Jason Waddell's Cube

[Jason Waddell]

Do Zombies really need all of the help, in addition to the three Gravecrawlers? With two Bloodghasts, two Carrion Feeders, and two Blood Artists, playing against the deck feels like bringing a Limited knife to a Constructed gunfight. Do decks other than the sac / recursion deck ever use Bloodghast or Feeder? I think either one of them could go down to a singleton copy, as having two apiece feels a bit poison principle-y to me.

• Like I said in the other thread, more ways to interact with the Pod combo decks. Yeah, yeah, you can race it. But can you? CML's deck was the midrangiest deck to ever range a midrange. It beats the snot out of all of the other decks in a fair fight, nineteen times out of twenty three. But is it realistic to expect a G/U deck to kill on turn five or six through blockers every game?

• Uh, well the difference here is that the sacrifice stuff is one of the major themes of the set. Bloodghasts see play in black aggro (which generally has some degree of sacrifice to it). Ghast gets played in random Pod decks. What would you suggest to replace Carrion Feeder? A random Diregraf Ghoul? It's not like any other decks are clamoring for those either. I don't see them being all that different than, say, Goblin Guide and Stormblood Berserker. They go in attacking decks of a certain color.

 

[Laz]

One of the best Bloodghast decks I have played was a grindy Trading Post deck...

In terms of durdle cards, Trading Post is the most awesome of them. Play it.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Okay, so far here are slots that are open for redistribution:


[] Young Pyromancer
[] Spikeshot Elder
[] Gitaxian Probe
[] Gitaxian Probe
[] Wasteland

 

[anotak]

btw i like oblivion stone's gameplay over nevinyrral's disk just because its less of an investment to play at first but then its much less oppressive once its out because you cant just leave 1 mana open and play a 3 drop 4 drop etc if you want to use it. it's probably a worse card but more fun

 

[Jason Waddell]

Out:

 

[Jason Waddell]

In:

 

[Jason Waddell]

Awful idea: what if we ran shocks, except for duals in the colors that need the most help (say, within the Esper shard)

 

[Jason Waddell]

Here's what I'm testing next draft as the dual land cycles.

 

[Eric Chan]

I tried Emeria Angel for a long long time trying to make it a thing.. it wasn't

 

[Jason Waddell]

I tried Emeria Angel for a long long time trying to make it a thing.. it wasn't

Hmm... I remember it being fine here, but I took it out to reduce board clog.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Pick 2.

 

[Eric Chan]

garruk and garruk

 

[Changling Bob]

damnit i was going to make that post

 

[Eric Chan]

More of a real answer: I suspect that Relentless is the weakest of the bunch, but he is the easiest to cast, whereas Primal Hunter only goes in the heavy green deck. Then again, I'm running the big five mana lug, so take my word with plenty of salt.

Dom is probably right here, in that the two four mana options are optimal, despite clogging up that point on the curve.

In general, I wouldn't be averse to seeing more planeswalkers in your cube, especially if it helps out control. The one Legacy control deck that I know of (there's probably plenty more, I don't follow the format) plays a grip full of walkers to help in stabilizing, and I think that's the missing piece in your cube's control decks. Having only removal, counters, and six-mana finishers isn't usually enough to get the job done, because some of those creatures keep coming back forever.

 

[Jason Waddell]

More of a real answer: I suspect that Relentless is the weakest of the bunch, but he is the easiest to cast, whereas Primal Hunter only goes in the heavy green deck. Then again, I'm running the big five mana lug, so take my word with plenty of salt.

Dom is probably right here, in that the two four mana options are optimal, despite clogging up that point on the curve.

In general, I wouldn't be averse to seeing more planeswalkers in your cube, especially if it helps out control. The one Legacy control deck that I know of (there's probably plenty more, I don't follow the format) plays a grip full of walkers to help in stabilizing, and I think that's the missing piece in your cube's control decks. Having only removal, counters, and six-mana finishers isn't usually enough to get the job done, because some of those creatures keep coming back forever.

