The Dandy Cube (Chris Taylor's Cube)

Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
'Nother Sample draft: http://cubetutor.com/draftdeck/2817
BlueAggro.jpg

Seems like an interesting deck: the synergy between looters and Runechanter's Pike isn't something to be ignored. I'da like more burn, but this was all I saw.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
So I was thinking: with modern masters bringing rebels back to my mind, I'd always wondered why they were in black/white
The competitive rebel deck from back in the day was blue/white, right, and played draw-go with them?
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
So draft report time!

It was only a 4 person draft, but sometimes that's all you have time for :p

I drafted what is quite possibly the worst blue/white tempo deck I'd ever seen, containing every low impact small creature you add because "they're solid role players in weenie decks"
Let me tell you, your deck does not have much stopping power when that's all it's got in it :p


Creatures (15)
1 mistral charger
1 stormfront pegasus
1 snapcaster mage
1 Restoration Angel
1 serendib efreet
1 Silvergill Adept
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Goldmeadow Stalwart
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Pestermite
1 Lingering Souls
1 Daring Skyjek
1 Flickerwisp
1 Vendilion Clique

Spells (7)
1 Path to exile
1 Into the roil
1 repulse
1 forbid
1 sword of light and shadow
1 Spell pierce
1 Blind Obedience

Lands (6)
1 Mutavault
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Strand
1 Mystic Gate


As well as Venser's signature (U1 bounce a nonland permanent or spell) and the U/B Horizon Canopy

Highlights:
-The player to my left drafted blue/green tempo, and I played a full 3 games against him where I took a total of 5 turns between plow under, memory lapse, and sower of temptation. I lost that match
-Out Green/White tokens player drafted both custom anthemns, Ajani Goldmane, and hero of bladehold. He killed me one turn before I killed him by using blasting station to machine-gun deranged hermit squirrels at my head for lethal.
-In the same match, My opponent died on his upkeep to exactsies from his black Serendib Efreet, then repaid me the favor by having the exact same thing happen to me on my upkeep later in game 2!

Seriously though, I think that's the highest concentration of 1 toughness creatures I've ever seen in a draft deck
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
New Patch Notes!
In > Out

Cloistered Youth > Daring Skyjek
Silverblade Paladin > Mirran Crusader
Imposing Sovereign > Midnight Haunting

Wake Thrasher > Tideshaper Adept

Chandra, Pyromaster > Wheel of Fortune
Young Pyromancer > Wrecking Ogre

Elvish Mystic > Ohran Viper

All Is Dust > Oblivion Stone
Aether Vial > Precursor Golem
Juggernaut > Driftkite
Perilous Myr > Ravenous Shell
Shadowmage Infiltrator > Far // Away
Nucklavee > Nivix Cyclops
Spellbound Dragon > Fire // Ice

Custom cards are in italics.
Tideshaper Adept is the 2/1 Sea's Claim, who it turns out was rather narrow, essentially just manlands. Would likely be better in constructed.
Driftkite is shamelessly stolen from Mismir's Cube, it's the {3} 3/1 flying living weapon, equip 6 (image forthcoming)
Ravenous Shell is also shamelessly stolen from Mismir's Cube, it's the {2} 2/1 haste living weapon, equip 4 (image forthcoming)

I'll be the first to admit both living weapons are not printable. No color seems to be able to get a C1 2/1 haste, so giving it to everyone seems largely unlikely.
Similarly, a 3 mana 3/1 flying is above the curve (but not unheard of).

I'm okay with them because while they are color and power bleeds, they're impacting my draft experience in a positive way.
The difference between giving blue Rakdos Shred-Freak and giving green vendetta is that green getting dismember is a key point of green's weekness as a color, the same reason there wasn't a Phyrexian Mana Disenchant for black mages to abuse. (Disclaimer: Dismember is still in my cube, since it doesn't go into every deck since it is that painful, and not everyone has access to 4 of them)

Blue's creatures being terrible is a weakness fading with the times due to the power level of all creatures,and even groundpounder green is getting some evasion due to somewhat new changes to intimidate and the "flying when attacking" ability.

You can build mono-green skies right now, just the creatures won't have flying, they'll have a slightly different evasion, be it the flying when attacking from above, or wandering wolf's ability (one I think needs more cards, thing is sweet).

