By: Jason Waddell
My article recording a second draft of my paper cube went online today. This was a draft I had quite a bit of trouble with. I mentioned in the article the difficulty of recording games as a control player and still finding the best lines, but I think that was only part of the issue.
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The deck felt very outdated. This sort of control deck would have easily run the cube tables a couple years ago, but times have gotten faster. I’ve given the aggro decks the power boost that they so desperately needed, and slow control decks are naturally one of the casualties. That said, I wasn’t even facing aggressive decks in this draft.
Let’s compare to another cube deck of mine that did go undefeated.
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These two decks have a lot of cards in common, but the Bant deck is much punchier. Deathrite Shaman and Lotus Cobra gave the deck some explosive openings, and our early game threat density is much higher. This Bant deck was loaded with 3-drops that could take over the game, and its 4- and 5-drops hit the table earlier due to acceleration.
I’m still trying to diagnose exactly what went wrong with the draft. Simple play errors? Did I get unlucky? Did failing to secure mana for the green splash cripple the deck? Are there cards missing from my environment that slower control decks need for a bit of a boost?
How would the UW control deck perform in your cubes?
Thanks for reading, and help me solve this mystery in our forums.