https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgcube/comments/1invsxe/why_you_should_build_another_cube_draft_report/

Everyone should feel the relief that comes over you when constraints that stretched your previous design disappear. With a couple of successful playtests of my Foundations Cube (https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/FundamentalFoundations), I set my sights on overhauling my main cube (https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/ggcube). Having the Foundations Cube allowed me to let go and embrace complexity, combos and “mean” cards.

So much of my recent experience has been echoed in Lucky Paper Radio’s recent episodes. As mentioned by Andy, we get tied down with too many objectives when we try to fit so many ideals and ideas into a single cube and we can end up with a better product when we can separate those concerns. In addition as recently discussed, within my group I’m a known vintage cube hater for many of the same reasons stated by Anthony and Andy. But there is something to be learned from the beloved vintage cube. We love old school build-arounds that test deck building and drafting skills, the open-ended feeling during the draft and the resulting crazy decks. So I moved forward with the goal of cramming in more classic pre-modern cards into a modern cube.

Thus began my search for pre-modern, non-power cards I could afford in paper that are powerful and fun in a modern context. So I proceeded to add mean white cards (Balance, Cataclysm, Armageddon), stormy blue cards (Stroke of Genius, High Tide, Gifts Ungiven), powerful black cards (Recurring Nightmare, Necropotence, Buried Alive), green buildarounds (Oath of Druids, Natural Order, and Rofellos) and artifacts I hadn’t touched in ages (Memory Jar, Smokestack, Lotus Petal and Lotus Bloom). Then I ripped out more than a third of the cards in my cube to give drafters some of that excitement that you find in a vintage cube.

Last night, I sat out the draft and spectated the games which was a blast and gave me much more insight into the new cube. Overall, based on the decks and games, I am thrilled with the results and can’t wait to figure out how to get my hands on Phyrexian Dreadnought, Wheel of Fortune and Cabal Therapy to squeeze them in next. Here are my two favorite moments from the night:

Doom Foretold / Armageddon: Demonic Pact gets full value before getting sacrificed to Doom Foretold. Winning a game by playing Doom Foretold into Armageddon. Not reading opponent’s Slogurk before casting Armageddon, giving Slogurk +5/+5 but somehow overcoming this mistake but then losing to runner-runner fetch lands that pump Slogurk for perfect lethal.

Oath of Druids / Nexus of Fate vs Mill Deck: My brain hurt watching this game trying to figure out how each deck could win. I had never seen an Ancestral Vision come off suspend and then target the opponent for fear of decking. I had never seen someone refuse an Oath trigger to discard Nexus of Fate to make sure it’s in their library for protection. The final game came down to a Stroke of Genius targeting the opponent but falling 1 card short.

Decklists

Trophy Selesnya Lands: After I cut Michael’s beloved Risen Reef and Omnath, he decided to not let that deter him from drafting a lands deck. Michael had an insane amount of hard fought, story worthy games. Titania made enough elementals to chew through Ghalta and Myr Battlesphere. And best of all, a sideboarded Eladamri’s Call into Containment Priest shutdown a game winning Natural Order.

Runner Up Proft’s Prowess: Micah is the resident fun police and low curve enjoyer and found his way into a sick Izzet deck with 3 zero mana spells. Micah made some hard deck building decisions, having to decide between an even lower curve with white or insane churn using blue and it seems like he made the right decision because Proft’s Eidetic Memory looked outstanding especially when he Finale of Promise into Thought Scour and Faithless Looting and buried his opponent in value and damage.

RakSac: There’s nothing like a good Act of Treason (Kari Zev’s Expertise in this case) and Ken used it to great effect on the number of huge fatties in the cube. Voldaren Thrillseeker continues to make its case as the best fair Fling effect and Fiend Artisan, which I’ve been pushing for a long time, truly got it’s time to shine in this deck as a fat goyf and an important combo piece tutor.

Esper Control: Sebastian doesn’t really think in terms of archetypes so he was right at home with this esper control deck that splashes a Warleader’s Call and Grim Lavamancer. It was remarked that Sebastian’s deck is unbeatable when he plays Bitterblossom on 2.

