General Arena Cube is back!

[XRS]

This time it's draft, not sealed.

Here's the list. It's hard to grok as it's all alphabetical with no links. It seems fairly similar to the sealed cube of april with some new inclusions from historic anthology III.
You get a run for free

Draft #1 . Probably should have moved in to rakdos/mardu or mono black. Was passed a late Mayhem Devils. and all the mono red decks wheeled and saw a Grey Merchant in the last pack. I think Etheral Absolution is too clunky in cube - it only exiles opponents gy (to make a token). Have played matches where its just a "mini-Elesh Norn.

Nightmare Shepherd is dumb. I just had a game where my opponent (for some reason) chose to block my Cavalier of Night. The night died, returned elvish rejuvenator to the battlefield. The shepherd trigger made a cavalier token. Sacced Trostani to kill their Respendent Ange and got a the ETB of trostani.

Has anyone else tried the cube? Did I mention you get one run for free?

 

[Peter LaCara]

It's up? I thought it wasn't out until the 21st. Brb, spending all my gold.

 

[Erik Twice]

I remember playing the April cube and it was awful. Very color-clunky with bomb after bomb dropping into the battlefield. But I'll give another chance since it's free.

 

[ravnic]

The list looks very goodstuff-y, but I'll give it a spin at least. Cube is a bit like pizza or sex, even when it's bad it's still relatively good

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Alright, let's give this a try then!

 

[Peter LaCara]

That looks a lot like the first deck I drafted, which was a pure UB heavy control deck with Lili and Sharknado. It only ended up going 2-3. I stomped any midrange or aggro deck I faced, but I kept losing to UGx ramp decks which went over the top hard. The big mana top end in this cube is absolutely nuts.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I think the difference between pure UB control and my draft is the three Wraths I play.

 

[Rowan_CB]

So far I’ve crushed with RW aggro and UG ramp and have gotten stomped when I’ve tried to draft synergistic decks. Would agree that it’s good-stuffy.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Won with a 7-2 record, stomping two RW aggro decks on the way, including one on a mulligan to 5, and one in the finals where I had two Liliana, Dreadhorde Generals at 9 loyalty (courtesy of Spark Double), five zombies, and a Zetalpa, Primal Dawn in play vs my opponent's lone Heliod, Sun-Crowned right before my opponent scooped

I lost to a mono black deck because I kept a land in hand to play around a discard spell (no idea if any untargeted ones are in the format) then coming up short 1 mana in two consecutive turns with a land in hand that I couldn't play. D'oh!

The other loss was to an RG good stuff deck with multiple indestructibles and red cheat enchantments. I got far, but on the turn before I was planning to drop a Zetalpa to stabilize with them at 5 cards left in their library and me at 8 life still, they dropped both an 8/8 and a buffed Tectonic Giant (5/6) for exactly lethal.

But hey, turns out scooping up three of the five available white wraths plus a bunch of planeswalkers is pretty good! I actually won two games on the back of Jace's static (or was about to, in both instances my opponent scooped).

 

[Kirblinx]

I did my free draft. Went 7-1 with WB Sacrifice:

Tried to go with a sacrifice theme with afterlife and death triggers, but my deck just ended up being big efficient flyers. Only game I lost was to a Gruul Spellbreaker with Embercleave. This is something that Heartless Act cannot stop. Ruin Raider was secretly MVP. Pretty much my only source of card draw and drew 2 cards off of it every game he appeared.

 

[ravnic]

I did both, an arena cube draft and a rivals of ixalan draft on arena. And I have to say, the latter was more fun. And I'm not even a fan of tribal.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Well, when life gives you strawberries, eat 'em, right?

Spoiler

I went 7-2 again, losing one game to The Immortal Sun, and another to Thief of Sanity. The mana was perfect. Sadly I didn't get to combine Mirari's Wake with the Finale of Glory, but I did get to cast March of the Multitudes for X = 16 in one game

 

[Peter LaCara]

Man, I must be doing something wrong. When we had the sealed cube I didn't go have a run with less than 6 wins. This time I've only had one 7-2 run and the rest have been in the 2-4 win range. I wonder if it's because I keep trying to draft it like my cube, instead of building generic value piles like I did with sealed.

 

[Peter LaCara]

Okay, this is pretty neat. Mirari's Wake into Finale of Glory for X=10 is something you should experience at least once. I like how the token and enchantress themes overlap here. It's got me thinking about retooling my Selesnya section.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Okay, this is pretty neat. Mirari's Wake into Finale of Glory for X=10 is something you should experience at least once. I like how the token and enchantress themes overlap here. It's got me thinking about retooling my Selesnya section.

That looks like a sweet deck Peter! Please tell me it did better than 2-4

I've only done the two drafts I put up here, and both times I did the same thing: pick fixing over almost anything, pick wraths and planeswalkers, pick bombs and removal.

 

[Peter LaCara]

Got to 5 wins, then I lost to a couple red decks on the draw that I could have stabilized against on the play. A little disappointed it didn't go the full 7, but that's because it was fun and I didn't want to stop playing it.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Yeah, red is pretty strong in this cube! I've seen reports that the difference in win rate between being on the play and being on the draw in this cube is (allegedly) over 10%!

 

[Peter LaCara]

Okay, check out this nice synergistic RB sac deck. 0-3. I just went on the draw every game and never felt particularly in it. Although, I think I may have been able to win the first game except for a misplay, but that one is on me. The other two never felt super close.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Oof! Sometimes games can be harsh. I do think this would have trouble against decks going either over the top or under it. There's a lot of synergy, but your early creatures are all very fragile and easily outclassed on the battlefield. Looks like your deck just needs a little time to start rolling, but you don't always get that time in (this) cube.