So, I think I'll start a draft thread for my drafts. So for my first one, I just went 3-0 in the Holiday Cube after a decent draft turned INSANE in pack 3. Kinda saw it coming though since pack 2 was leaning so hard it basically forced me into the R/W Aggro archetype. I had some noticeably bad picks because I've been beaten by so many combos out of nowhere that mid pack 2 I almost abandoned my plan to throw in Channel.

The Draft:


The Deck:


Round 1: vs U/B Storm.

Round 2: vs W/R/u Tempo.

Round 3: vs U/W Tempo Control.

So, I've decided my draft priority is this:
1) Big Combo Card (Living Death, Channel, etc)
2) Mana Rocks
3) Combo pieces
4) Everything else

I got to practice it a bit this time around. The deck didn't fully come together, but I thought I had enough..round 1 was super lame. Went 2-1.

The Draft:

The Deck:

Abridged version of the matches below since it's late.

Round 1: U/W Control.

Round 2: R/g Aggro.

Round 3: Green Fatties.

Ok, had a strange draft today. Didn't really follow my own rules either. I may post this one as a choose your own draft. Went 2-1, losing the first game to the winner of the event.

The draft:

....uhhh, to be continued...I forgot to screenshot the deck.

Also, does anyone care about the play-by-play? I never get comments on that, but I thought people might be interested. If not, I'll just post a general idea of what I faced. The point of the thread is to generate discussion which helps us all grow as players, so just let me know.

Well, I went 1-2 with what I thought was a sure fire 3-0 deck here. My opponent round 3 seems to think my deck was terrible because it had "0 removal"...what do you think?

The Draft:

The Deck:

Round 1: The "Mirror"! G/R Ramp.

Round 2: 5-color Garbage. Not really worth getting into, I dominated and they had no coherent strategy to their deck. It was fun winning Game 1 with a Sword equipped Cobra attacking on turn 3.

Round 3: R/U Kiki-Combo.

Had a very close 2-1 in the finals.

The Draft:

The Deck:

Round 1: G/R/b Value

Round 2: Mono-Green Ramp

Round 3: W/U/R Control

Commentary on the 7/16 draft (just chose one at random):

p1p1 - Blightsteel Colossus is an ambitious pick. There are plenty of ways to get use out of it in the cube, but it's also rather replaceable in any deck other than Tinker. I like Preordain, Survival of the Fittest, Karn Liberated, Tundra, and Polluted Delta more than it.

p1p2 - Eureka is a better first pick in my mind than Colossus. It's the harder part to get. I've seen this card backfire in a million ways, though, so I'm not that enthusiastic in general. That said, it's the right follow-up to Colossus.

p1p3 - Pretty damn saucy.

p1p4 - I can see an argument for Llanowar Elves over Sower of Temptation. Speeding into one of your hand dumpers is great. But the Elf is way more replaceable, so I agree with this pick.

p1p5 - I love taking the original duals, and this one will allow for you to pick up needed tutors, but I think it's better to snag Wall of Roots or Sheoldred, Whispering One here. Sheoldred is an awesome card to power out since it answers cards that they might power out, too, and gets back some things they might have answered. And Wall is just good ramp, which is usually (a) good for speeding up Eureka and (b) a reasonable pack-plan when cheating isn't available.

p1p6 - Did you know Eureka puts out planeswalkers too? I like the Elves over the Mox, but it's admittedly close.

p1p7 - Greaves is a fun pick. I've never gotten it to work, but I haven't tried much either.

p1p8 - Avenger is a nice hedge card. You can ramp into it or cheat it out. It's much better with Eureka than Show and Tell, since you get to play out all your lands too, stack the triggers properly, and go to town.

p1p9 - Ya, Whisperwood feels right. I'd keep thinking about ramp cards to pair with it.

p1p10 - Sure, be green big stuff. I really, really, REALLY wish you'd taken that Wall of Roots.

p1p11 - Keep on keeping on.

p1p12 - Scrubland might be better just because you're not a goyf deck. It's close.

p1p13-15 - Sure.

