Present Cube List: November 2012

Gold

Deathrite Shaman

Dryad Militant 

Judge's Familiar

Rakdos Cackler

Figure of Destiny
Qasali Pridemage

Putrid Leach

Lotleth Troll

Baleful Strix

Goblin Electromancer
Boggart Ram-Gang
Knight of the Reliquary
Geist of Saint Traft

Shardless Agent
Kitchen Finks
Edric, Spymaster of Trest

Trygon Predator

Dreg Mangler
Murderous Redcap
Bloodbraid Elf
Huntsmaster of the Fells / Ravager of the Fells

Olivia Voldaren

Broodmate Dragon

Simic Sky Swallower

Sphinx of the Steel Wind

Sundering Growth

Abrupt Decay

Dreadbore

Izzet Charm

Rakdos Charm

Selesnya Charm

Fire / Ice
Lightening Helix
Pernicious Deed

Blightening
Vindicate

Detention Sphere

Supreme Verdict

Ajani Vegenat

Vraska the Unseen

Land


10x Original Dual Land
10x Sac Lands
10x Ravnica Bounce Lands
10x Shock Lands
10x Pain Lands
10x Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Filter Lands

10x Innistrad Sytle Duals
6x Artifact Lands
5x Man Land Duals
5x Onslaught Cycling Lands

Wasteland
City of Traitors
Ancient Tomb
Mishra's Factory

Karakas
Blinkmoth Nexus
Faerie Conclave
Treetop Village
Gaea's Cradle
Pendlehaven
Lake of the Dead
Flagstones of Trokair
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Grove of the Burnwillows
City of Brass
Teetering Peaks
Barbarian Ring

Desolate Lighthouse

Shelldock Isle

Rishadan Port
Smoldering Spires

Artifacts

Mox Diamond
Mox Opal
Chrome Mox
Mana Crypt
Zuran Orb
Everflowing Chalice
Engineered Explosives

Mana Vault
Aether Vial

Pithing Needle
Chromatic Sphere
Chromatic Star
Voltaic Key
Terrarion
Sensei's Divining Top
Bonesplitter
Cursed Scroll
Skullclamp

Talisman of Progress
Talisman of Unity
Talisman of Indulgence
Talisman of Dominance
Grim Monolith

Ankh of Mishra
Winter Orb
Ratchet Bomb
Isochron Scepter
Scroll Rack

Umezwa's Jitte

Lightning Greaves

Crucible of Worlds
Tangle Wire
Sword of Fire and Ice

Sword of War and Peace
Vedalken Shackles

Nevinyrral's Disk
Smokestack
Khalni Gem

Thran Dynamo

Guilded Lotus
Memory Jar
Karn Liberated

Batterskull

Hex Parasite

Spellskite
Phyrexian Revoker
Myr Retriever

Palladium Myr
Metalworker

Molten-Tail Masticore
Solemn Simulacrum

Lodestone Golem

Wurmcoil Engine
Myr Battle Sphere

Sundering Titan

Blightsteel Colossus

Emrakul, the Eons Torn

White

Path to Exile
Swords to Plowshares
Land Tax
Mana Tithe

Tithe

Disenchant
Balance
Honour the Pure
Crusade
Abeyance

Journey to Nowhere

Oblivion Ring
Lingering Souls

Ajani, Caller of the Pride 

Spectral Procession

Wrath of God
Ravages of War

Armageddon
Cataclysm
Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Faith's Fetters

Gideon Jura
Austere Command
Terminus

Student of Warfare
Mother of Runes
Isamru, Hound of Konda

Gideon's Lawkeeper
War Falcon
Elite Vanguard
Champion of the Parish

Steppe Lynx

Stoneforge Mystic
Kor Skyfisher
Thalia, Guardian of Threben
Loyal Cathar
Wall of Omens

Precinct Captain
Knight of the White Orchid

Fencing Ace

Blade Splicer

Academy Rector
Hero of Bladehold
Ranger of Eos

Restoration Angel
Sublime Archangel

Sun Titan
Baneslayer Angel

Cloudgoat Ranger

Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Angel of Serenity


Blue

Spell Pierce

Force Spike
Mental Misstep
Spell Snare
Ancestral Vision
Gitaxian Probe
Vapour Snag
Brainstorm
Preordain
Ponder

Mystical Tutor

Arcane Denial

Flash

Daze

Boomerang
Memory Lapse
Negate
Mana Leak
Remand
Counterspell
Cyclonic Rift
Think Twice
See Beyond
Lat-Nam's Legacy

Cyclonic Rift

Timetwister
Jace Beleren
Thirst for Knowledge
Tinker
Frantic Search
Capsize
Forbid

Show and Tell

Attunement

Cryptic Command
Opposition
Gifts Ungiven
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Foil
Fact or Fiction

Temporal Manipulation
Time Warp
Tezzeret the Seeker
Gush
Thoughtcast
Force of Will
Treachery

Timayo, the Moon Sage

Upheaval
Timespiral

Temporal Mastery

Repeal

Enclave Cryptologist
Delver of Secrets

Lighthouse Chronologist
Spellstutter Sprite

Gilded Drake

Augur of Bolas 

Looter il-Kor
Phantasmal Image
Waterfront Bouncer
Snapcaster Mage

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Trinket Mage
Vendilion Clique
Grand Architect
Sea Gate Oracle

