Cragcrown Pathway – One Card a Day

I talked about Pathways and untapped duals in Branchloft Pathway and Untapped Duals – One Card a Day. Aggressive Red/Green decks: RG Beatdown RG Goblins/Sacrifice RG Tokens

Counterspell and… Counterspells – One Card a Day

Draw-go Control was an early strategy in Magic that aimed at countering everything your opponent cast, then using a finisher to close down the game. “Permission” was a synonym of “counterspells” because playing against blue decks meant you needed to ask your opponent for permission to cast anything. Printing support for draw-go control has been

Contagion Clasp – One Card a Day

Contagion Clasp is a payoff-enabler for the bad counters deck, just like Banewhip Punisher – One Card a Day. As a non-creature, its base case is significantly worse, but it is also a payoff for the +1/+1 counters deck, bridging these two archetypes more naturally, and serving a purpose in the WG version of the

Conjurer’s Closet and Payoff Evaluation- One Card a Day

Synergistic cubes come with many complications that non-synergistic cubes don’t have. One of the hardest is how to choose payoffs for drafting certain synergies. Two dimensions in which it’s useful to evaluate payoffs are power curve and resilience. Power Curve Disclaimer: this is a model, an oversimplification. Models are useful in science to simulate the

Confiscate and Stealing in General – One Card a Day

Stealing effects have been around since the beginning with Control Magic. It’s a lot less wordy these days, too. I don’t think Control Magic got enough respect at first because for the first years of Magic, creatures were so bad. I always knew they were good, as an easy two-for-one, but Control Magic rotated out

Clearwater Pathway – One Card a Day

I talked about Pathways and untapped duals in Branchloft Pathway and Untapped Duals – One Card a Day. Blue/Black Aggressive Decks Some decks that would happily run Clearwater Pathway: UB Fliers, so it can open with T1 Siren Stormtamer, T2 Kitesail Freebooter, T3 Mask of Memory + equip or hold U open for Stormtamer UB

Chronomaton – One Card a Day

Chronomaton’s a card that has been on and off the cube for years. Why I keep cutting Chronomaton Chronomaton is kind of a painful card to play. You want to attack with it, but you also want the counter. You want to invest mana in it and grow it, but getting it removed after 3

Chromatic Lantern and Five Color Good Stuff – One Card a Day

Chromatic Lantern is one of the best pieces of fixing available. Mana rocks are in general good fixing, as they can be cast with mana of any color, but Lantern is the ultimate one. It makes your colors perfect. Most midrange decks benefit from a Chromatic Lantern, and it makes clumsy 3-color decks and 2-color

Choking Tethers and the Tappers Archetype – One Card a Day

The most unusual archetype I run in the Elegant Cube is WU Tappers, an archetype that combines forced tapping of opponent’s creatures with cards that benefit from that. Tappers First, let’s look at the tappers, which are the enablers for the deck. Of course, there is today’s featured card, Choking Tethers, an Onslaught card that

Chemister’s Insight and Card Draw – One Card a Day

Raw card draw is part of blue’s identity, and there is no shortage of options. Various power levels, speeds (instant or sorcery), synergies, aggro or control affinities These slots are very flexible, so think about what you’re trying to do, reflect on your cube’s needs and run the cards that create the environment you aim