Eric Chan's Modern cube (405)

Lucre

Lucre

Jason Waddell said:
I once scarred a player away from cubing for life by going Plow Under, Regrowth, Plow Under.
Click to expand...
I played through an era of standard that lacked a lot of direction because it was a mess to begin with but they had also just recently banned all the cards from the dominant decks but what emerged from the wreckage were Plow Unders and Eternal Witnesses (also swords and tooth and nail and shackles). Incredibly frustrating. Incredibly Fun. I felt like those decks made their bed and sorta deserved it when they had enough time to fuck around with 5cc sorceries.

My midranged red deck I started drafting quickly turned into my standard UWr deck (I'm really trying to avoid it guys) every match had at least one really good game and I really enjoyed the company this week.

Highlight of the draft: Someone did something with Voidmage Prodigy! How often does that happen? It's like the newer cubers don't have our gut reaction to that card!

Play of the day: I was probably wracking my brain at the time but I kept hearing some whooping about a Progenitor Mimic in one of Eric's games I'd love to hear about.
Play of the day II: Bryan playing GW little kid absolutely stole a game by slow rolling a removal spell, making me feel comfortable saving my chump blocker, then stealing him out from under me with windbrusk, letting me counter his silverheart and then scooping up my remaining blocker while my jaw hung at the Journey to Nowhere he had been saving.
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
I watched as the guy beside me attempted to Profane Command for a whole bunch, and got Remanded. When he tried the same spiel next turn, his opponent popped out a Voidmage Prodigy from under a Shelldock Isle, then used the last of his blue mana to sacrifice and counter. Talk about your shenanigans. Later in the match he would turn his Grim Lavamancer into a counterspell.

Yep, that was me on the receiving end of some Progenitor Mimic zaniness. I thought I had the game locked down with my Myr Battlesphere, but if there's something that can put the brakes to that plan, it's.. a Battlesphere that just keeps making more Battlespheres. I think he had twelve Myr tokens when I packed it in.
 
Lucre

Lucre

Hey Peter! Yeah I was super annoyed we didn't get to play! Did you get any games against Kendrick? I was pretty sure your deck were UW control beaters.
 
Lucre

Lucre

You know I've got those bad ideas for ya!

+1 anthem
+1 white token producing instant or sorcery
-1 crappy 2 or 3 drop that no one will like ever
-1 thing that is awkward and hard to make work (??????)

+1 young pyromancery
-1 some two drop that kills itself or makes dorks

I'm totes torn on gathering townies because I like things that make 3/3 champions, but I think token generators need more play than it has. Like being an instant or having more potent equipment around or being able to catch 2/1s in the combat step.

I haven't played with lich but I will give it a chance but I am soooooo excited about putting duskmantle seer back in and making UB really obviously not your daddy's control deck.

Anyone else like mystic snake? I like the idea of cramming more vensers in there and making the "Peter" deck better. I'm willing to give mimic and oracle a big chance though. Snake tribal anyone?

I'm really curious about GW token making spells. It just sounds so right. I like Pridemage too much though.

Putrefy seems supes weird. How often does killing an artifact feel like where you wana be?
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
Hmmm, you're right, white could potentially use another anthem at this point. Got any in mind? Glorious Anthem is a bit underwhelming, and I don't like how Honor of the Pure makes you feel bad for having the audacity to splash. I think I already run most of the usual suspects. Ajani, Caller of the Pride? Even though he's more of a single-creature buff than an anthem.

For white token generators, Midnight Haunting is kind of a thing. Maybe? It goes pretty late, and I'm a fan of it, but it could be that something stronger is needed. I had Raise the Alarm earlier, but Gather the Townsfolk has more overlap with the small human theme. Any other suggestions? No Lingering Souls, please.

I.. don't have Duskmantle Seer in at the moment. There weren't quite enough UB tempo decks being drafted, so I swapped it out for some control cards.

The main problem I have with Mystic Snake is that it's pretty hard to leave four mana up for a counterspell, particularly when the exact colour requirements are pretty stiff. I think cubes with a lot of blink or bounce - why hello, Crystal Shard - can make better use of the serpent, but it wasn't really viable when I last had it in.

Putrefy could easily be a Pulse, though I'm kinda partial to the instant-speed nature of the removal. But you're right - ever since I cut the quintet of Swords, killing artifacts has become less critical. Pulse does have the nice touch of nuking a whole pile of tokens (unless a snake, a wolf, and an elephant walk into a bar).
 
Lucre

Lucre

Dude when you mentioned pulse I was immediately reminded of the cycle of pulses from Mirrodin.
Image.ashx


Anyway keeping 4 mana up isn't usually too crazy given a UG deck has dumb stuff like Clique, Consideration and Command to sit on anyway, and keeping Condescend or Cancel aren't always the sort of thing you can keep up and play another spell. (I'm so happy with how many C's I'm getting here).

