balance cube

FlowerSunRain

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
I love this list. The complete disregard for gridfilling is mentally liberating. No nonsense with the 1 drops whatsoever. I love the mini-commentaries on some of the cards, even if I don't agree with all of them. I'm not going to nitpick over card choices, its your list not mine.

That said, you did mention keeping your curve nice, it looks ok until you glance over to the multicolor section (as well as the red and green planeswalkers, whoa!) and it swings up sharply. Lots of choices for players looking to grab for the top end, while the bottom end has very little wiggle room. I think this list would play better downshifting some 4+ drops into some of the least flexible sections (Black 1s and 2s, White 1s, etc.). God, don't you wish there as a b/w 1 drop hybrid worth playing? I know I do.
 
yan

yan

got a few hours of rounds in. many cards made the cut. many did not. rip. impressions take two:

mikaeus the lunarch - does a flexible modal impression of anthem that scales well and acts as a threat. if endless one looked appealing then try this guy out. so this card doesnt help the control match up with board wipes like ajani or spear would. functions nearly identical in other match ups. ranger of eos cherry on top

eldrazi displacer - always wanted to cube deadeye navigator. exactly what it says. less vulnerable but more setup. its not easy to get the right multiple colorless with 25 sources but its not difficult. similar to being on curve after landfall creature. can come out of the gate at 100mph and shut the game down or durdle for a few turns

mirror entity - annoying. keep it in bc its a changeling and would rather have a creature anthem

emeria angel and rampaging baloths - cannot get these to over perform. prob need to focus more on getting other pieces first like fetches and ramp and make sure hitting all land drops

ranger of eos - i like tutors

gideon jura - think its balanced since aggro hits harder now

porphyry nodes - good find lab maniacs

crush of tentacles - this spin on a (temp) board wipe. trades destruction for a board presence usually twice the size of my past phyrexian rebirth tokens. easier to pull off than miracle and resets control magic and all the etb stuff

kalitas - influences combat phase like a black thrun. prevents chump blocks

soulflayer - feels like an unhinged card. got it a couple random abilities sometimes and others its a 4/4 for bb

chandra fire of kaladesh - spells matter. not bad. try it before writing it off

commune with lava - a for effort. costs like sphinxs revelation and plays like kioras second ability consistently drawing a land and other card.


imo brb gtg etc
 
Meltyman

Meltyman

You haven't gotten much critic, so here goes.
All the stuff that caught my eye with a couple of glances at your list:

Cards that are identical or close to identical for no apparent reason (in my opinion):

Day of Judgment + Wrath of God + Terminus <- is this necessary in a 360 list? i could imagine you could get away with only WoG and Terminus? Maybe swap DoJ for Hallowed Burial or Martial Coup or even Rout?

Banishing Light + Oblivion Ring <- why? do you really need 2 identical effects of this sort (3 even if you count Quarantine Field). Try something like Myth Realized or Scepter of Dominance or Secure the Wastes... the list goes on...

Evasive Action + Mana Leak <- dunno, i would just cut Evasive Action for something more interesting and better. Mystic Confluence maybe ??

Earthquake and Rolling Earthquake why? Chaos Warp is awesome, replace one for that maybe ?


Cards that aren't on par with the rest of the card pool and i don't see people playing them that often:

Silent Specter and Soulflayer are really clunky, does anyone really play them? You have Grave Titan, Tasigur, Sheoldred, Tombstalker already..

Catacomb Sifter isn't that hot i think and you have 5 cards in that multicolor slot already...

Sword of the Animist - i have no equipments in my main cube, but this would be one of the last ones to come in my cube, i can't see it playable in virtually any cube that has most of the stock cube cards in it.

Some other notes:

3 Gravecrawlers seem really sick, i have a 540-cube and 3 Gravecrawlers was clearly too much. 2 Gravecrawler decks are really effective already...

Pack Rat i loathe, it mostly plays the same way, which is unkillable army of rats... doesn't generate fun games in my opinion.

