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2014 Magic Online Holiday Cube Primer

by Matthew Zaabadick // Dec 28, 2014

As someone who is dissatisfied with the Magic Online experience, the one and only thing that really makes me interested in even touching Magic Online is Cube. Cube should be a professional format for paper Magic. It's one of the most skill intensive and fun formats ever made. Each draft is always exciting and different. What makes Cube so great is the numerous amounts of viable archetypes. Almost every type of strategy in Magic's history is represented in the Magic Online Cube, so there is a lot of room for creativity while still being competitive. The Holiday Cube runs until Jan 5, so be sure to check it out before it goes away for another year!

While Holiday Cube is fun and you can do whatever you want, it's even more fun if you win. I have jammed about 15 or so elimination tournaments and got to the finals 10 of them. It's not an amazing accomplishment or anything, but I feel as I have gotten a good feel for what wins in the Cube. The general guideline to remember in Cube — especially for Holiday Cube — is that the most important thing is a cohesive deck. Your deck should follow the same fundamentals as making a Magic deck in any format, which means a good curve, good synergies, a main plan of attack, and some reasonable backup plans.

Another important note is that the Holiday Cube greatly differs from Magic Online's Legacy Cube. The Legacy Cube is mainly a creature format, while the Holiday Cube has a stronger emphasis on combos. This is main factor behind my pick order. While there are still some aggressive and creature decks in the Holiday Cube, the most successful strategies that I've played are usually decks that were light on creatures and heavy on counterspells, planeswalkers, efficiently costed removal and just ridiculously broken cards. I drafted some aggressive/midrange strategies and I found them to be under whelming. The Holiday Cube has too much ramp, which means that your 1- and 2-drops get easily outclassed by stronger creatures. Trying to just curve out usually does not cut it in the Holiday Cube. Making some good dudes.dek might work sometimes, but I have found it to be too inconsistent.

Without further to do, here is my pick order for the Magic Online Holiday Cube. Note that this is the not the holy grail of Magic Online knowledge, but a general guideline for how to prioritize your picks.

The Bombs

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Rule of thumb: always pick moxen over the majority of fair cards. It doesn't matter what you're playing, the moxen will make almost any deck way better since fast mana will help you beat whatever your opponent is doing. Time Walk is kind of like a moxen since getting another turn means getting another land drop. The only cards that I would ever taken over moxen are Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, Sol Ring, Library of Alexandria and Time Walk. When it comes to the order of those cards, I would say it's a tie between Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall, followed by Library of Alexandria, followed by a tie between Time Walk/Sol Ring. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is just Jace; no real explanation needed to why he is a bomb. Force of Will is a lot stronger in the Holiday Cube than Legacy Cube since many people will go all in on a certain combo and Force of Will is a total blowout. Mana Drain is pretty insane with all the high costing things you can power out. The swords are insanely powerful in this Cube since they easily run away with the games. Finally, Mind Twist is just the definition of unfair. Very easy to pick up some quick mana and put the game out of reach.

Best First Picks

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All of these cards are extremely solid first picks. Most of these cards fit into a lot of different decks and have very powerful effects. I was very surprised at how strong Splinter Twin and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker actually are. Not only is a splinter twin deck one of the best decks in the Cube, but splinter twin/Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker are very good without the other combo pieces. Dack Fayden has overperformed for me. In a format with so many artifacts, he becomes a lot stronger than in other Cunes. I've stolen everything from Moxens to Thran Dynamos with him. The Control Magics went from bomb status to just very good in the Holiday Cube. I still pick them highly, but they are weaker than they are in the Legacy Cube since with less creatures running around, they do not do as much work as before.

Great 2nd to 8th Pick Cards

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I consider these cards to be pretty solid, just not cards that I would want to pick over the other higher tier of cards. I would stick some of the dual lands and fetch lands in here too since when it comes to lands, it's not a good idea to pick fetches/duals until you're certain what colors you're in. Disenchant and Nature's Claim do a lot of work in Cube since the format is mainly about Artifacts and Enchantments. I also do like Duress for the same reason. Demonic Tutor is not really a bomb of any sorts, since it's sometimes too slow. Council's Judgment is also surprisingly strong since it kills many bombs like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, True-Name Nemesis, Progenitus, etc. so I like to take it over many other cards. Go for the Throat is probably the best removal spell since it's efficient and kills the majority of creatures outside of bomb artifacts. These cards could even be first picks too if a pack is bad enough. Umezawa's Jitte is weaker in this Cube due to less creatures running around, so while it's still powerful in some match ups, its not always going to be running away with games.

