So I wanted to try and get this together since seeing the idea on the wacky cube ideas thread. Blue has the most fun effects of cards in cube, and mono-blue mirrors seemed like they'd make for some fun games. Plus, let's face it, blue already does everything every other color does.
Naturally, it's hard to come up with this many playable cards in one color, though, so I need some input on what else I can add/what seems a bit random (I sort of tossed the list together this morning). Obviously some parts of the curve need filling in.
I've also never run anything powered before, but with blue excluding the P9 would be a crime
Tempo and hardcore control the the most obvious choices of decks that can be built so far. I also see this as a good opportunity to use some old favorites.
Basic Cube Info
Cube Size: 253 Cards (Looking to make it 270)
Breakdown: 22 Land, 30 Artifact, the rest Blue
Standard or Theme Cube: Themed (Mono-Blue)
Average Draft: 5-6 players
Standard or Multiplayer: Standard
Sideboards?: Yes
Proxies?: Yes
Functional Reprints?: Yes
Perfect Creature/Non-Creature Balance: No
Perfectly Balanced CMC: No
You've definitely got a lot of cards that I would hope to see in an all-blue cube. However, I think that the only deck that would be good in your cube so far, would be tempo. Mono-blue tempo is not necessarily a bad or boring deck, but if your cube essentially always builds one deck, always playing the mirror would get boring. Now with any new cube there's a honeymoon period, but be mindful that a cube with limited available decks is potentially going to get stale quite quickly.
I've got a (mostly) mono white cube (shameless plug - link in sig), and it started out as a thought experiment: I had heard of, but not seen a list for, a mono-blue cube. It got me thinking about other radical ideas, like various exclusions. I settled on white because it could meaningfully interact with every permanent type, but I decided to also allow hybrid cards, phyrexian mana, and a large artifact section to help fill in the holes that I felt the cube was missing. What I realized was important to have broad appeal (as I wanted a variety of players from my LGS to try and enjoy my cube) is that at the end of the day, you still wanted to be playing MAGIC.
Blue has a lot of tricky, versatile tools - which are very appealing to skilled players as it gives them more options, more ways to win. However, in other formats, blue rarely is played by itself, because there are things that the other colors do better. In the old days, when creatures were bad, blue's creatures were even worse. Now, blue creatures include evasive threats, and there are still some big finishers to get some work done. So I don't think blue needs "help" in the creature department.
What seems like will be the biggest hurdle is Blue's near total lack of hard removal. Countering, Bounce+Counter, or stealing something (which can effectively answered with either bounce or counters) is nearly the only way you have to deal with opposing creatures. A control deck that has no way of killing resolved threats is quickly going to fall behind a tempo deck that can resolve a 2+ power evasive creature on turn 1 or 2. No deck can counter everything, but doubly so when the cheap counters are just as good for tempo as control.
Luckily, if you stay mono-blue, you can still cast artifacts. Blue does to play with artifacts, so there's definitely a lot of cool interactions to find. Most importantly, there are artifacts that can kill creatures. A "normal cube" might scoff at the notion of playing Blazing Torch or Moonglove Extract, these (and other similar cards) would allow your mono-blue decks to more meaningfully interact with tempo.
Interaction: that's what makes games with other players fun. What type of interaction is up to you. When I add cards to my cube, I ask myself "How does this card interact with the rest of my cube?" Now Blue is cool because the various counters interact with nearly everything, so you can put in any number of "broken" cards, and as long as they are not coming down mega fast, each deck in your cube can reasonably expect to interact with it. In your cube, I'd push combos to the limit, as they are usually non-interactive; but here that Mana Leak that countered Keiga, The Tide Star against one opponent, can stop that Dream Halls against another.
That's my general big picture advice, now I'll address a few specific themes and cards that you've placed on your list.
Lands: I can speak a lot to this section, as I've spent plenty of time agonizing over it in my cube. Lands that do something in addition to give you mana are really sweet, because it makes your deck more powerful without sacrificing a spell slot. In cube you already are prone to having excess playables, but in a mono-color cube that is amplified. So I'd say load up on the lands, even if the value seems small, like Halimar Depths. You'll be surprised how happy people are to play that card rather than make another cut.
However, lands are also very hard to interact with. How many ways can your cube interact with Maze of Ith? Chances are it's a card that will just dominate the player sitting across from it, unless they have one of the few outs to it. An even more egregious offender is Library of Alexandria: the winrate for whoever opens that card is going to skyrocket. Academy Ruins isn't as immediately obnoxious, but it can create some near-unbeatable scenarios.
