Thanks for the interest, and the link to your cube!
I'll preface my response with a bit of an explanation on how my cube was arranged. My recent personal preference for finishing cubes has been to first assemble way more cards than I will realistically use in the cube, then get together with my primary cube partners, lay out everything for everyone to consider. Then I distribute glass beads for everyone to lay on their picks and preferences. Once they've all been laid out, we follow things up with debates on questionable picks, and redistribute a few here and there. This "bottoms up" approach has worked really well for me, and we'll immediately play the cube while some of the ideas and decisions are still fresh.
1. If you're going to use hedron crab, screeching sliver, and memory sluice, codex shredder, etc, I think you will need to commit more cards to mill as a strategy. It will certainly be painful, but your going to need to find space for thought scour, tome scour, cathartic adept, shriekhorn, and a few others (that I'm probably forgetting). If you ever decide to increase the size of the cube, mill will probably not work, given the relatively small number of quality 1CMC mill cards, and should probably just be cut entirely.
Cathartic Adept is in already and I just realized that Shriekhorn was not, so I will add it soon. I don't like the "one and done" mill spells though, so they were specifically excluded. I'm testing this to see if mill might actually be viable in this format, but this stuff might all come out.
2. I've been planning to make this switch myself, but phy mana cards should probably all be reclassified as colorless. I really cant think of a deck where mental mistep isn't amazing.
3. I excluded path to exile from mine because, even though it's practically unconditional removal, I was worried that the basic land it fetches might actually give the opponent too much extra momentum in their game. Similarly, I think magus of the vineyard and veteran explorer might be way too risky.
I think Path is worse T1 than in other cubes (since the player can untap and then potentially play 3 cards), but after T3 or so it becomes better than it would be in normal cubes since a lot of decks won't have much to do with the extra mana. I like that it creates interesting decisions. The Magus and Explorer are both in to support decks that want to run multi-kicker, morph, buyback, level up, and creatures with mana-greedy activated abilities. I may at some point cut down to just one of the two, but I think they play an interesting support role for a certain kind of deck in the cube.
5. Vivid and gold lands, are really fantastic for the 1-drop format, as they allow for many interesting 3+ color decks. If you're planning on expanding your colorless selection, I'd like to recommend adding more of those in.
Yeah - I've been looking at adding 5 lands and the Vivid cycle is probably what I'm going to add.
Late edit: 6. I'd get rid of pithing needle ~ probably replace it with another equip, like darksteel axe or something.
Pithing Needle has actually been surprisingly good. It shuts down so many bombs, like the Genjus and creatures with game-changing activated abilities (ex: I used this to stop an opponent's pinger before they could start picking apart my board).
Looks pretty great otherwise! How have your games been?
Thanks! The games have been really awesome. I've only played it twice so far, but had one epic game with a ton of back and forth that was probably the best game of cube draft I played this year.
BTW - do you have any rules changes when you play the one-drop cube? In my searching on the internet, I found that some people have experimented with different deck sizes and hand sizes. I'm trying a different starting life total (15), and my group seems to like this. It helps keep the games from grinding on too long and keeps everyone from trying to draft control decks. The sample size (2 drafts) is a bit small to draw any serious conclusions from it thus far though.
Hey Dolono - I've been working on a one-drop cube for awhile now and just finalized my list to the point where I thought it was good enough to post. It's pretty funny that another pauper cuber was doing the same!
My list in my sig below - I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. I've been thinking of expanding the colorless section by ten cards (five lands and five artifacts), but I'm not sure what to cut right now. Any ideas?
I noticed that your cube has less creatures than mine - how has this been working out for you?
The "Apocalypse Magnified" deck brings the power of destruction to your opponents doorstep. Use the Magnify ability to truly bring the most powerful cards in Techtlan- twice! Your opponent will be counting down their life total in no time.
CREATURES
2 Stormchaser
Stormchaser 1R
Creature-Devil Rogue (U)
Haste
Stormchaser enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each other spell you cast this turn. She chases the thunder, hoping to taste the acrid burn of rejuvenating lightning.
