MTG Salvation

I classify Gamble as one of those cards that you add into Cube for fun and interesting games. What is special about Gamble is that it is capable to being played in a higher power environment than most cards in this category. Take Ethersworn Adjudicator for example, a card that can make fun and interesting games, but isn't suitable for a higher power environment because it isn't something that scales well because of costs/effects.

Pretty good situation that points to Cube design. I think a lot of Cube owners run things like these without doing proper evaluation of their Cube. I would ask yourself 2 things:

1. How much do I like these cards in Cube? (Scale of 1-10, 10 being LOVE 'EM)

2. What are the most powerful things I want to happen in my Cube?

If you really like these cards in Cube, then look at what is making them not perform as well. You cite people being afraid of land destruction as a reason why drafters do not run them. Slim down on things like that if you want these lands to perform well.

If you want to do powerful things like play 6 drops on turn 3, then the lands are not for your Cube.If you want to do powerful things like allow drafters to chain synergy cards, then they are probably worth making work in your Cube, but you will need to scale the level of cons associated with them, down.

Overall, I don't run them because I run a Powered environment with high impact cards. But we have them in a Pauper Cube and they are good. Can you run them in a Cube with rares and mythics? Yes, you just need to design with them in mind.

I personally don't think fight spells are worthy of Cube environments unless it is a rather low power environment. Higher power cubes tend to milk advantages in cards and often times fight spells are thick with disadvantages.

I would love to have a section to talk about Commander Cube! Have you talked to a moderator about it?

I run 30 Wizards across a 360 card Cube, an additional 180 cards in my modules that expand it to 450 and 540, and finally another 180 cards from my Commander module. That is 720 cards.

Of those 30
Snapcaster Mage
Barrin, Tolarian Archmage
Spellseeker
Vendilion Clique
Glen Elendra Archmage
Sower of Temptations
Venser, Shaper Savant
Arcane Savant
Magus of the Abyss
Reflector Mage
Portal Mage

Are the only ones I would have interest in Riptide Labratory for. That is 11/720. I run a powered Cube, and perhaps even counting the 180 cards for Commander it should be considered 540 for the purpose of discussing the critical mass of Wizards. But for me, I think there just isn't enough critical mass of Wizards in Cube, even at 720 cards. As stated above, this kind of creates a situation where other blue lands are favored before Riptide Laboratory. The only thing that will change that is a pretty considerable influx in acceptable Wizards that provide value, and because of that I think this card will someday be worthy of more consideration, however it won't be any time soon.

I have a Commander Module that I can add onto my 360 card Cube in order to accommodate a Commander draft while still working within the confines of my traditional Powered Cube design. The goal is to build the Commander Cube centered around the archetypes that already exist in the traditional Cube and then seed a couple more options in the Commander Module itself.

So while the core 360 features archetypes like Stax, Reanimator, Wheels, Aggro, Artifacts, etc. The Commander Module will have commanders for those archetypes - Leovold, Emissary of Trest, Ghave, Guru of Spores, The Locust God/Xyris, the Writhing Storm, Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist, Judith, the Scourge Diva. But I also seed commanders who can support archetypes that have cards within the core 360 but don't have a critical mass which can support an archetype. So Aminatou, the Fateshifter or Chulane, Teller of Tales, can help bring a Blink archetype to the Commander draft with some additional blink support in the Module that can take advantage of things like Flickerwisp, and such in the core 360. The Gitrog Monster and Lord Windgrace can bring more Lands kinds of archetypes to the Commander draft using things like Crucible of Worlds and utility lands from the main Cube.

The set up is pretty simple. 360 cards in the core Cube accommodate 8 drafters, so we only Commander draft with 4 players. Keeps the multiplayer aspect under control. I find that 5 was just a bit too many and 3 isn't as exciting. But this frees up half of the core Cube to be drafted as additional packs. The module is 180 cards. 360 + 180 give us 540 cards to draft with. That is 9 packs each for a total of 135 cards each for players to build a 60 card deck with. 135 cards gives the entire Cube a chance to be drafted and offers players enough cards to draft a plan A commander and a plan B commander. It could use a little refinement, but I think I will eventually refine that by working with a strict Bonus Module that is basically extra packs that can inject additional copies of certain cards into drafts - both traditional and Commander. I liked the idea of a "Power Pack" that I saw somewhere at some point, and I would like to expand on that concept using my multi-moduled Cube.

The Commander Module does feature some more Commander-esque cards like Play of the Game, Teferi's Protection, Portal Mage, Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, and so on. But it leaves a lot of cards out that you might often see in normal Commander games because it is still a Cube and it still needs to balance itself around a certain power level so some of the gimmicky interactions that are powerful in Commander settings, don't exist within the Module simply because of how drafting with singleton rules plays out.

Not the most powerful set, but I think in terms of being close to par, the set offers some nice switch up cards. I enjoy sets like these for Cube because card swaps are close enough that you can shift the dynamic of the cube a bit to make them quite playable without gutting a Cube or down-powering a ton of stuff.

I think cards like Baneslayer Angel and Elder Garganoth are fine for 540 and up. Primarily because premier removal starts to become more limited in most cubes for a few reasons. Creatures tend to scale in inclusion count as the cube size grows, at a greater rate than removal. Premier removal tends to be more spread out the larger the draft group. Ultimately you get more opportunities to get away with sticking either of these big dummies and because of that, their value goes up.

