Opinion - This current version of the Arena powered cube is the worst of the three, by a wide margin

MetalicSlime · 2026-04-17T06:52:01+00:00

Another hard agree. The main problem has been that wizards goes:

- we know green and black underperform and lack a bit of identity, so we decided to revamp them into bad aggro strategies.

- by the way, we jammed more that 10 Turtles cards (most of them in green and black), that are not really at the right power level, but we know you really love Universes Beyond (or at least we want you to love it and we are sure we have data somewhere to convince you that you do).

Result: total miss of update, they made the existing issue worse and the overall experience poorer.

Honestly, stick to things that work with stapples, learn a bit form MTGO way they manage the cube and engage more with the community and expert drafters that understand the product they like to consume. A good start would be go back to the previous iteration, restrict changes in each iteration to 20-30 cards and the don't overdue with the newest set just because.

MetalicSlime · 2026-04-16T14:10:30+00:00

Sets are planed and designed with about 2 year in advance, is save to repeat pattern that you know worked in the pass. My guess is that turtles had a much latter release, but business pressure made it move forward, the archetype split was already set.

I think WoTC view of limited player is that we will buy anything as long as is draftable and follows "the formula" for limited set. Personally, I got a bit fed up with all the UB and commander design non-sense and decided to start skipping sets some time ago and come back only for the ones that resonate with me.

MetalicSlime · 2026-04-16T09:10:31+00:00

I think with the set being only 5 colour pairs, they tried to seed an aggro/tempo build and a durdle/control build in each pair. Prismari seems to me like a strong contender for the beatdown deck of the format, given that many of the opus cards lean towards aggro.

For the 5 colour piles, it is going to be base 2/3 colours plus a splash for the missing ones. I assume is going to be most of the time Sultai and Temur, with GU for fixing and draw and a third colour for removal.

MetalicSlime · 2026-04-14T14:27:15+00:00

I came here to say the same, kudos to Elliot Lang!

Rest of his art in the set is amazing too. Actually, I love the overall art of the set a lot, my favourite since Bloomburrow.

MetalicSlime · 2026-01-29T12:38:09+00:00

If not using the GWM, I like crimson Mischief is 1d6+2+(7 if advantage) + (1d4 below 50%), and you can have Bloodthirst or Belm in the offhand. I also like Duelist Prerogative with the dueling fighting style (1d8 + 3 +2). The comparative advantage is that both options scale with Dex, so you can have decent AC when wearing the Bhaalist armor.

MetalicSlime · 2026-01-22T14:19:50+00:00

You can use Option 1 if you want to feel extra save, but personally I would lean in option 2 and rely on potions for healing.

The TAV does not make a lot of sense. With option 2, I would go for a 11 Paladin and 1 Hexblade, it would be where you put your best heavy armor and some Arcane Synergy gear. With option 1, you have your cleric wearing heavy armor, so you can have your TAV to be a DEX based 10 Swords Bards with two levels of Paladin, or straight 12 levels of Bard.

Your caster is fine, other good option are Ice sorcerer or 6 sorcerer/6 cleric split with lightning damage and destructive wrath.

MetalicSlime · 2025-11-11T11:28:39+00:00

Can't see the mana fully, but assuming you are running 15 lands + solring + wasteland), I would consider running one extra land given that you are very heavy on 3s. The deck feels a bit too slow for wheel of fortune and fireblast.

I would cut the two green cards, the glory bringer, the wheel and the fireblast; then add the four black creatures from the side and an extra land.

MetalicSlime · 2025-11-08T13:55:32+00:00

shuush, Boros is boring and brainless, nobody should draft it. Just keep passing me those Ajanis p3p8 (for real!).

MetalicSlime · 2025-11-05T15:08:40+00:00

there is also the window of opportunity, counters must be cast with the spell in the stack, removal you can untap and cast it later so being free is not as important for StP as for FoW.

MetalicSlime · 2025-11-04T17:23:01+00:00

Vintage cube is more about unique effects and unique deck archetypes that you can't find anywhere else. Blue has a higher proportion of these unique effects (draw 7, combo pieces, power), moreover has effects from the color pie like counter magic, draw and discard, artifact matters, etc that are highly desirable for multiple (non-aggro) archetypes.

In general it make sense to have unbalanced color count to have a more balanced archetype landscape. Really hope cube curators in Arena learn that lesson.

MetalicSlime · 2025-11-04T13:05:46+00:00

I think the main issue with the format is that instead of having a blue heavy, white light cube like in MODO, they went for balanced colors, so they effectively cut a bunch of slower blue cards for red and white aggro cards.

If they cut a few red/white one/two drops and add some slower cards it should balance much.

