Nanonox's cube - 450 multiplayer

[Nanonox]

Hello!
I've been cubing for about a year now (twice a month roughly) with 2 other friends. We've always liked multiplayer games so that is our current format: 3 player free-for-all (FFA) multiplayer games.

The cube​

I realize this is quite a wall of text that I'm writing, but it also helps me think straight

Spoiler: Intro

We started grid drafting and it was good fun, but the fact that you have perfect information was annoying. Also since we are only 3 players, a large portion of the cube was unused. Lately we've been glimpse drafting (9 packs of 15 cards. Pick a card, burn 2 and pass) and it's great.

Not really knowing how to design a limited environment, I just jammed the "best" multiplayer cards together and voila! It has been fun to powermax the cube, but lately I'm finding myself cutting all the obnoxious cards that "ruin" a game (Arcane Savant, Upheaval, Luminarch Ascension, ...).

I'm also looking into ways to get aggro working, since it wasn't supported. We've had a few hour+ midrange fests and it's something I'd like to avoid as much as possible. Here is where you guys come in! I've been trying to wrap my head around all the different theories presented on this great site but it's a ton of information. I'm sure there are some concepts that I don't fully understand and would appreciate help with if someone is up for that.

TL;DR: Im trying to make my cube more interesting. So no more powermax and I'm trying to get aggro incorporated to combat midrange fests.

Spoiler: Cube info

• 3 player FFA means you can attack anyone and be attacked by anyone.
• Each player starts at 20 life.
• Glimpse drafting (9 packs of 15 cards. Pick one, burn 2).
• I need 405 cards for a 3 player glimpse draft. To make things a little more diverse, I opted to build a 450 size cube. So 45 random cards are out during any given draft.
• Not limited to singleton.
• No infinite combos.
• No protection from colors.

Spoiler: Color info

White: Primary: +1/+1 counters, humans, tokens, control Secondary: blink
Blue: Primary: Spells, GY, control Secondary: blink
Black: Primary: Sacrifice, GY, humans Secondary: tokens
Red: Primary: Spells, tokens, Secondary: GY, threaten effects
Green: Primary: +1/+1 counters, GY, Secondary: Pump effects, tokens

Spoiler: Guild info

Here is what I settled on so far, I am struggling with Gruul and Simic a little.
Azorius: Blink
Dimir: Self-mill
Selesnya: +1/+1 counters
Rakdos: Sacrifice
Gruul: Berserkers
Boros: Tokens
Golgari: GY matters
Orzhov: Humans
Izzet: Spells matters
Simic: Something...
On top of that, I have 4 wedges that work well together:
Jeskai: Spells
Mardu: Sacrifice
Sultai: GY matters
Abzan: +1/+1 counters/humans

Spoiler: 3 player FFA differences

• Planeswalkers die a lot faster when 2 players are attacking them. Therefore I feel I can slot in a few powerful ones and still have them be balanced.
• Deathtouch and vigilance are valuable keywords as one acts as a deterrent and the other allows you to go both on offense and defense.
• Against 2 opponents, you can't afford to stumble. In order to reduce the number of non-games, I included the Temples instead of the man-lands.
• For aggro decks to work, they need to deal 40 damage. This leads me to thinking that aggro-combo decks are probably where you want to be (aristocrats for example).
• Games are usually slower than a duel, so the curve can afford to be a little higher.

Spoiler: Problems

• GW +1/+1 counter decks don't feel special. You are basically jamming a bunch of cards that say +1/+1. Might need to cut down on the number of support in those colors and spread it out.
• Gruul and Simic are confused. Not sure what I can do to fix these 2 guilds.

That's basically it! I hope to create an experience where there are not too many auto picks during drafting. I also hope the gameplay is fast-paced to avoid midrange slug-fests.
Any and all comments welcome. Especially the bad (can't improve otherwise!)
Here are a few sample decklists that I drafted

Spoiler: Sultai GY

Sultai GY from CubeTutor.com

Spoiler: UR spells

UR spells from CubeTutor.com

Spoiler: RB sacrifice

RB sacrifice from CubeTutor.com

Spoiler: GW counters

GW counters from CubeTutor.com

Spoiler: BW control

BW control from CubeTutor.com

 

[Nanonox]

To help me visualize what I want to do, here are the cards I feel are replaceable.

