Ready to see what’s changed? Let’s go!

View the cube in Google docs.

White

Drops:

Goldmeadow Harrier
Catastrophe
Kor Firewalker
Emeria Angel
Magus of the Disk
Steppe Lynx
Sunblast Angel
Celestial Crusader
White Sun’s Zenith
Silver Knight

Adds:
Gideon’s Lawkeeper
Cloistered Youth
Mentor of the Meek
Fiend Hunter
Geist-Honored Monk
Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Grand Abolisher
Hero of Bladehold
Angelic Destiny
Blade Splicer

It’s hard out here for a hate bear. It was time to say goodbye to a true classic, Silver Knight and a recent amazing hoser, Kor Firewalker, for some more raw power and versatility. Now I love me a hate bear, and Grand Abolisher is actually doing some incredibly good work. The times it has shut down my counterspells and spells like Condemn are not imaginary and have swung games in the white weenie player’s favor.

The two pro red guys were also making it incredibly difficult for red decks to win at times. It’s a careful balance not to let U/W Control overtake your cube sessions, and I do all I can to ensure “guys in the red zone and burn to your face” is still a viable strategy. While I will miss my times with Silver Knight (as they are many), I will not miss the frustration as the RDW guy who watches his whole deck get trumped by a 2/2. Kor Firewalker was a much more potent dagger in this regard, obviously.

Goldmeadow Harrier simply got the upgrade to Gideon’s Lawkeeper (what can I say, I like pairing up my Planeswalkers with their minions), and Cloistered Youth is one HELL of a two drop. A two mana 3/3? Yessir! No need to give Kor Firewalker to the control decks–hit em where it hurts in aggro.

Other cuts include Yet Another Wrath/Armageddon Control Didn’t Need (Catastrophe), Too Slow Anymore (Magus of the Disk), Not Effective Enough (Sunblast Angel, often a 1-for-1, and if you made it to 6 mana vs Aggro and X-for-1′d this…then a lot has gone right anyway.) Had high hopes for White Sun’s Zenith but found it, again, just too much mana or too white or whatever metric you’d like to use for it living in sideboards too often and I’d rather put cards in there that add to existing archetypes or at least see play.

Super excited about Mentor of the Meek, I love my white Faceless Butcher that’s now cheaper in Fiend Hunter, God knows I love me a Cloudgoat Ranger and heeeeere’s Geist-Honored Monk! Mikaeus, the Lunarch is an unsung hero, able to fit anywhere on the curve and do some seriously good work with weenie decks. Another Ajani Goldmane is more than welcome. Lastly, I need to get Angelic Destiny in this cube and pronto. Angelic Rancor? Thank you! So sexy. Also, of course, a wonderful combo with Grand Abolisher. Oh, and Blade Splicer. Such value. Such. Value.

Lastly I switched out Emeria Angel for Hero of Bladehold (this was a late addition to this article). Hero of Bladehold is definitely strong enough for both aggro and control decks, and while Emeria Angel -was- a bit better for control, I’m happy giving aggro the better creature in this 4-drop slot.

Next!

Blue Cards

Drops:
Upheaval
Volition Reins
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

Adds:
Snapcaster Mage
Jace, Memory Adept
Phantasmal Image
Azure Mage

Sacred cows? What sacred cows? I’ve moved Upheaval in and out of my cube. It’s a hard card to appreciate. It’s a hard card to draft around. It’s a tough card to put yourself in a winning position, often exclusively with Psychatog and friends.

And I just want blue cards that are fun to play and fit into more decks. I think we have that.

Volition Reins is Yet Another Control Magic. I have lots of those, and they’re cheaper too. Vesuvan Shapeshifter got replaced by a two mana version. Way, way better. I’m beyond the Pickles Lock (and it was often a silly pipe dream anyway), so let’s just continue with raw efficiency.

Azure Mage is exactly the card to replace Kira, the Great Glass-Spinner. Kira is NOT where I want blue to be in this cube. It is the best color. It is control. It is about drawing cards and doing bits of damage here and there, things that Azure Mage excels at. As for Jace, Memory Adept, what’s better than three Jaces in your cube? I mean, really?

Black Cards

Drops:
Massacre Wurm
Fume Spitter
Wei Ambush Force
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
Wretched Anurid
Sign in Blood

Adds:
Bloodline Keeper
Diregraf Ghoul
Vampire Interloper
Liliana of the Veil
Bloodgift Demon
Skeletal Scrying

So according to my Advanced Calculations (aka correcting my Excel formula) it appears I had 76 Black cards in my last update. Oops. Now we’re back on track, again killing some sacred cows.

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni is a great card. A cool card. Flavorful as hell, still very popular, and will be rocking Commander and cubes for years to come. But for me, I have played with this card for–literally–six years. And it’s been a great six years. At first she was an all-star, a high pick, a heavy hitter who put fear in multiple opponents.

But over time, she began to get outclassed. I expected her to get a lot better with my black aggro push, but interestingly it only showed how expensive and narrow she really was. The aggro deck wasn’t making the control decks discard a lot of fatties, making her not as effective. You don’t want to bust her out without getting maximum value, and her spot on the curve in an aggro deck was often frustrating. Anyway, g’bye sweet rat. You’ll be missed. (But probably not.)

Just upgrading some aggro guys with Fume Spitter and friends into awesome dudes like Diregraf Ghoul, Vampire Interloper and Army-In-A-Box Bloodline Keeper. Sign in Blood was upgraded to Skeletal Scrying. Just a much better card drawing spell, instant speed, scalable, etc. One of those Wish-I-Had-It-In-There-For-Years cards.

Bloodgift Demon is pushed in all the right ways and I love it. Liliana of the Veil…do I really need to explain her inclusion? She is indeed a weapon of great power. I’m excited to see how many different control & aggro builds can use her best.

Red Cards

Drops:
Viashino Slaughtermaster
Red Sun’s Zenith
Fireslinger
Dwarven Blastminer
Skirk Marauder
Blast From the Past
Blistering Firecat
Ghitu Slinger
Wildfire

Adds:
Devil’s Play
Chandra’s Phoenix
Brimstone Volley
Instigator Gang
Chaos Warp
Stormblood Berserker
Reckless Waif

Yes that IS more drops than adds. Oops again, 2.0 beta edition. Moving on.

No one was more disappointed with Blast from the Past than I was. It’s a fine spell, really. Super fun. One problem: Super expensive. Yes, cute U/R decks love it. It can be goofy fun in G/R ramp. But the decks it saw the most play in, Mono Red, R/G aggro and R/B aggro, all wanted something cheaper, stronger, or more versatile. Feel free to imagine Brimstone Volley or Chaos Warp taking its slot.

Viashino Slaughtermaster is just SO awkward. It really wants to be scary in the ways Stormblood Berserker is. But it isn’t.

Upgrading Red Sun’s Zenith to Devil’s Play is pretty obvious. I traded up my Fireslinger and Ghitu Slinger for cards like Instigator Gang and Chandra’s Phoenix. The first is completely unstoppable when flipped, great at the top of the aggro curve,and Chandra’s Phoenix is just amazing. I have left another sacred cow on the chopping block with Blistering Firecat. I have fond, fond memories of this card. I wish it won as much as I was always convinced it would. It usually just died and ate a lot of mana in the process.

Wildfire? Pretty sacred. Don’t care. The decks that used to use this card have moved on, become more efficient at what they do, or just use different game plans. There was a day when Keiga, the Tide Star + Wildfire was one of the most powerful one-two punches in Magic. Those days are over.

Lastly, the #1 way Red decks win in my experience is by hitting their Turn 1 drops. And Reckless Waif is no Goblin Guide but hella close. Hella.

Green

Drops:
Sylvan Ranger
Devoted Druid
Farseek
Wolfbriar Elemental
Rampaging Baloths

Adds:
Skinshifter
Garruk, Primal Hunter
Garruk Relentless
Scavenging Ooze
Daybreak Ranger

Ah, upgrades and Planeswalkers. This one is short and sweet.

I love me a Garruk, I tell you. Three Jaces, Three Garruks. Fully okay with this. Garruk, Primal Hunter is just…absurd, and Garruk Relentless is just now making its way into Standard decks the world over. Scavenging Ooze is another winner from Commander, and I think we can all agree Skinshifter is a -wee- bit more exciting than Sylvan Ranger. I cut Devoted Druid because, well, I got plenty of 1-drop accelerators and this was simply the worst/clunkiest two mana accelerator.

Lastly, oh Wolfbriar Elemental. I know what I was trying to do with you, and I think everyone else saw it too. You want to be a mono green deck’s best friend. And those decks exist. But not in this format.

And is that the Kibler-favorite Daybreak Ranger? You bet it is. Replacing the far too unsexy Rampaging Baloths (Hell, Primeval Titan is better), this card is nuts pre and post-flip. I hope it hits Standard hard, as I think it deserves it and Kibler is certainly trying to make it happen. Regardless, when it flips it’s basically Visara the Dreadful if you have red mana. Not too shabby.

Colorless Cards

Drops:
Lashwrithe
Bonehoard
Obelisk of Alara
Sigil of Distinction

Adds:
Shrine of Burning Rage
Shrine of Loyal Legions
Mortarpod
Phyrexian Revoker

Okay, so Bonehoard is cute. Seriously, seriously cute. Moving on with my life now.

Also, Lashwrithe was not actually that bad. But “not actually that bad” is not a recommendation, it is a placation and settling for a card that could be more interesting, more played, and a hell of a lot less narrow.

Sigil of Distinction I’m just tired of giving +3/+3 or +2/+2 to any given creature. Another card that reads like it would be an auto-include into every cube, but in practice has very rarely been ‘good’ let alone great. Obelisk of Alara is cool. Flavorful, neat, does somewhat powerful things with somewhat not-demanding mana requirements. I’d rather have either Shrine than this card. Or Mortarpod. Or a proactive card like Phyrexian Revoker.

As for those additions, just how sick are those Shrines? Pretty damn sick! I love their power level and am very happy to remove cards that will see little play with cards that should see lots of play.

Phyrexian Revoker should’ve been in here for awhile. Somewhat of an oversight, sometimes for size reasons, etc. But aggro decks of all sorts will appreciate naming Jace, the Mind Sculptor as soon as possible.

MultiColor Cards

Drops:
Shambling Remains
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Voidslime

Adds:
Olivia Voldaren
Geist of Saint Traft
Edric, Spymaster of Trest

So, let’s play a little game of Sick Upgrades.

First? Shambling Remains => Olivia Voldaren

Have you ever untapped with Olivia in play? Have you? Seriously? Good lord that card is dumb. It makes Kumano, Master Yamabushi the Squire of this Stoneforge Mystic relationship.

