I made another small mistake here. Prison realm is cheaper bam saved .03 cents. The scry off it is also really good, I have played it in much stronger environments.
Oops 😅
Green needs better ramp, midrange threats, and reanimate targets; however, we have to remember the Golgari deck specifically at Nothing’s request. Better ramp comes first; Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter, I have personally played this card, and it sucks. Deuces. Deathcap Cultivator and Kraul Harpooner are not the best. We are going to play Fyndhorn Elves, Avacyn’s Pilgrim, and Tangled Florahedron. Jeez I wish we could afford a Birds of Paradise. If you get ahold of one, cut a 2 drop dork for it. Don’t sleep on the hedron. Being able to play it as a land has more upside than you might think.
Whisper of the Wilds goes too. We are going to play Devoted Druid which can really pump out some curve toppers. Let’s cut Boon Satyr and Woodland Champion as well for some midrangy goodness. Kazandu Mammoth is good, it would better with fetchlands, but we’ll take it. We will also play [[Jadelight Ranger it’s a solid midrange dude that can also help bin threats for our reanimate/escape creatures.
Still, where the beef, we need some real beaters for this deck. Let’s start by cutting the cute stuff, Golgari Brownscale, Penumbra Spider, and Pheres Brand Brawler all have to go. Nightpack Ambusher is great for midrange and our Selesnya Tokens deck. Penumbra spider… puh! Gemrazer can even be ramped out a turn faster and provide removal. Lastly, while slightly sub-par Hooting Mandrills will help with the Goglari theme as we can cast it sooner with the self mill.
But Matt, how will we mill all these cards? By playing Mulch and Winding Way. The cube already runs, Grisly Salvage and The Binding of Titans Now we have redundancy. We will cut Omen of the Hunt and Band Together to make room. This is certainly not the most powerful thing that Golgari can be doing; however, we are no longer pushing for peak power. Lastly, as a playtest mostly, we are going to play Chainweb Aracnir. It plays well with the self-mill theme, and can serve as a road block to aggro. I have to be honest, this on is a play test.
Time for some top end threats. Titanoth Rex is a perfect reanimate target as he self-bins himself. No more Verdant Force as it does end the game, but it can take some time for it to do so. This removes a token payoff, so we will add, Great Oak Guardian. Flash is relevant for some of the things we can now do in Simic. We need another top end threat, so we are going to cut Verdant Force and play Thorn Mammoth instead.Lastly, when you absolutely have to end the game, Hornet Queen. Nothing puts the opponent on the back foot like angry Murder Hornets #2020sucks.
Guild time boys and girls, let’s pick out some spicey new gold cards. Azorius needs a lot of help. Fortunately, we are doing well on funds so far. We are going to cut Turn to Mist and Elite Guardmage for Time Wipe and Dovin, Grand Arbiter. Dimir is our control color, so we are going to cut Mystical Teachings for Enter the God-Eternals. This gives a single card that does everything a control deck wants.
Rakdos gets Angrath’s Rampage in exchange for Angrath himself. Honestly this card is way better than it looks and it gives the aggro decks a little play against walkers. Ghor-Clan Rampager is nifty tech, but now that green and red have some real midrange cards, we can play Bloodbraid Elf. Selesnya can’t afford Knight of Autumn, so we will play something that helps tokens. We’ll remove Assure//Assemble and play Tolsimer, Friend of Wolves, more solid token generation, but thanks to secret lairs reprinting War of the Spark Walkers, we can play Ajani, Greathearted instead of Growing Ranks.
Orzhov can now play one of it’s best cards in any format. Pitiless Pontiff is cool but not busted by any means. Lingering Souls, on the other hand, is dope. Since Golgari is about self mill, let’s add another creature we can mill and play Polukranos, Unchained is a threat and removal all in one, far superior to Storrev, Devkarin Lich. I wish we could keep playing spider spawning, but it is not strong enough here, nor the is self mill good enough. Instead, we may need a way to recycle our creatures, or wipe the board to by this deck time. Find//Finality can hopefully accomplish this for us.
We are going to help Simic a little, but there aren’t a lot of great choices for us that don’t break the format. In the end, I decided to cut Gyre Engineer for Sagu Mauler. The Mauler can be played early if need to slow down aggressive decks, or we can ramp into or flip it to get a game ender. Izzet gets 2 nice upgrades here. We are spells matters already, so playing Sprite Dragon is a no brainer. Izzet Charm is rock solid. Modal cards are good cards. We are not going to miss playing Mischievous Chimera and Sprite Dragon.