Fast mana: Having fast mana leads to games that are non-interactive. The lotus and the sol ring are never going to be "fair" cards. The Mox Sapphire is a nearly strictly better island. The other four moxen are interesting, because they essentially produce colorless mana. I might experiment with the moxes, as they are clearly powerful, but unless you are lucky enough to draw and play multiple, the tempo is not insurmountable.
Tinker for Inkwell Leviathan seems even more absurd than usual for this cube. Otherwise, Tinker seems mostly fair, as getting it countered is a two for one, and blue has the bounce to punish expensive artifacts that were retrieved. But Tinker for Inkwell; if that resolves, how do you lose?
Merfolk: You should consider adding the Fishes! It's a great tribe, lots of synergy. My only concern would be Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident, giving unblockable to all might be a bit too strong; but you could consider custom errata to take away islandwalk: the cards would still very much be worth playing.
Ancestral Recall is another one to watch out for. Of course, in a cube with counters it won't always be a blowout, but because of instant speed, you can play smart and force it through. Ancestral Vision, on the other hand, is very exciting to me, because you know when the spell is coming, and the impending counter (or even redirect!) war is exciting.
Equipment: Consider adding more. It makes creatures more relevant with a high upside, but creates good opportunities for bounce to create card advantage and/or massive tempo swings.
Free-For-All is a serious color bleed, but worth trying.
You've definitely got a lot of cards that I would hope to see in an all-blue cube. However, I think that the only deck that would be good in your cube so far, would be tempo. Mono-blue tempo is not necessarily a bad or boring deck, but if your cube essentially always builds one deck, always playing the mirror would get boring. Now with any new cube there's a honeymoon period, but be mindful that a cube with limited available decks is potentially going to get stale quite quickly.
I was worried about tempo being too good, so I tried to sort of limit the amount of pure-tempo guys here. Maybe I still have too many?
I've got a (mostly) mono white cube (shameless plug - link in sig), and it started out as a thought experiment: I had heard of, but not seen a list for, a mono-blue cube. It got me thinking about other radical ideas, like various exclusions. I settled on white because it could meaningfully interact with every permanent type, but I decided to also allow hybrid cards, phyrexian mana, and a large artifact section to help fill in the holes that I felt the cube was missing. What I realized was important to have broad appeal (as I wanted a variety of players from my LGS to try and enjoy my cube) is that at the end of the day, you still wanted to be playing MAGIC.
I'll be sure to check it out. I'm sure you've got some great ideas I can try and apply here.
What seems like will be the biggest hurdle is Blue's near total lack of hard removal. Countering, Bounce+Counter, or stealing something (which can effectively answered with either bounce or counters) is nearly the only way you have to deal with opposing creatures. A control deck that has no way of killing resolved threats is quickly going to fall behind a tempo deck that can resolve a 2+ power evasive creature on turn 1 or 2. No deck can counter everything, but doubly so when the cheap counters are just as good for tempo as control.
Luckily, if you stay mono-blue, you can still cast artifacts. Blue does to play with artifacts, so there's definitely a lot of cool interactions to find. Most importantly, there are artifacts that can kill creatures. A "normal cube" might scoff at the notion of playing Blazing Torch or Moonglove Extract, these (and other similar cards) would allow your mono-blue decks to more meaningfully interact with tempo.
I added some more artificial answers to creatures. I can't believe I forgot the Disk, too!
That's my general big picture advice, now I'll address a few specific themes and cards that you've placed on your list.
Combos, eh? That actually seems like a whole lot of fun! I'll see what I can brainstorm up here (and if other people could post suggestions, that would be great!).
I've got the Pickles lock already here (because I figured, why not?), and there are all sorts of things you can do with Palinchron and Dream Halls...
However, lands are also very hard to interact with. How many ways can your cube interact with Maze of Ith? Chances are it's a card that will just dominate the player sitting across from it, unless they have one of the few outs to it. An even more egregious offender is Library of Alexandria: the winrate for whoever opens that card is going to skyrocket. Academy Ruins isn't as immediately obnoxious, but it can create some near-unbeatable scenarios.
I figured I would have some strong lands going in here since they are some of the few things that can't be countered into oblivion. I'll see how they do and if people get too annoyed with them. I'll also try some more Strip Mine effects out.
