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Legacy Cube

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Like many other players, I love to cube draft. I've had my own cube for a while now and I'm currently on the hunt to finish foiling it out. Many of my Magic finance endeavors lately have been in pursuit of this goal. The full foiling may not happen for a while, but I am getting ever closer to it.

Assembling the necessary 6-8 players at the shop or my house can prove tricky sometimes so I also draft the Magic Online Cube as well. Although I disagree with many card choices in that Cube, it is still lots of fun to draft. In fact, my kids even like it when I draft it so they can look at all the neat cards that are in the packs.

There is a lot of content available out on the web too, so if you don't like Magic Online or you don't have time to play yourself, there are plenty of videos available for you to watch other well known players and how they play. I watch a lot of different videos like this during my breaks at work or in the spare minutes I have throughout the day.

I especially like watching cube drafts because they're fun. My kids like watching cube drafts because they are lots of fun too. My issue with most cube draft videos though, is that all of the pros that do the draft videos all try to draft Constructed control decks. Cube is supposed to be a fun casual, competitive format and control decks are certainly viable, but there are so many cool, powerful things you can do in cube draft other than just a boring old control deck.

Take Jacob Wilson's video recently posted on Channelfireball.com. I like watching Jacob's videos because he makes some interesting choices, but this is they type of thing I'm talking about where he forces himself into a blue controlling deck. In this video I agree with his color selection as well as many of his picks, but when he passed Bitterblossom, my heart sank a little bit. Check it out, here. Even if he didn't go the direction I would have, he still ended up with a cool deck and some interesting games.

What I'm getting at is something more like what Sam Pardee did recently by forcing Mono-Black. It was fun and pretty good too and that's what Cube Draft is all about. Here's Sam's video.

So, what does everyone think? Do you like watching the same type of Cube Draft videos every time the format comes back into rotation online? Would you rather see players drafting more sweet, yet successful archetypes? What do you like to draft when you Cube? Let's start the discussion in the comments below.

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Mike Lanigan

Mike Lanigan is high school math teacher by day and a shop owner by night. His tournament grinding may have slowed a little, but his love of the game has not. Mike's goal is to bring you a mix of perspectives from shop-owner insights to finance tips to metagame shifts and everything in between.

View More By Mike Lanigan

Posted in Cube, Free, MTGO, StrategyTagged

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2 thoughts on “Legacy Cube

  1. I would venture to say they probably draft something close to what they are comfortable playing rather than force something ‘fun’.

    What is more important is the pros are (probably?) grinding with the cube, which leads to the question: Are their standard control decks winning more than ‘fun’ decks.

    Cause it still costs money (Tix) if you don’t post consistent finishes.

    1. I think it is closer for me to say that they are forcing the control decks rather than the other way around. It seems like their attitude is almost control or bust and that’s the part that’s odd to me.

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