So everybody knows that Masques was pretty awful. Original Masques wasn't the worst - kind of like Urza's Saga but without the hyperbombs like Pestilence or Phyrexian Processor. And it was even *slower* than saga. Nemesis was okay. Prophecy was absolutely awful, though dropping mana burn has slightly improved some of its cards. Masques really didn't have any decks you drafted, except Rebels. Mercenaries isn't really a "deck". The small ones are terrible and the big ones are decently-costed big dudes.
Also a lot of cards have stupid drawbacks.
So in the theme of Tempest Remastered, let's do Masques Remastered.
Tempest Remastered had 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 60 rares and 15 mythics. So let's use that as a starting point. All three sets combined are a lot of cards, but so many of them are absolutely terrible.
Lands and Artifacts
Masques has virtually no fixing. Henge of Ramos is overcosted. There's a lot of double costs. There's really not much to push somebody into splashing aside from efficient removal like arrest. So most of these cards are very easy to cut out.
Chimeric Idol - Common
Copper-Leaf Angel - Rare
Crenellated Wall - Uncommon
Crooked Scales - Rare
Eye of Yawgmoth - Uncommon
Flowstone Thopter - Rare
Hollow Warrior - Uncommon
Mercadian Atlas - Uncommon
Monkey Cage - Rare
Power Matrix - Rare
Predator, Flagship - Mythic
Tanglewire - Rare
Well of Life - Uncommon
High Market - Rare
Kor Haven - Rare
Rath's Edge - Rare
Rishadan Port - Rare
White
White is so full of terrible cards it's rather hard to choose what is less bad than the rest. The rebels are pretty much the only good thing in white. They are a lot better when it's possible to get the deck together. Most of the rebels are in, with rarity downgrades. White rares are kind of weak since I had to stretch to fill the rare slots, but white should be pretty powerful in draft, which is the whole point. White's curve is high but that can't really be helped. I removed most of the color hosers since they lead to feel-bads and rebels should be strong without randomly hosing black and red. White's spellshapers share a problem - they all do the same thing! One guy taps to remove an attacking creature. One guy taps to make an attacking creature do no damage. Another taps to make a target creature not able to attack. It's all virtually the same effect. So I cut most of them out.
White Rares - 10 cards
Barely got 10 cards. Yay masques!
Avenger en-Dal
Crackdown
Honor the Fallen
Ivory Mask
Jeweled Spirit
Jhovall Queen
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
Oracle's Attendants
Parallax Wave
Wave of Reckoning
White Mythic
Cho-Manno, Revolutionary
Mageta the Lion
Story Circle
Black
The mercenaries are good on their own, but I reduced rarity so it would be somewhat more possible to play a mercenary deck. Black has some of the best spellshapers and a card that is actually GOOD that requires you to sack lands (Agent of Shauku). And Cackling Witch is a fireball on legs. In black. Not an absolutely amazing color but not the worst.
Mythic Rares
Ascendant Evincar
Avatar of Woe
Greel, Mind Raker
Green
Green Commons - 20 each
Tough - Green is mostly terrible. There just isn’t that much here. There’s some fun tribal cards, but no support whatsoever. A card that tutors a dude from deck to play? Awesome. How many green elves in the set? One. Sigh. This is definitely a set from the days when green was terrible. There’s a shockingly large number of cards in this set that have stupid drawbacks. Like a 5/4 for 2GG that says “all creatures your opponent controls is unblockable. Fair.”
Food Chain
Jolrael, Empress of Beasts
Vitalizing Wind
Red
This is an olden-days set so Red's pretty one track. It's burn and stuff. There's a fair amount of big dudes here. Red should be much better than it was in original masques because there's far fewer walls now.
