I'm still having a bit of trouble trimming the fat in the cube. If I remove what I plan to remove, i still need to dump 3 blue cards and one white card. I'm thinking of removing air elemental if i'm pulling serra angel, so thats 2 more cards I need to dump. Any thoughts?
@eidolon: Yeah, Exotic Curse was a bit of a feeble attempt on my part to make 5 color look somewhat appealing. I already have disfigure though, and I don't want to put in Last Kiss. Perhaps Induce Despair
Also, the Ith mistake was big. By wasted i didn't mean killed, but I made a HUUUUGE misplay and used his ability on the river boa to kill his other two guys.
@wtwlf: Well, i think Samurai is already decent as 2 for a 3/3 blocker who can attack through 2/2s as well as icing unearth shenanigans. Makes me sad he isn't as awesomesausage as I thought.
Changes I'm considering:
Dropping Midnight/Funeral Charm for something in black. It just seems redundant to have them both. I do want at least one charm in each color for utility's sake. I dropped Smallpox at the last minute, maybe put that in?
Dropping Take Posession in blue. Seems overcosted and blue is (barely) the most common color in the cube. Take it out for balance's sake?
Dropping Back to Nature. Enchantments aren't amazing in this cube, and i want to drop Green to 55.
Swapping Lavaball Trap for Wildfire or its newer incarnation. It seems like you'll rarely get the trap's special cost off. Thoughts?
Dropping Serra Angel from white. I'm 57 in white, and 5 for a 4/4 flying vigilance seems a bit weak in cube.
So many people responded, so I'm going to address discussion by card.
Goldenglow Moth: Yeah its not amazing. Its a nice speed bump, not a blocker.
Reanimator Shenanigans: Total miscount, I was mentally drained.
Efficient Guys: I think I may give them a try.
Recumbent and Prison: I played a practice draft today (more on that later in the post) and in the UW vs Bant matchup, both saw considerable play with little issue. Recumbent will almost definitely be dropped for Isolation, but Prison Term seemed quite useful when bombs were followed up with bigger bombs.
Samurai of the Pale Curtain: Wowww I need to read cards better. I guess Relic of Progenitus is going in as an artifact slot.
Stonecloaker: NEEDS to go in, i knew i was forgetting something.
Lone Missionary: Yeah, he seems like he could help stop the most all-out strategies. Also he's one step closer to making FelidarSoverign.dec viable.
Now, for the draft. It was just three of us because most of my friends at home HATE magic. Can't wait to go back to college where I could feasibly get 7-8 people cube drafts going.
I opened with an Elspeth, and went hard in with white, eventually picking up blue. My friend to the left started with a Treva and went Bant. My friend to the right picked up WBR because... well I don't know why.
I ultimately ended up with powerful white and blue cards, with lots of card advantage. It played to win off of Jace and Elspeth for even more lasting advantage, or Deathless Angel and Sphinx of Magosi as bomb fliers. The main tough decision is my choice of whether or not to include black. Highlights in black were Nameless InversionShriekmawLiliana Vess, and Exotic Curse. On top of that I had Dimir Aqueduct and Drowned Catacombs to fix. But I ultimately decided decent removal package was not worth consistency and speed.
First set of games was against the bant deck. First game I got to a board position where I could safely drop jace against his field and work my way up to his ultimate, causing lethal. Highlight of the game: my opponent dropping Godhead of Awe and me putting down Glorious Anthem. Sphinx of Magosi grew to stop the opponent.
Second game was lost to a big mistake on my part. My opponent came out strong with Call of the Herd and Gelatinous Genesis to make 5 3/3 tokens. I killed off four of those eventually, but dropped to two. He had a fully upgraded Trancendent master I kept stopping with my Ith, High Arcanist. Then he dropped River Boa. Fack. I probably could have won, but I forgot about the third token and Ith got wasted on a triple block. River Boa went in for the kill and we were off to the third game.
Third game involved tomfoolery and beatdowns with a Cloud Elemental and Elspeth. A timely Man-o'-War and running over all his air beaters ended the game before he could overrun me with ground forces.
