I'd rather they just complete the cycle of five 2 mana creatures with Charming in the name. I don't think Aether Channeler or Callous Bloodmage are worthy successors to Charming Prince.
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- Thread starter James Stevenson
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You're missing some dragon synergy pieces! At a variety of power levels (and for both players), there's:
I have wanted to get Dragon tribal going in my Cube as a small sub-theme that only takes up 2-3 slots (plus substituting a few roughly equal cards in to up the density of the creature type). It all started when Boneyard Scourge was printed in the 2017 Commander decks, and seemed like a super fun recursive threat that wasn't wholly embarrassing on its own. Creatures have gotten more powerful since then, and I would have a rough time justifying it now even if I did go for it, but Rivaz of the Claw is exactly the kind of single-card build-around I love so there's a part of me that wants to jam my Rakdos Looting decks with the Timmy-est of creature types.
Some other dragon cards that contribute to the theme you might have overlooked that are a little less explicit include:
A respectable and forgotten bear that helps ramp them out earlier (and can be recast easily for more shenanigans with Rivaz).
ETB wipes the board of non-dragons, usually. (This one's currently in my list!)
A marginal playable already that's been in and out of my cube a few times that works well in the big red style decks that this theme is naturally suited for already.
A double-striking 3-drop dragon that fills up your graveyard the second time you cast it (or if you cast it from there with Rivaz! Another one that's already in my list)
Yet another dragon that works well in big red lists that's already proven itself in my cube!
I've tried this out and no one except me was ever willing to make it work, so I get that it might be too much to ask, but I adore this dragon as well.
Love this card, but unwilling to add venture into my cube for just one card (or at all for that matter). It was neat in draft and standard though.
This is a surprisingly useful, especially with the rate of humans in my list. Didn't stick around too long from the competition, but not one to ignore in lower power levels.
Just a neat card that happens to be a dragon. Annoying background text though.
A last point though, Sylvia Brightspear is so frustrating for me because even though its extra text basically says "draw a card", the additive distraction isn't worth it for me. Maybe I'll try it out some day with a sticker because it's one of those one-card-archetype-enablers that I adore.
On the topic of dragons, I had an idea to make a cube that's like Kaalia vs ???. It would pack some sweet angels, demons, and dragons as mid-top end in W, B, R. The issue is that I'm not sure what blue and green are doing and I'm also not sure how the creature types matter other than Kaalia likes them.
Maybe someone can expand on that.
@Aston It's definitely called berserkers, but I don't have a link or any more info.
Maybe someone can expand on that.
@Aston It's definitely called berserkers, but I don't have a link or any more info.
try safras cube blogs, she runs it sometimes and had the most success with it
GU color identity, but that's a blue card right there. Those creature types are so blue.Sounds like a great matchup against
To add to the Dragon discussion (Though not really incredibly tribal)
No seriously the card's actually okay.
I play him with Gravecrawler and other recursive Zombies (Like Bladewing's Thrall *wink*) and they are the best of friends.
No seriously the card's actually okay.
you did my little lad Kraken Hatchling dirty
also, speaking of, there's the funny Arena Kiora:
which is totally fine if you carry a stack of the little turds
that kiora is in fact funny and pretty good in standard-ish power levels. make 8/8 smash rawr
I found The Gay Girls Cube the other day, and I love it! It has such a nice aesthetic. Here are a couple of example packs:
I never put too much thought into building aesthetics-oriented Cubes before, but this environment has shown me that it might be an interesting possibility. What do you all think?
I never put too much thought into building aesthetics-oriented Cubes before, but this environment has shown me that it might be an interesting possibility. What do you all think?
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I've kicked around a few ideas for aesthetically-curated cubes here and there, and I think it's a lot of fun to flip your usual card choice process on it's head. Feels weird and cool to look at the art first before you even begin to look at the textbox or the stats, and it is immensely satisfying to look at the visual spoiler on cube cobra for a cube that's curated for art and aesthetics (just look at all these cute fuckin guys). The absurd amount of art tags on Scryfall also helps a lot for working on these kinds of cubes.
Two of the biggest issues I've run into while trying to work on stuff like this:
-Balance: When you're aiming for aesthetic choices above everything else, it becomes very difficult to balance your card pool. Often times I'll look at a card for that pets cube and be like omg its perfect look at this sweet little man but the card just sucks shit on rate and it would be hard to justify putting it in any cube. And the opposite, cards that have perfect aesthetics, but are just way outside the range of what the rest of the cube is doing. I think you can solve this by introducing tons of customs and modifications to make the cards more in line with each other, but that's a lot of work and does somewhat dampen the spirit of trying to curate a list of real cards that fit in an aesthetic box.
-Narrow cards: A lot of aesthetically perfect cards just won't work without the proper support. I think this can be alleviated somewhat with (again) customs, and also maybe allowing the cards to guide you toward specific themes, but there's always going to be stuff that FEELS perfect but just won't work.
I think your best bet for actually producing a functional cube out of a concept like this is to try to keep your theme as broad as possible, so that you have a wider card pool to work with. I would definitely love to see more folks pursuing these ideas!
