I honestly don't know why I decided not to include Shaman. Probably deckbuilding too fast, like usual. The Shaman alone could easily help setup the 4 card combo that I didn't realize I had.
General The Draft Exchange
- Thread starter Kirblinx
- Start date
So I drafted Sigh's Cube and got to build Bant Company (somewhat). I firstpicked Company because it just looks like a juicy build around and I got rewarded by a pick 2 Tireless Tracker. From there on I was looking for a second or third color to pair with to maximize the amount of awesome 3-drops I could pick up. White was soon the choice as Silverblade Paladin is pretty nice if you dont have to pay the WW. Finally Brainstorm and Reflectormage made me consider a blue splash... voila! One thing that I noticed during the draft, was that the fixing wasn't as good as I might have expected, so I ended up lacking the crucial Shocklands or other fetchable duals, though I can't remember passing any of them(in my colors). I did very much like the slow fetches though and it was nice to see the alternative kinds of fixing lands
Thanks for the draft!
So I drafted Sigh's Cube and got to build Bant Company (somewhat). I firstpicked Company because it just looks like a juicy build around and I got rewarded by a pick 2 Tireless Tracker. From there on I was looking for a second or third color to pair with to maximize the amount of awesome 3-drops I could pick up. White was soon the choice as Silverblade Paladin is pretty nice if you dont have to pay the WW. Finally Brainstorm and Reflectormage made me consider a blue splash... voila! One thing that I noticed during the draft, was that the fixing wasn't as good as I might have expected, so I ended up lacking the crucial Shocklands or other fetchable duals, though I can't remember passing any of them(in my colors). I did very much like the slow fetches though and it was nice to see the alternative kinds of fixing lands
. Always love seeing Bant coming in strong, very happy overall with the state of that side of the color pie . I like the sorta "mini-packages" incorporated into the deck, the few auras and buffs that can crank up the pressure, the small lands-matter pacage (Knight + Titania = Nice), and so on. I think the fixing is partially attributed to how greedy Cubetutor is, but it is of course something I coninue to keep an eye on. I do only have one cycle of shocks, so that can lead to getting cut out more easily. Can't wait for them to print the enemy Battle lands . One of the downsides of sticking to singleton, for sure.... I am also continuing my efforts to include more incidental and utility fixing, the newest recruit being renegade map.Recruiter of the Guard would have been so, so good in this deck!
Hopefully later this evening I'll be able to hop on my computer to do some drafting
I decided to draft Grillo's new Penny Pincher 2.0 cube, since I've enjoyed the first one and his recent posts on a theory of cube that, it turns out, underlies this cube. Upon arriving at the Inventor's Fair, I'm met with:
I take Detritivore, eager to try and get some sort of land destruction plan. Annex is a great followup and seems to confirm my suspicions that land destruction is something of an archetype. Then I take Think Twice over Cathartic Reunion, reasoning that the Annex deck must/should be very mana-hungry to make use of both halves of the card. Following the same logic, I take Azorius Cluestone and Saltblast. I'm pretty deep into The Spiral at this point. Temple of Epiphany fixes, Sulfurous Blast feels on-plan for the red control deck.
Pack 2 I continue on the spiral, as a last-pick Trinket Mage from pack 1 spirals directly into Walking Ballista, which is great as a tutorable big mana payoff. I take Harnessed Lightning over Mnemonic Wall and Opportunity, it seems like cheap interaction is really at a premium in this cube. Arcanis the Omnipotent joins the pile, so hopefully I table that Aeon Chronicler. It does not, but I pick up a Deep Analysis from the pack.
Pack 3 I first pick Rise from the Tides, which I've had a soft spot for ever since winning some old cube a long time ago with the all counterspells + Rise From the Tides deck. Firemane Angel pairs with an earlier Searing Meditation. Flame Slash is another great card with Rise from the Tides and another piece of cheap interaction.
After emerging from the Inventors' Fair I find myself in possession of this masterpiece:
I take Detritivore, eager to try and get some sort of land destruction plan. Annex is a great followup and seems to confirm my suspicions that land destruction is something of an archetype. Then I take Think Twice over Cathartic Reunion, reasoning that the Annex deck must/should be very mana-hungry to make use of both halves of the card. Following the same logic, I take Azorius Cluestone and Saltblast. I'm pretty deep into The Spiral at this point. Temple of Epiphany fixes, Sulfurous Blast feels on-plan for the red control deck.