Grand Arbiter Augustin IV => Geist of Saint Traft

So I draft this U/W Control deck. You know how much mana denial I have? Not much. You know how badly I want you to not use your infinite burn spells and removal spells on my guys? Lots. I can Wrath of God and bounce your guys. I just need something that is cheap, easy to defend and kills in four turns. OHEI Geisty!

Voidslime => Edric, Spymaster of Trest

So there was once a wee little counterspell that did wee little things in various degrees. In its few and far between Blue/Green control decks (that often want to be aggro-oriented with a touch of control–and doesn’t like tough mana requirements at times), it did some good work. It stopped a few powerful spells. It messed up some important triggers.

But then the Spymaster came into town. And he draws you cards. LOTS of cards. And is quickly on the board on Turn 2 with a variety of accelerants.

Did I mention he draws you cards? Voidslime never drew me a damn thing.

Lands

Drops:
Windbrisk Heights
Exotic Orchard

Adds:
Moorland Haunt
Kessig Wolf Run

Man do I love me a sweet nonbasic land. As our new Standard is slowly showing us, the best of the Innistrad rare lands are these two and it’s not close. Both do very powerful things incrementally or all at once, and often win the game soon after.

I loved Windbrisk Heights‘ reign in Standard. I’ve activated it a few times in the cube, too. I felt like it was great to try and put pressure on your opponent by threatening its use, I loved of course the tie-in with Spectral Procession, and Exotic Orchard felt like a great fixer. But Windbrisk Heights often didn’t do enough. Many times getting to the prerequisite creature amount would give you the 3-for-1 they were waiting on. Their removal spells would stop it from firing, and often you’d feel bad when you watched the whole game go by without triggering it, or you’d try so hard only to see an Elite Vanguard or something underneath.

As for Exotic Orchard…meh. I just felt like it was the worst of the fixer lands, while Moorland Haunt and/or Kessig Wolf Run are both much sexier. By miles. Lots. Bunches. Get outta here, and take your unreliable mana with you.

Conclusion

So that’s it! I apologize for the delay of course, but I think we’ve once again moved the goalposts. The cube is now more powerful, more streamlined, and I hope more fun. The idea is to give the most visceral experience possible, and I appreciate any and all feedback. Did I miss something from M12 or Innistrad? Should I have went all-in on Mayor of Avabruck and friends? Feel free to chime in.

Thanks again for your patience, and I expect to see you here again in February for a whole new set of changes with the release of Dark Ascension.

- Evan

Do you like Magic?  Of course you do.  Cube drafting?  Probably – I haven’t found anyone who doesn’t.  How about Sci-Fi?  It’s not a far-fetched to say that sci-fi fans and magic fans have a bit of overlap.

With Innistrad on the horizon, Magic 2012 is fast settling into its role as the core set that will oversee Standard for the next year. The mythic titans return once again alongside a bunch of new Planeswalkers and various other format defining cards like Solemn Simulacrum and Skinshifter . We here at The Peasant Cube however concern ourselves not with mythic bombs and spikey rares, but with the strong – if not necessarily sexy – workhorses of the set. And while the set if full of good, fascinating and staple cards with black and silver expansion symbols, below are a selection of some of our favourites along with other peasant-legal cards that we think are among the most interesting. Both old and new are present and we’ve provided a brief commentary on the card along with a suggestion or two for alternatives.

Reprints

Acidic Slime

This is an all-round strong cards and it’s good to see it back for another year. Green is not short of Naturalize effects, and Creeping Mold and Ice Storm effects can be found in green without looking too hard. The advantage of having the Slime in the cube is twofold. It gives card advantage to a colour that is often lacking in that department. It also goes some lengths to breaking the redundancy in green; a pile with Krosan Grip, Seal of Primordium and Acidic Slime is more interesting/less repetitive than Grip, Naturalize and Creeping Mold. It also has a more interesting interaction with cards like Zombify and Momentary Blink.

As far as the stats go, a 2/2 for 5 mana is not normally something to brag about. It trades down with smaller, cheaper creatures, however having death touch means it also trades up with bigger, expensive creatures too. This means that, on the defensive at least, you don’t lose as too mana in the exchange.

Similar to: Creeping Mold, Indrik Stomphowler

Auramancer

This has returned in M12 to facilitate the sets enchantment sum-theme. While your cube may not have enchantments in the same quantity as the core set, the chances are the overall quality of the average enchantment is greater than M12’s. Auras such as Faiths Fetters, Control Magic and Armadillo Cloak often end up in the graveyard as your opponent gets rid of them or the creatures they enchant. Other enchantments, like the seals, Compulsion and Zektar Shrine Expedition put themselves in the bin doing half of the work for you. Auramancer may have identity issues. It is only be a 2/2 for 3 mana which means in may not be good in an aggressive weenie strategy and the card advantage may not be necessary in a control strategy. That said, I’m sure white weenie wouldn’t say no to rebuying a previously countered Rancor. Nor blue-white control to getting back a Volition Reins.

Similar to: Dowsing Shaman, Skull of Orm

Belltower Sphinx

I am personally a big fan of Belltower Sphinx. It is an alternate win condition card with utility outside of a dedicated mill strategy. This is something that a lot of alternate win conditions have difficulty achieving.

Aside

Strategies such as decking and poison are often parasitic; you need to fill your deck with as many cards with that goal as possible. If you don’t, your deck ends up weaker than a deck that wins through conventional means. From a cube builder’s perspective that means that if you include any mill cards, you need to include enough for it to be a viable strategy. If you don’t people will quickly realise its not a playable deck and what few cards you do have in the cube end up dead cards taking up valuable cube real-estate. What number of cards equates “enough” is a matter of opinion but you should take into consideration the size of your cube with regards to the percentage of cards that actually get seen in each draft.

End aside

Belltower Sphinx is a mill card disguised as a big flying creature. It is a win condition on two fronts and slots nicely into any blue mill deck while also being playable in control. This means that players not in a dedicated mill strategy (of which there are likely to be many) can play it and it won’t always end up 15th pick when nobody want to draft in that direction. In this respect it has a similar role to Broken Ambitions or Lurking Informant as opposed to cards like Millstone or Tome Scour which have one function only.

Similar to: Soratami Mindsweeper, Flint Golem

Gideon’s Lawkeeper

This isn’t strictly a reprint. It is however almost identical to Goldmeadow Harrier. Even their types are similar; they are both soldiers. One mana tappers are good because they act as cheap removal which can then upgrade when a bigger creature is summoned, similar to Prison Term. They also help to break up the redundancy of white removal which is often a variant of Pacifism or Sword to Plowshares. While tapping a creature down may not be able to deal with creatures that have abilities in the same way that ‘destroy’ or ‘exile’ effects or lethal damage can, being able to control when a player uses an ability with a

Similar to: Goldmeadow Harrier, Blinding Souleater, Benalish Trapper

Sengir Vampire

An old fan favourite, Sengir Vampire has made this list to celebrate being back at uncommon in the core set. Last seen in 10th edition as a rare, the vampire is a powerful creature for black and can be both top of the curve in a Bx aggressive deck, or a finisher in UB control. The leeching ability is often a win-more however just a couple of triggers can put it out of the range for most removal and creatures to deal with. Sengir Vampire mirrors Serra Angel in both stats and history, both playing similar roles in black and white respectively.

Similar to: Skyshroud Vampire, Fallen Angel

Thran Golem

Thran Golem is one of two reprinted cards in this list where M12 is their debut at uncommon. It is also a card that ties in with M12’s enchantment sub-theme. Unlike Auramancer however, it only interacts with auras that you are happy to put on your own creatures. These are scarce in comparison to Pacifism style auras due to the potential for loss of card advantage. There are some auras that have built in card advantage in order to mitigate the potential loss such as Rancor and Griffin Guide. Others, such as Armadillo Cloak and Pollenbright Wings are so powerful that even one hit from an enchanted Golem makes them worthwhile. While a 3/3 for 5 is unexciting, a 5/5 with flying, first strike and trample is game winning. Having just a couple of auras that can ‘turn on’ Thran Golem is probably enough and can make it a good inclusion in your cube without the need for an aura subtheme.

Similar to: Igneous Golem, Golem Artisan

Volcanic Dragon

Something that has been lacking in Magic’s history is common and uncommon dragons. The best we had are baby dragons or drakes. To fill the role of ‘dragon’ – i.e. big red flying beater – we’ve had to turn to cards such as Sabertooth Wyvern and Geyser Glider. All this ends with M12! Volcanic Dragon is the other card on our list of rares-turned-uncommon and will give a big boost to red decks in pauper cubes across the world. This is one of the cards I’m personally more excited about for my cube as red has been under represented in the past and was easily outclassed in the late game by other colours angels, demons, elementals, wurms and such.

Similar to: Nothing at un/common!

Zombie Infestation

This is an interesting win condition for black decks that draw a lot of cards or expect games to go long. It is also a discard outlet for cards with madness, getting Wonder in the bin or to make yourself hellbent etc. Zombie Infestation does a lot of the same things as Psychatog but is a bit less efficient. However in peasant cube there are less sweepers than most other formats whereas there is a lot of strong point removal making a bunch of 2/2s sometimes more relevant than a single big creature. While Zombie Infestation may not be a powerhouse, it in a win condition that can facilitate some nice interactions with other cards and mechanics giving the players unique tools to play with.

Similar to: Savage Conception, Skirk Ridge Exhumer

New

Arachnus Web

Green removal is always something that raises an eyebrow. It is usually clunky and overcosted. Arachnus Web actually looks pretty good as an Arrest variant. That is until you reach the last line of text. In M12 draft you have the chance to play the web alongside Arachnus Spinner which means that the web can be a source of card advantage and even though you have to sacrifice it when it’s on a big creature, you can bring it back again as long as its counterpart is still in play. In peasant cube you don’t have the ability to pair them together as Arachnus Spinner is a rare. Still, the web is the best of a bad bunch when it comes to green removal and if you’re dead set on giving green this type of ability, Arachnus Web may be the answer you have been looking for.

Similar to: Entangling Vines, Utopia Vow

Aven Fleetwing

The hexproof ability of this card is what really makes it stand out (that and the awesome artwork). While a 2/2 flier for 4 may not be the most efficient body ever printed, its ability to doge removal while flying over head makes this card a viable route to victory. The one sidedness of hexproof means that Aven Fleetwing can be enchanted or equipped to speed up the clock and make it more of a brawler in creature combat. Aven Fleetwing may not look all that impressive at first glance but the combination of unblockability and untargetablility means that it can take over games if people don;t pay it the attention it deserves.

