The Dandy Cube (Chris Taylor's Cube)

Chris Taylor

Contributor
<Cross Post from Custom Cards thread>
So I've been trying to design a white brainstorm (IE Something cheap to increase the chances white drafters have the spells they need at the right time)

Having something in your environment like this really helps mana flood/screw, as well as letting niche cards be a little more consistent, since (in brainstorm's case specifically, but more generally with scry, for example) you can get rid of narrow cards like Wrath of God (Sometimes the best card in your deck, sometimes the worst) and dig towards something relavant.

It's nice enough that I don't think it's something that should be constrained to blue, and my experience with limited formats that contain cycling, scry, and lots of modal spells are great examples.

I've already got green and red cards that fill the same void while giving nods to that color's archetypes, all while feeling like a (Strong) card that could be printed in that color:
pMWVM6T.jpg
ZkchH72.jpg

and blue has brainstorm.

Black doesn't quite have something in my cube yet, but it has lots of things to generally sink mana into anyways, and has actual card draw of it's own, which basically doesn't exist in white, but who knows, maybe I'll triple up on demonic tutor at some point :p

Anyways, the issue is that making card draw feel white is really hard. The closest thing I've got for thematic white card draw is mentor of the meek, (which is still mostly green anyways), but that doesn't really help general white consistency since it only works when you're winning.

Alright sure, something that hasn't been done yet, but still feels white. I'll give it a shot, not like it'd be the first time I shat on the color pie for gameplay reasons :p
QV2U61i.jpg
h2SNqNI.jpg


Anyways, how does this look?
Early Reconnaissance.jpg

Sadly Reconnaissance is already a card, or I'd use that (It's actually a decent one too, gives all your creatures vigilance since you can activate it during the end of combat step)

It could also say draw then scry 1, but A) I wanted to distance this from serum visions, and B) I think investigate fits nicely with the "giving you info you'll use later" feel of the card.

Spying is blue, and scouting is green, but this is somewhere in between, and the people doing the scouting are commonly white
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
<Cross Post from Custom Cards thread>

Two of my suggestions from the other thread plus some new ones.

Court Machinations.jpg Savvy Trader.jpg Prophet of the Wastes.jpg Runecraft Swordsmith.jpg Suq'Atan Trade Lord.jpg


Not all of these offer real card advantage, but I think they all fit your bill of cards that let the white player dig for the card they need at the right time. Don't know if Prophet should be a 2/1, but whatever, if you like the idea you can balance it for your environment anyway :)
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
How did I miss this post? o_O

The thing I'm looking for most here is something that just gels. Those cards are cool, but I'm thinking I want something a bit more straightforward, since people have to do enough reading in my cube as it is.

I do like how you're exploring the idea of white as buisnessmen, the trade/bazaar thing is a neat idea, and I think while something like wall street feels blue to me, (Or blue black, depending on how you're voting next election), something smaller scale does fit white pretty well, and might be flavor space rife for exploring.

early-reconnaissance-jpg.906

This has proven to be a bit weak. I've got a few complaints that it's a bit finicky late in the game for such a simple spell, but I'd argue that brainstorm is as well, so I don't think that part of it is a huge deal. I'll probably bump it up to scry 1 then draw a card, and keep the rest.

I'm also planning on sprinkling some more investigate cards in white anyways, since the mechanic has been doing so well:
Brass Scout.jpgPerilous Researcher.jpgSandscout.jpg
Also a card lucas has been begging me to add for ages now :p

Lastly, I'm going and cutting the cards that are mostly just miserable. I haven't patched it here, but I'm running 3 delvers at the moment and they've been utter trash when they aren't causing turn 3 concessions, so they're becoming literally anything else (probably some mildly synergistic 1 drop, I'll think of something. Sadly it probably can't investigate because blue is in need of some attacking ones with the delvers leaving)

So delver's being cut, Hymn to Tourach is becoming Wrench Mind, and (It pains me to do this, but) I'm cutting the wastelands. I still think they're the better option between them and Tectonic Edge (which is not a disruption piece, all it does is kill manlands and volrath's stronghold damnit!), but they do cause a certain ammount of non-games, and I think I can do better.

