General Decks that have 3-0'd your cube
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
i almost beat him with my package of Bloodghast/Blood Artist/Falkenrath Noble/Spectral Procession/Midnight Haunting and other token/sacrifice nonsense. sadly in game three my Bob did ten damage to me (off three total reveals), my manabase did another five, and then he killed me in one shot with a Geist of Saint Traft angel token + animated Faerie Conclave. that's cube!
Ouch. Yeah, I've really tried to increase the number of life gain effects in cube because of all the incidental damage. Fetch into shock is 3 to yourself and you have to do that sometimes more than once in a game just to keep up with the other guy's plays.
Not sure if anyone here reads this blog (I think Jason said he did), but this guy wrote an interesting article recently on life gain talking about this very thing (how the game has changed and the importance of it has increased).
http://mtgcube.blogspot.com/2015/06/updated-top-16-lifegain.html
Not sure if anyone here reads this blog (I think Jason said he did), but this guy wrote an interesting article recently on life gain talking about this very thing (how the game has changed and the importance of it has increased).
http://mtgcube.blogspot.com/2015/06/updated-top-16-lifegain.html
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Am I a bad person if after I read the phrase "the cube" I wasn't able to take the author seriously?
Perhaps the notion that there is a defined single cube, not just a lose umbrella for people putting certain amounts of magic cards in shoeboxes
I had a feeling that was what you meant, but that's not how I read "the cube" in his posts. I read that to mean his cube. If anything, I find it considerably more pretentious when people say "such and such is true in cube" without the "the" (implying to me that this statement is true of all cubes), when at this point in time there are so many different cube metas that aside from very black and white statements like "ancestral recall is good", you really have to consider context now. Maybe you could do this 5 years ago when everyone was running close to the same lists, but not anymore.
And this is only going to be more and more true as more cards are printed too. While comparing rare cubes isn't quite as diverse as say comparing legacy vs standard, it's probably more appropriate to think of card selection and performance in that way versus thinking all cubes are fit into a single format like modern or something.
The first thing I do when I see someone push a card or say such and such card isn't good enough is I try to find a link to that person's cube. What environment did they experience those cards in? It's considerably more valuable in that context. If I said Dreadbore was rubbish, you might be confused unless you knew I didn't run walkers (which makes dreadbore unconditionally worse than terminate). And that's really not an extreme example. Some guys run aggro dominated metas. Everyone loves aggro and it is heavily enabled in their cube. Slow cards that are overpowered are not a problem in those environments. In mine (where the games are much more midrange), some cards are ban worthy that in other cubes aren't good enough to make lists.
Anyway, that poster provides a lot of in-depth information on how his meta works and you can get a lot of information by reading through it, looking at his list, and understanding how he cubes (he has this strange B and C cube thing where I think guys can take cards from those pools to round out decks similar to what people here do for utility draft). One card this guy turned me on to a long time ago is Death Cloud. That card is an amazing finisher in a heavy black deck. You might think it's only good in MBC, but I play it in anything Bx that will get to three black mana reliably because it has a million and one uses. I never would have given that card a second glance without this guy's blog because it is a card that has been completely ignored by the rest of the cube community.
And this is only going to be more and more true as more cards are printed too. While comparing rare cubes isn't quite as diverse as say comparing legacy vs standard, it's probably more appropriate to think of card selection and performance in that way versus thinking all cubes are fit into a single format like modern or something.
The first thing I do when I see someone push a card or say such and such card isn't good enough is I try to find a link to that person's cube. What environment did they experience those cards in? It's considerably more valuable in that context. If I said Dreadbore was rubbish, you might be confused unless you knew I didn't run walkers (which makes dreadbore unconditionally worse than terminate). And that's really not an extreme example. Some guys run aggro dominated metas. Everyone loves aggro and it is heavily enabled in their cube. Slow cards that are overpowered are not a problem in those environments. In mine (where the games are much more midrange), some cards are ban worthy that in other cubes aren't good enough to make lists.
Anyway, that poster provides a lot of in-depth information on how his meta works and you can get a lot of information by reading through it, looking at his list, and understanding how he cubes (he has this strange B and C cube thing where I think guys can take cards from those pools to round out decks similar to what people here do for utility draft). One card this guy turned me on to a long time ago is Death Cloud. That card is an amazing finisher in a heavy black deck. You might think it's only good in MBC, but I play it in anything Bx that will get to three black mana reliably because it has a million and one uses. I never would have given that card a second glance without this guy's blog because it is a card that has been completely ignored by the rest of the cube community.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
That guy has multiple "cubes", when he's talking about "the cube" he means his A-cube, I believe, which is his main cube. Lesser cards are relegated to the B-cube (probably not quite good enough for the (A-)cube, but might get there sometime, and cards that were in the A-cube but have become overshadowed by other cards) or the C-cube (cards he considers fun but not good enough for the A-cube by far, a lot of those cards are very synergy dependant as well).
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The deck that won our Cube Draft this Friday. Perilous Myr as always was over performing,
When I played versus this deck (I was playing RUg Tempo), I threw away a game from attacking stupidly into Ith and Thrun.
Playing against a Thrun, a True Name and an Ith at the same time is truly the stuff of nightmares.
They told me you can't play control in Chris' cube
So I splashed red entirely for two wildfires lol I had a transformable sideboard with another treasure cruise and a couple of token sorceries and no red, I'm kinda a madman.
