General The Draft Exchange

StormEntity

StormEntity

Drafted Shamizy's cube. Slammed Torrential Gearhulk first pick. I haven't played with the card yet and really want to. Coalition Relic seems pretty busted too. Ended up picking every blue card ever and built this:

Uw Control from CubeTutor.com













Didn't quite make it to mono blue, but this deck seems good. This cube seems really pleasant to draft, high power level but there's some interesting stuff going on (Delirium is pretty cool). If anyone wants to check it out, I've recently been working on updates to my Legacy/Vintage-y cube, including some real wacky combo shenanigans that I think have some potential.
 
safra

safra

Drafted StormEntity's main cube and their YMTC submission, pulled off decks I love in both environments. Nahiri/Mindslaver control is great - a Trinket Mage / Meekstone package makes it even better. This deck felt really supported and like I had lots of options during the draft. Love the double Salvagers.

Jeskai Meekstone/Nahiri control from CubeTutor.com












In the Modern Cube I managed to force my favourite Modern deck ever, Eternal Gifts (I was shaping up to be Draw-Blade esper control until pack three, where I just had to go for it - I'm sure the Esper build is slightly stronger but gosh if I wouldn't have more fun with this one).

Eternal Gifts from CubeTutor.com












Whoever's next doesn't have to draft both of my cubes, just pick one. <3
 
shamizy

shamizy

Drafted safra's main cube, went into BR Kiki:

BR Kiki from CubeTutor.com













I went with Kiki-Jiki P1P1 because it's always a fun card to try and make work. Had a Daretti in P1P2 and thought eh, let's see what we can build. Ended up just picking up a lot of cards that allowed for sweet self-looting and strong ETBs to let me pressure the opponent. Had the Conscripts come my way midway through pack 2 and jumped on it. Came together quite nicely, I'm a fan of the archetype. I just really wanted to see a Fiery Temper, but maybe it just wasn't in the pool this time.

Also the Leechridden Swamp is safra's {B}{c} land with ETB scry 1.
 
StormEntity

StormEntity

Drafted Shamizy's cube and ended up with an interesting Solar Flare number that should certainly have the late game on lockdown, featuring Miscalculation as "each player mills two" and the Laboratory Maniac himself. Ended up just a little short on playables, which has been my experience now both times I've drafted this cube. Likely still a small sample size thing, but I thought I should mention it in case it corroborates something you've been noticing in your IRL drafts. Still I enjoyed the draft and deckbuilding process, and the Mesmeric Orb thing is super fun to try to make work; I might give it a shot at some point in my cube.

Solar Flare from CubeTutor.com













The changes I mentioned to Cube Eternal before Safra's draft of it have now (nearly) come to full fruition, just a little more refining to do before I make my IRL cube reflect the changes. Hoping that getting another pair of eyes on it helps!
 
safra

safra

BW Recruiter Rat from CubeTutor.com











Started with a pack one Mentor into Recruiter into Rat. I like Rally in this deck and might have to include it in my cube; I thought you needed haste enablers to take advantage of it but this looks fine. At first I was hoping I'd find a Trinket Mage but Salvagers looks great here in a similar role.
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

Drafted this neat Rakdos Sneak attack control deck out of Safra's Cube. It pretty much speaks for itself. The Anger of the Gods and Liliana OTV feel a bit loose to me, due to the lack of fixing (would have liked 2 more fixing lands at least to have reasonable BB or RR on T3), but otherwise looks pretty fun. I also had an option to make it a bit more midrangey with thinks like Hanwier Garrison, but chose not to.

slovakattack's draft of Explorer's Scope on 08/11/2016 from CubeTutor.com










 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

Modin said:
I tried to draft GiftsForgiven's cube and ended up with this mess. I first picked Metalworker out of curiosity and got somewhat lost during the next few packs. When I saw Daretti and Feldon and hoped to salvage the draft by going into reanimation... It sure looks "interesting" but I kind of doubt it's playability.
Click to expand...

