The Designer Cube

[kartheunlucky]

For those unaware, I've begun a new Cube based off an idea that was referred to as Cube:Legacy. Basically, you start with normal cards, draft them, and after drafting, everyone gets to alter them. I took this a step further by starting with one of the worst piles of crap ever assembled and drafted. After a few weeks of playing this thing, it has gotten ridiculously fun.

Each draft, the winner chooses a card and renames it. After being renamed, the card cannot be altered. The card costs 1 less for the person who named it and 1 more for anyone playing it against them.

The list of renamed cards is as follows (with original cardname in parenthesis)

(Striped Bears) Doom Bear - Creature-Bear, 3G, 2/2, Cascade, Flash, Whenever Doom Bear enters the battlefield, return a creature to its owner's hand and draw a card.

(Hunting Drake) Bad Drake, Don't Draft - Creature-Drake, 4U, 2/2, Flying, Whenever Hunting Drake enters the battlefield take another turn after this one, return a creature to its owner's hand and put target red or green creature on top of its owner's library.

(Storm Crow) Polly, Slayer of Worlds - Creature-Bird, 1U, 1/4. Flying, Whenever Polly enters the battlefield, gain 5 life.

(Chromatic Sphere) Soul Ring - Artifact, 1, 1: tap: add 1 mana of any color to your mana pool and draw a card.

(Wayfarer's Bauble) Patrick's Bauble - Artifact, 1, Tap: search your library for a land and put it onto the battlefield.

(Watchdog) Jack, Wardog - Artifact Creature-Hound, 3, 1/2, Jack, Wardog is indestructible. As long as Jack is untapped, all attacking creatures opponents control get -1/-2 until end of turn.

(Bojuka Bog) Billy's Bog of Doom - Land, Enters the battlefield tapped, Tap: add B to your mana pool, Whenever Bojuka Bog enters the battlefield, exile all card from target player's graveyard and all creatures they control get -X/-X where X is the number of cards exiled this way.

(Avalanche) Celestial Fury - Sorcery, X2RR, Destroy X target lands. Split Second. Miracle: XR

(Pacifism) Overwhelming Sadness - Enchantment-Aura, W, Enchant Creature, Whenever this enters the battlefield, return target creature to its owner's hand, Scry 2. Enchanted creature cannot attack or block. Tap, Flip a coin: If you win the flip, deal 1 damage to target creature or player.

(Conjurer's Bauble)Kenny's Bauble - Artifact, 1, Tap: Put up to one target card from your graveyard on top of your library, draw a card.

(Bant Panorama) Pretty Clouds of Death - Land, Tap: add 1 to your mana pool, 1,Tap: Search your library for a Forest, Island, or Plains and put it onto the battlefield.

(Halimar Depths) Breeding Pool? - Land-Forest, Tap: add G or U to your mana pool, Whenever this enters, draw 3 cards

(Brass Man) I'M A BRASS MAN - Artifact Creature, 1, 1/3, Deathtouch, does not untap during your untap step, 1: untap this, Tap, Flip a coin: If you win, deal 1 damage to target creature or player and draw 2 cards.

(Temporal Fissure) Patrick's Bouncy Fun Land Good Time - Sorcery, 4U, Return target permanent to its owner's hand, target player discards a card. Storm, Suspend 3: 0

(Darkslick Drake) Moar Bad Drake - Creature-Drake, 2UU, 2/5, Flying, vigilance, When this is put into a graveyard, draw 2 cards.

(Battlegrowth) RAGE! - Instant, GG, Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature, it gets +X/+0 and trample until end of turn where X is its power, Storm

(Leonin Scimitar) Angel Sword +4 of Smiting, 1, Artifact-Equipment, Whenever this enters, put a 4/4 white flying Angel creature token onto the battlefield, Equip 1, Equipped creature gets +1/+1

(Wirewood Savage) Ramping Elf, Creature-Elf, G, 2/2, Shroud, Whenever a land enters the battlefield, draw a card.

(Phantasmal Terrain) Recurring Daymare, Enchantment-Aura, U, Enchant Land, Enchanted land is the basic land type of your choice, Whenever this enters return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield, T, return this to its owner's hand

(Norwood Ranger) Mrs. Boomstick , Creature-Elf, G, 3/3, Whenever this enters, destroy target creature. Morbid - EOT if a creature died draw a card.
The following cards have been banned:

Ornithopter - Artifact Creature-Construct, 0, 0/2 Flying, Annihilator 1

Memory Lapse - Instant, 1U, counter target spell, scry 10

Shrieking Drake - Creature-Drake, U, 1/1, Flying, Whenever Shrieking Drake enters the battlefield return a creature you control and target creature to their owners' hands.

