My first Roto Draft, SamP's Arena Legal Cube

All right so I am drafting Sam Pratt's Arena Cube, rotisserie style. I'll be sharing my thoughts on the experience, draft and keep you up to date during the process.

For those of you who are not familiar with Sam, he is the host of Rough Drafts. Sam is a long time limited magic player and is very knowledgeable about retail draft. Rough drafts is usually a deep dive on a topic or single card specific to the current retail magic set. So, if you like to wax poetic about your favorite common, find hidden gems and uses for innocuous 2 drop creatures in the current format, Sam is your guy.

Now that you know who Sam is, let's talk about Roto draft and this cube before we discuss my first picks.

A rotisserie draft basically means that you are going in a sequential pick order out of the entire pool of cards in the cube. You're then going to snake back around at the end of the rounds. The last player to pick gets the first pick in the next round. You'll just go round by round. pick by pick and you're drafting face up.

Sam's cube is a pretty fun format, and features only cards that are on MTG Arena. There are a lot of powerful and familiar cards available on the client now. Arena went from being Ixalan and Dominaria, to featuring 5 years of sets and also numerous older cards with help from the "bonus sheet" and Historic Anthologies. Strip Mine, Ulamog(the OG), Demonic Tutor and Ragavan are just a few of the cards now available on Arena. Sam has done a good job of balancing powerful cards with efficient interaction. There are must answer one drop creatures like Ocelot Pride and Ragavan, and powerful interaction like Counterspell and Dismember. If you want to take a look at the list, I have it linked it up top.

Now, let's get into the draft:

I got slot number four and I was looking through the list of cards and I was trying to think of anything that I felt like was extremely scarce. Is there anything very powerful and flexible? I think it's pretty strong to have access to one of the only tutors in the cube. I like to play combo, control and I like to be able to have answers when I need the answers. So pick number four, I decided to take demonic tutor.


I immediately got some shade for the pick by the people that I'm drafting with, which makes Roto draft pretty fun. It kind of reminds me of drafting a fantasy football team with buddies, where we can joke around and share when we get sniped the pick before or laugh at the one guy who always picks a kicker way too early.

Apparently people don't value something like demonic tutor. The reason people were saying it's not that good, is because they don't feel like combo is a thing that you can do in Sam's Cube. However I tend to disagree. I pointed this out to Sam just a couple of days ago, that you have the ability to go infinite for turns with some Time Walk effects at 5 mana. There are also several very good board sweeping effects, good counter spells and there is a ton of graveyard recursion.

So my plan with this demonic tutor pick is to open myself up to play some key pieces or build arounds, whether that is a combo or another deck where you want access to a card or two for it to come together. I was afraid to commit to something too narrow from the get-go. If I want to try to go infinite on turns, demonic tutor can help me get my busted card or the ways I need to combo off. I've already done this in this Cube once and I went 2-1, but I didn't have a demonic tutor. There is Time Warp there's Temporal Manipulation, there's the simic Tamio Planeswalker that gets something back out of the graveyard, there is Eternal Witness, Timeless Witness and there is also Commit to Memory.

So my plan with my tutor is, I'm going to play this in really any deck. I'm going attempt to cheekily sneak in a couple extra turn effects and all of the graveyard interaction that I need to recur those. Now, this sounds maybe sounds like an all-in strategy, But, I don't think that both of those Time Walk effects are going to be taken very highly based on the group of people were drafting with. Regardless of whether or not my intial plan comes together, I will always be able to play Demonic Tutor and be very happy about it. As I mentioned before, I am looking for powerful build around cards. I'm less interested in building a "good stuff" deck. Even so, being able to have a 2nd copy of everything in my deck is going to allow me to do that more consistently. Heck, I'll even grab a land if I end up getting mana screwed.

Let's go through a couple of the other first picks. Also some of the cards the notable cars that have not been taking this round.

So we start off with Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student which is a one mana planeswalker basically. Very powerful card.

Then we have reanimate, which is extremely powerful and flexible which is very good. However, Reanimate is the best of several very good reanimation effects. In this Cube you also have: Emperor of Bones, Necromancy and I think there may be one or two more reanimation effects. Clearly reanimate is the best version of that but it's not something that you can't get into later on.

Then there was strip mine, and swords to plowshares. These are all good cards, but I want to name some of the cars that have not been picked yet. Mox opal Chrome Mox, Ancient Tomb.... These cards are so flexible and so powerful that they basically allow you to cheat mana for free. There's so there's no downside to these at 0 mana. Any deck would want this.

