The incredibly apparent problem.

Blue is WAY too strong. White is also quite strong, but does not compare to blue.

As you may have noticed, U/w has been my pet deck in cube for a while. I can tell you right now, that’s not an accident. If it wasn’t outrageously strong, I would draft a different deck. I will be making an effort to remove some permission spells for creatures that hit you. Because let’s face it, I ran 9 permission spells in one of my decks, and even though Ed had Negate and Force of Will, I still think I went 6-0 that cube. Bouncing any threat they play and countering it when they try to play it again makes your opponents feel very helpless against you. While there are a wide variety of bombs, getting your shit pushed in by Frost Titan is especially disenfranchising. Mono blue is not only viable, but very strong. Mono colored decks should not be as strong as blue is, which brings me to my next point.

Looking down at Isamaru, Knight Examplar, three 1/1 flyers and the Armageddon your opponent just cast is about as soul crushing as magic can get. You cannot win when that card is played correctly. White will be moving more towards the support color that it is, and away from the “I’m gonna play this 2/2 first strike for WW then blow up all lands.” Mono white is a problem that isn’t getting better. It’s an incredibly easy deck to draft and it’s not fun to sit down against. Getting outraced because the turn four Armageddon that you couldn’t answer is boring and soul crushing. However, white is much harder color to fix. There’s no obvious solution here without taking out board wipes, which white is known for. It will be tricky, but taking out incredibly cheap creatures for more powerful cards that have utility will help out a lot I believe. Only time and testing will be able to tell this, but Joey and I have been making an effort to change the power level of colors so that more decks will be viable.

On the other end of the spectrum, red is awful. The only problem is… red is awful everywhere. Mountains are the cheapest lands you can buy, red doesn’t have chase mythics, RDW is a bad deck is every format it’s played in, and goblins just became borderline unplayable in legacy. So where do we take red? That’s a serious question. What the hell can Joey and I do to save red from being the last 4 cards to get picked from a pack? I’m really at a loss, because red is so fragile and can’t re-stabilize if it runs out of gas. Mono red LD is the only deck that’s good and you need ALL of it to be good. There’s a lot that needs to go into the decisions for red because it’s just so terrible right now, even splashing for some red cards typically will make your deck worse. So, that’s something to think about whenever you’re bored and hitting random on magiccards.info because that’s what nerds do.

This is a topic that’s encouraged to be brought up for discussion, because Joey and I may not think of all the cards. So if you have an idea to nerf blue or white a bit or buff red quite a lot, please take it up with him or me because you may think of something useful.

Signed,

Kyle

Because rankings are serious.

As the new co-moderator for cube, my first real order of business will be separating casual play and serious play. At the beginning of every cube, it will be discussed whether or not to rank a cube.

If Any Of The Following Criteria is Met, Cube Will Not Be Ranked:

• If there are people that want to play, but are not currently in the rankings and it doesn’t at all appear they will be in the rankings for more than one cube.
• If people want to draft joke decks, and a majority of people agree.
• If there are less or more than eight people playing in that cube.
• If there are none of the top 4 or Rake Jobinson present.
• If it is known that we will be unable to complete three rounds of play before we have to relocate.
• If Erik Stehlar is present, because he is a thief.

Joey and I have discussed this and Rake agrees completely. To the rest of you that play, your opinion is.. irrelevant if you don’t agree. This may cause some toil to the people prefer four man cubes over eight mans. I, frankly, do not care at all. The card pool in four mans is tiny and drafting five packs of nine is annoying, because people consistently mess up packs. If you don’t take rankings seriously, then by all means, you are free to draft funky decks that will undoubtedly get crushed.

Now, this is not to say that casual drafts will no longer happen. However, eight mans will be preferred to a four man, six man, team draft, etc. If there are less than eight people, clearly we will do something else to not just waste time waiting for people to arrive. I want to make it clear that cube is a format that opens your eyes to many new combinations of cards. In addition to that, constantly drafting greatly improves the odds that you will be able to read and/or give signals better, improving your results in FNM events you may attend. Cube is a format that greatly increases your chances of becoming a better Magic player in general. Keeping that in mind, cube is also a wildly fun format that can result in outplaying your opponents or just getting completely out-bombed. It all depends on how you draft, how you build your deck, and how you value cards.

In conclusion, ranks will be exclusively for eight mans, however other formats will not be ignored. Pokemans will still be played, six man team drafts will still be played, and so will all other casual formats. There’s just zero possibility that any other formats will be ranked. There was a test to see if people enjoyed multiple rankings but it was too complicated and hard to maintain. Therefore, it has been decided that only one rank will exist, and that is how people perform in competitive eight man drafts.

