Taamas' Cube: a contraptionless contraption of cards

[Taamas]

Next week, it will be a year since I became a member of this forum. When I discovered it, I was amazed by the quantity and diversity of ideas, and it has been my main source of inspiration since then. I have learned a lot from all of you in this year, and I think time has come to shrug off shyness, take a step forward and start a thread about my cube. It started as a collection of Gatecrash cards to simulate drafts and introduce newcomers to Limited, has evolved to become the 360 list it is today, and I hope it keeps getting better, funnier and more interesting thanks to your knowledge and experience.

Here is my cube in all its glory.
List: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/24366
Curve: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcurve/24366
Visual spoiler: http://www.cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/24366
Draft: http://www.cubetutor.com/draft/24366

My ideal format is one in which a drafter can navigate multiple intertwining archetypes, finding new and exciting interactions between cards. I don't want degeneracy, but I wan't players to be able to do powerful stuff if they invest into it.

I don't usually think about guild archetypes, so I can't post a list of what you can expect going into each color pair. Instead, I seed a theme across multiple colors: one can find interesting stuff to do around discarding in blue, black and red; enchantments in white and green; lands in red and green; sacrifice in red and black, bleeding into tokens in white and green; and so on. I think this approach leaves the highest freedom to the drafters and results in a great diversity of decks.

And about the land base, there's a cycle of fetchlands, of shocklands and of triple lands.

I greatly welcome any comments you may have, either positive or negative!

 

[Taamas]

To start the thread, let's take a look at the most recent changes to the list, in an attempt to show my goals and line of thinking.

White:

Launch the Fleet -> Kor Skyfisher
Launch the Fleet was the only card with Strive, which I feel is too complex to have just one instance of. Skyfisher seems to be and staple, and I have always wanted to test it.

Balance -> Famished Paladin
Balance is a remnant of an old, more powered era. Let's see how the lifegain strategy works with the vampire paladin.

Wall of Essence -> Nyx-Fleece Ram
Wall of Essence destroys aggro by itself. Nyx-Fleece Ram seems more manageable for the attacking player and more consistent for the lifegaining player. Also, it is an enchantment!


Blue:

Looter il-Kor -> Blurry Beeble
The beeble is an artifact, and the il-Kor was the only shadow creature. This doesn't really make much sense, since now the beeble is the only blurry creature. Also, I left in Wharf Infiltrator both the only instance of skulk and one of the most wordy and complex card in the cube. I love the infiltrator, but it may be healthier to dispose of it, since now I only have two looters, none of which has a 100% chance of looting. Swapping the Infiltrator for Thought Courier is a future possibility.

Glyph Keeper -> Prognostic Sphinx
Prognostic sphinx at least asks to discard a card, which also adds synergy in one of the best colors for it.

Arcane Savant -> Mirror-Mad Phantasm
Arcane Savant was a pet card and a brokenity which needed to be removed. Mirror-Mad Phantasm looks really full of possibilities!


Black:

Kokusho -> Tetzimoc
I played against Tetzimoc in the prerelease, and it felt like a nice game of playing around the board sweeper my opponent showed me. If it ends being too much, well, so it was Kokusho.

Whip of Erebos -> Subcontract
Too much life and too much reusable reanimating for my taste. I don't have much discard now, so let's see how subcontract plays.

Oona's Prowler -> Dusk Legion Zealot
I always felt Oona's Prowler was too much. A discard outlet, yes, but it doesn't tend to work like that.

Indulgent Tormentor -> Voldaren Pariah
The vampire has much more synergy into it than the demon. More power via more work? Sweet!


Red:

Wheel of Fortune -> Pirate's Pillage
For wheel, see Balance above. For pillage, I don't have much cards that can create a bunch of artifacts, which could be useful for some decks.

Hanweir Garrison -> Rampaging Ferocidon
Hanweir Battlements is in the Utility Land Draft, but I don't expect to be using it much. I'm not sure how the ferocidon will perform and it has three different abilities, but I'm eager to see it in action.

Goblin Bombardment -> Makeshift Munitions
I'm not sure how my red relates to artifacts, but I think the added mana cost is interesting and accepting artifacts is welcomed.


Green:

Foe-Razer Regent -> Thundering Spineback
Ulvenwald Tracker -> World Shaper
Regent and tracker were sort of an attempt on a fight theme, but I don't really want to develop it as of now. I don't think I have enough mana sinks and I'm in love with the spineback, so let's see how it performs. I hope it will survive long enough to win some games. Also, world shaper looks quite interesting and on theme.

