Eric Chan's Modern cube (405)

[Eric Chan]

This is my 405ish sized Modern cube. Well, ok, it's mostly Modern. But it ignores the ban list, so stuff like Stoneforge Mystic and Bitterblossom are fair game. It also includes cards whose first printing is in the recent casual sets, like Planechase and Commander.

http://cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/76

I've been on a kick lately in reducing the high end power level of my cube. It's no fun to be jockeying for position in a tight game, where both players are clawing at each other for mere inches, only to have one unbalanced, overpowered bomb lay all that to waste. Now, I like powerful cards. But those with the reminder text "Answer me within two turns, or the game is over" detract from everyone's overall cube experience. So Jitte, Elspeth, and Grave Titan are out. I'd rather open up the floor to archetypal decks that can combine to form a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Less durdly, midrangy, multicolor, good stuff decks; more shenanigans.

In that vein, I'm also taking aim at the cheap, efficient, universal removal. Actual Modern has made creatures with a cmc > 3 more or less extinct, because you run afoul of Path, Dismember, and (especially) Lightning Bolt, and all your hard work is undone for 1 mana. My cube has run into a similar conundrum. As a drafter, one of the best strategies is to hoard all of the removal - hello, Go for the Throat and Terminate - then assemble an assortment of nameless riff raff, and bludgeon your way to victory. It's not pretty. My theory is that with the biggest bombs coming off the market, some of the best removal can hit the bench, too, giving everything else room to breathe.

Feel free to throw out suggestions, or even just tell me why my list is garbage! All feedback is very welcome.

----------

WINNING DECK BULLETIN BOARD

So I'm going to start keeping track of the winning decklists from draft to draft, along with their pilots, in this 'bulletin board' section of the initial post. Whether you're a new drafter in my playgroup who wants to learn about what's viable, someone on this forum who's curious about what kind of archetypes a low-powered Modern cube encourages, or just one of the winners who wants to boast about your accomplishments, this sampling should hopefully give you a peek into the cube. Sometimes individual cards move in and out of the list, making these historical decks obselete, but for the most part the general archetypes hold up.

Away we go!

AGGRO

• MonoWhite Weenie - Wilson, Jan 16
• W/G Token Aggro - Eric, Nov 15
• R/B/w Tokens & Burn - Colin, Aug 15
• MonoRed 'RDW' Aggro - Andrew, Aug 15
• U/W Delver Tempo - Eric, May 15
• R/U Tempo - Paul, Mar 15
• G/W Beatdown - Wilson, Mar 15
• R/U/B Token Swarm - Paul, Feb 15
• W/G/u/b Weenies - Eric, Oct 14
• MonoWhite Weenie - Colin, Jun 14

Spoiler

He learned Magic three hours before this draft

naming Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

• R/U Spells Aggro - Wilson, May 14
• G/R/w Zoo - Eric, Apr 14
• B/R MonoCreature Aggro - Wilson, Mar 14
• W/B Value Aggro - Wilson, Jan 14
• B/U/r Ninja Zombies - Eric, Dec 13
• MonoBlack Aggro - Wilson, Nov 13
• B/r Removal and Zombies - Eric, Nov 13
• B/R All Good Cards Aggro - Lucas, Oct 13
• R/w Swarm Aggro - Calvin, Sep 13
• B/r Sacrifice Shenanigans Zombies - Eric, Aug 13
• R/b 'RDW' Aggro - Eric, May 13

MIDRANGE

• G/B/u Super-Ramp - Eric, Feb 16
• G/W Ramp Blink - Colin, Oct 15
• G/R/u Bomb Recursion - Andrew, Jun 15
• R/G/w Big Zoo - Colin, May 15
• U/W/g Mono-Threats - Andrew, Feb 15
• R/W Spot Removal - Colin, Dec 14
  
