Shamim's Cube

[shamizy]

Alright, another quick update since I've already wrangled up 10 people interested in my next cube session in about a month. It's wild how much easier it is to get people to commit if you can provide space (thanks Alesmith Brewing!) and some free food. I'm very inspired and motivated to really work through different cube ideas at the moment after mostly being off from updating/engaging with cube all of last year. I think it's FIN that got my gears turning again with individual card interactions so I'm gonna channel all my writing right now. After reading Dom's recent musings I also want to revisit ideas I've had for Aggro design just sitting around in my head for a while now that should finally be written up. Maybe I'll even turn it into a CubeCobra article at some point.

Anyway, seeing as we'll be drafting the full 450 again soon I'm going to list out a number of cards that will be tested out in the next session:



We've already had discussions about each of these cards in the CBS thread earlier in the week so I'm not going to dive too deep into them, but I'm convinced that each of these will able to play an effective role for me. Warden giving aggressive decks additional options in a board stall situation and eventually turning into a Serra Angel is pretty sweet (and synergizes with my counters theme in G/W) while Planisphere just does a little bit of everything to make it a very palatable 2-drop spell. They both seem like versatile options to really branch archetypes and maintain critical the critical mass to enable them. Bristlebud is just a big beefy boy to make G/x decks feel substantial. I like that it's a big potentially threatening body that can generate some card advantage via eating food, but is also vulnerable to removal. I will gladly be swapping out Questing Beast for this and probably won't miss him aside from the very aggressive G/R decks that would come together once in a blue moon. I've added in Roast in a recent update to help deal with big beef on the ground, could also see myself bringing back Valorous Stance back again to give more potential tools (and a pseudo-protection spell for G/W Landfall decks).



I enjoyed the ceiling of what Wrenn and Seven could do when it was first spoiled back in Midnight Hunt and ran it for a while, but it ended up being a little too fiddly when actually playing with it. It was very neat when you had the engine assembled but otherwise it was just another churn value walker that didn't make a big enough in-game impact most of the time. I think Summon: Titan simplifies the play pattern of filling the grave and then recurring lands with a Splendid Reclamation impersonation while also providing a proactive 7/7 body to smash it for some damage. This can serve as a big finisher for decks featuring Tifa Lockhart or Mossborn Hydra if you've stocked your graveyard a bit. Also it provides me with another Saga target that will hopefully make Rydia, Summoner of Mist's 2nd ability more than just flavor text.

Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury is just a powerful and flexible incentive card for any deck playing RW be that aggro or midrange. I'll take another Lightning Helix in either of those decks and being able to give a lower to the ground aggressive deck an actual finisher card when the pace of the game gets bogged is very appealing. Showdown of the Skalds was alright, but it only really came together once in a while in the ideal deck. Refueling your hand is gas for an aggressive deck with burn, but the more mid-range the more of a trap it would feel like. Phlage gives us more flexible action lower in the curve which is very important for aggressive builds.

Steel Overseer has been brought back to flesh out the artifacts archetype a little more. We had a bunch of decks in the last draft with some artifact synergies but I couldn't actually find my copy to put into my cube and instead used a Cogwork Librarian(still fun in draft, will need to find a permanent slot at 450). It's been in the binder for a few years now and I'd occasionally come back around to see if it was time, but now I think we have the critical mass of playable artifact creatures to where it can really shine at my power level.



These are the only cards from EOE thus far that I'm definitely going to test out, have to give the final spoilers a lookthrough to see what else I missed. Trooper does everything I want out of a white two drop by growing my smaller guys and promoting more plays later in the game. Human and +1/+1 synergies will make this a very nice roleplayer that can create explosive plays off a Champion of the Parish. I'm not a fan of one-off appearances of most keyword mechanics in my cube, but I think the play patters justify the inclusion here through I will be looking at even more options for inclusion as people post their experiences with these new cards.

Scout for Survivors seems like a more versatile version of Sevinne's Reclamation. I think it'll play much better than it looks and very low to the ground aggro decks will gladly take the chance to bring back 6 power worth of creatures onto the battlefield. Even more if you're bringing back Champion of the Parish and friends! We'll see how it actually performs in practice.

