Jackal Pup. I'd rather have Smash over Molten Rain anyway, it's always maindeckable and usually a more swingy card. I hope both of them table so I can argue for Smash.
Cursed Scroll could be a giant culprit, especially as often times you are naming basic land (so it gives your opponent even more incentive to look at the art).
The last set of cuts were made because I also moved to a guild organization scheme and was actually missing five multicolored cards that way, so I could cut 5 lands or 5 artifacts and decided to go with the artifacts. I'm probably going to make some more changes soon, after I update the first post. (Like cutting Sudden Shock instead of Burning of Xinye -- if I'm going to keep the dream of the Wildfire deck alive, I might as well play two.)
I'm also going to switch around some of the guild cards right now, as I'm not keeping everything even-keel from now on. Some of the bouncelands are definitely not needed, and I might add in the UW/UB talismans.
I'm not against cutting one. I might try out Puppeteer Clique in one of their places. Ink Eyes and Geth I am a little weary of because they're so much more mana (and they technically fail terminate test unless you have lots of mana available).
Zombify: 4 mana reanimation spell is not really that impressive imo. At least play something more interesting, like Dread Return(which can also get rid of Abyssal Persecutor), Unearth or Corpse Dance.
I was actually thinking of cutting a single reanimation spell, and if one has to go, Zombify is definitely it. I'm going to change it out for Yawgmoth's Will. Dread Return is also way better than Zombify, no idea why I didn't add that one in the first place.
Child of Night: we didn't play this card too long , but it pretty bad for cube standards.
We like it a lot -- lifelink in black is super rare and really awesome because it counteracts the natural life loss on many of black's cards.
There are 2 interesting cards in red that I want to mention: Crater Hellion +Words of War.
The Hellion combines mass removal with a Titan size body and if your opponent doesn't have instant speed removal, they are forced to kill our creature before you even payed the Echo cost.
We played the Hellion for a while, he literally never made the maindeck of any of our decks. Ever. Reanimator would board him in when facing aggro, but it wasn't that great because they couldn't pay the echo cost.
I like him in theory but no one around here ever gave him a chance.
WoW combos with any form of card draw, no matter if it is a draw 7 for the instant kill, the 1 card that you draw each turn or something like Top or Sylvan Library. While trading every card in your deck for a Shock might seem bad, it is an uncouterable Shock and you have to take into account all the useless lands in your decks as well, which means that it is more like you trade all the spells in your decks for 4 direct damage/each.
We have never tried Words of War. We'll have to give it a go. Any suggestions on what to cut for it?
We like Tooth and Nail a little more because it's a build-around-me card. It's nice to see Tooth and Nail get passed to you 4th or 5th and if you've already taken some acceleration figuring out where to go with the deck is pretty awesome. Also makes a pretty beastly late pick; we haven't had either of those experiences with Rude Awakening, it was just a random card that a green deck usually picked up mid-to-late.
Spectral Force / Ifh-Biff Efreet / Beastbreaker of Bala Ged / Master of the Wild Hunt: I haven't too much experience with these cards in the cube, except Spectral Force, which got replaced long ago without looking back and imo cutting any 2 of these creatures would be fine to make room for more spells in green namely Life from the Loam (great engine card that works with utility lands, sac/discard effects, with and against land destruction and combos with a few cards, like Scroll Rack)
Spectral Force and Master of the Wild Hunt have been pretty awesome for us -- I'm not opposed to cutting Beastbreaker and Ifh-Biff Efreet though.
We tried Life from the Loam and it got played very rarely (sadly). I wouldn't be opposed to putting it back in and seeing how it goes.
All Suns' Dawn (Thanks to hybrid cards you are sometimes able to recur 3 or even 4 cards for 5 mana)
Interesting, this is something I will definitely consider.
(Terastodon is listed as a 9 mana card)
Oops.
Gold:
Maybe not in a 450 cards cube, but at least in the 360-450 cards cubes, Loxodon Warhammer might not make it too much longer, after we get a minimum of 2 cubeable equipments from the new block and Behemoth Sledge is a very similar card. Mirrari's Wake seems like a much stronger card in my opinion, especially if you pair it up with U or R, which can get a lot of value out of the additional mana.
I was actually going to make that change this weekend! (Sledge -> Wake).
We actually *love* warhammer as it is one of the few equipment a control deck wants (lifelink is awesome).
I would rather cut Death Grasp than Stillmoon Cavalier to make room for Desolation Angel, since the one card is only an easier to cast Drain Life, while all the double protection creatures are a giant pita and as a hybrid card it will see play all the time.
We get so many wins from Death Grasp we actually think it's the strongest WB card other than Vindicate. Every draft I hear people say "Wow, why do other cubes never play Death Grasp?"
This is more a matter of personal preferences, but while Spiritmonger still has some great stats, Putrid Leech is just more efficient.
I love Putrid Leech and want to find room for him. That being said, green-black in our cube is rarely aggro-ish and the little guy (even though he can get big!) just didn't see a ton of play when we had him in.
When I make the switch to a guild system (like wtwlf has done) he might get added back in somehow. I'm going to do a lot of messing around tonight, I'll write back what I've changed based on yours (and others) awesome recommendations.
Karn is on his way out, or teetering on the very edge of the chopping block. The dude just has not pulled his weight since we added him. Aether Vial is in the cube because we also do other weird variant formats (like rochester drafting the entire cube) where believe it or not, aether vial is an amazing pick. It's also not bad to get in an aggro deck.