  Spoiler

  Yo Dawg I Heard You Like Removal So

• G/U/w Value Blink - Myles, Oct 14
• R/U/w/g Burn & Superfriends - Andrew, Sep 14
• R/B/g Demons & Dragons - Andrew, Apr 14
• MonoBlack Devotion - Wilson, Feb 14
• B/g/r Modern Jund - Joel, Feb 14
• G/R Ponza Ramp - Wilson, Feb 14
• G/W/b Humans - Chavin, Dec 13
• B/W Two-For-Ones - Wilson, Oct 13
• R/G/w... Thing - Denix, Sep 13
• U/G Hexproof Midrange - Bryan, Jul 13

CONTROL

• B/U Reanimator with Devotion - Nick, Jul 16
• U/B/w Near-Creatureless Control - Eric, Mar 16
• B/U/g Reanimator - Eric, Sept 15
• W/U/b Sweepers - Andrew, Jun 15
• U/R/b Delver Spells - James, Oct 14
• 5cc Worldknit - Paul, Oct 14
• B/W Jund Attrition - Andrew, Oct 14
• U/G/w Value Bodies - Eric, May 14
• U/W/r Control - Lucas, Oct 13
• U/W Sweep All the Things Control - Lucas, Sep 13
• R/B Mono-Removal - Nick, Jul 13
• U/B/r Cruel Control - Lucas, Jul 13

 

[Jason Waddell]

Eric, you make some good points about the interplay between threats and removal. I do wonder how it affects aggro decks though.

As a drafter, one of the best strategies is to hoard all of the removal - hello, Go for the Throat and Terminate - then assemble an assortment of nameless riff raff, and bludgeon your way to victory. It's not pretty. My theory is that with the biggest bombs coming off the market, some of the best removal can hit the bench, too, giving everything else room to breathe.

When I am playing aggro, many of the cards you mention are specifically the ones that I want in my deck. The ability to remove a blocker for 1 mana without losing too much velocity is often hugely important to the gameplan. There's also the fact that a low density of removal lends itself to board stalls and a greater emphasis on bombs. Although you don't have some of the top end threats (Grave Titan, Wurmcoil Engine), you've still stocked with some heavy hitters (Angel of Serenity, Battlesphere, etc.).

I don't necessarily have a specific answer, but I wonder how the dynamic has worked for you. Your density of removal is lower than mine, and density of 6+ drops is higher. Yet, we haven't had the problem of "hoarding all the removal" as the best strategy. Of course, the Modern format you cite has some other contributing factors, such as hyper efficient cheap creatures (Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf, Geist, Clique) and fast combo decks that make playing 4+ CMC creatures less desirable, regardless of the removal that is present.

I would also question whether it's a bad thing for there to be less room for high end creatures. You have Legacy control decks whose curve stops at 4, and since everything is so cheap and efficient you actually have a lot of decision points. Do I take out the Tarmogoyf with my 1 removal spell, or is he trying to draw out the Plow so he can land a Dark Confidant? There you truly have games where players are clawing for incremental advantages, even with an extremely high density of cheap and efficient removal. It's certainly not a one-dimensional problem though.

 

[Rob Dennis]

I like what's going on here, but one thing I might have gone for if I was all-in on a Modern cube was Gifts Ungiven. If only because that's (+ unburial rites and fatties) such a defining Modern sideboard/plan B.

http://cuesbey.com/#/ac154998-d046-4c56-8f42-bf761c819e09
is your cube, and comparing it to mine with ~20 more cards (with no modern-only restriction):
http://cuesbey.com/#/0a119fc3-a895-4b52-94fb-2d2991ae9e1f

based on your banned list, I might have expected (and wondering if it was a deliberate exclusion):

• repeal
• mana leak
• body double
• jubilation angel (another anthem on a guy, though hard to cast)
• desecration demon (? although maybe not since you banned abyssal persecutor)
• gatekeeper of malakir (usually don't bother recommend such color-heavy stuff, but you're running messenger, so I'll toss it out)
• perhaps a bit more in the 2-drop ramp area, the attached photo shows it a bit clear (blue is both, red is yours, green is mine), but I was surprised. I guess this speaks to you have a bit more of a beatdown plan, but you have a fair amount in the 4-drop slot so wasn't sure
• ash zealot seems to compare very favorably with ember hauler at RR, though you may be more interested in the sac effect
• I'm not quite sure if the Wildfire is supported enough in the mana artifact area to be worth building around (though that may be intended) I'd have expected another 1-2 2 CMC artifacts, and maybe something like gilded lotus (this deck may be hard to support in a modern cube if you don't go wild on signets thanks to losing thran dynamo and worn powerstone)
• duplicant is still modern legal and seems pretty sweet without being too swingy
• since I noticed Maelstrom wanderer in the 3+ color section and you're running Clone and Ninja of the Deep Hours, maybe sakashima's student is cool

