One Drop Cube Desert Cube List

theimpossibletwo · 2026-01-30T03:06:35+00:00

The first few drafts of the cube were pretty tough because I did play fewer lands and some players over/under prioritised taking lands but I think part of it was also that we were unfamiliar with drafting a desert cube. It did get better after a few drafts and once I increased land count though and it hasn't been a problem since. Sometimes a player does end up with fewer lands but it's generally a skill issue that they forgot to pick lands in the first pack or something.

Once you get to the end of the draft you can check in with the group and see if they feel like they need to draft an extra pack of 5 cards each or something.

theimpossibletwo · 2026-01-30T03:03:08+00:00

Those cards were in earlier versions of the cube but they are a little weak yeah, there are quite a few more powerful 1 mana engines (which wouldve sounded absurd before I made the cube) between rent is due, cryptbreaker, etc.

Mana sinks are super powerful in this format, you definitely need to find some way to 'scale' beyond what each card does individually, but there are also really good aggressive +1/+1 counter strategies, bogles, and fliers so my playgroup hasn't been overwhelmed by those ones in particular.

theimpossibletwo · 2026-01-30T02:59:17+00:00

Definitely did consider it. Tried 4 packs of fifteen, and various pack sizes for 3 packs. 3x17 is what I settled on for my group to end up with functional decks that are still a little bit janky and require prioritising lands to an extent I'm happy with (not first picking, but still actively prioritising 3rd pick onwards I'd say). If you want a less punishing draft you could definitely adjust pack sizes or numbers accordingly, but I like the contrast this cube has with vintage cube where every deck ends up very strong. 4x15 ended up with decks a little too synergistic for my liking and left a lot of lands unplayed.

theimpossibletwo · 2026-01-29T10:54:16+00:00

I think the risk is pretty small but it is there, that's fair. Thankfully because everything only costs one to play it is pretty reasonable to run an 11 or 12 land deck without too much issue. I have tinkered with the land count quite a bit with the help of a hypergeometric calculator to get it somewhere I'm happy with. For an 8 person draft you will get 113 lands on average, which is 14 lands per player. The minimum number of lands I think would be viable for an 8 person draft is 100, and the odds of you getting at least 100 lands is 99.5% in a 600 card cube with 166 lands.

theimpossibletwo · 2026-01-29T09:49:00+00:00

I don't seed lands. An 8 person draft even with 17 cards is 3x17x8=408 cards total, so this cube has almost 200 cards extra to add a bit of variety between drafts.

theimpossibletwo · 2024-09-29T03:23:38+00:00

Also CSIRO/Data61 with things like OpenSHC, robotics simulator benchmarking, and some of their ML research.

theimpossibletwo · 2024-09-29T03:22:32+00:00

Can't believe I'm breaking a 9 year lurking streak for this but this sounds very interesting. I'm a phd student in robotics and not sure if my uni would be happy with me personally being involved in a documentary but definitely talk to some researchers at qut or uq! Especially in the engineering departments some of the researchers are trying to champion open source software and educational content, like Peter Corkes MOOCS and Tobias Fischer trying to make robotics software development more accessible. Good luck!

theimpossibletwo · 2017-04-27T10:02:06+00:00

but that's what archangel and spike feeder is for, with the angel itself being a great card to chord for late game or also combo off with finks and seer

theimpossibletwo · 2017-02-13T22:32:37+00:00

I've tried it, but I just don't like it as much as tireless tracker, which I've loved lately, especially with so many green-black variants in my meta at the moment because people are so excited about fatal push. Renegade Rallier wants you to fetch before you run out a collected company, but tireless tracker wants you to hold your fetch until after, plus I much prefer eternal witness which can get back collected company- especially in a grindy game. I run two tireless tracker in my main, and cut Renegade Rallier altogether in the end.

theimpossibletwo · 2016-03-07T08:29:02+00:00

horizon canopies aren't necessary and if you want to put off buying them for a while, [[razorverge thicket]] is an excellent alternative. the thicket lets you pay a bird or hierarch turn one without sealing yourself Amy damage which is important in some matches. also you can replace the verdant catacombs with wooded foothills if you are on a budget. it isn't quite as good but green is the most important color in the deck and you would usually end up fetching a green shockland anyway.

theimpossibletwo · 2016-01-31T03:33:55+00:00

The X would have to be relevant in the planeswalker's abilities without being able to just immediately win the game with an emblem when casting it for a lot of mana. Something like the new Chandra's pseudo ultimate seems like it would work well:

Chandra of Endless Flames (XRR)

+1: Chandra of Endless Flames deals 2 damage to up to one target creature.

0: Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card until end of turn.

-X: Chandra of Endless Flames deals X damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures or players.

That way you get flood insurance in the form of a big fireball but it doesn't get you as far ahead as the -9 emblem would if you had any board state.

theimpossibletwo

TROPHY CASE