Shamim's Cube
- Thread starter shamizy
- Start date
Oh, I was initially but then I took your comment to be asking about draft packs in general. Whoops.
I'm only able to fit 15, but I should mention that I use the combination of KMC Perfect Hards + Dragonshield Mattes. KMC Perfect Hards are MUCH thicker than KMC Perfect Fits. I sleeve up all my EDH decks in this same combo and I'd say that it's around 1 1/2 times larger than a typical 99 card deck; there is a very noticeable difference in thickness. You get the benefits of much better protection and sturdiness (I've never had a single PH split on me in like 5 years of using them exclusively), but that comes with additional size.
I think you'd be able to fit 16-17 double-sleeved cards in a Cubeamajig with PFs, but 15 seems about the limit with PHs.
Thanks!
Cool cube, btw. CubeCobra is keeping me from editing my decks, but I managed to get a screenshot of my second draft before it crapped out on me. P1P1'd the Dig Through Time -> Young Pyromancer -> Mother of Runes -> Arid Mesa (? I think? Or Bitterblossom) -> Mardu crats/aggro.
It definitely feels like I got there on 1/2 drops, but the 3/4 drop slot felt crowded. Tasigur is a big, undercosted beater, but I'm genuinely unsure as to whether I should be running the Angel or not.
Cuts are probably Stitcher's Supplier and Faithless Looting. Maybe also Git Probe/Bauble? I haven't played with either and I'm unsure as to what types of decks appreciate them or not. The only beneficiaries of them are Tasigur, Young Pyro, Grim Lavamancer, and Monastery Swiftspear, which might not be enough, but I can double up on the Pyro (though I think Champ is the correct pick for the voucher).
Teleportation Circle might just stay in? Angel, Seasoned Pyro, and Blade Splicer are probably pretty strong targets, and Champion of the Parish and Corpse Knight get paid off in a big way.
Anyways, cuts are hard and I don't like them. But the deck looks sick! I feel like I want to go to 15 lands, maybe 16 if I cut both Probe and Bauble and keep Smokestack/Rankle/Circle/Angel. How accurate is this to your experience with your cube?
Cool cube, btw. CubeCobra is keeping me from editing my decks, but I managed to get a screenshot of my second draft before it crapped out on me. P1P1'd the Dig Through Time -> Young Pyromancer -> Mother of Runes -> Arid Mesa (? I think? Or Bitterblossom) -> Mardu crats/aggro.
It definitely feels like I got there on 1/2 drops, but the 3/4 drop slot felt crowded. Tasigur is a big, undercosted beater, but I'm genuinely unsure as to whether I should be running the Angel or not.
Cuts are probably Stitcher's Supplier and Faithless Looting. Maybe also Git Probe/Bauble? I haven't played with either and I'm unsure as to what types of decks appreciate them or not. The only beneficiaries of them are Tasigur, Young Pyro, Grim Lavamancer, and Monastery Swiftspear, which might not be enough, but I can double up on the Pyro (though I think Champ is the correct pick for the voucher).
Teleportation Circle might just stay in? Angel, Seasoned Pyro, and Blade Splicer are probably pretty strong targets, and Champion of the Parish and Corpse Knight get paid off in a big way.
Anyways, cuts are hard and I don't like them. But the deck looks sick! I feel like I want to go to 15 lands, maybe 16 if I cut both Probe and Bauble and keep Smokestack/Rankle/Circle/Angel. How accurate is this to your experience with your cube?
don’t cut the free cantrips!
Yeah, Cobra has been kinda buggy like that for the last couple weeks. I usually have to just refresh after completing the draft and go back into the deck lists to get a chance to edit after the fact.
This deck looks like it wants to push into being a kind RW Aggro/Stax Hybrid splashing black. Initially I was thinking to lean more stax-y with your pool, but there are actually a decent number of humans to work with. Doubling up on Champ and leaning a little more aggressive, using removal when necessary and growing vertical ala triggers and stuff like Luminarch Aspirant, seems like the plan to me. Using Teleportation Circle in the way you mentioned does seem pretty viable and not something I had considered. I've seen a lot of cool uses for that card since I've included it like blinking a Cursed Mirror for some copying or a Retrofitter Foundry for another activation. I tend to view it more durdly, but it just might be able to work with what you've got cooking.
I think if there was like one or two more instants to work with ala Valorous Stance or Stoke the Flames that a Mardu tokens build would totally be viable here after doubling upon the Young Pyromancers. Really the only thing that seems to be missing is a card to let you get that splash drain damage ala Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat. Brutal Hordechief would have been a really good top-end as well.
And yeah, cuts are always the toughest part. This one is kinda difficult to gauge as I usually see stax pieces in lower curve BW decks and Circle + Angel in durdlier blink or value decks which makes it easy to slot. You've kinda ended up in the middle here where you seem to be able to go either way depending on your cuts. For myself I usually go into the draft trying to slot into a 2 color pair and maybe splash a 3rd color most of the time so I usually stay grounded unless I see enough fixing early to let me get greedy with it. If my fixing ends up being too good (I know, terrible problem to have), then being able to just play everything makes cuts much harder in the long run.
I think here I'd go lean with it and cut out a lot of the threes, Angel, and Circle and then push going wide early and topping off with Rankle and Smokestack to whittle down resources. Tasigur can also stay as a cheap body to deploy once we've grinded down a bit (he's a human too!) even if we can never actually activate. A 4/5 is just a beefy body to help close things out on the ground if Rankle is also applying pressure in the air.
Thanks for drafting!
Had some friends visiting town over the weekend for the first time in long while and we were able to fire off an 8-man pod. I was pretty busy through much of 2022 with other projects and commitments so cubing went by the wayside as mostly a theoretical exercise, but nothing beats actually being able to play with the cards in person. Lots of interesting decks were drafted this time around and I finally got to see the many swaps from the last year in action. All but one player had played a previous iteration of my cube in the past, but for a few of them it had been years since their last session (with many iterations in between) so it was more or less a brand new cube experience.
This gave me a unique opportunity to see how experienced Magic players navigated the signals and archetypal signposts that I've been working on for the last few years (everyone who drafted has been playing the game on and off for much of the last decade). It also let me follow up and see if unfamiliar drafters felt like they were missing anything as they went into the archetypes they were able to identify. Lots of gameplay with cool decks and individual cards to analyze, let's jump right into it.
As we shuffled up and prepared packs, I gave everyone a brief refresher of the various draft enhancements and the ULD that would follow while reminding them of what the various stickers on cards meant in my cube. This process was made easier because earlier in the day I had finally gotten around to printing out this handy legend that a friend of mine put together a year ago along with my updated Duplicate Voucher:
I ended up drafting a classic U/B Reanimator deck:
Usually I'm the one who ends going into an aggressive deck or trying to showcase a new archetype or feature of the cube when I see it open, but I decided to keep it simple this time with a basic UB Reanimator shell. I didn't have an incredible P1P1 as I somehow ended up with a pack that featured like 8 green cards but nothing that really stuck out so I kept open with a Watery Grave. A few packs came around and I picked up a handful of different cards probing into different colors that ended up being outside my final build, but it wasn't until midway through that I saw reanimation support come my way with Exhume and a big body that I had passed earlier. Over the next couple of picks I was able to supplement with some on-color fetches, a Damnation, and wheeled back a Noxious Gearhulk that left me firmly in the archetype. In almost every draft if I see an early wrath come my way I'm usually going to lean towards a grindier build so when I saw a Languish not long afterwards I went all in. Picking up additional big targets in Sheoldred, Whispering One and Phyrexian Fleshgorger (I love this one's design for multiple archetypes), enablers like Thirst for Knowledge and Stitcher's Supplier, and wheeling Dread Return all gave me a great base to work off.
Strangely I didn't actually see a ton of blue come my way (which will make sense later), so I was leaning mostly black. I didn't have too many great sideboard cards, but I did pick up a copy of Thassa's Oracle to serve a potential secondary win-con for certain matches where I might not be able to pull off the reanimator plan effectively. What I was really hoping for during the draft to get some more consistency was Mesmeric Orb, but it never came my way and was snapped up on the other side of the table.
In the first round I went up against classic Mono-Red Aggro:
When she began with a T1 Monastery Swiftspear on the play all I was hoping for was to get to 4 mana so that I could get to the Damnation in my hand and then find an opening to pitch and reanimate a big body. She got going with a few one drops, but got stuck on 2 lands early which gave me the time to stabilize with a board wipe and then pitch + reanimate a Noxious Gearhulk to close out the game shortly thereafter. The second game was unfortunately more of the same with Michelle running into mana issues and not drawing a 3rd lane till later in the game which gave me the time to draw into some more action with a Baleful Strix, dig deep and then pitch some fatties with Thirst for Knowledge, and then finally bring back a Sheoldred, Whispering One with Dread Return to then lock the game up with extra value. She did get me all the way down to around 7 life and a swing would have put me at 2, but lucky for me she didn't have the burn necessary for the final points of damage.
If the red deck had been able to curve out as expected it's very likely that the result might have been flipped as my deck didn't have many ways to keep the board in check barring a timely wrath. After looking over the unopened packs with the 60 cards that didn't make the final 360 pool, it seems that's where the burn ala Lightning Bolt and Char ended up.
When the 2nd round came up, I went up against a classic in cube in Black-White Humans:
Initially this felt like a good match-up if I could contain the board early with spot removal for relevant threats and then branch into either Damnation or Languish to clean up. I had the Damnation in my opening hand and probably would have gone according to plan in Game 1 if I had ever seen a 2nd black source, but instead he was able to develop his board and stick a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that bought him the crucial extra turn before I could snipe a relevant threat. I did manage to draw into a Swamp at one point for a 2nd black source, but this was the turn after a Dark Confidant flip netted him a Wasteland which he then promptly used to take out my early Watery Grave and effectively limited me to just blue cards.
The 2nd game was a little different, felt like I had a little more game, but ultimately he stuck a Mother of Runes that let him protect a Thalia and other creatures which rendered my spot removal highly ineffective while my chump blockers couldn't buy me enough time to branch into a big play. I somehow got stuck on black sources again with a Phyrexian Fleshgorger stuck in my hand, and by the time I drew my Polluted Delta I had already fallen to 3 life from having to tank a few hits after a Champion of the Parish and co. kept growing due to a Siege Veteran and his board was too wide for me to come back from.
I was glad to see that someone who had not drafted this cube in years was able to identify the archetype and utilize the voucher system effectively. Vertical growth in W/x Aggro is such an important axis to design around because it's the one thing that allows it to differentiate itself from superior options in Red and now Black which has avenues for additional reach via burn and life drain. The additions of Luminarch Aspirant and Siege Veteran in recent years have really taken it to another level where they represent a walker-lite advantage engine for aggressive decks. Maul of the Skyclaves is also great in being able to get in that one crucial hit via evasion that could drop someone from a healthy 10 to a worrisome 5 life out of nowhere. These also reinforce my take that Champion of the Parish should be a 1 drop aggressive staple for the majority of traditional cubes with how easy it is to establish a humans subtheme with only a handful of swaps and design choices. Seriously, it just needs to get to a 3/3 to be better than almost every other aggressive one-drop you can think of.
