The Cube According to Gatherer, Part 19.5

Hi everybody!  Today’s installment of The Cube According to Gatherer is boring.  No really.  I’m not designing or adding any cards this week.  I’m just making sure the Cube isn’t missing any major mechanics before moving into the final stretch.

So I’m not advertising this article on social media.  There are no pictures, and no jokes.  Well, except for the artwork I chose for today’s featured image.  I chose Pith Driller because it too is boring.

And no, that was not a joke. That was a crime against jokes.

If you don’t care about the crunchy stuff, feel free to skip this page and jump straight to Part 20.  You won’t be missing anything.  For the rest of you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.  😉

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In one of my previous custom sets, I made a checklist of ‘things that need to be in every large expansion’. Not everything on this list needs to be in a set’s design. You could, in theory, make a set without counterspells. But if you do, that’s going to come off as a deliberate choice. If you can provide a reasonable answer for why a particular set doesn’t include counterspells, that’s fine. Maybe this set takes place on plane where everything moves slowly. There are no Instants.

However, ‘I don’t like counterspells’ isn’t a good reason. Other people like them, they help to balance the game, and counters were printed in every block since the game began. Not including them without a proper excuse means you’re either sloppy, tone-deaf to opinions that are yours, and/or don’t understand how game balance works. Any which way, it isn’t a good look.

Admittedly, a cube is not a set.  A cube with no counterspells is perfectly fine, since cubes are intended to mimic the preferences of the person who built it.  But for the sake of making The Cube According to Gatherer feel complete, I want at least one of each of these common mechanics to be represented.

White

Life Gain (if not in Green) – There’s an entire mechanic built around this. We’re good.

Enchantment Removal – Devout Harpist, Aura Shards, and Illumination? from Gatherer.  None of them remove enchantments directly, but the two cards I personally designed do:  Plumage Charm and Tend the Garden.

Creature Removal – Farrel’s Zealot and Just Fate

Pacifism – Gatherer fed me approximately 110 cards so far, but no pacifism variants.  That’s the nature of randomness for you, I guess. I already added Victim to the Elements, though, so we’re covered.

Team boosting – Gatherer missed this too, but I added Due Discipline.  I should probably make that spell stronger.  Especially if it’s the only card of its kind.

Damage Prevention/Redirection/Toughness Boosting – Nothing.  A number of cards that grant +1/+1.  But white is known for its defensive spells and abilities, and I didn’t include any.  I remember thinking about this early on when life gain became a theme.  My thinking at the time was that I should avoid damage prevention to players, since life gain is a theme, and there’s cross-over between the two mechanics.  But toughness boosting and damage prevention to creatures should be present, and they aren’t.  Guess I got one or two cards to design.

Combat Trick – You’ll notice this appears once in each color.  I’m of the opinion that there should always be a chance that creature combat won’t go the way you expect it, even in mono-color decks.  That means that every color needs some sort of trick.  There’s a number of cards that could boost a creature if a condition is met, but those are on the table tricks.  We need surprise instants.  Plumage charm can put a +1/+1 counter on a flying creature, but that’s too restrictive.  I guess I don’t have any of these either.  Makes sense too, since the most common trick in white would be to boost a creature’s toughness, or prevent damage.

Blue

Soft Counter – Martyr of Frost,  Unified Will

Hard Counter – Technically, there’s Undermine.  But I guess there are no mono-blue cards that ‘counter target spell’ without restriction.  Added to the list.

Bounce – Lethemancer returns creatures you control to its owner’s hand.  Xenophobia returns itself to your hand.  And Vedalken Dismisser puts creatures on top of its owner’s library.  Sporadic Vortex acts has an Unsummon mode, but I still feel we could use a more dedicated bounce instant.  Added.

Card Drawing (Card Advantage) – Kingfisher, Sinbad, Stirring Refrain, Train of Thought, Treasure Cruise.  It’s a bit much to be honest, but I didn’t design these cards.  Gatherer fed me all of them.  I’m not counting cycling or cantrips here, except to say that there’s a smattering of those mechanics in this set, but it’s not oppressive.

Card Drawing (Card Quality) – These should also be cards like Opt or Telling Time with a focus on giving you better quality draws instead of more cards in bulk.  Gatherer didn’t give me any, but I designed Research Leader (for occasional scry 1) and Political Attaché… which should probably be improved, but is fine for now.  Hmm… maybe make it a countershaper…

Creature Answer – None from Gatherer, but I supplied Dizzying Glamour, One of Us, and Xenophobia.  Gotta clean up Xenophobia’s wording, but that’s otherwise plenty of answers in blue.

Evasion Granting – Lunar Meddling, Sequestered Gateway, and Sporadic Vortex.  And Twiddle, I suppose?

Combat Trick – Is flashing creatures into play a combat trick?  Let’s say it isn’t for our purposes.  Twiddle seems to be in the same mindspace.  Surprise blockers are nice, but I’d also like to see some stats change mid-combat.  It’s not a high priority, but I’m still adding it.

