[540] [Pauper] PhantomS's Cube

[PhantomS]

The list for my Pauper Cube can be found here:

http://www.quietspeculation.com/2012/12 ... -the-list/

The article about it on SCG can be found here:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/25 ... -Cube.html

I will be constructing a Google doc for the cube, hopefully within the next week. It's a blast to play. Any suggestions for things that I may have missed would be greatly appreciated! I don't believe that I have anything Portal in the cube as of now, but I am certainly not opposed to the idea if there are any sweet commons that I don't know about.

Current list can be found in this here google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... fOXc#gid=0

[Checkbox]

How much have you looked at other Pauper lists before constructing this? I see a myriad of questionable choices, but that could be because my cube is 360 and yours is 540. I'd have to look more closely at what you may be missing, I think.

[Checkbox]

Although I will admit, that 5-color poison deck looks SWEEEEET.

Also, I'm not sure if you have the time/care enough, but formatting your cube in the OP like the MODO cube is formatted (in the other thread) makes it much easier for us to look at individual colors, curves of various colors, and card choices.

I've also taken the liberty of changing your thread title to match those in the rest of the forum.

[PhantomS]

How much have you looked at other Pauper lists before constructing this? I see a myriad of questionable choices, but that could be because my cube is 360 and yours is 540. I'd have to look more closely at what you may be missing, I think.

It's largely based on the Pauper format and it also has a lot of decks available from various limited formats that I was familiar with, only amplified by other business.

I didn't look at other Pauper Cubes, really, as at a glance many looked poorly constructed. What things do you consider questionable? Frankly it's a huge cop out to say a lot. Give examples and reasons. Right now the only things I'm really questioning are the structure of black as the infect creatures are rather weak and nobody ever
seems to like the aggressive black deck in any Cube.

Also, things will look clean when I get them in a Google doc.

[Checkbox]

I can't really say for sure at the moment - I'm just seeing plenty of cards that aren't played in many Pauper cubes that you are playing, but it may very well be reasonable since your cube is much bigger than the ones I look at. I'll reserve judgment until I see a much more organized list and I can see if there's any "staples" that you're not playing.

[PhantomS]

I can't really say for sure at the moment - I'm just seeing plenty of cards that aren't played in many Pauper cubes that you are playing, but it may very well be reasonable since your cube is much bigger than the ones I look at. I'll reserve judgment until I see a much more organized list and I can see if there's any "staples" that you're not playing.

And they shouldn't be played because other people don't? Now, maybe I'm being overly judgmental, but I feel like a lot of Pauper Cubes are largely just cards included because they're good. I think mine is the way it is because I put more thought into it and I feel like my Cube has a lot of synergies and decks intended that other Pauper Cubes simply lack.

[Checkbox]

I can't really say for sure at the moment - I'm just seeing plenty of cards that aren't played in many Pauper cubes that you are playing, but it may very well be reasonable since your cube is much bigger than the ones I look at. I'll reserve judgment until I see a much more organized list and I can see if there's any "staples" that you're not playing.

And they shouldn't be played because other people don't? Now, maybe I'm being overly judgmental, but I feel like a lot of Pauper Cubes are largely just cards included because they're good. I think mine is the
way it is because I put more thought into it and I feel like my Cube has a lot of synergies and decks intended that other Pauper Cubes simply lack.

You're probably correct on that, which is why I'm probably going to put your cube together and give it a few drafts before I make any real judgment. But its very possible that there are some commons that you just haven't thought of or whatever. But like I said, I can't really make any real suggestions without looking at a sorted version (well, I could, but I'm far too lazy for that.)

[PhantomS]

I can't really say for sure at the moment - I'm just seeing plenty of cards that aren't played in many Pauper cubes that you are playing, but it may very well be reasonable since your cube is much bigger than the ones I look at. I'll reserve judgment until I see a much more organized list and I can see if there's any "staples" that you're not playing.

And they shouldn't be played because other
people don't? Now, maybe I'm being overly judgmental, but I feel like a lot of Pauper Cubes are largely just cards included because they're good. I think mine is the way it is because I put more thought into it and I feel like my Cube has a lot of synergies and decks intended that other Pauper Cubes simply lack.

You're probably correct on that, which is why I'm probably going to put your cube together and give it a few drafts before I make any real judgment. But its very possible that there are some commons that you just haven't thought of or whatever. But like I said, I can't really make any real suggestions without looking at a sorted version (well, I could, but I'm far too lazy for that.)

Absolutely there are things that I missed. I'm still updating this thing like every other day. Cutting cards is tough though.

[poggydude]

maze of ith is a common

not sure if you didnt know that, or are just leaving it out

[Checkbox]

According to gatherer, its an uncommon.

[PhantomS]

maze of ith is a common

not sure if you didnt know that, or are just leaving it out

SECRETS AND LIES

[poggydude]

According to gatherer, its an uncommon.

yes ,it is the only uncommon in all of the dark...

the truth is is that is was on the common sheet but less often than some of the other commons, to make it match up better with today's standards ey probably decided to just call it uncommon, but it is actually a common

i figured you might own one from ftv or some other way phantomo, but if not it probably isnt worth an inclsuion.

it seems strong if you have one, so id be curious to know if you dont want to include it why you wouldnt

[Checkbox]

I mean, the official rarity of the card is uncommon, so that's probably why.

He already said he based the cube largely off of the Pauper format... in which Maze of Ith is not legal...

