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In previous articles I have been fairly critical of the MODO cube however I think I have been overly harsh, especially as they are continually changing and improving it. Even if they were not it is nice to have the option of cube drafting and is a good thing regardless. I am most impressed with the latest version they have given us complete with the power although not for that reason. The power itself is a good laugh and leads to some crazy games but will always be a little more random. Fun is always a good thing to be trading predictability for as games are supposed to be fun and the cube is not too serious for competitive play yet either. A lot of the chaff cards have been culled, the fixing has been increased and the reduced size of the pool enables greater consistency of archetypal drafting. I still sorely miss Death Cloud and am surprised to not be seeing Fastbond on the list yet despite this it is a very fun and very well rounded cube list. The prizes changes since my last article are also a bonus and make it much easier for people like myself who only wish to cube to do so.


I have only done four drafts with the powered MODO cube and so am not in a great position to lay down the knowledge. I have also not worked out the meta shift as yet, in my cube the addition of the power made everything a lot narrower, the tier 1.5 decks became unplayable, the agro decks all needed to play outs and take risks to do busted things so as to be able to keep up and the decks that could best abuse the power cards became the dominant decks. Overall I would generalise by saying that adding power to my cube list significantly reduces the converted mana cost of decks (even if you remove the power cards themselves from the equation) and reduces the number of cards that see play. In the modo cube the opposite seems to be happening where decks are becoming much higher in converted mana cost and the whole pool is much more playable. I have faced a lot of decks that simply try to quickly get out broken threats such as Channel plus Emrakul combo or just loads of artifact mana and high end bombs. I think these are great decks but I think they are over populated at the moment and that a draft shouldn't support more than two such decks. They are hard to reliably draft and will leave you with an inconsistent pile of junk a lot of the time. The environment is much better set to exploit these kinds of deck with the more consistently draftable archetypes in my eyes.

The best way to put this is to say that the decks that can most abuse the power like the batty combo decks and the huge quick threat makers will either be 9 and 10/10 decks or they will be 0-4/10 decks. Things like white weenie will always be in the 5-8/10 range and can easily be drafted to have the required outs to the bomb archetypes. You are relying on consistency to beat the broken decks most of the time with your "normal, fair, make a land and a thing then pass the turn.dec" and so ideally want to be proactive. One of my four drafts ended up being a rock deck which was very good but entirely the wrong deck for the new meta. Rock is fair and it is slow and clunky, it can cope with most other forms of fair deck but frequently just folds to an awkward early threat. The main problem with rock is that it is not very aggressive and so gives the bomb decks enough time to get over any inconsistencies in their draws. In other words the delay tactics and consistency in my rock deck were good but not enough to outweigh the slowing of my kill clock. A white weenie deck should always be able to goldfish for around turn five and this will pick up a lot of free wins.


The way to making a white weenie deck better equipped to deal with the bomb decks are reasonably subtle yet highly effective. Path and Plow were already amazing but have managed to go up in value with absurd bombs landing all over the place. Disenchant is now not only main deckable but also a pretty high pick. The ability to take out key mana artifacts or big artifact threats is a huge stumbling block for the big threat decks and most creature based decks try and pack some equipment so it is rarely a dead spell. Karakas deals with an awful lot of the big threats and if they are being cheated into play it is even more brutal. I am fairly happy letting my opponent just have an extra turn when I bounce their Emrukal after they paid most of their life to Channel it out. Stripmine remains one of my top picks in the format, I will take it over almost anything non-powered and later in the draft when I know what archetype I am in it will get picked over power often enough. So many free wins from a card so hard to play around or deal with that fits so wonderfully as disruption in any consistent agro deck. The cards we need to cut from our agro decks to fit in all these cheap disruption effects are the most powerful ones! Things like Baneslayer Angel are just too slow and will either do too little when they come out or will sit in your hand while you crush or get crushed in the early turns of the game. The majority of your standard dork type threats want to cost one and two mana and this feels like it should be the case for most decks trying to win by curving with dorks.