p2p1 - This isn't the exact sort of ramp I look for in this sort of deck, but Grim Monolith is probably the correct pick regardless.

p2p2 - Tough one. I value fixing highly, so I'd take Tropical Island over Control Magic and just let bygones be bygones. But I think the reverse is quite defensible.

p2p3 - Your deck doesn't want Sword of Body and Mind. Yes it's the best sword in limited and yes you should get some elves to jam it on, but it's contrary to the whole deck. I like Dimir Signet and Sneak Attack both over it.

p2p4 - Why do you hate fixing so much? Trinket Mage only fetches a bad mox. Hinterland Harbor fixes the main colors of your deck. I also like Solemn Simulacrum more than Mage for this deck.

p2p5 - I think Wake is a reasonable pick. I'm also interested in Gilded Lotus, Opposition, and Iona, Shield of Emeria. Expensive ramp is odd, but interesting and works in a deck geared toward fatties. You don't actually have many fatties, though. You took Colossus and Avenger, and that's it. You want that Show and Eureka to shind. Which is why I like Iona here over Wake. Opposition I also find to be an interesting hedge since you have a few token/manifest/animators already. It's such a good card, especially in GU, so I think it warrants consideration. (And would probably have been my pick.)

p2p6 - Mystic Snake is tempting, but I like taking Search, especially after taking Wake. (Snake would have been in my deck considering my picks.)

p2p7 - Dual lands! You do liek them!

p2p8 - Ya, take more ramp. Funny how you're the green deck and you're taking all of the artifact ramp.

p2p9 - Kiora: good wheel.

p2p10 - Well, if Trop is just gonna table, I guess you just get the best of both worlds. I would have been happy to table Harmonize here, too.

p2p11 - I don't think you're gonna end up with enough artifacts to make Metalworker work consistently. You do have 6 already, so perhaps it works. Maze/Dismember are fine picks to consider taking over it.

p2p12 - If your color combination lands are just gonna table, so be it.

p2p13 - Oh sweet, Iona tabled. That gives you another fatty to lo... WHAT? Lion's Eye Diamond? Why? What for? I don't get it. Iona is a legitimate Show and Tell target!

p2p14-15 - Bleh

p3p1 - I feel like you've neglected fatties, so Kozilek is definitely correct here. That said, Joraga Treespeaker is basically just Sol Ring.

p3p2 - That's a Natural Order. Take the Natural Order. Your whole deck functions around cards that are good with Natural Order. I realize you only have one great target for it, but you have a few reasonable ones still and Augur just looks lackluster in this deck.

p3p3 - I'm a big fan of Frosty. But the Cobra shores up a part of your curve that seems weak, so I agree with it.

p3p4 - Garruk seems fine. He can, for instance, provide tokens for Natural Order. Jokes aside, Mind's Desire should get some consideration since it can free-cast your boom-booms. It's not as reliable, but it's got oomph. I'd also consider Through the Breach. Colossus is kind of good with it.

p3p5 - Command does everything you need.

p3p6 - I'm not exactly sure about your curve, so Elder is probably a fine pick, but I like Deranged Hermit more. Man, that Opposition would be sick.

p3p7 - You might have enough good artifacts to make Tezzeret fine, but man-o-man, Rofellos is just the rampiest of the rampers and you're almost mono-green anyway so just slam it.

p3p8 - Sure, more Garruks.

p3p9 - I've just never cared to have Thrun in my deck. It's rarely impactful. Not really anything to take over it for your deck, but Moat just absolutely ruins everything your deck does and I'd be scared enough to hate it.

p3p10-11 - Sure. Dead packs.

p3p12 - At this point, I'd consider whether you're actually gonna play Wave or not. There's a serious possibility of it, so this pick seems fine, but if not, I'd hate Fiend Hunter since it's the exact sort of card that owns Eureka decks.

p3p12-15 - Sure.



Looking at your final list, I think the deck lacks the focus required to make Show/Eureka decks great. The rest of it is sort of mid-range do-nothing, which doesn't really beat anything.