The lands contain 2 cards that I would not want to play in my limited deck: Bazaar of Baghdad(That is just so much card disadvantage if you primarily use it for reanimator. Even if you ca reanimate a fatty after just 1 activation, your opponents Innocent Blood will trade 3:1 with it) + Mishra's Workshop (You have a hard time building your deck around this card i f it is only a 1 of, since when you don't draw it / get it destroyed you will end up with a bunch of expensive artifacts and a land that doesn't tap for mana for your regular spells).
Bazaar of Baghdad is incredible in the reanimator deck, I think you'd have to play with it to experience how awesome it is as filtering through your deck to find exactly what you need.
Mishra's Workshop is pretty great too -- I drafted a deck the other day that was mono-white control playing huge artifact guys. Turn 1 mishra's workshop into coalition relic into turn 2 Wurmcoil Engine.
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Thank you so much for the great advice, I'm going to make a lot of changes today and put them in a change log. Thanks so much, you're awesome!
Nice list, I like mot of your card choices and the way that you present them.
W
In a cube that big I would at least consider 1 additional mass removal spell. Austere Command has been outstanding for us, since it rarely happens that your opponent has 3 different types of threats on the table that you need to address, while you are often happy to save your own fatty / (mana) artifacts or enchantments.
Austere Command is awesome and I'd like to fit it in somewhere, any suggestions on what to cut for it? Pulse of the Fields has been awesome for us and is kind of a legendary card around here, I don't think anyone would be pleased to cut it.
U Intuition and maybe Frantic Search are the only cards that I would identify as cards that are primarily there because of your reanimator support. If you want to help the deck more, I would consider adding Compulsive Research as well, which gives you a discard outlet while searching for reanimation spells while being a splashable card draw spell for other decks as well - maybe in the slot Stroke of Genius slot, which is just such a mana intensive card.
This is a good change and I'll definitely run the idea by my playgroup (they really like stroke).
Hinder -> Memory Lapse: Trade Cancel for an easy to cast 2 mana counter, that can timewalk your opponent.
I'll try this out and see how people like it. I like Hinder because it's a hard counter. I'm running all the other good hard counters @ 2 or 3 CMC.
Tradewind Rider -> Serendib Efreet: Rider doesn't fit into the usual blue decks and while it seems weird to suggest a blue creature that pings you for 1 each round in the same sentence, the Efreet can play a good defensive role as well, since it stops most creatures for < 4 mana and is out of bolt range.
I like Serendib Efreet a lot, but I don't know if my playgroup will go for this change. Tradewind Rider blocks nearly as well (only one mana more and two less power) but has a game-breaking ability if you get out two other creatures (which is possible with control spells etc).
Rites of Replication -> Sphinx of Jwar Isle: maybe not as fun a Rites, but it is pretty hard to deal with and doesn't require you to keep mana open to protect it
Vetoed! We actually have never played with Sphinx of Jwar Isle -- while he's a cool finisher, we have enough in blue atm and don't need another one. We like Rite because it's clone OR a game-winner.
the list looks nice, i don't have much to add after those posts. i would definitely get desolation angel in there as soon as possible. for the three color cards i would recommend hellkite overlord and rafiq of the many as a reanimator/ramp target my group has really liked and another aggressive card. i don't think the overlord is for every group but it was played more than broodmate here.
I'll probably cut Stillmoon Cavalier for Desolation Angel.
Hellkite Overlord is awesome and my personal preference, but my playgroup likes Broodmate Dragon more (no idea why). We find Emperyial Angel is a better card than Rafiq as the angel is used in reanimator decks while Rafiq just chills out on the sidelines as UWG aggro is pretty rare around here. Thanks for the imput though, I'm glad you like Hellkite Overlord too!
Multicolor:
Why do you play 3 color spells? Your blurb makes it sound like you don't want to do the kind of thing that 3 color spells do.
All your multicolored spells look acceptable. There are a couple I might change around (like turning Sarkhan into Giant Solifuge) but nothing is too unstandard.
The three color spells we have are an aggro guy, three reanimator guys, and a badass planeswalker. 5cc will play the planeswalker while the other four get scooped up by other decks.
Artifacts:
Time vault is horrible. It is only good if you get Voltaic Key or Tezzeret.
It's one of our sacred cows. We love playing with Time Vault/Key/Tezz and every draft someone tries to assemble it with varying degrees of success. One 8-man, we had a guy scoop up three draw 7s (timetwister, memory jar, wheel of fortune), with 3 moxes, time walk, and vault-key-tezz. He won the draft with ease.
Other times, people will be at one turn before death (or something crazy like that) and luck into vault-key off of a tutor.
Time Vault makes for some pretty epic stories.
I've been playing Perilous Myr a ton in scars draft. How is he in cube?
Paladium Myr looks kind of questionable.
Both are pretty good. I want more acceleration in the cube so ramp is a more viable strategy, I might cut an artifact or two for Thran Dynamo / Gilded Lotus and see how it works out.
No signets?
We decided to cut signets for a little while to see how the cube plays without them. They're really nice for multi-colored control, and that archetype isn't seeing a ton of play right now, so we'll be adding them back in shortly.
When we move to the guild system we'll be adding in all the blue signets and possibly some others.
Lands: look good. I'm not a fan of the vivids. They inable 5-color to easily. Workshop and bazaar are pretty bad. Thawing Glaciers and Dust Bowl would both be better.
We like the vivid lands here, I want 5cc to be a viable strategy but not the dominant one. They're chilling out in place of signets for the time being, which I don't think is correct.
