Tuesday, October 21, 2014

MTG - Khans of Tarkir Cube Update 1

Another big update with the release of Khans of Tarkir.  My previous cube post had my thoughts on what I was planning on adding and I pretty much stuck to it with a few minor deviations.  I also took the opportunity to add a few things from Conspiracy and a few other sets.

Of the mechanics in Khans I added three (really only two because I only added one card)

  • Outlast - Mostly added this because a few of the outlast creatures gave creatures with +1/+1 counters extra abilities.  I have a lot of ways to give creatures +1/+1 counters so these creatures would benefit those decks a lot.  The actual Outlast ability was secondary.  
  • Ferocious - Works well as there are a lot of 4 power creatures in the cube or ways to get 4 power creatures.
  • Prowess - Only added one card with this ability, Monastery Swiftspear, as it plays well with the Izzet Blitz archetype I have present.  Blue has no cheap Prowess creatures and I don't really think going Jeskai Blitz would work well in limited (white has a few cheap Prowess creatures).  Admittedly there is a lot more fixing in my cube so it could work.  Something to think about in the future.
On to the actual update!

Artifacts and Land

I ended up removing all the cluestones and keyrunes to make way for the banners and the refuges. The wedge lands replaced some of the clunky 5 colour lands and some artifacts as well.  All around this set did wonders for mana fixing in my cube.  I had thoughts of trying to get the fetch lands but they're a little expensive and even though I pulled 2 of them in my packs I opted to sell them and make do without.

Green
I took out some mana acceleration as I felt I already had enough.  Plus I don't think I had enough defenders in green to take advantage of Overgrown Battlement and Axebane Guardian.  Some more token producers were added but at the same time some were taken out.  The Outlast creatures were added because of the abundance of ways I could give +1/+1 counters to creatures.  The actual Outlast ability is a nice bonus compared to what they add to creatures with +1/+1 counters.

White
Added the Outlast creatures and removed some underperforming cards.  Took out the mass soldier producer in Evangel of Heliod but replaced it with what I think will be a better finisher.  The art isn't bad either on Soul of Theros.

Red
Not too much change.  Adding Monastery Swiftspear gives Izzet Blitz decks another creature that acts like Kiln Fiend and gives Mono-Red decks another early play that can potentially turn into a finisher if it gets through.  With the abundance of +1/+1 counter generators I thought proliferate might be a little overpowered so I took one of the cards out (the one I left behind is Tezzeret's Gambit because it's just such a good card and I have it in foil).  Valley Dasher gives red decks another hasty beater.

Blue
Replaced the Sphinx as I did not have that many artifact creatures when I looked at my cube carefully.  I think Sharding Sphinx was a hold over from when I used to have Metalcraft in the cube.  Taking out Volition Reins was more to lower the curve than anything.  Though with Mind Control already in the cube and no planeswalkers, having a second control creature aura seemed unnecessary considering I removed a bunch of enchantment removal.

Black
The first replacement was an improvement I think.  It won't kill you and will make your opponent choose one of 3 bad options.  The second I think is a long time cube staple and just a fun looking card.  Can't wait to see someone play Booster Tutor!

Gold
Made room for the wedge cards by taking out a few of the shard cards.  Really not liking that I took out Sharuum the Hegemon because that card combos so well with reanimator and some of the big artifact creatures I have.  Oh well, I might look into trying to fit in 2 of each shard and 2 of each wedge in the future.  The other replacements were just to try some new things out.  My favourite addition has to be Flying Crane Technique.  The flavour on this card is just awesome.  I did want to use a different card than Abzan Charm for the Abzan wedge but I didn't pull anything that I liked.  I pulled Anafenza but wasn't quite sure whether to use her or not.  Doesn't seem to do much on her own compared to the charm.  What I really want for the Abzan slot is Duneblast and/or Abzan Ascendancy (hopefully in the promo foil version) but I did not get either unfortunately which means I might look into ordering some cards.

So that is the first Khans of Tarkir update for my cube.  I'll hopefully get a chance to play it a few times and then will probably update it again once I pick up a few cards that I want (like a promo Duneblast and maybe some other stuff).  If I ever get the funds I think one of my goals will be to add a set of shock lands to the cube for even more crazy mana fixing!
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