I believe my plan here is RG curve-out beatdown with some Manifest and a midrange contingency plan. I don’t think I want to cut any of my interaction. Maybe I cut Anthro, Branchsnapper, and Longneck? Although that would leave me pretty vulnerable to flyers if i don’t draw my interaction. Would appreciate some advice!

Didnt get to play Monica once. Mister hyde definitely overperformed with viv vision and just general omph. 3x web up is also disgusting in sealed

I have no idea what my opponents were drafting but it definitely was not lands. Fun but fuck that pricing

Title.

Played three BO3, had a blast, cube is great, seems like lots of builds are viable.

Not playing any one more match, the pricing is a joke and a shameful moneygrab from wotc.

With a helpful assist by [[Deepmuck Desperado]].

I guess I can die happy now?

Before MSH was released I posted a review of preseason grades for the previous four sets. This post brings that project up to date for MSH.

I looked at 9 sets of grades (Both Limited Level-Ups hosts, both contributors to drafttierlists, Limited Resources, casual_spike, Cardgamebase, and Draftsim (Set Review and Tierlist ). As ever we are only looking at commons and uncommons.

Chart here.

Some grades get updated after preview season ends. This is not useful for us, and so where I couldn't find them unadjusted the grades are simply omitted. I'm particularly interested in finding pre-release drafttierlist grades (their change tracking is somewhat tricky to parse, and I haven't tried to use it to recreate older set grades).

As you can see drafttierlist and Limited Level-Ups (as ever) did quite well; for everyone else this was a challenging set to grade (I didn't include Draftsim's Tierlist in any averages; not sure what's going on with that). To an unusual degree the graders' ability to assess how well a card would perform was tied up with how highly they assessed one color (White) and dismissed a second (Red). 5 of the 10 most underrated cards had White, 7 of the 10 most overrated had Red.

One thing I struggled with when putting together the previous post was whether or not to adjust GIH WR by average pick to get closer to some notion of true card strength and, if so, how. I couldn't quite crack that to my own satisfaction. But, since then, /u/oelarnes posted his own project (found here) in which he did just that (and more). That's a useful resource and it seemed to me possible (perhaps likely) that preview grades might track GIH WR more closely if you adjust for what he calls pick equity. I set aside his other adjustments for now.

Chart here.

As you can see there was a small but meaningful increase in correlation across the board. This is a neat result, and I think it points to some combination of two things. One, insofar as adjusting for pick rate more accurately captures 'true' card strength, then graders are doing better than they appear at judging card strength. Two, insofar as graders are judging card strength in relative isolation, then the adjustment proposed by oelarnes is at least roughly correct and an improvement over naive GIH WR.

The other thing that's clear from the above is that naively normalizing and averaging grades is on average slightly better than following the best graders.

I like cube drafting. I prefer MTGO because 2-1 is a redraft. I play arena bc cubing on my phone is nice.

Charging 1500 for a phantom with garbage prize payout is really bad. Bo3 2-1 is 200/1,000/2,500 is obviously tilted to 3-0 but it ruins the EV for normal drafters, sub 60% win rate people. At least premier draft keep the cards there is a little spiff in keeping the cards and eventually getting gems for the packs.

I am voting with my wallet. You can too. Do 1 if you want to check it out but don’t support the format based on this pricing.

If power cube is switched to this pricing structure count me out.

Only got close to losing a match once, rest of the times just curved out beautifully.

Cosmic Cube did lead to game wins sometimes,

also managed to soft lock via Mighty Thor and Justice.

Got the trigger Kang at least one time.

Stature does do a lot of initial chip damage and drove the nail in the coffin in a few games

Risen Reef is a fun card. Went 7-2 with only loses being to decking (as one does).

He struggled to explain why but I can explain for myself and it might be similar. (Edit: Zach Barash suggested it was about nostalgia, but for me it’s not that at all, so maybe this explanation will be a useful data point for the design team.)

Arena for me is a super convenient way to play Magic since I can’t afford the time to go to the LGS frequently. Alchemy to me is a different game than Magic. Many of the cards would be completely impractical for paper Magic, which makes it a different game to me. Arena to me is a way I can imagine that I’m playing actual Magic…as close as it can get with this level of convenience.

Also, I like to learn the sets and hopefully take what I learn to the LGS when I can get there. I just have zero interest in learning the extra complexity of the alchemy cards because I’ll never be able to play them in real life.

Now this is a cube, not a new set, so that last reason isn’t relevant.

I’ll still play this cube since it seems so novel, but I’ll have that skeptical sort of feeling Marshall described. I’ll still probably have a lot of fun, but yesterday I still hit the MSH draft button instead and put it off kind of because of this.