1/1
1 Temple Raider
Temple Raider 2R
Creature- Human Rogue (C)
When Temple Raider dies, deal 2 damage to target player. “Huitzl? He has too much food and gold. Let Death’s Reflection find his own meal.”
2/2
Scourge of Talika 3RR
Creature- Dragon (R)
Flying
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, you may exile the top card of your library.
Whenever Scourge of Talika attacks, you may cast an instant or sorcery spell exiled this turn by Scourge of Talika without paying it’s mana cost. The magma burned thousands. The dragon burned thousands more.
4/4
3 Cloaked Undertaker
Cloaked Undertaker 1B
Creature- Insect Zombie (C)
When Cloaked Undertaker enters the battlefield, if a creature died this turn, you may draw a card. Even on Techtlan, the insects take care of the dead.
1/3
1 Nasty Dregwurm
Nasty Dregwurm 3B
Creature- Wurm Zombie (C) The creatures of the jungle are not sacred to the Quixtal. They are just another body for the Rebuilder.
4/2
Temple Vampire 3BB
Creature- Vampire Shaman (U)
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature dealt damage by Temple Vampire this turn dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Temple Vampire. “You have much to give the Lord of Dawn...”
3/4
OTHER SPELLS
2 Bloodgreed
Bloodgreed B
Enchantment (C)
Whenever a creature dies, you gain 1 life. The knife of the grathima cut into the slave’s chest, and the blood pouring forth brought color again to the dark temple.
2 Huitzl's Kiss
Huitzl's Kiss B
Sorcery (U)
Target player reveals their hand. Choose a nonblack, nonland card. That player discards that card. His mere presence can make the timid lose their mind.
3 Whisper in the Darkness
Whisper in the Darkness B
Instant
Target player draws a card and loses 1 life.
Magnify 2- If Whisper in the Darkness is the second spell you’ve cast this turn, copy it. You may choose new targets for this copy. Some secrets are more valuable than they seem.
1 Bleak Ending
Bleak Ending xB
Sorcery (R)
All creatures have -X/-X until end of turn.
Magnify 2- If Bleak Ending is the second spell you’ve cast this turn, copy it. You may choose new targets for this copy. “I sorrow for your servants, brother Tlazil. A life of pain followed by my bloody retribution. Will you not submit?” -Kiroatl, Lord of Dawn
2 Brain Shred
Brain Shred 1B
Sorcery (C)
Target player discards a card.
Magnify 2- Brain Shred is the second spell you’ve cast this turn, copy it. You may choose new targets for this copy. Madness is only a touch away.
2 Huitzl's Blessing
Huitzl's Blessing 1B
Enchantment-Aura (C)
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature has +2/+2 and intimidate. “For service to the first son, fear is your slave.” -Iriac, High Grathima of Death’s Reflection
Remove the Hearts 2B
Instant (C)
Each player sacrifices a creature, then gains life equal to it’s toughness. “With this organ, may your blessing rain red upon us!”
Tlazil's Flame 1R
Instant (C)
Deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
Magnify 3- If Tlazil’s Flame is the third spell you’ve cast this turn, copy it. You may choose new targets for this copy. For a fire, it’s quite shocking.
1 Pyroclasm
Pyroclasm 1R
Sorcery (U)
Pyroclasm deals 2 damage to each creature. “Face the true power of the sun.” -Kiroatl, Lord of Dawn
Break the Temple 2RR
Sorcery (U)
Destroy target artifact and target land.
Magnify 3- if Break the Temple is the third spell you’ve cast this turn, copy it. You may choose new targets for this copy. Not all of Techtlan reveres the gods.
2 Cleave Soul
Cleave Soul 1BR
Sorcery (U)
Destroy target creature. It can’t be regenerated. Deal 1 damage to it’s controller.