Ajani Goldmane was a classic curve-topper a decade ago for W/x Aggro, but both of the creatures mentioned above are far more useful by contributing earlier to the damage output while having the crucial human subtype for relevant synergies. Maximization of the early game is the most important thing for aggressive decks to accomplish and vertical growth gives it so much additional game without have to rely upon brute force curve-toppers.
All that said, this was a pretty quick round with me getting unceremoniously stomped, so until my next match-up was ready to go I played a few games with another friend who drafted a B/R Aggro deck with a dash of Aristocrats and Stax action:
A lot of different possible lines in this deck ranging from going with the typical aggressive gameplan of cheap bodies and going wide, some additional reach via Vraan, Executioner Thane and Judith, the Scourge Diva, and some fallback options with Tangle Wire and Smokestack for stax action. There is potential for vertical growth (albeit with more steps) through Carrion Feeder and Champion of the Perished interactions with Gravecrawler and the tokens from Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia, a whole recursive creature suite in the 2 drop slot, and Rabblemasters at the 3 to keep the bodies coming and making the opponent make some touch decisions with how to reploy removal. The rest of us were pretty lucky that a duplicate voucher didn't come around his way because it would have been even more absurd with a 2nd Gravecrawler and luckily someone else sniped the Midnight Reaper in the draft to prevent the card draw engine. I would be interesting in seeing how far a full Aristocrats build might be able to go in the future so I'll definitely need to keep something like Morbid Opportunist in mind as a potential add.
In my final round I played against a 4C Green deck that seemed to revolve around a base of Wrenn and Six and Felidar Retreat.
This is a deck looks to be a base Naya build with centerpieces in Wrenn and Six to fix colors and Felidar Retreat to turn land drops into resources to outvalue the opponent. There are a lot of neat little synergies between the modern-lite utility land package via Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance and Tranquil Thicket for generating W6 value, Kavu to rummage through the deck while also growing cards like Knight of the Reliquary, and some good old classic ramp via dorks and Garruk Wildspeaker into a Prime Time. The one Island looks to be just to enable a full Domain 5/5 Territorial Kavu every now and then.
We split the first two games but then he got the best of me in G3 when I fired off a Damnation a turn too early as we were both slow to develop our boards but then he followed up with more action that I could answer by playing out a Deep Forest Hermit and growing his wide board from Felidar Retreat triggers off fetches. It was too much damage over too many bodies and I just couldn't answer them effectively before he sniped me with a Red Sun's Zenith for the win. Another unfortunate thing that wound up happening was that I had churned through a good portion of my deck, nearly got to my final 2-3 cards, but it turns out I had sided out the Thassa's Oracle I was previously mainboarding for a bit. I think there was a series of plays ala Sticher's Supplier and Master of Death recursion that might have been able to pull it off, but that SB decision backfired.
After our games he let me know of a sweet play he had done in the last round where he sideboarded into his copies of Wildfire and Burning of Xinye for a match and had managed to fire them both off, completely taking his opponent off lands, while retaining a Golos on his side of the field. Just brutal.
After wrapping up my final round I had enough time to check out the final game in the 2-0 bracket which was between the BW Humans deck from earlier and this ridiculous UW Control deck:
So this is where the cantrips ended up! I was looking for a few later in the draft to help smooth out some of my draws as filler, but they clearly ended up on the other side of the table with this classic UW Control shell. Three creatures, two manlands, and a whole suite of removal and counterspells. Not sure what else I can say about this as it just looks to be a disgustingly efficient version of this archetype. It was pushed to its limits with the BW Humans deck splitting the 1st two games, but by the time I tuned in the UW deck had already had 8 lands out and seems like it had managed the board effectively with a number of spot removal spells and a wrath in the graveyard. It's always nice to have tight lists like this crop up in my environment as a reminder that while 4c+ is a viable option for those looking to be extra greedy, the tighter builds for 2C archetypes usually tend to win out based off the 3-0 lists I've compiled over the years.
Finally, to close out the night I played a few games for fun against this unique 60 card Birthing Pod deck that featured Yorion as a companion:
This one was a little funny as the drafter went in pretty deep with an early Yorion, Sky Nomad and somehow managed to put together this functional build. It's more a mash-up of Pod with some neat lines as well as value-driven ETB cards to rebuy cards and push some advantages. The cross section that arose with something like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling being a poddable Conjurer's Closet represented a number of interesting lines via resetting Kitchen Finks, drawing cards through the Zegana, Utopian Speaker, or just giving big beaters like Tasigur pseudo-vigilance. In our games he wasn't able to stick an early pod, but going to the blink plan was good enough to grind for a bit as we split the 1st two games. The final match was going in my favor and I had managed to stabilize + rebuy a Noxious Gearhulk that might have been able to close it out, but a Zealous Conscripts off the top let him flip the tables and get the win.
Yorion wasn't a thing during our matches, but there was one memorable sequence as I watched an earlier match. There was an active Corpse Knight on the field as well as a flipped Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. The game had ground to a stall, but he had a few other bodies on the field and had gotten to 8+ lands which gave him the ability to end step make a copy of the Knight, untap and make another copy of the Knight, and then put Yorion in hand + deploy it to blink other creatures to get a massive drain for 12+ and close it out. Really sweet interaction and Fable continues to be one of the most fun cards to play with from recent sets.
And the final deck that I didn't get to highlight here due to not playing against it is this GW Artifacts deck built around Urza's Saga:
I'm going to hold off on on any analysis for this deck list because I'd like to dive deeper in a follow-up post later this week when I have more time. I've never considered the possibility of a GW artifact centric deck, but seeing someone P1P1 the Saga and then try to build one makes me wonder if a few swaps here and there is all it would take to make it a fully viable archetype. Most of my support is based in lands or +1/+1 counters oriented midrange decks, but this piqued my interest as a archetype subtheme and made me want to revisit a few cards from recent sets that didn't get there previously.
But for now, let's move onto some individual cards I wanted to highlight from these games:
Powerhouse piece of removal. I'm a big fan of edicts to keep the removal suite varied and this is the best variant we've ever gotten. Being able to snipe specific card types just adds a whole other level of play to this. I was able to use it throughout the day to snipe a Deep Forest Hermit off a board with squirrels, a Karnstruct token that might have grown out of control, and a walker that was otherwise safe behind blockers.
Figure of Destiny and Warden of the First Tree have always put in work for me and the Sleeper is the latest version tailor-made for B/x Aggro decks. The two biggest issues you run into with aggressive decks, as I've mentioned many times in the past, is the brick wall you run into once the opponent stabilizes. Mitigation of this through alternative avenues to victory either via burn or drain is the most viable solution, but we've gotten two options in the last half year in Sleeper and Recruitment Officer that allow aggro to channel that excess mana into cards. Threats that can continue to apply pressure and serve as a mana sink without further commitment to the board are essential for these archetypes.
I ran out to buy a copy of one of these from another store before my draft and I'm glad I did because I think it was a very solid card to see in action. I'm still not a fan of ability counters, but this one was self-contained enough that I can just think of it like I do other Figure style cards and appreciate the gameplay it provides.
I was impressed by this card when I played in my Brother's War Prerelease pool due to the recursive ability at 6 mana which gave me a lot of extra options in the late game, but this feels like it's got even greater potential in my cube. The zombie synergies are relevant for Gravecrawler and Cryptbreaker, the abundant fixing + ULD gives a higher probability of turning that recursion on for a mere
, and it's a perfectly serviceable 3/1 for 2 on its own. Being able to use it as sac fodder for triggers and then recur in the late game of grindier matches with a +1/+1 counter is just gravy. This is a very dense card and exactly the kind of addition I love for cube.
Simplicity in card design is something I've come to appreciate more in recent years with where Magic design has been headed. Seems like there are whole cards with paragraphs to parse through nowadays with weird fringe interactions and abilities that thrive in Limited but are tedious to track elsewhere. No such issues with the Devastator. It's equal parts modal hasty threat for R/x Aggro decks, a curve-topper in a ramp build, and just very efficient at getting the job done. Sometimes all you need is a Lava Axe to close out the game and having the ability to play this effectively at all points of the game will give this staying power in my cube for a long time. Just a great clean design that does exactly what you would expect.
This final batch is just filled with cards that I like including in my cube with the hopes that they will reach the drafter in a particular archetype. Lay Down Arms isn't premier removal on the level of Path or Swords, but it can be just as effective in W/x decks featuring a lot of plains and is very helpful for Aggro in clearing blockers at such a low CMC. Same for Cut Down which isn't universal removal but can be crucial in killing creatures early in the game to buy time or clear the way. I especially like the counterplay that arises against +1/+1 counters where the right call might be to just fire it off at sorcery speed. Exquisite Firecraft and Radiant Flames are older cards getting another run, but it's nice to have cards that reward certain drafters for sticking to their gameplans. 4 damage to the face can be a lot when it comes to closing out the game and firing off a Flames with 3 colors is often times good enough to stabilize against aggressive decks even with the tempo hit of fetching tapped lands to fix the mana base. Little decision points make all the difference when it comes to a varied removal suite and lead to better gameplay from what I've seen the last decade.
And that's a wrap! I'm about to begin a small project of marking tokens + their producers with some stickers for easy reference which should give me a good opportunity to snap some pictures and recap some of the pick-ups I've made over the last year to bring my cube even closer towards completion (as promised last year). I hope to have a deeper dive into some ideas I've got for that GW Artifacts build later this week (with changes already made on Cobra). I've gone back and touched up the overview for my cube on Cobra so give it a look sometime and maybe a draft once Cobra gets their bots fixed up. Once I wrap up a few projects that are currently in the works by the summer time my goal is to re-establish cube drafts every 6-8 weeks so stay tuned for more of these reports later this year (hopefully!).
Thanks for reading!
This gave me a unique opportunity to see how experienced Magic players navigated the signals and archetypal signposts that I've been working on for the last few years (everyone who drafted has been playing the game on and off for much of the last decade). It also let me follow up and see if unfamiliar drafters felt like they were missing anything as they went into the archetypes they were able to identify. Lots of gameplay with cool decks and individual cards to analyze, let's jump right into it.
As we shuffled up and prepared packs, I gave everyone a brief refresher of the various draft enhancements and the ULD that would follow while reminding them of what the various stickers on cards meant in my cube. This process was made easier because earlier in the day I had finally gotten around to printing out this handy legend that a friend of mine put together a year ago along with my updated Duplicate Voucher:
I ended up drafting a classic U/B Reanimator deck:
U/B Reanimator [Shamim]
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Usually I'm the one who ends going into an aggressive deck or trying to showcase a new archetype or feature of the cube when I see it open, but I decided to keep it simple this time with a basic UB Reanimator shell. I didn't have an incredible P1P1 as I somehow ended up with a pack that featured like 8 green cards but nothing that really stuck out so I kept open with a Watery Grave. A few packs came around and I picked up a handful of different cards probing into different colors that ended up being outside my final build, but it wasn't until midway through that I saw reanimation support come my way with Exhume and a big body that I had passed earlier. Over the next couple of picks I was able to supplement with some on-color fetches, a Damnation, and wheeled back a Noxious Gearhulk that left me firmly in the archetype. In almost every draft if I see an early wrath come my way I'm usually going to lean towards a grindier build so when I saw a Languish not long afterwards I went all in. Picking up additional big targets in Sheoldred, Whispering One and Phyrexian Fleshgorger (I love this one's design for multiple archetypes), enablers like Thirst for Knowledge and Stitcher's Supplier, and wheeling Dread Return all gave me a great base to work off.