Signed,

Kyle

New Sheriff in Town

Dear Cubers,

I Joey Sprague have blugended Rake Jobinson to death (don’t worry it was consensual) and will be running cube along with the help of Kyle Nistico. We will be making all the decisions re-guarding the cubes future along with updates and the blog banning’s both people and cards alike, basically everything Rake Jobinson was in control of is now up to us. We will also be changing the date of final entries of the custom card contest to a date that fits the circumstances.

Sincerely,

Joey Sprague

Custom Card Contest: Cutoff May 5th

The official cutoff for custom card entries is the 5th, and voting will start right after. I will post some of the entries when I get a chance.

As of right now, the following people get 3 votes:
Wally
Bible
Nistico
Joey Sprague

Additionally, the following people get 2 votes:
Bryan Reandeau
Mike Schwan
Jorge Azpurua
Abe Finch
Andrew Force

More coming.

Just thought you all should know:

The cutoff for the custom card contest is gonna be somewhere around May 1st.  It depends on when I actually do the update for New Phyrexia, but the cutoff will definitely be sometime in that week.  I will start the voting almost immediately, and the voting period will be two weeks (as usual).

As for what you can submit, if anyone was gonna ask, your options are limitless.  There is no guideline for this contest, you can do anything from a planeswalker to a level up creature, and more.

I would like to take this time to point out that it is quite possible that we could have TWO custom cards going in this update:  Sigiled Sovereign is a returning champ for the second time now, and as some of you know, if you make returning champ 3 times in a row, it counts as a win.

So good luck, I’m looking forward to seeing some awesome entries.

7 Cards You Haven’t Thought of

Playing cube will change your outlook on cards.  I was browsing my collection this week, looking for things to put in my binder, etc, and I stumbled across cards that I thought MIGHT be good in my cube.

This article, as well as 3 other articles I plan on writing, will evaluate cards and how they would work in the cube.

This one will focus on cards more on the unorthodox scale of things.  Obscure cards that might not have caught your eye before, but now that someone’s mentioning them, you might be giving a second look:

Here we go.

1. Springjack Shepherd

Why: He caught my eye, as white weenie is on the rise. He isn’t exactly a powerful beater (1/2), but with anthems he makes a bunch of little creatures, and with Marshal’s Anthem hes just insane.  Worst case scenario he makes a bunch of blockers.

2. Sigil of Sleep

Why: Aside from it being a 1 mana bounce spell that basically makes any tiny creature an instant threat, there is a much more important reason to put this in cube: We have been trying to make U/R Kiln Fiend a good deck for a while now.  This is exactly the type of dangerous weapon that the deck needs. Drop Cunning Sparkmage and put this on him… too powful.

3. Splinter Twin

Why: Not much to be said about this card that we havent already heard or seen in Rise of the Eldrazi limited.  Its the cubes 2nd Kiki-Jiki.  Both copy witness like bosses.  Both Landlock players with Goblin Gardeners.  one costs 4.

4. Innocent Blood

Why: Good card in B/W Staxx no matter what point in the game its in.  1 mana for an extra lock piece activation.  As a devout Staxx player, all I have to say is: “Sign me up”

5. Seedguide Ash

Why: I’m actually going to start asking opinions on this card.  On the one side, it could be way too late for the 3 forests to matter (even if you can fetch up nonbasics) and you may not even have enough lands in your deck to get the full potential out of him dieing.  On the other, the jump from 5 to 8 lands is good,  and I AM trying to make monogreen ramp a deck.  With this guy, Simone, and Primeval Titan, it could totally work.

6. Wargate

Why: Wargate has always been good every time I have ever played it in any format.  The current Bant card is (in my opinion) lack luster.  I’m sure some will disagree with me and tell me a few stories where it was good for them, maybe some of them relating to cube, who knows.  BUT.  That is not why I want to take it out.  I will explain:  The cube is quite diverse, and the most diverse among all the cards, should be the 3 color cards.  As far as Finest Hour is concerned, Its not very diverse.  Fervent Charge is almost exactly the same card.  We don’t need two cards that do the exact same thing spread across all 5 colors in the cube.

7. Chimeric Mass

Why: Yeah yeah, I know, its been in a lot of cubes online, and its probably not the last thing you’ve thought of… but for the sake of not putting Blightsteel Collossus on the list, I put this nice little card.  Fetchable with Trinket Mage, great with proliferate, even a viable win condition in control decks (which could also run Trinket Mage), and aggro decks alike.

