Sunday, October 25, 2015

Cubes Matching Blocks Revisited

Some time ago I gave this topic a lot of thought....well, I guess I often give this topic a lot of thought. Cubes are a ton of fun to build, and formats comprised of non-sequential blocks are also a lot of fun.
Here is a link to that earlier post (December 25, 2012).

For Modern:

1. Mirrodin [artifacts]
2. Kamigawa [tribal]
3. Ravnica [multicolored]
4. Time Spiral [mechanics]
5. Lorwyn [tribal]
6. Shadowmoor [multicolored]
7. Shards of Alara [shards]
8. Zendikar [tribal/lands]
9. Scars of Mirrodin [artifacts]
10. Innistrad [tribal]
11. Return to Ravnica [multicolored]
12. Theros [mono-colored/enchantments]
13. Khans of Tarkir [wedges]
14. Battle for Zendikar [tribal/lands]
15. Shadows over Innistrad [tribal]

The periodicity for multicolored is not a surprise. The popularity of gold (and hybrid) cards is a fact.
3 (Ravnica), 6(Shadowmoor), 11(Return to Ravnica): 3 to 6 to 11 projects to 15. BUT Shadows over Innistrad announcement means 15 is tribal.

I am really wanting an artifact block, but it is an uncommon occurrence.
1(Artifacts), 9(Scars of Mirrodin), maybe 17?

Tribal is also very popular.
2(Kamigawa), 5(Lorwyn), 8(Zendikar), 10(Innistrad), 14(Battle for Zendikar), 15(Shadows Over Innistrad), maybe 17?

The best multi-block cubes are aligned along the three major themes: multicolored, tribal, and artifact. The devotion theme of Theros proved very popular (it is one of my favorite themes), but is too recent to come back. The odd blocks are Time Spiral, Shards of Alara, Theros, and Khans of Tarkir. (November 1, 2015 update: WRONG, Shadows over Innistrad is Modern block No. 15): {The next block has a low probability of being tribal, or a revisit . That means we are due most likely for another odd block, with a lower probability of a multicolored block (hybrid would be just super awesome!), or, even less likely, an artifact block.}

Based on the cards I have, I am hoping to mate my Return to Ravnica stash with a future multicolored cube. I did not have a chance to build a good-enough stash of the artifact blocks, and would like to build one with the next artifact block. I want more Myrs! (And I want them to look like the Scars of Mirrodin block Myrs).

And now that Shadows over Innistrad has been announced, I can mate my semi-gigantic stash of the original Innistrad with the return sets.

If we think of each block as either new territory or a revisit, we have:

Mirrodin [Revisit of Antiquities], Kamigawa [New], Ravnica [Revisit of Invasion]
Time Spiral [Revisit of Everything], Lorwyn [New], Shadowmoor [New]
Shards of Alara [New], Zendikar [New], Scars of Mirrodin [Revisit of Mirrodin]
Innistrad [New], Return to Ravnica [Revisit of Ravnica], Theros [New]
Khans of Tarkir [New], Battle for Zendikar [Revisit of Zendikar], Shadows over Innistrad [Revisit of Innistrad]

Revisit-New-Revisit-Revisit-New-New-New-New
Revisit-New-Revisit-New-New
Revisit-Revisit

Time for more New then?