I thought long and hard about drafting Mox Opal and committing early to an artifact plan, because there is a ton of artifact support. However, I decided on demonic tutor because of the fact that there is nothing else like it in the cube.

We're going to see if this proves to be the correct pick or not. This is my first Roto draft. And I'm excited to have it in the deck already and look for a game-winning combo or control finisher.

Approaching Cube as a Newer Player Part 2

Welcome back! If you missed the 1st part of my post, please go back and read through it. We will be picking back up on those ideas and expand to include my final thoughts. Here is a link to my 1st post: Approaching Cube as a Newer Player

Cube is a fantastic way to enjoy playing magic for people of all skill levels. You can experience a myriad of different strategies while cementing a firm understanding of the game and deck building. Whether you are drafting cube for the fun times with friends, or the challenge of constructing a deck on the fly, or you just like the idea of playing with cool cards for little to no monetary investment, cube is a great time. So, my hope with these series of blog posts is to help newer players understand how to diagnose a cube list and find success in deck building from the start.

All right so let's pickup where we left off, in the removal category.

We talked about Mass removal. But, lets talk about the power outliers in the single target category.

Anything that can blanket deal with most threats that cost one or even two mana are power outliers. Cards like path to exile, unholy heat, fatal push, dismember are so good because you can go in any deck. These inexpensive removal spells allow you to push your own game plan while also being able to counter or remove your opponent's.

The best way to think about this is to imagine a scale or a pendulum that reflects what's happening within a game of magic. When are deploying threats like creatures or planeswalkers and still being able to interact with your opponent you're more than likely winning that game. If you find yourself unable to progress your gameplan, while also unable to interact with your opponent's, than you're kind of cooked. You can feel this swing in the game on a key turn where you draw a land when you needed a spell, or a 4-5 drop when you had to hit your 3rd land. The game is likely not over, but feels as though it is.

Imagine this scenario: Your opponent plays a two drop with one mana available - they pass to you - you try to play a 3 or 4 drop that they counter or remove it for one mana....

You are so far behind because they one for one'd you, while also developing their board. You now have to commit your own resources to get you back to parity, while also hoping that their ability to untap on their turn doesn't mean more threats or counter your attempts to interact with their threats.



That's why mana efficient removal is so powerful. It is so important to really any strategy. I feel like people don't necessarily view it in the same way because I've been in many drafts where spells like the ones I mentioned earlier get passed very late. That really shouldn't happen unless the pack just had waaayy too many similarly powerful cards. It's rare, but it does happen occasionally. You should prioritize these very highly.

Let's Discuss Mana Curve

  

Mana curve describes the varying mana costs of the cards in your deck. If you look at your cards and lay them out in casting cost order, they should resemble a bell curve. Some inexpensive spells, followed by a density of spells that cost 2-3 mana, and less as we go higher up the "curve".

Now, let's look back at the cube cobra list for the cube you're going to be drafting:

Let's say red and white each have 2-3 one mana creatures, 4-5 two mana creatures and 6 three mana cards and so on. A smaller amount of 1 and 2 drop creatures typically means that it is a slower format. You may have a little bit more time put together different synergies or gameplans that wouldn't be as viable if there were 7-10 creatures in each color in the 1-2 mana range. You may also have a little bit more time to find your mana sources, get your colors to play more impactful plays later in the game. In that type of an environment there's more room to explore different archetypes and strategies.

However, having a good aggressive deck in a cube makes for a healthy draft format. If players are allowed to play mid range soup without the pressure of aggro, then decks tend to look very similar. It can lead to longer games and more mental tax on you and your fellow drafters. Sometimes that's fun, but it's also something to consider. Often times people draft on a week night, maybe after work and they don't have an unlimited amount of mental energy. So its good enable a drafter to have a good simple aggressive deck. They can pressure and punish players for being greedy and end games quickly.

I will also give a side note on this: Combo can also serve a purpose of aggro sometimes. Combo's that end games quickly, also put "pressure" on opponents to play to the board and attack if they're fearing the game will end if they don't. It's a matter of what the cube curator wants to support and how the play group feels about these type of strategies.