So thats it, theres 7 cards that you may not have thought of and, if I wrote this article correctly, you’re thinking of using a different perspective.

Next time I will dsicuss 7 problem cards in the cube.

Until Next Time.

Jake Robinson

I’m workin’ on it.

Concerning rankings, I have all of the cubes that i havent ranked sitting in front of me right now.  Four pages worth I think?  yes.  Its four. I just counted.  I am trying to integrate the new ranking system, which I will explain in this post, and making the tables sortable is problematic.  If anyone could help on that, please speak up.

For this post, I will explain the new rule on Immunity.  As I said before, It is being abused.  Favorites should be left in cube.  Thats what I made it for.  It also should have nothing to do with rank, which I concluded more recently.

Here are the new official rules on Immunities.

• Each player has 2 immunity picks.  Moving up or down in rank will not change the number of picks you get.
• Immunity picks can be changed once per month, by either commenting on the Immunity page, or by talking to Jake Robinson personally.  Picks that cannot be changed will be highlighted in bold.  Picks that can be changed will be in plain text.  As of this article, all cards have been reverted to plain text.
• Immunity picks cannot be taken out of cube during an update.  Giving immunity to a card will make it harder to ban, requiring 10 extra vote points for a ban.
• You can not give Immunity to Custom cards, or Un-Cards.  Holiday Gift cards count as Un-Cards for the sake of this rule.
• Because of their scarcity and functionality in cube, Tri-Color cards cannot be put on Immunity.
• If you have not participated in cube for longer than 3 months, your Immunity Picks expire.  Your picks will also expire if you were banned from cube for any reason (either temporary or permanent), but can be changed upon re-entry.

I will not lie that the reason for me changing this rule comes invariably from the controversy over the card Sol Ring.  There were/are well respected players on opposite sides of the argument, but my reasoning for keeping the card in came solely from the opinions of the majority.  I recognize that if something isn’t done on a rule that could cause many debates similar to this one, it will hinder the development of cube.

Rankings

As many of you may already know, I have been working on a new ranking system.  After much deliberation, I have formulated a new method: listen up.

The new ranking system will be split up into 4 parts: 8-mans, 4-mans, Other and, Total.  

The first two are self explanatory, and should create better seating/pairing results if they are ranked individually.  8 man ranks will be a continuation from your current ranking (you keep your old number), and will be ranked the same way, 4 man ranked will start at 100.

Other is any cube that is ranked that doesnt fit into the other two categories.  This leaves a lot of openings if I ever want to rank different cube formats (Pokemon, Emperor, 2HG, 3man Team, 6-mans, 12-mans, etc).

Total is by far the most important part of the new ranking system.  Your total rank will dictate how you affect cube.  Top 4 and Top 8 benefits will be judged by this number.  Your total rank is determined as the average of your other three point totals plus your highest point total among the three.

example:

Name	8-Man	4-Man	Other	Total
Fake MadeUpNamenburg	102	107	104	105

This players total ranking is 105, because 107+107+102+104= 420.  420/4=105.  His 4-Man points were counted twice, because thats his highest point total across the 3 formats.

Yes, so now you see what I have been working on.  I have been very busy with my job, and trying to get a second job, so you’ll have to excuse me for not having a lot of time for this site.  I will be working on putting up the new rank tables, and hopefully post some new articles.  Once I get my new camera, I might even shoot some vlogs.

Until next time

Jake Robinson.

No Post Sundays: Immunity

I will be changing Immunity a little bit, come equilibrium update.  Its just gotten too sparatic.  I instituted Immunity to keep peoples favorite cards in cube.  Not to keep underpowered or overpowered cards in cube too long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rake Jobinson.

R/U Kiln (Killin’) Fiend Draft-A-Deck

The state of cube has changed and this deck has seen a lot of use and interest lately so I deemed a re-do of this article is relevant.

Have you ever wanted to see your opponents face when you are about to swing for kill with an 8/2 kiln fiend after they failed to resolve most of their spells (and the creatures you let land got burned up by your spells too!)? R/U “kiln Fiend” can do this and has been able to for quite some time,  however until recently it has not gotten much love or attention. This deck focuses on control however would be classified as midrange/combo due to the EXTREME synergy most of the cards have with one another if you get a few of the pieces such as (the new addition) Galvanoth, Nucklavee, Mnemonic Wall, Top/Scroll Rack, creatures and spells that are natural 2-for-1′s, and of course the decks namesake KILN FIEND!

Importance of Picks:

The thing this deck values most is value, plain and simple. If it can draw you multiple cards or kill multiple creatures, this deck loves it.

