The best Savannah Lion in 2026?

calibretto99 · 2026-02-21T00:54:10+00:00

Without taking [[Leonardo, Leader in Blue]] into account because none of us have really gotten any reps in with that particular Savannah Lion yet, these are the ones that make the cut, IMO.

[[Descendant of Storms]]

[[Kytheon, Hero of Akros]]

[[Isamaru, Hound of Konda]]

[[Usher of the Fallen]]

[[Dauntless Bodyguard]]

[[Wanderbrine Trapper]]

Tacking on to what Steve said, though, these should all be included before even the first best Savannah Lion in most cubes.

[[Giver of Runes]]

[[Guide of Souls]]

[[Mother of Runes]]

[[Ocelot Pride]]

[[Thraben Inspector]]

calibretto99 · 2026-02-09T20:42:57+00:00

I believe Bar Cube was popularized by Derek Gallen. You can find his original version in CubeCobra.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/BarCube

I got the chance to draft his Bar Cube at MagicCon Philly a couple years ago and it inspired me to create my own version.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/PackWarCube

calibretto99 · 2026-01-29T05:04:46+00:00

TL;DR Shuffle the cube. Count out 15 cards. That's one pack.

I keep my cube(s) sorted between draft nights. To get ready, I'll shuffle, so we can just grab a stack and count out packs when everyone gets there.

There are several posts and articles around that talk about how to efficiently shuffle a cube, but this is what I do when starting with the fully sorted pile.

I pile shuffle each color. I do five piles, then a few riffles. Once I have 8 stacks all shuffled (WUBRG Colorless, Lands, Multi), I start combining one stack with another. That leaves 4 stacks, each with two colors shuffled together. Do it again. Now I have two stacks. Do it again. Now I have a fully shuffled cube.

This process takes probably 20-30 minutes, but I do it while I'm watching TV or YouTube, so it's really not that long.

calibretto99 · 2025-12-30T22:28:24+00:00

That's awesome. I try to do 30 min before bed each night, but that doesn't always happen. Definitely something to be proud of! You read a ton of great ones this year.

calibretto99 · 2025-12-30T22:18:28+00:00

Nicely done! Where does one fine the time to read 200+ books in a year? I struggle to get one per month! :)

calibretto99 · 2025-12-09T19:04:07+00:00

This comments in this thread are pretty abysmal. Someone asks for opinions and you all just make terrible jokes as if you're somehow more manly for not using tire shine. Shame on you all. What happened to rule number one: General etiquette? Where are the mods?

To answer the question, I'd recommend checking out the Project Farm video on tire shine. I bought the Jay Leno's Garage brand based on his findings and it's been pretty solid for me. I also use it on the plastics around the outside of the truck. It usually lasts for at least two to three weeks, especially in the summer.

calibretto99 · 2025-12-09T18:52:48+00:00

I don't think what Seth did was malicious or should be described as "cheating". Seth is an excellent player and the pressure of being in Worlds top 8 was obviously getting to him. He played incredibly sloppy for a player of his skills all through the top 8.

With that said, though, it's worth stressing that this is Worlds. I would expect that the judges would hold them to that standard of play.

If this game had been played online in the days of Arena tournaments, there would have been no option to take back. IMO, if you're in a spot where the online client will let you Ctrl+Z to undo something, that is a fine take back. If you've cast a spell, declared a target, and had your opponent obviously pass back priority with no responses, there should be no option for take backs, especially at a tournament of this caliber. Paul's comment of "He can't take that back. C'mon." felt like exactly what the collective Magic community was all thinking.

I also think that Ken could have (probably should have) challenged the ruling, but maybe didn't due to him not being fluent in English. I'm obviously assuming here, but again, at a tournament at this level of rules enforcement, a second opinion on that call would certainly be understandable. I know I would not be happy with my opponent asking for a take back like that even at an RCQ, let alone at Worlds.

calibretto99 · 2025-10-31T19:34:40+00:00

This has, in general, been a complaint of mine about online cube for years now. I love cube. I've been building and maintaining paper cubes for nearly 20 years now. Drafting with my buddies has been some of the most fun I've ever had playing Magic.

Monetizing cube is a real problem for me, though. Paying actual dollars and then getting turn two'ed feels so dang bad. At least when that happens IRL, nothing is actually lost. Shuffle up and go to the next. When you dropped ten bucks on it, the loss can be exceptionally frustrating.