Comes with the territory, I figure. Fast mana is funny and can lead to swingy games. It's also just trash if you don't open with it a lot of the fast mana cards, so that can help to balance it.
Tinker for Inkwell Leviathan seems even more absurd than usual for this cube. Otherwise, Tinker seems mostly fair, as getting it countered is a two for one, and blue has the bounce to punish expensive artifacts that were retrieved. But Tinker for Inkwell; if that resolves, how do you lose?
I guess it might end up being too powerful, but I didn't want all the Tinker targets to just be able to be bounced/stolen (Battlesphere at least nets you some tokens). What would be sweet is if it were a legend, so clones would kill it. Inkwell is also just one target in the whole cube, so I'm doubtful that this combo will be drafted every single time.
Ah well, we'll see on this one, too. Drafting makes perfect.
Merfolk: You should consider adding the Fishes! It's a great tribe, lots of synergy. My only concern would be Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident, giving unblockable to all might be a bit too strong; but you could consider custom errata to take away islandwalk: the cards would still very much be worth playing.
I was worried that Merfolk would be too aggressive and knock the balance out of control's favor.
Azami could be sweet, but maybe too much mana considering how many counters the cube has? (Hm... Cavern of Souls would be interesting...). I'll try it out though, why not?
Ancestral Recall is another one to watch out for. Of course, in a cube with counters it won't always be a blowout, but because of instant speed, you can play smart and force it through. Ancestral Vision, on the other hand, is very exciting to me, because you know when the spell is coming, and the impending counter (or even redirect!) war is exciting.
It's a blue cube, you can't just cube without Ancestral!
Equipment: Consider adding more. It makes creatures more relevant with a high upside, but creates good opportunities for bounce to create card advantage and/or massive tempo swings.
Free-For-All is a serious color bleed, but worth trying.
Equipment were another thing I was worried about adding too much of. Jitte, Protection Swords, and the like would be extremely difficult to remove in this cube.
And I'll be sure to try out some of those suggestions as well.
All four Jaces are sweet cards on their own, but it sucks if they play their Jace first. Are you going to tinker with the Planeswalker rule at all?
I figured I would have some strong lands going in here since they are some of the few things that can't be countered into oblivion. I'll see how they do and if people get too annoyed with them. I'll also try some more Strip Mine effects out.
If your primary method of interaction is counters, then you have to be mindful of the effects that can't be countered. Lands, again, are so hard to interact with - after Wasteland and Strip Mine there's a pretty big fall off in quality. Library is just so absurdly powerful in your opening seven - it's silly. It even taps for colorless mana, which effectively means the card has almost zero drawback to include in a mono color deck. Maze of Ith shuts down attack steps like nobody's business.
I guess it might end up being too powerful, but I didn't want all the Tinker targets to just be able to be bounced/stolen (Battlesphere at least nets you some tokens). What would be sweet is if it were a legend, so clones would kill it. Inkwell is also just one target in the whole cube, so I'm doubtful that this combo will be drafted every single time.
Ah well, we'll see on this one, too. Drafting makes perfect.
I guess my feeling is that Tinker already did a ton of work for you: it tutored the card AND saved you the mana of casting it. If your opponent is going to deal with what you found, it's only fair that you should have to work to protect it.
Alternatively, I don't have a problem with someone hard-casting Inkwell Leviathan (or some other hard to deal with 1-3 turn clock) for infinity mana. I have a problem when on the play, turn two my opponent goes Mox, Tinker, Inkwell, and now that it's resolved, the cube has almost no way for me to interact with it.
Azami could be sweet, but maybe too much mana considering how many counters the cube has? (Hm... Cavern of Souls would be interesting...). I'll try it out though, why not?
And I have AEthermage already here
I missed Aethermage as I was looking for him in the 3cc section. Oops.
I understand your concern with resolving spells, but I don't think that it'll be possible to "counter everything," or even come close. As a result, part of (and maybe a huge part) the skill of the cube will be getting your threats to resolve (and consequently, countering the correct cards of your opponent). Cavern removes all skill from this equation and says "Haha, my spells are resolving!" Rather than cavern, why not try some other effects: Mana Short, Turnabout, Reality Spasm - all can set you up for a crucial turn where you need to resolve something.
It's a blue cube, you can't just cube without Ancestral!
