Hello everybody, it’s that time again…with Zendikar released into the wild, it’s time to add Magic 2010 cards to the Cube as well as shake up the colors in the direction I feel they should go.

Remember, the cube is your chance (and mine) to be developer and designer, so feel free to add or remove any card you like. The customization is part of the fun! That said, I wanted to accomplish a few goals with this update:

- Less Cards. Specifically, Hybrid Cards. This entire section has been eliminated. This leaves us with 28 fewer cards than my previous update (for a total of 527 from 555).

- More Support For Mono Color Decks. This includes giving black Sinkhole and green Acidic Slime. These cards allow those colors to deal with permanents (such as Maze of Ith or enchantments) when they had no way to previously stop those cards and/or it was very difficult to do so.

- Pay Attention To Cube Consensus. This means looking at other cubes in the cubedrafting.com forums, other cube forums around the net, and scouring magiccards.info in search of great cards to bring awesome limited experiences to players of my cube.

Wanna see what changed? Let’s go!

White

Drops

Archon of Justice
Feudkillers’ Verdict
Kataki, War’s Wage
Knight-Captain of Eos
Prison Term

Adds

Baneslayer Angel
Captain of the Watch
Elite Vanguard
Honor of the Pure
Parallax Wave

So what changed? Well, a few things. First, Baneslayer Angel is absolutely ridiculous, way, WAY over the curve for a Magic card, and is obviously a huge beast that will determine many a cube game in the future. That said, as many warned me, Kataki, War’s Wage wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I replaced it with the White Weenie all-star Elite Vanguard (ie Savannah Lions 2.0).

Feudkiller’s Verdict was always a ‘neat’ spell for me, but rarely did what I wanted it to: Save me from certain death. Sure I got a 5/5, and gained some life, but that 5/5 had no ability to block evasive creatures, and normally just stalled the game for another turn or two when the aggro player would kill the token and me soon afterwards.

Knight-Captain of Eos was cute and ‘foggy’ and all, but Captain of the Watch is a terrific topdeck, works well with the newly-added Elite Vanguard and Martial Coup, and should be a welcome turn 6 follow-up to Cloudgoat Ranger.

Prison Term was removed because I felt I had perhaps one-too-many Arrest effects in the cube, and instead put in the cube-consensus card of Parallax Wave. This card is ridiculous and should be a welcome entry for control players (and even Aggro players in the mirror!). Archon of Justice was just not exciting, at least not when you stack Baneslayer Angel against it, and Honor of the Pure pushes White Weenie right where I want it: As a viable, draftable archetype.

Blue

Drops

Ponder
Dissipate
Honden of Seeing Winds
Psionic Blast

Adds

Djinn of Wishes
Exclude
Future Sight
Time Warp

So this go-round I chucked the cute-but-not-really-worth-it-without Honden of Cleansing Fire Honden of Seeing Winds. Just not good enough for five mana. Psionic Blast left due to it being really against what I want blue to do in the cube (which is control-only, no direct damage thanks). Dissipate is basically a suited-up Cancel and I replaced it with the cantrip-infused Exclude, which I feel could also be Essence Scatter but I chose not to go there. Finally, I dropped Ponder because with Brainstorm and Impulse, it was a little too much. Djinn of Wishes gives a blue deck both reach and a finisher for control decks. Future Sight, is, of course, completely bonkers and I have highly underrated it in the past. I’m ready to give it one more shot.

Black

Drops

Betrayal of Flesh
Decree of Pain
Grim Harvest
Night’s Whisper
Okiba-Gang Shinobi
Oona’s Prowler
Scepter of Fugue
Skinthinner

Adds

Cemetery Reaper
Grim Tutor
Necromancy
Sign in Blood
Silent Specter
Sinkhole
Slaughter
Throat Slitter

Whew, another slight overhaul for black. I do believe we’re finally reaching an equilibrium as to what this color should do (for me, at least) and how I want it to deal with other colors.

I was told Betrayal of Flesh was no Beacon of Unrest, and those dissenting voices were correct. However, Beacon of Unrest is no Necromancy, and that card should definitely be in ‘high powered’ cubes. That thing is nuts and I’m a little ashamed it took this long to get in there.