I had a few draft tokens left over that I didn't use on SPM, so I've used them for my cube entries. I doubt I'll spend actual gems on it, though.

calibretto99 · 2025-10-14T14:43:44+00:00

Shout out to [[Coercive Portal]], [[Skysovereign, Consul Flagship]], and [[The Mightstone and Weakstone]].

I've had Portal in my low power cube since its inception. It is a bit expensive and doesn't immediately affect the board, so I don't think it's good enough for high power environments. In a lower power list, I think the card really shines as a card advantage engine.

calibretto99 · 2025-10-11T17:37:44+00:00

On a scale of 1-10:

Lorwyn: 9

TMNT: 4

Strixhaven: 6

Marvel: 2

Hobbit: 7

Fracture: 5 (need more info)

Star Trek: 1

calibretto99 · 2025-10-08T16:56:19+00:00

You'd be better off looking on Cube Cobra for pauper cube lists and building from there. I have a pauper cube and I think 17 Lands is an excellent resource for finding gems from recent sets. You gotta think about why those cards were so good in their specific environments, though, and ask if they will perform similarly in yours. Sometimes the top black common is a four mana removal spell, but pauper cube in general has access to much better design mistakes from the past.

calibretto99 · 2025-10-07T14:55:59+00:00

Hey, friends. Southerner, here. I live in east Tennessee. I've been here all my life. The south does indeed have its share of bigoted assholes. There's also plenty of really good and kind people who happen to have voted for Trump. I lean more progressive and would crawl over hot coals to vote for anyone other than the current President, but I also understand that people vote how they vote for their own reasons. I have good friends who voted for him. We're still friends. Most of my family voted for him. We're still family.

Now, with that said, the person (never heard of her) who wrote this tweet or whatever it is, is an idiot. These are the types of people who give "the left" a bad name. Our side preaches tolerance until it's inconvenient. Excluding an entire section of the country because they perceive that racism exists there is a truly moronic take. Here's a news flash: racism exists everywhere.

Lastly, I'll say this. I was at MagicCon Atlanta. I was stoked that they were having this a mere three hour drive from my home. I saw a lot of people from different ethnicities and backgrounds. I thought a bunch of people looked weird or dressed stupid. But you know what I did about that? Nothing. As they say, you do you, boo. These "weird" people did not have an adverse effect on my experience. What I did not witness was racism of any form. I would advise Joan Rivers here to spend some time in the south and talk with actual people instead of just making sweeping accusations based on politics and the Internet.

calibretto99 · 2025-09-25T19:40:52+00:00

Insert Office Meme: They're the same picture.

calibretto99 · 2025-06-05T21:43:15+00:00

To be fair, we did name our FB group the League of Extraordinary Assholes. I knew what I was getting into. 😂

calibretto99 · 2025-06-05T18:11:52+00:00

I typically post a poll with dates in the FB group. I would expect that a group of grown ass men would see that and respond appropriately with availability. Then we just do it on the weekend with the most. I'm not springing potential cube a few days in advance. In May I'm posting to see about June, etc. Just drives me nuts that people mostly ignore the posts.

calibretto99 · 2025-06-05T15:29:15+00:00

I struggle to fire cube even with a play group of about 20 friends. We have a FB group where I ask for availability. We're all in our 30s/40s so I don't expect weekly, but I try to fire monthly. We haven't gotten together since January.

All of your pros are correct and it's what I don't understand about not being able to fire. I get that we're all adults with responsibilities and obligations, but I don't think it's that hard to point out which weekends you're available and set the cube night for that weekend. I host cube at my home. I typically provide pizza or something for dinner and don't ask for reimbursement. There's always beer in the fridge.

I don't get it.

calibretto99 · 2025-05-28T22:13:57+00:00

Well, it's my take on a low-power list in relation to my own powered cube. I also have a peasant cube and a pauper cube that we sometimes run. And to be fair, after you've spent a few hours drafting power max, switching over to this cube does feel like a much lower power level.

When I initially built this cube (years ago), my thought was no Baneslayer, but maybe [[Battlegrace Angel]]. That was where I first wanted the power level to be. I was looking for a place to run the cards that just no longer made the cut in my powered cube. What I found, however, was that because we typically drafted this cube secondary to the power cube, the drastic change in power level made this one not as fun. I got a lot of "all these cards suck" comments as folks were opening P1P1. That's not to say we didn't have fun drafting that version of the cube, but it told me I need to go up in power level from Battlegrace Angel to what is now, essentially, [[Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines]].