We might keep them in even after we rotate signets back in. Thawing Glaciers and Dust Bowl were cut due to not seeing enough play, but they'll be shifted back in with time.
So far I've only had a chance to look through those three sections. It looks like you have used the cube refrences well.
Cube Goal: Fun.
Beyond fun, the overarching goal of the 540 cube is to have a balance of aggro, mid-range, and control. "Combo" in the form of reanimator is supported very heavily as a viable archetype. To support these four archetypes, each color (save blue) has viable aggro strategies. To achieve this balance, aggro needs to constitute a plurality of cards within the cube (possibly a majority, depending on your definition of what an aggro card is). Mid-range and control can utilize aggro cards very easily while vice versa is not true, so our cube is biased very heavily towards "aggro."
Cube Size: 450! We have had some people move away recently, so our twelve man drafts (which were relatively frequent) quickly became 10 mans. Breakdown: 300 monocoloed (60 of each color), 80 colorless, 70 guild. Standard or Theme: Standard. Snow Lands: No. Average Number of Players: 6-10. We average an 8 man draft on Tuesdays and Fridays. Although I'm not positive, I'd wager to say that we have the most amount of cubing per week with a regular playgroup compared to anywhere else in the world. How Often Drafted: At least twice a week, often times 3-4. It's pretty lively here.
Card Selection Proxies: Yes. The entire cube is proxied. Powered: Yes. Portal: Yes. "Un" Cards: No. Banned Cards for Power-Level: No. Banned Cards for Time Constraints: Constant Mists. Banned Cards for "fun" factor: No.
Cube Design Standard or Multiplayer: Standard. Sideboards?: Yes. Color Balance: Yes. Gold Balance: Yes. Hybrid/Split/Kicker as Gold: Yep. Dismantling Blow counts as a UW card for us. Perfectly Balanced CMC: NO!
These are outdated, looking to change them shortly!
WWWWWWW
White is split between aggro and control. A color of paradox, white has access to some of the most efficent and powerful 1 and 2 drop creatures within the game, but also holds more board sweepers than every other color combined. Targeted creature removal is also a two-edged sword. Oblivion Ring can remove a problematic blocker or be used to stablize by negating a white army's best attacker. The dichotomy of white is brilliant, as it allows pick orders to wildly fluctuate depending on what style of deck a white player wishes to draft.
As control decks can utilize aggro cards easily, white is purposely lopsided in favor of aggro.
Blue is the color of control. Many cubers easily accept this and do not attempt to make U/x aggro (or even X/u aggro) a viable archetype. We include blue cards with the idea that they are powerful in the late game or help the deck to survive until the late game. Goals for blue are to stop early assaults of other colors and eventually take over with incredibly powerful spells. Our blue has an exception of a larger subset of blue cards designated as reanimator enablers. These cards have some overlap with other archetypes (other types of combo, control applications) but the primary purpose is reanimator.
Black is a very odd color within the cube as it has a murkier identity than other colors. Rather than being an "aggro" color or a "control" color, black has cards that can fit into many archetypes. These multiple archetype cards (Nekrataal, Skinrender, Doom Blade, Mind Twist, etc) are exceptionally important to black to diminish the natural archetype imbalance black has. Wizards should print more black cards that can be sustained in multiple archetypes.
Many cubes throw in reanimator as a side-thought; we want combo to be a fourth archetype within the cube. Our goal with black has been to develop a solid reanimator combo deck that will be viable each draft. Reanimator is included with the presumption that a drafter will play U/B with possible splashes. We intentionally have no graveyard hate to encourage reanimator drafting. Tutors are important in the cube not only for important reanimator pieces, but also for other combos within the cube.
Time Vault - Voltaic Key also exists within the cube and is reliant on cards like Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, both Tezzerets, Lim-Dul's Vault and friends to make it work. Black is a giant player here and is valued for it's comborific potential. To give you an idea of how much we love combo: Grim Tutor almost makes the cut in our 450.
Nearly every single card in red has aggro in mind. Red's goal is to be able to successfully defeat control and combo by speed and burn alone; an off-color (like green or white) can support larger creatures if the red deck needs more fat or evasive guys. Pyroclasm is included because U/R/x/ counterburn, 4c control, and other decks splashing red need additional outs to red's speed. Earthquake and Rolling Earthquake serve as reach for the aggressive red deck and an aggro hoser for 3+ color control decks.
Our cube plays Sinkhole, self-sacrificing lands, three white armageddons and possible land destruction green creature ETB triggers. We're moving away from the land destruction theme we used to use, as it is worse than just playing burn spells. Besides, it helps red's good matchups and does little to beat mid-range, which is where red needs help.
Midrange is green's thing. While able to support aggro with a total of 23 creatures @ 1-2 CMC, green shines at 3-5 CMC like no other color within the cube. Most reanimator targets within the cube are green as green has a beavy of mana acceleration to effectively draft these fatties as hardcastable. Green has a very slight emphasis on color-fixing. Decks that are 3+ colors are usually blue-based or white-based control decks, there is not a giant demand to put more color fixing in green for the sake of color fixing.
Aggressive cards in green are able to be most successfully paired with red or white. While green technically has many one and two drop creatures, many of their primary functions are to produce mana (4 Elves, Hierarch, Birds, Rofellos, Sakura Tribe Elder) or have non-aggro interactions (Wall of Roots, Wall of Blossoms).
