Minor update, Akroan Crusader isn't really supported so I'm gonna test Foundry Street Denizen as an alternative red one drop that plays nicer with red's token generation.
Got some small changes based on some feedback from Hoth733 (check out their version of the cube here: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/16lo)
Abrade -> Fire Prophecy: Abrade doesn't really have the targets in this version of the cube. I want card selection to be a driving force for blue, but like giving red a small taste here. I also have my eye on Harvest Pyre if I decide 3 damage with a 2 drop is too fast.
Callous Dismissal -> Downsize: Having both Callous Dismissal and Unsubstantiate in blue was just too much. I really like Unsubstantiate as a temporary counter, so Callous Dismissal is the one on the chopping block. Downsize offers a defensive one-mana answer on the draw to survive to turn 2, can lead to profitable combat, and can act as a pseudo "sweeper" in blue later in the game. Excited to see how its overload plays out.
Also, Fiery Cannonade's on the block, it was really only ever in the cube as an analogue for another red sweeper in the original cube this was based on (since I actually have a copy of Fiery Cannonade). I want each color's big 3 mana payoff to play into the color's themes as much as possible, so I'm keeping an eye out for red 3 drops that reward going wide, whether that's a creature or a trumpet-blast effect.
I want black to feel like it's "working" for it, whatever "it" is. Previously, black was pip dense, and tried to be high-risk high reward. I'm toying with some changes at the moment to encourage a more aggressive game-plan for black, focused more on profitable trades and combat. I also like the idea that an opponent may not know if black's offering a trade but secretly holding up Rush of Vitality. Here's what I'm toying with at the moment.
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Asphodel Wanderer -> Pharika's Chosen: I was never super into Asphodel Wandered at the one drop slot and am open to pretty much anything right now. I figured I'd try a one mana 1/1 deathtoucher and see how that plays out. It should be a nice aggressive threat against 0/X defenders, and defensive against green's counters, while still trading with 1/1s. Vampire of the Dire Moon is another possibility but it's a little more forward with lifelink than I'm trying with black.
Pharika's Cure -> In trying to give black less pip density and more combat oriented lifegain, so I need a new kill spell that's not likely to lead to blowouts on the play. Ghastly Demise caught my eye when thumbing through my black commons. It encourages black to trade in combat to bring it online. It's possible to get a turn 2 kill on the play with if you have another one mana spell but that's a pretty nuts hand (1 drop creature, two 1 drop spells, lands for each, and opponent doesn't have their own kill spell for your creature).
Infectious Host -> Cabal Initiate: Might go back to the host as a finisher, but I wanted to toy with Cabal Initiate at the two drop slot as another means of black lifegain. As a 2/1 it can trade for counter targets, bash in for 2, or trade for a creature and gain 2 life at the cost of a card. Is cashing in a creature and a card for an opponent's creature and 2 life worth it? I don't know, but that's the kind of question I want a black drafter to be asking themselves.
Herald of Torment -> Caged Zombie: I tried taking out both of black's 3 dorp closers on this pass, and need a replacement. I love how sudden death microcube lets me swap out a BNG rare for an M21 common and still have to think about if it's too good or not. It's got a 2/3 stat line which is nothing to sneeze at as an attacker, but it's the (non-keyword) reach of the activated ability that I'm interested in. The payoff supports black's identity of supporting trades. It'll slow down aggressive decks with little life gain, but a red go-wide deck could still kill if they can get around it in combat. It'll also give repeated reach to peck in against heavy white lifegain decks, who will have to consider taking their licks by trading in combat vs. letting the attacker live to attack again.
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Here are some thoughts on cards I was also considering during this update.
Quest for the Gravelord: Payoff for combat trading/killing creatures. After 3 creatures die, cash it in for a 5/5. I'm not sure how to evaluate a 5/5 token with no abilities at the moment; dies to a lot of the cube's removal, but could be splashy.
Erebos' Intervention: XB to give a creature -X/-X and gain X life. Traded in Pharika's Cure's casting difficulty for cost inefficiency. Didn't like it killing 1 drops on the play.
Drainpipe Vermin: 1/1 for 1 that lets you pay B when it dies to have an opponent discard a card. With so low land and spell counts, discard has the potential to be painful, especially if the opponent was on a mulligan.