 

[Eric Chan]

I like what's going on here, but one thing I might have gone for if I was all-in on a Modern cube was Gifts Ungiven. If only because that's (+ unburial rites and fatties) such a defining Modern sideboard/plan B.

Holy crap. You're a genius coder, and an expert cube designer? That's.. that's too much for me to take. But no, really, that's a brilliant suggestion. I always avoided Gifts because I didn't support reanimator until very recently, and I knew I couldn't take advantage of the Entomb component. Now that I do want the Unburial Rites deck to be a real thing, Gifts should absolutely be back in the mix. I have to track down a copy and give it a try.

Thanks for running the diff! Some of those differences are illuminating. I had Repeal, and only recently cut it because it was the arguably the weakest bounce spell. Mana Leak could come back in, but I figure with 4x Rune Snag, I have enough taxing counterspells at the moment. I do very much want an Ash Zealot, and the only reason it's not in is cause I was lazy in acquiring one. Calvin assures me he's got one on hand the next time I see him, though. I agree that my singleton Wildfire is loose as a goose. I'll probably just find a better big red finisher, instead. I completely agree with you that Sakashima's Student seems almost strictly better than Clone, and it's something that's on my radar as far as acquiring.

On the two mana green ramp spells, I found that my cube was really heavy on ramp effects in general already, with something like 19 (!) out of my 59 green cards producing mana. For the most part, stuff like Rampant Growth just compared poorly to the likes of Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wall of Roots, Search for Tomorrow, and even Utopia Sprawl. I agree that it's weird that some of the "staple" green ramp spells are missing, but in practice, we've found that green has more than enough mana fixers to go around. Sometimes too much, even.

Anyways, thanks again for running that diff against your cube. I'm definitely going to be using your tool a lot more from now on!

 

[Rob Dennis]

Holy crap. You're a genius coder, and an expert cube designer?

You are too kind (almost offensively so). No one but Jason realized that the original "shared diff" thing I did (practically untested but it's DGM weekend so I went for it since people might actually use it) not only didn't work, it couldn't of worked ever. The system only saved 1 diff at a time, and I didn't realize it until after tweeting shared links to Kranny and the Magic Box Guys. :x

Stayed up a couple of extra hours to fix it and hide my tracks.

HolyAnyways, thanks again for running that diff against your cube. I'm definitely going to be using your tool a lot more from now on!

It should have been easy as copy and paste from deckstats, but i had to tweak it a bit. Now that I know what format deck stats uses for multiples I can make it just work for other folks

 

[nex3]

And here I thought I was the only one with a modern cube.

 

[Jason Waddell]

I dabbled with Wildfire for a long time, but was never willing to put in the artifact ramp package to support it. As cool as Wildfire decks can be, they place a lot of constraints on your format. Ultimately nobody was playing them (do you really want to use a singleton wildfire when the ramp is often creature based?), and it was a pretty easy cut to make. Part of the reluctance was to "have a Wildfire archetype" open like in other cubes. This was early in my realization that just because you could support something doesn't mean your cube improves for doing so. Often there's a benefit to doing fewer things well and cohesively.

 

[Eric Chan]

And here I thought I was the only one with a modern cube.

Nathan, you MUST show us your list. The cube gods command it.

I dabbled with Wildfire for a long time, but was never willing to put in the artifact ramp package to support it. As cool as Wildfire decks can be, they place a lot of constraints on your format. Ultimately nobody was playing them (do you really want to use a singleton wildfire when the ramp is often creature based?), and it was a pretty easy cut to make. Part of the reluctance was to "have a Wildfire archetype" open like in other cubes. This was early in my realization that just because you could support something doesn't mean your cube improves for doing so. Often there's a benefit to doing fewer things well and cohesively.