I only got to play one game against WBR, but it was a doozie. First play was a turn two suspended ith. He got out a turn seven Avatar of Woe which was immediately equipped with Lightning Greaves to kill my Deathless Angel. He proceeded to reanimate it and drop to seven. His big mistake was not equipping the angel with greaves. This allowed me to manowar and replay deathless to take him out.
@quietquieter: Goldenglow Moth has a few advantages over perimiter captain in my opinion. But I realized that with no Armored Ascension, its not as powerful a wall as I thought. Though flying is a bit of a premium in my cube. It may ultimately be replaced by Lone Missionary
Samurai of the Pale Curtain is in there for a very specific reason. I'm terrified that BW reanimator is overpowered. It already has turn 1 swamp, dark ritual, delirium skeins dumping any fatty of your choice, reanimate, go. It is also a beautiful counter to bloodghast and any other powerful graveyard abilities and strategies. If he seems lackluster he may get the boot.
Sigiled Paladin seems fine as a 3/3 first striker for 2 that also leads to favorable attacks later on.
The quick and dirty way that I ten to throw into my blue decks is gigadrowse plus brainfreeze. Will mill for a ☺☺☺☺e ton with gauntlet and extraplanar lens out ^^
Well it's been forever, but I finally finished the cube. It turns out that dissolving my Bant deck was worth 100+ dollars in store credit towards finishing it
Unfortunately, they did not have all the signets I needed, and only had a Talisman of Unity. As soon as possible, I will remove the talisman and have a full set of signets.
Honestly, Steel Overseer seems like the no-brainer. Its non color committing, and can grow each and every turn. Hold it up as a blocker then EOT pump it until you have an eldrazi sized threat. If M11 is drafted as slow as I remember M10, then the overseer is the pick in my humble opinion.
Kiln Fiend. We are mostly instants and sorceries now, and hopefully we pick up a distortion strike if its in the cube. Seems nuts in this format if we have the deck to support it (which I think we do). Honestly, this seems quite nuts. Kiln Fiend's only glaring weakness is removal, which we are eating up.
Also, the Ith mistake was big. By wasted i didn't mean killed, but I made a HUUUUGE misplay and used his ability on the river boa to kill his other two guys.
@wtwlf: Well, i think Samurai is already decent as 2 for a 3/3 blocker who can attack through 2/2s as well as icing unearth shenanigans. Makes me sad he isn't as awesomesausage as I thought.
Changes I'm considering:
Dropping Midnight/Funeral Charm for something in black. It just seems redundant to have them both. I do want at least one charm in each color for utility's sake. I dropped Smallpox at the last minute, maybe put that in?
Dropping Take Posession in blue. Seems overcosted and blue is (barely) the most common color in the cube. Take it out for balance's sake?
Dropping Back to Nature. Enchantments aren't amazing in this cube, and i want to drop Green to 55.
Swapping Lavaball Trap for Wildfire or its newer incarnation. It seems like you'll rarely get the trap's special cost off. Thoughts?
Dropping Serra Angel from white. I'm 57 in white, and 5 for a 4/4 flying vigilance seems a bit weak in cube.
Goldenglow Moth: Yeah its not amazing. Its a nice speed bump, not a blocker.
Reanimator Shenanigans: Total miscount, I was mentally drained.
Efficient Guys: I think I may give them a try.
Recumbent and Prison: I played a practice draft today (more on that later in the post) and in the UW vs Bant matchup, both saw considerable play with little issue. Recumbent will almost definitely be dropped for Isolation, but Prison Term seemed quite useful when bombs were followed up with bigger bombs.
Samurai of the Pale Curtain: Wowww I need to read cards better. I guess Relic of Progenitus is going in as an artifact slot.
Stonecloaker: NEEDS to go in, i knew i was forgetting something.
Lone Missionary: Yeah, he seems like he could help stop the most all-out strategies. Also he's one step closer to making FelidarSoverign.dec viable.
Now, for the draft. It was just three of us because most of my friends at home HATE magic. Can't wait to go back to college where I could feasibly get 7-8 people cube drafts going.
I opened with an Elspeth, and went hard in with white, eventually picking up blue. My friend to the left started with a Treva and went Bant. My friend to the right picked up WBR because... well I don't know why.