Necro Survival: Frank is packing a ton of old school power with Natural Order, Buried Alive, Survival of the Fittest and Necropotence. What was really amazing is every game I watched there was some enormous threat on Frank’s side but somehow the match wasn’t necessarily over. Even when Frank had an Apex Altisaur and a metamorphed copy, his opponent was digging for outs and maybe could have escaped with a win with some better luck (or play but Gifts Ungiven is a complicated card).

Esper Geddon: Half land destruction, half esper pixie, all Khang. There wasn’t a world I imagined where an esper deck would be packing Armageddon but here we are. I really couldn’t look away from this beautiful disaster that at times looked like a powerful strategy and other times a confusing mess but I love Khang all the more for putting it together. Gerrard’s Verdict was a feared card and Doom Foretold and Demonic Pact looked very good against the opposition.

5 Color NOG (Nexus Oath Gifts): Looking at this deck hurts my brain. The number of lines I saw Ben work through on his way to determining a good but not perfect decision was very high and made us joke that u/ragehs from our playgroup would drive this list to a 3-0. This was easily the spiciest deck and I loved watching every game.

Coward Crab: Frank wheeled a Ruin Crab after not wheeling a Hedron Crab and prophetically called out an unknown coward. This deck had such promise and came so close in so many games and even truly popped off but ultimately fell short (perhaps 1 Ruin Crab short). I laughed so hard in all these games though as the player either played Teferi’s Tutelage into Memory Jar or looked at me with a tear in his eye as Terravore was stranded in his hand while 8 cards are milled but somehow no lands have hit the yard.

Auras:

I really love the new auras in white from Duskmourn, Sheltered By Ghosts and Shardmage’s Rescue so I threw together a small package of auras and payoffs. The main payoffs will still be prowess and heroic (and eventually hopefully some delirium) but auras remain a source of joy from my youth, especially Rancor and Curiosity so I’m giving it a shot.

White loops:

I’ve been leaning into adding some unfair things here and there, like storm, sneak attack and reanimator but trying to balance a somewhat fair balance so here’s a couple small creature packages with the classic Karmic Guide and Reveillark and some of the persist creature combo cards. With Recruiter of the Guard, Fauna Shaman, Survival of the Fittest, Birthing Pod, Birthing Ritual and Demonic Tutor already in the cube, I really didn’t have to add cards that take up space because they all can stand on their own, especially at my cube’s power level. And it gives white even more fun stuff to do.

Green Storm:

I have been struggling, going back and forth about adding green as the third color for storm. But I’m ready to try cooking again after thinking a little bit about what can stand in for First Day of Class in pauper storm so Empty the Warrens and Chatterstorm can present lethal threats. So here come Devilish Valet and Enduring Courage. Also with some more positive mana green cards like Domri, Anarch of Bolas and Goblin Anarchomancer which can fit in multiple archetypes, I’m hoping someone will try to bring out the spice.

September Cube Update

After playing my friend’s retro cube (https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/e5e19ef9-4678-414f-be6d-feab96530377) I was inspired to try to include more old cards. As an old school player, I loved the nostalgia and also the simplicity of older cards. So we’ll see if I can support some of these older cards.

Key Changes:

• Sephara, Sky’s Blade and Faerie Miscreants.The end of an era. I lived the dream once but for the most part, this wasn’t working out and was too narrow so I’m cutting Sephara to reduce the number of flying tokens and one drops. For the miscreants, I wanted the cross synergies for draw, faeries, and one drop flyers to make this card more than a meme. Ultimately, there are enough good one drop blue flyers that I feel good about removing these until there’s more cross synergies to include them again.

• Arclight Phoenix. The end of another era. I still believe this can be fun and maybe even good but I’ve had enough failures with Phoenix and new success with storm that I feel like I can introduce a new archetype here with Rielle, the Everwise, Crackling Drake and Enigma Drake. Izzet should also support mill as well as Dimir with Teferi’s Tutelage, Brain Freeze and Rielle.

• Reanimator. Bringing in old school favorites Animate Dead, Necromancy and Living Death for Dread Return and Blood for Bones. My cube heavily supports discard and graveyard so it makes sense that reanimator is a shoe-in theme. However, I am already excluding the best reanimator targets so I’m going to go ahead and upgrade the reanimator spells and see what happens. This comes with the bonus of swapping into older cards.