Yeah, a lot of those choices were tough.
P1P1: I bounced between Karn and Colossus but decided I wanted to be ambitious. Survival got consideration as a combo card, but the fatty targets here were too good.
P1P4: Control Magic is just powerful in cube and since I was giving my opponents free fat, stealing it seemed like a good safety net.
P1P5: This was one of the hardest picks, but reading your comment I realize the weakness of my thought process here. I didn't pick Sdeoldred because I couldn't get Blightsteel into the graveyard and use reanimators in combination with SaT/Eureka. Thats dumb though, because Sheoldred has built in insurance against their free plays. Wall is great, but I wouldnt take it over the other options. I picked the land because I couldn't decide in time.
P1P6: Elves are usually available and a mox is immediate ramp so I thought itd be easier to catch the opponent tapped out.
P1P7: Greaves was a bad pick but I had dreams of a turn 2 attacking Colossus cause I drew Channel...but Channel never came and the deck didn't have room.
P2P2: Same as sower above, saw it as insurance against a SaT/Eureka drop or an earlier fatty of theirs.
P2P3: I debated LONG about this. Sword is just the bombiest of bombs. I didnt want to play against it and I thought it gave another angle with the elves I was still hoping for. I thought about sneak, but with two free plays and not a lot of targets or fixing, i decided to pass it.
P2P4: Dumb pick is dumb. I wanted bodies to use the sword...inexcusable.
P2P5: This was a really hard pack. I admittedly didn't think about cards which were ONLY SaT/Eureka fuel. Opposition was almost picked, but I didnt think I had the right support. If I had the creatures to make it useful, then I already had my fat out and should be doing other stuff. Lotus I wanted sooo bad, but Wake essentially accomplished the same thing for roughly the same cost but was harder to remove and boosted the elves I was...still...hoping...to, uh, get...(kicking myself for not taking some earlier)
P2P6: I thought about Snake, danced between the two a bit. I think snake is right, especially after playing the deck out and losing to walker. Would just be nice to have that counter option.
P2P11: Yeah, temporary insanity. I counted my facts and thought "Well, my curve is garbage, I have enough facts this may be able to fuel out an early Colossus and it can wield the sword"
P2P13: Hi! I'm POSValkir. I really don't know how LED works. I'll take that turn 1 SaT...oh wait...this is a total non-bo with my deck!
P3P2: I only had one mediocre target and very little early greenies so I didnt think SoF to be a good pick, I decided to take the guy who digs for my combo pieces.
P3P6: Hermit got some consideration, but my curve was atrocious and Elder does so much the deck needed.
P3P7: I was worried at this point that I had a very weak deck with little ways to get my ramp and fatties together. I want Rofellos badly, but Tezzeret felt like a built in wincon that still ramped when I needed it to. They both made something out of Sword, but Tezz could make my current rampers into threats. Not sure if it was the right call, but Tezz did great work in the deck.
P3P9: Moat's not in this pack, but I should have snagged Garruk. Moat was in P3P8 and I almost took it, but decided to jam Walkers as a third back up plan

All in all, I waffled a lot in this draft, I got three early picks that screamed "do this" and then focused on protecting the plan rather than the alternate ramp plan. Unfortunately, that gave someone else in the draft the mono-green fat ramp deck and I never really saw the elves/ramp I needed. That made me wonder about secondary options and my deck turned mid-rangy, which is just as bad as you said. Cube is about big flashy combos or small wily warriors.

I'm beginning to suspect that every final in Holiday Cube is one of three decks: Super Efficient Aggro, U/W Control, Green Fatty Dump. I havent seen any other decks in the finals (except my Living Death deck...which lost to U/W control).

Went 2-1, once again losing the first round to the eventual 3-0 deck. This is why I play Swiss rather than single elim...I often face the top deck Round 1.

The Draft:

The deck:

Round 1: U/W Control.

Round 2: G/B Reanimator.

Round 3: U/R Spells.

So I wanted to try something different this draft...then I get P1P1 Bazaar...soooo REANIMATOR!!! That's fine, its my favorite type of deck anyways. I at least got an interesting version of it.

Went 2-1 this round. ONCE AGAIN, losing round 1 to the eventual champ. This was a fun deck though and I really enjoyed playing it.

