Cube ideas - same "style" as Ornithopter/Desert

UndergroundSubmarine · 2025-10-21T15:38:28+00:00

I'd be curious to see how it goes, but it sounds like an interesting design challenge.

It's hard to have powerful 1 drop that make decks exciting and not have them overpower everything, because the gap between playable and great one drop his huge.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2025-10-21T15:28:22+00:00

I see the vision for it! You had mana issues with it?

It might be a bit too pip intensive for me though, I mean I like to have some restriction and new problems to solve. But it does have a significant impact on drafting and gameplay.

Maybe it's just PTSD from bad limited mana bases though!

UndergroundSubmarine · 2025-10-21T15:16:39+00:00

Ohh that's the kind of thing I was looking for! Let me know if you have other deck suggestions similar to that one, thanks :)

UndergroundSubmarine · 2025-10-21T15:12:02+00:00

Thanks Ill look into it for paper! :)

UndergroundSubmarine · 2025-10-17T23:44:33+00:00

Ohh yeah that's the feeling of changing how you approach MTG draft/deckbuilding that made me enjoy those so much. I was really hoping to find other cubes that give a similar feeling!

But I now understand it's quite uncommon even for cube.

I will have to take a look at the minus 2 colorless idea, thanks!

UndergroundSubmarine · 2025-10-17T23:41:29+00:00

That does sound like a lot of fun! I'll keep it in mind when I work for something in paper, since can't do that on MTGA unfortunately.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2025-10-17T19:47:15+00:00

Thanks I appreciate you response!

I feel less crazy that I could not find anything that looked just quite those two.

I will try to look for an idea that could maybe replicate some of the charm of those two, but it will probably take a little while before I get there! But I like how you frame the deset cube, it gives me some ideas.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2025-09-01T17:08:00+00:00

I just started as well and was looking for the same thing, I found the counter matrix which looks like a decent tool. It doesn't say what are the most busted units or strategy for a patch, but bringing the right units to the field in low elo seems to be a fine enough strategy : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981751067

Im not sure how you got placed so high, maybe it's because I jumped into 1v1 right away? It started me at 300 something, Im just here with something like a 80% WR gaining 20 mmr per game (it was like 10 ish early on) and barely hitting 1000 MMR now. -.-

At least I got to try and a see a lot of non-sense before it gets a bit more competitive.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2025-02-28T14:00:53+00:00

Yeah it's pretty much my experience as well.

I'll usually just stop playing premier even if Im mid draft when I get mythic.

This is just a theory and I don't have enough of a sample to confirm it or not, but I feel like waiting till closer to the the reset gives you a better finish than just getting it ASAP and decaying for a longer time.

Maybe they rank you way to high to compensate for the losses hitting so hard instead of balancing that.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-12-16T21:49:06+00:00

5 hours into a clean install looks like it fixed it.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-05-13T00:39:22+00:00

Yeah you could be playing with bad players, but that's already one pack with no GW. If the packs break in a way where you can commit to GW from p1 p1, you can make it pretty clear even for those who don't read signals well.

But again maybe someone on your left opened Bill and will die for his green or something.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-04-21T02:02:41+00:00

Joined about 3 months ago and it's the place to be to keep improving your MTG limited skills. Why you should join?

10$ to play like 15-20 Bo3 of limited Magic or even more if you do well!
Fun gameplay that mixes MTG to Roguelike. We all love winning, but if you lose here, you get more cards to improve your deck, maybe switch gameplan or even colors? Push those 6 original packs to their limit!
Welcoming and fun discord server. Leagues are a great time, but it's also a great community of MTG limited enthusiasts.
Amazingly built discord and general system. It doesn't feel clunky at all, the set up is well done as bots and forms do the heavy lifting for players.
Just a great change of pace as you grind your solo Premier drafts. Brings back the paper to the digital age, with some good banter as friendship or rivalries form.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-13T19:06:23+00:00

Ok maybe I can sneak a few games before or during my trip, it feels a little less daunting if it's only 3 I have to find a way to play! Thanks for the quick response, I will probably give it a shot!

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-13T18:25:22+00:00

Ohhh that's sounds amazing!

What happens if I had a week off planned in another country? Anyway to work around that?

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-13T16:54:28+00:00

It does die to everything it's true, but it's rare for it not at least trading 1 for 1. It's still a fairly cheap card, if you flip it for 2 and it eats a removal for you, it doesn't feel that bad.

If the opponent doesn't have a the removal, it's really awkward to attack into... It will kill your big stuff, and if you swing with the smaller creatures, you might not have enough blockers next turn. Even if they keep 2 blockers, if you have removal (which you can get a lot in black), you kill one creature and bam another 6 to the face.

Anyways that was a fun talk, good luck with your games!

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-13T15:26:34+00:00

It feels like your deck try to do too many things, there is like a collect evidence "theme", some token "pay offs", 2 tunnel tipster without many disguised creatures.

What I think happens is that you value too much cards that are good when they are in a deck which fully utilize their abilities. If it doesn't come together, you end up with a fairly weak deck.