My replacements for them are:
{T}, Sacrifice ~: Destroy target nonbasic land. Its controller gets a Gold Token

or

{T}, Sacrifice ~: Destroy target nonbasic land. Its controller finds a basic and puts it in their hand (I believe someone here uses this variant)

I'll probably put in 2 and 2 for testing next patch, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Here's an interesting little throughline for my thought process:
--> --> Loneliness.jpg
So hymn is a strong card, and while I like the BB early game disruptive 2-for-1 nature of it, I think it's an effect I want exactly one of, and it sucks when someone gets hymn'd for both their lands and just doesn't get to play magic. WotC thought that a BB Mind Rot straight would be too strong, so they made Wrench Mind, and while it fits the bill for the card I want, Lucas pointed out that the discard an artifact clause isn't that interesting, since all the artifacts in my cube aren't super impactful, so if you have a mana rock or a bonesplitter or whatever you'll usually gladly pitch it to be up a full card.

His suggestion of "Discard a planeswalker card" instead makes the card much more interesting, since I can't think of a planeswalker I run where that isn't a pained decision, though I can totally imagine someone being like "Well I'm gonna win if I get to 7 mana, Karn Liberated or not, so he can go" so that it's not totally just BB mind rot with additional useless text.

Plus I get to use this art again :D
 
You designed this, right? I like it a lot, just played with it for the first time and it was strong but fair.

fMVfYLtm.jpg
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
You designed this, right? I like it a lot, just played with it for the first time and it was strong but fair.

fMVfYLtm.jpg

Nah that's lucas, like all the good "Set base P/T" cards I've added :p

It's sweet! Its REALLY expensive but you get your investment back sometimes on the play and the flying is a big deal.

Oh BTW, I tried that card you mentioned to him as well, 1UG, take an extra turn, skip combat on that turn?
It's bananas :p Another pod, another sylvan library trigger, another activation out of all your tap guys, and it's kinda base free explore.
I don't think it's broken per say, but oh man is it worth playing
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
New Cards coming in:
Decrypt.jpgMy old think twice proliferated, but I'm taking the theme out of blue
Elsewhere Gate.jpgColdsteel Heart without the memory issues, basically performs like a fetchland would (Mostly)
Flamewalker.jpgSometimes it's just not correct to jam Abbot of Keral Keep on t2, so I'm giving him a friend.
Flourishing Spirit.jpgI'm in the camp that vinelasher kudzu isn't good enough, maybe this is.
Gaeas Custodian.jpgThe Frost Titan Shroud lord was in blue, and has been moved here. It was a 2/1 flying before, but since green doesn't really get flying I went with wandering wolf evasion instead
Jeskai Skyscout.jpgHopefully this isn't too much. It might just be wrong to have a 2 power 1 drop with evasion, no matter how marginal, but I figure if I can't count on a 1/1 prowess to be a 2/2 enough of the time to count, I can't count on this to have flying enough to count.
Mer-Ek Vanguard.jpgImposing Sovereign never did anything for me, so I'm trying this. Lets see just how terrible outlast is :p
Runeclaw Nightsaber.jpgGreen Lotleth Troll, but not. Might need to be discard a creature.
Tempest Djinn.jpgMistfire Adept is sweet, but 4 is the wrong spot for that effect for me.
Valeron Spellseeker.jpgRelic Seeker doesn't have enough targets, and I don't like the vigilance on topan freeblade. Hopefully drawing a more general card is comparable to tutoring for a super niche card.
Might need to be "noncreature nonland"?
 

Laz

Developer
runeclaw-nightsaber-jpg.1099

Green Lotleth Troll, but not. Might need to be discard a creature.


Oh Wild Mongrel, how the once mighty have fallen.

gaeas-custodian-jpg.1096

The Frost Titan Shroud lord was in blue, and has been moved here. It was a 2/1 flying before, but since green doesn't really get flying I went with wandering wolf evasion instead

This girl looks like she plays pretty poorly with cards like Harmony Charm, Show of Strength, Rancor, etc. Should this be 'your opponents control'? Also '... to cast'.

