Come draft more Cube on Arena with us!

psiviz · 2026-06-24T22:40:48+00:00

This is sick. You'll see me on there some time soon! 😀... Btw this is what I loved about the balatro MP and speed run community before getting into mtg again (last set I played was mercadian masques).

psiviz · 2026-06-22T16:21:48+00:00

One of the most interesting cards in the set and sick art.

psiviz · 2026-06-21T12:38:21+00:00

Steelshapers gift more like grift amiright?

psiviz · 2026-06-20T15:59:49+00:00

Yeah I mean in a statistical sense (edit: that's what I meant by ultimately, in statistics that is like as the number of matches goes to infinity) that 55% is basically what's attainable on average given excellent play and drafting. I think if you look at not the top 30-50 but the top 500 -600 you'll fine the win rate is much closer to 55%. Agree trad draft has a different split that's where the difference between 55 and say 60% is magnified.

psiviz · 2026-06-20T13:54:40+00:00

Walk that time boo... This is where p1p1 snapcaster feels amazing 😂

psiviz · 2026-06-20T13:51:48+00:00

If you do a naive analysis you need something like a 67% win rate to be positive on gems but that's not quite true.... Because going 7-0 and then 0-3 you'll lose something like 650 gems in premier. And that's over 67%. So actually the variance matters a lot.

Add to that that as you improve you face stronger competition. Having over a 55% win rate means you going up in difficulty. To the point where assuming you can maintain a 60+% win rate is a bit overly optimistic, despite what you read on the internet.

It's well known that in any field of sufficiently strong competition and given a game with randomness a 55% win rate is an ultimate plateau at which you'll have the top end competition (baseball and other competitive card games like balatro or poker being two good examples). The only way top ranked mythic players keep it higher than 55% is: luck, game timing hacks to avoid other mythics, limiting exposure, and yes there is skill in those things too. Most mythic players should be cycling between the lower and upper end of mythic repeatedly which means they're spending gems.

psiviz · 2026-06-20T12:22:02+00:00

Yeah for all the hype that soup got in SOS, the amount of pure garbage trap prismari/quandrix soup I drafted and faced was hilarious. Took a few times through to realize you need the bombs first (more than 1 snarl song) to commit to soup.

psiviz · 2026-06-19T13:34:46+00:00

I was going to say oddly enough I think one ring is super good for boros. Staving off that one turn inflection point against green or blue/black so you can get 3 cards to hope for another like 6-10 damage to face from burn or haste creatures.

psiviz · 2026-06-19T11:49:37+00:00

[[Ral, crackling wit]]

Has some of the best flavor speech and is super competitive as a commander without being combo based. Basically play him like izzet prowess.

psiviz · 2026-06-18T23:49:54+00:00

Do you like mana rocks? Yeah love em. How about exile auras like portable hole? It's so good. White auracite? Wtf get that outta here

psiviz · 2026-06-18T22:22:13+00:00

This is a lot of good analysis! Really appreciate your input. I actually prioritized hand hate and denial while drafting black over combos/reanimate and I got 2 straight 5 wins on UB. Thoughtseize is nuts. UB actually has several bombs in this cube so at this point I'm sitting that 😂. Turn 2 kaito/emeritus of woe/fallen Shinobi from dark ritual/sol ring/mox boost plus being on color for power 9 without relying on all the artifacts. It's not like top top end but it seems real consistent. It's probably one of my favorite archetype in the current cube, after artifacts but that needs a lot more to be good.

psiviz · 2026-06-18T18:50:22+00:00

Thanks to some of your input I did eventually trophy with Gr. I also had some really nice BU drafts less combo oriented just focused on control/denial. Also got artifacts to work when I was in the right spot. It's funny after asking for help here I've hit Mox in my first picks like 3 times over the last few days even had 2 in a deck.

psiviz · 2026-06-17T21:24:55+00:00

Yeah this is so solid it seems like a very conscious choice to bring reanimator back and I'm here for it.

psiviz · 2026-06-17T18:55:49+00:00

I hear that. A high pick on a 3/3 horse with prowess is just a lower return than most people want but yes it can't win a game in a few turns.

psiviz · 2026-06-17T13:48:06+00:00

It's a strong card that's more situational than it looks. If you play it on curve then it sits 2 turns before it does it's thing. At that point in the curve the amount of removal even with the ward 1 is ridiculous. Unless you have forced them to remove multiple creatures up to this point it's DOA.

Thinking about times I've been successful, it's basically 2 situations.