Pack 2 I continue on the spiral, as a last-pick Trinket Mage from pack 1 spirals directly into Walking Ballista, which is great as a tutorable big mana payoff. I take Harnessed Lightning over Mnemonic Wall and Opportunity, it seems like cheap interaction is really at a premium in this cube. Arcanis the Omnipotent joins the pile, so hopefully I table that Aeon Chronicler. It does not, but I pick up a Deep Analysis from the pack.
Pack 3 I first pick Rise from the Tides, which I've had a soft spot for ever since winning some old cube a long time ago with the all counterspells + Rise From the Tides deck. Firemane Angel pairs with an earlier Searing Meditation. Flame Slash is another great card with Rise from the Tides and another piece of cheap interaction.
After emerging from the Inventors' Fair I find myself in possession of this masterpiece:
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
That deck looks super greedy. I think I would have splashed green for the Savage Twister instead of white. You've got double blue, double red and double white cards with only the single Temple for fixing. The artifacts should help a bit, though I hope it's enough. I do admit Auriok Salvagers is one heck of a splash card in this deck,and the deck looks like a blast to play with. Rise from the Tides has a special place in my heart as well
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I like how clean that list is: I hadn't actually anticipated a deck like this, so its nice to see that brewing space exists. When I built the format I tried to follow the example of tsp/plc where a scattering of valid but unusually placed cards could kind of pull at the seams of what was expected from colors, and a huge amount of creative space could be opened up.
I think thats a textbook deck too of where you want a sifting effect like careful consideration or tormenting voice: not only do they feed rise from the tides, but in matchups that aren't about mana superiority, you can ditch the annex/vore/saltblast for impactful cards. That deck really wants some izzet boilerworks though: bouncelands are sick with wildfire.
I think thats a textbook deck too of where you want a sifting effect like careful consideration or tormenting voice: not only do they feed rise from the tides, but in matchups that aren't about mana superiority, you can ditch the annex/vore/saltblast for impactful cards. That deck really wants some izzet boilerworks though: bouncelands are sick with wildfire.
I really valued the flexibility of Saltblast in this deck as kinda my only way of dealing with a troublesome non-creature, but it's possible the impact on the mana is bad enough that it's worth playing Twister and some of the worse red cards instead. I was looking intently for an on color bounce land for awhile there and never did see one.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Drafted StormEntity's cube. Pack one had a Kiki-Jiki, which must be a sign, right? Pick 2 had a Sea Gate Oracle, which is a perfectly playable value machine with Kiki-Jiki and it's blue. Who know if I'll pick up some Pestermites or somesuch? Hey, Filigree Familiar might be even better in that role! Picked up some red, but blue stopped flowing. By the end of pack one I was picking up white cards, including a Loyal Retainers to get back Kiki-Jiki, a Mentor of the Meek for the white value machine, and a Selfless Spirit to protect my "combo". Now where's that Village Bell-Ringer?
Pack two starts off with not much interesting in the way of blue, nor red, but there's a Angel of Invention, which is a freaking nuts target for Kiki-Jiki, and can be found with the Imperial Recruiter I picked up in pack one as well! I snap it up and definitely move into red-white. I eventually pick up a Karmic Guide, which must be better than Loyal Retainers, right? I end up with a deck with a lot of weakish bodies that still looks like it can steamroll games with the right draws. Never picked up the other half of the Splinter Twin combo though... because it turns out it's not in the cube! Never mind, I'll get my value still!
PS. I hate drafted a Pack Rat. Must be my least favorite card in limited. I tried it out in my own cube once, because I was looking for discard outlets. Problem is, it's not a discard outlet. Sure, it's disguised as one, but you'll never look at the stuff you discarded, you'll just be making more rats. For the entire match. You do the same thing every turn. Anyway, it didn't take long before the repetitive Pack Rat games started to annoy me and I axed the card.
First picked a Metallurgic Summoning because I like spells and artifacts. The card also screams build around so here goes!
Following pack had nothing super exciting except for a Dark Imitations. After that a Rise from the Tides looked good.