Thanks for giving my cube a shot!
That's rough. Metalworker is kind of an odd bird. A bit of a trap card, as it doesn't do anything unless you already have a decent amount of mana rocks. Of course, it's amazing when you're able to go deep, so every so often there'll be the guy who all-ins on it while drafting because it's so fun! I did a draft of your cube too!

U/B madness/reanimator from CubeTutor.com











I wound up with far fewer creatures than I would like, considering the Wharf Infiltrator, but the Call the Bloodline is great stall and fodder for an eventual dread return, and I was happy to pick up bane of bala ged as a card that can, based on the card quality I saw, is more than capable of dominating games. Looks pretty fun! I like the madness/reanimation support that the cube has. I've been very charmed by the new Inn block's support for madness recently, so this was a fun draft for me.

Onderzeeboot said:
Sword and Sphinx? Looks like Gifts sold his soul to the power max gods!
Click to expand...



Haha, the 'current iteration' is def. powermax... to a degree. There are 3 cards that have given me problems, if you're interested:

sword of body and mind: The swords are weird cards. I'm personally 'eh' on them in terms of cubing, but they serve an important purpose: Allowing weenie decks to 'race' ramp and combo decks. I have included the full set in my cube, save for SoBM. It is simply too strong, especially when the likes of mirran crusader are able to wield it. For many decks, it provides a clock even more uninteractive than a 'protected' attacker... and I've tried to make a cube where every action, even big actions, can be responded to.

natural order: I knew that this card was strong when I threw it into the cube, but I wound up taking it out after I saw someone T2 Natural Order to grab Woodfall Primus and nuke a land (there may have been some salt from the victim, there...). I don't mind big combo/synergies (heck, that's half the cube), but there was so little 'cost' to setting up Natural Order (do you have a big green thing in your deck somewhere? Do you have a mana dork in play? You got it!) and so many crazy targets that I decided to cut it for pattern of rebirth, a similar card but one that I felt took a bit more effort to pull off.


Ugin, the spirit dragon: I keep taking him out and putting him back in. I dunno. Sometimes he gets dropped and invalidates 15 minutes of careful board-state crafting, and sometimes he gets dropped and has to face down a Myr Battleball and dies like a chump.

Edit: I almost forgot, there's another one.

Ulamog, the ceaseless hunger: Was cut for the same reason that SoBM was cut. He was a bit too wacked out for my taste.

It is also worth noting that I run the new Emrakul over the old one, but the old one was never a part of my cube to begin with.


Onderzeeboot, I want to do a real draft of your Cube one of these days, but... so many custom cards! @.@
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
GiftsForgiven said:
Onderzeeboot, I want to do a real draft of your Cube one of these days, but... so many custom cards! @.@
Click to expand...
Lol, yeah... I'm currently doing a complete rework of my cube, changing to a WBURG color wheel instead of a WRUBG one. Dropping colors and switching other combinations around (RGW is different from GWR when you're talking about hybrid cards for example) as well as replacing themes means I have to practically start from scratch. This will probably take a while :) But, I do plan to put it up on CubeTutor once I have a first draft. One of the aims is to run a bit fewer customs as well, though they won't be completely gone. Naya is still one of the shards, and Naya's gold cards really, really suck. I mean, a 5/4 for three is cool and all, but you're not going to sacrifice your mana base for that...
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

Onderzeeboot said:
Lol, yeah... I'm currently doing a complete rework of my cube, changing to a WBURG color wheel instead of a WRUBG one. Dropping colors and switching other combinations around (RGW is different from GWR when you're talking about hybrid cards for example) as well as replacing themes means I have to practically start from scratch. This will probably take a while :) But, I do plan to put it up on CubeTutor once I have a first draft. One of the aims is to run a bit fewer customs as well, though they won't be completely gone. Naya is still one of the shards, and Naya's gold cards really, really suck. I mean, a 5/4 for three is cool and all, but you're not going to sacrifice your mana base for that...
Click to expand...



Yeah, Naya's always been one of the more awkward color triplicates. I think they did a real great job defining the Khans triple-colors, so I have high hopes if they eventually return to Alara/remake the shards.
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

Grillo_Parlante said:
First pack was:



From which I took polluted delta. After all, the two best cards in power max are polluted delta and underground sea. :p
Click to expand...