Strangely I didn't actually see a ton of blue come my way (which will make sense later), so I was leaning mostly black. I didn't have too many great sideboard cards, but I did pick up a copy of Thassa's Oracle to serve a potential secondary win-con for certain matches where I might not be able to pull off the reanimator plan effectively. What I was really hoping for during the draft to get some more consistency was Mesmeric Orb, but it never came my way and was snapped up on the other side of the table.
In the first round I went up against classic Mono-Red Aggro:
Mono-Red Aggro [Michelle]
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When she began with a T1 Monastery Swiftspear on the play all I was hoping for was to get to 4 mana so that I could get to the Damnation in my hand and then find an opening to pitch and reanimate a big body. She got going with a few one drops, but got stuck on 2 lands early which gave me the time to stabilize with a board wipe and then pitch + reanimate a Noxious Gearhulk to close out the game shortly thereafter. The second game was unfortunately more of the same with Michelle running into mana issues and not drawing a 3rd lane till later in the game which gave me the time to draw into some more action with a Baleful Strix, dig deep and then pitch some fatties with Thirst for Knowledge, and then finally bring back a Sheoldred, Whispering One with Dread Return to then lock the game up with extra value. She did get me all the way down to around 7 life and a swing would have put me at 2, but lucky for me she didn't have the burn necessary for the final points of damage.
If the red deck had been able to curve out as expected it's very likely that the result might have been flipped as my deck didn't have many ways to keep the board in check barring a timely wrath. After looking over the unopened packs with the 60 cards that didn't make the final 360 pool, it seems that's where the burn ala Lightning Bolt and Char ended up.
When the 2nd round came up, I went up against a classic in cube in Black-White Humans:
BW Humans [David]
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Initially this felt like a good match-up if I could contain the board early with spot removal for relevant threats and then branch into either Damnation or Languish to clean up. I had the Damnation in my opening hand and probably would have gone according to plan in Game 1 if I had ever seen a 2nd black source, but instead he was able to develop his board and stick a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that bought him the crucial extra turn before I could snipe a relevant threat. I did manage to draw into a Swamp at one point for a 2nd black source, but this was the turn after a Dark Confidant flip netted him a Wasteland which he then promptly used to take out my early Watery Grave and effectively limited me to just blue cards.
The 2nd game was a little different, felt like I had a little more game, but ultimately he stuck a Mother of Runes that let him protect a Thalia and other creatures which rendered my spot removal highly ineffective while my chump blockers couldn't buy me enough time to branch into a big play. I somehow got stuck on black sources again with a Phyrexian Fleshgorger stuck in my hand, and by the time I drew my Polluted Delta I had already fallen to 3 life from having to tank a few hits after a Champion of the Parish and co. kept growing due to a Siege Veteran and his board was too wide for me to come back from.
I was glad to see that someone who had not drafted this cube in years was able to identify the archetype and utilize the voucher system effectively. Vertical growth in W/x Aggro is such an important axis to design around because it's the one thing that allows it to differentiate itself from superior options in Red and now Black which has avenues for additional reach via burn and life drain. The additions of Luminarch Aspirant and Siege Veteran in recent years have really taken it to another level where they represent a walker-lite advantage engine for aggressive decks. Maul of the Skyclaves is also great in being able to get in that one crucial hit via evasion that could drop someone from a healthy 10 to a worrisome 5 life out of nowhere. These also reinforce my take that Champion of the Parish should be a 1 drop aggressive staple for the majority of traditional cubes with how easy it is to establish a humans subtheme with only a handful of swaps and design choices. Seriously, it just needs to get to a 3/3 to be better than almost every other aggressive one-drop you can think of.
Ajani Goldmane was a classic curve-topper a decade ago for W/x Aggro, but both of the creatures mentioned above are far more useful by contributing earlier to the damage output while having the crucial human subtype for relevant synergies. Maximization of the early game is the most important thing for aggressive decks to accomplish and vertical growth gives it so much additional game without have to rely upon brute force curve-toppers.
All that said, this was a pretty quick round with me getting unceremoniously stomped, so until my next match-up was ready to go I played a few games with another friend who drafted a B/R Aggro deck with a dash of Aristocrats and Stax action:
Rakdos Sacggro [Henry]
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A lot of different possible lines in this deck ranging from going with the typical aggressive gameplan of cheap bodies and going wide, some additional reach via Vraan, Executioner Thane and Judith, the Scourge Diva, and some fallback options with Tangle Wire and Smokestack for stax action. There is potential for vertical growth (albeit with more steps) through Carrion Feeder and Champion of the Perished interactions with Gravecrawler and the tokens from Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia, a whole recursive creature suite in the 2 drop slot, and Rabblemasters at the 3 to keep the bodies coming and making the opponent make some touch decisions with how to reploy removal. The rest of us were pretty lucky that a duplicate voucher didn't come around his way because it would have been even more absurd with a 2nd Gravecrawler and luckily someone else sniped the Midnight Reaper in the draft to prevent the card draw engine. I would be interesting in seeing how far a full Aristocrats build might be able to go in the future so I'll definitely need to keep something like Morbid Opportunist in mind as a potential add.
In my final round I played against a 4C Green deck that seemed to revolve around a base of Wrenn and Six and Felidar Retreat.
4C Green [Peicong]
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This is a deck looks to be a base Naya build with centerpieces in Wrenn and Six to fix colors and Felidar Retreat to turn land drops into resources to outvalue the opponent. There are a lot of neat little synergies between the modern-lite utility land package via Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance and Tranquil Thicket for generating W6 value, Kavu to rummage through the deck while also growing cards like Knight of the Reliquary, and some good old classic ramp via dorks and Garruk Wildspeaker into a Prime Time. The one Island looks to be just to enable a full Domain 5/5 Territorial Kavu every now and then.
We split the first two games but then he got the best of me in G3 when I fired off a Damnation a turn too early as we were both slow to develop our boards but then he followed up with more action that I could answer by playing out a Deep Forest Hermit and growing his wide board from Felidar Retreat triggers off fetches. It was too much damage over too many bodies and I just couldn't answer them effectively before he sniped me with a Red Sun's Zenith for the win. Another unfortunate thing that wound up happening was that I had churned through a good portion of my deck, nearly got to my final 2-3 cards, but it turns out I had sided out the Thassa's Oracle I was previously mainboarding for a bit. I think there was a series of plays ala Sticher's Supplier and Master of Death recursion that might have been able to pull it off, but that SB decision backfired.
After our games he let me know of a sweet play he had done in the last round where he sideboarded into his copies of Wildfire and Burning of Xinye for a match and had managed to fire them both off, completely taking his opponent off lands, while retaining a Golos on his side of the field. Just brutal.
After wrapping up my final round I had enough time to check out the final game in the 2-0 bracket which was between the BW Humans deck from earlier and this ridiculous UW Control deck:
Classic UW Control [Ryan]
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So this is where the cantrips ended up! I was looking for a few later in the draft to help smooth out some of my draws as filler, but they clearly ended up on the other side of the table with this classic UW Control shell. Three creatures, two manlands, and a whole suite of removal and counterspells. Not sure what else I can say about this as it just looks to be a disgustingly efficient version of this archetype. It was pushed to its limits with the BW Humans deck splitting the 1st two games, but by the time I tuned in the UW deck had already had 8 lands out and seems like it had managed the board effectively with a number of spot removal spells and a wrath in the graveyard. It's always nice to have tight lists like this crop up in my environment as a reminder that while 4c+ is a viable option for those looking to be extra greedy, the tighter builds for 2C archetypes usually tend to win out based off the 3-0 lists I've compiled over the years.
Finally, to close out the night I played a few games for fun against this unique 60 card Birthing Pod deck that featured Yorion as a companion:
5C Yorion [Michael]
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This one was a little funny as the drafter went in pretty deep with an early Yorion, Sky Nomad and somehow managed to put together this functional build. It's more a mash-up of Pod with some neat lines as well as value-driven ETB cards to rebuy cards and push some advantages. The cross section that arose with something like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling being a poddable Conjurer's Closet represented a number of interesting lines via resetting Kitchen Finks, drawing cards through the Zegana, Utopian Speaker, or just giving big beaters like Tasigur pseudo-vigilance. In our games he wasn't able to stick an early pod, but going to the blink plan was good enough to grind for a bit as we split the 1st two games. The final match was going in my favor and I had managed to stabilize + rebuy a Noxious Gearhulk that might have been able to close it out, but a Zealous Conscripts off the top let him flip the tables and get the win.
Yorion wasn't a thing during our matches, but there was one memorable sequence as I watched an earlier match. There was an active Corpse Knight on the field as well as a flipped Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. The game had ground to a stall, but he had a few other bodies on the field and had gotten to 8+ lands which gave him the ability to end step make a copy of the Knight, untap and make another copy of the Knight, and then put Yorion in hand + deploy it to blink other creatures to get a massive drain for 12+ and close it out. Really sweet interaction and Fable continues to be one of the most fun cards to play with from recent sets.
And the final deck that I didn't get to highlight here due to not playing against it is this GW Artifacts deck built around Urza's Saga:
GW Artifact Saga [Will]
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I'm going to hold off on on any analysis for this deck list because I'd like to dive deeper in a follow-up post later this week when I have more time. I've never considered the possibility of a GW artifact centric deck, but seeing someone P1P1 the Saga and then try to build one makes me wonder if a few swaps here and there is all it would take to make it a fully viable archetype. Most of my support is based in lands or +1/+1 counters oriented midrange decks, but this piqued my interest as a archetype subtheme and made me want to revisit a few cards from recent sets that didn't get there previously.
But for now, let's move onto some individual cards I wanted to highlight from these games:
Powerhouse piece of removal. I'm a big fan of edicts to keep the removal suite varied and this is the best variant we've ever gotten. Being able to snipe specific card types just adds a whole other level of play to this. I was able to use it throughout the day to snipe a Deep Forest Hermit off a board with squirrels, a Karnstruct token that might have grown out of control, and a walker that was otherwise safe behind blockers.
Figure of Destiny and Warden of the First Tree have always put in work for me and the Sleeper is the latest version tailor-made for B/x Aggro decks. The two biggest issues you run into with aggressive decks, as I've mentioned many times in the past, is the brick wall you run into once the opponent stabilizes. Mitigation of this through alternative avenues to victory either via burn or drain is the most viable solution, but we've gotten two options in the last half year in Sleeper and Recruitment Officer that allow aggro to channel that excess mana into cards. Threats that can continue to apply pressure and serve as a mana sink without further commitment to the board are essential for these archetypes.
