Hey all. So Ive been thinking about assembling a Invasion/Shards of Alara cube. I really think the multi-color and ally color themes would play well and be fun. Any tips to what I should be looking for when putting it together? I was gonna go singleton because I think there should enough cards to put together a decent list(maybe doubling up on important stuff like fixing). I played during Alara but not during the Invasion cycle, is there any particular archetypes I should be looking for in particular or supporting? I've read up a bit on the draft environment and I know ally colors are good,in addition to mono green multi-color good stuff. And obviously the ally shards are supported pretty heavily in the Alara side. Is there any glaring picks I should drop off the bat? IE overpowered cards,chaff. The difference in power level on creatures is also pretty significant too but Im not certain on what might be too good/too weak. Any help would be much appreciated thanks in advance!
Maybe build a skeleton of the cube on cube tutor for people to look at? Might be easier for people to give thoughts if we can see where you are starting from?
Cubetutor's "Top Cards" filtered by set should help.
I never built a set cube because I'd rather not be restricted by set in my design, so if I were to make one, I'd take some liberties with it. There's a lot of generic flavored spells I'd add to form the baseline of the cube that wouldn't get in the way of the Alara theme. Like Lightning Bolt, Ponder, Elvish Mystic, and so on.
So if I it were me, I'd find my favorite Alara/Invasion cards from Cubetutor to build around or contribute to the theme, then fill in the gaps with generic evergreen cards. Best of luck!
The best way to start is to do it; that sounds silly but it really is the best thing to do. Just build a 360 cube from cards you are interested in and already own at a fairly even distribution, this way you have a rough skeleton to work from and you can play a few games to get the feel of things (and work out logistical issues).
More than 80% of the cards in this first cube won't last 6 months but the important thing is that you are upgrading your cube based on games played rather than theory crafting, you could spend years theory crafting the perfect cube without ever playing a match.
I would suggest being open to bending your theme a bit and dip into cards outside of alara/invasion; for example lightning bolt, counterspell and Birds of Paradise are all cards that are iconic, powerful and wouldn't feel out of place in your cube. There may also be cards that work well in multicolour sets but were printed outside of the sets you are using, Radiant Purge for example gets interesting in you are going deep on multicoloured and Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block's hybrid mana creatures may be useful to make 3 colour decks a bit smoother.
Both sets had really bad fixing. Expect to cheat on singleton or to dip out of the sets for additional lands to make it work.
As far as how Invasion worked, there were pretty much two decks in the block draft: 5-color green and Grixis control. Either you took the only fixing available at first opportunity (all green) and filled in with the most playable dudes and spells left over, or you picked all the high-power BRU removal that was flying around, and fill in from there. The creatures really haven't aged well, even the good ones like Kavu Titan/Kavu Climber/Kavu Chameleon or the Dragons. Skizzik, Utopia Tree, Quirion Elves, Crypt Angel and the tapper Apprentices are pretty much the only creatures I think still hold up. And maybe the 2-CMC protection dudes. Don't miss Fact or Fiction, Probe or basically any counter or removal spell.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
I never built a set cube because I'd rather not be restricted by set in my design, so if I were to make one, I'd take some liberties with it. There's a lot of generic flavored spells I'd add to form the baseline of the cube that wouldn't get in the way of the Alara theme. Like Lightning Bolt, Ponder, Elvish Mystic, and so on.
So if I it were me, I'd find my favorite Alara/Invasion cards from Cubetutor to build around or contribute to the theme, then fill in the gaps with generic evergreen cards. Best of luck!
More than 80% of the cards in this first cube won't last 6 months but the important thing is that you are upgrading your cube based on games played rather than theory crafting, you could spend years theory crafting the perfect cube without ever playing a match.
I would suggest being open to bending your theme a bit and dip into cards outside of alara/invasion; for example lightning bolt, counterspell and Birds of Paradise are all cards that are iconic, powerful and wouldn't feel out of place in your cube. There may also be cards that work well in multicolour sets but were printed outside of the sets you are using, Radiant Purge for example gets interesting in you are going deep on multicoloured and Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block's hybrid mana creatures may be useful to make 3 colour decks a bit smoother.
As far as how Invasion worked, there were pretty much two decks in the block draft: 5-color green and Grixis control. Either you took the only fixing available at first opportunity (all green) and filled in with the most playable dudes and spells left over, or you picked all the high-power BRU removal that was flying around, and fill in from there. The creatures really haven't aged well, even the good ones like Kavu Titan/Kavu Climber/Kavu Chameleon or the Dragons. Skizzik, Utopia Tree, Quirion Elves, Crypt Angel and the tapper Apprentices are pretty much the only creatures I think still hold up. And maybe the 2-CMC protection dudes. Don't miss Fact or Fiction, Probe or basically any counter or removal spell.
If you expand beyond Invasion itself, Flametongue Kavu, Phyrexian Rager, Phyrexian Gargantua, Desolation Angel, Blastoderm, Phyrexian Scuta, Quirion Dryad, Voice of All, standardbearers and the familiars are prety good, and the spells Lashknife Barrier, Parallax Wave, Tanglewire, Aether Mutation and Goblin Trenches are better than they might look.