Sigh, a Cube

[sigh]

Finally got around to posting up a list, after a couple months of doodling around on here. My master list is stored in an Excel Sheet I meticulously built, but CubeTutor is as nice a place as any to show the list off. Alright, let's see here....

My Cube list in all it's glory

The Cube as a whole~
This cube was built originally from a desire to draft, without paying for actual drafts, and with cooler cards. I will admit that I don't know how many drafts could have been attended from purchases for this.... Anyway, as is usual, the project started out as largely a "random" pile. The power level was quite... diverse, but played well. I've been refining it ever since, with the help of alla y'all . As refinement happened, archetypes and such were nailed out. Firstly:

Power level: A little on the low side, power level may be a bit broader than some also.
Composition: Singleton (gasp). A hump I have yet to get over with my group, and possibly myself.
Size: 400, but I'm a little lenient on that.
Ideology: Generally speaking, your average, color-balanced dealio, archetype driven etc etc.

Archetypes~
: Blink, Skies, classic control-tempo
: Hard Control, Reanimator
: Hard Aggro w/ evasive tricks, Resource Denial (think Jund), reanimator support
: Monsters, ramp, RG Land-Control
: Curve-out valuetown, The midrangy color combo. creature-control
: Go-wide tokens, sligh w/ pump, Death and Taxes (Hate Bears)
: Spells matter, the fast version and the big spells/goggles version. UR artifacts.
: Reanimator/Recursion, The ROCK, Grind-control
: Double Strike, Go-wide fast agro, RW Daretti Artifacts
: Draw-a-card.dec, Lands-Ramp

Here are some wedge/shards that try to do cool stuff, and some example decks. These are not all intentionally focused on decks/archetypes.:
: The value tempo deck. Pushes forward an assertive board backed with creature-draw, value recursion, and board control: http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/844588
: Jund. Think modern jund, the rock + a low resource environment. The "loamfire" concept combining with powerful removal, finishers, and card draw: http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/875788
: The jeskai tempo deck. Spells matter to the max combined with a tokens theme: http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/854655
: Can take a couple of angles as a RB-based reanimator shell with blue draw-discard and permission, or a more controlling spells deck.
: The "sacrifice deck": http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/869714
: The stereotypical control-style deck: http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/854641
: My graveyard is actually my hand : http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/875759
: Recursive Midrange. Combining the straightforward curve-out approach of the GW deck with the recursion and removal of Bx: http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/978549
: Grindy zoo. Combines a fast boros deck with a more go-big and grindy theme from green: http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/824992
: The ENGINE DECK. Largely a combo-control idea, utilizes things like gifts ungiven to set up value engines or bomby spell-combos: https://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/start-your-engines-a-temur-card-advantage-deck.1276/


Goals~
To create the best possible environment for my group to grow and have fun. I have a huge priority on teaching, lenticular design, relative fairness, feel-good, interactivity and camaraderie. As such, there are certainly some cards that didn't last (upheaval haaaa). Most of my players are very/semi new or very casual, but not all. This is in large part the reason for fairness and fun above all else.

Looking forward~
I need to draft my cube more. I also need to start working on each pair, shard, etc, to utilize the vast amount of knowledge I've gained through all the awesome people here . The first main foray into this is with RG, but I intend to fully investigate my cube in the same deep manner.

Suggestions from all of you would make my day! In life, everything is a learning process, and it's important to constantly work towards improvement. I hope one day to have the richest, most fun environment I can for me and those around me .

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

I will have a look through and comment in some more detail in due course, but I'm interested in some of the cards you've been running spans how they've been for you:



Low power means different things to different people, but some things stand out as feeling a bit strong

control magic
Pack rat
Inferno titan

 

[sigh]

I will have a look through and comment in some more detail in due course, but I'm interested in some of the cards you've been running spans how they've been for you:



Low power means different things to different people, but some things stand out as feeling a bit strong

control magic
Pack rat
Inferno titan

Thanks for the reply Alfonzo! Sadly, I'm not sure I've seen exert influence in action yet. It's been a newer addition. Potentially what control magic will be, if that leaves.
perilous research has been absolutely excellent. It allows the sacrifice deck to get into U, blanks removal, and can just eat a land later in the game. Love it.