Serendib Efreet

Phyrexian Metamorph
Glen Elandra Archmage
Sower of Temptation

Venser, Shaper Savant

Riftwing Cloudskate
Consecrated Sphinx

Frost Titan

Inkwell Leviathan

Black

Fume Spitter

Carrion Feeder
Carnophage
Diregraf Ghoul
Gravecrawler

Dark Confidant
Black Cat
Bloodghast
Vampire Hexmage
Dauthi Horror

Mesmeric Fiend

Phyrexian Rager
Geralf's Messengers
Vampire Nighthawk
Hypnotic Spectre

Braids, Cabal Minion
Skinrender
Abyssal Persecutor

Phyrexian Obliterator

Shriekmaw
Grave Titan

Griselbrand

Tragic Slip
Innocent Blood

Raven's Crime
Dark Ritual
Vampiric Tutor
Sarcomancy
Duress
Cabal Therapy
Thoughseize
Inquisition of Kozilek

Entomb

Reanimate

Exhume
Demonic Tutor
Bitterblossom
Sinkhole
Hymn to Tourach
Smallpox
Doomblade
Go for the Throat

Necropotence
Recurring Nightmare
Yawgmoth's Will
Liliana of the Veil

Phyrexian Arena

Infest

Damnation

Living Death

Hatred

Sorin Markov
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Mind Twist
Death Cloud

Red

Lightening Bolt

Chain Lightening
Burst Lightening
Seal of Fire
Lava Dart
Reckless Charge
Faithless Looting

Firebolt

Pillar of Flame

Gut Shot

Arc Trail
Incinerate

Searing Spear

Searing Blaze
Punishing Fire

Mizzium Mortars

Slagstorm
Chaos Warp
Sulphuric Vortex
Wheel of Fortune

Molten Rain

Seismic Assault

Chandra, the Firebrand

Sneak Attack

Chandra Nalaar
Fireblast
Wildfire
Destructive Force
Devil's Play
Rolling Earthquake

Bonfire of the Damned

Mogg Fanatic
Goblin Guide
Stormkirk Noble
Grim Lavamancer
Goblin Welder
Spikeshot Elder
Goblin Bushwhacker
Orcish Lumberjack

Kird Ape

Ember Hauler

Ash Zealot

Kargan Dragonlord
Torch Fiend
Keldon Marauders
Hellspark Elemental
Tin Street Hooligan

Plated Geopede

Squee, Goblin Nabob
Manic Vandal

Ball Lightning
Chandra's Phoenix

Flametongue Kavu

Hound of Griselbrand
Siege-Gang Commander

Thundermaw Hellkite
Inferno TitanGreen

Exploration
Nature's Claim
Rancor

Regrowth
Life from the Loam

Oath of Druids

Farseek
Nature's Lore
Survival of the Fittest
Sylvan Library

Moment's Peace
Explore

Beast Within

Birthing Pod
Garruk Wildspeaker

Harmonize

Natural Order

Primal Command
Plow Under
Overrun

Hurricane

Birds of Paradise
Noble Hierarch
Llanowar Elf
Fyndhorn Elf
Avacyn's Pilgrim
Elves of Deep Shadow
Jogora Treespeaker
Quirion Ranger
Llanowar Mentor
Wild Nacatl
Basking Rootwalla

Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Elvish Visionary
Fauna Shaman
Wall of Blossoms
Wall of Roots
Viridian Emissary
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Kavu Predator
Lotus Cobra
Tarmogoyf
Scavenging Ooze
Strangleroot Geist

Brindle Shoat

Ohran Viper
Viridian Shaman
Eternal Witness
Wood Elves

Wolfir Avenger

Yavimaya Elder

Dungrove Elder

Obstinate Baloth
Vengevine
Master of the Wild Hunt

Deranged Hermit

Wolfir Silverheart

Thragtusk
Acidic Slime
Genesis

Chancellor of the Tangle 

Worldspine Wurm

Woodfall Primus

Primeval Titan

Terrastodon

Changes to the Cube VII

This is at least two loads of me refining the cube hence it being such a large quantity of cards going in and out. As per usual it is many of the cards I just added or took out that are leaving again or making a return respectively. It feels as if the cube is presently in limbo all off balance while it waits for Gatecrash to even it up again. Most notably is the gold section which is crammed full of Golgari, Rakdos and Selesnya while really lacking in Dimir and Orzhov. I added a whole cycle of dual lands although that many well be over the top now, they typically only see play in two colour decks and far from always in allied colour ones, three colour control decks are also presently rather over powered in the cube and don't need any help. Hopefully in another 6 months or so the dust will have settled from Gatecrash and the cube will start to look more sensible and refined, until then I will have to make do with it looking a bit awkward while I test out loads of cards.



Out


Dromar's Charm
Bant Charm
Psychatog
Recoil
Maelstrom Pulse

Mishra's Workshop (banned)

Duplicant

Orzhov Signet

Dimir SignetIzzet SignetAzourius Signet
The Rack
Contagion Clasp
Cranial Plating
Mind Stone
Tumble Magnet
Mimic Vat

Soul Tithe
Day of Judgement
Akroma's Vengeance
Decree of Justice

Savannah Lions
Spectral Lynx
Knight of Meadowgrain
Serra Avenger
Mentor of the Meek
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Seal of Removal
Mana Drain (banned)
Miscalculation
Mystic Revival

Phantasmal Bear
Cursecatcher
Voidmage Prodigy
Master of Etherium
Strombound Geist 
Illusory Angel
Mulldrifter
Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
Sphinx of Jwar Isle
Aether Adept

Priest of Gix
Thrashing Wumpus
Bloodgift Demon
Necropolis Regent

Shrieking Affliction
Bad Moon
Chocking Sands
Contagion 
Skeletal Scrying

Galvanic Blast
Magma Jet
Pillage
Koth, of the Hammer
Vexing Devil
Gorehouse Chain-Walker
Hero of Oxid Ridge