The thing I noticed most in my first three drafts was that red deck wins was always both there and undrafted and that had I taken those cards my deck would have been much better. In the fourth draft enough was enough and I first picked Sulphuric Vortex over Mishra's Workshop and never looked back taking things like Grim Lavamancer over Tolarian Academy. I did foolishly pick up a Sol Ring and probably miss-built my deck as a result. Red deck wins is not one that abuses the power that much, colourless mana is not that useful and every card not dealing damage is less consistency. The only piece of power that is really a high pick for red deck wins is Mox Ruby, even Black Lotus often does less than nothing and costs you the game by not being a Shock... If going for red deck wins you should be prepared to pick Goblin Guide, Strip Mine and Lightning Bolt over Sol Rings and Ancestral Recalls.




23 Spells

Goblin Guide
Grim Lavamancer
Sol Ring
Faithless Looting

Chain Lightning
Jackal Pup
Rakdos Cackler
Spikeshot Elder

Reckless Charge

Kargan Dragonlord
Ember Hauler
Keldon Marauders
Stormblood Berserker

Hellspark Elemental
Torch Fiend
Magma Jet
Searing Blaze

Fire / Ice

Sword of Fire and Ice
Sulphuric Vortex
Brimstone Volley

Koth of the Hammer

Fireblast

17 Lands

Rishidan Port
Stripmine
Teetering Peaks
14 Mountains

Relevant Sideboard

Taurean Mauler
Mizzium Mortars
Molten Rain
Tattermunge Maniac
Price of Progress
Ghitu Encampment
Boggart Ram-Gang







My list ended up more creature heavy than I would usually like a red deck wins to be but it did mean I could play my Big Equipment helped along with the Sol Ring to power it out. I also ran Koth because of the Sol Ring. In a fair number of games I took out both the Sol Ring and the Faithless Looting so as to ensure I wasn't losing any card advantage. The Mizzium Mortars came in a lot simply to up my burn quota and in hindsight it would probably have been better to have it and something else main instead of the Sol Ring and the Looting.  This however would have made me a lot less happy to play both Sword and Koth and would mean I would have to bring in some very sub par cards from the sideboard to replace them. That said it was incredibly consistent and had enough tempo and reach to finish games off well. It looks light on disruption but what it has barely effects it and makes all the difference in a lot of games. The deck didn't drop a game despite having some very close call games against things like turn two Sun Titans from the guy with the Black Lotus and several other bits of power and would be my vote for the best archetype.... still. Best and most powerful are not to be confused however, the most powerful archetype has bomb like blue cards and loads of artifacts and lands that unfairly ramp but it is not the best because you will rarely be able to get all the right combinations of the pieces. Four drafts is a long way off a sensible sample size however and I could have just had good luck with my red deck wins and happened to play against a lot of clunky big threat decks in all my drafts. I believe red has such reach that it is a deck than can be a 9/10 or even 10/10 while still always managing to consistently average a 7/10.

UGw Opposition

Opposition is one of the most powerful cards in the cube and in any draft format in which it has seen print. No surprise that the cube versions of Opposition decks are very capable and have been kicking around the tier one area since the dawn of cube. It is a bit of a tease having Opposition as a blue card, or at least it used to be when blue had bugger all dorks worth playing. Glare of Subdual felt like it was more in the right place on the colour pie but not tapping lands makes it far far less interesting for cube play. Green was always the pairing colour of choice for Opposition decks as all the good ramp and utility creatures scale so well into the late game with Opposition. Blue can now quite comfortably do a mono Opposition deck but it is more difficult to draft, more damaged when cut and not as all round consistent as the UG version. This list is UGw which is probably the strongest of all should you get the appropriate fixing.

The main joy of UG(x) Opposition decks is that they are so wonderfully easy to draft. I do not mean it is low skill, I mean that the colours are very deep and the kinds of card you are after are broad and well catered for in most cubes. I end up drafting this deck an awful lot as it is very easy to slip into and highly reliable, all you really need is the Opposition, which often doesn't get first picked but is easily first pickable and more often than not the most powerful card in the pack, if not, it is still likely to be the easiest to abuse. So many lowish powered first picks out of nothing better in the pack will end up being ideal in Opposition decks. The white in this list helps to significantly increase the overall power level of the cards in the deck but is not needed at all to make the deck work or plug any gaps. I would never aim to go for a three colour Opposition deck and would only do so if the draft kindly gift wrapped that option, or gave me no other...

