Art by Greg StaplesThis is a budget cube with NO rare cards. Only commons, uncommons and a few timeshifted cards.
This cube is meant to encapsulate all of my favorite aspects of Magic back when I used to be an avid player during the Time Spiral to Theros era. With some newer releases sprinkled in for gameplay enhancement.
This cube has NO gimmicks. There are no token cards, there are no Planeswalkers spits, no flip cards, no convoluted or confusing mechanics like Energy or Amass. It's pure Magic the Gathering goodness. This is so that players of all skill levels from first timers to tournament level oldheads are able to jump right in and enjoy a game without to much of a hassle.
This cube has a lot of fantastic staple cards like Knight of Meadowgrain, Path to Exile, Mulldrifter, Treasure Cruise, Vampire Nighthawk, Reanimate, Lightning Bolt, Strangleroot Geist, and Eternal Witness. All very attainable non-rare cards that are powerful in their own right but not broken enough to completely win the game on their own.
- Emancipation Angel
- Cloudshift
- Glimmerpoint Stag
- Call to Mind
- Carnophage
- Phyrexian Reclamation
- Disenchant
- Wild Guess
- Smash to Smithereens
- Sakura-Tribe Elder
- Yavimaya Elder
- Megrim
- Archetype of Endurance
- Return to Nature
- Mire Triton
- Signal Pest
- Crystal Ball
- Kor Skyfisher
- Darksteel Gargoyle
- Leatherback Baloth
- Darksteel Axe
- Tanglesap
- Syndic of Tithes
- Thrull Parasite
- Tortured Existence
- Flinthoof Boar
- Greater Mossdog
- Desperate Ravings
- Ancient Grudge
- Unburial Rites
- Golgari Thug
- Mystic Retrieval
- Momentary Blink
- Ray of Revelation
For the past few days I simply could not stop tossing and turning in my bed thinking over so many little changes and balance issues with my cube. I doubt this will be the last by any means. But I feel like I can at the very least sleep soundly for a long time.
What was cut? I removed a lot of the Flashback cards that had off-color Flashbacks. It just felt like such a nightmare to make it symmetrical that I just gutted it for single-use spells since 9/10 times that's what players included them for anyway. I doubled down on White, Black and Green's identities. White is all about ETB spam to pile up value, Black is discard and recursion heavy, and Green is land spamming for early fatties and deck-thinning.
Until next time.