I prefer Ant Queen to Thorn Elemental. Paying so much mana for your fatty only to make it trade with a 1-2 mana removal spell is basically a timewalk for your opponent.
I agree with you, but I figure we might as well play with Thorn a little while longer before the Queen (likely inevitably) comes back in.
I drafted M11 on Friday and went to the Scars prerelease on Saturday, so I have a few more additions to the Cube.
This expands the Cube to 371 cards, and I'm reaching the end of my sleeve supply, hehe (I use KMC perfect size + yellow Ultra Pro). After I test out some of the unused cards like Jace's Ingenuity and these, and the chopping-block cards like Thorn Elemental and possibly a Black kill spell, I'll probably make some cuts/additions.
I'm not thinking of cutting Disfigure or anything like that; I'm just curious. I'd like to add Skinrender and Bone Shredder as soon as I get copies of them, but I didn't include any "kill" creatures in this particular list as they may skew it slightly.
I'm just a little worried, because I'm tempted to add Grasp of Darkness in addition to the aforementioned creatures, but like I've said before I already feel like I have too much removal.
+ Armageddon (Fitting that my first judge foil was the first modern-face judge foil. I'm very excited about this card- I paid more for it than any other individual card I've ever bought. It'll never leave, though, and will be well worth it.)
+ Baneslayer Angel
+ Paladin en-Vec
+ Silver Knight
- Aven Riftwatcher
- Guardian Seraph
- Honor of the Pure (The fact that this costs 1 less than Glorious Anthem is usually irrelevant, as I rarely want to cast it on turn 2 anyway. To make matters worse, unless you're White Weenie, it doesn't boost all your creatures. It is useful for redundancy if you already have the other Anthems or don't pick them up in a draft, so it will possibly come back in one day.)
- Kor Firewalker (I do like the Firewalker- his lifegain is powerful against the color he needs it most against. Silver Knight's first strike, though, is more relevant against the other colors and more useful in general.)
Funny story about the Baneslayer Angel. About a month ago, I randomly felt like buying a few booster packs (something I rarely do unless I'm drafting). I went to Target, which had some of those repackaged "two boosters and 6 bonus cards!" things. I always thought these were pretty silly, but since they cost the same as buying four packs anyway I thought "why not?" and bought two.
Inside were two M11 boosters, a Conflux booster, and a Worldwake booster. The "six bonus cards" in one pack were miscellaneous bad uncommons from Shards of Alara, and in the other pack I got a bunch of Glamer Spinners.
Angel (and Ravine) went straight in Cube, and Primeval Titan went straight into a sleeve and toploader. I figured he wasn't quite good enough for Cube (certainly not my Cube, which lacks lands to really abuse with him), so I decided to sell him on an auction site while he was high. It didn't go for nearly as much as I expected, so I felt a bit ripped off (though it was my fault for being inexperienced). I would've been better off just trading it to some Standard player/collector at my LGS, but ah well. I won't make that mistake again.
Using the money I got from him, though, I bought foils of Armageddon, Silver Knight, and Paladin en-Vec. Since this update considerably boosted Red and White (which were already my best colors), I will probably devote my next purchase to the others.
Please tell me what you think of these cards I've got my eye on, most of which are box set foils:
Necrogen Scudder - I think 3 life is too much to pay for a creature in bolt range Zuran Orb - I am not a fan but a fair amount of others are Jester's Cap - 6 mana to not effect the board I would pass Delay - if it made them spend mana twice then it would be good enough but I would pass Glare of Subdual - I like all 3 wg cards you are running more than glare
I think my next purchase will be some of the aforementioned Artifacts since I'm really low on them.
Also, I've been thinking... I believe the ideal size of my Cube (far, far in the future of course :tongue:) will be 450: 60 of each (mono) color, 40 multicolor, 55 lands, and 55 artifacts. I'm not sure if this is a configuration other people have used or not, but it seems reasonable to me. I like how it has 300 monocolor and 150 "other". It seems to me like a good balance. What do you think?
Sorry for posting again, but I decided to make my update.
+ Tinker (I don't have Titan yet, but I will next time. I thought I'd go ahead and put this in.)
- Jace's Ingenuity (I like this card, even though I think I still prefer Mind Spring, but with all the 3- and 4-cost draw spells I don't think either is really needed right now.)
+ Skinrender
- Gravedigger (It would be so cool if Gravedigger had a mana cost of 2B.)
+ Deranged Hermit
- Momentous Fall (This is cute, but no one was actually playing it. It did its thing a couple of times and made us say "cool!" but I don't expect much more from it.)
+ Wheel of Fortune
+ Avalanche Riders
- Boom//Bust (Neither Boom nor Bust worked out how I wanted it to often enough. I think Reverberate is worse than this card, but I haven't had a chance to test it enough so it stays for now. The split card may come back one day.)
- Magus of the Scroll (I like him, and he'll probably come back when the Cube grows. Still not sure if he's the right cut for now.)
Necrogen Scudder - I think 3 life is too much to pay for a creature in bolt range
... Delay - if it made them spend mana twice then it would be good enough but I would pass
Quote from eidolon232 »
Delay's card disadvantage sucks and it allows your opponent to play more spells later, which makes it harder for you to counter their key spells.
The main thing I like about the Scudder is that it has a mana cost of 2B. In the future it seems like I will have a problem with Black having too many 3-drop creatures, but the ones it has are almost all 1BB and the idea of having another 2B is appealing. I actually think Howling Banshee is somewhat underrated (though I don't think she has a permanent slot), but I can definitely see how the risk with Scudder could be more pronounced.
Very good points about Delay. I didn't think it would be particularly good, but you've pointed out how it doesn't really accomplish what its caster wants it to. I still might give it a try someday if I pick one up (it's one of those cards that's just "cool," even though it's not very good) but it doesn't seem to be of permanent slot caliber.