The Draft:

The deck:

Round 1: 5 Color Control.

Round 2: G/B Reanimator.

Round 3: Storm.

The Heartbeat draft.

p1p1 - Heartbeat just isn't that good. Mostly because you have to play around your opponent getting first crack at it. First picks in Cube are rarely horrible since everything leads to a deck you are choosing to play and all the cards are playable, but this one feels VERY ambitious. I'm excited to see where it goes. I would have taken (and expect most people would) Glen Eldendra Archmage, Yawgmoth's Bargain, or Birthing Pod. (I love Pod, so I probably would have gone that route.)

p1p2 - Haha, talk about nonbos. "Here's extra mana, now let me tap all of your lands." I you were hellbent to stay on target, Tropical Island feels like the pick, but Opposition is the most powerful card in the pack, so it's a good contender. I think it works in any color combination, and there are a lot of neat decks to build around it, so you can really go anywhere as long as it involves creatures.

p1p3 - Rofellos is a fine choice. GU mana-dudes is the most common Opposition deck. Empty the Warrens really interests me in a Opposition deck. You just fire it off for 6 tokens and let them shut down the board.

p1p4 - Pilgrim or Ponder for sure. Opposition rewards taking the mana-dudes, even the off-color ones. Ponder is a less replaceable effect, so I see a lot of argument for it, but I think the Elf is the safer pick.

p1p5 - Taking Pilgrim and getting Wake is so next-level. Wake is just way better than Heartbeat in most decks and it's a fabulous hedge here. You can go into Opposition lock-down or land ramp, or hybrid both!

p1p6 - I like Tooth and Nail. I would have taken Brainstorm or Wooded Foothills here, but I don't think the giant dream is a bad one. I usually like to have threats before doing so, but that's not how things always work out. And it's extra spicy with the high volume of ramp.

p1p7 - That Fyndhorn Elves is tempting, but Garruk is the right call. It combines so, so, so well with Wake, Heartbeat, and Opposition. What a card!

p1p8 - You do have a ton of mana. I sort of want the Harbor here, but it is one of the worse fixers, and you do only have the one blue card. Wave is excellent with the land doublers, so why not, go big. At this point, I'd consider setting Opposition aside and focusing on Heartbeat/Wake. It's still a possible inclusion, but I think the other stuff is more exciting.

p1p9 - I think Awakening Zone is a lot better than it gets credited. For example, in your deck, it's yet another way to ramp and it's also a source of control when combined with Opposition. I like the Savannah pick, but I just wanted to rant about Zone to no one in particular.

p1p10 - Wall of Roots is saucy, but at this point, I'd want most of the ramp creatures you get to find lands. Tropical Island is a great hedge to keep Opposition alive.

p1p11 - Get in there, Nissa. That untap ability. SO. INTENSE. I'd take every X spell you see from here on out. I'm only half joking.

p1p12-15 - Hello, Wall of Blossoms. The rest of you, the bench is that way.

At this point, I'm excited about this deck and am glad you took the Heartbeat against all of my foreboding. From here, I'm looking for good ramp targets, ways to cheat lands into play, and some control elements.

p2p1 - This is one of the least exciting Mox Jets I've ever seen. I don't want that card. It is actively bad in this deck. Elesh Norn is a nice fatty to slam into the deck. I'd also really like Polukranos since it can kill practically anything with what this deck intends on doing.

p2p2 - You have NO IDEA how much I want Prime Time in this deck. Everything it does is perfect. That said, take that Emrakul like you stole it. I haven't read the matches yet and I'm already 98.7% certain you cast it once during this tournament.

p2p3 - Other picks I like are Tundra and Tangle Wire, though I'm not sure I'd even play the latter. I also love Land Tax, but this isn't as good a deck for it as it seems. Command is solid. It always is in decks like this. Always remember that you can choose bounce and shuffle to bury whatever the offending permanent is.

