The Dandy Cube (Chris Taylor's Cube)

[Chris Taylor]

Hey people! The recent planeswalker rules change has really made me consider the walkers I've got in my cube, so I'm trimming down so I can avoid the whole "Someone staring down three jaces" problem.

Sure I could just say I play by the old planeswalker rules, but my format has enough random mental burdens as it is, so I'd rather keep the explanations I have to give people to a minimum.

Anyways, more to the point, have a click on this link and rank the walkers I run, give me some data on which walkers are loved:
https://goo.gl/forms/k83fy6SOjOVPa2rm2

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Filled out the form! I liked some of the custom planeswalkers, and am partial against the flip walkers (I haven't played that much with them, so it's a lot of complexity with both a walker and a flip card in the same package). Clever of you to use a google form.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Thanks man! It's kinda weird there's no option in forms for "Rank these". Apparently there's other resources I could have used (Friend suggusted http://www.pollandmatch.com/ right as I'd got my 10th response ) but this works well enough.

Fun fact, the questions origionally had "middle" for both non-polar options, and apparently forms only differentiates by name, so my first few responses are a biiiit less useful than the rest

 

[Chris Taylor]

Chris Taylor's Planeswalker Correctional Facilities

So I've been thinking about planeswalkers, mostly white ones. In trying to cut down on most of the token production in white, I've found that a lot of the white planeswalkers I was happy with don't really have a place in my cube anymore, leading me to look towards non-elspeth fare. However, a lot of the options available have some fatal flaw (or in the case of Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, several)

But hey, that what I'm here for right? If I can do it to addle, I can do it to planeswalkers!

My first attempt at a "fix" was this:

I love gideon, I really do, but he's always suffered because the ability I'd like emphasized the most (His creature form) ends up being the least used. Gideon jura is a prime example of this, and while you can slam in for 6 post wrath, they might have a haste creature, so you might as well throw up his +2 (affectionately nicknamed moat by me) juuuuuuust in case. And while the -2 feels glorious when you pull it off, unless it's the only creature they have, it's almost always better to just +2 him anyways.

While I'm not sure Gideon, Argent Defender is where I eventually want to land, it does preserve the unwrathable wincondition I love about the man, though that first ability doesn't quite feel right. Forcing all their creatures to attack is too much, and one never really did enough (see Gideon, Battle-Forged), this still doesn't seem to have hit the mark. Letting him also act as a psudo Provoke is interesting, but tends not to work too well in the decks gideon usually finds himself in costing 5 like this one does.

However, there's another planeswalker I've long lamented the design of:


The original 1 ability planeswalker. He might as well have been an enchantment with fading. However, I do like what the minus ability does in terms of defending him, and in terms of throwing counters around. But it's far too cheap and far too repeatable and his other two abilities are just dross.

Here's my pitch:

Spoiler

Lets talk about the important ability first: Moving it to a -2 while keeping the 3 starting loyalty means you can't just back to back activations, burying your opponent's board with your suddenly giant creatures. You can do this by proliferating him (Oh hey this means you get another anthemn) but he will die if you do.

I've borrowed the plus from Ajani Steadfast, and ajani defending himself with vigilant creatures seems like a nice theme to go on, and much more interactive than bubbling a permanent or yet more bloody tokens.

The ult is admittedly a placeholder, and might stand to be more expensive (I'm notorious at underestimating the likelyhood of ultimates happening in gameplay) but I think this could be alright. Three copies of swords to plowshares is certainly intriguing, and it's a touch worse than it looks given that he relies so heavily on creatures that the life you're giving them might actually matter.

Next, a fixed Tibalt! (Oh god no why would you think I'd do that)

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Chris Taylor's Planeswalker Correctional Facilities

Next, a fixed Tibalt! (Oh god no why would you think I'd do that)

What! Why not? That card is in dire, dire need of fixing!

Make it cost or to begin with. Two mana planeswalker can't be any good by definition, because a good two mana walker would break the game.

The +1 should be the other way around to be worth anything. In addition it should be targeted, so the ability is always on and you can actually feel like you're messing someone up, like Tibalt's supposed to. So: "Target player discards a card at random, then draws a card." Now you can a) better gauge what your chances are of losing a vital card, b)use it on your opponent if you can't afford to target yourself, and c) actually gain an advantage if you manage to ditch your hand.

The -4 is horrible and should be replaced. Sudden Impact is a card that only works in very specific decks, and even in those you want to use it on your opponent's draw step to maximize damage. In line with his torturer's background, and since you'ld ideally want a self protection ability on a planeswalker, I would try: "-1: Tibalt deals 1 damage to target creature an opponent controls. During that player's next turn, that creature must attack you if able."

The ultimate should be something truly torturous, and what is more torturous than Insurrection, right? Oh wait... "-6: You get an emblem with "If a source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals double that damage to that permanent or player instead."