Creatures that double as artifact and enchantment removal are at a premium within the cube. Problematic cards like Moat, Sulfuric Vortex, Umezawa's Jitte, Skullclamp, etc, are dealt with by running an excess of artifact/enchantment destruction creatures like Ukatabi Orangutan, Viridian Shaman, Acidic Slime, Wickerborough Elder, Nantuko Vigilante, Viridian Zealot, and so on. Green's ratio of artifact and enchantment removal is disproportionate to increase its relative power within the cube.
The lopsidedness of this color split also has the side-effect of making powerful enchantments and artifacts even more powerful (when they are not playing against a green deck). This is a good thing. Swingy games are fun games, lopsided matchups are fun matchups.
1) Multi-colored cards often do the opposite of artifacts; a high count not only forces individuals into particular archetypes early, but it overemphasizes the multi-colored control archetype. I might catch flack for saying this, but an excess of multi-colored cards hurts the aggro archetype more than anything else. Aggro likes to stick to a primary color (usually red, green, or white) and branch out into a secondary color (usually non-blue). Wild Nacatyl, Kird Ape, and Loam Lion are all fantastic multi-colored cards for aggro. However, "fringe" cards in multicolor are nearly always control or high mid-range cards. This is because good aggro creatures (as a whole) are relatively rare in Magic's history while we have a plethora of good mid-range and control cards.
Looking at nearly any magic format, aggro is made successful by running multiples of a few good aggro creatures (4x Goblin Guide, 4x Hellspark Elemental, 4x Hell's Thunder, etc) backed with reach (burn, in this example). Cube cards do not have the same proportions because we cannot run 4 Goblin Guides within our cubes. We are naturally restricted by our 1-of rule that hurts aggro far more than any other normal cube archetype. There are far more diverse and powerful control cards throughout magic history, which allows control to be redundantly consistent (think of all the good draw spells at 3 cmc). Aggro's natural consistency (just run 4x of your only two good one-cmc guys) does not exist within the cube, so we need to give aggro a boost by cutting mid-range and control multicolored cards.
2) Multicolor has another adverse effect on aggro: While Loam Lion, Kird Ape, and Wild Nacatyl are all fantastic aggro multicolored cards, they have much stricter requirements in terms of deck construction than a powerful multicolored control card. A white-blue deck might splash green for Simic Sky Swallower and do fine because of the extra time white-blue has access to, a dedicated white-red deck cannot reliably splash green for only Wild Nactyl unless it has a ridiculous amount of manafixing available.
Because of these two fundamental flaws, an interesting correlation exists within the cube. The higher a cube's multicolored card count, the lower the percentage of good aggro multicolored cards (and therefore, it's adverse effect on aggro's viability).
We have an exceptionally high artifact count. We hate seeing 15 card packs with only 1-2 cards that we can play. Artifacts help remedy poor pack color variability (which happens no matter what randomization method you use). Artifacts that are on the other side of seeing play within a normal cube of 540 are welcome here (Steel Hellkite, I'm looking right at you).
As an aside, the possibility of an artifact-heavy, artifact-synnergistic deck is present within the cube.
Chandra and Nighthawk are definitely interesting picks though.
2. Family Guy
3. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
4. ???
5. ???
Let's hope Burst Lightning wheels.
OUT ----> IN
Mana Tithe ----> Austere Command
Hinder ----> Memory Lapse
Plague Sliver ----> Puppeteer Clique
Zombify ----> Yawgmoth's Will
Burning of Xinye ----> Words of War
Ifh-Biff Efreet ----> Rampaging Baloths
Broodmate Dragon ----> Hellkite Overlord
Behemoth Sledge ----> Mirari's Wake
Dimir Aquaduct ----> Dimir Signet
Dismantling Blow ----> Azorius Signet
Terramorphic Expanse ----> Thawing Glaciers
Engineered Explosives -----> Putrid Leech
Karn, Silver Golem ----> Desolation Angel
Pithing Needle ----> Duergar Hedge-Mage
Chimeric Idol ----> Izzet Signet
Aether Vial ----> Simic Signet
The last set of cuts were made because I also moved to a guild organization scheme and was actually missing five multicolored cards that way, so I could cut 5 lands or 5 artifacts and decided to go with the artifacts. I'm probably going to make some more changes soon, after I update the first post. (Like cutting Sudden Shock instead of Burning of Xinye -- if I'm going to keep the dream of the Wildfire deck alive, I might as well play two.)
I'm also going to switch around some of the guild cards right now, as I'm not keeping everything even-keel from now on. Some of the bouncelands are definitely not needed, and I might add in the UW/UB talismans.
I guess I could cut a little white guy, I think I'd prefer to cut Mistral Charger over Wayfarer.
I think I can cut both if I need to, I'll make a chopping block section and put Hinder on the list after I replace Dissipate with Memory Lapse.
I'm not against cutting one. I might try out Puppeteer Clique in one of their places. Ink Eyes and Geth I am a little weary of because they're so much more mana (and they technically fail terminate test unless you have lots of mana available).
I was actually thinking of cutting a single reanimation spell, and if one has to go, Zombify is definitely it. I'm going to change it out for Yawgmoth's Will. Dread Return is also way better than Zombify, no idea why I didn't add that one in the first place.
We like it a lot -- lifelink in black is super rare and really awesome because it counteracts the natural life loss on many of black's cards.
We played the Hellion for a while, he literally never made the maindeck of any of our decks. Ever. Reanimator would board him in when facing aggro, but it wasn't that great because they couldn't pay the echo cost.
I like him in theory but no one around here ever gave him a chance.
We have never tried Words of War. We'll have to give it a go. Any suggestions on what to cut for it?