Hired Poisoner: Another 1 mana 1/1 deathtoucher. I'm still not sure how I feel about Wildwood Tracker but as long as it's around, we can keep the balance of humans and non-humans in mind (especially for 1 or 2 drops).
Nested Shambler: 1 mana 1/1, on death create a number of 1/1s equal to its power. I'm not very interested in creatures that die into other creatures at the moment, but if any color was interested in them I think it would be black. Plays nice with counters and combat tricks. (though not Rush of Vitality).
Sanitarium Skeleton: 1 mana 1/2, can pay 2B to return it from the graveyard to your hand. While the latter ability encourages trading in the late game, I don't want another 1/2 floating around at the 1 drop slot right now.
Tempting Witch: Another finisher I was tempted with. I like the idea of giving black a finisher that has reach and can take a big stab against white lifegain. Tempting Witch leaves her food behind if she gets removed, which can be cashed in for more life giving some value even if it's answered (a la Aven Riftwatcher). I settled on Caged Zombie because its reach encourages combat instead of defensive play, and it's also repeatable if need be.
Zombie Infestation: I think this card would probably be too good on the play. It's a 2 mana enchantment that lets you discard two cards to make a 2/2 zombie. It's a high reward play but I don't think there's enough to answer the zombies. It's a cute thought that plays into a space of exchanging resources for black (a reason I like Cabal initiate).
Alley Strangler: 3 mana 2/3 with menace. Menace at low mana values would be backbreaking, but I was wondering how it would play as a finisher in a combat-oriented color.
Farbog Revenant: Another combat finisher, a 3 mana 1/3 with skulk and lifelink. Wasn't super into it.
Bastion of Remembrance: I love this card so much in general. I'm wary about it not being able to be answered, and also it enabling wins when it's played on turn 3 if the opponent has to trade to survive.
Let's talk colorless cards! The base Sudden Death cube had four colorless cards, which I kinda tried to match up thematically but didn't have great analogues.
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1.) Environmental Sciences: This is the one original colorless card I did have on hand, and slotted it right in. Two mana for two life and "fixing" is a pretty versatile midgame play. It's expensive at 2 mana, but the life gain helps mitigate the risk in playing it while on the back foot. Aggressive decks probably don't want it, except for black lifegain/pain which hasn't come together in testing but is an archetype I'm still interested in trying to support.
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2.) Feldon's Cane: The cane seems like a super interesting and versatile wincon. I like the idea of grindy decks winning by decking their opponent, so I have a Grindclock in right now to enable mill. The play patterns are pretty interesting, it can be a risky play on turn two against an aggressor, and deciding whether to start milling or add a second charge have been pretty neat. Assuming your opponent doesn't draw any extra cards, here are the turns where your opponent will draw into an empty library (whether grindstone is on the play/draw, turn grindclock comes down, number of charges before you start milling):
*note, in a natural game with no draw/mill/mull, the player will lose to decking with their turn 9 draw.
(2, play, 1): 6
(2, Play, 2): 5
(2, Draw, 1): 7
(2, Draw, 2): 6
(3, play, 1): 6
(3, Play, 2): 6
(3, Draw, 1): 7
(3, Draw, 2): 7
Grindclock is clearly better on the play and if it gets down early, but on the draw it does turn the tables and stop you from losing to decking (and enable some other card draw cards). Players should also think carefully about mulligans as a defensive pre-game play against an opponent who looks like they drafted a grindclock deck. Grindclock also leads to interesting deckbuilding decisions: Do you play cantrips/Environmental sciences if you know your opponent is on a mill plan?
For the grindclocker getting it down on turn 2, there's another interesting decision: Do you go for 2 charges to accelerate the mill plan and win outright, or do you start milling at 1? Each milled card is a card you know ISN'T in your opponents hand, so is getting that info a turn earlier worth winning by decking a turn later? Feels like it could go either way depending on the matchup. The opponent also gets to learn what card gets milled, you could dig them closer to their outs! Definitely plays nicely against blue scry, but blue is probably one of the colors that wants to be milling anyway. Turn 2 Grindstone turn 3 Spy Network seems like it could be a really fun, fateseal-esque play.