Noxious Revival
Garruk, Primal Hunter
Mana Bloom
Overgrown Battlement
Flinthoof Boar
Troll Ascetic
Phantom Centaur


In

Supreme Verdict
Ajani Vengant
Olivia Voldaren
Broodmate Dragon

Drowned Catacomb
Glacial Fortress
Sunpetal Grove
Rootbound Crag
Dragonskull Summit
Woodland Cemetery
Clifftop Retreat
Sulphur Falls
Isolated Chapel
Hinterland Harbor

Smoldering Spires
Rishadan Port
Shelldock Isle

Lightning Greaves

Tithe
Journey to Nowhere
Fencing Ace
Sublime Archangel
Angel of Serenity

Attunement
Repeal
Venser, Shaper Savant

Mesmeric Fiend
Hatred

Gut Shot
Seismic Assault
Hound of Griselbrand

Brindle Shoat
Dungrove Elder

Second Breakfast

This deck is an attempt to make a cube version of Stanislav Cifkas Pro Tour winning modern list. It is always really fun making cube versions of cool decks from other formats. As you can have one of any card in cube most things are viable, even the combos that need two copies of a card can still sometimes be done with clone style cards although this tends to make them very bad decks... Some decks are improved because of the wider pool of cards in the cube and some end up weaker due to insufficient redundancy. Often what happens is they are functional and cool but simply weaker versions of other cube archetypes. This list is in danger of that being the case with likely both Auriok Salvagers decks and storm decks being better. Even if you end up with a worse version of another deck it is well worth doing as you get to use a whole bunch of new cards that don't normally see cube play as well as having the challenge of copying a deck onto a different mould. Eggs has already been done in cube but not to great success, it fitted the bill of working fine and taking a decent number of games but just being a weaker way to win than other combo decks.


The last time I made a list before making the deck and playing with it was the infect deck which got horribly brutalised. I am sure when I do come to build this deck it will look a little different, perhaps other people will steal a few cards for their decks or will have something I need an answer to.When initially designing decks I find it best to try and make the deck do the thing it is trying to do as consistently and quickly as possible, then after some games or even just some goldfishing you get to see which cards are key, which are weak and where your plan might have some holes. With this information you are better set to be able to refine the list to be able to cope with the format, often the deck will become slower but this is worth the pay off for being far less fragile. This being the first attempt at this deck I suspect the deck will be very fragile and auto lose to a few cards with many more being unreasonably awkward to win around but goldfish pretty well.



27 Spells

Mox Opal
Mana Crypt
Lotus Bloom
Lotus Petal

Lion's Eye Diamond

Chromatic Sphere
Chromatic Star
Conjurers Bauble
Pyrite Spellbomb

Orim's Chant
Brainstorm
Preordain
Sensei's Divining Top

Gitaxian Probe
Skycloud Egg
Terrarion

Elsewhere Flask
Grapeshot
Reshape
Transmute Artifact

Ichor Wellspring
Helm of Awakening

Second Sunrise
Tinker

Faith's Reward

Open the Vaults

Greater Gargadon

13 Lands

Ghost Quarter
Tundra
Volcanic Island
Plataeu

Hallowed Fountain
Seat of the Synod
Ancient Den
Flooded Strand

Scalding Tarn
Arid Mesa
Plains
2 Islands

Other possible cards to think about putting in

Conch Horn!
Frantic Search
Thirst for Knowledge
Tangle Wire
Cyclonic Rift
Time Sieve
Archaeological Dig
Phyrexian Metalmorph
Trinket Mage
Pact of Negation
Memory Lapse
Auriok Salvagers...






The main problems this deck was going to face was a lack of redundancy of key cards, namely Conjurer's Bauble, Lotus Bloom, Faith's Reward and Second Sunrise. The other parts of the engine have some decent redundancy from the parts of the cube outside of modern. Tinker is comically worse than both Reshape and Transmute Artifact both of which have not had an airing in my cube before! Tinker is not much worse than the others however and means you have 3 copies in a 40 card deck rather than 4 is a 60 cards one compared to the modern listing. This gives you higher odds on finding them and in turn makes up a little for only having the one Lotus Bloom. Lotus Petal and Lion's Eye Diamond help out but are both a lot worse than the Bloom and so being able to tutor it up reliably is nice. Having access to Brainstorm effects also means you are not forced into an awkward long delay when you draw the Bloom on turn two and have to wait for it to suspend. Although you only get one of each of the good return everything cards Open the Vaults does still get the job done and also kind of allows you a second chance at going off if you wiff on your first attempt. Oddly it the having only one copy of the Bauble that scares me most with this deck as it means you can only ever put one thing back into your library per Second Sunrise etc. There is not much else that does this and has synergy with the deck and it is for this reason I stuck in two main deck win conditions, it probably doesn't need them but hopefully will make life easier.


Orim's Chant is just a direct upgrade on Silence and is the only interactive card in the deck as it stands, it should be pretty good in every match up and essential in some. Having one is still fragile but makes you vastly less so than having nothing and is the most marginal of consistency loss so a well worth while trade off. I could easily see this deck going up to around 3 interactive cards, be they disruption or answer cards, once refined. The Divining Top is better than most of the other blue card quality spells as it gives you artifact synergy and also allows you to go off more easily with Lion's Eye Diamond as it can save spells on top of your library. It is not an essential card but it fits neatly and hopefully makes up for there being fewer copies of important cards. Helm of Awakening may well be awful, it seems like it can ease going off quite effectively but is both dangerous to gift your opponent with and a lost card as well. It is one of the cards most likely to get culled but also feels like it is so powerful it should be tested. Greater Gargadon is another card that not only didn't feature in the modern list but is also in there to do something the modern list wasn't even bothering to do. The cube version has less cards that sac to fuel up the Sunrise etc and the Gargadon seems like the best sac outlet available. It is an awful threat and would likely be better in the deck if you could just perpetually sac off your stuff at will rather than get a big dork but it will blatantly win some games and be useful in others, if not optimal. It may well not be necessary, if so I would likely also cut the Ichor Wellspring and the Terrarion which is very bad in the deck as it cannot be used on the turn it comes into play and therefore fails to fuel the combo. It is certainly weaker than some of the suggested cards even with Tinker effects and Gargadon to sac it but keeps the deck quite pure so I can refine it more easily.