Another counterspell I've had my eye on is Deprive. The tempo downside is annoying, but "modern" Blue really lacks hard counters and it's frustrating for me. I'm really hoping that they will do for Blue what they did for Red and make a "Premium Deck Series: Bounce and Counter" or something.
the changes look great and while i dislike cutting the magus, at this size it's understandable.
don't hold your breath on that counters thing, wotc believes players hate counterspell decks. we are about as likely to see premium deck: land destruction.
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.
the changes look great and while i dislike cutting the magus, at this size it's understandable.
don't hold your breath on that counters thing, wotc believes players hate counterspell decks. we are about as likely to see premium deck: land destruction.
That's a good point and you're right.
I haven't Cubed in person in quite a while. Most of my Cube games are online (Using the metacortex site and Magic Workstation), so sometimes it just feels good to look at the Cube after it's been boxed up for a long time, hehe.
I shuffled my Cube into fourths last night to practice Sealed pools, but Cube Sealed has always been difficult for me. Here's a pool I've been struggling with since then:
Using "deck" tags didn't seem to work, and neither did "cards" tags. I just made a spoiler and used "card" tags on each individual card.
As far as the pool itself goes, I don't even know where to begin. I've tried RW aggro (doesn't seem to have enough creatures), and various 3-to-4 color control builds (have trouble cutting cards).
I haven't Cubed in person in quite a while. Most of my Cube games are online (Using the metacortex site and Magic Workstation), so sometimes it just feels good to look at the Cube after it's been boxed up for a long time, hehe.
I shuffled my Cube into fourths last night to practice Sealed pools, but Cube Sealed has always been difficult for me. Here's a pool I've been struggling with since then:
Using "deck" tags didn't seem to work, and neither did "cards" tags. I just made a spoiler and used "card" tags on each individual card.
As far as the pool itself goes, I don't even know where to begin. I've tried RW aggro (doesn't seem to have enough creatures), and various 3-to-4 color control builds (have trouble cutting cards).
There's a ton of fixing in your pool - I think you can go with WBr aggro, splashing for things like Wheel of Fortune and Staggershock, and maybe one other red card. I'd say Keldon Champion, but the double red may be pushing it.
There's a ton of fixing in your pool - I think you can go with WBr aggro, splashing for things like Wheel of Fortune and Staggershock, and maybe one other red card. I'd say Keldon Champion, but the double red may be pushing it.
Thanks for the advice!
I decided to go with BRw aggro instead of BWr aggro. My deck ended up slightly midrangey.
I'm not convinced this is the best build. Do you think it would be more effective to push the deck even more midrange, giving White a bigger share of the deck to take advantage of Cloudgoat Ranger, Day of Judgment, Balance, etc? I do have three on-color Signets that I opted not to include- perhaps I should've included at least one.
This is a huge update- probably my Cube's biggest improvement at one time.
Each monocolor section is going to have a net loss of two cards, bringing each color to 51 total. The artifact section will have a net gain of three cards, and the land section will have a net gain of ten cards. I should now have 375 cards total, which is a nice number.
This has some difficult cuts, so please tell me what you think! I'm very excited about this.
- Cunning Sparkmage
- Slith Firewalker (Instead of one of these cards, the "correct" cut is probably Reverberate, but I decided to test it a little more. If it leaves the Cube, one of these guys will return.)
I feel a little sorry that I didn't add any new cards to Red, but it just got a whole slew of updates with the Fire & Lightning precon.
Each color pair is getting one land. GW and UB get man-lands, and everything else gets Ravnica duals. The only reason I didn't also buy duals for those two color pairs is because they were out of stock at the store.
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.
I like all your changes. I don't care too much about Necrogen Scudder, and you should definitely get a Bloodbraid Elf ASAP, but you did a very good job overall
I've never seen the Scudder in action and he may very well disappoint me. Black does have somewhat of a glut of 3-drops. But I dunno, he seems solid as long as he doesn't get Bolted.
I prefer Celestial Crusader to Galepowder Mage, but otherwise everything else looks good.
I like the Mage a tad better, but I will miss the Crusader. I liked his split second trickiness, but having the "old" wording for a Crusade effect is frustrating when he pumps my opponent's White creatures and misses some of my own creatures.
Speaking of pump effects and 4-drops... I look forward to Hero of Bladehold, though, and plan to go Mirran at the prerelease to pick one up. (That is how it works, right? Mirrans get her and Phyrexians get Glissa the Traitor?
Quote from killem2 »
grats on the duals
Thank you! I went ahead and ordered a Temple Garden, so the only one I'll be missing is Watery Grave until I pick one of those up too. I also ordered a Lavaclaw Reaches to complete my WWK manland set and an Arc Trail because it's awesome.
I'm going to wait to make the changes, but I will probably drop Selesnya Sanctuary (instead of Sunpetal Grove- I personally feel it's the better of the two to keep) to add the Garden, and I will drop Rakdos Carnarium to add the Reaches.
In other news, would anyone be interested in drafting with me on the metacortex site or TappedOut, and then playing on MWS? I draft on the former (sometimes Winston) with friends all the time, and I've enjoyed drafting on the latter site with some of you lately!
I'd like to test my Cube in particular, but any Cube is fine!
Also, no sac-lands? NO SAC-LANDS? I almost wouldn't bother with duals if you don't have sac-lands to synergyse with. And I think that Filter-lands like Fetid Heath are better than their painland equivalents like Caves of Koilos.
i think kird ape is better than vol and solifuge by a fair margin. once again, your group's confusing disdain for certain aggressive red cards shows its face.
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.