I think grindclock might lead to interesting play but it requires more testing. I ALSO really like Feldon's Cane though. It encourages a long game, but instead of milling, the Cane-player gets to win to their opponent decking. Here, the opponent isn't denied cards and so they get to cycle through their whole library, but the Cane allows you to re-buy your library and any creatures that died or spells you already used. I really like that second play pattern of knowing you have a powerful out in your graveyard and trying to get it back. It's also a lot cheaper to land at one mana. Maybe there's a world where both can see play, I need to get my hands on a Feldon's Cane first and see how it goes, and test Grindclock a little more to see if it's worth the trouble.
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3.) Fountain of Renewal: I really like Fountain of Renewal, but don't have one. Instead we've got another fountain: Radiant Fountain. This is a pretty contentious card; as a land, there's a real major deckbuilding cost to playing it, but gaining 2 life with a land drop is nothing to sneeze at. That's enough to survive almost any turn 2 on the draw (the only one I can think of is T1 Wildwood Tracker, T2 Duskshell Crawler). Fountain of Renewal is unplayable against aggro on the draw. That said, I'm very cautious about not letting aggro overtake the meta, but I can't tell if I'm TOO cautious. If so, maybe swapping the fountains would be a good play.
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4.) Sentinel Dispatch: I love the idea of this card so much as a defensive play with real draft implications. I've definitely had test drafts where one side scrapped for playables, this really isn't a free card to grab. But it's suuuuch a good defensive card without making an offensive deck playing it oppressive. I love it and I want it.
I have a tough time with this slot. Originally I had Sleeper Dart, which just sucks in my experience. I've considered Funeral Longboat, the 2 mana 3/3 vehicle with vigilance and crew 1. I wanna test the Longboat at some point, but right now I'm testing Ornithopter of Paradise. It seems like a bunch of archetypes might like the robobird. It fixes, it ramps from 2->4, it holds counters, and it blocks 1/1s. It has the potential to be a threat but can't kill until turn 3, and blocking a 1/1 leaves it open to the 1-damage removal. Pip heavy decks like black or decks running Radiant Fountain might like it.
I like it. It's colorless, it's a bit pricey, but it can do a little bit of everything. We'll see how it goes.
I'm not really sure what I'm looking for out of a white 2-drop spell. The source cube played Immolating Glare, which destroys any attacking creature. Puncturing Light trades the any-creature clause for the ability to damage attacking or blocking creatures. I think this is on average a little more powerful; it can help clear out most 0/X blockers when swinging with a 1/1 but comes at a pretty big cost for such a proactive play.
Some considerations I have on hand:
Swift Response: Destroys a tapped creature. Right now nothing in the cube has vigilance and we don't have a tapper, so this is essentially destroying an attacking creature but with some timing freedom. It does remove the offensive utility of Puncturing Light though.
Slash of Talons: Deals 2 damage to an attacking or blocking creature. This becomes a great defensive one drop on the draw without enabling blowouts on the play. My hesitation here is a color-pie one; white's defense on the play is primarily lifegain, not direct damage. The gap here between one and two mana is really big.
Swords to Plowshares: Interesting that it can answer any 0/X blocker on the play and lead to a win, but answering a 1/1 on the play with your own 1/1 out gives enough life to cancel out your attack. I thought this would be overpowered but maybe it works as aggressive tech against defensive decks?
Condemn: Poor man's Swords is also pretty interesting as a purely defensive card. What's extra interesting is that it can buy you time from attacking creatures (which are likely to have low toughness) but you can also target your own creature for lifegain. Imagine comboing this with an attacking Aegis Turtle to gain 5 life (at the cost of 2 cards!).
Awe Strike: Worse Healing Grace. When target creature deals damage to you, heal that amount instead. I'd rather include cards with different complementary effects than worse cards for redundancy's sake. The cube's only 54 cards, and mulligans are already wildly powerful in 15 card decks.
Warning: Even worse Awe Strike, a one-creature fog isn't where we want to be.
Oppressive Rays/etc.: Disabling attacking is nice but disabling blocking might be too powerful for white on the play. I'm pretty concerned about adding too many one drops that can enable a turn 1 survival and a turn 2 kill.
Off Balance: Target creature can't attack or block this turn. I'd love this effect if it was only "can't attack" though that might be too weak an effect for a card.
Chaplain's Blessing: I don't really think white needs more lifegain toys, especially not this efficient.
Some cards I don't currently have but would consider:
Kami of False Hope: A 1/1 that can sac itself on the play in response to 2-drop removal and prevent combat damage that turn seems really really neat for white. White is king of 1/1's with utility in this cube.
