Fanatic of Mogis in for Anger: Similar ability, similar story. Fanatic was in as soon as he was spoilt - possibly the new best red four-drop for Multiplayer. The competition isn't exactly stiff.
Boon Satyr in for Yavimaya Enchantress: My playgroup loves Boonie. So much so that they want to see him in over a generic fatty.
Spellheart Chimera in for Hypersonic Dragon: The search for a draftable Izzet creature not named Dominus of Fealty continues. Hypersonic was a last-pick. Spellheart may end up so as well, but at least it's going to force people into drafting Guttersnipe.dec.
Xenagos, the Reveler in for Rubblehulk: Power level jump, nothing more. I'm looking forward to suiting this guy up next to Sarkhan Vol and watching them run wild together.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in for Barrin's Spite: Pull the new Dimir 'walker, drop the weakest Dimir card. Simple. I'll be intrigued to see how Ashiok plays.
Burnished Hart in for Blade of the Bloodchief: Hart was some good mana-fixing and an artifact creature - two things that we haven't had a lot of. We're also a little overrun with equipment, and the Blade was easily the weakest of the bunch.
Nighthowler in for Urborg Syphon-Mage: My cube has somehow avoided having anything more than Lhurgoyf and Mortivore in it (skipping the more obvious Lord of Extinction and Bonehoard), but Nighthowler was too good to leave out. Syphon-Mage was a good discard outlet, but we've got plenty of those. Draft Pack Rat instead - you'll thank me for it later.
Madcap Skills in for Pyretic Ritual: Nobody is using the fast red mana. Madcap is just that. Will end games.
Rapid Hybridization in for Ponder: Ponder was the only 1CC library manipulation spell we had, and it wasn't played too much. The replacement makes Frogs. Enough said.
Young Pyromancer in for Ashling the Pilgrim: A fringe playable Elemental goes out for something that makes more of them, and plays well with the Izzet Guttersnipe archetype we're trying to build on.
Phew!
The remaining enemy-coloured shocks and fetches come in when I am able to complete the sets (which is hopefully in the next three months or so). I've got the truly expensive cards already, thank goodness.
Underworld Cerberus in for Murderous Redcap: It was a good debate as to whether the Cerberus was good enough to make it in, but in the end, my Rakdos section is weak enough to allow it (I still need to get Olivia Voldaren in here too... don't worry, that's high on the To-Do List). Redcap was probably the weakest of the six Rakdos cards. It doesn't deal a lot of damage by itself, and is probably a two-card combo guy. As much as it gives Krenko one less Goblin to play with, it no longer has Juniper Order Ranger to combo with, and never had Melira, so its days were always numbered.
The Cerberus was somewhat lineball because it flat-out neuters reanimation and graveyard strategies - something that Rakdos is pretty good at in my cube, thanks to Recurring Nightmare, Sneak Attack, Magma Phoenix, Tortured Existence and a few others. That said, we probably needed another way around RN (which has been dominant), and there is probably a half-decent Rakos aggro/burn deck in there waiting to be built (especially once Olivia comes in). And it's one heck of an early beater, which I'm all for.
Time for the Born of the Gods Update!
Twenty-five changes, and only two of them are BotG cards!
Zendikar Fetches in for 3x Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds and Grove of the Guardian: This serves two purposes. Firstly, it gets all ten fetches into the cube. Secondly, it removes the last playset of four we had in the cube - it had four Terramorphic Expanses for the longest of times, in lieu of the fetches being here (and because people loved it). The cube actually started out with three playsets in it, back in the day - Terramorphics, plus Cloudpost and Glimmerpost. This change brings us finally to 360 singleton copies (as it should be). We've left Terramorphic #4 in for old-time's sake, and dropped Grove of the Guardian instead (simply because Terramorphic is well-loved, and Grove is by far the weakest of the five remaining utility lands we had).
Enemy Shocklands in for Enemy Signets: Another one with a little controversy. The plan was to move to ten shocks, ten fetches, ten Core Set duals and five utility lands. This was a great plan, apart from the fact that it would have required us to drop the Shards Tri-Lands to get these last five Shocks in, and that was a deal-breaker. The Tri-Lands are almost universally adored in my meta (even if they ETB tapped), as they easily allow for a small splash of a third colour (in what is admittedly a slow and gold-heavy cube anyway). And so we had to lop five from somewhere else. The Signets, good as they are, were the notable target. We decided to swap five artifacts out for five land to fit the Shocks in.
Olivia Voldaren in for Cryptborn Horror: Stonking change that I've been waiting on for a while. Olivia amps up Rakdos big-time in this cube. She plays beautifully with a lot of the existing Rakdos cards (even Underworld Cerberus).
Haunted Crossroads in for Recurring Nightmare: Our old friend RN basically got the banhammer. It was the unequivocal first pick in the cube, and produced too many broken plays. The card replacing it is far more balanced, and yet still capable of some damned good combos.
Gifts Ungiven in for Tinker: And Tinker got the banhammer too. Gifts is a very, very good replacement, though. Not too many in my meta are aware of the horrible things you can do with it yet. Someone, somewhere will pull it off soon.
Blatant Thievery in for Time Warp: Blue gets its top-of-the-curve finishing spell that it always wanted. Time Warp was the obvious victim - people were only ever using the extra turn to stall, really.
Talrand, Sky Summoner in for Thieving Magpie: Another guy comes in to push the Izzet Guttersnipe archetype. He'll provide better flying defense than the Magpie, too.
Fate Unraveler in for Mortivore: Unraveler was the only real "I have to have this in the cube" BotG card we had. It went straight in over Mortivore (who was essentially superseded by Nighthowler in the Theros update anyway).
Mortify in for Death Grasp: A little more enchantment removal (as enchantments are quite strong right now) for about the worst X spell in the cube.
Punishing Fire in for Seething Song: No-one was using the one-shot mana acceleration in the cube, and Seething Song was the last vestige of it that remained. Punishing Fire is a repeatable spell for Izzet Guttersnipe.
One more change that snuck into the BotG update, thanks to the EDH Banhammer.
Sylvan Primordial in for Verdant Force: The Primordial got banned in EDH, but not here. It fell out of one of my Commander decks and straight into the cube. I was wondering when the day would come when Verdant lost his crown as a viable multiplayer finisher for green. We think it's finally here. Hard to put him ahead of Primordial, PrimeTime, Hydra Omnivore and Liege of the Tangle. He was pretty close with the Liege, but that's got trample, is easier to cast in a multicoloured deck, and is an Elemental (so it can be flashed out with Incandescent Soulstoke). Plus, he breaks our golden rule - if you cost three of a single colour to play, you'd better be winning the game for me. Verdant won't do that these days (he'll likely just eat removal instead).
Two small changes ahead of some expected movement with Journey into Nyx and Conspiracy.
Engulfing Slagwurm in for Sylvan Primordial: The Primordial has been very popular... too popular. And a little too broken. Given it can be used for land destruction while also ramping its controller, it was resulting in massive swings in board state, especially once there was recursion involved (and one night in particular where it was paired with Deadeye Navigator to game-winning effect). This needs to become Terastodon long-term (which is much the same effect, just a lot less swingy). For now, Engulfing Slagwurm is here as a placeholder - a Limited bomb, and a good, aggressive green fatty. I'll be interested to see if it turns heads while it has its moment in the sun.
Scourge of Geier Reach in for Ingot Chewer: Still an Elemental for tribal purposes, just infinitely fatter and better. Ingot Chewer was becoming a popular last-pick. Scourge is going to be getting picked a lot higher.
Righty-ho, finally able to discuss JOU / M15 / Conspiracy / new stuff that fell out of decks changes. We've been waiting on a whole pile of cards to arrive, and I'm finally down to a single one that is arriving in the next week. So, without further ado... Journey into Nyx
What, you expected me to have something in here?
We had a single one in the end. I'd like to get Prophetic Flamespeaker in too, but I can wait for his price to drop first.
