Budget 180 Card Travel Cube

NimbusToad

NimbusToad

180 Travel Cube

Quick Info:
180 Cards
Low Power
All Rarities
Duplicates

Overview:
With this project I have intended to build a fairly low powered cube that can be carried in a little wee box and busted out at a moment's notice. Originally I was building a peasant cube, but I started delving into the rares and mythics when I realized that I wanted "real" control decks, and those decks wanted Wrath of Gods. There are some duplicate cards that fill roles where I need maximum redundancy.

A few elements to note:

  • I am trying to support both Hard Aggro and Hard Control in a small environment. I still dig the midrange grindy decks, but it seemed likely that a small cube like this might degenerate into a mono-midrange format. To this end, I have included duplicates of all the hybrid mana aggressive one drops and 2 copies of Nevy's Disk. It seemed important to have flexible, low-colour commitment cards that will not end up being useless (for example, a RW aggro deck can take ALL of the one drops in the format, with GW, GB, and RB decks able to take a good portion).
  • I want aggressive decks to have super disruptive feels-bad elements (Armageddon, 3 x Strip Mine, Winter Orb, Tangle Wire). Counters, wraths, and card-draw are just so generally brutal and annoying to face off against and I wanted the combat oriented decks to be able to control the game as well.
  • I want combat trick-related blowouts to occur. To this end, I have lightly prioritized Double Strike, Tokens, Anthems, and Pump Spells. Additionally, I have limited the amount of sorcery speed removal in the format so that people can feel comfortable "going off."
So, yeah, I've played the cube a few times and am generally happy with how it runs. I have a few cards on the watch list (low and high power), but I think I will put in some more testing before I make many cuts.

Anyway, here's the list:

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/gt65
 
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NimbusToad

NimbusToad

So I've done some updating.

> Generally tried to reduce the # of coloured mana symbols in casting costs to allow more 3 colour decks to exist.
> Removed the lands section. I will instead allow players access to Teramorphic Expanse in the basic lands pile.
> Removed narrow aggressive one drops. I love me a 2/1 for 1, but I think that I need to find ways for aggressive decks to exist in this kind of format without them.
> Generally lowered the power level.

The deck's I've put together via sealed look pretty good. I'll be ordering this list pretty quick, so I am eager to see it perform. My other, larger cube is in my folk's basement, and I intend to have this smaller cube act as a sort of modular ad-on when I go home.

It is pretty funny putting this list together as each card has a pretty big effect on the whole cube.
 
NimbusToad

NimbusToad

I have revamped the cube to have 180 cards (not sure how to change the title). I made some funny choices (3 x Strip Mine is the most obvious one, but I'd like to see STAX-esque decks and aggro decks have a lot of disruptive tools). I'll try to run a few more drafts then make some changes. I like having doubled up hybrid aggro dudes, because it means any aggro deck can grab most of the 2/1s. We'll see.

We did a draft last night. I 3-0'd with this decent looking BUR control deck. There was no hard aggro deck, which probably would have been my downfall.

http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/690210
 
NimbusToad

NimbusToad

170321 Boros Aggro from CubeTutor.com











I went 2-1 with this Boros Aggro deck this evening. I beat out a Boros Midrange and a UB control deck and lost to a BUG midgrangey monster. Still one of the first few drafts of my new cube, but I am finding it quite enjoyable. Many archetypes seem possible.

There are a few cards that are, even this early on, on my "watch list." Armageddon, Diabolic Servitude, and (of course) the triple Strip Mine. I just really want the aggresive decks to have strong, splashable disruptive tools and Strip really fits that bill!

I wonder if a mod could change the title of this thread to "180 Card Travel Cube"
 
NimbusToad

NimbusToad

I wonder if anyone has any tips for re-jigging my white section?

My ideal white section is able to support both hard-aggro (in WR and GW and Naya) and hard-control (In WB and UW and Esper).

Does anyone have recommendations for very flexible white cards that can fit in both aggro and control? Removal is an easy one. Maybe I could try to slant the removal in a direction that favours control? Wing Shards, Condemn, Faith's Fetters?

I'll think about it some more...

Alex
 
NimbusToad

NimbusToad

Anyways, I figure I'll just keep posting the decks that win my drafts. It is helpful to me to keep track of, and maybe vaguely interesting to anyone who might have input on my design choices.

I did a Winston draft with a buddy of mine over beers last night. I put together a pretty zesty UG deck that combined card draw and mana ramp to constantly build value. I lived the dream by hitting a Gurmag Angler with a Draining Whelk. The Whelk sort of seems like the perfect blue finisher, but when things go according to plan there is a fairly abundant amount of feels-bad.

Here's the deck:

170425 UG Midrange from CubeTutor.com










 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
NimbusToad said:
Anyways, I figure I'll just keep posting the decks that win my drafts. It is helpful to me to keep track of, and maybe vaguely interesting to anyone who might have input on my design choices.

I did a Winston draft with a buddy of mine over beers last night. I put together a pretty zesty UG deck that combined card draw and mana ramp to constantly build value. I lived the dream by hitting a Gurmag Angler with a Draining Whelk. The Whelk sort of seems like the perfect blue finisher, but when things go according to plan there is a fairly abundant amount of feels-bad.