Magnify 2- If Cleave Soul is the second spell you’ve cast this turn, copy it. You may choose new targets for this copy. “His voice cut through our hearts like the sun through a cloud- Unstoppable.” -Mica Vo, Jaguar Warrior
LAND
11 Mountain
13 Swamp
Just reading this thread for the first time - this is a cool project and this intro deck looks like a lot of fun to play.
I noticed black has a bunch of one-drop spells, but red doesn't have any. I think it would be good for red to at least of 1 such spell, with maybe two copies in the deck. There are also no 1-drop creatures in the deck currently. If you were to add more reprints, I think Forge Devil would fit nicely in this deck and fill both of these needs.
Also, because Break the Temple requires both an artifact and land to target, it will be somewhat hard to cast. (if you were playing mirror match against this deck, it would be uncastable) Perhaps it can be a "choose one or both?"
Overall, awesome work and if Wizards made something like this, I would actually want to buy a custom card intro deck!
Hi Derenathor - I have some comments on the Planeswalker's Guide and Mechanics.
A you'll see below, I think this set would be better as a 'shard' set rather than an enemy pairs set; I think the different factions you've created show aspects of a third color and, further, that opening up a third color for each faction will allow for some really great card making and represent the jumble of order after The Reckoning.
Regalia/Ocenia - I really like Regalia and it feels very WB to me. However, Ocenia doesn't seem very B; it feels like it is more of a WU because they have large academies, are intellectual, are conducting research, and even live in an island chain! I think Fateful Hour is a perfect returning mechanic for the humans, and it could even play a role in blue as well.
The Enlightened and The Experimental Souls - this is pretty cool. I'd like to see this go into black as well though, because there are themes of revenge, sacrifice, hatred, and desire to eradicate all human life. The Haywire mechanic (which is really interesting), would fit nicely into black, especially if you wanted to explore things where haywire might involve some downside. (Ex - a 5/5 with a CMC of 4 that has a haywire ability to the effect of: Whenever ~ is dealt damage, flip a coin. If it comes up heads, sacrifice ~).
The Shamanic Tribes and The Fauna of Earth - Really sweet faction identity you've crafted here; I would love to play these guys at a pre-release. I feel that this could bleed into white quite nicely, there are themes of healing and working together collectively that dovetail nicely with white, plus some of the animals you've described in the guide (horse and oxen) are fairly white. The mechanic you've created has good flavor. Although it feels somewhat like hexproof, I think it works in this instance.
Yahwen and the Cosmological Deities of Earth - Great story behind this faction. I see how the Yahwen and Eva come from a RW background, but I think they should incorporate green now that they have becomes stewards of Gaia. Devotion is a great returning mechanic for this faction, and I like that you're exploring multi-colored devotion with this mechanic.
Gaia, the Living Plane - The faction is confusing to me; it seems like it also represents stewards of Gaia like the Cosmological Deities of Earth. I think there need to be a clear distinction to tell the two apart. Perhaps there could be a role for avatars here? This is pretty good as BG, but I think could go into red nicely too. The red would represent Gaia's anger and ties in nicely with the natural disasters you've included in the story after The Reckoning, like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, etc. Awakening is a fun mechanic for this faction, but feels a bit too close to threshold. Also, 10 cards in GY will make it difficult to trigger in limited without adding a fair amount of self-mill.
To summarize - I really like what you've come up with and feel like some tweaks here and there could make this even cooler.
Derenthor - I've been a lurker in the Custom Set forums for a little while now, and this inspired me to reply. This is a really good idea and an excellent write-up. You've done a great job framing the transition from the reader and their computer to a world we know, but which has been fundamentally altered/awakened by our own hand. One small nitpick - I think that references to "North and South America" and the "Americas" take away from the flavor of the story, by taking the reader back to the world they know. Also, it is fun for the reader to imagine "where" it might have happened. I'd recommend rewriting them so that it hints at the location instead. For example:
Cities were leveled in days, countries were massacred in a few weeks, and after one month they had consumed two massive continents (previously known as North and South America).
