Un-Powered / Budget-ish 490 Cube (multiplayer minded)

whobetta · Aug 24, 2016

Hello all, I used to run a peasant cube but casually started inserting rarity shifted cards or adding in rare lands to help smooth things out. Then I started to look at archetypes more closely and decided that if I added additional rares I could support additional archetypes that couldn't exist in peasant or just strengthen a fring-ish archetype because there were better payoff type cards at the next rarity level.

(This was at least my internal rationalization) when in reality I think I just wanted something to do. My group never has enough time to consume my passion for cube and so I think tinkering is my way of coping. Anyway I wanted to add my cube to the community here and get some thoughts and have a place where I can provide post game deck/card thoughts as well as a place to offer up an undoubtedly number of changes along the way and seek advice and feedback on them.

BASIC CUBE INFO:

Cubetutor: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/60903
Cube Size: 490ish card (need to learn how to cut down better)
Breakdown: 70-71 in each color, 60 multi/guild, 37 Artifact, 43 Land
Avg Draft: 3-4 players, 1 times per month (give or take)

CARD SELECTION & DESIGN:

- Powerd?: NO
- Proxies?: Yes
- “Un” Cards?: Yes (one, “Blast from the Past”)
- Vintage Legal:? Yes
- Singleton Legal?: Yes (except for multiple copies of Evolving Wilds, which was RECENT decision, as i found more in my collection I decided to throw them into the cube)
- Guild Balance?: Yes (for the most part)
- Banned Cards?: Not currently, but keep cards out as described below

RESTRICTIONS:
- Over-Powered for format
- Anti-Fun
- Non-Interactive
- Over-Priced (unless i happened to have one from old collection or got proxy somehow)

The only cards that I have decided to restrict either by reducing their prevalence, removing completely or just not adding to this cube are cards that I deem “over-powered”, "anti-fun" or "non-interactive". When you think of those two kinds of cards, I am talking about things like discard (which I know is a part of magic, and sometimes removing threats in hand is important) but ruining a person's grip is just bad form in our eyes, and if it is repeatable or more than 1 card it can become oppressive. Additionally things like Land Destruction where a person can't even play spells or play Magic in general is just not fun and ruins the experience. Again my cube gets probably 95% of its play as a 3-4 player multiplayer Free For All games, so ruining an experience for a player when you have to sit back and watch 3 other jamokes play on for another hour or whatever is quite frankly, stupid. The only other realm of cards that come to mind that I have forcibly left out are "sweepers". The Wrath of God effects... This is due to wanting to have combat be more of the focus as opposed to long drawn out games of just destroying 10+ creatures with 1 spell. We like to have complicated board states that require choices and have some politics of knowing what will happen if you try and kill 1 person and leave yourself exposed etc... we find that fun. HOWEVER, I have thought about possibly adding some of the lower power sweeper/wrath effects but am not there yet. If tokens or overrun type decks become too strong then I might think about it but again in a multiplayer the R/W deck without support isn't running over 3 players before running out of steam and that 4/5 mana wrath effect necessary or else your control deck will die. So there is less necessity for them at this point in time.

SUPPORTED ARCHETYPES / GUILDS - COLORS

I tried to create a +1/+1 counter synergy initially but I think as I added in more and more rares it became harder to keep as prevalent throughout each color (blue however never really had any +1/+1 counter theme). Additionally, Humans, Soldiers, Warriors, Elves, Zombies, Vampires are all in there somewhere but sadly I think eventually most to all of that synergy may be gone. The idea was to have a much wider range of cards matter on more levels than normal, adding in their sub types into the equation I felt was adding more draft decision making etc. But I digress...

* Caveat - I don't like the idea of archetypes for each GUILD. I think that is limiting and in reality as people have discussed the draft portion turns to less about decision making to more of an "on rails" boring linear draft. I want draft to be difficult and to be fun and to require a lot of thought and decision-making. I want a drafter to have the ability to almost have a draft pool that could make multiple themed decks. I think that is part of why my cubes always tend to get "bloated"... I want each color and each color pair to have access to enough cards for a player to draft almost any conceivable archetype/themed deck...

Instead of discussing the archetypes within each guild, I’d rather speak to each color separately and what kind of mechanics and game play feel I added into each color. My goal within the cube was for a player to identify what some colors offered and mix and match them any way they desire (obviously some things go better together than others), but if you started drafting some RED and GREEN initially, it necessarily wouldn’t have to be a ramp deck or straight dude agro. If you wanted to splash a couple cards here and there of a 3rd color to add some cool little combo’s go ahead, great… But I didn’t want to have each drafter feeling like they are stuck on a set draft path with no deviation. (Maybe I achieved that, maybe I didn’t. I don’t personally feel like I did, but this was my first foire into a rare included cube and so feeling out power levels of certain cards I’ve never used or seen, debating costs and making sure I’ve got some balance to each color, to each cube, to each theme etc… etc… etc…

(Not putting in guild+archetype information. It makes my head hurt and it leaves me feeling empty and bad that I don't necessarily have archetypes that are readily identifiable as I tried to put a bunch in everywhere)

WHITE: Obviously white is firmly stuck in that weenie agro department. What I didn’t want to do is just jam a bunch of 2/1 “jag’s” into the color and it be linear as hell and boring. Additionally this is a cube that plays more multiplayer (90/10 lets say) and so a 2/1 is not long for this world and frankly vanilla dudes suck in general.
This color for me is the TIGHTEST, in that there are literally a dozen cards at least that I think about swapping every other day because I just DON’T KNOW what is “right”. I hate that feeling of not knowing if something is right, it’s just so unsettling.
- weenie / agro
- +1/+1 counters
- Spells Matter (Prowess)
- Drain / Gain (slow, but bleeding multiplayer games is brutal in it’s inevitability)
- Tokens
- Humans / Soldiers / Warriors (all minor sub-add’l nuances)
- Pump
- Blink
- Enchantments (mostly out, due to slow and low-low power level)

BLUE: This color used to be straight control for me, but I tried to open it up and give it some variety. I think changing to a rare cube from peasant it still identifies as more control-y but again always a handful of cards that can change it one way or another.
- Spells Matter (prowess)
- Graveyard Matters
- +1/+1 counters (graft, proliferate)
- Madness
- Storm (I only have 1 storm spell “empty the warrens” as it can survive as decently playable on 1 stack = 4 tokens for 4 mana) but means “free spells” aka peregrine drake, cloud of faeries, snap, frantic search, gush etc…
- Wizards is a minor nuance (Sage of Fables, also ties into +1/+1 counters)

BLACK: Black turned from a control-y color to more agro, in that I dumped removal to create interesting creature interactions. There are a few cards in black that I am heavily considering replacing.
- Graveyard Matters
- Madness
- Drain/Gain
- +1/+1 counters
- Recursion
- Sacrifice (no ‘pact’ or anything though, too strong imho)
- Vampires (not a subtle nuance)
- Zombies (more subtle nuance, as there are some zombie “cares” cards that I just haven’t been able to really bring myself to add)

RED: Red was the go to agro color, but I wanted to have it contain more depth than that. Additionally, when playing multiplayer the old strategy of ‘x’ creature damage on front end with ‘y’ burn on the back end to the dome wins… clearly in multi-player FFA that strategy may be good enough to take out 1 guy but you will be dead shortly thereafter. I kind of liked the idea initially of making red the damage to everyone color. Just punish everyone, hate everything. Additional sources of sustainable damage is cool. It somewhat fizzled when your own deck cant play anything because you are in worse position than your opponents and you’d kill yourself… so it is a delicate balance that I have yet to figure out via tweaks. For now its got agro to it, but also has more mid-range feel to it imho.
- Spells Matter
- Madness
- +1/+1 counters
- graveyard matters
- tokens
- Humans / Vampires / Goblins (minor nuance?)

