Erik's "The cool side of Magic" cube

[Erik Twice]

I'm not a fan of the Duplicant cut however. You mentioned your UG decks need help with removal, well Duplicant counts!

Ah, don't worry! I kept the Duplicant and cut the Steel Hellkite. I'm glad you like the mirror, I think it's worth a try at least.

I've toyed with Soul Shatter and if it gained life or had a similar benefit it would work, but it's pretty much a 3-mana removal spell given my environment.

Some more minor changes:

is out
>
>
is in

I added Pacification Array to increase the number of 1-mana artifacts for Urza's Saga and Trinket Mage but it's not needed.

I'm trying to keep a policy to reduce any unnecessary complexity in the cube such as pseudo-duplicate cards. Both Sphere and Star are practically ideantical yet newbies must read both and Sphere has less synergies. I was hesitant because I love the art in Mirrodin's Chromatic Sphere and hate the one in Chromatic Star, but that's not a good reason not to upgrade.

Grim Flayer seems like the best choice for my Golgari section. There are several reasons for this. The first is that Pernicious Deed had proven anti-synergetic. It sucks to clear away your own Sylvan Lybrary or Crucible of Worlds and my Golgari decks tend to be more creature-heavy than the average. I also run few planeswlakers and few big creatures that stay around in play even if you blow up the board I think it's one of those powerful cards that has lot ground as Magic changed into its modern form.

Grim Flayer is a two-drop which is extremely helpful as both black and green lean towards 3s. It fills the graveyard, which boths colors wants to do and fits decks from a variety of archetypes. I think it's in good company.

 

[Erik Twice]

I've been looking at some improvements. First I want to test these changes:

->
->

I've been a big advocate for Seismic Assault so why try Vortex? Well, I think Seismic is better for most cubes. If you are using Loam, you are better off with it than with the limitations of Vortex. But if you do use Land Tax, you want Vortex because you'll need at least four lands to play Seismic Assault reliably. And I'm getting a bunch of interesting low-land Wx control decks with Land Tax.

Chainer's Edict is bad. It's bad because 7 mana is out of the question for most decks in my cube. So I'm trying Innocent Blood which is good in control as well.

I also want to find space for Esper Sentinel. I see a possible BW Stax archetype but I don't know how to build towards it. In general, I want to boost non-aggro Orzhov strategies so I'm all ears if you have any ideas.

I've also realized that I'm happy with both my Dimir and Golgari sections but the rest is pretty much up in the air. There are some carsd I could keep here and there but I could also see myself making drastic changes. I need to look into more cards, perhaps by filtering every single rare and mythic on Scryfall.

On similar news, I should cut Body Double, Ritual of the Machine and other cards I'm not 100% happy with.

 

[Erik Twice]

Other minor changes:

>
>

I'm also adding this so I can test things but I am not happy at all with my green section:

 

[Erik Twice]

Something I've noticed is that focusing on a single card can make your cube far, far better at very little cost. For example, much of my cube's improvements come from focusing on a handful of cards:



Most importantly, I must have changed like 30 cards and I haven't missed any of them. Like, I feel 20% of my cube could be taken out and replaced by better cards and nobody would be the wiser. There's so much space of improvement even within the 50 cards per colors I use.

 

[Nanonox]

but I am not happy at all with my green section:

What do you mean by this?

Here is what I noticed. IMO you could probably push lands matter a bit harder with the classics: Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya or some new spice: Kazandu Mammoth, Tireless Provisionner, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove.

They are all basically 3 CMC so you'll probably have to be picky a bit.

Also Strangleroot Geist seems to stick out because you don't really have the aggro support for it in Green and the mana is rough on turn 2. I get that it does counter things, but I'm not convinced. If you want broader support, Nest Invader might be a better fit for more decks (Pod, Tokens, Sacrifice, Ramp).

Another point is that Esika's Chariot plays really well for just about any Green deck, but especially tokens. I like it better than Nightpack Ambusher as your flash game in Green is weak. Also an artifact, which means your Green section has 2 pods, Goose, Gearkhulk, Tracker and this. That is starting to make XG artifacts an option (bonus points for Tireless Provisionner mentioned above).

While on artifacts, I really like your inclusion of Urza's Saga. I have to fit it into my cube. Nice intersection of lands and artifacts for Green decks.

 

[Erik Twice]

What do you mean by this?

I simply don't think it's very well-designed. It lacks clear goals and performs poorly when compared to, say, the White section. I know I want to support tokens/go-wide, Pod/Survival of the Fittest and graveyard synergies, at least.