High-

Board wipes, Recursive spells (or ways to do so), things that fix the top of your deck, Raw powerful instants and sorceries, mind control enchants, copy creature effects.

Mid-pack-

counter spells then,creatures with come into play effects or looter effects, burn spells, bounce spells, card draw

Late-

Mana fixing, utility artifacts.

Splash-

Venser the Sojourner, guided passage.

Play notes

this is not an aggro deck dont build it like one, too many creatures can be an issue, you (hopefully) drafted some awesome spells so playing 13ish creatures is the ideal situation so that you can play your cool spells. more than 17 creatures does not benefit your deck

This deck does not need bombs if you are running enough permission but having them is fine just as a way to cement a victory. If you were to run bombs here are some that can make you deck explode, kiki jiki mirror breaker, rite of replication, lighthouse chronologist, niv mizzet, sphinx of Magosi/Jwar isle, just about any dagron that you can cast, thopter assembly, inferno titan etc…

then drop followed footsteps

Happy Drafting,

Abe Finch

Playing to Win

Magic isn’t just about fun. After all, if it was, there would be no loser or winner of a game. The simple fact of the matter is that Magic, as a game on the whole, is a competitive game full of competitive elements. Some of these elements are artificial concepts made up after the game itself was, but a lot of it is pretty much ingrained in the design of the game. While one could say that playing is fun even if you lose.. isn’t winning more fun? That is why, when you play Cube (or any other Magic format), playing to win is not only a great path to follow, but perhaps also an incredible mindset to take in general.

Playing to win, simply broken down, is the act of doing what you must to be the victor. That means draft the best deck, make the best plays, have the best curve, have the best cards, and have the best attitude. It may even mean that you may have to go through with building something considered lame or cheap to play against. In fact, one of the best ways to play to win is to do that – it could be considered griefing, but building a deck that others do poorly against is not only a mechanical advantage, but psychological. Playing to win is almost a cutthroat mentality, and it starts long before you open your first pack – but sometimes it feels like it starts there. You look at your cards, and you evaluate what the best threat is. Everybody has their own style: some people pick their first pick and build around it, some people aggressively hatepick for a pack, some people take artifacts for a whole pack, some people never make a single dead pick. The question you need to ask yourself every time you need to make a pick from a pack is ‘will the act of picking this card win me the game?’. By that, I don’t mean ‘will playing it in a deck win me the game’ – I mean, will it cut off a valuable resource from another player at the table? Will it hose a color that somebody may be aggressively drafting? The value of a card is much more deep than ‘it is a big dude that smashes face’ or ‘it’s a really good removal spell’ or ‘it is one of the best planeswalkers in Cube’.

The next part of playing to win is being able to recognize your own mistakes and never making them again. A very easy example is that instants and activated abilities can be played on your opponent’s turn, in response to things, and so many other situations. You do not have to play every card you draw immediately. I have watched people (and even caught myself) doing that kind of thing over and over (much to the dismay of other players who know better after years of avoiding doing it). This goes deeper than any single card play – maybe you just can’t play a certain color right. Solution: stop drafting it until you get some more practice somehow or figure out why you can’t do it well. Maybe you don’t know how to build a proper curve or maybe you just can’t differentiate what to really cut when you have more than the appropriate number to put in a deck. Solution: if you do not know these things, you need to ask somebody who does know them to teach them to you. Playing to win outside of the game itself is here.. playing to win means acquiring the knowledge that will help you to win. You need to be on the same technical level as every opponent – and, preferably, beyond their level.

Inside each game of Magic, playing to win is the most obvious: pressing the advantage, using your resources at the right time, and getting the most out of every single threat. Removal spells and counterspells shouldn’t be thrown around without some kind of thought. If you know your opponent has a really dangerous threat, lean back and be careful what you use those precious resources on. Burn shouldn’t always be thrown at the dome. Utility creatures should only be sacrified as a last resort to keep yourself in the game. These are all really simple rules though – playing to win is deeper than that. Playing to win means taking the extra five seconds to make conclusions instead of going with the knee jerk reaction that comes to you. Instinct is also part of being a Magic player, but technical knowledge and forethought are the two edges you should keep sharp. To risk sounding like the Sniper, you have to have a plan for every situation. Account for every card, not just the ones you see on the board. When you make a decision, make sure you know that decision will put you closer to winning the game.

Playing to win isn’t about the removal of your dignity – far from. It isn’t about the removal of fun, either. It is especially not about a lack of creativity – the amount of tech in competitive decks in other formats prove that for sure. Playing to win is proving that you are a skilled player in the eyes of your peers.

 

- Mike ‘Jewface’ Schwan