Rise of the Eldrazi Cube Update
By Evan on Jul 16, 2010 in Cube Updates
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!
ROE Update Goals
#1 – Continue Existing Themes
Essentially I’m happy where the colors are at this point. While I feel that there is definitely room for improvement in a variety of small areas (the amount of 1-drops in White, just to think out loud), I’m very happy with the mix of decks and strategies that have emerged in recent drafts. No color, sans Blue, seems completely overpowered. With that said…
#2 – Lessen Blue Control
This is mainly done through a few methods: Stronger mana denial (ie Land Destruction), better Discard, and better aggro. Aggro being pretty good in Green and Red, the colors I wanted to punish Blue the most, and I pushed quite a bit in regards to Land Destruction (Choking Sands, Dust Bowl), and discard (Inquisition of Kozilek, Persecute).
#3 – More Green Fixing, More Colorless Options
For this one I wanted to make sure Green was the color of ramp and fixing, so in go cards like Ondu Giant and Growth Spasm. As for the Colorless options, All is Dust was an obvious (and powerful choice). Trip Noose is very close to Puppet Strings, a card we’ve had success with, and I like giving Mono Red or Mono Black a way to deal with something that has protection from it (Kor Firewalker etc). Even Mono Blue can get some love out of that card. Juggernaut, a monster that hasn’t been in the cube for some time but is due to return.
White
Drops:
None
Adds:
Gideon Jura
Student of Warfare
Transcendent Master
Wall of Omens
Miraculous Recovery
Beyond the four Rise of the Eldrazi powerhouses, Miraculous Recovery enters the cube after much fanfare from other cube enthusiasts. This Zombify bigger, better and at Instant speed(!) is a whooping in a lot of decks and gives white some reach. I like it. The rest seem pretty self-explanatory. Gideon Jura is crazy good, Student of Warfare gives a must-deal-with threat that you can sit back and force them to deal with, Transcendant Master is WAY better in non-constructed formats than constructed, and Wall of Omens is Wall of Blossoms in White. Obvious color shift is obvious.
Blue
Drops:
Old Man of the Sea
Adds:
Deprive
Enclave Cryptologist
Lighthouse Chronologist
Mnemonic Wall
Sea Gate Oracle
Spreading Seas
This update mainly pertains to the Old Man of the Sea not getting there (it’s no Vedalken Shackles), and every single entry from Rise of the Eldrazi made it! The ability to re-use lands like Halimar Depths is No Joke, and even the innocent-looking Lighthouse Chronologist is a threat that must be stopped in a Blue-based control deck. Sea Gate Oracle was a card that looked really iffy when I pre-ordered it, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t even better than expected. Enclave Cryptologist is a one-drop Merfolk Looter, and all that that implies (ie It’s Good). Mnemonic Wall is somewhat annoying for aggro decks, but hey, it’s a 5-drop. Not quite Izzet Chronarch, but also doesn’t require Blue -and- Red mana (and doesn’t return two, yadda yadda)
Lastly I’m not 100% hating on blue as Propaganda shows up, the Ghostly Prison in the ‘wrong’ color, and it gives Blue control decks a way to slow down the onslaught.
Black
Drops:
None
Adds:
Red
Drops:
None
Adds:
Kargan Dragonlord
Lord of Shatterskull Pass
Staggershock
Tuktuk the Explorer
Reckless Charge
This one sees plenty of Rise of the Eldrazi goodies, like Kargan Dragonlord who wins games by himself (and did so versus me just last week), the awesome Staggershock, and solid beater Lord of Shatterskull Pass along with innocent-looking Tuktuk the Explorer. I’ve had a lot of fun equipping Grafted Wargear onto Tuktuk, I suggest you try it out. Nice 8/7 Legendary Token for three mana, eh?
Reckless Charge is here to give R/x aggro a little boost. It’s a nice trick and fits right in.