No idea if that fits (on a card) but it fits (with the character)!

 

[NimbusToad]

I just really want to play this cube... It's super high power, but somehow quite different than powered cubes. It might actually be higher powered than most powered cubes?

Are the winning decks usually super aggressive? It seems like recursive agro is just super powerful. Lots of wraths though, I suppose.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I just really want to play this cube... It's super high power, but somehow quite different than powered cubes. It might actually be higher powered than most powered cubes?

Are the winning decks usually super aggressive? It seems like recursive agro is just super powerful. Lots of wraths though, I suppose.

Glad to hear it!

The format certainly leans aggressive. I started this cube at a time when drafting aggro was kind of a bad idea no matter who's cube you were drafting, and it really has shaped my thinking ever since.

I guess that kind of depends on how you define power? Clocks are certainly fast, but there's next to no unfair stuff going on. There's no reanimator, no combo combo decks (Like kill you instantly, obviously gravecrawler + goblin bombardment is a lotta damage), just synergy decks with a relatively high baseline power.

Control certainly still works though, if that's what you're worried about.

What! Why not? That card is in dire, dire need of fixing!

Some battles aren't worth fighting mate

 

[Chris Taylor]

Alright, new patch is up. I've moved +1/+1 counters from black to white (Now it's in ) and moved the aristocrats deck from white to green (Now it's in ). I'm pretty confidant the +1/+1 counters change will go over fine, but I've never really had a successful green aristocrats deck, so it might take more nudging on my part for it to really cement itself.

The reason I did this is because now the shards are a touch more aligned in what they want to do. Prowess ( ) and counters ( ) both want to keep creatures in play, while threshold ( ) and aristocrats ( ) both want to dump things into their graveyard, either from play or from their library.
This expands the space I can have overlap cards in, with being fully in both prowess and counters, which leaves plenty of room (and keywords) for me to add in lords with the "If this has been pumped" technology.
Compare:

Spoiler

As well, both have the threshold and gravecrawler overlap, ripe for things like bloodghast, vengevine, and Corpse Churn, though I haven't really added in any convincing overlap cards in the multicolor sections yet.

I've (at least for now) swapped all 4 gravecrawlers for bloodsoaked champions due to complaints from my control players. To compensate, I've added several more sac outlets and a few more blood artist style payoffs throughout the colors.

Lastly, I've also added in Rivals cards! Specifically, thus:




Addmittedly the double deredevil was a mistake, but I ended up in a blue red prowess deck with both copies, and was suitably impressed. Not impressed enough that I'd likely add a second copy, but that's mostly because I'm a touch scared of this effect. A ton of the noncreature spells in my cube (across basically every color) are just cheap removal and brainstorm style effects, so this ends up being a Nekrataal/Wistful Selkie split card, which while cool is probably not something worth doubling up on.

Part of this might come from snapcaster being such a powerful card in my enviornment, but I think I'm better off diversifying the effects in my cube and then adding in the second. Maybe one day.

Warkite marauder was absolutly wonderful and I fully indended to add the second copy of that. While it shuts down a blocker, they do still (usually) get to block against the more groundpoundy prowess decks my cube tends to create, and it lets UR have an answer to large creatures that feels interesting and cool, rather than Turn // Burn just sitting there in a pack next to Dreadbore.

Tendershoot Dryad was interesting. The player hit 10 pretty consistently, which probably means that basically every other Ascend card probably translates better in my environment to "Threshold: 20" than something a touch more reachable.

I continue to feel off about Explore, but Jadelight Ranger proved...alright. I myself have a huge aggro bias, and while I acknowledge that this mechanic combines graveyard, +1/+1 counters and draw smoothing (all things I love and try to encourage in green!), I find that all the explore cards play much worse than I'd expect them to, as you often find yourself with a large creature when you'd be wanting to draw cards, and drawing cards when you'd want a large creature. As someone who doesn't run Sylvan Ranger or anything like it, Merfolk Branchwalker to me feels like it should have entwine, but instead Explore feels like (even though I know it isn't!) a punisher mechanic, where while both options are good in the abstract, I'm always getting whichever one matters less.

Maybe I just need to suck it up, or maybe I should make my own explore cards, with blackjack! and hookers!

Or maybe a blackjack // hookers split card, I dunno.

(A full list of newly added customs and an updated list of custom cards will be available when I get home, but cubetutor has everything it needs to run, so if you're curious just peruse the visual spoiler)

 

[Chris Taylor]

Delve in a graveyard set doesn't really work, but it's looking like switching to cards with affinity for graveyard just makes them broke n. I was worried about it being cheaper the turn you snapcaster'd one or used eternal witness, but that seems to be happening more and more.