I've had some interesting thoughts lately on evaluating cards for inclusion in the cube and encouraging interactive games. Basically, we don't want (too many) games to feel like coin flips where being on the play is an automatic win.
I assume that the player who goes first plays any 1/1. To evaluate cards I then ask:
a.) Can this one-drop stop the player on the draw from dying?
b.) Can this two (or one) drop win player 1 on their second turn?
For a., spells seem to be better than creatures. Killing the opponent's one drop with Wring Flesh, Fiery Impulse, or Blazing Volley makes it impossible to die on turn 2. Healing Grace should be enough to survive any opening attack, and Radiant Fountain (essentially a one drop on turn one) survives almost any attack but puts you in pretty rough position. And if your opponent leaves up one blue without conceding, they must be sitting on a Select for Inspection (great time for Duress, or Miscast/Unsubstantiate in a blue mirror).
The other options are creatures; either another 1/1 to trade, or one of the defensive 0/X creatures to block. The 1/1 blockers will still die to Wring Flesh, Fiery Impulse, and Blazing Volley, making those very good spells on attack or defense.
P2 gets access to 2 drops as well to negate P1's defensive play and win outright. P2 can trample over a 1/1 with a Duskshell Crawler played after any non lifelinking 1/1. P2 can also bounce any creature with callous dismissal, kill all but Aegis Turtle or Wall of Runes with Abrade, or if heavy in black, Pharika's Cure for an overkill kill.
I think it's okay to have some number of 2-card combos in the cube but care must be taken to make sure they can't be forced in the draft. When evaluating cards for draft, one-drop removal like Wring Flesh and Fiery Impulse that are incredibly powerful on both play and draw should be prioritized. When evaluating cards for the CUBE, be wary of these. I'd love to see the spell balance tip more toward one-drop defensive interaction that isn't great on offense, like Select for Inspection and Healing Grace. Also we'll have to wait and see if we want both Unsubstantiate and Callous Dismissal both in the cube as they can blowout creatures on turn 2. Blue is intended to be largely defensive but its two drops have great offensive potential at the moment.
Since this is grid draft, you can hate draft or draft against what your opponent is doing, meaning that the cube is likely to feel balanced as long as there isn't too much redundancy for broken parts. I don't necessarily want the cube's power level to be totally flat, but time will tell if some options are oppressively stronger than others, and if there are cards that just aren't seeing play (I've yet to draft a deck that wanted Pharika's Cure; those pips are insufferable).
Here are some 2-card interactions to keep in mind while drafting, mulliganing, and playing.
Duskshell Crawler + any 1/1 = trampling over any other non-lifelinking 1/1 on turn 2. Wildwood Tracker is especially punishing.
Arcbound Javelineer + Titanic Brawl = Can survive the fight on turn 2 and follow up with an attack
Mage Duel + One drop Spells = Allow your creature to fight theirs and survive before following up with an attack. Require 3 cards in your opening hand which can be rough.
Arcbnound Javelineer + Titanic Brawl = Javelineer can not only survive a fight with a 1/1, it even gets to use Titanic Brawl's cheaper mode (though that's just win-more at that point).
Snakeskin Veil + Titanic Brawl = Both can be played on turn 2, but that requires double green so it will only benifit an Elvish Mystic or Wildwood Tracker.
Spear Spewer + Healing Grace/Revitalize/Environmental Sciences/Radiant Fountain: Spear Spewer combo seems really hard to deal with if it's on the play, especially since half the lifegain enablers for a T2 kill aren't even in white.
Soulmender > Alseid of Life's Bounty: This was always an intended swap as soon as I got my hands on an Alseid. My LGS had a fun event during their AFR prerelease where you could satisfy "quests" during your matches and win promo packs they had built up. I ended up pulling an Alseid from a THB promo back! I'm not sure lifegain needs much help but I'm open to testing Soulmender more in the future; could be some interesting play patterns.
Grim Physician > Shambling Ghast: First AFR swap, and a strict upgrade. Right now I'm toying with black having a theme of "risk" both with cards like Infectious host that are risky for black to play, but also creatures that generate value on death. The ramp and fixing from a treasure could be helpful too if black continues to be a pip-dense color. If Shambling Ghast turns out to be too powerful, it can always be downgraded again.