Do you have specific Planeswalker adds? I just included Tamiyo. Cut one of the aggro walkers and add Ral Zarek? 4's Galore?

 

[anotak]

[08:25:01] anotak: control fix idea: uw scryland in utility draft
[08:25:45] Jason Waddell: only the UW one?
[08:25:54] anotak: idk maybe more
[08:26:21] anotak: i dont like this being color imbalanced entirely though
[08:26:33] anotak: bc theres plenty of control decks outside of esper
[08:26:57 | Edited 08:27:04] anotak: like just grixis or america or board controlly stuff like the rock or red or black or rakdos
[08:27:15] Jason Waddell: we're doing blue duals to test, not esper now
[08:27:20] anotak: ah
[08:27:30] Jason Waddell: just to test
[08:27:45] Jason Waddell: but all the color combinations are asymetric anyways
[08:27:53] anotak: the reason i said temples
[08:28:00] anotak: is because they are at their peak in a control deck
[08:28:04] Jason Waddell: right
[08:28:34] Jason Waddell: I don't want too much fixing in the land draft though, but it's worth considering
[08:28:46] Jason Waddell: I hadn't thought of it before
[08:29:15] anotak: maybe 1 pick = 1 temple but then nobody can pick any temple after
[08:29:23] anotak: like its any temple

 

[Jason Waddell]

[08:29:15] anotak: maybe 1 pick = 1 temple but then nobody can pick any temple after
[08:29:23] anotak: like its any temple

We're doing it.

 

[Eric Chan]

I don't think cutting any of the aggro walkers is necessary, as they should get to play ball too. I just mean a net addition of planeswalkers. Tamiyo is a definite must. Do you already run Gideon Jura? It's too bad all the black walkers suck. One of the Chandras? And yeah, gold walkers can't hurt, they're already limited in scope by being two colours. Kiora!

 

[James Stevenson]

So you didn't go for Cruel Ultimatum?

I like what you're doing with the lands, by the way.

 

[Jason Waddell]

If I put in Cruel Ultimatum will people stop talking about Cruel Ultimatum?

I assume we'd need a Chromatic Lantern.

 

[Eric Chan]

Your cube is probably entirely too fast for Cruel, on second thought. That, and four Wastelands means it's more likely that CML never posts a rant on libertarians again than it is that someone assembles .

But who knows. Try it and find out!

 

[anotak]

you really dont need cruel
its sweet and all but its not needed at all and it only helps that specific color combination

 

[CML]

I think it's worth a slot, it might not be for you though

My biggest suggestion is to try 25 fetchable duals and see what happens, if only for a week. 10 ABU + 10 Shocks + godless shrine, overgrown tomb, breeding pool, steam vents, sacred foundry

Last thing: Primal Hunter. Dog can keep up with assholes chaining Sphinx's Revelations

 

[Jason Waddell]

My biggest suggestion is to try 25 fetchable duals and see what happens, if only for a week. 10 ABU + 10 Shocks + godless shrine, overgrown tomb, breeding pool, steam vents, sacred foundry

I don't really see what this achieves. You need fewer duals than fetches in your deck anyways, and it's never been an issue for people to get at least one relevant shockland for their deck. Sometimes you have to prioritize it super highly but that's fine. It also feels like choosing enemy lands over any other five-card cycle (e.g allied, RTR, GTC, whatever) is pretty arbitrary and just satisfying personal proclivities. Not really convinced this is worth 5 slots. Or any.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Cruel probably doesn't fit. But assuming you're okay with your cube being 359 cards for the possability of some sweet stories, I'd go for it. That's basically the justification I gave myself

I'd keep all 3 garruks. Fight garruk is sweet in aggro, regular garruk is a nice midrangey grindy card who can help out in ramp, and angsty draw cards garruk says "pay attention to me or die!"

Probably shocks + duals. I don't really see much argument one way or another for changing it, and I think double shock ends up with too much pain, and double dual is okay, but without draft incentives and decisions in game.