Erik's "The cool side of Magic" cube

[Erik Twice]

I forgot Braids doesn't hit enchantments. Makes sense given she's black but I always forget she's not "smokestack on stick".

Anyways, some small tweaks. First, I'm adding some of the adventure cards I've mentioned:



->
->

My cube has a problem with 3-drops. It's not just red that has a bunch of not very clear cards, it's the whole cube. For example, black has 9 creatures of that cost, which is too many. Of course, Stinkweed Imp is not a real spell so perhaps I shouldn't count on it. The weakest cards in this category are:



I'm not sure which one to cut. I know I would rather keep Specter over Nighthawk because I like the flying disruption of Specter more than I like the goodstuffy Nighthawk. In general, I don't think Nighthawk would be sorely missed by any particular archetype. However, Assassin and Imp are much narrower. Let's take out Nighthawk for now. I can also replace Bone Shredder with Shriekmaw.

Either way, it seems to me that the UB discard side of things isn't working. You can build a reanimator deck in those colours but it's because the key cards are present, not because the cube is supporting the archetype well. For example, Tombstalker is not the card UB Reanimator Control wants. It can use it, but it would rather have Noxious Gearhulk or any other value creature. So it's also out I wonder if this guy or something like it is a good use of the UB Guild slot or not:



I hate that it has lifelink, though. Why does it have lifelink? It's such a tacked-on design, I hate it!

Either way, my cube is in very good shape now. It's fun and there are not a lot of obvious flaws or non-working archetypes

 

[Nanonox]

When thinking about your UB GY decks, I feel you need to be more specific (this is something I struggled with for a while, but now I understand it better).

Here are the GY archetypes I see in UB

Reanimator: This is a classic and can be more of a combo (Reanimate, Animate Dead, Exhume,...), grindy/value (Diabolic Servitude, Blood for Bones, Dread Return,...) or mass revival (Living Death, Twilight's Call).
Enablers: Self-mill or discard.

Self-mill: Fill your GY for value. As you will see, this can take multiple forms. Some of these cards work in multiple themes or are just good cards, but in order to have a successful GY deck I find that you need a critical mass of cards that care about being or using the GY.

• Spells value: Snapcaster Mage, Mission Briefing, Torrential Gearhulk, The Mirari Conjecture. Enter the God-Eternals is a great enabler for these decks btw!
• Creature value: This is an overlap with value reanimator, but you can also add cards like Champion of Wits, Vizier of Many Faces, Body Double to make the most of all the milling. Oversold Cemetery type cardsalso gets interesting if you have the creature density (tough in UB).
• Zombies: More of a subtheme. But Gisa and Geralf, Gravecrawler, Cemetery Reaper, Graveyard Marshal and Cryptbreaker are solid individually and can combine for a cool deck.
• Turbo self-mill: This is more of an all in deck that either tries to abuse flashy finishers (Laboratory Maniac, Rise from the Tides, Tombstalker, Tasigur, the Golden Fang) or get some cheap recursive creatures beats (Bloodghast, Bloodsoaked Champion, Skaab Ruinator, Prized Amalgam).

Enablers:Self-mill.

For these self-mill decks to really tick, you need a lot of delve cards (Skeletal Scrying, Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise) and flashback cards (Scour all Possibilities, Deep Analysis, Chainer's Edict).

Discard: This uses cards like Drake Haven, Bone Miser and Archfiend of Ifnir as payoffs. You can also go an aggro/stax direction with Rankle, Master of Pranks and Liliana of the Veil where you try and disrupt both players but your density of GY effects gives you an edge.
Enablers: Discard.

Finally there are your enablers. There is definitely some overlap, but at the same time, you have to chose which work best for the decks you are trying to push (Stitcher's Supplier and Rotting Regisaur don't necessarily encourage the same decks. Or maybe they do, they are both zombies!). I like generally useful cards like Ransack the Lab, but a card like Oona's Prowler is great if you push to support the recursive creatures, while being good elsewhere. Stinkweed Imp is great in GY control as it trades with everything while filling your GY with goodies (I would not cut the Imp regarding your previous post).

To make all of this even better in your cube, you can to try and fit the GY elsewhere so people aren't pigeon holed into one option. Red has welders for artifacts (UR) or madness cards for discard (RB). Green has a ton of creatures that care about the GY (BG) or even a small land theme (with Life from the Loam, Titania, Protector of Argoth and Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar).