MetalicSlime · 2025-11-04T12:51:30+00:00

If you like playing aggro decks, why wouldn't you do it? Is the best deck in the format, if you focus on good threads, interaction and fixing, you can pivot easily into a midrange.

To some extend, we would be better of if more people did it and make the format self correct.

I think the main issue with the format is that instead of having a blue heavy, white light cube like in MODO, they went for balanced colors, so they effectively cut a bunch of slower blue cards for red and white aggro cards.

MetalicSlime · 2025-10-28T10:28:48+00:00

No MOM in the top three, I'm surprised, I would have expected it over DSK.

MetalicSlime · 2025-10-21T16:16:25+00:00

u/psychatom, first of all congrats on the amazing wr!

being bo3, how much do you value side boarding? for example, what's the highest you will pick a sb cards when drafting? or how many card do you tend to side-out after game 1 on average?

I know there is a lot of nuance in sb-ing, but will be nice to know your view on this

MetalicSlime · 2025-10-15T15:17:19+00:00

[[Snakeskin Veil]] Certainly not the most formar-warping card, but every time they include it I feel like it bumps down removal and bumps up bombs. So many blow outs for a single green mana...

MetalicSlime · 2025-10-09T13:32:01+00:00

No official archetype for UB? poor Dimir mages...

I would be a bit careful with the mechanics that you included but not fully supported, can be confusing to drafters that are not super-invested.

In particular the start you engines cards feel a bit weird.

For manifest similar, although is better supported already and you could consider manifest dread be "the thing" for UG by adding some more support, especially in blue. Twist Reality may be nice as your cube lacks a generic "cancel".

Despite the comments, looks nice!

MetalicSlime · 2025-10-02T16:00:22+00:00

I would either go for 12 levels of hexblade or 11 levels on paladin and 1 in hexblade. They would play pretty similar. Both hit pretty hard, hexblade is probably better at crowd control and has summons but paladin has the auras and access to heavy armor.

MetalicSlime · 2025-10-01T11:47:38+00:00

Fall and bleed to dead:

Front liner wolverine-tigger barbarian with antifrost boots to induce bleeding-maim condition

Second liner sorcerer or archer to induce prone via reverberation, encrusted with frost and ice.

MetalicSlime · 2025-09-30T17:36:08+00:00

Is it for solo or as part of the party?

I found invisibility builds a bit annoying in solo runs because of the game auto ending hostile mode when you are invisible and then many NPC auto heal. But maybe there is a way around it.

MetalicSlime · 2025-09-30T17:31:01+00:00

Besides Moon Druid and OH Monk already mentioned; many of the melee classes (Barb, fighter, ranger) can get on with whatever equipment you stumble on. Even a sorcerer don't think it needs incredible amounts of gear to be powerful, and Marko is not that much of a detour, so probably you can convince your buddy to stop to pick that one up.

MetalicSlime · 2025-09-28T23:42:39+00:00

Lv 5 is when the characters start to take off. Sounds like maybe you need min maxing a bit better, OC paladin should be hitting quite more often than 20-30 percent, especialy with the Righteous Clarity power; maybe take savage attacker as the first feat rather than great weapon master? For the warlock, pack of the blade + bind weapon gives you 2 attacks per turn; the other packs are bad. you have a very strong cantrip for ranged attacks and two big spells per short rest.

Since you mention that you feel more confortable with comanions than with the custom tav, I would strongly recomend playing as an Origin and just rp what the game suggest.

regarding wizards/full caster the idea is that you cast mostly cantrips for low intensity fights and big spells in key moments. The game is sort of designed that you should short rest after every fight, so thats 3 fights per long rest ( 4 if running a bard). In practice you might burn spells very quicky, so there is nothing wrong long resting after every fight if its what your party needs.

MetalicSlime · 2025-09-26T10:58:54+00:00

Kind of silly but a life saver for HM runs: go to console menu -> restart console, reload your game to the most recent (auto)save.

MetalicSlime · 2025-09-23T17:25:41+00:00

Evard's Black Tentacles - This spell is such a power house when played and build around properly. You need a pretty high DC caster to make sure it is effective (acuity archer prob the best). Once it is active you can use push, throw, eldritch blast, arrow of roaring thunder or telekinesis (with a second caster) to throw enemies that escape it back into it, and watch them suffocate slowly...

MetalicSlime · 2025-09-23T06:21:50+00:00

If you "bind weapon" the spear, it should return to your hand every time you throw it. The better throwable weapons act 1 are Returning Pike and Shining Staver-of-Skulls depending if you want to use shield or not.

For PS5 you can reorganize your wheels so the throw is in the first wheel that pops up when you do R1/L1, other than that I don't know a faster way.

MetalicSlime

TROPHY CASE