I realized that a big part of a cube is making updates. Personally, I am making updates about twice a month. I tend to write down my thought process for any given update so I thought that it would be a good idea to share the updates in all their glory… Even if that “glory” is also flawed. I’ll go through each card being cut and each card being added to provide a reasoning for the specific card. At the end, I’ll also put in a ‘Watchlist’ of cards that I am considering for cuts, or additions.
Adding Aurelia
I pulled a copy of Aurelia, the Warleader out of a random pack of Gatecrash that I had purchased while on my regular shopping trip. I mainly wanted to test her out and see if she would be a good addition to my cube. I also used this opportunity to change out a few cards that I have had my eye on for a while.
New Cards
- Aurelia, the Warleader: Obviously my goal with this update was to put Aurelia in. I think that I may end up with my Boros section being a bit on the slow side (with Assemble the Legion already in), but I am fine with that. When I look at this card, I feel like she could win the game the turn she comes down. Being a 6cc with double white and double red, you would have to be committed to the Boros plan.
- Skeletal Scrying: I’m not sure if I mentioned this specific fact about myself previously, but I bought a ton of Odyssey and Torment back in the day. As a result, I have lots of copies of this particular card and somehow never really paid much attention to it. My black section is moving into a sort of ‘pay life for cards’ direction right now so this fits right into that plan.
- Spire Owl: This card isn’t too impressive in terms of what it does, but I added Omenspeaker recently and that card has worked out well due to the Scry effect. This doesn’t really let you Scry technically, but it does let you stack your deck a bit. I think that Blue really wants to do that so I will give this card a shot for a while and see how it pans out.
- Careful Study: Another card that originated in Odyssey, this one has been on my radar for a while, I just never put it in for some reason. This goes back to the same idea as Spire Owl, blue wants to draw cards and choose what cards it gets.
Cut Cards
- Skinbrand Goblin: This card is indirectly being cut to make room for Aurelia. As part of adding her, I have moved Boros Reckoner into my red section. I think that the reckoner could have gone into White just as easily, but I find that it tends to get played in Red decks (because of weak 3 drops) more than in a white deck. As far as this specific card being cut, Skinbrand Goblin never actually made it into a deck during its time in my cube. Any time I saw it, I was always a little disappointed so I figured that meant that it wasn’t good enough for my cube.
- Sarcomancy: I have a great love for all things that came from Tempest. It is probably my favorite set ever. As such, Sarcomancy has long held a special place in my heart simply because of the awesomeness of having a 2/2 on T1 (which wasn’t really a thing back then). Unfortunately, aggro cards are on the decline in my black section and this one is a card that rarely made it into decks.
- Uncovered Clues: This card seems pretty good on the surface. It can get you two cards and then ship the ones you don’t want to the bottom. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out to well when you count out the number of instants and sorcery cards you have in your deck. Simply running the odds of hitting 2+ spells ends up not being very high.
- Curiosity: This is a card that I’ve always liked. I think I’ll just try to add creatures that have this ability on them already. That way, I can avoid the dreaded 2 for 1. There are also some odd interactions with this card that I don’t really care for (Hellrider causing crazy card advantage for example).
Watchlist
- Isochron Scepter: I had cut this card a while back because I wanted to try something else. Turns out my drafters like it so I’ll see if I can find a place to put it back in.
- Memory Lapse: There is not nearly enough counter magic in my cube right now. I want to add at least this card back in. It isn’t a hard counter, but I think I’ll add counters slowly to find the right balance.
- Sphere of Safety: I had pulled this card in one of my first packs of RtR that I bought and never really thought much about it. Then I heard this podcast and wanted to see how it would work out. I already have a handful of enchantments in my cube so I shouldn’t need to make too many modifications to work this into it.
- Soul Tithe: I cut this card in my last update and I already miss it. I’m not sure why I like this card so much, but I do. I like to force my opponents to make difficult choices and this card is great for that. Not only that, but it will play nice along side Sphere of Safety.
The End
This update isn’t going to make a huge impact on the way my cube plays out. My smaller updates tend to go along this line where I am really just trying to test out some random card that I purchased and see where it goes. There are some big updates coming in early January, until then, I can be reached at any of these places…
Twitter: @meaux4281
Cube Tutor: http://cubetutor.com/cubeblog/1485
MTG Salvation: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=504299
Building the Cube 