Skinthinner gets an aggro-upgrade in the form of Throat Slitter, Sinkhole replaced Scepter of the Fugue as a way for black to both disrupt their opponent’s mana and solve tough problems like Library of Alexandria and Maze of Ith.

Decree of Pain was just too much mana, while I love to throw in another Demonic Tutor in the form of Grim Tutor. Cemetery Reaper is a card I’m trying out to see just how good it is in attrition wars. Sign in Blood replaced Night’s Whisper (yes, it’s tougher to cast, but the versatility is worth it, and I like how it makes you commit more solidly to black); Grim Harvest always disappointed me and I gave black more creature removal power in the form of Slaughter. Silent Specter is pretty badass, as far as I can tell, is included in a ton of cubes around the net, and replaced the underwhelming Okiba-Gang Shinobi as a powerful discard tool and also helps up the Morph count in the cube, which is nice.

Red

Drops

Demonfire
Flameblast Dragon
Countryside Crusher
Changeling Berserker
Keldon Vandals
Pulse of the Forge

Adds

Banefire
Rakka Mar
Viashino Heretic
Blood Knight
Dead / Gone
Impending Disaster

This update saw red get a few upgrades, some versatility, and lose a few impressive but ultimately tough to utilize cards.

First up is the easy switch of Banefire for Demonfire. This was an overlooked upgrade from previous updates.

Countryside Crusher is a card I desperately want to be good, but rarely if every actually does what I want him to do. He seems to get chump blocked and after using something like Fireblast or holding a counterable Banefire while he’s Arrested or something is just miserable.

I switched the one-time use of Keldon Vandals with the multiple-use Viashino Heretic. I believe this is a positive change, as it’s been shown that creatures with repeatable abilities (Waterfront Bouncer, Mother of Runes, etc) are those that are most sought and powerful. Flameblast Dragon was really impressive, but in reality just doesn’t compare with a lot of other six drops, even good ole Rorix Bladewing. That dragon was replaced with the surprisingly effective and scary Rakka Mar. Go-go undying Spark Elementals!

Pulse of the Forge got worse with the removal of Mana Burn and I desperately needed to get Blood Knight in the cube. Protection from white is so important it’s tough to really put into words how badly its needed for red decks to win against U/W Control. Impending Disaster is my All-Star Treasure Find. I hope it works out as well as it looks. It appears fantastic for aggro decks and forces control decks to play much, much differently than they do now (which is dump every land they can into play and not worry about the consequences).

Changeling Berserker has been in the cube for awhile now, and while it certainly is cute and has it’s really cool moments, it often can sit in your hand after your opponent just Wrath of God‘d the board away. Instead I have the much more interesting Dead / Gone which gives red flexibility and versatility against a number of ridiculous plays and decks (particularly reanimator). With the new reanimator tools I’ve given black, it’s nice to throw red a bone in combating that strategy.

Green

Drops

Masked Admirers
Chord of Calling
Cliffrunner Behemoth
Eyes of the Wisent
Reclaim
Sprout Swarm

Adds

Acidic Slime
Explosive Vegetation
Great Sable Stag
Hidden Gibbons
Master of the Wild Hunt
Squall Line

I had to include some biggies from M10 this time. I didn’t get to include Ant Queen, but I think the rest of the all-stars make an appearance. Master of the Wild Hunt is just ridiculous if he gets going, Great Sable Stag is obviously a powerhouse against blue control or black aggro decks, and Squall Line deals with an evasive rush as well as killing cards like Akroma, Angel of Wrath at instant speed (as well as giving green a ‘Fireball‘ of its own).

Acidic Slime provides green a ‘catch-all’ answer to annoying permanents, whether they’re enchantments or lands. Hidden Gibbons replaced the horribly awkward Eyes of the Wisent and is a much better card pound-for-pound I think. Explosive Vegetation gives more fuel for ramp decks, including those that intend on casting Tooth and Nail before it’s over.

As for the cuts, I’ll be honest I’ve been underwhelmed with basically every card in that list. Cliffrunner Behemoth was really cute in G/R Aggro, but there are better four-drop options (Cap’n Tickles, aka Giant Solifuge comes to mind). Reclaim has always been in my sideboards, Sprout Swarm doesn’t do what I want it to (provide a green control deck card…no one plays control with green), Masked Admirers are too slow, and Chord of Calling is nice in a G/W Aggro deck, but I think I’ve made significant upgrades in the creature power and viability of green in the cube, even as a mono-color option.