GREEN: Green was a color that has changed identity for me many times… I truly truly dislike the “ramp” archetypes but have come to understand that it is part of the green identity. I don’t find hitting a 7cmc pelakka wurm on t5 any more or less annoying than a t3 reanimated pelakka wurm… yet one is more frowned upon (why). I’d say that I have tried not to pin green into one way of playing, which I’m fairly happy with it, but it does seem like the color that bleeds the least into other ones.

- Ramp
- +1/+1 counters
- Graveyard matters
- Tokens
- Elf/Warrior (nuance)

Being the first iteration of my newest cube creation I am pretty happy with it, but would love any/all feedback on particular cards I’ve missed, or why I chose one card over another… any comment on my guilds or suggestions for cards that could go (to help get me to a not so bloated cube level)

Thanks again and I am going to be posting my first few multi-player game recaps from the past week or so with decklists etc…

whobetta · Aug 24, 2016

There were some drafts of my cube on CT, and I was able to pick out 3 from the lot that didn't have ANY overlap (as if they were in the same draft) and pit them up against eachother in a FreeForAll match (3 separate games). I will recap on the games and decks below...

Deck 1 - Terrandus 8/18 (U/R Madness): At first glance I really really liked this deck. it was grindy and fun and interactive and had outs for almost anything. http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/587729
Deck 2 - Whobetta's 8/18 (Boros): I drafted this deck just for the heck of adding a deck in there and it turned out to be one I used. I wasn't very high on this deck at first glance, I felt like it didn't have any resiliency which is something I value greatly in multiplayer FFA formats... http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/587862
Deck 3 - Wafflecopter's 8/18 (GW Elves non evasion): It was between this and this user's LOLRing deck, but since Terrandus drafted SolRing, I opted for this deck. At first glance it seemed like it had some nice acceleration into some bigger game winning type cards. http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/588105

Game Recaps:

Game 1 -->
Boros deck kept a hand that probably should have thrown back(in our ffa games, our playgroup allows everyone a draw on T1 and at least 1 free mulligan, more if we are all in good moods). it had all white mana while having nothing in hand that could cast with just that mana. Either way it was assumed the 8/8 red and white split would bring some help. And thinking that if you start slow in multiplayer its not a big deal. (P.S. I HATE with a passion a perfect mana split I always feel like the cards screw you either one way or another when you are completely even). G/W came out strong with Lotus Cobras and Duskwatch Recruiter. U/R chilled out with Wharf Infiltrator and Thermo-Alchemist.... Boros kind of sputtered as it was mana screwed most of the game and had to hate on the G/W deck by Harm's Way-ing his Duskwatcher (as not much else to do with a grip of red cards) that really set G/W back as he drew into more lands than threats. U/R sort of coasted out to victory on the back of Thermo-Alchemist and then a 7 token Rise From the Tides spell.

Game 2 -->
Boros deck went first as he was first dead. He started out with a nice opener in Isamaru, Hound of Konda and Truefire Paladin. U/R wound up grinding it out from a red manaless start. drawing into Violent Erruption and Rolling Thunder and while you had no opening Red was less than ideal. G/W had an ok start. mana producer into an early Cloudgoat Ranger was a nice start. While he got in beats with the Cloudgoat, he lost it's ability to fly and when he attempted an EOT Otherworldly Journey blink it met a Lightning Helix from Mr. Boros... from their G/W kind of sputtered into futility. Meanwhile Boros turned a play of Lightning Mauler and Spectral Procession, setting it up to cast Resolute Blademaster next turn. U/R had the Rise from the Tides token maker but they came into play tapped and had no flying. Boros attacked both G/W and U/R with everything after dropping a haste soulbond'd Resolute Blademaster with the rest of his team. U/R could only try to kill the 3 Spirit tokens aiming his was with a Quicken'd Rolling Thunder but Boros had Pyrewild Shaman and was able to Bloodrush off a topdecked Red mana that turn on one of the tokens to get the necessary 4 damage into the U/R player. G/W didn't have enough blockers as he never drew anything the past few turns to stop the 4+ double-strikers coming his way.

Game 3 -->
Last game of the night, for all the marbles... would G/W pull out a win and make the night 1-1-1 for each or would either Boros or U/R take the night in the BO3? Again Boros had a good opening with Impact Tremor into Truefire Paladin. It got more interesting when he dropped Goblin Trenches on T4, threatening repeatable Tremor damage. G/W had it's best opening yet, with Lotus Cobra into a Soltari Champion into a T4 Elite Scaleguard... U/R had a decent start as well with Looter il-kor into Young Pyromancer into Talrand, Sky Summoner. He was in good position. R/W was able to Impact Tremors out a good chunk of damage, while G/W again didn't do much except put out a Patron of the Valiant. But after getting out the 3rd spells matter card in Thermo-Alchemist (really bomby in a spell heavy deck in multiplayer game). Essentially Boros could have pushed through enough damage in 1 more turn with Impact Tremors and Goblin Trenches but U/R was able to EOT a couple spells that gave him enough flying drake tokens that he could aim them all at Boros (no flying to stop em) and take out Mr. Boros. G/W had nothing the 2nd half of the game after getting his early start muffled and so really was ignored until U/R was able to take him out the next turn after he took out the only threat in Boros the turn before.

All in all, U/R ad a very resilient deck and was able to dish out a lot of damage and there were always options on how to play your hand and "do stuff" getting the 3 spells matter cards out is pretty shitty as an opponent watching everything cast turn into a 2/2 flyer a 1/1 fodder head and damage to your dome...
I was disappointed in G/W and am finding that whenever I play or have drafted G/W it is so unforgiving when you face any removal because you essentially have no utility. you need to hit and play your creatures and any disruption can really just set you back to being insignificant (with no way to restock your hand or anything like that)
Boros came through as better than it seemed on the surface. I guess it did have strong cards, but again R/W dudes is linear (not AS linear as G/W to me) but still you just try to curve out and swing.
The funniest part of the whole night was that while people on other forums made comments about Skullclamp and Sol Ring. Neither Boros (Skullclamp) or U/R (SolRing) got these cards out once in the 3 games, and U/R saw a big portion of its deck each game. It got close but actually discarded it once to keep a more important card at the time.

So conclusion, yes those cards are powerful, but when you are playing singleton, first you have to draft the card, then second if it doesn't even get played is it powerful?

anyway food for thought and just a bit of fun with anecdotal experience.
Anyway it was late, and I wish I had recorded the games a bit better but I was playing all 3 decks(yes this is what I do when no friends to take over and want to test and tinker). I think I play decently impartially and when its late I forget what opponents are holding anyway

hope you like it. I would love to continue to use player drafts and get into more games with reports. will probably set up when have more time my cube list and blog it on other sites eventually..

whobetta · Aug 24, 2016

New batch of decks to test out from other night...

