Pendrell's Cube (576 cards, powered, uses a test pool)

[VincePendrell]

Searing Blaze does looks cool. Going to my Test Queue

Since I don't want this post to be extra-bland, I'm also going to list at what I'm looking at cutting for my unpowering of the cube (and subsequently, all cards that are underpicked/underperforming that would aready be going in my next update):

Savannah Lions
Seal of Cleansing
Lone Missionary
Faith's Fetters
Icatian Javeliners
Wall of Omens
Knight of Meadowgrain
Eternal Dragon
Coralhelm Commander
Willbender
Cursecatcher
Dungeon Geists
Tezzeret the Seeker
Upheaval
Ancestrall Recall
Vedalken Shackles
Sarcomancy
Vampire Lacerator
Necropotence
Mind Twist
Dauthi Slayer
Exhume
Drana
Jackal Pup
Heart Kami
Goblin Welder
Wildfire
Gorilla Shaman
Mogg War Marshal
Awakening Zone
Obstinate Baloth
Channel
Vorapede
Phantom Centaur
Savageborne Hydra
Plaxcaster Frogling
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
5x Moxen
Black Lotus
Mana Crypt
Lodestone Golem
Maze of Ith
Perilous Myr
Library of Alexandria
Grim Monolith
Thran Dinamo
Worn Powerstone
Sol Ring
Mana Vault

I'm keeping Time Walk and a couple of very strong cards as well (Wurmcoil Engine, Myr Battlesphere) because it looks like the format is going to become much faster and low-mana oriented and TW is a pretty fun card and even though it is powerful, it demands jumping through some hoops to make it a game winning card. Extra turn effects are super fun (it's overrun in green, so what is not to like?) and are great in tempo-oriented strategies, so I might swap it to Time Warp if it looks like it is way above the rest of the cards.
Tinker looks like it is in a weird spot right now, but it fits well enought within Show and Tell and Sneak Attack decks that I'm leaving it in for a while (even though support for the Tezzerator artifact ramp decks is going bye-bye).

 

[Eric Chan]

Sweeeeeeeeet. Really solid list of cuts there, Vince! What's your new target cube size - 500ish? Moving a midsized cube like yours from powered to unpowered is a huge change with all sorts of ripple effects, so we'd love to hear back on how it's received by your playgroup. (Though from the sounds of it, your relocation might make that feedback moot!)

Sad to see Faith's Fetters, Wall of Omens, and Obstinate Baloth all go in one fell swoop, as those are stalwarts in the more defensive decks of my own cube. But if aggro is going to get a kick in the pants, nothing better than removing some of those pesky life gain spells and big butt blockers! Though, really, if you're looking to decrease the number of walls, Spellskite is the actual most annoying bugger in the history of cube...

 

[VincePendrell]

Oh, I'm not changing cube size. Those are making way to other cards
I'll keep my eye on Spellskite as well, even though he does poses as an interesting card for tempo to evade removal as well.

Do you guys know any more interesting removal spells that work better in aggro than in control decks?

 

[Eric Chan]

Reprisal, Selesnya Charm, Killing Wave, Mark of Mutiny (and various treason effects, with sac outlets), Revenge of the Hunted (kind of..?!)

I think you have to keep in mind what problem you're trying to solve, though. Are you increasing the amount of aggro-only removal because aggro decks are currently underperforming? Would the above spells actually address the problem? Are there other levers you could adjust to work your way towards the same goal? Are there copious amounts of defensive road blocks / life gain spells / sweepers / large, dominating finishers that could be benched for a while to achieve a similar effect?

Just some food for thought. As CML likes to say, there are so many variables in the cube equation, and changing a small number of them by a marginal amount can have wide-ranging effects.

 

[VincePendrell]

Doing some preliminary changes for playing a little today. Next week, I'll have my hands on the rest of the cards needed to unpower and double-fetch my cube.

- Savannah Lions → + Champion of the Parish #2
- Icatian Javeliners → + Champion of the Parish #3
- Vampire Lascerator → + Gravecrawler #2
- Sarcomancy → + Gravecrawler #3
- Dauthi Slayer → + Bloodghast #2
- Phantom Centaur → + Chamaleon Colossus

What are you guys' opinion on Xathrid Necromancer with very few humans in black?

Also fixed some math in my spreadsheet and added a quick check to see how many color-fixing I had per player, and it is much higher than I thought. I thought it was about 3.5, but math shows it is about 5 and it is going to about 6 with the extra fetchlands. Seems like it is going to be fun!

EDIT: Just came back and realized that I forgot to report this change:
- Goblin Welder → + Goblin Guide #2

 

[Jason Waddell]

Did you like Rotlung Reanimator?

 

[VincePendrell]

Did you like Rotlung Reanimator?

I haven't actually tried it since about 2009. I'm adding it to my test queue to see how it goes in the future.

