The Dandy Cube (Chris Taylor's Cube)

[Chris Taylor]

Initial Patch ideas:
White
-Brothers in Arms (See above)
-Ainok Bond-Kin (But costs W, Outlast 4W, this is FSR's design)
-Favored Hoplite
-Triple Hero of Iroas
-Archangel of Thune (For Counters)
-Double Defiant Strike
-Some white sorcery removal that isn't horrible (Like actually a sorcery, not just sorcery speed)
-Another Wrath. Maybe Rout?

Blue
-Another Phantasmal Bear (#3)
-Double White Lady (See above)
-Riftwing Cloudskate
-Triton Tactics
-Double Ordeal of Thassa
-Snap

Black
-Second Carrion Feeder
-Drifting Specter (See above)
-Ordeal of Erebos (Man I am happy with black apparently)

Red
-Akroan Crusader
-2/1 Prowess for 2, does red loot when you cast a noncreature
-two copies of a 2/1 heroic: Deal 1 damage for R1
-RR1 Shardless Agent (Agent of Chaos maybe?)
-FSR's Custom Rage Forger (gives a counter to another creature instead of all your other shamans)
-Coordinated Assault
-Dragon Mantle
-Second Ordeal of Purphoros
-Madcap Skills

Green
-Double Setessan Houndmaster (See above)
-Harmonize
-Arbor Colossus
-Mitotic Slime
-Some custom 6 drop, probably hornet queen but not horrible, or some big dude who fights on ETB
-a 4 drop that gives all your guys with +1/+1 counters on them curiosity

Heroic has a lot of interesting possibilities. I'm not weather this is the right number of enabling targeting spells, but most of the rebound spells work nicely as well. Green needed a little oomph, white's creatures got shuffled around, and blue got some different creatures because I'm horribly picky

I think there might be some room for a UW skies deck, given that I had fun with that in my most recent limited draft, but that tends to work well when the ground stalls out with some regularity, so it might be a solution to a problem I'm solving in other ways.

Also: Monsterous on smallish creatures (Like Fleecemane Lion but not miserable) could be an interesting way to add mana sinks, counter synergy and value creatures to my cube. Maybe a small blue creature that unsummoned or looted or something when it became monsterous?

 

[Suicufnoc]

1W exile target creature.

1WW exile target creature. If power 2 or less, make spirit token.

 

[Chris Taylor]

1W exile target creature.

1WW exile target creature. If power 2 or less, make spirit token.

I don't think the removal spell will be unconditional at 2, that's mostly black's thing. My initial idea was Police Brutality from over in the custom thread:

Police Brutality
Sorcery
~ deals 3 damage to target creature. Detain that creature.

Second one is an interesting control card though

 

[Chris Taylor]

Patch Notes:

In:

Out:

Spoiler

I'm hoping heroic will play like double strike did but a little less explosive. I worry that specifically only working with targeted spells might make them a but too narrow, but I've tried to add in the nice easy heroic enablers where I can like coordinated assault.
Honestly I probably need a few more that just get a +1/+1 counter when they're targeted as cross support for the counter cards. I think I might have tried a bit too hard to be cute with the red custom heroic creatures when something simple like Bloodcrazed Hoplite might have done better. Actually depending on how well this works he could make his way in!
Hopefully Defiant Strike is good. I figure it's a cantrip, how bad can it be, but it's possible I'm horribly wrong.

I also added a bit more beef to green, raising the curve a little. Mitotic Slime is a favorite of mine, and Arbor Colossus shores up a flying weakness green had without being horrible otherwise like silklash spider would be.

I've also come down and actually added some multicolor cards for once! I've got about 2-3 in each pair now, and I think I'm actually happy about them for once

Custom Cards incoming

 

[Chris Taylor]

New Cards:

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Defiant Strike could be ok. Guided Strike has much better applications, but 2 is so much more mana then one that its worth a try. It also makes favored hoplite's damage prevention more then flavor text, which counts for something I guess.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Bump from DTK thread:

Should I switch?

 

[Jonas]

Switch textboxes, Foe-Razer Regent sounds stupid.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Switch textboxes, Foe-Razer Regent sounds stupid.

So do the words "Whenever a creature you control fights" but you don't see me complaining

I'm more concerned with the merits of the extra mana giving flying + smaller initial damage trigger, but the 7 eventual toughness rather than 5 and mild +1/+1 counter synergy

FWIW: I've got 0 other cards that fight creatures. Maybe fightbear is due for a return? He never really did much

 

[spicewitch]

Here are some shitty Timmytastic cards I've been experimenting with that might give you some ideas. Angryface has been the most fun for us, Wild Army needs help.