Multicolors aren't balanced:
2 cards:
GW
UR
RW

3 cards:
UW
RB
BW

4 cards:
UB (3 kinda, because alchemy is blue)
RG
UG

5 cards:
BG

Find some more cards for the 2 cards slot, there are many good options...
 
yan

yan

oh thank you. probably do have too many o rings. its a catch all over something like kor sanctifiers or journey to nowhere. so im figuring thats where all my artifact enchantment removal is. ive played with myth realized. it was a bad experience. i wouldnt let bad experiences stop me but white spells matter chimeric mass seems bland

have a lot of board wipes. i like the standard format of control so i stuffed each section with three. let them put on a fight. i do want to chuck in secure the wastes now. im gonna move up too many good cards think ive culled my cube enough

i didnt play with mystic confluence yet. what was the verdict? op? ok?

i havnt gotten much time in with soulflayer but im gonna test it a bit longer i like its flavor so experiment a lil. i also find catacomb sifter interesting. presents a nice toolbox. bodies, scrying in g/b, ramp. ive played with it and its a nice unique filler card. its a hot mess in a competitive slot mana and color wise so time will tell

yea my color balance is a bit off but ive come to the decision its better for me to remain flexible than having a set amount of cards. try to cut most of the filler off instead. not a fan of the other boros or izzet spells. idk what happened to selesyna that used to be packed. think i took out aggro stuff

gravecrawler hasnt been an issue. its not common to open with two and if you can get three thats great. its one of the top one drops but its a 2/1 that cant block in a heavyweight environment. thatll do good in the aggro mirror but gets walled or wiped all day. the best zombie for gravecrawler is gravecrawler and i dont run many other zombies

i can see the frustration with pack rat. its an insane mana sink that transforms nothing into a threatening presence. desirable for late game black, reanimator. i dont like tokens but i like this design
 
Meltyman

Meltyman

yan said:
i can see the frustration with pack rat. its an insane mana sink that transforms nothing into a threatening presence. desirable for late game black, reanimator. i dont like tokens but i like this design
Click to expand...

if you drop pack rat turn 2 for instance, you don't need to do anything else than just discard a card per turn and win the game.

In theory it's great with reanimator, but it usually just wins on its own, turns your strategy to a really linear route.
 
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Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Meltyman said:
if you drop pack rat turn 2 for instance, you don't need to do anything else than just discard a card per turn and win the game.

In theory it's great with reanimator, but it usually just wins on its own, turns your strategy to a really linear route.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, I remember the time I threw in Pack Rat because it was good support for the reanimator deck. This is exactly what happens though! People put it in a reanimator deck, play the Rat on turn 2, and then just ignore the rest of their library as they are making more rats. I mean, I guess you discard the reanimator spell last in case your opponent draws a Wrath effect, but why would you cast a fatty when you can just discard it to make a larger fatty that anthems all of your other fatties in play? Pack Rat is not a discard outlet, it's a one-card-combo.

Cards I've liked as discard outlets: Liliana of the Veil, Oona's Prowler. Yep, that was a period. I hope they print some more in SOI!
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
I've never actually found pack rat all that powerful in the average cube, since the removal is usually far less unwieldly than it was in RTR. He's about the power level I want from a black 2 drop, and it does have that very relentless black feeling, but it's just kinda boring to play
 
yan

yan

played chaos warp its much better now with my current tol manipulation more consistency in its functions. not really great removal but not bad in a pinch
 
safra

safra

yan said:
played chaos warp its much better now with my current tol manipulation more consistency in its functions. not really great removal but not bad in a pinch
Click to expand...

two q's:
1) how often does this Stone Rain?
2) are you playing with an alternate wording where it doesn't make you shuffle before you flip the top card?
 
yan

yan

triple faithless looting felt good. enables t2 reanimator but more uses than magmatic insight. trying some card filtering sets might cut down on mulligans. should i try to get into life of the loam. gitrog monster it. some green gy going on with autumn and genesis and vengevine and satyr . thats going somewhere surely lets get this delirium. havnt actually gotten many chances to activate it without playing my hand. need to see it with wheel of fortune effects and forgotten creation. passive level up. similar and diff to delve.
took the advice on the white removal. trying stoneforge. idk if explorers scope is what i want to be doing but see if it smooths things out. skeleton key seems useful in that smoothing regard. idk if i want to be paying 2-3 for that ability but we ll see
dream halls as a mana fixer in draw go. yawgmoths agenda. bout that bout that magic. kozilek is a two turn clock if they didnt hold removal. then they try to get past his ability. odds of same cmc negation were favorable without casting him unless they have an unorthodox cmc base. haunted plate mail and sword of vengeance costs too high. o naginata has a couple more targets can stick on most three drops for aggro. sword of light and shadow good has a nice ability which doesnt flip the board and protection from most spot removal . bonehoards that hidden four drop does work resilient like an aggro spellskite. new nissa stalling into sphinxs revelation other nissa is good but seems like another koth . ajani mentor doesnt affect board but positioned well colorwise. firemane avenger is really slow but not running incinerates or many other 4 drops so gonna casual it
 
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