 

[Chris Taylor]

You know, sometimes I don't get to take the time I want making cards. Sometimes I've gotta rush things because I've got a draft later that week, or sometimes I just burn out and can't spend any more time on things until I take a break. This leaves a lot of cards without the level of polish I like to pride myself on, so I've been taking some time lately and making sure everything not currently flagged "PLAYTEST" is up to standard.
Here's a few recent changes:

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I was always so frustrated the old artwork depicted three figures for a card so clearly about two people
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While striking in full, the old artwork doesn't really translate to magic artwork's dimensions well, as the full image is very vertical. I also like that the new artwork actually shows the creature flying
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I've been wanting to use the Lee Sin artwork forever now, and the old artwork was a touch too mechanical for the jeskai for my taste.

 

[Chris Taylor]

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Tomb Pillage is a great name, but the old art is just some necromancer It's a nice looking necromancer, but he's more just standing there looking cool rather than pillaging tombs. Plus something about "Profane Rite" sounds more like a draw fixing spell to me. I can't quite put my finger on it but this just feels better.
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Delightful magic throwback Mark Zug using some Dune artwork of all things might have been a stretch for me This is one of those magic card names that feels like a creature rather than a spell, and perhaps I should correct that later, but at least for now the art fits the card a touch better.
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The original art looked like a trader to me, but wasn't really giving me that "Savvy" vibe. I figured I could either go for someone looking smug or someone deep in an argument with a merchant, and I'll go for smug if I can every time.
I'v also swapped around the wording a bit, as on first read a few of my players were missing that you had to reveal a card from your hand, essentially making this a 1 mana 2/1 ponder. I can certainly understand that, as the old wording buried the lead somewhat. Hopefully this helps.

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The old art is alright, but it has this painterly style that's not quite whimsical enough to be old magic, and not quite realistic enough to be new magic. Shockingly the new art I've found isn't actually from Ixlan block, as much as it seems to look like so
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As above, the old art was in this weird spot between realistic and cartoony, which just didn't fit. I do wish I could cite the real name of the artist for the new art, but they've chosen not to put it in their profile so "Creepy9" it shall remain
Also yes, blue elves. I imagine it's a DND thing, where any race can basically be any alignment, (predilections aside), but all elf means in my cube format is "Can block stromkirk noble"

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Savvy Trader with the old wording tripped up a judge who drafted my cube yesterday (more on that draft later in another thread), so I'm looking for a rewording as well. Shifting revealing the card from your hand to the front certainly helps. His question was: do I reveal the cards from my library before I have to choose a card from my hand to reveal? The idea is "no, you don't", but that wasn't entirely clear from the original text. The "if you do" also trips up people though, so I'm now contemplating:



For the record, the judge absolutely loved the card

Also, your new Sandscout has double the reminder text for Plainscycling. Might want to fix that before you print it

 

[Chris Taylor]

Savvy Trader with the old wording tripped up a judge who drafted my cube yesterday (more on that draft later in another thread), so I'm looking for a rewording as well. Shifting revealing the card from your hand to the front certainly helps. His question was: do I reveal the cards from my library before I have to choose a card from my hand to reveal? The idea is "no, you don't", but that isn't entirely clear from the text. The "if you do" also trips up people though, so I'm now contemplating:

View attachment 1993

For the record, the judge absolutely loved the card

Also, your new Sandscout has double the reminder text for Plainscycling. Might want to fix that before you print it

Good call!

 

[Chris Taylor]

Alright, a few new things:

First off: More new art!
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I like the old art more as art, but I feel it fits the card a lot less.


Some changes to existing cards:
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A lot of people were basing the worth of this land based on how many nonbasics they'd drafted, which wasn't really my intention. The downside was mostly meant as a way for these to enter untapped early game, and while it's a bit more fun to sequence when to play which lands so you can curve out properly, I'll take a more straightforward land my drafters understand more often than not.

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As much as I want my cheap smoothing to be powerful, this was one hell of a card. Originally it required a creature to sacrifice, (Mostly as a nod to aristocrats decks), but that proved very restrictive. While throwing clues away is fine, throwing away excess lands strikes me as being too easy.

And some notes
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Loving my new white smoothing card. Court machinations never really felt white, (You can see me adding the Azorious watermark, trying desperately to pretend), and basically everything I'd thought up didn't feel white. Even this is a bit of a stretch, as it's defeating the whole point of the initial clue, but I feel the card is a lot nicer with the "Crack 2 clues" line rather than just being worded like opt with a rider.