 

[Erik Twice]

That's a great post Nanonox! I'm going to read it carefully and see how my cube falls. At a glance, it seems I'm split between several similar but not equal archetypes.

Anyways, I got bored on the way to work and wrote down my whole green section in order to revise it. It had been leaning very hard into control and I wanted to clean it up a bit and try to support other ways of playing the colour. I wanted to make it a better support colour, specially for GW, UG and GR. Here's what I've done.

First, I've removed Oath support. It's a fun deck, but the design of the card clashes with the incresingly creature-centric cube. And, really, the best way to build the deck is to recycle Crater Hellion and Noxious Gearhulk over and over which is not what my friends will want to be faced with. I also removed Harmonize because I'm not sure of how it actually fits green or how needed it is. It may find its way back in, though.




I did add this:



Because it's a staple I haven't tried and that may work in UG and other pairings.

I wanted to support creature-based decks a bit more so I added:



These are all cards that help if you want to lean towards aggro a bit more. Wildborn has flash an can become a big hitter. Troll is hard to deal with and specially good against control. Besides the historical appeal (I played a lot with/against Troll as a kid), I hope it's also good while not being as oppressive as Thrull. The latter is just to hard to stop. Brontodon replaces the narrower Reclamation Sage, which I hope is not too much of a nerf to the cool enchantments and artifacts I run. Rishkar is a super-versatile card.

I also remade my 4-drop section:




There's a very high chance that Vengevine is just busted in half and ruins everything. But I see all you guys run it so what do I know? I'll have to try for myself I guess.

---

As a quick test, I forced these two decks to get a good idea of where things are going:

Simic AggroTempo from CubeTutor.com

Mediocre fixing aside, I really like how this deck turned out. Cheap counterspells plus enduring creatures and bounce seems strong and fun to play. There's a bit of everything, it just looks fun!

I also build the archetypical GR Survival deck. Before these changes I had found GR Survival to be more difficult than it should be so I'm glad it came out well:

Gruul Survival from CubeTutor.com

 

[Erik Twice]

Given the size of Magic's card pool, it's always a bit surprising to find the selection lacking. I was working on improving GR and noticed how lacking red three-drops are. You have good options, sure, but the actual depth of the card pool is low. I actually went and read every single red 3-drop and I can tell you, there are very few that haven't been considered by the overall cube community. This is what I want to try now:



The card I'm most sad of removing is Squee, Goblin Nabob. However, I think it's the right move. Look at the previous decklist. Do you really need Squee when you have Genesis, Honored Hydra and Vengevine? It seems to me losing Squee is a step down in power, but also one that can be compensated for with better synergies and more interesting deckbuilding.

I'm wary of Feldon. Constant reanimation of the same target looks extremely strong. I'm aware that it takes him three turns and 9 mana to be more than an overpriced Corpse Dance but repeatable effects are inherently strong. My hope is that he can replace some of the less generically useful cards in my cube while opening WR Reanimator, GR Survival and other similar archetypes.

I'm also going to try to bring Sneak Attack back to recreate the archetype with Feldon. Trash for Treasure also leaves the cube.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

The card I'm most sad of removing is Squee, Goblin Nabob. However, I think it's the right move. Look at the previous decklist. Do you really need Squee when you have Genesis, Honored Hydra and Vengevine? It seems to me losing Squee is a step down in power, but also one that can be compensated for with better synergies and more interesting deckbuilding.

I see Oona's Prowler and Drake Haven in your list, so I'm assuming UB Discard is a thing in your cube, and cutting Squee actually makes that deck a lot worse. None of the green cards work for that archetype.

Also, while we're at it, don't sleep on Faith of the Devoted. It's a legit finisher in the UB Discard archetype!

 

[Dom Harvey]

My issue with Squee is that it's just a physical card. I like it when my narrow rewards actually do something in their own right - Squee just fiddles with the algebra in 'draw X discard Y' and doesn't offer anything exciting itself. I also wouldn't list it as a three drop for the purposes of this discussion (and comparing cards by slot on the curve is usually misleading in its own right, ala 'which are the best 5 UW cards' threads that are staples of every normal Cube discussion)

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Squee doesn't offer anything exciting

That's only true if you don't think getting back from the dead ad infinitum isn't exciting! To me Squee's a super exciting card, precisely because it's uniquely positioned because of its sweet interactions with discard and sacrifice engines.