I feel like this deck is also playing it a little too safe on lands and could easily drop one or two, the Modern list had 17/60 which is just under 12/40 while I am running 13/40, in addition to this I have access to powerful zero mana artifacts that are comparable to lands and certainly mean you can get away with fewer. This deck doesn't even have as much ways to pitch excess lands as either similar cube decks or Cifka's modern list. The list of other possible cards I have suggested all offer something neat to the deck, whether that be answers, disruption, card quality and advantage, tutoring or just more ways of further powering up the combo. Phyrexian Metalmorph is the next best thing to a second Bauble and although it is comically bad comparatively it gets the job done and is highly versatile in addition to that. I haven't put it in the main deck as I don't know how bad only one Bauble is yet. When I finally build this I will post a reply with how it performed and what I would change. Hopefully it will be fun!


30/11/2012

There is rather too much to say to neatly put in a reply so I am just going to edit this post. The deck was hard work, I was misplaying and had obviously mis-built it as well. The list below is what I would play on another run however I am still not sold on a number of the cards. Divining Top felt like it should have been good but I never had the mana to really use it, having not played enough games to rule it out it could have just been circumstantial bad luck and is probably worth testing a little more however it felt like one of the more cuttable cards for the new spells I feel the deck needs. Also sent packing were Greater Gargadon and Ichor Wellspring which are nice when you get them in ideal circumstances but crippling the rest of the time. I had not realised how tight the deck is in regards to needing most of its cards to be fuel for the combo engine. I also cut the alternate win condition as it does nothing to power you up and only helps once you have gone off. You simply need a critical mass to be able to explode and go infinite which it turns out is having at least 4 manas worth of Lotus Bloom, Lotus Petal and Lion's Eye Diamond, a Second Sunrise, a Conjurer's Bauble and a Pyrite Spellbomb and no cards in your library. This is easy enough to set up once you start to go off, it is the going off with enough momentum that is hard. I also cut Helm of Awakening as it is a bit like Gargadon, good when good but ultimately too much gravy and not enough meet.

Cards that I nearly cut where the Lions Eye Diamond and the Terrarion which are both really limp substitutes for the single copies of Lotus Bloom and Chromatic Star I could run. This deck manages to negate the drawback on Lotus Bloom turning it into a all powerful Black Lotus, it cannot however easily get around the downside of the Lion's Eye Diamond. I kept drawing it when I wanted to draw more fuel cards and was unable to make use of it due to the important cards in hand I needed to keep. Prior to going off it is just dead weight and once you are going off you shouldn't need it. Even if you do it can still be a royal pain to use mid combo. Terrarion is also weak but the other way round, it aids you getting to the point of going off but then stops being useful. This is a far better weakness to have in this deck however as it is where I was finding it to be struggling most. Terrarion is also the ideal artifact to sac to the Tinker/Reshape effects going on and so with less cycling artifacts than I would like I am happy to play this sub par one which is still far better than something that doesn't sac, or doesn't draw a card. I think Kealidastone is the next best and at two two cast and five to activate after which it gives you awful colours of mana you get the picture.


27 Spells

Mox Opal
Mana Crypt
Lotus Bloom
Lotus Petal

Lion's Eye Diamond

Chromatic Sphere
Chromatic Star
Conjurers Bauble
Pyrite Spellbomb

Orim's Chant
Brainstorm
Preordain
Gitaxian Probe

Skycloud Egg
Terrarion
Mystical Tutor

Elsewhere Flask
Reshape
Transmute Artifact

Second Sunrise
Tinker
Timetwister
Frantic Search


Faith's Reward
Phyrexian Metalmorph

Open the Vaults
Repeal

13 Lands

Ghost Quarter
Tundra
Volcanic Island
Plataeu

Hallowed Fountain
Seat of the Synod
Ancient Den
Flooded Strand

Scalding Tarn
Arid Mesa
Plains
2 Islands


I ended up adding some cards to this list I didn't think I would be needing first time round. Repeal is my cover all out spell of choice, mostly because it can cycle for free if you have Mox Opal or even generate mana with Crypt. Having lost the alternate win condition in Grapeshot I have to play the Repeal as the deck can be beaten by so many different cards from Pithing Needle to Ankh of Mishra. I added Mystical Tutror to help you have the cards you need when you need them. You are often going off blind hoping to draw another Second Sunrise effect and you wiff if you don't usually into swift death. It works well with the cantrip artifacts and Lion's Eye Diamond. It is kind of like accepting defeat however, I thought the deck would be more consistent and with enough redundancy to do without it but I fear I am wrong. Frantic Search is just a great additional way to dig through your deck cheaply to find the cards you really want. You can comfortably afford the card disadvantage later on when you have an abundance of lands in hand and it lets you set up for Open the Vaults. I really wanted to add a Snapcaster Mage but I don't think this deck can stomach the extra mana costs of the Mage let alone the exiling of combo cards. The Snapcaster would help you carry on going off like the Mystical Tutor but can't quite fit in.