• Some more cheating. Sneak Attack, Natural Order, and Oath of Druids have been added. I will have to toe the line a bit here to find a place where these historically very overpowered cards are balanced by the fact that their targets are not insane. I also added Demonic Tutor which follows some of the same logic and helps you find these buildarounds.

• Discard and Madness. More old border stars: Seismic Assault, Molten Vortex, Waterfront Bouncer, Anger and Circular Logic. The cube has a heavy discard and lands theme, so why not see if Seismic can break into the cube. I’m looking for more suggestions but I hope it can pair with cards like Containment Construct, The Gitrog Monster, Rielle the Everwise and hellbent payoffs like Experiment Frenzy and Ox of Agonas. I also hope that Malevolent Rumble and Commune with the Gods can help you find these key cards while binning key dredge and escape cards.

Reddit Post: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1et1i6i

I have really loved the new discard support in Bandit’s Talent and Thought-Stalker Warlock so I can push harder for a rack style deck. I’ve also loved Iridescent Vinelasher as I’ve been moving toward aggro landfall being in Jund more than Naya, since I love the overlap with sacrificing fetchlands with Juri, Master of the Revue, Mayhem Devil and Stalactite Stalker. Lastly, I’m testing out a little bit more of milling your opponent with crabs and more clones and some of the mill rogues, but we’ll see if that little package pays off (https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/ggcube).

Deckllists and Report:
Winner Dimir Abzan Souls: Dan is finally back in the house after a long hiatus and cruised to victory with a very solid collection of Lingering Souls and removal. Packing some efficient removal and explosive potential via convoke, Dan was able to stifle his enemies and go over the top with cards like March of the Multitudes and Angel of Invention.

Runner Up Grixis Mill: Jerry is milling you, he’s milling him, he’s milling everyone. He had to leave early so I piloted his deck in the finals and I did my best but couldn’t land it like maybe he could. I was very excited though to finally play Tinybones, the Pickpocket which was super fun to try to enable and ultimately felt very fair. So I’m really happy with its inclusion and like the idea of finding more cards like it where you steal from your opponent’s yard.

2-1 Omnath: Sol had another very solid performance and rode on the backs of the three 4th edition all-stars Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves and Wild Growth. Lumra, Bellow of the Woods looked like a very solid 6 drop that plays well with my elemental and lands in graveyard themes. His deck was able to go way over the top of the opposition and often won the game with Nexus of Fate and Chandra, Hope’s Beacon.

2-1 Selesnya Heroic: I was on a little mission to try out a heroic deck that wasn’t Boros. Scale Up is an absolute house and I got to dome an opponent for 16 with a single Illuminator Virtuoso so I think it’s quite viable. The only issue is finding enough other cards that can support it from the green side that aren’t so narrow. I was hoping to draft Abzan Falconer and Envoy of the Ancestors to get that +1/+1 counter synergy online but never saw them. Anyway, encouraging result but still looking for some ideas for green.

1-2 Rakdos Burn: Daphne was hitting hard with an almost mono red deck that got very close to eliminating the eventual winner in the first round by dropping an Insult // Injury into Fireblast. She also made good use of Lightning Skelemental which has always held a place in my heart. I have been pushing to bring back Mono Red because I feel like it has really fell out of favor in recent years in many cubes so I was happy to see it and think it has potential to 3-0.

1-2 Azorius Tempo: Kevin completely blew up my heroic deck in round 1 so I felt like his deck had potential to go the distance. Recruiter of the Guard was insanely valuable, allowing him to find his best creatures which against me were Man-o'-War and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd. Although he got stopped in rounds 2 and 3, I was encouraged to see a flicker deck make its way into play because I don’t want Azorius to necessarily be flicker all the time, but a key part to a tempo deck which I think Kevin’s deck demonstrated was possible. Also, excited to have an Odric, Lunarch Marshal sighting.

1-2 Survival: Wilson managed to draft no non-basic lands which I don’t think I’ve ever seen happen to congratulations to him for managing to draft the hard way. That being said, when Wilson managed to open with 3 forests and a Survival of the Fittest his deck is a world beater.

Temur Phoenix: Sebastian went for it and tried to go for an Arclight Phoenix build. Thanks for testing this for me! This is definitely a pet theme for me and so far I might be one of the only people to see its success (lost in finals). So I think I need to figure out a way to give it one final boost to see if its feasible or finally cut it. I really would like to keep it because I have a storm sub-archetype, so I think it will be up to me to attempt to draft it and see if we can prove it’s worth having.