Spoiler: White

->
I already have Condemn which favors control decks, I'm not sure I want another removal spell to lean that way. The other two are solid but sorcery speed. I like that they take care of recursive threats if need be.

->
The giant was in because it's good at holding the fort and synergizes with +1/+1 counters. However I feel he favors midrange games which I want to avoid.
Jazal and Sentinels are both mana sinks as well and are aggressively priced. But they give no value if killed right away. Finally, Stag gives immediate value as well as working well on O+D.
Can I afford to get my 4 drop killed for no value?

->
Wave is nice both offensively and defensively and works with blink. Siege can also work on O+D and scales well in multiplayer. Leaning towards keeping Wave as the impact on the board is more immediate allowing more damage through for aggro or stabilizing for control.

->
2 questions: 1. Do I need an exile wrath? 2. If not, wouldn't I just be better off with Rebirth to have a board presence post-wrath?

->
Ok, this one is weird. Angel is here because morph is a cute combo with blink effects. However, my 3CC slot is already crowded. Rally would tie spells matter with tokens and make for a nice finisher.

Spoiler: Blue

->
Crush seems like a much sweeter card, but I don't know about it costing 1 more mana.


Not sure what to do with these. I want to keep cheap plays for blue, but I'm not exactly thrilled by these. Crab and Scour are decent enablers for GY strategies though so I'm inclined to keep them in.

Spoiler: Black

I think I will cut both of the 5 drops and add a . The other guys aren't bad, but I'm not supporting reanimator nor enchantments. Not sure what I"m missing in black!

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

First off, thanks for the layout of the OP--it helps a lot, especially with these bigger cubes.

Glancing over the list it looks pretty reasonable for FFA multiplayer. I would personally trim the non-conditioned sweepers even more, because I hate the constant resets. I would tighten up the power variance, but since its FFA the imbalance is not critical to address.

Your blue cards are much too good at addressing variance, which is why you are having trouble with some of the non-blue color pairs. Your UG is missing a bunch of the cards that you would want to run for the strategy to be successful, and you could probably get away with running opposition in this format.

 

[Nanonox]

Thank you Grillo for taking the time to look at my thread, much appreciated!

I"ll check out your wrath suggestion. Off the top of my head, I could see Languish instead of Damnation. It would allow players to respond with pump spells to save creatures, which actually sounds more interesting.

My power variance is skewed at times, you are right. Some of the planeswalkers are very good (Jace 2.0, Gideon, Elspeth,...), but because it's a 3 player game, it doesn't sound as bad.
Other than that, I have some removal which might be over the top (Bolt, STP, Path,...) and some creatures which are pushed (Restoration Angel, Reveillark, Kalonian Hydra,...). Before making adjustments here though, I will need to actually try the cube as is.

In regards too blue variance, I agree that they are pretty insane. Would you suggest cutting back in numbers and keeping the same power level or keeping the numbers and dialing down the power level (Serum Visions? Slight of Hand?).
I'm leaning towards dialing down the power level as I want to keep a critical mass of cheap cantrips so that my Jeskai spell decks can still function nicely. Thoughts?

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Thank you Grillo for taking the time to look at my thread, much appreciated!

I"ll check out your wrath suggestion. Off the top of my head, I could see Languish instead of Damnation. It would allow players to respond with pump spells to save creatures, which actually sounds more interesting.

My power variance is skewed at times, you are right. Some of the planeswalkers are very good (Jace 2.0, Gideon, Elspeth,...), but because it's a 3 player game, it doesn't sound as bad.
Other than that, I have some removal which might be over the top (Bolt, STP, Path,...) and some creatures which are pushed (Restoration Angel, Reveillark, Kalonian Hydra,...). Before making adjustments here though, I will need to actually try the cube as is.

In regards too blue variance, I agree that they are pretty insane. Would you suggest cutting back in numbers and keeping the same power level or keeping the numbers and dialing down the power level (Serum Visions? Slight of Hand?).
I'm leaning towards dialing down the power level as I want to keep a critical mass of cheap cantrips so that my Jeskai spell decks can still function nicely. Thoughts?