Combo combos with War Machine and Blazing Crescendo to hit 10 a turn

It might be a little washed for Powered Cube, but people simple don't respect how ridiculous a limited card Ashiok is in somewhat less powerful limited formats. With Ruin Crab backup, even and I got both of them 6-7 picks. I definitely had way more fun playing control in this cube than I did trying to fight over the landfall shenanigans in the rest of the color pie. This deck also made me realize how important bounce effects / Memory Lapse can be in a format with lots of heist cards. An opponent cast my Ob Nixilis off of heist and I got to Talion's Throneguard it right back to my hand which is just filthy.

I think I'm probably done with at least the Zendikar version of this cube for now. It's not bad, but it doesn't tickle me the way powered cube does. I definitely feel like I got my nostalgia hit from this deck. Now if only the Kamigawa version would have [[Dampen Thought]] I could do it again in a couple weeks.

Not sure if it’s an obvious question but I feel like by the time I’m playing it out I might just whiff. What would you cut for it?

Anything else I’m missing? I know removal is pretty light, but I wasn’t seeing much.

[Insert snarky joke here about drafting aggro in cube if you want to win]

I got slapped a couple times by felidar retreat, card's busted.

https://www.17lands.com/history/8cee02974ac645de9909505fd0ede944/7/0/171

[[Vengeful Possession]] in hand, opponent's [[Spectral Snatcher]] has Ward - Discard a card, opponent has 1 card in hand, think there is nothing they can do except kill their own creature with something like [[Murder]], so I either continue the game or win. Steal their creature, equip [[Chainsaw]] on it, swing in, and they avoid the ward cost by casting [[Nowhere to Run]]. They live and I don't.

Link to 17lands

Just wondering if its enough to have the two Mad scientists, or if im pushing it too much with only 7 white sources and only 6 for turn one. I also have 1 of the vehicle mana rock that i could find a cut for.

I didn’t do a super deep dive into the cards yet, but I played one draft, got my butt kicked by some Alchemy cards and now I see [[Tajic, Legion’s Valar]] is included too? A card so busted that even brawl banned it?

I’m all for cool cubes, but geez, it really sucks when your match is just blown up by one random ridiculous card.

Hey drafters! The newest iteration of the OG Arena Cube is live as of today in their version of a planar cube. Here are my opening thoughts having played a bunch of arena cubes and cubes in general on what to expect and how to approach it! I also made a short video covering what I wrote below for those that like to listen and watch- you can find it here!

The cube itself:

• Arena devs wanted a fresh spin on their classic arena cube and have mixed it up by making it thematic to a specific plane
  • Thematic is the key word here, as most cards are not actually from the plane being featured
• The planes they have chosen (Zendikar, Innistrad, Kamigawa) will each be featured for exactly one week starting today
  • Of the 560ish cards in the cube:
    • 200 core cards will stay the same for all 3 versions
    • 360 planar themed cards will be added and removed with each version
• The cards include most of arena's best and strongest cards across all colors and especially lands
  • This also includes alchemy cards that were played in the pre-arena powered cube days and some new includes from recent sets
  • The cards that make powered cube what it is (mox, power 9, sol ring, mana crypt, etc) are not going to be in any version

The Core:

• 200 cards were chosen to stay in the cube for all 3 version to establish a base for each color and the supporting lands
• Very few cards in this section are colorless or multicolor as that is where a lot of the flavor for each plane will be found
• Lands are excellent
  • Every color pair gets its fetch, check land, surveil, and shock
  • all 10 triomes
  • a few 5 color or chose a color alchemy lands
• The colors:
  • White is strong and will always have access to many of its best ever removal
    • Swords to plowshares, path to exile, unexpectedly absent to name a few
    • The rest is all solid early / efficient creatures
  • Blue is strong and gets access to solid countermagic and surprising early threats
    • Counterspell, mana leak, and three steps ahead
    • All time alchemy bomb Hydroponics Expert is a surprising include as a very annoying one mana flier that must be answered
  • Black is weak and a bit scattered
    • lots of okay creatures that need outside support from other cards to do great
    • Few of blacks all time greats are not present- NO thought seize, duress, reanimate
    • A few solid removal spells in fatal push, inquisition, and bitter triumph
  • Red is solid but removal focused
    • Some of its great creatures at each mana value and most of its best removal
    • lightning bolt, burst lightning, abrade, flame slash, and chain lightning
  • Green is solid but ramp focused
    • Lots of early dorks and some all stars for cube
    • green suns, malevolent rumble, birds of paradise, and some elves
  • Other: Key to the Archive, a past cube BOMB makes an appearance in the core and is a house of a card ramping and providing what the exact situation needs

The Zendikar Planar cards

Marketed as an aggro + landfall fest with lots of elementals, it is full of early efficient threats, splashy late game haymakers, and lots of lands. Unfortunately, I expect the format to shake out a little more like past arena cubes with a clear divide of the best decks between aggro boros and grixis based heist soup decks.