Changes Post Cali Cube Con 2024:

Cali Cube Con was a blast. I'm so happy that Joe finds the strength to organize that event because it’s so much fun and I can’t wait to do it again next year. Let’s dive into some of the major changes to the cube!

More Storm: One of the 3-0 decks won on the back of Elemental Eruption and that’s sweet. So I’m going to lean in a little more with Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, Ashling, Flame Dancer, Chatterstorm and of course Brain Freeze. I want to see how storm cards perform in a mostly fair environment and with my playground I’m sure they’ll at least enjoy their time. I added a couple support cards in the form of suspend and other ways to gain some mana.

Farewell to Triomes: For now anyway. I had some complaints about the power of Omnath, Locus of Creation which were valid since the card is powerful as hell. But instead of removing Omnath, I took away some of the better ramp cards like Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl as well as the triomes which made it trivial to have the fixing to cast Omnath. Although it weakens the untapping mana theme a bit, I think it’s worth having Omnath feel like more of a buildaround so we’ll give it a shot. In addition, I removed the domain cards Leyline Binding and Nishoba Brawler as it feels like everyone has caught on and this isn’t as fun anymore anyway.

Modified: Heroic and landfall are two big themes and both of them often payoff in the form of +1/+1 counters. So I like the idea of using Abzan Falconer, Envoy of the Ancestors, Kodama of the West Tree and Invigorating Hot Springs as cards that can support +1/+1 counters in general.

Control: Removal and countermagic is really great in my cube, which I’m pleased to say but control has been overperforming, especially at CubeCon. I felt it was safe to remove Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Scholar of the Lost Trove so I freed up some space there.

Last Changes before Cali Cube Con 2024:

I couldn’t resist making some last second changes. Through this last second tinkering, I stumbled upon the heart of why I love designing cubes. I love challenging myself and my cube group to make something work. I love the constant back and forth of additions, subtractions and feedback as I continue to convince them to play Birthing Pod and Arclight Phoenix. I love Captain Ripley Vance and the challenge of making it playable. I love my play group because they always oblige me and take the dive. So thanks to them for allowing me to endlessly tinker.

Here’s an overview of some last second changes:

Non Traditional Ramp:

I want to continue leaning toward alternative methods of ramp and away from mana dorks and mana rocks. This was sparked by seeing the rise of Aftermath Analyst, Slogurk, the Overslime and Worldsoul’s Rage. After adding this little package in, I also added Goblin Anarchomancer, Magda, Brazen Outlaw, and Jaspera Sentinel. I hope that ramping via untapping Lotus / Karoos, lands from graveyard, tapping your own creatures (convoke or otherwise) and cost reduction creatures is a fun twist for players.

”Storm”:

One of the group had their Arclight Phoenix decks fall flat and it sent me back to the drawing board. Of course, I couldn’t give up so I added Thought Scour, Ill-Timed Explosion, Bituminous Blast and Deadly Dispute. But then I went deeper into the rabbit hole and added Elemental Eruption, Captain Ripley Vance and Show of Confidence. I’m hoping that an ambitious someone opens these cards and can’t resist the challenge.

Pod: Someone finally went 2-1 with pod! I decided to round out the pod curve by adding Primeval Titan, Noxious Gearhulk, Junji, the Midnight Sky, Sower of Temptation and Mind Flayer.

The last draft before locking in for California Cube Championship (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/second-annual-california-cube-championship-tickets-864236553797) . Last night was a nice change of pace as we had less frequent attendees and the draft and gameplay had a different feel. (https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/ggcube).

Gondor Calls for Aid:
Help Brainstorm with us a bit!

Bas piloted Birthing Pod to 2-1 and requested some more diversity in the higher CMC range. He wanted to be able to pod into 6 and 8 drop. Some ideas we threw around that fit my power level were Hoarding Broodlord and Craterhoof Behemoth. At 6, we thought about Massacre Wurm and Primeval Titan. Suggestions?

We have had a couple of Arclight Phoenix attempts and all have fallen flat except one which was Rakdos Phoenix. Ill-Timed Explosion and Buried Alive were suggested. I’m hellbent on having this archetype succeed but think that Buried Alive is a little too much, especially with Vengevine and Hogaak in the cube as well. What could I add to support Phoenix in Grixis?