Other than that, I really like some of these designs. Prowess-Haste dude and Decrypt especially.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Good call on Gaea's custodian, that's what I get for making cards late at night :p

I went with just noncreature partially for word count, partially for power level, that one I wanna see how it plays.

Thanks guys!
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Quick teaser update:
Courser of the Conclave.jpgCourser of the Conclave.jpg
The +1/+1 counter deck is pretty all in on just creatures, and folds pretty hard to a consistent amount of removal. This should give some counterplay without being just 2/1 benevolent bodyguard (If it regen'd for eg)

Supply Raid.jpg
So one of the things I've wanted to examine lately is where the first pick style cards lead you, since I have the sinking feeling that none of the strong cards in my cube lead drafters in the direction of synergy. Jason had this problem with the lifegain deck, where the deck was fine when it came together, but you basically had to force it since Ajani's Pridemate nor any of the other parts of the deck were particularly first pickable cards, so you'd pick a removal spell, then a decent creature, staying open, drafting skillfully, and it would basically always lead you away from that deck.

Cards like blood artist are nice for this because they're powerful, but they do lead you to a synergy based deck (I mean look at it, it's an 0/1 for 2. Not exactly a powerhouse without the proper support, you know?)

In that light, I've re-added this bastard, who is still amazingly swingy and strong and way above the curve like curse of predation was(I guess now it's double green, hopefully that helps). I dunno if it's acceptably above the curve like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, or actually too strong like Wurmcoil Engine or Jitte are.

Also side note about wurmcoil engine, I think too powerful is probably the wrong way to describe it. Assuming your cube can handle grave titan and friends, I think wurmcoil isn't actually that far above that kind of rate for a 6 drop, it's more that it helps the archetype that traditionally needs the least help (Control/Midrange) in the least interesting way (By being too easy to cast, too resilient and even blocking once is often enough to put games away)

Not that we usually end up talking a lot about why wurmcoil should be in your cube, but hey. There is complexity to why a given card is GRBS (Grilled Rutabagas Brine Seductively), even if that usually doesn't change much about how we view a card.

Also, another thing I'm planning on doing when I've got some time is to go through the custom cards I run and explain why each one exists. I tend to always want to cut more cards than I'm adding to my cube because I'm an unpleaseable nitpick, which often causes me to just add some card because "You know, I hate it less than Marshaling Cry*, why did I add that piece of crap"

This tends to be less of a problem with actual cards people might hypothetically recognize, but keeping the number of total custom cards slim is important, and since I'm hovering at around 100 (Sweet Jesus) going through and making sure they're all necessary is a worthy endeavor.

However, yes there is a category of "It's just too cool to cut". But I figure a few new eyes on this (That's you guys) might help me be more reasonable :p

*Actual card that was actually in my cube, for realsies. My friends never let me live it down, nor should they.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
New patch is up on cubetutor now. Copying and pasting exact notes from there is more frustrating than it appears at first blush, but the general aims of this patch are:

1) I want to cut "broken" cards a bit more slack. I've basically spent the last year removing powerful cards from my cube, trying to make things more "fair". However, there were a few cards with really high power ceilings that I loved the play of (Vendilion Clique, for eg) that never really made their way to the chopping block. Rather than cut the cards I love, I've decided that maybe I've been a bit overzealous in removing cards for being "too powerful".
In that light, returning are:



I didn't feel like consecrated sphinx was the card I wanted, to lets give AEtherling a try.

2) The +1/+1 counter theme has been removed. As a result, green is no longer an aggro color, all the proliferate cards are gone (As volt charge isn't really worth it if you're just ticking up a planeswalker) and a lot of the custom cards I've run have reverted to some more generic creatures at that cost.

I had a few problems with the strategy. One was that despite my best efforts, volt charge was the only proliferate spell that felt good to cast. The others felt below par even at the top end of their spectrum, and I'd never EVER been able to actually nail down a green proliferate spell that actually felt good at all. Secondly any variation of the deck involving green hinged so heavily on its creatures as to be undone by a single timely doom blade or missstep, and lastly was the problem that none of the creatures seeded in for the deck felt good at all.
There's little point in running a tribal deck if none of the creatures in that tribe feel good outside of it. You need both meat and potatoes, and the potatoes here all felt forced and off.