That said, I wouldn't fault anyone for spicing up Squee and making a custom that has more impact on the board. Something like this perhaps?

 

[Erik Twice]

UB Discard is not really there. I mean, I just added Drake Haven because I had a free slot. I haven't actually worked out the archetype or anything. I do want to work on UBR reanimator/discard, though.

 

[Erik Twice]

I've finished my intership so I now have time again to work on my cube and write. I've been thinking of making some changes and cutting some "maybes" and then add back to the archetype as a whole.

->

Creature-heavy blue decks need draw, not a slighty more efficient flyer.

->

Goblin is a nice filler, but I hope Plated Geopede fills that role while being more fun to play and supporting Aggro Loam.

->

This is a test. Devil is worse but it's intriguing and works with fetches.


OUT



Laboratory Maniac is a lot of fun, but I'm not sure it's actually supported. It's out for now.

IN



I'm thinking of trying out this set of vehicles.There's a big chance they'll all be cut.



This card is just too generically useful to cut.

???



This is a reanimation spell in blue. But it costs 5, which is too much.

Either way, I should look into how to make discard an actual archetype.

 

[Erik Twice]

I added a bunch of cards so it's time to make cuts:



These cards were not played very often and were not earning their spot. Jeskai was played, but it simply slotted into any spells-based deck, which was dull.

Questionable keeps:



I love Erratic Portal but I haven't seen it played in too many decks. I hoped it would see play in colours other than white and blue but it's barely making it there.

Kiki-Jiki is another card I love but I'm not seeing it very much! Like Erratic Portal, it's awkardly positioned because there are not too many . Sure, you can run it in BR decks but then you are running cards which are very expensive.

Trinket Mage is neat, but not overly exciting for its slot. I hoped it could fetch equipment for tempo decks but I'm not sure it's worth spending a slot on that.

--

I've been thinking about going to 3 guild cards again. While I want 4 cards in both Gruul and Selesnya, I'm running a bunch of okay-ish stuff that doesn't seem really neded like this.



That said, I was scared of adding Pernicious Deed but I'm glad I did. It helps quite a lot to make BG Control a larger reality beyond graveyard themes. I'm afraid of other decks splashing for it but I think it's worth testing. My funny archetypes are not as focused on enchantments anymore.

The vehicles tested superwell. Smuggler Copter goes in everything and, if anything, that's its biggest problem. Many aggro and midrange decks are interested in a 5/3 Haste that makes small creatures useful and so far Tank has been solid, if unnecessary.

 

[Erik Twice]

I've revised my blue creature section. Like usual, I wrote down the list by memory and thought twice about cards not on the list.



I dislike this card's aesthethics but it's what blue wants from a one-drop. Cloudfin Raptor is fun but it seems to me drawing a card or two is better.



These are all extremely good picks. I decided to replace Brazen Borrower with Cloudskate because it's an ETB effect. The problem I have with adventures is that they cannot be blinked, combined with Pod and are a pretty poor target for self-bounce.



These are the four three-drops I'm sure of. They are all great and I love how they play. I can fit one or two more creatures in this slot if I want to.




As much as I like the card, Tradewind Rider wasn't working for me. It would work with Whirler Rogue but I can't find room for both. I dislike Talrand, but it seems needed for the URW Spells archetype. I've thought about replacing him with something else, perhaps Rise from the Tides or Crow Storm but I'm not sure how that would work.



This is a five-drop, for value.



I like Torrential Gearhulk as a finisher because it has all the right synergies (Flash, value, artifact) yet is not broken. The best case scenario is flashing a Fact or Fiction, but most of the time it won't.

That's 19 creatures. I can easily add 3 more which I will. It's just I'm not sure yet. I mean, Sharding Sphinx is neat, but other than being a solid Tinker target she's not pulling weight in her slot.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

One card I've liked for the spells matters deck is



Sure, the 1/1's are less impactful than the 2/2's Talrand makes, but it's a lot better at defending, quite a bit harder to remove, and easier to splash. Also, it changes up the stats of your four drop section, since you already run two other 2/2's (yes, I know Whirler Rogue brings two 1/1's along), but those can only chump block for so long as well).