I agree on two or maybe all counts for your strong list.
inferno titan is marked for removal. Potentially for crater hellion
control magic is stronk. Ideas for what it could become are dominate and simply mind control.
pack rat I'm on the fence about so far, becaseu I haven't seen it overperform. But I am watchful. Thoughts for what it could become?

Thanks again for the reply! It means a lot .

 

[sigh]

First Update!

Drafting through a buncha times last night, I came across some cards that aren't doin' mucha anything. So, my first little changelog .

This dood too big. And not an artifact. And kinda stronk if you do manage to land it. soo.
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Aven cloudchaser... just isn't good enough. It's no war priest of thune, and the flying wasn't enough incentive.
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pillage. bleh. nope.
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Thunderstaff is not enough incentive for what it is. Changing this slot up with the Bro:
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Pilgrims eye also too slow. If onyl a 2/1 flier. sigh.
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Mystic Retrieval. Speaking of slow..... Peer through depths provides just as good an insurance for anyone trying to be cute and combo-y. Originally intended to partner with living death
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On another note, here's a sweet deck I drafted with the cube . Exactly what I wanted Bant to be doing! Very pleased. I've found krosan tusker is often desirable to me for this kind of deck as an instant speed ~divination. Almost never would hard cast unless needed.

Bant FlashBlinkTempo from CubeTutor.com

 

[sigh]

Just did an interesting thought experiment with a random sampling of the decks I've drafted on here so far: How many colorless sources did I happen to support without even trying, if I were to want a creature?

RUG mess: 4 sources (5 w/ 1 waste)
Jund control: 3 (4)
Bant value: 1.5
UWR spellblink: 4 (5)
GW monsters: 5 (6)
GR wildfire: 5 (6)

Looks like on average, I had a decent representation without even trying. This includes lands, rocks, and rampant growth effects. Obviously the Bant deck ain't gonna have a good time, but ah well.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Just did an interesting thought experiment with a random sampling of the decks I've drafted on here so far: How many colorless sources did I happen to support without even trying, if I were to want a creature?

RUG mess: 4 sources (5 w/ 1 waste)
Jund control: 3 (4)
Bant value: 1.5
UWR spellblink: 4 (5)
GW monsters: 5 (6)
GR wildfire: 5 (6)

Looks like on average, I had a decent representation without even trying. This includes lands, rocks, and rampant growth effects. Obviously the Bant deck ain't gonna have a good time, but ah well.

IE you had wastes in the draft box for anyone who wanted them?

I do worry about the colorless cards that want to see play in a deck that doesn't want manarocks though. Like Reality Shaper is sweet, but if a big part of casting it in a given enviornment is based off signet type play...
like it'll be way harder for any of these to see play in a standard 2 color aggro deck, since all your colorless sources need to come from lands (which can put a big strain on the rest of your deck)

 

[sigh]

IE you had wastes in the draft box for anyone who wanted them?

I do worry about the colorless cards that want to see play in a deck that doesn't want manarocks though. Like Reality Shaper is sweet, but if a big part of casting it in a given enviornment is based off signet type play...
like it'll be way harder for any of these to see play in a standard 2 color aggro deck, since all your colorless sources need to come from lands (which can put a big strain on the rest of your deck)

That's what the number in paratheses is for, yes. I added only one each time. Beyond lands that worked out, the majority of the rest of the sources came from rampant growth effects. I only run like 4 or 5 mana rocks that produce , so it came down to lands a lot. I think you are spot on that cards will be better suited for the slightly slower side of decks, with time to look for lands, and less color density in the early turns. I think this is why I'm sticking all the stuff to T4 and later for now.