Thanks for this! I'm not sure if I'm ready to buy a Sarkhan Vol yet (since once I get an Elf I'll have three "good enough" cards :p), but I will certainly try him when I expand to 450 and likely add another gold slot. Planeswalkers are just fun by default.
I'm kind of surprised to see Ape so low, though. Does your group value 3+ color control really highly? I see how Vol or Elf would be used more often in that situation.
Quote from quitequieter »
i think kird ape is better than vol and solifuge by a fair margin. once again, your group's confusing disdain for certain aggressive red cards shows its face.
Ape is pretty much a strictly aggro, and strictly RG, card. If I'm in, say, RW aggro during a draft, I'd be more likely to take a Bloodbraid Elf that went late as a possible splash than a Kird Ape, as he not only needs Green but needs Forests.
Solifuge, on the other hand, can see play in aggressive BR, UR, GU, GW, and BG decks as well as RW, RG, and mono-color Red and Green. This doesn't necessarily make him better, but it does underscore how versatile he is.
So even if Ape may indeed be better than Vol and Solifuge, him having a lower MD% for her group might not necessarily mean he's bad, even if they do value him lower than most groups.
Perhaps if I kept track of MD% for cards, my own MD% of Kird Ape would be less than Solifuge even though I like/value Ape more, just due to Kird Ape's idiosyncracies. I'm not sure if his need of RG, aggro, and Forests would have that significant an impact for my own Cube, though. I love the Ape!
So again, even though 33% seems really low to me, I can understand why he would be lower than the others (assuming my hunch that her group values more colors per deck is correct).
All of these are cards I'd like to add, and at the moment these would all be "legal" in my Cube except for Mystic Snake (it has the old face since it was a Time Spiral Timeshifted card). I hope they reprint it in the GUB or URG Commander precon in the summer.
The only reason these cards aren't in my Cube is because I don't own them and/or they're expensive.
And an explanation of the "rules" of the Cube, for future reference: Everything from 8th Edition onwards is legal in my Cube, except for Future-bordered cards (notably Tarmogoyf, Horizon Canopy, and Blade of the Sixth Pride unless any of those gets reprinted) and Time Spiral Timeshifted cards. Planar Chaos borders are fine (and in fact, I use and prefer PLC borders for cards like Calciderm, Harmonize, and Damnation). Reprinted cards (as promos, as Duel Deck cards, etc) are okay as long as they use the new card face.
Having a Modern Cube is mostly aesthetic preference. I like the way the new frame looks the best, I like that all my cards have a unified look, and I like that the wording/design of modern cards tends to be more elegant and consistent. Having a Modern Cube is also a sneaky way to dodge cards out of my price range.
When I first made my Cube I was bugged by white borders and "irrelevant" supertypes and subtypes (avoiding Arcane, Snow, Tribal, etc, for aesthetic reasons only!), but that's no longer an official restriction for me or anything. I simply don't own anything that breaks those rules yet, hehe.
Savannah Lions is the only relevant "only in the new frame in 8E/9E" card that I can think of that I'm missing, and I'll probably buy a foil soon anyway. All of my 8E/9E cards (Plow Under, Bribery, City of Brass, Wildfire, etc.) are foil so they have black borders (and look cool).
And there are several powerful cards that I will include as soon as I get, like Bitterblossom.
Also, no sac-lands? NO SAC-LANDS? I almost wouldn't bother with duals if you don't have sac-lands to synergyse with.
I hear ya, but they're even more expensive than the Ravnica duals.
Since I seldom drafted Zendikar, I never really picked up the enemy-color sac-lands (which go for about $10). And the ally-color ones are only available in the new card face if I buy Judge foils, which are an even pricier $25-35.
But I'll get them someday.
I figured it would be best to upgrade my land section with the Ravnica duals first, because the Fetchlands would have been worse without the duals than the duals will be without the fetchlands.
But I don't know if I'd go that far on the "wouldn't bother with duals" bit, as after only a few playtest drafts I'm already noticing a difference. Stomping Ground made its debut in the best way possible- allowing me to play Kird Ape on turn 1 as a 2/3. Godless Shrine was instrumental in my 5CC deck as an easy way to enable two colors instead of one via Farseek (and making it so I didn't have to run Plains and Swamp).
Regardless of the quality of them (even though I wouldn't hesitate to call the Ravnica duals "the best" as far as "Modern" is concerned), having three fixing lands for each color combo is better than having two.
And I think that Filter-lands like Fetid Heath are better than their painland equivalents like Caves of Koilos.
For all color pairs, or just some? I'm not so sure about that if you mean the former. I have never extensively used the Filter-lands, but I really like the painlands so maybe I'm biased.
Ape is pretty much a strictly aggro, and strictly RG, card. If I'm in, say, RW aggro during a draft, I'd be more likely to take a Bloodbraid Elf that went late as a possible splash than a Kird Ape, as he not only needs Green but needs Forests.
Solifuge, on the other hand, can see play in aggressive BR, UR, GU, GW, and BG decks as well as RW, RG, and mono-color Red and Green. This doesn't necessarily make him better, but it does underscore how versatile he is.
So even if Ape may indeed be better than Vol and Solifuge, him having a lower MD% for her group might not necessarily mean he's bad, even if they do value him lower than most groups.
this is a good point. i don't think it justifies a percentage quite that low, and the majority of decks i run that want vol want ape as well. but you're right that its cost is much more prohibitive than solifuge, i hadn't really thought about how much easier the spider is to cast.
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.
I encourage everybody to make they own stats about they own cube, not to follow mine, or any body advise, as "word of God". But if they could be useful to you, I'm glad.
And it is indeed interesting!
Out of curiosity, how do you keep track of it? At the end of every draft,everyone writes down their decklists?