Similar to: Advanced Hoverguard, Shimmering Glasskite

Azure Mage

There has been a debate in the past on whether having an ability like this on a fragile creature is better than having it on an enchantment or artifact. Sure, Treasure Trove can’t attack for two, but it can’t be bolted either. Much like how Dark Confidant is considered far and away better than Dark Tutelage, I think Azure Mage is much stronger for being stood on two legs. Being able to attack and block early while still having reach late game means this guy is rarely a dead draw. You may not be too happy if you see it in your opening hand but at least you will get some utility.

It should also be pointed out that the activated ability doesn’t require a tap as part if the cost. This not only means that you can throw it into the red zone and still draw a card, but when you hit eight mana you can start drawing two additional cards a turn which will make it very hard for you to lose in long, drawn out games.

Similar to: Enclave Cryptologist, Jayemdae Tome

Buried Ruin

Peasant-legal utility lands tend to be – other than a few exceptions – rather lackluster. Cards such as Gods’ Eye, Gate to the Reikai and Zoetic Cavern are enlisted to keep numbers up and drafting them interesting. Buried Ruin comfortably sits between completely broken and borderline useless and gives decks that can use it a powerful effect. Returning a Serrated Arrows, Armillary Sphere or any artifact creature can be crucial late game when the need for extra land is minimal and the need for extra spells is a premium.

Similar to: Not a whole lot, nothing at un/common

Jade Mage

Throughout Magic’s history, the majority of creatures that make 1/1 tokens tend to have built in mechanisms to stop the swarm coming too hard, too fast. The most common of these is a tap activation meaning that, without a way to untap, you can only create one token per turn. This is not the case with Jade Mage which can allow you to make multiple tokens a turn if you have enough mana. This is likely as the activation costs of three mana is actually quite cheap, especially at un/common. This means that two activations costs six, three cost nine etc. Compare this to an activation of four, which is more common in the past, which costs eight mana to activate twice and a whopping twelve mana to activate just three times. I don’t wish to labour the point but I want it to be clear that while three mana may not seem that cheap at first, it soon becomes obvious that only costing three is a big deal.

Similar to: Imperious Perfect, Selesnya Guildmage

Manalith

Recently we had a cycle of artifacts like this in the Shard of Arala Obelisks. Seven years prior to that, we had the invasion cameos. Manalith is a strict upgrade to all of these in a straight up comparison however including one over the other change significantly change the dynamic of your cube.

If you chose to include the cameos, each allied colour pair has access to one, completely on-colour cameo. If you choose to include the obelisks, each allied pair now has access to two 3-mana on-colour ramp artifacts. This not only increases competition for each card, but also increases the number of artifact colour fixing spells a deck can have. If you choose to have Manalith in your cube instead, you have just one card that fills all roles, instead of splitting them up between five cards. This means that there is more competition for the card when drafting (which translates to it getting picked higher) but also decreases how many artifact ramp spells a deck can play. This has a knock on effect that makes aggressive decks a bit more powerful.

It would be wrong to talk about mana artifacts without giving a brief mention of the ravinca signets which are stronger than the cameos I’ve talked about above. Usman Jamil wrote a great article about the signets here on starcitygames.com which I highly recommend.

Similar to: Alloy Myr, [/card]Darksteel Ingot[card]

Master Thief

Taking control of an opponents creature has always been a strong effect in limited as it not only gives you +1 creatures but also gives your opponent -1 creatures which effectively puts you ahead by two. This is why Mind Control is the best non-rare in M12 limited. While the number of creatures you can steal with Master Thief is limited to robots, the fact it can steal non-creatures opens it up to another world of possibilities. Stealing an untapped mana artifact can put you just as far ahead as stealing a creature can and any artifact win a one use ability or sacrifice ability such as Courier’s Capsule or Armillary Sphere counteracts the clause that you lose control of the artifact when Master Thief dies. Another interesting interaction is with equipment. If you steal your opponents Loxodon Warhammer and equip it to your own creature, when [/card]Master Thief[/card] is gone, the equipment will stay attached to your dude until the opponent pays the equip cost to put it on one of theirs. If they don’t have a creature to equip, the warhammer will stay on your guy even though your opponent control it once again.

Similar to: Aladdin

Sorin’s Thirst

The double black in the cost of this card make it an interesting draft pick. Something like Incinerate or Doom Blade will often be the first or second card to get picked out a booster because there is a good chance it will get played regardless of the colours that player ends up in. Sorin’s Thirst is comparable to the aforementioned cards in terms or power level however it is significantly more difficult to splash in a deck that isn’t running a lot of black. If you’re aiming to build a cube where splashing is difficult then Sorin’s Thirst is powerful removal that rewards players for going into black.

Similar to:Vicious Hunger, Devour in Shadow

Stormblood Berserker

The spiritual successor to Scab-Clan Mauler with an easier casting cost. Stormblood Berserker is an aggressive two-drop in a colour that history has shown needs a lot of help. The biggest problem here is that the best one-drop red creatures are often rare. There are no Goblin Guides or Grim Lavamancers to help make the beserkers a 3/3 on turn two and this may be something you’d have to keep in mind if you add this to your cube. One way around this is free spells such as Gut Shot or delayed spells like Rift Bolt or Seal of Fire. However aiming burn spells at the opponents head on turn two may be card disadvantage that only weakens the red deck in the long run.

Similar to: Plated Geopede, Keldon Marauders

[/card]Timely Reinforcements[/card]

Timely Reinforcements has recently been proving its strength in Caw-Blade decks which can take advantage of both the life gain against aggressive decks, and the creatures in any match up where a sword is good. In peasant cube, I’m sure it will be a solid all rounder providing decks with life and bodies when under pressure. Because of the Land Tax-esque restriction it may end up in the sideboard of tempo-based Wx aggro decks but it is most likely to find a home in white-blue control decks. Where ever it ends up, it is going to hose aggressive decks, especially red ones, and this is something that should be considered before you include it in your cube.

Simlar to: Even the Odds, Spectral Procession

Turn to Frog

Blue removal is often non-to-semi-permanent and tempo based such as Unsummon, Frozen Solid, Sleep or Mind Control. This means that blue needs to seek help from other colours and solely use that colours removal, or it needs to be in a tempo-based aggro deck. As green also lacks decent removal spells, blue-green decks often need to be tempo-orientated to be successful. Turn to Frog is the most recent card in a long line of Humble type effects and fills a specific role in the Ux tempo decks. It can shrink big creatures mid combat, it can almost fog a creature, and it can stop annoying combat abilities such as deathtouch and lifelink.

Similar to: Ovinise, Snakeform

Hopefully this short walk through Magic 2012 has brought a few new options to light for your own cubes; be it brand spanking new M12 cards or reprints, or older analogues you didn’t know exist. Please feel free to hit me up with any questions, queries or comment either here, on my site or direct on twitter.

Lennox
@mtg_lennox

Over 100 cards dropped!

EVERY color now 10 cards smaller!

HUGE sea changes in multiple colors, strategies abandoned, strategies reborn!

Let’s go!

View the new cube list on Google Docs.

So let’s start with the goals from our Scars of Mirrodin additions:

Blue Control Must Die – We’ve got almost an entire new color (Black), we’ve got plenty of streamlining of Red and Green (colors that should give Blue the most difficulty), and I’m made multiple cuts and adjustments to the color Blue itself. Preliminary results are good.

Lower the entire CMC of the Cube  - I think I did this, particularly in Black. I don’t calculate this myself, but I’ll throw this into a deck builder script and get some hard data.

Make Green Matter/Better – With 19 drops and nine brand new additions, I think I’ve made Green stronger, slimmer, but more effective. By moving them into a very creature-dependent mana ramp, I lower the converted mana cost of the color while also making them more focused at what the color is supposed to do–have scarier monsters and better acceleration than any other color.

So with those goals in mind, what do I have in mind after these changes?

Make Black Completely Different – Yes, that IS the removal of a lot of Reanimation spells and tools. The fact is, you can have Reanimator elements in your cube, but if no one is actually playing those reanimation spells, the goal is lost. Black has just been the worse half of U/x Control, so I want to really push the aggro element. I brought back cards like Stupor and I lowered the mana curve of the threats available to you. I hope this will give the color the aggro element (along with higher CMC stuff for the control decks to use) to make it dynamic and used by both types of decks, instead of just one.

Provide a new Cube Experience – Change is good. It’s time I threw out some old and brought in some new. TONS of cards left me with this update, and I’m looking to change up what the Cube is to me week-in and week-out. With some sacred cows killed (Doran, the Siege Tower), and some crappy cards finally put out to pasture (gg Molten Disaster), I think the Cube now feels fresh and different.

Look To Others For Guidance & Changes – The fact is, I’m very busy. I got one night a week for cubing, and that’s all of the data I can gather. But there are plenty out there talking about cube, from Usman Jamil on StarCityGames.com, to the awesome forums right here on this site to other forums out on the web. Hundreds of hours of playtesting I’m not putting in, and that’s why I’m taking others suggestions and posts at a much higher regard these days.

So with that said, let’s go:

White

Drops:

Arrest
Austere Command
Conquerer’s Pledge
Griffin Guide
Orim’s Chant
Pulse of the Fields
Return To Dust
Blade of the Sixth Pride
Knight of the White Orchid
Revoke Existence
Soltari Emissary
Spectral Lynx
Transcendent Master
Wall of Reverence
Marshal’s Anthem
Iona, Shield of Emeria
Hallowed Burial
Momentary Blink
Miraculous Recovery

Adds:

Stoneforge Mystic
Catastrophe
Porcelain Legionnaire
Kor Skyfisher
Goldmeadow Harrier
Mirran Crusader
White Sun’s Zenith
Temporal Isolation
Seal of Cleansing

Okay, where do we being? First, let’s just saying the lack of Stoneforge Mystic to my cube is a long, sad tale that should’ve been rectified when the card debuted (when I debated adding it and decided it ‘wasn’t good enough yet’…argh). I actually love the card Catastrophe and I’m very excited to see it in my cube now.

Other cards fill small rolls. Mirran Crusader is just ridiculous with equipment, stops a variety of powerful strategies, and has great and unique protection from colors. Bread-and-butter cards like Goldmeadow Harrier and Temporal Isolation I think will be welcome. White Sun’s Zenith gets no love but will be a control player’s best friend.

Blue

Drops:

Into the Roil
Negate
Repeal
Rite of Replication
Spreading Seas
Take Possession
Brine Elemental
Fathom Seer
Jushi Apprentice
Master Transmuter
Riftwing Cloudskate
Sunder
Legacy’s Allure
Deprive
Body Double
Gifts Ungiven

Adds:

Phyrexian Metamorph
Spell Pierce
Daze
Consecrated Sphinx
Upheaval
Opposition

So here we go with more sea changes. Blue loses some things, gains some things, and becomes even more of a sharp and deadly weapon (gulp–but hey, it IS the best color). Cards like Sunder looked totally sweet but didn’t work out, while the old classic Upheaval is missed. Opposition is a key card in U/G strategies and needs to exist. The entire Brine Elemental/Fathom Seer “Pickles Combo” (with Vesuvan Shapeshifter) is cute, but never actually came together. No seriously–in the past three years, I can’t remember it being put together beyond that one time when it first came out and everyone was anxious to try it. So…yeah, g’bye.