 

[sigh]

New day, new update! A lot of the changes are happening because my excel sheet and this aren't in sync (the .xlsx knows about changes I want but I can actually do them here). Most of these changes were to increase interactivity, take out meh cards, take out OP cards, push a coupla themes (notably sacrifice, reanimator, Jund)
This old card ----> This new card










And here's another cool deck that I've drafted with my cube on CT :

Jund control from CubeTutor.com

 

[sigh]

Drafting some more neato decks on CT today. A couple things that maybe I'm noticing:
1) Might not quite have the removal density I want? Or am picking it not highly enough myself .
2) My draft bot pick fixing very highly, my drafting is def not set up for that, I'm used to some of the fixing wheeling more. Guess I taught them too well! (or maybe there isn't enough....)
3) Singleton does make some decks more... interesting. See below for an example where getting sac fodder was a trip cause some of the easier pieces didn't show up.

WBr Sac from CubeTutor.com

 

[sigh]

Some post-prerelease updates! Some cool cards gotten, some cool things noticed. First off, pulse of murasa is actually just bonkers. Completely time walk an attack and get back a creature that died blocking/while attacking? Yikes. Not to mention the dream team with Goblin Dark-Dwellers. I did that, in a prerelease game, it didn't feel fair lol. The sealed format was very attrition-y, which I love. Built a RUG value deck first time, and a Jund deck second time, it was beautiful. Anyway, with some new cards, some new changes. Some of the highlights:

Hooded hydra just felt kinda... boring, and was the only morph in the cube I think. Went for the awesome recursion spell instead.
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Reworked my UR section a little, more on the small spells at high velocity side of life now, which I really am looking forward to. Love the "storm" symmetry too.
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One of the remaining GRBS cards gone, I'd say. Nothing quite like just losing out of nowhere to make your day o_O. World Breaker is just awesome, and plays well as ramp finisher but also control wincon.
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This slot was dying for a better card for so long. Got there . Goblin DD is a super interesting red design, one of my favorites in a while, and does wonders for several archetypes including control, big red, ramp etc. Can't wait to try this sucker out.
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As usual, here's a cool deck I drafted on CT. This is the Sac deck coming together; it worked out beautifully. One thing I'm still a little bit worried about with this cube is that removal might be a little lacking.... Seems a little light in decks I'm building. Maybe it's just me, but maybe not.

WBr Sac from CubeTutor.com

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

I've done a few drafts on cubetutor, I wanted to see how removal felt. It did feel a bit tight and a lot was quite expensive or felt underpowered. A bigger problem was colour fixing. You have quite a few cards that reward you for multiple colours (converge) but I really struggled to get splashes for them, also triple colour gold cards feel quite difficult to play. Pain lands aren't the best to support stretching your colours in this way.

Re removal, I did a count for things that could kill consistently. This came out as

White: 7, plus 4 wraths
Blue: 3 (control magics)
Black: 14, plus 2 wraths
Red: 13, plus 4 wraths
Green: 1 if you count bow of nylea
Artifact: 2 plus 1 wrath
Edit: gold 7

Re your lands

Your have a massive 10 lands that don't produce coloured mana, plus 2 that produce mono colour. The for fixing:

Uw 5
Rw 6
Ub 5
Br 5
Gu 4
Wg 6
Bw 3
Gr 5
Bg 3
Ur 4

'Gold' 4

I may have miscounted as I was logging, but that was what I came out with. The only reason I counted was due to struggling with fixing. I know some of these are fetches and mirage fetches so that jiggles with the math, and it could be some of them might have not been in the draft but I did feel I was struggling.

 

[sigh]

I've done a few drafts on cubetutor, I wanted to see how removal felt. It did feel a bit tight and a lot was quite expensive or felt underpowered. A bigger problem was colour fixing. You have quite a few cards that reward you for multiple colours (converge) but I really struggled to get splashes for them, also triple colour gold cards feel quite difficult to play. Pain lands aren't the best to support stretching your colours in this way.