No, it's just that my group try to start as in one color during the first booster and only splash when something busted is passed to them, showing a strong signal of openess. This way they could cut and reap the rewards in the second booster, and you could choose your second color as late as possible to have the most benefits of the late first booster and all the third. As they play for the first place, they want the more broken deck possible, and for this they need to take full advantage of the whole 3 boosters.
This makes sense as well.
---
My new cards came in the mail, so now my physical Cube matches my list. I immediately made Sealed pools for practice, but it's a difficult exercise! I have no idea what to do with this pool and I'm curious what you folks think.
Curve
1 ss
2 csssssss
3 ccccs
4 ccs
5 cc
6 cs
7 s
7 Sources for 3 green cards
9 Sources for 6 white cards
9 Sources for 7 blue cards
Splashing for early green creatures is a little unorthodox, so perhaps the deck would be better just as a straight UW deck:
At the end of every draft, people handles me their deck and sideboard separated so I can recount them to 45 (even if I trust my players, it's easy to leave a card behind by mistake and I don't want to have a piece of P9 or a Library or a Moat left under a table). I keep them separated until I go back to home, where I had everything to my mistress file, and put everything back in the Cube storage box, ready for the next draft.
That's a good idea. To be honest, I haven't played my Cube in person as often as I would've liked. In fact, I haven't drafted it at all since the very early "Serra Angel" era of it (except online), though I've done a few Sealed Decks. Something like that resolves the "don't take my cards" problem as well as giving you good information about your Cube.
I'm making a small update today:
+ Deprive (Losing a land is rough, but I'm really struggling for good cheap counterspells and I like that this costs UU.)
+ Tezzeret the Seeker (I'm not sure if my Cube is quite ready for him, but I think he'll be fun to try out.)
- Dismal Failure (Better than I expected, but I don't think it's as good as Deprive.)
- Redirect (This is another cool trick that I want to see in action, but for now I think I'll give it a break. It just sits in my hand too often.)
+ Arc Trail
+ Urza's Rage
- Puncture Blast (I think Blast is cooler than Urza's Rage, but it's probably not as powerful.)
- Reverberate (I really love this card, but it hasn't done anything special for me. It often sits in my hand with nothing to copy, or costs too much red mana to be able to copy a burn spell I just cast. I was playing merl the other day and he showed me how it was also vulnerable to counterspells.)
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.
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Ignoring the Poxen, from best to worst:
Terror
Last Gasp
Dark Banishing
Hideous End
I agree with you, but I figure we might as well play with Thorn a little while longer before the Queen (likely inevitably) comes back in.
I drafted M11 on Friday and went to the Scars prerelease on Saturday, so I have a few more additions to the Cube.
+ Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
+ Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
+ Fume Spitter
+ Spikeshot Elder
+ Fauna Shaman
+ Karn, Silver Golem
+ Perilous Myr
+ Pithing Needle
+ Wurmcoil Engine
This expands the Cube to 371 cards, and I'm reaching the end of my sleeve supply, hehe (I use KMC perfect size + yellow Ultra Pro). After I test out some of the unused cards like Jace's Ingenuity and these, and the chopping-block cards like Thorn Elemental and possibly a Black kill spell, I'll probably make some cuts/additions.
I picked up some other cards as well, and I'm not sure whether to include them or not: Trinket Mage, Moriok Replica, Vinelasher Kudzu, Copperline Gorge, and Clone Shell.
Expanding on this a bit:
How would you guys rank the following "destroy target creature" and "minus" effects in Black?
Dark Banishing
Disfigure
Doom Blade
Grasp of Darkness
Hideous End
Last Gasp
Snuff Out
Terror
I'm not thinking of cutting Disfigure or anything like that; I'm just curious. I'd like to add Skinrender and Bone Shredder as soon as I get copies of them, but I didn't include any "kill" creatures in this particular list as they may skew it slightly.
I'm just a little worried, because I'm tempted to add Grasp of Darkness in addition to the aforementioned creatures, but like I've said before I already feel like I have too much removal.
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
+ Barbarian Ring
+ Chain Lightning
+ Grim Lavamancer
+ Jackal Pup
+ Pillage
+ Reverberate (I really want to try this out, even though it won't be as consistent as Urza's Rage.)
- Destructive Force
- Flame Slash (I like this card, and it will probably come back in when I next expand the Cube.)
- Goblin Arsonist
- Goblin Assault (I like this card a lot too- it was just a knee-jerk choice to take out.)
- Goblin Shortcutter
- Urza's Rage
+ Armageddon (Fitting that my first judge foil was the first modern-face judge foil. I'm very excited about this card- I paid more for it than any other individual card I've ever bought. It'll never leave, though, and will be well worth it.)
+ Baneslayer Angel
+ Paladin en-Vec
+ Silver Knight
- Aven Riftwatcher
- Guardian Seraph
- Honor of the Pure (The fact that this costs 1 less than Glorious Anthem is usually irrelevant, as I rarely want to cast it on turn 2 anyway. To make matters worse, unless you're White Weenie, it doesn't boost all your creatures. It is useful for redundancy if you already have the other Anthems or don't pick them up in a draft, so it will possibly come back in one day.)
- Kor Firewalker (I do like the Firewalker- his lifegain is powerful against the color he needs it most against. Silver Knight's first strike, though, is more relevant against the other colors and more useful in general.)
+ Figure of Destiny
- Brion Stoutarm
+ Raging Ravine
- Fires of Yavimaya
Funny story about the Baneslayer Angel. About a month ago, I randomly felt like buying a few booster packs (something I rarely do unless I'm drafting). I went to Target, which had some of those repackaged "two boosters and 6 bonus cards!" things. I always thought these were pretty silly, but since they cost the same as buying four packs anyway I thought "why not?" and bought two.
