Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[Thestatusquo]

I was trying to force UR tempo with twin (or mono U tempo without, but then the red cards just kept flowing

[Thestatusquo]

Yes, I am aware 15 lands is a little loose with a 5 drop and 2 4 drops..

[Natirasha]

Id have cut Purph for a land, maybe one of the 2 drops too. Dualcaster, Figure, Fireblast and Flamespeaker all don't mind having a few extra lands around.

[Klazam]

kiln fiend is the good cut here i think. I'm fine with 16 lands in a aggro oriented deck

[bv310]

Shea drafted mono-Red in Cube? It's a miracle!

[Thestatusquo]

I ended up siding out purphoros for brimstone volley in almost every matchup. Land count ended up being fine. I kept 2 1 landers and felt pretty ok doing so. I think that's generally where you want to be in a 15 land deck.

Lost to Andrew Shrout in the finals. G1 turn 5 eureka- progenitus-thragtusk-primevil titan was pretty good. He also showed me bonfire g1 so I I played around that g2 by pumping my figure instead of playing flamespeaker. G3 he had the tusk and I was still able to give my self three rips at a 3 damage or better burn spell but couldn't get there. Good games.

I actually haven't been liking mono red in this cube (though its usually what I force in cube (if there aren't signets. If there are signets 5c control all the way) because it just seems like this cube is less durdley an more creature strategy oriented, which means you have less good matchups to prey on. I've been REALLY liking mono U tempo/aggro in this iteration because 2/2 fliers are just SO good in this cube, as are bounce spells. Riftwing cloudskate is like the nut high and master of waves is SAVAGE especially if you can curve kira into it. I've been splashing red if I can get the twin package and enough lands to reasonably do so because pestermite and exarch are totally fine in the non red version of the deck so I don't mind speculatively picking them up mid pack which is generally where I see them go (which feels maybe wrong? I feel like twin is one of the most objectively powerful things you can be doing in this cube and it doesn't ask a whole hell of a lot of you, either.)

[hasdgfas]

Shea, what do you think of the cube in general? I've heard complaints about aggro decks in general (not specifically mono-red, which has supposedly been neutered a bit).

[Thestatusquo]

I assume by "complaints about aggro decks" you mean "Marshall Suttcliffe will not shut the fuck up about it."

Fuck him. He thinks that just because the particular strategies that he likes to play aren't amazing that the cube is bad. That's just clearly not the case. I don't think aggro strategies are over powered. I think they were underpowered in previous iterations of the cube, and now they're not just byes for durdle-fest blue control, which they were before.

I think some of the design choices for this cube are interesting. Cutting the swords in particular is a move I really like. Some of the most boring games of cube go like this "turn two dude turn three sword turn four equip win" I know Chamber cut the swords entirely from his cube a long time ago and has been fairly happy with the results.

They've made white weenie a playable archetype, when before I feel like it was just sort of a "lolllll you tried to draft a different deck and didn't get there so you back doored some late white creatures" Thats sweet. Blue feels less good from a controlling standpoint and more good from an aggro standpoint, so I think that's where a lot of the complaints are coming from. I think they're just lazy. There is still a diversity of archetypes to play all over the spectrum. I wish they'd do more with green than just making it mana dorks and big green dudes, which feels super lame. Green is the hardest color to design well for cube I think, though. It just doesn't have a very straightforward identity, so that's a little bit forgivable.

Some of the card choices feel a little bit odd to me. The eldrazi in particular I feel like should have been cut when channel got the axe. They just don't do anything outside of one archetype (sneak/show/eureka) which means there are drafts where just no one wants them and there is not enough good mana ramp in this cube to reasonably cast them. Honestly I kind of just wish show and tell wasn't in the cube or the eldrazi weren't in the cube. It feels too easy to just do that and show and tell would be an interesting card if you weren't just emrakuuling. I wish there were storm support as well. I like combo in the cube but I really want people to work for it. Thats what makes it fun. Sneak attack/reanimator/eureka/twin don't really feel like enough work to me. (reanimator may be an exception)

[bv310]

I end up in either Twin or Ramp every time I Cube. It's becoming something of a problem.

[Shanba]

My dream is to draft a show and tell and then show and tell in a sower of temptation

does that work?

[Sudo_Nym]

I'm not 100%, but I think you have to choose a target for Sower when it enters play. The bigger issue is that you have to play your creature before the opponent does, so they get to see your Sower before they decide what to put out.

[hasdgfas]

I hadn't actually seen Marshall's complaints about it, I had just heard murmurs.

I think I agree with most of your comments. There are definitely interesting archetypes, and the Eldrazi feel out of place. I don't think there's enough ramp to make them good choices for the Show and Tell/Eureka deck, even, because they're just stuck in your hand too often(this is actually from experience).

Personally, I'm a big fan of the token subtheme in this cube. It's different from most cube archetypes I've seen, and it's fun. I drafted this deck, for instance


It went 3-0 and was super fun(no, I did not win every game off of Jitte. I only saw it once, and was already winning that game).

[beeboy]

Thinking about getting mtgo just to try one of these drafts

[Thestatusquo]

I'm not 100%, but I think you have to choose a target for Sower when it enters play. The bigger issue is that you have to play your creature before the opponent does, so they get to see your Sower before they decide what to put out.

All the choices of show and tell are made as the spell is resolving. None of the creatures come into play until after the show and tell has resolved, at which point they both come into play at the same time and any triggered effects will happen. The point is that sower will see Big Daddy Emra in order to target when it triggers.

This is why oblivion ring, sower of temptation and gilded drake are popular sb cards against show and tell in legacy (and why typically its safer to go for the sneak attack kill in post board games)

[Thestatusquo]

and sudo, for show and tell all choices are made and then revealed at the same time. Your opponent should not know about sower until show and tell resolves.

Eureka on the other hand...

[Shanba]

Hrm.

Ivan Floch's draft here is fascinating:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/magic/draft ... pick=false

Spoiler:

Pack 1 looks like it gets awkward when he's forced out of black by Huey and so he starts moving into blue with glacial stalker, a pair of monastery flocks and a snowhorn rider. Then, pack 2, he justifiably moves into red, starting with an ashcloud phoenix and finding some other good red cards before picking up a moderately late trail of mystery. So he's definitely temur colours in some way, but it looks like he's red/blue splash green for snowhorns. That, however, does not really allow him to play the trail of mystery which is a card you want to play early and start generating value with.

So pack 3 he opens a pack with a kheru spellsnatcher. I'm thinking he snaps up the spellsnatcher, which is powerful card, but he decides otherwise (I can only assume because he wants to get value from trail of mystery) and he picks a canyon lurkers instead. He ends up playing a green/red deck splashing blue instead of a red/blue deck splashing red.

[Thestatusquo]

[theelkspeaks]

Fairly new to MtG in general, and MtGO more specifically, but I'm playing. same username as here and everywhere else. Got my account started with the starter kit on Monday of this week, and been playing a red/green with some early damage from creatures with abilities that make them harder to block transitioning into burn spells for the finisher (like lava axe, which I run 3x).

That said, all my experience playing MtG before this has been playing with friends' constructed decks against other decks of the same friends, so my actual deckbuilding skills are horrid, and I've never done a draft. (Though I have some experience in other CCGs, most notably Elements the Game, as well as a recent start into Hearthstone). Are there any resources scummers would recommend to beginners to MtG?

edit: is the current deck I'm playing with.

[bv310]

I'd recommend downloading the most recent Duels of the Planeswalkers game. The first chapter's free, and has a tutorial to get you up to speed on the game/deckbuilding very quickly. You can also pick up a lot from the mtgoacademy site. I think they have a tutorial for beginners.

Feel free to add me on MTGO (bv310), though I usually draft or play Modern/EDH, so I'm not going to be a ton of help for you.

[Thestatusquo]

Guys make sure to root for Andrew Baekstrom for team USA. Good friend of mine. Great guy. Great magic player. GO TEAM USA!

[Anatole Kuragin]

I wish they could show more matches than they do in worlds

[bv310]

FUCK TEAM USA! GO TEAM CANADA! (Seriously though, good luck to him!)

[hasdgfas]

FUCK TEAM USA! GO TEAM CANADA! (Seriously though, good luck to him!)

Team Canada is already eliminated.

[bv310]

WELL SHIT

[Thestatusquo]

Yeah, fairly astonishing failure to day 2 actually. Canada was one of the stronger teams imo.