Here's the deck:

170425 UG Midrange from CubeTutor.com










Click to expand...

Just wanted to fix the deck, as I wanted to see it. I am keeping an eye on all the people who are doing 2-player cubes, as it seems like the perfect way to get in a fix draft fix, without needing the 6+ people to draft a normal cube.

I have been stalking Chris for quite a while and help him draft his grids online, but it is nice to see someone else trying it. I don't really have much to help give a direction at this point, but know that your posts are not going in vain! This deck is a very sweet UG ramp-trol deck and looks very penny-pincher eqsue. Next time you do a post, I would like to see what the opponent had as well, it might give you an idea of what is dominant or what isn't working. Could be an idea. Keep up the blogging!
 
NimbusToad

NimbusToad

So I am thinking about moving away from my obsession with supporting pure aggro. Believe me, I love dropping turn one Savannah Lions, but with such a small cube the number of 1 drops needed to support these decks sort of bogs down packs. Additionally, as I usually play with folks who are less experienced with MTG archetypes in general and cube archetypes specifically, the super fast aggressive decks are less likely to be played as their cards are not as intuitively powerful.

In looking for ways to structure this next cube update, I came across this article:

http://riptidelab.com/learning-from-pauper-a-study-in-aggression/

In this article, the term turn-two-aggro is thrown around and some good concepts are discussed, but you are left without a good vision of what it actually means for cube cards and for cube lists.

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on what light-on-one-drops aggressive decks look like or suggestions of changes I might make to trim my 1 drop slot while not turning into a full-blown durdle-fest.

Are more flexible 1 drop creatures the answer? To date I have gone with a heavy hybrid mana cost section for those 1 drop beaters, but maybe something like Stonewright is actually more flexible as it goes into more decks and scales into the late game. Student of Warfare might fit the same box.
 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
My general philosophy at this point is to accept that limited formats are creature heavy and midrangy, and attempt to take that into account.

So I think less of supporting curve out aggro, and more along the lines of enabling a low CC midrange deck, or small creatures matter, or micro control. You have some focus on early pressure, but we assume that any creature curve out will probably be disrupted in some way through natural variance. This seems more in line with what actually happens in cube formats, and a better framing than turn 2 aggro. Than the question becomes:

1. How do we insure that a board built up of small creatures maintains relevance in the mid or late game.
2. How does a board built up of small creatures compete on a CA angle with other decks.

Pauper offered a number of interesting solutions, though part of the problem was getting people to stick to small creatures in a slower deck. Thankfully, WOTC has started printing more cards that explicitly care about low CC cards, which creates a natural incentive for players to explore low CC play.





There is also that new sun titan vampire, and unearth 2.0.

I do like utility 1 drops, however, in this context.
 
NimbusToad

NimbusToad

Perhaps another approach would be to ratchet back the power of your 4-5-6 drops and board wipes while pushing the power level of your 2-3 drops and spot removal. If it is easy to gain a mana advantage on removal then maybe that compresses the format a bit?
 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Yeah, the easiest way is to take your 2-3 drops and make them difficult to block: abilities like exert, menace, equipment, flying, and potentially this new one afflict ability.

Actually nerfing removal is tricky business, because now we are tinkering with the removal suite. I gave conditional counters in white and green (temp hexproof/protection) as ways to disrupt removal, and any sort of recursive creature, or aggressive army in a can token maker is another way to negate spot removal. Embalm is another contemporary way to pull ahead on CA vs. removal.
 
NimbusToad

NimbusToad

I've just done a big theory-crafting update to the mini cube.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/gt65

There are a few folks I am looking to play with who are all very green to MTG. I've tried a few different strategies to keep the complexity down.
> Low power, to try to keep the games interactive and not punish mistakes too hard.
> Lots of singleton breaking to make the general texture of the format fairly uniform and reduce the amount of reading new cards.
> No planeswalkers, double-faced cards, or word salad cards. Limited tokens (1/1 fliers and 3/3 beaters).
> Simple mechanics, with most cards being easy to grok and generally being powerful or useful in an obvious way - this means no in-depth archetypes.

I have built out the cube with a focus on ally-colours. There aren't highly defined archetypes, but I have tried to build them out in a soft way. The focus is having cards that are totally valid by themselves, but which just get a kick over the line in combination with other archetype supports.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

NimbusToad said:
I've just done a big theory-crafting update to the mini cube.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/gt65

There are a few folks I am looking to play with who are all very green to MTG. I've tried a few different strategies to keep the complexity down.
> Low power, to try to keep the games interactive and not punish mistakes too hard.
> Lots of singleton breaking to make the general texture of the format fairly uniform and reduce the amount of reading new cards.
> No planeswalkers, double-faced cards, or word salad cards. Limited tokens (1/1 fliers and 3/3 beaters).
> Simple mechanics, with most cards being easy to grok and generally being powerful or useful in an obvious way - this means no in-depth archetypes.

I have built out the cube with a focus on ally-colours. There aren't highly defined archetypes, but I have tried to build them out in a soft way. The focus is having cards that are totally valid by themselves, but which just get a kick over the line in combination with other archetype supports.
Click to expand...
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