All right here's my final tips:

   Talk to the owner of the cube and players that have played the cube. Ask about the speed of the format. How fast are decks? Do games typically end on turn 4, or do they go long? What are the strongest decks or the strongest colors in their opinion? Ask if they have trophy(undefeated) decklists available online. Look through those decks to see what cards are performing well. What colors are performing well? Ask them if there's anything that is under supported or hasn't worked out so far. Anything that they feel like is on the chopping block in the future. This a good way to kind of sense of decks or archetypes that may not be a viable strategy to jump into.


For fellow players, folks that maybe have drafted the cube several times; Be open about being newer to drafting or cube and see if you can ask them a couple of questions. What are your favorite decks to draft in this cube? What do find fun to play here? It may be daunting to approach people you just met, but the cube community is a very welcoming space. Playgroups are always looking for more players to fill out their draft pods, and so they should be more than happy to share tips so you find success and keep coming back to drafts. You'd be surprised, but sometimes will flat out tell you they are going to draft a certain deck. "I'm going to draft aggro tonight" or "Look out for so and so, they always draft control" or, "so and so is a really good control player" or "I love to try to make reanimator work."

I have much more I can cover on this topic, and plan on doing so. If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me on Discord. I go by LastAbzan in several servers: CubeCobra Discord UberCube Discord MTG Cube Talk

   

I hope that this article will serve a purpose for your first couple of drafts.


Hopefully I get to meet you at a cube event and we can play some Magic soon. Good Luck!

Approaching Cube as a New Player

 Okay so you have decided to come out to a cube night. You're looking to "draft" a cube with either people you know or people you don't know. You're excited to play some Magic. As a newer player you've been hearing about this exciting format: Cube. 

Maybe you're familiar with playing commander and you want to jump into the world of limited. The promise of drafting powerful spells, hanging out with friends and not having to pay money for cards seems fun. Getting to play and experience a wide range of decks and gameplay is something that is pretty enticing for you. Well, welcome #1. #2, glad you've found what many have believe to be the best way to play and experience this game we all love. I think that you're going to have a lot of fun. However, Cube can be one of the more difficult formats to play well. Especially for a new player. 

Let's jump into why that is. 

Cubes are often built by experienced magic players that have cards, archetypes, formats and decks that they have a lot more experience with. They understand why those cards are good and have specifically entered them into this draft environment so that others can enjoy them just like they did. If you are a brand new player, this can be daunting. A lot of times these are going to be the first time you see some of these cards and that is just very overwhelming. 

   Well, you are in luck because seeing and playing with new cards is going to be something you will have to do regardless of what format of magic you're playing. You're going to run into new cards/decks for the first couple of years and you're not going to understand how they work. It's going to take some time to get familiar with the gameplay patterns, what's good what's not good and how to build a proper deck. However, that's no different than if you were playing a game of Commander, standard, modern or Legacy. There's a learning curve to playing Magic. 

   Here's the cool part about Cube: each Cube is it's own self-contained format. You're not going to run into any cards that are not in the cube. Whether it's a 360 card cube or a 500 card cube or even a micro cube that is only 90-180 cards, you are ONLY going to have to worry about that number of cards when you're playing. If you contrast that to a wider constructed format like Commander, Legacy or even Standard, you have thousands of cards that are legal to play and hundreds of different decks that deploy a wide range of strategies. So, good luck sitting down to play a match vs a random opponent at an LGS and knowing what the cards do that they are going to play. 

   I would highly suggest for any new player to sit down and look over the list of cards and the artwork for each. Hopefully, the cube designer has put the correct artwork onto their Cube Cobra page. You can sit down before you you go draft and look it over. Pay attention to the Mana cost of those cards, what the cards do and take note of certain things in the process. 

Each Cube has things that you want to take a look at it right away:

1. Look for power outliers within the cube. 

   Okay so let's talk about power outliers for a cube. If you are an experienced magic player then a lot of the times you'll look at a card and it just kind of jumps off the page as something that's not like the rest of the cards. We can take creatures for example; if you look at most the creatures and the one Mana creatures are 1/1, the two mana creatures are 2/1 or 1/2, the three mana creatures are 2/3 or 3/2, and the four mana creatures are 3/3 then you can kind of get a baseline of how big the creatures are in the environment. Then all of a sudden you keep going and let's say green has a two mana 3/3 you say, "Wow, that's a lot of power and toughness for only two mana!" That's a power outlier. 

    

This is obviously a very basic explanation. There's something called a vanilla test. The Vanilla Test is a great way to learn more about how creature sizing is evaluated and help you scrutinize a card you're just now seeing for the first time. It's a way to basically evaluate a creature without any of its text and abilities just understand if it's worth the cost. 