Point is, I'm okay with these cards technically being "overpowered" because they're overpowered in their flexibility rather than their effect. When pitching vindicate I'm sure someone said "Well Disenchant is 2, Stone Rain is 3, Terminate is 2 and really strong, and given the flexibility of this card it should probably cost more. Maybe {3}{W}{B}?"

Vindicate is strong, not overpowered, and I'm hoping these follow suit.
 
Miasmir

Miasmir

Are some of those... backwards? After the whole song about living weapons it seems odd that you mention that as you cut them.

Regardless, I'm interested in hearing what these crazy beasties amount to. I STILL haven't been able to test out EITHER of them in an actual draft due to scheduling and the testing constraints imposed by my massive cube.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
I'll tell you what I hear :p
At the top it says In > Out, which was just easier to keep because that's what cube tutor displays their patch notes as. I haven't gotten a chance to cube in a while either, but perhaps this Friday me and my buddies can get a draft going
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Theros Patch Notes Time! (Now with Arrows! :D)
Soldier of the Pantheon<-- Balance
Collective Effort <-- Parallax Wave
Fabled Hero <-- Silverblade Paladin
Evidence Locker <-- Faith's Fetters

Avian Muse <-- Deep Analysis
Icy Spirit <-- Jace, Architect of Thought
Omenspeaker<-- Dungeon Geists
Thassa, God of the Sea <-- Mist Raven

Nighthowler <-- Wakedancer
Hero's Downfall <-- Terror
Rescue from the Underworld <-- Skeletal Scrying

Young Pyromancer <-- Mizzium Mortars
Young Pyromancer <-- Goblin Ruinblaster
Chandra's Phoenix <-- Zo-zu the Punisher
Ember Swallower <-- Wrecking Ogre
Purphoros, God of the Forge <-- Chandra, Pyromaster
Lightning Strike <-- Searing Spear

Boon Satyr <-- Wickerbough Elder
Elvish Mystic <-- Ohran Viper
Warriors' Lesson <-- Moment's Peace
Commune with the Gods <-- Regrowth
Sylvan Library <-- Mwonvuli Acid-Moss

Medomai the Ageless <-- Venser, the Sojourner
Steam Augury <-- Prophetic Bolt
Spellheart Chimera <-- Spellbound Dragon

New Custom Cards (Images Forthcoming)
Collective Effort {2}{W}
Enchantment
Creatures you control get +1/+1
When you attack with 3 or more creatures, you may populate

Evidence Locker {2}{W}
Artifact
When ~ enters the battlefield, detain target permanent
Sacrifice ~: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

Icy Spirit {1}{U}
Creature - Elemental
Flash, Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, tap target land
1/1

Avian Muse {U}
Creature - Bird Spirit
Flying
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, you may scry 1
1/1

It was my main effort with this patch to trim a lot of the 4 drops my cube had been glutted with, cutting many from white, green and blue (the worst offenders).
Evidence locker and Collective Effort are the results of my concerted effort to balance out white's curve, as prior to this I had only 2 white 3 drop noncreatures (Oblivion Ring and Ajani, Caller of the Pride). It's proven hard to find things for white to do that aren't dudes and removal.
Fabled Hero is the Mirran Crusader I've been looking for, and while double silverblade paladin was cool, I don't have a good reason not to go back to the origional slightly more varied configuration.

Wakedancer had been horrible for quite some time, so I was happy to see another black 3 drop come along, but after some math Agent of Fates proved to just be vanilla 99% of the time. Hopefully that will change as development goes on, but for now he's on the bench.

The double young pryromancer is an experiment, and I wanted more cheap creatures in red anyways, so that was a win win. I've also swapped out Zo-zu for another chandra's phoenix as he has lost a lot of luster over the years.

Porphy is being added because regardless of power, he seems cooler than chandra, pyromaster. There's an outside chance he might come out for being too good, as I'm always wary of anything indestructible.

Double Sylvan Library is to give green more depth, since there really is nothing like it (It being essentially a blue black card after all)

Lastly, in terms of multicolor, Venser hasn't been working lately, so he came out for a nice control card.
Steam Augury is awesome and I don't care what you say. Fact or Fiction is designed entirely to let your opponent make horrible decisions, and this small change makes it about making interesting ones. The fact that it's random rather than selected like gifts makes it a million times better, since when's the last time gifts got 4 cards at all, let alone actually giving you a choice in the matter.