Deck 1 - G/W Deck: I wanted to give another Green and White deck another shot. maybe it’s not my cup of tea or something but G/W always feels so boring and linear and flat out not good unless you get god draws (not being able to refuel hand or having anything resiliency just makes it not feel good to play)
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/587889

Deck 2 - R/B/g Deck: This deck looked cool in that madness / fill graveyard theme alone with some silly combat tricks w/ berserk and Temur battle-rage fun.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubedeck/590209

Deck 3 - B/G Deck: Needed a deck that wasn’t overlapping cards, so this was physically drafted sans other decks in cube. I like graveyard theme decks and thought this one had potential, not perfect but seemed pretty good.
http://deck.tk/34dg4zNW (was physically drafted so input into deckstats)

- GAME RECAPS -

Game 1 —>
B/G deck started the game with 1 of fatties in his hand (not ideal, no real discard except fauna shaman) then ran into a huge glut of lands. was able to hang on as worm harvest kept him alive from the surging G/W deck. R/B deck started out with a bit of mana screw which stunted his ability to get out fast (thankfully noone else did). He casted “smallpox” which didn’t help his land situation but kept the opponents creatures from getting critical while he got some help from “returned reveler” on B/G side. An Animate Dead which he had from open got a Pelakka Wurm back to help stabilize early damage… and set him up for later. G/W had a nice start w/ enlightened tutor into Shrine of Loyal Legions for a ticking time bomb, then backed up by Pianna Nomad Captain into Consul’s Lieutenant and Duskwatch Recruit. Recruit was killed before he transformed, but did get 1 activation off to get Hallowed Spiritkeeper. ultimately G/W was going to win but a Living Death cast by R/B deck put him in the lead for good. 7+ creatures with Mogis’s Marauder allowed for an alpha. Next turn with the berserk, Temur Battle Rage, and Reckless charge was able to pump his guys up enough for double striking trample, and a pumpable unblocked Fallen Angel allowed R/B to win the game next turn’s attack on a double kill. B/G saw all his Worm Harvest tokens destroyed, and G/W didn’t realize that R/B could pump trample and double strike so never used enough blockers to protect himself. GG

Game 2 —>
A disgusting affair of almost 3 mana screw draws. B/G had 1 opening mana (we allow couple free mulligan’s in house, but even so couldn’t get decent opener) while he had a Reanimate in hand, he was able to discard breaker of Armies on T2. but the following turn, R/B decided to Reanimate Dead that guy and proceeded to stomp both G/W and R/B with it as both could not muster any defense with 1/2/3 mana. G/W was going to race R/B but a timely Blast From the Past removed the flying BoP w/ Rancor and Bonesplitter that had already gotten in 2 attacks on R/B… Oh, well that was a gamble B/G had to make by going for an early reanimate, too bad R/B had the card in hand to steal it. On to game 3

Game 3 —>
Game 3 was the longest and probably had the most decision making involved. Spoiler alert, the B/G deck won this game. It had a decent tilt-less opening though both Spider Spawning and Worm Harvest in opener… With an early Autumnal Gloom which fueled the deck into a Breaker of Armies which was Reanimated. The choice was to let the Breaker sit in the graveyard and have what happened in Game 2 happen again or just reanimate it right away and take the damage. We decided to lose life with the idea better to be proactive then screwed on the back foot. Turned out to be a good decision as having a 4/4 trampler hex proof and 10/8 as your beef fairly early was hard to keep up with. Fortunately for G/W they were able to get a Consul’s Lieutenant with Rancor on it and an Enlightened Tutor got them a Skullcap which kept them full of options from letting things die as blockers… Yay. the Consul did work against R/B as he had to keep that down as Extort from Thrull Parasite and Devotion drain from Gray Merchant of Asphodel kept his life in the high teens to twenty + for most of the game. Unfortunately when G/W was able to play a Great Oak Guardian with multiple blockers and get rid of Breaker the game was sealed with a 4+ mana Spider Spawning and a flashbacked Lingering Souls to keep a 1 life B/G deck alive for another turn easily… G/W wasn’t packing any burn. the only hope had rested on R/B the turn before to top deck a cheap playable spell to drain that last point of damage but alas, the Maverick pull and night sweep was never meant to be. a hard casted Artisan of Kozilek into Nyx Weaver was tough to watch from B/G kept enough damage on the table to threaten both opponents. It was intense however if B/G decided who to attack incorrectly or let the game drag further could have easily been dead with the biggest beefiest board we’ve seen in a while.

fun night and fun decks… one quick thought before bed… Living Death is pretty broken and I am not sure it belongs in a lower end power cube.

whobetta · Aug 25, 2016

Hey again...

did a 3 person Grid Draft the other night. the decks haven't been played yet though, because well I am still in the middle of deciding how the decks should be finalized with each players cardpools...

I was looking to see if anyone had any opinions on the card pools and ideas for how the decks could/should be made from them. Please feel free to review and provide any feedback or advice or thoughts!!!

Card Pool #1:

Card Pool #2:

Card Pool #3:

Thanks!!! and hope to hear from you all.

I will also be posting game recaps as did with other 2 recent multiplayer FFA drafts.

Grillo_Parlante · Aug 26, 2016

This looks pretty reasonable.

I thought G/W became a lot more fun when I ran landfall effects: that color combination is really good at exploiting that mechanic for value. Usually, it does a good job occupying a spot between aggro and midrange, which is quite nice for a multi-player format, as you get a sort of early start, and than its threats start to scale up. You don't really have sweepers (which I agree with for multi-player), so you can develop some pretty complicated boards.

Maybe you want more mana sinks in those colors? It sounds like its getting into top deck mode kind of quickly.

Sol ring is kind of funny in multi-player, because its very beatable, but skull clamp is disgusting. Usually, you need a couple people to focus on that person, and the effect seems so minor that at times its too little too late.

whobetta · Aug 29, 2016

Hey, thanks... I wanted to do Landfall more, but just felt like it is super low power. if the Kazandu enchantments weren't as expensive they would be auto includes and if there were better equipments or effects that I could get multiple lands in at either instant speed or something like that I would be more inclined to add it back in...

just the nature of cards that went in and out kind of diluted LandFall and so just figured to fully remove

Decks and Game Recaps incoming

whobetta · Aug 29, 2016

So I was able to put 3 decks together from my carpools above (did a 3 person Grid Draft)...

W/R/B

B/W/r

U/G/w

W/R/B played a T2 Anafenza and T3 Thermo-Alchemist. Anafenza was immediately Path to Exile'd by U/G/w. The Thermo Alchemist was strong most of the game doing a lot of global damage along side an unearth'd Scourge Devil + Goblin Heelcutter attacks and Temur Battle Rage. W/R/B was the aggressor most of the game, which doesn't always work out

. The Thermo-Alchemist was starting to put people on a clock and U/G/w had to Eternal Witness the Path to Exile and get rid of that guy.

The U/G/w deck obviously had the two early Path's... but then got out it's Waterfront Bouncer and Man o War to start it's board stall. It then got Tezzeret's Gambit and worked into Talrand Sky Summoner and Juniper Order Range. Then Finally Sentinel of Eternal Watch. His board was getting pretty stacked.

