New to the thread but this ties together 2 of my favorite things. Very exciting stuff. I will be checking this daily going forward. Hat man looks like Obsianus Golem
Assuming all cards are good, i'd pay most attention to mana curve. Make sure you have the right amount of X drops at each cmc in each color. Mostly make sure you aren't running a top heavy cube. If you've just been adding cards you like here and there, then you probably are running too many 4+ drops since those tend to be the most appealing when not considering a cube's mana curve.
Glen Elendra Apprentice
1U
Creature – Faerie Wizard
Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
Flying
When Glen Elendra Apprentice comes into play, counter target spell unless its controller pays {1}.
1/1
Gravel Tosser 1R
Creature - 2, Discard a card: Gravel Tosser deals 1 damage to target creature or player. If a land card was discarded this way, it deals 3 damage instead.
2/1
My 550 cube was getting unruly. After double sleeving everything that is foil (so far) as well as unfoilables, I could barely fit it into one of the 800 count long boxes. It was a tight squeeze and I already had a separate box for basic land/tokens/sleeves. I started to kind of agonize about storage and transportation, I was scouring this very thread and not really coming up with anything other than custom box solutions (which are very awesome), but I am not sure where I want my cube to be size-wise. I like its current size but I can see it growing too.
A few weeks passed then it dawned on me! I had this really dorky card tackle box thing that had been in the garage for like 14 years. It used to hold every card I owned at one point. When I got back into Magic 2 years ago, I purged it from anything worth my time (some duals and a Time Vault!) then cast it aside back to garage purgatory. Lo and behold it is my perfect cube storage solution!
So it is still a little dorky, but I cleaned it up a bit, and it is like this box was made for cubing.
The lid opens up with 5 separated compartments which I use for basic land. I only have 25 of each which is on the small side, but I usually just Winston or do 3-5 man sealed, I rarely draft with the full 8 but I think I could fit around 5 or so more basics of each type. Lid also holds some dice which is nice.
The main compartment has 4 separated troughs of which I use 3 to hold the cube itself. The last trough has 2 giant D20's and a dice bag. The troughs are separated in the center with 4 smaller pockets which I use to hold cards that are on their way in from eBay in their foil form, or cards that I am thinking of swapping in or out. I also use the 2 on the left for tokens and extra sleeves.
Overall I am super excited by this box it is very sturdy and no cards catch on anything. The shape of the box even flares out to make grabbing stacks of cards very easy. The only thing to watch out for is making sure you lift the handle into the up position (which has a detent) before you open the lid since if you open it with the handle down the top part of the lid will also open and the land and dice will likely fall out.
This very box has housed our cube for about 3 years. We keep our cube going long ways across the top half (360) and keep basics going the other way on the bottom right. We keep our vanguard and planechase on the bottom left with dice in the middle, we don't use the lid compartment for anything. Its worked great for us and its handy to have everything in one spot for when we go camping.
I think Karakas is a card we shouldn't forget about. I believe at some point the legendary creature count will be high enough in a standard cube to make the land good enough to take up a white spot. Maybe not yet, but eventually.
Me and my friends made an interesting format for cube using planechase cards. We play it some what frequently, generally when there are 3 of us. Basically the rules were made for necessity or convenience as we carved out the game.
We take all the planechase cards put them in a face-down pile in the middle of the table. Once the game starts and muligans are decided the person who goes first flips over a planechase card and the whole table is in that plane until the next person planeswalks. At the beginning of every upkeep a new plane is revealed changing the plane the players are in. It is important to note that this occurs at the beginning of upkeep which means if you planeswalk to Lethe Lake you don't mill your top 10 because your beginning of upkeep has occurred and will not trigger this plane. However the play who goes next would mill the top 10 because they are in that plane at the beginning of their ukeep. In the case of planeswalking to Panopticon you would draw 2 and the player after you would draw nothing (draw 1 for planeswalking there + 1 for the begining of your draw step (and of course a third draw for your draw step)). The player after you is not in that plane on his draw step so the plane would never trigger for him.