Palinchron isn't a card that I've thought about for some time... how does it perform in cube? Honestly, I really don't have much cubing experience with it.

This is an interesting pack. A good rule to remember for powermax cubes is that lands become MUCH better once the power level hits a certain threshold, because you'll never run out of playables. Since all the cards in your deck are going to be baseline 'good,' fixing becomes all the more important, as it's like stuffing virtually more cards into your deck.

For this pack, imo the choice is between Baneslayer or Delta, depending on how I'm feeling. Oracle of Mul-Daya is baseline good, but you really want to see 1-drop mana dorks before committing to that strategy. The lack of artifacts in my pool and in the pack would make me nervous about picking metalworker. Spell Queller is quite strong in a deck with strong proactive plays that demand answers (like baneslayer angel, for example) as 'O-ring' ing their counterspell is wonderful, and stalling their critical removal for a turn can be devastating to your opponent... but it's 2 colors, so that's a pass for now.
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

Drafted Grillo's cube! My first pack was:





An interesting decision. A lot of these cards are very good, but dependent on conditions within the cube. This is my first time drafting the cube, and I have not looked at the list. I know that Gurmag Angler must be viable as it's in the cube, but just -how- fast is it? How much of a build-around is required, and what average cmc can I expect to see it being cast for? Not sure.

Aviary mechanic surely has a lot of targets in the cube, and a bear isn't half bad. But just how many targets? Again, unclear. This isn't the fault of the cube, mind you, but this is what I'm thinking coming into this with 0 information.

I choose sever the bloodline, as it is a bit slow but excellent removal spell- sure to be solid no matter what. This is what I wound up with:

slovakattack's draft of The Penny Pincher Cube on 18/11/2016 from CubeTutor.com










 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Baneslayer that high kind of surprises me. I always think of that as a solid card, but maybe more of a second pick?

The other card in that pack I was looking at was shrine of burning rage, and than metalworker if I wanted to feel spicy. I didn't look at the list though, and modin's deck biased me away from metal worker. I wasn't sure how good pack rat actually is without looking at the list: I was assuming more the vintage cube, and pack rat really isn't special there.

Palinchron is cool because its a reanimation target that can make infinite mana. I just think its clever the way it lets you splice combo engines together, though the vintage cube supporting pieces are missing (heartbeat of spring, tendrils etc.) to really abuse it, so maybe its better its not here.

That deck looks solid, though you've made the usual error of first time drafters, of running too many lands. Bouncelands let you run 15 land ramp decks, and that list should be 15-16 lands. Its a really nice synergestic deck though, and it pleases me to no end that this is the type of deck you ended up in off of your first draft. You have the savra->shambling shell combo, lots of ways to feed the yard, and ways to exploit it. Good sac. outlets, tutors--the list can pivot on a dime--and some big explosive punch. It looks like it would be a blast to play. Just super solid.

You handled that first pack pretty well, as sever is a perfectly reasonable card. Angler is a very strong card because its too big to be killed by most of the red removal, and black removal struggles to touch it, while its large size means it can beat its way past most ground opposition. Thats what most of its appeal lies on, since you wont be turboing it out. On the other hand, it has no evasion, and can be chumped for ages.

You were correct not to p1p1 aviary mechanic. Thats a support card for exploiting various ETB effects (temples, wellsprings, splicers) in grindy white decks.

That pack is interesting. Though I can't see the last card, the objectively strongest single color card in the pack is master splicer, which probably would have been my pick. There are interesting arguments though in favor of:



Sever, and executioner's capsule are probably not enough to tempt me here, as I generally don't like drafting around removal, unless its something like slaughter. The sylvan ranger pick would be because statistically, it tends to go in winning decks. Scryb ranger is another card that I feel is unassuming, but can do a lot of work with a little effort, applying strong pressure with buffs, or setting up huge blowouts. Swarm of bloodflies can just take over games, and angler can be a tough target to answer.

The raw power of a splicer deck though is hard to turn down, and one its strongest cards are there, so that would probably be my pick.
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

Grillo_Parlante said:
Baneslayer that high kind of surprises me. I always think of that as a solid card, but maybe more of a second pick?
Click to expand...