B/W/r started with an Olivia Mobilized for War into Drana's Emissary. that was a quick 6 flying to the face and drain/gain each turn. It got a Shrine out fairly early but lost it's Drana and got it's Olivia marginalized. even a later game Maw of the Obzedat pull wasn't enough as the B/W/r player was stuck in a bad mana flood and had no gas.

W/R/B did a lot of damage to everyone and B/W/r had some early damage but the U/G/w deck was able to weather the storm and eventually had too big of a board and could keep everyone in check before make a game winning attack.

W/R/B started out with thermo alchemist & abzan falconer the game was slow as some an oblivion ring, grim affliction and doom blade were used to get rid of issues… a Temur battle rage with scourge devil unearth’d and hallowed spirit keeper led an attack that brought B/W deck (which gained life back into the low teens (where other decks were). it was risky but helped bring the game in line for others and not letting it get out of hand. had to use “reanimate” on opponent creature “Kor Hookmaster” to get rid of Sentinel of Eternal watch for a couple turns to get attacks in. lingering souls kept up pressure w/ flyers and instead of having our hallow spirit keeper Path to Exiled (no tokens from creatures in gyard) it had to be used on a Triskelion that was being targeted by Ordeal of Heliod (combat phase would have netted us 10 life) which would have put game out of reach in R/B/W favor… however a kitchen finks, Goblin Dark Dwellers and Exava helped to swing the game for R/B/W (creating enough pressure /blockers and being able to get damage through w/ spirit tokens.

B/W started out great with Syndic of Tithes, Oona’s Prowler into Olivia Mobilized for War and Drana’s Emissary… Syndic got Faith’s Fetter’d by U/G/w as it started to drain too much life and Olivia got 2x -1/-1 counters by W/R/B and Grim Affliction. Then Drana’s got removed with a W/R/B oblivion ring. the Prowler was joined by Shrine of Loyal Legions and Kalastria Highborn, but was never in position to really get in too much damage. Oona fought proudly and got in some damage to help keep people honest but Sentinel was able to keep it down after B/W lost a bunch of it’s other creatures w/ flying. A late subjugator angel and maw of the obzodet weren’t enough w/o a big enough board state to end the game while all would be tapped and end it… but valiant effort and probably would have taken it if wasn't smacked down by both other players.
U/G/w deck had a bit of mana screw in the beginning, not drawing any blue till turn 5 or so… Thankfully Path to Exile and Faith’s Fetters helped keep things up. Man o War and Talrand's Invocation helped stabilized, then Sentinel of Eternal Watch slowed the game down. unfortunately it was a little too late, even with an Eternal Witness’d Path and Long Shot Squad for added flying protection. R/B/W was able to get in the last bit of damage with their last push of spells as their board was too strong to combat against.

W/R/R deck started w/ T2 consul’s Lieutenant, which was immediately dismembered EOT by B/W. This is good because R/B had Goblin Heelcutter and Exava Rakdos Blood with & Temur Battle rage ready to go. this slowed his progress significantly (considering others didn’t play any t2 creature he would be renown and kicking ass)
B/W started with a great draw. T2 Shrine of Loyal Legions, into Drana’s Emissary into Clifhaven Vampire. Ok, I drain, I gain, I gain, you drain… LOL those two are a funny combination. after that he had an aggressive attack that started w/ an Ondu’s Rising being cast… the interaction of Lifelink for his creatures w/ Cliffhaven’s ability made him chuckle. Except Cliffhaven Vampire was immediately Path to Exiled by G/U/w as he could not have everyone getting drained for 4-6 damage after taking regular combat damage…

U/G/w started out with a lot of good cards in hand… a T3 vigean graft mage, T4 Plaxcaster Frog T5 Tezzeret Gambit w/ proliferate to pump these guys, then T6 cytoplast Rook-kin, pumping guys further. things were looking good except for dealing with B/Ws draining clock… as the B/W deck dropped a Kalastria and then a Syndic of Tithes. the amount of drain and annoyance getting to everyone… R/B/W wasn’t finished as he came back with a pumped Exava into cytoplast that got them both off the board (Exava was unleash’d so was useless if not attacking, at least it took something down)
B/W then popped the Shrine for 6 minions and then cast Barter in Blood which removed the last 2 of G/U/w guys, and R/B/W had hard cast Goblin Heelcutter to try and put some sort of board presence together… so those were all gone. Naturally, B/W sac’d a couple tokens, what else are they for

from there it was just a simple matter of waiting out the last breath’s from both decks as B/W’s army firmed up the game after dropping a Galepowder mage.. Even a late cast of Sentinel of Eternal Watch and Talrand’s Invocation for U/G/w were no match for B/W and R/B/W had a triskelion that got tapped down each turn. until finally B/W stood victorious others drained to death

I think it is funny that all three decks each won a game. I did not expect that honestly. while i liked all three decks, I thought that the B/W deck had the best/strongest deck. It never saw Emeria Angel and only Galepowder mage once as the end. it kept running out of gas or into mana flood. Game 3 it took out 1 land and added Barter in Blood which was a difference maker in game 3, so wonder how it would have fared if it was like that for the first 2 games.

I liked the spell factor cards in R/W/B but never ever got Guttersnipe so that was disappointing.

U/G/w got Path to Exile all the time and that is just brutal in a game... the +1/+1 counter shenanigans really never materialized but that is ok, it had a bunch of good plays.

whobetta · Nov 22, 2016

Grillo_Parlante said:
This looks pretty reasonable.

I thought G/W became a lot more fun when I ran landfall effects: that color combination is really good at exploiting that mechanic for value. Usually, it does a good job occupying a spot between aggro and midrange, which is quite nice for a multi-player format, as you get a sort of early start, and than its threats start to scale up. You don't really have sweepers (which I agree with for multi-player), so you can develop some pretty complicated boards.

Maybe you want more mana sinks in those colors? It sounds like its getting into top deck mode kind of quickly.

Sol ring is kind of funny in multi-player, because its very beatable, but skull clamp is disgusting. Usually, you need a couple people to focus on that person, and the effect seems so minor that at times its too little too late.

Grillo,

Hey do you have any ideas on "landfall" effects for G and W that I could look to add? I like the embodiment guys and some awaken spells are cool as they create man lands and also fall into +1 counter theme. I only have Scryb Ranger for repeatable landfall effect (i think w/o looking)... I wanted to also have ways to get landfall back from graveyard with either Life From the Loam or something like Tilling Treefolk (kind of narrow) or Groundskeeper, but keep not putting them in (i need to buy Life from Loam too)

Also what do you suggest with regards to "mana sinks" for white/green. green has some fatties i guess, no?

I have a horde of cards that I am looking to get, some new, some old, and I've made changes to my cube on CT since. I have this stack of cards that are NOT in the cube which I can't believe are on the sideline. It is really funny.

need to get a moment to sort it all out, just been too busy to really roll up the sleeves.

our playgroup has actually been able to get a bunch of days on weekends to get together and flop it up... some interesting decks/combos and fun interactions (some rule missteps) but overall interesting games.

We even created a new draft format to help us with seeing the entire cube with just 3 or 4 players... will expound on that in my next post (hopefully sooner rather than later) just feel like its tough to get a lot of good feedback and discussion when people can only see a list of cards online.