Green
Drops:
Omnath, Locus of Mana
Hidden Gibbons
Adds:
Joraga Treespeaker
Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
Awakening Zone
Mire Boa
Vengevine
Growth Spasm
Ondu Giant
ROE Cards that didn’t work: Boar Umbra, Kazandu Tuskcaller, Momentous Fall
For this update we had some real clever additions from Rise I didn’t see coming: First, Joraga Treespeaker (just call her the Lorax – she speaks for the trees!) is awesome! The “Green Sol Ring” as some have dubbed her is worth the time to include. Beastbreaker of Bala Ged was another solid addition, providing beats that must be answered or they will trample you over. Awakening Zone has proven surprisingly powerful, kicking ass as a way to chump block every turn while also powering out expensive spells, while Growth Spasm and Ondu Giant give more ramping and fixing for Green. Lastly Mire Boa gives Green another regenerator -and- a way to hate on Black, while Vengevine…well, is ridiculous, even in cube.
As for the cards that didn’t work out, I would never have guessed Momentous Fall would be bad but…it’s bad. Very bad. If you’re sacrificing a creature with enough power/toughness to make it worth it, then you probably should’ve just kept beating face with it. Boar Umbra originally had Trample on it in R&D. I wish it had stayed there. Lastly Kazandu Tuskcaller is just too slow and fragile. Nice limited bomb in a slow format. Not the cube.
Colorless / Artifact
Drops:
Adds:
All is Dust
Pithing Needle
Trip Noose
Smokestack
Juggernaut
Bottle Gnomes
Let’s get this out of the way: Since the loss of Karoos, Signets, and Vivid Lands, I’ve never seen anyone either play or cash-in Etched Oracle. Out!
All of the additions I feel are solid. All is Dust and Pithing Needle solve a lot of problems for decks that have issues with various card types (for example, Red can’t do anything about Survival of the Fittest and Recurring Nightmare without All is Dust or Pithing Needle). Smokestack returns for another round of cube beatings, as I’ve warmed up to that card playing Stax in Legacy. Juggernaut is a card for colors like White and Blue who need a beatstick, Trip Noose is another Puppet Strings / Icy Manipulator-esque card to help control decks slow down fast aggro starts, and Bottle Gnomes is back from a hiatus to show us the meaning of “Slow down, burn deck!”
Multi
Drops:
Adds:
While B/R Aggro is powerful with Shambling Remains, it’s a hell of a lot more powerful with Sarkhan the Mad. Nuff said.
Lands
Drops:
Adds:
Rishadan Port
Dust Bowl
Evolving Wilds
Vesuva
Grand Coliseum
Academy Ruins
For this update I feel like I have a lot of solid lands to play with going forward. Evolving Wilds is functionally Terramorphic Expanse, but this is not a negative, in my opinion. Giving slower mana fixing (ie doesn’t enter untapped) is fine and necessary. Vesuva is a wonderful card that solves many Legendary Land problems (this is basically the Library of Alexandra problem), the same thing that Dust Bowl is here to remedy as well. Grand Coliseum is a card I’m trying out as a ‘fixed’ City of Brass, and Rishadan Port is always welcome in the aggro deck.
Conclusion
So that’s the cube update for Rise of the Eldrazi! I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have playtesting these changes week in and week out. Join me in a few months when we see how those M11 Cube Additions hold up.
- Evan
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“The cube for this update has grown another 35 Cards for a total of 537 Cards in the cube.”
More like 602(+1) cards.
+ Etched Oracle still appears under artifacts.
(sorted list with recount can be found here: http://deckstats.net/deck-204808-7f254b806500615967da92b70eff5f0f-en.html)
I don’t like the idea of continually growing ones cube with every set, you will only slowly decrease the average powerlevel of your cube with every set, while a fixed size ensures that the cube only gets better from set to set.
The question is not: Is Lord of Shatterskull Pass better than the average magic card / rare / RotE card, but is it better than the average red card in the cube. if you don’t think so, you will weaken your cube even if you include an otherwise good card.
Miraculous Recovery: playable, but not outstanding card. You probably would be better off playing a Journey to Nowhere (cheap unrestrictive removal) or Catastrophe(both modes win you the game) instead.