The two more interesting cards added are the Phyrexian Metalmorph and the Timetwister both of which serve a couple of roles. Timetwister allows you to recover if your opponent destroys you with a Cabal Therapy or something, or if you draw all your cheap artifacts and dump you hand but have no gas to use it with. It is also there to return your Sunrise etc all in one go as Bauble only ever does it once per cast, usually after a wiffed going off attempt. The Metalmorph is there to copy the Lotus Bloom and the Bauble as its extra cost over them is irrelevant when you are starting to recur things. This should make it a lot easier to do the things you need to be doing. It is not the worst card anyway being an answer to things on occasion or even a win condition in bizarre circumstances.

I was really impressed with how good Open the Vaults was in the deck, I thought it was going to be an awful Second Sunrise but it gave you so much freedom to put artifacts in the bin as you pleased that it added to the deck heavily and was one of the most useful cards. Brainstorm was another stand out card as it did so much with its putting things back into the library for Lion's Eye Diamond and for Lotus Bloom when you need to Tinker it out.

WG Denial

After a glut of lists for red decks in the cube I feel I must do a non red list. This style of deck has been around for ages, the earliest version I can recall is Erhnageddon yet all those that follow are based on a similar principle; some solid threats, some non-land mana sources, a dash of cheap removal and some serious mana disruption. Other than goblins, elves and to a lesser extent red deck wins, this was one of the only early cube viable heavy creature decks. Even white weenie didn't really have the power to beat control and combo decks and the best it could hope to do was be a weaker version of this style of deck. The WG denial deck is still viable in cube but it is seen less often as so many other forms of deck have been discovered or become viable as well. Here is a fairly standard and upto date version of the deck which hasn't changed all that much over the years beyond upgrading the quality of the dorks it packs.




22 Spells

Mox Diamond

Bird of Paradise
Joroga Treespeaker
Noble Hierarch
Quirion Ranger

Swords to Plowshares

Life from the Loam
Qasali Pridemage
Thalia, Guardian of Threben
Winter Orb

Talisman of Unity
Tarmogoyf
Wall of Roots
Sylvan Library

Kitchen Finks
Eternal Witness
Knight of the Reliquary
Beast Within

Ohran Viper

Garruk Wildspeaker
Cataclysm
Armageddon

18 Lands

Tranquil Thicket
Secluded Steppe
Flagstones of Trokair
Stirring Wildwood
Windswept Heath
Selesnya Sanctuary
Temple Garden
Savannah
Brushlands
Stirling Grove
Treetop Village
Horizon Canopy
4 Forest
2 Plains








Your three key spells in this list are Armageddon, Cataclysm and Winter Orb, you are however relatively spoiled for choice with Ravages of War, Tangle Wire, Balance, Smokestack and even Catastohpe and a push to choose from. Smokestack is rather slow and you have little to abuse it with and so it is the weakest of the bunch. Balance is the most powerful but is too hard to set up in this deck, it is more of a control or combo card. WG doesn't have the card draw or quality to find and support things like Zuran Orb comfortably which is the sort of card you need to make Balance abusive. With all the simpler options available I tend to avoid using Balance in this archetype. Catastrophe costs 50% more than you want it to just for some utility which goes against what you are trying to do (have mana dorks in play) and should really only be a last resort. This deck doesn't tend to get to 6 mana very often and is usually a sign things are going a bit wrong when it does. Tangle Wire is great and lets you get set up around counter magic however it is rather short lived and with your deck being slow won't let you kill them in time. You need to follow it up with another mana denial card to give you the time to finish them off. As I mentioned, this deck can't support too many cards that lose you card advantage.


Armageddon and Ravages of War are the staple used to wipe out all lands, they are reliable and you are set to recover well after casting them. I tend to only play one and have Cataclysm in the place of the other. The reason for this is to round the deck off as much as possible, you are already very powerful against any deck that needs to have a decent number of lands in play. You are however quite weak against decks that can run off just a couple of land such as a variety of weenie decks and the artifact ramp decks. Cataclysm is very kind to you as you have a good spread of things you are able to keep, and will cripple artifact and weenie decks savagely while still being nearly as effective as Armageddon against the control decks. Cataclysm also deals with planes walkers which can be difficult to deal with if cast due to the relatively low tempo of this deck. Winter Orb is a sustained dampener on your opponent and generally doesn't affect you too much however it is a card that needs using with care as there are both situations and match ups where it can harm you more than your opponent. There isn't really room in the deck for something like Relic Barrier or Icy Manipulator so as to turn the Orb off for your turn and with your mana critters and artifacts plus the low curve it doesn't add all that much any way. Playing the 3rd 4 mana Armageddon effect might be more powerful but it will give you some very clunky draws and so I favour the variety of the Winter Orb.


Thalia is a quirky little addition that gives you some presence on the board and hinders your opponent... hopefully. Like Winter Orb, Thalia's effectiveness entirely depends on what you are facing and unlike Winter Orb she is quite detrimental to the working of your deck and so caution must be employed when casting her. Life from the Loam allows you to have a bit of card advantage in combination with the cycling lands and Horizon Canopy while also aiding a swift recovery from Armageddon. It is a mana intensive engine and so shouldn't be used that many times per game, this is doubly the cast as the deck has no graveyard reshuffle effects and relatively few threats. Perhaps a Mistveil Plains is worth playing!