Jushi Apprentice is a card I adore–but it was just SO BAD on the battlefield. The blue decks NEVER want to use Jushi’s ability versus counting a spell or drawing cards with other, more efficient, spells and abilities. It was SO frustrating to see him just do nothing game after game after game. Finally I must remove him. Master Transmuter was a bad idea. ‘Nuff said.

Legacy’s Allure was always a turn or two too slow for me. Unfortunate but true. My final cuts were Body Double (no Mirror Entity = no infinite combo…and when it was in the cube, it was almost impossible to assemble) and Gifts Ungiven. I know, Gifts is insane etc, but part of these changes is trying new things. I’m not getting rid of my copy of the card or anything, but for now it’s off the official list I’m playing.

As for the additions, I’ve got big hopes for Phyrexian Metamorph (who looks insane), I’m happy to welcome Spell Pierce to the family, Desertion returns after a LONG hiatus, and is that Consecrated Sphinx? You bet it is

Black

Drops:

Choking Sands
Consuming Vapors
Corpse Dance
Dread Return
Persecute
Slaughter
Vendetta
Bane of the Living
Nightscape Familiar
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Phyrexian Plaguelord
Puppeteer Clique
Silent Specter
Stinkweed Imp
Throat Slitter
Visara the Dreadful
Withered Wretch
Zombie Cutthroat
Cabal Interrogator
Knight of Stromgald
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Entomb
Exhume
Smother
Makeshift Mannequin

Adds:

Oona’s Prowler
Dismember
Graveborn Muse
Daggerclaw Imp
Massacre Wurm
Go For the Throat
Black Sun’s Zenith
Nezumi Cutthroat
Blind Creeper
Wretched Anurid
Dark Confidant
Pulse Tracker
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Stupor
Gatekeeper of Malakir

So. Now. Bout this. We have ourselves the largest change to the color black in the history of my cube. And I mean ever. This represents the removal of a huge Reanimator strategy and the inclusion of a pure aggro element.

Only card I’m iffy on removing: Withered Wretch. Still a bear, and does fix graveyard annoyances. Otherwise, let’s kill some sacred cows!

How bout that Stinkweed Imp cut? This card has been in my cube from the very beginning. What deck wants this card? Control. Aggro decks don’t want this, they want something to deal damage. This is a wall. It’s a wall that stops players from attacking. I’ve made an active decision to remove a few walls from the equation (like Wall of Reverence in White), and here is another. Stinkeweed Imp is an annoying wall, and it had to go.

Cards like Daggerclaw Imp are very straightforward. You know what you’re in for. You see what you got. Nezumi Cutthroat is in a deck that wants to kill you as fast as possible. The 3/3 for twos like Wretched Anurid and Blind Creeper work in conjunction with burn and edict effects (along with pure removal like Go For the Throat) to stomp you before you get started.

One of the things I’m curious about is if there are enough edict effects. There are plenty more to choose from (including the just-printed Geth’s Verdict).

Anyway, Dark Confidant has been in my cube for awhile but he’s officially joining the list; Sheoldred, Whispering One IS ridiculous when you untap with her or return her to play in anyway. Stupor is a card that follows up Hymn to Tourach in a 1-2 punch way that few decks can overcome.

All colors love Dismember, while Black Sun’s Zenith will make control decks happy.

Red

Drops:

Dragonmaster Outcast
Bogardan Hellkite
Hellkite Charger
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Obsidian Fireheart
Rakka Mar
Rorix Bladewing
Kumano, Master Yamabushi
Comet Storm
Dead / Gone
Flame Rift
Genju of the Spires
Heat Shimmer
Reckless Charge
Rack and Ruin
Incendiary Command
Molten Disaster
Beacon of Destruction
Volcanic Fallout

Adds:

Goblin Wardriver
Goblin Patrol
Rivalry
Stone Rain
Red Sun’s Zenith
Fireslinger
Blast from the Past
Frazzled Editor
Ghitu Slinger

Yes, that is the introduction of silver-bordered cards to my cube! I’m excited to get my fun on, with Frazzled Editor quite a house at times when you think about it, and good ole beatdown cards like Fireslinger and Ghitu Slinger returning to the color.

I’m sure you have to mouseover Rivalry. Yeah, that card is sweet. I love what that card does, represents, and how it punishes players in exactly the right way. This one is courtesy of Kenny Mayer, whose cube I really like and take a lot of inspiration from (find it here). I’ve cubed with Kenny many, many times, and we think alike on many aspects of this magical format.

Moving on, is that Stone Rain? Yes, Stone Rain! I’ve begun to realize that much of the power of Red is in its ability to stop you from developing your gameplan. When it’s not attacking or burning, it’s destroying your artifacts or lands. The ability to keep you off your 4+ mana spells is often crucial for Jackal Pups to get there.

As for the drops, they’re almost universally expensive spells that I felt weren’t crucial. I’m not a 100% on Rorix Bladewing (I’m not selling it off just yet or anything, just removing it from the list / format for now), but I’m happy with the rest of the cuts. It’s time to trim the fat and get to business.

Green

Drops:

Centaur Glade
Lignify
Wild Mongrel
Nimble Mongoose
Mold Shambler
Cloudthresher
Awakening Zone
Bestial Menace
Iwamori, of the Open Fist
Scute Mob
Stonewood Invocation
Elephant Guide
Restock
Squall Line
Moldervine Cloak
Harrow
Mitotic Slime
Explosive Vegetation

Adds:

Thrun, the Last Troll
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Oracle of Mul Daya
Green Sun’s Zenith
Explore
Indrik Stomphowler
Devoted Druid
Beast Within

So I’ve cut a LOT of chaff out of Green. I’m still not sure if I’ve provided enough early game beats (ie I may need to re-add Mire Boa and cards like Pouncing Jaguar), but I do want the focus for Green to be creature-based acceleration and big plays as a result. Cutting personal faves like Lignify, if that’s what it takes, that’s what I’ll do. Other cards that I liked that just weren’t powerful enough (Bestial Menace) will have to sit back for awhile and see how these changes affect this color moving forward.

Artifacts / Colorless

Drops:

Sword of Vengeance
Triskelavus
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
All is Dust
Puppet Strings
Platinum Angel
Darksteel Colossus
Masticore

Adds:

Tumble Magnet
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of War and Peace
Karn Liberated
Spellskite
Batterskull
Ankh of Mishra
Bonehoard
Lashwrithe
Trusty Machete
Ring of Gix

Yup — I actually added five cards to the Artifact/Colorless section. This includes the Swords, cards that took time to prove awesome like Tumble Magnet, sweet rares like Spellskite, and old favorites like Ankh of Mishra. Meanwhile, I got my Living Weapon groove on with Lashwrithe to help fuel the mono black and black-based aggro decks, and Ring of Gix is a necessary Icy Manipulator card I needed in the cube.

As for the drops, yes, I killed another sacred cow. I hate to say it, but Masticore is just not good enough anymore for my list. The two new versions? They’re great, and will remain so for some time. But the original has slowly but surely been outclassed. Nowadays I want my regenerating 4/4′s to be Hexproof and so on.

Lots of Equipment here, as mentioned, but Trusty Machete gets little respect and I think its time we brought the beats back to the cube. Karn Liberated is an obv, and has been a welcome addition.

Multicolor

Drops:

Dimir Guildmage
Spellbreaker Behemoth
Enlisted Wurm
Identity Crisis
Broodmate Dragon
Lighting Angel
Doran, the Siege Tower
Creakwood Liege
Life/Death
Snakeform
Lorescale Coatl
Call the Skybreaker
Bull Cerodon
Firemane Angel
Goblin Legionnaire
Mistmeadow Witch
Rafiq of the Many
Wrecking Ball
Burning-Tree Shaman

Adds:

Shambling Remains
Glissa, the Traitor

Yup, another huge sea change: For the first time since I’ve had a cube, the multicolor components are imbalanced. I’m ready to give the idea of ‘some combinations just have better cards / interactions’ than others. I’m tired of substandard U/G cards (looking at YOU Lorescale Coatl), R/W cards and so on. Sacred Cows like Doran, the Siege Tower may be cute and look powerful, but they’re not. It’s a three mana 5/5 that’s VERY hard to cast, it’s not in a format that can utilize it fully (like Lorwyn draft/sealed could), and it usually becomes a ‘virtual’ 5 or 6 drop because of it’s tough mana cost. Then you wait until Turn 5 or 6 to play a 5/5. And so on.

Regardless, cards that did little (Firemane Angel) or were just too narrow (Rafiq of the Many) don’t need to clog up our drafts and fill our sideboards with unplayables. We need cards that fill roles.

Which brings me to my only additions – Shambling Remains and Glissa, the Traitor. If you’re R/G or R/B, I want you to be scary. Remains guy does what those colors are now geared to do best. I trust it will come through. Glissa provides slow, incremental advantage, perfect for the G/B Rock deck.

Lands

No Changes. Pretty happy with my lands right now.

Conclusion

So here it is! It took a little too long to get here, but it’s here. The cube is now fitter, trimmer, and a new experience. I’ve gotten rid of some roadblocks, I’ve given new direction to colors and strategies that needed it, and I killed a TON of sacred cows. My cube is now down to a svelte 580 cards. Yay

Now it’s time to play, and figure out where to go from here. The Cube is your chance (and mine) to be the designer and developer of a format. This is my format, and it’s where I push what I want the colors to do and how they best interact. I trust these changes will make the cube the most balanced and fun format Magic can offer. I trust your own changes (and inclusions) will do the same for you and your playgroup.

Until next time, where we’ll go over M12!

- Evan “misterorange” Erwin

So here’s my first post on one of my favorite hobbies: cube design.

I like to design different cubes for pure entertainment, although I rarely build them after designing them because the fun of the exercise was in the design. Plus, it’s a lot of work to put physical cubes together! Among the ones I’ve designed in the past are an all-creature cube, a Spirit-themed cube (think Kamigawa plus other interactions/Spirits throughout Magic), and a mono-blue cube (with artifacts of course).

Designing cubes with concrete goals about the games and strategies players can create is very interesting and difficult, often very similar to designing a completely different game from conventional Magic. I’d really wanted to explore some directions that vastly changed the power level of cards after my work with the Spirit cube, and decided my next project would be an all one-drops cube. I wanted it to be small, a cube designed for 2-4 players at most and really only built for Winston/Solomon drafting, two of my favorite formats to play idly.