Grillo_Parlante · Nov 22, 2016

I've been taken more of a

"angry earth" approach, which I've been experimenting with here, for which landfall effects would be relevant. Sigh has been working on a RUG version for a while, the thread of which is here.

Here is a sample deck from the min/max cube I've been experimenting with:

Big Naya Lands from CubeTutor.com

Heres a sample list from another experimental cube thats supposed to be more retro in nature (which I do intend to build after the holidays--land tax is busted fyi)

Rwg lands control from CubeTutor.com

When I was running actual GW landfall, it was about 2-3 years ago, in a more stereotypical environment. My setup at the time was something like this:

Which is kind of basic: the decks would be more of a G/W kid type deck, where you were just making big monsters.

Lots of ideas on the table there to mull over.

whobetta · Jan 10, 2017

I appreciate your feedback as always. very thorough and insightful, but i just couldn't bring myself to make a huge change in direction like that. I just made lots of changes and am going to post them soon (though are showing in cube tutor) but yeah i had my whole dining room table spread for days on end with card piles and ideas with trying to get the right balance of everything and don't have the energy to go that route at this point in time (smaller changes are exhausting but necessary)

I also don't feel like spilling out the $ for Life from the Loam and or Land Tax (no matter how many times i've sat there with my finger on the BUY button so close). Also re: Nissa, while my powerlevel is creeping, I am still very against Planeswalkers, (not just budgetary reasons) but something about them irk me.

I removed a lot of Landfall in general, prior to this recent cut as the Kazandu's just were too over-costed and/or just didn't do enough for effects and i just couldn't get the mix that I wanted. I was looking for ways to get get lands into play via "Instant" effects so that you could create shenanigans and mess up combats and things like that but in general efficiency seemed to be lacking in that regard.

I am sure I'll revisit it at some point. (also up until this most recent addition, i have been very cautious on any type of "sweeper" effect)... but am now seeing that they may be necessary if very very lightly splashed and ones that aren't the elite of the elite...

hope to put up some of the more recent game and draft recaps as well as recent changes and thoughts soon!

whobetta · Jan 11, 2017

So i've made a whole slew of changes. I had some external input from the 2 biggest play group friends as I was having difficulty making final decisions, but ultimately had the authority to yay or nay. Changes below (also on CT)

This was an obvious and easy edit. I am not really playing any eldrazi and my goal was to add a minor ENERGY theme, so why not start with the land that has that and better potential overall if I do wind up having decks which can produce some energy.

- OUT -

- IN -

For artifacts, I was inspired by the recent KLD block and while i have a fairly low overall artifact count, percentage wise (i think) vs other cubes I didn't find it THAT hard to make cuts... I wanted to get things to support Energy, and ones that did also support things like +1/+1 counters so that is cool. overall I lost out on creature count (but not sure that it is super important for Artifacts, especially when most of the cards that were cut were either not strong overall, or ever drafted and so that was sign enough for me. I was a bit dismayed with having to get rid of Throne of Geth just because I like proliferate and feel it was never utilized properly. It may very well come back if i can get more artifacts into the cube (or ways to create and abuse them). I had also been looking at adding some of the newer artifacts that want to go to the graveyard and therefor do something upon going there. The guys felt that things like Eager Construct or Runed Servitor were too weak or didn't appreciate benefitting other players... I am more of a fan of the cards that benefit you for going to the Gyard even if they benefit all in some way.

- OUT -

- IN -

White is ALWAYS so tight it seems, but most of these cuts were not difficult in my opinion. Yes I like most of all these cards and they fit some sort of theme etc.. but realistically they did not get played much and so I thought was time to try some different things. Precinct Captain never seems to do what you imagine it will when you have it out, and Phalanx Leader "could" be a blowout, but feels like Precinct Captain in that he underwhelms typically. Gideon's reproach was in there as a different kill spell and also synergized with spells/dmg matter guys, but ultimately needed something cut. Ondu Rising always seems like life linking your entire team is a blowout, but has only ever worked that way once with our group... Blessed Spirit, well we dropped the enchantment theme a while ago and he was a holdover just because he could possibly have worked with +1/+1 counters. Emeria Angel was a good strong card, but landfall had been mostly removed from the cube and he was on the boring side and so decided to cut (i like him though)

- OUT -

- IN -

Green was a little tough in that, I literally hate feeling like the guy who is always somehow removing "ramp" cards. I mean there are still ramp cards in green but I guess it works as I don't want that to be the only obvious and rails like draft for green. All other cards were for the most part less used and underwhelming. Fauna Shaman should definitely be in if we weren't terrible deck builders and players

. Gravetiller Wurmis a guy that seems like he should be an auto win most of the time, but just keeps getting booted (poor guy). I also REALLY wanted to add Woodweaver's Puzzleknot but it got vetoed as it if is weak... 3 life and 3 energy x2 seems pretty good to me... but alas (I think they were a bit nervous about the new source "energy" being added into the cube, not knowing what to make of it)

- OUT -

- IN -

Red had some cards I was kind of itching to get rid of, but it still sometimes feels wrong. I guess because we are playing a Multi-player cube that it makes more sense, but taking out cards that are good at interacting with going to the graveyard and still being useful stings a bit... Hellspark Elementaland Hell's Thunderas well as Anger etc... I don't think Skarrgan Firebirdwas ever drafted once (is that weird?)... One card I really thought should be added was the new Cathartic Reunion, but not sure they realized it's value

- OUT -

- IN -

Ahh blue the color that gets the least love in draft's for some reason yet always has such powerful cards

. I was using blue to help sustain some +1/+1 counters as well as spells matter and some discard/madness themes and in reality the cards showing below just never got drafted or used much if at all. I don't know why people like Enclave Cryptologist, he is a mana sink of suck and ugh, I dunno. I wanted Vigean Graftage and Simic Fluxmageto be good, wizards (minor minor theme) and having graft/evolve is kinda cool in a non typical +1/+1 counter color. but just their cost and curving were a bit bleh to maintain. A couple of cards I really wanted to add but got vetoed down were Sway of the Starsand Brain freeze. I love the idea of a funny reset in Sway that isn't a Wrath style effect. and Brain Freeze because i have a little storm love for Empty the Warrens, yet feel like i need something else and Grapeshot sucks when you are only going to get it off for maybe 4 or 5...