Battlefield Thaumaturge in for Fog Bank: The latter was a boring wall that no-one picked. Thaumaturge is a good, fun 2-drop that pushes Izzet Guttersnipe.
Conspiracy
TBH, I was expecting this list to be bigger halfway through the spoilers for CNS, but it's given us a pile all the same. Good set for our cube.
Altar of Dementia in for Font of Mythos: No-one was playing the group hug cards, and the Altar is incredible. I think I've wanted copies for nigh on 15 years.
Brago, King Eternal in for Cloud Cover: He wasn't exactly facing stiff competition in Azorius to get in anyway, but I think Brago's going to be sneaky-good. I'm waiting for his first connect with a face.
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden in for Rakdos's Return: Return was a sub-optimal burn spell, really, in comparison to the others we are rocking. It always disappointed me a little as I resolved it. Grenzo is exactly the same CC and good fun.
Extract from Darkness in for Tidehollow Strix: A lot of people excited to see this one in. Fits like a glove in our Dimir theme ATM, next to Consuming Aberration and Ashiok.
Deathreap Ritual in for Doomgape: Card advantage that was simply too good to pass up. This should trigger a lot in our meta, and is replacing the card that is definitely Golgari Card #5 of 5.
M15
A few here, too!
Profane Memento in for Howling Mine: This likely a stop-gap for now, but it's better than it looks - it triggers on mill, discard and all sorts of other things. Howling Mine was getting last-picked, so it's a win no matter what.
Chasm Skulker in for Kira, Great Glass-Spinner: Kira has always been good, but is a negative card and does not interact well with equipment and auras (which our cube is full of). You often had to play around her once she was out. Skulker was simply too good not to add. The dream is to have the following start - Turn 1 Sol Ring, Turn 2 Rhystic Study, Turn 3 this, hold on for the ride.
Spirit Bonds in for Gift of Immortality: Our group would like to start pushing token production a little more, and this is Luminarch Ascension Lite. Gift was OK, but that was its problem - it was only OK.
Soldier Tribal
Our group discussed the half-existing Solider tribe, and what we wanted to do to make it viable. Otherwise, we were going to drop it entirely. And here is the result. Bear in mind that these cards already have Field Marshal, Mobilization, Hero of Bladehold and Assemble the Legion to play with.
Captain of the Watch in for Adarkar Valkyrie: Valkyrie was pretty good, but didn't get a huge amount of run for something that is supposed to be one of White's top beatsticks. The Captain is another lord of the Soldiers, and a quintessential army-in-a-can. I've already had to face him down once since he's gone in, and he's been pretty impressive.
Knight-Captain of Eos in for Reveillark: A couple of people were concerned that this guy might lead to too much negative fogging, but he fails the Vindicate Test pretty hard, so I'm not too worried (yet). He's also a Knight if you've been drafting Knight Tribal instead. Has proved particularly handy in his limited views so far
Additional Awesome
A few upgrades that we wanted to make.
Aura Gnarlid in for Elvish Farmer: Poor Elvish Farmer. He was the bomb in his day. Now he's a last-pick. Gnarlid is going to feast inside the Enchantress archetype.
Mirrorweave in for Wall of Denial: The most negative card in the cube goes out for something that has already been incredible fun (it got pointed at a Consecrated Sphinx first time out, for many LOLs).
Reforge the Soul in for In the Web of War: More sorceries and card draw for red, Reforge is the business. It'll refill the red player's hand when they start to top-deck. ItWoW is pretty good, but expensive to cast for what it does, and a few people shied away from it for that reason.
Zealous Conscripts in for Hunted Dragon: And another better red 5-drop. This one is to try and replicate the post in the "It Can Only Happen in Cube Draft" thread a few months back... Pod + Vat + Conscripts. Ouch!
Wickerbough Elder in for Golgari Grave-Troll: Alas for Party Troll, nobody wanted to dredge with 40 card decks and Consuming Aberration running around. Wickerbough has been pushing to get in for a while, and is very good.
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary in for Wellwisher: Straight Elf upgrade. Elf Tribal is beginning to lean towards a green ramp archetype in our cube, so we may as well help it along.
Heat Shimmer in for Planeswalker's Fury: Red 3-drops are hard at the best of times, but a few of us were convinced that Planeswalker's Fury as card #360 in the cube. Heat Shimmer is at least more useful, and will fit the Izzet Guttersnipe archetype.
It's great inspiration to see a multiplayer cube last for so long.
We have a normal cube in our playgroup so I built a multiplayer cube for something different. So far it's just a conspiracy set cube and the first play went well. It will stay that way for the next draft but after that I wan't to start customizing it.
It was great to read through your adventures as it backed up a couple of theories I had but hadn't tested. Namely I wan't the cube proactive, I know aggro might not be forceable but I can put in a lot of stuff with dethrone, raid etc to keep people moving.
I am really glad that 360 is working out for you. That's the number I wanted but our playgroup fluctuates and so it is possible we get more than the 4 or 5 I expect. first time round we had 7 so I think I want enough for 9 players just in case.
It's great inspiration to see a multiplayer cube last for so long.
We have a normal cube in our playgroup so I built a multiplayer cube for something different. So far it's just a conspiracy set cube and the first play went well. It will stay that way for the next draft but after that I wan't to start customizing it.
It was great to read through your adventures as it backed up a couple of theories I had but hadn't tested. Namely I wan't the cube proactive, I know aggro might not be forceable but I can put in a lot of stuff with dethrone, raid etc to keep people moving.
I am really glad that 360 is working out for you. That's the number I wanted but our playgroup fluctuates and so it is possible we get more than the 4 or 5 I expect. first time round we had 7 so I think I want enough for 9 players just in case.
Thanks! Yeah, the move to 360 has been fantastic - it kicked a lot of the dross out of the cube. I can only count a handful of cards now that are making up the numbers (and most of those are red).
About half my playgroup has been playing Multiplayer for close to 20 years now, so we've got used to recognising the things that tank a Multiplayer game and making it drag on for hours - that's the reason this cube is more proactive and shuns the standard Multiplayer control cards like Propaganda and Limited Resources. It takes away from blue a bit, but it sure makes the games more enjoyable. Keeping the resets down has been important too - at one point, my meta averaged a complete board wipe every six turns or so, and it's hard to get anything done (or have any level of fun) in that environment! So, yeah, I highly recommend doing the same!
I do really need to get back to posting some of the draft reports on here too, now that I have a bit of access back here again - glad to hear that they're helping people!
One day, I'll talk my bunch into tracking their picks, too. We had a draft a week or two back where we drafted for 3-on-3 team play, and one guy just first-picked all the removal, along with Guttersnipe, Panoptic Mirror and Isochron Scepter - perfect foil/support deck for his teammates, brutal for the opposition!
Beacon of Unrest in for Painful Quandary: The Bacon fell out of a deck of mine (replaced by an Extract from Darkness for a bit of variety), and deserved to be in here. Quandary was a negative card that people were happy to replace. I love that Bacon recurs artifacts too. (looks sideways at Nev's Disk)
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind in for Call the Skybreaker: A new Izzet bomb comes in. Call won games, but was very, very grindy (recursable 7CC cards are like that). While Niv is on my "how hard are you to cast?" watch list, he is going to cause a lot more shenanigans once out than Call did.
Nivix Guildmage in for Spellheart Chimera: I have a feeling we even admitted back at the Theros update that the Chimera was a stop-gap... well, it's been main-decked about once since then, and is roundly hated. Time to euthanise it! We almost brought in the Guildmage during the RtR update, so we'll give it a shot.
Our Izzet changes were aimed at sprucing the old girl up a bit. No-one played the Chimera. I also questioned whether Dominus of Fealty was making it into play, but that is loved enough to stay. We also looked at bringing in Djinn Illuminatus, but a 7CC guy with no immediate board impact was deemed too weak.