24 Spells


Bird of Paradise
Joraga Treespeaker
Llanowar Elf
Noble Hierarch

Swords to Plowshares
Force Spike
Skullclamp

Wall of Blossoms
Wall of Roots
Stoneforge Mystic
Viridian Emissary

Arcane Denial

Eternal Witness
Kitchen Finks
Wood Elves
Blade Splicer


Opposition
Master of the Wild Hunt
Restoration Angel
Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Garruk, Wildspeaker

Acidic Slime
Batterskull

Consecrated Sphinx

16 Lands

Tropical Island
Savannah
Tundra
Flooded Strand

Misty Rainforest
Breeding Pool
Temple Garden
Stirring Wildwood

Celestial Colonnade
Yavimaya Coast
Flooded Grove
Simic Growth Chamber

3 Forests
1 Island



Once you have your Opposition the only thing that you are really trying to do is cram as many useful creatures into the deck as possible. As the criteria is being a dork, and the cube is full of really good dorks, you can build multiple versions of similarly good Opposition decks that only have Opposition and lands in common. Talking specifically about the choices of dorks I have gone for in this list is not overly helpful in understanding the archetype which is both broader than BG decks, not to mention better. So, as you want lots of guys it is a good idea to get as many of the effects you want to have in your deck in dork form such as Acidic Slime instead of Naturalize and Wall of Roots over Explore / Nature's Lore. In the latter example Wall of Roots is also far superior to Sakura Tribe Elder because you get to ramp and keep a body in play for tapping things later on. More key that the commonly used strategy of having utility dorks is having spells that double up as guys such as living weapon or planeswalkers that make tokens.

Opposition decks are not without their weaknesses, which include mass removal, enchantment removal, creatures that don't need to tap to be useful or can at least usefully tap at instant speed, and lastly running out of gas. Enchantment removal tends not to be an issue as not all that much gets played and the few that are such as Vindicate are easy to play around. You also have a bit of insurance with Eternal Witness however a counterspell tends to be the best solution when you can't deny them the ability to actually cast it. Counterspells are also a great answer to mass removal and so are worth a few slots but too many is crippling and leaves you with too little a creature count. Gone are the days of Mystic Snake being a big name in this archetype. Arcane Denial is perfect as it at least draws you a card which is the next best thing to having a dork and it is also cheap and easy to cast, you don't even really care about the cards you give your opponent. Typically you are punishing them in one area, be it lands or dorks and only care about the few outs they might have. There are other ways of making mass removal less painful to you such as persistent monsters like Kitchen Finks and planewalkers who tend to avoid mass removal.


Blue and green are the two colours that lack creature removal, Opposition will stop blockers and attackers you don't like but it does little to stop a Grim Lavamancer going to town on your army and you will spend more time with Opposition not in play that you will with it any ways. The counterspells can help in this area but it is not the main, or even a very good reason to include them. You would be far better off with more dedicated removal such as Umezawa's Jitte. Having a third colour as I have done offers the creature kill but it is yet another non-creature card in the deck for the most part and wants to be kept to a minimum. The only half playable single colour removal spells that are also dorks are Flame Tongue Kavu and Shriekmaw. Bounce and control magic effects I find tend to work out pretty well when no third colour is an option. Bounce effects are easy to find on decent creatures and work very well in your deck. Mana critters combined with bounce dorks give you a huge tempo edge, combined with counter magic they offer a more reliable way of dealing with pesky dorks and combined with Opposition they can stop bounced things ever coming back to play. The list I have given is very much on the light side of ways to deal with dorks and is more focused on card advantage and creature power to compensate for this lacking.

