MTG Salvation

The whole point of the elf decks is to untap with that elf, so stifling their mana development is pretty strong. Making Kodama's Reach or Tireless Tracker come down a turn later is a winning strategy as you're actively foiling your opponent's plan. On top of that, they're drawing an elf in two turns, that's kind of like a time walk in the way that tuck effects are.

I never played with Geist, and I never found it all that appealing. It's just an efficient beater that resists removal. I'm not that interested in goodstuff, especially when it outclasses most of the goodstuff I do play.

I use whatever I've got handy for tokens. I sometimes carry little rubber ninjas, which are my favorite thing to use, but I'm not remotely particular.

My group doesn't get together as often as we'd like, so Geist of Saint Traft hasn't had a chance to be played yet in my cube, so I don't have any first-hand experience with him yet.

I went and purchased some official tokens for the cards that make them in my cube, as I too value the aesthetic of everything matching in my cube (which is also a small part of the reason my cube is black border, post-modern card face only). I glued together a black snake token for Ophiomancer using a snake from Amonkhet, as a placeholder until they make an official one eventually.

Geist is great, and is my favorite tempo creature. Resolving a 3-drop that can bash for 6 with partial evasion ...that has hexproof... is just so good.

Oust is okay against aggro creatures, but it doesn't shine there the same way it does against mana dorks. The threat quality in aggro decks are pretty similar baselines, and there isn's a huge average gap in creature quality. Them re-drawing their Isamaru on T3 and simply re-casting it doesn't hurt their gameplan the same way that it can disrupt a ramp deck when you set their ramp card back two turns. The aggro player just re-draws cheap gas, and they can continue to apply pressure and cast spells. As the control player, sure, you get a little breathing room, but it's not anything more than you'd get from any other removal spell. Except when you're forced to target something else. When you have to aim Oust at their Hellrider, for example, it just doesn't do you much good. I'd rather have a Path (or even a Condemn!) in that spot all day, every day. If I'm playing a removal spell because I want something my control decks can use against aggro, I'd much rather dedicate that spot to Condemn. Oust would be my card of choice if I wanted my tempo decks to have a good tool against midrange/ramp decks, because that's the one matchup where it can compare favorably to all the other tier-2 options. But there's no scenario where I'd have Oust in a cube slot and Path not already in the list waiting for company.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think there is a canyon-esque gorge between Swords/Path and the next remotely playable 1cc white removal spell.

Geist seems great, a cheap (partially) evasive threat in the colors best suited to protecting it. No personal experience playing it, but that duel deck printing made it a bit cheap so I'm sure ill get round to adding it someday.

I have a Ben Grim Golem token I made by glueing Ben Grim to a Golem token. It came out pretty well, I usually dislike pop-culture alters but it felt fitting.

Tokens are awesome! I have recently taken to keeping 2 of each token (though some have more, like spirts if more than one player might need them). That way I can use a token with dice on it to represent tapped and untapped tokens. This way I get the aesthetic fun of tokens without the cluttered board.

Geist is fantastic, but admittedly there are times where being a 2/2 vanilla himself holds him back despite coming with a 4/4 angel. That's the only real drawback, though.

I mostly use official WotC tokens, but I do have a few that I've created myself and printed as proxies. I have Lion-O Cat tokens for Brimaz, Gremlins brand Gremlin tokens for Release the Gremlins, Cthulu Kraken tokens for Kiora, an Abu token for Ragavan, and Inspector Gadget Thopter tokens. If I were made of money, I'd get official WotC tokens altered to be all these things instead of using printed paper proxies slid into sleeves over other generic cards, but alas I haven't yet hit that lotto.

I played Geist alongside Reflector Mage for a while, but then the 3cmc slot for UW tempo decks just seemed too packed. Ended up cutting Geist because it's just a beater, whereas Mage is ultra fun in the blink deck.

With a name like this, I was expecting some kind of transformation effect, not card filtering.

Forbidden Alchemy



How big is your cube? Why did you choose the size that you did?

Alchemy is pretty medium. When Dimir was barren, it was an okay option. Now that it's relatively stacked, there's just no room for it anymore.

I run a 540 card cube because it's the perfect size to use the best percentages of the pool using our preferred drafting methods, and it gives us just the right combination of powerlevel and variance.

Alchemy is OK, but Dimir has better options for most cubes.

I run a 450 card cube because I usually draft with 6 people but once in a while we'll have as many as 8-10. 450 cards gives us lots of power but good variance for our size group. I used to run a 500 card cube but the extra 50 cards were unnecessary and the power level was notably lower.

Cheers,
rant

Seems pretty expensive for cube, I assume it's more of a pauper thing? A very easy pass for my cube.