Izzet is now about getting Nivix Guildmage, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Mercurial Chemister into play at the same time and bamboozling people with your incredible skills. Dominus remains, and is good once out. Steam Augury is Izzet card #5, remaining to support the spells-matter suite. We had our eye on Mindswipe from KTK as well, but I suspect this will now stay out.
And once we made the above changes...
As promised, a return of the match reports!
We drafted exactly half the cube between the four of us, aiming for both free-for-all and team play as we drafted. It was me, my resident Johnny Combo, my mate who admits that he always seems to draft Dimir or Esper, and his significant other.
Johnny Combo got halfway through the draft, watched Consuming Aberration do a lap and come back to him, and realised that no-one was drafting blue. We then proceeded to hand Deadeye Navigator to him in the same fashion. He was pretty happy that he flip-flopped his draft strategy halfway through Pack 2.
I'm fuzzy on the last couple of cards in each of the decks, but this is roughly what got played.
I drafted Orzhov with a red splash for a couple of good cards, and wound up with the following deck.
Once I lucked into Knight Exemplar (having already drafted Sun Titan and Mirran Crusader), I set about purposely trying to draft as many 3CC-or-less bombs that could be recurred by Sun Titan. I first-picked Loxodon Warhammer, Mirran Crusader and Austere Command.
After all my hard work of drafting Sun Titan plus 3CC-or-lower things, my all-star turned out to be Nighthowler. It impacted the board every time it landed, and often landed in tandem with the Warhammer, resulting in some epic creatures (including a 12/9 trampling, lifelinking Solemn Simulacrum). The most fun play it pulled off was aiming Sundering Growth at an opponent's threat and being able to populate a Pack Rat token for style points.
Surprisingly, I barely saw the red side of the deck. I landed Vengeant, and he did his usual stellar work, but no Hateflayer anywhere to be seen. Same went for Mirrorweave and Whip of Erebos, though.
Johnny Combo ended up drafting Grixis with a splash of the other two colours(after starting in Rakdos and bleeding into blue):
We ended up playing 2HG with all possible pairings.
Game 1 saw myself and Ms. Gruul paired up against Johnny Combo and Esper Guy. I promptly sucked at actually drawing land for almost the entire game, and Johnny Combo's removal kept Ms. Gruul in check until Esper Guy Exsanguinated for lethal.
Game 2 saw me paired up with Johnny Combo vs. the happy couple. This was the game in which I managed to land a 12/9 Warhammer-wearing Solemn Simulacrum. He was ably backed up by Coffin Queen and Havengul Lich returning anything of interest for Johnny Combo. Esper Guy had a Stalker wearing a Boon Satyr, but we were able to gain all the damage back and then some each time we swung in return. Ms. Gruul gave us a big blip by resolving Conquering Manticore and stealing the Simulacrum for a fine turn of return fire, but Johnny Combo drew RSZ to take their final life points.
Game 3 saw the final pairing - myself and Esper Guy up against Johnny Combo and Ms. Gruul. And the Esper deck decided to take off while I drew my removal and kept everyone's creatures in check. Mulldrifter began wearing a Nighthowler for a suit and dealing an impressive amount of damage. In return, we were getting Silklash Spider rocking Verdant Embrace and Mage Slayer from Ms. Gruul, and Esper Guy was drawing through his deck with Yawgmoth's Bargain for the answers, so we ended up very low on life. Thankfully, I had Knight Exemplar and Worship out to keep us alive with, and Johnny Combo and Ms. Gruul had no answers. In the end, Epser Guy dug up Treasury Thrull to extort our way to victory.
So a great night. Given we only had half the cube in play, we only saw two of our new adds decked - Captain of the Watch and Brago, King Eternal. Brago came at us for some face damage in Game 3, and we had to Path it on the spot - as predicted, it is sneakily dangerous if you leave it alone. El Capitan was solid again - he's earning his salt already.
Okay, your opportunity to help pimp the cube out.
We have about $20 left in the KTK update budget. What would you do out of the following? Prices are according to CFB, where we are already doing other purchases as a group.
$1.99 - Siege-Gang Commander. Haven't had this guy in until now, and probably should have. Would drop Magma Phoenix or Lightning Dragon. Now has enough Goblins to play with, too (thanks to Krenko and Goblinslide).
$1.99 - Beast Within. Green removal that should have been in before now. Would drop Exploration.
$2.69 - Cyclonic Rift. We've resisted the temptation until now. Would drop High Tide for it.
$4.99 - Utter End. The only KTK card in here. Would drop Mortify.
$5.39 - Diaochan, Artful Beauty. Would drop Lightning Dragon or FTK. Political, and better in FFA than 2HG, but still pretty good for a red 4-drop.
$5.99 - Huntmaster of the Fells. Would drop Fires of Yavimaya. Would continue Gruul's tokens and burn strategy too (thanks to Sarkhan Vol, Xenagos and Dragonlair Spider).
$6.29 - Ral Zarek. Would come in for Steam Augury. Good 'walker. But is it wise to strip out an Izzet spell for something that doesn't necessarily Izzet like the rest of 'em?
$7.19 - Kalonian Hydra. Awesome card, but would have to drop one of Acidic Slime / Deranged Hermit / Silklash Spider / Thragtusk / Wickerbough Elder to get in (all of which are pretty much universally loved).
$7.99 - Mind's Eye. Quintessential MP artifact that should have been in here ages ago. Would drop Jayemdae Tome for this.
$8.99 - Deathrite Shaman. DRS is fantastic, but hard to get in. Would probably have to drop Glissa to make it happen.
Oracle of Mul-Daya and Kokusho, the Evening Star are both great, but if you get both of those, you don't have much room for other stuff.
[c]Mind's Eye[c] is another strong one, but also on the expensive side. Cyclonic Rift, Beast Within, Siege-Gang Commander, and Everflowing Chalice are all great. I'd start with those four, which puts you to just under $8. That leaves room for only one of the three more expensive options. I'd say of those, Mind's Eye is the best since it's playable in more decks and just a lot better than the slot it's replacing. That leaves you around $16, so you can fit about $4 in. If you can squeeze $22 out of your budget, I'd say go with Pernicious Deed as the best $6 card there.
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Everflowing Chalice
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(unsolicited suggestion, hope you don't mind) Staff of Nin for Urza's Blueprints - Staff of Nin only costs a $.80 and the echo cost on blueprints is steep.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
(unsolicited suggestion, hope you don't mind) Staff of Nin for Urza's Blueprints - Staff of Nin only costs a $.80 and the echo cost on blueprints is steep.
Don't mind one bit! One of the guys in my group actually suggested this very change about six months ago, and I'd clean forgotten about it! Hmm... how far does my budget stretch...
After all your wonderful feedback, it was pretty obvious that it should be the four cheapies everyone mentioned (Chalice / Siege-Gang / Beast Within / Cyclonic Rift), along with two bombs.
At the moment, the proposal is Huntmaster and Deed (but man, is it ever hard to leave Mind's Eye and Kokusho off!), and if I don't have anyone in the group rabidly object in the next day or two, I suspect this is what we'll do.
Missing Kokusho is made easier by the fact that I think I might be freeing up a copy of Sheoldred for the same slot... not a bad consolation prize. And also potentially a Myr Battlesphere coming in for Stuffy Doll. Should be a good update, this one.
The purchase is in, and it will indeed be Chalice / Beast Within / Siege-Gang / Cyclonic / Huntmaster / Deed.
Battlesphere is coming in too, but I didn't have a Sheoldred falling out of a deck in the end.
But I do have Wight of Precinct Six falling out, and I did have enough left in the budget to get Staff of Nin, too (yay!)
Kokusho, Mind's Eye and Sheoldred are now at the front of the queue for my next purchase (which is, alas, February... I need to give my significant others the opportunity to buy off my want list for Christmas or my birthday, between now and then!)
So the changes for this update will be:
Everflowing Chalice in for Profane Memento: More ramp, proliferates like a champ, Tezz fetches it for free... happy days. Memento was filling a slot, nothing more.