Here is what I noticed. IMO you could probably push lands matter a bit harder with the classics: Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya or some new spice: Kazandu Mammoth, Tireless Provisionner, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove.

I've thought about this but I ended up cutting my landfall creatures because most of my lands archetype was based around discarding them, not putting them into play. Hence, I don't know if that's a direction I should take. I also admit I don't really know how the deck looks like beyond having the aforementioned cards in play and I'm unsure of how well it plays with my other archetypes.

Also Strangleroot Geist seems to stick out because you don't really have the aggro support for it in Green and the mana is rough on turn 2. I get that it does counter things, but I'm not convinced. If you want broader support, Nest Invader might be a better fit for more decks (Pod, Tokens, Sacrifice, Ramp).

I've read good things about Nest Invader but it seemed to low-power for my cube. I use Strangleroot Geist because it plays well in Pod and Sacrifice, but it is replaceable.

Another point is that Esika's Chariot plays really well for just about any Green deck, but especially tokens. I like it better than Nightpack Ambusher as your flash game in Green is weak. Also an artifact, which means your Green section has 2 pods, Goose, Gearkhulk, Tracker and this. That is starting to make XG artifacts an option (bonus points for Tireless Provisionner mentioned above).

I've actually been thinking about adding the Chariot for the reasons you mention. I've actually gotten a couple artifact decks in green already so one more card could help. It's certainly an appealing target for Goblin Welder.

That said, I do like UG Tempo a lot and would prefer to improve it rather than take it away. For example:

While on artifacts, I really like your inclusion of Urza's Saga. I have to fit it into my cube. Nice intersection of lands and artifacts for Green decks.

It looks like it could be very fun and supporting it has been easier than I thought. However, I still don't have any real-world draft data to tell you if it works or not.

 

[sigh]

my lands archetype was based around discarding them, not putting them into play

Courser and Oracle secretly support this, because you are playing lands off the top, which leave more in hand to discard.

 

[Nanonox]

I know I want to support tokens/go-wide, Pod/Survival of the Fittest and graveyard synergies, at least.

 

[Erik Twice]

To give you a taste of how lost I am, this is the full set of creatures I'm 100% sure I want in my cube, not counting mana dorks.



That's it. Everthing else is up for grabs.

 

[sigh]

That's a pretty good start. I would say next lay out (and/or re-layout) four themes for the color to interface with (namely one main theme per Gx pair). That should give more room to start polishing the creatures from there.

Everthing

Is this meaning "literally every green noncreature spell is up in the air" or "every other creature"?

 

[Erik Twice]

Is this meaning "literally every green noncreature spell is up in the air" or "every other creature"?

Every other creature. While I want to revise my spells, I think that's easier for me than my creatures. I'll think about the themes, though.

 

[Erik Twice]

A part of me is like "Give up, just make every single archetype spells.dec". But so far I'm holding. This is what I have:

GW Go-Wide
GR ?????
UG Tempo
GB Recursive Rock
+ Pod, which isn't locked to a single colour combination

The issue is Gruul. I don't really know what do to with Gruul and the rest is difficult to work into if I don't keep it in mind. I'm not sold on lands because I think a minor splash into it is better than making everyone compete for a singleton copy of Loam and a bunch of landfall creatures no other deck is interested in. The spells I'm pretty sure I want are:



Again, I'm willing to cut the rest. Even Rancor can be gone if it's not needed (though I hope it stays).

 

[TrainmasterGT]

To give you a taste of how lost I am, this is the full set of creatures I'm 100% sure I want in my cube, not counting mana dorks.



That's it. Everthing else is up for grabs.

Some potential good fits for you might include:

A good way to help convert mana from your 1-mana dorks into enough mana to cast the big things like Thorn Mammoth. If you want to support a deck that ramps past 5 or so mana, it's beneficial to have these sorts of cards that can help you go bigger early in the game.


Some nice beef for the three-mana slot. These complement 1-mana dorks nicely for stompy ramp.


Same as above, but for the 4-mana slot.


Some good cards that can go in both stompy-oriented ramp strategies and super ramp decks.


Good for decks using "graveyard dump" draw spells like Satyr Wayfinder and Winding Way. It's easy to power this thing out on turn 3 with no ramp spells, which is really nice.

Hopefully some of these help!

 

[Nanonox]

GR ?????

Looking at your list, I am kind of seeing a RG madness deck that is already supported.

In Red

Spoiler: Red

Maybe a few more signpost cards like Anger and Blazing Rootwalla.