Good cards that I would not take highly, but are welcome additions to most decks

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I would put all other duals, mana dorks (e.g. Arbor Elf or Avacyn's Pilgrim), and signets in this category. Signets are very strong in Cube, but you don't want too many of them since you want to play cards that aren't just mana. The majority of the cards here are either artifact/enchantment removal, midrange threats or hand disruption. I find the Brain Maggot-type cards to be stronger in this Cube for the same reasons I like Duress. As usual, artifact hate is more of a premium in this format. Midrange threats in this format are playable but there are enough of them in the Cube to where they are not really a priority pick. I found Wrath of God effects to be a lot weaker since Aggro is just a weaker and less played archetype in this format. The burn listed here are the better burn spells since they are cheap and efficient for their cost. Arc Trail is a good 2-for-1 that costs only 1-mana and Firebolt is also a cheap 2-for-1. Edric, Spymaster of Trest is worse in this format since UG tempo decks are better in creature heavy formats. Sphinx of the Steel Wind is surprisingly good since it's a Tinker target, can be found with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, works with Mishra's Workshop and cannot be beaten by the Green ramp decks.

Cards that are strong in very specific decks

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These cards are mainly archetype specific. You can't really jam cards like Griselbrand or Mind's Desire into just any deck. These cards can be risky high picks because sometimes they don't pan out. They can be highly rewarding and very fun to play if you can manage to get all the respective pieces for each card's archetype. Some of these cards are acceptable on their own like Gifts Ungiven or Ral Zarek, but you really need them in a certain deck for them to be at their best. Skullclamp, while powerful, needs a really specific deck to make good use out of it. Mishra's Worshop is surprisingly useful in decks with lots of signets. Upheaval is ridiculous in the right deck, as well as Tolarian Academy. Time Vault is pretty insane if you get the right pieces (which is not only Voltaic Key, but also Kiora's Follower and Ral Zarek). Sensei's Divining Top also combos with the same cards as Time Vault, since when you use Sensei's Divining Top, you can untap it while the ability is on the stack to get two cards.

Cards that are playable, but are typically last picks due to being mostly sideboard material or under-powered

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I didn't include any aggro cards like Firedrinker Satyr or Goblin Guide, or man-lands like Mutavault or Treetop village since they are a bit redundant. Black, White and Red are generally filled with tons of aggressive cards outside of the ones above. The man-lands aren't terribly exciting in a format so focused on trying to do broken things. Most planeswalkers are strong in Cube, but from my play experience, the ones here were underwhelming. They are not great due to either not having a strong plus ability, or being too situational. The BG and BW swords are the worst in the cycle and are probably sideboard cards at best. Primeval Titan is generally a 6/6 that doesnt do very much. Primeval Titan is decent with man-lands or is okay for ramping, but there are just more useful cards that you can be casting for 6-mana. I'm not a fan of inefficient removal like Hero's Downfall or Lightning Strike since they are overpriced and don't do enough. They are still playable, but they would be the first to get cut from my final decks. A lot of these cards make decent sideboard cards like Lifebane Zombie or Electrolyze. Some of these cards should probably leave the Cube like the Masticores or Rancor since these cards rarely get played. There is barely anything in Cube that is considered unplayable, but these are cards that will be picked last most of the time or are pseduo-traps that go early but should probably be avoided if your main goal is to win.

Conclusion

Overall, the Holiday Cube is pretty fun but it's a little too broken for my taste. I had some fun playing some of the games, but some of the games were a bit too one sided with all the fast artifact mana. There was a big reduction in the number of counterspells in this Holiday Cube, which makes some games total blowouts. The decks I feel are the best are UWx control, UR tempo/midrange, Gx ramp (pairing with Red or Black for interaction since Mono Green can't deal with threats too easily), UB/GB reanimator and UBx Artifacts. No surprise that the best decks are blue. I think one of the viable Aggro strategies is probably GW Hatebears since cards like Gaddock Teeg and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben make life difficult for some decks. The problem with many non-blue decks in this format is that it's difficult to interact with broken stuff since the best cards are mostly spells and not creatures. If blue is not open, I'd lean more towards a green broken stuff deck.

I hope everyone enjoyed this primer and happy holidays!

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