Inside were two M11 boosters, a Conflux booster, and a Worldwake booster. The "six bonus cards" in one pack were miscellaneous bad uncommons from Shards of Alara, and in the other pack I got a bunch of Glamer Spinners.
My rares were Phylactery Lich, Raging Ravine, Worldheart Phoenix.... and in one of the M10 packs, a Baneslayer Angel and a FOIL Primeval Titan! I couldn't believe it. That's the kind of pack people joke about before a draft! I felt like I won the lottery.
Angel (and Ravine) went straight in Cube, and Primeval Titan went straight into a sleeve and toploader. I figured he wasn't quite good enough for Cube (certainly not my Cube, which lacks lands to really abuse with him), so I decided to sell him on an auction site while he was high. It didn't go for nearly as much as I expected, so I felt a bit ripped off (though it was my fault for being inexperienced). I would've been better off just trading it to some Standard player/collector at my LGS, but ah well. I won't make that mistake again.
Using the money I got from him, though, I bought foils of Armageddon, Silver Knight, and Paladin en-Vec. Since this update considerably boosted Red and White (which were already my best colors), I will probably devote my next purchase to the others.
Please tell me what you think of these cards I've got my eye on, most of which are box set foils:
Serendib Efreet
Nevinyrral's Disk
Deranged Hermit
Tinker
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Keiga, the Tide Star
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Necrogen Scudder
Black Vise
Zuran Orb
Sundering Titan
Jester's Cap
Delay
Glare of Subdual
Fire//Ice
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
Zuran Orb - I am not a fan but a fair amount of others are
Jester's Cap - 6 mana to not effect the board I would pass
Delay - if it made them spend mana twice then it would be good enough but I would pass
Glare of Subdual - I like all 3 wg cards you are running more than glare
the following are all staples
- Serendib Efreet
- Nevinyrral's Disk
- Deranged Hermit
- Kokusho, the Evening Star
- Keiga, the Tide Star
- Meloku the Clouded Mirror
- Tinker
if you add sundering titan I think that will get you to the suffecient amount of bombs for itDeranged Hermit
Wheel of Fortune
Avalanche Riders
Tinker
Strip Mine
I think my next purchase will be some of the aforementioned Artifacts since I'm really low on them.
Also, I've been thinking... I believe the ideal size of my Cube (far, far in the future of course :tongue:) will be 450: 60 of each (mono) color, 40 multicolor, 55 lands, and 55 artifacts. I'm not sure if this is a configuration other people have used or not, but it seems reasonable to me. I like how it has 300 monocolor and 150 "other". It seems to me like a good balance. What do you think?
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
+ Tinker (I don't have Titan yet, but I will next time. I thought I'd go ahead and put this in.)
- Jace's Ingenuity (I like this card, even though I think I still prefer Mind Spring, but with all the 3- and 4-cost draw spells I don't think either is really needed right now.)
+ Skinrender
- Gravedigger (It would be so cool if Gravedigger had a mana cost of 2B.)
+ Deranged Hermit
- Momentous Fall (This is cute, but no one was actually playing it. It did its thing a couple of times and made us say "cool!" but I don't expect much more from it.)
+ Wheel of Fortune
+ Avalanche Riders
- Boom//Bust (Neither Boom nor Bust worked out how I wanted it to often enough. I think Reverberate is worse than this card, but I haven't had a chance to test it enough so it stays for now. The split card may come back one day.)
- Magus of the Scroll (I like him, and he'll probably come back when the Cube grows. Still not sure if he's the right cut for now.)
+ Strip Mine
The main thing I like about the Scudder is that it has a mana cost of 2B. In the future it seems like I will have a problem with Black having too many 3-drop creatures, but the ones it has are almost all 1BB and the idea of having another 2B is appealing. I actually think Howling Banshee is somewhat underrated (though I don't think she has a permanent slot), but I can definitely see how the risk with Scudder could be more pronounced.
Very good points about Delay. I didn't think it would be particularly good, but you've pointed out how it doesn't really accomplish what its caster wants it to. I still might give it a try someday if I pick one up (it's one of those cards that's just "cool," even though it's not very good) but it doesn't seem to be of permanent slot caliber.
Another counterspell I've had my eye on is Deprive. The tempo downside is annoying, but "modern" Blue really lacks hard counters and it's frustrating for me. I'm really hoping that they will do for Blue what they did for Red and make a "Premium Deck Series: Bounce and Counter" or something.
It would be great to have new-bordered versions of Memory Lapse, Upheaval, Capsize, Forbid, and... and... (dare I say it?)
...
Force of Will.
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
don't hold your breath on that counters thing, wotc believes players hate counterspell decks. we are about as likely to see premium deck: land destruction.
That's a good point and you're right.
I haven't Cubed in person in quite a while. Most of my Cube games are online (Using the metacortex site and Magic Workstation), so sometimes it just feels good to look at the Cube after it's been boxed up for a long time, hehe.
I shuffled my Cube into fourths last night to practice Sealed pools, but Cube Sealed has always been difficult for me. Here's a pool I've been struggling with since then:
1 Balance
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Day of Judgment
1 Disenchant
1 Harm’s Way
1 Lone Missionary
1 Mana Tithe
1 Pacifism
1 Path to Exile
1 Silver Knight
1 Student of Warfare
1 War Priest of Thune
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Body Double
1 Boomerang
1 Compulsive Research
1 Confiscate
1 Daze
1 Hinder
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Man-o’-War
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Redirect
1 Ambition’s Cost
1 Blind Creeper
1 Dark Ritual
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Fume Spitter
1 Infest
1 Liliana Vess
1 Makeshift Mannequin
1 Mind Rot
1 Nantuko Shade
1 Oona’s Prowler
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Rise from the Grave
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Burst Lightning
1 Ember Hauler
1 Fireball
1 Fireslinger
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Keldon Champion
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Puncture Blast
1 Staggershock
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Wildfire
1 Word of Seizing
1 Blastoderm
1 Creeping Mold
1 Garruk’s Companion
1 Harmonize
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
1 Stonewood Invocation
1 Terra Stomper
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Bonesplitter
1 Boros Signet
1 Crystal Shard
1 Dimir Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Simic Signet
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sword of Vengeance
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Agony Warp
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Trygon Predator
1 Voidslime
1 Wall of Denial
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Caves of Koilos
1 City of Brass
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Raging Ravine
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Treetop Village
Using "deck" tags didn't seem to work, and neither did "cards" tags. I just made a spoiler and used "card" tags on each individual card.
