Can you beleive that we've been doing the Cube updates completely in real life and on Facebook now? Crazy I know, but I thought it would be good to have a URL to point non-Facebookers to see what's in the Cube. Thus the blog has been (briefly) resurrected! I will post a complete list soon. If anyone is actually reading this, feel free to comment.
TooSarcastic
I'll try to keep this brief (ha!). You can skip all this and read the Add/Cuts and still be fine. After much discussion online and IRL, we have Shards of Alara Cube additions!
WHITE: The consensus seems to be that past revisions have pushed the enchantment theme a bit too far. Rhyno had a very powerful enchantment-based deck last draft, and it's something that I think will continue to be viable, but our additions in this color show a renewed focus on creature combat in White. Thanks to Andy for pointing out Battlegrace Angel; I missed it.
BLUE: There were zero Blue cards set aside as cuts by players of the last draft, which I think attests to the health (and power!) of the color. We needed to cut a few Blue cards, so I used my best judgment. Bagha mentioned spending some time looking into old Skies decklists for aggressive Blue flyers. We may see some of those older cards showing up in future iterations.
BLACK: Well, Black's creature base needed improvement. I think we took what we could from Shards to help. Brendan was unimpressed by Black Knight in his weenie deck, which may seem sacrilegious until looking at how many Black weenies do the job better than the old Human Knight. ALL of the additions from Shards were Zombies, so I went for the home run and added Archdemon of Unx. We now have three Zombie Lords, so I hoping we might actually be able to make Zombies what Goblins were supposed to be in the Cube. Hey- it's better than doing nothing!
RED: I think Red is most improved by this update. It loses some middling enchantments and gains ferocious dragons. Flameblast Dragons was mildly controversial, earning the "unfun" moniker from several drafters. We'll try him out. I suspect that he will turn out to be a big fish in a small pond in Shards draft, but less threatening in this format of edicts and tappers.
GREEN: This color will continue to be really good in the Cube, because I think the additions are head and shoulders above the cuts. I was happy with the help from drafters in pulling out weaker Green cards, because I would have missed them on my own.
MULTI: Okay, let me start by saying that balancing numbers in the Cube is complicated. Keeping an even color count allows drafters to make picks based on the power of the cards, not on the probability of seeing a specific color combination. To accommodate the increase in multi colored cards from Shards I cut one extra mono card from each color. Since the last revision all ten two-color combos had either five or six cards. So for example W/R had only five cards, so I knew I wouldn't have to cut anything to add Ajani Vengeant. But R/G already had six cards, so adding Sarkhan Vol meant cutting something else. With the increase in Multicolored cards I was able to sync up all the two-color pair combinations at six apiece. Add five three-color cards and we get 35 total Multi cards. Great, but Shards had no Cube-worthy W/U or U/B to get those color pairs up to six (although I considered adding Agony Warp). So I used the excellent new Beta Gatherer to look through all the possible two-color choices for each combination. While I was "under the hood" I took the opportunity to cut Æthertow (which was universally panned by the players at the last draft), replacing it with Iridescent Angel. I think there are better cards for W/U than Silkbind Faerie too, but it at least performs in the early game to set up a control deck. In my experience, every time I was playing Æthertow it was a last resort because I had no better bounce or removal in hand. Hope that long explanation made some sense!
ARTIFACTS: There is only one change here, the awesome Sigil. Jamison pointed out that Relic of Progenitus is NOT better than Phyrexian Furnace, because the targeted player chooses which card to remove, not the Relic's controller. That makes it poop, so it did not make the cut.
LAND: Despite Jeremy's impassioned speech for including Riptide Laboratory, we're not making any changes immediately here. Wasteland probably will come out soon, though.
Finally! Here are the changes.
WHITE
IN
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Knight of the White Orchid
Battlegrace Angel
OUT
Enduring Renewal (One of the worse emchantments in the Cube)
Rule of Law (See Enduring Renewal)
Kataki War's Wage (An artifact deck is not viable in this Cube)
Kinsbaile Cavalier (It was a nice idea, but I've never seen this card played)
BLUE
IN
Tezzeret the Seeker
OUT
Evacuation (one of the "worst" non-creature spells in U)
Surgespanner (meh)
BLACK
IN
Corpse Connoisseur
Viscera Dragger
Death Baron
Archdemon of Unx (Fuck it, let's just do this thing!)
OUT
Sarcomancy (Everyone but me hates this card, so it's finally out)
Nefashu, (That this ever made the cut lets you know that we have a Black creature problem)
Funeral Charm (It's flexible, but simply too underpowered to get played in Cube)
Skittering Skirge (Turns out in Cube a 3/2 flyer can't win games singlehandedly)
Black Knight (Hard to believe this guy was hated on so much, but there are 4 other two drops that do the same thing better in B, May be replaced by Hand of Cruelty down the road)
RED
IN
Predator Dragon
Flameblast Dragon
Hell's Thunder
Hissing Iguanar
OUT
Furnace of Rath (This and Pandemonium were kind of thrown in as non-burn red spells last time, but there were no good combo enablers for either)
Pandemonium (See Furnace of Rath)
Manabarbs (I shit you not when I added this I swear it cost 2R)
Orcish Lumberjack (Very niche card that can be amazing in the Tooth and Nail deck but is poop everywhere else, AND it's not even a Goblin)
Magus of the Arena (Flameblast Dragon is just better!)
GREEN
IN
Wild Nacatl
Mycoloth
Rhox Charger
OUT
Blanchwood Armor (Redundant with Moldervine Cloak, no other Green cards (except Tower Above, see below) push mono-G)
Tower Above (Overrun, Garruk, are better see Blanchwood re: mono-G)
vinelasher Kudzu (Green has better creatures)
Essence Warden (Not enough token generation in G to be stupid good, and really wants to be in a control deck, which G does badly)
Artifacts
IN
Sigil of Distinction
OUT
Lotus Petal (Storm.dec turned out to not be viable, other color-fixers and accelerants are just better)
Multi
IN
Ajani Vengeant
Sarkhan Vol
Realm Razer
Broodmate Dragon
Iridescent Angel *See beginning of this email for why we are adding older W/U and U/B cards to the Cube
Godhead of Awe *See beginning of this email for why we are adding older W/U and U/B cards to the Cube
Psychatog *See beginning of this email for why we are adding older W/U and U/B cards to the Cube
OUT
Burning-Tree Shaman (This was the "worst" R/G card IMHO)
Æthertow (There are definitely better W/U cards than this)
Land
IN
---
OUT
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Thanks for all the help! Feel free to voice any disagreements with these choices, as well suggestions for older cards that may be better. I will post a complete upadated list soon.
Tom
PS- If anyone has an Elspeth or Ajani Vengeant to lend to the Cube, let me know!
