MTG Salvation

Azshanir is a land of almost endless oceans where pirates rule the seas, treasures are bound to capture your imagination and great monsters seem to thwart your every move.


Common 7/10:

Privateer Pugilist 3(R/W)(R/W)
Creature - Human Pirate (C)
First strike
Whenever ~ attacks, it deals 1 damage to target creature.
3/3

The sands of Raoim. The colossal desert plane, where a drop of water is worth of a drop of blood, nomadic tribes dance on the ruins of lost civilisations and bizarre spirits test intelligent beings for unknown reasons.


Uncommon 3/3:

Shaper of Sands 2G
Creature - Human Shaman (U)
1G, :symtap:: Target Desert land becomes a 3/3 colorless sand creature. It's still a land.
2/2

The sands of Raoim. The colossal desert plane, where a drop of water is worth of a drop of blood, nomadic tribes dance on the ruins of lost civilisations and bizarre spirits test intelligent beings for unknown reasons.

Common 4/10:

Scorching Sun 5RR
Sorcery (C)
~ deals 6 damage divided as you choose between target creature and its controller.

Uncommon 2/3.

Quick Eviction - W
Instant (U)
Detain each creature that entered the battlefield since your last turn ended.
Draw a card.

Common 6/10

Fire-Rage Warrior 2R
Creature - Human Warrior [c]
When ~ enters the battlefield, target creature gets +2/+0 and gains haste until end of turn.
2/2

Nightmare Chains 1B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +3/-3 as long as it's tapped.

Interrogation 1UU
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
When ~ enters the battlefield, look at enchanted creature's controller's hand.

If Lotleth Troll activates its regeneration ability and survives Pillar of Flame, it won't be exiled because it won't ever die at any point. Regeneration puts up a shield that prevents the Troll from dying, if it would die, with it becoming tapped and having the damage removed from it.

Big update for Return to Ravnica. I cut some artifacts and lands for Gold.

Right now, the guilds from Return to Ravnica have more cards than the other guilds. This doesn't bother me too much, because I'll even things out when Gatecrash comes out. Selesnya and Rakdos each have another additional card, but it's mostly for testing purposes anyway and isn't too significant a bother/difference.

I hadn't been able to play Cube in a long time (or even browse this forum much :() due to life in general, but now I'm back with a big update!

I'm expanding to 450 as I had intended to do for a while. Also, I managed to collect a lot of staples I had always been missing, like Bitterblossom, the Swords, and Wrath of God. Costly, but they'll never leave... and Cube is the only format that I really play besides regular Limited!

New update, mostly Black.

This is my first update (and post) in a really long time.


I've been wanting to upgrade my Cube in some way, but I'm not sure what kinds of changes I should focus on the most. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Another update- I got some good stuff!

Quote from dancingclown »

Wow nice blue haul =). I didn't see any cuts that really stood out as surprising to me - but I did want to ask you how your experience with Frost Titan was. Looking at your blue list though, I think with what you have + Jace3 gives you plenty of finishers, so he probably won't be missed. I'm assuming he was the worst of all those you listed (Whelk included)?

I think Frost Titan is about on par with Draining Whelk; he's only slightly worse. Whelk is also more important to a Modern Cube than he would be to a regular one because there are so few unconditional counters worth running. Speaking of which...

I might recommend Broken Ambitions to you if you like Condescend. It's been one of my favorite counters that modern cubes sort of have to put up with. On that note, how are things like Essence Scatter/Remove Soul and Negate for you? I've tried other counters like Hinder and Dismal Failure, and have largely been unimpressed and am looking for replacements (although I may be willing to give them a little more time). Thought about Daze and Deprive..

I too have been excited to try Broken Ambitions as Condescend has been pretty awesome. As soon as I pick a copy up I'll definitely put it in.

Essence Scatter and Remove Soul are not really that bad, honestly. I wouldn't play either of them in a regular Cube of my size, but I think they're both worth it in new-face Cubes. (I already feel like cutting Remove Soul was a mistake and I'll bring it back soon.) A lot of creatures have comes-into-play effects and being able to counter them without double-blue is helpful.

Negate is similarly (albeit slightly less) useful, being able to counter things like Planeswalkers, removal, and Signets.

