Kool Runnings: MTGO Cube Draft #1

Posted on May 2, 2012 by ChrisKool

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  1. My jaw dropped when you said you were forcing monoblack, the worst (supported) archetype in the cube aside from storm.
    you’re supposed to be doing powerful things in cube, not 2/2 and 5/5 unblockables
    I really lost hope when you passed crucible, something that could have made your deck extremely interesting.
    I enjoy your commentary but not monoblack, /anything/ but monoblack.

  2. I stopped watching after you picked Diregraf Ghoul over real Magic cards. Mono-B is pretty much the worst…

  3. I like forcing monocolor in this cube. Personally I think green is strongest but any color is fine including black. Unfortunately you were being cut off from already weak packs this draft.

  4. I tried forcing monoblack as well and my experience was that, no matter how many cards like Necropotence, Sinkhole, Hymn or Obliterator you get, UB or BR (or basically any other color combination) is far, far superior. Fun to draft but not something I would try if I actually wanted to win.

  5. Why do you have the dual R card in your deck in the first round and no way to cast it? Also why didn’t you trade a swamp for a badlands? Really confusing.

  6. I enjoy monoblack more than I probably should, but forcing it really isn’t a great idea. Opening that first pack, I think I would have taken Akroma’s Vengeance.

    Even if you are heavy black, I find a green splash is a good idea with the cards in this cube. Maelstrom pulse, putrify, pernicious deed, and spiritmonger are all really good b/g cards. Green really helps make up for a lot of black’s deficiencies.

    Still probably should have gone white though.

  7. C’mon dude, Cube is about going in on the ridiculous cards OR trying to win (i.e. forcing mono red). Black is both less playable than red and significantly less interesting watch (unless you’re trying to go deep on reanimator). I love free content and all but going deep just for Phyrexian obliterator? Get real dawg.

  8. I agree with Dicks, when you took diregraf ghoul over some really powerful cards, I was shocked. I still watched just because, but monoblack just doesn’t do it for me. Not enough cool interactions.

  9. Indeed, going mono-black is not what I would have done. Still an iteresting draft though – the deck did outperform my expectations of it. However, I think you could have started the draft on a way better direction, by taking RW aggro cards such as Ajani, Figure of Destiny and all the other cool things you just casually ignored…

  10. The RR card was a morph creature that only costs a discard to flip and is a 5/5 if he had no cards.

  11. Blah blah blah. This deck is cool, Kool. doen’t listen to these hindsight posers.

  13. Just in time for the new round of Cube drafts: a good reminder why not to force mono-black.

    To be fair you did play two burn based decks which were both skin of the teethers and a deck that you could not very effectively interact with instead of some of the more durdly decks the format can produce.

    Would still like to see more cube drafts.

  14. 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 :)

  16. 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.

  17. @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?

  18. 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.

  19. 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?

  20. 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)