Could instead read: "Cities were leveled in days, countries were massacred in a few weeks, and an entire hemisphere was consumed in a single month."
Just a thought. I look forward to seeing where this project goes.
What do folks here think about the Gray Merchant of Asphodel? I've found that the life drain cards, like Bloodhunter Bat and Blind Hunter have been really good. This guarantees a 4 point life swing right away, and would be easy to set up for a 6 or 8 point life swing as well. The 2/4 body for 3BB is a bit disappointing though.
EDIT: I finally got around to a much-needed cube update! It's linked in my sig if anyone is interested.
This is a funny thread, because I could swear about a year ago we were talking about how much more dominant control was and that people were avoiding aggro as a result!
My two cents: Majikan raises a good point - walls are a possibility worth considering. I know when I play control in non-cube limited, I'm definitely keeping an eye out for walls to pick late. Disrupting a few attacks from an early 2/X creature and/or forcing removal/pump to be wasted on your wall can be the difference between winning and losing I find.
Also, the control decks that have been most successful here are U/B, U/R, and G/R/u/b/w ramp good stuff. I find that when I'm drafting control, the most important spells are early drops with big butts, 2 for 1s like Branching Bolt and Soul Manipulation, and late game bombs.
I choose Selesnya as my guild and got Simic as my ally. Ended up finishing third with a bant deck that was pretty good, even if really light on removal. My pool included two Ascended Lawmage and two Unflinching Courage, which together got me a lot of wins. Collective Blessing was great too.
I ran Trinket Mage for a while when I first put my cube together, partly out of love for the card in general. Sometimes you draft it with Bonesplitter and you look like a pro when you fetch the axe up. Too often, however, you'd draft him but couldn't get any 1 drop artifacts (or just had one in your deck, which means you have a 50% chance of drawing it before you see the mage), making him a bad bear.
This card is really great in these colors that both like to be packing a higher percentage of noncreature spells. I'd really dislike it if it were something like GW. Swinging with a 4/4 (or bigger) seems legit for pauper. Even if you can't swing, the 1/4 still does good work as a wall.
I agree that Frostburn Weird is better, but I think this would be a solid inclusion into U/R depending on the number of multicolored cards in your cube. I am going up to a 2 hybrid (including diff color kicker), 2 gold split for each guild once DGM is out, and I think this will make the cut then. (Planning on having Nivix Cyclops, Izzet Chronarch, Frostburn Weird, and Jilt)
The Spikeshot Goblin is going out when I make my next round of changes; it's been pretty bad.
I think Wall of Heat is interesting, and do think that Izzet and Grixis builds would really like it. Not a fan of either the Lancer or the Houndmaster, and prefer the Acolyte to these - although the later two are better at dealing with blockers, I find I'm usually playing my haste creatures out in situations where my opponents aren't able to block.
Voting for: TacticalCelebrant, Maokun, and myself.
Team Monet:
Kulikas, the Eternal4UB
Planeswalker - Kulikas
+2: Return target creature to its owner's hand unless its controller puts a -1/-1 counter on it.
0: Put Kulikas, the Eternal on top of its owner's library.
-9: Each opponent discards his or her hand, then you draw cards equal to the greatest number of cards a player discarded this way.
4
Voting for Goblin Pile Shuffler, VikingIrishman, and Luusydh
Team Monet:
Bristling Demon1BR
Creature - Demon (R)
Double strike
Demonpact 3 (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 3 or 3 life. If you don't, sacrifice this creature.)
3/3
Hinterland Inn
Land (R) T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 1, T: Target creature an opponent controls can't attack this turn. That creature's controller puts two 1/1 black Rat creature tokens onto the battlefield. The inn features good music and drink as well as plenty of interesting company.
This is a really awesome idea.
Cathartic Adept is in already and I just realized that Shriekhorn was not, so I will add it soon. I don't like the "one and done" mill spells though, so they were specifically excluded. I'm testing this to see if mill might actually be viable in this format, but this stuff might all come out.
Good point.