  The same can be said for different spells as well: In blue playing Counter spells is very common. Most counter spells are two to three Mana, sometimes more. but there are also some counter spells that are one Mana and have some downside that correlate with it being a little bit cheaper. Then there's cards like force of will. Force of will is a power outlier because it can be cast for free! Yes, you have to remove a card from your hand, but that allows you to tap out completely and still interact with an opponent. It's one of the more broken cards in Magic. Especially for playing a combo deck. So look at the list and the cards in each color for the mana values and paid special attention to cards that just kind of jump off the page screaming, "I'm not like everybody else!" these are your power outliers. 

     

There's also other things that could be considered power outliers. Cards that have very unique effects in a cube or any limited environment. Planeswalkers are often power outliers in a cube because they're difficult to interact with and they also have a game warping effect. Planeswalkers abilities that you can activate every single turn are typically worth a card in and of themselves. 

 

 There's also boardwipe effects. Wrath of God and similar cards are just so good in the right matchup that it ends up being game warping. You can completely crush a creature based deck and limit their ability to win game. It's punishing them for overextending. Wiping out their entire board with one card could be a three for one or two for one a five for one sometimes. It can also win you the game especially if you have something like a planeswalker around the battlefield. So, keep an eye on each one. What colors have wrath effects, how much do they cost and can my deck take advantage?

      

2. Can you live the dream? 

  A lot of us get caught up with "living the dream" when looking at cards. We look at the best case scenario and neglect to imagine what happens when our gameplan goes off course or our opponent answers what we need to make our sweet bonuses happen. So when you're looking at a cube it's important to contextualize what is supported in the environment. So let's say that there is a theme that you feel is going to be a fun deck to play and you want to play it. I would look at the other cards in the cube and see if it is actually supported enough to draft a deck around it? Is it just something that's in there because they like the artwork? Do they like the flavor of the card? They may just think it's cool and it may not be something you want to jump into or really build around. Pay attention to that, by looking at the list. 

       

3. Fixing

The next thing I look at is mana fixing. Take a look at the land section, the artifact section and the creature section. You should be able to see that there's a number a number of ways to cast spells with different mana colors and costs. Is there a lot of artifacts that allow you to tap for extra Mana so you can go from two Mana to four Mana to six mana pretty easily? 

     

Are there fetch lands? These are lands that come in and can be sacrificed with one life to search up a land that has a type like Forest or Island. These are very powerful because it basically allows you to have 2 copies of any of your dual or tri lands. If you would like to learn more about how to build a limited Mana base which I would highly suggest finding an article that explains how to build a limited mana base. Here is one that is worth a read: Mastering Limited Manabases

   

 If you're going to play limited, if you're going to do build a deck, or basically play magic at all, you're going to want to have access to the mana to cast your creatures and spells. Duh. It's good to take a look and try to consider this first and foremost. Including; when you are drafting, building your deck or even designing your own cube. If there is an abundant amount of fixing, that's something that will impact decks. When you're sitting down at a table get passed a bomb pick 4 or 5 that's not in your colors you may or may not be able to take it and splash(splashing describes adding an extra off color card or two in your 2 or 3 color limited deck) for it. If there is multiple copies of each fetch land, triomes, duals etc, color restrictions are not necessarily going to prevent you from building the more powerful deck. You can expect this from your opponents as well. 

        

There is typically a player at each draft pod that likes to go into multicolor strategies. They just take every bomb that's passed to them and prioritize fixing so that they can cast those bombs. That is definitely a viable strategy if the fixing is good enough. This is also something most cube designers try and avoid. After curating  a few hundred cards and placing in interesting synergies and decks, a player that just has a good stuff pile and wins kind of poops on the effort. Some go as far as to limit the availability of fixing in the cube just to prevent people from doing this. 

4. Mass Removal

   I know I already mentioned this in the power outliers, but it bears repeating. Mass removal is something you have to be wary of. It's one of the worst feelings in the world to have a really great start: you play to the board, you have a lot of creatures in play, your opponents almost dead and then they cast a wrath effect. It's pretty backbreaking. So be aware of cards that are like that in a cube, really swingy cards. Being able to keep that in mind when you play allows you to play around them when you sense your opponent is not committing to the board, and is playing in the colors where these cards exist. 

I have more to come on this topic and others, but alas rewriting this on my own site has caused me to run out of time. I'll see you in part 2!