My general experience with Multiplayer drafts has been that (if you don't have an insane combo deck in your cube, which it doesn't look like you do), blue cantrips lose a large portion of their value. The more players there are, the longer games take. The longer games take, the less crucial it is for the blue player to set up their early turns, as the early game is usually just a durdle-fest anyway. It might actually be beneficial for you to cut a few 1-drop blue cantrips in favor of their more powerful, but more expensive cousins. Cards like Impulse, fact or fiction and the like.

If prowess-trigger engines are what you want, then look to cards like mystic speculation that can be repeatedly cast for value.

Overall, this cube looks really fun! My main suggestion would be that I don't see too many cards that have the potential to kill multiple players- I think you need a few of those, or the format just turns into a cold-war grindfest. Examples of what I'm talking about are: overrun, cyclonic rift, etc. You know, the big EDH staples- although I do see reigns of power, so you do have a few.

 

[Nanonox]

You make some good points GiftsForgiven. I'll try to address a few!

- First of all, the amount of blue cantrips is there because I'm trying to get players active from the get go. Looking at blue's curve, there isn't much of interest at 1cc except these cantrips. I should probably just accept the fact that blue's real curve starts at 2 mana and shave off a few. I really do like your suggestion of Mystic Speculation though!

- Board stalls: Indeed! I have some ways to push through single player damage (Berserk, Temur Battle Rage, Profane Command,..) but not any ways to kill multiple opponents.
Cyclonic Rift was too powerful in my last cube, but this one is a lot faster. Might make reaching 7 mana tougher. I could see an Overrun variant (thinking Decimator of the Provinces) doing some good work for sure.

Thanks for the feedback! Really helpful

 

[Nanonox]

Alright! I made some swaps based on the feedback provided here.
Mass removal cuts

Swaps
->

This leaves me with

Spoiler: Mass removal

I love the idea of more conditional mass removal, but I just can't find any for white. The best I got is as a nod towards the human theme or but that is another problem in itself.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Just want to add that blue cantrips are powerful mid game and late game plays as well as early game plays. The issue isn't so much that blue players get to smooth out their draws turns 1-2, but what happens turns 5+ when players start to go into top deck mode. In those long attrition games, being able to manipulate my draws, or have more shots at quality draws, is often times decisive, as they help you avoid any lulls in threat presentment, and outpace the tables removal. It only gets worse when we start scaling up to cards like Dig through time or fact or fiction. Even if your drafters are undervaluing ponder and preordain for a time (which tends to happen in multiplayer) they won't undervalue cards like treasure cruise (for example).

When the game devolves into jund mode, the blue jund deck is often times the best positioned deck, and a big part of why so many cube designers have problems with the B/W, R/G, and G/W color pairs. Why would you draft a color combination with a less consistent mid/late-game plan, when we know that thats where the game is doing to be decided?

 

[Nanonox]

In those long attrition games, being able to manipulate my draws, or have more shots at quality draws, is often times decisive, as they help you avoid any lulls in threat presentment, and outpace the tables removal.

So if I'm understanding this right, You are advising me to drop the number of draw spells/cantrips in blue.
I count 21 of them (cantrips, filtering, planeswalkers, draw), here is what I could do:

-> and something else.
Thought Scour to keep the cheap cantrips available without affecting late game variance. Dream Twist seems decent but more narrow. Could be another Scour.

-> . My 4s are already crowded and this gives me another angle of attack.

Cut Treasure Cruise. I want to keep one of the big delve spells as a pay off, might as well keep the "more interesting" one.

or -> . Guardian provides a big body that can close out a game, similar to Opposition.

Does any of this seem reasonable?

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I would probably be looking at these cards:



In no particular order. Brainstorm is solid but if you don't have fetchlands everywhere, not really worth the singleton break. Those are pretty reasonable cards, and won't break the bank on non-blue interactions.

I wouldn't sweat it too much though. The way this always works for me is I populate the blue section that I think is reasonable, a month or two later I realize its insane, than I nerf the blue section to the point where I think its reasonable, than a month or two later realize its insane, and so forth. Blue is just really strong, and its ok to sort of go through that process, and bring your players along. I would probably really rip up a lot of that blue section, but maybe thats going too far, and taking away a lot of that process from you.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

You know, it just occurred to me that you are doing 3 person drafts of a 450 card cube...which is kind of insane. That means you have a 315 card variance every single draft.