DTR in Cube environments is a fine argument, but the applications of it are much more finite because of the nature of Cube vs traditional limited formats.

I also do not limit planeswalkers and I do not feel so much as an itch to include this card. In fact, I don't even run Pithing Needle or Sorcerous Spyglass. I think I run above average on the number of planeswalkers and most of the time, while they are powerful, those decks are being outdone by Tinker decks and other powerful combo-ish decks like Reanimator or even being just ran over by efficient aggro or bulkier midrange.

Hard for me to justify something like this when I have better Masticore cards and already skip out on better Planeswalker interaction in Artifacts.

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I would usually agree, but a form of built in protection kind of melts that argument for me. I like that I can play him on the top end of a deck and to remove him still achieves my aggressive objective and if he sticks around it is going to close the game. I don't think it is as good as Thundermaw Hellkite but I do think that it is better than Glorybringer.

I think Glorybringer is better than Hellkite, and I don't think 3 damage is a good enough compensation for losing your threat. The hasty dragons are a good way to kill planeswalkers, when Terror is a standing duck to their abilities.

As a cube drafter, I agree that the haste is incredibly powerful on cards in these slots. I have seen Glorybringer paired with Ral Zarek a couple times in our cube drafts and I think interactions like that shouldn't be understated. Personally, I like Thundermaw Hellkite more because it can push so much stuff out of the way at once. All of the cards brought up in the OP here are fantastic.

As a cube designer, I do want some diversity and cards to do interesting things while still being powerful. Terror of the Peaks is particularly appealing in this way. I think the appeal of this card is dependent on 2 different levels (a designer and a player), I like that it can still push an aggressive agenda but also rewards players in red for slowing down a bit because the card wants to see things come into play afterwards - where Glorybringer, Thundermaw Hellkite and Stormbreath Dragon are a bit more linear in how they play out.

This card excites me, but I can understand why it doesn't appeal to others.

I really like this Core Set to be honest. Great cards to enrich our Cube gatherings with my group, as we got some nice lore character updates and interesting cards with this set. Overall, I tend to be pretty bad about tagging things for testing, often times making additions and keeping them in until the group or I gets bored with them. This can make it challenging to manage a "maybe board" for me, but I try to manage one all the same.

Core 2021 Inclusions
Barrin, Tolarian Archmage
Ghostly Pilferer
Teferi, Master of Time

Terror of the Peaks

Radha, Heart of Keld

I have traditionally managed my update and Cube Design notes over Discord with my group, but have revisited working on maintaining a thread for them here on MTGSalvation. If you are interested in reading those notes you can find them HERE

DESIGN NOTES: Teferi, Master of Time is an exciting addition next to the Ikoria updates bringing in Narset, Parter of Veils and Rielle, the Everwise. Together, I hope that these cards help flesh out a loot archetype that can work as a potential lockout style control deck for players to work out. Clever Impersonator has long been a nice utility card for players to have and has primarily fallen into a popular Sultai planeswalkers deck, however the card has been fairly uninteresting beyond its inclusion in these kinds of decks.

Barrin, Tolarian Archmage is a nice upgrade to Exclusion Mage and has prompted the shift of Man-o'-War from the 360 card module to the 450 card module to help make room for Barrin, Tolarian Archmage. Traditionally, I like offering Man-o-War in the 360 draft experience because of the throwback nature of the card and I think Barrin offers a bit of throwback to old lore himself while offering more value and versatility.

Ghostly Pilferer is a nice upgrade for blue aggro decks as it offers much more utility than Dimensional Infiltrator and can splash itself into a Oona's Prowler-like role. Unfortunately, cuts in blue can be hard to make due to the heavy competition within the color and 540 seems like a fair start.

Terror of the Peaks is a very interesting addition for Cube. A lot of the spots it contests are strong 5 mana hitters with very relevant abilities and stats. Glorybringer has been removed to make room for Terror of the Peaks in hopes to hep diversify this slot a bit more and hopefully bring big red options like Chandra, Flamecaller and Combustible Gearhulk into the forefront a bit more with a more interesting option.

Radha, Heart of Keld looks to be a long overdue iteration of the character and will hopefully bring a bit of density to these kinds of effects within my cube. Her ability to play a supporting role in various different strategies has high appeal, and having a little overlap with Xenagos, the Reveler made the cut seem pretty straight forward. I am sure Xenagos, the Reverler will make a return at some point, but it is nice to have another option.

I think the long and short of it is that these are all effects that certain decks want more of in most Cubes and it is all packed into a single card in a prominent color. Are all modes relevant for all decks? Of course not, but they are all good enough to cherry pick from to fit your needs and help flesh out various different decks a bit more.

Glad I can cut Dimensional Infiltrator for this card. Nice for blue to get access to the on-demand discard, always liked Oona's Prowler and now I can get a better version in my favorite color.

I run both Exclusion Mage and Man-o'-War so I am glad I can take out Exclusion Mage to fit this in while still keeping Man-o'-War.

Unfortunately I don't think I have much to account for the second block of text as being anything more than flavor text, but the occasional draw from bouncing your own thing once with him is nice.