Re removal, I did a count for things that could kill consistently. This came out as

White: 7, plus 4 wraths
Blue: 3 (control magics)
Black: 14, plus 2 wraths
Red: 13, plus 4 wraths
Green: 1 if you count bow of nylea
Artifact: 2 plus 1 wrath
Edit: gold 7

Re your lands

Your have a massive 10 lands that don't produce coloured mana, plus 2 that produce mono colour. The for fixing:

Uw 5
Rw 6
Ub 5
Br 5
Gu 4
Wg 6
Bw 3
Gr 5
Bg 3
Ur 4

'Gold' 4

I may have miscounted as I was logging, but that was what I came out with. The only reason I counted was due to struggling with fixing. I know some of these are fetches and mirage fetches so that jiggles with the math, and it could be some of them might have not been in the draft but I did feel I was struggling.

Thanks for drafting my cube . Fixing being a potential issue is something that I have mulled over for quite some time. The problem being that I am currently on no ULD with my group. Mebbe the next step as a cube designer will be to convince people that the ULD is awesome-sauce. Currently planning (with creature lands) to get up to 50/415, which is 12%. That does seem low compared to other cubes around here.

Is there any removal specifically you can single out for being expensive/underpowered/lame-o? Are the color's removals in a good proportion, or are some colors starving? G? U?

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

The balance of removal is probably fine from a numbers perspective, but it feels like a lot of the removal is quite situational, which is normally something I enjoy. I think it might just be that with not a lot of removal it brings that more into focus and is more frustrating I guess?

I think shadownborn demon stood out as being quite expensive and good in a situational deck, but I would really like that card to work. Have you had an opportunity to test drafting live? That will be your best indicator probably.

 

[sigh]

Small removal update! Firstly, yes I've seen shadowborn demon in action. It's extremely good in my cube. Finisher and stabilizer all in one, because of the 6 toughness, the removal, and the large variety of juicy things you want to be saccing. With all the response/personal feelings that removal is a little thin, I'm slowly ramping it up until it feels like it's in a good (better) place. This first update focuses a little on some of the non-black colors, and continues my overall theme of (at least partially) conditional removal.

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[sigh]

Neat little deck I drafted today. Pushing the curve a little high, but meh. It's been far too long since I've drafted this thing IRL, it's bugging the heck outta me.My next project with this deck is to run this cube with Tenchester drafting, because our groups are rather small usually. I plan on actually recording the decks from that one, and posting them up. On that note, I wonder what my 3-0 decks have been so far...
Looks like they are:
RB Aggro
Naya Aggro
GW Monsters
RW Aggro
UR Tempo
WB Goodstuff
RB Aggro
The ROCK

Seems like Blue's a little underrepresented.... I think one of the issues is the drafter skill is usually GREAT/good/newby/newby, with my friend ranking in the great, and he loves the RB/W aggro. Also partially could be attributed to my continuing dirth of removal, and maybe my sweepers are a little lacking too? I know I've been working to make blue more inclusive, but I'm not sure I've gotten there. anyway, the deck:

Bant ControlBlink from CubeTutor.com

 

[sigh]

Made my next size decrease step! Finally worked it down to 405, inspired by posting in Alphez's list thread. Tried to squeeze out weak, narrow, or "duplicates" that I no longer feel need duplicating. My removals were as follows:


Cathars' Crusade: very combo-y, hard to interact with, but also can be a trap card? Just doesn't work cleanly at all.
Master of Waves: Kind of win-more for some blue aggressive deck. I like the effect better in whirler rogue, so "duplicate" removed
Zulaport cutthroat: clogged cmc2 section, and don't feel I need to double up on the "blood artist" section anymore
Harness by force: Pretty weak compared to cube context, and not super in theme with my red decks. Eldrazi Obligator is more what I'd be looking for...
Genesis Hydra: This one was iffy. I do like the hydra, so one day I might wheel it back in for one of the other cmc5 doods.
fiery justice: Fixing already a potential issue, and I just don't see my drafters taking this.
Relic of Progenitus: Narrow GY hate/cantrip relegated to SB tech? yeah. no.
Spawning pit: Just not that good...
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: I've soured on this one, mostly because it's win-more. If you gain advantage on this, you already have 4+ mana symbols out, which means you have at least a decent board.
Blighted Cataract: Another hard cut, because the effect seems juicy. But needed to get another land out, and with fixing a little tight, it was one of my 10 (8 now) lands.

