CUBECON UPDATE

I won’t be taking Ancient Times to CubeCon 2024, but I will be bringing the middle child and spiritual successor : Medium Ancient Times.

If you like all the weird restrictions of these metas, then follow along with Medium Ancient Times and come find me at CubeCon to fire some old cardboard like Garfield intended!

(Basically we started a cube night at our local LGS, but they said ‘no proxies and it must accommodate 8 players’ so I put a ton of work into Medium Ancient Times to get through the door. And, TBH, I’m really happy with it, and bringing it to CubeCon, and I thought you should know.)


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Should I try to bring Ancient Times to CubeCon 2023?

I'd probably just proxy the whole thing, use the weird alt arts, and just be a super casual side show.

Thoughts?


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This man land never mattered man.

Attrition could be overpowered/broken af in this meta. I mean…look at it. Just look at that efficient removal. If this doesn’t scream Aristocrats build around, I don’t know what does.


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Strands just turned out to be too expensive and the land sacking is what tipped the scales for me. I love how it drops the creature into play… but the cost is too high. Phy Rec is the little, cheaper, fast brother of Strands. I feel the the cost difference is going to be key, almost doable in a discard value engine.


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Ichorid sorta goes against what black is trying to do here. Don’t take things out the grave man. That’s also my library dude, we’re reanimating stuff remember?

Urborg is a fun clock. Games can get slow. I want to see this guy next to Copper Tablet and Anhk of Mishra. Mud deck clock vibes. Also…2HG is going to love this asshole.


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Bounty Hunter is such a slow and boring story teller. Jesus man, get to the fucking point already. “Then…while hiding behind the logs…I spotted my bounty….then I ducked down and didn’t let my bounty out of my sight…and then…”

Bone Shredder is all like, “I came in guns blazing. Killed! Bounced!”


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Never saw Ashen used once since the dawn of this cube. Love the art but I guess it just doesn’t spice the mice nice.
All Hallow’s Eve on the other hand… wow. I like how it exiles it self. Which means you can’t deal with it as it counts down.


Tricky Pants
dsbcubes posted to Ancient Times -
Mainboard Changelist
+1, -1

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I want to preserve the strategic thinking behind tapping creatures down for combat. It provides a nice ‘boxing’/‘back and forth’ play style which I think is healthy for the environment.

Coalition Flag might provide a temporary respite from spells, but at the cost of one creature. Probably good in token builds, but really shines on someone like Cho-Mano, Revolutionary, or Mystic Crusader, or Beloved Champlain, or Commander Eesha. Might be ok on an En-kor or Zhal. Outside of white, Rayne loves it. Wouldn’t mind toasting a roach with it. Anything with regeneration is nice target. It’s tricky.

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Folks aren’t going for Vitalize. I thought it would be a thing, but I was wrong. Also, it’s almost the last green ‘instant’ so I’m kinda glad to see it go. I like green being the ‘fair’ color, just trying to play classic ramp and stamp magic.

Back in the day we ran Tidal Kraken. There’s so many different ways to steal, or reanimate a creature that a boss like the Kraken got tossed all around constantly. We saw the same thing happen recently with Pnumbra Wurm and it was awesome! Thorn Elemental will make for some spicy juggling. Green has to work to keep it safe, but might be a great finisher in the right ramp deck. I’m thinking Anger and Fling etc.


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Adam made some half comment under his breath about Words of Wilding I couldn’t shake. It was something like, “You always want a card over a bear.” And you know… he’s not wrong. Even if you are running a token build, you are going to want that card.

Liege is symmetrical tokens… sort of. I’m betting green will have more mana to do the thing and will come out on top. Also, more Aristocrats fodder without the card disadvantage.

Mainboard Changelist
+1, -1

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I got to see the puzzle box in action during a 2HG game and… did not enjoy the chaos it produced. Basically amounted to some feel bad moments of folks just watching good cards disappear. People want to play their cards, that’s Lesson #5 from the penultimate guide to UX and game theory “Twenty Years, Twenty Lessons”.

Su-Chi is just a solid, colorless 4/4 with upside. Bread and fucking butter. This one is for the folks that play by the math. No I don’t understand even what that means, but I know there’s a draft strategy that doesn’t just look for Johnny combos. I may never know what that strategy is… but word on the street is the Su-Chi is dope for those cats. Enjoy.

Mainboard Changelist
+1, -1

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“I thought this was a ‘wild card spot’? Where’s Day of the Dragons or something? The fuck dude? So what, you have like a couple games where you don’t land your combo pieces and now it’s all cantrips? With Second Chance you get a whole entire nuther turn bro! That’s amazing. Opt does what? Draws a single card? It’s a common bro! Whatever happened to Tidal Kraken or somethin bro? Why brooooo whhyyy?!” Timmy

Draft Report - Ancient Times : Old Border Cube

8 players - Asynchronous - 1 pack 67 cards

This was an experiment that asked the question, “What does seeing the whole cube do to the draft experience? Specifically, how are lanes developed and what archetypes or themes emerge?” Each player starts with a pack of 67 cards, picks 1 and passes it. In this way everyone sees a ton of lanes, and is fairly aware of how other folks are progressing. (They do not however see the entire cube at any single time, like the roto draft described by LPR)

Initial reactions :

  • Amazing to see some lanes never materialize and the p1p1 cards for those archetypes wheel long into the draft.
  • I felt an increased ability to take risks, go for combo pieces, and run 3 colors.
  • Around pick 40-45 folks have solidified their main deck, and we could have picked 2 cards each time from there on out.
  • Some, but not all, of the last picks really make me question their contribution to the cube. Good info for cuts and/or buffs.
  • As this draft took about a week and a half to complete, I found myself in very different states of mind when my picks were up. Thus some of my picks were terrible choices by drunk Johnny me, and others were hyper calculated by over caffeinated Spike me.

The Games :
Two newcomers to the cube joined in for this, Grace and Lyra, who are, for all intents are purposes, professionals compared to the rest of the playgroup. They both leveraged a style of drafting that was beyond our limited compression and made decks that handily destroyed everyone. This demonstrated a few things
1 : Fast, aggressive decks do exist in Ancient Times and they are lit. (By todays standards these decks would be called midrange value, but in Ancient Times they are fast.)
2 : The old timers in the group tend to lean into combo style tricks, over smooth curve outs.
3 : A lot has changed since 2003 in the philosophy and approach to magic. Feels much more spikey. And that’s cool, but my my knees hurt when it rains.

The Decks :
The Gilded Age, UWB (https://deck.tk/2UWU4Oq6)
I tried to break EBT stuff as much as I could. Definitely not the best lane from the start, but I really wanted to see if Mulldrifter / Flickerwisp / Resto Angle were broken in this format. I came away with a very tricky brew that needed a ton of fixing to work, but could do some hilarious lines with Gilded Drake, bounce stuff, and more. At the end of the day tho… it just could not compete (or the strong possibility that I just couldn’t pilot it correctly). I went 1-7

Mud Lane, RGwb (https://deck.tk/4tRC8Q6L)
Nels made a HOUSE of a deck which has green, red, black, and white elements but gets things done with artifacts. I was hosed by Serrated Arrow (as usual) and I’m still bitter. I saw him Hermit Druid away Anger, Riftstone Portal, and three fatties then followed up with a reanimate on Covetous Dragon. Very Spicy. Karn played a wonderful role in here. Love seeing that guy out on the streets selling his story.

Ancient Tokens, GW (https://deck.tk/3bMm2WgF)
Ian’s deck went full Tokens and almost nothing else. When it worked it was like popping a spider egg nest the size of a car and dying while inhaling the wave of tokens, when it didn’t work it was like stepping on a couple spiders during lunch break. It was a valiant and beautiful build, but variance was a cruel mistress.

Forest Care, G (https://deck.tk/4ccr74ek)
Adam went mono-green grabbing a ton of ramp pieces and fatties. He consistently dropped Rofellos turn 2 most games, and if you didn’t have an answer you died. Very good show of how green can stomp in this environment. Only way to stop him was to steal his stuff and use it against him. I don’t think he’ll let that happen again tho.

Death Cult, WUrb (https://deck.tk/50Ek1r6a)
Joe made an extremely annoying and extremely interesting deck. Basically board wipes and steals but done in a way that really gets under your skin. Specifically False Profit along side Goblin Bombardment was nasty mean. The fact that Profit exiles creatures really hurts tons of reanimate and gy strats. Also, gotta give props for using Read the Runes like a boss, and maybe having the most versatile sideboard of anyone.

Bouncey Trouncey Gravey Tradey, UBG (https://deck.tk/7nWE4zt6)
Bevan reminded us that Recurring Nightmare is broken af. And did it along side sweet and spicy combos like Sengir Autocrat into Delraich. He also ran Teferi’s Puzzle Box…which is pure chaos. I’d call this deck Aristocrats… but it did so much more. Very tricky, very Johnny. Love that Bev pushed for 3 colors and came out on top with a weird and wonderful brew.

UR Tempo, UR (https://scryfall.com/@kactuus/decks/d78717ac-c83f-4dd4-b087-c757218b4ce2)
Lyra’s deck was light on creatures (only 8) but that. did. not. matter. I’d call this a ‘spells matter / aggro-ish’ build in this meta and I’m not sure it lost a single game. I’m too much of a noob to being to dismantle how this deck slapped so hard. I’m just glad it exists.

Rakdos Bigrange, RB (https://scryfall.com/@Gwacemaker/decks/6dab4d92-8ee5-4067-a8f9-81e93c39b836)
Grace leaned into the premier removal spells and creatures which hit the board early via Mana Vault and Grim Monolith, and that pretty much was all it took to handily control and beat everyone. Squee with Arc Mage or Notorious Assassin was rude. Again, this deck feels above my pay grade, but none the less represents some scary lanes that I’m too Johnny to acknowledge.

END NOTES :
Folks are coming around to how Blue steals everything and that if you don’t want that to happen you can either run blue or find a sac outlet. This is the new ‘big worry’. First it was reanimate in general, then it became Snake Basket + Goblin Bombardment, now it is blue tricks. (why not red tho? Grace and Lyra both ran red and killed everyone.) Basically, every draft there’s some strategy that jumps out as the ‘big worry’ which then informs the drafting next time. As long as folks can find ways to draft and conquer their previous fears, then I’ve done my job. If something stays worrying for multiple drafts…then it deserves direct attention and swaps.

As the cube stands, it’s pretty damn good IMHO. I’m making some small tweaks around the edges for the next round, but the core principals seem to be holding up well.

Also…it’s a great 2HG cube. We play a bunch of 2HG and it’s a blast every time.

Mainboard Changelist
+1, -1

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Icy was just a little too complicated to do the 'things'. Played aggressively it handicaps your mana, played on your own dudes for EBT value it felt slow and couldn’t be use at the drop of a hat when you needed it.

Diplomatic Immunity. ‘Boggles’. I heard it online. It’s a thing now. Protect a creature with a ton of auras, plus some enchantress shinanags maybe. Weird, but I’ll try anything once. I thought Boggles was that game where you have a bunch of dice with letters on them, and you shake them in a jar, then try to find all the words. Y’all play that game? Anyways…I’m going to keep calling this kind of bullshit ‘Pillow Fort’. Could be wicked annoying, could be the ideal protection from removal and stealing, or could be a sideboard benchwarmer… let’s find out.


Playing 2HG and Broken Fall is absolutely dominating, due to the density of damage only removal in the decks. But then... in a clutch move Standard Bearer hits the board on the other side, forcing the regenerations hand. Wonderful. I forget how sneaky those Flagbearers are.