As far as the pool itself goes, I don't even know where to begin. I've tried RW aggro (doesn't seem to have enough creatures), and various 3-to-4 color control builds (have trouble cutting cards).
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
There's a ton of fixing in your pool - I think you can go with WBr aggro, splashing for things like Wheel of Fortune and Staggershock, and maybe one other red card. I'd say Keldon Champion, but the double red may be pushing it.
My Cube Blog @theCubeMiser on Twitter
Thanks for the advice!
I decided to go with BRw aggro instead of BWr aggro. My deck ended up slightly midrangey.
1 Fume Spitter
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Blind Creeper
1 Ember Hauler
1 Fireslinger
1 Nantuko Shade
1 Oona's Prowler
1 War Priest of Thune
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Keldon Champion
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Burst Lightning
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Path to Exile
1 Disenchant
1 Staggershock
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Liliana Vess
1 Fireball
//Equipment (3)
1 Bonesplitter
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Vengeance
5 Swamp
4 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Caves of Koilos
1 City of Brass
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Terramorphic Expanse
I'm not convinced this is the best build. Do you think it would be more effective to push the deck even more midrange, giving White a bigger share of the deck to take advantage of Cloudgoat Ranger, Day of Judgment, Balance, etc? I do have three on-color Signets that I opted not to include- perhaps I should've included at least one.
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
Each monocolor section is going to have a net loss of two cards, bringing each color to 51 total. The artifact section will have a net gain of three cards, and the land section will have a net gain of ten cards. I should now have 375 cards total, which is a nice number.
This has some difficult cuts, so please tell me what you think! I'm very excited about this.
+ Reveillark
- Archon of Justice
- Blinding Mage
- Celestial Crusader
+ Enclave Cryptologist
+ Meloku the Clouded Mirror
+ Serendib Efreet
+ Venser, Shaper Savant
- Djinn of Wishes (I really like this card, but too often he's just an Air Elemental who wastes 2UU to turn over a land that you can't play. If I had Top and Crystal Ball, maybe.)
- Frost Titan (Worked better than I thought he would, but he's worse than Sphinx and Meloku.)
- Rewind (This is a cool-looking foil, and it's fun when you get a "free" instant out of it, but most of the time it's not worth it. "Modern" MTG cards lack good counters, though, so I will probably add it back one day.)
- Scroll Thief
- Sleep (I really like this card. I'm not sure if it's the right cut.)
- Thought Courier (I prefer Merfolk Looter, as it's more iconic and less silly-looking.)
I decided to leave Redirect in because its effect is unique and I haven't seen it in action yet.
+ Damnation (I got a PLC foil!)
+ Necrogen Scudder
+ Plague Sliver
+ Profane Command
- Dark Banishing
- Death Cloud (I really like this card, and it's another cool-looking foil, but it sits in sideboards too often and I'm not sure Black needs three X spells.)
- Hideous End
- Howling Banshee (Underrated, but not as good as Juzám Sliver)
- Mind Rot (If only it was Stupor...)
- Wrench Mind (If only it was Hymn to Tourach...)
- Cunning Sparkmage
- Slith Firewalker (Instead of one of these cards, the "correct" cut is probably Reverberate, but I decided to test it a little more. If it leaves the Cube, one of these guys will return.)
I feel a little sorry that I didn't add any new cards to Red, but it just got a whole slew of updates with the Fire & Lightning precon.
+ Call of the Herd
+ Farseek (Works well with the new additions!)
- Garruk's Companion (Should I cut him or Civic Wayfinder?)
- Overrun
- Rude Awakening (I feel like I should keep either Overrun or this card, but it's tough.)
- Thorn Elemental (Sometimes he just gets Doom Bladed.)
+ Black Vise
+ Memory Jar
+ Nevinyrral's Disk
+ Sundering Titan
+ Zuran Orb
- Serrated Arrows
- Steel Wall
+ Azorius Guildmage (I'm moving Colonnade out of multicolor, so something has to come in. She's not bad.)
+ Fires of Yavimaya (I'm less excited about this than the mage, but I don't have a Bloodbraid Elf.)
+ Psychatog
- Wydwen, the Biting Gale (I never seem to put her in my deck, even when I'm in her colors.)
Each color pair is getting one land. GW and UB get man-lands, and everything else gets Ravnica duals. The only reason I didn't also buy duals for those two color pairs is because they were out of stock at the store.
+ Blood Crypt
+ Breeding Pool
+ Copperline Gorge (I meant to add this before, but forgot I owned a copy.)
+ Creeping Tar Pit
+ Godless Shrine
+ Hallowed Fountain
+ Overgrown Tomb
+ Sacred Foundry
+ Steam Vents
+ Stirring Wildwood
+ Stomping Ground
- Glacial Fortress (This card is really not that bad, and is probably the best of its cycle. But I have the best WU lands available.)
- Gruul Turf
- Rootbound Crag
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
I've never seen the Scudder in action and he may very well disappoint me. Black does have somewhat of a glut of 3-drops. But I dunno, he seems solid as long as he doesn't get Bolted.
