Aster's Cube
(360 Card Cube)
Blog Posts (20+)
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The goals of the last few updates have been to do three things:
1. Introduce more build-around cards for more dynamic deck-building.
2. Replace some cards with similar cards, so that some archetypes don't lose effects from their pools but we also give some other playstyles more to work with.
3. Up the average CMC of the cube, since aggro strategies are too strong and make up a majority of the played decks.

I'll be removing some more 2-CMC creatures, such as Blade of the Oni, in favor of higher-CMC creatures that fit better into more strategies. Blade of the Oni will be replaced with the newly revealed Malboro card from the upcoming Final Fantasy set, which will introduce the first creature with cycling to the cube and play well into blink, graveyard, tempo, and midrange strategies.

Mainboard Changelist+1, -1

Had added Meteor Golem in the last post but already had a copy in the cube. Replacing it with another piece that adds to graveyard synergies but also slots into other playstyles just fine.

Aster posted to Aster's Cube -

Considered cards from the new Ixalan set:

Mono-colored:

  • Sanguine Evangelist (2W) - Creature
  • Spyglass Siren (U) - Creature
  • Stalactite Stalker (B) - Creature
  • Souls of the Lost (1B) - Creature
  • Terror Tide (2BB) - Sorcery
  • Cenote Scout (G) - Creature
  • Jadelight Spelunker (XG) - Creature

Multi-colored:

  • The Mycotyrant (1BG) - Creature

Colorless:

  • Threefold Thunderhulk (7) - Artifact Creature

Lands:

  • Restless Prairie - Manland, GW
Mainboard Changelist+0, -0

Final changes before the next draft.

Summary: There are a lot of cards that create tokens and some changes needed to facilitate certain colors' abilities to make those tokens, while some other colors were having too easy of a time, such as red.

White: Adding in less token creation and more combat tricks. The added card gains extra effect from sacrificing a token and slots in well.

Blue: Adding more instants for more synergy with cards like Young Pyromancer and Talrand, Sky Summoner.

Black: Orzhov needed some help. Having some extra token generation in black was well needed. To prevent other color pairs from being too strong (Rakdos, Gruul), some token generation was changed in red.

Red: Legion Warboss and Goblin Rabblemaster have about the same effect, however the forced combat of Rabblemaster makes it slightly weaker. By changing Warboss to Squee, Dubious Monarch, there's more chance to play around the token creation, especially when removal is not available. Squee forces the player to attack with it in order to create tokens, which will create better decision making and games in general.

Green: The only real change here is removing a mana dork and adding in something that can still ramp, but will give more synergy to cards that care about the graveyard, namely for Golgari.

Artifact: After upgrading and raising the power level of colors for so long, the colorless cards needed some tuning. Slower cards were replaced for faster ones that can offer some value in all decks, and these new cards will be more valuable during the draft.

A few cuts and adds with the introduction of the Battle card type. While there are many to choose from and some interesting effects, the ones selected here synergize with the cube the most.

See Double adds more copy effects to go along with the changes to green/blue cards, and Charforger adds another payoff card for aristocrat or token strategies in red/black.

A minor change, but there's not enough artifacts to make Thirst for Knowledge feel like a good card to play. Swapping it for one that only requires a basic land.

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