I ran out to buy a copy of one of these from another store before my draft and I'm glad I did because I think it was a very solid card to see in action. I'm still not a fan of ability counters, but this one was self-contained enough that I can just think of it like I do other Figure style cards and appreciate the gameplay it provides.
I was impressed by this card when I played in my Brother's War Prerelease pool due to the recursive ability at 6 mana which gave me a lot of extra options in the late game, but this feels like it's got even greater potential in my cube. The zombie synergies are relevant for Gravecrawler and Cryptbreaker, the abundant fixing + ULD gives a higher probability of turning that recursion on for a mere
, and it's a perfectly serviceable 3/1 for 2 on its own. Being able to use it as sac fodder for triggers and then recur in the late game of grindier matches with a +1/+1 counter is just gravy. This is a very dense card and exactly the kind of addition I love for cube.Simplicity in card design is something I've come to appreciate more in recent years with where Magic design has been headed. Seems like there are whole cards with paragraphs to parse through nowadays with weird fringe interactions and abilities that thrive in Limited but are tedious to track elsewhere. No such issues with the Devastator. It's equal parts modal hasty threat for R/x Aggro decks, a curve-topper in a ramp build, and just very efficient at getting the job done. Sometimes all you need is a Lava Axe to close out the game and having the ability to play this effectively at all points of the game will give this staying power in my cube for a long time. Just a great clean design that does exactly what you would expect.
This final batch is just filled with cards that I like including in my cube with the hopes that they will reach the drafter in a particular archetype. Lay Down Arms isn't premier removal on the level of Path or Swords, but it can be just as effective in W/x decks featuring a lot of plains and is very helpful for Aggro in clearing blockers at such a low CMC. Same for Cut Down which isn't universal removal but can be crucial in killing creatures early in the game to buy time or clear the way. I especially like the counterplay that arises against +1/+1 counters where the right call might be to just fire it off at sorcery speed. Exquisite Firecraft and Radiant Flames are older cards getting another run, but it's nice to have cards that reward certain drafters for sticking to their gameplans. 4 damage to the face can be a lot when it comes to closing out the game and firing off a Flames with 3 colors is often times good enough to stabilize against aggressive decks even with the tempo hit of fetching tapped lands to fix the mana base. Little decision points make all the difference when it comes to a varied removal suite and lead to better gameplay from what I've seen the last decade.
And that's a wrap! I'm about to begin a small project of marking tokens + their producers with some stickers for easy reference which should give me a good opportunity to snap some pictures and recap some of the pick-ups I've made over the last year to bring my cube even closer towards completion (as promised last year). I hope to have a deeper dive into some ideas I've got for that GW Artifacts build later this week (with changes already made on Cobra). I've gone back and touched up the overview for my cube on Cobra so give it a look sometime and maybe a draft once Cobra gets their bots fixed up. Once I wrap up a few projects that are currently in the works by the summer time my goal is to re-establish cube drafts every 6-8 weeks so stay tuned for more of these reports later this year (hopefully!).
Thanks for reading!
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Let's take a closer look at that GW Artifact deck from a week ago:
There's a lot going on, but from what I gathered from Will after his games it seems like this deck that was mostly built around Urza's Saga after it was his P1P1. It looks like he got quite a bit out it with Karnstructs and some looks at recursion (that's good enough to win Modern games!), but it seems like he had to go deep for critical mass of artifacts. What really looks to missing is another good Saga target where something like Retrofitter's Foundry would have been excellent to deploy. He also mentioned that despite the recursion options, going through the steps of Saga and having to sac it made it feel like he couldn't advance past certain game states. Something that would grant additional land drops to "catch up" or a way to make up for cashing in Saga would have helped. Cards like Titania, Protector of Argoth or Knight of the Reliquary feel like they could have been right at home in this deck.
To get things rolling, I've swapped in the following cards to create some support and additional cross-pollination with other decks.
Teething Wurmlet is a card that didn't quite grab me on initial release, but the more I thought about it as a kind of midrange-y Champion of the Parish the more I liked the idea of it. Artifacts are less common than humans in these colors (and in my cube as a whole), but the way to maximize the triggers is likely via token generation rather than artifact bodies. Cards like Artifact Lands out of the ULD and Blade Splicer definitely help grow this in the earlier game, but I think where it will really shine is just representing an eventual roadblock that can passively gain life against aggressive decks while also becoming a threat in the later game versus control decks. Much like Champ, if this card can get up to a 3/3 it is very much above rate for a 1 drop and well worth inclusion.
Gala Greeters seems like a fine supplemental additional to flesh out this archetype with the ability to generate Treasure tokens, get bigger, or passively gain life against more aggressive decks. Just looks like a nice little swiss army knife that fit into a handful of strategies as a roleplayer. Briarbridge Tracker is a real solid card that I've enjoyed in the past but sidelined for a bit to try out other green options in the last 2 years. I love Clues as a way to draw cards, it has a sizable 2/3 body to stymie some aggro, and being a 4/3 Vigilance for 3 gives it some aggressive game as well. It's in the perfect slot for a Coco deck, has the relevant human synergy, and even has blink upside with the clue generation on ETB. This is a pretty dense card that looks like it'll have a more permanent home this time around.
Finally I'm going to throw in an Explore just as a way to give green some extra land drop action that plays with Landfall strategies while being open-ended. I've though on and off about Exploration over the years, but that card has always been feast or famine in terms of impact. Ran it for a bit in EDH and while it's insane when you have a great hand to play out and then replenish resource, it's very mediocre otherwise without the redundancy that comes with 60 card Constructed formats. Either you have the nuts and go off or you just run out of gas and try to chug along. Getting extra land drops without sacrificing a tempo is kind of difficult in my cube, but Explore looks like it has the right velocity to be successful nowadays with all the extra interactions available throughout the environment. You might not have the window versus a very tight aggro list, but in grindier matchups you can probably find a chance to cycle into something relevant. Having filler cards here and there in green like this alongside Abundant Harvest really help to smooth out draws ala blue cantrips and I could see this working out long term.
Some other cards I might take another at look but haven't yet pulled the trigger on include:
I've tried Toolcraft Exemplar on and off over the years but it never felt like there was quite enough support to make it consistent. Playing an artifact land or living the dream via equipping Boneplitter on T2 and punching in for 5 was always a possibility, but the flipside always felt pretty bad to experience. Now that we're 7 years past Kaladesh and with a plethora of sets that gave us renewed artifact support, might be time to give this a run again. There are far more ways to trigger this naturally than there was before (Esper Sentinel, Eater of Virtue, Portable Hole, etc.)
Sevinne's Reclamation is another neat card that I've seen on lists here and there over the years but never gave a fair shake. I can see the upside in a mini Sun Titan impression but I haven't been able to find a slot to test it out thoroughly and often forget that it's an option. Now that I think of it in terms of the various GW builds in my cube, it definitely can find a home with a variety of interactions ranging from buying back a creature to redeploying lands for the Landfall deck for additional triggers. Lurrus has shown that even a limited suite for reanimation can be powerful if you can find the right window, Reclamation having the flashback with upside for 2 permanents might just be enough for it to be worth it in my environment. Being able to recur both a Wasteland and Urza's Saga in one go just sounds gross and exactly the kind of fair Magic that I'm interested in.
So if we were to update that earlier deck just a bit, make it a little sleeker with a tighter curve and more on-theme cards, we might end up with something like:
Looks real solid to me, we'll see if anyone can get there with something similar in the next cube draft(s) I run later this year.
GW Artifact Saga [Will]
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There's a lot going on, but from what I gathered from Will after his games it seems like this deck that was mostly built around Urza's Saga after it was his P1P1. It looks like he got quite a bit out it with Karnstructs and some looks at recursion (that's good enough to win Modern games!), but it seems like he had to go deep for critical mass of artifacts. What really looks to missing is another good Saga target where something like Retrofitter's Foundry would have been excellent to deploy. He also mentioned that despite the recursion options, going through the steps of Saga and having to sac it made it feel like he couldn't advance past certain game states. Something that would grant additional land drops to "catch up" or a way to make up for cashing in Saga would have helped. Cards like Titania, Protector of Argoth or Knight of the Reliquary feel like they could have been right at home in this deck.
To get things rolling, I've swapped in the following cards to create some support and additional cross-pollination with other decks.
Teething Wurmlet is a card that didn't quite grab me on initial release, but the more I thought about it as a kind of midrange-y Champion of the Parish the more I liked the idea of it. Artifacts are less common than humans in these colors (and in my cube as a whole), but the way to maximize the triggers is likely via token generation rather than artifact bodies. Cards like Artifact Lands out of the ULD and Blade Splicer definitely help grow this in the earlier game, but I think where it will really shine is just representing an eventual roadblock that can passively gain life against aggressive decks while also becoming a threat in the later game versus control decks. Much like Champ, if this card can get up to a 3/3 it is very much above rate for a 1 drop and well worth inclusion.
Gala Greeters seems like a fine supplemental additional to flesh out this archetype with the ability to generate Treasure tokens, get bigger, or passively gain life against more aggressive decks. Just looks like a nice little swiss army knife that fit into a handful of strategies as a roleplayer. Briarbridge Tracker is a real solid card that I've enjoyed in the past but sidelined for a bit to try out other green options in the last 2 years. I love Clues as a way to draw cards, it has a sizable 2/3 body to stymie some aggro, and being a 4/3 Vigilance for 3 gives it some aggressive game as well. It's in the perfect slot for a Coco deck, has the relevant human synergy, and even has blink upside with the clue generation on ETB. This is a pretty dense card that looks like it'll have a more permanent home this time around.
Finally I'm going to throw in an Explore just as a way to give green some extra land drop action that plays with Landfall strategies while being open-ended. I've though on and off about Exploration over the years, but that card has always been feast or famine in terms of impact. Ran it for a bit in EDH and while it's insane when you have a great hand to play out and then replenish resource, it's very mediocre otherwise without the redundancy that comes with 60 card Constructed formats. Either you have the nuts and go off or you just run out of gas and try to chug along. Getting extra land drops without sacrificing a tempo is kind of difficult in my cube, but Explore looks like it has the right velocity to be successful nowadays with all the extra interactions available throughout the environment. You might not have the window versus a very tight aggro list, but in grindier matchups you can probably find a chance to cycle into something relevant. Having filler cards here and there in green like this alongside Abundant Harvest really help to smooth out draws ala blue cantrips and I could see this working out long term.
Some other cards I might take another at look but haven't yet pulled the trigger on include:
I've tried Toolcraft Exemplar on and off over the years but it never felt like there was quite enough support to make it consistent. Playing an artifact land or living the dream via equipping Boneplitter on T2 and punching in for 5 was always a possibility, but the flipside always felt pretty bad to experience. Now that we're 7 years past Kaladesh and with a plethora of sets that gave us renewed artifact support, might be time to give this a run again. There are far more ways to trigger this naturally than there was before (Esper Sentinel, Eater of Virtue, Portable Hole, etc.)