The problem with these cards is that occasionally you're faced with the opposite threat (like an opponent's finisher when you have Negate in hand) and it feels embarrassing when you have two Islands untapped but are unable to actually counter anything.

It's not that the cards are ever completely useless, because every deck has creatures and noncreatures. Sometimes your opponent has only a few creatures (like if they drafted the most controlly deck at the table) or a few noncreatures (a Green/White aggro deck with two equipments, an Anthem, and an Oblivion Ring) but it's annoying when you're faced with that situation as it makes it behave like a weird Pithing Needle or something. I admit to not including them in my maindeck too often.

I include them because I feel like Blue, at least in a Modern Cube, needs a "critical mass" of counterspells the same way Red needs "extra" burn like Volcanic Hammer and aggro creatures like Jackal Pup. In regular Cubes, Blue is clearly the best color. In Modern Cubes, all of the colors are more or less balanced, so cards like Essence Scatter are not awful, but they feel underwhelming compared to what we know Blue is really capable of.

I think Hinder is fine because of its flexibility to be either Dissipate or Memory Lapse. I've never been unimpressed with it and I would definitely play it in a regular Cube.

Deprive and Daze are fine given our small number of options. I already kind of miss them.

Dismal Failure is a card I used to run but cut. I don't think it's that bad either, because its discard seems to be relevant at just about the time you would play Dismal Failure to counter something. But what we obviously want is Dismiss.

A couple of other weird cards I used to run that I'd like to mention are Rewind and Convolute. Rewind seems better than it really is with so many instants in Cube, and can lead to cool plays (like being able to protect your attacking creature from Removal and then play another creature later; being able to counter something -and- Gifts, but sometimes it's just an overcosted Cancel.

Convolute is much better than it looks (instead of "terrible" it's "kind of ok"). It's not awesome by any means, but it impressed me when I ran it. It's nowhere near as good as Mana Leak obviously, but the additional 1 over Mana Leak makes it often play like a splashable Cancel because paying 4 is tougher than paying 3 than it may seem to be (sort of like how the math of land drops makes higher drops exponentially harder to play, like how you can't reliably expect to cast a 7-drop on turn 7).

I brought this up the last time counters in Modern Cubes were discussed- What we really need is a Premium Deck Series of mono-blue control. The fact that powerful counterspells are disliked by Wizards doesn't bode well for them being included in actual sets, but I think with something like this we have a shot. Getting Dismiss, Memory Lapse, Arcane Denial (and fingers-crossed for Force of Will or Mana Drain) would be awesome!

I didn't see much in your red section that I would like to cut - if you wanted to try out anything perhaps you could lose a fatty like one of the Hellkites (Bogardan or Charger)? That or perhaps Volcanic Hammer or Smash to Smithereens, but the only card you listed that I've been meaning to try is Cunning Sparkmage. He looks fun. Arsonist seems fine if you just need another one drop, but I wouldn't play him because he's awesome (although he's pretty cute).

As you can see, I ended up cutting the Charger (though for now I'm trying the Phoenix in its slot). I had good experiences with Arsonist and Sparkmage in the past, so I will try them again!

I got some good stuff for Blue, but I'm unsure if I'm making the right cuts.

I also am unsure about several Red cards. Should I cut anything from my Red section for Urza's Rage, Goblin Assault, Goblin Arsonist, or Cunning Sparkmage? All of them have been in my Cube at least once and I've been thinking about trying them again.

Quote from dancingclown

I would probably cut Goblin Wardriver and Magus of the Scroll. I feel like Magus is a little more expendable now that we picked up Grim Lavamancer in M12 (yay), and I'm not crazy about Wardriver.

I can't speak to Barbarian Ring because I've never cubed with it, but I also value Stone Rain possibly more than most - I've been trying to fit it in my list for a while now, and would include it over Wardriver if I had the extra slot. LD is fun =).

As you can see below, I've decided to keep Wardriver and Magus in. I too have been unimpressed with Magus, but I didn't get to give him much of a shot last time so I'll give him more time.

As for Wardriver, after playing with it a bit since re-adding it, it's impressed me. It has squeezed 3-4 extra damage in the games that I've played it and that seems worth it to me. I'm not sure if he has a permanent slot or anything but he seems better than I first thought.

Small update.