The rest of the deck is about getting the right ratios of removal, alternate mana sources and threats while cramming as much power as possible into the mix. Sadly there is not much space left for removal and although you would a few more there are not many places you can trim the fat to make some room. Neither white or green have any creature removal that doubles up as something else as well such as a Skinrender which leaves you very light in this regard. Ohran Viper is about the best you can do as a removal creature... I have been highly unimpressed with Fiend Hunter and would just rather play an Oblivion Ring or a Selesnya Charm or really anything instead of it! Being able to pack other utility on your guys is nice and does make up for this shortfall to some extent but creature removal is the most important kind to have in some abundance and is therefore the biggest weakness of the deck. Generally against decks with serious threats like a Titan you just have to keep them off the key mana they need to flop it out.

Guttersnipe.dec

This deck was a bit of a joke deck thrown together for a laugh by a mate of mine. After it had impressively dispatched the other decks kicking about it was clear Guttersnipe was not such a joke after all. This is a very odd deck as it is part combo, part control and part agro. The prsmise is pretty simple, deal some free damage with any dorks you might have sparingly using removal to get it through and stay alive. Then find and cast either Guttersnipe or his weaker substitute Gelectrode and combo off for the win. The combo is an engine comprised of the afore mentioned dorks and then lots of free or cheap cards to trigger them while either cantripping or dealing yet more damage. If you are playing against this deck Guttersnipe is a must kill on or counter on sight, if they have any cards in hand and 3 to 4 mana up you are probably dead. The damage output of this deck always comes as a surprise. One game I recall I was against this and playing elves. I had over ten life and over twelve toughness on the board ready to block and was feeling as safe as you liked mistakenly playing as if I were facing red deck wins. When I passed the turn all he had was 5 lands, a Gelectrode and an Electromancer. They proceeded to untap, lay a Guttersnipe and kill not just me but also my entire team just because he could... This deck style has now been done three times as it is really fun and new, each time with subtle changes and this list is an averaging of the three to proceed it and not one that has actually been played.

25 Spells

Lava Dart
Gitaxian Probe
Preordain
Gut Shot

Grim Lavamancer
Goblin Guide
Delver of Secrets
Stromkirk Noble

Vapour Snag
Lightning Bolt
Chain Lightning
Faithless Looting

Phantasmal Bear
Firebolt
Ancestral Visions
Burst Lightning

Fire / Ice
Snapcaster Mage
Goblin Electromancer
Incinerate

Think Twice
Searing Spear

Guttersnipe
Gelectrode

Fireblast

15 Lands

Steam Vents
Volcanic Island
Scalding Tarn
Shivan Reef

Shelldock Isle
Faerie Conclave
Cascade Bluffs
Sulphur Falls

Barbarian Ring
Island
5 Mountains









There are very few threats in the deck as you need to pack a high count of instants and sorceries and so one of the biggest weaknesses of the deck is doing nothing in the early game. This means your three drop combo dorks are much more precious and have to do a lot more work. It also means you are more likely to draw your dorks later on when they are of least use. The other big drawback of this deck is that it is based around a card that is hard to find and play and vulnerable if you do. You simply don't have the gas to completely burn someone out unless you have Guttersnipe support or have managed to apply good pressure with your few dorks.


The best cards in the deck are Lava Dart and Gitaxian Probe as they are cheap and either cantrip or a second cast almost freely available. These are the kinds of cards you want to be following your Guttersnipe and Gelectrode. The rest of the deck is basically just weaker versions of Probe and Dart. I tried a version greedily using Gush and Fireblast but frequently didn't have two islands (even with a well tailored mana base) to return. The weakest cards in this deck is probably Goblin Electromancer who doesn't reduce that many spells in cost and tends not to deal much damage either. Snapcaster is also not at his best in this deck as the extra two mana to recast a spell is very restrictive and the 2/1 body left behind is hardly exciting. Think Twice is very weak without the Electromancer however as it is very expensive for a card that does less than Gitaxian Probe per cast. Ancestral Visions is one of the the best things you could hope for on turn one however later on in the game it is a bad do nothing draw. Having not played the deck enough it might transpire that Frantic Search is more the kind of draw you want after Probes and Preordains rather than the riskier Think Twice and Ancestral Visions. The Faithless Looting is of course outstanding in this deck and lets you get away with packing a few riskier cards while also providing lots of fuel for your combo engines.


Despite his impressive performance in this kind of deck I can't bring myself to give Guttersnipe an A cube slot as he is so so narrow. A pure storm combo deck could be built around him but I can't see how that is in any way an improvement for any of those deck styles. This deck is very nearly tier 1, probably a 1.5 and is well worth playing for its entertainment value if nothing else. For almost any metagame I can imagine you would be better off with either a storm deck, a counter-burn control deck or red deck wins which is what this deck is trying to be a compilation of. Perhaps someone will optimise the build and have a tier one deck but I am not that hopeful. Relying on one card in a deck wanting to use redundancy in order to win is a bit of a fools quest, at least fools have the most fun!

