The CubeCobra playtest data is pretty accurate for me....but that's probably because of how regularly I draft my Cube online when I have a free minute (and a huge thanks to my favorite MtG Pro Dom Harvey for occasionally showing me how to
actually draft my Cube!).
I have three observations from looking at the
Cube-specific ELO this morning as I procrastinate:
1. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is no longer interesting
Dead last on an ELO basis. With only 8 picks and 2 occasions where I thought to mainboard it, it's pretty impressive I haven't cut Kozilek yet. Maybe I just
like the idea of having the three titans represented in some form or fashion, but with great top-end for the green ramp decks like
Vaultborn Tyrant and
Old One Eye for a fraction of the cost, why bother going up to 10 mana? It's a little sad to lose a founding member of my Cube like this, but I took out Ulamog recently and haven't missed it once. I think
Emrakul, the Promised End is going to have to suffice as my last representation of the trio of Eldrazi titans.
2. I like Trumpeting Carnosaur and Doric, Nature's Warden far too much
With a pick rate of 25.2% and a mainboard rate of 96.1%,
Trumpeting Carnosaur is...simply not that good! I have a huge bias towards red, graveyard strategies, and midrange with good top-end, but even so, the Carnosaur is great but not at the same level as
Gut, True Soul Zealot or
Inti, Seneschal of the Sun. I think this is a good indication that I need to chill on dinos in my test drafts.
Doric's ELO is a little lower, but not by much. She has an
even higher pick rate of 30.8%, which is pretty absurd in a list like mine considering she's a glorified
Hill Giant the turn you cast her. Still, I think she's incredibly cool and seriously under-Cubed in other peoples' lists, which makes sense considering the whole UB/double-faced/expensive bits, but for someone like me, those aren't key considerations.
3. The 1-mana land-cyclers like Troll of Khazad-dûm are incredible
I run the whole cycle except for
Generous Ent, who I think I really do need to play at this point. These cards are basically tapped dual or tri lands with upside, filling your graveyard in the process with respectable threats for reanimation or other graveyard shenanigans.
BONUS: My Most-Drafted Cards:
Pyrogoyf - 197
Raucous Theater - 189
Harvester of Misery - 188
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower - 180
Escape Tunnel - 178
Shoot the Sheriff - 178
Underground Mortuary - 164
Vaultborn Tyrant - 161
Ocelot Pride - 157
Ajani, Nacatl Pariah - 157
Chaos Defiler - 153
All but one of these cards were printed this year, which is indicative not of power level (I think) but rather of
how CubeCobra bots take a long time to adjust to new cards. I still regularly see Ocelot Pride and Ajani, Nacatl Pariah in the last two cards of a pack, and I'm ashamed to admit that I frequently let the newest cards wheel even if they shouldn't IRL just because the CubeCobra engine takes so long to "figure out" that they're good. I would hope that the Cube ELO would help adjust for this but I guess not!
That said, you can still see my Jund-y bias at work here. It's kind of sad to think of how biased this list is to new cards if only because I love Cube as a window into the history of Magic, but apparently I'm just as susceptible to the new hotness as the modern format is!