I suspect you're right. I imagine that some cube designers have a lot of nostalgia for the Wildfire deck, from an era when you could realistically ramp up to six quickly using artifact mana in Constructed, and then put the game away. In cube, it's not a particularly powerful archetype, is hard to assemble, and, in the biggest strike against it, isn't something that drafters want to build. I desperately want red control to be a thing, but I suppose this isn't the way to go about it.

 

[Jason Waddell]

The strength of red control comes from the fact that it has the best answers to fast aggro (Pyroclasm, Whipflare, Slagstorm, Arc Trail, etc.). Being able to wipe the board a full turn or two faster than other decks and you have yourself a prime candidate for best anti-aggro color. Throw in the fact that, in most cubes, red has the highest density of removal of any color (burn spells).

Wildfire is an archetype that was traditionally considered for cube by virtue of the fact that a functional reprint exists. Perhaps ironically, many designers include an actual second copy of Wildfire instead of Burning of Xinye for budget reasons (while still being against including duplicates).

Red control is a pretty big topic though. Perhaps you could make a thread specifically about the archetype?

 

[Eric Chan]

My dislike of red control in cube is that it's typically used exclusively as a splash colour. Like you said, red has the best anti-creature arsenal, between its suite of flexible burn spells and its variety of splashable sweepers. But what drafters are typically doing is throwing Staggershock and Terminate in their attrition-based black control decks, or Incinerate and Electrolyze in their blue control decks. Other than Inferno Titan, there are precious few cards that scream "base red control deck".

I like that every colour can stake a realistic claim for having enough aggro support to form the base colour of an aggro deck. I hate that red is always the afterthought in control decks, and that the role of red cards is just to stop the initial weenie swarm, so that the other colours can set up shop and do their thing.

Hmmm. Maybe I should start a thread.

 

[Jason Waddell]

These sound kind of like irreparable color pie concerns. So many tempo decks move into red for the likes of Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix. Definitely deserves a thread, but there are some larger issues at play here. Traditionally red carries the aggro load by necessity. There are only so many slots you can cut for control cards before you start to tip the balance.

Maybe you can scour some old constructed decklists? What sorts of cards are in red control decks that you don't consider to be "an afterthought"?

 

[HannesVersmissen]

If anyone'd be interested, i'd be happy to branch my red section into the "Red control" Thread. My cube is void of Red aggro, and instead runs green aggro, pinching off the presence of overabundant green ramping and makes slow bombs actually take the slow route of gathering your lands one by one and putting them on the table. this in turn allows for 4CMC reanimation to be viable, etc.

Red control is a viscous and cruel deck.

 

[Eric Chan]

Thread necro, GO!

Eric, you make some good points about the interplay between threats and removal. I do wonder how it affects aggro decks though.

I'd wanted to respond to your post earlier, but without relevant testing data, I'd only have a bunch of (bad) theorycrafting to back me up. With two drafts now under my belt, I still don't have an excess of sample data, but what little I do have shows that aggro decks are a fair bit better now. Replacing the cheap, universal removal with slighty slower, more conditional removal has made tempo and board presence that much more important. Just important enough to allow the faster decks to sneak in that game-changing extra two or four points of damage through the front lines.

I understand the concerns about being able to answer high-end bombs, though I figure that using curious circus acts like Crib Swap and Eyeblight’s Ending on an Angel of Serenity still gets the job done, while putting you ahead on mana. It’s just that those removal spells are a lot clunkier on a Champion of the Parish or Rakdos Cackler than a Lightning Bolt or Dismember, which is the effect I was going for.

You pinpointed Bob as a potential troublemaker under this Bad Removal regime, and I think you’re right in that he’s borderline too good without stuff like Path to Exile in the environment. Olivia Voldaren is another creature that’s nigh unbeatable, and is under careful watch at the moment, too.