 

[VincePendrell]

Just updated my CubeTutor page with all my cube depowering changes: http://cubetutor.com/cubeblog/195

I'll probably be updating my spreadsheet sometime during next week if I have enought time. I only have two weekends left here in Brazil, so I won't have much time for testing out my list and fine-tuning it. (Not sure if I will be able to play with my grave cube list as well :/).

There are still some pretty powerful cards in there, namely Vedalken Shackles, Time Walk, Treachery and Baneslayer Angel. I might switch Baneslayer out before the weekend into another 5-drop for white (I'm thinking of Archon of Justice or some other controlish white 5-drop, but could be anything). Trading Post also looks very out of place in this list (no more artifacts deck support) and can be removed before the weekend as well. Tinker also has a lot less support now, but there are still plenty of big artifacts to cheat into play and lots of 2-mana rocks to play with, so I think it will be an ok card.

I put Rakdos Cackler #2 and Dryad Militant #2 mostly because I had two slots and no idea what to fill it with. I think I'll have them switched to Coiling Oracle and Cold-Eyed Selkie to increase the green and blue card count (they have the lowest count so far). Oracle is good in both Simic strategies that are usually played: Eureka/Show and Tell Combo and Ramp. I'm not so sure about Selkie, but I figured it would be cool to see it holding some equipment.

 

[VincePendrell]

I have a full drafting day schedule for tomorrow (aka today before I wake up) so I hope to bring a lot of new data here. We had a small draft today with 5 people between the FNM rounds. We did a very confusing first-come-first-served type of matchmaking and, by the end of the night, nobody was 3-0. Here is a breakdown of archetypes and wins:

Ordered by seating:
2/1 -- Esper Control (Caio) MVPs: Baleful Strix, Grave Titan, Trading Post, Lingering Souls
0/3 -- Midrange (Vinicius) MVPs: Pack Rat, Sword of Light and Shadow, Vraska
2/1 -- Tempo (Vince) MVPs: Balance, Lyev Skyknight, 3x Champion of the Parish
2/1 -- Boros Aggro (Carlos) MVPs: Ankh of Mishra, Young Pyromancer, absurd amount of burn spells
1/1 -- Midrange/Ramp (Cesar) MVPs: Elesh Norn, Master of the Wild Hunt, Mother of Runes

(The MVPs were interesting cards that happened to be very important to the matches and/or deckbuilding. I decided to have them here since I forgot to register the decklists)

Players still have mixed reactions about the multiple copies of some cards, even though they don't actually say they miss playing with the cards that I took away. Caio, the control player, agreed that playing control looks more challenging now. I believe that I will need more data, but right now, I can say that Esper is still a very strong deck, but not as powerful as it once was.
Overall, I could perceive a huge improvement over mana bases with the addition of the second set of fetchlands (as expected). I was running Wooded Foothills, Windswepth Heath and Arid Mesa to fix my mana base out of a Volcanic Island, a Steam Vents and a Breeding Pool (I didn't got to pick the Plateau as the Boros player got it before it wheeled back).

On some new cards and some from the test pool:

• Sakashima's Student(test pool) was used almost every single match to a great effect (often beeing Grave Titan #2 or Sun Titan #2 for the Esper deck). I don't think it was played through ninjitsu, though.
• I had the control player tell me that Lyev Skyknight(honorary test pool) was a very bad card (Note: That player was playing Lingering Souls). Against every other opponent, the tempo advantage of detaining a permanent, the 3 evasive points of power and the fact that it is a human were enormous advantage. It won me two game almost by itself in conjunction with Phantasmal Image for back-to-back detentions. I feel like this might be one of the coolest cards to be running in a cube that supports Aggro/Tempo.
• Stab Wound(test pool)continues to be a great removal spell and all-around fun card to play with.
• Multiple Champion of the Parish(new) are awesome. I've even had one grown to 6/6 and another to 5/5 in a game thanks to Mikaeus, the Lunarch and Lyev Skynight.
• Double Delver of Secrets(new) might need more support, though. Maybe adding a second Brainstorm as tipped by CML might be the way to go for making this guys better.

 

[Eric Chan]

Sweet report, Vince!

I can see Lyev Skyknight being embarrassing against Lingering Souls. The fact is, nearly all fair small creatures are embarrassing against Lingering Souls. What's worse is that the token maker easily nullifies anywhere from two to four cards in most aggressive weenie decks. I think it says more about Souls than about Skyknight.

Sakashima's Student has been surprisingly relevant here, too. While I agree that it's not ninjaed in most of the time, having that alternate cost available opens up just enough options to make it interesting. Overall, I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised.

The double Delvers in my cube haven't really panned out here, either. I'm willing to extend their stay in my digs a little longer, but I've cooled on the prospects of a spells-matter theme being viable, without going to some unusual measures. Having more one mana cantrips could certainly make that a reality, though I have my concerns that it could also inadvertently power up a number of other blue archetypes that don't need boosting.