Grinder

I have made a broad sweep of changes which will take quite some time to completely document (and there are a few straggler cards I'll need to order... I can't wait for this to stop). Some cards, like Chain Lightning, just aren't "in the cards" for me right now. Other cards, like Soltari Visionary, are obtuse and not that easy to track down for the few cents it's actually worth.

I will be making a listing of cards that are needed for the cube to scrounge up anything my friends have. Something of note: my friend is going to give me a Limited Edition Alpha Prodigal Sorcerer. Talk about some non-foil pimp!

I've got some other ideas in the works; we'll see how long Klug is staying stateside so I can squeeze an alter for the cube out of him.

Push it to the Limit

While I was making M10 changes I was encouraged to follow through farther: there is a lot that can be done to improve the cube. After some more consideration I'm finalizing the following:

• Stripping out even more multicolor and hybrid waste.
• Pushing the colors to perform to their fullest strengths:

1. White will be the pure weenie color, with a Rebel chain, creatures with shadow, and creatures with flying.
2. Blue will have a full array of pingers, more tempo and board disruption, and more counterspells.
3. Black will have the most creature removal, some efficient and evasive weenies, and graveyard effects.
4. Red was already pretty tight, but swapping in better creatures and available burn will finish the color up.
5. Green will have pure acceleration and land fetching, efficient fatties, and some pump effects.
6. Multicolor will be focused on "best of what is there" cards to encourage two color decks.
7. Artifacts will be the best color fixing, acceleration, and equipment available.
8. Lands will be the best color fixing as well as the cycles of cycling lands.

• Properly tuning the mana curves of colors where possible.

I'm looking forward to "finishing" the cube before Zendikar comes out this fall. This last push will really help this cube appeal better to my local players. I'll miss Klug's cube while he's doing the Korea thing and this cube can perhaps bridge the gap his awesome common/uncommon cube will leave behind.

M10 Prerelease; Cubing Continues

I've made a few updates to the PMC (which you can read about here) and M10 promises to bring quite a few new commons to work with. Here's a quick look at what I'm considering:

Blinding Mage is yet another tapper for White. Any Blue/White control deck would love to get a tapper or two and being able to run yet another seems good.

Safe Passage looks to be weak at a glance but I'm struggling to find something solid in White that can get a slow control deck to flip a game on its head. A one-sided Holy Day feels like it wouldn't the all bad, but I don't think there's anything it's directly superior to in the cube now. Dawn Charm is similar but functions as a counter or saving grace for a critter, flexibility that's relevant more often than Safe Passage.

Ice Cage is a two mana Arrest in a color that lacks real removal. While it won't hold for long it can shut down something long enough for an answer to appear or a game to be won. It feels decent but I'm not sure what this would replace.

Child of Night isn't an evasive creature, but lifelink is not an ability to joke about. This is cheap enough to fall right into an aggressive black focused deck's curve and strong enough to be worth something later on.

Doom Blade is very similar to Terror but in trading away the anti-regeneration clause for being able to smoke artifact creatures makes this feel better than Terror. With very little in terms of regeration abilities in the cube I suspect that Doom Blade will outperform Terror in many cases. Does it replace Terror? Hell no. But it does up the "two mana cost removal" count by one which is very nice.

Sign in Blood is the common improvement on Night's Whisper that can also win a game by killing your opponent. Drawing cards or dropping an unexpected Shock on an opponent? Count me in.

Deadly Recluse is the sign of deathtouch becoming the way Green is given removal. From my experience in the prerelease today (which I played two Green heavy decks in my drafts) this guy is both annoying and useful. While his toughness nearly ensures that he dies to nearly anything he blocks it's big enough to avoid pingers and the deathtouch keeps him able to trade with virtually any creature your opponent has around.

Thursday promises to be great as Klug, creator of one of the first commons/uncommons cubes as well as all round great Magic player, is going to give some input and help feel out more of the cube. I have a feeling I know a few things he'll point out but it's the alternatives and reasoning that will ultimately be better than the swaps that will invariably result. Stay tuned for the update!

Hammer Dropping

I've made some great changes to the cube over the past few days and I should be able to schedule some testing and full scale drafting.

Until I finalize detailing my changes, check out this new article at MTGSalvation about making a cube. Dr. Tom is the shit.


P.S.
Happy Birthday America.
(Sorry I forgot to post in time for you, Canada. I'll try for next year.)