The Magic Crumble Pie

[Onderzeeboot]

I'm sorry I don't check this part of the forum more often, as it's typically where people can ask questions specific to their cube. Anyway, it's high time I put my current cube out here, since it's been a while since I abandoned ye olde Khans of Alara cube.

Link
Visual spoiler
Curve
Draft

Quick Stats:
450 cards
Unpowered
All Rareties
Multicolor environment
Shifted color wheel
Duplicates
Custom Cards

Guilds & Shards & Wedges Oh My
This cube too is based on this article by Jason. I tried out a few configurations that didn't entirely satisfy me, then used the Khans of Alara color wheel for a long time. After a long time of contemplation I decided to rebuild largely from scratch last year (2016 if you're reading this from the future) and ended up with the current color wheel: . All the allied color pairs and the corresponding color triplets are there. For example, Izzet () and Gruul () combine to form Temur (). I will refer to these color-triplets as shards in the rest of my posts here, because they will consist of allied color pairs according to my redefined color wheel. Temur, you're a shard now! The full list is as follows:

(Orzhov)
(Dimir)
(Izzet)
(Gruul)
(Selesnya)

(Esper)
(Grixis)
(Temur)
(Naya)
(Abzan)

I'll write up a more comprehensive list of features in the future.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

[Reserved]

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Example deck spotlight I
The following deck happens to highlight two themes in my cube. One of the archetypes available in Temur is the Wildfire deck. Centered in red, I've added some 5+ toughness monsters in the shard that can, sometimes with a little help, survive the raging fires of the namesake card. Grixis has a little discard for profit theme, that happened to fit perfectly into the list below. The deck digs like crazy, building drakes and leeching life in the process, until it finds the Wildfire to hopefully stabilize and get ahead on the board in one sweep(er)!

Four Color Discard Wildfire

Customs:

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Example deck spotlight II
So, my cube features three 3 color cards in each shards, that reward you with a corresponding triland. This draft started off with a p1p1 Zur the Enchanter, immediately rewarding me with an Arcane Sanctum as well. After that I was looking for enchantments, which didn't really come up until the last pack, but in the meantime I had drafted myself a nice tempo deck. The new custom Search the Lost legion does work here, as there's a whopping 11 targets in the deck to bring back, including two flip walkers.

Zur's Weird Thing

Customs:

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Example Deck Spotlight III
Turns out I'm still alive, tinkering away at my cube. Thought I'ld do some new example decklists in preparation of tomorrow's draft, starting with an update to Zur's Weird Thing

Zur's Weird Thing Mk. II

Same customs as the previous post, minus Search the Lost Legion. It's practically the same deck, of course, but there's some nice new Dominaria cards that do work in this build. The interaction between Kytheon and Tetsuko was pretty sweet!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Example Spotlight IV
We've seen Temur and Esper (twice), thought I'ld show a midrange Naya dinosaur deck.

Midrange Dinosaurs

The custom is a Razorverge Thicket with basic landtypes.

Burn and ramp in the early game, then wallop your opponent with big dinosaurs and enrage triggers galore. For a midrange deck, I like how fiddly (in a good way) it can be. There's lots of little interactions that make this deck rewarding to play!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Example Spotlight V
Let's take a look at how a Grixis spells deck might look. Sadly I didn't pick up a Kess, Dissident Mage in this draft, as the deck would have loved a little more recursion!

Grixis Spells

The customs are a copy each of Darkslick Shores and Spirebluff Canal, but with basic landtypes.

The win condition is usually Rise from the Tides, which you can get with Personal Tutor, though you can slowly grind them out in other ways. Another win condition in the cube that specifically helps out spells matter decks is Metallurgic Summonings.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Finally played another draft again last Sunday, and boy was it worth the wait! I had a blast playing a Temur Spells deck and got to watch all kinds of cool decks come together, like a white-based humans deck splashing green and black for removal and good humans, an Esper control deck, a tricksy Grixis deck using Squee, Goblin Nabob, Undead Gladiator and Faith of the Devoted amongst other cards (sadly the deck lacked removal, but it was so sweet to see it in action), and of course the really nice deck our winner put together:

Winning Decklist 8-man 03/06/2018 - Esper Artifacts by Siebe from CubeTutor.com

Custom:


(Slightly) more on the cubeblog!

 

[inscho]

Importing from the Draft Exchange thread...