 

[Jason Waddell]

This sounds like a good topic for a blog post. I will admit that I have not experimented with lower-power removal as a means of introducing balance to an environment. There are many levers to be adjusted, and this sounds like an original solution.

 

[Eric Chan]

It's funny, because I've been drafting full block RTR a bit lately. For as much as Dragon's Maze was supposed to slow down the format, the removal being as expensive and unwieldy as it is means that tempo decks still rule the roost. This, in turn, has the effect of making vanilla bears like Keening Apparition and Gutter Skulk not only playable, but important, as hitting your drops on curve becomes the most important factor when the majority of games are decided by creature on creature violence. Drafting the full block a half dozen times has opened my eyes as to the effects dialing down removal has on a format.

Of course, then you have cards like Desecration Demon, Aurelia, the Warleader, and especially Blood Baron of Vizkopa that are completely impossible to answer by any non-Finkel human. Obviously, these cards weren't targeted at Limited, so it's all the more frustrating when they plop their large behinds down and ruin some draft games. But because we deal exclusively in cubes on this here forum, when we run across these issues in our own design, we can fix Bad Stuff like this.

 

[CML]

Yep, I agree that people said the format would 'slow way down,' but most of the best DGR decks seem to be the ones that make a 2-drop and start going to town while the other person sits there rather helplessly color-screwed. Dragon's Maze added a bunch of new cards, but though the density of fixing increased the Cluestones are pretty bad and the decks look largely the same as before. HOLY SHIT IT'S LIKE THE MODO CUBE!!!

Bombs like Aurelia and Blood Baron? HOLY SHIT IT'S LIKE THE MODO CUBE!!!

 

[Eric Chan]

I will say that most every game I've lost in full block RTR draft can be attributed to color screw. Not mana screw, not mana flood, not unfair cards, but because my Mountain could not make enough white mana to activate both Vizkopa Guildmage and Truefire Paladin in the same turn. That's actually how I lost a race to Aurelia, whom I could've otherwise beaten in an (un)fair fight.

The "not enough Guildgates to go around" problem is certainly the most infuriating one about the format.

 

[CML]

drafted IPA last night; can draft a quick article about this

 

[Jason Waddell]

Drafted it online or in person? Interested either way.

Eric: Not that anything is "uncuttable", but I would be a little sad to see Dark Confidant go (at least from my cube). The life-loss is often very relevant, and I find it to be a very fun card to have around. If something has to be OP, I'd rather it be Bob than a lot of other cards. Also, he dies to stuff like Tragic Slip, which is worth noting. Then again, Tragic Slip is (in my opinion) the best-designed removal spell ever.

 

[CML]

I'm not sure it's possible to make Bob OP in Cube -- curves are intrinsically higher (much higher!) than in the Bob formats, and you can't just go t1 Thoughtseize into t2 Bob like those decks do. I just think Bob is really fun

How has Bob's Zombie bro been doing for you guys

 

[HannesVersmissen]

i've played our kind sir bloodscrivener once, and he's been really strong and usefull
I played him in a UGb deck sporting:

basking rootwalla
Vengevine
Fauna Shaman
Lothlet troll
Balefull strix
Wild Mongrel
Illusionary angel
Talara's Batallion
Shardless Agent
+ extra Black removal
And he's been real useful getting back into the game, and preventing "dead" draws when topdecking. (illusionary angel in an empty hand :/)
He's been more of a late game card draw engine to keep the gas up. some other aggro-decks played him, but he's never ventured out of aggro-inclusion.

 

[Jason Waddell]

I played against Blood Scrivener once. My opponent played him out with an empty hand, and I killed it with Tragic Slip (there's that card again) before he could untap.

 

[Sterling]

Why Condemn over Path? Condemn is a control only card from my experience while Path is taken by all types of decks.

Unless you are all in on White Weenies I wouldnt think Honor the Pure would be good enough. How has it been for you? Glorious Anthem hasn't seen much play for us so I doubt Honor would see any more but I will keep it in mind.

Ive been tempted on a couple occassions to put Terminus and Entreat theAngels in but I just cant get over how much I hate the Miracle mechanic. Terminus is close to inclusion than Entreat though.