3) Multicolor removal has been added for increased density of planeswalker oneshot answers (Dreadbore, Vindicate, Maelstrom Pulse, Detention Sphere, etc). I'm not entirely convinced there is a problem, or even that this is one of the better answers to it, but these cards are all cool and fine cards to reward someone.

4) CNS2 has been added! (Though this is not live on cubetutor, but give it time. Ben's usually super on the ball with this sort of thing). I'm adding the following cards, assuming there's no goodies in the last 8 they're spoiling tomorrow:
borderlandexplorer.jpg
selvalaheartofthewilds.jpg
calleroftheuntamed.jpg
hymnofthewilds.jpg
grenzohavocraiser.jpg
weightadvantage.jpg
darettiingeniousiconoclast.jpg
recruiteroftheguard.jpg
hiredheist.jpg
assembletherankandvile.jpg
sovereignsrealm.jpg
naturalunity.jpg
kayaghostassassin.jpg
adrianasvalor.jpg
emissarysploy.jpg

Of these, I'm pretty sure that for assemble the rank and vile to stay, I'll need to erratta it to mention "you can't name gravecrawler. Bloodghast is fine", though I'm trying to be open minded. I'm not so hot on the red card from that cycle that gives firebreathing (which seems either super marginal until it kills your opponent), and I hope there is a white one, because I like the idea of conspiracies with an actual color identity.
 
1) I want to cut "broken" cards a bit more slack. I've basically spent the last year removing powerful cards from my cube as the ceiling got lower and lower, and contrary to popular belief it just made the few that remained.
...I'm gonna have to ask for clarification on this :p. I'm guessing there is one more clause that didn't quite find it's way into this sentence.

Very interesting choice in any case. I'd never put Grave Titan in my cube, but I hope it works for you!
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
...I'm gonna have to ask for clarification on this :p. I'm guessing there is one more clause that didn't quite find it's way into this sentence.

Very interesting choice in any case. I'd never put Grave Titan in my cube, but I hope it works for you!

Oops! :p

I've edited the post to express my thoughts a little more clearly:

1) I want to cut "broken" cards a bit more slack. I've basically spent the last year removing powerful cards from my cube, trying to make things more "fair". However, there were a few cards with really high power ceilings that I loved the play of (Vendilion Clique, for eg) that never really made their way to the chopping block. Rather than cut the cards I love, I've decided that maybe I've been a bit overzealous in removing cards for being "too powerful".
Hopefully that helps!
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
WbY1eCM.jpg
--> Court Machinations.jpg
Sometimes its the little things :) Making this cost hybrid blue/white would defeat the whole purpose of adding it as a white spell in the first place, but there's certainly something that doesn't feel quite white about it, which I think the watermark does a solid job of expressing.

Other thoughts:
1) Scavenging Ooze and Wolfir Silverheart have so much toughness it feels like they have protection from Red, Green and Blue

2) I've basically had a rough time with any conspiracy which affects the board rather than deckbuilding. Immediate Action, Muzzio's Preparations, Double Stroke, Natural Unity, and Assemble the Rank and Vile are all far too strong on certain creatures despite being perfectly solid options on basically everything else. Hired Heist and Adriana's Valor were on the other hand quite mediocre, so I think most of these will be leaving. Hymn of the Wilds wasn't used, and Weight Advantage was used really poorly, so I think they'll stay in for now. Sovereign's Realm was super well received, and everyone agreed it was a better choice than worldknit
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
One more thing:

dCUZVNU.jpg

So this is a card I've been perfectly happy with, save one thing. The art is from an existing magic card, which I'd like to avoid where I can. (Naya Battlemage)

But as you might imagine, it's kind of hard to find art on the internet of someone being held in place that's.... safe for work.
This is close: (ish)
Vines by Bangku An.jpg

Should I make the switch?
 
Oh my word.

Stop it guys. I'm trying to work. I don't want to try and theorycraft a cube without playtesters or make more custom cards >_<
 
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