Psyche...drafted Onder's..

p1p1: Primeval Titan
p1p2: Nissa, Vastwood Seer
p1p3: Dragonlord Atarka



...well, I guess that settles that!

Gruul Big Thangz from CubeTutor.com

Step 1: Get lands
Step 2: Play things
Step 3: Profit

I'll build an immediately intimidating board presence, waste a few turns pinging Ripjaw Raptor with Flame Jab + Life from the Loam. Then play Dragonlord and win.

As I was drafting mostly broken huge things I saw a lot of energy, Ghitu Chronicler and Quicksmith Spy stuff, alongside stuff like Vendilion Clique and Liliana of the Veil. I feel like there's a foot in the door of lower-powered synergies and incremental value, but 50% of the cube's structure is still oriented in a more power-focused manner. I didn't really feel enticed to take any of the mana-intensive, slower stuff. I was 2-3 cards shy of a straight up power cube style ramp deck. I'd like to see that disparity bridged some more.

I've already put Borborygmos, Enraged on my buy list to replace Dragonlord Atarka, which feels a bit too much at times. I don't think all of the cards you mentioned are out of place in a lower-powered cube though. Clique plays great in any environment really. Liliana is one of the best cards in the cube, though, that's true. I put her in to increase the number of playable discard outlets, and she's great at that too. I don't mind a few cards that pop out though, and she has never been overbearing, except when she showed up with a bunch of other planeswalkers in tow. I would love for some more feedback, can you give some more example of cards that look out of place from your point of view?

I think that I overstated the amount of power first cards...on a further look there aren't that many culprits. I think it just felt that way in this particular draft.

Borborygmos Enraged over Dragonlord Atarka is a good substitution. It has a lot more synergy with your themes in Gruul.

I view cards like Liliana, of the Veil and Primeval Titan as traps for lower powered synergy-based cubes. Sure they check a lot of boxes for archetypes, but at the end of the day the card's overt power overshadows any synergistic interactions.

Some other cards I'm a little suspicious of in this cube:


A couple of these seem fairly innocuous, but the further you go down the power spectrum, the more they become show stealers in drafts. For instance, there's not a lot of scenarios where I'd take Extricator when faced with both of these in a pack:


Which is a bummer, because Extricator is pretty interesting, and has a lot offbeat interactions with Demonic Pact and I'm sure other cards.

Mother of Runes necessitates a higher quality removal suite than you presently run imo. I think Dauntless Bodyguard and Selfless Spirit can pull enough creature protection duty for it to just be cut.

Some of these cards I've waffled on in my own cube. I had an existential crisis over Battle Screech and Lingering Souls both being in my cube at one point.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Great stuff, I'm going to mull over these a bit. I run no nonbasic lands other than mana fixing, so Primeval Titan has actually been okay in my experience. I've been struggling with green p1p1 cards, and the Titan has certainly provided one, without being too overbearing. The ramp (or rather deck thinning, at that point of the game) aspect of the card is superb, but the body can be had at common. Likewise, Battlesphere has certainly won games, but ramp is a lot less... explosive in my cube (mana rocks start at cmc 3), so it typically doesn't come out before people are able to deal with it. The Gearhulk has acted as a souped up Nekrataal for a corresponding increase in mana, it as well hasn't been overbearing as of yet.

I am going to take a good hard look at the white cards, especially, as you make some good points!

PS. It's hard to say goodbye to beloved cards. Sometimes it takes me a good while before I'm ready to accept that a certain card is too strong for my environment, like with Thoughtseize. Liliana of the veil certainly is a card I hold dear to my heart...

 

[inscho]

PS. It's hard to say goodbye to beloved cards. Sometimes it takes me a good while before I'm ready to accept that a certain card is too strong for my environment, like with Thoughtseize. Liliana of the veil certainly is a card I hold dear to my heart...

Absolutely. It took me a year and a half to cut Tradewind Rider from my cube...


Some p1p1 Green Cards that are spicy, but should still be okay for lower-powered cubes:


Actually, I think exploiting Powers Matters with Formidable and Ferocious could be cool with your dinosaur archetype:


and you're already running Mouth // Feed

Just a thought...

EDIT:Also...maybe make this switch:
-->

You cut an outright powerful card, for something very comparable and on theme. You lose counter synergy, but no one really cares about counter synergy when they draft the Ooze.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Hah, I actually cut Rishkar because it was too explosive. Definitely more dangerous than Primeval Titan in my opinion

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Importing from the Draft Exchange thread...