Beast Within in for Exploration: The removal spell that green wanted, in for the ramp enchantment that it didn't. I love Exploration, but it runs out of steam fast if you're not continually drawing (which is why Oracle of Mul Daya is better). In our games, it was good until about T3, and then a dead draw from that point on.
Siege-Gang Commander in for Lightning Dragon: No-one was playing the dragon, as good as it is. Siege-Gang already combos with Krenko, as well as Goblinslide below. Try not to think what it's capable of next to Conspiracy in a Rakdos draft...
Cyclonic Rift in for High Tide: Rift is the bounce spell that blue wanted, and is a high pick. Tide had the same problem as Exploration - for ramp, it was too often a dead draw.
Huntmaster of the Fells in for Fires of Yavimaya: Gruul is now completely stonkingly dedicated to aggro token creation, and I love it. This guy alongside Xenagos, Sarkhan and Dragonlair Spider is just fun, fun times. Fires will always be an iconic card, but people weren't decking it. They'll sure deck Huntmaster.
Pernicious Deed in for Putrefy: Because removing lots of things is always better than removing one thing.
Myr Battlesphere in for Stuffy Doll: Stuffy was fun, but wasn't decked often, and was somewhat of a negative defensive card. No-one will ever mistake Myrball for that. I'm looking forward to recurring it for a bucket of Myr.
Staff of Nin in for Urza's Blueprints: Almost a strictly better card. There isn't a lot of pinging in the cube at the moment, either, so this will be useful.
Wight of Precinct Six in for Reassembling Skeleton: A new fatty boombah in for a little recursion guy that didn't get used a lot (he doesn't have too many sac outlets to work with, to be fair). Wight is a Zombie too, and likes the Dimir mill archetype as well.
Goblinslide in for Heat Shimmer: The only KTK card we're adding for now. Works nicely with both Izzet and Siege-Gang.
I've got the proposed changes reflected already on CubeTutor, if you want to draft the shiny new toys.
We also had a 3vs3 draft last week, and saw the following deck absolutely rock out. This is a rough approximation of what my mate played, but you get the idea...
Given we were playing 3-on-3, this deck was given the opportunity to durdle around and ramp until it drew Blatant Thievery. We played two games, and each time it resolved it, it was dirty. In the first game, it stole a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad that was ready to ultimate. In the second, it resolved, and then Snapcaster Mage gave it a second try the next turn (which was pretty much GG). Niiice stuff.
Given we were playing 3-on-3, this deck was given the opportunity to durdle around and ramp until it drew Blatant Thievery. We played two games, and each time it resolved it, it was dirty. In the first game, it stole a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad that was ready to ultimate. In the second, it resolved, and then Snapcaster Mage gave it a second try the next turn (which was pretty much GG). Niiice stuff.
Gross. Only a fresh scrub and a hot shower can fix this nastiness.
This deck almost pulled the whole thing off. Mimic Vat justified my decision to first-pick it. It landed on Turn 3, had Malignus under it by Turn 5, and Malignus got Whispersilk Cloak on Turn 6 to start halving people's life totals.
This kept it hanging around in the mid-game until it really started going to down and dropping Consuming Aberration and Memnarch. Three of us went down to the wire, but the Selesnya Soldiers deck across the table managed to win thanks to a piggie holding SoFaI and getting through with Rogue's Passage (which had a hand in winning again).
I must add that I picked Deathreap Ritual highly and managed to get it into play for the first time for us... and it is better than advertised. The card draw it gave me was insane. People were throwing their Sakura-Tribe Elders and Yavimaya Elders overboard as usual without giving thought to the fact I was going to draw cards off it, and coupled with the usual high attrition of creatures, I drew gobloads. It actually (*gasp*) has the potential to give more raw card advantage than Rhystic Study (which opponents can and will work around).
Hi - thanks for posting such a great cube! I saw the list and I'm attempting to recreate it right now for my first cube and I'm about 80 cards deep.
I wanted to ask if you had any further updates post KTK release - I've opened a lot of Khans and was wondering if you've since added any other cards from the set other than Goblinslide?
Thanks again for posting a great cube! I look forward to drafting this once it's complete.
Hi - thanks for posting such a great cube! I saw the list and I'm attempting to recreate it right now for my first cube and I'm about 80 cards deep.
I wanted to ask if you had any further updates post KTK release - I've opened a lot of Khans and was wondering if you've since added any other cards from the set other than Goblinslide?
Thanks again for posting a great cube! I look forward to drafting this once it's complete.
Hi! Santa is traditionally nice to the cube after December and January (my birthday falls a few weeks after, so I usually hold off on purchases, in case others are buying off my want list)!
At the moment, Goblinslide is the only card in, but the next update will likely find room for Utter End and Clever Impersonator. If Santa brings me a copy of Sarkhan, he will go in too, but that's about it - everything else is basically tri-colour, which I've avoided putting in the cube in the past. Utter End will likely come in for Unmake (although there's a fair argument to swap Mortify too), and Clever Impersonator would probably come in for Body Double (without looking or thinking too hard about it, anyway).
If, by chance, I do pull Sarkhan, he would be a straight-up swap for Chandra Nalaar.
Glad you enjoy the list, and hope it's going to prove a blast for you guys too!
FWIW, seeing as you're trying to produce a similar list, my Christmas Wish List contains the following cards that are on my hitlist to get into the cube as budget allows... (in other words, if Santa doesn't bring them, I'll knock them off one by one myself)
Three small changes that our playgroup agreed to, ahead of what should be a fairly major update in February...
Chord of Calling in for Birthing Pod: The Chord was a booster pull over Christmas, and the group agreed that while it was a one-shot and a triple-green CC, it was still better than Pod (which is hard to draft around - I am certainly guilty of thinking I'd stuck that CC4 critter in my deck when activating the Pod, only to be disappointed). Pod remains a great card, and the copy is hanging around in case we put it back in, but Dolono put it best in the Multiplayer/EDH Cube Thread - "It's easy to build around in Modern, but not in Cube".
Goblin Bombardment in for Madcap Skills: Bombardment should have been in my cube a long time ago. A couple of my newer playgroup members have never played with it, and wondered what made it better than Madcap. My reply was "Try drafting this after Assemble the Legion in the next draft, and then tell me".
Vizkopa Guildmage in for Ashen Rider: The Guildmage was another card that should have been put in ages ago, really - it has no less than 22 other cards to work with that are capable of producing lifegain... in Orzhov decks alone! Once we start considering blue, green or red cards, that number rises further, so it's not going to be lacking in things to work with. It was extremely tight deciding what to piff for it - Rider was in a fight to the death with Treasury Thrull, and it took us a good week to figure out which of the two to drop. In the end, Rider has a nasty CC if you want to hardcast it, and Orzhov still has plenty of removal without it. The Thrull will work with the Guildmage, too.
Hey, just wanted to say that I really like your cube! always refreshing to see a list that is not just the same collection of powerhouses again and again.
I drafted a nice BRW Midrange build recently
Thanks! Great to see other people enjoying giving it a spin online! Mardu actually seems quite a strong tri-colour combination nowadays (especially after this update).
So my birthday came and went, and I got ruined (as did the cube). Pro tip for those of you maintaining cubes - "If you're struggling to find me birthday presents, here's my Cube want list that I just so happened to have over here..." makes for great birthdays (as is your wife surprising you with a box of Khans... it's been a good week)! Nine changes, and a lot of power into the cube:
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker in for Chandra Nalaar: As soon as that box of KTK was even a remote possibility, this guy was the number one thing I wanted to pull out of it. And the bloke upstairs was kind to me! Chandra has been our sole red walker virtually since the cube's inception, and has always been somewhat underwhelming in comparison to the walkers in other colours (although, to be fair, red has always had this problem in Multiplayer). Sarkhan is definitely a step up in the power level department at the same CC.