Another card I've liked is



It's a bit on the lower side of the power scale, but it defends really well, fills the graveyard like a boss, survives Wildfire, and "late" game is a straight up Concentrate on a stick. It is, however, obviously less good with blink effects than Mulldrifter, so ymmv.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

I second murmuring mystic!

 

[Erik Twice]

Wow, I did not expect you guys to like it! I hated Murmuring Mystic in Standard, it felt like a lot of work and mana just to get a 1/1 blocker. I mean, you need like 3 spells before it's a Whirler Rogue variant, which is a lot. I'm not fond of "I die to Shock" Talrand but I think it's the more powerful of the two and at 4 mana I think it needs to be.

 

[Erik Twice]

I'm doing some small but interesting changes. For example:



These are all interesting, synergy-boosting cards that make the cube better in subtle ways. Every deck might be interested in Think Twice, but it's specially good with discard. Unburial Rites is not a pure gold card, but it helps WB more than one would and it makes Gifts a more viable archetype. Riftwing Cloudskate helps tempo and pod better than Brazen Borrower would.

I think this kind of chances are important. When you think about it, the cube card pool is very small. For example, I play 21 creatures and a good chunk of them are only of interest to some decks. For example, if I play Reanimator, I'm not interested in Man-o'-war or its variants. So the real number of cards in the pool is much lower.

Talking about Reanimator, I replaced Sharding Sphinx, which was always a bit questionable with Keiga, The Tide Star:

->

The artifact deck really didn't have an use for the Sphinx while I think many decks might be interested in Keiga. Also, I think a token copy of Keiga should activate its ability so it should work with copy effects. At elast that's how I remember, when I played Tooth and Nail Kiki-Jiki copies of Sundering Titan had two triggers.

I'm also trying out Forbid which is a mistake but I wanted to try it and see it for myself:



I'm having a blast with Gruul aggro in Standard so I decided to add Embercleave.



This is a much smarter design than it seems at first glance. There is an inverse correlation between the power of the card and how easy it is to cast. Two-for-1 blowouts only happen if you are already pretty ahead and removal keeps it in check very well. I've actually found it very interesting decision-wise. It's not always right to just jam it on the table because one big hit is not worth the potential for getting hit next time.

I added back Sneak Attack to the cube. With Feldon and some ETB effects it might create an interesting archetype far from the "lol haste Ermakul" bullshit it normally does.

 

[Erik Twice]

I think I'm finally reaching the final stages of the cube's design. I've set myself a "deadline". I'll print and finish the cube by the time Theros is out and I can decide whether to add some of its cards or not. Some changes:

->

Saheeli is the second planeswalker in my cube. In practice, it's more of an enchantment with a drawback, which I think is the best thing a planeswalker can be. She is a much wider card than Mizzium Tank and has room in more archetypes. And while she's strong, I don't think she's overly dangerous. She does fill up the ground with tokens that stonewall small creatures, though. She also takes my "half-guild" slot in Izzet like Momentary Blink and Unburial Rites.

->

I'm growingly seeing Venerated Loxodon as a trap. Quite simply, the tempo loss of tapping all your dudes to make them bigger is huge and will lose you many games. Most importantly, the good white-heavy creature decks don't need it. They are either running disruption or burn or black trickery. Simply making things bigger is not great.

Karmic Guide opens back white reanimatorish/value decks. It works in blink and actually has some weird combos going on with Reveillark. So back it goes.

->

Exalted Angel was not seeing as much play as I hoped. It's good. It flies, has lifelink and a 4/5 body so you can pretty much get to the air and win. But it's not very synergetic while Angel of Serenity is. You can reanimated the latter and play a bit more with it. I was also unhappy with Exalted Angel being the only morph card in the cube.

->

This is a test to see if DFD is a much broader card while still being good in aggro.


OUT



This is just unnecessary. It's not bad, it's simply a 4 mana card. I think Gritog Monster could be better or more fun.

IN



Yes, Balance. I like the effect and wish there was a 1WW version of it for cube. It's not as abusive as it is elsewhere but my biggest worry is "discard two, two mana wrath". I'll just give it a whirl.

I've never played with Profane Command but it seems a good, versatile card to fill my black section with.

Chromatic Star is so ugly compared to Chromatic Sphere, but it's the right card to run.