Great idea from reddit; have players decide to keep their hands before rolling to see who goes first. Players are incentivized to keep hands that could play good on offense or defense, instead of a player on the play mulliganing to a near guaranteed turn two kill. I think this hopefully should lead to less non-games.
The first draft of my sudden death cube is now up. The cube is based on (https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/z04), but with cards from my collection. Version 1 tries to approximate the original cube on a card by card basis, but future versions may diverge slightly.
The small size of the cube allows for a very tight color pie. Right now the loose plans for each color are as follows, but can be improved. Generally speaking, 3+ drops are expected to be game-ending if unanswered.
- White: Life gain
- Blue: Tempo/Stall, card selection
- Black: Painful to attack, and for opponent block
- Red: Go Wide, Sweepers, Burn
- Green: Stompy, Trample, Counters
Some notes, pre-playtest:
- Is Aven Riftwatcher too bomby for 3 mana? Is 4 life gained too much for having it be answered?
- The original cube uses moment of craving instead of Pharika's Cure and tends to prefer -X/-X over damage for black's removal. Black is supposed to be high-risk high-reward, but are the double pips on Cure too much for the effect?
- Red's sweeper identity is a little odd given red wants to go wide, but I don't have good sweepers at the moment anyway.
- It isn't clear how the payoffs and enablers should be distributed for green. I like the idea of stompy, vertical threats and creature protection, so counters work nice. Definitely like the idea of modal creatures that can be played earlier or later for value, with wincons being either a big beefy trampler or creatures that give trample to creatures with counters on them. What's the balance?
- Colorless spells are contention. Fountain is intersting in that it takes up a land slot so it's very costly in deck construction. Apparently Environmental Sciences plays well. Would like one mill/decking focused card at colorless. Literally clueless on the play patters for grindclock, getting it down turn 2 is risky but is later too late? I like the wall defender form Strixhaven, but is it okay for every color to get access to a one drop wall? Is having to pay for that mill too much?
- Arrogant Poet seems to be what I really want for black; fragile creature but can be game ending if you can get it in the air on turn 3.
Possible Subs once I acquire copies:
- Grindclock -> Feldon's Cane (Anti-decking tech, plus get your spells back, seems like a fun play pattern)
- Some white one drop -> Alseid of Life's Bounty (just opened a copy right after finishing v1 of the cube lol)
- Goblin Instigator -> Hordeling outburst (really want to support going wide with red to get around all the available 0/X blockers)
- Puncturing Light -> You Hear Something On Watch (The OG cube uses Immolating Glare to kill attackers. Puncturing Light killing most of the blockers in the format might be too good. You Hear Something On Watch will deal 5 to an attacking creature which should be good enough to kill almost anything in the cube, and also allows you to buff the board on offense.)
- Elvish Mystic (or Wildwood Tracker) -> Arboreal Grazer (I want green to have a ramp option at the 1 drop, and like Grazer more than Mystic in that role. Is there a world where both get played alongside Wall of Vines?)
- Wall of Runes
- Herald of Torment
- Aven Riftwatcher
- Akroan Crusader
- Radiant Fountain
- Bannerhide Krushok
- Elvish Mystic
- Mogg War Marshal
- Grim Physician
- Abrade
- Goblin Instigator
- Duress
- Select for Inspection
- Infectious Host
- Wring Flesh
- Dragon Fodder
- Hard Evidence
- Sleeper Dart
- Nausea
- Snakeskin Veil
- Environmental Sciences
- Callous Dismissal
- Rush of Vitality
- Wall of Vines
- Titanic Brawl
- Sarkhan's Catharsis
- Mage Duel
- Asphodel Wanderer
- Spear Spewer
- Infiltrator il-Kor
- Fiery Impulse
- Grindclock
- Fiery Cannonade
- Miscast
- Revitalize
- Aegis Turtle
- Eternal of Harsh Truths
- Gnarlid Colony
- Pharika's Cure
- Arrogant Poet
- Unsubstantiate
- Wildwood Tracker
- Scrounging Bandar
- Spy Network
- Blazing Volley
- Duskshell Crawler
- Hopeful Eidolon
- Soulmender
- Selfless Savior
- Puncturing Light
- Loyal Sentry
- Arcbound Javelineer
- Healing Grace
- Star Pupil