Here is what I ended up with
During the draft I was maybe a little conservative. I could have branched out into artifacts matter cards, but didn't know the cube well enough to see if it was worthwhile. Kind of regret it now, so will be trying another later on!
I felt like the fixing was on point, but wasn't happy about my curve. I tried to prioritize ones and twos but just didn't see many. Probably a variance thing.
Overall a pleasant experience, thanks!
edit:
Second draft completed. First picked a Wildfire and was happy and surprised to find a second copy 3rd pick. From there I tried to find mana rocks + fatties. Only found one fatty so I had to go looking for other ways to get an advantage and found the Idol + vehicles. That's clever design and it was a satisfying draft "revelation".
Following pack had nothing super exciting except for a Dark Imitations. After that a Rise from the Tides looked good.
Here is what I ended up with
During the draft I was maybe a little conservative. I could have branched out into artifacts matter cards, but didn't know the cube well enough to see if it was worthwhile. Kind of regret it now, so will be trying another later on!
I felt like the fixing was on point, but wasn't happy about my curve. I tried to prioritize ones and twos but just didn't see many. Probably a variance thing.
Overall a pleasant experience, thanks!
edit:
Second draft completed. First picked a Wildfire and was happy and surprised to find a second copy 3rd pick. From there I tried to find mana rocks + fatties. Only found one fatty so I had to go looking for other ways to get an advantage and found the Idol + vehicles. That's clever design and it was a satisfying draft "revelation".
Drafted the 3-player cube virtually sight-unseen! Was a fun draft and making cuts was agonizing when it came down to it. First picked Pia and Kiran Nalaar, and soon found myself in RB with two Lilianas almost back to back. I carried on almost certain that Young Pyromancer is more meant for UR, but combining YP with Attrition was an opportunity too spicy to pass up . Might have ended up a teeny bit light on spells for triggering the pyromancers, but I'm happy to see two in the cube. I think Chandra's Pheonix is a little hard to trigger, and I like Flamewake Phoenix better in most environments. It's a little hard for me to judge this in a FFA setting, as I don't cube that way often (on purpose), but I like the potential of presenting threatening amounts of tokens along with Nuclear missile finishers like Profane command and Mizzix's Mastery
. Might have ended up a teeny bit light on spells for triggering the pyromancers, but I'm happy to see two in the cube. I think Chandra's Pheonix is a little hard to trigger, and I like Flamewake Phoenix better in most environments. It's a little hard for me to judge this in a FFA setting, as I don't cube that way often (on purpose), but I like the potential of presenting threatening amounts of tokens along with Nuclear missile finishers like Profane command and Mizzix's MasteryThanks for the draft sigh! I didn't really expect a RB token spell deck to come together, but glad it's possible!
Looking at the deck, I feel it's missing some discard payoff. Sure you have a few flashback spells and a Lavamancer, but that's not a lot of value.
I tried my hand at your cube for fun and got this aggressive tokenish deck
The draft started off with a Crater Hellion, followed by a Scavenging Ooze. After that I saw lots of aggro pieces but no control. So I ditched the Hellion plan and saw a few token makers.
I like the mana sinks in this deck: Goblin Trenches + Kessig Wolf-Run + Genesis. Running Trenches of a BoP, Chromatic Sphere and Elder is suspect, but it's a late game card, so I probably have time to draw the white source. I regret passing a Goblin Bombardment early on in the draft, it would have been a nice finisher.
Fun draft that got me wanting to try more since I noticed some synergies but didn't pick up on them. More experience with the format = going deeper in draft, which is good!
Looking at the deck, I feel it's missing some discard payoff. Sure you have a few flashback spells and a Lavamancer, but that's not a lot of value.
I tried my hand at your cube for fun and got this aggressive tokenish deck
The draft started off with a Crater Hellion, followed by a Scavenging Ooze. After that I saw lots of aggro pieces but no control. So I ditched the Hellion plan and saw a few token makers.
I like the mana sinks in this deck: Goblin Trenches + Kessig Wolf-Run + Genesis. Running Trenches of a BoP, Chromatic Sphere and Elder is suspect, but it's a late game card, so I probably have time to draw the white source. I regret passing a Goblin Bombardment early on in the draft, it would have been a nice finisher.
