MTG Salvation

I like Atrax, the Tanglespinner more than I like Primal Tangle. It's obviously more pushed, but Primal Tangle is (in a lot of cases) just a strictly worse Winter Orb. If you really wanted to make Atrax spicy, you could try pushing his power or toughness like Bolas suggested, but have him still function like Winter Orb with the being untapped clause. I don't know if aggro really wants its creatures to let up the pressure when attacking, though.

If you've got a sliver cube, custom or not, I imagine you'll basically win every game you cast Alpha Sliver if your opponent doesn't immediately remove it. If I'm understanding the way the rules work, your slivers would all be 5/5's and still be getting the plusses from Muscle Sliver, or whatever.

Oracle of Mirrodin Pure is a little unexciting to me. Having to wait a turn for my card to do stuff is pretty unexciting for a control deck and a 2/2 for 3 is not an especially sizable blocker.

Quote from cuttups

This one is a bit awkward since you don't get to attack with the Hellsparky ever if you bestow it.

Hellsparky 1R
Creature - Elemental Spirit
Bestow 1BB
Trample, Haste
At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice Hellsparky
Enchanted creature gets +3/+1 and gains Trample, Haste and At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice this creature.
3/1

If you make its sacrifice trigger at your end step, it works the way you were hoping.

Quote from eidolon232

There is already a massive thread for this:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=125982

I actually feel like this thread has the opposite purpose, eidolon. "Dark Horse" cards look bad and unusual, but are good in a traditional cube. This thread is meant to talk about pet cards, or cards that look really good on paper, but are just too unweildy, clunky, inconsistent, or weak in a traditional cube.

Do you play functional reprints?
Do you wish there were more functional reprints of certain cards?

If so, you're already subconsciously "wanting" to get rid of the singleton rule. You're just giving R&D some accidental authority over how many copies of a given effect are allowed in your cube.

Quote from Ryoin

Can someone give me a quick explanation of what draft.in is? I have no clue, can't seem to google it, and can't find anywhere else to practice...

Try drafts.in

Assuming Zovc was talking about my cube, here's a link to the Modal Cube: http://cubetutor.com/cubeblog/85

It isn't necessarily based on tricks, since a lot of it is based on visible information, like creatures with abilities. However, there are plenty of cards that I would suggest, like Divine Deflection, Do or Die, and Beast Attack.

The most important thing I've had to learn in the time I've had the cube is balancing theme versus the core aggro/midrange/control elements. I think my white aggro needs work, but that requires more 2 power 1 drops that I can justify. Some cards fit because they change the way players evaluate the game (even if they aren't necessarily modal themselves), like Steppe Lynx. The line of play for Steppe Lynx is usually somewhat linear, but there's an interaction between players when judging whether there's another land coming. It isn't my perfect aggro creature for Modal Cube, but it's more interactive than Savanna Lions.

Oh right, I meant to comment on your Surrogate cycle.

That was one thing I was curious about. Colorless seems like a tacked on part of the card. There is no functional reason for the dudes to be colorless unless you provide some reason elsewhere in the cube. Honestly, I'd just let them be colored with an option to cast them colorlessly, like phybrid mana.

White: Each of the others has additional abilties or text. It seems odd that this one doesn't.
Blue: Evasion is serious on a one drop. Having to reveal a spell like that on casting isn't enough of a drawback to make up for that IMO.
Black: Again, evasion on a one drop though at least this one isn't constant. It seems okay with the restriction as long as it doesn't remain colorless.
Red: Haste and must attack seems alright.
Green: The adding a +1/+1 counter seems a little much for this guy. He's still pretty good even without that.

The thing with these guys is that they should be efficient as a colored one-drop. They shouldn't be terribly efficient as a colorless two-drop. Not terrible as a two-drop, but not an amazing two-drop either. I think that is the best way to balance them.

What about this for white?

Phyrexian Revered WWWW
Creature - Horror
Vigilance
Whenever ~ is dealt damage, tap up to that many target permanents. They don't untap during their controller's next untap step.
5/5

Thanks Zovc. I think the last GW spider we got was probably Invasion (Ancient Spider) while we got a much more recent RG one (Dragonlair Spider) and I just enjoyed the idea of a legendary trickster spider that ran around tangling things up I think you're right that white should get the taxation slice of the color pie, but red also likes to occasionally straight-up hurt or diminish its enemies when they cast spells (Manabarbs, Stranglehold).

Also, shouldn't we get Obliterator-type cards that are a little closer to the original idea of damage = stuff? That way we have the luxury of choosing the best out of five rather than being stuck with one bad version

Phyrexian Excisor UUUU
Creature - Horror
Flying
Whenever a source deals damage to Phyrexian Excisor, you may draw twice that many cards.
5/5

Phyrexian Devastator RRRR
Creature - Horror
Haste
Whenever Phyrexian Devastator is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to target opponent and each creature they control.
5/5

Phyrexian Harvester GGGG
Creature - Horror
Hexproof
Whenever a source deals damage to Phyrexian Harvester, you may search your library for that many land cards and put them onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
5/5

And a blank for white. Feel free to come up with your own though!

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen!

I fell in love with Booze Cube a couple months ago, and here are a couple of things I've learned from my experiences:

- A lot of the cards are extremely overcosted, while having limited game impact. We've actually errated (Is that a word?!) some of the cards to push their power a bit, usually my making them cost significantly less.

- Cards/abilities that just cost drinks are over powered. Take a drink to put a +1/+1 counter on this guy? Ok, you better block him, because I will literally drink 20 or however many times I need to to kill you (some people can just down it like water... I never cast Corporate Tutor un-kicked! And I casted it three times in one sitting of Booze Cube... I know, I'm an idiot. ). We like how creative and fun the original Booze Cube cards are, so we try and use them, but adding cost like 1 or 1 life to things like that so they can't be used infinite times.

- I read it somewhere in this post, but altering cube worthy cards I feel is the best way to create custom cards. How about an under costed Propaganda where creatures can't attack you unless they drink X (if you're gonna tax someone with drinks, it should be super pushed)? I made a Thought Seize variant where the caster lost 1 life and drank 5.

- Most of the lands are completely overpowered. Drinking 1 or 2 to tap for WW is a ridiculously easy cost to pay. They're usually first pick worthy. I would just nix them.

- Intoxicated is just no fun at all. It just makes games go on forever. We changed all intoxicated creatures to have boozetouch.

I feel like I've started rambling, so I'll just end there, but I've got a lot more on my mind if any one ever wants to discuss updating Booze Cubes! And I know I've probably thought way too much into this, but I love Magic, and I love drinking. If I wanted to drink without any real structure, I'd just play Three Man or any of a million cards games that are completely random.

Have fun everyone!