 

[Erik Twice]

So I've been a bit at a loss with my cube because it seems very close to being "finished" and don't know what to do! The days in which I wrote several times a day and made sweeping changes are over. I'm just happy I can build decks like this: (The two missing cards are Murderous Rider and Bonecrusher Giant)

Rakdos Sneak Reanimator from CubeTutor.com

So yeah if you guys have any suggestions, ideas or cards you still wonder why they are in the cube, I'm all ears!

 

[Nanonox]

I'll bite since no suggestions were offered yet.

Censor vs Force Spike? You have Drake Haven in your list, so I think the upside of cycling outweighs the extra mana on Censor.

No Path to Exile? You seem to be running most of the other powerful removal spells, is there a reason you decided not to include this one?

Since you have no super ramp targets (Eldrazi-like creatures), what is Primeval Titan really doing for you? You don't have a lot of utility lands either, so I could see you cutting that for something like Earthshaker Giant and maybe cut Overrun which is tough on mana.
You could add something generally useful like Harrow or Grapple with the Past or Springbloom Druid instead, or something more specific like Ramunap Excavator (or another archetype card you feel is missing).

Carven Caryatid seems like a worse Wall of Blossoms because of the extra G mana. What is the reasoning behind it?

I think playing Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker without the combo is a trap for your drafters, but also it means you cannot run two great cards that would be sweet in your cube: Restoration Angel and Zealous Conscripts. Conscripts fit into a few archetypes (aggro and aristocrats), but is also totally fine on it's own. Angel is just a very strong card that gives white some much needed card advantage through ETB effects.

Even if not part of a cycle, Horizon Canopy would be a sweet fixer for your WG decks who already have incentive to run Life from the Loam with Balance, Cataclysm and Knight of the Reliquary.

Final note is that I am being super picky in my comments, but your cube looks sweet. I drafted a bunch of decks and liked what I was able to do, so good job!

 

[Erik Twice]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions and the draft decks! Both are very useful.

vs

I like Force Spike very much and it has historic value. While I haven't played with Censor much, I've always found the 2 mana cost to be a bit awkard for a "pay 1 more" spell. You can sneak Force Spike on very narrow windows.



I've thought about Path to Exile. I'm simply not running it because I haven't felt the need for another removal spell in white. Being strictly serious, it should take Swords to Plowshares' spot because it has synergy with Land Tax/Tithe/Knight of the White Orchid. However, Swords has enough historical value to gain the edge over it. Still, I'm going to revise my removal suites and give it another look-



You are probably right about Titan. In fact, I'm not that sold on my green fatties. I struggled quite a bit to choose cards in the 6+ category. Part of the reason is the desire to keep Reanimator and Sneak Attack value-based and fair, the other is simply not knowing my options well. I do like the design of the card, though. It's fun to get a lot of extra mana and it's very neat as a Reanimator target. I like Avenger of Zendikar and Pelakka Wurm less, for some reason.

So yeah, feel free to suggest any big green options. I think my selections skill stopped at 5.




I know "staple Overrun" effects have more play to them because you can use Pod and the like, but they seem weird to me. Honestly, the main reason I would cut Overrun is thatI don't like the art. Iconic card, but I'm not fond of either version of it. The Tempest version is a silly. The Odyssey version (which I thought was the original) is, like much of Odyssey, overly "manly" and poorly proportioned. I'm told they had no art director at this time and it shows. Odyssey is a great set and the third most represented block in my cube after Urza and Tempest. But the art is bad.

The GGG cost has not bothered me. I might have been lucky. My cube has very good fixing, though.

I do have at least 2 slots that I could use for the cards you mention. I actually ran Ramunap Excavator but decided to cut it and add a second copy of Life from the Loam. Not sure if that was right.

Regarding Harrow, it seems like the right choice. I've thought about replacing Edge of Autumn for Kodama's Reach or Harrow but I don't know whether I should.





Carven Caryatid is stronger than it appears. It replaces itself and has a very powerful body.

As for why I run it: I used to run both Wall of Omens and Wall of Blossoms. But it felt wrong to have both and Omens was more useful than Blossoms was. Hence, I made the choice to run Wall of Omens and Carven Caryatid. This makes decks different and I also enjoy the historic value, you saw the card quite a bit when it was first released. However, I eventually replaced Wall of Omens with Knight of the White Orchid, which is a similar card that fits a wider arrange of strategies.