In Green you have Vengevine, Honored Hydra, Wild Mongrel and Survival of the Fittest as really strong madness cards already.

Something like these could be Gold signpost cards

 

[Erik Twice]

I've been very busy so I haven't been able to work much on the cube. Also, I'm having a hard time feeling out the slots. The issue is that, while there are good cards for the archetypes I want, there re few of them that cover several of them.

This is what I have so far:

MV 1

x5

MV 2



MV 3


MV 4


MV 5+



This adds up to 33 cards out of 50. All these cards are great picks which cover a lot of ground in several archetypes. To this I can add packages of cards that are nice to have but that don't build to something larger:

Lands Package (3 cards)



Lotus is a fun 2-drop ramper, the Advocate should make decks based on recurring manlands more playable, Courser is a themed control tool.

Flash package (3 cards)



Ambush Viper should come in even if I don't use the rest of the package. Wolfier is also a good stompy card on its own right. Sadly, it doesn't seem there is a version with reminder text on Regenerate. I don't think my group will remember that using it taps the creature.

--

From here things get tougher. First, I don't know how to calculate how much ramp I need to support the archetypes I want. I currently run 3 spells in that category, but I could run less or replace them for their creature equivalents. Some generic cards I like are:



However, I haven't decided they are the cards I need. They are just "good cards" at this point, not necessarily the best ones for the slot. I do like the first two and I think Trainmaster is spot on on their usefulness for the cube.

Some random stuff I've been thinking about:



Busted in half. However, it does support both lands and the graveyard. Right now I only have Satyr Wayfinder as a way to fill the graveyard in green. I'm also not sure if my drafters will realize it's brutal.



I might be able to extend my theme of humans into green. Notably, the Mayor is also a good flash card. However, transform is a pain and I might cut all the double-sided cards from my cube. So far only two remain and they are expendable.

Sylvan ties into lands and I could push for aggro lands. However, it can also create very uninteractive games.




This ties into graveyard themes, lands and is good in Rock decks. But it feels like a waste of a 3cc slot to have a creature like this taking space. I also wonder if it's strictly better than Yavimaya Druid.



I like the card, but I don't know how it would tie into my cube. The 2 toughness is awful in my cube, it trades with every little thing.


I love Spike Feeder even though it's outdated and not using the stack harms the card.



This looks too underpowered for my cube. Or simply too expensive on the back.


I just like this card. It would require massive changes in my cube to be useful and I have absolutely no idea on how to make it work beyond massively abusing dredge and other draw triggers but I like it.

Looking at your list, I am kind of seeing a RG madness deck that is already supported.

The issue is that there aren't green payoffs. Red works and ties into black and blue very well, but green isn't helping much. That said, I've been thinking about the cards you've posted. I think Galia would be terrible in my cube but the other two are on my mind.

 

[Erik Twice]

I've gone and added the cards I've been thinking about as well as the flash and lands packages. I've also added a Cavalier of Flame and an Incubation Druid. This doesn't mean I won't touch the other cards (I will), it's just a way of keeping my changes updated and being able to test them without doing the whole section at once.

 

[Erik Twice]

Some minor changes. First some cards that aren't doing anything or that aren't pushing my archetypes.



Some additions. Hangarback is a dangerous card, though.



And a replacement

->

I didn't include Fire // Ice before because it would be the only split card. But it's 2 mana instead of 3 and has many uses so it's the right card for the slot.

 

[Nanonox]

I like what you are doing here, but not a fan of cutting the Hydra. It's a rare universally playable removal spell in Green that offers you many options throughout the course of the game (do you play it early to remove a utility dude or save it for something big? Do you just cast it as a huge beater to fill your curve?).
It doesn't fit any themes, but it fills a whole in Green that is valuable IMO.

 

[Erik Twice]

I want to see what happens without it. Here's the thing: I've often felt a card was completely unreplaceable because it's too universally useful only to realize the card could be replaced by another or a group of cards and get a better result. In fact, there's another "no way this gets cut" that I'm increasingly seeing in this way:



Gasp! I know, I know. Let's talk about the Hydra.

First, I'm kind of replacing it with Wicked Wolf. Hydra is played as a 4 drop the vast majority of the time and, hence, both cards are very comparable. The Wolf is worse, no question, but it can actually be blinked and sacrificed to Pod which Hydra can't. It can't be reanimated, neither for value nor as a fattie. And when you build these sweet synergy decks the Hydra sticks like a sore thumb.

Second, I wonder if I can either replace it with Beast Within, Wicked Wolf and other similar effects or whether to replace Beast Within with it. But that again requires testing. How does my cube look without it? I mean, between the flash creatures and support in other colours, how necessary is it?