Transcendent Master: With all the cheap removal in the cube, I would rather not spend 9 mana on a creature that dies to a bolt. Mirror Entity would also give you a 3 mana creature that lets you do something useful with your extra mana
Lighthouse Chronologist: Would be worth a second thought if he could be leveled by colorless mana, but as it is, you have no chance of getting your extra turns early + in the creature light U control decks, your opponent is happy if he has an easy target for his removal spells. If you want a cheap early drop that does something unfair if you spend some more mana, just play Willbender, but you are currently missing so many insane non-creature spells, that I would add Time Spiral (aka the fixed version of a p9 card that ended up becoming better than the original) instead.
Mnemonic Wall: hell no! This card already was left in some sideboards in the super slow RotE format, where people are hardcasting their 11 drops. For 5 mana you get a Desertion(Instant speed Confiscate) or a Morphling that just win the game for you.
Lord of Shatterskull Pass playable , but just a vanilla that doesn’t fulfill a particular role and is a bad blocker the turn it comes into play.
Tuktuk the Explorer: I don’t think the often very aggressive red decks want a mix of a Soltari Foot Soldier with Wall of Razors. Since you said something about nerfing control, I would add another Avalanche Rider in the form of Ravenous Baboons
Reckless Charge: If you want to help red aggro give them another 2 drop (Plated Geopede!)
Awakening Zone / Ondu Giant: 2 slow ramp cards. while I could see playing Awakening Zone as a engine card for something stupid, Ondu Giant is a horrible 4 drop for green. Great acceleration cards that you are missing are Fyndhorn Elves, Wall of Roots, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary and Krosan Tusker.
Why would you play Trip Noose + Puppet Strings over Icy Manipulator + Ring of Gix?
eidolon | Jul 17, 2010 | Reply
eidolon is right in EVERYHING he wrote.
aapicazo | Jul 17, 2010 | Reply
I’m probably going to come off as a bit of a jerk, but honestly it’s exactly these sort of updates to your cube that caused me to finally abandon your list and build my own. This is the first one you’ve done since I decided to give up on following your list, and it’s definitely confirmed to me that I made the right choice.
You’ve been increasing the size of your list with every update, presumably because it’s too much work to try and figure out which cards to remove to fit new ones in. That shouldn’t be what’s happening, it’s diluting the great cards that are already in there, and lowering the overall power level of the cube.
It’s not only the size increase that’s doing this, it’s that you seem to keep adding in sub-par cards, and repeatedly ignoring suggestions made to you in blog comments about cards that would be better. When you’re thinking about adding a new card, the question you should be asking is “Is this card’s power level competitive with the cards I’m already running?” (taking color, type and mana cost into consideration, of course). If it’s not better than at least some of the cards you’re already using, why does it deserve to be added?
From the cards in your cube, it seemed like the goal was supposed to be to build a cube of the very best cards in Magic’s history. But as you keep increasing the size and adding garbage like Beastbreaker of Bala Ged and Mnemonic Wall, you drift further and further away from this. I think if this still is the goal of your cube, you need to take some time to refocus your list and trim a lot of the chaff. Like eidolon, I really suggest picking a fixed size and sticking to that. Yes, removing cards is a lot harder and less “fun” than adding them, but it’s necessary if you want the cube’s power level to increase with set releases instead of decrease.
Random Guy | Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
If I look at your statement about your own list, you say:
“The cube I present here on the website is what I would call a Powerful Game State Cube. This means you’re using the most powerful/efficient cards in the game, or at least you’re trying to.”
But if you keep on adding “cute” cards and a high average casting cost, your cube will at some point feel more like drafting EDH than trying to be as efficient as it can get.
Variance is good, because it makes the drafted decks unique and keeps the drafting interesting, but if you are at a point, where UW control doesn’t see its Wraths effects or MBA has to be really lucky to get a single 1 drop creature, it might be a good idea to shrink the size again.
I might not be Tom LaPille, those advise to fight midrange and control seemed to work out very well for you, but here is a suggestion that should boost your cube a lot:
Just try a few drafts without the worst 3 cards with cmc 3 in each color and reduce the gold section to only 5 gold cards for each color pair (maybe also – ~5 artifacts).