Fun draft that got me wanting to try more since I noticed some synergies but didn't pick up on them. More experience with the format = going deeper in draft, which is good!
What a neat looking RG deck! Best deck I've seen for Bushwhacker and Atarka's Command to come outta my cube so far, I think . Also probably one of the most easily recurrable Vengevines, I can def see T2 Noose Constrictor -> T3 Lavamancer + War Marshal, or something like that.
Powered out another draft, this time P1P1 was Gisa and Geralf, one of my all-time favorite multicolored buildaround cards. Funny thing is I only ever picked up two Zombies, but I have a ton of self-mill and filtering, so I think the deck would be able to fairly readily set up the fleshbag-G&G combo, which seems even nastier in FFA. This backed up with recursion pieces leads me to believe this would be quite a fun deck to play! Only wish I had picked up a Carrion Feeder, because that would be crazy good with Corpse Augur. Noticed that there seemed like there was a lot of high CMC cards in this draft, even though the deck curve looks fine at the end of it all. Might just have been a weird clumping of what is normally taken evenly throughout the table. Also, after looking at the list a little, it seems like there are very few zombies to pick from! I think I only counted 3 or 4. Maybe a couple more could help G&G be more of a concrete "deck". One that I like is Rotting Rats, which also seems great for FFA where it's hitting >1 opponent at a time.
The Deck:
. Also probably one of the most easily recurrable Vengevines, I can def see T2 Noose Constrictor -> T3 Lavamancer + War Marshal, or something like that.Powered out another draft, this time P1P1 was Gisa and Geralf, one of my all-time favorite multicolored buildaround cards. Funny thing is I only ever picked up two Zombies, but I have a ton of self-mill and filtering, so I think the deck would be able to fairly readily set up the fleshbag-G&G combo, which seems even nastier in FFA. This backed up with recursion pieces leads me to believe this would be quite a fun deck to play! Only wish I had picked up a Carrion Feeder, because that would be crazy good with Corpse Augur. Noticed that there seemed like there was a lot of high CMC cards in this draft, even though the deck curve looks fine at the end of it all. Might just have been a weird clumping of what is normally taken evenly throughout the table. Also, after looking at the list a little, it seems like there are very few zombies to pick from! I think I only counted 3 or 4. Maybe a couple more could help G&G be more of a concrete "deck". One that I like is Rotting Rats, which also seems great for FFA where it's hitting >1 opponent at a time.
The Deck:
Spot on. I added G&G because it fills the self-mill and value theme, but forgot to add the zombies that go with it.
I'm adding Rotting Rats and Skinrender at the minimum. Geralf's Messenger is just too demanding mana wise, but I like the card.
Drafted Nanonox's cube!
I first-picked a preordain (because you'll never see me pass a 1cmc cantrip if I can help it. Dammit, I think I just justified every comment Grillo's made about cantrips in my cube thread lol) and then second-picked a Gisa and Geralf, because I wanted to see how deep I could take the zombie deck. I got a few of them, like stitched drake, but in the end I settled on a pure G/B graveyard deck, even though I had drafted a lot of good blue cards. It just didn't seem worth it to mess up the mana base for a third color...
The deck seems fun! I'm not used to playing in multiplayer cubes, so it may have been correct to put in season's past, based on the speed of the format.
I first-picked a preordain (because you'll never see me pass a 1cmc cantrip if I can help it. Dammit, I think I just justified every comment Grillo's made about cantrips in my cube thread lol) and then second-picked a Gisa and Geralf, because I wanted to see how deep I could take the zombie deck. I got a few of them, like stitched drake, but in the end I settled on a pure G/B graveyard deck, even though I had drafted a lot of good blue cards. It just didn't seem worth it to mess up the mana base for a third color...
The deck seems fun! I'm not used to playing in multiplayer cubes, so it may have been correct to put in season's past, based on the speed of the format.
Drafted Boros Midrange out of GiftsForgiven's cube. Seemed like a fun cube to draft- I don't think I stayed open enough in the beginning and missed some good chances to pivot to green/Naya or to go into some of the synergy decks. With the mana base, I could also probably be splashing green or black but I figured the aggressive deck probably doesn't need it. There's more red aggression in the side that I could have been playing (Goblin Guide, Swiftspear, Glory Chaser, and Bonfire) which might be good against greedier decks.