We like Tooth and Nail a little more because it's a build-around-me card. It's nice to see Tooth and Nail get passed to you 4th or 5th and if you've already taken some acceleration figuring out where to go with the deck is pretty awesome. Also makes a pretty beastly late pick; we haven't had either of those experiences with Rude Awakening, it was just a random card that a green deck usually picked up mid-to-late.
Spectral Force and Master of the Wild Hunt have been pretty awesome for us -- I'm not opposed to cutting Beastbreaker and Ifh-Biff Efreet though.
We tried Life from the Loam and it got played very rarely (sadly). I wouldn't be opposed to putting it back in and seeing how it goes.
Interesting, this is something I will definitely consider.
Oops.
I was actually going to make that change this weekend! (Sledge -> Wake).
We actually *love* warhammer as it is one of the few equipment a control deck wants (lifelink is awesome).
We get so many wins from Death Grasp we actually think it's the strongest WB card other than Vindicate. Every draft I hear people say "Wow, why do other cubes never play Death Grasp?"
I love Putrid Leech and want to find room for him. That being said, green-black in our cube is rarely aggro-ish and the little guy (even though he can get big!) just didn't see a ton of play when we had him in.
When I make the switch to a guild system (like wtwlf has done) he might get added back in somehow. I'm going to do a lot of messing around tonight, I'll write back what I've changed based on yours (and others) awesome recommendations.
Karn is on his way out, or teetering on the very edge of the chopping block. The dude just has not pulled his weight since we added him. Aether Vial is in the cube because we also do other weird variant formats (like rochester drafting the entire cube) where believe it or not, aether vial is an amazing pick. It's also not bad to get in an aggro deck.
Bazaar of Baghdad is incredible in the reanimator deck, I think you'd have to play with it to experience how awesome it is as filtering through your deck to find exactly what you need.
Mishra's Workshop is pretty great too -- I drafted a deck the other day that was mono-white control playing huge artifact guys. Turn 1 mishra's workshop into coalition relic into turn 2 Wurmcoil Engine.
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Thank you so much for the great advice, I'm going to make a lot of changes today and put them in a change log. Thanks so much, you're awesome!
Austere Command is awesome and I'd like to fit it in somewhere, any suggestions on what to cut for it? Pulse of the Fields has been awesome for us and is kind of a legendary card around here, I don't think anyone would be pleased to cut it.
This is a good change and I'll definitely run the idea by my playgroup (they really like stroke).
I'll try this out and see how people like it. I like Hinder because it's a hard counter. I'm running all the other good hard counters @ 2 or 3 CMC.
I like Serendib Efreet a lot, but I don't know if my playgroup will go for this change. Tradewind Rider blocks nearly as well (only one mana more and two less power) but has a game-breaking ability if you get out two other creatures (which is possible with control spells etc).
Vetoed! We actually have never played with Sphinx of Jwar Isle -- while he's a cool finisher, we have enough in blue atm and don't need another one. We like Rite because it's clone OR a game-winner.
Thank you for the cc results!
I'll probably cut Stillmoon Cavalier for Desolation Angel.
Hellkite Overlord is awesome and my personal preference, but my playgroup likes Broodmate Dragon more (no idea why). We find Emperyial Angel is a better card than Rafiq as the angel is used in reanimator decks while Rafiq just chills out on the sidelines as UWG aggro is pretty rare around here. Thanks for the imput though, I'm glad you like Hellkite Overlord too!
The three color spells we have are an aggro guy, three reanimator guys, and a badass planeswalker. 5cc will play the planeswalker while the other four get scooped up by other decks.
It's one of our sacred cows. We love playing with Time Vault/Key/Tezz and every draft someone tries to assemble it with varying degrees of success. One 8-man, we had a guy scoop up three draw 7s (timetwister, memory jar, wheel of fortune), with 3 moxes, time walk, and vault-key-tezz. He won the draft with ease.
Other times, people will be at one turn before death (or something crazy like that) and luck into vault-key off of a tutor.
Time Vault makes for some pretty epic stories.
Both are pretty good. I want more acceleration in the cube so ramp is a more viable strategy, I might cut an artifact or two for Thran Dynamo / Gilded Lotus and see how it works out.
We decided to cut signets for a little while to see how the cube plays without them. They're really nice for multi-colored control, and that archetype isn't seeing a ton of play right now, so we'll be adding them back in shortly.
When we move to the guild system we'll be adding in all the blue signets and possibly some others.
We like the vivid lands here, I want 5cc to be a viable strategy but not the dominant one. They're chilling out in place of signets for the time being, which I don't think is correct.
We might keep them in even after we rotate signets back in. Thawing Glaciers and Dust Bowl were cut due to not seeing enough play, but they'll be shifted back in with time.
Thank you.
Cube Goal: Fun.
Beyond fun, the overarching goal of the 540 cube is to have a balance of aggro, mid-range, and control. "Combo" in the form of reanimator is supported very heavily as a viable archetype. To support these four archetypes, each color (save blue) has viable aggro strategies. To achieve this balance, aggro needs to constitute a plurality of cards within the cube (possibly a majority, depending on your definition of what an aggro card is). Mid-range and control can utilize aggro cards very easily while vice versa is not true, so our cube is biased very heavily towards "aggro."
Cube Size: 450! We have had some people move away recently, so our twelve man drafts (which were relatively frequent) quickly became 10 mans.
Breakdown: 300 monocoloed (60 of each color), 80 colorless, 70 guild.
Standard or Theme: Standard.
Snow Lands: No.