It seems everyone associates Kiki with Twin decks nowadays. It makes sense, as I'm told it was one of the Tier 1 decks of Modern. But I don't think my drafters will make that connection. Back in my day we used him to copy Sundering Titans like Garfield intended to! None of this infinite-combo nonsense. We got stuck unable to play spells and WE LIKED IT.

(Note: No, my opponents did not like it. Tooth and Nail was powerful enough without ending in a one-sided Armaggedon)

Anyways, Kiki-Jiki hasn't been doing much. He's high enough on the curve to be a luxury of sorts and so are most of the juciy targets. I do like the card, it's fun and opens a lot of venues of play. He's just not most useful design-wise.



I still haven't been able to properly evalulate the Canopy lands. They go in most decks that use one of the colours. That is, for the lands deck, GW is every bit as good as UG. So that's why I haven't used the original design yet.

Final note is that I am being super picky in my comments, but your cube looks sweet. I drafted a bunch of decks and liked what I was able to do, so good job!

Thank you! It means a lot. And I appreciate the picky-ness. At this stage I feel I need those kind of comments. And hey, if someone experienced like you likes it, it must be looking good! Thanks

 

[Erik Twice]

All right, so I've been thinking about some of the small issues still present in my cube. For example, I've been told the UG pairing has no removal beyond bounce and it is perfectly true. More broadly, I think the core issue is that UGX combinations do not come up naturally and/or are poorly supported. Reading articles and forums shows that this is not an issue limited to my cube, so it's going to be challenge. But let me try:

>>

Thousand-Year Storm is a remant of my previous attempts to support non-parasitic storm. Jori-En is weaker than it looks but she seems better for "value" decks. For example, she seems good with Life from the Loam.

->

This is a large step up in power but I want to see if WUG and WGR become more common color combinations if the removal is there.

->

Green needs more removal and Whisperer was not the best 4-drop on a cube-design level. Hydra is great though it has one flaw: You cannot blink it. I could run Wicked Wolf instead, but that one has trinket text.

OUT



I went back and forth with Spectral Sailor, but I'm beginning to think it's a mistake. The issue is that it's a 1/1 flyer that you might actually replace several turns later if you have nothing to spend your mana on. It's a very low-power card for most of the game and you should try to play a spell over it. Or so I think, what are your thoughts?

Trinket Mage is neat, but I don't think it's doing what I want it to do. It feels a bit like a luxury and it costs 3 mana. I wanted it to fetch Bonesplitter but, does Ux tempo want to spend 2U to fetch it? It doesn't seem right to me. Ux tempo is also not the type of decks that wants to fethc Cursed Scroll, at least from what I can tell. Control decks do want the body to block and fetching a Mox Diamond or a Retrofitter Foundry is huge but I'm not sure it's the right card for the slot.



Wildborn is neat, but ultimately unnecessary.

Troll would be nice with some more equipment but I don't think I want to run more.



Karmic Guide and Reveillark create an endless loop. However, that also means playing two 5-cost white creatures with a graveyard focus so I'm not sure if that's an issue.


I think I run too many white creatures and too many mass-pump spells:



Anthem is the most questionable of the three but it's such a nice, clean effect.

The Artifacts deck seems very easy to build so I was thinking of replaceing this:




With something like this:


Graveyard themes and lands.dec may also benefit from having this card as the fourth Golgari pick:



I cut it once, but I can give it another chance.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I think Spectral Sailor is king if you support ninja's. If you don't (and you don't), it drops off in value somewhat. It's still a card advantage machine in the late game, but it doesn't help you get there, so... Yeah, I think I'ld actually rather run Divination over it in a more control-y deck. It's been really solid in my cube though, swapping back to hand for Ninja of the Deep Hours, carrying Bonesplitters like a boss, etc.

 

[Erik Twice]

I've been asking people to draft my cube to get some more info and wow, thank you! I'm now much more closer to understanding the limitations of my cube and how I can improve on it. It's not the most interesting nor unique cube but I think all the decks that pop out are fun.

I've been tweaking things up. Nothing special, just changing cards here and there. Some standouts:



Earthcraft has just been fantastic. It adds so many possible archetypes and it's much more interesting than the average ramp card.

I now run this very neat package:



I removed some questionable or oversuported cards:



And brought some roleplayers in again:



--

I want to rework my green creatures, specially my 2 and 3 drops. I think green tilts very heavily into control and I can make it more open to other strategies.

