Eldrazi Domain Cube

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
This looks amazing! I have to come to Antwerp to draft two cubes now.
Both your cubes are 360 cards. Why? Maybe this is a discussion I missed somewhere. I've always had my cube larger so that you couldn't guarantee the cards you would see each draft. I'm trying to downsize at the moment to make some archetypes a little more coherent, but I still wouldn't want to hit 360. (To be fair we usually draft with 6 people, so we still wouldn't draft the whole cube)
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
We discussed this a bit in the first chatcast, but I like having a tight and well-tuned draft environment, and have the variability come from having lots of overlapping and intertwined archetypes of similar power level, rather than take variability from the specific cards that you draw from week to week.

For me if I am looking for a brand new experience I would rather design a new cube first. Like, theoretically I could have many different cubes that play very differently but are each very finely tuned. I also think the tight size restriction really forces me to get the most out of the design space. Often I'll find a card that is just a perfect fit as an intersection between various archetypes, that improves the quality of the design. I don't want to water down the design quality by stretching for cards that are less well-suited to the set.
 
You mentioned a while back upthread looking for "death matters" cards. I've always had a fondness for these two:

Image.ashx
Image.ashx


They're each a different half of Blood Artist! :)
 
You mentioned a while back upthread looking for "death matters" cards. I've always had a fondness for these two:

Image.ashx
Image.ashx


They're each a different half of Blood Artist! :)

I like the lizard for being a 3/1 in addition to the most relevant half of the ability, and i like deathgreeter for having neat colors in it's art.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I had this card in before:
3sxhp1fq4s_en.jpg


I found that it wasn't really needed.

Terraformer is simply attrocious here Hannes. It sets your Domain count to 1.
 

CML

Contributor
ah reprocess. someone should try that one and let me know how it goes

disciple of bolas, anyone?
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
What about Infernal Tribute? Or is the activation cost too high? The errata is to sacrifice non-token permanents, so it helps fight mana flood too!

That's a cool card I didn't know about, but I do worry about including a BBB spell in a multicolor focused cube. I already have a couple Swamps matters cards, and really don't want to push further in that direction.
 
Drafted this beauty: http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/22826
Should have prioritized mana a little higher. Might be difficult to get green mana, but otherwise this deck is sweet. Multiple ways to get a turn 4 Bringer of the Blue Dawn!

I love the idea of this cube, and I'm excited to contribute to the process!

Just curious: What is the rationale behind 2 fetch, 1 ABUR dual, 1 shock vs 2 fetch, 2 dual?

EDIT: Drafted this too: http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/22842
Black-matters ramp/control. I'm worried this deck just dies in the early game, but maybe the format is slow enough to let it get established? I feel like this deck would love something like Dark Ritual, Bubbling Muck, or even Mesmeric Fiend
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Drafted this beauty: http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/22826
Should have prioritized mana a little higher. Might be difficult to get green mana, but otherwise this deck is sweet. Multiple ways to get a turn 4 Bringer of the Blue Dawn!

I love the idea of this cube, and I'm excited to contribute to the process!

Just curious: What is the rationale behind 2 fetch, 1 ABUR dual, 1 shock vs 2 fetch, 2 dual?

EDIT: Drafted this too: http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/22842
Black-matters ramp/control. I'm worried this deck just dies in the early game, but maybe the format is slow enough to let it get established? I feel like this deck would love something like Dark Ritual, Bubbling Muck, or even Mesmeric Fiend


Thanks for posting, those look like some sweet decks.

As far as your question, originally it was simply because that's what I have (1 cycle of shocklands and 1 cycle of duals). However, I have found that having both creates a fun dynamic. Do you fetch a dual land, or do you need the shockland of some other color combination badly enough to pay the 2 life? If they're all dual lands you just take the one you need most, but with the shocklands in the mix you have to weigh your options a bit more.
 
Thanks for posting, those look like some sweet decks.

As far as your question, originally it was simply because that's what I have (1 cycle of shocklands and 1 cycle of duals). However, I have found that having both creates a fun dynamic. Do you fetch a dual land, or do you need the shockland of some other color combination badly enough to pay the 2 life? If they're all dual lands you just take the one you need most, but with the shocklands in the mix you have to weigh your options a bit more.


Cool. Thanks for your quick reply. I figured it was one of those two reasons.

This may seem trivial, and I'm not trying to knit-pick the cube having only recently started thinking about it, but I'm worried Gravecrawler lacks sufficient support in the cube. Outside of Wakedancer and Grixis Grimblade, I'm not seeing any Zombies, making me think that you're essentially playing a black Jungle Lion (which might be fine). Maybe Carrion Feeder should replace Viscera Seer or Butcher Ghoul could be put in for Thrill-Kill Assassin? I just think I would want a couple more zombies if I were going to draft a deck with Gravecrawler.

I think what I most enjoy about this cube is that there are very clearly supported archetypes without it seeming like you are being forced into anything.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Cool. Thanks for your quick reply. I figured it was one of those two reasons.

This may seem trivial, and I'm not trying to knit-pick the cube having only recently started thinking about it, but I'm worried Gravecrawler lacks sufficient support in the cube. Outside of Wakedancer and Grixis Grimblade, I'm not seeing any Zombies, making me think that you're essentially playing a black Jungle Lion (which might be fine). Maybe Carrion Feeder should replace Viscera Seer or Butcher Ghoul could be put in for Thrill-Kill Assassin? I just think I would want a couple more zombies if I were going to draft a deck with Gravecrawler.

I think what I most enjoy about this cube is that there are very clearly supported archetypes without it seeming like you are being forced into anything.

You're right, the Gravecrawler is currently pretty unsupported (it's one of many unpolished parts of the design). I have a lot of Zombie stuff in my main cube and am not sure how far I want to push it here. Maybe I'll just swap it out for another 1-drop (another Rakdos Cackler perhaps? not sure).
 
You're right, the Gravecrawler is currently pretty unsupported (it's one of many unpolished parts of the design). I have a lot of Zombie stuff in my main cube and am not sure how far I want to push it here. Maybe I'll just swap it out for another 1-drop (another Rakdos Cackler perhaps? not sure).
Swapping it out seems reasonable. I was actually pretty happy seeing the U/B 2/1
Wither Defender. It seems like it could provide the time I felt I was lacking to set up in Mono Black. So maybe a second copy of that card? A 3rd cackler for the multicolored Aggro deck also sounds solid
 
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