The idea of a cube where Sol Ring isn’t even good was very alluring, and the idea of making cards like Flame Jab and Scythe Tiger awesome was really attractive to me. I built the cube once on my way to the Memphis Open, to get a feel for the ideas, and trimmed it down to about 270 cards: 90 cards too many. I decided to let it sit for a few weeks, and then come back at it. That’s what I did yesterday!

One odd rule I set myself was “no X spells,” because I didn’t want all the games to be about Fireball and Feral Hydra while so many other strategies got overshadowed, and because those cards don’t feel like one-drops. I decided kicker was fine, as all of those cards were actually built to be cast for one mana enough of the time. Although a little cheating, it makes Sol Ring and such stronger, and I wanted to justify including them while not breaking them.

Here’s the list:

Black

Creatures
1 Carnophage
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Circling Vultures
1 Death’s Shadow
1 Duskwalker
1 Entrails Feaster
1 Festering Goblin
1 Fume Spitter
1 Guul Draz Assassin
1 Guul Draz Vampire
1 Plagued Rusalka
1 Quag Vampires
1 Shadow Guildmage
1 Slithering Shade
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Zulaport Enforcer

Pseudo-dudes
1 Genju of the Fens
1 Quest for the Gravelord
1 Sarcomancy

Removal
1 Bone Splinters
1 Darkblast
1 Deathmark
1 Disfigure
1 Executioner’s Capsule
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Midnight Charm
1 Vendetta

Card Manipulation
1 Bloodchief Ascension
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Reanimate
1 Unearth

You might notice the absence of some cards that seem good, like Inquisition of Kozilek, Duress, etc. These cards are deceptively weak in a format where everyone can dump their hands quickly. In fact, black is one of the strongest colors in the cube thanks to its strong creatures and awesome removal, but it is limited by an intense vulnerability to both artifacts and Genjus.

Blue

Creatures
1 Drifter il-Dal
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Faerie Squadron
1 Kraken Hatchling
1 Skywatcher Adept

Pseudo-dudes
1 Genju of the Falls
1 Wind Zendikon

Removal
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Hydroblast
1 Mark of Eviction
1 Mind Harness
1 Pongify
1 Psychic Purge
1 Seal of Removal
1 Unsummon

Card Manipulation
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Curiosity
1 Preordain
1 Shared Discovery
1 Dizzy Spell
1 Mystical Tutor

Counterspells
1 Annul
1 Dispel
1 Disrupt
1 Divert
1 Force Spike
1 Mental Misstep
1 Spell Pierce
1 Turn Aside

I’m kind of worried about blue. It’s definitely only a support color, but it offers one of the best cards in the format—Ancestral Recall—and some of the strongest solutions to the Genjus. As my gut tells me that the Genjus are really strong, blue is more attractive as a result if I’m right. I also gave blue the color hosers but didn’t give them to red, because being able to attack red that way increases blue’s power level, while red doesn’t need to be picking on the crippled color.

White

Creatures
1 Akrasan Squire
1 Auriok Glaivemaster
1 Caravan Escort
1 Cenn’s Tactician
1 Devoted Caretaker
1 Elite Vanguard
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Icatian Javelineers
1 Icatian Priest
1 Infantry Veteran
1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 Kitesail Apprentice
1 Mother of Runes
1 Mystic Penitent
1 Order of the Stars
1 Savannah Lions
1 Student of Warfare
1 Weathered Wayfarer

Pseudo-dudes
1 Genju of the Fields
1 Hyena Umbra

Removal
1 Condemn
1 Dispeller’s Capsule
1 Harm’s Way
1 Kirtar’s Desire
1 Mana Tithe
1 Path to Exile
1 Sunlance
1 Swords to Plowshares

Card Manipulation
1 Argivian Find
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Land Tax
1 Steelshaper’s Gift

White has a definite “equipment matters” theme but also offers you the ability to kill basically anything. It’s great as a beatdown and control color. I thought about just running ten more white cards than every other color and making it a color multiple players had to fight over, but didn’t like how that dynamic would play in Winston draft.

Green

Creatures
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Elvish Lyrist
1 Elvish Scrapper
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Granger Guildmage
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Jungle Lion
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Llanowar Mentor
1 Mtenda Lion
1 Mwonvuli Ooze
1 Nettle Sentinel
1 Nimble Mongoose
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Pouncing Jaguar
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Rogue Elephant
1 Scavenger Folk
1 Scute Mob
1 Scythe Tiger
1 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk

Pseudo-creatures
1 Genju of the Cedars
1 Rancor

Removal
1 Crumble
1 Hornet Sting
1 Nature’s Claim
1 Oxidize

Card Manipulation
1 Glimpse of Nature
1 Noxious Revival
1 Sylvan Tutor
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Worldly Tutor

I like green. Robust creatures, a little mana-fixing, and a healthy amount of artifact destruction mean that green decks are going to be pretty playable. It was the easiest color to design, because I knew exactly what I wanted. You’ll note I didn’t include pump spells—I don’t think that creature trading is going to be very good in the format, and green’s creatures are already pretty solid. Most games will come down to jockeying for board advantage against opposing removal and equipment, which pump spells won’t really assist. I may be wrong, at which point we’ll revisit the issue starting with Mutagenic Growth.

Red

Creatures
1 Bloodfire Dwarf
1 Bloodhall Ooze
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Frostling
1 Goblin Guide
1 Goblin Patrol
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Kris Mage
1 Magus of the Scroll
1 Martyr of Ashes
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Skitter of Lizards
1 Spikeshot Elder

Pseudo-dudes
1 Devastating Summons
1 Genju of the Spires

Removal
1 Crush
1 Overload
1 Burst Lightning
1 Chain Lightning
1 Death Spark
1 Firestorm
1 Flame Jab
1 Forked Bolt
1 Lava Dart
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Seal of Fire
1 Searing Touch
1 Shard Volley

Card Manipulation
1 Gamble

Red’s definitely got the best removal, but it’s not amazing at attacking and has no strong card manipulation available, relying on advantages gained by Death Spark, pingers, and the like. Firestorm is certainly one of the biggest bombs in the format however, and red is both really good and very dangerous. Green is likely to be the color that plays best against red, although black may have that honor thanks to Death’s Shadow and the ability to keep it around, not to mention the nigh-unbeatable Bloodchief Ascension.

Artifacts

Removal
1 Blazing Torch
1 Brittle Effigy
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Leonin Bola
1 Pithing Needle
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Shuriken
1 Viridian Longbow

Mana
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Springleaf Drum
1 Wanderer’s Twig
1 Wayfarer’s Bauble

Enhancement
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Bonesplitter
1 Flayer Husk
1 Trusty Machete

Card Manipulation
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Skullclamp

These are just all awesome cards, although their value has changed from previous formats. The decks reliant on equipment and kicker creatures will consider Sol Ring and Mana Vault, while other decks will consider them unplayable. The Vault may wind up being bad enough to cut entirely, which will probably lead to Sylvok Lifestaff making it in. The fixers give players the option of splashing in powerful cards, although time will tell how viable fixing actually is in the format given the low land counts I expect most decks to run. Skullclamp and Cursed Scroll are certainly two of the very best cards in the format, but all of these are reasonable.

Gold

1 Figure of Destiny
1 Oona’s Gatewarden
1 Tattermunge Maniac
1 Wax/Wane

There wasn’t a playable U/W hybrid, and the R/B ones were all basically worse versions of existing black and red cards, so I choose to eschew them and just do the R/W instead. These are pretty basic choices, with Figure one of the best creatures and Wax/Wane one of the more versatile spells against the Genju.

I’ll hopefully be building this over the next few weeks, and I’d like to find some time to play with it leading up to and at the Invitational. I’m going to be working on an all-old face cube and an all-new face cube in the near future, but I’d love to hear any quirky ideas for cubes or see others that you guys have worked on. I know Alex Bertoncini has a fun combo cube and a tribal cube, and lots of players have built peasant cubes that are really gas.

Feel free to post here or tweet them to me, @SecludedGlenn on Twitter.

- Glenn Jones

When I tell people about my Cube I generally get one of two reactions; “That sounds awesome!” or “You’re ruining Magic.” If you have an open mind and want to experience what I believe to be the most fun way to play Magic then continue on.

What makes my Cube so unique is not the composition, although we exclude many cards that are in every standard Cube. Rather, it’s the game play that is different. We don’t play with any basic lands in our decks. This is not a new idea, tons of other CCGs utilize this mechanic but Magic the Gathering being the first didn’t think to include it. I’m convinced that if Magic was reinvented today with the knowledge that we have it would be done this way.

Here’s how it works: players may on their turn exile any one card from their hand and put into play any one basic land. This can only be done once a turn and only as a sorcery, the same rules that apply to playing basic lands. This mechanic does a variety of things to change the way Magic is played, and will I admit not all of them are benefits. However, I do believe that the benefits greatly outweigh any hindrance. The four results of this change are mana-fixing, deck building speed, increased options and removal of some archetypes.

Mana-Fixing

Our group of Cubers, after playing dozens of times, got together and pondered the following question. What is the worst part about Magic? The answer: getting mana-screwed. How many times have you cursed your deck because you aren’t getting any mana, while your opponent has plenty to spare. The worst part is, you know your deck is good. You keep thinking to yourself, “If only I had some more mana I would have won.” Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. What if you always had enough mana to do what you needed? Now there’s a difference between your opponent playing land destruction or control thereby taking away your ability to have and use mana and simply being mana-screwed.

Obviously, if you play the right cards and balance your deck you can alleviate most situations that would cause a mana-screw. However, there is always a percentage of games where you either get too much mana, not enough mana or the wrong colors of mana. After keeping advanced metrics over dozens of games we discovered that the average deck is susceptible to getting mana-screwed about 20% of the time. That means 1 out of 5 games you will have a severe disadvantage against your opponent.

There’s good news though; our mechanic fixes all three types of mana-screw! Games where this occurs are simply not fun. And in my opinion, the Cube is supposed to be about fun. Let’s take a look at the three types of mana-screw that will ruin your day:

1. Too little mana – In your opening hand you have one or two mana, things look good. But, the next 10 cards you draw are all non-lands. Crap, you are dead. Our Cube doesn’t allow this to happen. If you keep drawing cards you can’t play, just throw them away for mana until you can play something. As soon as you have enough mana in play to do what you need to do, you can stop exiling cards and play everything you draw.