Red Commons - 20 Cards
Barbed Field
Battle Rampart
Devastate
Fault Riders
Flaming Sword
Flowstone Crusher
Keldon Berserker
Kris Mage
Kyren Sniper
Laccolith Grunt
Lightning Hounds
Ogre Taskmaster
Panic Attack
Rhystic Lightning
Ridgeline Racer
Seal of Fire
Shock Troops
Spur Grappler
Thunderclap
Zerapa Minotaur
Red Uncommons - 15 Cards
Ancient Hydra
Arc Mage
Battle Squadron
Cave-In
Cinder Elemental
Close Quarters
Flameshot
Hired Giant
Laccolith Titan
Laccolith Warrior
Lava Runner
Robber Fly
Scoria Cat
Search for Survivors
War Cadence
Warmonger
Blue
So, like, blue may be the best color now. Merfolk tribal is possible if you get a seahunter. There's a lot of efficient flyers in a set with few creatures with reach. It's fat except for avatar is absolutely terrible, though.
I think Rebels would probably run away with most Masques Remastered drafts.
Wow, seeing some of your rarity upgrades (especially making mythics from a pretty rubbish collection of rares) makes me remember how godawful Masques block was. That said, I'd still draft this and give it a shot.
Unfortunately white is pretty much dead without rebels. Unless you like 3/1s for 2W that deal no damage when blocked. Shudder.
The rebels are offset but the fact that they really aren't that good on their own. Some of the three drops are good and the big ones are either evasive or big, but I hacked out a lot of the stall that made this format so boring. Hopefully that brings up the other colours a bit.
Half of the way to make this into a decent-sorta-okay draft format was to downgrade a lot of the rares that shouldn't have been rares in the first place, like Ramosian Sky Captain. I also got rid of most of the second-stringer white removal so you can't just sit behind walls and weak kill spells to build up a rebel army. It does make the rares very unimpressive but that's kind of unavoidable.
Pale Moon is the best mythic. Mark Rosewater would be proud.
Pretty inspiring work. Thanks for the explanations!
Why did you shift the black Avatar's rarity and cut the white Avatar? Also, I'm not a fan of Pale Moon, even as an in-joke. What would you replace it with?
Pretty inspiring work. Thanks for the explanations!
Why did you shift the black Avatar's rarity and cut the white Avatar? Also, I'm not a fan of Pale Moon, even as an in-joke. What would you replace it with?
There's virtually no answer to the black avatar in this set except for Arrest and bounce. Kind of easy for the black player to just not play Avatar into a waterfront bouncer or something (or even do it anyway to force you to pitch a card forever). All black kill spells say "non black". It's kind of this set's Drana. I'd almost cut it entirely, really, because a resolved avatar = GG.
The white avatar is simply too expensive. With a lot of the frustrating stall out of the set it's unlikely to get into play much, and you don't get a whole lot for what you pay for.
I have no idea what would fit, blue's rares are just so incredibly weak. The only blue rare that can take over the game is Alexi. Overtaker pretty much "takes" over a game if it's unchecked so maybe that. Replace the rare with one of the many overcosted fat blue dudes I cut.
It's funny how fixing Masques block means outright cutting the set's central concept/conceit.
Eh, the good concepts are still here. Mercenaries and Rebels. Mercenaries never really worked as concepted because a bunch of them have evasion so it's better to, like, attack with them. The spellshapers that aren't terrible are in too. The problem was that the spellshapers were pretty repetitive (and often pretty terrible). I'm not sure why they felt they needed something like four white dudes, all of whom did something bad to target attacking creature. Or a black spellshaper for dark ritual, in the same set as dark ritual. There wasn't really any theme for red and green aside from big dudes and direct damage. The prophecy conceits were pretty terrible but a few snuck in, like the 3B 3/2 fear if you're tapped out and fault riders (which is good enough to make it into pauper/peasant cubes).
By far the most widespread and deeply supported concept in the block was mana negotiation with all those dozens and dozens of cards that say "Do X unless any player pays Y," "any player may use this ability," "if you/opponent control no untapped lands" or, slightly more subtly, "Sac a land: do X."
Granted, those are inherently weak, and the one small set that wasn't all about beancounting mana was usually the only pack with cards (beside Rebels) that felt good to play.
By far the most widespread and deeply supported concept in the block was mana negotiation with all those dozens and dozens of cards that say "Do X unless any player pays Y," "any player may use this ability," "if you/opponent control no untapped lands" or, slightly more subtly, "Sac a land: do X."
