Since I am rebuilding my cube I lack the experience with some cards from the previous sets and would be very happy if you can get me some (short) input for the following cards (my cube will be unpowered moden-frame only and will have a size of 405 or 450). Since the list of cards is on the larger site, just a ranking from A to E would be enough. For reference, this is my preliminary list, Thanks
I would do a maximum of 10% gold, and a minimum of 10% fixing lands. Probably more on lands, like 12-13%
Yeah thats is what I am aiming for at 450. 4 cards per guild; 4 fixers per guild + triomes and 5 color fixing. Thank you again.
Welcome back to cubing, and congratulations on the coming birth of your son.
Until last year I’d stopped cubing as much. I moved away from my regular mtg group and didn’t find a replacement.
What got me back into it were my sons, particularly the older one. Both had learned to play magic with my old cards but it has become a popular pastime with their peer group. So I built a new cube for my boys and their friends to play.
The result is in my sig as a Beginner Cube. It strongly pushes 10 2-colour archetypes, but there is a fair bit of overlap: W/G tokens helps R/W go-wide aggro; B/R madness/hellbent helps U/B reanimator; and so on.
I went for modern cards only, ideally with post-M10 templating for consistency, and have avoided expensive cards.
I’m quite pleased with the results, and although the format is perhaps not as skill testing, it produces cohesive decks that are reasonably balanced and certainly fun.
My suggestion for building a budget Cube, therefore, is perhaps not to go for a watered-down version of a powered cube, but to pick some archetypes you enjoy and build your cube around those with the best cards you can afford.
That is a very cool cube, thank you for sharing. The thing is, that I really want to include (some) iconic cards of magic and therefore I automatically might have a lot of redundancies with an (un)powered cube. I will browse through your list and look for possible inclusions.
Budget mana bases are an issue, though, without the dual/fetch/shock trifecta.
I agree that this is a big problem. I am thinking about violating my financial restrictions for mana-fixing (!) lands as these hold the cube together and are also a nice investment. So I might include Fetchies and Shocks to have a solid base.
Again thank you for your advice. If I remember correctly, the rule of thumb is ~10% multicolor and 10% lands, so at 450 4 cards per guild and 4 guild lands + 5 color fixing?
Thank you very much for the link. I just checked the card and added some cards to my list. Any further general advice on the preliminary list or on the cube size?
Hi guys,
since my son will be born soon, I decided that I want to restart my cube to give my son the opportunity to play this great game while he will be growing up (and although it will take years until he will be able to play the cube, I decided that it is now a good time to come back to cube building and wrap my head around it).
Due to financial reasons I opt to include only cards that cost 15€ maximum. Moreover, cards have to have a modern frame, since this reflects most of my magic career.
Although I regularly play the current limited set, I am a bit rusty with regards to cube and would like to ask for some help.
I.) I put together a preliminary list. The numbers are not final yet, but I would to ask you to shortly browse through the list and give a general impression if there are any obvious flaws to the cube design.
II.) Due to the financial restrictions I (might) see one design problem: all the expensive pay-off cards such as the Eldrazis, Karn Liberated or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon are not available. Are there any cheaper replacements?
III.) I am undecided whether I should go for 400 or 450 cards. I do not want to dilute the themes too much, but on the other hand I like diversity within the cube.
Thanks for all the input. The idea of adding 4 copies of a specific land is appealing. However, this does not entirely solve the problem of the etb untapped at turn one. I guess we hope that WotC will reprint painlands at UC.
I know that the following idea is not new and that some of you have experience or permanently implemented the idea in their cubes.
I am talking about adding rare lands to the peasant cube.
I think we can all agree that good fixing is beneficial for every cube as it allows more consistent gameplay i.e. more fun.
I think we can also agree that fixing in peasant is not good as WotC refuses to print good fixing at lower rarities - probably not due to power-level but because of economic reasons.
Peasant cubes are lacking good fixing that comes into play untapped. Now there are plenty of rare land cycles available that can fix this problem and I am wondering which ones are the best/most suitable.
Basically, for me there are two routes - i.) best of the best and ii.) cheap solution
i.) would include fetchlands and duals/shocklands, although due to budget restrictions I would go with shocklands over duals
ii.) would include painlands and maybe shocklands (dependent on the budget - shocklands are not as expensive anymore)
I am also considering adding the manlands, although I am not sure if these fit from a power-level point of view as they represent more than just fixing.
It will be also interesting to think about consequences of such changes (especially the addition of fetchlands). Which cards become better? Brainstorm, Sensei's Divining Top, Sylvan Library, Wild Nacatl, everything with landfall, etc..
May I ask you to share your experience and thoughts about this?
Sorry for gravedigging but I am tinkering whether adding snow basics is now a valiable option due to the additions of Modern Horizons.
Specifically these are the cards that make me thinking (besides the snow cards from coldsnap): Icehide Golem, Abominable Treefolk, Frostwalk Bastion, Arcum‘s Astrolabe
You cast the card as a sorcery and it gets exiled when it resolves.
... or even at instant speed (Foulmire Knight).
It looks like you can either cast the creature for its normal casting cost, or pay its adventure cost first and then be able to cast the creature for its regular cost. So Order of Midnight is either a 2/2 flyer for 1B, or a flying Gravedigger for 1B and 1B.
I also think Recruiter messes with the 'feel' of peasant cube. In current day, a card like Imperial Recruiter just doesn't feel like an uncommon. Not because of raw power level, but just because tutoring with loose restrictions is something typically done at rare, not at uncommon. Whether or ot you want to avoid cards that feel like they should be rare, but have been printed at lower rarities is a personal choice, but I don't like it for my cube.
Which is funny as all the classical tutors were originally printed as uncommons (some of them even reprinted as uncommons). So tutoring is an effect that is inteneded to be and feel uncommon. I think tutors might feel rare as in rare cubes the targets are so powerful. But I personally disagree that tutors do not feel uncommon.
@ Phitt: you play Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor in your cube. How is your experinence with these? See, I stay away from these as they are card disadvantage and for me the cards you put on top of your library are not powerful enough to justify the card disadvantage.
I'm not missing the general point of tutors, I'm just questioning that you will have a lot of situations where paying three additional mana for a 1/1 and a 2 power creature of your choice is better than playing any decent three drop that has a board impact on its own already.
Again I think you dont get the point that I dont want to play any decent three drop, but rather a three drop that searches up the best card for the current situation and this is most often better than any decent three drop. Granted, the Recruiter has limitations regarding the tutor targets, but I will test out whether these limitations will be a reason to not permanently include the card in my cube.
Thanks for the input.
If you start thinking about corner cases and special interactions then every card with an etb effect suddenly becomes awesome. Especially if you don't even look at cards from the same color, which is another reason why Recruiter isn't that great - there hardly are any cards in red worth tutoring for
This is true - but most decks are doubled colored and Recruiter has very good targets in every color.
Your cube has to be incredibly slow if Recruiter into Beetleback Chief is a good play as all you get is a 7 mana Beetleback Chief that gives you three instead of two tokens. And in that case any other three drop would have been way better as well (again, unless you are in top deck mode with 10 lands in play).
The Chief is a bad example but I think you miss an important general point of tutors. You are not paying e.g. 7 mana for a 4 drop (3 for Recruiter and 4 for the tutored card) just for fun, you are paying 7 mana for the 4 drop at the exact time you need the card given the current game state, which is huge and can make a big difference. Magic is all about having the right cards at the right time.
I think there are many valid pro and contra arguments and I will just tets the card and see how it turns out.
Gideon Blackblade
Gideon of the Trials
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis
Gideon Jura
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Serra the Benevolent
Sorry for all the questions, but I have some ground to cover ;-).
Sram's Expertise
Legion's Landing
Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis
Force of Virtue
Clever Impersonator
Will Kenrith
Asylum Visitor
Custodi Lich
Wretched Confluence
Dreadhorde Invasion
Liliana, Dreadhorde General
Robber of the Rich
Rampaging Ferocidon
Ilharg, the Raze-Boar (I do not support Sneak Attack)
Fiery Confluence (still powerful in unpowered cube?)
Ramunap Excavator (no Loam, Wasteland, Strip Mine. However Fetchies are included)
Questing Beast
Finale of Devastation
Vivien's Arkbow
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim
Dovin, Grand Arbiter
Ugin, the Ineffable
Retrofitter Foundry
Yeah thats is what I am aiming for at 450. 4 cards per guild; 4 fixers per guild + triomes and 5 color fixing. Thank you again.