The final weakness of the archetype is that it can run out of gas very easily. In a top deck situation you are often in real trouble as so many of your cards are do nothing Elves and you have few serious threat cards. This list is very very high on card draw effects with Jace, Skullclamp and Consecrated Sphinx, all serious card draw engines. You do not need to go this all out on it but some is certainly needed unless you end up only playing really high power cards, which in turn means you will lose to any vaguely quick deck.

I feel I need to rise to my own challenge and make a viable list that uses very few of the same cards to illustrate the depth of the archetype.

24 Spells

Birds of Paradise
Fyndhorn Elves
Llanowar Mentor
Brainstorm

Enclave Cryptologist

Lotus Cobra
Waterfront Bouncer
Fauna Shaman
Coiling Oracle

Tarmogoyf

Squee, Goblin Nabob
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Man O' War
Eternal Witness

Shardless Agent
Trygon Predator

Opposition
Sower of Temptation
Glen Eldandra Archmage
Vengevine

Genesis
Meluko, the Clouded Mirror
Thragtusk
Force of Will

16 Lands including a Treetop Village

Ok, so not quite no overlap, Birds of Paradise and Eternal Witness are too juicy, I very nearly put some two mana walls in the second list as well!

Top 10 Burn Spells

A nice pure Top X list here much like the counterspells one. It would be easy enough to work this out from my ratings however here it is for convenience sake. It is far far easier to compare a narrow style of card like counterspells or burn directly, especially given their colour confinements as they all do the same one thing. Without further-a-do here is my list:


10. Lava Dart                 1 (4)
9.   Seal of Fire               4 (8)
8.   Searing Blaze            2 (18)
7.   Searing Spear           4.5
6.   Incinerate                 4.5
5.   Chain Lightening       9
4.   Burst Lightening       4 (3.6)
3.   Fireblast                  2.6 (20)
2.   Arc Trail                 9
1.   Lightening Bolt        9


Ball Lightening              12
Galvanic Blast              16






I imagine many are wondering where Lightening Helix is on my list and will be assuming I have excluded non-red cards or something similar however I just don't think it is top 10 material. It is the most overrated burn spell going as it is hard to cast and is at somewhat cross purposes. Certainly it is a card that offers huge value and is well above the curve on power but life schmife is all I can say. In a control deck it is a decent tempo card as the life is significant but in the agro decks the simple Incinerate is so much more forgiving on your mana and does exactly the same thing, if not more, for you. I hate gold cards anyway for their lack of playability and stand by my rating of Seal of Fire and Lava Dart above it. To be fair to the card the only other burn spell not on this list I might rate above it is Firebolt and so the very worst Helix is would be the 12th best burn spell.



Another exclusion which deserves honourable mention is Galvanic Blast which is quite significantly better than all the other burn when in the right deck. Burn is very simple to break down into a numerical comparison where you factor in the burn per mana and burn per card. By doing this you can get an all round value score for your card which accounts for both forms of card efficiency. Obviously you will tend to favour mana efficiency or damage efficiency on your burn depending on what kind of deck you are building so the scoring isn't all that relevant beyond a theoretical point of view. More significant are the factors that fall outside the considerations of these efficiencies such as prerequisites for the effects or additional costs or stipulations. Fireblast would technically score infinite due to not costing mana to use most of the time. It is hard to simply mathematically compare saccing two lands to a normal mana cost and my method of removing infinities is somewhat of a botch. The numbers by the sides of the card are suppost to represent the combined score of mana efficiency and burn efficiency, Lightning Bolt is 3 burn for one mana and one card, 3 x 3 = 9, simple.
Galvanic Blast gets a near top score when it is cast with metal craft and has all the benefits that the rating does not account for as well being both one mana and instants speed. Despite this there are not enough artifact decks that really want good cheap burn to merit it having a main cube slot.

Lightning Bolt is a clear winner, the score system doesn't account for instant speed which is always nice. Nine is a good score although not the highest, it gets the top spot for being so consistently good. One mana spells are a premium and with no drawback or downside Bolt goes in every red deck very happily.

