So after getting through exams I finally got to touch my cards again, and managed to do some cubing. I finally got around to updating my list, which you can find here. I also uploaded some pictures (which are slightly out of date), that you can view here. These pictures are slightly out of date, and there are some orientation issues but I will get those sorted asap.
My cube is not exactly where I want it to be yet, as it is currently missing some important pieces, mostly being lands, and a few of the other pricier cards like Dark Confident and Berserk. However, I managed to pick up a Super-Secret Tech, so I can also start work on foiling the cube as well.
Aside from just making updates I also got to play the cube. We have an issue at the moment though in our playgroup, in that whenever we want to cube we generally have 5-6 people, which is too many for a Winchester Draft, and too few for a full draft. This generally leads to us playing sealed, which is an abysmal cube format.
To try and reduce the negative effect of sealed we tried a half sealed, half draft format. We each got a 25 card sealed pool which we looked at to give us an idea of what we were looking for in the draft. The draft consisted of 4 7-card packs. The format worked well, and was thoroughly more enjoyable than sealed.
I felt the 25 card sealed pool was a decent size and gave most people a few options on what they could do with it. The draft needs some tweaking. We had 5 players, and I found the 7 card packs to lack a bit of depth. In future I think I would try three 9 or 10 card packs.
As for my deck I ended up with a W/B aggressive deck. My notable cards included Bitterblossom (which I resolved 1 game in 4 matches), Umezawa's Jitte, and Booster Tutor. I ended up going 2-2, but felt I mulliganed poorly, and could have easily gone 3-1 (the deck that went 4-0 was ridiculous).
Many people in the cube community have been saying they have found Chandra the Firebrand to be underwhelming in cube and that 2012 will likely see her removal from many lists. I could not disagree more. Admittedly I have limited experience with her (I have seen her used in three decks so far), but every time she has been incredible. Last cube, for example, I saw the player with her copy a Devil's Play for 10 when the opponent was still on 20. I have lived the dream of copying a Plow Under with her.
I wonder if many of peoples experiences with comes from them wrongly including her in decks that do not want her. To me Chandra the Firebrand is a card you want to get early and build around. I think a lot of people get sucked into including her in decks where she might just act as an expensive burn spell, or a largely irrelevant pinger.
The other M12 planeswalker I am currently including in my cube is Jace, Memory Adept. There is no denying he is powerful. But, he is also the most unfun card I have played against in cube. From what I have seen Jace defies the purpose of cube, which is to have fun, powerful, and interactive games. Jace is completely non-interactive, and for that reason is likely going to be making an early exit. I think he would be more acceptable in a larger cube where he does not show up so often but, with a smaller cube like mine his showing up with high frequency is not something I, or anyone in my playgroup, wants to have to deal with every game.
If you have any comments on my cube, the draft format I tried or the M12 planeswalkers feel free to leave a comment, or hit me up on Twitter or via e-mail.
- DelverofSecrets
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