Deckllists and Report:
Azorius Flyers: What happens when you draft every flying token maker in the cube? My deck was absolutely loaded. Sephara, Sky’s Blade came down multiple times and was very impressive as it protected me from board wipes which seemed to be one of the few ways I could be defeated. Faerie Guidemother and Cheeky House-Mouse proved to be very good and cemented their place in the cube.

Jund Stuff: 2-1 Charlie and I played a 5 game finals and went to the wire. His deck felt like it could attack from every angle. He had board wipes to reset, really good value engines in Honest Rutstein and Eternal Witness, and super hot aggro starts with Bristly Bill and Territorial Kavu. He also was capable of generating an immense amount of mana and had the X spells Voracious Hydra and Walking Ballista to back it up. I felt very lucky to escape with a win against good stuff. Also, I am very happy that this deck which was not as synergy focused as the others, proved that solid drafting is a basis for success.

Dimir Ninjas: 2-1. Morteza didn’t make it to the finals and I was able to stop him. It was a personal milestone since I’m not sure if I’d taken a match off him yet. I like to think it is because I cut him off from having all of the Faerie Miscreant but in reality it might be because his Fallen Shinobi whiffed and hit 2 lands off the top. Biting-Palm Ninja proved fearsome even when played as a 3 drop as I was forced to double chump it on occasion.

Golgari Pod: 2-1. The most successful pod deck yet! Bas found a really nice curve and value with Ravenous Chupacabra, Necro Deathmark, Birthing Pod and Victimize. He reported Ghalta, Primal Hunger performed well which I was pleased to hear again. He had some feedback about adding some other curve considerations as support which I’ll look into.

JeskaiMonoB: 1-2. This might be the most confusing deck I’ve ever seen and yet it somehow performed reasonably well in spite of that. I didn’t really get to see Sebastian's games but this pile of interaction and MonoB payoffs is one of the most off the rails things I’ve seen so I’m here for it. I’d love to know how Obosh, the Preypiercer performed. I did see a couple good Rankle’s Prank which always brings a smile to my face though.

Jeskai AggroControl: 1-2. Ian hasn’t played much with us recently but it was fun having him back. If you look at his deck, it seemingly wants to be the heroic deck that’s had wild success in the last couple drafts but somehow missed and ended up being split as a control deck. When his deck drew well, it could be a menace with Ledger Shredder, Dreadhorde Arcanist and Tenth District Legionnaire but sometimes it was a tale of two decks. I do think that if Jim and Ian had solidly went aggro and control between the two of them, these decks would be sharper.

Azorius Tempo: 1-2. Jerry was in the same colors as me but had a different spin as he played more of a tempo game with Skyclave Apparition, Venser, Shaper Savant and other tricky creatures. I see he maindecked Merfolk Trickster which is a new addition that I’d like to ask him about. The list looks pretty solid to me minus the fact that there appears to be too many playables so I’m not sure if maybe I accidentally added a couple sideboard cards. Seeing as how 2 players managed to scrape together very solid Azorius lists, it might be a good time to evaluate cuts in this archetype.

Arclight Survival: 0-3. I asked Jim to go big or go home and I’d say he did both. I appreciate him trying to achieve the Arclight Phoenix dream but the deck fell short and he brought me some useful feedback and I’ll have to go back to the drawing board with a couple more additions. Buried Alive was a suggestion and I am thinking about Ill-Timed Explosion as well. I do think the deck had some confusion between being an aggro and control deck, same as Ian’s deck above though.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgcube/comments/1cczbb2/golden_gate_cube_review_of_otj_additions_report/

The Golden Gate Cubers return for another draft of the Golden Gate Cube (https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/ggcube). We had all regulars tonight so the competition was fierce and conversation was light. I’m trying to squeeze in some extra drafts before I have to lock my list for California Cube Championship (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/second-annual-california-cube-championship-tickets-864236553797) so I’m grateful to have a solid test playground.

OTJ Cards In Play:
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower: This card is the real deal and it’s instantly on my Power Level Watch List. My cube has an aggro landfall theme so I was determined to give this card a shot. In my deck, it was clearly better than Luminarch Aspirant and made me want to recover my fetch lands from the graveyard.