I'll be honest: I think Ancestral Recall is boring, because in your cube there's literally zero decks that don't want it and it provides an absurd boost to whoever drafts it. It's not like vintage, where everyone can have their own copy to use/abuse. If my opponent casts it and resolves it (which is likely, as it is super cheap AND instant, so it can be snuck in almost anytime), they get a huge advantage in terms of resources.
And my same thoughts extend to the Sol Ring and Black Lotus: these cards give you the resources to get way far ahead of your opponents before they can reasonably expect to play back at you. Sure, sometimes any mana is a dead draw late, but these are taking over mana slots, not spell slots. Increasing total available mana also helps overcome opposing mana leak and power sink effects, so it's not just a matter of getting your spells out faster, it's going to help them resolve, as well.
I was worried that Merfolk would be too aggressive and knock the balance out of control's favor.
Equipment were another thing I was worried about adding too much of. Jitte, Protection Swords, and the like would be extremely difficult to remove in this cube.
The Merolk lords providing islandwalk might be a bit much, but depending on the power level of the rest of the cube, it might be tempo's only hope.
Equipment has a wide range of power levels to choose from. Also, equipment uses up mana at sorcery speed, which puts down counterspell defenses. The tempo lost by bouncing an equipment to hand can also really hurt. Jitte might be too good, but I don't think the non-blue protection swords are. And there's plenty of options out there if the swords are too strong.
I didn't see it in the discussion, but what do you think of Curfew? I thought of it as an answer to Inkwell, but it can be used against an opponent who has gone all-in with a creature with auras/equipment, or to slow an aggro rush, or even to reuse an EtB trigger of your own creature or reset counters like with Triskelion. Just an idea.
As another answer to lands, don't forget Spreading Seas and other auras to turn problems into basics.
I was sketching out my own ideas for a mono-U cube. I was thinking about including Blue costed cards with off-color activations such as Ethersworn Adjucicator, and 1-2 cycles of mana rocks like the border posts, or cluestones. The off color activations would have to be powerful, but would be limited by only having a few sources of mana.
Haven't gotten to play this much, though. Been too busy. (I also added Spreading Seas, thanks for that!)
After losing 4 games in a row to Tinker into Inkwell Leviathan on turn 2 or 3, I have decided to cut Inkwell from my cube. Wondering if anyone else has experienced such an unfun situation repeatedly and cut a card as a result?
I still have my mono blue cube draft up at cubetutor, but after my laptop died and took all the mtgse proxies I worked on with it, I never got around to building the cube? This is good information to know, Ebase. Did you base your cube entirely on bone doc's here? Do you have your list up somewhere?
I still have my mono blue cube draft up at cubetutor, but after my laptop died and took all the mtgse proxies I worked on with it, I never got around to building the cube? This is good information to know, Ebase. Did you base your cube entirely on bone doc's here? Do you have your list up somewhere?
-D
Hello sir,
No, mine was a mix of a lot of research on these forums really. Mine is sitting at 600 right now. I kind of want to cut it down a bit to 450 but I would have to make too many hard cuts. I really like where it's at and will have to figure out how to post the list to this site (right now it's in a google doc spreadsheet, is there an easy way to convert that to something this site will understand?).
Heyo, my two cents is to add Deadeye Navigator and Peregrine Drake if you have the space. They're an infinite mana combo together, and decent on their own (especially Navigator). You could probably pull off a blink archetype in mono-blue pretty well: Quickling, Dream Stalker, etc. are all nice includes.
Also, devotion to blue—Master of Waves and Thassa—would be a cool strategy to go for.
Naturally, it's hard to come up with this many playable cards in one color, though, so I need some input on what else I can add/what seems a bit random (I sort of tossed the list together this morning). Obviously some parts of the curve need filling in.
I've also never run anything powered before, but with blue excluding the P9 would be a crime
Tempo and hardcore control the the most obvious choices of decks that can be built so far. I also see this as a good opportunity to use some old favorites.