Spoiler

 

[Dom Harvey]

I like Silverback

 

[Eric Chan]

same - i was actually really disappointed when you posted that in the spoilers thread and i realized it wasn't a real card

 

[Chris Taylor]

same - i was actually really disappointed when you posted that in the spoilers thread and i realized it wasn't a real card

This is the kinda stuff I like to hear

 

[Chris Taylor]

New Patch!
Mostly just DTK changes, but I've added a second Blasting Station to compensate for the removed goblin bombardment (Nothing kills it, and nothing kills blasting station either but it isn't as easy to use) and a rebounding alternative to Hymn to Tourach (Though hymn is still in)

IN

Spoiler

OUT

As always, Custom cards can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/3Ou6H and the link in my signature as well.

 

[Lucre]

secure those wastes girl

 

[Chris Taylor]

secure those wastes girl

I probably should. It keeps making me think it's name is "Secrete the Waste" though
Oh! also Blood-Chin Rager is also in, love me some evasive black 2 drops that can block!

 

[Chris Taylor]

Sample Draft of UW Heroic:

UW Heroic from CubeTutor.com

Customs:
Delver of secrets is a 1/2 prowess flying
Nyxborn Shieldmate is a 2/1 (Bestow 3W)
Gossamer Phantasm is a 2/1 flying Wavecrash Triton
Plaxmanta is a 2/1 spells your opponents cast that target creatures you control cost 1 more

So other than the no manafixing, the deck seems...lopsided? I like that there's crossover between the prowess guys and the heroic guys, since without them I'd be dry for synergistic threats, with only 4 creatures that actually say "heroic" on them. Maybe I need to condense them, or add some more?
I'm also not so sure how strong cards like Triton Tactics are in practice. Emerge Unscathed might be the better counterspell, and Defiant Strike can cycle on an opposing creature in the worst case.

Thoughts? I might proxy this up and test it against some other random cube decks at some point

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm also gonna mention that it's entirely possible that Icefall Regent is poo poo, and that I may have just added him because my blue 5 drops were all 2/2s, and that I should probably be running Sidisi, Undead Vizier rather than Bloodgift Demon

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Over here, the heroic decks tend to be very surgical with their combat tricks, either using them as counterspells, or to engineer advantageous attacks. As a result, those decks either don't want to have too many heroic guys, or they want an overrun effect to go with them.

Besides that, the deck looks pretty underpowered. Double strike Ajani seems to be where a lot of the power comes from, and other than that, your strategy seems to be "chip away at them with flyers and little dudes."

The biggest issue the deck has though, is the lack of filtering. Heroic decks are already normally terrible, because you need to draw the right balance of threats, spells, and lands and you have no way to manipulate that in this 16 land list. The deck will mulligan poorly, top deck poorly, and lacks the raw power to close the game out from behind (likely caused by poor draw sequences).

 

[Chris Taylor]

Over here, the heroic decks tend to be very surgical with their combat tricks, either using them as counterspells, or to engineer advantageous attacks. As a result, those decks either don't want to have too many heroic guys, or they want an overrun effect to go with them.

Besides that, the deck looks pretty underpowered. Double strike Ajani seems to be where a lot of the power comes from, and other than that, your strategy seems to be "chip away at them with flyers and little dudes."

The biggest issue the deck has though, is the lack of filtering. Heroic decks are already normally terrible, because you need to draw the right balance of threats, spells, and lands and you have no way to manipulate that in this 16 land list. The deck will mulligan poorly, top deck poorly, and lacks the raw power to close the game out from behind (likely caused by poor draw sequences).

THANK YOU!
This is the kind of feedback I was looking for, since I've never played heroic in constructed/draft and it's new to my cube as well.

Now the interesting part: What am I missing here? I don't actually have any drafts with the new theme in yet, but what am I looking for to make these decks better?

More Brainstorms? (Or their Ilk) Is there some strange scry thing that would work really well? (Not a huge fan of the scrylands since they ETB tapped)
What kind of cards would you suggest for more "Raw Power"? I'm not a fan at all of the Kiln Fiend style aggro-combo since it's basically about as storm as a creature deck can get, but if leans heavily on like, bonesplitter or something I could add more of those

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Well, keep in mind that this is going to be format dependent, but battlewise hoplite is great design: vertical growth and filtering. I've often wondered if a more pushed design, say with scry 3, would be ok. I like that approach of having the filtering folded into the strategy.

The other filtering tools I use are way too specialized to be applied to your cube as they are based around artifact mechanics. However, Blue has a lot of really strong card filtering tools, that should fit into your format, so I think you would be ok: ponder, preordain, serum visions, frantic search, gush, brainstorm, telling time, impulse...the list goes on. You could look at providing something like aqueous form, which provides filtering, evasion, and a verticle buff. Though you will maybe need to custom that last card to bring its powerlevel in line.

I tend to run damage sweepers, so my heroic guys can grow out of range of them, but theindestructibility featured on favored hoplite might be a nice direction to go on certain custom cards if you have a lot of true wraths.

The other big heroic card for us is anax and cymede, because the first strike, vigilent body is quite good here, and its an overrun effect.