I think that I overstated the amount of power first cards...on a further look there aren't that many culprits. I think it just felt that way in this particular draft.

Ok, tested pretty extensively, and made a pretty substantial overhaul incorporating a lot of your feedback. Took a good hard look at themes and generally strong cards. Still not sure I've got everything, but I've played some pretty sweet games already! {b/w} sacrifice is in a better place now, despite the cut of Dictate of Erebos, and the control archetype took a small but important hit, losing some very potent finishers (the blue and black Gearhulks, Myr Battlesphere), while the tempo archetype has been strengthened. I did some reshuffling of cards to fit in some of the new M19 and C18 cards. I didn't find anything from Battlebond I wanted to add.

Spoiler: Changelist

1 Mother of Runes|EMA > 1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda|CHK
1 Glory-Bound Initiate|AKH > 1 Seeker of the Way|KTK
1 Wall of Omens|EMA > 1 Countless Gears Renegade|AER
1 Blade Splicer|NPH > 1 Militia Bugler|M19
1 Kinjalli's Sunwing|XLN > 1 Territorial Hammerskull|XLN
1 Solemn Recruit|AER > 1 Master Trinketeer|KLD
1 Aetherstorm Roc|KLD > 1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle|DOM
1 Trapjaw Tyrant|RIX > 1 Monastery Mentor|FRF
1 Sylvan Reclamation|C16 > 1 Sram's Expertise|AER
1 Collective Effort|EMN > 1 Oketra's Monument|AKH
1 Rout|CNS > 1 Cleansing Nova|M19
1 Skyship Plunderer|AER > 1 Departed Deckhand|M19
1 Jhessian Thief|ORI > 1 Ninja of the Deep Hours|C18
1 Clever Impersonator|KTK > 1 Sakashima's Student|PCA
1 Quicksmith Spy|AER > 1 Whirler Rogue|ORI
1 Venser, Shaper Savant|FUT > 1 Exclusion Mage|M19
1 Lay Claim|AKH > 1 Metamorphic Alteration|M19
1 Torrential Gearhulk|KLD > 1 Crow Storm|KOA
1 Secrets of the Golden City|RIX > 1 Silent Departure|EMA
1 Noxious Gearhulk|KLD > 1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni|PCA
1 Herald of Anguish|AER > 1 Bone Dragon|M19
1 Liliana of the Veil|ISD > 1 Strongarm Tactics|ON
1 Inquisition of Kozilek|ROE > 1 Isareth the Awakener|M19
1 Dictate of Erebos|JOU > 1 Throat Slitter|PCA
1 Life's Finale|NPH > 1 Abrupt End|KOA (custom)
1 Abbot of Keral Keep|ORI > 1 Dismissive Pyromancer|M19
1 Freejam Regent|AER > 1 Demanding Dragon|M19
1 Merfolk Branchwalker|XLN > 1 Thorn Lieutenant|M19
1 Scavenging Ooze|C16 > 1 Deathgorge Scavenger|XLN
1 Wall of Roots|ARC > 1 Dryad Greenseeker|M19
1 Greater Sandwurm|AKH > 1 Krosan Tusker|A25
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald|SOI > 1 Evolutionary Leap|ORI
1 Myr Battlesphere|C16 > 1 Meteor Golem|M19
1 Bloodbraid Elf|PC2 > 1 Burning-Tree Emissary|MM3
1 Infinite Possibilities|KOA (custom) > 1 Clan Defiance|C16
1 Dragonlord Atarka|DTK > 1 Borborygmos Enraged|GTC
1 Lingering Souls|DDK > 1 Zealous Persecution|E02

1 Weatherlight|DOM > 1 Retrofitter Foundry|C18
1 Deadeye Brawler|RIX > 1 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow|C18
1 The Locust God|HOU > 1 Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer|C18
1 Sen Triplets|ARB > 1 Varina, Lich Queen|C18
[/changelist]

The C18 cards aren't up on CubeTutor yet, but I've put temporary proxies in place, so my cube can be drafted. Guess I'll visit the Draft Exchange someday soon to capitalize on the hard work

 

[TrainmasterGT]

How has Siegehorn Ceratops been for you? Did life find a for it to work?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

How has Siegehorn Ceratops been for you? Did life find a for it to work?