Granted, those are inherently weak, and the one small set that wasn't all about beancounting mana was usually the only pack with cards (beside Rebels) that felt good to play.
Well both the mongers and some rhystic spells are still in. Anything that your opponent can use as well as you had better be pretty darn good to be worth it. The mongers made the cut. Everything else not so much.
Old topic I know, but most folks seem to have a strange idea of Masques draft, especially full block. Rebels aren't the only deck in there at all, and whether they're stronger than RB mercenaries in full MSQ/NEM/PCY is rather debatable. The main theme of the block is alternate casting costs (Spellshapers, recruiters, pitch spells, sacrificing lands...)
For Mercenaries, and thus black, the key cards (besides the excellent removal like Snuff Out and Vendetta) are:
Agent of Shauku who is a tutorable 1 mana = 1 damage machine if you don't mind sacrificing lands, and you don't. Also makes all your chaffy looking cheap black dudes trade up. Key black card and once you understand it it changes how Masques block works for you. Bog Glider recruits cheap fodder for no mana cost, which is rather excellent, also flies. Mishapen Fiend recruitable flier. Spineless Thug recruitable bear. Rathi Intimidator and the guy who comes in and does 3 damage to both players and then recruits for 3 from Nemesis. Cateran Persuader and Rampart Crawler are also useable.
The main thing to remember is that with Agent of Shauku on the table each of your dudes has "1B, sac a land: +2/+0 until EoT". And both the agent and the dudes are reliably recruitable for cheap. Also, even your non-mercenaries can be pumped by the agent.
Mogg Toady (because you can often crank out more dudes than anyone else, especially with Bog Glider and if you score Moggcatcher you can crank these out) Spur Grappler (quite a little beater, especially with Flaming Sword) Blaster Mage (there are very annoying walls in Masques)
And you try to have some spellshaper pingers (there are 2 red ones and 1 black one) handy to snipe protection critters. Ways to close the game if the oponent manages to stabilize a board stall are copious (Highway Robber, Despoil, Shock Troops, Flame Rift, Insubordination, you name it, whatever gets the final few points in if you feel like you need it).
That's the essence of it, and it can kill in 5 or so turns. Masques block has a lot of rares and artifacts powered down to the point of useless, but its problem was more that it wasn't appealing to casual players than anything. How "cubeable" this is is debatable, as you want cards in multiples, but that's a really important archetype in Masques block draft, and also possibly the strongest one overall.
Most cubes that aim to replicate a set pretty much need to run multiples at the common rarity at least and prob uncommon/rare too, so that shouldn't be a problem.
Also a lot of cards have stupid drawbacks.
So in the theme of Tempest Remastered, let's do Masques Remastered.
Tempest Remastered had 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 60 rares and 15 mythics. So let's use that as a starting point. All three sets combined are a lot of cards, but so many of them are absolutely terrible.
Lands and Artifacts
Masques has virtually no fixing. Henge of Ramos is overcosted. There's a lot of double costs. There's really not much to push somebody into splashing aside from efficient removal like arrest. So most of these cards are very easy to cut out.
Artifacts and Lands - 1 common, 5 uncommons, 10 rares, 1 mythic
Chimeric Idol - Common
Copper-Leaf Angel - Rare
Crenellated Wall - Uncommon
Crooked Scales - Rare
Eye of Yawgmoth - Uncommon
Flowstone Thopter - Rare
Hollow Warrior - Uncommon
Mercadian Atlas - Uncommon
Monkey Cage - Rare
Power Matrix - Rare
Predator, Flagship - Mythic
Tanglewire - Rare
Well of Life - Uncommon
High Market - Rare
Kor Haven - Rare
Rath's Edge - Rare
Rishadan Port - Rare
White
White is so full of terrible cards it's rather hard to choose what is less bad than the rest. The rebels are pretty much the only good thing in white. They are a lot better when it's possible to get the deck together. Most of the rebels are in, with rarity downgrades. White rares are kind of weak since I had to stretch to fill the rare slots, but white should be pretty powerful in draft, which is the whole point. White's curve is high but that can't really be helped. I removed most of the color hosers since they lead to feel-bads and rebels should be strong without randomly hosing black and red. White's spellshapers share a problem - they all do the same thing! One guy taps to remove an attacking creature. One guy taps to make an attacking creature do no damage. Another taps to make a target creature not able to attack. It's all virtually the same effect. So I cut most of them out.
