cube colorwheel

Entry Enjoyment: Balanced

By Femme_Fatale

Score: 7

Timeline

Draft this Cube Open pack Create Sealed Copy

Description

The basic idea of this cube is to appeal to the beginner players, and by doing this the cube is based off of the most common decks any beginner player will generally make. Depending on how card balance turns out, I may start adding or removing deck archetypes.

  • : Equipment
  • : Control
  • : Rack
  • : RDW
  • : Ramp
  • : Landfall
  • : Devotion
  • : Tokens
  • : Fliers
  • : Artifacts

There are also a list of archetypes that just didn't make the cut. There are two reasons why they might not have made it: The first is that I don't like mixing enemy and ally colour combinations together, so I stuck with ally combinations. The second was because they just weren't strong enough or didn't mesh well enough with the rest of the archetypes.

  • : Lifegain
  • : Tokens
  • : Infect
  • : Tokens
  • : Hatebears
  • : Infect
  • : Weenies
  • : Heroic
  • : Mill
  • : Zoo

I need data! For those of you who have drafted this, please send me draft data. Basically, just post the link to the draft simulation here so that I can look over it and test it out.

In a recent update, I removed most of the cards that were over $5. There are still about 12 left, but this certainly has balanced cube out better. It also means that the rarity is more balanced too, less rares and mythics.

Artifacts (38)

Uncommon (15)

Common (11)

Rare (9)

Mythic Rare (3)

Chrotion (38)

Uncommon (16)

Common (10)

Mythic Rare (3)

Rare (9)

Control (38)

Common (15)

Uncommon (12)

Rare (8)

Mythic Rare (3)

Equipments (38)

Common (14)

Uncommon (13)

Rare (9)

Mythic Rare (2)

Fixing (25)

Common (18)

Uncommon (7)

Fliers (38)

Uncommon (18)

Rare (10)

Common (7)

Mythic Rare (3)

Landfall (38)

Common (13)

Uncommon (13)

Rare (9)

Mythic Rare (3)

RDW (38)

Common (15)

Uncommon (11)

Rare (9)

Mythic Rare (3)

Rack (38)

Uncommon (15)

Rare (9)

Common (11)

Mythic Rare (3)

Ramp (38)

Common (17)

Uncommon (9)

Mythic Rare (3)

Rare (9)

Removal (45)

Uncommon (25)

Common (20)

Tokens (38)

Common (13)

Uncommon (11)

Mythic Rare (3)

Rare (11)

nayrash5 says... #1

Six Hundred is too many, five-forty is typically the max for cubes that are trying to force one archetype per colour pattern, because with six hundred you will often fail to hit a critical mass of things. In example, if someone is gunning for Infect, and gets like, six dudes with Infect and a bunch of pump, he's going to get badly blown-out by someone with all the removal. Also, generally Alt-Win cons are bad, because they tend to get blown away right before a win is sealed. I'll choose Felidar Sovereign, because it's the first one I saw. Once the player with it in play gets to the 35-40 life area, It's going to die. Also, costing six mana and not winning till upkeep really hinders its usefulness. If you can't tell from my list, I'm not really a fan of mill cards that only dunk a couple. This is in part due the scale of the Cube, and also due to the potential for a serious backfire with them. Note, this is just with a glance, I'll probably look more in-depthly later. I can elaborate on any of my card choices if you want me too.

Cards I would cut: Boros Mastiff, Celestial Flare, Felidar Sovereign, Lifelink, Remedy, Survival Cache, Test of Endurance, Angel's Feather, Darksteel Colossus, Decimator Web, Grindstone, Millstone, Obelisk of Alara, Ulamog's Crusher, Pilfered Plans, Immortal Servitude, Bitter Revelation, Corrupt, Darkblast, Mind Rot, Mutilate, Necrogen Mists, Underworld Connections, Victim of Night, Betrayal, Bone to Ash, Countermand, Dismiss, Divination, Dream Twist, Tome Scour, Flusterstorm, Back to Nature, Drumhunter, Ferocious Charge, Hardened Scales, Krosan Drover, Monstrous Growth, Phytoburst, Somberwald Sage, Wild Nacatl, Burn at the Stake, Cinder Pyromancer, Claws of Valakut, Galvanic Arc, Goblin Sharpshooter, and Lava Spike.

Overall, this is a very solid effort for a first cube. I might make some adding suggestions later, IDK.

September 15, 2015 12:22 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #2

I'm too tired to do actual changes.

September 15, 2015 4:03 a.m.

ChiefBell says... #3

You need to play it and cut the cards that no-one picks. I used to cube with a friend every saturday and once a months (after 4 sessions cubing) he'd make adjustments.

September 15, 2015 5:21 a.m.

nayrash5 says... #4

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are both staples of White. Flare is super reactive, and generally misses utility creatures that never attack. It also only eats the most worthless creature, if you get attacked by a 2/2 and two 4/4's, they'll just sac' the 2/2 and that didn't change much.

Remedy is cute, but would you really take that over any other heroic triggering spell//creature with Heroic? way too often, it's going to be the last card in the pack and just lost to side-boardia, cards that work in only one archetype generally aren't amazing in Cube, unless they do something disgustingly broken.

Betrayal might be OK on a 2/2, but on a beater it's like 'yay, I drew a card... Damnit I died.' There's better removal in colour, and you can splash into a colour with more removal if you really need some.

The BS Robot deals lethal in one hit, Darksteel is just a durdly beater. Granted, most of the times I use BS Robot I'm also jamming Tinker, but he is his own wincon that needs to be answered immediately. Ulamog's Crusher is probably the weakest of the Eldrazi, save Hand of Emrakul. He's 'just' and 8/8 with 'lator 2 that will constantly attack. He might see play if you pulled no other bomb worth using, and at that point, why are you playing green anyway.

Mind Rot is one of the weakest discard engines out there; Hymn to Tourach, Thoughtseize, Duress, Mind Twist, Inquisition of Kozilek, Rakdos's Return, Mind Shatter, and Brain Maggot all either surgical strike answers or rip a giant hole in someone's hand. Rot is fine in normal limited, but really bad when compared to all the other choices.

Wild Nacatl looks really good on paper, but I've never seen her make it into any cube list I've ever played or fought against. A 1/1 for G is lame, and being forced into a second or potentially third colour for very a little upside on one thing just isn't worth it in a majority of decks.

Somberwald Sage taps for three of a single colour, shaman can tap for a mix of colours, though I might be a bit biased in keeping him in because I've been experimenting with him as well.

Flusterstorm is really only good if you have a tonne of combo decks in Cube, most notably Storm itself. A large number of times it's just going to make something cost one or two mana more, wherein, against storm it counters pretty much all the copies of something. If you had Reanimator, Storm, Artifacts, or one of the other six spells a turn archetypes this would be quite a bit better.

I must have missed a bunch of pingers. With the exception of Chandra, Pingers generally aren't going to do very much unless you draft like four of them. I would suppose that Sharpshooter might be good if there are a bunch of X/1's in someone's pool, but in reality, pingers tend to not make the cut.

Immortal Servitude, it's too specific to really be amazing. If it was X or Less it would be far better, though perhaps a bit broken. As is, it's just a less colour specific knock-off of Living Death, and I'm not even sure Death would be great in here.

Victim of Night is generally worse than Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Slaughter Pact, and Ultimate Price, because it costs BB. I would be a tonne better if you had much more fixing.

Hardened Scales is going to be a dead card to all but one drafter, and even then it might be dead to everyone. It's a really good effect, but not good enough to make someone force Heroic.

Two of those Pump options are sorceries, which kills their utility, and Charge is three mana. At that costs, you've got to be at least four turns into the game before it becomes useful, and I was viewing Heroic as the aggro deck. By the time you cast it, the opponent would either be dead or dying.

Lava Spike is one of the weaker burn spells. It's a sorcery, that only doinks players. It's not going to be picked over pretty much any of the other burn options, and even Zoo is likely to overlook it.

Bitter Revelation is four mana. There are a tonne of options at cheeper costs, everything from Read the Bones to Brainstorm.

Grindstone is another one of those cards that looks great on paper. However, the odds of you running into a single colour deck with this, that also runs a small enough land count for this to hit cards of the same colour almost every time, are very slim. It could be really funny with Painters Servant though.

You need a lot more fixing if you don't want everyone to play one colour, the Duals, Fetches, Shocks, and Buddy lands would all be good. The Signets are almost Cube staples because they essentially give you a free land drop. The Ravnica Bounce Lands can be solid, especially when I see you aren't running Strip Mine//Wasteland.

I would also add Sylvan Library, Brainstorm, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Mana Drain. Tinker, Entomb, Reanimate, Bribery, Sneak Attack, Emrakul the Aeons Torn, Kozilek Butcher of Truth, Consecrated Sphinx and Metalworker could also be quite nice, but they would all kind of dominate this Cube in unfair kinds of ways.

September 15, 2015 2:11 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #5

I always thought that players will very openly go for dual colours in a draft because a single colour isn't very worth it unless it is a specific archetype. I can't afford to put in mana-fixing lands or rocks because that would require numerous spots for them, which I don't really have the space for. I probably have the space for 10 cards, but that is hardly anything when you are only going to be getting one of them.

Also, I've made it so that unless you are playing one of the 5 mono-colour archetypes (control can be splashed for other colours, and generally will be), it is not advisable to go mono anything. Infect can swap B for W to gain access to the protection grants. WU heroic where both W or U can be swapped for G. Weenies can easily go more midrangy with WB and take discard and removal. The only colour one might reliably be able to go mono-colour is white, because there's more white than anything else, standing even 20 cards more than red or black.

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are a bit too strong for me. I'll probably remove some of other too powered stuff as well. I'm pretty sure I put in about 10-12 pingers in here, and in this cube that is laden with X/1's and X/2's, pingers are much more powerful than most other cubes.

I need more wraths though ... Just there is only so many black wraths in the game.

September 15, 2015 7:28 p.m.

nayrash5 says... #6

Possible Black Wrath ideas: Consume the Meek, Decree of Pain, Hellfire, Killing Wave, Life's Finale, and Overwhelming Forces.

Contagion Engine and All Is Dust are both colourless wraths.

Sudden Spoiling is a pseudo-wrath, as are Wave of Terror and Hex.

If you can't tell, I collect Wrath Spells. :P

September 15, 2015 11:19 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #7

Cube has been updated! A pretty massive one too as it changed a bunch of archetypes.

October 4, 2015 5:07 a.m.

greenkingwashere says... #8

I really like how it looks. Solid mid power cube

March 14, 2016 7:41 a.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #9

Hit custom categories greenkingwashere and you can see a general archetypal guideline of this cube.

March 14, 2016 9:12 p.m.

Femme_Fatale says... #10

Massive update folks! Infect has been fully removed for 8-rack!

Lots more removal, and its own separate detailed listing. Removed weak spirit and flicker sub-themes from fliers. Added a reanimation subtheme to mill/ramp. Added a creature lands subtheme to landfall. Streamlined the chrotion cards.

April 5, 2016 4:52 a.m.

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Cards 450
Date added 10 years
Last updated 3 years

Last Updated 3 years ago

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