Here's a small package I would like to run.

 

[Erik Twice]

So I've been tweaking cards here and there. No big changes, a few cards coming in and out, the usual.

The issue I see is that I don't really know what I'm doing on a design level. That is, I can tweak cards one by one and see if the cube improves. But that's slow and not really all that well thought-out. What I need to do is to take each archetype and revise it taking in count the number of payoffs, enablers and so on.

For example, what is my "aristocrats" archetype really doing? How many sacrifice effects does it have? I don't know!





I can see the archetype here, but it does not seem as fully thought out as I would like.

I suspect I could make WBG more viable as a pairing by using an enchantress theme. I already have a large number of interesting enchantments in the colours and it could work out. But it could also make the cube too archetype-heavy.

 

[Erik Twice]

It's L5R tournament season and I have a very strong deck so I'm not much into Magic lately. Still, working on the cube is fun so I decided to steal some ideas from Inscho again.

I first looked at aristocrats support and it doesn't seem like there's a large difference between what he and other drafters support and mine. I decided to add back Goblin Sharpshooter as I didn't have any payoffs in red and cut Mayhem Devil. This way black aristocrats has Judith and Hidden Stockpile as cards supporting the archetype while keeping things fairly non-parasitic.

->

--

Drafting Inscho's cube also made me think about my own power level and goals.I think the largest differenceis that his cube is, well, combo-focused while I like gaining value and engines that run for 10 turns before the game ends. Still, my main take away from drafting his cube as well as others is that you need to support your archetypes well and add a lot of crossover. If you don't, the decks work but they are always the same while things change more radically if there's crossover.

For example, he has lead me to rework my red three drops to this:



This girl is going to Rakdos for now:



I can run one more creature which might be:



Ideally, the creature I'm looking for should support Pod decks or control. None of the other cards help here. I used to try and have red creatures be good blink targets but it's not workable. Note that I classify Bonecrusher Giant as a 2-drop because that's how you curve into it.

Since I support humans, I could run Hanweir Garrison but the card is just ugly, with trinket text everywhere:



--

Similarly, I want to rework my 2-drops.

->

This seems like an obvious switch to tie discard with spells as a theme. So far I think these cards are sure choices. They support a wide range of archetypes and are fun.



I'm not as sold on the rest, which all seem replaceable.



None of these are bad or wrong for my cube, they just seem uninspired.

--

Random cuts or potential cuts:


Thrill of Possibility is filler. Good filler, but at cost of 2, it's often not the right card.
Hammer is slow for the lands deck and kind of a luxury for the red decks. I'm probably not playing it right but I'm not sold on it. Also, it's another token-demanding card.
Talrand is surprisingly bad. Yes, they are big tokens but if he gets removed you get punished hard.
--
Random additions or potential pipcks:

Gamble is a fun design. Love the original flavour text, the Ultimate Masters edition is very dumb tough.
Evolutionary Leap is a fair skullclamp. However, I also run Pod and discard themes in green and it may be too much. I'm willing to try, though.
Saproling Burst is a fun, interesting curve-topper for aggro, monsters and combo. But it might be a luxury and never make the cut abecause it's 5 mana.
First Iroan Games. Haha, get it? It's like the Olympics! Only with a slighty changed name because REFERENCES. Oh well, it's a neat design that is fun to play and slots into all sorts of decks.
I've never seeen Nightmare Shepherd do anything because I've always killed it on the spot. It seems insanely strong. However, it also forces you to exile the card which keeps most busted combos from working. So I'm going to try and see if it's tolerable.

--

Finally, I tried to make Enchantment works, but that's just greedy. The support is there, but I don't think I can support as many archetypes in my cube without things getting silly.

Abzan Enchantments Test from CubeTutor.com

 

[Nanonox]

Wait, why isn’t Fire Imp the card you are looking for? It’s podable, good in control and blinkable!

The next step IMO, is identifying what cards your colors need and thinking about how they interact with other colors or what the decks you are supporting are missing (for example my aristocrats deck has too many threes. So any decent 2 drop that can fit in there and elsewhere is premium).

I’d also consider broad archetypes across your cube and colora if you want less rigid decks.

Your red 3 drop section looks likenit has a plan now, I like it!