One Prophet's Ravings

[Mad Prophet]

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There once was a prophet from Hanweir​

Who turned his lands into thin air​

His methods were mad​

But there's much to be said​

For more gas in your 3D square​

-anonymous, probably​

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http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/37689​

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This list is quite stunning.​

But hardly 1st or even the 4th coming ​

of change.​

And change is always met with harsh criticism.​

But for good reason, not simple cynicism.​

Your way works, and change threatens to change that.​

Many things work now that could work better.​

But a promise of better never promises to break faith's fetters​

Telling you that yesterday should resemble today.​

Telling you that the road you rode in on writes in stone the right path or the right math to find it.​

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There's Too Many Lands to explore in one lifetime, ​

and maybe repetition is more fun than a mission bitchin' at windmills that ruined your draft.​

I try to make a joke 'r two, but this joker's too concerned about stupid lands to worry if his stupid joke lands. ​

So for now, the windmills have my attention,​

and I'm working on checking off on 5 or 6 more boxes​

before i decide my 6 sided box is ready to blow away the box it was born in.​

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Call it an experiment in extravagant linearity,​

or a hellbent crusade to fix fixing​

that wasn't broken.​

Prophecy isn't an exact science, ​

but it is exact. ​

A beautiful fantasy of windmills in ruins and i can't see anything else,​

blown all away when the darkness leaves my dreaming eyes.​

It's rather tilting.​

 

[Mad Prophet]

A Sample list from our first draft of my first draft​

 

[Mad Prophet]

The Sun Risesonce again​

http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/37689​

I have made many claims here about the poisonous nature of shocklands, but so far it's been a relatively abstract debate. I know this list looks strange, but I have put a lot of thought into the choices I made. I have drafted and played the above list several times, most recently after a large revision. It's been a real blast! Back to Basics Cube is only 3% lands. This works out very roughly to one land per two packs.​

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The fixing deficit is accounted for in a number of ways:

• Very limited Gold section
• Large hybrid section
• several artifact fixers like Chromatic Star and prophetic prism(no relation)
• a couple of conspiracies that enable splashes
• a complement of 5 color fixers in green

But ultimately the number of 3+ color decks should go way down.​

The fixing does get worse, however and some of the greedy decks will get punished. But remember:​

Some games will always be lost to mana screw.​

This is a good thing. It's a feature of the game. Variance isn't all bad.​

Switching to a manabase of mostly basics is not without its downsides, but it decreases the number of bad drafts due to unlucky land distribution. Taking out all these lands also makes room for a huge number of new cards, and frees up a sizable credit to our "parasitism budget". This means more archetypes, and more exciting narrow cards can be supported by the cube. The idea here is just to get the drafters' eyes on as many fun synergies as possible, and let them get really creative in how to go about the draft.​

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Key features:

• Many of the supported strategies are incredibly linear. There are many crossover cards that work in multiple strategies. But in general, cards in this cube encourage you to just go deeper down the rabbit hole on one particular plan.
• Tutors: Cards such as Shared Animosity really encourage drafters to go deep. To support these linear strategies, I have included a large number of tutoring effects to help the wonky decks run smoothly.
• There are 4 Accumulated Knowledge and 3 Galvanic Bombardment along with 2 Pyromancer Ascension and a number of name goodies.
• The number of supported themes is abnormally high. The rationale here is that with drafters looking at and drafting more spells than normal, there is a greater opportunity to weave in interlocking build-around-me cards with fun overlap.
• This cube is larger than 360 cards. There are 3 booster tutors and one lore seeker, so four extra packs worth of cards were added to the list. Often times, an 8 man draft will still include every card in the cube. Currently we play the booster tutors with the following added effect: add the tutored card to your draft pool. Remove booster tutor from your draft pool and exile it. This way only the four available boosters are needed.
• Booster Tutor and ____ are the only cards with any house rules. It's pretty easy to keep things straight, and the silver border acts as a reminder.

An exhaustive list of possible plans to pursue in Mad Prophet Cube would be quite long, but here is a sample of archetypes the from tonight's 3 man draft:​

Goblins/Slivers/Humans/Zombies/Shamans + Changelings

Spoiler

There are a number of tribal lords in the cube and (hopefully) enough changelings to draft around them. Clones are also good here. You can do something straightforward like draft a lot of goblins, or something weirder like Shields of Velis Vel combo.

Mirror Entity Elves

Mirror entity is a real all star in this kind of deck. Mirror Entity+Elvish Archdruid is a sweet combo.

Names Are Fun
There are some sweet cards that care about duplicates. This is unfortunately pretty hard to achieve in a limited format, but we have a secret weapon:

Spoiler

Jeskai ____ squads

Secret summoning naming Taurean Mauler, Summoner's Bond on Porcelain Legionnaire and Reckoner, and Unexpected Potential on Infernal Tutor.

We have been playing ____'s "anytime, anywhere" text pretty literally, with "anytime" being interpreted as "whenever you have priority" and "anywhere" as "can be activated in any zone." So far, this includes the library and hand, though this may change a bit, as multiples in the library with different names can be a headache. One possible solution is to number them with little stickers.​

Devotion to Blue/Black/Red

Spoiler

The large hybrid section works particularly well with Devotion cards and the land deficit makes monocolor decks much more realistic. Currently Blue and Black devotion are much more supported than green or red, but I want to try out Reverent Hunter and Fanatic of Mogis.

Sultai Master of Waves

Secrets of Paradise names Enclave Cryptologist
There's a lot going on here, but mostly this deck just played like a Blue devotion deck with a Worm Harvest<->Loam engine to go over the top.

I may do a more comprehensive write up later, but for now I just wanted to get the Cube of the Rising Sun in a reasonably presentable state and share its shockland free beauty with all of you. Give it a draft on cubetutor and feel free to tell me I've got it all wrong.​

Always rising up and up and up​