General The Draft Exchange

shamizy

shamizy

NimbusToad said:
I just drafted Shamizy's cube and came out with this little doohicky. I first picked Ramunap Excavator and tried to pull together as many lands synergies as I could. I think that a pretty solid grindy midrange deck emerged that uses some sort of oblique strategies to build card advantage. I'd like to build these kinds of synergies into my main cube, but working at the 180 size, it can be a bit tough to bring niche strategies in.

I think the cube plays well. It seems to be built along a lot of the Riptide principles. The power level was quite high, but none of the cards stuck out as severely underpowered or overpowered. Not too much constructive to report.


Bant Lands from CubeTutor.com










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Nice list, thanks for drafting! Seems like Riptide didn't pick up the cube deck tags on your post so I fixed it up for you. I made just one change and added a Seaside Citadel in place of a Forest in your manabase. In my cube, if you draft a gold card with 3 colors in it (and a few other specific cards), you get an additional land with it as a squadron pick.
 
safra

safra

NimbusToad said:
I just drafted Shamizy's cube[...]
Click to expand...

And I drafted yours! First I went through and drafted a pretty straightforward UB control list, but seeing multiple copies of Strip Mine really surprised me. I picked them up because they were a lot stronger than other options, but it got me thinking about aggro in your environment. I find having multiple Wastelands to be pretty higher-power, let alone Strip Mines, and the rest of your cards seemed more clustered along the middle of the peasant power band. Should've picked up another finisher, but I was prioritizing removal and grind.

UB control? from CubeTutor.com













I also drafted an aggro deck, just to see what the Strip Mines would look like there.

GW Berserkers from CubeTutor.com











It's a basic dudes+tricks shell, hopefully also with some double strike combo kills.

(I'd prefer if whoever goes next drafted my main cube instead of my bounceland cube, since I'm tinkering with the main cube again.)
 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
This is a really cool looking deck safra.

Bant Lands from CubeTutor.com












Basically mono-green stax; what an interesting take. It actually does do a pretty good job at exploiting smokestack, but its still pressure based, which it needs to be because of the historical problem of simic decks lacking removal. At the same time it still has board control tools with meloku and avenger, which it needs if its going to execute the stax plan, and those board control tools can be used to break stax. Loam looks very comfortable here as well.
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
Current Cube isn't in a CubeTutor-worthy state yet so don't feel obliged to draft that one, will hopefully fix that soon though (and it will crib heavily from Shamizy's too)
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Alright, going with Safra's main cube then!

p1p1 Grafted Wargear into trying to draft an aggressive deck. Somehow I ended up with a lot of removal and some bombs instead. I even cut Goblin Guide in the end! Fixing was good (maybe because it isn't valued high enough by the bots yet?), but I wonder if there's enough support for the colorles cards. All of the fixing is for two colors, but not colorless. Maybe painlands could help here?

Onderzeeboot's Jund removal from CubeTutor.com











 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Nice work! That looks like quite a tempo-y deck. Should be able to put some pressure on the opponent early, then finish the job with thopters and/or reach from burn.
 
Aston

Aston

I drafted Shamizy's cube

Aston's draft of Shamimrazad on 02/10/2017 from CubeTutor.com













I started off with P1P1 Jace the Mindsculptor, which is usually a good place to be. I waffled between whether I wanted to be straight UW or Bant, but in the end I didn't pick up the lands highly enough to support a splash.

I missed out on a couple hard counters which I was really regretting later, but I think this could play a more tap-out style of control anyway.
 
RavebornMuse

RavebornMuse

Drafted Aston's cube!

Mardu Boardwipes from CubeTutor.com











As I typically prefer to do in a high-power format, I've drafted my (second-)favorite deck: Mardu Boardwipes! Really wish I'd picked up some better win-cons, but I really just like to draft these decks to play fun police. There's really nothing quite so satisfying as tapping out for your 6th consecutive boardwipe. :D
 
Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara

Yep. That looks like one of the classic B/W aggro decks that usually does pretty well. There's a Xathrid Necromancer, a Pitiless Horde, and a Ranger of Eos in the sideboard as well. I feel like any of those would be better than the Raven's Crime, but maybe you value the disruption higher than I do.

GB Dredge Reanimator from CubeTutor.com











Took a crack at the Casual Champions Cube. Started out with Diabolic Servitude out of sort of a weak pack. Saw a bunch of dredge enablers and went in. Got rewarded with a late Living Death. I misclicked and picked a Simic Growth Chamber over a Llanowar Wastes, but I think that might actually be better since it lets me splash Nephalia Drownyard and the draw on Dimir Guildmage.
 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

WB Midrange Pile from CubeTutor.com












Didn't draft as cool a deck as you did, ended up with a WB midrange deck with some light reanimator stuff. Picked colossus pretty early, and then tried to get some removal since I was pretty unsure of the kinds of decks you could draft in the cube. I'm a fan of a lot of the cycle cards you've put in!
 
RavebornMuse

RavebornMuse

Drafted ravnic's cube!

RB/g Insect Swarm Control from CubeTutor.com












The game plan? Play control until I can stick either Ant Queen or Dragonlair Spider and ride off with a win on tokens. I really like the list overall, but I must say, the signets were a bit of a surprise; they really warped my draft heavily as I started banking on cheating on the curve and going 3 colors confidently, which is why I think they've generally fallen out of favor with lower-powered cube curators, which seems to be what you're angling towards.
 
Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara

Took another shot at Raveborn Tinkerings. I don't think it went as well as the last time.

Some kind of dredge pile, I guess from CubeTutor.com












Started with Drake Haven to see if I could make it work. Third picked a Lab Maniac and a Drift of Phantasms to tutor him up, but I didn't really see any good ways to try to dredge or mill my library out. Dude might be a trap. There's a decent graveyard value deck in there, which is usually an archetype I enjoy playing. I think this deck could be fun, but my instinct is that it's going to spend a lot of its time spinning its wheels and then get its ass kicked.
 
RavebornMuse

RavebornMuse

Peter LaCara said:
Took another shot at Raveborn Tinkerings. I don't think it went as well as the last time.

Some kind of dredge pile, I guess from CubeTutor.com












Started with Drake Haven to see if I could make it work. Third picked a Lab Maniac and a Drift of Phantasms to tutor him up, but I didn't really see any good ways to try to dredge or mill my library out. Dude might be a trap. There's a decent graveyard value deck in there, which is usually an archetype I enjoy playing. I think this deck could be fun, but my instinct is that it's going to spend a lot of its time spinning its wheels and then get its ass kicked.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the draft!

I definitely think there's an idea going on behind this deck, but it's missing some of the tools it really wants to execute the idea effectively. I think you have some solid tools to get the Lab Maniac combo off, and if I were you, I'd have gone all-in for it and hoped for the best. Darkblast, Vessel of Nascency, Grapple with the Past, Nyx Weaver, Sudden Reclamation, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and Moonlight Bargain are all great for this; the deck being so removal-light is the real problem, I think. With so few discard outlets, I think the Drake Haven looks awfully ambitious, and I'd also have to say that Dark Confidant looks to be a complete trap here, and has repeatedly looked like such, so much so that I think I'm going back to Asylum Visitor for that slot. I'd also like to point out that bouncelands let you cheat on land counts, and you could've probably done with just 16 here pretty easily. Since the deck looks like it really wants to just keep recurring Bone Shredder, I think Drift of Phantasms at the very least should've made the cut.

For reference, he's a Laboratory Maniac deck I drafted pretty recently, that I think has about everything going that you could dream of to win. The deck is first and foremost going to be incredibly slow, looking to win practically by accident after playing a long game of control; anything less controlling is playing a very risky game, I think, although it's certainly still possible to get there with something else.

UB Lab Maniac Combo-Control from CubeTutor.com










 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Theres always going to be dissonance between crafting a format where a drafter is always safe; and a format where they might fail, but have the chance to achieve something memorable.

Lab maniac is not a card that people fail safetly with, but its a card that can give them some of their most memorable experiences when they get there. While you want to prevent large scale missdraft patterns, at the same time you don't want to be an overprotective mother, sheltering people from worthwhile experiences.

I think lab maniac does a pretty good job signaling that its a mountain to climb, and that some people are going to fall off that mountain, but thats what makes reaching the summit worthwhile. A designer should understand that when they run it, and be ok with it, otherwise put a different card in that place.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Drafting Peter's. P1P1 Glen Elendra Archmage. Was unsure if I want to draft Control or some kind of graveyard deck, so I kinda did both. Not sure if this deck would actually be good in your meta, but I for sure would like to try it. Maybe I could need another finisher and more card draw?

UB Control from CubeTutor.com










 
shamizy

shamizy

Drafted ravnic's cube, first time in a long while that I tried out something lower-powered. Ended up with a very aggressive RW list:

RW Aggro








Seeing as my curve tops out at 3 (aside from flashbacked Firebolt), I think I might have actually been able to go with 15 sources and been fine? I got a good number of creatures that could clear out blockers or stymie some tempo on my opponent's end. I wish I had seen something like a Bonesplitter at some point, would have snapped it up super quick and gone to town.
 
RavebornMuse

RavebornMuse

Drafted shamizy's cube!

UB Control from CubeTutor.com












Kinda was hoping to pick up more artifacts, but maybe that's not what UB usually has on the agenda? Might've been a bit thrown off by the Whirler Rogue+Baleful Strix+Herald of Anguish, or maybe the cards just didn't happen to be in the pool. Still looks fun, though! Definitely the sort of deck I'd pick into, have fun with, and probably go 1-2 with no hard feelings about :p
 
sigh

sigh

UR thermo-burn from CubeTutor.com












Drafted the meddlings! This format definitely has some barrier to entry. Spent a couple test drafts fiddling around with how the formats work. Lots of surprises as I progressed through the drafting (snapcaster!?). I thoroughly enjoy drafting in this format, and I find myself liking what this deck probably performs like. I have a hard time conceptualizing this meta, so I'm not entirely sure. I feel like Thermo-Alchemist can put out a lot of damage, and can be tutored for.too. Burning Sun's Avatar seems like incredible top end for this format, even gives direct reach.
 
Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara

Drafted Sigh, A Cube:

4c reanimator from CubeTutor.com












Started off with Anafenza, but quickly abandoned that plan when I saw Grizzlebees 2nd pick and Resurrection 3rd. I snagged a Lotleth Troll early in pack 2 because I was desperate for discard outlets, and found Jace later. But that's okay, 4 colors is fine considering the mana is basically perfect.
 
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