I ultimately ended up with powerful white and blue cards, with lots of card advantage. It played to win off of Jace and Elspeth for even more lasting advantage, or Deathless Angel and Sphinx of Magosi as bomb fliers. The main tough decision is my choice of whether or not to include black. Highlights in black were Nameless Inversion Shriekmaw Liliana Vess, and Exotic Curse. On top of that I had Dimir Aqueduct and Drowned Catacombs to fix. But I ultimately decided decent removal package was not worth consistency and speed.
First set of games was against the bant deck. First game I got to a board position where I could safely drop jace against his field and work my way up to his ultimate, causing lethal. Highlight of the game: my opponent dropping Godhead of Awe and me putting down Glorious Anthem. Sphinx of Magosi grew to stop the opponent.
Second game was lost to a big mistake on my part. My opponent came out strong with Call of the Herd and Gelatinous Genesis to make 5 3/3 tokens. I killed off four of those eventually, but dropped to two. He had a fully upgraded Trancendent master I kept stopping with my Ith, High Arcanist. Then he dropped River Boa. Fack. I probably could have won, but I forgot about the third token and Ith got wasted on a triple block. River Boa went in for the kill and we were off to the third game.
Third game involved tomfoolery and beatdowns with a Cloud Elemental and Elspeth. A timely Man-o'-War and running over all his air beaters ended the game before he could overrun me with ground forces.
I only got to play one game against WBR, but it was a doozie. First play was a turn two suspended ith. He got out a turn seven Avatar of Woe which was immediately equipped with Lightning Greaves to kill my Deathless Angel. He proceeded to reanimate it and drop to seven. His big mistake was not equipping the angel with greaves. This allowed me to manowar and replay deathless to take him out.
Samurai of the Pale Curtain is in there for a very specific reason. I'm terrified that BW reanimator is overpowered. It already has turn 1 swamp, dark ritual, delirium skeins dumping any fatty of your choice, reanimate, go. It is also a beautiful counter to bloodghast and any other powerful graveyard abilities and strategies. If he seems lackluster he may get the boot.
Sigiled Paladin seems fine as a 3/3 first striker for 2 that also leads to favorable attacks later on.
Recumbent Bliss and Prison Term seem decent. I like temporal isolation though. Maybe dump bliss for it.
As for the Soltari Trooper Mistral Charger Stormfront Pegasus suggestion, i'm reluctant to give white so much efficient evasion creatures.
@wtwlf123: That seems like a definite possibility.
White - 57 Cards (2.7 average CMC)
The Stats
1CC
2CC
3CC
4CC
5CC
6CC+
Blue - 59 Cards (3.26 average CMC)
The Stats
1CC
2CC
3CC
4CC
5CC
6+CC
Black - 55 Cards (3.41 average CMC)
The Stats
1CMC
2CMC
3CMC
4CMC
5CMC
6+CMC
Red - 55 cards (3.44 average CMC)
1CMC
2CMC
3CMC
4CMC
5CMC
6+CMC
Green - 56 cards (3.02 average CMC)
1CMC
2CMC
3CMC
4CMC
5CMC
6+CMC
Multicolor - 25 Cards
White/Blue
White/Black
White/Red
White/Green
Blue/Black
Blue/Red
Blue/Green
Black/Red
Black/Green
Bant
Treva, the Renewer
Esper
Magister Sphinx
Grixis
Sedraxis Specter
Jund
Darigaaz, the Igniter
Naya
Rith, the Awakener
Want to get Dromar and Crosis to replace Magister and Sedraxis, but relatively happy with the multicolor.
Artifact/Colorless - 32 Cards (3.19 average CMC)
The Stats
0CMC
Sigil of Distinction
1CMC
2CMC
3CMC
4CMC
5CMC
6+CMC
Unfortunately, they did not have all the signets I needed, and only had a Talisman of Unity. As soon as possible, I will remove the talisman and have a full set of signets.
Lands
Monocolor Cycle
Allcolor Cycle
Colorless Cycle
M10 Cycle
Dual Cycle
Another case of unavailable cards; not sure if I want to stick with pain or bouncelands. Testing will tell which is superior.
Lacerator
Growth