General CBS

regarding that list, running basically none of those except Bloodwater, which I like very much. Jhessian Thief I have run and is very serviceable, Stormchaser is boring for a multicolor slot. Shu Yun I have also run and liked, and is a great anchor if you really want to push that theme.

Basically, I don't really run many "prowess" creatures for the "prowess" archetype. It's more a token-burn deck. Like:

Which is more red-white than I originally intended.... Anyways, blue comes in as draw, disruption, blahblahblah.

In actual Blue, I'm lovin'


And if I'm finding a card-that-fits-the-above-deck-theme and is also blue, a classic:
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
ooooooooh mill! So tempting!

Just rember it's the only mill card in the set. If you want to go for it, try to end up in either GU Merfolk or UB Pirates. UR is hard to make work, and WU is straight up unsupported. Both GU and UB like to attack (GU has a "grow your merfolk" theme, and UB has the raid mechanic, with lots of evasion), so if you pick up a 2 or 3 Ruins you can definitely ruin someone's day :)
 

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
I'm going to a draft tonight. I haven't done this in years. What format is it? Any advice?

This was actually really fun... it's making me miss drafting every week.

There was an insane turn of events in one game. I was UG "stuff and dinosaurs", and my opponent was WB vampires. I was at 11 life. He had 4 1/1 lifelink vampire tokens, a Skyblade of the Legion, and a Duskborne Skymarcher. On his turn, he plays another random vampire, and then plays Bishop of the Bloodstained, taking me down to 3 life. I have a tapped Colossal Dreadmaw, and three untapped guys: a Storm Fleet Aerialist with one counter, a Ranging Raptors, and a Shapers of Nature.
"Well, six attackers, three blockers," says my opponent, and he turns everybody sideways. I'm dead. I've got nothing in my hand, but hey, I might as well cash in the counter on my Aerialist and draw a card. I leave open an Island and a Treasure, draw my card, and what do you know, it's Pounce! I go to 1 life, untap and attack him back for exact, thanks to Crash the Ramparts + a counter from Shapers of Nature.
 
What do people think of cards that reward players for fulfilling repeatable 'small' conditions once per turn like Vengevine or Jori En, Ruin Diver?
Are they, especially Vengevine, too easy to break? It's monocoloured and has a direct impact on the board in contrast to the latter.
My personal alternatives would be Surrak, the Hunt Caller and Bloodwater Entity, both looking a little more balanced, but still can lead to strong plays in the same decks as the other two.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Both cards are perfectly fine I feel. I don't personally run Vengevine, but it has received high praise around here, and Jori En has always been fun in my cube.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb


This one's a classic kick in aggro's nuts. It looks like a flexible removal spell, but every time this lands on your 3- or 4-drop, you're crying inside, because that's 7 to 10 extra damage you have to push through with your other cards.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I made mockups for the {W/B} and {U/R} ones, as those are the only eneme color guilds I run in my cube. The bicycle lands are great! They fix, they can be fetched, they can be cycled. 10/10*, would run again.

*Ok, if shocks and fetches are 10/10, the bicycle lands should honestly be a 9/10, but that would ruin the joke!
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Build your own Hero Power:
Image.ashx
 
Balduvian Trading Post said:
Image.ashx


At the end of each draft, after the utility sleeve draft, we have a binder full of marked two-cost spells and a binder full of Isochron Scepters for our drafters to draft one of each from. The rule is that at the beginning of the game, you may exile a card from your hand to put Isochron Scepter into play from your Scepterboard with one of the marked two-cost spells already imprinted on it (also from your Scepterboard).
If the card leaves play, you may return it to your Scepterboard, where it sits in an alternate dimension of reality until the end of the cube draft (which could be up to but not usually more than 104 hours later) when then you may exile a card from your cube to put the Scepter back into the Scepterbinder from your Scepterboard.
Its worth noting you need to have at least two sleeves from the utility sleeve draft to be able to even consider playing this strategy, since who the hell puts sleeved cards in their binder?
 
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