Well... I have actually seen it work a few times, but it does require a lot of ping, fight, and/or pump effects. I also like that it extends the enrage keyword to white, for a clear Naya dinosaurs theme. I'm looking for a spot for Emmara, Soul of the Accord though. I want to keep the Ceratops in, if only because it's a fun puzzle to solve with a great reward, so I'm probably looking to cut Qasali Pridemage (the sole exalted card in the cube) and adding the new Knight of Autumn for the Disenchant effect (but more flexible), cutting a 3-drop. That's going to be a hard cut as well though. I mean, obviously Renegade Rallier and Atzocan Seer are the weak spots there (for Selesnya), but Rallier expands the revolt theme to green, and Atzocan Seer is legitimately great in the dinosaurs deck.

Oh, and I'm drafting my cube tomorrow, so luckily I have all the time in the world to contemplate my cuts :')

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Recent printings have made me contemplate changing my color wheel again, and I need a space to visually put up interesting three color cards for each shard/wedge. I'll put them roughly in order. Feel free to chime in if you think I'm missing a card, or considering one that is unplayable.

I plan on writing out a more in depth analysis for cards I fancy, though probably not all? Anyway, I want to explore how well the options I'm looking at fit the possible colors/color pairs they're in, and what options they open up.

Cardname
Themes: What themes does this card fit?
Support: How well are those themes supported by the card's colors?
Signpost: Is this card a good signpost for a (possible) cube theme? Does it guide/alter a player's drafting strategy?
Gameplay: What kind of games does this card lead to? Is the card likely to be fun/interesting to play with?
Verdict: How well do I like the card as a possible include based on all the previous categories?

Spoiler: review template

Themes:
Support:
Signpost:
Gameplay:
Verdict:

• The cube includes 3 gold card per shard.
• I'm looking for cards that require all three colors to cast. Something like Tasigur, the Golden Fang or Catch // Release doesn't count.
• The cube doesn't avoid high powered cards per se, but I am looking to build a format where, say, Drake Haven can be a legitimate win con. Something like the new Ghired, Conclave Exile (who puts out at least 6/9 worth of stats for five mana) is simply too high above the curve to be considered.
• Any card with permanent protection from a color is a no go for me. Something like Animar, Soul of the Elements may have interesting aspects, but it's miserable to be shut out from a game because you can't interact with a card.

Esper


Zur the Enchanter
Themes: Enchantment matters
Support: Enchantment matters is well supported in , not so much in , though Estrid's Invocation is narrow but very sweet here. Riptide Chimera, besides having a truly lovely name, is an interesting fetch as well. Another nice upside of having Zur in the cube is that it can find other signpost enchantments, including ones, like Drake Haven and Compulsion for the discard matters theme, and thus make such themes a bit more consistent.
Signpost: Though Zur doesn't necessarily signal an enchantment matters theme on his own, it does make the drafter look out for cmc<4 enchantments. The drafter might, in turn, be guided down further subthemes (like discard matters), because of the enchantments they pick up.
Gameplay: The evasion and high toughness means Zur often gets to attack, and his tutor ability really does make a difference before he gets to kill the opponent. I personally have a soft spot for Zur, great build around. Even though it's not the most powerful three color card by a long shot, it's always fun to toy around with. This shouldn't rank as the best Esper three color card, but it's my favorite, so sue me
Verdict: B+

Sharuum the Hegemon
Themes: Artifact matters
Support: This theme is well supported in all three colors, though blue centered as far as the multicolor cards go. This fits best if the two supported guilds are and , though because of monocolor support it manages just fine with one of those and .
Signpost: Clear signpost that will increase the value of artifacts (and discard outlets). Superb reanimator target as well, as it can bring along another artifact when it returns to the battlefield.
Gameplay: Sharuum is expensive, but plays very well. This is exactly what you want out of a six drop. As mentioned, discard outlets and reanimation cards love the Hegemon's company.
Verdict: A+

Varina, Lich Queen
Themes: Discard matters, zombies, life gain
Support: Zombies are supported in all three of Esper's colors nowadays, discard matters is mostly an thing, and life gain is definitely a thing.
Signpost: Varina signals so many things, that it might actually send the wrong signals if you don't support all of her themes. Definitely a flexible pick depending on what comes your way though
Gameplay: In theory a 4/4 for 4 should be good, and there's all these different themes she supports, but I've never been too impressed. Maybe I (or my drafters) just haven't found the right shell, maybe I haven't supported Varina well enough.
Verdict: C


Grixis



Jund



Naya

4th: Marisi, Breaker of the Coil
5th: Atla Palani, Nest Tender


Bant

1st: Chulane, Teller of Tales


Abzan



Jeskai

3rd: Sevinne, the Chronoclasm
4th: Elsha of the Infinite

Sultai

5th: Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer


Mardu



Temur

 

[Onderzeeboot]

For reference: my current wheel is

Jeez... it's just going to be too much work to rate all of these. Or I have too many other hobbies, a family that I want to give time and attention, and work to slog through all of it. Hmm...