I think progress is very slow right now, but I'm getting much closer to being where I want to be.

 

[blacksmithy]

i also don’t run rancor because while it seems uncuttable, in practice it can be pretty awkward outside aggro, which if you don’t support green aggro, can make it a false signal.

 

[Erik Twice]

i also don’t run rancor because while it seems uncuttable, in practice it can be pretty awkward outside aggro, which if you don’t support green aggro, can make it a false signal.

For me the biggest question is: How important is Rancor when you can run Bonesplitter? Because while giving trample and having a slighty reduced cost are important, I'm not sure they justify a green slot instead of an artifact one.

I've also been considering running Double Vouchers like Shamizy for a while and I wonder if running Collected Company this way would allow me to make cuts in my flash section and make it less parasitic. However, I can only think of three cards to double:



I also wonder if I can cut Beast Within if I add something like this to my artifact section:



I'm also thinking of cutting:



The Scroll was oppresive and not particularly needed, the Altar is redundant with Mesmeric Orb and Mazemind Tome is a good card that is not necessary if I have enough good card draw elsewhere.

 

[blacksmithy]

i think those cuts are all quite good, and CoCo is definitely something to consider breaking singleton on.
agree with your take that rancor and bonesplitter are pretty similar cards- if you only need one, keep splitter IMO.
Mutagenic Growth is a very narrow card as well but can do good work in tempo/blitz of any color. dismember is more versatile.

circling back to pod/coco/YP: there are enough magecraft/prowess critters in this day and age that you may not actually need to run multiple YP, but this becomes less true as size increases. i would just take second looks at the other red spells critters you’re not running and make sure what you think is best for the environment.
and you may have some combos going on with pod but beware because it can be a drafter trap unless it’s doing some really big/unfair stuff for you.

 

[Erik Twice]

Ok, more work on the cube.

First,

->

Out



Nooooo, not a pet card! How could you Erik. Ah, also Stonecoil Serpent which is no longer necessary and was a bit of a filler choice anyways.

circling back to pod/coco/YP: there are enough magecraft/prowess critters in this day and age that you may not actually need to run multiple YP, but this becomes less true as size increases. i would just take second looks at the other red spells critters you’re not running and make sure what you think is best for the environment.
and you may have some combos going on with pod but beware because it can be a drafter trap unless it’s doing some really big/unfair stuff for you.

I agree it's no longer as necessary as it once was now that we have stuff like Seasoned Pyromancer. However, I like the Dreardhorde Arcanist decks based around Pyromancer, sac outlets and spells and promoting them might be cool.

But if you have any other ideas for cards I could run doubles of via a "Duplicates voucher", I'll all ears. I think double CoCo, double Pod is too much.

--

So my green section is close to complete but it needs another large change to work. The issue is that I don't quite know what that change should be. I have like 3-4 slots I can change, possibly even more so I have the space. I just don't know what direction I should take. What I want to do is double on supporting the archetypes I have, but that seems very difficult for some reason.

So yeah, do you have any ideas or see any cards that aren't working out? Also, I need at least one disenchant effect. Probably Wilt.

 

[Nanonox]

Here is a thought to support Pod decks without doubling up



I know it’s not exactly Green, but it fits sacrifice, GY and Pod style decks.
To make things equal, maybe



Powerful one drop that works well with double fetches. Good in B and/or G decks.

Also



Would be a good fit I think. Good at any point in the curve and triggers prowess/spells matter. Finale has GY applications too.

You could probably cut 1 G and 1 B card to accommodate the hybrids or just dump them in Green and not worry about it.

That’s my take anways

 

[Erik Twice]

I had the same ideas as you so I guess I'm not as misguided as I thought! I think the Shaman would just destroy my graveyard decks. I like the Fiend Artisan, not so much because of the pod ability but because it can be very big!

First, an easy switch:



Cube Cobra is fast!

Som potential cuts in green:



Also



Sedgemoor Witch has yet to work more than once in my cube. Flesh Carver could probably be anything else. Hymn is good but I'm not sure what it's doing other than being good.

I'm looking into my red section. Here's what I have so far:

MV 1



MV 2


MV 3



MV 4



MV 5




Spells:

MV 1



MV 2



MV 3



Sweltering Suns should be Pyroclasm but I don't know if that would be too good.

MV 4



MV 6



I know I want to up my "normal removal" from 8 to 9 so I'm adding Roil Eruption for now.

Random cards that have caught my eye:


I'm not sure these would work, though.