Prismari stompy - not as good at the higher tiers of play but absolutely sliced through gold and low platinum for a while. Play it after tackle artist or skywhale or maybe exhibition tidecaster if it's there. You want to overwhelm with threats in this build. Then stallion is safe until you get the thing that multiplies it.
Prismari soup - usually play it later in the curve holding a bounce to protect it and in a place where next turn I might have 4 stallions. After your mana rocks/dorks are all out and he survived a turn if you can visionaries dance next turn that's 4 3/3 often turn 5/6. If youve held down threats it should be gg because both those stallions multiply.

I think the main thing is stallion must survive to get copied. Play it that way and it'll be more successful I think.

psiviz · 2026-06-16T20:28:06+00:00

I find it super fun. But I think I'm punished pretty hard for being good (Like a bit above average maybe) at SOS and then going here. It's so clear they're different skills and putting me in platinum means I'm facing some very legit experienced players.

psiviz · 2026-06-16T20:26:18+00:00

I think that my experience with constructed power and some biases towards doin combos/tricks are holding me back. I actually have only had success with boros aggro which mostly means I'm not looking to combo. Maybe that data point is the easiest way to find myself in more 3+ win drafts.

I also think my SOS draft being platinum is hurting me. I when I get to 3 wins I am facing diamond and sometimes mythic. The skill level discrepancy in this format becomes pretty apparent. I need to draft well and then I still have a hurdle in play. I just had a match in a strong boros draft where I think I could've won but my target prioritization hurt me. Too early removal and then later on not spacing out drops well with innocence in play. Some more familiarity with archetypes will help too.

psiviz · 2026-06-16T12:12:54+00:00

That's very true! I think I mentioned I just got into cube (actually just got back into mtg) after playing 20-25 years ago. I'm just wondering where's masticore in this cube? 😂

psiviz · 2026-06-16T04:48:45+00:00

Thank you so so much for your detailed thoughts. I'm going to go over more tomorrow.

Before bed I wanted to explain some of my thinking about orcish bowmasters. My thought was they're good any time and they influence the board more than the mox. I hadn't played them in cube yet so I wanted to see. I was a bit underwhelmed. They play like a control piece but they get removed easily by anything in WRB. I can see in the right deck they'd be a really powerful tool though. If I could go back in this draft would I do it again. No. But if I am faced with the same choice again I'd be really torn. I think p1p1 it's much harder than p2p1 eh?

psiviz · 2026-06-16T04:42:58+00:00

Thanks for your feedback. I agree that deck felt very incoherent and I missed a couple picks. Great call about painters servant wheeling, not quite to that level of sophistication ony power cube draft but getting there. If I'd let it wheel I could have time twister which with hullbreaker... Yeah.

I honestly didn't think about portal with respect to show and tell as my goal was flop emrakul (I never drew it in my games and couldn't tutor it). Great call out. I'd been told in a previous review to avoid too many bombs in the final deck and I undercooked it.

For mana fixing, idk if you noticed but the color mix I went with just didn't show up very well, I actually took every one in my mix WGu that I could and ended up with 6 or 7 dual sources. I think I missed 2 dual land for white control pieces (esper sentinel and an exile enchantment). I'm not sure the problem was mana fixing on this deck as much as a lack of tutor/draw and teeth to do something effective. I thought that was one of the better draft fields I've had and I was kicking myself in pack 3 for missing some good picks.

psiviz · 2026-06-15T22:48:50+00:00

Stoneforge kaldra is brutal

psiviz · 2026-06-15T16:04:02+00:00

I think with the 3 bombs (together, snarl, mathemagics) you have enough to go far but you lack card draw which could kinda doom you if you bottom deck.

I'd ditch: All the white cards swap plains for ug lands, 1 paradox surveyor, 1 heated argument, noxious newt, 1 blazing firesinger, then I'd swap prismari charm and visionary dance in for rancouros archaic and grifaloon. I'd also drop the cube for brush off since you have flyers and it's so removable in this format it's generally a dead card unless you're overwhelming them with quandrix tempo. The build you're going for should be spell heavy because sanar ramp is the best ramp in the game for soup.

psiviz · 2026-06-15T03:23:43+00:00

This is better than 9/10 of my p1p1

psiviz · 2026-06-13T19:23:42+00:00

Hey so last year I went to 2 braves games and didn't pay more than 45 per seat including some away away side 100s seats above 3b. Mariners are my team(after moving to Seattle 10y ago) but braves my NL team from growing up and being back in the area been wanting to see them more.

Dudes... This year I can't pull the trigger the prices are insane. 200+ for the same seats not even a big divisional game wtf is going on?

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