The Starting Gate
My Cube was already pretty large at 480 cards. It was designed to showcase the full history of the game and include virtually every common card that was historically significant, inherently powerful, or genuinely unique. It is also very important to me that every player be able to main deck basically anything that they draft. This requires two important steps:
- Including enough fixing so that a full eight person draft pod could be playing multicolor brews if they wanted to. Four and five color decks are not just possible in Pauper limited, but they are actually dominant. It is harder to draft mono-color than it is to draft five color 'good stuff'.
- Second, sideboard cards have to be applicable to general gameplay. There are certainly some powerful niche cards like Dismantling Blow, but I didn't want effects like Circle(s) of Protection that would end games incidentally.
Khans of Tarkir brought me to a decision point. With five new fixing artifacts and ten new quality dual lands, multicolor decks could be at an all time high. Including these cards would permanently erase one and two color decks. I didn't want to change the balance of the format because I was happy with how it played pre-Khans. I had a dilemma and I chose to expand.
Adding cards up to 540 would allow me to include these powerful new fixers and also make it easier to add many other cards that had been waiting in the wings for a long time. The sacrifice is that the overall card quality goes down and aggro decks suffer as it becomes tougher to acquire the premium one and two drops. Multicolor midrange decks will thrive because fixing is plentiful and there exists a plethora of replaceable 'value' cards to stall games and punish niche archetypes. I am not saying I like it or hate it. I can't garuantee how long it will stay this way, but for now I am fully embracing what Khans has to offer and playing the new duals alongside the RTR Gates.
Card Changes:
+10 Dual Lands
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| If there was an award for most difficult to cast mana rock, the borderposts would win. |
In: Banners
I have always loved this cycle for its versatility. If you are playing a decent number of basics, they can act just like a ETB tapped dual land which is the standard for Pauper. Doing this also helps you trigger Landfall effects and puts otherwise useless lands into your hand for discard effects and Retrace.
I have a feeling that these will be back, but for now I am taking them out to make room for the new clan banners which offer three colors. Comparable to the Obelisk cycle from Shards of Alara, the Banners are slow, but are sometimes necessary to round out the color requirements in a loose deck.
Out: Triclopean Sight
In: Ainok Bond-Kin
Triclopean Sight has been on the bubble for years now. It just isn't powerful enough on its own to justify including it in my Cube. I gave it a short run last year along with other Theros block cards to enhance an "enchantments matter" theme, but now it is time for it to go.
Replacing it is a premier two drop. Bond-Kin is strong in aggressive and defensive decks and is going to perform well whether you draw it early or late. The fact that it only requires one colored mana means that this card is going to be a high pick for virtually any deck. I expect it to be a key player in my Cube.
Out: Court Street Denizen
In: Mardu Hordechief
Well, if we are trying to expand options for multicolor decks, then a Creature that only plays well with other White Creatures is going to get worse. Instead we will get to make some tokens off of our Raid triggers. Pauper is heavy on Creatures, so the games tend to revolve around combat. The vast majority of those Creatures cost three or less. That means that a 2/3 is going to be able to survive combat with about half of the Creatures in the cube, so the body is much stronger in this format than it is in a typical Khans draft. The 1/1 is also much more relevant. With high quality equipment like Bonesplitter hanging around, every body counts.
Out: Voice of the Provinces
In: Phantom Nomad
Voice has been comfortably occupying a spot in my Cube since it was printed. There are only a handful of Flying 3/3's in the entire format, so the body demands an answer. The fact that it leaves behind a little value even after it is removed has made it a welcome addition to all of my White decks. The trouble is that it is very expensive and at that price point you can get more for your money. I think that slower, controlling deck will benefit more from having a high-value early play like Phantom Nomad. Nomad impressed me in Vintage Masters draft and I think that it will also add strength to aggressive decks who need a high density of two drops.
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| No joke, this is probably the most powerful card in all of Khans of Tarkir. |
In: Treasure Cruise
Treasure Cruise is one of the breakout cards from the new set. It is seeing play in every format in the game so there was no chance I was leaving it out of this update. Fade Away has been on the bubble from the very first list I drafted. It is a very unique card, especially for a Blue common.
The truth is that situational pseudo-removal just isn't removal. It almost always generates card advantage, but it usually just blows up a couple of your opponents lands. Now that certainly has value, but it doesn't mean as much if you are already behind on the board. Fade Away will most likely be back in the future, but it tends to move around a lot.
Out: Spearpoint Oread
In: Mardu Warshrieker
In general, I have been very pleased with the Bestow cards. They provide bodies, versatility, and value, which is everything I want from a Creature. Spearpoint Oread has been underperforming though. The Bestow cost is very high and the mana cost is nothing special for the body that you get. I think Warshrieker will provide much more play. The potential to fix colors and boost tempo is already very exciting and 'free' spells are always worth something. Considering the high power level of the format, that three mana can buy you some impressive plays.
Out: Ravenous Rats
In: Mardu Skullhunter
I consider this a temporary change. Ravenous Rats is a classic card and it will probably never be permanently replaced. But for now, Skullhunter is an exciting new update of the card that let's me play with new mechanics and new twists on an old favorite.
I prioritize including cards that have significant historical precedents, and Ravenous Rats fits the bill, but there is another reason I want to keep it in long-term: I want to have one card from every expansion in the game's history, which I have been able to do...thanks to Rats. First printed in Portal Second Age, it is the only card from that set that was in my Cube, so I am now missing something to fill that requirement.
Out: Drakewing Krasis
In: Grazing Kelpie
Multicolor cards are always tough to evaluate. There are such a great deal of cards competing for so few spots that tough choices have to be made. Krasis has been under performing. One toughness Creatures are the easiest to remove and it feels bad to lose your whole board to an Electrickery. Ultimately, Krasis is replaceable, so I decided to exchange it for something more unique.
Kelpie is easier to cast, has a very solid defensive body, and an ability that is hard to find. That ability might also not be that useful, but it does give you a way to interact with Flashback cards and Gravedigger. Besides, a 2/4 Persist is probably worth playing on its own.
Out: Shambling Shell
In: Safehold Elite
This might look a bit weird on the surface. Moving up to 540 cards means that there will be 70 spots for multicolor cards. With ten two-color combinations, one would guess that each 'guild' would get seven cards. That is how things normally go, but not all guilds are created equal. There are some that have fewer cards that I would actually WANT to put in the Cube. Cutting a spot for G/B cards opens up room for me to include one of the many G/W cards that I have been trying to fit in for a long time.
In this case, cutting a difficult to cast card for one that is easily played by any Green deck allows me to shuffle slots around without actually penalizing certain color combos. A Green/Black deck can still make use of a solid two drop that they can easily cast.
Out: Consult the Necrosages
In: Suicidal Charge
The same concept applies here. Red/Black has been very competitive for a long time and it is tough to justify cutting quality pieces like Blightning. I have long adored Consult the Necrosages for its elegant design and flexibility, but it rarely ever gets used in discard mode. That makes it just worse than Divination in most decks and Divination is not good enough to be in the Cube. On the other hand, Suicidal Charge will be an unbeatable finisher in some decks. I expect it to end quite a few games in short order.
Out: Singe-mind Ogre
In: Traitor's Roar
I have goals for the mana curve and composition of each color. I want each segment of the Cube to be at least 50% Creatures and have a average converted mana cost as close to 2.5 as possible. I have noticed over time though, that multicolor cards tend to float in packs until they arrive at a player who can actually make use of them in their deck. At that point they need to actually make into that persons deck or it will just NEVER get played.
Because of this I have decided to relax my composition requirements for the multicolor segment. I hope that it will stimulate drafters to maindeck more powerful multicolor cards, even if they are a bit harder to cast. At any rate, if Red/Black players don't want to play Singe-mind Ogre, it needs to come out. I expect Traitor's Roar to give this color combination more of what it really wants: reach, answers to larger Creatures, and ways to punish slower decks.
Bubble Cards:
As with any choice, there will always be roads left untraveled. I keep a collection of cards that are right on the fringe of making into my Cube, but the missed the cut this time. If a card doesn't fill its role properly or fails to meet expectations I can make replacements without needing to do hours of research. These are a few of the notable entrants on that list. I'll leave you with a short comment on each:
Demonic Dread - I want the Cascade, but R/B is too heavily contested to have a wonky card like this right now. Maybe one day when I get tired of having midrange decks I will change this for Spawn of Rix Maadi to give aggro decks a quicker way to punch through.
Stitcher's Apprentice - I have always been a fan of the old limited combo of Threaten + sacrifice. Currently there are just too few ways to steal a Creature to make apprentice a high draft pick. Blue is the most competitive color and there are better ways to use this slot.
Into the Roil - Speaking of competitive, I always have trouble deciding on the correct number of bounce effects for the cube. Too many and aggro is unplayable, but there are so many excellent ones that I always want to cram in more. There are just so many powerful cards, like Into the Roil, that I really wish I had space for.
Sporemound/Sporoloth Ancient - I want a 5 cmc token generator in Green, especially in a build of the Cube that is so focused on interactive midrange decks. Both of these cards have been in the Cube before, sometimes together, but for now they are both on the outside looking in.
Three color Cards - I have taken a hard stance against including any three color cards, being that they are just so difficult to cast. Most people won't even try, no matter how strong the card is. The new three-color Morph cycle makes me think that maybe I should try and make space for them, particularly Ponyback Brigade and Efreet Weaponmaster.
That's all for this week. If you haven't been catching the coverage of the Pro Tour...why not? At the time of this writing the Pro Tour hasn't begun yet, but by the time you guys read it the action will all be over! Next week I will be back with the conclusion of my series on Pauper Cube!
-GG