Let's instead look at what guilds and shards necessarily go together as the next step, and see if I can cross of some that I don't like.

+ : Azorius + Jund
+ : Dimir + Naya
+ : Rakdos + Bant
+ : Gruul + Esper
+ : Selesnya + Grixis

+ : Orzhov + Temur
+ : Izzet + Abzan
+ : Golgari + Jeskai
+ : Boros + Sultai
+ : Simic + Mardu

I mean, Bant was traditionally the most meh for me, but has gotten some really excellent additions last year. Nowadays, I think Temur and Mardu are the shards with the most lackluster three-color cards, followed shortly by Jund. I currently run Temur, and have designed various custom rares to fill out the selection of three color cards, and Guided Passage, while funny, is probably the lowest pick of all the three color cards. The complementary guilds of those three are Orzhov, Simic, and Azorius. I mean, I'm going to miss the humans aristocrats theme, but Orzhov probably fared the worst of all the guilds in my cube. Looking at those three guilds, we notice that Esper and Bant are also out, since each has only one possible component guild left. It also means that the white and blue guilds are known, since those automatically have to be the other two. This means the white guilds are Selesnya and Boros, and the blue guilds are Dimir and Izzet. If we put these guilds in order, we can see the only possible string is , meaning Golgari has to be the fifth guild. According to this wheel, I should run the following shards: Naya, Jeskai, Grixis, Sultai, and Abzan. That actually sounds pretty sweet.

Compared to my current wheel, I would lose Gruul, Orzhov, Esper, and Temur, and would gain Boros, Golgari, Jeskai and Sultai. The only one of those I would really miss is Gruul, as I love the enraged dinosaurs and ramp themes in . With being wedged in between the two colors with the smallest creatures, the Wildfire theme probably also needs to be axed. Also, how am I going to justify OUR GLORIOUS DINOSAUR OVERLORD ZACAMA if Selesnya consists of two of the aggro-iest colors... o_O

Edit: Now suppose I want to keep Gruul and all the wonderful themes it enables, and thus Esper, but want to avoid as many of the least favorite shards as possible, we would avoid Temur and Mardu, and thus Orzhov and Simic. This means Esper consists of Azorius (e.g. Jund) and Dimir (e.g. Naya), leading to the following two possible color wheels: (which is just normal magic, which defeats the purpose of my cube) and . According to that wheel I should run the following shards: Esper, Sultai, Jund, Naya, and Jeskai. Compared to the current wheel, I lose Selesnya, Orhzov, Izzet, Grixis, Temur, and Abzan, and I would Gain Azorius, Golgari, Boros, Sultai, Jund and Jeskai.

I know this is ultimately a choice I should make myself, but if anyone has any input on this, it would be welcome

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Ok, a friend of mine convinced me Mardu is worth it for the aggro archetype that it supports alone, as my current cube leaves a lot of room for durdling in all of the shards. Sooo... Another thought.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Ok, we each ranked the 10 shards to our liking, and Temur and Jund were both in our bottom three. Doing the exercise again for these two shards:

No /
No /

This means the two white guilds and the corresponding shards are locked in:

/
/

These two shards can only overlap in two ways:

and

Adding white at the front (to form the two necessary white guilds) we get the choice between:

and

Basically: Rakdos, Simic, Bant, and Mardu versus Golgari, Izzet, Jeskai, and Abzan.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

And then I found a Temur shell I do like, using:



Using and as the color pairs, and going elementals and ramp as subthemes.