Sevinne's Reclamation is another neat card that I've seen on lists here and there over the years but never gave a fair shake. I can see the upside in a mini Sun Titan impression but I haven't been able to find a slot to test it out thoroughly and often forget that it's an option. Now that I think of it in terms of the various GW builds in my cube, it definitely can find a home with a variety of interactions ranging from buying back a creature to redeploying lands for the Landfall deck for additional triggers. Lurrus has shown that even a limited suite for reanimation can be powerful if you can find the right window, Reclamation having the flashback with upside for 2 permanents might just be enough for it to be worth it in my environment. Being able to recur both a Wasteland and Urza's Saga in one go just sounds gross and exactly the kind of fair Magic that I'm interested in.
So if we were to update that earlier deck just a bit, make it a little sleeker with a tighter curve and more on-theme cards, we might end up with something like:
GW Saga 2.0
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Looks real solid to me, we'll see if anyone can get there with something similar in the next cube draft(s) I run later this year.
Saga is just a great card, but I'm an especially big fan of it in the Selesnya Lands deck. May I also suggest this as a premium Saga target:
Which is great on its own, and improves exponentially with a greater presence of discard matters support.
Sevinne's Rec is great. I also really like:
for this archetype. Perhaps in place of Cemetery Protector? You already have Emeria Angel and Felidar Retreat in a similar role and casting cost, and Protector only triggers on played lands.
I'd also consider tossing in a another bauble/trinket or two like:
You could also switch Sorceror's Spyglass with Pithing Needle as another Saga target?
I really enjoy the artifact backbone in my cube, and Saga is a huge part of that by branching it into green. Some other misc cards that I really enjoy in my cube that could expand on the artifact subtheme:
We have different design goals, but I find the depth that comes with investing a little bit more into the artifact subtheme to be very rewarding...as always imo ymmv etc etc
Which is great on its own, and improves exponentially with a greater presence of discard matters support.
Sevinne's Rec is great. I also really like:
for this archetype. Perhaps in place of Cemetery Protector? You already have Emeria Angel and Felidar Retreat in a similar role and casting cost, and Protector only triggers on played lands.
I'd also consider tossing in a another bauble/trinket or two like:
You could also switch Sorceror's Spyglass with Pithing Needle as another Saga target?
I really enjoy the artifact backbone in my cube, and Saga is a huge part of that by branching it into green. Some other misc cards that I really enjoy in my cube that could expand on the artifact subtheme:
We have different design goals, but I find the depth that comes with investing a little bit more into the artifact subtheme to be very rewarding...as always imo ymmv etc etc
I really love these GW Saga decks. Here are a couple of cool pieces to boost the deck.
Is areally fun one with Saga. An extra artifact that can copy the constructs.
I also really recommend
It grabs Saga or gets fetched by it and you have a utility land draft to give more targets than the average cube.
I’ll echo the Currency Converter and Spellbomb suggestions to add targets.
Is areally fun one with Saga. An extra artifact that can copy the constructs.
I also really recommend
It grabs Saga or gets fetched by it and you have a utility land draft to give more targets than the average cube.
I’ll echo the Currency Converter and Spellbomb suggestions to add targets.
Saga is just a great card, but I'm an especially big fan of it in the Selesnya Lands deck. May I also suggest this as a premium Saga target:
Which is great on its own, and improves exponentially with a greater presence of discard matters support.
Fine card, I really like it, just need to find a slot for it at some point. It's right there for my 450 module if I ever get around to it but it gets a little tougher with 420 which feels pretty tight aside from a few slots. This is likely better than Mishra's Research Desk in a vacuum so I might just make the swap in my next cube draft to give it a run.
If Paragon didn't have the weird memory issue I'd be all over it as I've loved Lurrus in cube, but I'm not a fan of having to remember an exile + gain 2 life delayed trigger. It seems like unnecessary complexity to me. Protector is a recent add that I haven't actually played with yet but it's mostly there due to human typing (for Humans and as a big hit off Winota, Joiner of Forces), landfall interactions, and being a source of splash graveyard hard against Reanimator or recursive strategies. Paragon is definitely better one its own, but I think the synergies for Protector and lack of memory issues make it more appealing to me.Sevinne's Rec is great. I also really like:
for this archetype. Perhaps in place of Cemetery Protector? You already have Emeria Angel and Felidar Retreat in a similar role and casting cost, and Protector only triggers on played lands.
I'd also consider tossing in a another bauble/trinket or two like:
You could also switch Sorceror's Spyglass with Pithing Needle as another Saga target?
I really enjoy the artifact backbone in my cube, and Saga is a huge part of that by branching it into green. Some other misc cards that I really enjoy in my cube that could expand on the artifact subtheme:
We have different design goals, but I find the depth that comes with investing a little bit more into the artifact subtheme to be very rewarding...as always imo ymmv etc etc
All good suggestions, it just gets tougher making those swaps if the list feels tight. With each set I find fewer flex slots available to just move things around. Pithing Needle is a good call for a swap where despite liking Spyglass for proactive use I don't think I've ever seen it as anything more than a sideboard inclusion at which point Needle is just as good.
I really love these GW Saga decks. Here are a couple of cool pieces to boost the deck.
Is areally fun one with Saga. An extra artifact that can copy the constructs.
This is one on my shortlist right now, will likely be part of my next cube purchases in a month or two. I enjoy the play patterns and can see the inherent synergies with existing strategies that generate tokens and the like. Bigger Green decks can always use more cards that let them play the game on a slightly different axis and with some wrath protection.
I also really recommend
It grabs Saga or gets fetched by it and you have a utility land draft to give more targets than the average cube.
I’ll echo the Currency Converter and Spellbomb suggestions to add targets.
Yeah, Map definitely has far more utility nowadays than it did for me in the past with all the great utility lands we've had. I'll keep it in mind when I have my next update.
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Another solid recommendation. Usually I'm very anti-Unset for flavor reasons, but this looks innocuous enough that it mostly flies under the radar. I'll keep it in mind.
With these recent drafts and discussion in the thread, for the first time in a long while I'm going to work on refining and updating my ULD with a dedicated entry. A few of these options might sneak back in to the main cube if I ever get around to an update to 450 (like Shelldock and Volrath's), but we're looking at the following if I were to host a draft tomorrow:
I'm running the full cycle of Artifact lands as they just have greater utility than ever before with all the interactions present in my environment. Most commonly you'll use them for Goblin Welder or Goblin Engineer switcheroos, but there are additional interactions such as The Antiquities War, making Karnstructs a little bigger, building towards Delirium for a Dragon's Rage Channeler, or getting two more card types for a cheaper Emrakul, the Promised End. A cheap way to pump a card like Teething Wurmlet is a plus as well. Years ago I tried out Toolcraft Exemplar but the fail case was too high without many incidental artifacts, but as mentioned last week we might just be there with the sheer number of options we have 5+ years later in addition to these lands. For this cycle there is definitely a chance of getting blown out by something that can snipe artifacts, I've gotten wrecked by a Pernicious Deed before, but hey you could always just swap in that basic in Game 2!
The original cycling lands just have great utility in general and are a fine fallback option to drafters who might not have any specific standaouts by the 3rd round of the ULD. They combine with cards like The Gitrog Monster and Wrenn and Six to create a small card advantage engine and can also fuel things like delving into an earlier Treasure Cruise or Tasigur, the Golden Fang. Usually not a high pick, but they're a solid if unexciting fallback option.
I like the corner cases with Flagstones where you can accrue additional value via Knight of the Reliquary or Elvish Reclaimer sacs and being Wasteland-proof is a minor plus. Fringe interactions with Harrow and Edge of Autumn are also neat scenarios that can crop up now and then. The new Eiganjo is a great way to get a Gideon's Reproach type effect out of a land as a potential combat trick and has been impressive in both my cube and in a constructed context. Cave of the Frost Dragon isn't the most exciting and will likely be the first cut for a more interesting white land, but the floor of a serviceable manland is just fine for now.
Probably the most interesting suite out of all the colors nowadays. Hall of the Storm Giants is a really strong card for control decks as a finisher (as evidenced in my most recent draft), Otawara is just a solid all around bounce spell, and Shelldock Isle is the newest addition to this pile. It's certainly a strong enough card for main cube inclusion where it was from the beginning of my cube till now, but I wanted to see it more frequently via ULD and it also helped open up one more slot in the Blue section.
Second best selection in terms of different options, was lacking for a long time until recent years with the printing of viable manland and a great roleplayer in Takenuma, Abandoned Mire. Phyrexian Tower is just a lot of fun with any deck featuring recursive bodies so I don't envision it ever losing its slot in my ULD. I'd be very interested in seeing ways that something like a B/R Aristocrats style build can generate more value ala cards like Midnight Reaper or Morbid Opportunist.
Two lands that usually go to aggressive drafters and a channel land that has some neat interactions providing chump blockers and/or surprise bodies for a counterattack. Solid selection of cards, all were drafted in my most recent ULD.
Manlands galore + a pick-up for the dedicated ramp deck. They do green things and give additional outlets for excess mana, more than happy with this suite currently but wouldn't mind some other cool options in the future.
The miscellaneous pile for lands that do things but don't explicitly fix your mana. The lesser fetches are a nice option for drafters who might have been unlucky in the main draft with Ash Barrens being the best of them. Cavern and Courtyard provide support for any drafter that might have tribal synergies to exploit (mostly humans or zombies). I totally forgot about Courtyard being an upgraded version of Unclaimed Territory until a drafter used it to activate the "level up" on Evolved Sleeper and later to use the ability on Recruitment Officer. Very cool.
Lotus Field has surprisingly been drafted quite frequently and can enable some neat interactions with cards like Titania, Protector of Argoth or The Gitrog Monster. I've even seen it just used as a means of fixing and played alongside land recursion for additional value. Manlands are always a good option, though they aren't picked as frequently with all the better in color options that have been printed in recent years. Still, a Mutavault benefiting from human or zombie interactions can definitely put in work now and then.
The activated ability lands have been cut down considerably, but I've kept the 3 that have the most play in more common archetypes. Academy Ruins is a sweet card for any U/R Artifacts build that might come together, Volrath's Stronghold does the same impression for any B/x deck with meaningful creatures to recur, and finally Gavony Township is definitely showing a little age with an investment of 5 lands total however it can still pack a major punch if you go wide enough to take advantage.
Never leave home without a playset of Wasteland. These generally tend to be quite early picks for any of the less greedy decks, especially aggressive builds mostly leaning towards one either White or Red. Bumped it up to 4 in the last year, will be a mainstay forever in keeping greedy piles honest.