White Commons - 20 cards
Abolish
Arrest
Alabaster Wall
Angelic Favor
Charm Peddler
Chieftain en-Dal
Cho-Manno's Blessing
Defender en-Vec
Defiant Falcon
Diving Griffin
Fresh Volunteers
Jhovall Rider
Mageta's Boon
Ramosian Captain
Ramosian Commander
Ramosian Rally
Ramosian Sergeant
Shield Dancer
Silkenfist Order
Steadfast Guard
Uncommons - 15
Ballista Squad
Blinding Angel
Charmed Griffin
Cho-Arrim Brusier
Defiant Vanguard
Flowering Field
Fountain Watch
Last Breath
Nightwind Glider
Thermal Glider
Noble Purpose
Ramosian Sky Marshal
Reveille Squad
Troubled Healer
Wishmonger
White Rares - 10 cards
Barely got 10 cards. Yay masques!
Avenger en-Dal
Crackdown
Honor the Fallen
Ivory Mask
Jeweled Spirit
Jhovall Queen
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
Oracle's Attendants
Parallax Wave
Wave of Reckoning
White Mythic
Cho-Manno, Revolutionary
Mageta the Lion
Story Circle
Black
The mercenaries are good on their own, but I reduced rarity so it would be somewhat more possible to play a mercenary deck. Black has some of the best spellshapers and a card that is actually GOOD that requires you to sack lands (Agent of Shauku). And Cackling Witch is a fireball on legs. In black. Not an absolutely amazing color but not the worst.
Black Commons - 20 each
Agent of Shauku
Cackling Witch
Cateran Brute
Cateran Kidnappers
Chilling Apparition
Deepwood Ghoul
Fen Stalker
Maggot Therapy
Misshapen Fiend
Phyrexian Prowler
Plague Witch
Primeval Shambler
Rathi Fiend
Rathi Intimidator
Skulking Fugitive
Spineless Thug
Steal Strength
Strongarm Thug
Undertaker
Vendetta
Black Uncommons - 15 cards
Cateran Enforcer
Cateran Overlord
Cateran Slaver
Deathgazer
Enslaved Horror
Haunted Crossroads
Massacre
Nether Spirit
Rathi Assassin
Rhystic Syphon
Scandalmonger
Sever Soul
Silent Assassin
Snuff Out
Soul Strings
Rares - 10 cards
Cateran Overlord
Conspiracy
Death Pit Offering
Extortion
Instigator
Murderous Betrayal
Notorious Assassin
Plague Wind
Unnatural Hunger
Thrashing Wumpus
Mythic Rares
Ascendant Evincar
Avatar of Woe
Greel, Mind Raker
Green
Green Commons - 20 each
Tough - Green is mostly terrible. There just isn’t that much here. There’s some fun tribal cards, but no support whatsoever. A card that tutors a dude from deck to play? Awesome. How many green elves in the set? One. Sigh. This is definitely a set from the days when green was terrible. There’s a shockingly large number of cards in this set that have stupid drawbacks. Like a 5/4 for 2GG that says “all creatures your opponent controls is unblockable. Fair.”