2. Too much mana – This one can happen in two different ways. The first is drawing X lands in a row early. While you are playing lands your opponent is playing cards. The second variation I’m sure all Magic players are familiar with. It’s late in the game, your opponent has just played a bomb and you have two turns to live. On your next turn you draw a Plains. Useless. The following turn you draw a Forest. Thanks a lot deck. This rarely happens in our Cube. It can because you will still have non-basic lands in your deck. But because all of the basic lands are gone, you have 35-38 non land cards in your deck. This almost guarantees that when you need a spell or creature, you will draw one.

3. Wrong color mana – Since the Cube makes 3, 4 and even 5 color decks a possibility, players are often stuck with the wrong mana. How many times have you drawn 3 Plains but really needed blue mana? Our Cube fixes this as well. After drawing your initial hand, you can easily decide what types of mana you’ll need and simply go get them. If you have a Red-Green deck but you draw 6 Green cards in your opening hand guess what color mana is not so important any more?

Deck Building Speed

Once we moved to playing Magic without basic lands we noticed that decks came together after a draft much faster. For one thing, you don’t need to look at the casting cost of each of the cards you drafted and figure out how many of each type of basic land to include. This happens on the fly during the game. If you need a Plains, exile something from your hand and get a Plains. It’s as simple as that.

The other reason that decks can be built faster is that you get to include 40 non-basic land cards. So the time spent deciding on which cards to cut for basic land is non-existent. Usually in our Cube once a player reaches 40 cards they just stop drafting and are immediately ready to play. We cut our “prep” time (that is, all the time before you can actually play a game in a Cube draft) in half. Where it used to take one and a half hours for four people to draft a Cube, now it takes 45 minutes. We’ve gotten so fast that we usually do two entire Cube drafts in one night because playing out an entire Cube only takes about 3 hours.

Increased Options

The second result of removing basic lands is the idea of increased options. If you play 40 card decks in your Cube you will likely run anywhere from 9-16 basic lands. Leaving you at best with 31 spells and creatures. In our Cube you always play with 40 functional cards. This allows more robust decks with greater options at your disposal. Let’s say you’re playing Red, Green Black and in your initial hand you draw 3 Red cards, 3 Black cards and 1 Green. You have the option of exiling the Green card for a Swamp or Mountain. Or not, but you get to make the decision, not the randomness of a draw. Playing Magic the standard way does not allow you to play multiple paths each game. You’re forced to play the cards your dealt unless you have something like Timetwister that allows you to manipulate your hand.

I’ve drafted Cube decks that played totally different three games in a row because I exiled different cards for land. This point cannot be overstated. The manor in which Magic is played without the inclusion of basic lands in decks adds a whole new level of strategy. That is saying something as Magic in general is one of the most strategic card games out there. When you draw a hand that has 7 of the best 400 cards in Magic and you have to throw away a card, that is a tough decision. But isn’t that what makes games great? Tough decisions? Do you throw away a 6CC bomb that does nothing for you now? Or the creature removal spell that you’ll surely need later? What about a 2CC weenie that will pay immediate dividends? Or a mana accelerator? What kind of deck is your opponent playing? If you know he runs very few artifacts maybe you can feel safe exiling that Disenchant.

There’s another effect here that is important to note. This has happened countless times in our Cube drafts. We typically play best two out of three in our Cube. Game one against an opponent I play Living Death for the win. Good times. In the second game though what card turns up in my opening hand? Living Death. I now have the option to say, “You know what, Living Death is awesome, but I just won with it. It might be fun to try a different route in this game. Not to mention, it costs five mana so I can exile it now and play something that costs one mana.” And because my deck has 40 non basic land cards in it, it’s very likely that I have several other finishers. Or maybe I love Living Death enough to play it every game, so I toss something else. The point is, the decision is mine.

Removal of Some Archetypes

The last effect of removing basic lands is what most people grate against. That is the removal of certain types of decks. Land Destruction can still be played in this format but it is much tougher. Obviously if your opponent can play another land every turn you can never hope to remove all of their land. However, getting an advantage with land in play is still incredibly powerful. If on turn five I have five lands and you have three I’m still in a great position.

Obviously there are several control themes that don’t work as well. The pace of our games is much faster than playing the standard way. Though I would still argue that our games are more fun and faster paced than most Cubes. There are several cards that don’t really work in our Cube as a result of excluding basic lands. Fetch lands don’t really serve a purpose anymore. After a while though they aren’t missed because their value was in fixing a problem (mana-screw) that doesn’t exist anymore.

Another common complaint when players first try the no basic land deck is “I don’t want to have to throw away Swords to Plowshares for a land because it’s the worst card in my hand. When you think about it, this isn’t really a legitimate complaint. If you were playing with 28 cards and 12 basic lands, it’s likely that that Swords would have been a basic land. You just wouldn’t have been given the choice to make it one. That is what makes this mechanic great. If you have to cut 12 drafted cards to make room for basic land you may have removed Swords from your deck. I don’t have to make that sacrifice. I can play 40 functional cards and decide which ones, on a game by game basis, become basic land. Maybe I’m deciding between Swords to Plowshares and Disenchant as to which I want to exile for land. Well, if my opponent has a big creature out, I keep Swords. Or, if he has no creatures and Tawnos’s Coffin, then I keep disenchant.

In conclusion, I feel that if you’re willing to give this a try you will not be sorry and will likely never play Magic the standard way again. Everyone that has played our Cube is convinced that this is the most fun way to play. Some were standoffish at first, but now they love it. As a test you can try this: play a Cube where some players keep basic lands in their decks and some don’t. I guarantee that the players without basic lands will win more of the time (provided that all players are of similar ability). First off, the standard players will lose 20% of the time just because they won’t get the mana they need. Secondly, the basic land removers will have more choices in hand.

What have you to lose? If you’re like me, you’ve drafted Cube hundreds of times. Try it without basic lands next time and see what happens. If you hate it you can always go back to the normal way for the next hundred drafts. But if you love it, it will change the way you play Magic for the rest of your life.

- Ben Albert

This cube update adds a whopping 40 cards to the cube bringing the total to 642 cards.

Ready to see what made it and what didn’t? Let’s go!

Status and Goals

Well, the first thing to note is the size – +40 and 642 means the cube is growing again. While I resisted for my last update, I couldn’t do it this time.

You can view the cube in all its glory over at Google Docs.

First let’s go over our goals from last time:

- Observe and Track Top Decks
- Look at the Power of Red
- Review Artifact Answers

So the first goal was reached in that blue control decks have a very hard time losing. Period. No matter what their form. So it’s time to get aggressive. Particularly I think the converted mana cost of my cube is just too high. Right now it’s all midrange and control decks and that needs to be lessened. I -want- people to be afraid to hear you drafted the R/G aggro or the R/W Aggro or the W/B Aggro deck instead of high-fiving their buddies and checking out the three Control Magic variants you got.

Secondly, I think if anything Red needed some -more- love, and I hope it got it in this update with more low cost answers. We’ll see how it works out.

As for artifact answers, I think the existing solutions (Blue steals/bounces/counters, Black kills stuff, Green and Red just crush them, White…needed Revoke Existence amongst other Disenchant variants) work just fine. I added a few cards, but I don’t think was near the issue I expected it to be.

Design Goals for Mirrodin Besieged

Blue Control Must Die – I want to make them suffer. I’m really glad we get to play with cards like Thrun, the Last Troll and Hero of Oxid Ridge from Besieged, because those are cards that make these decks cry. Hopefully my existing changes will help that.

Lower the Converted Mana Cost of the Entire Cube – Will do some math on this to prove I’m doing this, but right now all I know is I ‘feel’ like I’m top-heavy, and all of my feedback recently has proven this.

Make Green Matter Better - I’m trying to push their mana production with this update, but Black is always a weird animal in the cube, and Green is traditionally the worst color. Need to flip this around. Don’t make me add cards like Asceticism to the cube, I totally will!

Find my Mirrodin Besieged pre-orders at the end of the update

White Cards

Cut:

None

Added:

Elspeth Tirel
Revoke Existence
Sunblast Angel
Mana Tithe
Journey to Nowhere

Now this doesn’t represent the aggro update as well as other colors, but White wasn’t really the one hurting for good aggro strategies (these days R/W and W/B are fine combinations). Still trying not to add another Armageddon in the form of Ravages of War, because Armageddon is devastating in both control -and- aggro, and control is not something that needs a ton of tools.

As for the choices, Elspeth Tirel and Sunblast Angel -are- gifts to control decks, but Journey to Nowhere is great in aggro and control while Mana Tithe just crushes control when played correctly, and Revoke Existence is another problem solver and gives you outs to things like Wurmcoil Engine and removes Regrowth and recursion possibilities. Eternal Witness is awesome, don’t need to let them have that Recurring Nightmare back as soon as you Disenchant it

One of the cards I’ll note that is NOT in here is Leonin Arbiter. Had high hopes for that guy. Turns out not all Hate Bears(tm) can get there in the cube. Sure I love me a Gaddock Teeg but you sir are no Gaddock Teeg.

Blue Cards

Cut:

None

Added:

Volition Reins
Aether Adept
Negate
Repeal
Sunder

Yes, I know you’re all hovering over Sunder right now. That card, I’m just going to call it, is the Blue Armageddon. The card is -ridiculous- and leads to incredible blowouts. Got a ton of artifact mana? It’s awesome. Got a board advantage? End of turn Sunder, let’s see how long your forces last versus mine. The sky is the limit and Sunder is a card I loved from the instant I saw it in another’s cube, and playing it felt just as good as expected. A hidden gem!

Otherwise, I don’t have Confiscate but I do have Volition Reins. Why? Because you make em work for it sometimes. Blue needs no help and if I’m giving them this effect, I prefer the UUU version. I really wanted to add more creatures, but unfortunately they’re still underwhelming. Aether Adept finally sneaks in, but it’s not exciting.

Negate and Repeal return, cards that battle control deck mirrors and a useful tool that goes into lots of decks. I originally brought back Essence Scatter, but I don’t think that’s healthy at this point. I’m currently pushing aggro, so let’s see how much blue needs to suffer before it gets more anti-creature cards.

Black Cards

Drops:

None

Adds:

Fume Spitter
Wei Ambush Force
Grasp of Darkness
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Skinrender

The beats return! While Fume Spitter isn’t really -beats- per se, he is a low drop and lowing my converted mana cost of all colors is a current goal of mine. Wei Ambush Force is a card I’m sure most had to look up, and Skinrender was almost eschewed for the return of Nezumi Cutthroat! The beats must return!

Grasp of Darkness is just amazing removal, and Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon ends any game quickly. Equipment + Skithiryx = GG almost any way you slice it. Virtually every equipment is amazing with that guy, and seeing the goodies from Mirrodin Besieged means I made the right choice in picking up a foil one a few months ago. Skinrender is all-upside and feel-good, even if it might be a bit too ‘mid-rangy’ for this update.