- OUT -

- IN -

Black had a few cards definitely that needed to go, as they were just soooooo weak and never drafted. I hate getting rid of things like Grixis Slavedriveras he can occupy slots in different themes, but many more cards to be added

. I am debating moving Scrapheap Scrounger to Artifacts/Colorless as he can essentially function as a creature anywhere and I am not a person who gets overly anal about a card being g a bit off (I'm looking at you Ancient Grudgein red and not multi). However there are 2 cards I am still considering that kind of got vetoed, but I like them so much - Dread Returnand Bloodghast

- OUT -

- IN -

Guild section is tough... certain guilds there are like 10 cards that I want to have in, but others I am ok with 5. it is really funny but sad at the same time. Rix Maadi Guildmageis always a possibly potent card, but is just so mana intensive imo so we decided to drop it for something else that added utility. Skarrgan Skybreakeris a card I dream about breaking somehow and popping this guys head off for 10+ damage over and over again, but sadly there were just too many R/G cards that it was near impossible to keep it all. Gruul War Chantjust never delivers like you think it will in actual play. Now Goblin Trencheswas a card I was vehemently against, but with no special cards to help get lands back and/or do some silly shinanigans I understand my friends penchant for wanting to cut. It has only been very very strong one or 2 other times and that was due to Impact Tremorsand Goblin Bombardment being out as well. The others were also a bit underwhelming and/or just plain bad... so time to go. A few cards that I really wanted to add were Empyreal Voyager as well as Wort, the Raidmother and Surge of Strength (another berserk type card fun). The U/G card was a possible energy helper, but another 3 drop in U/G just didn't seem right. While the R/G cards were never in the cube before and figured they would be fun, but as both are R/G and I am already stuffed in that slot they got left out

- OUT -

- IN -

whobetta · Jan 13, 2017

I have come to talk about my cube (again)

As I've reported my most recent changes within CT and some of the overall rationale, I'm a bit dismayed that I am lacking the energy to really do a deep dive and come out ahead with a more coherent reasoning and purpose for the cards In/Out. Hopefully one day soon I will really get down to brass tax..... but i digress

I wanted this post to be about the recently played cube and the decks and some funny, fun and not so funny happenings and observations. but realized that it is going to be more about our groups new drafting and playing variants that we have been using and adopted.

My friends have tried experimenting with drafting as we long ago felt that with only 3 or 4 players and such a large cube we did not like the feeling of randomness on what cards we may or may not see especially after I had changed it up from just a best slot type cube to one that required a bit more synergy in your draft and subsequent deck-building. with that we toyed with different methods that allowed us to see more cards and have ultimately created and kept with this current system (unnamed) which I will attempt to explain below. The method essentially has us go through all 504 cards and can work with our usual 3 and/or 4 players, all you have to do is change up the math. It came about from reading some people use the pick and burn type method which we tried for a while, but even with burning 1 cards with every pick it wasn't enough so we kept toying with the ideas and landed on the.........

(duh duh duuuuhhhhh) "1 pick per pack draft methodology"

the pack creation and drafting method is as follows.. by trial and error tried to get close to the number of picks you would get in a regular draft (40-45) and worked the math backwards for how many packs we could make and how big the packs could be. from 504 cards we figured that you could make 36 packs of 14 cards each... 36 is nicely divisible by 3 players. so we each get 12 packs for the draft (coincidentally and unexpectedly the 36 can work for 4 players, each getting 9 which was a nice bonus)... Now with the 12 packs each, you start drafting like normal but the pack only goes around 1 time!.. so out of the 3 packs of 14 cards and 42 cards only 3x3 cards are picked in total.

You may be thinking to yourself, that is terrible, what about all the cards that you let go by the wayside, YESS, that is true, it sucks, it is agonizing, but there are SOOOO MANY cards still to come you are not screwed....

You may also be thinking to yourself, 36 packs 1 pick each is only 36 cards to make your deck from, you said to get in the range of a regular draft 40-45. To you smart person, I say touche... we realized this and instituted the ever fun and always interesting wrinkle to the draft process. We decided to allow 5 "double picks" throughout the draft... so if you open a pack or are passed something you have the ability to spend a "double pick" and take 2 cards that you just HAVE TO HAVE! The added pressure and scrutiny on these 5 picks you totally want to use them right away, but it never ceases to amaze how the last pack or two you look at you find the cards you were hoping for or needed and without that double pick scream BLASTID!!!! as you can only grab 1

So not sure if that is something people have tried, but my group of pals enjoy it and while it is easy to lose track of who's picked what or if you have 2 double picks left or 3 or whatever as long as you trust everyone it can be a lot of fun and a good way to get a chance to truly see the entire cube.

Now onto the other oddity for my situation and my playgroup --> Multiplayer!
yes, we play MULTIPLAYER. People may not like this, but we appreciate the all inclusiveness of it and have fun since we don't see each other a lot. it allows for more draft and deck experimentation and screwing around and being a meddlesome wanker as well... because we usually have 3 players and rarely a 4th, we were trying to find new hip interesting ways to administer multiplayer than just a 3 person FFA.

Perusing the internets I had found something people were describing as "Infinite Respawn" magic. This style is a recent phenomena that we have tried and it has been done with pretty good success so far. We would still love to hear ideas on ways to make it more interesting (which I will explain in a bit more detail below) but if you are unfamiliar I will recap how it works...

Infinite Respawn magic is the play variant where if you somehow die, you take all cards you started with and shuffle up your deck again, get cut like normal, draw your hand of cards and essentially goldfish your deck for 5 turns. Then as you play your turn 6 you are "LIVE" you can interact with the other players and they can interact with you. A few issues arose in this part where you are "bubbled off" is that what about cards that you would normaly play affect something an opponent has out. As we are friends we have just kind of left it to just don't play that card when you are bubbled off. because if you open that up you get onto this slippery slope of well if something happens to a creature from the bubble players spell can i react? and so on and so forth until then it is just not a special bubble.

Getting back on track however, if you are the player to die and are the next person to go (in the rotation) you shuffle and goldfish yourself then play T6 live. This is so that you are not skipped in the player turn rotation. if you are the one to die and you are not next, you have to wait until it WOULD be your turn (so if you are P3, and P1 kills you on their turn, P2 would essentially go before you P3 do your whole ordeal). this intended to maintain turn integrity and possible game state things...

The ultimate goal is to get 3 kills (just because we take our time and don't want families to think we have run away)

sigh · Jan 13, 2017

I draft this way, and have referred to it as 'Tenchester', based on some discussion here and a CFB article by Jason a while back. I do 10 packs of 10, for 400 cards in the pool, one card per pack. I may eventually trim down to 400 to perfectly match this. I do really like the idea of double pulls! That increases the chance that a tricky build will come together right, and also allows a player to draft Card & Land from one pack. Neat! I might try something like 2 double pulls per person for my next draft

whobetta · Jan 13, 2017

sigh said:
I draft this way, and have referred to it as 'Tenchester', based on some discussion here and a CFB article by Jason a while back. I do 10 packs of 10, for 400 cards in the pool, one card per pack. I may eventually trim down to 400 to perfectly match this. I do really like the idea of double pulls! That increases the chance that a tricky build will come together right, and also allows a player to draft Card & Land from one pack. Neat! I might try something like 2 double pulls per person for my next draft

Hah, glad to help add a fun wrinkle... I CANNOT believe I completely missed "Tenchester" I swear I had heard of it as a draft type and even read it, but must not have fully comprehended what I was reading and subconsciously dismissed it somehow. Wow how silly am I, lol.