Finally I'm fully drinking the kool-aid for Sunset Saboteur. It's possible that the base case scenario is that it's too easily dealt with on the ground, but I can't get over how much damage this can represent at 4 power that early in the game for an aggressive deck. If you can get 6 damage out of a two drop in an aggressive deck I think that's a pretty good rate of return, but this can take that all the way to 8 and potentially trade for two cards when it's finally dealt with. Just seems like a very powerful piece for all of the B/x Aggro decks that come together in my cube that also has additional lines of play to it. Pair it up with targeted removal and it feels like it could be an absolute beating. Menace and Ward is such a powerful combination, I still have a soft spot for Sedgemoor Witch which was a solid card throughout its run and may come back someday, but this just has a higher ceiling in the decks that want it.

 

[shamizy]

With the re-establishment of a semi-active playgroup for cube that will likely be firing off a pod every 4-6 weeks moving forward (maybe more often), now is the time for me to really dive into cube design again. Been spending a lot of time reworking and refining different parts of my cube and I'm interested in hearing what people are running in their Utility Land Draft set-ups nowadays.

I've found that the best way to run this is setting up the ULD up away from the main draft and letting players get up and take a look whenever they want during a lull in the main draft. Afterwards I hand out a land to each drafter and the odd man out (ex. 7 Swamps and 1 Mountain) is the first overall pick for the ULD. We then go in a clockwise pattern for a 3-round snake draft with picks going 1-8 then 8-1 then 1-8 to close it out.

I let players make their picks in their own time during deckbuilding process before playing our games and it comes down to just letting the next person know when they're up. I'll monitor a little to keep it moving and to see where we're at picks-wise. This has been smoother than keeping people hostage for the mini-draft before deckbuilding. Each card from the ULD has a red sticker on the bottom-right corner of each inner sleeve (all my draft enhancement cards entering outside the 450 have stickers on the bottom right) so that I can easily parse through and remove them after we're done with cube.

Here's a breakdown of what I'm still running nowadays:



Artifact land suite has even greater utility nowadays than ever before. Seat of the Synod and Great Furnace were common picks for Welder decks as an additional way to inflate the artifact count. Vault of Whispers and Tree of Tales have been neat for delirium type stuff and also turbo-ing out an Emrakul, the Promised End. But nowadays with the proliferation of artifact synergies there is a lot of value to just playing them out to buff a board or tutor off a Brightglass Gearhulk. They help grow Karnstruct tokens and my newly added Arcbound Ravager so these will probably never leave the ULD.



I think manlands in general have always been a great option for cubes to serve as a mana sink, even though many of them are no longer as powerful an inclusion as they used to be in the main cube. I still run the best options in Celestial Colonnade, Creeping Tar Pit, and Raging Ravine which all still see relevant play but the others have all fallen by the wayside into my cube binder. I've seen all of these utility lands from the DND set get played multiple times over the years with different levels of efficacy, but I don't think any have ever been a bad inclusion. When there's so much back-and-forth with removal and combat being able to close out games with your leftover threat is a nice fallback option.



The white section is definitely more flexible than it has been in the past, a lot of different options to work with here. Flagstones can synergize with random cards as a legendary permanent for Yoshimaru, Ever Loyal or a way to maintain land parity by saccing to a Sylvan Safekeeper for protection. Eiganjo is just a solid combat trick bundled into a land and it's always a higher pick. I'm not sure if Dalkovan is good enough to stick around, but making extra attacking bodies isn't a bad thing if the game has bogged down. I like that it's firmly centered in Mardu and a card that both W/B and W/R Aggro decks would have interest in running.



Shelldock Isle has long been a staple for me and I've moved it in and out of the mainboard, but I think it'll just live here in the ULD from now on. It's not quite as powerful as it was in the earlier iterations of my cube a decade ago but it's still a solid inclusion for most U/x decks. Otawara is just great all the time, handy to have another piece of interaction not take up an actual card slot in your 23. Conclave is middling but effective, might seek out other options here longer term.



