Hello everybody, it’s been awhile since the Cube has gotten its proper due, and it’s time to delve.

Inside I highlight my changes to the Cube, as it has grown another 15 cards and features plenty of Shards of Alara goodness. Let’s go!

White Updates

In: Elspeth, Knight-Errant; Knight of the White Orchid; Knight-Captain of Eos

Out: White Knight; Pianna, Nomad Captain; Hoofprints of the Stag

In this switcharoo I basically did a few upgrades. The first is Knight of the White Orchid replaced one of the original mainstays of the cube, White Knight. Quite simply, this is a much more powerful creature to ‘keep you in the game’ against the always-hitting-their-land-drop control decks. This gives B/W and G/W Aggro more reach, still provides first strike, and is far more playable than White Knight a majority of the time.

Hoofprints of the Stag’s role was to provide a control deck a long-game incremental advantage card. Elspeth is a far more powerful card in almost every way, and can fit into a much larger variety of decks, including aggro builds. Knight-Captain of Eos is a partial reaction to the Elspeth upgrade, giving a control player a way to fog the board for a few turns, stabalize against aggressive decks, and have four power worth of creatures to boot.

Blue Updates

Blue drops: Rishadan Airship; Serendib Efreet; Pestermite; Ponder

Blue Adds: Covenant of Minds; Tezzeret the Seeker

Firstly, there are four drops and only two adds because Blue had 57 cards instead of 55 as it supposed to have. Secondly, the Eventide update mentioned putting in Wake Thrasher but that update apparently didn’t make it to the spreadsheet for some reason. Either way, let’s discuss the replacements.

Covenant of Minds is an incredible control player’s card. It’s like a really sick, really unfair Fact or Fiction, even if it is a Sorcery. It is worth tapping out to play, and can be absolutely devastating to allow any cube deck to draw five cards. Secondly, Tezzeret gives Blue its other Planeswalker, and should be a force in ‘toolbox’ decks with lots of artifacts and control cards. This is one to watch, as my cube may be a bit narrow for inclusion.

Black Updates

There were no Black cards that made it in from Shards of Alara, nor any other Black substitutions. I’ve heard of some throwing in Sarcomancy, but that was in the cube some time ago and we removed it due to lack of playability (or, to put it more blunt, ‘it was a continual passout’).

Red Updates

Drops: Countryside Crusher; Taurean Mauler; Volcanic Hammer

Adds: Flameblast Dragon; Goblin Assault; Hell’s Thunder

“Drop a burn spell?!” you ask. Yup, I did. Quite simply the red spells in my cube do a ton of damage, and losing the slowest and ‘most boring’ burn spell isn’t going to hurt anything. If you like, you can think of Hell’s Thunder as a Char with Flashback. That said, Flameblast Dragon is just a much more impressive finisher/monster than Countryside Crusher, and Goblin Assault gives an aggro deck (particularly a mono-red deck) a long-term threat that must be dealt with. It’s no Bitterblossom, but in a format with few answers to little dudes that keep popping out each turn thanks to an Enchantment, it’s enough.

Green Updates

Drops: Vigor

Adds: Mycoloth

Vigor was cute but too dumb and tough to play. Mycoloth combos wonderfully with Goblin Assault and the myriad of small monsters you draft when you play G/x archetypes. It also provides an almost unsurmountable advantage if you get an upkeep in which he produces tokens for you. Sounds like good times all around to me…

Artifacts

Drops: Lurebound Scarecrow

Adds: Sigil of Distinction

This is me losing a card that is far too fragile for a card that should be an incredible bomb for any aggro deck, which spans everything from White Weenie to Mono Red to Gruul to Mono Black Aggro. Sigil is a bomb in any limited format, and that’s exactly the types of cards the Cube supposed to feature.

Multicolor

Drops: Order/Chaos; Blazing Specter; Cloud Cover; Desolation Angel; Dromar’s Charm; Hit/Run; Recoil; Rise/Fall; Rith, the Awakener; Savage Twister; Supply/Demand

Adds: Ajani Vengeant; Agony Warp; Bant Charm; Blightning; Broodmate Dragon; Cruel Ultimatum; Empyrial Archangel; Esper Charm; Hellkite Overlord; Jund Charm; Kiss of the Amesha; Naya Charm; Punish Ignorance; Rafiq of the Many; Realm Razer; Sarkhan Vol; Sedraxis Specter; Sedris, the Traitor King; Sharuum the Hegemon; Tidehollow Sculler; Woolly Thoctar

This is the section which grew by 10 cards, in order to make room for the Shards of Alara additions. Firstly, I dropped a bunch of underpowered gold cards like Rith, the Awakener and Dromar’s Charm for more powerful Shard-based cards like Esper Charm and Realm Razer. These provide more flexibility in deck construction and up the power level quite a bit. Originally I had tri-colored cards just so I could have a more balanced and ‘complete’ cube, and with Shards of Alara, half of them got a kick ass upgrade. Three cards per Shard works out pretty well.

Esper
Esper Charm
Punish Ignorance
Sharuum the Hegemon

Jund
Broodmate Dragon
Hellkite Overlord
Jund Charm

Grixis
Cruel Ultimatum
Sedraxis Specter
Sedris, the Traitor King

Naya
Naya Charm
Realm Razer
Woolly Thoctar

Bant
Bant Charm
Empyrial Archangel
Rafiq of the Many

The only card I’m not 100% on is the Sedris, the Traitor King, but part of me thinks that a 5-Color ‘Good Stuff” deck would happily Unearth its monsters, or it could be pretty fantastic in a Reanimator archetype.

I missed not being able to include Rhox War Monk, but Rafiq hits much harder, Bant Charm is incredibly versatile, and Empyrial Archangel is an incredible reanimation target or simply a late-game fatty that must be dealt with from a Control deck.

Land Updates

Drops: Vivid Crag; Vivid Creek; Vivid Grove; Vivid Marsh; Vivid Meadow

Adds: Arcane Sanctum; Crumbling Necropolis; Jungle Shrine; Savage Lands; Seaside Citadel; Cascade Bluffs; Fetid Heath; Flooded Grove; Rugged Prarie; Twilight Mire

In the other section that grew this time around, another 5 cards were added to the Lands section in order to make room for the rest of the Hybrid Duals via Eventide.

Vivid Lands were removed for Shards of Alara tri-color lands, because they were simply too good. 5-Color magic is 1-Color Magic, as they say, and it’s true: If your 5-Color archetype is too strong, it’s all the “good” players will be wanting to draft. Two counters on Vivid Lands are just one too many, and the Tri-Lands substitute very well.

And that’s all for Shards of Alara. Conflux is out and about currently, as some early picks I’m looking at include Noble Hierarch, Banefire, Path to Exile, and Wall of Reverence. Feel free to suggest your own Conflux additions or discuss Shards of Alara picks in this blog post or in the forums.