Goldvein Hydra: Harley annihilated me when he dropped a Mirari’s Wake and I felt I had 2 turns to kill him. Little did I know I was already dead. Next turn the hydra came down for 11. I love hasty green beaters and modal cards so add another green card to the PLWL.

Sandstorm Salvager: I love splicers and they are back in the cube with the return of Birthing Pod. This card was good on rate and I never activated the ability.

Hollow Marauder: This card fits in perfectly with opponent discard and graveyard themes so it looks like a keeper after seeing it play a couple times..

Deckllists:
Sultai Control: 3-0. Morteza once again proved that he can draft a self-proclaimed bad deck, cruise to victory and demoralize his opponents in an evening. While undoubtedly Morteza is one of the most skilled players in the group, his evaluation skills might be off. The deck list looks strong, anchored by powerful land untap synergies. He won 2 games through damage and 4 through Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Breach the Multiverse. He was also pleasantly surprised by Foulmire Knight’s unassuming performance.

Boros Heroic: 2-1. A few different decisions in the tight finals games and Wilson could have been David, but the night belonged to Goliath. That being said, Wilson devastated competition especially with Illuminator Virtuoso, Fists of Flame and Homestead Courage. The deck’s performance showed the opposition the necessity of early interaction.

Jund CoCo: 2-1. I was a victim of the aforementioned Boros deck which interrupted my dreams of challenging Morteza in the finals. The draft was a roller coaster as I waffled between sticking with Collected Company or playing some of the more powerful non-creature or expensive spells. Mid pack 2 the second CoCo came into my possession and locked me in. The deck was a blast to play and could stay in longer games on the shoulders of Korvold, Fae-Cursed King and Mayhem Devil while still threatening aggressive starts.

4 Color Omnath: 2-1. Harley was eager to repeat his 3-0 performance but instead became another victim of the aforementioned Boros deck. Harley ended up playing matches outside of the sanctioned 3 and went perfect against the rest of the field (minus Morteza who he didn’t get a chance to challenge) and proclaimed himself as the People’s Champion. I was thrilled to see Briarhorn make some key blocks and tricky combat, so it felt like it was worth having Harley get in all the extra games.

Boros Prowess: 1-2. Ben C1 drafted a more removal heavy, tempo oriented deck than Wilson. With Monastery Mentor, Clarion Spirit, and Battle Screech, he could threaten to put a horde of powerful tokens into play and then sacrifice them with Goblin Bombardment to end the game in a hurry. However, some really bad floods came in the games I saw so this didn’t always come to fruition.

Orzhov Convoke: 1-2. Khang is the wildcard that every cube owner loves to host. He doesn’t stay on the rails, constantly suggests cards to add and drafts them. Selensya nominally should be convoking but in the couple games I saw this looked like a powerful shell as well. He could shape games with his targeted discard from his own suggested addition Tidehollow Sculler and Deep-Cavern Bat or really force a low resource game with Okiba-Gang Shinobi. Lastly, I was impressed that he managed to draft and play all of white’s 5 drops.

(Almost)MonoB: 1-2? I’m not sure what happened in the final matchups because so many unofficial games were happening. Anyway, Ben C2 drafted fun (for him) deck around the powerful mono black cards. He really enjoyed The Raven Man and consistently got value with it and Rotting Regisaur and Braids, Arisen Nightmare. I’ll have to look into his suggestion about feeling weak in longer games and needing more ways to gain card advantage. I’ll have to dig a little bit as one of my goals for black is to have its card advantage focus on reducing game size.

Hollowvinepod: 1-2?. Michael was very ambitious and I’m grateful for his sacrifice. He tied together Birthing Pod and Survival of the Fittest. When his deck was on, it was explosive. I experienced this first hand when he cast a 2 mana Ghalta, Primal Hunger to trigger Vengevine. He was missing discard outlets which made his deck a little too reliant on the Survival and lacked the fixing to go into red which has some of the better outlets. I’ll think about adding a couple more black and green discard outlets.

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1bqy8yq

The Golden Gate Cubers return for another draft of the Golden Gate Cube (https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/ggcube)! We even had enough for a parallel pod to split off and was hosted by Jan a couple blocks down the street so it was a really big night for cube. Thanks again to everyone for showing up and letting us run 2 pods.

