Sunday, December 16, 2012

Tribal Commander Cube: Odyssey Kamigawa and Innistrad Blocks

I am continuing my scan of Modern Constructed blocks. Now that I am done scanning Mirrodin, I am moving on to Kamigawa. There are some very strong opinions against and for this block, although everyone does agree it is relatively under-powered when compared to the block preceding it, Mirrodin, and to the block following it, Ravnica.

The cards I get from Kamigawa will likely have lots of commanders, making a scan most fun if I don't drop too many bombs in this cube, and if I keep to one of each card. When I look at the top 12 tribes, this is what I find.


Together, these three blocks have great representation in these twelve tribes. When I look at the color and tribe combinations most commonly found, this is what I find.



There is plenty of fun to be had assembling this cube. Humans and Spirits are by far the largest tribes. I will try to complement the other tribes with cards from pretty much any set. The inclusion of the Odyssey block will make this my first foray into the old format. By design, this is a Legacy cube, and if I decide to make proxies of the cards that are beyond my wallet, then it is a Vintage cube.


This cube crosses many areas I am interested in exploring:

1. It continues my scan of the Modern Constructed format.
2. It should also have enough cards for casual Vintage, Legacy, and even Standard builds.
3. It is a commander-friendly cube.
4. It is a "twelve tribes" cube. This means that I will aim for a good coverage of the ten tribes I have selected. Humans and Spirits will do well without my help.
5. Because I do not have plans for Odyssey and Kamigawa blocks outside of this build, any other tribe that comes from these blocks will also be in this cube, including multiples of the same card.

Because I am excluding cards with more than one color-except for any that come out of the Odyssey and Kamigawa blocks, this cube is also ideal for mono-colored builds and will therefore not need any dual lands, or any land balancing at all-and if it does I will weasel out of including any mana fixing by calling it a casual build.