I think Path is worse T1 than in other cubes (since the player can untap and then potentially play 3 cards), but after T3 or so it becomes better than it would be in normal cubes since a lot of decks won't have much to do with the extra mana. I like that it creates interesting decisions. The Magus and Explorer are both in to support decks that want to run multi-kicker, morph, buyback, level up, and creatures with mana-greedy activated abilities. I may at some point cut down to just one of the two, but I think they play an interesting support role for a certain kind of deck in the cube.
I left them out because I thought they would be too good. (The Genjus are certainly bonkers as is.) What has your experience been with these so far?
Yeah - I've been looking at adding 5 lands and the Vivid cycle is probably what I'm going to add.
Pithing Needle has actually been surprisingly good. It shuts down so many bombs, like the Genjus and creatures with game-changing activated abilities (ex: I used this to stop an opponent's pinger before they could start picking apart my board).
Thanks! The games have been really awesome. I've only played it twice so far, but had one epic game with a ton of back and forth that was probably the best game of cube draft I played this year.
BTW - do you have any rules changes when you play the one-drop cube? In my searching on the internet, I found that some people have experimented with different deck sizes and hand sizes. I'm trying a different starting life total (15), and my group seems to like this. It helps keep the games from grinding on too long and keeps everyone from trying to draft control decks. The sample size (2 drafts) is a bit small to draw any serious conclusions from it thus far though.
My list in my sig below - I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. I've been thinking of expanding the colorless section by ten cards (five lands and five artifacts), but I'm not sure what to cut right now. Any ideas?
I noticed that your cube has less creatures than mine - how has this been working out for you?
Just reading this thread for the first time - this is a cool project and this intro deck looks like a lot of fun to play.
I noticed black has a bunch of one-drop spells, but red doesn't have any. I think it would be good for red to at least of 1 such spell, with maybe two copies in the deck. There are also no 1-drop creatures in the deck currently. If you were to add more reprints, I think Forge Devil would fit nicely in this deck and fill both of these needs.
Also, because Break the Temple requires both an artifact and land to target, it will be somewhat hard to cast. (if you were playing mirror match against this deck, it would be uncastable) Perhaps it can be a "choose one or both?"
Overall, awesome work and if Wizards made something like this, I would actually want to buy a custom card intro deck!
A you'll see below, I think this set would be better as a 'shard' set rather than an enemy pairs set; I think the different factions you've created show aspects of a third color and, further, that opening up a third color for each faction will allow for some really great card making and represent the jumble of order after The Reckoning.
Regalia/Ocenia - I really like Regalia and it feels very WB to me. However, Ocenia doesn't seem very B; it feels like it is more of a WU because they have large academies, are intellectual, are conducting research, and even live in an island chain! I think Fateful Hour is a perfect returning mechanic for the humans, and it could even play a role in blue as well.
The Enlightened and The Experimental Souls - this is pretty cool. I'd like to see this go into black as well though, because there are themes of revenge, sacrifice, hatred, and desire to eradicate all human life. The Haywire mechanic (which is really interesting), would fit nicely into black, especially if you wanted to explore things where haywire might involve some downside. (Ex - a 5/5 with a CMC of 4 that has a haywire ability to the effect of: Whenever ~ is dealt damage, flip a coin. If it comes up heads, sacrifice ~).
The Shamanic Tribes and The Fauna of Earth - Really sweet faction identity you've crafted here; I would love to play these guys at a pre-release. I feel that this could bleed into white quite nicely, there are themes of healing and working together collectively that dovetail nicely with white, plus some of the animals you've described in the guide (horse and oxen) are fairly white. The mechanic you've created has good flavor. Although it feels somewhat like hexproof, I think it works in this instance.
Yahwen and the Cosmological Deities of Earth - Great story behind this faction. I see how the Yahwen and Eva come from a RW background, but I think they should incorporate green now that they have becomes stewards of Gaia. Devotion is a great returning mechanic for this faction, and I like that you're exploring multi-colored devotion with this mechanic.