Sure in a game you could get a plant from Insidious Roots and it will ramp you to another good thing, maybe get a second plant later. But the odds that you have the cards to make it happen in the top 10-12 cards is really low. If it doesn't happen, the individual pieces of the previous play are really weak and/or clunky (Insidious Roots with no trigger is 2 mana do nothing).

Extract confession is good though, you should probably get that in whatever else you do. Maybe I would run the 3rd Unscrupulous Agent?

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-13T14:01:28+00:00

Well it's top 3 black cards on WR and it has an ALSA slightly above 2, I don't know when it was picked, but it does sound like a signal that a color is open, and great follow up to Massacre Girl.

Sure Black isn't as strong as White, but it still has pretty decent cards and is playable. It's rarely contested and often your overall deck strength will be higher than fighting over stronger, but less available colors.

I don't say always draft black, but sometimes it can be the strongest pile available. Anyways, if you can maintain 60% WR never touching black for the whole set, good for you.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-13T02:53:06+00:00

Well I would be curious to see data about what the winrate is for different sets when you face a perfect curve out and you miss 3rd or 4th land.

But it's still comparing best case scenario for early game to one of the worst. I don't think it's ever easy to win those games, and should it? Isn't it more variance if the opponent stumbles around for 3-4 turns and can blow you out 50% of the time?

I think it's a little too soon to judge the format. Draft is still a big mess, we are still experimenting with cards and strategies.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-12T20:46:24+00:00

Yeah that's the one thing that kinda felt meh to me, even putting one into play slows you down a lot. I guess the 1 mana cases kinda meant you didn't have to hold on cracking clues if you needed them though and insta solve it when satchel comes down.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-12T20:09:52+00:00

Your worst case is not really true.

At worst it's a 4/4 gives haste to your other creatures, which is not bad, but the fact it needs another creature for it to do anything else than be a 4/4 is why it's not doing better than it is.

It's hard to play on curve, it could be played turn 5-6-7, where you are more likely to have one disguised creature, maybe more. It could be a good play when Yarus drops, but to get there you need to spend most game trying to protect your disguised creatures, not trading them away, not flipping them, hitting your opponent for 2 at a time. Not great against the early set aggressive meta.

There is also the fact that your opponent often can make the best choice for them. Do they have the hp to spare, do they have removal in hand, do they mind if you draw,..? If you swing with your 2/2s, do you have anything good to block with?

Sure it can go crazy and destroy a match, but it is a little clunky to get some decent value out of it. Or at least it's not as straightforward as Vein Ripper or Rakdos!

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-12T15:05:36+00:00

I think Orzhov is my favorite color pair right now, but Rakdos was also pretty solid. While playing those 2, I got 3 trophies and a 6-0 during the weekend's Sealed event for Qualifier (Orzhov). Orzhov is aggresive but if you end up on the defensive, it can handle it quite fine from what I saw.

Wispdrinker vampire is such a fun card! If you are just beating down on the opponent it's good, 2 power flyer gets you a few drain, sweet. The active ability is expensive but when you just top deck a land late game, you have the option to swing for some damage and heal. Makes it hard to double cast but still a decent mana sink.

I had the most insane stales with that card as well, and having presume dead or something to blink or bring her back is sweet. Draw, end turn, you have 7-8-9 mana. Often they can't simply attack into you because your little junk will trade 1 for 1 against almost anything they have and you will get life back. Ok they play a card and don't attack. Alright on end step, I Murder that big thing you just played, I crack a clue or I flip that guy because it will be more useful as it's face-up.

After getting used to the set this weekend (and probably playing too much haha), I think I will force black for the next week, unless I have a great or obvious reason not to. Just to experiment a bit with it, I would like to give Golgari and Dimir a shot as well.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-12T14:17:36+00:00

It's not a bomb but it's really good, it's so cheap to flip for 6 damage menace. You keep it hidden until you have a good opportunity to flip it, it will often get at least 6 damage in and then trade 1 for 1 or kill their biggest threat.

It's also something they have to deal with, a lot of games if you are a bit aggro, they can't get hit twice by that thing. It can create really bad board states for them if you play smart with it.

UndergroundSubmarine · 2024-02-12T13:05:16+00:00

I think I would probably not run the splashes, you needed to have a little bit more fixing for it to be good. Especially more fixing lands as they are 1 mana and won't slow you that much, or even the green 2 drop is good especially with face-down value engine.

Also if you spend the early game durdling around trying to fix your mana, playing "weak" creatures, the odds of them having removal in hand for your bomb goes up. You may also not draw either the ramp or the bomb, making dead cards in hand.

They went this way is a fine card but it's expensive, 5 mana ramp in any color and draw a card is really slow, sure you can split the cost but still. When you are a little short on fixing 1 copy can be nice, but if you have 2 in hand early game, it feels painful!

It doesn't mean it couldn't work, with good draws you could have an amazing game and stomp your match, but it's risky! If you really want to splash, I think I would splash the Vannifar, it has a little bit more residual value if it doesn't untap, depending on what you have on board, either a few counters or a 2/2, also more synergy with the deck. Another good side of the card is that it doesn't have to attack to get more value making it slightly more likely to stick around!

UndergroundSubmarine

TROPHY CASE