Arc Trail gets a more controversial second place. In cube there are far greater numbers of cheap spells than other formats and lots of small utility creatures to boot. Arc Trail is very easy to get a two for one with and can even find it happening against non agro decks. It is at its strongest against the agro decks where it can so easily take all the steam out of their draw. In these situations where you cast it on turn two or three and hit two dorks it is about the best tempo card in the cube. It also offers cheap card advantage in red where it is short supply. The worst it ever is still makes it playable in decks like red deck wins where you want all your cards to be able to do two damage to the dome. The score for Arc Trail can be 2 at worst when it is two mana and a card for just two damage but when you get the two for one it is a high scorer as well.

Fireblast is the narrowest of the burn spells in this list but it is also the most powerful by quite some way. When you can afford so sac two mountains the score is equivalent to 20 which is over double the number one card! When you can't however it is a pathetic 2.6 which is fairly unplayable thus illustrating why the card is narrow - unless you can reliably afford to sac two mountains the card is weak. Usually this just ends the game as the last card the turn before your opponent was expecting however the beefy 4 damage does occasionally make it worthwhile using midgame to wipe out a big dork and keep swinging.

Burst Lightning just pips Chain Lightning to 4th place and this is primarily because of control decks preferring the flexibility and instant speed of the card to the raw power of Chain Lightning. Neither 4 or 3.6 are huge scores which are the respective normal and kicked options however this rating does not reflect the range of the card. One mana spells are premium early game and high damage burn spells are much more efficient late game and Burst gives you a decent offering for both scenarios.


Chain Lightning might as well just do three damage, I have never yet seen the fork ability get used which is quite remarkable. In theory it would be cool on a Swans of Bryn Argoll but further applications for it I struggle to find. In very aggressive decks it is pretty close to Lightning Bolt but in control it is rather more tedious and sees much much less play even with its very solid score of 9 and having the premium one mana cost.

Incinerate is quite a step down in power from the premium burn but like Lightning Bolt is highly consistent. The anti regenerate effect is very marginal but does at least come into play now and again unlike Chain Lightnings ability. Three damage at instant speed is desirable and although it is not very mana efficient it is far easier on your red which is highly relevant in two or more coloured decks.

Searing Spear is obviously just another Incinerate for all intents and purposes. Redundancy is nice but that is not really a thing burn in general lacks, in fact it works against Spear quite often. You want another burn spell but already have Incinerate and find you would rather play something else than Spear which gives you a different kind of effect.


Searing Blaze is rather like Arc Trail in that it can be utterly unfair or somewhat weak. Most decks now run dorks and so Blaze's inherent weakness over other more reliable burn is less and less an issue. When it is weak it is far weaker than Arc Trail at its worst however when Blaze is strong it is the best burns spell in your deck. It scores a massive 18 when it deals 6 damage for two mana and this would theoretically be 36 if you managed to kill off a creature and a planeswalker at once. Because it is so off the charts good when at its best, which is not that hard to engineer, it is well worth playing and risking it being bad.

Seal of Fire is a highly underrated burn spell that does wonders for your mana efficiency and burst output. It is not uncommon in the cube to need to kill something with 5 or more toughness on turn two or three and it is often the case that you have sufficient burn just insufficient mana. Burn heavy hands in general are irksome as you often have to waste the early opportunities to use your mana if you have no targets to kill. Seal of Fire is always happy to be thrown onto the table for later use. It may seem marginal spending just one mana a few turns earlier than you need to spend it but it is just much easier to overlook those kinds of benefits and is far from marginal. Typically this is more of an agro card than a control card but is playable in any deck. A score of 4 is low, probably the cut off point for playable, but if it fulfils the criteria of costing you zero relevant mana then it gets a very healthy score of 8.


Lava Dart is my final burn spell of choice, it is low impact but highly flexible. It can be more game changing that Arc Trail in the right circumstance and also offers high curving efficiency like Seal of Fire. It is also a card you still get most of the value from when you discard it for whatever reason. Another perk it has over cards like Arc Trail is that is is very hard to play around having it kill two of your dorks, against the Arc Trail you can simply stagger your low toughness dorks so that you never have two in play however Dart happily waits around to get its second kill.

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.