Cube Size: 253 Cards (Looking to make it 270)
Breakdown: 22 Land, 30 Artifact, the rest Blue
Standard or Theme Cube: Themed (Mono-Blue)
Average Draft: 5-6 players
Standard or Multiplayer: Standard
Sideboards?: Yes
Proxies?: Yes
Functional Reprints?: Yes
Perfect Creature/Non-Creature Balance: No
Perfectly Balanced CMC: No
1x Brass Man
1x Cursecatcher
1x Delver of Secrets
1x Drifter il-Dal
1x Drowned Rusalka
1x Enclave Cryptologist
1x Jace's Phantasm
1x Judge's Familiar
1x Merchant Ship
1x Merfolk Spy
1x Phantasmal Bear
1x Spindrift Drake
1x Trickster Mage
CMC: 2
1x Augur of Bolas
1x Dandan
1x Coralhelm Commander
1x Epochrasite
1x Frostburn Weird
1x Gilded Drake
1x Halimar Wavewatch
1x Looter il-Kor
1x Ludevic's Test Subject
1x Merfolk Looter
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Seacoast Drake
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Spellskite
1x Spellstutter Sprite
1x Spiketail Hatchling
1x Thought Courier
1x Vedalken AEthermage
1x Vedalken Engineer
1x Vedalken Mastermind
1x Voidmage Prodigy
1x Waterfront Bouncer
1x Willbender
1x AEther Adept
1x Ambassador Laquatus
1x Cephalid Constable
1x Disruptive Student
1x Fettergeist
1x Jace's Archivist
1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1x Lantern Spirit
1x Lullmage Mentor
1x Man-o'-War
1x Ophidian
1x Palladium Myr
1x Patron Wizard
1x Raven Familiar
1x Scroll Thief
1x Sea Drake
1x Sea Gate Oracle
1x Serendib Efreet
1x Tandem Lookout
1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1x Trinket Mage
1x Vendilion Clique
1x Vexing Sphinx
1x Void Stalker
1x Wake Thrasher
1x Warden of Evos Isle
CMC: 4
1x Archaeomancer
1x Dungeon Geists
1x Elite Arcanist
1x Ertai, Wizard Adept
1x Keymaster Rogue
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Lu Xun, Scholar General
1x Lunar Mystic
1x Master Thief
1x Masticore
1x Mist Raven
1x Sturmgeist
1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1x Ninja of the Deep Hours
1x Old Man of the Sea
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Sakashima's Student
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Sower of Temptation
1x Talrand, Sky Summoner
1x Thieving Magpie
1x Tradewind Rider
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Karn, Silver Golem
1x Magus of the Future
1x Magus of the Jar
1x Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1x Morphling
1x Mulldrifter
1x Riftwing Cloudskate
1x Vesuvan Shapeshifter
CMC: 6
1x AEtherling
1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
1x Consecrated Sphinx
1x Errant Ephemeron
1x Frost Titan
1x Keiga, the Tide Star
1x Triskelion
1x Wurmcoil Engine
CMC: 7
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Myr Battlesphere
1x Ancestral Vision
1x Gitaxian Probe
1x Ponder
1x Preordain
1x Serum Visions
1x Sleight of Hand
CMC: 2
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Time Walk
1x Strategic Planning
1x Compulsive Research
1x Fabricate
1x Show and Tell
1x Timetwister
1x Tinker
CMC: 4
1x Deep Analysis
1x Talrand's Invocation
CMC: 5
1x Bribery
1x Capture of Jingzhou
1x Temporal Manipulation
1x Time Warp
1x Time Spiral
1x Upheaval
CMC: 10
1 Time Stretch
CMC: X
1x Braingeyser
1x Recall
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm
1x Dismember
1x Dispel
1x Force Spike
1x Gigadrowse
1x Mental Misstep
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Piracy Charm
1x Pongify
1x Rapid Hybridization
1x Spell Pierce
1x Spell Snare
1x Stifle
1x Vapor Snag
CMC: 2
1x Arcane Denial
1x Boomerang
1x Counterspell
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Daze
1x Deprive
1x Gainsay
1x Impulse
1x Into the Roil
1x Mage's Guile
1x Mana Drain
1x Mana Leak
1x Memory Lapse
1x Miscalculation
1x Muddle the Mixture
1x Peer Through Depths
1x Redirect
1x Remand
1x Snap
1x Telekinesis
1x Telling Time
1x Think Twice
1x Tolarian Winds
1x Twincast
1x Capsize
1x Complicate
1x Exclude
1x Forbid
1x Forbidden Alchemy
1x Intuition
1x Long-Term Plans
1x Meditate
1x Psionic Blast
1x Repulse
1x Rushing River
1x Sage's Dousing
1x Syncopate
1x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Wipe Away
CMC: 4
1x Cryptic Command
1x Dismiss
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Gifts Ungiven
1x Mystical Teachings
1x Rewind
1x Thwart
CMC: 5
1x Evacuation
1x Force of Will
1x Gush
1x Misdirection
1x Sunder
1x Opportunity
CMC: X
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
1x Condescend
1x Logic Knot
1x Power Sink
1x Repeal
1x Mystic Remora
1x Unstable Mutation
CMC: 2
1x Hands of Binding
1x Spreading Seas
1x Standstill
1x Stasis
1x Attunement
1x Claustrophobia
1x Encrust
1x Mana Vortex
1x Reality Acid
1x Rhystic Study
1x Threads of Disloyalty
1x Annex
1x Control Magic
1x Opposition
1x Psychic Possession