When we would do FFA multiplayer, the scenario would be three people, and we would be drafting a 360 cube, or a 225 card variance, which was often times ridiculous.

When I went through and drafted the format, I felt that it was inconsistent, as I didn't get fixing, but now it occurs to me that I was using the default cube tutor settings, which is 7 bots for the 450. To accurately simulate your draft environment, it should actually be 2 bots.

That huge cube size is part of why you are having problems with certain colors combinations. More shallow guilds depend on draft presence, and the larger the draft variance the more shallow they become. Going down to 360 would help tremendously, and you would still have the sort of random feeling to the drafts, that I presume you are looking for.

 

[sigh]

I've had that same thought. Another way you could switch it up would be to draft Tenchester (Fifteenchester?) with 15 packs of 10, one pick out of each, then dump 7. It's a slightly more cumbersome way to draft, and it's harder to read signals, but it literally shows off all 450 cards of the cube!

 

[Nanonox]

Oops, maybe it wasn't clear enough, we do glimpse drafting.
Essentially, it's 9 packs of 15 cards for each player. Pick one, burn two and pass the pack. You get 5 cards per pack.
9x15=135.
135 x 3 =405 card pool for a 3 player game.
That means for each draft, 45 cards are undrafted. It's not a lot of variance, but enough to keep people guessing a little.

So I think my guild problems lie elsewhere!

 

[Nanonox]

Just had one of those satisfying revelations. I"m in the process of laying out what decks I want to support in each guild.
In Azorius, I'm looking at:

• Blink value
• Go wide opposition
• Spells matter
• Control

Laying out the cards I notice 2 things
1. There is a lot of overlap between Go wide and Spells matter
2. Wingmate Roc fits in Blink value and Go wide, but isn't all that necessary as I already have Angel of Invention.
I also notice that spells matter has a pretty big hole at 5CC. I also support a humans theme.
Then it hit me! The card I'm probably looking for is .

It's more specialized, but plays well in the archetypes I want to support. It creates a bridge between humans, spells and go wide (and GY), in a neat package. It even offers a late game mana sink.

Is this kind of swap a good idea (more narrow card in favor of good stuff flyer)?

 

[Nanonox]

Alright after drafting and tweaking this cube more and more, I've come to realize that there are a few cards that annoy me as being too good. To the surprise of no one:

I'm thinking of swapping Elspeth for .
It's decent in control, scales well in MP and the +1/+1 counters have synergy.

Gideon is irreplaceable, so I'm just looking at other options. Here is what I have so far:
. Can be a fun reanimation spell that could actually give my BW section some more direction that just "humans". I'd add Unburial Rites Karmic Guide and maybe Resurection.
Loyal Retainers could be good in this type of theme, but it would require a change in the creature suite to accommodate more legends. Not sure that it's worth it.

 

[whobetta]

nanonex, hey just FYI i have a multiplayer FFA cube that is "low power"-ish (went from peasant to peasant + to lower power)... i have 2 friends that we essentially always have a 3 person draft and my cube just went from 504 to 540.

we do what it think most people call "tenchester" but have customized it for our own liking... essentially 540 created 36 packs of 15 cards. we each take 1 card from each pack but are allowed 5 "double picks" total throughout the drafting phase... so you end up with 41 cards total to make a deck..

this way the cube which i have is somewhat synergized so if we only saw 150 or so cards the "variance" as Grillo mentioned would suck for planning on what you may or may not get.... we like the ability to "see" the entire cube as it is more fun for us.

we then wind up playing a 3 player FFA "infinite respawn" style which the person to 3 points (player kills) wins. if you die instead of being out you "respawn" when it is your player's turn in the rotation and essentially goldfish 5 turns and then are live on turn 6... so you can get "established" it is not foolproof as there are decks and cards that do better or worse on the respawn or want to cast things on turn 1 or 2 if it were a normal game as it affects the others but you can't because you are in a "bubble" essentially that cannot interact nor can be interacted with the rest.

One other thing we do is no mulligan penalty. we don't want anyone to wind up with a crap no land hand and wind up being so far behind that its absolutely no fun and rather be watching paint dry (again we try to play with the idea of fun in mind).

on cards... Grillo is right in that you have to be careful of "SWEEPERS" in that too many and the board just always resets which sucks and drags games out. but also careful if you are not into overly complicated board states were it takes one person 30 minutes a turn and you can essentially take a nap.

