General CBS

[Brad]

K, so, I'm an idiot who's never happy and I'm looking into making a Helm of Awakening emblem cube where everything is a mana cheaper so that I can have nice filtering cards like one mana Seek the Wilds and Tormenting Voice, etc. I'd also let land drops come in untapped, probably, to ease things further.

With that in mind, do any of you have some archetypes that are just shy of working and may become viable if their costs were shaved?

My intent is to keep power level similar to a full-cost cube, rather than making it some super fast bullshit format. Valley Dasher > Goblin Guide, Ancient Craving as a solid draw spell, Failed Inspection as a Cancel+ because 3 cost counters fail to impress me.

It should also be noted that, as with all my ideas, there's an 80%+ chance that I don't do this.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

K, so, I'm an idiot who's never happy and I'm looking into making a Helm of Awakening emblem cube where everything is a mana cheaper so that I can have nice filtering cards like one mana Seek the Wilds and Tormenting Voice, etc. I'd also let land drops come in untapped, probably, to ease things further.

With that in mind, do any of you have some archetypes that are just shy of working and may become viable if their costs were shaved?

My intent is to keep power level similar to a full-cost cube, rather than making it some super fast bullshit format. Valley Dasher > Goblin Guide, Ancient Craving as a solid draw spell, Failed Inspection as a Cancel+ because 3 cost counters fail to impress me.

It should also be noted that, as with all my ideas, there's an 80%+ chance that I don't do this.

Goblin Piker as Savannah Lions.

Liliana of the Veil as Hymn to Tourach.

Druid of the Cowl as Llanowar Elves.

Force of Negation as Negate.

Literally everything with morph as Grizzly Bears.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

K, so, I'm an idiot who's never happy and I'm looking into making a Helm of Awakening emblem cube where everything is a mana cheaper so that I can have nice filtering cards like one mana Seek the Wilds and Tormenting Voice, etc. I'd also let land drops come in untapped, probably, to ease things further.

With that in mind, do any of you have some archetypes that are just shy of working and may become viable if their costs were shaved?

My intent is to keep power level similar to a full-cost cube, rather than making it some super fast bullshit format. Valley Dasher > Goblin Guide, Ancient Craving as a solid draw spell, Failed Inspection as a Cancel+ because 3 cost counters fail to impress me.

It should also be noted that, as with all my ideas, there's an 80%+ chance that I don't do this.

There's a skeleton for exactly this idea here. I've been brooding on it on and off over the years, never completing it. But there's a bunch of cards already sleeved, waiting for me to devote some time to the empty sleeves :')

 

[Brad]

There's a skeleton for exactly this idea here. I've been brooding on it on and off over the years, never completing it. But there's a bunch of cards already sleeved, waiting for me to devote some time to the empty sleeves :')

Yes, we've spoken about it before. Do you want updates for where I'm heading with it? Should I start a thread as a project?

I'm really proud of what I've done with the black cube, seeing as it was a fairly original (Torment, I guess) idea that I believe I've executed well, but I can't help but feel that the smoothing potential of the -1 mana format is amazing and would be super beneficial to prevent that frustration we're all familiar with.

I also think there's potential for some of these off-the-wall deck ideas that I've had, and maybe some of you've had, to finally come to fruition here.

Seek the Wilds in particular has me so excited because it can find the kind of card that your green hand is missing. Shout out to Adventurous Impulse and Commune with Dinosaurs. It's also possible that I need to go ahead and run 4-6 Adventurous Impulse and every blue 1cmc smoother and just Sharpie 4-6 Tormenting Voice and call it a day.

The -1 format also opens up the card pool so drastically, which is great. And daunting. Every single card that was ever slightly playable as a 23rd card in your limited deck suddenly has some serious potential at -1 mana.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Yes, we've spoken about it before. Do you want updates for where I'm heading with it? Should I start a thread as a project?

Yes! I would absolutely be interested to hear about that, even though I'm notoriously lax at visiting the cubes part of the forum.

The -1 format also opens up the card pool so drastically, which is great. And daunting. Every single card that was ever slightly playable as a 23rd card in your limited deck suddenly has some serious potential at -1 mana.

Daunting is the right word. It's why I've never finished the project. Well, so far.

 

[Brad]

I never really go over there either because it's too much to keep track of. I don't even have my own thread there because my own cube is too much to keep track of. I'll just quote you to pull you into the thread lol. I'm definitely interested in exploring the idea pretty deeply so that I can know whether or not I would even build it. Maybe I'll make a primer with a few of what I see as the key upsides to the format and we'll see where it goes from there.