Medium Red

I was hungering to try something a bit different and came up with this deck. It is a copy of the deck "Big Red" got its name from. In Mirrodin block people were slinging Fireballs and dropping Arc Sloggers into play with their mono red mid-range decks. For some reason it was called big red however the cube deck by the same name was much more alike a deck Kai Budde played, this list for which is on this page. So given that the name this deck should be called has been taken I have dubbed it Medium Red as it is somewhere in the middle of the two viable mono red decks, those being the afore Big Red and Red Deck Wins of course. The idea behind the deck is to try and merge the idea of high power level and more serious threats from Big Red with the idea of redundancy and efficiency from Red Deck Wins. Big Red draws inconsistently and can either draw only ramp or only expensive action cards, Red Deck Wins can be forced to endlessly trade two for one to deal with opponents more powerful cards and both of these drawbacks are where most of their games are lost. The name Medium Red is appropriate is this is as mid range a deck as you could imagine, this means it should naturally have a good match up against any dedicated agro deck. The concern for the mid range deck is that it will draw expensive cards early and cheap ones late, which is much the same problem as Big Red faces although it is much more severe for Big Red. Even so the mid range deck is more at the mercy of the draw than most deck types and will suffer worst in a mana flood or screw. Red is a little luckier in this regard as even cheap burn scales pretty well into the late game. To reinforce this ability to draw consistently I played a vast land count, when you can't afford to risk it and are not intending to win the card advantage war, simply the tempo and card quality one then going a bit overboard on lands is wise. If you want to reliably be hitting your 4th land in most games it is surprising what ratio of lands you need to be playing. The last way in securing against the downfall of mid range employed in this deck is having lots of outlets to spend mana if you do suffer from getting too much on thing like fire breathing, flashback and level up dorks.


22 Spells

Faithless Looting
Lightning Bolt
Grim Lavamancer
Chain Lightning

Firebolt
Burst Lightning

Ash Zealot
Kargan Dragonlord
Arc Trail
Mizzium Mortars

Spawning Breath

Manic Vandal
Chandra's Phoenix
Slagstorm
Seething Song

Chandra, the Firebrand
Hound of Griselbrand
Flametongue Kavu

Siege-Gang Commander
Thundermaw Hellkite

Inferno Titan

Devil's Play

18 Lands

Mishra's Factory
Forgotten Cave
16 Mountains


This is the first deck I found Faithless Looting to be weak in, this is because almost all of your cards are valuable throughout the game. You want to continually make your land drops so it is very rare you will have dead cards like red deck wins. You simply cannot afford the card disadvantage to support it even with a little bit of flashback and recursion synergy. There are a number of cards vying for the slot such as Pillage for a bit more all round utility removal and security or a cheaper yet significant threat such as Stromkirk Noble or Slith Firewalker. I would probably also cut the Seething Song as it is also card disadvantage and didn't seem to often add much to your tempo, it did offer some options and unexpected trickery but these were never used in my games as they were not worth the lost card and I had drawn the Looting to convert it into something better. Spawning Breath however I really quite liked as it gave some extra value, all be it not very much it still helps you burn things down when used with other damage spells and if you didn't need the ramp for anything useful you still have a chump blocker lying about. It is however the least powerful card in the deck by a long way which was something I was trying to avoid but I feel the hole it plugs a little and the way in which it does it is worth this lowering of power. Plus its always fun to dig terrible cards out of the C cube and put them to good use.


This was the first outing for three new cards, Hound of Griselbrand, Mizzium Mortars and Ash Zealot. I was excited most about trying out the Hound as it is a powerful card that I couldn't concieve of any decent homes  to play it in until this idea came along for which he is the perfect fit. Sadly however I didn't see him much and on the occasions I did he was instantly plowed. The Ash Zealot was fantastic, he fits an agressive or defensive role as you need which is well suited to mid range decks and rare from a red dork. The ability is far more liable to do you damage than anyone else with a high flashback count in the deck but it is still well worth playing for the cheap solid body. Mizzium Mortars was also pretty decent, having the ability to take out a 4 toughness dork for just two mana was really nice, I am used to accepting a two for one or having to pay at least 4 mana, usually 5, for that  priviledge in red. Having the option to save it and try and get value also added some juicy choices to the mix which is always the best thing to have with your cube cards.


Most of the rest of the cards speak for themselves, things are there because of their high power level, raw efficiency or their value in card terms. Manic Vandal, Flametongue Kavu, Arc Trail, Slagstorm, Devil's Play, Seige-Gange, Inferno Ttian, Hellkite, Chandra, her Phoenix, Hound of Griselbrand, Mizzium Mortars, Firebolt and Grim Lavamancer are all easy to get 2 for 1s or better. Many of them are also high powered cards. The thing I liked most about how the deck played was that it shifted from control to agro incredibly well and was able to apply a lot of pressure very rapidly from out of nowhere. The fork effect on Chandra is particularly brutal in this deck with some high output burns spells. Overall however this deck is more of a tier 2 deck, it will give a good fight against the tier one metagame and destroy a few matchups but overall its likely win percentages will be 40-45% I expect. Being mono, and red at that, is is very vulnerable and relatively inflexible. Quick decks can get away with this as they don't give opponents the chance to exploit their vulnerabilities however the medium red deck allows more time to cast it and more chances to draw whatever it is.

Simple RG Beats

I think I have some unfounded mystical pedestal upon which I place the red green deck. It has always seemed viable or close to in every format, limited or constructed. It is generally quite an easy deck to play although cube versions are always going to be well above the level of the infamous Fires of Yavimaya deck. If anyone cares at all, the first deck I ever built was a simple RG deck with Orcish Lumberjacks, Elves, Tinder Walls, Ernham Djins, Lightning Bolts, Kird Apes and for some reason Thallids... This is a list of my most recent cube RG beats deck. It had a theme of haste creatures so as to make it harder to play against and provide good tempo, the latter of which is the main strength of the RG deck. Cheap red removal combined with efficient green beaters and a touch of ramp combine to be one of the best tempo packages an agro deck can offer. While some acceleration is nice it is very easy to go overboard and dilute your deck to much, you need to always be applying pressure and running out of gas by turn four because most of your hand was ramp and not gas is a good way to lose, usually slowly and painfully. Not only could the four ramp creatures I played all attack, I also included a decent number of other cards such as Overrun to compensate for having weak monsters in play. For the same reason as with the mana creatures you don't want to go to heavy on the burn as you need to have proactive cards in the early game. On top of needing to apply pressure and have a continued supply of threats you will have very little card advantage in the deck compared to most other cube archetypes and have to make up for this with high quality creatures.