I am not a fan of "max power" style cubes in that it is very swingy and i like the idea of the cube being a more linear and less bombastic... I find that Planeswalkers are just too strong but again that is my opinion...

check out my cube if you want for ideas or anything.

 

[Nanonox]

Thanks for the post whobetta!

On drafting: Even though we really like glimpse drafting (and as noted above, I use 90% of my cube each draft), I'll have to try Tenchester once as it seems fun.

On games: I'm not sure how much I like the respawn idea to be honest, here's why:
In a 3 player FFA, I feel there is space for an aggro deck to hit pretty hard and try to grind out the game via some engine or late game cards. However, with the respawn, those decks are essentially out since they have to deal 60 damage instead of 40.
In addition, I wonder if it doesn't drag the board state out since players will have played more turns.

Mulligans: We also mulligan all we want. No fun in having a non-game for one player.

Sweepers: I already cut a ton of sweepers and I'm left with Fulmigate, Austere Command,Evacuation, Yahenni's Expertise, Living Death, Fiery Confluence, Chandra, Flamecaller. I don't think this is abusive, especially since the non-white ones are conditional. Am I wrong here?

Board state: You make a valid point about board complexity, however I haven't had the opportunity to test this out yet (Friday I should!). To combat this, I have a few finishers that I hope can do the job.

Powermax: Is my cube still considered powermax? I cut a lot of the GRBS, but I guess most cards are pretty good. However, going lower power would be a tough sell for my group (and myself). We like our staples

Your cube: I have actually checked out your cube a few times already (among others) to get a feel for lower powered environments. So thanks for that!

 

[whobetta]

good stuff, yes I noticed the cutting of sweepers just double-upping on that point Grillo made.

on the respawn... maybe one day if the group is feeling spry can try it out. Aggro decks work surprisingly well (as long as they work well in general in your cube). there are still the same "political" mechanics, as while if you can deal 60 damage, hey more power to you. (again everyone is trying to get points/KILLS so you are never dealing every single point of damage in a game)

you have to think about who you may possibly kill and who then may kill you or if you can kill someone AND suicide yourself (would that help your position, getting a restart)... you also can try to make it appealing for a person who has 0 points/kills to kill you instead of letting the other player with 1 or 2 kills take you out. (dying also resets you so if you need/want your cards in your graveyard or exiled back, dying helps you get them again)

we play this way because there is just 3 of us total, so when 1 is out we feel bad and if a game were to carry on another 30-60 minutes or something it would just suck for that odd man out.

Yeah I like lower power just because we went from peasant initially and its also nice on the budget since we literally only play cube these days.

 

[Nanonox]

I'm trying to tighten up the power band in my cube. Here are the top cards from each color I feel:

Spoiler: White

Even though the power is there, I don't feel these cards are oppressive. They give you a direction in which to draft except for these 3.
Path might be too efficient (Oust instead?) and Grasp is an easy unconditional 2 for 1 (Oblivion Ring instead?). Resto should probably be Galepowder Mage but my group really likes the angel.

Spoiler: Blue

I tried and I mean really tried to tone down on blue card selection to allow other strategies to be viable , but there are still some outliers I'm sure.

Cryptic, Gearhulk, Dig and Preordain feel maybe too strong. I'm not willing to cut Dig (incentive for GY strategies), but I could live without the others.

Spoiler: Black

Noxious Gearhulk feels a little generically powerful, but I like the lifegain and the artifact creature types for delirium.
Ophiomancer is a beast in everything. Maybe too much value in 3 player games.
Whip of Erebos could be some other reanimation spell, but black doesn't have that many ways to recoup life. This one is a little extreme though.

Spoiler: Red

Biggest offender here is big Chandra, but she feels taylor made for the cube. Here +1 is tokens/sacrifice, her 0 fits with GY themes and madness, as well as being a source of red card advantage.
Maybe her -X puts her over the top though (especially with Crater Hellion as another 6 drop).