p2p4 - I don't think I've said this yet about the draft, but I think this is a clear mistake. Your deck runs on two things: lands and other permanents. This means that Witness won't tend to have a lot of great options and that Tribe-Elder is practically a bomb. You want to ramp your lands so that you have the edge with Heartbeat/Wake. It's the best sort of ramp for your deck. (All due respect to Rofellos actually being better.)

p2p5 - I'm not sure that Behemoth wins enough the way this deck is built. It really doesn't need that many creatures to become auto-GG, and we're only at P2P5. I'd still probably take Misty Rainforest and look for different fat to ramp/cheat into. Though to be fair, you don't need the fixing that badly either. I just feel like it offers more potential down the line than Behemoth.

p2p6 - It's weird. There's more artifact/enchantment nonsense in this Cube than the Legacy one, so Predator should be good. But those cards also lend to faster games, so Predator has less opportunities to matter, and its slowness really shows. As a result, I'm not the biggest fan. I like Gideon or Mystic over it here.

p2p7 - You don't have enough big green fatties! How could you make this pick! The card has so much potential that it's correct to take when you're the green deck and just hope for a fattie to come along. That said, this is one of those cards that makes me excited that you took Behemoth.

p2p8 - Harmonize is a fine card, totally underrated, and worth taking. HOWEVER... if you're still considering playing blue at all, Time Spiral is an absolute, 100% certifiable BOMB in Heartbeat/Wake, and I'd be EXTREMELY tempted to take it here.

p2p9 - Despite all of my talk during the last draft about Sneak Attack, I'm really interested to just take Polukranos here. Because of the large amount of mana this deck can create, I just want places to dump it all, and this is a nice card that lives in that world. Gives you just the amount of control the deck needed, too.

p2p10 - Sage is better than Trygon in this format, I think.

p2p11 - YES. YES. DOING IT. MUST PLAY BLUE. I completely missed this the last time around. Everything I said about Time Spiral is doubly true for the infinity Illusion.

p2p12 - You are so lucky. Or better at knowing what will table. Or both.

p2p13-15 - Whatever.

Still VERY EXCITED about this deck.

p3p1 - Since you grabbed the Eternal Witness, Gifts Ungiven becomes WAY more interesting than it normally would be. (I think it's already vastly underrated.) But Heirarch is a great pick that fixes all the things you could ever want to fix.

p3p2 - Wow. What a tough pack. I like Library, Avenger, Simulacrum, and Verdant Catacombs, and that's not including fringe takes like Revelation, Meloku, Dig, and Journey. Hmmm... You have 4 shuffle effects already, but 3 of those are Natural Order, Primal Command, and Tooth and Nail. Not exactly efficient ways to abuse the Library. That's another reason to grab fetches early: they make a lot of spells in the Cube better. Anyway, it's still a fine card. Simulacrum is sort of unnecessary. I'd play it if it ended in your pile, but it doesn't need to be prioritized here, even though it works well with Heartbeat/Wake. Catacombs and ilk are getting slim to pick up, and with the bigger blue cards you've added, I want more fixing for the deck. Avenger is a great Natural Order target, but I think I'd grab the land. Man, that pack. Just let me play sealed.

p3p3 - I probably wouldn't have considered Oath because of the deck's high creature total already, but it's certainly at least an insane sideboard card. Delta only fetches one dual right now, but after just taking Library, I'd snag it anyway. You're probably play an Island in the deck, too, so it won't often be dead and will give you that extra shuffle for Library. This does make me want to look over the deck and see if changing to strict Oath is possible. Why does Nissa say "you control"??? GRRR!

p3p4 - Garruk Relentless is just wholly unexciting to me. It's certainly not bad, and if you can get to the tutor effect it's great, but it's been run-of-the-mill for me in decks like this. Search for Tomorrow is an interesting card here. You already want to ramp your actual lands, and the more options you get there, the more Oath becomes playable as the main function of the deck. Of course, Garruk would be fine in an Oath deck too, so whatever. I like Search here, though.

p3p5 - BOP fixes, so good on it. I'd definitely run Opposition again. You've collected enough good tools for it.

p3p6 - Am I crazy for wanting to take Winter Orb? It's just SO GOOD with ramp creatures. Oh well, this deck has other plans. Cobra is way less attractive without all those fetches you passed, but it's still a fine card that does all the things the deck wants to do.