Honestly, the pack is pretty weak. Pack rat is there for Mono-B beats/Golgari synergy/reanimator synergy, so it isn't a bad pick. My cube isn't -really- vintage cube. It has no storm archetype, as I find storm to be absolutely cancerous to a cubing environment. There are also no signets, so it's really more like (old) Legacy Cube++, so pack rat can pull a game out.

Grillo_Parlante said:
The raw power of a splicer deck though is hard to turn down, and one its strongest cards are there, so that would probably be my pick.
Click to expand...

Didn't give the splicer enough thought, I think. Wasn't sure if there was a 'splicer deck' going on, but the existence of Aviary mechanic probably meant that picking it was the correct choice, and hoping for the Mechanic to wheel. Hindsight is 20/20, of course :p

I've never played a cube with bouncelands before, and def. not double bouncelands, so I wasn't sure how to ajust. Love the cube, though! How much money would you say it cost to build? I have a friend whose birthday is coming up... (crediting you as creator/curator, of course.)
 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
I just priced it on Cubetutor, and it has it at $197.67. Welcome to "budget" magic. This is always a moving target because speculation or format popularity can balloon prices of C/U out of nowhere. There was a point where chromatic stars were going for $10 a pop. :rolleyes:

Cards that break $2, according to cube tutor



I think prowler is the most expensive card in the list, followed by isamaru. Both of those go north of 3 I think, and prowler is either north of 5, or almost at 5.

Of those, stroke, peregrine drake, and muddle are fairly important, and the rest can be substituted for cheaper equivalents.

Shopping efficiently, you can probably get the list down to 150ish? If you're willing to look through a collection for cards you already have, that will prob take at least another 50 off.
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

Grillo_Parlante said:
I just priced it on Cubetutor, and it has it at $197.67. Welcome to "budget" magic. This is always a moving target because speculation or format popularity can balloon prices of C/U out of nowhere. There was a point where chromatic stars were going for $10 a pop. :rolleyes:

Cards that break $2, according to cube tutor



I think prowler is the most expensive card in the list, followed by isamaru. Both of those go north of 3 I think, and prowler is either north of 5, or almost at 5.

Of those, stroke, peregrine drake, and muddle are fairly important, and the rest can be substituted for cheaper equivalents.

Shopping efficiently, you can probably get the list down to 150ish? If you're willing to look through a collection for cards you already have, that will prob take at least another 50 off.
Click to expand...

This was super helpful, thank you! I'm seriously considering it. Did another draft btw! My opening pack was:



There are a lot of great white cards in this pack! I choose Master Splicer, hoping the Stag wheels.


slovakattack's draft of The Penny Pincher Cube on 20/11/2016 from CubeTutor.com












It wound being a bit of a mess, I think. Maybe I'm just tired- I'll try another draft in the morning!
 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
mmmm...not sure how I would handle that pack. Master splicer is a fine pick, but glimmerpoint stag might be objectively better. Its hard to say, because its a new edition, and is supposed to be a "balanced" flickerwisp. If flickerwisp were still in that slot I would probably slam it.

Bone shredder and goblin sharpshooter are the other two cards I would be looking at. A well played sharpshooter is like goblin plague wind, and shredder has a lot of interesting interactions with cheap reanimation, blink, and cantrip bounce.

This is fine, though you're going to have a hard time casting that jor off of two red sources ;)

The deck looks pretty medium, but still good. This is how the splicer archetype ideally comes together. Ideally you would have 1-2 more bouncelands to help out the whelk (and ramp with frantic search), a rusted relic or wing splicer, and a couple more red sources for jor. A temple or two would be sweet.

This is still a good momentary blink deck, and you can punish people for pointing splicers at your removal, with galepowder mage being a synergistic bomb.

Now equipped with the knowledge that I shouldn't be passing swords, I figured I would give your format another whirl

UG tempo from CubeTutor.com











Came out kind of medium. Didn't really see the soft counters or cantrips I wanted until I got to pack three, where there was force spike, consecrated sphinx, mana leak, and impulse all in the same pack.