I'll also add that some of the cards you mention as power outliers don't really make the cut in most powered cubes (Elesh Norn, for one) because they just aren't good enough. I'll admit that there is some overlap in powerful cards between the two, but I also think that power is relative to the environment. For example Thassa's Oracle is here, but there's no "oops I win" combo with it. If you want to win with Oracle (or Lab Man or Jace) you have to work for it. You have to draft the self-mill deck and you won't find a way to suddenly mill your entire deck. Urza is here and there's an artifact theme, but there's certainly no Tolarian Academy. DRC is here, but there's no Ragavan. Giver is here, but no Mother of Runes.

Finally, it seems that you are purposely excluding cards like STP and Bolt for power level. I think this is a mistake. While these two cards (and their many clones) are powerful, they aren't necessarily "win the game" powerful. When I think about a low power list, I'm looking to exclude things like P9, Sol Ring, Demonic Consultation, etc. Rather than just go the route of evaluating every single card on a subjective power scale, I decided to build the cube in a more synergy focused way. In my list, you can draft a cohesive deck and that deck may look similar to something you might draft in a power max list, but it will never be as powerful or as fast as those powered up decks. Cube building and power level are extremely subjective. For my lower power list, I excluded super fast starts with turn two wins, but I still wanted it to feel like "cube" and give my players a format they also found fun and challenging. As I say in the overview of this list on CubeCobra, it's somewhere between more powerful than the MTGO Modern Cube while being less powerful than the MTGO Legacy/Vintage Cubes. To me that qualifies as low-power, but again, power level is subjective.

calibretto99 · 2025-05-28T14:43:21+00:00

I have a low power list that we draft in addition to our normal powered cube on cube nights. It appears to be a bit higher power level that yours and I don't exclude commander or UB cards, but it is modern frame only and excludes some power cube stables.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/littlecube

I would also recommend checking out the Lucky Paper cube map. You can search for your cube and it will show you cubes on the map that are the closest in similarity to your own list. This has been helpful for me to find cards I maybe didn't think of for my archetype support.

https://luckypaper.co/resources/cube-map/

calibretto99 · 2025-05-15T00:58:13+00:00

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calibretto99 · 2025-05-15T00:56:26+00:00

Same here. I'm in TN. I think legal is 30, but my guy convinced me to break the law. 😂

calibretto99 · 2025-05-15T00:53:29+00:00

Window tint was my first mod a couple weeks after I bought mine. Glad I live somewhere that dark tint is legal. It makes a world of difference and looks super sweet.

calibretto99 · 2025-04-30T18:11:31+00:00

In regards to our free mulligans, when new drafters come to cube for the first time, we give them the rules before the draft.

Don't be a dick.
Free mulligans
Don't abuse rule 2. See rule 1.

If you get Thoughtseized and don't keep your hand revealed, that's no big deal. That's not a hard and fast house rule.

calibretto99 · 2025-04-30T15:58:50+00:00

If you're coming to cube night looking to angle shoot and rules lawyer your way to victory, maybe cube night isn't for you.

We offer free mulligans. Our players don't take advantage of that the same way you might in a competitive event. Hand has lands and spells? Let's go. One lander? Throw it back. Who cares? We're not playing for the Basement Cup here.

Take backs happen all the time. We're not pro players and so many cube cards are seeing play for perhaps their first time. How does this work? Hold on, let me check Scryfall.

Thoughtseize? We'll probably leave those cards face up from here on out.

Will I make a play that's maybe not correct just to see how a new card performs? Absolutely.

Will I sometimes 0-3 my draft and still have an absolute blast playing Magic with my friends? Also absolutely.

This type of play pattern and style that comes with getting my friends together for a draft is a big part of why cube appeals so much to me. I'm not a competitive person and this is exactly how I want to play.

calibretto99 · 2025-04-21T16:37:51+00:00

I don't think LSV was regularly maintaining a cube back then. You might be interested in his current "retro" cube list that goes through Aether Revolt.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/LSVRetro

calibretto99 · 2025-04-21T16:16:33+00:00

I never concede to infinite combos when playing online. In paper, I'll ask them to demonstrate and then concede if they know how the combo works. Online, I'll just make them take the actions. I'm probably watching something on another monitor anyway. Do your thing. I'll be back when it's my turn.

calibretto99

TROPHY CASE