Storm Seeker - Instant, 1G, Deal 3 damage to target player for each card in their hand, draw a card

Stream of Life - Sorcery, XG, Gain X life, Scry 10

Untamed Wilds - Sorcery, G, Search your library for 2 basic lands and put them onto the battlefield, draw a card. Replicate:G

Mental Note - Instant, U, Scry 10, Put the top2 cards of your library into your graveyard, Draw a card

Twiddle - Instant, u, Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1, tap or untap target land, artifact, or creature, scry 10, draw a card.

Elephant Ambush - Instant, 2GG, Put a 3/3 green Elephant token onto the battlefield, scry 10, Flashback 6GG

Serrated Biskelion - Artifact Creature, 3, 2/5, Tap, put a -1/-1 counter on this and a -3/-3 counter on target creature.

Spellbook - Artifact, 0, You have no maximum hand size. Whenever Spellbook enters, exile target creature then return it and deal 2 damage to target creature or player. Tap: You may cast a spell without paying its mana cost.

Kenny's Bauble (see above)

Kjeldoran Dead - Creature-Skeleton, B, 3/3, When this enters, destroy target creature. Haste, Infect, B:Regenerate

Jangling Automaton - Creature-Construct, 3, 3/2, Infect, When this attacks, tap all creatures opponents control.

Dwarven Trader - Creature-Dwarf, R, 4/1, Whenever this enters the battlefield, gain control of target permanent until end of turn, untap, and it gains haste until end of turn, Discard this: deal 3 damage to target creature or exile target blue permanent.

Selhoff Occultist - Creature-Human Wizard, 2U, 2/2. Whenever this or another creature dies, target player puts their library into their graveyard.

RAGE! - see above

Giant Caterpillar - Creature-Insect, 3G, 3/3, Infect, G: Put a 1/1 flying Butterfly token with infect onto the battlefield.

Ornithopter - Creature-Thopter, 0, 1/3 flying, Hexproof, bloodthirst 5

Skull Catapult - Artifact, 4, Tap: deal 4 damage to target creature or player.

That's the list as of 9/7.

[kartheunlucky]

List updated.

The following events have been triggered as well:

Glistening Oil: Poison invades the cube. Infect package added, some creatures given infect.

End the Tyranny of the Sun - 8 Chosen of Markov added to the Cube.

Flip Out - Several creatures became ninjas

Backdraft - bad cards were made into bad decks

Guns and Ammo - lots of equipment and things that deal with equipment

Graveyard Week - special graveyard based point system

Upcoming event names:

Backdraft!
All Hell Breaks Loose
Zombie Apocalypse
Kill the Cube
Here Be Dragons
Tribal Week
Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun
Kill All the Things!
Two Heads are Better Than One
Kneel Before Zod!
Howl at the Moon
That's Just Gross

[kartheunlucky]

List updated again.

Also, the following people have won a Designer Cube draft:

Me (10)
Jerry (4)
Nathan (2)
Aaron (1)
Billy (1)
Drew (1)
Kenny (1)
Merritt (1)
David (1)

It should be noted that some events did not result in a card being renamed.

[kartheunlucky]

For those who have played this Cube, what strategy advice do you have?

I, for one, suggest finding a couple of kill conditions, at least 3 removal spells and a source of card advantage.

To whit, I will take mana fixers (like Patrick's Bauble, Rampant Growth, and Pretty Clouds of Death) very high in my draft. I think these are more important than a stone-cold bomb win condition because these things seriously thin the deck.

The bombs I like are Giant Caterpillar (still legal after about 4 drafts), Doom Bear, I'M A BRASS MAN, and (especially) Suntouched Myr. All are good in base green, which has some serious removal like Prey Upon and Fog (which is a Plague Wind for those unaware).

The most consistent removal is black, but all the other colors do it well. White has Overwhelming Sadness, Green has Fog, Red has Electrostatic Bolt (has replicate), Blue has Flash Flood. Those are probably the best pieces of removal for each color (though I'm just working on memory here).

Any other thoughts?

[kartheunlucky]

Updated again.

I'm going to start polls for our people playing this cube.

[crabmeat]

(Hunting Drake) Bad Drake, Don't Draft also give you an extra turn. Someone very intelligent and handsome must have altered that card.