Average Number of Players: 6-10. We average an 8 man draft on Tuesdays and Fridays. Although I'm not positive, I'd wager to say that we have the most amount of cubing per week with a regular playgroup compared to anywhere else in the world.
How Often Drafted: At least twice a week, often times 3-4. It's pretty lively here.
Card Selection
Proxies: Yes. The entire cube is proxied.
Powered: Yes.
Portal: Yes.
"Un" Cards: No.
Banned Cards for Power-Level: No.
Banned Cards for Time Constraints: Constant Mists.
Banned Cards for "fun" factor: No.
Cube Design
Standard or Multiplayer: Standard.
Sideboards?: Yes.
Color Balance: Yes.
Gold Balance: Yes.
Hybrid/Split/Kicker as Gold: Yep. Dismantling Blow counts as a UW card for us.
Perfectly Balanced CMC: NO!
http://deckstats.net/deck-378433-967624c7eafcb2ca18a82eb2afa67e61-en.html
http://maskedadmirers.wordpress.com/blimpys-visual-spoiler/
These are outdated, looking to change them shortly!
WWWWWWW
White is split between aggro and control. A color of paradox, white has access to some of the most efficent and powerful 1 and 2 drop creatures within the game, but also holds more board sweepers than every other color combined. Targeted creature removal is also a two-edged sword. Oblivion Ring can remove a problematic blocker or be used to stablize by negating a white army's best attacker. The dichotomy of white is brilliant, as it allows pick orders to wildly fluctuate depending on what style of deck a white player wishes to draft.
As control decks can utilize aggro cards easily, white is purposely lopsided in favor of aggro.
1 Elite Vanguard
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Mother of Runes
1 Savannah Lions
1 Steppe Lynx
1 Student of Warfare
//2CC
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Kami of Ancient Law
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Kor Skyfisher
1 Ronom Unicorn
1 Silver Knight
1 Soltari Monk
1 Soltari Priest
1 Soltari Trooper
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Wall of Omens
1 Blade Splicer
1 Flickerwisp
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Mirror Entity
1 Paladin en-Vec
1 Pianna, Nomad Captain
1 Soltari Champion
1 Spectral Procession
//4CC
1 Calciderm
1 Exalted Angel
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Karmic Guide
1 Reveillark
//6CC
1 Sun Titan
1 Yosei, the Morning Star
//7CC
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Land Tax
1 Mana Tithe
1 Path to Exile
1 Reconnaissance
1 Swords to Plowshares
//2CC
1 Balance
1 Disenchant
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Glorious Anthem
//4CC
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Armageddon
1 Day of Judgment
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Moat
1 Ravages of War
1 Wrath of God
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Gideon Jura
1 Rout
//6CC
1 Catastrophe
//XCC
1 Decree of Justice
1 Ronom Unicorn
1 Flickerwisp
1 Pianna, Nomad Captain
1 Spectral Procession
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Karmic Guide
1 Decree of Justice
1 Mana Tithe
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Reconnaissance
1 Rout
Blue is the color of control. Many cubers easily accept this and do not attempt to make U/x aggro (or even X/u aggro) a viable archetype. We include blue cards with the idea that they are powerful in the late game or help the deck to survive until the late game. Goals for blue are to stop early assaults of other colors and eventually take over with incredibly powerful spells. Our blue has an exception of a larger subset of blue cards designated as reanimator enablers. These cards have some overlap with other archetypes (other types of combo, control applications) but the primary purpose is reanimator.
1 Enclave Cryptologist
//2CC
1 Gilded Drake
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Waterfront Bouncer
//3CC
1 Man-o'-War
1 Serendib Efreet
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
1 Willbender
1 Æther Adept
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Lu Xun, Scholar General
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Thieving Magpie
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
//5CC
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Mulldrifter
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Consecrated Sphinx
//9CC
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
//1CC
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Preordain
1 Ponder
//2CC
1 Arcane Denial
1 Counterspell
1 Impulse
1 Mana Drain
1 Mana Leak
1 Memory Lapse
1 Miscalculation
1 Remand
1 Time Walk
1 Capsize
1 Forbid
1 Frantic Search
1 Intuition
1 Jace Beleren
1 Psionic Blast
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Vedalken Shackles
//4CC
1 Control Magic
1 Cryptic Command
1 Deep Analysis
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Into the Roil
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Treachery
//6CC
1 Time Spiral
1 Upheaval
//XCC
1 Condescend
//Land
1 Academy Ruins
1 Tolarian Academy
[/deck]
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Impulse
1 Intuition
1 Frantic Search
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Into the Roil
1 Condescend
Black is a very odd color within the cube as it has a murkier identity than other colors. Rather than being an "aggro" color or a "control" color, black has cards that can fit into many archetypes. These multiple archetype cards (Nekrataal, Skinrender, Doom Blade, Mind Twist, etc) are exceptionally important to black to diminish the natural archetype imbalance black has. Wizards should print more black cards that can be sustained in multiple archetypes.
Many cubes throw in reanimator as a side-thought; we want combo to be a fourth archetype within the cube. Our goal with black has been to develop a solid reanimator combo deck that will be viable each draft. Reanimator is included with the presumption that a drafter will play U/B with possible splashes. We intentionally have no graveyard hate to encourage reanimator drafting. Tutors are important in the cube not only for important reanimator pieces, but also for other combos within the cube.
Time Vault - Voltaic Key also exists within the cube and is reliant on cards like Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, both Tezzerets, Lim-Dul's Vault and friends to make it work. Black is a giant player here and is valued for it's comborific potential. To give you an idea of how much we love combo: Grim Tutor almost makes the cut in our 450.