Temur Elementals 3-0: Harley pulled off a 3-0 in spectacular fashion. Last night was the most times I’ve seen Apex Devastator cast in a night (typically on turns 4-6). Harley lives the dream of 4 turns in a row when he cascaded into Chandra, Hope’s Beacon, Time Warp and Temporal Manipulation and a completely unnecessary Eternal Witness. In our finals game, he was so far over the top of my deck, I just couldn’t pressure him enough to get a game close.

Almost Mono Black 2-1: I ended up runner up to Harley with a really interesting draft. I started the draft as Dimir self mill with Jace and Thassa’s, but ended up swerving into an almost mono black deck when I picked up two Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Phyrexian Obliterator. I really only barely squeaked into the finals as I barely won both of my first two rounds but life gain carried the day in both cases.

Azorius Tempo 2-1: I was passing to Khang and it wasn’t hard for me to read he would end up in this deck. He had his pick of instant speed interaction and threats and looked very impressive in person. His deck easily could have been in the finals except he ran into Frank’s extremely aggressive deck in round 1 when his permission failed to stop a flood of 1 drops.

Hollowvine 2-1: Wilson took the Hogaak package but unlike the last time I drafted it, he didn’t get the Stitcher’s Supplier or Satyr Wayfinder. Instead, he ended up with more of a discard package with Asmo, Rotting Regisaur and Noose Constrictor. He was able to pop off a number of times and really made a late pick up Gisa’s Bidding look like an all-star.

Boros Heroic 1-2: Our local raid boss Frank didn’t make the finals for the first time and I’m proud to have been a part of it. In the first of our highly contested games, I landed an early Phyrexian Obliterator feeling very much in the driver’s seat. But I failed to grasp how dangerous Dreadhorde Arcanist can be as Frank attacked in with double Lightning Bolt and Mutagenic Growth for far more than lethal. I barely made it out of the series on the back of The Meathook Massacre and congratulated myself for finally defeating Frank in a series.

4 Color Ninjas 1-2: Sebastian, previous champion, dove into the deep end with this draft with some wild splashing in a base blue deck and Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger and Tidehollow Sculler. The crazy thing is he was close to a better record but was scorned by his Fallen Shinobi hitting nothing but lands multiple times.

Naya Midrange 1-2: Dan also hit the record for numbers of Ghalta, Primal Hunger casts and along with Harley’s Apex Devastators, probably the highest total CMCs in a draft of the cube. Dan picked up all of the Selensya heavy hitters and could easily play aggro or go over the top. I barely made it out of alive from our first round matchup where all my sized based removal failed to scratch Ghalta, Primal Hunger but won some very close races where neither Dan or I were sure what the optimal plays were.

Jeskai Prowess 0-3: Welcome Jerry to the Golden Gate Cubers! Unfortunately, Jerry ended up in the shadow realm but I can say he produced a highlight for the day when he comboed Narset, Enlightened Exile, Treasure Cruise and Fists of Flame to explode an opponent for 26 damage.

Spirits

Mausoleum Wanderer
Shacklegeist
Twinblade Geist
Lantern Bearer
Dorothea, Vengeful Victim

One small addition before the next cube session. I wanted to give Azorius an angle where they could also really benefit from Illuminator Virtuoso. Right now, they have protection spells like Dive Down but thought it could be fun to test out the disturb creatures. Disturb does add complexity as it is DFC but I feel like this is a case where the juice could be worth the squeeze. It allows me to put in a small spirit subtheme, support heroic and add some fun flyers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgcube/comments/1b840dl/golden_gate_cube_decklists_report/

The SF crew is back with another cube draft of the Golden Gate Cube (https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/ggcube). We had two new players show up (shout out to Alex and Collin) and heroes who helped us make 8. I was really excited to see drafters try out some new subthemes, including heroic, survival, and big spells. Again, grateful toward our playgroup for making it out, a great draft and friendly games.

Note: Due to some bad match management (my bad), we had two 0-3 decks which you can see in the standings image.

