Hello, my name is Sean McClane. and welcome to my Mostly Modern cube thread here at RiptideLab. First let's start with the brief previous history of the cube.
The first incarnation of the cube was Modern to the core, but requiring every planeswalker to be in the cube, and if your cube isn't tribal supporting Nissa Revane is very difficult and hinders green's overall performance. If you don't draft the elf deck and are in green, you lose.
This was changed, and every so often I'd have a mechanic repersented in each color. Dual-Faced Cards for example, but some of them weren't that good Ludevic's Test Subject for the cube, so the cube settled on 360 good stuff.
Recently I've decided to bump the cube up to 450 to give the cube a little bit more depth and allow support for more archetypes.
And that bump was too big, cut down to 405 and feel good about the cube at this size
Enough of that boring stuff right, can we get to the thing we all care about, the cube list.
http://cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/831
Some info about the cube, general breakdown
Basic Information
Cube Size: 405
Breakdown: 52 each color, 90 multicolor (5 spells [man lands/ability lands are spells], 4 lands), 40 Colorless/Artifact, 15 Other Lands
Standard or Theme: Standard
Snow Lands: Yes, and honestly it is because I love Skred
Average Number of Players: 4-6
How Often Drafted: Monthly
Card Selection
Proxies: No
Powered: Not possible for Modern
Portal: Not possible for Modern
"Un" Cards: No
Banned Cards for Power-Level: Sigarda, Host of Herons, this card was in ONE draft, and it warped the game completely. It will never make it back into the cube. Also see fun factor.
Banned Cards for Time Constraints: No
Banned Cards for "fun" factor:
1. Protection from Any Color Creatures.
This is simply something I like, and Mirran Crusader is the reason to blame. (Other pcreatures like Chameleon Colossus, and Stillmoon Cavalier are also to blame but Crusader was the biggest offender) Hexproof, while IMO is a vastly better ability, Hexproof creatures can still be blocked. If someone drafted Black/Green and was staring down Mirran Crusader, may as well just scoop them up. The Sword of X and Y cycle is in the cube, and grants creatures protection from colors, but the opposing player at least has the chance to respond before they get hosed, and artifact removal.
2. Infect
3. Geist of Saint Traft, this card doesn't feel like it belongs in White/Blue, which to me is more of a control color combination. Hexproof with Blue seems to good.
4. Miracles
5 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, group feels this card is too powerful and almost impossible to catchup if you fall behind.
Specific Cube Rules
While a "Modern" cube, several exceptions are made for the cube.
1. Ignoring the Modern Banned List. Bitterblossom, Skullclamp are welcome here.
2. Cards that were printed for the first time after 8th Edition, but are not Modern legal are also welcome. Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Baleful Strixfor example.
3. Judge Promos, or really good cube cards that got the modern frame, not welcome. This cube is more focused on the Modern format, with some small changes to help balance it out and increase the fun factor.
4. The only exception of cards not printed after 8th edition are the Onslaught Fetchlands. I hated only having the Zendikar fetches in here. It felt incomplete, thus the exception
5. Kird Ape is a red card, Loam Lion is a white card. I know they require forests to be really worth while, I just feel more comfortable with them here, as Aggro is having a litte bit of a hard time in my cube.
Cube Design
Standard or Multiplayer: Standard
Sideboards?: Yes
Color Balance: Yes
Gold Balance: Yes
Hybrid/Split/Kicker as Gold: Yes
Color Triggers as Gold: ?
Perfectly Balanced CMC: No
Some archetypes/decks I'm trying to support
Normal Aggro, Midrange, Control variants with some offshoot archetypes like
Artifact.dec - This didn't work very well...
Kiki-Pestermite combo - A personal favorite of mine to draft - Archetype removed for fun factor
Reanimator - Starting to be a real deck
Wildfire.dec - I believe I need the most help here
Small Naya Aggro Landfall theme - Haven't seen this happen yet
Thanks for reading, look forward to discussing my cube and others here on RiptideLab
The first incarnation of the cube was Modern to the core, but requiring every planeswalker to be in the cube, and if your cube isn't tribal supporting Nissa Revane is very difficult and hinders green's overall performance. If you don't draft the elf deck and are in green, you lose.
This was changed, and every so often I'd have a mechanic repersented in each color. Dual-Faced Cards for example, but some of them weren't that good Ludevic's Test Subject for the cube, so the cube settled on 360 good stuff.
Recently I've decided to bump the cube up to 450 to give the cube a little bit more depth and allow support for more archetypes.
And that bump was too big, cut down to 405 and feel good about the cube at this size
Enough of that boring stuff right, can we get to the thing we all care about, the cube list.
http://cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/831
Some info about the cube, general breakdown
Basic Information
Cube Size: 405
Breakdown: 52 each color, 90 multicolor (5 spells [man lands/ability lands are spells], 4 lands), 40 Colorless/Artifact, 15 Other Lands
Standard or Theme: Standard
Snow Lands: Yes, and honestly it is because I love Skred
Average Number of Players: 4-6
How Often Drafted: Monthly
Card Selection
Proxies: No
Powered: Not possible for Modern
Portal: Not possible for Modern
"Un" Cards: No
Banned Cards for Power-Level: Sigarda, Host of Herons, this card was in ONE draft, and it warped the game completely. It will never make it back into the cube. Also see fun factor.
Banned Cards for Time Constraints: No
Banned Cards for "fun" factor:
1. Protection from Any Color Creatures.
This is simply something I like, and Mirran Crusader is the reason to blame. (Other pcreatures like Chameleon Colossus, and Stillmoon Cavalier are also to blame but Crusader was the biggest offender) Hexproof, while IMO is a vastly better ability, Hexproof creatures can still be blocked. If someone drafted Black/Green and was staring down Mirran Crusader, may as well just scoop them up. The Sword of X and Y cycle is in the cube, and grants creatures protection from colors, but the opposing player at least has the chance to respond before they get hosed, and artifact removal.
2. Infect
3. Geist of Saint Traft, this card doesn't feel like it belongs in White/Blue, which to me is more of a control color combination. Hexproof with Blue seems to good.
4. Miracles
5 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, group feels this card is too powerful and almost impossible to catchup if you fall behind.
Specific Cube Rules
While a "Modern" cube, several exceptions are made for the cube.
1. Ignoring the Modern Banned List. Bitterblossom, Skullclamp are welcome here.
2. Cards that were printed for the first time after 8th Edition, but are not Modern legal are also welcome. Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Baleful Strixfor example.
3. Judge Promos, or really good cube cards that got the modern frame, not welcome. This cube is more focused on the Modern format, with some small changes to help balance it out and increase the fun factor.
4. The only exception of cards not printed after 8th edition are the Onslaught Fetchlands. I hated only having the Zendikar fetches in here. It felt incomplete, thus the exception
5. Kird Ape is a red card, Loam Lion is a white card. I know they require forests to be really worth while, I just feel more comfortable with them here, as Aggro is having a litte bit of a hard time in my cube.
Cube Design
Standard or Multiplayer: Standard
Sideboards?: Yes
Color Balance: Yes
Gold Balance: Yes
Hybrid/Split/Kicker as Gold: Yes
Color Triggers as Gold: ?
Perfectly Balanced CMC: No
Some archetypes/decks I'm trying to support
Normal Aggro, Midrange, Control variants with some offshoot archetypes like
Reanimator - Starting to be a real deck
Wildfire.dec - I believe I need the most help here
Small Naya Aggro Landfall theme - Haven't seen this happen yet
Thanks for reading, look forward to discussing my cube and others here on RiptideLab