So far pretty simple and you could stop there but the next thing we introduced was the Chaos Counter. It works like this:
At the time you could play a Sorcery you can spend 2 Chaos Counters to use the Chaos ability of the plane you are in. There are two ways a player can obtain Chaos Counters, by dealing combat damage to a player or preventing combat damage to a player. A player can never have more than 3 Chaos Counters (We use pennies). Basically here's how it works: Every attack step a creature you control successfully deals combat damage to a player you get 1 Chaos Counter. (Note: You only get 1 chaos counter per successful attack even if multiple creatures you control deal combat damage). Still pretty simple but here's where it gets tricky, you also can get a Chaos Counter if you successfully stop combat damage from being dealt to a player. Now this doesn't have a clear definition in the official game rules but it should be fairly intuitive once you try it. Example 1 - If some one attacks you with a 2/2 and you block with a 2/2 you get a Chaos Counter for successfully stopping combat damage to a player, in this case you stopped it by blocking. Example 2 - If they attack with a 3/3 trample and you block with a 2/2 you would not get a Chaos counter because you did not stop all combat damage they however would get a Counter for dealing damage. Example 3 - You can also kill the creature for example, lightning bolt their unblocked attacking 3/3 creature on attack step and you would receive a counter for stopping combat damage. Not only can you stop combat damage being dealt to you but you can also prevent other players from receiving combat damage to receive a Chaos Counter. Example 4 - A player other than you attacks another player other than you with a 1/1. The 1/1 is unblocked and then you Swords to Plowshares it. Even though you weren't attacking or being attacked you still prevented combat damage that would be dealt to a player so you would receive a chaos counter. This final rule makes it possible to receive 2 Chaos counters on your turn by both preventing, and dealing combat damage to a player. Example 5 - You attack a player with two creatures that player can not block or prevent the damage you then activate Kor Haven preventing the combat damage from one of your creatures and receive a Chaos counter at the same time your second creature deals Combat damage and you receive another Chaos Counter for dealing combat damage to a player.
This might sound a bit complicated but it really isn't the game flows pretty smoothly. The introduction of chaos counters helps to push action in free for all games. Often no one would attack on turn 2 with a mana dork for political reasons, the incentive to attack just wasn't there too often. With the power of using Chaos abilities as an incentive the games are more action packed and fun to play.
errata: depending on whose playing we ban lethe lake for randomly killing people.
Garruk, Primal Hunter! Holy crap! Got a chance to play with him two nights ago. It was in 2hg and my team mate was running him in a 3 color deck (BRG). He drew the new planeswalker all 3 games, could cast him on curve all 3 games, and he was awesome all 3 games. Game 1 he made a 3/3, drew 3, made 3/3. Game 2 and 3 he made a 3/3 and drew 3 and obviously soaked up some damage in all games. He was great, first impression is I love the new walker.
The phoenix doesn't replace any of them. I guess i could drop a burn spell, land destruction, or wheel of fortune, but that doesn't seem like the best fit either. /two cents
i have absolutely no evidence that this is real at all, but apparently it's what a random poster in rumor mill is claiming for garruk. i'm kind leaning toward not real. it's obviously good but i'm not a fan of the triple green.
but i would know. she would be in my head, mocking me with her kissy face.
I don't know if I buy it. Not sure if its been brought up but given the templating of the planeswalker helper creatures I think we can pretty much count on new garuuk's first ability to be a Worldly Tutor.
beat you to it a few posts before
Flash, Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield counter target spell unless it's controller pays 1.
1/1
Spectral Efreet1UU
Flash, Flying
If ~ would be the target of a spell or ability sacrifice it.
3/4 (4/4?)
Flying
1U, sacrifice ~ : counter target spell unless its controller pays 3.
1/1
Build around it by running red in your deck?