Oddly I might have to add in a few more investigate cards. It's a mechanic I've loved (especially in white, no less) and crack the case is happening less often than I'd like.


bigger picture stuff, I think I'm going to need to shuffle which colors have which archetypes again. A few posts back I talked about how white-red was part of the natural place for Prowess, Aristocrats, and +1/+1 counters, leading me to try a Jund +1/+1 counters deck.
That didn't pan out, so I tried a Jund Aristocrats deck (It's always been BRx, why not green?) alongside the more natural Naya +1/+1 counters. However, adding green aristocrats cards proved...difficult. It's really hard fighting against white's natural tendency to be the go wide color, and trying to keep tokens as green's thing was frustrating at the best of times. There's a few multicolor payoff cards (Poison-Tip Archer just got printed after all) but it looks like the critical mass of green cards either isn't there or relies on some format warping things being in place.

 

[Chris Taylor]

My next idea is to opt for the following:


(Jesus pentagons man. I am no artist!)

The shards in question are:

• Jeskai Prowess
• Temur +1/+1 counters
• Sultai Graveyard
• Abzan ???
• Mardu Aristocrats

I figure I've never really had a plan for the 5th shard, so no big loss there, and my blue section has tons of room for me to throw ideas at it, whereas green was always trying to balance +1/+1 counters, graveyard, aristocrats and some ramp cards as well.

I do lose the nice overlap I had with the previous configuration, as before the "Keep creatures in play" colors (UWR and GWR) had WR in common, and the "Dump things in graveyard" colors (RBG and UBG) had BG in common, which lead to some nice room for overlap cards in the mono and multicolor sections.

I'm going to try and keep wary of the role of mass pump. While both (for example) Dictate of Heliod and Ajani Goldmane would have a place in this list as a way to pump aristocrats cards like Lingering Souls or Hanweir Garrison, Ajani is kinda sending the wrong signals about which colors you should be looking to for +1/+1 counters.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Hey, I didn't know you were using an alternate color wheel as well, or is that new?

 

[Chris Taylor]

Nah I've been shuffling that bastard for a while now. Hilarious thing is now its just shards, and I didn't even notice

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Assuming you aren't beholden to Temur (since +1/+1 counters is a generic theme that can be done in completely different colors) and Abzan (since you haven't figured out what to do with it yet), you could switch to...

WRBGU (Mardu, Jund, Sultai, Bant, Jeskai)

And... that's your only other option if you definitely want to keep the other three. You lose and , and you gain and . You can do a nice enchantress theme in Bant nowadays, with the new commander deck that came out this month, and Jund is a good place for the +1/+1 counter theme as well (a better place than Temur probably, with cards like Winding Constrictor and Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch).

Fun fact, this color wheel configuration would make your cube have exactly 0% overlap in guilds (and by extension shards/wedges) with mine.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I tried that back a bit actually, and Jund Counters just never stuck. Winding Constricter and Exava are solid multicolor payoffs, but there's very little meat in the actual black section, even the ones I ended up making. The one exception being this, which works in either blue or black:

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Fresh blood?



It should be fairly easy to fill that void with some customs as well, Black doesn't need to be pulling the weight of that theme after all.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Yeah but I want all three 2 color combos in the shard to be equally appealing.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Ah, so you do support all ten guilds still? If so, in equal measure, or do those that are in two guilds get more cards? I mean, I can look up the dry answer to that question on your CT page, but I'm curious in your thought process.

 

[Chris Taylor]

So the idea is that there's the wedges, and you can play either a 3 color or any of the 2 color combos within that shard with the same overriding strategy, seen VIA different angles. Like for eg:

is aristocrats, so you could run all 3 colors, or:
tokens + blood artist
tokens + goblin bombardment, or heroic reinforcements, something like that
Bloodsoaked Champion + Goblin Bombardment

I've had mixed success actually making the two color decks feel different, but I think it could work with light differences anyways. So while all 10 guilds are supported, the allied ones are only in one shard, so there's a RW Prowess deck and a RW tokens deck, but theres kinda only a UW prowess deck.

(Other than less suggested archetypes like control, themeless aggro, Midrange, ramp etc)

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Check, that makes it a good deal different from what I'm doing, and now I understand your problem better Not that I can really help you with your conundrum... Though, if you keep the current wheel, maybe you could try the +1/+1 counter theme in Abzan (which was heavily pushed in Khans of Tarkir) and switch to energy for Temur? I find energy a pretty sweet mechanic in limited once you cut out the overpowered lines that dominated Standard (i.e. don't run Attune with Aether and Aetherworks Marvel).

You could also try enchantress in Abzan! There's been just enough support in black over the years, more support than +1/+1 counters matters probably. Black can play the theme from a pretty unique (for black) defensive angle even, if you want it to. Plus, that token from Pseudamma is super creepy.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I do love me some enchantress, and that does line up well with white being the least instant/sorcery focused pair of the prowess colors.

I'm in no hurry to complete the wheel though, I've still got a lot of work to do within the existing shards before I find a 5th one to add