 

[sigh]

I've been exploring the mana fixing tensions that have been evident for a little while. One issue may be how highly I myself pick fixing. 8 me's all snatching up lands = boom fixing gone . In any case, I shook off that rust and went for the coup de grace of mana fixing, five colors. Generally I only go for that with my anchors, exert influence and bring to light. Actually turned out ok! Still thinking that my next step would be one of two options:

1) take out 5 utility lands, go for a cycle of fixing. Either enemy filters, or something like 5 more miscellaneous fixers.
2) all utility lands gone, all ten filters in.
Thoughts on those options?

Here's the BtL deck I got together. Base Temur with w/b splashes for converge.

RUGwb BringtoLight control from CubeTutor.com

 

[sigh]

Just finished a 4-man with my buds, tried out Tenchester Drafting. Loved it. Love that we got to see all but 5 cards in the cube, and the decks came together very smoothly. We played 2-headed giant, but would probably do a round robin next time. The games were big, long, and slightly confusing at times.

So, I was thinking about sigh's suggestion of including Daretti, Scrap Savant. At first I didn't like it, but then I slowly started to change my mind. I think that adding it, together with a compact package of artifacts and artifacts-related cards, would do a number of good things to my cube.

We had a Daretti deck today, and it was pure value both times. One game, it was simply a dig, another game it was "sac a thopter -> bring back Bow of Nylea", and that gave the trampling Primetime deathtouch, provided us with lifegain if needed, and +1/+1 counters (on the primetime). Fun times and a exceedingly necessary value play to put us ahead. Check out the fourth deck below for a list!

I tested out eldrazi displacer! Wow, what a good card :eek:. I used it game 1 (which we lost for unrelated misplay) to keep tapping Drana, liberator of malakir before combat while my teammate built up a big board. I ended up stuck at 3 for far too long, and with misplays we bit it.

Anyway, here's the lists we pulled together. One thing that might be happening a little because of drafting preferences, and potentially how Tenchester works: midrangier than normal. No blue at all, in fact! I'm not necessarily sad aobout that, and all four decks were very different, generally speaking. The teams we stuck together for the duration and did a best of three. Lost the first one for reasons above, then my team pulled out the 2-1 win the next two rounds.

Spoiler

Team 1:

This is the Monsters deck of the night, played green and white, and things. Pretty smashy, poor choices against some of the SB, but they are still learning. This deck does have a ton of ramp, and a lot of threes, all of which made for some fairly scary starts.


This is a Junk controlly deck played as the teammate to the GW one above. A good pairing, with more attrition from this deck and more power from the other. Suffered from some wonky choices of deck building (again, still learning), had a sweet reanimator set up, but didn't give themselves a way to get the creatures in the bin.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Team 2:

This is my deck, a mardu controlly, tokeny deck. Focused on building advantage with things like Monastery Mentor, flametongue kavu, precursor golem and Pia and Kiran nalaar along with blinks and removals.


My teammate's deck, a naya deck with strong fixing, and utility lands! to go with Primetime . Made my day. Synergized strongly around Golbin bombardment, Daretti, and Primetime. Very combo-y and build-uppy at the same time. This deck served the purpose of getting the game-ender while mine pointed removal and built a steady board.

All in all, it was a tone of fun. They all loved the Tenchester drafting too, and it made for much more powerful decks and much more internal data. 400 out of 405 cards used. Seeming like the cards are working very well together.Centaur vinecrasher... could be falling into the trap of the admirer's. I think they just reprinted it's replacement though, with for a 4/3 flash, discard a land for a 2/2. That's a four mana "retrace" effect that goes perfectly with the worm harvest theme.

Still, not sure what I'm doing about blue. I guess I'm ok with it just... not being played sometimes! #shrug. Any thoughts on if my blue section looks weird?

basic count at the end of it all:
20 plains
14 forests
8 mountains
7 swamps
1 wastes

 

[sigh]

Made a new update! It's been a while since I've updated my cubetutor, so today I synced it with the Excel sheet I keep around. Quite a few changes, some focused around new cards, and some experiments that didn't work out the way that I'd hoped. The cards are matched in order for in -> out (first in list 1 to first in list 2 etc).