Boros gets the classic Boros Charm and Skyknight Vanguard. Again, modal is better, and skyknight’s evasion helps it function well in any fair environment. We will lose some of the last remnants of the old dwarf vehicle deck with Renegade Wheelsmith and Nahiri, Storm of Stone is not a great card so no losses here.
Colorless is hard to upgrade, I would love to add mana rocks that we can’t afford, like signets or talismans, but only in the control colors, but we can’t do much here. We will cut Pilgrim’s eye and Molten Tail Masticore for Everflowing Chalice and Mind Stone. We do get to add a real quality equipment to the cube with Grafted Wargear. We can thank Commander Legends for the reprint, and I cut the curve in green a bit, so I want another top end ramp target, so we will add Myr Battlesphere. Good ol’battle ball. Say good bye to Wing’s of Hubris and Transmogrifying Wand.
Now, if you have been using a calculator to keep up, then you know we are well under budget, and that is intentional. Because I am going to do the most awesome and frequently the most expensive thing you can do to a cube. Upgrade the mana base! We are going to play all 6 Zendikar Pathway Lands. Now in truth, I would want 3 of each guilds lands, but we have to start somewhere.
For my boy Nothing, buy the lands and scoop the next four when the next set drops. Then you can have a full playset of lands that are cube worthy. I hope this helps you with your upgrades. Shuffle up, stay safe, and keep Cubing.
Money spent: $72.84
according to tcgplayer anyway
Feel free to use this link when you shop ;-)
Nothingface has some different goals than CBS, and because we are pushing for a tier 1.5-2 environment, we will not be making all optimal choices all the way through.
We have 50-75 dollars to spend to upgrade this cube, here we go:
First things first, we want to give white aggro more legs, and remove some of the more fluffy options. Impassioned Orator is not scaring anyone, and there are no life gains synergies in this environment, so snip snip, Azorius Arrester is not very strong either, and Stormfront Pegasus, while not horrible, can be cut for a winged friend with more late game play. Instead we add:
Selesnya needs better token creatures in white, we are going to cut Increasing Devotion, Scion of Vitzu Ghazi, Angel of Condemnation, and Porcelain Legionnaire (though this last card is very good, it is likely to be poached by non-white drafters). Adding History of Benalia for aggro and tokens, Harmonious Archon, and a couple of high quality cards, Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis and Angel of Invention. Angel is a bit of a splurge for our budget, but she is worth it. Elspeth will help aggro, tokens, and control. So flexible.
Also, another removal upgrade is necessary. Faith Fetters is fine, but I prefer things to be really dead, and not just tied down. Same goes for Pacifism. Rally for the Throne is going as well to make room for another quality removal spell. Here is a much stronger package:
This cube is trying to support blink, and while that is not my personal cup of tea, we might as well play some of the better blink things, we will cut Vesperlark and play Flickerwisp instead. Forbodding Spirit is not the best and adding Hanged Executioner will be solid is pretty much any white deck other than control. Speaking of which, we are cutting Lena, Selfless Champion for Maul of the Skyclaves. The maul has done work in my cube and is very overlooked. This equipment will provide late game legs to the aggro deck, and turn your midrange threats into closers. Good times.
Ugg, there are still so many weak choices being played in this color. In particular the “if you played this on your opponents turn" crap. We can have a tempo deck, but not with these cards. Mystic Archeologist, Stinging Lionfish get out of my cube. I am mad I was not able to afford these cuts the first time. Fblthp, the Lost and Brineborn Cutthroat welcome home. Also, Wave Break Hippocamp is out too, instead, let’s add more card filtering with Watcher for Tomorrow, who, by the way, a solid blink target.
Also the top end of Blue is hot garbage. Fortunately, the best blue 5 drops are now dirt cheap. Every cube loves to play eldrazi, but not this guy Drowner of Hope, you have got to go. Take Guardian of Tazeem with you. We are going to play some real beaters. Hello, Cavalier of Gales, Blue’s best 5 drop period. That’s right I said it, and he is bringing his buddy, Voracious Greatshark. If you are going to cast cards on your opponents turn, it ought to be him. Mnemonic Wall while a decent blink target is still a 5 mana wall. I would much rather blink Whirler Rogue and make tokens. I know this hurts the spell deck, but it doesn’t want to cast 5 mana walls.