And that leads us to the final ULD with all 40 lands that I'll be laying out in the middle of the table during every draft:
I'm running the full cycle of Artifact lands as they just have greater utility than ever before with all the interactions present in my environment. Most commonly you'll use them for Goblin Welder or Goblin Engineer switcheroos, but there are additional interactions such as The Antiquities War, making Karnstructs a little bigger, building towards Delirium for a Dragon's Rage Channeler, or getting two more card types for a cheaper Emrakul, the Promised End. A cheap way to pump a card like Teething Wurmlet is a plus as well. Years ago I tried out Toolcraft Exemplar but the fail case was too high without many incidental artifacts, but as mentioned last week we might just be there with the sheer number of options we have 5+ years later in addition to these lands. For this cycle there is definitely a chance of getting blown out by something that can snipe artifacts, I've gotten wrecked by a Pernicious Deed before, but hey you could always just swap in that basic in Game 2!
The original cycling lands just have great utility in general and are a fine fallback option to drafters who might not have any specific standaouts by the 3rd round of the ULD. They combine with cards like The Gitrog Monster and Wrenn and Six to create a small card advantage engine and can also fuel things like delving into an earlier Treasure Cruise or Tasigur, the Golden Fang. Usually not a high pick, but they're a solid if unexciting fallback option.
I like the corner cases with Flagstones where you can accrue additional value via Knight of the Reliquary or Elvish Reclaimer sacs and being Wasteland-proof is a minor plus. Fringe interactions with Harrow and Edge of Autumn are also neat scenarios that can crop up now and then. The new Eiganjo is a great way to get a Gideon's Reproach type effect out of a land as a potential combat trick and has been impressive in both my cube and in a constructed context. Cave of the Frost Dragon isn't the most exciting and will likely be the first cut for a more interesting white land, but the floor of a serviceable manland is just fine for now.
Probably the most interesting suite out of all the colors nowadays. Hall of the Storm Giants is a really strong card for control decks as a finisher (as evidenced in my most recent draft), Otawara is just a solid all around bounce spell, and Shelldock Isle is the newest addition to this pile. It's certainly a strong enough card for main cube inclusion where it was from the beginning of my cube till now, but I wanted to see it more frequently via ULD and it also helped open up one more slot in the Blue section.
Second best selection in terms of different options, was lacking for a long time until recent years with the printing of viable manland and a great roleplayer in Takenuma, Abandoned Mire. Phyrexian Tower is just a lot of fun with any deck featuring recursive bodies so I don't envision it ever losing its slot in my ULD. I'd be very interested in seeing ways that something like a B/R Aristocrats style build can generate more value ala cards like Midnight Reaper or Morbid Opportunist.
Two lands that usually go to aggressive drafters and a channel land that has some neat interactions providing chump blockers and/or surprise bodies for a counterattack. Solid selection of cards, all were drafted in my most recent ULD.
Manlands galore + a pick-up for the dedicated ramp deck. They do green things and give additional outlets for excess mana, more than happy with this suite currently but wouldn't mind some other cool options in the future.
The miscellaneous pile for lands that do things but don't explicitly fix your mana. The lesser fetches are a nice option for drafters who might have been unlucky in the main draft with Ash Barrens being the best of them. Cavern and Courtyard provide support for any drafter that might have tribal synergies to exploit (mostly humans or zombies). I totally forgot about Courtyard being an upgraded version of Unclaimed Territory until a drafter used it to activate the "level up" on Evolved Sleeper and later to use the ability on Recruitment Officer. Very cool.
Lotus Field has surprisingly been drafted quite frequently and can enable some neat interactions with cards like Titania, Protector of Argoth or The Gitrog Monster. I've even seen it just used as a means of fixing and played alongside land recursion for additional value. Manlands are always a good option, though they aren't picked as frequently with all the better in color options that have been printed in recent years. Still, a Mutavault benefiting from human or zombie interactions can definitely put in work now and then.
The activated ability lands have been cut down considerably, but I've kept the 3 that have the most play in more common archetypes. Academy Ruins is a sweet card for any U/R Artifacts build that might come together, Volrath's Stronghold does the same impression for any B/x deck with meaningful creatures to recur, and finally Gavony Township is definitely showing a little age with an investment of 5 lands total however it can still pack a major punch if you go wide enough to take advantage.
Never leave home without a playset of Wasteland. These generally tend to be quite early picks for any of the less greedy decks, especially aggressive builds mostly leaning towards one either White or Red. Bumped it up to 4 in the last year, will be a mainstay forever in keeping greedy piles honest.
And that leads us to the final ULD with all 40 lands that I'll be laying out in the middle of the table during every draft:
love the ULD!
Some ideas for future iterations:
-Threshold lands (Barbarian Ring cycle) - specifically the red and black one are quite good.
-Mystic Sanctuary - so sweet
-MORE of the innistrad utility lands - many of them were constructed staples in their day and theyre just cool
-wasteland is kind of GRBS in my opinion, using this to pressure greed piles is like bombing a city block to kill one guy. ESPECIALLY if you have any land recursion whatsoever
how are you drafting your ULD these days? just as an extra pack after the main draft?
Some ideas for future iterations:
-Threshold lands (Barbarian Ring cycle) - specifically the red and black one are quite good.
-Mystic Sanctuary - so sweet
-MORE of the innistrad utility lands - many of them were constructed staples in their day and theyre just cool
-wasteland is kind of GRBS in my opinion, using this to pressure greed piles is like bombing a city block to kill one guy. ESPECIALLY if you have any land recursion whatsoever
how are you drafting your ULD these days? just as an extra pack after the main draft?
I usually tend to cycle through a handful of land inclusions for the WUBRG selections and break cycles so I'll keep these in mind for future iterations, especially Sanctuary as I've had a lot of fun with that one in my Aminatou EDH deck. I ran many of the Innistrad lands for years, but most of the time they just wouldn't end up in the final 40s for most drafters. There have just been SO many additional options printed in recent years that they don't usually crack within their 3 picks (more on this below). I've actually cut it down to this recent 40 ULD iteration but could probably be convinced to bump up to 45 in the future. It really becomes a matter of whether it's too much extra which usually leads to diminishing returns if the same cards are being drafted frequently.
Wasteland is a tricky one because it really didn't do much for me when it was a main cube inclusion unless someone ended up with 2 in their deck and could really streamline plays. But I run a 420 cube so there is a non-zero chance of having too few within the final 360 (which will only be exacerbated if I ever make my planned jump to 450). I've seen it be straight up useless against less greedy decks (sometimes even being a detriment to fixing), but it has served its purpose in giving fairer decks (especially in RW or WG decks) an additional axis to attack from. Especially with the addition of the AFR manlands cycle I think it's a good idea to have some form of hate available for interaction.
I tend to operate with the philosophy where yes being able to play everything in a greedy pile is fun, and players that draft with good fixing in mind can be enable to do so, but in a double fetch environment I don't really want to see more than 1 drafter on that kind of build usually. Wasteland tends to be the great equalizer letting the 2 color decks compete on the fixing axis. I would never run something like Strip Mine in my cube due to the non-games, but I think Wasteland is in the sweet spot where there is always the alternative of just being less greedy in G2 or G3. It's no real difference than having an artifact land sniped by a Rec Sage where you think oh, maybe I should just play a Forest there instead.
We do a snake draft going from 1-8, 8-1, and 1-8 for 24 total picks and 3 for each drafter. I lay out the ULD in the middle of the draft table during the main portion of the draft and we also high roll to see who gets first pick. From there we just go clockwise in a snake draft. 3 is about the sweet spot to keep drafters engaged and not waste too much time when it comes to final deck construction.
i dig that draft method
Well I'm back at it with some long awaited updates to my cube as I might be able to fire a full 8-man draft off in the next month or so. It's been a busy 6ish months with just work and other commitments for me personally, but I'm interested in revisiting cube design and seeing what we've got to work with a few sets later. Keeping up with new releases is absolutely exhausting nowadays with so many throwaway mechanics and little resonance in a calendar year, new sets being spoiled as soon as one gets released, but checking in every few months and keeping up with singles is still on the menu for me.
While I've long felt that like 85-90% of my cube has become intact a decade into this project, there are always the peripheral inclusions that are worth re-evaluating and revisiting time and time again. One of my core goals in terms of gameplay has always been to give my players multiple avenues of exploration when it comes to deck-building through the draft process. How do I get veteran players excited to play this format? How can I keep my players engaged throughout a game? Where can I bridge interactions between cards to create that sense of exploration and discovery? How do I avoid pitfalls in current Magic design that have stripped away a lot of the luster and depth of gameplay? I'm not a fan of all-upside design nowadays where almost every good card is being printed a self-contained engine. Should some of these be present in an environment to exist as signposts or ways to push forward gameplay? Yes. Should it be every other card like WoTC seems to think? Fuck no.
That's become a tougher balancing act as sometimes I'll just see a card and the wall of text or one-off mechanics or counters to track just completely take me out of it. At this point I have a very clear idea of what kind of cards I'd like to include and those that can be completely ignored come spoiler season or review.
The biggest change to my environment. WoTC has refused to print the enemy-colored lands to complete the cycle from BFZ for 9 years so I'm moving over to this new cycle from MKM for now. I do believe I'll make the swap back at some point when (if?) they ever decide to finish the cycle because I love the decision-making required with sequencing and fetches in a greedier manabase, also how they subtly push a drafter towards a two-color deck, but for now this will work. I've played with them a little and the surveil option is great to have and gives additional avenues for reanimator and other decks to accrue advantage over the game. Feeding something like a Lurrus of the Dream Den by "drawing" a 2 drop that gets pitched to the graveyard off that turn's land drop is some sweet value.
I've been a fan of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse since the card was spoiled and I'm more and more interested in cards that can stymie your opponents gameplan with disruption. Magic design nowadays is centered around these engines that just replenish card advantage or snowball incrementally until it becomes too much value to overcome. With the focus on multiplayer Magic, you need these at the baseline for these cards to promote playability due to the nature of keeping up in a 1 v 3 format. This has been, in my opinion, to the detriment of constructed Magic where the decision points for card inclusion don't really exist as strictly as they may have a decade prior. Sure, you could always build Jund and play with the biggest staples, but many decks had more of a restrictive deckbuilding lean to it with dedicated cores to build around. That doesn't seem to really be the case nowadays.
If everything is just drawing you a card, where you don't really need to put in much additional work or make a decision, then I think cards like Hullbreacher and Narset, Parter of Veils definitely have a part to play nowadays. If more stax-y pieces weren't so niche, I'd readily be playing those in my cube as well just to promote that disruptive angle. What we need are more designs like Thalia, Heretic Cathar which are playable and can slot readily into existing archetypes (Wx Aggro, B/W Humans, etc.), but have the additional dimension of disruption. We need these cards to be on-rate to keep up with the value engines that have become a staple in every new set being printed nowadays. If Orcisch Bowmasters wasn't such an obnoxiously pushed card and didn't create yet another unique token (that can just grow like hell), I'd probably be including it as part of this suite but for now I'm going to pass on it.
I'm adding in two draw 7 effects to supplement these new additions by enabling a combo finish option for my drafters. I like this more than the Kiki-Twin style packages (especially at larger cubes beyond 360) because I feel like each of these are playable in their own right without having to go all or nothing like you do with crappier cards like Pestermite or Deceiver Exarch.