Gaia, the Living Plane - The faction is confusing to me; it seems like it also represents stewards of Gaia like the Cosmological Deities of Earth. I think there need to be a clear distinction to tell the two apart. Perhaps there could be a role for avatars here? This is pretty good as BG, but I think could go into red nicely too. The red would represent Gaia's anger and ties in nicely with the natural disasters you've included in the story after The Reckoning, like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, etc. Awakening is a fun mechanic for this faction, but feels a bit too close to threshold. Also, 10 cards in GY will make it difficult to trigger in limited without adding a fair amount of self-mill.
To summarize - I really like what you've come up with and feel like some tweaks here and there could make this even cooler.
Could instead read: "Cities were leveled in days, countries were massacred in a few weeks, and an entire hemisphere was consumed in a single month."
Just a thought. I look forward to seeing where this project goes.
EDIT: I finally got around to a much-needed cube update! It's linked in my sig if anyone is interested.
This is a funny thread, because I could swear about a year ago we were talking about how much more dominant control was and that people were avoiding aggro as a result!
My two cents: Majikan raises a good point - walls are a possibility worth considering. I know when I play control in non-cube limited, I'm definitely keeping an eye out for walls to pick late. Disrupting a few attacks from an early 2/X creature and/or forcing removal/pump to be wasted on your wall can be the difference between winning and losing I find.
Also, the control decks that have been most successful here are U/B, U/R, and G/R/u/b/w ramp good stuff. I find that when I'm drafting control, the most important spells are early drops with big butts, 2 for 1s like Branching Bolt and Soul Manipulation, and late game bombs.
I think there's nothing really surprising here - my advice would be to drop a few cards like Phantasmal Bear and Wei Ambush Force for better late game cards like Gryff Vanguard and Bloodhunter Bat.
Such a shame they didn't give us any fuse cards at common; that would have been interesting. More hybrids would have been nice too. Oh well.
I ran Trinket Mage for a while when I first put my cube together, partly out of love for the card in general. Sometimes you draft it with Bonesplitter and you look like a pro when you fetch the axe up. Too often, however, you'd draft him but couldn't get any 1 drop artifacts (or just had one in your deck, which means you have a 50% chance of drawing it before you see the mage), making him a bad bear.
I agree that Frostburn Weird is better, but I think this would be a solid inclusion into U/R depending on the number of multicolored cards in your cube. I am going up to a 2 hybrid (including diff color kicker), 2 gold split for each guild once DGM is out, and I think this will make the cut then. (Planning on having Nivix Cyclops, Izzet Chronarch, Frostburn Weird, and Jilt)
1 Blood Ogre
1 Fault Riders
1 Fervent Cathar
1 Gathan Raiders
1 Ghitu Slinger
1 Spikeshot Goblin
1 Inner-Flame Acolyte
1 Vulshok Sorcerer
The Spikeshot Goblin is going out when I make my next round of changes; it's been pretty bad.
I think Wall of Heat is interesting, and do think that Izzet and Grixis builds would really like it. Not a fan of either the Lancer or the Houndmaster, and prefer the Acolyte to these - although the later two are better at dealing with blockers, I find I'm usually playing my haste creatures out in situations where my opponents aren't able to block.
Team Monet:
Kulikas, the Eternal 4UB
Planeswalker - Kulikas
+2: Return target creature to its owner's hand unless its controller puts a -1/-1 counter on it.
0: Put Kulikas, the Eternal on top of its owner's library.
-9: Each opponent discards his or her hand, then you draw cards equal to the greatest number of cards a player discarded this way.
4
Team Monet:
Bristling Demon 1BR
Creature - Demon (R)
Double strike
Demonpact 3 (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 3 or 3 life. If you don't, sacrifice this creature.)
3/3
Hinterland Inn
Land (R)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1, T: Target creature an opponent controls can't attack this turn. That creature's controller puts two 1/1 black Rat creature tokens onto the battlefield.
The inn features good music and drink as well as plenty of interesting company.