General CBS

Brad

Brad

I think that's a solid list because those effects can't really be replicated by colored cards.
The Black Cube might do

Unless Lashwrithe gets a pass as a black card, then I'd add Scrabbling Claws, as yard hate that hits multiple cards but doesn't wipe the whole yard is hard to come by. Banner is multifunctional, Lashwrithe is such a payoff, and I love Nyxthos, so I'll take a second one.
 
B

blacksmithy

Great responses folks!
The reason for the hypothetical is, I am actually trying to downsize my full 360 design for the Evolving Wilds cube to a 180 structure. Of course, I’m not going down to 3 colorless slots, but probably 15-25. I have a lot of pet artifact cards (and smokestack is one), so i wanted to break out of my own perspective and see what other people really treasure in this section. This has been super helpful!
 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

Velrun said:
Okay everyone, nice spoken!

Now, can we get back to cube-related topics? Which website do you guys use for purchase single cards?

I use www.cardmarket.com because I live in Europe. Anyone has good experiences with other sites?
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Cardmarket for me as well. I've had some luck with local facebook groups as well. Luckily Stockholm has a pretty active mtg community, and it's nice to buy cards from people in person sometimes when you want things quickly.
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

Peter LaCara said:
So I have a Fact or Fiction signed by Terese Nielsen. Precisely how gauche would it be to include in a cube at this point?
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Peter LaCara said:
Right, I'm not going to go out of my way to replace all the art in the cube. Plus, I love Nielsen's art and her political persuasion isn't going to change that (though I have no problem with WotC not providing her or Bradley new work based on their history). I just feel like the signed copy of the card is taking it a step too far. I've got the Duel Deck Jace FoF already anyway, so it's not a big financial hit. I just had sentimental value tied up in the signed copy and I'm bummed the actual human behind the wonderful art is... not ideal.
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I don't think you need to take out a signed card with sentimental value because the artist liked a series of immoral Tweets.


Art is art, and while all art may have something to do with the world view of it's creator, it doesn't necessarily translate to their political opinions. Good art can be made by people who are not inherently good. It really does not matter what the artist thinks about politics as long as any negative beliefs that person may hold are not reflected in the piece of art in question. A picture of a woman and a goblin trying to decipher the factuality of a scroll isn't saying anything about tax or immigration policy, if you're catching my drift. Terese's art for Magic isn't making any controversial political statement- it's just colorful and euphoric.

I want to be clear here- I'm not saying that Nielsen's beliefs are acceptable. However, I think the majority of this controversy is slightly overstated. From what I've seen she's just been liking tweets of what amount to Republican boomer Facebook memes- a media form which has taken an unfortunate turn towards fascism in the last 5 or so years but still not outside of anything an average republican would be exposed to in 2020. It's the sort of stuff one's Libertarian uncle might be suggested in their feed. I think WOTC made an appropriate decision in cutting ties with Nielsen. However, I don't believe the community needs to boycott or replace our cards that already have her art, even if they're signed copies. The political beliefs of the artist do not effect the integrity of the art.

5 years from now, no one will remember this event. Your signed FOF will just be another blinged out card in the cube.


(Sorry for Necroing this- I was away for a few days and wanted to chime in on the art conversation.)
 
B

blacksmithy

Let’s talk cube structure for a bit. We talk about minimalist themes, themeless themes, shapes of archetypes, etc.
In a 360 card cube, how many cards would you want in a color to promote one of that color’s themes?
As an example. Say we want to add “artifacts matter” to our black section. How many black artifacts? How many “incidental support” cards for artifacts in black? How many payoff cards?
 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

I think it depends on what distribution you want in the final 40 card decks that the player ends up playing with. Should be possible to work backwards from having X many cards of your 23 playables corresponding to X number of cards in your colour section, adjusting for some margins in there being cards in e.g. the artifact theme not ending up in the pool of the artifact drafter.
 
Erik Twice

Erik Twice

I've found it very difficult to give a number because different themes have very different needs and certain cards can fit a very high number of decks, like Faithless Looting. I would focus first on the archetypes, because they require the least cards. You can include an archetype with just 2-3 cards. Then I add the support and draft in Cubecobra until things seem right.

Still, what I did to move artifact support into black was to add this:



s




It is a bit short and I would like to add one more card, but there aren't many.
 
Brad

Brad

I just added artifact support if you wanna check my list (in signature). I opted out of Strix and Gearhulk because they generate more value than I was ok with.

That Tezz worries me that you need a really high density of artifacts to not whiff and have your players feel bad, too. This is a gut feeling and not mathematical.

And Capsule sucks due to that "nonblack" part for me, but it's almost surely one of the easiest ways to up the artifact count.
 
B

blacksmithy

yeah, i think maybe it’s better to embrace the chaos a bit than to worry too much about exact numbers for an archetype. if you put a cool card or three in that support it, someone will probably build it into their deck and enjoy it!
 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

blacksmithy said:
yeah, i think maybe it’s better to embrace the chaos a bit than to worry too much about exact numbers for an archetype. if you put a cool card or three in that support it, someone will probably build it into their deck and enjoy it!
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I agree with this sentiment. Probably more important to have a few interesting options in all colors if you want to spread out a theme, than to necessarily have a critical mass.



Does braids count? Scriptures seems like a strong incentive to me, but I've also heard from others that it's a pretty busted non-interactive card.
 
inscho

inscho

I find it's helpful to limit Black's artifact theme to a mostly complimentary role with:

White's additional artifact tokens for sacrifice (creature and clue) Vesperlark and Sevinne's Reclamation are great here
Red's Welders + Black's reanimation
Green's aggressive delirium (obviously this is a minor overlap)
Blue's aggressive dredge via Emry

I don't think you really need much more in black itself for it to be integrated well enough. The card pool is not sufficient at your power level to support a black dominant artifact deck imo
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
James Stevenson said:
Hey y'all. Me and a friend were thinking of picking up a few games of magic over the internet. What clients are the kids using these days?

Peace.
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dr4ft.info for drafting. Hooks right in with cube cobra to auto import lists, all done in browser, and even supports custom cards if you do a bit of work (which I have! PM me if you want to draft my list with people).
Hell, you can do sealed/drafts of regular sets if it strikes you. Got a hankering for OG innistrad? Rise? Invasion?

Cockatrice for games. It's a real barebones client with more keyboard shortcuts than you reasonably need, but it's zero rules enforcement which I prefer over something like Modo.
 
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