The color wheel I like best using that setup is , featuring:

Naya (Boros + Gruul ): A bit more aggressive than Naya in my current cube, because Boros replaces Selesnya. Unlike Selesnya, Boros has a few cards that synergize nicely with the enrage subtheme I currently run in Gruul. Marisi looks pretty cool to me as well in this setup.
Temur (Gruul + Simic): Simic replaces Izzet, meaning we get less spells matter, and more Mystic Snakes and Tatyova, Benthic Druids While the play pattern of Izzet spells is fun, I think I like Simic gold cards more.
Sultai (Simic + Dimir): Sultai replaces Grixis, meaning we get a more grindy, graveyard based control deck, rather than the spell heavy removal fest that is Grixis. With the discard theme in definitely staying (if I can help it, and I can), maybe Sidisi is a bit of an odd duck, since I want my spells to discard, not look at the library and pick one, mill the rest. Think Probe over Forbidden Alchemy. Sidisi is still sweet though, so who knows. Muldrotha, the Gravetide seems a nice splash option, if I'm going to run elementals in Temur.
Esper (Dimir + Orzhov): Exactly the same as in my current cube.
Mardu (Orzhov + Boros): Mardu replaces Abzan. This should be a more aggressive shard than anything I've run in the past. Lots of grindy recursion engines, probably. Go wide tokens, Braids, Cabal Minion/Smokestack shenanigans. Both Butcher of the Horde and Fervent Charge support go wide strategies well, as does Mardu Ascendancy, of course. That last one also gives plenty of sacrifice fodder, so maybe an aristocrats build is in order here.

See, this is why changing your color wheel is so hard. There are endless possibilities, and each has its pros and cons.

 

[Nanonox]

Just chiming in with random thoughts and things I believe you said around the forums (basically, I'm probably way off ).

From what I understand, you want to keep Gruul (and Naya for Zacama) and Dimir (for discard matters). You also seem to mention Jeskai as being sweet in some other posts.

If the above is true, then you could be looking at or
(Azorius + Dimir) Esper
(Azorius + Boros) Jeskai
(Gruul + Golgari) Jund
(Gruul + Boros) Naya
(Dimir + Golgari) Sultai

The downside here is that you would have Jund which you don't seem to like. However, I think you can find a few sweet themes in the shard:



This let's you have fun with lands (keeping Wildfire!) and the graveyard and therefore having a link with Sultai.



Although Mardu is probably a better aristocrat combination, Jund is still very good. Green has a bunch of sacrifice effects (Birthing Pod, Evolutionary Leap, Garruk Relentless) and just good creatures to sac (Nest Invader, Brindle Shoat, Vengevine).

Sarkhan Vol is also lot's of fun I find and all these cards can pull double duty with a token theme.

Speaking of which, two cards fit that theme nicely:



If you do adopt the sacrifice theme, then Thrinax probably makes more sense, but Broodmate is more splashy.

The last card that seems sweet is



+1/+1 counter synergy, GY synergy again and just solid beatdown.

Good luck!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Thanks for the input! Your suggestion was actually in my top 3 options, but yesterday I convinced myself to explore instead (which wasn't even in my top 3 because of Temur). Currently my plans are roughly...

go wide tokens & spells matter (Monastery Mentor, Young Pyromancer, etc)
midrange aggro
dinosaurs enrage & wildfire
ramp & elementals
landfall
graveyard abuse
discard matters & control
artifacts matter
humans & graveyard recursion
aristocrats

Of course the guilds should also play into the shard themes. Currently looking at these three color cards. I run three cards per shard in my current cube, I'll have to test whether I want to up that number to four or whether I'll have to whittle down this list

 

[Onderzeeboot]

For those who want to follow along, http://www.cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/151736

Lands and a first pass for multicolor cards are included (roughly a third of the cube), I still have the monocolored and artifact sections to go.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

This is looking really good so far!!

I would recommend adding a couple more dragons to the cube to facilitate Sarkhan Unbroken a little bit better. Right now, you're only running 4 dragons, 2 of which are not in the Temur shard. That works for Kaalia, Zenith Seeker (especially since she can search for demons and a rather nice selection of angels), but it's not so good for Sarkhan.

I don't think you need to add 87 dragons to make Sarkhan's Ultimate an instant win, but I think you should add two or three more into red, blue, and the Gruul section so that your drafters don't think he's a trap. I recognize that Sarkhan is a really powerful value engine even without having his ultimate supported, but I can also tell you with experience from running Sarkhan, Fireblood that drafters sometimes see the word "dragon" on a card an just assume it's a supported theme even when it isn't. I think some people might not mainboard their Sarkhan Unbroken if they don't have any dragons for him to tutor.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Yeah, I haven't completed my pass on monocolored yet. There's the fight dragon in green, and maybe Keiga in blue that I could add, and then maybe the 4/4 for 2RR that burns opponent when a dragon is targeted. Icefall Regent is also decent!