Red Cards

Drops:

Devastating Force
Arc-Slogger

Adds:

Arc Trail
Koth of the Hammer
Spikeshot Elder
Plated Geopede
Jackal Pup
Tin Street Hooligan
Viashino Slaughtermaster

Okay, firstly, Jackal Pup was an accidental deletion of some sort. Not sure how he got cut.

Anyway, love me some Spikeshot Elder, that card is goofy with equipment and really something the Red Deck needed in the Cube. Plated Geopede is another low-drop all-star and is welcome here. Arc Trail is wonderfully efficient, and we all know how good Koth of the Hammer is in a dedicated red strategy. Tin Street Hooligan returns after a long hiatus. With the powerful artifact influx this go-round, having a nice two-for-one is always sweet. Plus that guy just feels so good when the snooty blue player drops Vedalken Shackles.

Speaking of feel-good, Viashino Slaughtermaster returns. He’s double striking, low cost and awesome with any equipment. Welcome back!

Green Cards

Drops:

Primeval Titan

Adds:

Fyndhorn Elves
Joraga Treespeaker
Jungle Lion
Nimble Mongoose
Arbor Elf
Rampant Growth

Okay, first off – cutting Joraga Treespeaker last go around was a mistake. This is now rectified. She is indeed the Green Sol Ring and should be treated as such.

Meanwhile, whassup Mana Guys? Looking to make Green matter and more powerful, and their ability to surge ahead in mana I think is the key. Or at least a strategy we can try at this point. Nimble Mongoose is a card that should drive control decks crazy (while a few will wield him themselves), and Rampant Growth is a bread-and-butter card I’ve needed in here for awhile. Lastly Jungle Lion returns after a looooong hiatus because, well, sick beats, that’s why.

As for dropping Primeval Titan…I -know- how amazing he is in constructed. But this is one of those funny times where they shine brightly in constructed but suck bad in Cube. See also, Squadron Hawk.

Colorless / Artifact Cards

Drops:

Sword of Vengeance
Triskelavus

Adds:

Sword of Body and Mind
Wurmcoil Engine
Molten-Tail Masticore
Myr Battlesphere
Steel Hellkite
Precursor Golem
Perilous Myr
Ratchet Bomb
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Chimeric Mass
Mimic Vat

Wooooow that’s a lot of cards. Eleven(!) new cards, to be exact.

So firstly, let’s cover our losses. Sword of Vengeance just isn’t near as exciting as Sword of Body and Mind, obv. Triskelavus is a card I simply have left in for too many updates, costs a -ton- of mana, and ultimately isn’t worth it.

As for the goodies, the Mythics are representin’ – Wurmcoil Engine is, well, Wurmcoil Engine, I love me a Molten-Tail Masticore like few others, and is that Kozilek, Butcher of Truth?!

Yes, I finally put an Eldrazi in here. I admire Kenny Mayer putting Artisan of Kozilek in his cube as well, but I think one super-expensive guy is enough for me. The card advantage wrought is not to be underestimated, and if there’s one guy this side of Emrakul I could get behind, it’s this one. Again, not helping lower any Converted Mana Cost worries, but I’m making a big exception.

Speaking of expensive things, Myr Battlesphere is just one of the funnest cards ever, Chimeric Mass is finally getting some Constructed love in Kuldotha Red but I think will do just fine in the cube as well, while Steel Hellkite is obviously the stoneblade when unanswered and Precursor Golem can end games in a hurry. Mimic Vat and Ratchet Bomb bring up the rear for “utility cards,” both of them awesome when used correctly and a way for a great long-game with Vat or stopping you from dying too soon via Bomb.

The last card I wanted to talk about was Perilous Myr. Now it’s obvious I wouldn’t be putting this into the cube without some thought, and the thought is that aggro needs help. More generic awesome two-drops are never bad things, and it’s time to see how far I can push the lower drops that punish sweepers.

Multicolor Cards

Drops

Windreaver

Adds

Venser, the Sojourner

Oh my God yes, finally, a reason to get rid of Windreaver. Here to fill a quota, barely played even in sketchy Winston Draft decks. GTFO, you won’t be missed. Venser, however, Venser is sweet

Lands

Drops:

None

Adds:

Blackcleave Cliffs
Copperline Gorge
Darkslick Shores
Razorverge Thicket
Seachrome Coast

For the lands, it’s pretty straightforward – The Scars of Mirrodin lands are fantastic, work incredibly well (way better than first glance) and I love em enough to give them the nod. Aggro decks of all sorts want these lands, and that’s what I’m pushing with this update.

Conclusion

Well, the experiment continues. I did a huge push for lower casting costs spell and creatures, and hopefully didn’t just give blue more reasons to laugh at other colors. I almost feel like Blue, as an entire color, is the “Infect” of cube draft — if only two people are blue, you crush. If three or more are, your pool is spread so thin you have problems winning. Perhaps this isn’t something that goes away, but still, it’s something I want to combat.

So those are my inclusions – what are yours? I’m curious, as always.

For those wanting to know what I’m testing for Mirrodin Besieged, here ya go:

- Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
- Sword of Feast and Famine
- Hero of Bladehold
- Hero of Oxid Ridge
- Signal Pest
- Black Sun Zenith
- Phyrexian Revoker
- Thrun, the Last Troll
- Green Sun’s Zenith
- Black Sun’s Zenith
- Contested War Zone
- Slagstorm
- Leonin Relic-Warder
- Sphere of the Suns
- Go for the Throat

Update after publishing:

- Mirran Crusader
- Phyrexian Crusader
- Goblin Wardriver
- Lead the Stampede
- Glissa the Traitor
- Bonehoard

Wow, and they say this card isn’t a constructed-friendly set? Pfft.

So that’s the update, sorry for the delay, but viva la cube!

The stage was set. 34 participants in a Sealed Prerelease Tournament. The set was Mirrodin Beseiged and I was flipping stoked. I freakin’ love prereleases. I was a little worried about the whole faction pack idea, because it’s something new and new stuff is scary. I chose Mirran because if I’m drafting scars I think that Mirran definitely has the edge. Plus, since half the sealed was scars packs, it would only get better if I had 45 more Mirran cards. Right? It sure didn’t feel like it afterward.

Read Chris’s entertaining report and check out his choices for Mirrodin Besieged in Cube Draft!

I opened my scars packs first, so I could savor the new cards last. First thing I see is a foil. Fate is laughing at me. It’s a foil Tower of Calamities . I just happened to open a foil Tower of Calamities in the scars prerelease. I won that one, maybe it’s a sign. I then get a Ratchet Bomb. Okay. I don’t even remember my third scars rare at the moment. My Mirran Faction packs are almost as ironic. Two out of the three have foil phyrexian cards in them, and they’re good ones, which only makes me madder. Pistus Strike and the 2/1 infect flyer Tine Shrike. I suddenly feel like I chose the wrong side, and to make matters worse, my sealed pool is kind of a joke. I have a lot of red and blue, but only 4 black cards. My white is slim but has some good stuff in it. I’ll try to remember some of my cards.

Red

2x Crush (super good card)
3x Gnathosaur (nearly unplayable fatty)
1x Galvanoth (really cool but I got no big splashy spells)
1x Blisterstick Shaman (really good)

Blue

1x Plated Seastrider (cool wall)
1x Vedalken Infuser (a wall that works with stuff)
2x Quicksilver Geyser (better than I thought)
1x Scrapdiver Serpent (gotta have an ace)
1x Neurok Commando (bad, just bad)
1x Neurok Invisimancer (good)
1x Bonds of Quicksilver (slow removal, but still removal)
1x Trinket Mage (Important for 1 very funny reason)
2x Spire Serpant (Really Great dude)

White

1x White Sun’s Zenith (So good but Sooooo White)
3x Divine Offering (OMFG Amazing)
1x Leonin Skyhunter
2x Ardent Recruit
1x Loxodon Wayfarer

Green

I honestly can’t remember a thing out of green it was so laughable except for
2x Slice in Twain

Black

4 black cards. Doesn’t matter what they were, they weren’t getting played.

Artifacts

3x Spin Engine (this guy is bonkers)
1x Sphere of the Suns (strong mana fixing)
3x Shriekhorn (completely wrote this off at first, wow)
1x Ratchet Bomb (good but narrow card)
1x Wall of Tanglecord (best 2 drop around)
1x Neurok Replica
1x Sylvok Replica
1x Strider Harness
1x Barbed Battlegear
1x Piston Sledge
1x Accorder’s Shield (Wins all day)
1x Contagion Clasp
1x Infiltrator Lens
1x Tower of Calamity

So I have a whole bunch of artifacts that I can only use with colors, and no good colored cards to run with them. Red was out, which made me sad, because I really wanted to run all those spin engines. I couldn’t believe I got a whole bunch of red fatties and no small guys or burn. I looked at green and was underwhelmed. I did get 2 Slice in Twain but they are “so green” and I didn’t have anything else to run green for. White looked good, and I knew I couldn’t pass on 3 divine offerings. Blue also had a lot of cool cards. My artifacts were the real kick in the pants. I had no finishers other than 1 Scrapdiver Serpent out of blue so I really needed that from the artifact pool. I was left wanting.

But I did see a really stupid idea forming. I looked at Shriekhorn, looked at Trinket Mage, looked at Contagion Clasp, and finally broke down. Dear God I’m playing Shriekhorn mill.

Well, now that I know what I’m doing, lets see what we play. I gave my white and blue a good hard look. I’m so used to playing metalcraft, that I already had all my metalcraft dudes pulled out to go in the deck. They weren’t going to do anything for me this time, so I dropped all my Ardent Recruits and Spire Serpents. Then, I took out Leonin Skyhunter. The card is bonkers, but it’s double white and dies to whatever it blocks, which is not what I need. In goes everything with 4 toughness, so Neurok Replica, Plated Seastrider, Wall of Tanglecord, and Vedalken Infuser. Gotta play Divine Offering, and White Sun’s Zenith. And all the Equipment too for good measure. I played all the Neurok guys but wish I hadn’t put in the Neurok Commando. I thought that a 2/1 shroud scroll thief was gonna rock, but it turns out other people play creatures. Okay, so we were built. (Sorry for not having an exact decklist, I immediately lost my deck after the sealed event)

Let’s Go.

Round 1

Me vs. Someone’s Girlfriend.

Well at least I’ll make it to round 2.

1-0

Round 2

Me vs. Green Black Infect

Game 1- I dropped Shriekhorn turn 1 and began milling. I got a second and then my Vedalken Infuser shortly after. He had infect guys, but my walls could block his dudes like 3 or 4 times before they died and I got it in there with mill.

Game 2- He pretty much held me down and mistreated me with Plaguemaw Beast He’s big enough to kill most of my walls in one hit, and he combos with infect? Unfair.

