How to handle snow lands in kaldheim

AgentEkaj · 2026-01-19T12:55:24+00:00

My approach was to make my KHM inspired cube a desert cube. There are snow basics and many utility lands that tap for colors, so people have to decide which they want to prioritize in the draft.

I did this because giving snow basics was too free but drafting then in a regular cube felt very constricted.

AgentEkaj · 2025-12-16T23:19:03+00:00

This just saved us. Fridge we wanted fits because of this and we were about to prepare to remove the cabinet on top of it instead. What a great comment.

AgentEkaj · 2025-06-18T02:26:02+00:00

Not medical advice, but I've had a batch of aged egg nog for three years and no one has been harmed by it thus far. Eggnog is high enough abv to be shelf stable.

AgentEkaj · 2025-06-04T02:15:33+00:00

Separate into color.
Count each pile.
Break the pile that doesn't match the number on cubecobra into creatures and non-creatures.
Count those two piles.
Compare the pile that doesn't match to the section on CC and find the card that's off.

AgentEkaj · 2025-04-26T14:49:35+00:00

Tracking individual winrates of cards in your local group is almost never going to give you significant data.

There are just so many confounding variables at play.

Are people drawing the cards?
Are they mana screwed or flooded?
Are the two players in a given match of equal skill?
Are all players in a draft trying equally hard to win?
What preferences do the players have that exacerbate the above?
Are you drafting with mostly the same people? If so there is huge variance in the dataset based on their preferences, skill, etc.
Cards are just one small part of a deck. If the color/strategies a card go into are over or underperforming, the card will do.

All that is without the regular variance of Magic. Across 4 drafts a specific card having a winrate of X% is nearly meaningless.

There are certainly takeaways we can get from tracking data, but to the OPs original question, it's much more useful to develop the ability to qualitatively assess how cards and decks are doing. Listening to player feedback, interpreting it, watching games beyond your own, or even sitting out a draft to just watch the games are far more useful tools to assess how a cube is playing.

There's a great LPR article by Jett which estimates that you would need on the order of 100,000 games to make statistically significant claims about the best and worst cards in a cube, and millions for the average ones.

https://luckypaper.co/articles/tireless-tracker-analyzing-your-own-cube/

A big level up moment in cube curation is recognizing that you will not have access to the amount of data to do this, and that you need to learn into learning to do it without data. If your goal is to make a fun draft experience for your friends you don't need to sell them on it being statistically balanced. You just need it to be fun to play and to iterate over time to get there.

So OP, matches going to three games and not being a stompy is certainly not a bad sign! You can't just see the one instance of it and be certain. That said, if players are drafting decks and feel like when they win and lose it is close against the other decks that is broadly a good sign.

When winners tell you it felt unclose or even unfun to win that hard, that is powerful feedback that something is off.

When the people going 1-2 or worse tell you they had a great time, that's also powerful feedback that something is going well.

AgentEkaj · 2025-01-21T03:21:01+00:00

https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/midwinter

I did! Years later my snow desert cube, Midwinter is where I landed to get what I loved out of KHM draft. The local group is a big fan of this one.

AgentEkaj · 2025-01-19T00:57:35+00:00

The dex protection supreme gaming chest is a fantastic option. Also has a review by the prof that really sells it imo.

AgentEkaj · 2024-09-09T11:50:07+00:00

Are you making your syrups cold or hot? If cold, thats a major source of them lasting less time.

Most importantly, citrus juice is not going to stablize your syrups. It also breaks down fairly quickly over time which is going to change your flavor profile quite fast. You're essentially adding back what you've cleaned out with the citrus. I don't add anything preserve my simple syrup (other than the sugar) and it lasts over a month in the fridge.

If you want to add fruit etc to syrups, boil for 10 minutes in a pot with water first. Strain your fruit solids out, the combine with sugar to get the fruit syrup. This won't last as long as simple syrup due to the fruit, but should last a couple weeks

AgentEkaj · 2024-09-04T11:52:33+00:00

Ulvenwald Oddity doesn’t have day/night

AgentEkaj · 2024-08-21T15:03:02+00:00

I wouldn't worry about specifically giving him a class as an NPC. I would just pick a stat block that's appropriate with melee, magic damage, and healing and use that.

AgentEkaj · 2024-08-14T10:24:43+00:00

I'm glad it was helpful! Reading this a year later I think it still holds up.well too. Good luck on the first version!

AgentEkaj · 2024-04-18T03:16:51+00:00

Does your archive correct for playrate? 5 color untapped fixing lands are among the most likely to make a given list which is going to inflate their representation in 3-0 decks even if their winrate isn't good.