Artifacts

Drops

Epochrasite
Grim Poppet

Adds

Etched Oracle
Silent Arbiter

Pretty straight-forward: I felt that Grim Poppet was cute but ultimately not included in many final builds, even in the decks that would seem to support it easily (i.e. slow control builds). Etched Oracle is a card that rewards the 5-color drafters out there, as well as providing a powerful aggressive creature that can be traded in for an Ancestral Recall, while Silent Arbiter does what I feel Grim Poppet was designed to do, which is control the creature war in a control deck.

Multicolor

Drops

Hybrid Section
Child of Alara
Crystallization
Naya Charm
Sedraxis Specter
Jund Charm
Sen Triplets

The biggest changes, obviously, were to the Multicolor category. The previously found Hybrid section is now completely removed, and I think the cube is much better without it. “Forcing” a 5-card-per-hybrid-pair selection made me include cards like Noggle Hedge-mage, and nobody likes that guy, not even me. But it was a card I was ‘forced’ to play with as the constraints of my design called for it.

So, um…screw that design. Let’s instead fuse them together, allowing Spiritmonger to return to the cube and I shed some fat by removing one 5-Color card (the awful-in-hindsight Child of Alara), and removing one card per shard. The decisions were tough, but I think ultimately worth it. I also got to include more two-color cards if I wanted (such as the inclusion of Putrid Leech in B/G), while getting the pick of the litter of the hybrid cards. G/W is the section that provided the most grueling of choices, but I loves me some Kitchen Finks and while I’d love to include Armadillo Cloak again, I’m still fond of the powerful Behemoth Sledge to take it home.

Spitemare showed up in R/W again, and I think for the better. I love that creature, as it makes your non-black/non-blue opponent make some nasty decisions in terms of how to deal with it. While white could use a Pacifism effect, green and red have a hell of a time killing this guy without taking significant damage.

Izzet Guildmage also returned to U/R, a very underrated creature that does wonders in a red burn deck or even a control deck by copying spells like Ancestral Recall in blue or Firebolt in red. (That said, he’s still kinda underpowered…)

Lands

Drops

Cascade Bluffs
Fetid Heath
Fire-Lit Thicket
Flooded Grove
Graven Cairns
Mystic Gate
Rugged Prarie
Rupture Spire
Sunken Ruins
Twilight Mire
Unstable Frontier
Wooded Bastion

Adds

Arid Mesa
Barbarian Ring
Dragonskull Summit
Drowned Catacomb
Glacial Fortress
Kor Haven
Marsh Flats
Misty Rainforest
Rootbound Crag
Scalding Tarn
Sunpetal Grove
Verdant Catacombs

Lands in the cube are always tricky. You want just the right balance, where players can get the fixing they need without making 5-color an overpowering force (i.e. there’s a reason there are no Vivid Lands in the cube such as Vivid Creek).

With this update I completely removed the Hybrid Duals as provided to us from Shadowmoor and Eventide. I loved them, but I also hated the fact that if you had a hand of two hybrid duals you are almost forced to mulligan (or hold your breath to see if your deck comes through). However, with the M10 duals, if you don’t have the land that makes it come into play untapped you’ll still get the mana you need next turn, which is better than never if you don’t draw a land that activates your hybrid duals.

The only Zendikar entries this time are the enemy fetchlands, auto-includes in any self-respecting ‘powered’ cube, and also help balance out the loss of ten lands by supplementing ten lands that make the exact same color combination.

That said, two mana fixing lands left us: Rupture Spire and Unstable Frontier. Both of these cards are mediocre at best and help fuel an archetype that needs little to no help (i.e. 5-Color Good Stuff). Instead, I gave U/W control players a gift with Kor Haven, and red decks one in the form of Barbarian Ring.

Summary

So that’s it for another cube update folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my reasoning behind my decisions, and hope you either update or create your own cube to find out how truly awesome it really is.

Join us in February when we do this all over again, and see what impact Landfall and the powerful cards from Zendikar have on the cube as we know it.

Now get out there and cube!