1 Carnophage
1 Fume Spitter
1 Vampire Lacerator
//2CC
1 Bloodghast
1 Dark Confidant
1 Dauthi Horror
1 Nantuko Shade
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Bone Shredder
1 Bane of the Living
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Liliana's Specter
1 Vampire Nighthawk
//4CC
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Juzam Djinn
1 Nekrataal
1 Skinrender
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Shriekmaw
//6CC
1 Grave Titan
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
//XCC
1 Tombstalker
1 Snuff Out
//1CC
1 Dark Ritual
1 Dismember
1 Duress
1 Entomb
1 Reanimate
1 Sarcomancy
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
//2CC
1 Animate Dead
1 Bitterblossom
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Doom Blade
1 Exhume
1 Go For The Throat
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Night's Whisper
1 Sinkhole
1 Necromancy
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Stupor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
//4CC
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Damnation
1 Nether Void
//5CC
1 Liliana Vess
//XCC
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Mind Twist
1 Profane Command
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Bane of the Living
1 Liliana's Specter
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Juzam Djinn
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Nether Void
Nearly every single card in red has aggro in mind. Red's goal is to be able to successfully defeat control and combo by speed and burn alone; an off-color (like green or white) can support larger creatures if the red deck needs more fat or evasive guys. Pyroclasm is included because U/R/x/ counterburn, 4c control, and other decks splashing red need additional outs to red's speed. Earthquake and Rolling Earthquake serve as reach for the aggressive red deck and an aggro hoser for 3+ color control decks.
Our cube plays Sinkhole, self-sacrificing lands, three white armageddons and possible land destruction green creature ETB triggers. We're moving away from the land destruction theme we used to use, as it is worse than just playing burn spells. Besides, it helps red's good matchups and does little to beat mid-range, which is where red needs help.
1 Goblin Guide
1 Goblin Patrol
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jackal Pup
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Spikeshot Elder
//2CC
1 Blood Knight
1 Ember Hauler
1 Fireslinger
1 Hearth Kami
1 Hellspark Elemental
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Keldon Marauders
1 Plated Geopede
1 Ghitu Slinger
1 Keldon Vandals
1 Manic Vandal
1 Fire Imp
//4CC
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Moltensteel Dragon
1 Blistering Firecat
1 Siege-Gang Commander
//6CC
1 Inferno Titan
1 Fireblast
//1CC
1 Burst Lightning
1 Chain Lightning
1 Firebolt
1 Lightning Bolt
//2CC
1 Arc Trail
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Pyroclasm
1 Volcanic Hammer
1 Fire Ambush
1 Arc Lightning
1 Char
1 Molten Rain
1 Pillage
1 Staggershock
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Wheel of Fortune
//4CC
1 Aftershock
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Chandra Nalaar
//6CC
1 Wildfire
1 Burning of Xinye
//XCC
1 Banefire
1 Earthquake
1 Fireball
1 Rolling Earthquake
//Land
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bane of the Living
1 Liliana's Specter
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Juzam Djinn
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Nether Void
GGGGGGG
Midrange is green's thing. While able to support aggro with a total of 23 creatures @ 1-2 CMC, green shines at 3-5 CMC like no other color within the cube. Most reanimator targets within the cube are green as green has a beavy of mana acceleration to effectively draft these fatties as hardcastable. Green has a very slight emphasis on color-fixing. Decks that are 3+ colors are usually blue-based or white-based control decks, there is not a giant demand to put more color fixing in green for the sake of color fixing.
Aggressive cards in green are able to be most successfully paired with red or white. While green technically has many one and two drop creatures, many of their primary functions are to produce mana (4 Elves, Hierarch, Birds, Rofellos, Sakura Tribe Elder) or have non-aggro interactions (Wall of Roots, Wall of Blossoms).
Creatures that double as artifact and enchantment removal are at a premium within the cube. Problematic cards like Moat, Sulfuric Vortex, Umezawa's Jitte, Skullclamp, etc, are dealt with by running an excess of artifact/enchantment destruction creatures like Ukatabi Orangutan, Viridian Shaman, Acidic Slime, Wickerborough Elder, Nantuko Vigilante, Viridian Zealot, and so on. Green's ratio of artifact and enchantment removal is disproportionate to increase its relative power within the cube.
The lopsidedness of this color split also has the side-effect of making powerful enchantments and artifacts even more powerful (when they are not playing against a green deck). This is a good thing. Swingy games are fun games, lopsided matchups are fun matchups.
1 Basking Rootwalla
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Pouncing Jaguar
1 Twinblade Slasher
1 Wild Dogs
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Jungle Lion
//2cmc
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 River Boa
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Mire Boa
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Albino Troll
1 Wall of Roots
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Caller of the Claw
1 Eternal Witness
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Ohran Viper
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Viridian Shaman
//4cmc
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
1 Blastoderm
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Vengevine
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Mold Shambler
1 Phantom Centaur
1 Ifh-Bíff Efreet
1 Spectral Force
1 Genesis
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Acidic Slime
1 Kodama of the North Tree
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Thornling
//7cmc
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Krosan Tusker
//8cmc
1 Woodfall Primus
//9cmc
1 Terastodon
1 Rancor
1 Berserk
1 Vines of Vastwood
//2cmc
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Regrowth
1 Sylvan Library
1 Creeping Mold
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Harrow
1 Call of the Herd
1 Cultivate
1 Krosan Grip
//4cmc
1 Stonewood Invocation
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Harmonize
1 Plow Under
//7cmc
1 Tooth and Nail
//Xcmc
1 Hurricane
1 Bane of the Living
1 Liliana's Specter
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Juzam Djinn
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Nether Void
WUBRG
1) Multi-colored cards often do the opposite of artifacts; a high count not only forces individuals into particular archetypes early, but it overemphasizes the multi-colored control archetype. I might catch flack for saying this, but an excess of multi-colored cards hurts the aggro archetype more than anything else. Aggro likes to stick to a primary color (usually red, green, or white) and branch out into a secondary color (usually non-blue). Wild Nacatyl, Kird Ape, and Loam Lion are all fantastic multi-colored cards for aggro. However, "fringe" cards in multicolor are nearly always control or high mid-range cards. This is because good aggro creatures (as a whole) are relatively rare in Magic's history while we have a plethora of good mid-range and control cards.
