Conflux + Alara Reborn Cube Update
By Evan on Jun 30, 2009 in Cube Updates, Site Updates
Hello everybody, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I apologize for neglecting my cube-related duties. I’ve scoured the past two sets for their untold treasures, basked in the raw goodness of many-a-card, and now it’s time to lay down the gauntlet and for the “Cube Mothership” to detail the Official CubeDrafting.com Conflux and Alara Reborn updates.
This is a HUGE update with no less than 43 Cards Dropped and 85 Cards Added to the cube!
With this update I further refined what I wanted colors to do, gave a few more tools to various archetypes, increased the number of cards per color to 60, increased the number of lands by 5 for a total of 70, added another card-per-shard, added 5-color cards for the first time ever as well switching out well over 20 cards! Things are definitely different and more powerful as a result. This brings the total number of cards in the cube to a whopping 555!
Let’s take a look at the changes:
White Cards
Drops: Light From Within, Soltari Visionary
Adds: Cataclysm, Kataki, War’s Wage, Martial Coup, Path to Exile, Rout, Soltari Crusader, Wall of Reverence
This gives even more creedence to the dichotomy of white: It’s both the best weenie color and the best raw control color. I gave appropriate tools for both. Cataclysm is a card I’ve wanted in my cube for some time, and I’ve finally got it in here, Kataki, War’s Wage punishes the hardcore control decks and their reliance on powerful artifacts (Sensei’s Divining Top, Scroll Rack, Signets, etc), Path to Exile is, well, the best removal since Swords to Plowshares, Rout is another fantastic Wrath of God variant I really wanted in the cube, and Wall of Reverence should be able to block anything and slowly gain the control player life over the course of the game.
Soltari Visionary simply hasn’t done enough to make it worthy of inclusion, so I switched to the more aggressive Soltari Crusader. Basically unblockable with a pump ability, this guy gets in there and gives the G/W or B/W weenie decks something to sink their mana into turn-after-turn. Light from Within hasn’t really lit any deck/archetype on fire, and was a nice experiment, but it was time for it to go.
Blue Cards
Drops: Covenant of Minds, Morphling, Chronozoa
Adds: Remand, Ponder, Ethersworn Adjudicator, Glen Elendra Archmage, Honden of Seeing Winds, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, Pestermite, Riftwing Cloudskate
Good ole Blue. What I wanted to push in this update was to give Blue some decent creatures. I think I’ve done that.
First off I dropped Covenant of Minds for the Personal Howling Mine (aka Honden of Seeing Winds). It just works out better, and gives the control player the long-game benefit, which is what they want anyway. Morphling is gone because he sucks something awful with the Magic 2010 rules. Just a fact of life there. Thornling is still good enough…Superman is not.
As for the additions, Remand is just the best tempo-based counter in existence, and so it goes right (back) in. Ponder is Brainstorm 2.0, and nothing says This Card Is Awesome like being restricted in Vintage.
For the creatures, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner was suggested in the forums (thanks guys!) and it’s worked out really well. That creature is seriously annoying, not overpowered, and fits blue perfectly. You want to make your opponent ‘work’ to kill your guys, whether that’s fighting through Kira’s ability or counterspells themselves. Glen Elendra Archmage is a house any way you slice it, sure to rock control mirrors the world over. Pestermite is here for both tempo and the awesome Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo while Riftwing Cloudskate is an awesome creature that I left behind some time ago, but nowadays you’ve got its incredible tempo as well as comboing with Reveillark that keeps it both powerful and flexible.
Ethersworn Adjudicator is just a frickin house. If you’re playing Esper colors, he’s insane. If not, he’s still an easier-to-cast Air Elemental, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that in terms of a blue flying finisher that can both attack and block easily.
Black Cards
Drops: Rotlung Reanimator, Beacon of Unrest
Adds: Betrayal of Flesh, Cabal Interrogator, Corpse Dance, Dauthi Mercenary, Mesmeric Fiend, Okiba-Gang Shinobi, Scepter of Fugue
Ah Black. I’m always tinkering with your place in the cube. For this update, I wanted a few things: One, I wanted to make it more aggressive, and two, I wanted to give it more tools against control decks. If there is one thing that a control does NOT want you to play, it is a turn two Cabal Interrogator. Nezumi Shortfang is the other one-two punch that Black uses to punish control decks, and Cabal Interrogator fits right in there.
That said, Rotlung Reanimator was dropped because he wasn’t aggressive enough, nor did he provide enough tokens when he died. Bleh. Beacon of Unrest was replaced by Betrayal of Flesh. Betrayal does almost the same job (returning a creature to play), with the loss of a very narrow ability (returning an artifact to play) while losing the ability to target your opponent’s graveyard. This is a-okay with me, as I want this card to be used in Reanimator, and instant speed reanimation is fan-freakin-tastic. Secondly, while the inability to return an artifact is a loss, it’s also one of the most narrow abilities and one I only saw come into play maybe once or twice during my entire time spent playing with it, which is years and years now.
As for the rest of the additions, Mesmeric Fiend joins Tidehollow Sculler as a one-two discard punch for B/W decks, Scepter of the Fugue punishes control decks just like Okiba-Gang Shinobi does (with the bonus of being a great card in W/B Weenie Aggro-Discard), and Corpse Dance is another card I wanted for Reanimator players out there. Dauthi Mercenary is another card I like because it gives Black an aggressive angle. I want black decks to be able to swing in the red zone at some point, even while they wait to play Kokusho, the Evening Star.
Red Cards
Drops: Goblin Assault, Hell’s Thunder, Pyroclasm
Adds: Countryside Crusher, Hellspark Elemental, Incendiary Command, Ball Lightning, Magus of the Moon, Puncture Blast, Molten Rain, Volcanic Fallout
Welcome back Countryside Crusher! I missed ya, that’s all I can say. Countryside Crusher is a great creature to keep you running on gas, which is something Red Deck Wins or G/R Aggro has a hard time with. Sometimes you hit a land pocket, the control player gets an advantage, and you’re shuffling up for the next game before you know it.
In other anti-control news, Goblin Assault was good but not as good as expected. I simply removed it for a more diverse set of tools. The first is replacing Hell’s Thunder with Hellspark Elemental. At a mana less it hits earlier and harder, and Ball Lightning has come back to the cube in honor of M10. That guy remains awesome. Puncture Blast is a card that works fantastically with all of the fatties in the cube, and in other anti-control news, Incendiary Command, Magus of the Moon and Molten Rain really want to punish the 5-Color lovers out there. And that they do wonderfully well. It also gives a bit of mana denial flavor for red, something I always appreciate.
Pyroclasm got a strict upgrade with Volcanic Fallout, and thanks to the new rules, Pyroclasm wouldn’t be cube-worthy anymore anyway.
Green Cards
Drops: Heartwood Storyteller, Vinelasher Kudzu
Adds: Cliffrunner Behemoth, Centaur Glade, Chord of Calling, Kodama’s Reach, Noble Hierarch, Thornling, Wild Nacatl
On the green side of things, Cliffrunner Behemoth, my Conflux spoiler, is now rocking it cube-style. And it’s great in both G/W and G/R aggro, and if you’re inclined to go Naya (or get his rider, Figure of Destiny), then you’re in very good company.
Chord of Calling gives players the element of surprise, which is never a bad thing, and is welcomed with open arms back to the cube after being absent for awhile. Kodama’s Reach is simply one of the best mana fixers ever printed ever, and those looking to fix their mana should not only be in green but should have the ability to do so easily. Noble Hierarch is one of the best creatures ever printed, period, and will always have a place in the Cube. It’s Birds 2.0, and Birds aren’t going anywhere and neither is Hierarch. Wow is that girl incredible.
Centaur Glade is my attempt at giving green a long game approach. All-too-often Green (particularly heavy or mono-Green) will just run out of gas and a Wrath of God or two later they’re done for. This is the gift that keeps on giving, another Phyrexian Processor that is difficult to deal with.
Thornling is good enough, even after the rules update, due to the Indestructability factor. I’m more glad than ever that he has it, and trample is no slouch either. Wild Nacatl is another best-of, as it’s a green Kird Ape (“Kird Kitty” as they call it) and is never a creature a control player likes seeing on Turn 1.
As for my drops, Heartwood Storyteller sounds like it would punish control players but rarely does it (mainly because it constricts yourself from playing burn/pump spells any longer), and Vinelasher Kudzu, while awesome in the long game, is not quite as awesome as any of the additions made.
Artifact Cards
Drops: Aether Spellbomb, Pithing Needle, Lightning Greaves
Adds: Staff of Domination, Obelisk of Alara, Sundering Titan, Grafted Wargear, Vedalken Shackles, Puppet Strings, Guardian Idol, Erratic Portal
Okay, some big additions and some interesting changes here. Firstly, I removed Aether Spellbomb because, as most cube cuts, it just doesn’t do enough. Sure a guaranteed bounce is awesome, and the cantrip effect is nice. But a reusable bounce is far more powerful, whether it’s Crystal Shard (one of my favs), or the even-more-generic version, Erratic Portal. Now you have, essentially, ‘two’ Crystal Shards and one is even easier to play and use repeatedly.
Staff of Domination returned from a long hiatus. This is a powerful and versatile card that finds a home in almost any control deck, and provides nice incremental advantages over long games. Obelisk of Alara is for the five-color junkies, rocking out fantastic abilities and is very difficult to overcome. This is another way of making artifacts matter, and making sure each color has answers to these artifacts. Puppet Strings is a wonderful control player’s tool, as Trip Noose was considered but for a merely one extra mana you get the ability to both tap and untap, which can mean serious combos with cards like Jushi Apprentice or Jaya Ballard, Task Mage. All in all a great addition in my mind.
Guardian Idol is awesome in a variety of decks, and fits in just about anything, as both a mana producer and a win condition. Sometimes control decks are all wraths, counterspells, and Urza’s Factory, and this gives them another option which is nice. Lastly, Sundering Titan returns because I missed the fella, and because he’s great in Tooth and Nail and Reanimator. Grafted Wargear is my contribution to more aggressive archetypes, as Lightning Greaves just wasn’t getting it done. As for Pithing Needle, it just doesn’t stop enough to make it more powerful or useful than basically any addition this go-round.
Multicolor Cards
Drops: Armadillo Cloak, Debtors’ Knell, Fires of Yavimaya, Glare of Subdual, Grave-Shell Scarab, Hellhole Rats, Izzet Guildmage, Kiss of the Amesha, Phantom Nishoba, Punish Ignorance, Rumbling Slum, Saffi Eriksdotter, Sedris, the Traitor King, Spiritmonger, Temporal Spring, Undermine, Void, Intet, the Dreamer, Vorosh, the Hunter, Hide/Seek, Spite/Malice, Brion Stoutarm
Adds: Behemoth Sledge, Bituminous Blast, Bloodbraid Elf, Crystallization, Enlisted Wurm, Identity Crisis, Izzet Chronarch, Lavalanche, Lord of Extinction, Lorescale Coatl, Maelstrom Pulse, Mirari’s Wake, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Qasali Pridemage, Sen Triplets, Slave of Bolas, Soul Manipulation, Spellbreaker Behemoth, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, Uril, the Miststalker, Wall of Denial, Shambling Remains, Maelstrom Archangel, Child of Alara, Maelstrom Nexus, Nemesis of Reason, Bull Cerodon
Helloooo major changes! Yup, the Multicolor section of the cube has gotten a complete overhaul with no less than 22 replacements! A few things first:
1. There are now only two non-shards cards. Let’s face it, Vorosh, the Hunter, Hide / Seek, and Intet, the Dreamer suck. I’m sorry, it’s true, let’s face facts and get them the hell out of there.
Does that mean I haven’t seen both of those dragons win games? Of course not. But Hide / Seek has done nothing but ‘remove your most expensive spell’, which is hardly game-breaking by anyone’s standards, and those dragons are almost always passouts that no one wants. So instead of putting up with them and making the card counts imbalanced due to me adding a card-per-shard, we get to introduce…
2. 5-Color Section Added
Yay! 5-Color cards are awesome and when designed correctly, they can be incredibly powerful, swingy, and create fun game states. Maelstrom Archangel is a house in both 5-Color and reanimator strategies, Child of Alara is the control player’s second copy of Nevinnyral’s Disk, and Maelstrom Nexus simply has to be one of the most powerful cards ever once you untap with it. I love how it gives Cascade to cards that have no right having it (can you imagine cascading off a buyback spell like Capsize? Holy crap!), and untapping with that is just good times.
Moving on, we’ll briefly go over each section. U/W got Wall of Denial, a card that basically stops every creature in the cube sans a few, and will be very welcome by the U/W control players out there. I think Kiss of the Amesha is great, but the Wall fills a more needed role in that archetype. Nemesis of Reason is one of the best limited creatures ever printed, and acts as both a wall and a legitimate win condition when the U/B control player’s game inevitably goes long. Soul Manipulation replaced the much harder to cast Undermine, and is a fantastic and versatile counterspell in its own right.
B/R lost some chaff by removing Void, which no one was really using, and Hellhole Rats was dropped because…well…it’s a four mana 2/2. We can do better. And better we have! We now have a super duper removal spell in Bituminous Blast, and an incredibly aggressive creature in Shambling Remains. I wanted B/R to have both discard, beef and speed, and I think these additions help that.
R/G lost Fires of Yavimaya but I think made up for it in Bloodbraid Elf, and I replaced Rumbling Slum with Spellbreaker Behemoth. Sure Rumbling Slum got in an extra damage, but Spellbreaker does what you need it to do in topdeck mode: Make sure it sticks. The fact that it can guarantee your Cliffrunner Behemoth or Ball Lightning to remain uncountered is nice as well.
G/W got the most extensive rewrite, as I replaced no less than four of the five cards. Phantom Nishoba was a house, and is great for reanimator strategies, but Enlisted Wurm gives you free spells and a huge dude, and that seems like a much better deal to me. Armadillo Cloak was upgraded into its equipment version, which is less scarier the turn it huts, but far more scary in the long run. Armadillo Cloak was always something you could take care up with a removal spell, and now it’s much more difficult to attain that. Mirari’s Wake replaced Glare of Subdual, as few games were decided by Glare while I think many will be finished by Wake instead. Lastly, Saffi Eriksdotter was switched out for the Best Watchwolf Ever in Qasali Pridemage. Now you got your aggro and your tool against annoying artifacts and enchantments!
In W/B I finally fixed the Debtors’ Knell problem (where a Hybrid card was in the Multicolor section, I do it in the U/R section in a moment). Identity Crisis takes your opponent’s hand, graveyard, and dignity in that order, and sounds perfect for the cube.
In W/R I wanted to give this very aggressive combination of colors an aggressive monster to match it. Brion Stoutarm, in my experience, was primarily used as a beater and not his activated ability. 4/4s for four mana are a dime a dozen these days, and giving R/W it’s own ‘dragon’ (even if it doesn’t fly) sounds good to me.
U/R I switched the awkward Izzet Guildmage (which should be in the Hybrid section if at all) with Izzet Chronarch. Now with Reveillark it’s a more powerful creature, and I love how it gives you plenty of options. A mainstay from wayback, it’s nice he’s returning.
U/G lost Temporal Spring but gained a much more powerful creature in Lorescale Coatl. Sure it’s “just” a single +1/+1 counter per draw, but in the long game that guy is a house. It also makes any draw spells insane, and Brainstorm that much better. Can’t beat that.
B/G gained the oh-so-awesome Maelstrom Pulse, which is gladly accepted into the cube, and Spiritmonger was upgraded to a Lord of Extinction, a guy much bigger and scarier than Spiritmonger even if it can’t dodge Protection From Black creatures like Spiritmonger could. I think it’s a fair trade to switch out a 6/6 regenerator with a 20/20 in most cases.
All of the Shards gained one card, as there were a ton of fantastic choices to choose from via Conflux and Alara Reborn (mainly the latter) and I didn’t want to cut awesome cards if I didn’t have to. With that said, Esper starts us off with Mindslaver-On-A-Stick in Sen Triplets, a card that must be dealt with and quickly, as well as the Artifact Akroma, Sphinx of the Steel Wind. This guy is all that and a bag of chips, and don’t you forget it. Awesome in both control and reanimator strategies.
Jund gained a Lavalanche while Grixis got the badass Planeswalker as well as the incredibly fun and versatile Slave of Bolas. I love how Hybrids give you the functionality of a tri-color card in ‘just’ a two color combination. Wonderful. Speaking of awesome hybrids, Crystallization was added to Bant because I felt that U/W and G/W needed more answers to creatures in the format. Sure I could’ve thrown Rhox War Monk in there, but he’s a bit difficult to cast and didn’t really fill the role I wanted him to. Lastly is Naya which gained Uril, the Miststalker, an awesome Troll Shroud creature that does an excellent job of not dying to anything outside mass removal or a ton of blocks. Either way, my Moldervine Cloak loves him. Griffin Guide, too.
Hybrid Cards
Drops: Cankerous Thirst, Fire at Will, Mirrorweave, Rise of the Hobgoblins, Sapling the Colfenor, Shrewd Hatchling, Spitemare
Adds: Balefire Liege, Call the Skybreaker, Canker Abomination, Hearthfire Hobgoblin, Thistledown Liege, Waves of Aggression, Wurm Harvest
This section is the one that got switched around based on feedback and testing. Firstly, Shrewd Hatchling is no Call the Skybreaker. Yes, I’ve lost games thanks to Shrewd Hatchling, but at the end of the day Call the Skybreaker is a much more powerful card, even for red decks. Balefire Liege is an upgrade from Rise of the Hobgoblins, as it works fantastically in a red deck, Fire at Will got switched by the more aggressive and far less reactive Hearthfire Hobgoblin, and Spitemare leaves us due to Waves of Aggression, as I really wanted to push R/W as a fast, powerful deck that can ‘just win’ out of nowhere. Suddenly you’re one-drop, two-drop, three-drop, burn you, Waves of Aggression and the game is over.
Canker Abomination replaced Sapling the Colfenor, who wasn’t pulling much if any weight, and Canker is usually a 5/5 or 6/6 in a cube such as mine, in which many archetypes run very few creatures. Lastly, Mirrorweave got an upgrade into Thistledown Liege, who helps the G/W archetype as well as the U/W aggro-control archetype by having both Flash and being able to block 2/x creatures easily. Take THAT Kird Ape!
Conclusion
So with that my long-awaited cube update is complete. I hope you guys have as much fun with it as I do, because I love this wacky thing.
See you soon for the Magic 2010 Update!
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+: good choice
?: not sure
-: suboptimal choice imo
W
+ Light from Within, Soltari Visionary, Cataclysm, Martial Coup, Path to Exile, Rout, Wall of Reverence
? Kataki, War’s Wage: there are 60 artifacts in your cube, that means, each player has an average of 4-5 artifacts in their deck
? Soltari Crusader: I definitely gonna test this card, but it looks very unexciting
U
+ Covenant of Minds, Chronozoa, Remand, Ponder, Ethersworn Adjudicator, Glen Elendra Archmage, Riftwing Cloudskate, Honden of Seeing Winds
+ Kira, Great Glass-Spinner: I have a new card on my wants list
+ Pestermite: this card was so cool! the Kiki-Jiki combo, 2 surprise blockers, eot dude in control deck, or just as a mini-Mistbind Clique, denying them 1 mana in their ukeep
- Morphling: he still is a 5/1 shrouded flyer, that can block any creature
B
+ Rotlung Reanimator, Cabal Interrogator, Corpse Dance, Scepter of Fugue
? Okiba-Gang Shinobi: every time I draw this card, my opponents have already played their hand, or I have no dude to ninjutsu…
? Dauthi Mercenary: see Soltari Crusader
- Beacon of Unrest: this card is so good! steal the fatty, that I made you discard / I get back my Obelisk of Alara/ or just something like your own Mulldrifter, knowing that the next time you draw this card, it will be even better
- Betrayal of Flesh: for 6 mana you could have cast most of the creatures in the first place.
- Mesmeric Fiend: has been cut in many of our cubes, because its 1/1 body is irrelevant
R
+ Goblin Assault, Hell’s Thunder, Countryside Crusher, Hellspark Elemental, Magus of the Moon, Puncture Blast, Molten Rain
+ Puncture Blast: Lightning Bolt meets Brute Force. very unique burn spell
? Incendiary Command: how relevant is a 5 mana ld-spell?
? Ball Lightning: RRR is just so hard to support, but since you want it because of M10, it’s fine.
- Pyroclasm-> Volcanic Fallout: it is not that you do THAT much double blocking and it is just a lot easier to cast than the Fallout
G
+ Heartwood Storyteller, Vinelasher Kudzu, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Chord of Calling, Noble Hierarch, Thornling, Wild Nacatl
+ Kodama’s Reach: a must have, now that you are running WUBRG cards
A
+ Aether Spellbomb: I never liked that card
+ Grafted Wargear: I even played that card in constructed for a while
+ Pithing Needle, Staff of Domination, Obelisk of Alara, Sundering Titan, Vedalken Shackles, Erratic Portal
? Guardian Idol: better than Mind Stone?
- Lightning Greaves:it gives al your nontoken creatures haste and protects your best creature against sorcery speed removal
- Puppet Strings: I played that card quite a while, but with my cube evolving I had less an less creatures with tap ability for this card
M
+ Debtors’ Knell, Grave-Shell Scarab, Hellhole Rats, Izzet Guildmage, Phantom Nishoba, Punish Ignorance, Rumbling Slum, Saffi Eriksdotter, Sedris, the Traitor King, Spiritmonger, Temporal Spring, Undermine, Vorosh, the Hunter, Hide/Seek, Spite/Malice, Bloodbraid Elf, Lavalanche, Lord of Extinction, Lorescale Coatl, Maelstrom Pulse, Mirari’s Wake, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Qasali Pridemage, Sen Triplets, Slave of Bolas, Soul Manipulation, Spellbreaker Behemoth, Uril, the Miststalker, Wall of Denial, Shambling Remains, Nemesis of Reason, Bull Cerodon
? Armadillo Cloak/Behemoth Sledge,: I am still not sure if the Sledge is better and just play both of them
? Kiss of the Amesha ->Absorb
? Glare of Subdual: easiest way to win with a GW token deck
? Void:untargeted removal, that can make phenomenal trades
? Bituminous Blast: powerful, indeed, but better than Void?
? Intet, the Dreamer: Mind’s Desire for 1, that even allows you play counterspells and combos with Brainstorm/Ponder on a huge body
? Brion Stoutarm: even if he got worse with M10, 4/4 lifelink 4 mana that can end a stall is good enough for me
? Enlisted Wurm: fun card, but is it really good enough for cubing?
? Izzet Chronarch: this card was so slow. but if you have the ability to recur him (especially the mana for it) , you are properly winning
? Sphinx of the Steel Wind: another Tinker/ reanimation target. unfortunately most of it’s abilities are useless
? Maelstrom Archangel, Child of Alara, Maelstrom Nexus: very rewarding for a 5c player, but I wouldn’t want to have them in my deck unless I have a ton of fixers.
- Fires of Yavimaya: I guess I would have cut Stormbind or BTS
- Crystallization: I am not extending my multicolor section to a point, there I have to play a bad Pacifism
- Identity Crisis: four(!) colored mana…
H
+Cankerous Thirst, Fire at Will, Mirrorweave, Rise of the Hobgoblins, Sapling the Colfenor, Shrewd Hatchling, Call the Skybreaker, Canker Abomination,Balefire Liege, Hearthfire Hobgoblin
? Spitemare: I like this card a lot. it also works quite well with Pyroclasm effects
?Waves of Aggression: looks nice, maybe I’ ll try this, too
- Thistledown Liege: a 1 powered creature for 1WWW is just bad compared with other cube cards (I guess you are not planing tto play him in a UW weenie deck.)
- Wurm Harvest: ok, if I have 1 fetchie in my graveyard and spend 2 lands and 15(!!!) mana, I have 6 1/1…
eidolon | Jun 30, 2009 | Reply
i agree 95% with the comments above but here’s what i got to say:
W – Kataki will fly out soon, it just doesn’t do enough. Crusader is weak since you have to attack for its ability to work
U – not a thing, great picks! exclusion of morphling too!
B – Okiba-Gang doesn’t work out well most of the time, either you can’t ninjutsu it in or you make your opp discard one or 0 cards. i can assure you that shadow 3 drops aren’t exciting at all and are lousy topdecks, there are better stuff to play on C3 (maybe Nyxathid). Mesmeric Fiend is even better now regardless of its puny 1/1 bodym it still beats and disrupts and has a bro in Tidehollow Sculler
R – V. Fallout is hard to cast and a worse play at 3 mana. Incendiary Command can be okay but its mediocre since only 3 modes are useful. Ball Lightning as a honorable include is fine but be prepared to see it table often
G – good picks altho both genesis and rude awakening give green enough staying power so you don’t exactly need Centaur Glade, i’d push more aggressive cards like Hurricane (its green burn), Predator’s Strike (gives trample!) and where’s Briarhorn dammit??? its a creature it pumps and its an instant play and a high pick!
the multicolor and hybrid picks are very iffy and you’ll see later on that they look good only on paper
i really dislike most of the HHH hybrid spells cause they’re more a multicolor spell than hybrid since you have to play both colors to cast it successfuly (like hearthfire hobgoblin)
maelstrom archangel and child of alara were a bust and always a last pick. maelstrom nexus is good tho since you can build around it and you have academy rector i hope
argus | Jun 30, 2009 | Reply
you think pyroclasm and morphling aren’t cube worthy thanks to m10, and include canker abomination and crystalization?
evan please try to show a little more consistency when considering the power level of certain card, especially multicolored/hybrid
cutting spiritmonger for lord of extinction ?? armadillo cloak is still good too!!
derek | Jul 1, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for the feedback everybody.
I’m not saying Canker Abomination and Crystallization are the Best Cards Ever. But I need to fill my G/B hybrid, and Crystallization fills a removal slot I wanted for both G/W and U/W, and that card does exactly what I want it to do.
After further playtesting and whatnot, if either card isn’t pulling its weight I’ll replace it with something else. But my cube is balanced in its distribution, and as such I only have so much room for cards in various places.
I think Morphling is bad now, Volcanic Fallout is still not bad at all, and Behemoth Sledge over Armadillo Cloak isn’t saying Cloak is bad by any means, it’s saying that I only have room for 5 G/W cards. I chose the Sledge, we’ll see how it works out.
Evan | Jul 1, 2009 | Reply
I just wanted to say thank you for finally updating, looking forward to your M10 updates
ph34r_th3_n3VVb | Jul 1, 2009 | Reply
Evan, instead of adding (IMO) substandard cards in the hybrid section and cutting good multicolor cards, why not just combine the 2 sections? That way you don’t have to cut certain cards because you can “only” have 5 of that multicolor combination…..
Electrohead | Jul 1, 2009 | Reply
I will second the combining of Hybrid and Gold. We orginially based our cube off of yours and quickly realized that some hybrid combos just didn’t have the cube worthy options. In fact, most UR and UW hybrid cards are the suck. So, at first, we just combined the two and included ten of each multicolor combo. We later realized that ten was waaaay too many as drafts felt an awful lot like RAV or ALA block. Our packs were just saturated with multicolor cards. This would then result in several good cards being passouts because players just weren’t in those colors or it would force 3-5 color decks. So, we dropped the multicolor number down to eight. This, in turn, gave us quite of bit of space to add better cards to the monocolor sections. Trust me on this, Evan, the combining of the two is well worth it. I like the idea of having two different sections for them, but the fact of the matter is that there just aren’t enough good hybrid cards to make it worthwhile.
I’ll also add that both Morphling and Pyroclasm are still completely cube worthy. I’ll agree that neither of them are as good now as they once were, but that by no means makes them bad or even remotely uncubeable. Blocking with more than one creature is a rare occurance and using Pyroclasm to your advantage in a situation like that is even more rare. Pyroclasm still serves it’s purpose with being able to take out your opponents weenie horde. And as eidolon pointed out, Morphling is still a 5/1 shrouded flying finisher for blue. He can also still swing in for five to the dome and then untap and block as an 0/X flying shrouded wall. You mentioned that indesctrucible was no joke and that it greatly helped Thornling’s cause. Well then, what’s shroud now? Chopped liver? Is that not basically the same thing? You also said that trample was no slouch either. Couldn’t the same be said for flying? I’ll have to disagree with you 100% that Morpling got so bad that it became uncubeworthy. I feel like that’s just flat out wrong.
After having played my own cube several times with the new M10 rules, I’ve found that they barely even have an effect on the game or any cards in my cube. Sure, sac creatures got a bit worse, but not to the point of unplayability. Not being able to stack damage is probably the only thing that’s made any sort of impact and even that was so minor that we hardly noticed it.
calibretto | Jul 1, 2009 | Reply
@Electrohead: I totally agree. There are a lot more good gold cards than hybrids, and the power level of that card is not equal among the color combinations.
in a 500+ 2color combination cube it is not that relevant, if a color has now 1 additional playable, because of an offcolor hybrid card.
It is much more important to have good cards in all pairs of colors, no matter if they are gold, hybrid or split cards.
eidolon | Jul 1, 2009 | Reply
I still don’t understand why dark confidant is never considered/talked about. He’s a card I always want to see when I have black in my colors and a way to manipulate my deck (brainstorm, ponder, top, scroll rack, etc.).
pablo | Jul 1, 2009 | Reply
You know, it’s funny, I was thinking about him just a few minutes ago…I was like “I have Bob in here, right?” *Looks* “…Oh.”
He’ll be heavily considered for the next go-round
Evan | Jul 1, 2009 | Reply
I’d also like to push towards combining hybrid and multicolor. Or a good justification otherwise… More hybrid does help mono/dual color out while staying away from 5 color.
Bob’s in mine and I run 480 cards.
James Sooy | Jul 2, 2009 | Reply
Evan I have to agree with the combining of Hybrid/Gold as well. We too base our cube off of yours but changed to a 10 cards per color combo rule as well. Just like electrohead though, we cut back to 8 as it became clear that it created way too much gold in the packs. I love gold as much as the next guy, but with shards AND the cube both turning into 3-5 color goldfests, it got a little tiring. This also solves the problem of having cards like rendclaw trow, canker abomination, and worm harvest in while spiritmonger sits on the sidelines. Those cards are both good, but spiritmonger not in the cube?! Come on. Outside of that, I’m excited to try some of these new additions like Waves of Aggression and Kira, Great Glass Spinner. That thing sound like my new favorite card, and I’m wondering how I ever missed that…
P.S. No one ever picks/will pick Child of Alara, and Maelstorm Archangel happens once in a very blue moon. Nexus is fun though. ^_^
Nebula | Jul 2, 2009 | Reply
Forgot to mention that the only hybrid cards that you don’t seem to end up all of it colors are cards like Slave of Bolas, which ofc enable multiple color pairs. Most of the hybrids cost 3-5 hybrid mana, meaning you almost HAVE to be both colors to play reliably. Thus making them essentially gold anyway.
Nebula | Jul 2, 2009 | Reply
balancing hybrid separately from multicolors i impossible since there aren’t that many hybrid cards for each color combination. i’m also opposed to strict balance when it comes to multicolored cards (including hybrid) since you run into the issue of playing subpar cards. we keep out multicolor and hybrids together since f.e. unmake is a BW card (noone would draft mono decks in a cube with all the manafixing) and can hardly be properly played in a UB or UW control deck. it’s even more true for aggressive 3 drops and deities. we keep between 6 i 7 cards for each multicolor pair and GW gets some love with 8 cards and it doesn’t hurt the balance one bit, (players still refuse to draft GW often)
as for the glaring omissions:
no Dark Confidant WTFBBQ!!11111 – fix it! NOW! it is the Great One afterall, it pushes BW and BG aggro to new levels
Briarhorn – really? you didn’t put it in? the complete package!
