Barbarian Ring and Kor Haven are now out.
- Damia, Sage of Stone and Naya Charm are now out.
- Kird Ape is now classified as a RG card instead of a red card.
- Treetop Village, Ghitu Encampment, Kjeldoran Outpost, Volrath's Stronghold, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Academy Ruins and Tolarian Academy are now classified as monocolored cards instead of lands.
- I have one free slot to play with in multicolor. Should I dedicate it to Geist of Saint Traft or newcomer Sigarda, Host of Herons?
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
I think Barbarian Ring and Kor Haven are easily good enough for an 800 card cube.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
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My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Control decks are very strong at this size and don't really need the Haven. I could see cutting Perimeter Captain for it, perhaps? I think a first-turn Captain could be way better than what the Haven offers though.
The Ring has been super hit-or-miss. It's been pretty difficult to turn on threshold. It usually comes online too late to matter, or the self-inflicted pain makes racing a dangerous proposition. The times where it just wins you the game aren't as numerous. I'll make sure it gets a grace period though!
EDIT: I remembered it also has value against protection creatures (Paladin en-Vec, Silver Knight, Soltari Priest, Mother of Runes). But since mono-red is a rarity in draft, it would be unusual to see a deck whose other half doesn't have an out to these creatures.
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
I am probably going to cut the Elephant to try out the Angel, but I could argue for the Sledge as well.
Kor Haven is super sweet in my cube and I don't think I am close to cutting it (I would probably end up cutting Outpost before cutting Haven). I would definitely swap the Captain for the Haven.
Barbarian Ring is one of those cards where I find you easily forget the games when it works, and remember the games when it doesn't. There is no more frustrating feeling than never hitting threshold so those games tend to stick in your memory. Leave the Ring in - try cutting: Rorix Bladewing, Thunderblust, Hammer of Bogardan, or Stigma Lasher instead.
My Tribal Cube
EDH Decks
GOmnath, Locus of ManaG
WUBSen TripletsWUB
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
- Agony Warp
- Angel of Despair
- Armadillo Cloak
- Behemoth Sledge
or Loxodon HierarchBlazing Specter or
- Falkenrath Aristocrat
- Boggart Ram-Gang
orNotes about these changes:
So, erm. It’s quite a tumble from 795 cards to 765. Like the lead-up to Dark Ascension, I gradually cut cards in successive rounds until I felt like I’d reached an ideal size. I think the current size retains the power level I wanted while discarding most of the chaff. I can run a full 16-player draft, or an 8-player sealed, and have almost the entire cube in use for it.
This is a temporary change. Over the next year, I plan to slowly build back up to 780. I’ll be expanding by five cards per set which translates to about one freebie slot per color from each set. This proposed plan is here to alleviate any final decisions on future additions and cuts. The last few cuts to get this cube down to 765 were extremely difficult compared to the initial cuts from 795, and doing it again for the next block is not something I want without a little leeway.
Hit the post below for the highlights on my changes:
2. There are more threats. An interesting feature of modern set design is that the overwhelming majority of good cards are creatures. This stopped me and made me think. With Wizards encouraging use of the red zone in their set design, one emerging trend for cubes may eventually revolve around the removal of noncreature spells for creatures. With Avacyn Restored, I found myself upgrading certain cards that were the same card types. But mostly, I was cutting noncreature spells for creatures. This trend is probably already known at smaller cube sizes, but I didn’t see anyone call attention to it.
3. The multicolored section has been rebalanced to include an even six cards for each guild, with only two exceptions – Orzhov get an extra card (Tidehollow Sculler) as a bonus for Gravecrawler, and Simic retain the two cards that were on the chopping block (Voidslime and Spitting Image) due to the relative weakness of Simic cards compared to other guilds. I’m quite proud of the solution to keep them in – to retain the 74 card cap for multicolor, I had to dip into the tricolor cards for a cut, which allowed me to reinforce their philosophy; big, splashy, attractive enough to play, and absolutely game-changing. Comparing Voidslime to Spitting Image was difficult, but comparing Voidslime to Dromar’s Charm was a cinch. For a tricolor card, the Charm went against this philosophy; it eschewed high-impact value for high flexibility, and Voidslime does almost as good a job despite being easier to cast. Trading the charm’s creature removal for Voidslime’s Stifle ability is a trade-up for me due to the unique value of Stifle compared to yet-another-removal-spell.
4. I still need to make a cut in red and one in green to bring the cube fully up to par. If you made it this far, I would be more than happy to get suggestions.
EDIT: After browsing the forum and poring over my red and green sections, I have some prospective cuts:
My red section is clogged with 3CC spells, so I just picked out the worst of them. Green's four-drops recently saw a ranking discussion in the card evaluation thread, and the two dudes above landed near the bottom of the list. Initial feelings are that Baloth is the cut; green already has a plethora of beefy ground-pounders with upsides at that cost. Oracle of Mul Daya provides a unique outlet for ramp decks, and is a source of cumulative card advantage in green, raising its value above the Baloth's.
EDIT 2: Burn comes at a premium in large cubes, and creatures that cost 3CC... don't. Sorry, Kruin Outlaw. And Baloth loses out as well. See reasoning just above this edit.
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Level 1 Judge
The cuts and adds look solid -- I might hold onto Gerrard's Verdict if you can though, it's pretty darn good. I like it more than Sculler and Mortify if I had to pick a card to axe.
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!
I'm still surprised by the love for Gerrard's Verdict. I've always valued targeted discard over mass discard - we cubed with Castigate until halfway through the cube's lifespan, when it turned into Verdict. The color requirements can push those cards into a third-turn play, and that feels like Mind Rot and Coercion territory to me. I'm not sure I'd play Mind Rot if it came with the Verdict's lifegain clause. I lean towards the Sculler's targeted discard because the effect it provides is either neutral or good - the Sculler will either be a speedbump in the opponent's plan, or take their best card and leave them high and dry. Verdict's choice can occasionally backfire against graveyard lovers like Squee, Obstinate Baloth, Genesis, Volrath's Stronghold or reanimation. I don't know about keeping cards that have a chance of backfiring. Sculler also has the advantage of doing things even when your opponent has no cards. I know Verdict has the dubious benefit of being able to target yourself if you're in need of life, but in that kind of desperate situation a body will be superior to lifegain most of the time anyway. What am I missing here?
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
The following cards have been removed from PyreDream's cube:
Miscellaneous
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Do you have photos of your cards?
You can also view it here at Cubetutor <---- please draft my cube!!
and you can also see it at DeckStats
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Three of:
Rushing River, Hinder, Spell Burst, Copy Artifact, Remove Soul, Sphinx of Lost Truths, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Spined Thopter and Boomerang.
Sacred Mesa, Hallowed Burial, Akroma, Elite Inquisitor, Fiend Hunter, Aven Riftwatcher.
Rorix Bladewing, Hellkite Charger, Skizzik, Banefire, Threaten.
Imperious Perfect, Wolfir Avenger, Hystrodon, Rampant Growth, Moment's Peace, Harmonize, Rude Awakening, Restock, Overrun.
Phyrexian Scuta, Juzam Djinn, Plague Sliver, Knight of Stromgald, Last Gasp, Nameless Inversion, The Abyss, Innocent Blood.
Some of these I would never maindeck and the others have better versions available already in your cube and are very expendable. The Djinns are OK but I'm not convinced I'd run a vanilla 5/5 for 4 sans lifeloss at this point.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms: