The sixth playthrough of the collaborative cube is in the books! We had some new additions featured, both in cards and in players. We also did a sealed playthrough this time, so expect to see some bomby decks. Let’s get into it!
Congratulations to Garrett for winning first place for the first time! Garrett went 3-0 (6-1) and claimed first place off opponents’ match win percentage with a novel RG () voltron style deck. As far as I know, this is the first time someone has tried or succeeded with this archetype. Garrett’s deck featured creatures such as Longtooth Packmate (Nezumi Shadow-Watcher in the list) or Domesticated Ridgebeast (Mark of the Oni) buffed by effects like Karplusan Endowment (Oyobi, Who Splits the Heavens) to explode for damage.

Nick took second place with a 3-0 record (6-1), losing out on first based on opponents’ match win percentage. His deck was probably the most powerful that we’ve seen in the sense that it contained Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, and Black Lotus. In what has become a permanent fixture, Nick played a RW () midrange deck with an aggressive bent. With all these mana accelerants, Nick was able to land threats ahead of tempo and bury opponents before they could stabilize.

Newcomer Miller took third place with a 1-1 record. He played a RB () aggro deck featuring some drain effects (e.g. Gray Merchant of Asphodel) to finish off the opponent. The centerpiece of Miller’s deck must have been his Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, which is my nomination for the most powerful card in the cube. I’ve seen that card win multiple games by itself.

Greg scored his first win of the cube as he finished in fourth place with a UW () control deck. In classic UW style, his deck featured instant speed interaction like Counterspell paired with value engines like Spritehome (Genju of the Fields). Unlike the traditional builds, it featured Weight Advantage paired with cards like Ruin Crab or Sailor of Means to develop real board presence really fast.

Kyle scored fifth place with a GB () graveyard-based value deck. Unfortunately, he needed to leave after round two, so we didn’t quite get to watch his deck realize his potential. He’s always a threat to take down the whole draft, and I’m sure we’ll see him near the top of the leaderboard in the coming weeks (he is tied for the trophy lead, after all).

Finally, newcomer Mack had an unfortunate night with his RB () aggro deck. The deck was very low to the ground and had the potential to apply strong pressure early, but, as often happens in sealed, it struggled to close the door before the opponents’ bombs started hitting the battlefield. Hopefully he’ll have better luck on his next attempt!

Since we did sealed, we ended up using all but about 15 cards in the cube! When nearly every card is in play, what colors were most played?

Note that, for 6 two-color decks, the expected number of decks playing each color (assuming equal representation) is 2.4. Thus, we can see Red was a little over-represented and Blue was under-represented. I don’t think this is necessarily indicative of a power imbalance in the colors – we have seen oppressive blue-based decks in the past. Rather, it may reflect that the Red cards are more universally/generically powerful, whereas Blue cards are more synergistically/conditionally powerful. Since we played sealed, synergy was likely taking a backseat to raw power. Of course, any statistician could tell you the discrepancy could also simply be due to random variation, and that there isn’t anything significant here. That’s my impression, as well.

Finally, in keeping with our new policy for updating the cube, first place can change four cards, second place can change two cards, and third place can change one card. A ‘change’ now counts as replacing one card with another or revising up to two cards. We also have a theme of ‘lands’ for this season, which means players changing a card (i.e. first, second, and third) can also swap a land into the cube without using one of their allocated changes.
As a result, we can look forward to four changes (plus possibly a land) from Garrett, two (plus a land) from Nick, and one (plus a land) from Miller. See you next time!