
(Also the C17 update)
Not a huge update. Ixalan has some sweet new cards, but nothing that makes want to completely uproot the current cube, which is in a really good place for my playgroup right now. The last few draft session saw a multitude of different decks and archetypes - from Mono-Red to Sovereign's Realm 5-Color-Goodstuff - with nothing dominating in an absurdly way and players of all skill levels having decks they enjoyed and going home with some wins.
Sadly Iconic Masters doesn't bring any exciting reprints to modern border for the first time. But there's still hope for Masters 25 (I'm especially holding out for modern frame Carnophage, Grizzly Fate, Battle Screech and Miscalculation).
So let's just jump to the individual notes:
- I was asked to give Hellrider a time out, since creature based Rx decks are already considered the strongest in my cube and he just pushes those strategies over the top. I have no problem with this, because it opens up a slot for a FREAKING T-REX in my cube :D
- Curse of Disturbance, while being worded a bit more clunky, is just straight up better version of Curse of Shallow Graves for a 1-vs-1 cube.
- Is Chart a Course the best sorcery draw spell of the modern era (that also helps reanimator)? We will see. I like running classic limited all star cards in my cube, but Divination has to make space for this.
- I like Desolation Twin, but it just didn't work out. It was meant as a fatty that rewards the ramp decks, but get's passed over by reanimator and other cheat into play strategies, but that scenario never really played out. Metalwork Colossus adds a new toy for artifacts.dec, and is a tier 2 target for ramp and cheat strategies. I expect it to see more play than the twins.
- Once upon a time Roon was in this cube. But the cube was far more unpowered and there were hardly any good ETB creatures. So Roon was considered useless and his slot was iterated through by other, mostly unplayed Bant cards. But now Bant Blink is actually an archetype and Roon returns to be bomb Bant deserves. Also, Tamiyo was just useless.
- All hail, Queen Marchesa. For she brings the Monarch to the cube. Pretty much the same as with the Bant-slot. While Butcher of the Horde saw some play in decks with sacrifice strategies, he was not really considered a bomb or exciting. Let's see how Her Royal Highness does in that spot.
- I upped the spell count for red again. I scaled it too hards towards creatures a few updates ago, so now spellslinger decks had trouble picking up enough toys.
And now go draft my cube, see you next update! :)
Dom
2018-05-09 11:37