Troels' cube

[troelslmunk]

Hello people,
I have been reading about the awesome cubes here on RipLab, picking up what I liked and now it's time to revive my cube. So basically… It's a mess. And basically... It's going to be an awesome cube with power level of uncommons. Up till now it has been a peasant cube, but now I'm removing that restriction and building this cube on my strange ideas and your collective wisdom: http://cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/2912.

I’m looking to create a format...

• with room for quirky uncommons (Fade Away)
• without mythics that must-be-answered (Hero of Bladehold, Inferno Titan)
• where combat tricks are good (Swift Justice, Gore-Clan Rampager)
• with cards with different modes (Kavu Primarch, Selesnya Charm, Spiketail Drakeling)
• where synergies can be awesome (Vengevine+Bloodbraid Elf+Shardless Agent) but not dominate
• with good fixing (Shock lands) (no fetch lands because I lack them and dislike proxies)

Do you think this is awesome? Do you think it is possible to fit these different power levels in the same cube? Do you have an awesome card that fits the cube?

I must say that I haven't playtested any of this, the build is very raw, (gruul is overpopulated), but I needed to show it to you.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Sounds like a great pitch, if nothing else!

Initial thoughts:
I'm not a huge fan of tendrils of corruption. The restriction it places on your deck doesn't feel worth the payoff (warleader's helix)
Is screams from within good? I've never played with that card outside mirrordin draft, where it was predictably lackluster (but that was mirrordin)

Silkbind Faerie seems really bad

I fully support the idea of being flexible on the rarity thing (especially for manafixing) but you'll need to add more than the 10 shocks you have now. At the moment it's overwhelmingly likely people will be playing with just basics, which leads to really really bad multicolor decks.

hopefully you can get it up to at least ~40ish dual lands, but given the no proxy rule might make that a challenge. This thread from a while back could offer some ideas, but I will say that even if you just add in 30 more guildgates, I'd prefer that to the no manafixing you have currently.

Welcome to the forums, by the way. I look forward to hearing about this project, we don't get many pauper/peasent cubes usually, I think lucas runs the one I can recall off the top of my head

 

[troelslmunk]

Sounds like a great pitch, if nothing else!

Thank you very much for your thoughts!
You point to some very central problems or quirks of the current cube. It bears the mark of having been through several phases without any real playtest.

I'm not a huge fan of tendrils of corruption.
Silkbind Faerie seems really bad

I agree with you. These are remnants of when I tried to work around the bad mana by intencivizing mono-colored deck. This is the reason for the high number of hybrid cards. I like playing with mono-colored decks, but I didn't think of the consequences it has on the drafting. Besides that the Faerie feels like an expensive tempo creature, but I'm a sucker for tempo, so I guess that's why it stuck around.

Is screams from within good?

I don't know It may be too uncontrollable/inefficient for players actually wanting it, but it's an example of an awesome/quirky/interesting uncommon that I wanted to try out.

I fully support the idea of being flexible on the rarity thing (especially for manafixing) but you'll need to add more than the 10 shocks you have now. At the moment it's overwhelmingly likely people will be playing with just basics, which leads to really really bad multicolor decks.

hopefully you can get it up to at least ~40ish dual lands, but given the no proxy rule might make that a challenge. This thread from a while backcould offer some ideas, but I will say that even if you just add in 30 more guildgates, I'd prefer that to the no manafixing you have currently.

Alright, I actually have a stack of shock, so there's something to work with. I do realize that fetches would make even better mana, but I'm not going to invest in those right now (also there's all the shuffling I could be without). In the current build I just put 10 shocks and 10 mixed lands from what I had. Does raising that to 20/20 sound good enough?

Welcome to the forums, by the way. I look forward to hearing about this project, we don't get many pauper/peasent cubes usually,

Thanks, I'll be sure to work on the list next week, but for now I hope to get a play through this friday.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I like the idea of going to 20/20, though feel free to add some more generic lands as well (City of Brass, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse etc)
From what I've found, it's really really hard to add too much manafixing. Most of the reason I've added fetchlands (other than synergy concerns like bloodghast) is that more people want them. Only the boros player wants sacred foundry, but the grull and azorious players want arid mesa, so you get less drafts where some lands wheel because nobody happens to be in that exact combination.

In terms of tempo creatures, I see man-o'war in your list, but you could always add AEther adept if you don't like duplicates and an additional man-o'-war if you do.
My personal favorite card for the blueish tempo deck: Withdraw. Double bounce at 2 mana is super sweet