I hope Spellheart Chimera works out. If he's a 3/3 on average, I'll be happy, and runechanter's pike has been a hit so far, so I'm optimistic. Trample is key here.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
If every color is an aggro color, nobody is


I've kinda noticed a trend of green/x decks winning my drafts for a while, and I think I've noticed the problem: in the land of grizzly bears, the watchwolf is king.

Currently blue is 50% creatures, and every other color hovers around 65%. Every color's curve is designed so that there's a bunch of 1 and 2 drops, low amounts of removal, and little to no walls. Like an aggro color.

The problem is that when every color has dudes to play early on in the game, it's hard for aggro to get a foothold on the game because they need to spend time removing blockers rather than adding to their clock.
This, combined with the fact that I encouraged every creature to be able to block (as part of black's identity sucking for this very reason, see mistral charger vs vampire interloper) essentially created "ground stalls" just like regular poor WotC limited formats... it just made them 2-3 turns earlier than they cropped up in regular limited.

So, I need your help. I need to make my cube more midrangey :p
Got a sweet ETB card? Toss it my way!
Awesome noncreature cards? Lemmie hear it!
Sweet niche archetype? I want to try it! (Still not doing storm. You can't convince me that'll lead to nice interactive games)

I'm removing a large amount of creatures from every color, and I need sweet things to replace them. But I've been doing the "push aggro" game for so long, I've forgotten what a good midrange deck looks like, or even a control deck.

I've currently got a few ideas:
  • Another Runechanter's Pike: People loved the first one, and it's both a balanced equipment and a nice build around me card
  • Strip Mine, Tectonic Edge and Adventuring Gear --> Wasteland x3: I'm taking the plunge. I don't run crucible or loam, so this should be fine.
  • Cheap White Combat Tricks: White's noncreature cards have long been Wrath/Removal/Walker, and I want to change that.
  • Blue Cantrips: CML has convinced me, and I think it'll be sweet with Double Young Pyromancer/Double Runechanter's Pike. I'm curious if more brainstorm/ponder/preordain is better than adding double thought scour on top of the existing ones. Thoughts?
  • Black Card Draw: Read the bones intrigues me, and I think black control needs some help. Typically most black card draw hurts immensely, and this may end up being a bunch of my own designs.
  • More Artifacts: I want disenchant to be better. How is disenchant in your cubes? Is it something people are happy to play, or that people begrudgingly play so they don't lose to a sword?
 
Lucre

Lucre

If every colour is an aggro colour through hybrids it still creates a situation where monopolies can happen without relegating a colour to bear that weight of containing a monopoly.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
My problem isn't so much that there's a lack of cards available, or that they're all in one place, it's that aggro is about interacting when your opponent can't. Savannah Lions isn't so great when everyone has a card that can block him immediatly.

Some slight evidence to the contrary in Thursday's Draft, where we played single-elim due to time constraints. The winning deck was a URW control deck with a full 10 nonbasics. I was next to him drafting GW tokens, and was sad to find out that we had simply picked a section of the cube which contained literal 0 fixing for my colors.
Ah well, 15 basics, Windbrisk Heights and Mutavault it was.

Here's the winning deck:
IMAG0255.jpg

and here is the most impressive deck summary I've possibly ever seen:

IMAG0254.jpg

All this with 3 nonbasics. I didn't get the exact list, but it was something like 3 birthing pods, a bunch of double white 4 drops, and 1 2 drop.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
http://cubetutor.com/cubeblog/88
Giant patch notes! It's easily 80 cards, since two patches got combined into one on cubetutor (what with theros taking so long to be available), so I wont go over it in full, but here's the overall aims:
-Trim Down on some of the 4 drops. My curve was a little bloated around there, I just hadn't noticed because they were all noncreature cards
-More combat tricks. I wanted to add something that wasn't just more creatures or more removal, so in these come. Hopefully this will have people thinking twice
:D
-Streamline the colorless disruption: All my disrupting lands (strip mine, tectonic edge, etc) became wasteland. I think in my cube, it's the most fair disruption land that is still good. Strip Mine is too good, tectonic edge/ghost quarter/rishadan port aren't really good enough.
-Lower the number of creatures. I had a lot of ground stalls happening because every color had access to cheap creatures, so I wanted to cut down on those numbers overall. This let me double up on some of the more awesome noncreature cards, like sylvan library, or phyrexian arena, and cut blue aggro, since nobody seemed to be biting.