You guys getting Delver to work? I had tried him before but he just wasnt consistant.

I see you run Spellskite and was curious how its been for you. Im considering chopping it just because its such a hoser to Red decks and aggro in general. Calcite Snapper is another one that tends to be almost too good against aggro. It hasnt come up all that often but when it has those 2 cards have been the main reason Control gets to the late game. I dont want to get rid of all these types of cards because control does need some early defense. Its something I am watching.

I will be squeezing Spell Pierce in soon but have you tried Negate. I find it to be an awesome counter especially with all the Planeswalkers.

Im not a huge fan of 4 Rune Snag. Its not the breaking of singleton that bothers me. Its the fact that you cant garuntee to get all for 4 copies and if you aren't running more than 2 in a deck is it really better worth it. I know theres been a few times Mana Leak is dead because the player has more than enough mana so I could see Rune Snag not doing enough most games. Hows it played for you though?

Logic Knot seems like an intersting counter. How often is it a counterspell? On average how much is Delved?

Is Confiscate still good for you? I kept it for the potential to steal a Planeswalker but that just hasnt ever happend and will probably be dropping it for Bribery soon. Why no Sower of Temptation? I find it to be one of the more fair Control Magic effects. Its really easy to kill and I find it to be only a tad better than Dungeon Geists.

I like what you got going on with Black. Your theme is very clear. Has Nether Traitor been doing good? I almost put him in when I added smallpox/deathcloud but I didnt like his 1/1 stats. I may eventually give him a try. Have you tried Nantuko Husk? I could see him doing awesome in your cube and its one Ive been thinking about recently.

Our Red looks pretty close with only a few differences. Ive been thinking about added Slagstorm and Mizzium back in just to give Red control some more tools. Its doesnt come up often but we have noticed when a player does go that route the deck seems to stumble against creature swams.

Whats the reasoning for no Stone Rain or Molten Rain? I find those important cards to at least have in the pool. We like having lots of ways to deal with Man Lands and its great at keeping Control in the early stages of the game.

One card Id like to suggest to you that has been doing better than expected is Boom//Bust. I added it as another card to
work with the Wildfire deck and we are happy with it.

Is Gyre Sage doing better than say Devoted Druid or even Somberwald Sage? I didnt like Somberwald at first but he is a must answer creature or you will be facing something nasty next turn. We've seen Myr Battlesphere cast turn 3. After that no one ever wants to let it leave but they hate using a removal spell on a mana dork. Its been awesome for our Green ramp decks.

So Mwonvuli Acid-Moss? I like the card a lot but Im curious why you would run this and not actual LD in red (Molten Rain should at least be in)

Overall I like the look of your cube. Theres some things I personally dont like but to each his own.

 

[CML]

Gyre Sage is so sweet, definitely try it

Edit: just like Vendilion Clique is a bad beater, a bad piece of disruption, a bad flash creature, but a great card, Gyre Sage is a terrible dude and a terrible dork but goddamn is he good.

 

[Eric Chan]

Thanks for the in-depth rundown and analysis, Sterling! Quite impressed that you went through my whole list, especially given that I don't have much of a summary up anywhere. It's clear from your comments that you have a ton of experience with Modern cube in your own right, and you have a lot of good insights. Let me try and address as many of your points as possible.

If you take a look at my first post in this thread, I'm currently experimenting with lopping off the top end power in my cube. This not only pertains to the requisite bombs, like your Jittes and Wumcoils, but also to some of the cheap, universal removal. To that end, I've cut some of the ubiquitous answers, like Path to Exile, Dismember, and even Lightning Bolt. I'm gauging whether this has a positive effect on board presence, tempo, and aggro decks, and so far, I'm liking the results.

Onto individual card discussion:

• Condemn is there to throw a bone to white control. I'm not a huge fan of over-the-top aggro hosers like Timely Reinforcements, but white control can't subsist on Wraths alone. Condemn gives the archetype some cheap, early interaction.
  