Wingmate Roc in for Wall of Reverence: A strong mythic that encourages attacking, swapped in for what I believe was the last wall in the cube. A positive change, for sure!
High Sentinels of Arashin in for Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile: Brigid had been in almost since the Cube's inception (I believe she may have been the last survivor of Kithkin Tribal, which should give you a hint as to how long it's been)! By now, she was almost Card #360, and almost certainly the lowest pick of the white creatures. High Sentinels is not going to set the world on fire, but it's certainly a lot stronger and more playable than Brigid, and combos nicely with a few other cards in the cube (notably Ajani Goldmane and a certain card that you'll see lower down in this list).
Utter End in for Unmake: I'd argue that Utter End is actually an easier cast than Unmake - it's certainly more splashable in decks that are otherwise non-black or non-white. Coupled with the fact that it exiles almost anything while Unmake only hit creatures, it was an easy swap to make.
Ral Zarek in for Steam Augury: Probably the first card in the Cube that actually says "Pick me, I'm great! And now draft Izzet from here!"... Ral comes in for what was undoubtedly the lowest Izzet card (as much as it's good, it's not powerful).
Oracle of Mul Daya in for Lhurgoyf: Our Goyf was definitely the odd card out in our green four-drops... he's been on the chopping block for a while, so he was an easy cut. The Oracle is going take green ramp decks to the next level (and I'm hoping should help produce some good Gruul ramp/burn decks in particular).
Deathrite Shaman in for Glissa, the Traitor: Glissa was definitely the odd one out in what is a very tight guild. She's very much a two-card combo with Expedition Map, even if she is a terrific defender. DRS is just incredible, and will be picked over Glissa every day and twice on Sundays.
Cathars' Crusade in for Celestial Mantle: Crusade is a card I'd had my eye on for a while as a potential add - given white's part of the Enchantress archetype, and is also increasingly becoming token-oriented, Crusade becomes a legitimate game-winner (for both archetypes, almost). And then I was handed a copy at almost the same time we were deciding to put High Sentinels in the cube... clearly meant to be! Celestial Mantle was another card that had been in almost since the cube's inception, broke our triple-colour CC rule (if you cost three of a single colour, you should be trying to win the game on resolution), and was easily two-for-one'd as an Aura.
Desertion in for Inexorable Tide: This is the first of three scheduled changes that remove Proliferate from the cube (we really only had three of these cards left in the Tide, Viral Drake and Thrummingbird, and no-one really drafted it). The other two will likely both go in our FRF update, but the Tide was one we could do now. I wanted to up the number of counterspells in the cube, given that Insurrection and Blatant Thievery have been winning games with reckless abandon of late. Desertion had a tour of duty very early on, but probably didn't get a great run to prove itself. And it fits blue very well at the moment.
Okay, so we made all of those changes last night, and then drafted the entire cube out.
Six people, four boosters each, 50 card decks. Fun. Was. Had.
It had been a while since I'd had a draft absolutely fall in my lap, and last night made up for it in spades. I got one lap of the six players into the first booster, and realized no-one else had drafted green at that point. So I went for it, and it stayed that way almost through the entire draft - I basically had Golgari served up to me on a platter (including Prime Time as a sixth pick!), and ended up with what is almost the Golgari deck to end all Golgari decks.
We suited up for three 3-on-3 team games. I had my resident Spike, my resident Johnny, Esper Guy, Esper Guy's fiancée and one other guy who I don't think I've named on here before (he's really good at building intricate tribal decks in normal FFA, like Clerics and Rebels, so I'll just call him Tribal Dude for now until it sticks).
Spike and Esper Fiancée both drafted Izzet, and both made it work. Spike picked up Ral Zarek, Guttersnipe, Talrand and enough fuel to make them work. Esper Fiancée picked up the fat end of the guild, getting Nivix Guildmage, Niv-Mizzet and Insurrection (she also splashed green for Sarkhan Vol and Dragonlair Spider).
Esper Guy got two-thirds of the way to living up to his nickname, drafting Azorius token control.
Johnny drafted Boros, and went for all of my shiny new mythics, picking Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Wingmate Roc.
Tribal Dude drafted Esper (ha!), finding room for Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Havengul Lich.
We rolled for teams, and I wound up with Spike and Esper Guy, up against a team of Johnny, Fiancée and Tribal Dude.
And that would be where my deck started with T1 Deathrite, T3 Garruk, T4 Deathreap Ritual, T5 Consuming Aberration... and it just kept rolling from there. Spike backed me up beautifully with some well-timed removal, while Esper Guy got Knight-Captain of Eos + Mobilization online for a while as defense. I eventually got Sword of Body and Mind onto the Aberration, ultimated Garruk, and squished the other team flat.
Round two with the same teams, and I started with T1 Birds of Paradise, T3 Garruk (and yes, the other team was starting to get sick of seeing Garruk, even at this early stage!). We had some to-and-fro until I used Chainer to resurrect Fiancée's dead Niv-Mizzet, resolved Primeval Titan in the same turn, and Spike then kicked a Rite of Replication on it... with Guttersnipe and Talrand on the table... the other team got a turn before being overrun by Prime Times.
After that, we re-rolled for teams to keep it interesting. That resulted in Johnny swapping sides with Esper Guy.
This time around, I had Deathrite Shaman on T1 again, but no Garruk. Instead, I could have resolved Consuming Aberration on T4, but he would have been a paltry 1/1, and would have been swiftly removed. I cast Chainer instead, and my problems were compounded by Esper Guy casting Spitting Image on it... so he had a Chainer too, and if he drew a land, he'd also have a copy of Consuming Aberration should I cast it... that's not cool. I ended up having to get it out of his yard with DRS! Fiancée was also having fun - she had resolved both Sarkhan Vol and Dragonlair Spider, and was producing tokens and stealing things for the turn like no tomorrow. I cast Steel Hellkite and then went to stick Sword of Feast and Famine onto it, only for Tribal Dude to Murder it (the second time he'd axed my Hellkite that night before I equipped something to it!)... a move that would have otherwise handed us control, given that the other side had nothing capable of blocking the Hellkite if it was wearing the Sword. They knew Chainer was bringing it back next turn, so they had to find a way of winning in their turn. Fiancée top-decked Insurrection and thought she had the game until the team realised she'd lose both Chainers (mine, and the Spitting Image copy across the table), along with the Nightmares they'd produced, leaving us still alive after an attack. That forced her to stare at her hand again... and notice the Mirrorweave... and then realize that Spike across the table had a Guttersnipe... and she had a million Insect tokens off of Dragonlair Spider... and Reforge the Soul in her hand, too... End of story, she had twelve creatures on her side of the table that all became Guttersnipes in short order, and she then resolved the Reforge for a grand total of 72 damage. Ouch! Game over!
The cube felt very well rounded (A win for Izzet! Powerful red things! Don't tell me we've turned the corner here...). Out of the nine new cards that we swapped in...
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker was drafted by Johnny, and made it into play once. He immediately blew Guttersnipe off the table, got a swing in as a dragon, and then got axed in the head. But he certainly impacted the board in his one appearance.
Wingmate Roc was also drafted by Johnny, and hit the board twice. It stuck around and made a real nuisance of itself both times (in the first game, we killed the Roc relatively quickly, but its token hung around for ages. The fact that we killed the Roc and not its token ended up mattering later on... Pernicious Deed went off for 0, which killed the token (but wouldn't have killed the Roc in the same situation). It got a fair bit of attacking done.
High Sentinels of Arashin, Cathars' Crusade and Utter End didn't get sighted. I don't know who drafted them, but I would not be at all surprised if Tribal Dude ended up drafting Utter End, decking it, and just not seeing it, given his colours.
Ral Zarek was drafted by Spike, and got into play twice. He was wonderful both times he hit the board, although he never lasted long (as Spike was throwing his -2 ability around with abandon). He proved to be pretty nice next to Mercurial Chemister, though!