I'm going to order/trade for FNM Bloodbraid Elf as soon as I get a chance. Speaking of RG cards, how does Sarkhan Vol compare to the Elf, Solifuge and Kird Ape?
I like the Mage a tad better, but I will miss the Crusader. I liked his split second trickiness, but having the "old" wording for a Crusade effect is frustrating when he pumps my opponent's White creatures and misses some of my own creatures.
Speaking of pump effects and 4-drops... I look forward to Hero of Bladehold, though, and plan to go Mirran at the prerelease to pick one up. (That is how it works, right? Mirrans get her and Phyrexians get Glissa the Traitor?
Thank you! I went ahead and ordered a Temple Garden, so the only one I'll be missing is Watery Grave until I pick one of those up too. I also ordered a Lavaclaw Reaches to complete my WWK manland set and an Arc Trail because it's awesome.
I'm going to wait to make the changes, but I will probably drop Selesnya Sanctuary (instead of Sunpetal Grove- I personally feel it's the better of the two to keep) to add the Garden, and I will drop Rakdos Carnarium to add the Reaches.
Arc Trail will take the place of Reverberate or Puncture Blast.
In other news, would anyone be interested in drafting with me on the metacortex site or TappedOut, and then playing on MWS? I draft on the former (sometimes Winston) with friends all the time, and I've enjoyed drafting on the latter site with some of you lately!
I'd like to test my Cube in particular, but any Cube is fine!
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
On an unrelated note, since I don't know which of these cards would violate your card face restriction, but if they didn't I would definitely want to fit these in: Grafted Wargear, Glen Elendra Archmage, Jace the Mind Sculptor, Vedalken Shackles, Vampire Hexmage, Grave Titan, Maelstrom Pulse, Oona, Queen of the Fae, Mystic Snake.
Also, no sac-lands? NO SAC-LANDS? I almost wouldn't bother with duals if you don't have sac-lands to synergyse with. And I think that Filter-lands like Fetid Heath are better than their painland equivalents like Caves of Koilos.
i think kird ape is better than vol and solifuge by a fair margin. once again, your group's confusing disdain for certain aggressive red cards shows its face.
Thanks for this! I'm not sure if I'm ready to buy a Sarkhan Vol yet (since once I get an Elf I'll have three "good enough" cards :p), but I will certainly try him when I expand to 450 and likely add another gold slot. Planeswalkers are just fun by default.
I'm kind of surprised to see Ape so low, though. Does your group value 3+ color control really highly? I see how Vol or Elf would be used more often in that situation.
Ape is pretty much a strictly aggro, and strictly RG, card. If I'm in, say, RW aggro during a draft, I'd be more likely to take a Bloodbraid Elf that went late as a possible splash than a Kird Ape, as he not only needs Green but needs Forests.
Solifuge, on the other hand, can see play in aggressive BR, UR, GU, GW, and BG decks as well as RW, RG, and mono-color Red and Green. This doesn't necessarily make him better, but it does underscore how versatile he is.
So even if Ape may indeed be better than Vol and Solifuge, him having a lower MD% for her group might not necessarily mean he's bad, even if they do value him lower than most groups.
Perhaps if I kept track of MD% for cards, my own MD% of Kird Ape would be less than Solifuge even though I like/value Ape more, just due to Kird Ape's idiosyncracies. I'm not sure if his need of RG, aggro, and Forests would have that significant an impact for my own Cube, though. I love the Ape!
So again, even though 33% seems really low to me, I can understand why he would be lower than the others (assuming my hunch that her group values more colors per deck is correct).
All of these are cards I'd like to add, and at the moment these would all be "legal" in my Cube except for Mystic Snake (it has the old face since it was a Time Spiral Timeshifted card). I hope they reprint it in the GUB or URG Commander precon in the summer.
The only reason these cards aren't in my Cube is because I don't own them and/or they're expensive.
And an explanation of the "rules" of the Cube, for future reference: Everything from 8th Edition onwards is legal in my Cube, except for Future-bordered cards (notably Tarmogoyf, Horizon Canopy, and Blade of the Sixth Pride unless any of those gets reprinted) and Time Spiral Timeshifted cards. Planar Chaos borders are fine (and in fact, I use and prefer PLC borders for cards like Calciderm, Harmonize, and Damnation). Reprinted cards (as promos, as Duel Deck cards, etc) are okay as long as they use the new card face.
Having a Modern Cube is mostly aesthetic preference. I like the way the new frame looks the best, I like that all my cards have a unified look, and I like that the wording/design of modern cards tends to be more elegant and consistent. Having a Modern Cube is also a sneaky way to dodge cards out of my price range.
When I first made my Cube I was bugged by white borders and "irrelevant" supertypes and subtypes (avoiding Arcane, Snow, Tribal, etc, for aesthetic reasons only!), but that's no longer an official restriction for me or anything. I simply don't own anything that breaks those rules yet, hehe.
Savannah Lions is the only relevant "only in the new frame in 8E/9E" card that I can think of that I'm missing, and I'll probably buy a foil soon anyway. All of my 8E/9E cards (Plow Under, Bribery, City of Brass, Wildfire, etc.) are foil so they have black borders (and look cool).
And there are several powerful cards that I will include as soon as I get, like Bitterblossom.
I hear ya, but they're even more expensive than the Ravnica duals.
Since I seldom drafted Zendikar, I never really picked up the enemy-color sac-lands (which go for about $10). And the ally-color ones are only available in the new card face if I buy Judge foils, which are an even pricier $25-35.
But I'll get them someday.
I figured it would be best to upgrade my land section with the Ravnica duals first, because the Fetchlands would have been worse without the duals than the duals will be without the fetchlands.