Game 3- I had walls and he had nothing. Mill slowly got it there for me. This format is slow.

2-0

Round 3

Me vs. Green Black Infect – Inventive huh?
Game 1- I lose game one to a better version of the deck I just played. Infect is good now. I was just too slow this time.

Game 2- I drop a Neurok Invisimancer and put Piston Sledge on him right away. Then I proceed to beat my opponent almost to death with it. I like Piston Sledge a lot.

Game 3- He drops guys and I drop walls. Trinket Mage rips out my third Shriekhorn from the deck and my Contagion Clasp keeps the charge counters flowing. I get there before he can beat through my defenses. By this point I am starting to wonder if Shriekhorn is good. I used my Divine Offerings at key times to kill guys he has equipped with Silverskin Armor. I like that card because it enables metal-craft really well, but it makes your guys shatterable, and that is definitely why I won this match.

3-0

Round 4

Me vs. Red White Battle cry (a.k.a dear god stop the beatings)

Game 1- So this is the first fast deck I’ve played against and wow was it fast. Leonin Skyhunter is a butt whoopin’, and when you mix it with battle cry guys like Accorder Paladin, and my opponent’s Mirran Crusader it gets even worse. I have one word to describe this game.

Ouch!

He drops Silverskin Armor and I use it to my advantage with my 3 Divine Offerings to rip his guys up. Without the life offset I got from blowing his stuff up, I would have been dead.

Game 2- I’m just gonna outline his plays. Turn 1 land pass. Turn 2 Goblin Wardriver. Turn 3 Leonin Skyhunter. Turn 4 Accorder Paladin. Turn 5 Leonin Skyhunter. Turn 6 he drops Kuldotha Ringleader. Turn 7 Thopter Assembly. I divinely off the Assembly. Doesn’t matter. I’m dead.

Game 3- Turn 1 Shriekhorn mills his top 2 and I get a skyhunter and a wardriver into his yard. Awesome. Next turn, hit it again and I get another Leonin Skyhunter (dear god) and a Kuldotha Pheonix. I’m a little worried at this point. He is still dropping guys but I’m dropping walls. The guys that are hitting the board are artifacts. So, I have divine offering giving me an advantage and keeping him off metalcraft. The last thing I need is a big angry bird scratching my eyes out. I finally get to play White Sun’s Zenith and net 4 kitties for my army. He has Kuldotha Ringleader and has to swing into them, but Soul Parrys my cats, so they get chewed up. Then he drops Thopter Assembly. I swear, I peed a little. However, I had been holding a Divine Offering, because I knew he had it from the last game. I nuke it and gain 6 life at his end of turn. Then, I rip White Sun’s Zenith again. Here comes the Kitty Cat Parade. 5 cat tokens pretty much seal the deal. Man, it was close though. I was at 6 and he had a 3/3 flyer that I couldn’t block, while he had 1 card left in library. Let’s just say that I could have stocked a third world arms dealer with the bullets I was sweating.

4-0

Round 5

Me vs. Green Black Not Infect

Intentional Draw. I played a friendly game with this guy, and he creamed me like a tub of butter. Guess what wrecks a well crafted board position, comprised mainly of artifacts? Creeping Corrosion does. Do you know what kills walls? Carnifex Demon. Did I mention he had Black Sun’s Zenith? Casting the black zenith while Carnifex Demon is in play is almost like cheating.  Super glad I drew with this guy.
4-0-1

I ended the day with 22 packs of delicious faction packy prize. I knew I shouldn’t open them because of their collector value, but I couldn’t help myself. I ended up getting almost all the bomby stuff out of the set that I needed for my cube. All I need now is Massacre Wurm

All in all, I gotta give props to 5 cards for holding down the fort for me.

Shriekhorn- Having 3 let me get one of these turn 1 most games, and I immediately saw advantage from milling my opponents. The annoying thing that I don’t like about any of the charge counter artifacts, is that if you plan on proliferating, you can’t take all the counters off of them. I had lots of games where I was sitting on 2-3 Shriekhorns on the field, all with one counter on them, waiting to draw Contagion Clasp or Vedalken Infuser. In the end, this is the card that won the most for me. Having Trinket Mage get them also helped.

Wall of Tanglecord- I was originally a jerk to this card when I saw it in scars. However, it has SINGLE HANDEDLY won me game, after game, after game by being the best blocker in the format. LOVE THIS WALL.

Divine Offering- Move over Revoke Existence. There’s a new guy in town, and he is Instant speed. It makes all the difference in the world too. This goes from being a way to get rid of artifacts – to a combat trick. Never pass this card.

White Sun’s Zenith- Even though I only had 3 white to cast it in one game the whole tournament, this card completely won that game all on it’s own. The only cards that stop the Kitty Cat Parade are other bomb rares.

Quicksilver Geyser- I didn’t put this in the original deck, but ended up boarding it in almost every time. Bouncing two things is really strong, and as slow as this format was, getting to 5 mana wasn’t hard. When they swing in, and you bounce an equipment and an attacker, taking him off metal-craft and blunting his assault, it kind of wrecks their whole day.

Honorable Mention goes to….

Piston Sledge- This card is just solid.

Besieged in the Cube

This leads into what I really wanted to talk about. Which cards from Mirrodin Besieged are good enough for my cube? There are so many powerful effects coming out as of late that I feel like my cube has turned into a shapeshifting beast that morphs into a new creature every time a set comes out. I miss Homelands. I would never have to change stuff if sets like that came out again. (Just kidding)

Red

Hero of Oxid Ridge- This guy hits so hard and so fast. I can’t see not playing him. Haste is a much bigger advantage than people give it credit for and i limiteed it can really be devastating. Imagine a spell that said “This spell deals 4 damage to target opponent, creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn and creatures with power 1 or less can’t block this turn” How much would that spell cost? 5 or 6? Well our new Red hero just costs 4! He certainly is my hero and I’ll bet he will be yours too.

Slagstorm-I love Flamebreak a lot, and if it wasn’t so red I’d have it in my cube. Then they print Slagstorm. Great!

Blue

I haven’t added any cards to blue in a while. The only one I can even think might make it in is Steel Sabotage. nah.

Green

Thrun, the Last Troll-This guy could make it in on flavor alone! The last troll? Come on! He’s a bigger, badder, uncounterable Troll Ascetic. The only thing that ever killed Troll Ascetic was Pyroclasm and similar cards that could hit while you didn’t have regenerate mana up. This guy laughs those off while coming back for seconds. Plus, he’s the Last Troll!

Green Sun’s Zenith-This is a card that has me on the fence. It only tutors green creatures, which seems narrow. However, what deck running green wouldn’t play this? I think it will be a powerhouse, but only time will tell.

White

Mirran Crusader- What if Paladin en-Vec had double strike? Oh……he does now.  Feels good man. Protection from Green instead of Red means this guy will die to burn all day long. Double Strike more than makes up for that thought. Pro Green can still be relevant in some ways though. Like when you don’t have a wrath.

Accorder Paladin- I actually just dropped Blade of the Sixth Pride out of my cube because he was underappreciated. Now he’s back and ready to kick butt. Battlecry is strong and I can’t wait to see some white weenie go for the gold with it. Oooh and Red/White goblins. Oh oh and Black/White tokens!  OMG Green/White tokens! I better stop there.

Hero of Bladehold- I love this guy for all the same reasons I love Accorder Paladin. Except for one little thing. This guy brings friends. In a format where Lightning Greaves, Sneak Attack, and a myriad of other ways to grant haste exist, this Hero should be nigh unstoppable.

Black

Phyrexian Crusader- Now this guy is Blacks Paladin en-Vec. He’s immune to all the relevant removal in a cube. On top of that, First strike and infect are a pretty awesome combo. He walks over 3/3’s without even offering to pay for dinner. I think this dude is going to be a thorn in many people’s sides for a long time to come.

Black Sun’s Zenith- I have wanted to run Mutilate for a LONG time, but could never get over the fact that you had to be playing mono-black for it to be any good. Well here comes the answer to my prayers. It is more expensive than other sweepers like Damnation and the like, but you probably won’t even need it till later in the game anyway. How often do you Damnation on turn 4? I don’t unless I’m playing against super aggro. And don’t overlook that shuffle in effect. While it seems innocuous, it’s on a spell that is the same color as Demonic Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor. I think this will be a strong and highly picked card.

Go for the Throat- Why Wizards? Why? After you printed Doom Blade, I dropped Terror for a while. Then I finagled it back in under the pretense that it was okay to run two pretty redundant cards because it was on flavor.  Then you print this card!?! How am I supposed to justify running my SUPER COOL Signed Beta Terror now? I can’t even hate the new card for being dorky or anything. It’s called Go for the Throat for Urza’s sake! And it kills pretty much everything. A solid upgrade. Wow foils of it are $6 already.

Artifact

Sword of Feast and Famine-Number 4 of the sword cycle is here and boy does it do some crazy stuff. I have already heard cries that this is the worst sword. I say they’re wrong. The Swords all do something nobody ever mentions. They change the way your opponent plays. Sword of Fire and Ice stops your opponent from playing any creatures with 2 or less toughness. Sword of Light and Shadow forces them to go aggro to offset the life gain advantage. Sword of Body and Mind makes them throw guys in front of yours when they don’t want to because if they don’t you get more dudes. Sword of Feast and Famine forces them into Top Deck mode. Don’t overlook that. Being in Top Deck mode is one of the worst positions to find yourself. You can’t keep any surprises, which usually equates to a loss soon enough. This sword is also pretty bonkers with manlands and other cool nonbasics.

Phyrexian Revoker- An attacking Pithing Needle? Sounds great. It shuts off mana abilities you say? Even better. Eat it Sol Ring. I love cards that solve multiple problems, and in most cases I think this will serve as a colorless Linvala, Keeper of Silence.

Blightsteel Colossus- “Darksteel Who? Nah dog, that ain’t me. I’m One Shot, the Robot.” This card is a strictly better version of his Darksteel cousin. I don’t even care if you think it’s broken. So is half the cube. If anyone lets somebody get this and Tinker, they deserve to lose. I got my foil one, you better get yours.

Gold

Glissa, the Traitor- Wow, what a bomb. This chick kills everything. She makes me want to put in Executioner’s Capsule. This is going to really push people into Black/Green, which makes me happy.

Aside

I really wanted to put Massacre Wurm a.k.a LoL Wurm in, but hes so Black it’s a problem. He might replace Sorin Markov, but it’d be a stretch.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading my article about a format that doesn’t exist anymore. Scars Scars Besieged is going to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait to play WITHOUT faction packs.  And I hope I provided some insight on why you should add Besieged to YOUR cube.

Thanks

- Chris Mellard
Kingofweasels in the forums