Probably should have ran sphinx (after picking it), because its an evasive bomb, but I don't know. It was always going to be missing the opposition that it needed to push the deck over the top, and I was more worried about consistency and soft counters, than another curve topper, regardless of how good. I at least have the two temples to help smooth draws, and I did get the force spike on the wheel.

On the plus side, there is a lot of creature theft, ways to convert the dorks into value, recursive elements if I have to grind, ways to push a ground assault, and a bit of a toolbox to address problem permanents.
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

Grillo_Parlante said:
mmmm...not sure how I would handle that pack. Master splicer is a fine pick, but glimmerpoint stag might be objectively better. Its hard to say, because its a new edition, and is supposed to be a "balanced" flickerwisp. If flickerwisp were still in that slot I would probably slam it.

Bone shredder and goblin sharpshooter are the other two cards I would be looking at. A well played sharpshooter is like goblin plague wind, and shredder has a lot of interesting interactions with cheap reanimation, blink, and cantrip bounce.

This is fine, though you're going to have a hard time casting that jor off of two red sources ;)

The deck looks pretty medium, but still good. This is how the splicer archetype ideally comes together. Ideally you would have 1-2 more bouncelands to help out the whelk (and ramp with frantic search), a rusted relic or wing splicer, and a couple more red sources for jor. A temple or two would be sweet.

This is still a good momentary blink deck, and you can punish people for pointing splicers at your removal, with galepowder mage being a synergistic bomb.

Now equipped with the knowledge that I shouldn't be passing swords, I figured I would give your format another whirl


Came out kind of medium. Didn't really see the soft counters or cantrips I wanted until I got to pack three, where there was force spike, consecrated sphinx, mana leak, and impulse all in the same pack.

Probably should have ran sphinx (after picking it), because its an evasive bomb, but I don't know. It was always going to be missing the opposition that it needed to push the deck over the top, and I was more worried about consistency and soft counters, than another curve topper, regardless of how good. I at least have the two temples to help smooth draws, and I did get the force spike on the wheel.

On the plus side, there is a lot of creature theft, ways to convert the dorks into value, recursive elements if I have to grind, ways to push a ground assault, and a bit of a toolbox to address problem permanents.
Click to expand...

In defense of Jor: At that point I was like "I put in my time for my metalcraft value, I'm gonna RUN some metalcraft value!" If it wasn't so late, I'd have put a basic mountain in just for a third source lol. I picked the splicer first, and second-picked into glassdust hulk... but proceeded to get no bouncelands, nor the fabled wing splicer :c

I kinda had to jank it up a bit to make it work.

The deck you drafted looks medium, as you said- but not bad. I'm a little less crazy about swords than most, but it does great work in this deck, turning even your BoP into a legitimate threat.

Consecrated Sphinx is one of the most powerful draft cards ever printed. I would run him in any blue deck I make, and I think he's like my... 3rd pick in the entire cube. Something like that- def. top 5 at least.

The Niblis of Frost kinda sticks out. He's a new addition, but hasn't really impressed me all that much for some reason. I'm still waiting for someone to really make him shine. He's good on paper...

In defense of your deck, sower of temptation becomes much better when you have Sylvan Safekeeper in play :p

Overall, I do like the deck.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Drafted Grillo's cube, p1p1...

Booster.jpg

Went with the Psi Blast, as that's a unique effect blue isn't supposed to get. Then drafted a Jori En in p1p2 and ended up in the Char color anyway!

Onderzeeboot's draft of The Penny Pincher Cube on 20/11/2016 from CubeTutor.com










Eh... It's hard to gauge how bad or good this deck is, but it feels kinda iffy. Not sure it will get there. I feel it lacks a bit of oomph. I do have a Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind in my sideboard, but that card feels like nothing the rest of my deck is trying to do. Which is pretty much cross your fingers and pray that you can keep them off creatures long enough to finish your opponent off. Or equip a flyer, I guess that works as well! Not sure what I was hoping for in {U/R}, but the creatures I saw feel very fragile.

I finally got around to putting up a first draft of my new cube up on CT. Clickity in the signature! Any input is greatly appreciated! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top