I believe I'd like to begin with the smoothing benefits as well as what kind of multicolor cards look to be the new standouts for us to construct our pairs around.

Yes! I would absolutely be interested to hear about that, even though I'm notoriously lax at visiting the cubes part of the forum.

Daunting is the right word. It's why I've never finished the project. Well, so far.

 

[Brad]

Goblin Piker as Savannah Lions.

Liliana of the Veil as Hymn to Tourach.

Druid of the Cowl as Llanowar Elves.

Force of Negation as Negate.

Literally everything with morph as Grizzly Bears.

Ahh, didn't see this. You've gone just a step further than I'm planning. Hymn is still really feel-bad and a sturdier elf is very explosive.

Alpha Myr as colorless Lions would be kind of bottom-line aggro, because I'm not a fan of how these guys often do nothing past turn 3-4, but colorless fixes some of the poison of having a bunch of one mana hitters that only a few decks want.
Ancestral Blade as a 2/x with some longevity to it, similar to the recursive black 2/x, except this lets you reuse a P/T instead of a body.
Silhana Wayfinder as aggro smoothing. Reminds me a bit of Onder's Savvy Trader custom. Similarly, Sage's Row Savant AKA scryvannah lions.
Bonded Construct is either too good or a fun minigame, not sure. Probably too good, but I'd like to try it.

That's just some thoughts on aggro. I guess I need to start a thread lol.

I've been strongly considering that a 2/2 for 2 on morph is a much, much better rate and could probably be cool. I also love the fear of face down cards. Anyone who has played YuGiOh knows how scary those face downs are.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Jeez, how did I not think of morph. I even started this experiment when Khans of Tarkir was the new set on the block o_O

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Also, IT'S ALIIIIIIIVE!

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/1hs

 

[Brad]

Jeez, how did I not think of morph. I even started this experiment when Khans of Tarkir was the new set on the block o_O

Like I said... It's a daunting card pool to figure out lol. I'll boot up the thread sometime this week and we'll see if we can work through it.

Your Kor Skyfisher image is broken.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Like I said... It's a daunting card pool to figure out lol. I'll boot up the thread sometime this week and we'll see if we can work through it.

Your Kor Skyfisher image is broken.

Never mind, I know what happened. I uploaded the wrong custom image to CC (one that I since deleted on imgur). Should be fixed now.

 

[Velrun]

Also, IT'S ALIIIIIIIVE!

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/1hs

1. It looks awesome!
2. Nice change to the white Future Sight Tome of Legends => Now called Tome of Renown. Can you send me a link to the art? I can't find it on his page or on Google. Only a cropped version of it.
3. Really, really nice design with that Pick the Wrong Fight. I would probably name it "Picked the Wrong Fight" instead.
4. I also really like your Bladeward Academy. Can I have the art link for that too?
5. How do you, step-by-step, upload the custom cards to Cobra? Do you HAVE to use Imgur? Do you do the same as on CubeTutor where you simply add a different card but with almost similiar name and then change the color, type and cost of the card so that it takes the correct spot in the cube listing both visually and statistically?
6. I think your Reevaluate custom card is too strong as printed with both scry 3 and investigate. I run it in my higher powered cube where it only scries 3 and it is still arguebly too strong. I am thinking about changing it to scry 2.
7. How is Mizzium Tank working for you? (You can answer here if you want: https://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/single-card-spotlight.99/page-291#post-84967)

 

[Chris Taylor]

Hypothetically you could use any image hosting site. One of the image links in my cube is actually pointing to the Riptide lab discord (Abbreviate)

I do the same as cubetutor where I have another card and modify color/cmc/etc to match the custom. You can override card type and subtypes now, so a lot of my customs show up in searches for "goblin" or "golem"

In terms of custom upload process:
1) Upload cards offsite (Imgur, for eg)
2) List View
3) Select card
4) Edit Selected
5) Image Link is one of the modifiable fields (I've also got a tag for "Custom")

 

[Chris Taylor]

Also I've got enough gripes with Imgur's removal of album functionality that if you find a good alternative I'd be happy to know

For reference: Can't upload more than 50 images at a time, can't sort albums, and can't auto set image names.
you have to drag and drop images within the album to re-order, uploading 50 at a time. they get placed in the album in a random order.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

