Momir Basic, Chopped and Paperized

When I started playing Magic in high school, Momir Vig was one of my favorite cards and characters. So, naturally, when I found out that there was an entire FORMAT dedicated to my lanky Cyto-ooze-elf-madman, I had to give it a go. Needless to say, it is a fun and amusing format.

Unfortunately, it also requires every creature card ever printed and a way to randomize them. This, clearly, means it can never be played in paper. BUT WE CAN GET CLOSE!

This "cube" is not designed to be drafted, but rather to be a restricted Momir Basic experience. In order to limit the absolutely staggering number of choices that would have to be made to curate this card list, I restricted myself to only cards that are legal in modern. This drops the possible number of creatures (at the time I initially built this monstrosity) to 8,077 possible cards. Thats still... uhhhhh... a few too many, so I have cut down to about 1/8th of that to make it feasible to transport this veritable juggernaut of cardboard and sleeves.

The cards in this cube are all proxies with custom backs that display, in large font, their CMC to make the cube easier to sort when play is finished. It plays very much like the online Momir Basic, with each player representing the Momir vanguard character. One slight change is that the cube is generally played with exactly 12 of each basic comprising your deck, rather than a distribution of cards of your choice. This is simply for ease of setup, so that people can grab "precon" land decks.

Card Selection

Card Selection was hardest for the 3-5 mana range, where there are way more unique options to choose from. I tended to select a majority of creatures that would have an impact on the board, or may create interesting power swings when the stars align. That being said, you also have to have some number of vanilla creatures, and some number of creatures that I refer to as "Vignilla" creatures, since their abilities will have no effect on the game, simply due to the way Momir Basic is played (such as cards that interact with spells being cast, or cards that interact with non-token creatures). You also have to have at least a few of the roulette stinkers. Phage, the Untouchable being the best example, but a few others (creatures that immediately sac themselves, or have ridiculously bad ETB effects like Sky Swallower) also make the cut. I've kept the number of these pretty low, as they tend to end the game on the spot, and some people view them as a punishment for deploying creatures at certain CMCs.

At the higher CMCs, my criteria for inclusion were much more lax, as you simply don't have enough depth in the card pool to justify cutting much. I even considered expanding the 10 CMC+ slots outside of the modern card pool to get just a few more options, but in the end decided against it.

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