Finally just a random assortment of individual cards I'm adding to either test out or bring back for a 2nd run.
Nothing much to say of Novice Inspector that we haven't already discussed with Thraben Inspector over the years. Value roleplayers just make decks work and another copy of a really solid effect is always welcome. Good card is good.
Everyone knows how much I love Champion of the Parish as a vertically growing threat, so it's no surprise that I've just been trying to make Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful a thing ever since it was first printed. The way I see it, most 2/1 creatures that cost 1 mana to play are already outclassed if you end up drawing them outside of the early game where you have the most open window to apply pressure, so why not try out those that can give you greater scalability in the early game? An early Yoshimaru followed by 2 legendary permanents in subsequent turns will be more effective than another random 2/1 for 1. Will it be slightly worse in the late game if you can't grow it? Sure. But is there really that big of a difference if you're getting stonewalled by that 4/4 regardless? Not really. I think the subsequent printings of more and more legendary permanents as well as more dedicated +1/+1 counter interactions is what will ultimately give this some staying power.
Every new legendary land that can be added to the ULD or 2 drop that gets printed just makes sequencing decisions more viable. I don't think we're quite there yet, but I'm willing to give this one an extended run for a bit and see where we end up. And if this still doesn't get there, then I'm always game for trying out Toolcraft Exemplar again which will be a hell of a lot more consistent than it was years ago.
Leyline Binding in the average deck that gets drafted in my cube will just end up being Cast Out without the ability to cycle away. If the drafter wants to prioritize duals and plays goodstuff all day then go right ahead and get some additional value out of this one. I don't necessarily want to incentivize that strategy, but inclusion of a few domain oriented cards here and there in Territorial Kavu or Prismatic Ending are fine with me to hint at that being an option.
Morbid Opportunist has been a card that I've mostly had experience with through EDH via assembly as a draw engine with sac outlets, but I can see how it can translate over to some extent in a cube environment. Recursive aggro has long been a staple archetype for my environment so being able to keep some gas flowing would be a welcome addition for a B/R deck just trying to dig for a damage spell to finally close it all out. Human typing is always a welcome bonus and the 1/3 body lets this slot well in non-aggressive decks as well where it can block an attacker and allow you to cantrip off every single target removal spell you fire off. Very solid roleplayer.
Inti, Seneschal of the Sun has become damn near a cube staple based off what I've read from testing results and whatnot as I've played catch-up with the last few sets. It's a solid body, can fuel your gameplan by growing threats and letting you see more cards, and it's got relevant creature typing to synergize with other cards. This falls into the category of problematic all-in-one engine cards I mentioned earlier, and for the most part I try to limit these, but I think I'm a little more lenient when it comes to something that can supplement an aggressive or proactive archetype.
Anger of the Gods is just coming back because I like exile related sweepers more and more with recursive bodies being printed frequently. Brotherhood's End is a superior sideboard card for Constructed and whatnot, but creatures are king in most cubes and being able to completely take away any form of recursion is a huge boon. Also the TSR foil is just too nice for me to keep in a binder forever.
Ozolith, the Shattered Spire is a card that I'm curious to see in action. I like being able to cycle it away if it's a dead draw late and I'm excited by the possibility of curving into it and just going off. Honestly any chance I get to make Teething Wurmlet even better is a plus to me. Curving Wurmlet into Ozolith into something like Briarbridge Tracker to push through 3 and then 5 damage is very appealing.
Voice of Resurgence is a card that just feels a little more appealing nowadays with the plethora of instant speed effects that have been printed in recent years. Get rewarded for going wide with the token, has a recurrable body at 2 CMC for the likes of Lurrus or Sevinne's Reclamation, and it just fits well into the typical GWx shells that get built in my cube.
I'm always on the lookout for neat artifact creatures and potential payoffs for Welder strategies, but I completely forgot that Steel Seraph existed until the other day. It played very well in Limited the one time I remember drafting it and prototype is a great mechanic to promote playability at various points in the game. With how big creatures have gotten on the ground nowadays just gumming up the board, being able to just jump an attacker into the air is a great way to proactively push towards the end game. Phyrexian Fleshgorger has been an excellent inclusion ever since the beginning, hoping that Seraph can find a similar long term home here.
Hopefully I'll have more to share and some sweet cube decks sometime in April. See ya!
While I've long felt that like 85-90% of my cube has become intact a decade into this project, there are always the peripheral inclusions that are worth re-evaluating and revisiting time and time again. One of my core goals in terms of gameplay has always been to give my players multiple avenues of exploration when it comes to deck-building through the draft process. How do I get veteran players excited to play this format? How can I keep my players engaged throughout a game? Where can I bridge interactions between cards to create that sense of exploration and discovery? How do I avoid pitfalls in current Magic design that have stripped away a lot of the luster and depth of gameplay? I'm not a fan of all-upside design nowadays where almost every good card is being printed a self-contained engine. Should some of these be present in an environment to exist as signposts or ways to push forward gameplay? Yes. Should it be every other card like WoTC seems to think? Fuck no.
That's become a tougher balancing act as sometimes I'll just see a card and the wall of text or one-off mechanics or counters to track just completely take me out of it. At this point I have a very clear idea of what kind of cards I'd like to include and those that can be completely ignored come spoiler season or review.
The biggest change to my environment. WoTC has refused to print the enemy-colored lands to complete the cycle from BFZ for 9 years so I'm moving over to this new cycle from MKM for now. I do believe I'll make the swap back at some point when (if?) they ever decide to finish the cycle because I love the decision-making required with sequencing and fetches in a greedier manabase, also how they subtly push a drafter towards a two-color deck, but for now this will work. I've played with them a little and the surveil option is great to have and gives additional avenues for reanimator and other decks to accrue advantage over the game. Feeding something like a Lurrus of the Dream Den by "drawing" a 2 drop that gets pitched to the graveyard off that turn's land drop is some sweet value.
I've been a fan of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse since the card was spoiled and I'm more and more interested in cards that can stymie your opponents gameplan with disruption. Magic design nowadays is centered around these engines that just replenish card advantage or snowball incrementally until it becomes too much value to overcome. With the focus on multiplayer Magic, you need these at the baseline for these cards to promote playability due to the nature of keeping up in a 1 v 3 format. This has been, in my opinion, to the detriment of constructed Magic where the decision points for card inclusion don't really exist as strictly as they may have a decade prior. Sure, you could always build Jund and play with the biggest staples, but many decks had more of a restrictive deckbuilding lean to it with dedicated cores to build around. That doesn't seem to really be the case nowadays.
If everything is just drawing you a card, where you don't really need to put in much additional work or make a decision, then I think cards like Hullbreacher and Narset, Parter of Veils definitely have a part to play nowadays. If more stax-y pieces weren't so niche, I'd readily be playing those in my cube as well just to promote that disruptive angle. What we need are more designs like Thalia, Heretic Cathar which are playable and can slot readily into existing archetypes (Wx Aggro, B/W Humans, etc.), but have the additional dimension of disruption. We need these cards to be on-rate to keep up with the value engines that have become a staple in every new set being printed nowadays. If Orcisch Bowmasters wasn't such an obnoxiously pushed card and didn't create yet another unique token (that can just grow like hell), I'd probably be including it as part of this suite but for now I'm going to pass on it.
I'm adding in two draw 7 effects to supplement these new additions by enabling a combo finish option for my drafters. I like this more than the Kiki-Twin style packages (especially at larger cubes beyond 360) because I feel like each of these are playable in their own right without having to go all or nothing like you do with crappier cards like Pestermite or Deceiver Exarch.
Finally just a random assortment of individual cards I'm adding to either test out or bring back for a 2nd run.
Nothing much to say of Novice Inspector that we haven't already discussed with Thraben Inspector over the years. Value roleplayers just make decks work and another copy of a really solid effect is always welcome. Good card is good.
Everyone knows how much I love Champion of the Parish as a vertically growing threat, so it's no surprise that I've just been trying to make Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful a thing ever since it was first printed. The way I see it, most 2/1 creatures that cost 1 mana to play are already outclassed if you end up drawing them outside of the early game where you have the most open window to apply pressure, so why not try out those that can give you greater scalability in the early game? An early Yoshimaru followed by 2 legendary permanents in subsequent turns will be more effective than another random 2/1 for 1. Will it be slightly worse in the late game if you can't grow it? Sure. But is there really that big of a difference if you're getting stonewalled by that 4/4 regardless? Not really. I think the subsequent printings of more and more legendary permanents as well as more dedicated +1/+1 counter interactions is what will ultimately give this some staying power.
Every new legendary land that can be added to the ULD or 2 drop that gets printed just makes sequencing decisions more viable. I don't think we're quite there yet, but I'm willing to give this one an extended run for a bit and see where we end up. And if this still doesn't get there, then I'm always game for trying out Toolcraft Exemplar again which will be a hell of a lot more consistent than it was years ago.
Leyline Binding in the average deck that gets drafted in my cube will just end up being Cast Out without the ability to cycle away. If the drafter wants to prioritize duals and plays goodstuff all day then go right ahead and get some additional value out of this one. I don't necessarily want to incentivize that strategy, but inclusion of a few domain oriented cards here and there in Territorial Kavu or Prismatic Ending are fine with me to hint at that being an option.
Morbid Opportunist has been a card that I've mostly had experience with through EDH via assembly as a draw engine with sac outlets, but I can see how it can translate over to some extent in a cube environment. Recursive aggro has long been a staple archetype for my environment so being able to keep some gas flowing would be a welcome addition for a B/R deck just trying to dig for a damage spell to finally close it all out. Human typing is always a welcome bonus and the 1/3 body lets this slot well in non-aggressive decks as well where it can block an attacker and allow you to cantrip off every single target removal spell you fire off. Very solid roleplayer.
Inti, Seneschal of the Sun has become damn near a cube staple based off what I've read from testing results and whatnot as I've played catch-up with the last few sets. It's a solid body, can fuel your gameplan by growing threats and letting you see more cards, and it's got relevant creature typing to synergize with other cards. This falls into the category of problematic all-in-one engine cards I mentioned earlier, and for the most part I try to limit these, but I think I'm a little more lenient when it comes to something that can supplement an aggressive or proactive archetype.
Anger of the Gods is just coming back because I like exile related sweepers more and more with recursive bodies being printed frequently. Brotherhood's End is a superior sideboard card for Constructed and whatnot, but creatures are king in most cubes and being able to completely take away any form of recursion is a huge boon. Also the TSR foil is just too nice for me to keep in a binder forever.
Ozolith, the Shattered Spire is a card that I'm curious to see in action. I like being able to cycle it away if it's a dead draw late and I'm excited by the possibility of curving into it and just going off. Honestly any chance I get to make Teething Wurmlet even better is a plus to me. Curving Wurmlet into Ozolith into something like Briarbridge Tracker to push through 3 and then 5 damage is very appealing.
Voice of Resurgence is a card that just feels a little more appealing nowadays with the plethora of instant speed effects that have been printed in recent years. Get rewarded for going wide with the token, has a recurrable body at 2 CMC for the likes of Lurrus or Sevinne's Reclamation, and it just fits well into the typical GWx shells that get built in my cube.