This very box has housed our cube for about 3 years. We keep our cube going long ways across the top half (360) and keep basics going the other way on the bottom right. We keep our vanguard and planechase on the bottom left with dice in the middle, we don't use the lid compartment for anything. Its worked great for us and its handy to have everything in one spot for when we go camping.
We take all the planechase cards put them in a face-down pile in the middle of the table. Once the game starts and muligans are decided the person who goes first flips over a planechase card and the whole table is in that plane until the next person planeswalks. At the beginning of every upkeep a new plane is revealed changing the plane the players are in. It is important to note that this occurs at the beginning of upkeep which means if you planeswalk to Lethe Lake you don't mill your top 10 because your beginning of upkeep has occurred and will not trigger this plane. However the play who goes next would mill the top 10 because they are in that plane at the beginning of their ukeep. In the case of planeswalking to Panopticon you would draw 2 and the player after you would draw nothing (draw 1 for planeswalking there + 1 for the begining of your draw step (and of course a third draw for your draw step)). The player after you is not in that plane on his draw step so the plane would never trigger for him.
So far pretty simple and you could stop there but the next thing we introduced was the Chaos Counter. It works like this:
At the time you could play a Sorcery you can spend 2 Chaos Counters to use the Chaos ability of the plane you are in. There are two ways a player can obtain Chaos Counters, by dealing combat damage to a player or preventing combat damage to a player. A player can never have more than 3 Chaos Counters (We use pennies). Basically here's how it works: Every attack step a creature you control successfully deals combat damage to a player you get 1 Chaos Counter. (Note: You only get 1 chaos counter per successful attack even if multiple creatures you control deal combat damage). Still pretty simple but here's where it gets tricky, you also can get a Chaos Counter if you successfully stop combat damage from being dealt to a player. Now this doesn't have a clear definition in the official game rules but it should be fairly intuitive once you try it. Example 1 - If some one attacks you with a 2/2 and you block with a 2/2 you get a Chaos Counter for successfully stopping combat damage to a player, in this case you stopped it by blocking. Example 2 - If they attack with a 3/3 trample and you block with a 2/2 you would not get a Chaos counter because you did not stop all combat damage they however would get a Counter for dealing damage. Example 3 - You can also kill the creature for example, lightning bolt their unblocked attacking 3/3 creature on attack step and you would receive a counter for stopping combat damage. Not only can you stop combat damage being dealt to you but you can also prevent other players from receiving combat damage to receive a Chaos Counter. Example 4 - A player other than you attacks another player other than you with a 1/1. The 1/1 is unblocked and then you Swords to Plowshares it. Even though you weren't attacking or being attacked you still prevented combat damage that would be dealt to a player so you would receive a chaos counter. This final rule makes it possible to receive 2 Chaos counters on your turn by both preventing, and dealing combat damage to a player. Example 5 - You attack a player with two creatures that player can not block or prevent the damage you then activate Kor Haven preventing the combat damage from one of your creatures and receive a Chaos counter at the same time your second creature deals Combat damage and you receive another Chaos Counter for dealing combat damage to a player.
This might sound a bit complicated but it really isn't the game flows pretty smoothly. The introduction of chaos counters helps to push action in free for all games. Often no one would attack on turn 2 with a mana dork for political reasons, the incentive to attack just wasn't there too often. With the power of using Chaos abilities as an incentive the games are more action packed and fun to play.
errata: depending on whose playing we ban lethe lake for randomly killing people.
Keldon Vandals
Manic Vandal
Fire Imp
The phoenix doesn't replace any of them. I guess i could drop a burn spell, land destruction, or wheel of fortune, but that doesn't seem like the best fit either. /two cents
I don't know if I buy it. Not sure if its been brought up but given the templating of the planeswalker helper creatures I think we can pretty much count on new garuuk's first ability to be a Worldly Tutor.
edit: that spaghetti toast looks disgusting