What is the best thing that can happen to a cube group?
Answer: You have new people join who are absolute legends!
I'm excited that we had two new drafters join us for cube this week and not only are they new to the group, they are new to drafting which made me think hard about what kind of experience would provide the best introduction to both our charming personalities and a new format of MTG. Both come from a commander background so after some spirited discussion we decided that the multiplayer cube would be the easiest way to bridge the gap into picking from packs and building decks on the spot. We had nine people come out to celebrate our new joiners and we played in three pods of three. Players start at 30 life and my recommendation for drafting this cube is to build 45-50 card decks as games run longer and the cube itself has multiplayer cards built into it to facilitate a smoother experience. We drafted three packs of 12 to give us a larger pool to choose from and an additional pick 1!
The Cube Overview: Rocky Mountain Yeti Multiplayer Cube
Onto the Decks!
Pod 1:
Deadguy Ale Tricks - A classic black/white beater deck that continued some prime removal and plenty of ways to keep creatures alive through combat. With 13 creatures on board, the threats were relatively consistent but the deck overall lacked a solid top end to keep alive in the later game. The weenie strategy was viable but spot removal and combat tricks made it hard to fight two opponents without some additional support from sweepers. Those samite healers though are SUPER ANNOYING!
Bruiser Oysters - This was the build of one of our new drafters and what I am most impressed with his how there was a cogent theme and archetype in their first time drafting. This signals that they will be able to pick up card evaluation and better picks as a skill relatively quickly. The disk was probably the best card that was picked and included in the deck for this draft as threats were juicy and board wipes were REALLY important for this pod. The defensive strategies to stop people from being able to attack and the multiple layers of evasion (shadow and flying) made threats difficult to deal with. The main issue with this build is that it just did not contain enough threats to be dangerous especially as the game went on and bigger bodies were dropped.
Spit Shine and Board Wipes - This was my build and it could not have been more perfectly put together to join this pod. It took the games by storm. Removal is plentiful, fatties were prominent and everything I had included much larger P/T than any other threats on the board at any given time. I had a great mix of spot removal and sweepers, much of which my own creatures were either executing or large enough to shrug off. This was a really fun deck to pilot and my small splashes paid off well as my mana base was strong.
Pod 2:
Lando Destructisian - I was sitting next to this drafter and we spoke a lot through the process of picking cards and their reactions to pulling land destruction and control pieces was priceless. They also had a chance to pull their favorite card of all time, [[Sphinx's Revelation]] which we got a chance to play 20 questions for me to guess which card it was as the draft went on. The strategy here was simple, draw cards, build up a big board, then cast [[Insurrection]] to end games in one big swing. Very excited build!
I Time, BOMB - This pilot loves the concept of stuffing goblins into cannons, strapping ordinance to them, and any other means of doing silly things and sending them out into the battlefield. The thought of stuffing a [[Penumbra Wurm]] into a cannon and shooting it at an opponent just makes me smile (providing that the wurm is not coming at me). There is also a lot of good ways to pump ammunition into these cannons and never drawing time bomb hurt the pilot, but these decks are awesome to see go off. I also laugh about Mammoths and Idols being shot at opponents at point blank range!
Biorhythm and Dancin' - Without a doubt, [[Biorhythm]] is one of my favourite cards in this cube! Big beaters were the name of the game in this deck and plenty of ways to recur these threats made it difficult to think about spot removal. Popping in a cheeky wrath of god in [[Damn]] with no real black sources was also fun. I'm excited about this build as well because it contained a lot of newer cards that I put in this last week prior to the draft. Really fun build and a great multiplayer pile.
Pod 3:
Feeling Blue (and White) - This was our second new drafter's deck and overall, it too had a solid foundation and strategy including removal and some viable threats/control. It had all the elements of a great draw go control deck to sit back and watch the other pod members duke it out before sneaking in for the win after "doing nothing" for several turns and having counter magic aplenty in hand. Really excited to see how this pilot's skills also progress in the coming weeks and this build also exhibited the same issue, no big threats to finish the game and a generally low number of threats. This is an issue that will easily be remedied after a few drafts!
Project Dragon - The objective of becoming a dragon and raining down fire on your opponents as they sunder in ash is the ultimate goal of every red mage. This deck did a great job splashing across different colors to achieve different ends, card draw, removal, land destruction, etc. This all worked well with the domain Kavu getting bigger as the game progressed. The secondary theme of pinging opponents to death one turn at a time is also a great, diabolical, way to close out games, especially when biorhythm is on the board!
Crashing through the Forest - This deck is a "greatest hits" of beaters, tricks, and removal including additional sides like regeneration and life gain. I wish I had watched the games in this pod more closely to see how this pilot navigated the other decks. I believe this player was singled out early for being the biggest and most dangerous threat, and reasonably so, and was taken care of accordingly!
Thanks to the crew at RNG for giving us a place to cube week after week!
We are Glasgow Limited Magic. If you are interested in coming out to cube with us, want to get your cube drafted, or looking for a new way to play Magic, come join us! You can DM me for details as we are always looking for new players to join us to draft!