And of course I love the Gay Cube
Two of the biggest issues I've run into while trying to work on stuff like this:
-Balance: When you're aiming for aesthetic choices above everything else, it becomes very difficult to balance your card pool. Often times I'll look at a card for that pets cube and be like omg its perfect look at this sweet little man but the card just sucks shit on rate and it would be hard to justify putting it in any cube. And the opposite, cards that have perfect aesthetics, but are just way outside the range of what the rest of the cube is doing. I think you can solve this by introducing tons of customs and modifications to make the cards more in line with each other, but that's a lot of work and does somewhat dampen the spirit of trying to curate a list of real cards that fit in an aesthetic box.
-Narrow cards: A lot of aesthetically perfect cards just won't work without the proper support. I think this can be alleviated somewhat with (again) customs, and also maybe allowing the cards to guide you toward specific themes, but there's always going to be stuff that FEELS perfect but just won't work.
I think your best bet for actually producing a functional cube out of a concept like this is to try to keep your theme as broad as possible, so that you have a wider card pool to work with. I would definitely love to see more folks pursuing these ideas!
And of course I love the Gay Cube
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I agree, I think if I were to build an art-curated Cube, the criteria for inclusion would be broader than "cute little guys" or even "cards which contain characters which could feasibly be Lesbians." I would probably just take the "cards with art I like" approach and maybe include some cards that fit into a broader theme that emerges from that. Not really sure what that would look like at this point in time.I've kicked around a few ideas for aesthetically-curated cubes here and there, and I think it's a lot of fun to flip your usual card choice process on it's head. Feels weird and cool to look at the art first before you even begin to look at the textbox or the stats, and it is immensely satisfying to look at the visual spoiler on cube cobra for a cube that's curated for art and aesthetics (just look at all these cute fuckin guys). The absurd amount of art tags on Scryfall also helps a lot for working on these kinds of cubes.
Two of the biggest issues I've run into while trying to work on stuff like this:
-Balance: When you're aiming for aesthetic choices above everything else, it becomes very difficult to balance your card pool. Often times I'll look at a card for that pets cube and be like omg its perfect look at this sweet little man but the card just sucks shit on rate and it would be hard to justify putting it in any cube. And the opposite, cards that have perfect aesthetics, but are just way outside the range of what the rest of the cube is doing. I think you can solve this by introducing tons of customs and modifications to make the cards more in line with each other, but that's a lot of work and does somewhat dampen the spirit of trying to curate a list of real cards that fit in an aesthetic box.
-Narrow cards: A lot of aesthetically perfect cards just won't work without the proper support. I think this can be alleviated somewhat with (again) customs, and also maybe allowing the cards to guide you toward specific themes, but there's always going to be stuff that FEELS perfect but just won't work.
I think your best bet for actually producing a functional cube out of a concept like this is to try to keep your theme as broad as possible, so that you have a wider card pool to work with. I would definitely love to see more folks pursuing these ideas!
And of course I love the Gay Cube
I think it's a neat idea, though I'm probably the wrong person to give it a try (I'm a bit art-blind).
Thank you for the suggestions. I might try out Invasion of Tarkir on Level 2 which is quite late in the draft. It's too powerful to go in earlier I would say. The others are too much of a dragon-or-nothing kind of card which is not what I am looking for. The Dragon tribal is a subtheme with only very few payoff cards. And those payoff cards should work without dragons too. Right now I only have those three cards shown on the previous page and they all work without a Dragon. They just get better if you run Dragons.
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The only Dragons I run in the start of the draft are the uncommon and common ones from D&D and Baldur's Gate. Examples:
Black Dragon, Young Blue Dragon & Young Red Dragon
Why don’t any of these idiots give me two choices from four when they enter the battlefield?
Cryptic Commander 3UUU
Creature - Elemental Wizard
Flash
ETB: Cryptic Command
Evoke - 1UUU
6/6
New MH3 design. I was gonna make it super broken as fuck, but this actually seems reasonable. An upgrade to be sure, but it's not like Cryptic is what it used to be.
I do like "Command"er as an idea for a cycle. The imbalance of the Lorwyn Command cycle could be fixed by attaching bodies.
Alternatively, something like...
Kayla's Commander -
Artifact Creature - Construct
When ~ enters the battlefield, choose one. Choose two instead if it was evoked.
2/2
With the idea being that the body is one of the modes.
Kayla's Commander -
Artifact Creature - Construct
When ~ enters the battlefield, choose one. Choose two instead if it was evoked.
- Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. It gets double strike until end of turn.
- Search your library for a basic Plains card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle.
- You gain 2 life, then scry 2.
2/2
With the idea being that the body is one of the modes.
Average Mapi post be like
This is what I hate most about the Modern Horizons products. Lazy design made to upgrade and therefore obsolete iconic designs simply to sell packs in a lore-free set. There’s nothing creative about these designs. And they add nothing to the game except power creep.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I get what you’re saying, but I think “Commander” is a really poor choice, because… well it’s a clearly defined word in the Magic lexicon and these aren’t legendary creatures that you can actually use as commander. Commando though…