Love Tower and Takenuma; both have led to multiple interesting lines of play in games that they've been featured. I actually lost a game to Phyrexian Tower my last draft serving as a sac outlet for a Gravecrawler that gave the mana necessary to recast twice into a Carrion Feeder + a Blood Artist effect to put me in lethal range from two other attackers. Great Arashin City has yet to prove itself but I like the idea of cashing in non-recursive bodies for some board presence later in the game if necessary. Also a niche way to trigger a card like Gau, Feral Youth for surprise damage.



Probably the section that's had the most changes over the years, red has a handful of interesting lands worth trying out. Arena is probably good enough for the main cube but I think I'd rather use that slot for another card since the ULD is ever present. Both Sokenzan and Monastery have been solid from what I've seen.



Lots of different options here, one of the most versatile sections of the ULD ranging from big-time ramp via Castle Garenbrig to delirum trickery with Shifting Woodland to the classic manland of Treetop Village and finally trinket token utility in The Shire. The last one is a next addition, but I'm interested in seeing what can be done with more options for food tokens ala Bristlebud Farmer or Gilded Goose. Someday we will hit the critical mass of food tokens at my power level to give Wicked Wolf a run!



The 5C options with a caveat. I like both Courtyard and Cavern to bolster aggressive Human decks that can extend into Mardu colors while Field has been a neat inclusion with any land recursion to set up big sequences. I've seen it used to some effect in Wildfire decks providing a way to rebuild a little quicker once the board has been simplified. I could see some fun lines in the future with Summon: Titan.



Lands with colored activated abilities. Gavony is more niche in the decks that it can go in, but with G/W a reworked archetype in the last year I think I might be seeing it more often now. Both Academy and Stronghold have always been great sources of recursion and shine in the decks that can fully maximize them.



The fixing suite in case someone was unlucky in the drafting portion. Both cards had been in my main cube in the past, but I think I just prefer swapping those out for the 2nd copy of Urza's Saga and Prismatic Vista instead. Saga is just a card that is nice to double-up on in my environment and Vista is just preferable for more aggressive decks looking to curve out where a tapped land in the first 3 is usually terrible to have. Never had any issues with either card, just nice to offer additional options to drafters through the ULD.



Two all-time useful manlands and 4 Wasteland to keep greedy decks honest. I've had Wasteland in the main draft now and then but have found that there are diminishing returns after a while and especially if they show up late. I'm all for giving more concentrated decks (especially Aggro) additional tools to deal with midrange decks so 4 Wasteland is just find with me. Also if someone wants to go full hater after drafting Ramunap Excavator or Wrenn and Six I want them to live that dream.

Previously I'd keep this set-up capped at around 35 lands, but I'm more willing to expand now that it looks like I can gather 8-10 drafters more frequently than before. And so the final ULD set-up that will run in next month's draft will be:

 

[Nanonox]

So jealous of a ULD, you get to include so many roleplayers.

I think your selection is really good, but maybe a few slots could be optimized for archetype support. I am thinking of the lands archetype primarily.



This is a one card archetype, mostly for Green decks. A ramp payoff that doesn’t take a “real” deck slot that works with all the land package (fetches and recursion).



Some fuel for the grindy lands deck. Triggers Gitrog, you can recur them with Loam. A single one of these goes a long way to changing the land’s deck endgame.



Soeaking of endgame, this can be a win condition late and has game in aggressive decks too.



Sometimes you’d like to have a bunch of landfall triggers and this delivers. Also nice to hit land drops and an extra card kind of. I think the Simic and/or Selesnya ones make most sense.

Stax support



Port cuts off mana and is rock solid in a lot of decks. Hatchery is kind of narrow, but amazing with Braids and Smokestack. Gargadon and Safekeeper have game with it too.



A free card off a land for aggressive decks. Entering tapped isn’t ideal for those decks, but it’s nice token support.



This one can spell inevitability on a land. Loop it with Cryptic Command to lock opponent out. Also just good to get back a counter or card draw. Both Sanctuary and Heights benefit from bouncelands.