Any cards just being removed on the patch notes came out for custom cards, and any cards just coming in had custom cards removed for them. I'll update the OP with which new cards were added shortly

Edit : OP has been updated. Keeping all the image links straight was a pain, so now they're being kept on photobucket, and I'm maintaining a text spoiler here.
CUSTOM CARDS ARE HARD ><
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Alright, all request live time: I'm having trouble with Birthing Pod

I'm running 4, but since I've never played the deck in constructed (mostly due to a lack of playing constructed) I find it really hard to jam an actual pod deck together, and part of me wonders weather that's my fault as a drafter (I'm paying loads of attention to my curve and colors, but it never seems to come together) or a bigger flaw with the design of the cube.

Zombie pod always seems to work well for me. Upgrading gravecrawlers into bloodghasts and bloodghasts into messengers (then into vengevines) is easy, but I'm having trouble with the more traditional value pod deck.

I've identified some possible problems:
-Kiki-Jiki, Pestermite and Restoration Angel all being singletons. The easiest pod deck to build is the combo pod, but since I don't like combo in my cube I've avoided pushing this specific type. Should I bite the bullet, maybe add some more enablers? (Deciever Exarch, Splinter Twin, Village Bell Ringer? o_O)
-Not enough value guys. Usually while I'm drafting a pod deck I'll try my best to stick to 3 colors, pick up an appropriate number of nonbasic lands, and take everything with an enters/leaves the battlefield trigger that I can find. This usually ends me in 4-5 colors, and with a seriously low creature count in my deck. Maybe it's the people I'm drafting with?
-Not enough high on the curve: Usually my pod chain breaks down around the 4-6 drop area, but usually has 2-3 different 7's I can pod to, assuming I hit the ONE creature I have at 4-5-6. I've always kept a tight leash on the ammount of creatures/spells available higher up on the curve, perhaps that's inhibiting these things?

Take a look at my list (Cubetutor or Excell, whichever works) and make some suggestions.

Links:
Download Link (Excel 2010 or later required)
CubeTutor Link
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
For Pod I would focus on more ETB value guys. Things like Huntmaster are great too. Have you taken a look at my Pod article recently?

My pod decks also never really go to 7, FWIW.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
took a look at the articles jason, and I have a few ideas.

I'm pretty clear about what the general game plan is for the pod deck and how to layer those with the existing archetypes.
I'm a little more confused when it comes to what a good pod deck looks like.
Tried a few more drafts today, got this:

Pod??? from CubeTutor.com










I think I would have liked a bit more manafixing, but I didn't see much else. That either means I've trained the bots well, or I'm a little bad at drafting :p
One of the Pods could easily become the 17th land, but I decided to err to the side of including more pods. I hear it's the best card in the deck after all :p
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I'm generally looking for pod decks to have more ETB effects (particularly 187s) and ridiculous value chains like Kitchen Finks -> Resto -> Reveillark -> Titan. Varolz and Zealous Conscripts are also great in pod, Huntmaster is insane, and blue cards like Brainstorm and Jace II end up being nuts.

I am not wild about Fauna Shaman in decks like this. I would also want more mana dorks for T2 pod plays.
3 pods is almost always correct.

Playing pod is a tempo loss, and it's a grindy deck. Something like this could also very well be adapted into a pod deck: http://riptidelab.com/primeval-stronghold-playsession-report/
One thing I found really helpful when designing the Pod archetypes was just to build decks and jam them against each other. Some of the best decks didn't have a lot of depth at each CMC, but had a great progression they could hit fairly reliably.

