Description

I have a relatively small friend group of magic players, but I've noticed that we are starting to drift away from it. As an attempt to keep each game different and fun, I've put together this MicroCube that can hold 4 or 5 people. Here the idea is to have each colour be appealing and fun to play, and have as few hate cards as possible as they provide a negative outlook upon the game. Each player should be able to do something cool, and have fun and be social.

If you're interested in this cube, and have any questions comments or advice, I'm welcome to it. Just be warned, this cube is make of cards i have at home, and I'm trying to keep it just to commons and uncommons.

Thanks for stopping by :)

numerator97 says... #1

Made some changes:

After a couple sample drafts, some archetypes became pretty obvious, and some cards seemed clearly out of place, or not fun to play against. As i had mentioned, one of the goals for this cube is to be fun and encouraging for everyone. Because of this im trying to remove the leas fun cards: cards that directly counter and prevent your archetype from working. Eg. there is no graveyard hate in this cube, as red green and black all use it frequently, but not to the point to be broken.

So... lets see the changes.

1: in white

Enchantments aren't too common in this cube, and none of them break the game. Because of this Keening Apparition really just a plain old 2/2. Attended Knight is a lot more interesting. With some focus on having lots of small creatures Attended Knight fits in perfectly. With this focus on tokens and swarms of creatures Midnight Haunting seemed like a perfect fit. Another card that i found lackluster, and never found its way into any of the sample draft decks was Kor Cartographer . Although an interesting idea to have white ramp, it was too slow to be useful at all, and it wasn't what the colour needed.

in short: Keening Apparition and Kor Cartographer out. And Attended Knight and Midnight Haunting in.

2: in blue

With blue, I had noticed there were cards that were rather stock and boring, or just plain useless. Cancel was really just a filler card, and Peel from Reality was just worse than everything else, as there really isn't all that many good enter the battlefield effects right now. Ninja of the Deep Hours and Tandem Lookout provide more of what blue was looking for. focused on card draw, fliers and bounce. having these damage to cards creatures really got blue more access to what it wanted. They also allow blue to work even better with other colours as each colour has its own way of getting things through, and these cards make otherwise less than optimal cards such as Tormented Soul even more playable in a deck built around it.

in short: Cancel and Peel from Reality out. And Ninja of the Deep Hours and Tandem Lookout in.

3: in black

As i had mentioned im trying to get rid of the "unfun" cards in this cube. I consider Human Frailty one of these "unfun" cards. Considering that a humans are so prevalent throughout the cube having a one mana kill anything spell just wasn't really fun for any of the aggressive human decks out there. Another card that i found to be an issue is Ultimate Price . Considering there are a total of 20 multicoloured cards in the cube, and not all of them are creatures, Ultimate Price served as a 2 mana kill absolutely anything in the game. In order to offset this loss in removal, I added Diabolic Edict as it still fills that slot, only is a lot more fair. I filled Human Frailty 's spot with Shadow Guildmage in order to encourage more multicolour play, while being useful in either black red, or black blue, and best in grixis.

in short: Human Frailty and Ultimate Price out. And Shadow Guildmage and Diabolic Edict in.

4: in red

This change is pretty simple. I found both Searing Blaze and Deathbellow Raider kind of boring. So in order to make things a little more exciting I added Thunderscape Apprentice and Thorn-Thrash Viashino . Both of these encourage multicoloured drafts as well as archetype drafting.

in short: Deathbellow Raider and Searing Blaze out. And Thorn-Thrash Viashino and Thunderscape Apprentice in.

5: in green

One of the things I realized I really liked about green in the cube is having cards such as Urborg Elf where the options it provides you are more numerous. Because of this i found Scorned Villager  Flip to be less open than Druid of the Anima . As another change, I thought Spider Spawning would be a perfect fit to the green black sacrifice and graveyard based decks. Looking for one of the weaker and less fitting cards in the cube i removed Fog for it never really fits into any deck seamlessly so i think it was the easiest card to bring out.

in short: Fog and Scorned Villager  Flip out. And Spider Spawning and Druid of the Anima in.

6: multicoloured changes

This is where there are the most significant changes. In Orzhov, both One Thousand Lashes and Orzhov Charm were never played, so I decided that they needed cards with more punch. Tidehollow Sculler and Unmake and both a little more powerful, and more interesting to draft. For Dimir, Far / Away was much too powerful. The nature of the split card allowed either blue or black decks to play it and be happy with it. The idea of the multicoloured cards in this cube is to be the more outstanding and showy cards. Thus I've decided to try Agony Warp in its place, as it can do some crazy things to combat, and only the dimir decks really want to use it. Similar to Orzhov, the Simic multicolour cards were lackluster, and never got played. Both Lorescale Coatl and Gaea's Skyfolk are being replaced with hopefully more impactful Elusive Krasis and Temporal Spring . Yet again, the multicoloured cards are supposed to be the flashy and powerful cards in the cube. For Gruul, Pit Fight fell into neither category. Instead Ghor-Clan Rampager is taking its place. Back to the idea of getting rid of "unfun" cards, Blightning is no fun to play against, and it didnt really have a home. Now, Shambling Remains with take its spot fulfilling rolles in the agressive Rakdos decks as well as the sacrifice and graveyard based decks.

7: additions

And finally, I've added 3 cards to the cube that aren't replacing anything else. Because there is currently no real strong support for WUBRG decks, i decided to add in Kaleidostone in order to try and support that a little, as well as serve as slow mana fixing as well as a can-trip. In order to accommodate for the sacrifice based decks, Altar of Dementia has been added. It offers more to both anyone trying to just play the sacrifice game, or the mill game. And finally, I'm trying Blasted Landscape for the moment. Because so much of the cube is mono coloured, many decks can take the price of colourless mana, and the cycling that it gives to any deck could make it more reliable, if it can deal with the harm to the mana. This trade off I think provides real skill testing in order to see if players can evaluate effectively the value of something like Blasted Landscape in their deck.

Congrats on making it to the bottom :P and thank you for reading

December 5, 2013 3:06 a.m.

Wike900 says... #2

The hybrid cards seem too strong. Too easily picked with no commitment.

There seems to be little reason to go 5-color. Either cut the support you have or add more support. Even in it's current position, Manalith and the like would do a better job.

The tri-color apprentices also seem kind of weak. Their effects are nowhere near strong enough to justify going tri-color, and in 2-color they probably arent worth the slot.

Green has very few beatsticks, mostly ramp, selection, and fixing. Less than a 1/3 of it you want to actually attack with. There also isn't really anything to ramp too.

Just under third of red is fairly hard removal, same with black, which is probably too much.

Seems like a few two many artifacts. Maybe cut the sac ones. The Evolving Wilds could be split up into Shimmering Grotto variants, Transguild Promenade and variant, etc.

I'm not sure I like the human theme. It's kind of spread out, and with a bunch of one-ofs, not very reliable at all.

Grisly Salvage is kind of weak. If you're going green-black, then it's decent, but it doesn't want to make you play it, which is what the multicolor cards should be doing.

There also aren't very many strong win-conditions. This pushes the cube into very aggressive decks, with relatively low creature counts(because there aren't that many creatures in some colors) and high cheap removals.

December 5, 2013 8:56 p.m.

Wike900 says... #3

Random good things: Rampant Growth , Manalith , Shimmering Grotto , Unknown Shores , Transguild Promenade , Rupture Spire , Putrefy , (big expensive green creature)*2, Vaporkin variants, other medium-sized flyer, maybe swap Dryad Militant for Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage , Rakdos Cackler for terminate, and Thought Scour for Vaporkin

December 5, 2013 9:20 p.m.

numerator97 says... #4

Update Time!

Ok... so there were some issues. It took me longer than it should, but i realized that there is in general too much removal. Thus, most of the changes will are focused on making black and red more aggressive in their nature, and less focused on sitting back on 10+ removal spells and eventually landing 1 creature and killing with that.

So... lets begin.

1: In white

With the last update I had been trying to shift white to be focused on having lots of small creatures. Also through more testing there were some cards that were not played very often, and when they were, they weren't very good. The ones I'm replacing in this update are Darklit Gargoyle , Ajani's Sunstriker , and Feeling of Dread . All of these cards proved to be just filler slots that were undesirable or sub par. Replacing these cards are: Niblis of the Urn , which I think will allow white creature be held back by almost anything bigger than a 3/3 by giving even more tappers; Crusader of Odric is an experiment to offer white some larger creatures, hinging on the fact that they have stayed focus on the overall theme of the colour; and also Intangible Virtue is an experiment. It might be too good or downright unplayable I'm really not sure, but I think it is worth trying it out to see where it stands.

In short: Darklit Gargoyle , Ajani's Sunstriker , and Feeling of Dread out. And Niblis of the Urn , Crusader of Odric , and Intangible Virtue in.

2: In blue

Archaeomancer seems as if he fits into blue pretty solidly, and frankly Elgaud Shieldmate really didn't. I think that's enough said.

In short: Elgaud Shieldmate out. Archaeomancer in.

3: In black

Unlike blue, this is the most substantial change. As mentioned earlier, both black and red had way, way too much removal. As such, Last Kiss , Victim of Night , Tragic Slip , Doom Blade , and Executioner's Capsule are all being removed. This still leaves black with quite a bit (13 pieces) of removal, but no longer are more than the half the black cards removal. Four other cards are also being removed: Deadly Allure , Tormented Soul , Triumph of Cruelty , and Addle . Each of these cards were rather narrow, in order to change the possibilities for black, more cards needed to be cut. So, how am I changing black? My goal was to make black more aggressive, or to push the sacrifice side of black. So, for the aggressive side, Vampire Lacerator , Diregraf Ghoul , and Sarcomancy are all being added to up the aggressive one cost creatures. Just as some useful bodies Bloodhunter Bat and Vampire Outcasts should be able to work themselves into a multitude of different decks and strategies. For the sacrifice element of black Haunted Crossroads and Gravedigger are now included. The haunted crossroads are an experiment, as it may be too powerful. And finally as some general utility Sign in Blood and Duress have also been added.

In short: Executioner's Capsule , Last Kiss , Victim of Night , Tragic Slip , Doom Blade , Triumph of Cruelty , Tormented Soul , Addle , and Deadly Allure out. And Duress , Sign in Blood , Haunted Crossroads , Gravedigger , Vampire Outcasts , Bloodhunter Bat , Sarcomancy , Diregraf Ghoul , and Vampire Lacerator in.

4: In red

To follow that up, we have another large change. Similar to black, the amount of removal was an issue and needed to be tweaked. Furthermore, I really wanted to encourage the sacrifice deck, as it is both fun to play, and draft. As such, I think red should be valuing cards such as Pitchburn Devils which can act as removal in the right deck. So, Into the Maw of Hell , Street Spasm , Arc Trail , Turn to Slag , Flame Slash , and Magma Rift have all been removed. As mentioned cards like Pitchburn Devils are supposed to be strong in this cube. Thus, Gang of Devils and Goblin Arsonist , which follow a similar idea have been added. Additionally, to follow that idea of creatures into damage, Skirsdag Cultist is being added as well. 2 of the cards being replaced are centered on having a mass of creatures. Warmind Infantry and Krenko's Command are taking those spots, and the last piece of red removal is replaced by Stone Rain which could very easily be taken out, for being "unfun" but I dont think it is strong enough to see consistent play, but is strong in the sideboard against decks that have a challenging mana base.

In short: Magma Rift , Flame Slash , Turn to Slag , Arc Trail , Street Spasm , and Into the Maw of Hell out. And Gang of Devils , Goblin Arsonist , Skirsdag Cultist , Krenko's Command , Warmind Infantry , and Stone Rain in.

5: In green

It had become abundantly evident that Tracker's Instincts , Commune with the Gods , and Mulch were completely unplayable in this cube with minimal direct graveyard interaction. Also because there's no real reason to go more than 2 colours maybe splashing another Abundant Growth was also less than optimal. Another issue that green had was that it didn't have any good way to close games. Because of this first issue Sentinel Spider and Territorial Baloth are now part of the micro cube. To help push the green white aggressive archetype Mtenda Lion has also been added. And finally, Wall of Roots now gets a spot serving as both a blocker and an accelerator for the bigger green decks.

