All in all a pretty mediocre set for cube. I'll play the pathway cycle and the new Savannah Lion variant. If Sword of the Realms was the front side I would try it out. I think the legacy of this set will be giving dual lands with basic land types to pauper cubes.
This was a real fun project to do. I'll probably work on it quite a bit more but it's great to see some old friends again. (Like remember when Arc-Slogger was a good card?)
I would probably up the number of duals by one. I like to run 1:100 cards and it's safer to round up on this. You definetly want more artifacts. They are the glue that holds your draft together and allow people to draft more relevant cards when their pack is light on a color. My cubes tend to tick better when artifacts are roughly the size of a normal color section.
I often see people start off lists with a desire to make a neat archetype for each of the guilds. My advice is not too. When wotc did their biggest multicolored blocks, they never attempt to do all ten pairs in one set. It's just too much to jam into a set. And they have the advantage of having multiples of commons.
Think of it like this. You are running 360 cards in your cube. Subtract duals, subtract artifacts. In your list you would be left with 310 cards. (you should probably run more artifacts too) After that you are going to need your general good stuff cards. Removal, ramp, card draw, what have you. That should be about half of your remaining cards. You are down to ~160 cards. Divide that among the ten guilds and you get 16 cards per guild. Which means you will have 4 multicolored cards, 6 green and 6 blue cards to support your simic ramp strategy. I know you do get to cheat and have some of your white +1/+1 counter cards can be good in your UW blink deck. But there isn't going to be nearly as much of that as you think there will be.
In general this will lead to on the rails drafting where once you pick an archetype most of your decisions are made for you. So why don't you just make a larger cube? Cube size is really irrelevant to this discussion. In any one draft you will still only have the above ratios of cards.
So what do I suggest for people who want to build archetype focused cubes instead of concentrating on the 3-4 major pillars (Control, agro, midrange and if you like it combo) of Magic? Take a note from Alara or Tarkir and concentrate on only 5 shards/wedges. In this system in any random 360 card draft selection you will still have ~160 cards dedicated to your archetypes like before. But now you will have roughly 32 cards dedicated to each shard. Also with five shards instead of 10 guilds you really get to concentrate on what you are doing. You get to plan out how the cards can work in multiple archetypes much easier since your white cards are only in 3 shards vs 4 guilds.
If you decide to stick to your 10 guild strategy, you really need to make sure every single one of your cards is wanted by at least one of your strategies. Compare your red 1-drop creatures with your 4 red based strategies. Spells(control), Tokens, Sacrifice, Pump
Goblin Glory Chaser has psuedo evasion so I guess the pump deck might want it, but that deck would probably be better off with one of the two heroic 1 drops Satyr Hoplite or Akoran Crusader.
Jackal Pup: This card does nothing to any of the three archetypes. You don't have a sligh style deck in the bunch.
Monastery Swiftspear: Good in two archetypes (pump and spells matter) though you have your UR spell deck listed as a control deck, and you don't really want aggressive creatures in that strategy.
Reckless Waif: It doesn't create tokens, it generates no advantage by being sacrificed and doesn't recur itself, It tells you to not play spells which is bad for both the pump and the UR deck.
Scorched Rusalka: Works in your sacrifice deck
And this trend continues throughout the cube. I'm not saying it's impossible to build a 10-guild cube. But it's really difficult and I question the value in doing so. If you are wanting to build your decks for your players to that extent, why not just make a set of 10 dual decks balanced to play against one another? I approach cube as something I can pull off the shelf and play like a board game so a set of 10 dual decks does scratch that itch too.
I'm slowly working on building a 32 deck gauntlet and I had Karn Vehicle tribal deck planned for my colorless deck. Though I was going to call it "Karn's Used Car Lot". I really don't have anything constructive to add, but I will be looking at this list when I get around to building my copy of the deck.
Seems like a good 2-power 1-drop. This is comparable to Dragon Hunter, depending on whether or not your Knight count is higher than your Dragon count, lol.
I think even if your dragon count is higher, this is still better. A white based agro deck is more likely to have other knights in your own deck. Thus you will see the interaction more often than an opponent playing a dragon.