Playing this pile was so fun I was always just about to die when I came back into the game. Like I felt so deeply behind so often lol.
Lets see if I can't dig up some of the custom cards.
Splash 4 Wildfires
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So I splashed red entirely for two wildfires lol I had a transformable sideboard with another treasure cruise and a couple of token sorceries and no red, I'm kinda a madman.
Playing this pile was so fun I was always just about to die when I came back into the game. Like I felt so deeply behind so often lol.
Lets see if I can't dig up some of the custom cards.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Golden Borderpost into Tamiyo into Wildfire sounds fair. Why not?
Sac'ing my field researcher and my simulacrum to my thawing cache with wildfire on the stack <3
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Hey I never said you couldn't play control, just that nobody else had.
For some reason everyone there gravitates toward Aggro (Well, the kind of aggro that has 3 six drops in it) or...bad pod?
Dennix's GB Ramp deck was pretty good, if a bit golfishy. I think this was his only source of interacting with his opponent?
Then again he was the only player at the table in green...
Signaling in cube is hard!
For some reason everyone there gravitates toward Aggro (Well, the kind of aggro that has 3 six drops in it) or...bad pod?
Dennix's GB Ramp deck was pretty good, if a bit golfishy. I think this was his only source of interacting with his opponent?
Then again he was the only player at the table in green...
Signaling in cube is hard!
I think you guys are kind of misunderstanding this guy. I've emailed him several times. He's very like... he goes to the beat of his own drum.
The B and C cubes aren't actual cubes like you guys think about it, but just piles of cards that people can use for deckbuilding. Think the "utility everything draft", but on crack and with non-narrow cards too. Just lower power alternatives that can fill gaps in deckbuilding, as well as super narrow stuff that can let you build like, a phyrexian dreadnaught deck. His language is non-standardized because he doesn't really immerse himself in the rest of the cubing world.
I think it's a fresh perspective because he's so free from other influences. I don't agree with certain things he says, but things like the Utility Land Draft are inspired by his ideas. I would go into his posts with an open mind and try to glean what you can, not thing that he's preaching something at you. He's just an eccentric guy with his own ideas.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
http://mtgcube.blogspot.nl/2015/07/sorry-dan-h-tran.html
This post is super excellent and probably a way better source to judge his character on than the "not good enough for cube" language.
That's my take on him as well. Sometimes I'll read something and it will be so against commonly held opinion (and he won't even make a reference to the fact that it is), I just assumed he does not visit cube forums at all or even read very many set reviews. I also disagree with things he says, but I enjoy reading his posts because there are tid bits of really good insight buried there.
The cube communities I think are very susceptible to group think. MTGS for sure, but even Riptide does it from time to time. And sometimes you can't tell if the group think is because that is a tried and true philosophy or because it just happened to become a popular opinion that guys started to simply parrot. FWIW, the former is more common here than the latter.
That's a high curve!
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
As much as I support and will preach the merits of if asked, the merciless chopping of the mana curve, along with mana curve offenders isn't the only way to go with a cube. I have a friend and his cube takes that other approach: getting rid of the low end of the curve, loading up on signets and 5 drops and just letting people throw dragons and titans at each other all day long. On top of that he doesn't run any counterspells to stop it from becoming a control-fest(and in spite of this, blue is still the best color in his cube, because card draw is king).
GW Humans
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Dom Harvey
Contributor
Went 3-0 in the 'store Cube' built by a local:
Highlights:
- Volition Reins on Boros Reckoner, Chandra ultimate on Reckoner + opponent to deal 12, flip Snapper and attack with it + Conclave to kill from 18 in one turn
- Dualcaster Mage on my opponent's Hatred to pump Baneslayer mid-combat
- With Jinxed Idol in play and both life totals low, opponent plays Life (//Death) to animate his lands; Dualcaster Mage copies Life, lands on both sides stare each down in the red zone and go on a mass suicide mission to swap the Idol back and forth
UR Baneslayer
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Highlights:
- Volition Reins on Boros Reckoner, Chandra ultimate on Reckoner + opponent to deal 12, flip Snapper and attack with it + Conclave to kill from 18 in one turn
- Dualcaster Mage on my opponent's Hatred to pump Baneslayer mid-combat
- With Jinxed Idol in play and both life totals low, opponent plays Life (//Death) to animate his lands; Dualcaster Mage copies Life, lands on both sides stare each down in the red zone and go on a mass suicide mission to swap the Idol back and forth
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
4 Man Westchester Draft
Starfield is a real card. Green Sun's Zenith for Chromanticore feels like committing an extremely petty crime. Hypnotic Siren feels dumb at 7, so why the fuck do I run control magic at 4???
Chromantiflayer of Nyx, or five color not particularly goodstuff
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Starfield is a real card. Green Sun's Zenith for Chromanticore feels like committing an extremely petty crime. Hypnotic Siren feels dumb at 7, so why the fuck do I run control magic at 4???
Starfield is a real card? At 5 mana it feels too slow but with Seal of Doom I guess I can see it. I'm surprised its playable but I guess I need to try it.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
Drafted my Cube at the GP today. Sam of Bloodstained Mire Bant fame had this:
This Mono-Red deck was technically undefeated:
And I went 2-1 with this super sweet WR deck:
Sensei's Tutelage
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This Mono-Red deck was technically undefeated:
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And I went 2-1 with this super sweet WR deck:
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