Deathrite Shaman landed in my deck, came out on T1 twice, and was a complete and utter house. Took people's fetches from their graveyards multiple times for extra mana (including the blue I needed to resolve Consuming Aberration) and dealt six damage to the opposing team twice (including stripping out an offending Spitting Image that was waiting to be retraced). I didn't use the third ability, but I can see it being used a lot in response to reanimation tricks down the track. If anyone out there is wanting to know if DRS loses steam in a Multiplayer cube... quite the opposite. It's a complete and utter Golgari staple, and I should have had one in my cube much earlier in hindsight. Don't suit up Golgari in your MP cube without DRS, Deed and Deathreap Ritual at this point (we can argue about the other two cards, for sure)!
Oracle of Mul Daya was in my deck, but I never drew it in three games. I would have abused the heck out of it had I seen it.
Desertion got drafted by Esper Guy, and I believe he decked it, but we never saw it resolved. He declared his undying love for it after the game regardless (and his Fiancée, who'd never even seen the card before, read it and said "Wow... that is good").
Wingmate Roc in for Wall of Reverence: A strong mythic that encourages attacking, swapped in for what I believe was the last wall in the cube. A positive change, for sure!
I was umming and ahhing about adding Wingmate so this was enough to get me off the fence.
I had been concentrating on finishing my modern deck (and building a tiny leaders deck)and with that now in the books it's been really fun coming up with upgrades for my multiplayer cube.
Wingmate Roc in for Wall of Reverence: A strong mythic that encourages attacking, swapped in for what I believe was the last wall in the cube. A positive change, for sure!
I was umming and ahhing about adding Wingmate so this was enough to get me off the fence.
Yeah, it's been pretty good at hanging around... two fat fliers for five mana is value.
Hope it plays as nicely for you too!
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Firstly, the second batch of Theros changes come through...
... then we have some fun land additions that took a lot of work...
... and finally, a couple of randoms that we've been meaning to get around to for a while...
Phew!
The remaining enemy-coloured shocks and fetches come in when I am able to complete the sets (which is hopefully in the next three months or so). I've got the truly expensive cards already, thank goodness.
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Underworld Cerberus in for Murderous Redcap: It was a good debate as to whether the Cerberus was good enough to make it in, but in the end, my Rakdos section is weak enough to allow it (I still need to get Olivia Voldaren in here too... don't worry, that's high on the To-Do List). Redcap was probably the weakest of the six Rakdos cards. It doesn't deal a lot of damage by itself, and is probably a two-card combo guy. As much as it gives Krenko one less Goblin to play with, it no longer has Juniper Order Ranger to combo with, and never had Melira, so its days were always numbered.
The Cerberus was somewhat lineball because it flat-out neuters reanimation and graveyard strategies - something that Rakdos is pretty good at in my cube, thanks to Recurring Nightmare, Sneak Attack, Magma Phoenix, Tortured Existence and a few others. That said, we probably needed another way around RN (which has been dominant), and there is probably a half-decent Rakos aggro/burn deck in there waiting to be built (especially once Olivia comes in). And it's one heck of an early beater, which I'm all for.
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Twenty-five changes, and only two of them are BotG cards!
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Sylvan Primordial in for Verdant Force: The Primordial got banned in EDH, but not here. It fell out of one of my Commander decks and straight into the cube. I was wondering when the day would come when Verdant lost his crown as a viable multiplayer finisher for green. We think it's finally here. Hard to put him ahead of Primordial, PrimeTime, Hydra Omnivore and Liege of the Tangle. He was pretty close with the Liege, but that's got trample, is easier to cast in a multicoloured deck, and is an Elemental (so it can be flashed out with Incandescent Soulstoke). Plus, he breaks our golden rule - if you cost three of a single colour to play, you'd better be winning the game for me. Verdant won't do that these days (he'll likely just eat removal instead).
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Journey into Nyx
What, you expected me to have something in here?
We had a single one in the end. I'd like to get Prophetic Flamespeaker in too, but I can wait for his price to drop first.
Conspiracy
TBH, I was expecting this list to be bigger halfway through the spoilers for CNS, but it's given us a pile all the same. Good set for our cube.
M15
A few here, too!
Soldier Tribal
Our group discussed the half-existing Solider tribe, and what we wanted to do to make it viable. Otherwise, we were going to drop it entirely. And here is the result. Bear in mind that these cards already have Field Marshal, Mobilization, Hero of Bladehold and Assemble the Legion to play with.
Additional Awesome
A few upgrades that we wanted to make.
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We have a normal cube in our playgroup so I built a multiplayer cube for something different. So far it's just a conspiracy set cube and the first play went well. It will stay that way for the next draft but after that I wan't to start customizing it.
It was great to read through your adventures as it backed up a couple of theories I had but hadn't tested. Namely I wan't the cube proactive, I know aggro might not be forceable but I can put in a lot of stuff with dethrone, raid etc to keep people moving.
I am really glad that 360 is working out for you. That's the number I wanted but our playgroup fluctuates and so it is possible we get more than the 4 or 5 I expect. first time round we had 7 so I think I want enough for 9 players just in case.
Thanks! Yeah, the move to 360 has been fantastic - it kicked a lot of the dross out of the cube. I can only count a handful of cards now that are making up the numbers (and most of those are red).
About half my playgroup has been playing Multiplayer for close to 20 years now, so we've got used to recognising the things that tank a Multiplayer game and making it drag on for hours - that's the reason this cube is more proactive and shuns the standard Multiplayer control cards like Propaganda and Limited Resources. It takes away from blue a bit, but it sure makes the games more enjoyable. Keeping the resets down has been important too - at one point, my meta averaged a complete board wipe every six turns or so, and it's hard to get anything done (or have any level of fun) in that environment! So, yeah, I highly recommend doing the same!
I do really need to get back to posting some of the draft reports on here too, now that I have a bit of access back here again - glad to hear that they're helping people!
One day, I'll talk my bunch into tracking their picks, too. We had a draft a week or two back where we drafted for 3-on-3 team play, and one guy just first-picked all the removal, along with Guttersnipe, Panoptic Mirror and Isochron Scepter - perfect foil/support deck for his teammates, brutal for the opposition!
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Our Izzet changes were aimed at sprucing the old girl up a bit. No-one played the Chimera. I also questioned whether Dominus of Fealty was making it into play, but that is loved enough to stay. We also looked at bringing in Djinn Illuminatus, but a 7CC guy with no immediate board impact was deemed too weak.
Izzet is now about getting Nivix Guildmage, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Mercurial Chemister into play at the same time and bamboozling people with your incredible skills. Dominus remains, and is good once out. Steam Augury is Izzet card #5, remaining to support the spells-matter suite. We had our eye on Mindswipe from KTK as well, but I suspect this will now stay out.
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As promised, a return of the match reports!
We drafted exactly half the cube between the four of us, aiming for both free-for-all and team play as we drafted. It was me, my resident Johnny Combo, my mate who admits that he always seems to draft Dimir or Esper, and his significant other.
Johnny Combo got halfway through the draft, watched Consuming Aberration do a lap and come back to him, and realised that no-one was drafting blue. We then proceeded to hand Deadeye Navigator to him in the same fashion. He was pretty happy that he flip-flopped his draft strategy halfway through Pack 2.
I'm fuzzy on the last couple of cards in each of the decks, but this is roughly what got played.
I drafted Orzhov with a red splash for a couple of good cards, and wound up with the following deck.
1 Hateflayer
1 Intrepid Hero
1 Knight Exemplar
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Nighthowler
1 Pack Rat
1 Paladin en-Vec
1 Phyrexian Crusader
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sun Titan
1 Transcendent Master
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Austere Command
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Exhume
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Mirrorweave
1 Path to Exile
1 Sundering Growth
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Worship
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
1 Sacred Foundry
5 Swamp
5 Plains
3 Mountain
Once I lucked into Knight Exemplar (having already drafted Sun Titan and Mirran Crusader), I set about purposely trying to draft as many 3CC-or-less bombs that could be recurred by Sun Titan. I first-picked Loxodon Warhammer, Mirran Crusader and Austere Command.