EDIT: Oh now i remember why, after re-googling Tenchester... because that lays out the single 1 pack. this drafting is done like a normal booster where you each pick up a pack and then pass it around 1 time so if there were 14 cards in a pack, Player A takes his card, then passes Pack1 to PlayerB. Player C takes his card from Pack1 and passes his pack t Player A and so forth.

so in this case no one sees what anyone else drafts...

whobetta · Feb 6, 2017

so decided to do a sealed last weekend... we created 3 pools... wondering what people think or have any ideas on how they might have put the deck together based now what you see vs what we tended to go for.... remember this is for 3 player FFA (so not the typical 1 on 1 spike boom win fast decks, well maybe

)

DeckStats - Card List

White (19)
1 Abzan Falconer
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Cenn's Tactician
1 Cloudshift
1 Custodi Squire
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Grasp of Fate
1 Momentary Blink
1 Mother of Runes
1 Not Forgotten
1 Path to Exile
1 Restoration Specialist
1 Serene Steward
1 Stonecloaker
1 Subjugator Angel
1 Suture Priest
1 Syndic of Tithes
1 Thalia's Lieutenant
1 Whitemane Lion

Blue (13)
1 Brainstorm
1 Careful Study
1 Circular Logic
1 Cloud of Faeries
1 Control Magic
1 Deep Analysis
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Just the Wind
1 Mana Leak
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Ongoing Investigation
1 Rush of Ice
1 Thrummingbird

Black (15)
1 Bloodbond Vampire
1 Dark Withering
1 Exhume
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Go for the Throat
1 Incremental Blight
1 Indulgent Aristocrat
1 Innocent Blood
1 Live Fast
1 Macabre Waltz
1 Murderous Compulsion
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Regicide
1 Relentless Dead
1 Viscera Dragger

Red (10)
1 Coordinated Assault
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Ion Storm
1 Madcap Skills
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Pyreheart Wolf
1 Reckless Charge
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Vow of Lightning
1 Wrangle

Green (16)
1 Acidic Slime
1 Arbor Elf
1 Become Immense
1 Blessings of Nature
1 Borderland Explorer
1 Cytoplast Root-Kin
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fangren Firstborn
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Gnarlwood Dryad
1 Hurricane
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Ordeal of Nylea
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Tribute to the Wild
1 Wickerbough Elder

Multicolor (11)
1 Blaze Commando
1 Cliffhaven Vampire
1 Deputy of Acquittals
1 Energy Arc
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Lightning Helix
1 Necrogenesis
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Reap What Is Sown
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Soul Ransom

Colorless (13)
1 Blade of Selves
1 Blade of the Bloodchief
1 Chalice of Life
1 Daredevil Dragster
1 Decoction Module
1 Runed Servitor
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Skullclamp
1 Sun Droplet
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Untethered Express

Lands (11)
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Mystic Monastery
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Savage Lands
1 Vivid Creek
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Yavimaya Coast

(0)

Sealed Pools #2 and #3 to come (getting them loaded)

whobetta · Mar 14, 2017

Ok... played this past weekend with my group of 3 (total).

Draft Format: My cube is 540 and have pretty much exclusively worked through a "tenchester" format but with our own tweaks.
- Packs of 20 cards
- 1 pick per pack (once a pack has been seen by each player it and all cards are discarded)
- 10 extra picks (max of 3 taken in a pack)
-- The math works out that we each get 9 packs of 20 cards. We have 27 picks (9x3) but with the 10 extra's wind up with a 37 card pool to make our decks with.

(normally we had been tenchestering with 12 packs of 15 cards and 5 "double" picks. so this was a definite change)

** as an aside, try looking at your first pack of 20 cards where my cube tends to be on the more synergized level than obvious windmill slam dunk first picks and you have the ability to take 1, 2 or 3 cards in that first pick. As a person who is TERRIBLE at cutting cards and wants to play everything all the time it was beyond agonizing to sit there with that choice. I love-hated it... but my friends had fun and the games were entertaining so it worked out in the end...

*** P.S. I am toying with the idea of created scaling packs so that the initial picks you are staring at 9, and then next packs are 10 cards then next are 11 and so on (but have to do the math). This at least for me would make it easier and less agonizing to get going with a strategy as you are staring at less options from the onset...

Game Format:
Mutliplayer --> FFA
Play Specifics --> infinite respawn (5 turn goldfish bubble, 6th turn is live)
Win? --> First player to 3 kills wins the day (this takes us HOURS)

DECKS!!!

The 3 decks were wildly diverse which made me happy (signaling in this format is near impossible, c'est la vie)

Friend #1: This guy more often than not builds a deck that will make you pull your hair out. he is not a spike by any means but is very analytical and plans out his decks well. I just personally loathe his decks. the worst thing he can say (and frequently) does during and after drafts is "My deck is really weird" with a shit eating grin on his face.

Lands (4)
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Creek
1 Opulent Palace
1 Gemstone Mine

Artifacts (5)
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Sun Droplet
1 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Shrine of Loyal Legions

White (1)
1 Balance

Black (1)
1 Demonic Tutor

Green (2)
1 Respite
1 Regrowth

Blue (5)
1 Evacuation
1 Standstill
1 Counterspell
1 Unsubstantiate
1 Quicken

Red (7)
1 Ion Storm
1 Fireball
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Punishing Fire
1 Pyroclasm
1 Firecat Blitz
1 Vandalblast

Multicolor (3)
1 Electrolyze
1 Decimate
1 Savage Twister

(0)

Friend #2: This guy tends to build a few more straight forward decks. he tends to be more of the spikey player but is less strategic overall than myself or Friend 1, this is probably just that its less important and puts less effort/thought overall (more odd plays than either of us would tend to make). he is also more aggressive in general, willing to make mediocre or worse trades (for who knows why) but it is good that it helsp move things a long. if just me and friend 1 it can get weird :/

Land (3)
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Arid Mesa
1 Jungle Shrine

Artifacts (6)
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sunforger
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Captain's Claws
1 Blade of Selves
1 Whispersilk Cloak

Red (5)
1 Manamorphose
1 Reckless Bushwhacker
1 Firemantle Mage
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Legion Loyalist

White (10)
1 Mother of Runes
1 Whitemane Lion
1 Soltari Champion
1 Galepowder Mage
1 Stonehewer Giant
1 Subjugator Angel
1 Sentinel of the Eternal Watch
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Nahiri's Machinations
1 Rally the Peasants

Multicolor (3)
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Resolute Blademaster
1 Warleader's Helix

(0)

Whobetta: creator of cube, lover of all cards. I tend to play the most jank, and have the hardest time cutting down to a 40 card deck, so instead of worrying i tend to play more than 40. Teehee on me. It is typically due to playing a deck with utility or answers for different things and to get to 40 would essentially be trying to guess what answer would be best.... so i just incorporate them all thinking i will probably need them all.

Land (8)
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
1 Terramorphic Expanse

Artifact (4)
1 Filigree Familiar
1 Chimeric Egg
1 Crystalline Crawler
1 Prophetic Prism

Green (1)
1 Hurricane

Red (4)
1 Wrangle
1 Vow of Lightning
1 Acidic Soil
1 Act of Aggression

Blue (2)
1 Clone
1 Vow of Flight

White (4)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Restoration Specialist
1 Vow of Duty

Black (9)
1 Innocent Blood
1 Smallpox
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Barter in Blood
1 Necromancy
1 Infernal Offering
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Thrull Parasite
1 Vow of Malice

Multicolor (2)
1 Possessed Skaab
1 Tainted Sigil

(0)

The entire game was hilarious, as my deck was essentially a very very low creature count deck with an immense amount of creature kill/hate for the opponents. The saddest thing was that Friend #1 decided on that specific day that he was going to build a freaking deck that had 0, that's right ZERO FUCKING CREATURES IN IT!!!!!! I was so disappointed. no one had ever tried to make the 2 decks that both #1 and I made and it made for very weird, long odd yet funny games.