Do you smell that? It is Naid of the Hidden Cove and Pearl Lake Ancient damn these cards stink. Let’s get another walker in here for our control decks, They would always rather cast a quality walker than a 7 drop creature. Enter Jace, Mirror Mage. While not the most powerful walker, it has a lot of upside and card filtering, and we can’t afford the other quality blue walkers. To further help control decks, we are upgrading the spell package too. In place of the Ancient we are going to run Jwari Disruption. MDFCs are so good especially in a mid-power environment like this one. Disruption will help smooth blue draws, and we are going to go all in on this by cutting Release to the Wind and Supplant Form. Instead, Playing Neutralize and Boon of the Wish-Giver. Cycling kids, it is the best way to live life. It gives cards play in the early game and the late.
Rakdos is already running an aggro package, and Orzhov is as well. We might as well lean into it. Crypt Rats is a bad board wipe for control decks, we are done with it Midnight Reaper is going to give our new aggro/aristocrat decks some late game reach. Reassembling Skeleton, Dreamstealer, and Night Howler are all out so we can play Black’s best 1 drops. We’ll play Bloodsoaked Champion, Dread Wanderer, and [[Gutterbones].Now we are cooking.
Time to spend some big bucks, well at least in term of our budget, Lampad was fine before, but we need Blood Artist, bad. So yeah… 3-4 dollars right here… thanks EDH.
I got a specific request to help Golgari form an identity. While I might prefer a rock style deck, I think Nothingface would prefer something more archetype specific. We are going to go classic Golgari self mill/reanimate/graveyard manipulation. Asylum Vistor, Extractor Demon get thee behind me. We already have Woe Strider, which is great for this, we will add Skyclave Shade to help this and the aggro deck. We will also bring in Liliana, Death’s Majesty for self-mill, reanimation, or a simple control finisher. She checks all the boxes. Everafter is too mana intensive. We can’t afford any of the classic reanimate effects, but we can at least play Zombify, so that’s something.
Much like white, we need to upgrade our removal package here too. Especially, we are hoping to support Dimir control. Phyrexian Plaguelord is 5 mana for way to little upside, and we don’t want to be sacrificing 5 drops to kill a creature. Instead, we will just play a favorite of mine Ravenous Chuppacabra, so much more efficient. Spark Harvest, Eliminate the Competition, and Diabolic Edict for some more efficient options. We are running more walkers now, so it is time to add Never//Return. Hagra Mauling is another quality MDFC that will help control decks smooth their mana, and Bloodchief’s Thirst has been doing work in standard and for a reason. Also, it is dirt cheap which is just another plus for us.
Red is the coolest color. Easy to upgrade on the cheap. We are going to play some better 1 drops for our aggro deck. 2 power is extremely important, especially now that all the other colors are getting stronger. We need a faster clock. Ghitu Lavarunner is ok, but it does not always have 2 power. We are going to fudge a little here because the best 2 power 1 drops are out of our price range: Monastery Swiftspear, Goblin Guide, all way too much. Instead we are going to add Rakdos Cackler. He can be stolen in draft by black aggro decks, but this can’t be helped. We will also cut, Goblin Motivator for Falkenrath Gorger. He is just a glorified Savannah Lions, but we need the help. Keldon Marauders are out too, Stormblood Berserker is a 3/3 with Menace that doesn’t vanish. Much more efficient.
We are going to help the spells matters deck now. Time to play some classics. Fireband Archer and Dream Stalker Manticore are mediocre at best. Guttersnipe does this job way better, I am also going to get cute and try Electrostatic Field. It will slow down aggressive decks, and give us a little redundancy. Wildfire Devils will hopefully help this deck as well while seeing play in midrange/aggro decks. We will remove Weaver of Lightning to make space.
Red needs a new walker too. Chandra, Acolyte of Flame will help the aggro decks, but also has some play for spells matters decks, and best of all, she is cheap, everyone wave good bye to the Captivating Crew. Sail off you adorable pirates you.
Lastly, like many of our other colors, we need to upgrade our removal package. In red, that means burn, lots of burn. Fling, Maximize Velocity, Reckless Charge, Direct Current are all gone. Here we are just removing inefficient burn, and spells that are only good in the aggro deck for burn that any red/x deck would want. Add: Bonecrusher Giant, Roil Eruption, Volcanic Hammer, and Purphoros’s Intervention. These are sooo much better. You are welcome.
Green needs better ramp, midrange threats, and reanimate targets; however, we have to remember the Golgari deck specifically at Nothing’s request. Better ramp comes first; Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter, I have personally played this card, and it sucks. Deuces. Deathcap Cultivator and Kraul Harpooner are not the best. We are going to play Fyndhorn Elves, Avacyn’s Pilgrim, and Tangled Florahedron. Jeez I wish we could afford a Birds of Paradise. If you get ahold of one, cut a 2 drop dork