That is a very cool cube, thank you for sharing. The thing is, that I really want to include (some) iconic cards of magic and therefore I automatically might have a lot of redundancies with an (un)powered cube. I will browse through your list and look for possible inclusions.
I agree that this is a big problem. I am thinking about violating my financial restrictions for mana-fixing (!) lands as these hold the cube together and are also a nice investment. So I might include Fetchies and Shocks to have a solid base.
since my son will be born soon, I decided that I want to restart my cube to give my son the opportunity to play this great game while he will be growing up (and although it will take years until he will be able to play the cube, I decided that it is now a good time to come back to cube building and wrap my head around it).
Due to financial reasons I opt to include only cards that cost 15€ maximum. Moreover, cards have to have a modern frame, since this reflects most of my magic career.
Although I regularly play the current limited set, I am a bit rusty with regards to cube and would like to ask for some help.
I.) I put together a preliminary list. The numbers are not final yet, but I would to ask you to shortly browse through the list and give a general impression if there are any obvious flaws to the cube design.
II.) Due to the financial restrictions I (might) see one design problem: all the expensive pay-off cards such as the Eldrazis, Karn Liberated or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon are not available. Are there any cheaper replacements?
III.) I am undecided whether I should go for 400 or 450 cards. I do not want to dilute the themes too much, but on the other hand I like diversity within the cube.
IV.) I am always open for new card suggestions
I am talking about adding rare lands to the peasant cube.
I think we can all agree that good fixing is beneficial for every cube as it allows more consistent gameplay i.e. more fun.
I think we can also agree that fixing in peasant is not good as WotC refuses to print good fixing at lower rarities - probably not due to power-level but because of economic reasons.
Peasant cubes are lacking good fixing that comes into play untapped. Now there are plenty of rare land cycles available that can fix this problem and I am wondering which ones are the best/most suitable.
Basically, for me there are two routes - i.) best of the best and ii.) cheap solution
i.) would include fetchlands and duals/shocklands, although due to budget restrictions I would go with shocklands over duals
ii.) would include painlands and maybe shocklands (dependent on the budget - shocklands are not as expensive anymore)
I am also considering adding the manlands, although I am not sure if these fit from a power-level point of view as they represent more than just fixing.
It will be also interesting to think about consequences of such changes (especially the addition of fetchlands). Which cards become better? Brainstorm, Sensei's Divining Top, Sylvan Library, Wild Nacatl, everything with landfall, etc..
May I ask you to share your experience and thoughts about this?
Specifically these are the cards that make me thinking (besides the snow cards from coldsnap): Icehide Golem, Abominable Treefolk, Frostwalk Bastion, Arcum‘s Astrolabe
... or even at instant speed (Foulmire Knight).
It looks like you can either cast the creature for its normal casting cost, or pay its adventure cost first and then be able to cast the creature for its regular cost. So Order of Midnight is either a 2/2 flyer for 1B, or a flying Gravedigger for 1B and 1B.
Which is funny as all the classical tutors were originally printed as uncommons (some of them even reprinted as uncommons). So tutoring is an effect that is inteneded to be and feel uncommon. I think tutors might feel rare as in rare cubes the targets are so powerful. But I personally disagree that tutors do not feel uncommon.
@ Phitt: you play Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor in your cube. How is your experinence with these? See, I stay away from these as they are card disadvantage and for me the cards you put on top of your library are not powerful enough to justify the card disadvantage.
Again I think you dont get the point that I dont want to play any decent three drop, but rather a three drop that searches up the best card for the current situation and this is most often better than any decent three drop. Granted, the Recruiter has limitations regarding the tutor targets, but I will test out whether these limitations will be a reason to not permanently include the card in my cube.
Thanks for the input.
This is true - but most decks are doubled colored and Recruiter has very good targets in every color.
The Chief is a bad example but I think you miss an important general point of tutors. You are not paying e.g. 7 mana for a 4 drop (3 for Recruiter and 4 for the tutored card) just for fun, you are paying 7 mana for the 4 drop at the exact time you need the card given the current game state, which is huge and can make a big difference. Magic is all about having the right cards at the right time.
I think there are many valid pro and contra arguments and I will just tets the card and see how it turns out.