So the gameplan is to either go verticle with big damage buffs and evasion, or go horizontal backed up by overrun effects. The decks tend to be very positional, dealing damage where they can get it, both shrugging off attempts to dislodge their board state and out-muscling rival boards via combat tricks, than waiting for the right spot to launch the kill.

 

[Dom Harvey]

That Heroic deck looks very strong to me, certainly no weaker than a 'normal' aggro deck and quite a bit better in certain situations.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm coming to the steady realization that this next patch might not be so much a patch and more a rebuilding

I'm at like 490 cards, and I've realized that like for a pile of cards I run 4 of (Like Wasteland, Brainstorm, Farseek, Birthing Pod) I wanted to add a 5th since they weren't coming up as often as I'd like.
Then I realized I was that heavily overcarded, so the answer pretty easily becomes that I should cut back down to when they were good rather than keep the design I was already dissatisfied with and add a 5th copy


So....I need to cut like 8ish cards from each color and I'm shuffling around which colors support which archetypes because green/red are doing a million things and blue is doing basically nothing, and black kinda doesn't connect with anything....

Here's the archetypes I'm thinking of including so far:

• Prowess (UWR)
• Birthing Pod (BUGish)
• Proliferate/+1/+1 counters (RWG)
• Control (Either traditional or wildfire, rampy or removaly)
• Sacrifice (The gravecrawler)
• Some Sort of pants deck (Either heroic or double strike or something)

Anyone got a favorite they'd like?

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm working out what each color pair should be doing and if any colors are overburdened.

Question 1: Is there any benefit from actively discouraging people from building Pod decks of a certain color/color combination? If I want to give a solid deck option to for example, should I remove some of the stronger pod friendly creatures from say, white, encouraging the pod drafter to stick to colors?

Specifically these guys


Question 2: In trying to create some archetype chameleons, I'm researching what the overlap between the various decks I want is.

Prowess and Sacrifice decks both like Battle Screech, as it's a threat that triggers prowess and plenty of bodies for something like goblin bombardment. In that light, a white based tokens strategy could use a bit of a push, to add to cards like Lingering Souls, and Battle Screech.

I'm looking for ideas about a non-embarassing Raise the Alarm variant, as both it and gather the townsfolk are worse than Glory Seeker on average.
It'll probably make humans so Champion of the Parish drafters have something to look forward to, but it needs something more. Scry? Flashback? First Strike? Flying?

Question 3: The sacrifice deck seems a bit self contained in black now that goblin bombardment has been removed (Replaced with a second blasting station, which has been far more fair and interactive) between the gravecrawler variants, blood artist, carrion feeder, Abyssal Persecutor, etc etc etc

Black will likely always have that synergy in place barring something drastic, but I'd like more incentives to be in other colors.
Red still has a plethora of threaten effects, and blue has the lone Ray of Command (More would be too powerful), but neither of those are particularly worth the break in mana over, as tragic slip usually accomplishes the same thing with a bit less tempo

Should I remove tragic slip? It seems odd to encourage the black drafter to reach to other colors for it's removal, but perhaps that's the solution?
Is there a better way to link the sacrifice strategy to other colors? I've experimented with a few creatures with dies triggers, though they were usually apt to die well enough on their own rather than encourage a drafter to pick up a sacrifice outlet

 

[Chris Taylor]

New patch in, full details to follow!

Here's the highlights, custom card wise:

There two are the start of a new mechanic: Sturdy, which is kind of like an undying creature you can proliferate for profit upfront.
Sturdy (This creature enters the battlefield with a charge counter on it. If it would be destroyed, remove a charge counter from it and regenerate it)

This should also give some play to damnation vs day of judgment, and Incinerate should I choose to switch from volcanic hammer

I've finally just given up in trying to find a good blue one drop and just given them the standard savannah lions plus that white gets thesedays. So sue me.
It also happens to work well with proliferate and prowess, but hey

I've switch from broken night's whisper (gain 2 instead of lose 2) that everyone criticized to this. I still maintain it was a fine card since there were 2 in the cube, and even back to back an aggro deck felt like it could win (Basically no worse than they felt against kitchen finks, and he's one card, and these were far harder to recur)
Call it somewhere between Grisly Salvage and Strategic Planning. And yes, I'm well aware it's still too good for constructed.

I love taking mechanics with restricted implementation and seeing where they go if they were evergreen. I haven't met a custom card designer that hasn't done this with evoke at some point, but why let lorwyn have all the fun?

Sometimes, ideas start from an interesting ability or effect, and I figure out how to cost/word it from there.
Other times, I'm filling gaps, and I've got a cost/power/toughness ratios and no idea what should be in the text box of the card.
I knew I wanted a bigger than average blue 2 drop and 5 drop, a beefy green 3, and a token red 2 drop (Though thankfully Lucas had just come up with about five of that last one)

I'm kind of torn of weather Get 'Em Boys! either absolutely needs a new name, or absolutely doesn't