Play Magic With Tom LaPille

I just got back from the Pro Tour.  I had a blast despite my poor performance in the actual tournament, which is something I’ll get to in my next entry.  However, I’ve had some requests to talk about Lorwyn for cube, and at the Pro Tour I finally implemented the changes that I had been wanting to make, so I’m going to talk about cube while that is fresh on my mind.

First, my cube grew from 512 to 640 cards, which I’m very happy with.  My colleague Adam Prosak is adamantly opposed to large cubes because of the reduced power level, but I think that I have lost very little card quality in the expansion.  There were a lot of cards that I really liked that I had to cut as more sets were released, and expanding has given me room to add them all back.  I also enjoy the increased variance that having more cards gives, since now you really can’t count on a given card being in a particular draft.  Even at 640 cards, however, I’m already finding more cards that I want to add.  I predict that in six months I’ll have hit 720 or more total cards and it still won’t feel like the card quality will have decreased significantly.

The following is a list of the Lorwyn cards that I added, with a short explanation of why they got in.

• Ajani Goldmane is really awesome for aggressive white decks.  I haven’t seen anyone use the life-related abilities happily, but it’s a Planeswalker so it seems worth trying.
• Austere Command is a really good and versatile wrath effect.  Akroma’s Vengeance is a very high pick because of its ability to deal with incidental enchantments and artifacts, and this card may be better since it can pinpoint your opponent’s permanents but leave your permanents on the table.
• Goldmeadow Harrier is a reasonable beater, and I wanted another white one drop.  I rarely see a morphed Whipcorder, so I suspect this will be okay.
• Oblivion Ring is an incredible card that we will all learn to appreciate fully in time, but it’s essentially a Vindicate or a Chaos Orb.  I take this thing extremely high.
• Cryptic Command is a really good counterspell that sometimes does other things.
• Faerie Trickery is a reasonable counterspell.
• Fathom Trawl draws cards.
• Jace Beleren also draws cards.
• Liliana Vess may not actually be good; I’m not sure yet.  However, it is fun and interesting, so I’m trying it.
• Shriekmaw is absolutely spectacular in every way.  It can be cheap or it can be a two-for-one.  It is deceptively powerful.
• Thoughtsieze is obviously worthy.  I do not yet have one, so I have not made a cut for it in the list, but it’s going in when I find one.
• Garruk Wildspeaker is a squad in a box.  He also defends himself, unlike the other Planeswalkers.  I am confident that this card isn’t going to leave even if Ajani or Liliana turn out not to cut it.
• Brion Stoutarm is more interesting than Boros Guildmage.
• Doran, the Siege Tower is far better than Crime // Punishment in the white-black-green slot.
• Gaddock Teeg is comically better than Watchwolf.

The updated list is in the right hand column of the site, or here.  Some of the other things I added in this update are:

• Black was given a reanimation theme.  I added Corpse Dance, Zombify, Reanimate, Exhume, Dread Return, and Life // Death.  If this is not fun and interesting, I will likely cut Dread Return, Exhume, and Zombify but leave the other cards.
• Green gets to search up and play with lands.  Cards that support this include Life from the Loam, Crop Rotation, and Sylvan Scrying.  I also added Crucible of Worlds.  These cards play well with the Mirage fetchlands and Urza’s Saga cycle lands, which were also added.
• Blue now has morph uncertainty.  I added Fathom Seer, Willbender, Quicksilver Dragon, and Brine Elemental to go with the Vesuvan Shapeshifter that was already present.
• Red’s natural affinity for recklessly killing things is much more represented.  Boom // Bust, Jokulhaups, Molten Disaster, and Aftershock all join Obliterate as ways to kill lots of things no matter the cost.
• There are more fetchlands and cycle lands, as I already mentioned.  These cards play great and make games go smoother.

There are still some issues I have with the selection of cards in my cube.  The biggest one is that there is not a high enough concentration of game-changing artifacts and enchantments that maindecking Naturalize or Disenchant feels correct.  The next time I expand, I’ll be including as many game-changing enchantments as I can find, and hopefully people will start to appreciate the ability to kill them.  Another issue is that I still have a Planar Chaos dragon in one of my three-color gold slots.  The three-color dragons are fun I suppose, but they overly reward players for having tons of colors of mana.  I can’t bring myself to cut Oros the Avenger though, because I would have to cut it for Hide // Seek or Fervent Charge, which are both utterly hideous.  At least now there is only Oros and no others.  Perhaps I should just pretend that Who // What // Where // When // Why is black-red-white and call it a day.

Cube is still my favorite Magic format by a long shot.  I keep having more and more fun with it as it evolves, and I do what I can to help everyone else who plays it with me have more fun as well.  I’ll respond to any questions in the comments to this post as quickly as I can.