Out:


In:


Why did I do what I did? Well, sit yourself down by the fire, it's along story.
ghor-clan rampager: Mina and Denn are shiny new, and I have a foil Rubblehulk, so it got the nod . Will soon be replacing the duo with Wolf Mom
sanity gnawers: 1/1 ain't great. Shambles gives the "Jund deck" that attritiony grind and value, and can actually deal damage!
legion's initiative: This card is cool, but so is weapons trainer, and the trainer can attack. Also soon moot for Nahiri, the pissed off
death grasp: Card's just not that good... Mortify, on the other hand, is. Soon to be Anguished Unmaking
guardian idol: this is an experimental removal. If I don't like the unstable obelisk I can switch back, or try out more trinkets like Chromatic Star.
lightning greaves: another experiment. If I don't like the claws, back in it goes! I wanted to try helping out some white go-wide. But maybe helping Monsters.dec is just better/more needed anyway.
runechanter's pike: Card didn't do as much as hoped. Switched for slightly-bigger-bonesplitter-yay-singleton
astral cornucopia: Not the best of fixers out there. Also trying out a bauble in it's place. I like the chromatic star for the draw, and for helping delirium in any color.
deal broker: Victim of how awesome is. If those cards don't work out, I could see him coming back, now with upsides in Delirium
decree of justice: Became Eldrazi Displacer. Yay , and decree didn't seem to do that much for me. And I love blink.
stonecloaker: bonds of faith is an addition to my weird, innistrad-like removal package. I've always liked the card, and it's a decent buff for WW too.
soul of theros: The soul was very cool, but kind of took games away if it could swing. Linvala seems cool but much more toned down, and has cool minigames for getting it active .
hypnotic siren: dimensional infiltrator is riding that C train, but it's not that good.... Could see this going back to siren, or becoming another looter mebbe? Or the spirit flash dood from SOI!
peer through depths: turns out that's a decently restrictive restriction, and looking one less for anything is just awesome.
control magic: too stronk. So it became a draw spell. Which is on the cutting board to become maybe aether spellbomb
exert influence: my fixing is probably a little weak for this to be a thing right now. I'd need to move my utility lands out and pump up my fixers to get that converge going. Made this the aura version with sick promo art.
strangling soot: while I was a big fan of this spell, seal of doom is less restricitve, and feed delirium well
wrench mind: man... raven's crime plays with the mini-land-theme, and is better for dumping your own stuff. Also only
flaying tendrils: drown in sorrow just too cool. scry too cool. After fight club, it's apparent that I might not even need this effect, so SOI will make this To the Slaughter.
crux of fate: Meh. I just like languish better. And it's a 4 mana wrath-thats-not-a-total-wrath. That's neat.
torch fiend: card is bad, man. Put in a searing spear to continue my crusade against potentially thin removal.
volt charge: Blast from the past is just too awesome to not have. And it can be a nice 3 or 4 for 1!
werebear: rawr. I could see mr. bear coming back, but for now I'm bumping him down to one mana. Forget exactly why. maybe curve?
wall of blossoms: didn't want too many 0/4 walls floating around, with the coming of Thing in the Ice, so I traded it in for an awesome delirium card, goyf!
centaur vinecrasher: maybe this card can work out. I never saw it happen, and it seems like it can be the same trap as the admirers. Switched to deadbridge to give that GY synergy, with a guaranteed big punch. Might not need this many beefcakes, though. One potential on-deck is wickerbough elder.
exploration: kinda can be a trap? or work really really well? Replaced with Oath for cool card selection fun times

Here's a sample deck from the updated list. A UW deck, splashing black. Maybe could use a waste or something to help with the Eldrazi Displacer, but that's a secondary piece for flickering finishers anyway. I can definitely see that Non-green decks are going to have the hardest time with . And maybe that's ok? Gives something kind of unique to the green-centric decks.

UWb Control from CubeTutor.com

 

[gasp]

It needs more Giants, Merfolk, and Faeries. Just from my point of view, it looks pretty bland. Also, might I suggest . Lemme know.