CMC: 5
1x Future Sight
1x Mind Over Matter
1x Treachery
1x Jace Beleren
CMC: 4
1x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Jace, Memory Adept
1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
1x Karn Liberated
1x Black Lotus
1x Chrome Mox
1x Everflowing Chalice
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
CMC: 1
1x AEther Spellbomb
1x Blazing Torch
1x Grindstone
1x Mana Vault
1x Pithing Needle
1x Scroll Rack
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Coldsteel Heart
1x Grim Monolith
1x Mind Stone
1x Mortarpod
1x Powder Keg
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Sky Diamond
CMC: 3
1x Crystal Shard
1x Moonglove Extract
1x Ring of Gix
1x Tangle Wire
1x Vedalken Shackles
1x Worn Powerstone
1x Haunted Plate Mail
1x Icy Manipulator
1x Neviyrral's Disk
1x Serrated Arrows
1x Thran Dynamo
CMC: 5
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Memory Jar
1x Academy Ruins
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Desert
1x Faerie Conclave
1x Flooded Strand
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Lonely Sandbar
1x Maze of Ith
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Mutavault
1x Polluted Delta
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Riptide Laboratory
1x Rishadan Port
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Shelldock Isle
1x Strip Mine
1x Tectonic Edge
1x Tolaria West
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Wasteland
You've definitely got a lot of cards that I would hope to see in an all-blue cube. However, I think that the only deck that would be good in your cube so far, would be tempo. Mono-blue tempo is not necessarily a bad or boring deck, but if your cube essentially always builds one deck, always playing the mirror would get boring. Now with any new cube there's a honeymoon period, but be mindful that a cube with limited available decks is potentially going to get stale quite quickly.
I've got a (mostly) mono white cube (shameless plug - link in sig), and it started out as a thought experiment: I had heard of, but not seen a list for, a mono-blue cube. It got me thinking about other radical ideas, like various exclusions. I settled on white because it could meaningfully interact with every permanent type, but I decided to also allow hybrid cards, phyrexian mana, and a large artifact section to help fill in the holes that I felt the cube was missing. What I realized was important to have broad appeal (as I wanted a variety of players from my LGS to try and enjoy my cube) is that at the end of the day, you still wanted to be playing MAGIC.
Blue has a lot of tricky, versatile tools - which are very appealing to skilled players as it gives them more options, more ways to win. However, in other formats, blue rarely is played by itself, because there are things that the other colors do better. In the old days, when creatures were bad, blue's creatures were even worse. Now, blue creatures include evasive threats, and there are still some big finishers to get some work done. So I don't think blue needs "help" in the creature department.
What seems like will be the biggest hurdle is Blue's near total lack of hard removal. Countering, Bounce+Counter, or stealing something (which can effectively answered with either bounce or counters) is nearly the only way you have to deal with opposing creatures. A control deck that has no way of killing resolved threats is quickly going to fall behind a tempo deck that can resolve a 2+ power evasive creature on turn 1 or 2. No deck can counter everything, but doubly so when the cheap counters are just as good for tempo as control.
Luckily, if you stay mono-blue, you can still cast artifacts. Blue does to play with artifacts, so there's definitely a lot of cool interactions to find. Most importantly, there are artifacts that can kill creatures. A "normal cube" might scoff at the notion of playing Blazing Torch or Moonglove Extract, these (and other similar cards) would allow your mono-blue decks to more meaningfully interact with tempo.
Interaction: that's what makes games with other players fun. What type of interaction is up to you. When I add cards to my cube, I ask myself "How does this card interact with the rest of my cube?" Now Blue is cool because the various counters interact with nearly everything, so you can put in any number of "broken" cards, and as long as they are not coming down mega fast, each deck in your cube can reasonably expect to interact with it. In your cube, I'd push combos to the limit, as they are usually non-interactive; but here that Mana Leak that countered Keiga, The Tide Star against one opponent, can stop that Dream Halls against another.