 

[shamizy]

The only unofficial rule I have for ULD is that I don't like to include multi-color fixing so Bouncelands will probably be out and Horizon of Progress as well. Maybe I'll have to revisit if we hit a critical mass of lands that make me change my mind, but this has been a nice way to keep things balanced over the years.

Field of the Dead and Mystic Sanctuary will likely make the cut at some point, I'm also looking to add a Fountainport soon. Field was iffy for a few years but with the cycle of surveils as well as me eventually flipping a 2nd cycle of shocks to the battlelands (once they complete the printing of the enemy ones), it will be more consistent to trigger without being backbreaking. Barbarian Ring could also be a fun inclusion as some additional reach for R/x decks, but I think I might just go back to Ramunap Ruins at that point. Threshold might be tough unless they've got a decent amount of burn.

I had the Onslaught cycling lands in a long time ago, but they were consistently last picks and often times left undrafted as we got more and more powerful options so I ended up cutting them sometime 5-6 years ago. Maybe there's enough nowadays to justify them because I do have fond memories of churning through Jund with Barren Moor alongside Wrenn and Six in Modern a few years ago.

Port and Hatchery look like potentially interesting inclusions, I'll keep them in mind. Windbrisk Heights unfortunately was always way more clunky in practice than theory where a tapped land is kind of brutal when curving out and kind of bad if you can't stick an actual big mana impact card underneath. I cut that pretty early and haven't really missed it much.

I need to think about how many choices I want available during the ULD because there is a point where it becomes information overload. Cycles are easier for players to parse through and understand so the Onslaught cyclers wouldn't be too difficult to bring back. I think I'll probably max out at 50 for initial drafts and slowly refine it down to 40 by the end as I get a sense of which cards get picked consistently.

 

[Erik Twice]

I love Windbrisk Heights because you can use it, alongside Collector's Cage or other versatile cheat spells like Reanimate, to add a bit of spice to wide decks. Decks, particularly wide creature-based ones, tend to focus very heavily on cheap spells, heavily limiting how they can be built and played. By adding tools to hit costlier targets (5 mana is more than enough) you get more variety and justify running more "curve-toppers"

 

[shamizy]

I love Windbrisk Heights because you can use it, alongside Collector's Cage or other versatile cheat spells like Reanimate, to add a bit of spice to wide decks. Decks, particularly wide creature-based ones, tend to focus very heavily on cheap spells, heavily limiting how they can be built and played. By adding tools to hit costlier targets (5 mana is more than enough) you get more variety and justify running more "curve-toppers"

Collector's Cage can definitely go on the watch-list, I think that could put in some real work as a neat option, but I just think Windbrisk Heights reads way better than it plays. Hideaway on lands is a lot clunkier than on other permanents. I used to run it a long time ago but it never quite came through how I wanted. A tapped land is so much tougher to play nowadays with so many good land options available to players compared to 2013 when I first put this together.

This was pre-ULD and there's a lot more flexibility so maybe I'll give it a run next draft and see how it plays if I have a copy lying around.

 

[Nanonox]

I like the idea of Heights + Cage, but like shamizy I am a little skepitcal. I think I a few cards would be really good with those two though



These two are nice hits off the hideaway and they also fit into an aggro game plan. I’m sure there are other nice targets, but none come to mind right now.

 

[shamizy]

It's about time to revisit reanimator in my cube, specifically the U/B variants.

This deck seems to come together every other draft, but I can't recall it ever winning outright. Lots of cool sequences and memorable games but it doesn't seem like it has ever been enough to win it all against more streamlined decks with a much lower curve. For a long time I was against the idea of playing the premier reanimator threats dominating Cube, but with the proliferation of more powerful threats lower in the curve as well as premier removal, big creatures really need to be at a premium to be worth jumping through all the card disadvantage hoops to get them out ahead of schedule. Especially when drawing cards and assembling engines is so easily accessible nowadays; going down on multiple resources to power through one of these targets puts you behind and many times unable to recover.

For a long time I've been a bigger fan of the "fair" reanimator options with creatures that have an impact when cheated out early but are possible to overcome:

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This suite served me well for a number of years, and all have been playable even outside of strict reanimator builds (which is something that I prefer), but bridging the gap once the threat is dealt with has become harder over time.