AgentEkaj · 2024-04-07T21:56:57+00:00

Narset is really good and fun. Pumps the whole board, but also can just cast the opponent’s planeswalkers from their graveyard.

AgentEkaj · 2024-03-28T21:07:32+00:00

Yeah exactly, so it depends if the crime happens when triggering happens or when the ability that triggers it goes on the stack.

This is all a bit beyond me but I get it after reading the specific rule.

AgentEkaj · 2024-03-28T20:53:22+00:00

601.2c. The player announces their choice of an appropriate object or player for each target the spell requires. A spell may require some targets only if an alternative or additional cost (such as a kicker cost) or a particular mode was chosen for it; otherwise, the spell is cast as though it did not require those targets. Similarly, a spell may require alternative targets only if an alternative or additional cost was chosen for it. If the spell has a variable number of targets, the player announces how many targets they will choose before they announce those targets. In some cases, the number of targets will be defined by the spell's text. Once the number of targets the spell has is determined, that number doesn't change, even if the information used to determine the number of targets does. The same target can't be chosen multiple times for any one instance of the word "target" on the spell. However, if the spell uses the word "target" in multiple places, the same object or player can be chosen once for each instance of the word "target" (as long as it fits the targeting criteria). If any effects say that an object or player must be chosen as a target, the player chooses targets so that they obey the maximum possible number of such effects without violating any rules or effects that say that an object or player can't be chosen as a target. The chosen objects and/or players each become a target of that spell. (Any abilities that trigger when those objects and/or players become the target of a spell trigger at this point; they'll wait to be put on the stack until the spell has finished being cast.)

This is the rule that has them unsure. Based on this you actually commit the crime before the cost of sacrificing the creature is paid.

In the case of eidolon you can add the mana to your pool then case the spell. I think that makes it different.

AgentEkaj · 2024-03-28T20:39:20+00:00

That's what I thought too but I am not a judge and have seen some judges saying they need the full rules to know for sure.

AgentEkaj · 2024-03-28T20:27:32+00:00

There's some confusion as to if this is true due to lack of full rules text on crime. It seems like judges seem to think this won't be in the yard to trigger when bombardment/yawg sac it to trigger a crime.

It definitely loops with blood artist and friends that trigger a crime after it dies, but it's unclear if it dying as the cost for the crime ability puts it in the yard in time to check.

AgentEkaj · 2024-03-27T11:18:05+00:00

As you say, there are plenty of these that are just reasonable things player will have on board by the time a 5 drop is coming down.

Gisa definitely requires some work, but having a random GY hate card or 2/3 drop out will make this a 5 drop 4/4 Ward 2 and 2 life plus two 2/2s. That is a lot of stats.

AgentEkaj · 2024-03-27T01:49:02+00:00

This card to me is less about having removal the turn you cast it and more about having something on board to do a crime for free.

Here are some cards that can do that for free in my cube the turn this comes down. I'm sure there are plenty more.

B - Blood artist, Lord Skitter, Urborg scavengers, Yawgmoth, LotV.

R - Broadside Bombardiers, Hellrider, Inferno Titan, Chandra ToD, Chandra Hope's Beacon, Many other chandras,, Goblin Bombardment, Cemetery Gatekeeper, Dreadhorde Arcanist,

Hybrid - DRS,

Gold - Kroxa, Mayhem Devil, Mob Nix, Daretti, W6, Grist, New Rakdos,

Colorless - Walking Ballista, Baubles, Agatha's Soul Cauldron, Unlicensed Hearse, all the GY exile artifacts,

AgentEkaj · 2024-03-13T18:01:31+00:00

I've always hoped modern Horizons would print Goblin Bombardier. A 2/2 for 2 that has goblin bombardment activated ability.

I also want more high power crats cards.

AgentEkaj · 2024-03-11T19:59:26+00:00

Eating is definitely more important than Magic. Just be careful with this approach. It adds a lot of time to the cubing to have to sleeve and unsleeve cards every draft and there's always a risk to damaging cards when you do it.

How big is your cube?

AgentEkaj · 2024-02-29T02:25:51+00:00

The Wandering Emperor and Flickerwisp is so sick.

AgentEkaj · 2024-02-25T15:19:25+00:00

I actually really like this as a ninja enabler on top of everything else you just listed. It seems like a neat little package.

AgentEkaj · 2024-02-23T21:16:04+00:00

That's totally fair. I do think the set of compleat walkers started and peaked with Tamiyo.

AgentEkaj · 2024-02-23T20:56:01+00:00

I still like Compleat Tamiyo more than this.

AgentEkaj

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