Jason Waddell's Cube

Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

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Karn Cuberated said:
So, you're on fixing lands now? It seems to me you wrote somewhere that you were not going to put them into UL part of your cube. Just curious, because I love your idea of ULD and run fixing in this section.
Also I wanted to ask, do you still run Grave Titan? I'm thinking about trying Reanimator in my cube, and this fellow could be a card that's wanted not exclusively by this kind of strategies, but by all slower black decks. But many people call it oppressive. How has it been for you and your players?
Speaking of Reanimator, I remember you had it in your cube in the past, right? Is it possible to normally support this shell at 360? It seems to require a lot of precious slots to be devoted to reanimation spells and fatties, considering you want to have 6-8 of each in your deck. There are some reanimation spells that also can be used in any black midrange deck (Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy, Life // Death), but I feel I still could run something of higher demand in their places.
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I cut all true reanimation spells a fairly long while ago. I had a sealed game of all things where I had twenty (20) power worth of creatures on the board on Turn 3 and it felt kind of dumb.

I still run Grave Titan because I feel like, even though it's super strong, my environment is so fast that the 6-drops need to be very impactful to reward the player for going the high CMC route.

For the ULD, I include a handful of lower power fixing cards. I'm going to test the Triomes to see how they feel, but don't have any real thoughts on them yet.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

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Staff member
Here's the list I'll probably run for the next draft: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JMr0nKh9oUWhl07Y3tKeIf5fVk6GcaXrYkb6W2FMC9o/edit#gid=0
(cards in yellow are new, brown cards are being considered for removal)

I wanted to push control a bit more. I don't think too much has changed, but I have shifted the planeswalkers a bit to be more in line with the themes I am trying to push.

Honestly, I still wish there were some better payoffs besides Delve for self-mill. I think I'm still lacking a bit of critical mass. The same could also maybe be said for some other mechanics.

White seems a lot more fun now. There's more blink and I added a couple sagas. Maybe I can go harder on it?
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

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I hadn't seen that nighthawk, neat! I don't hate the bauble, but I'm not entirely sure if it adds enough. Worth a shot maybe
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

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Thoughts from yesterday's playtesting:



Perfect card for top of the library shenanigans. Jealous James got all the fun.



I've been trying to weave in some more non-aggro sacrifice, and so far these have delivered.



Baby Chandra was put in to be a glue card between spells matter and sacrifice effects. I also had this combo in mind when I added the two of them so this was fun to see materialize.



What a wordy turd. So far this has only showed up in slow matchups, and every time it draws like 4 cards. I even misplayed with it, apparently you can just hold up a fetchland, bluff a block against aggro and keep drawing your cards.



Not really sure on this one. Maybe? It seemed like a bad Ludevic's last night, but worth testing further.



All of these seemed like fun directions for white.



Another top of the library walker and another combo with See the Truth. Seemed fun to play with, although the MTGO prompts for this card leave something to be desired.
 
sigh

sigh

in all the time I had Thing in the Ice in my cube, I saw it flip maybe twice? Basically a dud card late game, and tough to keep it alive long enough for any other part of the game. Definitely not the type of spells support I'm looking to include in my new iteration, but maybe it works out better for you. I've found baral, chief of compliance to be more generally useful in a spell-slinging shell.
 
shamizy

shamizy

Best case scenario for Thing in the Ice is playing it on T2, chaining enough spells to flip it by T5, then going to town. This is hoping that your opponent has no removal, isn't paying attention to what's happening, and that they don't interact in any meaningful way. It was sweet in a few Constructed decks, but in cube it just kind of sucked for me. At least Wall of Omens draws me a card and blocks an attack before I clear the board with a wipe. Thing in the Ice requires so much more work to get it working in a typical cube that it doesn't quite get there.

I can imagine it being way more interesting in a cube where there's a ton of flashback and retrace shenanigans so you have more casting opportunities, but it probably doesn't get there in the typical cube. I second sigh's suggestion of Baral, Chief of Compliance. You haven't lived until you get to Remand something for {U}, loot into some gas, and then fire off something like Electrolyze at {U}{R} to pick off a body and draw a card. This happened to me. It did not feel good. I died inside.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

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Thoughts from last night:



Still looks like ass to me. Sorry, getting a Baleful Strix when your fragile 5-drop dies isn't really turning heads.


- I can't play control mirrors after 10PM while a baby lives in my house.



I had to stop playing this over and over because I was going to deck myself from the damn Draw 2 mode.



James had a Dragonlord Silumgar in play, but I had one under my Shelldock Isle. I tried to steal his Dragonlord with my Dragonlord (to sac to the legendary rule) but he Restoration Angel'd his Dragonlord and then his Dragonlord became the stealer.



This was really hard to get proper value out of.





Definitely somewhere up the ranks of underrated cube cards. Eat your heart out Lovestruck Beast.



These cards continue to be exactly what the doctor ordered.



Still infinitely satisfying. I blew up James' land and killed his Sin Prodder on Turn 3. I even had Titania, Protector of Argoth for the Bust combo.



Just waiting for this combo (Viv's -2 and a Delve creature) to happen.



Why did I ignore this card for 10 years?
 
LadyMapi

LadyMapi

Reveillark is only as good as the creatures in your deck (and, by extension, your cube) with power 2 or less. Like, it shouldn't be "Kill this, and I'll grab Baleful Strix". It should be "Kill this, and I'll grab Nekrataal and Blade Splicer".
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I think when Strixhaven drops I'll add a ton of the cards to the Hearthstone Drafting occasionals pile.

Then, I'll edit the deck export so that all Lessons (price permitting) are just in your sideboard by default. Then we can test the cards in a 'best case scenario' without clogging the drafting with Lesson cards.
 
shamizy

shamizy

Sounds like a good idea. I'd imagine that these play way more smoothly on a digital platform than in paper. Just way too cumbersome IRL.
 
Alfonzo Bonzo

Alfonzo Bonzo

Jason Waddell said:


Why did I ignore this card for 10 years?
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Don't know why I remember this, but you should have listened to blacksmithy in 2015 :)

Jason Waddell said:
Everybody's cool. We're cool. Let's assume innocent until proven otherwise.

Alfonzo: tell me your thoughts on this guy from your list:
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blacksmithy said:
I'm not alfonzo but i like this guy. I use him as part of a Bant combo-land package (key players being kotr, retreat to coralhelm, and scapeshift). He blocks, he mills your opponent, or he mills you if thats what you want. Kind of a safe wheel for sure, but one a blue control player (or the guy who p1p1'd kotr) is happy to see.
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