I also don't have to feel like I'm wasting time playing mystic snake if I've got a Vitu-Ghazi to activate instead, or an avenger to throw down etc. I love the idea of being able to keep up a counter up but also having a way to use that mana if you don't end up wanting to play your instant. Catching jerks in combat or hitting a planeswalker in a pinch is such gravy. Flash on a creature isn't about the sweet tricks to me, though they are appreciated. It's all about being able to hold up an answer and not feeling like you've wasted tempo, people don't usually count that sorta wasted time when evaluating reactive cards, but it definitely adds up.
 
CML

CML

Contributor
Eric Chan said:
Hmmm, you're right, white could potentially use another anthem at this point. Got any in mind? Glorious Anthem is a bit underwhelming, and I don't like how Honor of the Pure makes you feel bad for having the audacity to splash. I think I already run most of the usual suspects. Ajani, Caller of the Pride? Even though he's more of a single-creature buff than an anthem.

For white token generators, Midnight Haunting is kind of a thing. Maybe? It goes pretty late, and I'm a fan of it, but it could be that something stronger is needed. I had Raise the Alarm earlier, but Gather the Townsfolk has more overlap with the small human theme. Any other suggestions? No Lingering Souls, please.

I.. don't have Duskmantle Seer in at the moment. There weren't quite enough UB tempo decks being drafted, so I swapped it out for some control cards.

The main problem I have with Mystic Snake is that it's pretty hard to leave four mana up for a counterspell, particularly when the exact colour requirements are pretty stiff. I think cubes with a lot of blink or bounce - why hello, Crystal Shard - can make better use of the serpent, but it wasn't really viable when I last had it in.

Putrefy could easily be a Pulse, though I'm kinda partial to the instant-speed nature of the removal. But you're right - ever since I cut the quintet of Swords, killing artifacts has become less critical. Pulse does have the nice touch of nuking a whole pile of tokens (unless a snake, a wolf, and an elephant walk into a bar).
Click to expand...


i think duskmantle seer is really bad and agree with your assessments except run putrefy AND m pulse duh
 
Lucre

Lucre

Better dork creating spells saturation, extra pyromancer and another anthem I think might do a world of good for the poor delver deck while being able to flex in other areas too. I feel like it's worth exploring even if it feels super uncomfortable. I think anthem / buff / more equipment is a good way to put in an extra nod to BS tokens.

I think green gets a lot of legs from flash guys and incidentally being able to do some heavier blocking in the midgame / put a control opponent to a more accessible life total earlier in. Lots of good control decks have played cards from Gnarled Mass to Reckoner and learned to rely on it. I think that's why I still believe in BS like flash dorks in green and Strangleroot. Like jesus does strangleroot ever pose a problem to control and aggro alike. And golly is it hard to make headway against an avenger when DOJ is your go to wrath!
 
Lucre

Lucre

Man this format is really starting to show it's depth. I'm super excited. Lots of punchy 5c decks possible and very strong, which is usually a bad thing, but I think it's too easy to be over zealous and create formats where those decks can't be played and then hurt things like UW and green midranged in doing.

Super cool how interactive the games end up though. I feel bad for GR still though. We are starting to see recursion or human themes spread into decks that aren't the obvious ones and that is super cool. Green white black xathrid ranger craterhoof is so funny.

So if I'm not drafting control no one does and someone ends up in a 4c control deck by the end of pack 2.
Waaaay too excited to see things like the relevance of 3/3s, sorcery speed removal and tec edge become more apparent.
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
I think my influx of gold cards make it so that six of the eight players were in three colours or more. It was certainly more of a midrange-fest than normal, with only yours as the clear-cut aggro deck, and no real control deck to speak of (maybe the all planeswalker deck counts, though). Seemed like a lot of sweet shenanigans and synergies going on, though, so I'm willing to leave things in place for now!

Tectonic Edge is waaaaay underrated at the moment in the utility land draft, I think. When stuff like Gavony Township, Kessig Wolf Run, and Vault of the Archangel are wreaking havoc, I'd think that everybody would want a safety valve in their decks to keep those in check.

Promote Shelldock Isle to the main cube? Yay or nay? The fact that you spent your first utility pick hate drafting it (!!) might be enough to sway me.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
James got Shelldock Isle + Meloku online in a draft of ours, but unfortunately still went 1 - 2 because his deck was marginally terrible.
 
James Stevenson

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
Jason Waddell said:
James got Shelldock Isle + Meloku online in a draft of ours, but unfortunately still went 1 - 2 because his deck was marginally terrible.
Click to expand...

I played like a moron as well. I had a good shot at 2-1, but punted M3G3. I dazed his first play, syncopated his second play, then he played Figure of Destiny and I thought "Nah I can deal with that." He immediately made it a 4/4 and I had pretty much nothing in my deck to deal with it. What was I thinking? I could have forbidden it, pitching two lands, then played Ral Zarek next turn. Instead I did pretty much nothing for the rest of the game because his 4/4 trumped my Ral. It was retarded.
 
Lucre

Lucre

Weird things I've noticed:
  • I'm pretty sure I like Nighthawk more than Lily in most decks
  • All the RG decks I start in your cubetutor always end up RUG.
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
whaaaaaaaaat Lilly is boss but yes I have to admit Nighthawk is getting better and better
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top