I started at 360, but I wanted more cards/variety so I went up a bit. Mine currently sits at 432, it was at 420 for a while but it has crept up because of conspiracies, 3 colour cards and lands. It works just fine though, Sticking to a arbitrary size is a good way to keep things neat but over time I have gotten used to bending it a bit. I think I'm going to do a bit clear out in the new year and cut back down to 420 though.

Never ran forbidden alchemy.

My cube started out very large but because my playgroup is rarely larger than 4 I needed to cut back a lot. First i went down to 400 with 50 in each section which was really nice for aesthetics. i've cut down my artifacts to 25 now though and run a 375 which i have found is just right for my group.

I can only assume that Alchemy made it onto the Cube Tutor Average 720 list due to the number of pauper and budget cubes there, since while its far from a bad card there are better options for most cubes.

I run a 360 cube since my group is really small (there's only ever 2-5 of us at a given time), although I would like to have an excuse to expand someday.

I love Forbidden Alchemy. I play it (and cards like it) as mono colored. It does a lot more than it looks like for the same reasons as Unburial Rites. Decks that want it are usually decks that have already got graveyard shenanigans going on.

My cube is about 1590 cards, and is the largest cube on this forum as far as I know. I built it long ago by simply throwing all the cards I liked in a box that held roughly 1500 cards. From then, it was simply a matter of honing what already existed (which was extremely low powered) to a more draft-conducive environment. This has meant dropping weaker cards as well as dropping over-powered ones, and the actual cube size has never really changed beyond minor fluctuations. I wouldn't want to switch to any other size. Honestly I don't understand how you guys deal with having so few slots. I love the variety and unpredictability of my cube, but I don't get to play as much as I'd like, and I often don't acquire cards until after they rotate out of standard. In my cube, there are cards as old as Theros that have barely been tested, and there's not much to be done about it.

In anticipation of Iconic Masters releasing this Friday, we'll be looking at cards from that set this week!

Mana Drain



Who's your favorite MTG artist?

Mana Drain is a great card. It can enable some really bonkers plays, and having a floor of a Counterspell is a great place to be.

My favorite Magic artist is Richard Kane Ferguson.

Mana Drain is obviously fantastic. It be a simple Counterspell or it can be a complete blowout.

I don't know if I can pick one favorite artist. Terese Nielsen, maybe? Rebecca Guay, Kev Walker, Richard Kane Ferguson, John Avon, Steve Argyle, rk post... there are so many. More recently I've really loved Clint Cearley's work. The Game Day Reclamation Sage is one of my favorite arts in my cube.

Quote from AntiPox »

EDIT: Would it be okay if I did the random card tomorrow, Radiant Dragon? I have something in mind for the day.

Sure, go ahead! I'm interested to see what you have in mind.

I have a proxy of one but I haven't cubed with it. Mana Drain feel a bit above the power level I want, but outside of that there is no reason not to run it as it's pretty much a strictly better Counterspell.

hoping to get a mana drain for the cube with this release. very excited for the set!

The art is what got me into MTG in the first place. I'm one of the only people I know that used to organize cards by artist instead of by colour or set. I think you need to break MTG art into the classic era of mtg and the modern era.

My favourite classic artists:
Quinton Hoover
Rebecca Guay

My favourite modern artists:
Magali Villeneuve
Seb McKinnon
Filip Burburan

Mana Drain is a good card. Not to much to say about it. Art to me is secondary to game play, but I do like John Avon. I ordered a set of his unstable land art as play mats for my cube. Not all the people I have own play mats and It get's annoying when some of the sleeves get scratched from playing on a table.

The only reasons I can see not playing Mana Drain is if you cut it out for power reasons or cost reasons. I added one into mine even though My cube is not fully powered. I basically don't run any of the top powerful cards that are colorless. I do run Skull clamp though and Grim Monolith at this point. I have also recently aquired the rest of the legends cards that can be difficult to find including The abyss, Nether void, and Moat. I am excited to see how these play. I know a more popular opinion is if you are going to run these you should add the classic power, but I like where my cube is in terms of power level and drafting.

Obviously, Mana Drain is excellent, but it can be a bit underwhelming in some matchups. Burn, notably, where you might have to dump it on a 1 cmc spell. Of course, the dream is stealing a massive spell only to cheat out something better on your next turn, but in practice it doesn't happen as often as liked.

It's hard for me to say who my favorite artist is, but it might just be Terese Nielsen, considering the quality, and longevity of her career. There are plenty of amazing artists currently working for MTG, but it was Mark Tedin,, Quinton Hoover, Rebecca Guay, and Dan Frazier that really established the early look of the game that I fell in love with, and nostalgia is one hell of a drug.

One artist that was I really liked who doesn't work with WotC anymore was DiTerlizzi. Cards like Pursuit of Knowledge, Song of Serenity, Crop Rotation just had a uniquely wistful feel that nobody else really captures.