That's my general big picture advice, now I'll address a few specific themes and cards that you've placed on your list.
Lands: I can speak a lot to this section, as I've spent plenty of time agonizing over it in my cube. Lands that do something in addition to give you mana are really sweet, because it makes your deck more powerful without sacrificing a spell slot. In cube you already are prone to having excess playables, but in a mono-color cube that is amplified. So I'd say load up on the lands, even if the value seems small, like Halimar Depths. You'll be surprised how happy people are to play that card rather than make another cut.
However, lands are also very hard to interact with. How many ways can your cube interact with Maze of Ith? Chances are it's a card that will just dominate the player sitting across from it, unless they have one of the few outs to it. An even more egregious offender is Library of Alexandria: the winrate for whoever opens that card is going to skyrocket. Academy Ruins isn't as immediately obnoxious, but it can create some near-unbeatable scenarios.
Fast mana: Having fast mana leads to games that are non-interactive. The lotus and the sol ring are never going to be "fair" cards. The Mox Sapphire is a nearly strictly better island. The other four moxen are interesting, because they essentially produce colorless mana. I might experiment with the moxes, as they are clearly powerful, but unless you are lucky enough to draw and play multiple, the tempo is not insurmountable.
Tinker for Inkwell Leviathan seems even more absurd than usual for this cube. Otherwise, Tinker seems mostly fair, as getting it countered is a two for one, and blue has the bounce to punish expensive artifacts that were retrieved. But Tinker for Inkwell; if that resolves, how do you lose?
Merfolk: You should consider adding the Fishes! It's a great tribe, lots of synergy. My only concern would be Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident, giving unblockable to all might be a bit too strong; but you could consider custom errata to take away islandwalk: the cards would still very much be worth playing.
Wizards: I like what you have so far! Keep pushing the theme - my off the cuff suggestions are Azami, Lady of Scrolls and Vedalken Aethermage.
Ancestral Recall is another one to watch out for. Of course, in a cube with counters it won't always be a blowout, but because of instant speed, you can play smart and force it through. Ancestral Vision, on the other hand, is very exciting to me, because you know when the spell is coming, and the impending counter (or even redirect!) war is exciting.
Equipment: Consider adding more. It makes creatures more relevant with a high upside, but creates good opportunities for bounce to create card advantage and/or massive tempo swings.
Free-For-All is a serious color bleed, but worth trying.
Free spells are cool. Don't forget Nix!
All four Jaces are sweet cards on their own, but it sucks if they play their Jace first. Are you going to tinker with the Planeswalker rule at all?
That's all I can think of for now. Looking forward to updates!
"I'm the Best!"
Toad, Mario Kart 64
Thank you for the the great reply!
I was worried about tempo being too good, so I tried to sort of limit the amount of pure-tempo guys here. Maybe I still have too many?
I'll be sure to check it out. I'm sure you've got some great ideas I can try and apply here.
I added some more artificial answers to creatures. I can't believe I forgot the Disk, too!
Combos, eh? That actually seems like a whole lot of fun! I'll see what I can brainstorm up here (and if other people could post suggestions, that would be great!).
I've got the Pickles lock already here (because I figured, why not?), and there are all sorts of things you can do with Palinchron and Dream Halls...
That makes sense, I'll try and drum up some more utility land ideas.
I figured I would have some strong lands going in here since they are some of the few things that can't be countered into oblivion. I'll see how they do and if people get too annoyed with them. I'll also try some more Strip Mine effects out.
Comes with the territory, I figure. Fast mana is funny and can lead to swingy games. It's also just trash if you don't open with it a lot of the fast mana cards, so that can help to balance it.
I guess it might end up being too powerful, but I didn't want all the Tinker targets to just be able to be bounced/stolen (Battlesphere at least nets you some tokens). What would be sweet is if it were a legend, so clones would kill it. Inkwell is also just one target in the whole cube, so I'm doubtful that this combo will be drafted every single time.
Ah well, we'll see on this one, too. Drafting makes perfect.
I was worried that Merfolk would be too aggressive and knock the balance out of control's favor.
Azami could be sweet, but maybe too much mana considering how many counters the cube has? (Hm... Cavern of Souls would be interesting...). I'll try it out though, why not?
And I have AEthermage already here
It's a blue cube, you can't just cube without Ancestral!
