Jonas 360 Cube

[Jason Waddell]

Can I say the other thing that I've done with my cube is make the less fun archetypes more fun to play? White aggro is always such a shit deck to pilot in traditional cubes, even if it is vaguely "properly balanced" (it's not).

Incentivizing with fun factor is way better. So many of my players are like "oh, I can't wait to draft an X deck sometime." It's a good place to be.

 

[Jonas]

I used to run Tybalt as a trap, and one of my players decided that he would draft around him until he won. I had to take him out of the cube after a while.

Do the madness cards feel poison-y? Or do they actually end up in other decks? I love madness, and would love to have it in the cube.

 

[Jonas]

Can I say the other thing that I've done with my cube is make the less fun archetypes more fun to play? White aggro is always such a shit deck to pilot in traditional cubes, even if it is vaguely "properly balanced" (it's not).

Incentivizing with fun factor is way better. So many of my players are like "oh, I can't wait to draft an X deck sometime." It's a good place to be.

My players usually go something like: I played those colors last time, time to try something else.

There is more colordrafting then deckdrafting, which can make drafting a synergistic deck hard, when people grab cards willy-nilly.

 

[Jason Waddell]

I used to run Tybalt as a trap, and one of my players decided that he would draft around him until he won. I had to take him out of the cube after a while.

Do the madness cards feel poison-y? Or do they actually end up in other decks? I love madness, and would love to have it in the cube.

You'd have to take some pretty extreme measures to make madness less poisony. You'd probably need to make it your cube's primary mechanic.

 

[Jonas]

4 squee and lots of discard effects along with the madness card.

 

[Jason Waddell]

4 squee and lots of discard effects along with the madness card.

Yeah, I just don't know if Madness is a mechanic with a ton of play to it though. Maybe I'm wrong. It is fun, I've played Madness Pauper decks, but conceptualizing it to a draft setting seems difficult without super nerfing the format as a whole.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Well, Violent Eruption and Blast from the Past can go into all kinds of decks and aren't poisonous in the least.

Fiery Temper kinda sucks if you don't discard it. I mean, its still removal, but its often 3 mana to kill a 1 or 2 drop which is pretty lackluster. Reckless Wurm is in the same boat.

You just need to consider if you have enough ways to use these cards that they aren't poisonous. If only "the red/blue madness deck" can play them, then, yes, its a problem. If you keep enough support in one color (I highly recommend red) and synergistic cards in other colors that aren't poisonous (stormbind, mongrel, looters, haakon, whathaveyou) it should be good.

All in all madness has been pretty decent as a complimentary mechanic for me, but always accompanying a more general archetype (r/g aggro, r/u control, squeebind, etc).

 

[Jonas]

It can be fun to at least try out, either in my regular cube, or my other project that is about to morph into something else entirely.

 

[Kuldahar]

Really nice list you have there. I can see some of the things that MTGS go on and on and on about, but I can also see a Riptide approach as well.

I can see the makings of blue aggro in there - does that work for you? I had a blue aggro package in my cube, but hasn't worked to date. Mind you the person who tries to draft blue is firmly in control mindset.

Has the pox package been working for you? That's one of my favourite archetypes. What other cards in your cube do you find works well with it?

The colour that I am having the most trouble giving an identity to is green. What kind of decks seem to come from your green set? You have some interesting cards in there that aren't found all that often in other cubes.

Anyhoo, looks impressive and I can see a lot of care has gone into it

 

[Jason Waddell]

I gotta say, and I never thought this before, Smallpox has been kind of shit here, even with the dedicated Zombie decks. There are some games where you just have no good opportunities to cast it. No other deck wants it, and it's not been amazing in that deck either, so I'm taking it out.

 

[Jonas]

Thank you for comment

Blue aggro hasn't been drafted that much, but delvers flip now and then, which is fun to see. The deck that has been winning the most lately is some variant of UB temp though.

About the pox package, I'm actually thinking of going up to two smallpoxes, that might be what manages to actually make it viable. I haven't seen it played too much though, but Haakon and the other usual suspects are naturally good within it. I'd love it if I could put nether spirit in, since I ran that back when I played constructed pox, but I don't think that he'd make too much of an impact in the cube. I'm thinking of finding my smokestack that I put somewhere around here and put it back in, now that I don't run heartmender anymore, that was just a mean package, and managed to win a bit too many games. But I do love pox

Green usually produce UG ramp or GW some sort of beats, but hasn't been too successful. I'm thinking of adding a LD package that goes over jund, will see how that pans out.

You are correct about the mtgs influences, I started reading over there, but not getting any feedback was kind of boring

Demonic servitude has been a mvp the latest drafts, usually netting a good advantage.

 

[Jonas]

I gotta say, and I never thought this before, Smallpox has been kind of shit here, even with the dedicated Zombie decks. There are some games where you just have no good opportunities to cast it. No other deck wants it, and it's not been amazing in that deck either, so I'm taking it out.

I can see that over in your cube actually. It really is at its best when you can build around it. Need more Nether Spirits and bloodghast and unconditional critters that come charging back from the graveyard.

