Cube Drafting Dot Com

This guest post is written by Usman Jamil. For those wishing to contribute to cubedrafting.com, contact evan dot erwin at starcitygames dot com.

This 2-part article aims to discuss a handful of these lesser-known cards to help cube designers become informed about the existence and use of these buried treasures to use in their cubes.

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Hello again, it’s time for some cube updates! First we’ll go over the big changes put in place last time:

Removal of the Signets / Karoos - Still in place! I can safely say I’m much happier with my cube now that these are gone. I don’t miss them and I feel they better define what Green is/does and keeps midrange/control in check (ie Aggro decks still have a chance!)

Lessen Shards Influence – Not missed a bit. Cards that are difficult to cast are hard to enjoy.

Redefine Black – Seems to have worked! B/R Aggro has shown up many times since the last update, and B/U Control now has a few more ways to win the game. This is nice.

The cube for this update has grown another 35 Cards for a total of 602 Cards in the cube. NOTE: This list was updated on 7/21/10 to replace Propaganda with Spreading Seas, Ondu Giant switched with Terastodon and Beastbreaker of Bala Ged with Avenger of Zendikar.

Ready to see my goals for my next update along with Rise of the Eldrazi additions? Let’s go!

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Beginning with Worldwake I began to pre-ordering foils I expect to put in my cube. Here are the M11 cards I’m adding to the cube for testing. Stay tuned for my official Rise of the Eldrazi cube update soon.

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Hey everybody, while we have some fantastic content here on the site from yours truly and readers like yourself, we’d love to have some more!

Find out how you can contribute to CubeDrafting.com and get a free month’s subscription to StarCityGames.com Premium just for doing so!

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to seeing your cube articles soon!

This guest post is written by Usman Jamil. For those wishing to contribute to cubedrafting.com, contact eerwin at gmail dot com.

On his website about the format, Tom LaPille said this about cube drafting: “Go make a cube, or at least convince someone else to. That cube will enhance your life and the lives of everyone else it touches.” This may be the most true statement about the format by far, as it has been the most fun that I’ve ever had playing Magic: The Gathering. Many articles and webpages like this very site, Cubedrafting.com, Tom LaPille’s site and cube list, various articles on StarCityGames.com and a few articles on MTGsalvation and TCGplayer have been created to enlighten the world about the greatest Magic: The Gathering format that has never been sanctioned: cube drafting.
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Hello everybody, it’s another set release and another update to my Cube. In my last release, I spoke of what I wanted to focus on with that cube update, and I’ll do so again.

This update is HUGE in a variety of ways — one, we have a huge sea change in the manafixing portion of the cube. Two, we have a huge change in the multicolor section. While many cards were cut and many were added, the cube is now 567 Cards, shrinking 13 Cards from the Zendikar update.

My focus this go around:

Lessen the “Midrange” Decks – Karoos (Selesnya Sanctuary etc) and Signets (Boros Signet etc) do two things: One, they make control and “midrange” decks much stronger, and two they make Green weaker. So with that said, and for the first time ever since I’ve began playing the Cube Draft format, I have removed all Karoos and Signets! This change was not without full playtesting over many playtesting sessions, and it also led to the return of all of the Eventide filter lands (Mystic Gate etc).

Lessen the Shards Influence – With the removal of Karoos and Signets gone, the manafixing required to pull of many of the Shards inclusions — Esper Charm, Lavalanche, etc, was much more difficult. At the end of the day, I decided that I wanted a more two-color focused cube (and/or mono-color focused) than one that was 3+ color focused, as many of the decks were in my previous configuration.

Redefine Black – I have wanted Black to have another identity apart from “the other half of U/x Control” for awhile now — and I’ve found the angle I’m looking for: Shadow creatures! Dauthi Slayer and their ilk are more than enough to bring the beats in a way that is difficult to deal with and requires that decks focus on ways of dealing with them. White also got its share of Shadow beats (Soltari Emissary etc) and as such is even more aggressive than before, something I want White to represent and really wanted to provide to Black for an aggressive and difficult to deal with angle Black can use.

Ready for more? Let’s go!

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While my Official Worldwake Cube Update is still a week or so away (it will coincide with the actual release of Rise of the Eldrazi, as I fully playtest my changes w new sets before advocating them), starting with Worldwake I’ve begun pre-ordering foils I feel will be worth testing in the cube.

After the jump is my list of cards I’ve actually pre-ordered on StarCityGames.com in foil form. You can look at the foils from Rise of the Eldrazi here.

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This guest post is written by Thea Steele. For those wishing to contribute to cubedrafting.com, contact eerwin at gmail dot com.

I have a confession to make- I’m a magic player without a playgroup. I’ve recently moved across the country, and my magic-playing community consists of myself and my boyfriend. The good news is that the cube is a great format for two. Here are my tips for designing and playing the cube with less than 8 people, and my observations of how a smaller group changes the format.

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Okay, so I was bored in San Diego waiting for the Pro Tour festivities to start and thought — why don’t I have pictures of my cube? So I made some.

Be on the lookout for some Worldwake updates I’m trying out as well!

Enjoy!

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So another three months have passed and it’s time to get all cube-updating in this hizzle. Or something.

Either way, last go-around I updated the cube with M10 additions. This time we’re adding five cards per color bringing the total cube size to 580 cards. Woo! I’m happy with a growth rate of 25 cards for this update, but don’t expect it to jump that high next time.

Here were my goals for this update:

- Add only the strongest Landfall cards. This included cards like Emeria Angel and Ob Nixilis, the Fallen. While there are plenty of powerful and surprisingly good Landfall cards (Plated Geopede is the first that comes to mind), I only wanted those that both excelled as creatures and as Landfall-triggering monsters.

- Don’t stop looking for ‘consensus’ cards. This is where the inclusions of Lignify and Vendetta came from. These are simply two examples of fantastic and powerful cards that are worth having in the cube. Every good monster needs an answer, and Lignify is a surprisingly powerful one, while Vendetta is like the backwards Swords to Plowshares, and I’m definitely okay with that.

- Continue the tradition of a ‘Sneak Peek’ from the new set. With the M10 update I threw in the five new Zendikar fetchlands, as I was 100% certain they were going in. This time I’m doing the same with Worldwake, including the five rare duals/manlands as they replace the M10 duals from the last update. While the M10 duals certainly have their upsides, they can’t both fix mana and go upside your opponent’s head, and that’s something I cherish (the latter more than the former).

So with that, let’s get started!

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