u/mikez4nder

We always talk about the cards we love to cube with. I’ve literally built entire additional cubes so that [[Riftwing Cloudskate]], [[Living Death]] and [[Opposition]] still have homes and still get play or that amazing new cards like [[Xu-Ifit]] and [[Vesuvan Drifter]] thay aren’t quite there in my Vintage Cube get the runout they deserve.

What cards do you love that you aren’t cubing with? Why not? Here are a few of mine:

By a country mile, number one is [[Phyrexian Dreadnought]]. I absolutely love this thing, and would be playing it in Legacy and Premodern if normal people weren’t priced out of the coolest formats because of $700 duals or $300 Dreadnoughts themselves.

In cube it’s just tough to pull off when you only have one of each combo piece. Additionally, several of the pieces, like the stifle effect creatures or things like [[Slip Out the Back]] just aren’t very good unless you’re playing specifically Dreadnought.

One thing I will say is that trying and failing spectacularly with the Dreadnought package did result in a couple cards playing so well that they became forever cards while Dreadnought did not. I will once again die on the hill that [[Stifle]] belongs in powered cubes, and it’s a forever card in mine. Similarly, [[Dress Down]] has managed to stick around even though Dreadnought has been gone for years.

But a one mana 12/12 with a gazillion clunky ways to cheat it in? That’s a big yes in the fun department, but it doesn’t really hold up with the power creep of modern mtg.

Next up is my favorite land in all of MTG, which is somehow not in any of my cubes despite me owning literally dozens. The OG Future Sight version of [[River of Tears]] is absolute peak MTG design, and I ran it in my Vintage Cube for years until I finally came around on the Surveil lands and ran out of space.

I rave a lot about unconditionally untapped lands, and I really wish they’d give me the rest of this cycle. I’d play all of them.

When I finally consolidate all of my cubes into one cube that’s just everything I love, River of Tears will be there.

Finally, I have a beautifully creased [[Gilded Drake]] sitting here that I simply don’t know what to do with. I can’t find a home for it in any format I play. Giving the opponent a 3/3 flier is fine in cEDH, but even in Christmas Land where you’re swapping it for Atraxa or Archon, it presents a pretty significant clock if they deal with what you stole. I wish there was a power level it worked at. Anyone having success with the OG thief?

What cards do you love that are homeless in your cube life?

Four legged destroyer of Magic card piles and appendages for attention.

We recently got in a full pod with The B Team, my mid-powered cube that aims to be a retirement home for cards that no longer cut it in Vintage Cube, mixed up with a ton of modern limited bombs that didnt quite make it. Decks were great, everyone had a blast, but due to a tiny quirk in the pairings caused by a player leaving before the last round then coming back due to inclement weather, we had one 3-0 but 2 0-3 decks.

Normally I don’t tell people which decks had which records, but it will be hard to talk about it without it being incredibly obvious which deck was 3-0, so I won’t pretend. I started on P1P1 [[Goblin Welder]], got Engineer a couple picks later, and managed to have no one to my right in red or artifacts.

One of my friends, a phenomenal player and someone whose opinions i value quite highly, is absolutely adamant that Welder doesn’t belong at this power level even though the previous player who built a Welder deck went 1-2.

I very much want to cube with Welder. It’s such a fun card and I’ve been doing stupid things with it since 1999. It’s just a tough sell for the current iteration of Vintage Cube imo. The ceiling is really high, much higher than most other one drops, but the floor is subterranean and a lot of moving parts have to converge to hit that ceiling.

I think an environment like this is perfect for Welder. Still dies to everything and the payoffs outside the goofy infinite i drafted aren’t nearly as high. It’s not like I’m Welding out Portal to Phyrexia every turn or anything like I would be in powered cube. I don’t think every 3-0 deck is a problem, unless the same deck is 3-0 every week.

The other card that has come up in the “Is this supposed to be in the Vintage Cube” department is [[Raph and Mikey, Troublemakers]]. The attack trigger is bonkers and it’s really good in a lot of the cheaty archetypes that are on the struggling side atm, like Oath of Druids, and it’s an awesome plan B in decks like Sneak attack.

I expected the cube to be a home for cards trending downwards, but it’s cool when a card earns a promotion.

What would y’all do with my beloved Welder?

And which decks would you want to play in this cube?

What are your favorite cards that you DON’T cube with?

The B Team full pod draft report: Can we talk about Goblin Welder?