Black

Soft Creature Kill – Consume Spirit, Knight of Dusk, Liliana of the Veil, Marsh Casualties, Shauku, Endbringer, Pull Under, Byoki-Onna, and What Dreams May Come.  Covered.

Hard Creature Kill – This category is a little stranger, because there’s no straight up Murder going on over here.  Murderous Betrayal and Unsoul both cost you life to use.  But they both kill creatures directly with no option to wiggle out of it, so I guess they belong here.  The same can be said about Spider to the Fly.  It kills anything that attacks, presuming you have enough cards in your library.  Hythonia the Cruel costs a lot, but kills everything but Hythonia.  I’d think of adding a true Hard Kill spell, but with the volume of kill spells in general, that doesn’t seem necessary.

Discard – Liliana of the Veil and Wit’s End, technically.  But this set could sure use a simple Mind Rot.  Added.

Raise Dead – I designed Beset Virtuoso and Charnel Jaunt.  Technically Liliana of the Veil‘s ultimate as well, but that doesn’t count.  A couple other cards use the graveyard as a resource for creating token creatures, and all this together seems like a good place to be for this mechanic.

Card Drawing (if not in Green) – Kami of Phrenic Excess is an unreliable and expensive way to fill this role.  But this category is just to make sure that there is some amount of card drawing outside of Blue, and there is.  Wall of Thorns in Green also provides an inconsistent way to draw creatures.  Considering how much card draw is in Blue, I’m fine letting this sit.

Combat Trick – Often, the soft creature kill will overlap with combat tricks.  But the only thing close to a crossover in this set is Pull Under, which will probably kill the creature outright anyway.  I designed Unearthly Strength, though.  It’s a bit restrictive in that it requires two creatures, and a willingness to sacrifice one of them.  But it’s a trick none the less.

Red

Direct Damage (small) – Spark Spray, Ashenmoor Incendiary, Flamecore Pet

Direct Damage (medium) – Seismic Assault?, Dream Deferred, Twisted Charm, Violent Transformation

Direct Damage (big) – Bosh, Iron Golem?, Heartless Hidetsugu, Inferno, Magmatic Force?, Atmospheric Eruption, Riding the Explosion

The important point here is that there’s some variety among the red direct damage spells, and there is.  A good mix of continuous damage, one-of damage, and game breaking damage.  Nothing in the Shock or Volcanic Hammer range, but that seems negligible.  No X spells either, though Flowstone Blade roughly fills that spot.

Artifact Destruction – Trailblazer Jackal, Twisted Charm, and Wreck the Halls.  Another one wouldn’t hurt, but it isn’t necessary either.

Evasion Granting – Innerferno feels like it grants evasion; with enough mana you can make a creature really powerful, then give it trample.  But not including the direct damage and Act of Treason effects, there aren’t any cards that make it so creatures can’t block.  Added.

Land Destruction (if not in another color) – Red has Twisted Charm.  Green has Ice Storm and Autumn Guide.  I’d like to see more in Green, but we may not have the space for it, and it’s ultimately not that important.

Combat Trick – Battle Alacrity is built to take advantage of combat tricks, but isn’t one itself.  Vulcanic Genesis can provide a pile of surprise blockers.  But no straight tricks.  Added.

Green

Permanents that add mana – Animist’s Awakening, Cartographer?, Sylvan Caryatid, Voyaging Satyr, Cultivator Nursery, and Pull of the Weave.  Plus, while I haven’t been digging through the artifacts for supporting themes, there’s a cycle of five ‘signets’ which seems relevant here.  We’re covered.

Artifact/Enchantment Removal  – Nothing?  Wow.  I guess we need to add a couple Naturalisms.

Life Gain (if not in white) – Yup.  Got that in spades.  Moving on.

Anti-Flying – Just Arachnus Spinner. But that’s okay, because we made Red the anti-flying color of this set.  Canyon Caller works when partnered with Red.  And there’s Skyraker Giant, Atmospheric Eruption, Elemental Arms, and Star-Nosed Creeper

Creature Removal (if not in white and blue) –  There is creature removal in both white and blue, so every two color combination has access to an answer.  Green also has Arachnus Web, Prey Upon, and maybe Willow Satyr, so we’re covered.

Combat Trick – Nature’s Panolpy.  I guess.  We could sure use a good old Giant Growth though.  Adding that to our list.

So I guess these are our needs:

• Damage Prevention/Redirection/Toughness boosting
• White combat trick
• Hard counter
• Straight bounce instant
• Blue combat trick
• Simple discard spell
• Red evasion granting
• Red combat trick
• Naturalize-ish
• Another Naturalize-ish
• Giant Growth-ish

Eleven cards.  There aren’t that many slots left, and a number of mechanics still could use fleshing out, but this set needs more Instants/Sorceries, and this seems reasonable.