Looking at nearly any magic format, aggro is made successful by running multiples of a few good aggro creatures (4x Goblin Guide, 4x Hellspark Elemental, 4x Hell's Thunder, etc) backed with reach (burn, in this example). Cube cards do not have the same proportions because we cannot run 4 Goblin Guides within our cubes. We are naturally restricted by our 1-of rule that hurts aggro far more than any other normal cube archetype. There are far more diverse and powerful control cards throughout magic history, which allows control to be redundantly consistent (think of all the good draw spells at 3 cmc). Aggro's natural consistency (just run 4x of your only two good one-cmc guys) does not exist within the cube, so we need to give aggro a boost by cutting mid-range and control multicolored cards.
2) Multicolor has another adverse effect on aggro: While Loam Lion, Kird Ape, and Wild Nacatyl are all fantastic aggro multicolored cards, they have much stricter requirements in terms of deck construction than a powerful multicolored control card. A white-blue deck might splash green for Simic Sky Swallower and do fine because of the extra time white-blue has access to, a dedicated white-red deck cannot reliably splash green for only Wild Nactyl unless it has a ridiculous amount of manafixing available.
Because of these two fundamental flaws, an interesting correlation exists within the cube. The higher a cube's multicolored card count, the lower the percentage of good aggro multicolored cards (and therefore, it's adverse effect on aggro's viability).
1 Psychatog
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Polluted Delta
1 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Fire // Ice
1 Izzet Signet
1 Electrolyze
1 Prophetic Bolt
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Volcanic Island
1 Simic Signet
1 Trygon Predator
1 Mystic Snake
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Breeding Pool
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Tropical Island
1 Wall of Denial
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Tundra
1 Terminate
1 Blazing Specter
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Badlands
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Putrefy
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Mortify
1 Vindicate
1 Desolation Angel
1 Death Grasp
1 Godless Shrine
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scrubland
1 Kird Ape
1 Stormbind
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Sarkhan Vol
1 Stomping Ground
1 Taiga
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Lightning Helix
1 Duergar Hedge-Mage
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Arid Mesa
1 Plateau
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Loam Lion
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
1 Windswept Heath
1 Bane of the Living
1 Liliana's Specter
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Juzam Djinn
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Nether Void
012X
We have an exceptionally high artifact count. We hate seeing 15 card packs with only 1-2 cards that we can play. Artifacts help remedy poor pack color variability (which happens no matter what randomization method you use). Artifacts that are on the other side of seeing play within a normal cube of 540 are welcome here (Steel Hellkite, I'm looking right at you).
As an aside, the possibility of an artifact-heavy, artifact-synnergistic deck is present within the cube.
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Chrome Mox
//1cmc
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Black Vise
1 Mana Vault
1 Skullclamp
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Bonesplitter
1 Pithing Needle
1 Aether Vial
1 Voltaic Key
//2cmc
1 Time Vault
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Scroll Rack
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Grim Monolith
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Winter Orb
1 Mind Stone
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Powder Keg
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Perilous Myr
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob (might as well be colorless)
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Crystal Shard
1 Coalition Relic
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Crystal Ball
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Vengeance
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Bottle Gnomes
1 Chimeric Idol
1 Tangle Wire
1 Mimic Vat
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Palladium Myr
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ring of Gix
//4cmc
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Masticore
1 Juggernaut
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Erratic Portal
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Smokestack
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Memory Jar
1 Precursor Golem
1 Karn, Silver Golem
//6cmc
1 Triskelion
1 Duplicant
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Steel Hellkite
//7cmc
1 Myr Battlesphere
//8cmc
1 Sundering Titan
//Xcmc
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Chimeric Mass
1 Bane of the Living
1 Liliana's Specter
1 Abyssal Persecutor
1 Juzam Djinn
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Nether Void
Mana Tithe ----> Austere Command
Hinder ----> Memory Lapse
Plague Sliver ----> Puppeteer Clique
Zombify ----> Yawgmoth's Will
Burning of Xinye ----> Words of War
Ifh-Biff Efreet ----> Rampaging Baloths
Broodmate Dragon ----> Hellkite Overlord
Behemoth Sledge ----> Mirari's Wake
Dimir Aquaduct ----> Dimir Signet
Dismantling Blow ----> Azorius Signet
Terramorphic Expanse ----> Thawing Glaciers
Engineered Explosives -----> Putrid Leech
Karn, Silver Golem ----> Desolation Angel
Pithing Needle ----> Duergar Hedge-Mage
Chimeric Idol ----> Izzet Signet
Aether Vial ----> Simic Signet
Okay, giant changes here, I'll get these updated eventually but the cube is completely different at the moment.