Equipment were another thing I was worried about adding too much of. Jitte, Protection Swords, and the like would be extremely difficult to remove in this cube.
And I'll be sure to try out some of those suggestions as well.
All four Jaces are sweet cards on their own, but it sucks if they play their Jace first. Are you going to tinker with the Planeswalker rule at all?
No problem! I love game design, cube theory, and in particular discussing relatively uncharted territory.
If your primary method of interaction is counters, then you have to be mindful of the effects that can't be countered. Lands, again, are so hard to interact with - after Wasteland and Strip Mine there's a pretty big fall off in quality. Library is just so absurdly powerful in your opening seven - it's silly. It even taps for colorless mana, which effectively means the card has almost zero drawback to include in a mono color deck. Maze of Ith shuts down attack steps like nobody's business.
I guess my feeling is that Tinker already did a ton of work for you: it tutored the card AND saved you the mana of casting it. If your opponent is going to deal with what you found, it's only fair that you should have to work to protect it.
Alternatively, I don't have a problem with someone hard-casting Inkwell Leviathan (or some other hard to deal with 1-3 turn clock) for infinity mana. I have a problem when on the play, turn two my opponent goes Mox, Tinker, Inkwell, and now that it's resolved, the cube has almost no way for me to interact with it.
I missed Aethermage as I was looking for him in the 3cc section. Oops.
I understand your concern with resolving spells, but I don't think that it'll be possible to "counter everything," or even come close. As a result, part of (and maybe a huge part) the skill of the cube will be getting your threats to resolve (and consequently, countering the correct cards of your opponent). Cavern removes all skill from this equation and says "Haha, my spells are resolving!" Rather than cavern, why not try some other effects: Mana Short, Turnabout, Reality Spasm - all can set you up for a crucial turn where you need to resolve something.
I'll be honest: I think Ancestral Recall is boring, because in your cube there's literally zero decks that don't want it and it provides an absurd boost to whoever drafts it. It's not like vintage, where everyone can have their own copy to use/abuse. If my opponent casts it and resolves it (which is likely, as it is super cheap AND instant, so it can be snuck in almost anytime), they get a huge advantage in terms of resources.
And my same thoughts extend to the Sol Ring and Black Lotus: these cards give you the resources to get way far ahead of your opponents before they can reasonably expect to play back at you. Sure, sometimes any mana is a dead draw late, but these are taking over mana slots, not spell slots. Increasing total available mana also helps overcome opposing mana leak and power sink effects, so it's not just a matter of getting your spells out faster, it's going to help them resolve, as well.
The Merolk lords providing islandwalk might be a bit much, but depending on the power level of the rest of the cube, it might be tempo's only hope.
Equipment has a wide range of power levels to choose from. Also, equipment uses up mana at sorcery speed, which puts down counterspell defenses. The tempo lost by bouncing an equipment to hand can also really hurt. Jitte might be too good, but I don't think the non-blue protection swords are. And there's plenty of options out there if the swords are too strong.
More random cards I thought of:
"I'm the Best!"
Toad, Mario Kart 64
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I was sketching out my own ideas for a mono-U cube. I was thinking about including Blue costed cards with off-color activations such as Ethersworn Adjucicator, and 1-2 cycles of mana rocks like the border posts, or cluestones. The off color activations would have to be powerful, but would be limited by only having a few sources of mana.
1x AEtherling
1x Elite Arcanist
1x Hands of Binding
1x Haunted Plate Mail
1x Keymaster Rogue
1x Rapid Hybridization
1x Seacoast Drake
1x Warden of Evos Isle
Haven't gotten to play this much, though. Been too busy. (I also added Spreading Seas, thanks for that!)
After losing 4 games in a row to Tinker into Inkwell Leviathan on turn 2 or 3, I have decided to cut Inkwell from my cube. Wondering if anyone else has experienced such an unfun situation repeatedly and cut a card as a result?
-D
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Hello sir,
No, mine was a mix of a lot of research on these forums really. Mine is sitting at 600 right now. I kind of want to cut it down a bit to 450 but I would have to make too many hard cuts. I really like where it's at and will have to figure out how to post the list to this site (right now it's in a google doc spreadsheet, is there an easy way to convert that to something this site will understand?).
Also, devotion to blue—Master of Waves and Thassa—would be a cool strategy to go for.
Squad Goals Cube: http://www.cubetutor.com/draft/39847
PowerSquad Cube: http://www.cubetutor.com/draft/39911