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Alright, I sketched 3 decklists for GR storm decks. I drew from an umbrella of GR themes, and tried to have at least 2-3 present in each list to make sure there's a lot of depth of drafting directions available. The umbrella list roughly includes: Noncreature spells, Lands Counters Tokens...

I'm saying that in many games you will play Elvish Visionary turn 1 (I must have done that a dozen times at this point). But also in many games you will play Elvish Visionary for G (I've done this in maybe half a dozen matches). The power-level comes from the mix of efficiency, mana abuse, and...

This conversation is fascinating to me, because these two mechanics are more-or-less implemented in the Mox Cube. Having 10 moxen basically means you start at 2 cmc in expectation (which makes 1 drops less value and 3 drops more valuable). This has definitely changed which cards I consider...

Your cube is extremely my shit. I'd force this deck immediately: Solitary Confinement Life from the Loam Titania, Protector of Argoth Constant Mists Balance Ramunap Excavator Scattered Groves Dust Bowl but I have a feeling it's not 100% the most healthy cube experience ;). I'm probably...

omg <3 These lists are exactly what I'm going for. I think Stonecloaker and Eternal Dragon are the literal only creatures with more than 2 power. Love it. I'll contribute my initial stream of consciousness thoughts - I love your inclusion of: New Perspectives What a fantastic way to cheat...

After a large set of updates, I have another draft to share. I'm eliding two interim drafts while the card pool was shifting too much. The first of those drafts included a deck that won a game turn 1 on the play, and consistently won the game by turn 3. The other draft included zero combo decks...

The Mox Cube has recently undergone enormous turmoil: I increased the power level significantly, and now I'm strengthening the overall quality of the disruption correspondingly. As a result, the most recent decks have been a bit shaky, but hopefully it will settle down in a "Riptide Vintage...

That usually just means you're smarter in the ways that count lol.

Well, remember, complexity proofs almost always proceed by a reduction to SAT or a Turing reduction (or some similar strategy) so they are "the same" in a more formal way than two diamonds are... But you're definitely right, the word "Complex" is being used here (misleadingly) in a formal sense...

This narrow way of thinking is precisely the sort of prescriptivist notion, I'm suggesting we should avoid. To start, you're wrong on the merits. A D&D campaign can also be competitive or even feature explicitly antagonistic relationships between the players - I've run such campaigns before. But...

But I think it's important to realize that's exactly what this flavor of reasoning suggests. Magic is play, and play carried out socially between human beings. Even "balance" and "rules" are socially-constituted in this context - and you see that happen especially often on this forum where it's...

I knew this was going to be a galaxy brain take after this intro, but hoooo boy, I wasn't expecting the "gaming isn't and shouldn't be a social interaction" argument.

Games have to be "regulated" and it's bad to rely on social relations between human beings to have a fun experience with your friends? Fuck, I've been gaming wrong this whole time. Oh man, this is a really really bad sign for D&D, might be time to retire the old DM screen.

Gifts Archetype Gifts Ungiven In my last two drafts, I've seen the rise of Simic Gifts as a distinct powerhouse archetype. Well, at least half an archetype - the UG decks I'm talking about focus heavily on tutors and recursion (with extremely good gifts piles) but usually have some other...

I actually don't really like Vizier of Remedies because at least in my cube it's never ever playable on it's own. It's purely a "broken with persist" card. Compared to for example: Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest Cathars' Crusade Juniper Order Ranger Metallic Mimic which...

It's my pseudo-birthday as well, so we've clearly got that astrologically-matched cube energy. Great post, loving these decklists. I really like Academy Rector with Keranos and Splendor as targets - it's a lovely little package grafted on a control deck. Overall, I'm really impressed at how your...

Don't take the optimization metaphor too seriously, doing research all the time has kinda warped my brain. Both worlds care a lot about variance reduction though, lol.

I don't have time at the moment to fully do this question justice but I can give you some quick hits. At a high-level I would say this: it depends on your cube objective. If your cost function is minimizing variance, then I have a hard time seeing how you don't end up with something very similar...

First, I'd say I have 4 distinct versions of the "untap" deck. Elves, i.e. mana dorks and creature-cast card draw Tokens, go wide and abuse "tap creature" effects together with mass untap Artifacts, the bridge between Paradox Engine and Intruder Alarm ETB/Bounce, i.e. Kor Skyfisher, Erratic...

Here are a few more that have been good for me. With the exception of Cataclysm, I think these work flexibly across different power levels. In my cube, they tend to lean towards graveyard recursion. academy rector auriok salvagers rally the ancestors cataclysm approach of the second sun...