Mirage Rath themed cube

Jonas · Mar 18, 2014

I got on a shopping spree and bought some complete common sets off of MKM, and decided to make a pauper cube with cards from Mirage, Visions, Weatherlight, Tempest, Stronghold and Exodus.
Why? Because I like them.
It is a bit light of fixing on common though.

http://cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/9908

FlowerSunRain · Mar 18, 2014

Art too strong, cube OP.

Seriously, though, themed cubes like this are wonderful from a historical perspective, but the gameplay is generally erratic. These sets are ones that I drafted a lot, though, and they play pretty well, particularly once you cut out the circles of protection, so I think this set will actually run pretty well. Some modern limited sets rely upon bomby rares to break open stalled games, but early set rares weren't really that bomby and early limited design didn't rely on them. Blue and red are very strong in MVW, but black and white are strong in the Rath cycle, so it might all even out.

Long story short, I want a copy of this cube. How much did it cost? I probably have most of lying around in my junk box, but I'll be damned if I try to find them!

Jonas · Mar 18, 2014

I paid 55 euros for it with shipping, which wasn't too bad. I noticed what you said about the colors there, and how the two sets managed to compliment one another well. I might make it a peasant cube just for karoos, mirage fetches and other fun stuff, but for now, I like the whole thing with it being a little slower, and harder to get your fixing done. But if you go green, and get a couple of the fixing elves, you might be able to manage some consistency. I might take it up to peasant at some point, but for now, I'm going to have to test it out a bit first.
Also, got me one of these to keep it in

https://abugames.com/images/mediaproducts/generalmerchandise/9451554819854.jpg

Jonas · Mar 18, 2014

I cut this because I believe it will out-durdle anything, thoughts?

FlowerSunRain · Mar 18, 2014

If you are worrying about out-durdling, capsize is the #1 threat.

Jonas · Mar 19, 2014

Capsize is truly the durdliest of durdles. I had almost forgot about that. I cut the cube down to 360 by card power level, so it never occurred to me to take out Capsize. Will have to keep an eye on that one, I do have lots of blue cards in queue that can take over that spot.

Lucre · Mar 25, 2014

Have you ever made convoked saproling tokens?

Chris Taylor · Mar 25, 2014

Lucre said:
Have you ever made convoked saproling tokens?

Yeah be mindful of sprout swarm as well. That thing has ruined many a game of time spiral limited.

Jonas · Mar 25, 2014

I can see there being a lot of saprolings. No card with a modern frame will touch this cube though

Jonas · Mar 28, 2014

Got to draft it for the first time tonight, and GW flanking won the night. Didn't get to write the deck down, but will see if I can find it in the box. Will take the cube up to peasant, because some of the cards are just too horrible, and not having any gold cards or fun lands makes it a bit boring for people. Funniest thing was the newer players who had never seen the cards before, and didn't know how to play it at all.

Eric Chan · Mar 28, 2014

I heartily endorse peasant over pauper!

Jonas · Apr 2, 2014

Thinking of adding these cards in the first step to take it up to peasant, not exactly sure what to take out yet though. Any thoughts?

Chris Taylor · Apr 2, 2014

Wow, Dat manafixing.
Can we break the inclusion rules for something better? Cinder Marsh is just so SO bad, and you wouldn't be the first rarity restricted cube in the world to do it

Jonas · Apr 2, 2014

I've been thinking of adding shocklands instead.

Chris Taylor · Apr 2, 2014

My argument was "anything but these", so shocklands sounds good

Jonas · Apr 3, 2014

I actually meant painlands, since I can see myself grabbing cards from 5th, in addition to the two blocks

Not as fetchable with the mirage fetches, but better then the others.

Soshi · Apr 3, 2014

Is there a consensus on Slivers in cubes, poisonish? I admit I felt the inexplicable urge to play slivers immediately on seeing them in your list.

Jonas · Apr 3, 2014

Well, at pauper level, there were five of them, so there wasn't much of a theme. I will keep a close eye on them, and see how they play out.

anotak · Apr 7, 2014

my friend's peasant cube just runs shocks/fetches and it plays quite nicely. the nonbasics dont feel rare at all, seems like the only reason they are is wotc moneygrab

Chris Taylor · Apr 8, 2014

I think the fetchlands could have been common if they said "forest card or mountain card" instead of forest or mountain, but I refuse to believe in their current 4-color-aggro-in-legacy state they feel common.

Soshi · Apr 14, 2014

Fetches grabbing Shocks/Duals feel like Shocks/Duals to me, with an added (optional) complexity of optimizing shuffle effects.. Guildgates definitely feel common. I think running pain lands would be fine, or even buddy-lands (which feel, to me, uncommon).

Jonas · May 8, 2014

Things that got the boot from the cube today in a halfway overhaul:

Alfonzo Bonzo · May 8, 2014

Seems fair. Happy to see capsize go. Have a soft spot for dream cache and dream prowler though.

Jonas · May 8, 2014

And for some reason the cube is only 357 cards now. *sigh*

Yeah, taking out capsize to minimize durdles, it's durdly enough without it. And most of these other cards are horribly crappy.

Jonas · May 15, 2014

Theory crafting is the best kind of crafting.

I feel like I don't have enough interesting build around me cards, and the ones I have are also pretty poisonous:

Those are basically the kind of build around me cards that I have, that can pull people into some kind of archetype. Other then that, there's flanking dudes and burn, which makes me think that dipping into the rare pool of the sets might be a good idea, to create some overlapping themes, that could spark som tension in the drafting that probably won't happen during the drafts at the moment.
Some examples: