Comments on: Kool Runnings: MTGO Cube Draft #1

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:58:41 +0000

Thanks for the vides Chris.

“Does this cube kind of feel like bad 100CS decks battling it out to you?”

Glad i hear someone else make this comparison, don’t get me wrong, i like cube. But everytime i look at how popular cube is, and then look at my favorite format slowly dying, i just don’t get it.

If you like cube, try 100CS !

(i could make the exact same argument and replace cube with commander btw, with the difference being i personally absolutely abhor commander online)

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:35:59 +0000

I love both green and blue based ramp decks in this cube. Every time I draft an U or G ramp/good stuff deck it seems like I make the finals. Every time I draft aggro I feel like my deck is great, but you really need amazing aggro draws in this format to beat the G and U decks… and getting those 3 rounds in a row hasn’t happened for me yet.

I’m still having a blast with this cube (and making your money back on a 7 ticket draft is pretty easy – so thats a bonus). I’m sure WOTC will tweak their cube down the road though. Isn’t that the point of cube?

By: cseraph

cseraph — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:04:04 +0000

A little bit, yeah. Obviously its different in that we get to play with some fun absurd cards too powerful for 100cs (balance, survival etc), and because the on the fly draft deckbuilding angle is always interesting, but the archetypes do somewhat line up.

I’d like to go in on some of the weirder decks I’ve seen sometimes. Reanimator is only a bit fringe, but I’d love to play storm, and I’ve played against a pretty sweet wildfire deck. 7 tickets is just a big enough mtgo investment in the post-100cs weekend event that I am uncomfortable gambling on an archetype that just straight up might not be in the part of the cube you’re opening, though.

I suspect that the fact that this cube does grow a little stale fairly fast is why we’re getting the limited runs that we are.

By: ChrisKool

ChrisKool — Fri, 04 May 2012 00:14:51 +0000

@cseraph: I am 4-0 on my last 4 green-based good stuff decks. I have drafted every two-color combination except GB as my base colors. It is effective, but things feel a bit boring. Does this cube kind of feel like bad 100CS decks battling it out to you?

By: cseraph

cseraph — Thu, 03 May 2012 23:12:34 +0000

In game m1g1 your plays don’t make sense. Besides taking the unnecessary point from figure, which cost you the game, stuporing a mana-screwed opponent over playing the arena that you need to draw the land you need to play the threats you need to close the game before he draws lands and burns you out really, really doesn’t make sense. Holding arena makes sense if you plan never to play it, or if you have the lands to play game-ending threats without needing to play it, but since you don’t, you can’t, so you’re essentially randomly time-walking yourself.

I don’t think forcing mono-black is a good idea either, but I do think that cube as a format supports us following our pet pleasures to an extent without punishing us too badly on outcome. Personally I can’t resist the green value cards, and am finding WG value a pretty effective way of punishing the mono-red/black aggro decks.

By: ChrisKool

ChrisKool — Thu, 03 May 2012 06:39:35 +0000

Note to self: change gravatar.

By: ChrisKool

ChrisKool — Thu, 03 May 2012 06:39:13 +0000

Let’s just say that I haven’t forced mono black since the cube has been up this go-around.

I don’t think the archetype is as bad as everyone makes it out to be, but it needs to either have no competition or a relatively painless splash. If my memory serves me, I also played pretty loosely in this draft (and could have possibly pulled out another match win). Surprise, right?!

In any case, look for cube drafts from much of our staff sporadically into the future