Ancestral Mask
Deepwood Drummer
Deepwood Wolverine
Giant Caterpillar
Horned Troll
Invigorate
Nesting Wurm
Pygmy Razorback
Reverent Silence
Rib Cage Spider
Rushwood Dryad
Rushwood Herbalist
Silt Crawler
Silverglade Pathfinder
Snorting Gahr
Spidersilk Armor
Thresher Beast
Treetop Bracers
Verdant Field
Vine Trellis
Green Uncommons - 15 cards
Blastoderm
Caustic Wasps
Desert Twister
Foster
Groundskeeper
Hunted Wumpus
Living Terrain
Lure
Revive
Saber Ants
Spitting Spider
Squallmonger
Stampede Driver
Woodripper
Wild Mammoth
Rares
Avatar of Might
Collective Unconscious
Dawnstrider
Forgotten Harvest
Mungha Wurm
Natural Affinity
Rhox
Saproling Burst
Spontaneous Generation
Squirrel Wrangler
Mythic Rares
Food Chain
Jolrael, Empress of Beasts
Vitalizing Wind
Red
This is an olden-days set so Red's pretty one track. It's burn and stuff. There's a fair amount of big dudes here. Red should be much better than it was in original masques because there's far fewer walls now.
Red Commons - 20 Cards
Barbed Field
Battle Rampart
Devastate
Fault Riders
Flaming Sword
Flowstone Crusher
Keldon Berserker
Kris Mage
Kyren Sniper
Laccolith Grunt
Lightning Hounds
Ogre Taskmaster
Panic Attack
Rhystic Lightning
Ridgeline Racer
Seal of Fire
Shock Troops
Spur Grappler
Thunderclap
Zerapa Minotaur
Red Uncommons - 15 Cards
Ancient Hydra
Arc Mage
Battle Squadron
Cave-In
Cinder Elemental
Close Quarters
Flameshot
Hired Giant
Laccolith Titan
Laccolith Warrior
Lava Runner
Robber Fly
Scoria Cat
Search for Survivors
War Cadence
Warmonger
Red Rares - 10 Cards
Avatar of Fury
Brawl
Flowstone Overseer
Flowstone Slide
Keldon Firebombers
Pulverize
Searing Wind
Seismic Mage
Thieves’ Auction
Volcanic Wind
Red Mythics - 3 Cards
Latulla, Keldon Overseer
Squee, Goblin Nabob
Two-Headed Dragon
Blue
So, like, blue may be the best color now. Merfolk tribal is possible if you get a seahunter. There's a lot of efficient flyers in a set with few creatures with reach. It's fat except for avatar is absolutely terrible, though.
Blue Commons - 20 cards
Accumulated Knowledge
Blockade Runner
Brainstorm
Chambered Nautilus
Daze
Dehydration
Diplomatic Escort
Drake Hatchling
Gush
Rethink
Rishadan Airship
Rootwater Commando
Saprazzan Outrigger
Seahunter
Seal of Removal
Spiketail Hatchling
Stinging Barrier
Stormwatch Eagle
Stronghold Zeppelin
Trickster Mage
Blue Uncommons - 15 cards
Counterspell
Indentured Djinn
Jolting Merfolk
Rishadan Brigand
Sailmonger
Sand Squid
Rootwater Thief
Saprazzan Merfolk
Spiketail Drake
Rhystic Deluge
Stronghold Biologist
Submerge
Thwart
Waterfront Bouncer
Withdraw
Blue Rares - 10 cards
Aerial Caravan
Avatar of Will
Bribery
Heightened Awareness
Misdirection
Overtaker
Rising Waters
Tidal Kraken
Trade Routes
Troublesome Spirit
Blue Mythic - 2 cards
Alexi, Zephyr Mage
Pale Moon
Might be fun to make this a "set" in one of those draft simulators. It should be a better draft, though rebels and blue in general might be too good.
Wow, seeing some of your rarity upgrades (especially making mythics from a pretty rubbish collection of rares) makes me remember how godawful Masques block was. That said, I'd still draft this and give it a shot.
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The rebels are offset but the fact that they really aren't that good on their own. Some of the three drops are good and the big ones are either evasive or big, but I hacked out a lot of the stall that made this format so boring. Hopefully that brings up the other colours a bit.
Half of the way to make this into a decent-sorta-okay draft format was to downgrade a lot of the rares that shouldn't have been rares in the first place, like Ramosian Sky Captain. I also got rid of most of the second-stringer white removal so you can't just sit behind walls and weak kill spells to build up a rebel army. It does make the rares very unimpressive but that's kind of unavoidable.