p3p7 - Pattern of Rebirth. I linked it so you could read it. Read that it puts Emrakul onto the battlefield for free. All you have to do is equip it to a Sakura Tribe Elder. Or Garruk the creature its on. Or...

p3p8 - Attach it to Yavimaya Elder. Which I REALLy like in this deck.

p3p9 - Extra tutors are nice, especially with the bombs and bullets you have. Mystic Snake also has my eye, and I probably would have take it.

p3p10 - Hello Avenger! Glad you could make it.

p3p11 - You too, Slime!

p3p12 - See? You just have a much better grasp on what will table.

p3p13-15 - Stuff.

I like this deck. There were some philosophy differences between us, but this thing looks crazy fun to play.

I didn't even think about Rebirth and sac effects...I wondered why it was always mainboarded. Wow. I'm still getting the feel for some of the more powerful cards for sure, but I am getting a good idea of what will table. I'm starting to get another sense I can't quite put my finger on too...something similar to being able to tell the other decks in the format, but slightly more specific. I'm trying to get a grasp on it, because I think it's the key to true hate drafting whatever it is.

I've got a super fun G/R Channel deck going right now. Can't wait to finish this round.

The title of this thread could be misleading. After Tommy Toppdecker went 0-3 with his worst draft ever all he wanted to do was vent it out. he walks by and see's this titles thread and begin typing away his frustrations

@Johhny: Lol, I can see the issue, but I like the title...maybe I'll add an addendum.

@Rush: I took Day because I was thinking I'd jump into U/W control with maybe a jump into Esper for some reanimation/removal. I wanted to try something different. I had a suspicion Reanimator would be tough to pull off and wanted a back up plan. Frost Titan in pack 5 indicated to me that Control was open so I was leaning that route. I also wanted Lingering Souls to table (although I didnt expect it to) and just didnt think it was impactful enough to take over Day.

Ok, last Holiday Cube draft today...probably. Hoping to try out a Storm build, but they look pretty fragile. Kinda just gonna try some crazy stuff this round.

Went 1-2...simple choice cost me round 2 and I was just horribly mismatched round 3.

The Draft:

The deck:


Round 1: 5-color Garbage. Not much to say, they had a random assortment of cards and it couldn't compete with my ramp and fatty dumps.

Round 2: W/R Aggro-facts.

Round 3: U/B/R/G Oath Combo.

Lingering Souls is versatile and strong and matches your early picks perfectly. That's what I don't really get. It's not as though this is a creature dominated format. On top of all this, you drafted Skullclamp. I don't know why you do that if it's not to take one of the best token producers ever.

I am so tired of losing to Bribery...why...in God's name, would they put that card in a format all about powering out huge creatures with broken combos. It's a one card combo that you cast and basically asks "Have they gone off?" If the answer is no, you win. If the answer is yes...you still have a really good shot.

It's dumb and I havent seen it in a single pack I've drafted, yet I've faced it in six games and lost to it every time it's cast....AHHHHH...rant over.

That's both really awful and kinda fantastic.

~SE++

I just don't play large creatures in this format. If I wanna Tinker, I'll get Mindslaver. If I wanna Eureka, I'll play Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. If I wanna reanimate, I'll do so with aggressive creatures.

None of this is actually true, but it can be!

I tried somethin a little different today, I'll post the list in a minute. I went 1-2, but I lost the first round due to horrendous misplays and not fully understanding the interaction I had in the deck. I had a lot of fun putting Pattern of Rebirth on Bloodghast, equipping it with Skullclamp fetching Griselbrand drawing 7, casting Recurring Nightmare, playing a land, rezing ghast, saccing it to Nightmare and bringing back Dragonlord Silumgar to steal the opponents creature (they blinked it though )

It was also fun responding to a Tooth and Nail pulling out Dragonlord Atarka and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth by casting Upheaval then playing a land and using Animate Dead the next turn to rez Griselbrand...they discarded Kozilek to reshuffle though and Channeled it right back out...lucky jerk .