Cube does look very fun, though!
Drafted GW Tokens/Beats in Zarco's cube. I really like some of the card choices, and may have to nab attended knight for my own cube!
P1P1 Gideon because he's ridiculous, got passed a Clique not long after that and looked to cement myself in UW. Got some black fixing randomly near the end of P2 so I took a few more black cards later and also jumped on on color fetches as soon as I saw them. Deck is disgusting, too much ETB value and can switch between being controlling and going on the offense really quick.
It's very interesting for me, seeing how highly Gideon is rated by most people in the forums. He's strong, but he's really never felt like the top end of the power curve for my 'iteration' cube.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
He won the first two drafts of my first ever cube (with a much higher power level than my current iteration), after that I cut him and haven't missed him one bit.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Haha, he's a solid walker, that's for sure. He's just never seemed insanely overbearing in my high-powered cube, that's all. Not enough to warrant a rabid FP, anyway. Maybe I'm underestimating the guy... I'll try taking him more highly in drafts, and see how he performs!
Drafted Shamizy's cube!
I P1P1ed Tireless tracker. I love the card. He's just incredibly strong, and only requires making land drops to be an effective engine, which most if not all decks want to do. From there, I decided to try and see if I could make one of the fabled 'U/G tempo' decks that Grillo so often speaks of, but I got sidetracked with powerful planeswalkers. With coalition relic, kodama's reach, harrow, lotus cobra and traverse I felt that splashing for the powerful Pernicious deed (doesn't hit planeswalkers, so it's perfect for this deck), Tamiyo field researcher and Faith's Fetters was essentially 'free,' even with sub-par land fixing.
I P1P1ed Tireless tracker. I love the card. He's just incredibly strong, and only requires making land drops to be an effective engine, which most if not all decks want to do. From there, I decided to try and see if I could make one of the fabled 'U/G tempo' decks that Grillo so often speaks of, but I got sidetracked with powerful planeswalkers. With coalition relic, kodama's reach, harrow, lotus cobra and traverse I felt that splashing for the powerful Pernicious deed (doesn't hit planeswalkers, so it's perfect for this deck), Tamiyo field researcher and Faith's Fetters was essentially 'free,' even with sub-par land fixing.
I haven't drafted Cube in a while, so I'm excited to slam Gifts' high power cube. In lieu of making someone draft a cube I'm not currently maintaining, I'd like to request that whoever goes next try to draft something they're excited about from their own list and tell us why they're hyped for that archetype. I had a choice between P1P1 Show and Tell, Mom, and Opposition, two of which I cube and one I don't, so I thought I'd take Opposition and continue the U/G theme from the last post. Then the page refreshed and I settled for a Balance. I also picked up an early Skullclamp, and my love of Deadguy Ale took me to something that I hope is just unfair enough to compete in the environment. I wanted enough bodies to Clamp, a Mentor package to take over games with, and enough value in my top end to not fold to anything with a lot of ramp. The decision to pick up red fixing early let me splash Johnny Five and Crackling Doom, a card that's immensely satisfying to resolve.
I'll bite!
That deck looks scary though. Tons of staying power, nice synergies and Balance!
Here is a deck I just drafted from my cube:
What I like here is that in my old powermax MP cube, Boros was easily the worst color combination because you had no card draw.
Here however, the is lots of late game things to do between Figure, Soulfire, Alesha, Bygon Bishop.
I also enjoy the cross over between double strikers and red's mini anthems. Finally, the is also some spells matter synergy and I feel that it melds together into a powerful yet synergistic deck.
Anyways, thanks for reading about me tooting my own horn
That deck looks scary though. Tons of staying power, nice synergies and Balance!
Here is a deck I just drafted from my cube:
What I like here is that in my old powermax MP cube, Boros was easily the worst color combination because you had no card draw.
Here however, the is lots of late game things to do between Figure, Soulfire, Alesha, Bygon Bishop.
I also enjoy the cross over between double strikers and red's mini anthems. Finally, the is also some spells matter synergy and I feel that it melds together into a powerful yet synergistic deck.
Anyways, thanks for reading about me tooting my own horn