After all my hard work of drafting Sun Titan plus 3CC-or-lower things, my all-star turned out to be Nighthowler. It impacted the board every time it landed, and often landed in tandem with the Warhammer, resulting in some epic creatures (including a 12/9 trampling, lifelinking Solemn Simulacrum). The most fun play it pulled off was aiming Sundering Growth at an opponent's threat and being able to populate a Pack Rat token for style points.
Surprisingly, I barely saw the red side of the deck. I landed Vengeant, and he did his usual stellar work, but no Hateflayer anywhere to be seen. Same went for Mirrorweave and Whip of Erebos, though.
Johnny Combo ended up drafting Grixis with a splash of the other two colours(after starting in Rakdos and bleeding into blue):
1 Brago, King Eternal
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Coffin Queen
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Dread
1 Grave Titan
1 Havengul Lich
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Underworld Cerberus
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Arcane Denial
1 Capsize
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Go for the Throat
1 Mortify
1 Putrefy
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Terminate
1 Vessel of Endless Rest
1 Arid Mesa
1 Blood Crypt
1 Breeding Pool
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Unholy Grotto
1 Verdant Catacombs
3 Swamp
3 Island
3 Mountain
1 Plains
Esper Guy drafted... er... Esper. Even when he was trying to avoid doing so.
1 Bone Shredder
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Daxos of Meletis
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Gilded Drake
1 Invisible Stalker
1 Mulldrifter
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Treasury Thrull
Spells - 14
1 Corrupted Conscience
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Exsanguinate
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Mana Vault
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Unmake
1 Urza's Blueprints
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Godless Shrine
1 Polluted Delta
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
4 Island
3 Swamp
3 Plains
Ms. Esper drafted a handy Gruul deck:
1 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Boon Satyr
1 Conquering Manticore
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Incandescent Soulstoke
1 Inferno Titan
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Nullmage Shepherd
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Scourge of Geier Reach
1 Silklash Spider
1 Aura Shards
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Exploration
1 Mage Slayer
1 Mogg Infestation
1 Rancor
1 Spitting Image
1 Verdant Embrace
1 Warstorm Surge
Land - 17
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Temple Garden
5 Forest
5 Mountain
2 Plains
We ended up playing 2HG with all possible pairings.
Game 1 saw myself and Ms. Gruul paired up against Johnny Combo and Esper Guy. I promptly sucked at actually drawing land for almost the entire game, and Johnny Combo's removal kept Ms. Gruul in check until Esper Guy Exsanguinated for lethal.
Game 2 saw me paired up with Johnny Combo vs. the happy couple. This was the game in which I managed to land a 12/9 Warhammer-wearing Solemn Simulacrum. He was ably backed up by Coffin Queen and Havengul Lich returning anything of interest for Johnny Combo. Esper Guy had a Stalker wearing a Boon Satyr, but we were able to gain all the damage back and then some each time we swung in return. Ms. Gruul gave us a big blip by resolving Conquering Manticore and stealing the Simulacrum for a fine turn of return fire, but Johnny Combo drew RSZ to take their final life points.
Game 3 saw the final pairing - myself and Esper Guy up against Johnny Combo and Ms. Gruul. And the Esper deck decided to take off while I drew my removal and kept everyone's creatures in check. Mulldrifter began wearing a Nighthowler for a suit and dealing an impressive amount of damage. In return, we were getting Silklash Spider rocking Verdant Embrace and Mage Slayer from Ms. Gruul, and Esper Guy was drawing through his deck with Yawgmoth's Bargain for the answers, so we ended up very low on life. Thankfully, I had Knight Exemplar and Worship out to keep us alive with, and Johnny Combo and Ms. Gruul had no answers. In the end, Epser Guy dug up Treasury Thrull to extort our way to victory.
So a great night. Given we only had half the cube in play, we only saw two of our new adds decked - Captain of the Watch and Brago, King Eternal. Brago came at us for some face damage in Game 3, and we had to Path it on the spot - as predicted, it is sneakily dangerous if you leave it alone. El Capitan was solid again - he's earning his salt already.
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We have about $20 left in the KTK update budget. What would you do out of the following? Prices are according to CFB, where we are already doing other purchases as a group.
Over the budget, but always strongly considered: Voice of Resurgence, Vindicate, Dack Fayden, Wurmcoil Engine.
I am leaning towards a combination of Everflowing Chalice / Siege-Gang / Cyclonic Rift / Huntmaster / Lotus Cobra. What would you do?
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[c]Mind's Eye[c] is another strong one, but also on the expensive side.
Cyclonic Rift, Beast Within, Siege-Gang Commander, and Everflowing Chalice are all great. I'd start with those four, which puts you to just under $8. That leaves room for only one of the three more expensive options. I'd say of those, Mind's Eye is the best since it's playable in more decks and just a lot better than the slot it's replacing. That leaves you around $16, so you can fit about $4 in. If you can squeeze $22 out of your budget, I'd say go with Pernicious Deed as the best $6 card there.
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"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Everflowing Chalice
Siege Gang Commander
Cyclonic Rift
Pernicious Deed
Mind's Eye
(unsolicited suggestion, hope you don't mind) Staff of Nin for Urza's Blueprints - Staff of Nin only costs a $.80 and the echo cost on blueprints is steep.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Don't mind one bit! One of the guys in my group actually suggested this very change about six months ago, and I'd clean forgotten about it! Hmm... how far does my budget stretch...
After all your wonderful feedback, it was pretty obvious that it should be the four cheapies everyone mentioned (Chalice / Siege-Gang / Beast Within / Cyclonic Rift), along with two bombs.
At the moment, the proposal is Huntmaster and Deed (but man, is it ever hard to leave Mind's Eye and Kokusho off!), and if I don't have anyone in the group rabidly object in the next day or two, I suspect this is what we'll do.
Missing Kokusho is made easier by the fact that I think I might be freeing up a copy of Sheoldred for the same slot... not a bad consolation prize. And also potentially a Myr Battlesphere coming in for Stuffy Doll. Should be a good update, this one.
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Battlesphere is coming in too, but I didn't have a Sheoldred falling out of a deck in the end.
But I do have Wight of Precinct Six falling out, and I did have enough left in the budget to get Staff of Nin, too (yay!)
Kokusho, Mind's Eye and Sheoldred are now at the front of the queue for my next purchase (which is, alas, February... I need to give my significant others the opportunity to buy off my want list for Christmas or my birthday, between now and then!)
So the changes for this update will be:
We also had a 3vs3 draft last week, and saw the following deck absolutely rock out. This is a rough approximation of what my mate played, but you get the idea...
1 Barrin, Master Wizard
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Duplicant
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Eternal Witness
1 Gilded Drake
1 Opaline Unicorn
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Silklash Spider
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Blatant Thievery
1 Counterspell
1 Fertile Ground
1 Force of Will
1 Jace Beleren
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Rhystic Study
1 Rite of Replication
1 Tezzeret's Gambit
1 Misty Rainforest
8 Forest
8 Island
Given we were playing 3-on-3, this deck was given the opportunity to durdle around and ramp until it drew Blatant Thievery. We played two games, and each time it resolved it, it was dirty. In the first game, it stole a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad that was ready to ultimate. In the second, it resolved, and then Snapcaster Mage gave it a second try the next turn (which was pretty much GG). Niiice stuff.
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Gross. Only a fresh scrub and a hot shower can fix this nastiness.