[PhantomS]

According to gatherer, its an uncommon.

yes ,it is the only uncommon in all of the dark...

the truth is is that is was on the common sheet but less often than some of the other commons, to make it match up better with today's standards ey probably decided to just call it uncommon, but it is actually a common

i figured you might own one from ftv or some other way phantomo, but if not it probably isnt worth an inclsuion.

it seems strong if you have one, so id be curious to know if you dont want to include it why you wouldnt

If Gatherer says it's an
uncommon, it's a G-D uncommon. Maybe it's arbitrary, but dem's da rules.

[poggydude]

if you are basing it off pauper cut
desert
goblin grenade
sinkhole
hymn to tourach

etc etc(didnt look at your list because im lazy but yeah, i feel that if was ever printed as common it is fair game, also maze is a nifty card anyway)

[PhantomS]

if you are basing it off pauper cut
desert
goblin grenade
sinkhole
hymn to tourach

etc etc(didnt look at your list because im lazy but yeah, i feel that if was ever printed as common it is fair game, also maze is a nifty card anyway)

Hymn, GG, and Sinkhole aren't good enough and Desert is a common. I do say if it was ever a common it's fair game. According to Gatherer.

[Checkbox]

Why don't you like Hymn to Tourach? That card is on a spectrum of either BB Mind Rot or BB complete blowout... anywhere in between seems good enough for inclusion to me.

[PhantomS]

Why don't you like Hymn to Tourach? That card is on a spectrum of either BB Mind Rot or BB complete blowout... anywhere in between seems good enough for inclusion to me.

With mana costs being as low as they are in most of the cube discard spells at especially awful. Not to mention how bad discard is in general in Cube considering that having one discard spell in your pile is super inconsistent. The creatures that give value are nice, but the spells are just kind of crappy.

[imopen2]

hymn is my favorite card ever and rather powerful in a regular cube. hopefully at some point i can put this list together cause i'm getting more into cube recently

[PhantomS]

hymn is my favorite card ever and rather powerful in a regular cube. hopefully at some point i can put this list together cause i'm getting more into cube recently

I also really dislike the random option. I might put it in to make people more inclined to draft the black aggressive deck, but I feel like it's not even good in the better versions of that deck.

[Checkbox]

You do realize that random discard is the best form of discard, right? At worst its mind rot, at best its double coercion.

[poggydude]

You do realize that random discard is the best form of discard, right? At worst its mind rot, at best its double coercion.

i hink he knows that checkbox...dude plays high level magic

i dont think he likes the gameplay emenating from it.
"oh you nuked my two lands before my turn two? guess im not playing magic, hooray!"

[Checkbox]

I mean, that's not what it sounded like to me; I thought he just didn't think the card was good.

I don't ban cards from my cube for power level, but I guess he might.

[PhantomS]

I mean, that's not what it sounded like to me; I thought he just didn't think the card was good.

I don't ban cards from my cube for power level, but I guess he might.

Two things- I was referring to random as in having just this one card with this type of effect in one's deck.

Other thing- Hymn is absolutely not too good for this cube. On it's low end, it's extremely weak, and it's only strong based on drawing it at the right time and hitting the right things. That's just gross. Were I to put it in then I'd probably need to add more discard spells so that it's not just some random ability in decks that would rather have removal, which is dramatically more important in this cube, that would ultimately just lead to people
building sub-optimal decks that don't want Hymn by sticking Hymn in.

[Mogadishu Jones]

I dont play magic anymore but I realize that a one off of hymn is poor considering late game its useless at worst, situationally ok at best.

[PhantomS]

Finally made the Google Doc! Editing into OP.

[imopen2]

I don't really want to look through all my cards to find these but I'd like to put it together. I wonder what it would cost me to buy it all from a store online

[PhantomS]

I don't really want to look through all my cards to find these but I'd like to put it together. I wonder what it would cost me to buy it all from a store online

There really aren't that many cards that even cost a buck. There are a few scattered 1-2, maybe some 3-4, but it's mostly garbage at whatever rate individual commons go for and a Chain Lightning.

[poggydude]

i recall you stating that you had a desire to make storm a thing in this cube, iirc you said originally youd consider the endeavor a failure if you could not.

i know you have done well enabling it somewhat i am wondering if you have tried fitting in suspend cards to push this further, i remember back when time spiral was a thing they noted that suspend was partly there to enable storm, and i remember that this actually worked fairly well despite being somewhat durdly.

i didnt see keldon halbedier which is already kinda powerful, and im sure there are others that are wory of a look.

if you tried this already and i missed that discussion i apologize

[PhantomS]

i recall you stating that you had a desire to make storm a thing in this cube, iirc you said originally youd consider the endeavor a failure if you could not.

i know you have done well enabling it somewhat i am wondering if you have tried fitting in suspend cards to push this further, i remember back when time spiral was a thing they noted that suspend was partly there to enable storm, and i remember that this actually worked fairly well despite being somewhat durdly.

i didnt see keldon halbedier which is already kinda powerful, and im sure there are others that are wory of a look.

if you tried this already and i missed that discussion i apologize

I haven't specifically cited them as storm enables, but I have a few suspend cards
in the Cube. Errant Ephemeron, Rift Bolt, the five mana shadow guy and there might be others I don't know.

The Cube is at the point where the Storm cards absolutely are defining differences between archetypes with and without them. U/r/b aggressive decks with temporal fissure and some way to storm it can be insanely tough to deal with. To date, the storm record is five copies of Empty the Warrens. I think it's going rather well.

Also, I got this shiny new article on SCG. I'll edit it into the op: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/25 ... -Cube.html