Spoiler: Green

1CC ramp
Even though Surival is super powerful, I like that it forces a creature heavy build to take advantage of it. It also encourages GY strategies.
Garruk is a beating, but it does everything I want my green decks to do. Board presence, ramp and a go wide finisher.
Gearhulk I haven't tested yet. I'm trying him instead of Wolfir Silverheart in order to support the +1/+1 counter theme. He is a little less swingy which I like and has the benefit of being an artifact for the GY matters cards.

All in all, I think some cards are obviously better than others, but apart from a few, I feel they enhance the draft experience by giving direction.
Did I miss anything? Am I way off in some of my evaluations (tough to get past certain bias )?

 

[whobetta]

Hey... my cube is a bit lower power than yours... but just a couple thoughts..

WHITE: I am using Galepowder Mage as I agree and think Resto Angel is too good... but i also am not playing any big Titans or big ass Angels either for the top end... if you find BLINK is too good in your cube, then maybe take out Resto, or if you see it being splashed in ANY deck because it is only 1 W... I also think if you are going to be using great creatures that you need Path and Swords in the cube, even if they can be splashed by anyone really... just necessary to have efficiently strong creature kill and EXILE is important.

BLUE: I like the idea of having multiples (Snapcaster and Vendilion). have you noticed Gearhulk +Cryptic being too strong? just like i found out the hard way that Arcane Savant + Ghostly Flicker was too good in our cube, i had to cut one... I wouldn't say Preordain or any of those 1 mana dig/fixing unless you have ancestral recall being TOO strong... do they do anything besides thin/dig/fix? if they are there to find a specific COMBO card and it becomes too easy then maybe, but they are just generally good cards, i wouldn't say the strongest

BLACK: Whip is definitely OP imho. have you looked at Gift of Orzhova? Bitterblosom is strong, but not OP considering its multiplayer and you lose life. I'm not a big fan of the Braids style decks, but it strong and not OP... Yahenni's Expertise is quite strong, can clear whole board and you get another spell.. Dread Return is also a brutally strong card. both Liliana's as well and Living Death (i took it out due to its potential to just be a get up and walk away blowout) are all strong... is Ophiomancer better than Xathrid Necromancer or Grim Haruspex? I don't know

RED: Your chosen red cards seem a bit on the weaker side overall, than your W/B/G cards in particular... What are your thoughts on Goblin Rabblemaster? I haven't found especially in multiplayer/FFA to be that scary... can't attack until T4 and the fact that he has to attack makes him less appealing than I would like... I think Hanweir Garrison even w/o meld is better... Guttersnipe also if you get a couple of spells is beyond worth in multiplayer... My problem i have found is that there are SO MANY 3 drop Red creatures that are GREAT and useful and others that fit themes and having to pick only a certain amount is heartbreaking. Conquering Manticore is a beast (pun intended) any threaten effects on a 5/5 flyer is bonkers, Siege Gang can also be a blowout if you have enough gobbos ( i see why rabblemaster is good, but its still meh unless you have combo out). Outpost Siege, how is that working out? doesn't seem overly powerful either... any cool interactions I am missing?

GREEN: Green looks REALLY strong... Suvival of Fittest, Garruk, Gearhulk, Library... nice... maybe look at "Ridgescale Tusker" as a poorer Gearhulk? Evolutionary Leap is underratedly strong IMO as well.. more so than say Courser of Kruphix (but i really like Courser).

hope the thoughts help

Formatting, I suck

 

[Nanonox]

Good stuff whobetta, thanks!

First thing I want to address is removal. I agree that the stronger the threats in your list, the stronger your removal needs to be. However, I'm not sure that I like my 1CC removal to be on the power level of Path and STP.
I'm not comfortable with an opponent casting a 5CC creature only to have it answered at such a cheap cost with (almost) no downside.
I think it's healthier that my 2CC and 3CC removal options be that good since it tying up that much mana is a non-negligible cost. With that in mind, Sunlance for example still takes care of 60% of the cards in my cube (non-white, 3 toughness or less). In my mind, that is great for a 1CC removal piece, even at sorcery speed. Compare that to Path that removes everything except Geist.
What are peoples' thoughts on this approach?

Regarding Cryptic Command, you make a good point about Gearhulk (and even Snapcaster Mage) potentially pushing it to OP territory. Probably a good cut that I can replace with a cheaper and less mana intensive card.

do they do anything besides thin/dig/fix?