  
• I think you're right in that Honor of the Pure and Glorious Anthem are becoming outclassed, especially with the likes of Mikaeus, Mirror Entity, Ajani Goldmane, and other anthems on a stick. They're not high picks at the moment, and one or both could easily get the axe.
  
  
• Terminus definitely feels less unfair than Entreat, as even the miracle scenario just leads to a board wipe. I will say that Entreat hasn't ruined as many games as I thought it would, and oftentimes is an outright unimpressive card when it's stuck in someone's opener.
  
  
• Double Delver is something of an experiment with a blue & red spells matter theme, and it isn't something I've seen overtly materialize yet. One person did try it out a few drafts ago, and though he didn't fare very well, he gave overwhelmingly positive feedback as to the deck's fun factor. So I'm going to keep supporting the archetype for now. Runechanter's Pike is another enabler for the deck, and I think Young Pyromancer from the upcoming set will help, too. Talrand and Guttersnipe were busts here, though.
  
  
• You hit the nail on the head regarding cheap blue creatures with big butts, whose sole job it is to stall against aggro decks. Between Augur of Bolas, Spellskite, Calcite Snapper, and Sea Gate Oracle, it's easy to go overboard with value creatures that block well. Spellskite is indeed the biggest pain for red decks, but in general, I haven't found that blue control decks are winning a disproportionate amount of games, so I haven't really been tempted to cut back on this category of pseudo-walls. If I were to nix one, I'd probably also cut Spellskite first, as Calcite Snapper at least beats down very well in the control mirror.
  
  
• I think there's definitely room in Modern cubes for both Negate and Spell Pierce. I've opted for the cheaper one, only because the speed of my cube leans toward the fast side, and I've got a stockpile of two mana counters already. Speaking of which, the quartet of Rune Snags is something of an experiment at the moment. I wanted to buff blue, which was in danger of falling to the back of the pack, by giving it more punch in the counterspell department. Running two Mana Leaks proved a little unfair, though, so I went with multiples of its Coldsnap cousin, instead. While it's possible to assemble all four in a deck, that certainly isn't a prerequisite; I've run two and been happy with it. We found that when Mana Leak was played in the early game, often an unadorned Rune Snag would have the same effect. In the late game, both Leak and Snag start to lose their utility, so I opt to sprinkle in some hard counters so that players have more options when they expect games to go long.
  
  
• Logic Knot is one of those said "hard" counters, despite the X in its casting cost. I actually haven't seen this played yet, and it may prove to be too weak. But I think I prefer this over something like Cancel, as late game, it can be nearly the equivalent of a hard counter for UU. Deprive is another option here, but control decks more than anything need to accrue mana turn after turn, so its drawback is in all likelihood too unyielding.
  
  
• Confiscate has been more than fine - like you said, when it's used to steal a planeswalker, that tends to be far more back-breaking than merely pilfering a 6/6. I'm surprised that walker swiping isn't a thing in your cube, with its high density of walkers, actually. Bribery tends to offer something of a very different effect than your typical Control Magic, as rifling through your opponent's library means you aren't getting the removal aspect that's so vital to these types of effects. Indeed, I'm fairly certain that Bribery is way, way overvalued by my group, as people maindeck it here and leave it in even against the likes of white weenie and red aggro. When I use it, I much prefer to sideboard it in only against big green decks and other durdly shenanigans. Regardless, there's nothing I love more than mixing some red herrings into my card pool, so Bribery earns it keep for that reason alone.

• Sower of Temptation isn't overpowered in the same way that Jace or Grave Titan are, but I find that I don't enjoy the high variance swings that result whenever it's played. Like you said, red decks are in no danger of losing to it, as a simple Shock solves the problem handily. However, it's the green decks that tend to have the most trouble finagling their way around an unanswered Sower, and there's something about the conditional 3-for-1 nature of it that rubs me the wrong way. I see Sower much the same way I see double protection cards, like Mirran Crusader: decent some of the time, worthless some portion of the time, and absolutely bonkers a small fraction of the time. Huge variance swings that are controlled solely by who you're matched up against are not fun to me, and are things I'm actively looking to prune.

Phew. That's all I can type for the moment. I'll cover black through green in a future post!