The quality in the packs and the speed of your decks will increase so significantly that you will hardly recognize your cube anymore.
Just look at all those multicolor cards – is there any mono W or R (W or U) finisher in your cube that you wouldn’t pick over Bull Cerodon (Windreaver)?
Are the 3 lifeloss from Undermine so important, that you would risk not being able to play it once you reach 3 mana? And even if you have the perfect manabase: How much life would your opponent have to lose until Cancel becomes good enough for the cube?
eidolon | Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
“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.”
if you are having problems with utility lands in blue, Spreading Seas might indeed be the best option, now that the Karoos are no longer there to undo the effect of the aura + it randomly delays some players that get too greedy with their manabase. Still I would have a hard time finding a cut from my final 40 for this card.
The Don is excellent no matter on which site of the table the elephants show up and Avenger of Zendikar is still playable with a chance of some blow out plays, adding even more fatties seems unnecessary.
eidolon | Jul 21, 2010 | Reply
Evan, I get that you are a very busy person, and that comments on articles can be expressed more vigorously than they would be in real life, but do you think that there is merit in any of the comments on your article?
Do you intend to discuss your article with commenters, or is this primarily a forum for us to comment to other readers of the article?
Also, MTGS forums are a very friendly place really, please feel free to discuss ideas in there with us (come on in, the water’s fine…)
merl | Jul 21, 2010 | Reply
I know it has been said, but I just want to add my voice to the masses. I know that the “spirit” of each cube is uniqueness, but the original cube you set out to make was about the best of the best. I feel like the past few updates with the ever swelling size of the cube you’re getting too impressed by the new releases to remember that the cube should have a standard. But again I mean no offense I’m a big fan of yours and I’m ever grateful for you for inspiring me to build my own cube.
rhade | Jul 22, 2010 | Reply
Dark Confidant please. It’s been way too long. In my opinion, the quality of this card trumps whatever argument you have against its presence in this cube.
Fan | Jul 22, 2010 | Reply
Thank you for the update. I always look forward to your updates! I love being able to incorporate the latest Magic developments in the cube.
I’d like to mention a few small typos that could be corrected once and for all:
-Akroma’s Vengence
+Akroma’s Vengeance
-Conquerer’s Pledge
+Conqueror’s Pledge
-Kor Sancitifiers
+Kor Sanctifiers
-Man-O-War
+Man-O’-War
-Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker
+Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
-Iwamori, of the Open Fist
+Iwamori of the Open Fist
-Burning Tree Shaman
+Burning-Tree Shaman
-Nath of the Gilt Leaf
+Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
-Lighting Angel
+Lightning Angel
Anyway, thank you again for your work! I love it!
Eric O. LEBIGOT (EOL) | Jul 23, 2010 | Reply
What with the addition of bad cards lately, it jsut feels like you’re using this site as a means to promote WoTC:s new sets… Ondu Giant, really? Mnemonic Wall, really?
Korla | Jul 25, 2010 | Reply
At this point I’m just preaching to the choir, but the size of your Cube is spiraling out of control. Please stop.
When I first went about making my Cube, I used your original cube as a template. Back then I didn’t even know what a ‘Magic Cube’ was.
I know every Cube is supposed to be different. It’s a reflection of the player’s deckbuilding preferences as much as it is an outlet for the most powerful cards in Magic’s history. But now I think your Cube is a bloated caricature of what Cube Drafting should be.
Moses | Aug 3, 2010 | Reply
To those complaining: I have not played with Evan’s cube, and thus do not feel that I can defend it.
However, you seem to be criticizing the cube based on some hypothetical ideal of what it “should” be. Whereas Evan is making changes based on actually playing the cube every week, and seeing what is fun and what isn’t.
Building a cube isn’t a competition to see whose draft decks can be the most powerful. It’s about shaping a limited environment to be as enjoyable as possible.
obsidiandice | Aug 24, 2010 | Reply