But I don't know if I'd go that far on the "wouldn't bother with duals" bit, as after only a few playtest drafts I'm already noticing a difference. Stomping Ground made its debut in the best way possible- allowing me to play Kird Ape on turn 1 as a 2/3. Godless Shrine was instrumental in my 5CC deck as an easy way to enable two colors instead of one via Farseek (and making it so I didn't have to run Plains and Swamp).
Regardless of the quality of them (even though I wouldn't hesitate to call the Ravnica duals "the best" as far as "Modern" is concerned), having three fixing lands for each color combo is better than having two.
For all color pairs, or just some? I'm not so sure about that if you mean the former. I have never extensively used the Filter-lands, but I really like the painlands so maybe I'm biased.
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
this is a good point. i don't think it justifies a percentage quite that low, and the majority of decks i run that want vol want ape as well. but you're right that its cost is much more prohibitive than solifuge, i hadn't really thought about how much easier the spider is to cast.
And it is indeed interesting!
Out of curiosity, how do you keep track of it? At the end of every draft,everyone writes down their decklists?
This makes sense as well.
---
My new cards came in the mail, so now my physical Cube matches my list. I immediately made Sealed pools for practice, but it's a difficult exercise! I have no idea what to do with this pool and I'm curious what you folks think.
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Armageddon
1 Balance
1 Flickerwisp
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Lone Missionary
1 Martial Coup
1 Mistral Charger
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Paladin en-Vec
1 Reveillark
1 Stonecloaker
1 Stormfront Pegasus
Blue
1 Æther Adept
1 Body Double
1 Condescend
1 Confiscate
1 Convolute
1 Draining Whelk
1 Evacuation
1 Force Spike
1 Gits Ungiven
1 Man-o'-War
1 Mulldrifter
1 Negate
1 Remand
1 Remove Soul
Black
1 Barter in Blood
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Damnation
1 Dark Ritual
1 Doom Blade
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Mind Shatter
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Plague Sliver
1 Profane Command
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sign in Blood
1 Skinrender
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Chain Lightning
1 Flame Javelin
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Goblin Ruinblaster
1 Hellspark Elemental
1 Incinerate
1 Inferno Titan
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Word of Seizing
Green
1 Cultivate
1 Farseek
1 Harmonize
1 Harrow
1 Mire Boa
1 Mitotic Slime
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Vines of Vastwood
Artifacts
1 Azorius Signet
1 Bonesplitter
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Masticore
1 Memory Jar
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
1 Obelisk of Alara
1 Pithing Needle
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Simic Signet
1 Skullclamp
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sword of Vengeance
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Zuran Orb
1 Electrolyze
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Lord of Extinction
1 Putrid Leech
1 Wall of Denial
Lands
1 Breeding Pool
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Strip Mine
1 Sunpetal Grove
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
Last cuts: Harmonize, Mistral Charger
1 Force Spike
1 Balance
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Remand
1 Condescend
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Armageddon
1 Confiscate
1 Martial Coup
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Man-o'-War
1 Paladin en-Vec
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Masticore
1 Reveillark
1 Mitotic Slime
1 Mulldrifter
1 Draining Whelk
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Simic Signet
1 Strip Mine
1 Breeding Pool
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Forest
5 Island
5 Plains
Curve
1 ss
2 csssssss
3 ccccs
4 ccs
5 cc
6 cs
7 s
7 Sources for 3 green cards
9 Sources for 6 white cards
9 Sources for 7 blue cards
Splashing for early green creatures is a little unorthodox, so perhaps the deck would be better just as a straight UW deck:
1 Force Spike
1 Balance
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Remand
1 Condescend
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Armageddon
1 Confiscate
1 Martial Coup
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Æther Adept
1 Man-o'-War
1 Paladin en-Vec
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Masticore
1 Reveillark
1 Mulldrifter
1 Draining Whelk
1 Strip Mine
8 Island
9 Plains
Maybe that is better.
You can if you'd like- or if it would be better I could post one of the other pools from this same "set".
Here's mine:
I feel bad about leaving out some of my new cards like Damnation, but I couldn't resist running the three best equipments in the Cube:
6 Mountain
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Hellspark Elemental
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Lone Missionary
1 Mistral Charger
1 Stormfront Pegasus
1 Flickerwisp
1 Goblin Ruinblaster
1 Paladin en-Vec
1 Stonecloaker
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Masticore
1 Reveillark
1 Chain Lightning
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Skullclamp
1 Balance
1 Incinerate
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Flame Javelin
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Armageddon
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set
That's a good idea. To be honest, I haven't played my Cube in person as often as I would've liked. In fact, I haven't drafted it at all since the very early "Serra Angel" era of it (except online), though I've done a few Sealed Decks. Something like that resolves the "don't take my cards" problem as well as giving you good information about your Cube.
I'm making a small update today:
+ Deprive (Losing a land is rough, but I'm really struggling for good cheap counterspells and I like that this costs UU.)
+ Tezzeret the Seeker (I'm not sure if my Cube is quite ready for him, but I think he'll be fun to try out.)
- Dismal Failure (Better than I expected, but I don't think it's as good as Deprive.)
- Redirect (This is another cool trick that I want to see in action, but for now I think I'll give it a break. It just sits in my hand too often.)
+ Arc Trail
+ Urza's Rage
- Puncture Blast (I think Blast is cooler than Urza's Rage, but it's probably not as powerful.)
- Reverberate (I really love this card, but it hasn't done anything special for me. It often sits in my hand with nothing to copy, or costs too much red mana to be able to copy a burn spell I just cast. I was playing merl the other day and he showed me how it was also vulnerable to counterspells.)
+ Lavaclaw Reaches
+ Temple Garden
- Rakdos Carnarium
- Selesnya Sanctuary (I thought about cutting Sunpetal Grove, but I think this is a better choice.)
My Custom Cube - a super-powered Core Set