 

[Eric Chan]

I gotta say, and I never thought this before, Smallpox has been kind of shit here, even with the dedicated Zombie decks. There are some games where you just have no good opportunities to cast it. No other deck wants it, and it's not been amazing in that deck either, so I'm taking it out.

Yup, it's ironic. In the so-called Pox decks here, Smallpox is usually the worst card in the deck by a long shot.

 

[Eric Chan]

About the pox package, I'm actually thinking of going up to two smallpoxes, that might be what manages to actually make it viable. I haven't seen it played too much though, but Haakon and the other usual suspects are naturally good within it. I'd love it if I could put nether spirit in, since I ran that back when I played constructed pox, but I don't think that he'd make too much of an impact in the cube. I'm thinking of finding my smokestack that I put somewhere around here and put it back in, now that I don't run heartmender anymore, that was just a mean package, and managed to win a bit too many games. But I do love pox

I tried two Smallpoxes for a while when I was pushing the theme hard. The time I assembled the nut BR sac / recursion deck, I drafted both copies, but.. almost didn't want to start either of them. I grudgingly maindecked one copy, but was siding it out in every match, as there was often something more specialized I wanted to put in for my opponent.

The main problem with the card is that it's narrow, and like you said, fills more of a constructed niche than a cube one. There are very few cube decks than can profitably sacrifice a creature and discard a card. Most times you have a Gravecrawler out, but are discarding something of actual value. This puts you at card parity with your opponent, at best, because you've spent a card (and two mana) casting the sorcery. Not really where you want to be when you're aggroing & comboing out with Gravecrawler and Bloodghast loops.

In place of Smallpox, I recommend more Blood Artists. No, really. It's exactly what the deck wants, but the beauty of the vampire is that he goes in lots of other decks - straight black aggro, tokens, you name it. If you're in black and you have creatures, they love being painted.

 

[Jonas]

I only run pox and smallpox because they are kinda pet cards of mine. My cube would probably be better of without pox, smallpox, haakon, inversion, cradle swap, the hellions, warrens, etc, and it is in need of a bit of an overhaul to actually get things working. I just need to figure out what I want to have instead, what themes, and how to implement them.

 

[Jason Waddell]

In place of Smallpox, I recommend more Blood Artists. No, really. It's exactly what the deck wants, but the beauty of the vampire is that he goes in lots of other decks - straight black aggro, tokens, you name it. If you're in black and you have creatures, they love being painted.

Blood Artist has to be the biggest cube sleeper card I can ever recall. So many decks want this guy.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Blood Artist is so good, I run Falkanrath Noble as well and no one even cares he costs 4.

 

[Jonas]

Thinking of adding the following:



Maybe two of stone rain and ice storm?

Thinking of adding this one too


Supported by one or more of the following:



Which would bring lots of ponza to jund. Thoughts?

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

Why do you want to add them?
Land destruction does not lead to fun game experiences IMO.

 

[Jonas]

My group has asked about trying out a LD package, and I thought I'd make something interesting. Also, adding somed LD to green and red might make it easier for them to beat control, which they are having a bit of a problem with at the moment.

 

[Eric Chan]

Land destruction is awesome! I'm a huge proponent of adding an element of disruption to red's arsenal, beyond the usual burn suite.

For green, I'm a big fan of



Way more interesting than a color-shifted Stone Rain, which itself is pretty marginal. In red, why not start with Molten Rain first?

If control is ruling the roost where you're at, you could also try reducing the number of colourless mana rocks first. Nothing powers up control more than being able to ramp out stuff like Inferno Titan a turn or two ahead of schedule.

 

[Changling Bob]

maybe ?
I wouldn't run cards that just say 'destroy target land', probably, as they're basically just less interesting than doing something else as well. Plus they're not dead if your opponent doesn't care to ramp any harder.

I like roiling terrain. Seismic assault goes in this package, maybe?

 

[Jonas]

My current LD is the following:



I can definitely see myself adding acid moss, I was thinking of re-adding boom/bust. Molten rain is more interesting then stone rain, and seismic spike looks a bit interesting. Seismic assault could work, plus hey, synergy with terravore and knight of the reliquary, even if it is a card that is very mono red.

At the moment I run life from the loam and crucible of worlds. I've been thinking of taking out both of them, but in adding a LD theme, I should probably let at least loam stay in, to give decks a fighting chance. What I like about stone rain and ice storm, is that there is a realistic chance of casting them turn two of an elf, followed by a turn four threat, which can still easily be handled as long as the player that got LD'd managed to get some removal.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I can attest to boom // bust being awesome. Target a fetchland/wasteland, and sac the land in response: you don't lose anything. It has a kinda constructed feel to it, but it's doable with the ammount of fetches (30/450) and wastelands (4/450) I run.

ultimatly, I took the LD out since it didn't always help against control, and wasn't that great anywhere else. Molten Rain and Avalanche riders still have a spot since they're sweet as basic disruption, but LD never really worked as something to jam your deck full of.

 

[Jonas]

A thing about doubling up on fetches: How has it changed your drafts? What decks get better, does any decks get worse?