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Hey it's my area of expertise! My cube is based around an almost entirely Desert manabase. I'm several months in now, the development has sort of gone like this: First drafts of the cube, I am running a very low power level with a Desert configuration featuring 3 each of the sac Deserts, 10+...

Just wanted to vouch for Very Cryptic Command (the aforementioned tap version), I've been running it for several months now and it's been a blast. 3 blue can be a bummer of course; if your manabase isn't fetch + shock or similar it's only going to see play in heavy blue decks. Still, it has a...

War Marshal if you/your group is fine with the complexity, Dragon Fodder if you want the spell support, Goblin Instigator if you want a simpler version that supports creature recursion/flickering . Not very helpful I know, but I think it boils down to figuring out the little balancing touches...

1. Absolutely; a tutor + body is good regardless of the power level of the targets, assuming that the equipment is worth fetching in the context of the cube. There is the argument that tutors become better with a wider power band, but that doesn't doom Mystic from consideration. 2/3. I think...

Plus you can redraw it off the draw triggers :eek:

Woah the elf thing looks amazing with -1/-1 counters, tons of neat engines there: Grasping Dunes + Life from the Loam (plus the draw activates dredge!) Gwafa Hazid Contagion Clasp/Contagion Engine Tetzimoc, Primal Death: pay {B} to draw a card :eek: Ruthless Sniper + any discard outlet: pay...

Lotus-Eye Mystics has been fairly good, especially in the late game. With Sagas that becomes a ton of CA. Still you need to have a high density of not just enchantments, but self-sacrificing or cycling ones for it to be worth it. You're probably looking at Sagas being a Bant theme, with...

Ambuscade Shaman + Ichorid

It bins itself, unlike Oath which stays in play

So after a bit of a break, I've gotten deep into cube design again. Now that Ash Barrens are affordable again I've been able to grab some for testing, and sketch out a new list based around them, errata'd to be Deserts. Ash Barrens is powerful, cycling fixing, and that provides us a few new...

Molten Vortex Eidolon of Blossoms Cloud of Faeries Moment's Peace Solemn Recruit Desert of the Mindful Resurrection Barbed Sextant Ruthless Ripper Nevinyrral's Disk Astral Slide Pirate's Pillage Abzan Guide Ruthless Sniper Ash Barrens Important erratas: -Ash Barrens is a Desert -Solemn Recruit...

Ohhh well that should make it much more fair. Still I think these kinds of effects should be kept a close eye on, as they can be fairly format-warping, not to mention fiddly. Personally I am a fan of sideboard tutors like Mastermind's Acquisition and other SB utility effects, as they open up new...

Allowing a deck-defining payoff card to be constantly castable from your sideboard, is an insane amount of consistency. My concern is that that deckbuilding and play patterns would become very homogeneous whenever such a card is involved. When you have a deck hyper-focued on a certain...

Vile Manifestation and Sultai Emissary look great, I think I'll try those for sure. Apprentice Necromancer is cool enough to warrant a try but idk if my ETBs/death triggers are worth the loss of CA. Not sure about Skirk Ridge Exhumer. It does fit a lot of themes even if it's pretty weak, so...

I've been struggling to find black 2-drops; most of the usual ones don't quite fit. Anything weird and low-power I'd definitely be interested in, ideally as far from vanilla as possible. Some themes: -GY -Zombies -Morph -Artifacts -1/-1 counters -Sacrifice Already running: Rotting Rats, Asylum...

Yeah I might have to wait for a reprint, $8 x 16 is a lot. Still, I like the tension where early game you might want fixing, but in the late game you can sac it to a desert. It's a neat way to encourage players to either run a mono-colored desert deck (using ash barrens as sac fodder) or enable...

I understand the psychological aspect, but I have to disagree that Ancient Stirrings comes at creativity's expense. In fact it's a tool that can unlock synergy by finding a build-around artifact or land. In addition, it invites cool plays and corner cases. Shuffle effects can give you another...

Thanks for the support, everyone. I think what I need to do is identify what makes my cube unique, and really emphasize those aspects, to prevent it from being a worse version of another cube. Really like the idea of adding 'Desert' to fixing lands. Maybe cutting all the Painted Bluffs and...

So recently I've been down on a lot of games. Board games, card games, you name it. For over a year, I've been sort of searching for the 'platonic ideal' of strategy games, expending tremendous amounts of time and money, and going through several projects, including my Pokemon cube (which seems...

Carbonize Still, I have to agree. For a card literally about smashing something to rubble, exiling feels very off flavor. I would look at finding a different way to strengthen the card. Maybe it could have Flashback--Sacrifice a Mountain?