My favorite card of all time is Stoneforge Mystic. I have done really well in legacy with it. Hell I even have a playset altered to be the ninja turtles.
joke
/jōk/
noun
a thing that someone says to cause amusement or laughter, especially a story with a funny punchline.
"she was in a mood to tell jokes"
Turn 1 Swamp Putrid Imp
Turn 2 Badlands Dark Ritual -> This. Discard Anger, Discard right half of Big Fury Monster. Swing for 99.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5ec6e6d96c26474a6c1a602b
*Edit - Sweet Reanimator deck I drafted.
I often see people start off lists with a desire to make a neat archetype for each of the guilds. My advice is not too. When wotc did their biggest multicolored blocks, they never attempt to do all ten pairs in one set. It's just too much to jam into a set. And they have the advantage of having multiples of commons.
Think of it like this. You are running 360 cards in your cube. Subtract duals, subtract artifacts. In your list you would be left with 310 cards. (you should probably run more artifacts too) After that you are going to need your general good stuff cards. Removal, ramp, card draw, what have you. That should be about half of your remaining cards. You are down to ~160 cards. Divide that among the ten guilds and you get 16 cards per guild. Which means you will have 4 multicolored cards, 6 green and 6 blue cards to support your simic ramp strategy. I know you do get to cheat and have some of your white +1/+1 counter cards can be good in your UW blink deck. But there isn't going to be nearly as much of that as you think there will be.
In general this will lead to on the rails drafting where once you pick an archetype most of your decisions are made for you. So why don't you just make a larger cube? Cube size is really irrelevant to this discussion. In any one draft you will still only have the above ratios of cards.
So what do I suggest for people who want to build archetype focused cubes instead of concentrating on the 3-4 major pillars (Control, agro, midrange and if you like it combo) of Magic? Take a note from Alara or Tarkir and concentrate on only 5 shards/wedges. In this system in any random 360 card draft selection you will still have ~160 cards dedicated to your archetypes like before. But now you will have roughly 32 cards dedicated to each shard. Also with five shards instead of 10 guilds you really get to concentrate on what you are doing. You get to plan out how the cards can work in multiple archetypes much easier since your white cards are only in 3 shards vs 4 guilds.
If you decide to stick to your 10 guild strategy, you really need to make sure every single one of your cards is wanted by at least one of your strategies. Compare your red 1-drop creatures with your 4 red based strategies. Spells(control), Tokens, Sacrifice, Pump
Goblin GLory Chaser
Jackal Pup
Monastery Swiftspear
Reckless Waif
Scorched Rusalka
Goblin Glory Chaser has psuedo evasion so I guess the pump deck might want it, but that deck would probably be better off with one of the two heroic 1 drops Satyr Hoplite or Akoran Crusader.
Jackal Pup: This card does nothing to any of the three archetypes. You don't have a sligh style deck in the bunch.
Monastery Swiftspear: Good in two archetypes (pump and spells matter) though you have your UR spell deck listed as a control deck, and you don't really want aggressive creatures in that strategy.
Reckless Waif: It doesn't create tokens, it generates no advantage by being sacrificed and doesn't recur itself, It tells you to not play spells which is bad for both the pump and the UR deck.
Scorched Rusalka: Works in your sacrifice deck
And this trend continues throughout the cube. I'm not saying it's impossible to build a 10-guild cube. But it's really difficult and I question the value in doing so. If you are wanting to build your decks for your players to that extent, why not just make a set of 10 dual decks balanced to play against one another? I approach cube as something I can pull off the shelf and play like a board game so a set of 10 dual decks does scratch that itch too.
I think even if your dragon count is higher, this is still better. A white based agro deck is more likely to have other knights in your own deck. Thus you will see the interaction more often than an opponent playing a dragon.
Giver of Runes
Serra the Benevolent (if I expand)
UBlue
Urza
B
Yawg
R
None
G
Deranged Hermit 2
Hexdrinker
C
Sword of BR
Sword of UW
Talismans (if I expand)
Multicolor
Wren and Six
Nature's Chant
Lands
Prismatic Vista
5x Canopy Lands