Mouth // Feed -> Earl of Squirrel
Mouth acts as a simple green 3 drop, which we all know has too much options. I had to open space for squirrelink somewhere!

Font of Fertility -> Vessel of Nascency
I see this as a straight upgrade.


Gold:

The Gitrog Monster -> Jungle Creeper
Gitrog is overly complicated, and half of my golgari cards were about lands in a color pair that is not really about that. Jungle Creeper looks cool and will probably fit really well in multiple decks of its colors.

Magister of Worth -> Call to the Feast
Voting had its moment when the list was used more for multiplayer formats, but now magister has too much text for what it wants to do. I see Call to the Feast a bit as a placeholder, but it is very on theme and, who knows, it might be the new orzhov star!


Colorless:

Loxodon Warhammer -> Handy Dandy Clone Machine
The warhammer was too much. The clone machine will be useful in sacrifice decks and the like, and after seen it in action, I don't think the joke will get old fast.

Hymn of the Wilds -> Modular Monstrosity
Wow, I get rid of the hymn at last. Too easy to build a deck with it without losing much.
Now, about Modular Monstrosity. Yes, this thing is really, really powerful. It will steal games here and there. But, it is a very interesting game to play for both players, and I don't think it will be easy to keep up with the abilities after a bunch of games (well, maybe then you just take it out of your deck... *ahem* we'll see how it performs).

Quietus Spike -> Split Screen
Quietus Spike confuses me, and have never seen it in action. I had to open space for Split Screen.

Backup plan -> Advantageous Proclamation
The power level of backup plan seems difficult to analyze, and maybe I allow both conspiracies to be in the cube in the future. But for now, I'll take a rest from Backup Plan and try the other one.


Lands:

Aether Hub -> Geier Reach Sanitarium
Only card with energy in the whole cube, so one red herring less.

Mishra's Workshop -> Drownyard Temple
What was Mishra's Workshop doing in my list?

 

[Chris Taylor]

There's two cards that's there's some debate as to weather they get picked ahead of Sol ring:
Backup plan and power play.

Good change

 

[Gozmit97]

Trust me, I play with a near vintage power level cube (that of Velrun), and i argued that Advantageous Proclamation is possibly the best card in the cube.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Trust me, I play with a near vintage power level cube (that of Velrun), and i argued that Advantageous Proclamation is possibly the best card in the cube.

That I feel might not translate, as I've recently had to put in several countermeasures to stop my players from milling themselves out

 

[Gozmit97]

That is a fairly good point. We are low, if i remember correctly, on self-mill decks, so that is rarely a problem.

 

[Taamas]

I think the power of Advantageous Proclamation scales with that of the environment, and will be better the more combos there are. In my environment, I expect it to be a tool to get some consistency and maybe something else in decks built around it, but this probably doesn't apply to all the formats.

 

[Taamas]

Finally, we had a cube evening yesterday! There were a lot of constructive opinion over multiple aspects of the list, both positive and negative. It was a 6 people draft.
Let's take a look at some lists!

Winner of the day:

Delverless Delver

Aggressive dudes, burn and big fliers to end the work. Don't really know what else to say here, it just looks like a very solid list. Bloodwater Entity was a star, which makes me very happy. Baral's Expertise may be too much.

Second position was for Sovereign's Realm. No need for a declist. Sovereign's Realm won second place. Enough info. That card is going outtttttt! And I will be glad to discuss the 1000 points on which I think the card should go out with anyone interested on it.

Third position was for a WB aristocrats build, featuring as a star the new inclusion Voldaren Pariah.

Orzhov Aristocrats

To me it looks like a healthy and strong deck. It also showed us all the power of Obzedat, Ghost Council: it asks for instant-speed removal, but it also avoid three of my instant-speed removals (Doom Blade, Nameless Inversion and Ultimate Price. I saw it as a high reward card for its difficult casting cost: if you stay in two colors, you get the Ghost Council. It seemed to work in this deck. Not sure if it is what I want to signify to drafters.

Fourth and fifth were a UB and a GW builds. One revolving around Psychatog and the other using Citadel Siege. I played against the GW one and it looked very consistent. I have been vigilant with Citadel Siege for a time, and I think I will let it go. The drafter agreed that it was too much.
I leave the GW list here:

Selesnya Midrange

And finally, the last on the ladder, my own abomination:

Taamas' Feldon of the Mystic Snake

I started with Esperzoa and Daretti, Scrap Savant and tried to pick a bunch of artifacts. I ended up with a nice collection of stones, but had almost no way to finish the game. Feldon and Mystic Snake let me kind of lock my opponent, but there were not many options to go with after that except for Modular Monstrosity. I didn't got to use Myth Realized.