Noxious Gearhulk is probably a forever staple just due to how many synergies it has throughout and being a very nice stabilizer in the later game (and Menace is just one of the best keywords around). Sheoldred, Whispering One is still an effective card if it can stick around, but the stabilizing force is just not there like it was in the past unless the board is completely at parity and we've reached the grindy stage of the game. Herald of Anguish is a card I have a soft spot for because I do think being able to force discard is underrated in draft environments, but I will admit that it feels a turn too slow in general and a little too small to really be worth the hassle. Phyrexian Fleshgorger is just a perfect card to me, fills a similar role to Gearhulk mentioned above and prototype plays really nicely in playing double duty for the reanimator deck as an early roadblock and potential late game closer.

If these cards can stick around then awesome, the game can be closed out shortly therafter, but I think that similar to Thrun, the Last Troll and Wurmcoil Engine which were boogeymen a decade ago reanimation targets need to be re-evaluated in the context of my 2025 environment. Both of those creatures can still be powerful in the right match-ups, but they aren't anywhere near the rate of return compared to the rest of the field as they were back in 2015. With aggressive decks getting more tools and creatures just being bigger on average, a 4/4 like Thrun only really shines against the control decks where there aren't creatures big enough to contest it on the ground. A 4/4 isn't quite as imposing as it used to be, though he can still be a house if you find a way to keep growing him via +1/+1 counters because Hexproof is still very good. Wurmcoil Engine can be dealt with very cleanly nowadays with way more exile based removal including new spells like Suplex from FIN or Exorcise from DSK or a good old fashioned O-Ring variant in Leyline Binding. And who could ignore the various ways to attack a hand ala Grief or Elite Spellbinder, much less ways to obsolete Wurmcoil on the battlefield as a blocker like with Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd.

With my last update I brought back the OG:

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And it wasn't some GRBS like it might have been in the past; ended up playing fine for the reanimator player. There is a real tension now with paying the 7 life to draw 7 cards with how readily you can be punished by the opponent. If you get to untap and stabilize then great, but if it's a mid-game reanimation then it's absolutely possible to just lose even after putting him into play. Sometimes they can just snipe the Gris and then continue on with their gameplan to close it out with burn or just good old-fashioned combat. It's still an incredibly exciting card to play and activate, leads to the types of swings in gameplay that are very memorable without feeling unbeatable, and I think it's the exact power level that makes sense for my environment nowadays.

We're probably at the point where the premier reanimator target is worth giving a run:

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It's the kind of card that gets you excited if you're already in the archetype and see it later in the pack; a clear reason to jump in fully if you've drafted reanimation. It's still a 6/6 flyer in the air which is bigger than almost everything in most cubes so it comes with it's own clock in about two turns to end games uncontested. It's a slower death with inevitability if it sticks around, but that also opens up a window of interaction to draw an out. It's a different play pattern compared to Gris, but it could be just as fun for the reanimator player allowing them to accrue some card advantage with the platter of effects that trigger on ETB.

Thus, my big creature options for reanimation (above 6 CMC) across all colors now looks like:

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At this point it just becomes a matter of providing situational tools that can interact early enough without obsoleting the game. And for that I'm a big fan of more conditional removal like Valorous Stance and Unholy Heat coming back into the main list along with splash hate ala General Kudro of Drannith. Scrabbling Claws was a recent addition that I feel will play pretty well as a bauble and piece of interaction. I especially like the weird potential interplay of Heat vs. Archon where you could discard in a way that unlocks delirium and lets you deal with the threat despite losing so many resources at once. There are still unconditional removal pieces that will serve as premier removal to snap up during the draft, but it's nice to have more modal spells to make decision-making interactive and engaging. If you can just fire off exile removal at everything it just trivializes the back-and-forth, but knowing when to use a "lesser" spell and save the good stuff is way more interesting.

We'll see how it all shakes out in the next draft later this month. If I get ten drafters again I should be able to see this deck come together but otherwise it'll be interesting to see if there's enough to cross the finish line in a traditional 8-man.