1 Coffin Queen
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Havengul Lich
1 Hydra Omnivore
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 Memnarch
1 Metalworker
1 Nighthowler
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Deathreap Ritual
1 Distortion Strike
1 Fabricate
1 Go for the Throat
1 Jace Beleren
1 Liliana Vess
1 Mimic Vat
1 Murder
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Sol Ring
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Savage Lands
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Woodland Cemetery
6 Swamp
4 Island
3 Forest
This deck almost pulled the whole thing off. Mimic Vat justified my decision to first-pick it. It landed on Turn 3, had Malignus under it by Turn 5, and Malignus got Whispersilk Cloak on Turn 6 to start halving people's life totals.
This kept it hanging around in the mid-game until it really started going to down and dropping Consuming Aberration and Memnarch. Three of us went down to the wire, but the Selesnya Soldiers deck across the table managed to win thanks to a piggie holding SoFaI and getting through with Rogue's Passage (which had a hand in winning again).
I must add that I picked Deathreap Ritual highly and managed to get it into play for the first time for us... and it is better than advertised. The card draw it gave me was insane. People were throwing their Sakura-Tribe Elders and Yavimaya Elders overboard as usual without giving thought to the fact I was going to draw cards off it, and coupled with the usual high attrition of creatures, I drew gobloads. It actually (*gasp*) has the potential to give more raw card advantage than Rhystic Study (which opponents can and will work around).
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I wanted to ask if you had any further updates post KTK release - I've opened a lot of Khans and was wondering if you've since added any other cards from the set other than Goblinslide?
Thanks again for posting a great cube! I look forward to drafting this once it's complete.
Hi! Santa is traditionally nice to the cube after December and January (my birthday falls a few weeks after, so I usually hold off on purchases, in case others are buying off my want list)!
At the moment, Goblinslide is the only card in, but the next update will likely find room for Utter End and Clever Impersonator. If Santa brings me a copy of Sarkhan, he will go in too, but that's about it - everything else is basically tri-colour, which I've avoided putting in the cube in the past.
Utter End will likely come in for Unmake (although there's a fair argument to swap Mortify too), and Clever Impersonator would probably come in for Body Double (without looking or thinking too hard about it, anyway).
If, by chance, I do pull Sarkhan, he would be a straight-up swap for Chandra Nalaar.
Glad you enjoy the list, and hope it's going to prove a blast for you guys too!
FWIW, seeing as you're trying to produce a similar list, my Christmas Wish List contains the following cards that are on my hitlist to get into the cube as budget allows... (in other words, if Santa doesn't bring them, I'll knock them off one by one myself)
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My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
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The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
Thanks! Great to see other people enjoying giving it a spin online! Mardu actually seems quite a strong tri-colour combination nowadays (especially after this update).
So my birthday came and went, and I got ruined (as did the cube). Pro tip for those of you maintaining cubes - "If you're struggling to find me birthday presents, here's my Cube want list that I just so happened to have over here..." makes for great birthdays (as is your wife surprising you with a box of Khans... it's been a good week)! Nine changes, and a lot of power into the cube:
Okay, so we made all of those changes last night, and then drafted the entire cube out.
Six people, four boosters each, 50 card decks. Fun. Was. Had.
It had been a while since I'd had a draft absolutely fall in my lap, and last night made up for it in spades. I got one lap of the six players into the first booster, and realized no-one else had drafted green at that point. So I went for it, and it stayed that way almost through the entire draft - I basically had Golgari served up to me on a platter (including Prime Time as a sixth pick!), and ended up with what is almost the Golgari deck to end all Golgari decks.
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Hydra Omnivore
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Primeval Titan
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Terastodon
1 Vulturous Zombie
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Beast Within
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Deathreap Ritual
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Doom Blade
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Lignify
1 Mimic Vat
1 Mirri's Guile
1 Mox Diamond
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Pattern of Rebirth
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Rogue's Passage
2 Island
8 Forest
8 Swamp
We suited up for three 3-on-3 team games. I had my resident Spike, my resident Johnny, Esper Guy, Esper Guy's fiancée and one other guy who I don't think I've named on here before (he's really good at building intricate tribal decks in normal FFA, like Clerics and Rebels, so I'll just call him Tribal Dude for now until it sticks).
Spike and Esper Fiancée both drafted Izzet, and both made it work. Spike picked up Ral Zarek, Guttersnipe, Talrand and enough fuel to make them work. Esper Fiancée picked up the fat end of the guild, getting Nivix Guildmage, Niv-Mizzet and Insurrection (she also splashed green for Sarkhan Vol and Dragonlair Spider).
Esper Guy got two-thirds of the way to living up to his nickname, drafting Azorius token control.
Johnny drafted Boros, and went for all of my shiny new mythics, picking Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Wingmate Roc.
Tribal Dude drafted Esper (ha!), finding room for Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Havengul Lich.
We rolled for teams, and I wound up with Spike and Esper Guy, up against a team of Johnny, Fiancée and Tribal Dude.
And that would be where my deck started with T1 Deathrite, T3 Garruk, T4 Deathreap Ritual, T5 Consuming Aberration... and it just kept rolling from there. Spike backed me up beautifully with some well-timed removal, while Esper Guy got Knight-Captain of Eos + Mobilization online for a while as defense. I eventually got Sword of Body and Mind onto the Aberration, ultimated Garruk, and squished the other team flat.
Round two with the same teams, and I started with T1 Birds of Paradise, T3 Garruk (and yes, the other team was starting to get sick of seeing Garruk, even at this early stage!). We had some to-and-fro until I used Chainer to resurrect Fiancée's dead Niv-Mizzet, resolved Primeval Titan in the same turn, and Spike then kicked a Rite of Replication on it... with Guttersnipe and Talrand on the table... the other team got a turn before being overrun by Prime Times.
After that, we re-rolled for teams to keep it interesting. That resulted in Johnny swapping sides with Esper Guy.
This time around, I had Deathrite Shaman on T1 again, but no Garruk. Instead, I could have resolved Consuming Aberration on T4, but he would have been a paltry 1/1, and would have been swiftly removed. I cast Chainer instead, and my problems were compounded by Esper Guy casting Spitting Image on it... so he had a Chainer too, and if he drew a land, he'd also have a copy of Consuming Aberration should I cast it... that's not cool. I ended up having to get it out of his yard with DRS! Fiancée was also having fun - she had resolved both Sarkhan Vol and Dragonlair Spider, and was producing tokens and stealing things for the turn like no tomorrow. I cast Steel Hellkite and then went to stick Sword of Feast and Famine onto it, only for Tribal Dude to Murder it (the second time he'd axed my Hellkite that night before I equipped something to it!)... a move that would have otherwise handed us control, given that the other side had nothing capable of blocking the Hellkite if it was wearing the Sword. They knew Chainer was bringing it back next turn, so they had to find a way of winning in their turn. Fiancée top-decked Insurrection and thought she had the game until the team realised she'd lose both Chainers (mine, and the Spitting Image copy across the table), along with the Nightmares they'd produced, leaving us still alive after an attack. That forced her to stare at her hand again... and notice the Mirrorweave... and then realize that Spike across the table had a Guttersnipe... and she had a million Insect tokens off of Dragonlair Spider... and Reforge the Soul in her hand, too... End of story, she had twelve creatures on her side of the table that all became Guttersnipes in short order, and she then resolved the Reforge for a grand total of 72 damage. Ouch! Game over!
The cube felt very well rounded (A win for Izzet! Powerful red things! Don't tell me we've turned the corner here...). Out of the nine new cards that we swapped in...
Good times!
For now, our tentative FRF changes are Yasova Dragonclaw coming in for Boon Satyr, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest coming in for Thrummingbird and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death coming in for one of our red CC3 dogs (likely Prodigal Pyromancer). There's probably another change or two in there, and we'll finalise it in the coming week or two (when I shall post it all here!)
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I was umming and ahhing about adding Wingmate so this was enough to get me off the fence.
I had been concentrating on finishing my modern deck (and building a tiny leaders deck)and with that now in the books it's been really fun coming up with upgrades for my multiplayer cube.
Cheers for all the updates
Yeah, it's been pretty good at hanging around... two fat fliers for five mana is value.
Hope it plays as nicely for you too!
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