I'm always on the lookout for neat artifact creatures and potential payoffs for Welder strategies, but I completely forgot that Steel Seraph existed until the other day. It played very well in Limited the one time I remember drafting it and prototype is a great mechanic to promote playability at various points in the game. With how big creatures have gotten on the ground nowadays just gumming up the board, being able to just jump an attacker into the air is a great way to proactively push towards the end game. Phyrexian Fleshgorger has been an excellent inclusion ever since the beginning, hoping that Seraph can find a similar long term home here.
Hopefully I'll have more to share and some sweet cube decks sometime in April. See ya!
Hello! Been a while since my last post and I've had this draft sitting around unfinished for months now. I had friends in town months ago and we were able to scrounge up a full 8 man pod for a draft. We try to get together once a year for a couple of days where we mostly spend time together and play some Magic, kind of reliving our college days to an extent where we'd be playing Magic in between midterms and projects all throughout each quarter. We actually had a total of 9 people available for this draft so I was able to sit out and just run the event observing the draft and the games themselves all night long.
Finally getting to see my cube in action after nearly a year of updates was interesting (this was back in late March before OTJ was released) and there were a bunch of different decks that came together:
A classic B/R Aggro list in my cube with the recursive creatures and zombie theme present. There is the reach with the likes of Vraan, Executioner Thane and Judith, the Scourge Diva along with a plethora of smaller aggressive bodies to just chuck at the opponent for triggers and pushing through some damage. This archetype has existed in my cube since the beginning waaaay back in 2014 after I read Jason's article on CFB and it's neat to see the amount of reach it has now with a decade worth of updates to work with. Various angles of attack and reach make Aggro so much more interesting to draft and play.
It's also great to see that this archetype is easily identifiable among players and the Duplicate Voucher system was simple enough to understand and utilize all throughout. A lot of my friends don't play anywhere near as often as they used to, I also mostly play EDH and hit up prereleases, so making sure that archetypes and payoffs are easily recognizable is huge when it comes to refining my cube environment.
Reduce the overall complexity on a card-by-card basis but make up for it with engrossing gameplay has been my motto the last few years of updating my cube.
Kind of a wild pile, I'm not sure what the initial plan was with this deck and where it branched off, but I was super curious to see how viable Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis was and I was not disappointed. I saw it in play for multiple games as I made my way around viewing various matches. I think I always envisioned it as more a card in a B/G or Sultai shell, but I can see how the addition of things like the Surveil lands just allowed for additional branching out into more colors while still fueling that option.
Being able to passively dump an additional card into the graveyard to pay for costs seems like big game. And honestly they just played really well and I became a total believer in them after this session (and even more so after months of playing them in EDH). I'm still a huge fan of the duals from BFZ, I think they lend themselves to designing cube environments that want to emphasize mostly 2 color decks, but WoTC apparently has no plans for completing that cycle so it'll be shelved until then. Even then, I think just the utility of these with that surveil might be what sticks around long terms as the 2nd cycle of duals in my cube.
A classic Jund-style deck. Efficient cards throughout the curve and just looking to chain impact spells into eachother. I did get to glimpse a Bonecrusher Giant getting in for lethal via Embercleave which was pretty cool.
Sometimes I feel like Nolan's goal when drafting my cube is to be as greedy as possible and play everything interesting but that's just fine with me. As can be seen from these 8 lists, there's a ton of variety to go around and multiple archetypes are viable. I like seeing the different strategies that go into building that final 40 and usually it sorts itself out through gameplay. I think with a less experienced pod taking all the fixing and maxing out on colors makes sense (same strategy ala Triple KTK draft), but if lands are valued as they should be then the 2 color decks or those lightly splashing a 3rd have historically been the most successful in my drafts.
All that said, there's a lot interactions happening here with an insane amount of value being generated from a variety of sources if he's able to curve out and set up his engines correctly. When it got to do its thing it was pretty gross, but when it stumbled it definitely didn't feel streamlined towards a given gameplan. That's just classic Yorion Piles though.
This was an interesting little deck. Had to grind out every little advantage through sequencing and gameplay, but it got there and went all the way to the Finals. I know tempo is the bad word around here, but there really isn't a better way to describe how this deck would have to play in order to close out games. I think most every match when to game 3 if I recall correctly? But he made it through with tight play until running into the eventual winner.
The 3-0 list of the night. Just a really straightforward Boros Winota list that went wide early and applied a ton of pressure with going big and vertical once the board stabilized. Turns out that even without bigger humans up the curve to cheat in that Winota is just really good when you can plop another 2 bodies without fear of getting eaten on a block. Having Mom and Stepmom available for protection led to a lot of boardstates where a big threat like a fully grown Champion of the Parish or an Adeline, Resplendent Cathar was damn near untouchable. Also growing Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful with Legendary lands is all I've ever wanted to see and with every set we're one stop closer to it becoming a stone-cold staple.
I'm still surprised nowadays with how little these vertical growth aggro one drops are included in most cube lists when it's almost trivial to get it to a 2/2 on average and then if you ever jump to a 3/3 that's better than damn near every generic 2/1 one drop that's been available for years. It's just better gameplay when sequencing matters, play these cards!
Just a big boy Simic deck trying to accelerate and get ahead. If it could get there quickly enough to drop big things ahead of curve it could really get going but interaction would sometimes halt it right in its tracks. But that the ramp game!
Somehow Will always drafts something U/B or grindy as all hell every time we've played my cube. And I think there was one time that that didn't happen, where he tried to branch out and try something else, and he didn't do nearly as well. So it's come back down to just sticking to the basics and it just makes sense.
All in all it was really fun to see everything in play and just go around between matches observing the gameplay and chatting with friends in between games. Just hearing actual feedback is so important when you spend all this time fiddling with a build over months. And now it's already outdated with multiple new cards and some big changes that I'll likely be detailing in a post in the near future.
Planning out another cube session (hopefully) soon so we'll see what's up then!
Finally getting to see my cube in action after nearly a year of updates was interesting (this was back in late March before OTJ was released) and there were a bunch of different decks that came together:
Rakdos Aggro [Michael]
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A classic B/R Aggro list in my cube with the recursive creatures and zombie theme present. There is the reach with the likes of Vraan, Executioner Thane and Judith, the Scourge Diva along with a plethora of smaller aggressive bodies to just chuck at the opponent for triggers and pushing through some damage. This archetype has existed in my cube since the beginning waaaay back in 2014 after I read Jason's article on CFB and it's neat to see the amount of reach it has now with a decade worth of updates to work with. Various angles of attack and reach make Aggro so much more interesting to draft and play.
It's also great to see that this archetype is easily identifiable among players and the Duplicate Voucher system was simple enough to understand and utilize all throughout. A lot of my friends don't play anywhere near as often as they used to, I also mostly play EDH and hit up prereleases, so making sure that archetypes and payoffs are easily recognizable is huge when it comes to refining my cube environment.
Reduce the overall complexity on a card-by-card basis but make up for it with engrossing gameplay has been my motto the last few years of updating my cube.
5C Hogaak [David]
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Kind of a wild pile, I'm not sure what the initial plan was with this deck and where it branched off, but I was super curious to see how viable Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis was and I was not disappointed. I saw it in play for multiple games as I made my way around viewing various matches. I think I always envisioned it as more a card in a B/G or Sultai shell, but I can see how the addition of things like the Surveil lands just allowed for additional branching out into more colors while still fueling that option.
Being able to passively dump an additional card into the graveyard to pay for costs seems like big game. And honestly they just played really well and I became a total believer in them after this session (and even more so after months of playing them in EDH). I'm still a huge fan of the duals from BFZ, I think they lend themselves to designing cube environments that want to emphasize mostly 2 color decks, but WoTC apparently has no plans for completing that cycle so it'll be shelved until then. Even then, I think just the utility of these with that surveil might be what sticks around long terms as the 2nd cycle of duals in my cube.
Jund 'Em [Ryan]
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A classic Jund-style deck. Efficient cards throughout the curve and just looking to chain impact spells into eachother. I did get to glimpse a Bonecrusher Giant getting in for lethal via Embercleave which was pretty cool.
4C Yorion [Nolan]
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Sometimes I feel like Nolan's goal when drafting my cube is to be as greedy as possible and play everything interesting but that's just fine with me. As can be seen from these 8 lists, there's a ton of variety to go around and multiple archetypes are viable. I like seeing the different strategies that go into building that final 40 and usually it sorts itself out through gameplay. I think with a less experienced pod taking all the fixing and maxing out on colors makes sense (same strategy ala Triple KTK draft), but if lands are valued as they should be then the 2 color decks or those lightly splashing a 3rd have historically been the most successful in my drafts.
All that said, there's a lot interactions happening here with an insane amount of value being generated from a variety of sources if he's able to curve out and set up his engines correctly. When it got to do its thing it was pretty gross, but when it stumbled it definitely didn't feel streamlined towards a given gameplan. That's just classic Yorion Piles though.
Grixis Tempo [Peicong]
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This was an interesting little deck. Had to grind out every little advantage through sequencing and gameplay, but it got there and went all the way to the Finals. I know tempo is the bad word around here, but there really isn't a better way to describe how this deck would have to play in order to close out games. I think most every match when to game 3 if I recall correctly? But he made it through with tight play until running into the eventual winner.
Boros Winota [Henry]
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The 3-0 list of the night. Just a really straightforward Boros Winota list that went wide early and applied a ton of pressure with going big and vertical once the board stabilized. Turns out that even without bigger humans up the curve to cheat in that Winota is just really good when you can plop another 2 bodies without fear of getting eaten on a block. Having Mom and Stepmom available for protection led to a lot of boardstates where a big threat like a fully grown Champion of the Parish or an Adeline, Resplendent Cathar was damn near untouchable. Also growing Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful with Legendary lands is all I've ever wanted to see and with every set we're one stop closer to it becoming a stone-cold staple.
I'm still surprised nowadays with how little these vertical growth aggro one drops are included in most cube lists when it's almost trivial to get it to a 2/2 on average and then if you ever jump to a 3/3 that's better than damn near every generic 2/1 one drop that's been available for years. It's just better gameplay when sequencing matters, play these cards!
Big Simic [Michelle]
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Just a big boy Simic deck trying to accelerate and get ahead. If it could get there quickly enough to drop big things ahead of curve it could really get going but interaction would sometimes halt it right in its tracks. But that the ramp game!
Dimir Midrange [Will]
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Somehow Will always drafts something U/B or grindy as all hell every time we've played my cube. And I think there was one time that that didn't happen, where he tried to branch out and try something else, and he didn't do nearly as well. So it's come back down to just sticking to the basics and it just makes sense.
All in all it was really fun to see everything in play and just go around between matches observing the gameplay and chatting with friends in between games. Just hearing actual feedback is so important when you spend all this time fiddling with a build over months. And now it's already outdated with multiple new cards and some big changes that I'll likely be detailing in a post in the near future.
Planning out another cube session (hopefully) soon so we'll see what's up then!