In short: Abundant Growth , Mulch , Commune with the Gods , and Tracker's Instincts out. And Wall of Roots , Mtenda Lion , Territorial Baloth , and Sentinel Spider in.

6: Multicoloured and Colourless:

For the same reason Mulch and such cards were bad, Grisly Salvage was the exact same, and considering that the multicoloured cards are supposed to be more powerful, this needed to change. As such. Noxious Hatchling will take its place and serve as a big body with a relevant ability that truly does encourage golgari play. Now for the same reason Abundant Growth was unplayable, Kaleidostone and Chromatic Sphere were also underwhelming. To not entirely eliminate colourless mana fixing, Manalith is being put in. Filling the other spot Mortarpod is coming in as another creature to damage spell.

In short: Grisly Salvage , Kaleidostone , and Chromatic Sphere out. And Noxious Hatchling , Manalith , and Mortarpod in.

Yet again congrats on making it to the bottom :P and thank you for reading.

December 9, 2013 8:42 p.m.

numerator97 says... #5

Update Time!

Today the issue is there are some cards just never being played. I hope this should help with that issue making every card have some home somewhere.

So... with that:

1: In white

These are probably the most questionable changes as both Loyal Cathar  Flip and Midnight Guard have been played, but they have definitely been lackluster. With the previous change the Orzhov aggressive deck has had it's chance to shine. In order to help with that deck Doomed Traveler and Lingering Souls are going to be added. This is experimental, and I can definitely see Lingering Souls being too strong. But it was fun to see that colour pair being played and I hope that continues in the future. Also I'm trying to allow the sacrifice deck to dabble with other colours other then BR so having cards such as Doomed Traveler and Mausoleum Guard might be able to trigger a different sort of sacrifice deck.

In short: Loyal Cathar  Flip and Midnight Guard out. And Doomed Traveler and Lingering Souls in.

2: In Blue

The cards in question this time are Mass Appeal , Stitched Drake , and Thought Scour . The issue with all of these cards is they never got played, or aren't interactive. The answer? Creatures... duh. Cloudfin Raptor , Metropolis Sprite , and Messenger Drake . The hope is these fliers will be allow blue to be a little more aggressive and have some interesting play. Also, similar to Runewing , Messenger Drake might allow the sacrifice deck to breach into blue.

In short: Mass Appeal , Stitched Drake , and Thought Scour out. And Cloudfin Raptor , Metropolis Sprite , and Messenger Drake In.

3: In Black:

I have yet to see Undying Evil played once, and as previously mentioned the Orzhov aggro deck is emerging so Erg Raiders should be able to help with that, making their threats a little more resilient while still pushing the fact that you must be aggro to play it well at least.

In short: Undying Evil out. Erg Raiders in.

4: In Red:

There were a lot of cards that were supposed to fill a role in a specific archetype, but just never got played in that archetype. As such, they are being removed in order to try and open up a whole new archetype that is currently almost viable. Thunderscape Apprentice is very weak, and never got played, in the humans deck both Village Ironsmith  Flip and Thatcher Revolt are just the bad options. And Thunder-Thrash Elder seems like a powerful pick but then gets chumped by a 1/1. The new archetype that I hope to create is the Izzet "recast". Already there are a number of effects that allow blue red to cast their spells again such as Mystic Retrieval . In combination with things such as Krenko's Command , and Talrand's Invocation , it is possible to make lots of dudes to kill your opponent. The issue with this right now, is there is no reason, other than lots of removal to be hard into red for this archetype. Thus Dragon Fodder , and Goblin Rally are going to serve as another way to make dudes. To give the deck a faster clock Kiln Fiend might allow for some relatively fast kills since it is common to cast multiple spells, and Guttersnipe is a good finisher and also reduces the clock.

In short: Thunderscape Apprentice , Village Ironsmith  Flip , Thatcher Revolt , and Thunder-Thrash Elder out. And Kiln Fiend , Guttersnipe , Dragon Fodder , and Goblin Rally in.

5: In Green

I don't really think Revive was doing anything, and Briarpack Alpha seems as if it is quite good.

In short: Revive out. And Briarpack Alpha in.

January 1, 2014 4:05 p.m.

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Cards 306
Date added 11 years
Last updated 9 years