Blood Knight – do i need to comment on this
Rakka Mar – mean token pumping machine, card advantage for red is always wellcome. imho better than Keldon Champion
Putrid Leech – a bit nerfed by new rules but still a 4/4 two drop in a color combo that is too oriented on midrange rockish stuff
Mirror Entity – if you want something to pump WW and not be a lame topdeck
argus | Jul 2, 2009 | Reply
Just a note that in your drop list you left out Dominate. =]
Silentscope | Jul 2, 2009 | Reply
Hey Evan,
Just a heads up, you left out any discussion of your land picks and drops in the main article, though the changes do appear to be on the list.
Preston | Jul 2, 2009 | Reply
I just use 25 hybrids, and the color combo is 2 or 3 each, according to how deep each one is. A one-card difference in a couple colors isn’t a big deal, and keeps out “color-requirement only” chaff. I would much rather have a slight color imbalance than open a 14-card pack (Worm Harvest? Really?). Besides, WotC doesn’t balance colors perfectly and that doesn’t seem to make limited environments unplayable.
I’d take out some hybrid- the HHH costs make them essentially gold cards requiring two color decks, as others have said. The point of hybrid is to make the cards playable in any deck that shares one of its colors, not both exact colors. They’re supposed to be playable in more decks than a one-color card, not fewer. The more things people can pick per pack, the better. That’s one of my favorite parts of the cube- each pick presents far more options than a regular draft.
If you must keep every gold and hybrid color combination exactly equal (just because it looks prettier??) then cut the chaff, even at the expense of good cards in other color combos. If you cut 5 chaff hybrids and 5 good ones, the cube goes from 5/555 crap cards to 0/545 crap cards. I’d rather lose 5 good cards than have 5 crappy ones floating around. 0% crap is far better than 1% crap- and isn’t the point of the cube to “draft the most powerful cards ever”, as opposed to “draft the most powerful cards ever plus some bad ones that nobody uses”?
I guess that’s another of the cube’s wonders, though- to each his own.
Tyrael | Jul 3, 2009 | Reply
one more thing: where’s future sight? its better than a honden since it wins games on its own
argus | Jul 3, 2009 | Reply
I think Future Sight probably has a place, but it’s definitely not strictly better than Honden. Many times Future Sight has sat in the board due to it’s fairly harsh mana requirements while the simple U required in the Honden makes it far less taxing on the mana. You get what you pay for, as Future Sight will generally be a more powerful effect, but it will also fit in fewer decks as well.
Kenny Mayer | Jul 3, 2009 | Reply
thanks a lot evan! your work hardly goes unnoticed. the little things you do like the mouse-over card images are fantastic, and your game coverage videos are amazing. it’s so helpful to not have to click away and search for a card, and the way you display the cards in the videos as the game proceeds is that much greater.
i won’t post my personal remarks about your card choices (except that Morphling should stay =P) but i will say that many of the hybrid cards are not nearly as good as some gold or even monocoloured cards out there, so merging the hybrid and gold sections while dropping the suboptimal hybrids seems like a good move to me.
happy drafting!
fan | Jul 4, 2009 | Reply
HI guys,
i’m not a cube expert but wouldn’t Throat Slitter be a good card for the cube.
It’s really strong in a deck that relies on CiP-Effects and is removal.
zocktol | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
No Banefire addition? Blasphemy in the name of red!
arosine | Jul 10, 2009 | Reply
I dropped demonfire for banefire a looooong time ago.
pablo | Jul 14, 2009 | Reply
An idea for RW, as my play group disagrees with Bull Ceredon’s addition…
Razia’s Purification.
It’s awesome as an additional balance effect, and can often be crippling to the opponent.
sum1unopk | Jul 19, 2009 | Reply
Nice updates for the most part. Could you post a draft walkthrough? There aren’t really any available online.
Rachael | Jul 25, 2009 | Reply
Taking out morphling is pretty tricky, even under the new rules changes he is still an 0/x flying shroud wall that deals with alot of problems.
Kitaki is a poor addition IMO.
One card that has been kicking around my play area that seems to be an absolute house is Wash Out, maybe give that a try and see if you like how it plays.
Your cube is still awesome (and my stores default proxy cube)
Brodie | Sep 4, 2009 | Reply