 

[sigh]

Does that mean I can have your Claws of Gix from the binder?

I'm finding myself in the midst of a quiet night, perfect for fiddling with MtG cards. Made a few switches, taking a step back to truly think about what I'm trying to push, and how I want to push it. Only a few switches, but impactful. I hope. Taking the opportunity to break with some mental barriers I might have been having up til now.
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seems like such a random multicolor card switch! But I realized that I had too fallen victim to the "color balancing trap". Why must I have a particular number of tricolor cards, in certain combinations? No one really wanted mardu demon... it's hard to cast, and doesn't do a very good job of doing what I wanted. Fires, on the other hand, is a great card in it's own right. It's evocative, it helps the stompy deck in all the right places. And now it has incidental value: delirium. One of the precious few enchantments that sacrifice itself, that I'd also consider running in a cube setting. Since Delirium is a green-centric mechanic, this seems to fit. (I also run Scourge Wolf in R)

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Another weird experiment that trapped me? I think I was trying for a "draw-a-card".dec. While not a horrible idea, and while the card isn't terrible, it was overly redundant with jhessian thief, and I needed the room for something else. I'm definitely not married to Vapor Snag, but I think blue needed a little more removal depth, and i've gotta foil VS . I'm thinking about trying some different things in this new removal slot. Not exactly sure yet. Maybe aether spellbomb. Overall pleased that my 3-drop U creatures are a little less clogged, and my 1-drop instants more varied.

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Not too much to say here. RBM's post here is a home run analysis. I'm excited to see what flushing out mana @ 2-drops will do. More focus on the T3 four drop sounds nice, right?

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Didn't like OoJ very much. Trying with blue to hitch up my britches and give the players some really eye-catching options. Blue has been underdrafted for almost the cube's entire existence. Thassa seems to fit that bill a little better. A god, indestructible, persistent effect that assists you throughout the game. It remains to be seen if I like Thassa, especially since this is her second appearance in the cube. This slot could be something else fun, first thing on the on-deck list is Gifts Ungiven

->
As much as I love the elegance and simplicity of the rhino, it's pretty dang dull... Honestly, probably more of a trap than it seems. Three colors is a tall order for something with such an incremental impact. Also see above for the Butcher. Originally I thought Sorin would be too powerful, but halving the opportunity to test him in a Prerelease setting, I don't think that's the case any more. Six mana is a lot, and often I had to use him to kill something, and then lost him a while later. Still a strong and unique win-con for slower decks, so I'm excited to give my WB section a slightly different option besides efficient removal/utility creature.

 

[sigh]

The Engine Update
Finally got around to syncing up my list with the excel sheet I keep on my computer. Big update this time, with the full insertion of the test for the RG control prototype. Other updates include the SOI cards finalization, along with some various swaps I decided on independent of any major update, for variou reasons. Check out the CT changelog for a list of switches and whatnot:
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/46148

I feel like I'll have a lot more to talk about when I'm not super duper tired, and I've gotten some CT drafts, along with a IRL draft, under my belt.

 

[Aoret]

The Engine Update
Finally got around to syncing up my list with the excel sheet I keep on my computer. Big update this time, with the full insertion of the test for the RG control prototype. /quote]

Awesome! I'm gonna try to stream a few drafts of this over the weekend. Will post links to streams and decks when done.

 

[sigh]

Thanks a bunch! This version might be very very ramshackle, in part because I haven't fully thought about ramps role in the cube. Also might need to up my wildfire count.... forgot about that.

 

[sigh]

So many cool drafts after waking up today . Feeling very blessed. Drafts of all five colors, of both slow and fast types. Even if the RG control falls through, which it already looks like it wont, at least tangentially, I'm getting a ton of useful infos.some cool stuff:

Trying out RG control/grind seems to have naturally let me walk into supporting GB control/grind too!

Seasons past control. In my cube. And it looks AMAZING.

I am very happy with the secondary support mechanisms. Nissa's pilgrimage, lightning axe, and the like.