I wound up getting the first kill off of an Acidic Soil for 7 to Friend #1. which was one of my win cons. I was all set a little later on to blast Friend #2 with a Hurricane off of my Crystalline Crawler for 10 killing him and me at the same time (I had 2 more life than him, but was able to suicide with Crawler to get myself a reset too) and not leave myself with a couple HP. However, friend #1 played COUNTERSPELL which completely decimated my strategy.

We sat there each with 1 kill, then got ourselves each to 2 kills... the final kill happened fairly quickly and quite a let down in that Friend #2 respawned around the same time i did, yet my board was quite poor while Friend #1 had killed me with a fireball to my head previously and Demonic Tutor'd after a recent respawn of his own. Friend #2 decided however on his turn to hit me for a chunk and a half with a Sunforger'd up Hero of Oxid Ridge and Soltari Champion or something and brought me under 10 (pretty much right after i came back). I had no reactionary spells so i knew i was pretty screwed at that point (most of my stuff was sorcery speed only)... it was Friend #1's turn after and he had just demonic tutor'd on his previous turn. he killed me the turn before that with a fireball (after his most recent respawn)... I didn't know at the time that he also drafted Rolling Thunder which is what he tutor'd and so he just domed me after i got whacked by Friend #2 and his big ass attack.

well the marathon game had to end some time, but was very anti-climactic. I had to laugh at the absurdity of the draft. my whole deck was based of killing both opponents creatures and putting VOWs on them so they couldn't attack me yet it was only half effective due to Friend #1's draft... crazy.

anyway fun decks and good times

whobetta · May 7, 2017

Woof, long time since i've posted on my cube... since the past few sets have come out I have made some fairly significant changes. I think for the better, but I feel like I am continuing to add a bit more power each time, and will really only continue to truly make sure that I don't add any Planeswalkers. But philosophy aside I wanted to add a bit of an update after we did a large SEALED edition.........

we essentially did a sealed on roads, by using 135 cards each in our pools.... I've listed the decks below created below, but would be wholly interested to see if given the pools for each if anyone would have done anything differently deck wise. I always find the deck creation process fascinating in what people see and put together, especially when the pools are this big (as I've noted many a times am the WORST deck trimmer in all the land - I want everything).

it is 9pm EST and I have finally completed Card Pool & Deck #1.....

EDIT: do you see 2 "DECK 1" spoiler tags... I don't know why I am seeing this, but i find it odd... anyway (its the bottom one)...

If anyone has any ideas for the deck crafted and ideas on what could be changed or what direction could have gone that would be appreciated. i can easily miss good interactions and so additional eye balls and thoughts on how to build and how to play are always welcome...

more to come with pools #2 and #3...

Card Pool #2 - WHITE

White - Creatures (3)
1 Mardu Woe-Reaper
1 Syndic of Tithes
1 Consul's Lieutenant

White - Instants (3)
1 Cloudshift
1 Harm's Way
1 Not Forgotten

White - Enchantments (1)
1 Oblivion Ring

Card Pool #2 - BLUE

Blue - Creatures (9)
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Dakra Mystic
1 Thrummingbird
1 Curious Homunculus
1 Waterfront Bouncer
1 Vizier of Tumbling Sands
1 Whirler Rogue
1 Body Double
1 Elder Deep-Fiend

Blue - Instants (11)
1 Circular Logic
1 Force Away
1 Miscalculation
1 Mana Leak
1 Remand
1 Unsubstantiate
1 Frantic Search
1 Ghostly Flicker
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Chilling Grasp
1 Evacuation

Blue - Sorceries (4)
1 Careful Study
1 Compulsive Research
1 Mystic Retrieval
1 Treasure Cruise

Blue - Enchantments (3)
1 Standstill
1 Vow of Flight
1 Control Magic

Card Pool #2 - RED

Red - Creatures (6)
1 Bloodlust Inciter
1 Torch Fiend
1 Ravenous Bloodseeker
1 Hanweir Garrison
1 Guttersnipe
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar

Red - Sorceries (7)
1 Reckless Charge
1 Rift Bolt
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Cathartic Reunion
1 Acidic Soil
1 Shower of Coals
1 Fireball

Red - Instants (4)
1 Lightning Axe
1 Fiery Temper
1 Impact Resonance
1 Blast from the Past

Card Pool #2 - GREEN

Green - Creatures (8)
1 Kessig Prowler
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Borderland Explorer
1 Champion of Rhonas
1 Cytoplast Root-kin
1 Genesis

Green - Instants (1)
1 Berserk

Green - Sorceries (2)
1 Mulch
1 Hurricane

Green - Enchantments (1)
1 Crop Sigil

Card Pool #2 - BLACK

Black - Creatures (13)
1 Bone Picker
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Viscera Dragger
1 Heir of Falkenrath
1 Malakir Cullblade
1 Undead Gladiator
1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Aetherborn Marauder
1 Noosegraf Mob
1 Distended Mindbender

Black - Instants (2)
1 Snuff Out
1 Dismember

Black - Sorceries (2)
1 Durress
1 Infernal Offering

Black - Enchantments (2)
1 Faith of the Devoted
1 Diabolic Servitude

Card Pool #2 - MULTI

Gruul (3)
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
1 Savage Twister

Rakdos (0)

Dimir (0)

Simic (3)
1 Bounding Krasis
1 Snakeform
1 Lashweed Lurker

Golgari (1)
1 Worm Harvest

Boros (2)
1 Truefire Paladin
1 Resolute Blademaster

Orzhov (1)
1 Cliffhaven Vampire

Selesnya (1)
1 Juniper Order Ranger

Azorious (3)
1 Skymark Roc
1 Thunderclap Wyvern
1 Migratory Route

Izzet (2)
1 Electrolyze
1 Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist

Card Pool #2 - COLORLESS

(0)

Card Pool #2 - LANDS

(0)

]
1 Woodland Cemetery

1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Drowned Catacombs
1 Polluted Delta
1 Arid Mesa
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Creek
1 Jungle Shrine
[/deck]

AGAIN, we play a 3 person multiplayer FFA, where we play to 3 kills in a modified infinite respawn ruleset. If you die, you shuffle all cards up and when it would be your turn to go essentially play a 5 turn bubble to start off and get a board presence (no allowable interactions) and are live on your turn 6.... If you are alive long enough to mill yourself you have suicided and unless someone caused you to actually draw a card you don't have in your deck or has taken your last card TO DRAW, then no one gets 1 point for your death and have successfully gotten out and get to restart. you can also kill yourself via life, as one player did last night by paying life when they were very very low in order to die before would have been killed conventionally by an opponent. (Acidic Soil is also good for this to get multiple kills and suicide yourself)

Anyway plan to get the rest of the decks up soon (day or so)

Un-Powered / Budget-ish 490 Cube (multiplayer minded)

Contributor

W/R/B

B/W/r

U/G/w

Contributor

Card Pool #1 - WHITE

"Card Pool #1 - BLUE"

Card Pool #1 - RED

Card Pool #1 - GREEN

Card Pool #1 - BLACK

Card Pool #1 - MULTI

Card Pool #1 - COLORLESS

Card Pool #1 - LANDS

Card Pool #2 - WHITE

Card Pool #2 - BLUE

Card Pool #2 - RED

Card Pool #2 - GREEN

Card Pool #2 - BLACK

Card Pool #2 - MULTI

Card Pool #2 - COLORLESS

Card Pool #2 - LANDS