Pale Moon is the best mythic. Mark Rosewater would be proud.
Why did you shift the black Avatar's rarity and cut the white Avatar? Also, I'm not a fan of Pale Moon, even as an in-joke. What would you replace it with?
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There's virtually no answer to the black avatar in this set except for Arrest and bounce. Kind of easy for the black player to just not play Avatar into a waterfront bouncer or something (or even do it anyway to force you to pitch a card forever). All black kill spells say "non black". It's kind of this set's Drana. I'd almost cut it entirely, really, because a resolved avatar = GG.
The white avatar is simply too expensive. With a lot of the frustrating stall out of the set it's unlikely to get into play much, and you don't get a whole lot for what you pay for.
I have no idea what would fit, blue's rares are just so incredibly weak. The only blue rare that can take over the game is Alexi. Overtaker pretty much "takes" over a game if it's unchecked so maybe that. Replace the rare with one of the many overcosted fat blue dudes I cut.
Eh, the good concepts are still here. Mercenaries and Rebels. Mercenaries never really worked as concepted because a bunch of them have evasion so it's better to, like, attack with them. The spellshapers that aren't terrible are in too. The problem was that the spellshapers were pretty repetitive (and often pretty terrible). I'm not sure why they felt they needed something like four white dudes, all of whom did something bad to target attacking creature. Or a black spellshaper for dark ritual, in the same set as dark ritual. There wasn't really any theme for red and green aside from big dudes and direct damage. The prophecy conceits were pretty terrible but a few snuck in, like the 3B 3/2 fear if you're tapped out and fault riders (which is good enough to make it into pauper/peasant cubes).
Granted, those are inherently weak, and the one small set that wasn't all about beancounting mana was usually the only pack with cards (beside Rebels) that felt good to play.
Edit - I am an idiot. Thought Mirage was part of the block. Derp.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Well both the mongers and some rhystic spells are still in. Anything that your opponent can use as well as you had better be pretty darn good to be worth it. The mongers made the cut. Everything else not so much.
For Mercenaries, and thus black, the key cards (besides the excellent removal like Snuff Out and Vendetta) are:
Agent of Shauku who is a tutorable 1 mana = 1 damage machine if you don't mind sacrificing lands, and you don't. Also makes all your chaffy looking cheap black dudes trade up. Key black card and once you understand it it changes how Masques block works for you.
Bog Glider recruits cheap fodder for no mana cost, which is rather excellent, also flies.
Mishapen Fiend recruitable flier.
Spineless Thug recruitable bear.
Rathi Intimidator and the guy who comes in and does 3 damage to both players and then recruits for 3 from Nemesis. Cateran Persuader and Rampart Crawler are also useable.
The main thing to remember is that with Agent of Shauku on the table each of your dudes has "1B, sac a land: +2/+0 until EoT". And both the agent and the dudes are reliably recruitable for cheap. Also, even your non-mercenaries can be pumped by the agent.
You combine this with excellent red removal (Seal of Fire, Rhystic Lightning, Lunge, just to name a few), the impossibly effective Flaming Sword and use some of the following:
Mogg Toady (because you can often crank out more dudes than anyone else, especially with Bog Glider and if you score Moggcatcher you can crank these out)
Spur Grappler (quite a little beater, especially with Flaming Sword)
Blaster Mage (there are very annoying walls in Masques)
And you try to have some spellshaper pingers (there are 2 red ones and 1 black one) handy to snipe protection critters. Ways to close the game if the oponent manages to stabilize a board stall are copious (Highway Robber, Despoil, Shock Troops, Flame Rift, Insubordination, you name it, whatever gets the final few points in if you feel like you need it).
That's the essence of it, and it can kill in 5 or so turns. Masques block has a lot of rares and artifacts powered down to the point of useless, but its problem was more that it wasn't appealing to casual players than anything. How "cubeable" this is is debatable, as you want cards in multiples, but that's a really important archetype in Masques block draft, and also possibly the strongest one overall.
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