Boros Heroic: 3-0! Congrats to Sebastian for the win. Showing the power of taking lands, he kept open until he opened a pack full of Boros cards and immediately took to the open lane. I recently added a fair amount of multiples to support this archetype including Illuminator Virtuoso, Defiant Strike, and Fists of Flame and it was great to see them in action. Seeker of the Way was a big player, allowing him to race even against a 7 point swing from Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Lingering Souls and Battle Screech gave him staying power in longer games as well as additional triggers.

Dimir Control: 2-1 runner up. Ben never got to live the dream of Breach the Multiverse into Scholar of the Lost Trove (into another breach) but he did get to Fallen Shinobi with a crab token multiple times. The board wipes carried a ton of weight in this deck and generally led him to victory. In addition, Deep-Cavern Bat was an all-star as expected.

Temur Beanstalk (featuring Brushfire Elemental as Explore): 2-1. Ken maximized greed after he slammed an Up the Beanstalk and it paid off. Biogenic Ooze was a problem in several matchups and punished less interactive decks. I was thrilled to see Thryx, the Sudden Storm make an appearance in his first time out and got to see the cost reduction in action when Ken buried me with a cantripping Temporal Manipulation.

Mono-Black: 2-1. Welcome to Collin who attended cube night for the first time with our group. He made a very strong showing with a streamlined, scary mono black deck packing all the best tools. Collin threatened massive damage amplified via Garys, Liliana, Vraan, Braids, and friends all amplified by Bloodletter of Aclazotz. It wasn’t unusual for Collin to end games on turn 5.

Collected Company: 2-1. Wilson put together a very threatening CoCo zoo deck featuring some stellar creatures and a reasonable mana base. Wilson was foiled by Ben’s board wipes (where were you Selfless Spirit??) but easily could have been in the finals.

Self-mill Control: 1-2: Harley did not draft 10 lands this time out and I was grateful since I was drafting next to him. His list churns through his library with mill and card draw and can end the game with a flashback Unburial Rites. Harley was unfortunately foiled by Lier and some mana-screw which will likely set him back on the “draft every land I can see” path.

Omnath: 0-3. Welcome Alex to the playgroup! I didn’t get to watch many matchups of Alex’s, but on paper, this deck looks like it should perform. The one match I did see, the lack of interaction hurt him when he couldn’t remove a Biogenic Ooze so even with a resolved Omnath, Locus of Creation, he couldn’t outpace his opponent.

Survival: 0-3. I recently got my hands on a Survival of the Fittest which is now the most expensive card I own. I second picked it and never looked back. The decklist seems fairly streamlined and to be honest, I’m surprised how I performed (maybe a skill issue). I did get to live the dream once when I cast Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis into Rankle’s Prank discarding 2 Vengevine and wiping my opponent’s board]] followed by Hollow One and resurrecting the Vengevines. In addition, Surrak, the Hunt Caller was better than expected in this list with so many goyfs and Hogaak.

Heroic Subtheme

Monk of the Open Hand x 2
Legolas, Master Archer
Defiant Strike x 2
Favored Hoplite
Picnic Ruiner
Cacophony Scamp
Tenth District Legionnaire
Fists of Flame x 2
Managorger Hydra
Questing Druid
Prowess has been well supported but I want to shift the identity to Boros. White provides an unique angle with heroic cards, especially with the powerful Illuminator Virtuoso, so I searched for cards that would benefit from Defiant Strike and Fists of Flame. I landed on some other Miracle Grow Style cards that I think will provide another fun Naya subtheme.

Big Spell Support

Baral, Chief of Compliance
Up the Beanstalk
Goblin Electromancer
Intrude on the Mind
Crackling Drake
Chandra, Hope’s Beacon
Roar of the Wurm
Magmatic Sinkhole

With White taking more of the aggressive spellslinger role, Blue and Red can focus on casting big splashy spells. I have enough high cost spells in the cube already so I can try giving Blue cost reduction as an incentive.

Survival of the Fittest

Hollow One
Commune with the Gods
Squee, Goblin Nabob

I finally acquired this chase card thanks to a friend and I’m excited to add it to support my graveyard and madness synergies. I’m not sure what the power level of this card will end up being in my cube so I’ll be keeping an eye on it.

Mill

Hedron Crab
Thought Collapse
Thought Scour
Drown in the Loch
I already have a self-mill theme with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Thassa’s Oracle. I wanted to see if I could add just a couple cards to strictly support milling out your opponent to allow that as a new way to end the game.