Regarding Preordain, that's "all" they do. However, as Grillo pointed out somewhere, the presence of such cheap cards that are incredible early and late mean that non-blue decks are at a clear disadvantage compared to their blue counterparts. This means people disregarding certain color combinations because they have so few ways to keep drawing live in the late game whereas blue decks will bottom the junk and draw live.

Living Death is certainly has the power level to take over a game. But the work needed to get there as well as the drafting experience feels like it's worth it.
If I were to replace Whip of Erebos, it would be for another reanimation spell I think. Probably Diabolic Servitude in order to try and replicate getting multiple creatures out of one card.
Ophiomancer is a house. Way better than Haruspex and Necormancer in my mind. He gives excellent defense for any archetype and can get out of hand if you have sac outlets since he triggers on every upkeep.

Rabblemaster has generally impressed us. Granted, my impression of him was with a slower cube that durdled a lot. But he still creates tokens that can benefit from the bushwhackers or other creature buffs/sacrifice and if you can clear a blocker and swing, he hits hard! The other goblins attack drawback hasn't really been a problem since they usually want to attack
Outpost Siege shores up one of red's weaknesses: card advantage. It helps keep up against bigger decks once you've dumped your hand or can close out a game via the other mode (I support sacrifice and token themes pretty heavily, so death triggers aren't hard to come by).

Out of the green cards listed, the Gearhulk doesn't actually scare me as much as say a Survival or Library. I will take you up on the Ridgescale Tusker though, as I have yet to acquire the Gearhulk.

I was reading an old thread from the forum about emotional spikes in cube design and it has made me reconsider cutting some of the more powerful cards due to the highs and lows they bring out during the game. Interesting thread if you haven't seen it yet.

Once again, thanks for the help!

 

[sigh]

Of all of the cards, I'd first look into cutting the Restoration Angel, the doubles of Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique, the Attrition and could see Ophiomancer, and the Survival of the Fittest.

The double blue cards especially seem very generically capable of simply making the color blue better than other colors.

One mana cantrips are very strong for many of the reasons mentioned. They make blue decks run on all cylinders more of the time than other colors, which helps make every other blue card better.

Keep Courser in your cube, for the love of all that's holy. That card is as close to perfection as a creature can get, in my opinion.

The emotional spikes thread is useful and, IMO, important for format health, but it has to be weighed with all the other variables. Survival might lead to an emotional spike for the user as they power out a killer combo or curve (discard Avenger, get Karmic Guide, for one example), but it can be equally oppressive for the receiving end. If you want a cool creature search engine, use Eldritch Evolution or Birthing Pod instead. You'll still have Fauna Shaman to be the "survival".

 

[Nanonox]

Keep Courser in your cube, for the love of all that's holy.

It's not going anywhere Just mentioned it as one of the stronger green cards.

Regarding Survival, I think it will get the axe as a repeatable tutor effect that has GY synergy is just so busted. I'm not sure that I like the other options though. I would need at least 2-3 Pods to make it a worthwhile inclusion I feel and Evolution seems unexciting. What I'd like to try is to double up on Collected Company. Yes there are deckbuilding restraints, but they feel less crippling than Pod.
I notice you have all three Sigh, is there one in particular that you like? Have they been performing even as singleton inclusions?

 

[sigh]

Company and Pod are both moderately exciting cards, but nothing particularly special as singleton. If you want to really focus on a particular effect like Company's, I'd recommend doubling on it. I'm just stuck in the past regarding singleton for the whole cube... I can actually see myself taking out Pod for an Eldritch Evolution because that's a much spicier include in a deck even if it's not fully built around, just as a nifty deck component.

Pod has seen more love than Company, but I think that's more time advantage than anything.

In any case, I think you can definitely try doubling up on Company. Is it an effect your environment wants? I can also see using the slot for something else. I see that you have no spell ramp, something like Harrow or Edge of Autumn would likely be a welcome include.

 

[whobetta]

Good stuff whobetta, thanks!


Ophiomancer is a house. Way better than Haruspex and Necormancer in my mind. He gives excellent defense for any archetype and can get out of hand if you have sac outlets since he triggers on every upkeep.

/FACEPALM - lol... i totally missed the EVERY upkeep... nvm, thats pretty strong