23 Spells


Llanowar Elf
Fyndhorn Elf
Orcish Lumberjack
Grim Lavamancer

Kird Ape
Faithless Looting
Lightning Bolt
Chain Lightning

Lotus Cobra
Scavenging Ooze
Tarmogoyf
Strangleroot Geist

Arc Trail
(Impending Disaster)

Boggart Ram-Gang
Chandra's Phoenix


Flametongue Kavu
Garruk Wildspeaker
Vengevine
Bloodbraid Elf

Overrun
Wolfir Silverheart
Thundermaw Hellkite

17 Lands

Raging Ravine
Treetop Village
Taiga
Stomping Ground

Karplusan Forest
Wooded Foothills
Fire-Lit Thicket
Rootbound Crag

Windswept Heath
Misty Rainforest
4 Forests
3 Mountains












I have placed Impending Disaster in brackets as it shouldn't be in this deck at all, I had recently acquired one and didn't really know how to evaluate it or how to incorporate it into a deck. It seemed like it might work in this kind of deck but it is too unreliable and is yet another card that isn't applying the right kind of pressure. I would have much preferred either a Goblin Guide, a Devil's Play for the even more classic feel, or a Sulphuric Vortex. Seventeen land is highly advisable even without Impending Disaster as you never want to hiccough on lands and throw away valuable tempo. The cards are most effective when cast on or before the curve and the decks curve goes all the way up to 5, which is very rare for a non blue agro cube deck, and means you need to have high lands counts to make the most of all the spells. The man lands are a way to compensate for light card advantage but do mean you have a number of land that comes in to play tapped. Having more land gives you better options about when to drop your come into play tapped lands.


Faithless Looting is just an incredible card that will enhance almost any deck even without any synergies. It is so cheap and will smooth your curving early game while increasing your card power late game. There are some mild synergies with it in this deck but it would be good without those because of your high land count and mana dorks. Flametongue Kavu doesn't often see play as he is too expensive for most of the deck that might want him and a bit of a liability against decks with minimal creature counts which do still exist. In this deck he is at his best as he allows you to have removal and a beefy threat in one card and you have the ramp to reduce his clunkyness. Flametongue is one of the creatures that can offer the biggest tempo swings for his mana range which is exactly what the RG beats deck is trying to do.

Orcish Lumberjacks are generally called the Lotus Orcs by our group and still hold their cube slot despite having basically no other homes outside of this archetype. In this archetype however they are a brutally dangerous card that gives enough of a power bump to the deck to keep it tier one. Lotus Cobra is a little like a free ramp dork in the way that Flametongue is a free removal spell although not so consistently as it is so flimsy you often can't swing with it, either because it will needlessly die or because you need to have it for mana too much to risk its easy death. Even if you don't swing with it much it still counts for your Overrun effects and is a powerful ramp card with all your sac lands.


Thundermaw Hellkite was a card that I ended up playing mostly as it is still quite new and hasn't had that much play time yet. He performed the best he has to date as greatly impressed. Typically RG beats lacks evasion on its guys and relies on out meating their opponents to force through damage. This is not always viable in the cube where people can clog up the board incredibly fast doing broken things of their own. Hellkite will almost always do a neat 5 to the dome immediately often ending the game or take out a planeswalker and leave you with a big evasive threat.

Kird Ape may seem odd, especially over Goblin Guide however he is better in this deck than he seems. In cube 2/3 is the first golden size for a dork to be as it kills most other early dorks in combat without dying while being much more resilient to removal. Although this deck is all about tempo there are those decks which pack most of their threats in the one and two slot such as white weenie or agro black which also has the capability to burst out of the gates with Dark Ritual and the like, these decks with some cheap disruption and threats can put you on the back foot then finish you off with an equipment or a planewalker you can't get through to kill. Kird Ape stops a lot of that nonsense and will give you a good board presence early in the game. He is at his best against the other cheap agro decks but he is still decent against control and midrange decks where the utility creatures won't be able to trade with him and more removal will miss him.

The choice of burn to go in this deck was quite easy. You can phaff around with Grove of the Burnwillows and Punishing Fire but without ways to find them they are generally just weak cards in your deck and are far from quick at doing anything when you do get them. (It does make Kavu Predator more appealing and it is a really great card to have any way and sadly didn't fit into this list) What you want is cheap, high damage burn, for which lightning in the form of Chains and Bolts are the best contenders. Arc Trail is another attempt to get two cards in one, this time it is two burn spells rather than a threat and an effect. It is also a card that is very good at taking the early tempo which as I might have mentioned, is something you are keen to be doing with this deck. Compared to red deck wins you are going to be using your burn more to clear the way for attacks and slow down your opponent and less to finish them off. Arc Trail is weaker than the alternatives as burn to the dome but is stronger overall at killing creatures and so fits the bill for what we need.

The rest of the deck sort of speaks for itself, it has big efficient dorks that have an emphasis on size and aggression. The deck has little in the way of fiddling around cards, Fauna Shaman is not at all good in this deck as it is a poor beater and slows you down if you try to abuse with things like Vengevine and the Phoenix more often than just casting and attacking would do. Skullclamp is another card that might seem to be good for giving you extra gas and reducing the issue of many small dorks however it also tends to slow you down in your quest to smashing face with big monster. Huntsmaster of the Fells is high power but I feel he is not exactly what the deck is after. To make him into a serious threat you have to flip him at least once which can slow your curve. He is vulnerable and doesn't provide as big a tempo swing as the other 4 drops in the deck.