Finks is a house, especially if you can pod him into 2 ETB guys like Skinrender and Flametongue.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
New patch notes! :D
Should be live on cubetutor, save for the commander cards.
If you decide to draft, the Temples and Guildgates (Since we don't have all 10 temples yet) are standing in for my new manafixing cycle: The Shrouded Lands

Shrouded Abattoir
Land
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may reveal your hand. If you do not, ~ enters the battlefield tapped.
When ~ enters the battlefield, scry 1.
{T}: add {B} or {R} to your mana pool


Full Patch notes:

==Tokens Out
Accorder Paladin --> Niblis of the Urn
Hero of Bladehold --> Sublime Archangel
Emeria Angel --> Ranger of Eos
Geist-Honored Monk --> Karmic Guide
Mayor of Avabruk --> Elvish Visionary
Master of the Wild Hunt --> Vengevine
Overwhelming Stampede --> Commune with the Gods
Hornet Queen --> Primeval Titan
Trostani's Summoner --> Mirari's Wake

==Sorcery Removal
Withdraw-->Undo
Phyrexian Arena-->Skinrender
Stupor-->Vengeful Pharaoh
Go for the Throat-->Soul Reap
Dismember-->Soul Reap
Lightning Strike-->Volcanic Hammer
Brimstone Volley-->Volcanic Hammer
Obzedat, Ghost Council-->Orzhov Pontiff

==Birthing Pod
Nearheath Pilgrim-->War Priest of Thune
Lu Xun, Scholar General-->Fatesticher
Vinelasher Kudzu-->Viridan Emissary

==Double Strike
Fabled Hero-->Silverblade Paladin
Gather the Townsfolk-->Fencing Ace
Hero of Bladehold-->Sublime Archangel
Legion Loyalist-->Spikeshot Elder
Kruin Striker-->Viashino Slaughtermaster
Burning Tree Emissary-->Spikeshot Goblin
Krenko, Mob Boss-->Hound of Gristlebrand
Wolfir Avenger-->Slaughterhorn
Kozilek's Predator-->Briarhorn
Gaea's Cradle-->Rancor
Wayfarer's Bauble-->Bonesplitter

==Commander 2013
Something-->Unexpectedly Absent
Corpse Dance-->Toxic Deluge
Rescue from the Underworld-->Curse of Shallow Graves
Hammer of Purphoros-->Sudden Demise
Wall of Roots-->Curse of Predation

==Misc
Cloudshift-->Oust
Thought Scour-->Strategic Planning
Delay-->Thassa, God of the Sea
Fireblast-->Greater Gargadon
Plow Under-->Primal Command
Strangleroot Geist-->Brindle Shoat

==Custom Cards
Light of the Soul-->Spear of Heliod
Martial Superority-->Cataclysm
Collective Effort-->Griffin Guide
Undead Taxman-->Carrion Feeder
Seismic Brawler-->Fire Imp
Wild Brawl-->Display of Dominance
Cycle of Horizon Canopies-->Cycle of Probe Lands

Light of the Soul, Martial Superiority and Collective Effort were all custom anthems which while fine, felt unnecessary without a dedicated token deck.
Undead Taxman was a 1 drop zombie who could sac a creature to drain the opponent for one. 99% of the time he preformed exactly like carrion feeder, so I made the swap to make the burden of knowledge a little lighter.
Seismic Brawler (A 3/2 Seismic assault with a {R} activation instead of just discarding) had been underpreforming for a while now. Removing the activation cost might have pushed it back into worthwhile, but I decided to make the swap for now. He may come back.
Wild Brawl simply underwent a name/flavortext change:

Display of Dominance {1}{G}
Instant
Choose 1: Prey upon or Verdigris
Victory comes when your opponent can’t fight anymore. Leadership comes when your opponent wont fight anymore.

I'm a little disappointed with the word "leadership" in that sentence. I want to use "dominance" instead, but parroting the card name like that just seems off.


Thoughts? Did it help that I tried to organize the patch notes by goals rather than color?
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
As maybe the biggest fan of Volcanic Hammer in these here parts, I heartily endorse these changes.

And ayup - organizing by goals than by cost or colour makes a lot of sense.

Really like that custom land design!
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Jason Waddell said:
P.S. no room for Silverblade and Fabled Hero?
Click to expand...

I Think two 3CC double strike guys is the correct number for this strategy. I decided to double up on silverblade paladin instead of keeping fabled hero because I want people to have the option to start voltroning early, and add double strike later, rather than be forced to voltron up starting on turn 4, but being insanely rewarded for it. A little less win-more, a little more flexibility.

We'll see how my drafters like the double strike thing, and if they do I might add in the 3rd. I think a few more 1-2 CC support guys might come first though, like...i dunnno
Blademaster {R}/{W}
Creature - Human Soldier
Double Strike when attacking
1/1

or something
 
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