1. It looks awesome!
2. Nice change to the white Future Sight Tome of Legends => Now called Tome of Renown. Can you send me a link to the art? I can't find it on his page or on Google. Only a cropped version of it.
3. Really, really nice design with that Pick the Wrong Fight. I would probably name it "Picked the Wrong Fight" instead.
4. I also really like your Bladeward Academy. Can I have the art link for that too?
5. How do you, step-by-step, upload the custom cards to Cobra? Do you HAVE to use Imgur? Do you do the same as on CubeTutor where you simply add a different card but with almost similiar name and then change the color, type and cost of the card so that it takes the correct spot in the cube listing both visually and statistically?
6. I think your Reevaluate custom card is too strong as printed with both scry 3 and investigate. I run it in my higher powered cube where it only scries 3 and it is still arguebly too strong. I am thinking about changing it to scry 2.
7. How is Mizzium Tank working for you? (You can answer here if you want: https://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/single-card-spotlight.99/page-291#post-84967)

1. Thanks!
2. https://www.deviantart.com/lucasdurham/art/Book-of-Aules-Children-552735237
3. The reason I went with "pick" is that I like my instants and sorceries in an activating language. If you look at instants and sorceries in MtG, you'll notice this activating language: Amass the Components, Anchor to the Aether, Awaken the Erstwhile, Board the Weatherlight, Brave the Elements, etc. I haven't been able to find an example with a verb in the past tense, unless used as an adjective (like Forced March). I mean, I could do something like Mismatched Melee, but I've had this in my design file as Pick the Wrong Fight for as long as I can remember, so I think I'll keep it this way
4. https://www.deviantart.com/bearcub/art/CM-DnD-Orc-and-Warrior-753722157
5. See Chris's post Thanks Chris, that saved me a bunch of typing!
6. Interesting! Never experienced it as too strong in my cube. "Scry 3, draw a card" seemed fair for in my environment, even if you could do it repeatedly. Whispers of the Muse didn't strike me as especially cubable, and that is an instant. Also, Mystic Speculation is literally "scry 3" for , and felt a bit underpowered, which is why I added the investigate. I'm a bit surprised that you found it too strong! On the other hand, it's main purpose in the cube is to act as an additional Squee, Goblin Nabob, so maybe it should be slightly less powerful, simply so it ends up in the hands of the right drafter (i.e. the one interested in discard synergies). I could certainly try out scaling down to scry 2.
7. See the other thread

 

[Chris Taylor]

Nah son

 

[Onderzeeboot]

My art has both monks in it

 

[Chris Taylor]

Don't do this to me

 

[Onderzeeboot]

If you really want alternate art, this one is acceptable. Even though there are three in the background, I do like that the piece focuses on one monk (the first token), and has more in the background (rebound). Pick a new name and you're done


Art link

 

[Erik Twice]

You can always steal pictures from L5R, though I think the Dragon clan which has the most monks is green-coded so they might not fit!

 

[Chris Taylor]

I actually do like mine, but you're making me second guess myself

Remember how tilted I was about brothers in arms having 3 dudes in the art?

 

[ravnic]

Nah son

May I request an art link for that?

 

[Chris Taylor]

https://www.deviantart.com/junefeier/art/bareheaded-shaolin-monk-336969445

Well I'm halfway through my first patch with Cobra, and it seems much nicer, with one exception:
While adding or removing cards, hitting tab 1 time too many jumps past the add/remove button and selects your white section, which refreshes the page, destroying all your progress.

So either use a mouse, be careful, and maybe patch your cube one color at a time

 

[Onderzeeboot]

https://www.deviantart.com/junefeier/art/bareheaded-shaolin-monk-336969445

Well I'm halfway through my first patch with Cobra, and it seems much nicer, with one exception:
While adding or removing cards, hitting tab 1 time too many jumps past the add/remove button and selects your white section, which refreshes the page, destroying all your progress.

So either use a mouse, be careful, and maybe patch your cube one color at a time

I'll put that on their Discord channel as a bug for you

Edit: Whelp. Discord is broken on my device!

 

[ravnic]

Okay, I'm now also moving to CubeCobra, but it doesn't really work for me. I copied my list from Ct and that worked, but when I change something on the individual cards (cmc, color identity, upload alters or something) it is set back the next time I visit the site. Does anyone have a similar problem, or even better, an answer to that?