• White looks absurd with so many replaceable aggressive 1 / 2 drops and premium removal
• Blue looks great with a lot of early fliers, flash creatures, and Force of Will / Force of Negation. It also gets great heisters and even more alchemy bombs like agent of raffine and talion's throne guard
• Black looks divided and will likely be a removal support color. However, it gets access to many of the insanely broken heist cards that make late game impossible for the non-heisters
• Red looks like the best color as it gets access to insane early aggro AND some of the best heisters. I want red in almost every deck I draft even as a splash. Kari Zev Crew of two and Tajik return here from alchemy and will dominate
• Green looks a bit clunky but good if the pieces all come together. As per usual in high power cubes, green is often played for its gold cards like uro, omnath, and the like
• Multicolor is insane, with so many alchemy and non-alchemy bombs that having good mana will enable you to play whatever you want and have it work out. There are also 2 extra copies of risen reef for those trying to make elementals work out.
• Colorless is odd, their are a large number of devoid cards and cards that need a colorless source to play, but there isn't really enough to support it in most drafts. An extra copy of though naught seer is fun but doesn't carry it over the line in my assessment.
• Lands are nuts. 2 more of every fetch, the 3 color slow basic fetches from MH3, pain lands to support colorless needs, and the new basic check lands from MSH. Knowing when to pick lands will be a real test in most drafts as decks will need them to support their many pipped cards

Strategy and Advice:

• Heist is insane. End of assessment.
  • In aggro it steals key early cards and in control they take your win conditions
  • Every card with the word must be considered as a threat in the short and long term!
• Aggro looks easy to assemble in many forms across multiple colors but with a boros core
  • The alchemy cards here really push this to the limit
• Fetches and shocks are a lot of life to lose when facing pure aggro and this may be a pressure point for greedier decks
• I will be looking to play aggressive decks or have tons of early interaction no matter what
  • Take heist highly
  • Fetches are a bit less important than actual fetchable lands as there are only 5 fetchables for each color pair (shock, surveil, 3 triomes) and for that same color pair there are 21 fetches that get one or both of the colors
  • I think pure elemental and pure landfall decks are a bit of a trap
    • Play the cards that are good on their own, they don't need a full deck around them to be great!
• Have some fun!! The Arena Cube is not cost effective so if you want to grind resources I recommend sticking to regular drafts so you can farm wildcards and the vault.
  • It costs the same as a standard draft except you don't keep the cards and the packs you win will be from random sets on arena, making it unlikely you get ones that convert into wildcards or gems for sets you have complete!

Let me know if you have thoughts, questions, or the like! I am always excited to jump into a new cube and test it out!

Huge Caveat Before Reading: The Heist cards rotate out after this week, I will try the cube again after they rotate and you should too.

I love all kinds of cubing, and I believe the Chromatic cube is one of my favorites. But Heist is just completely broken and undercosted relative to the absolute power and miserable play pattern it develops. I flew in relatively blind to this weeks cube, and to my surprise it is absolutely riddled with all of the best Heist cards. Many of us have complained about these cards for years now, so please let this post be the final time this has to be discussed. Arena Devs: Stop including Heist in any cube. They are not fun to play against and they make a miserable play pattern. Only Grave Expectations is even remotely fair, and it's still absurdly good. The rest are already stacked onto good cards. You can't even see what they Heisted from your deck, so if you are counting on a certain draw to turn things around, it might not be in your deck. Not to mention the fact that the more your opponent Heists you, the more lands you draw and the worse your deck becomes.

If you want to feature some Alchemy cards, please do so and I'm not here to complain about digital cards. There are many favorites of mine that could be fun in Cube. Heist just keeps getting put in because it's probably the most busted thing ever made in Alchemy especially in a format like Cube. You could put in cards like [[Caldera Breaker]] or [[Contagion Dispenser]] or [[Overcooked]], to name a few fun ones I've enjoyed through the years. We have complained about heist repeatedly for many cube iterations, but it seemingly still gets ignored.

I want to say the idea of Planar Cube is cool, and I love the rotating aspect of it. But week 1 has been completely ruined for me by the presence of Heist cards. Replacing these Heist cards with a random assortment of Alchemy cards would've improved this rotation 100 fold for me. I hate playing against heist and I hate having to warp my draft around it. I don't want this post to be a pile-on against Alchemy/Digital, I have frequently defended the format. However, showcasing Heist over-and-over as a alchemy mechanic is not doing the format any favors. Please, just stop putting Heist in cube and limited formats.

https://www.17lands.com/draft/295d5ba8a8f54fb49d72ea207be470f0/1/1

I heard the ethereal call of the P1P1 [[Ghostly Dancers]] and answered its alluring gaze.

13 creatures is a bit lighter than I'd like, especially with 3 auras, but this is the 40 card deck that I think has the best cards in it. I could see making some swaps to increase the number of creatures, but I am not sure which cards to swap out.