The New Era Cube: Theros Block and Magic 2015 Core Set

First pass at the RTR Block + M14 selection:
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-return-to-ravnica.html

I am using my digital collection as a guide. Here is my first pass of the cards I think I want to consider from Theros Block and Magic 2015 Core Set.

First pass at the KTK Block + Origins selection:
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-khans-of-tarkir-block.html

The New Era Cube: Return to Ravnica Block and Magic 2014 Core Set

Link to the previous post for the new era cube:
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube.html

I am using my digital collection as a guide. Here is my first pass of the cards I think I want to consider from Return to Ravnica Block and Magic 2014 Core Set.

First pass at the THS Block + M15 selection:
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-theros-block-and-magic.html

The New Era Cube

I began playing Magic when Dark Ascension was the last issued set. My first pre-release was RTR. I guess I could name this cube the Nostalgia Cube, but that is too narrow a title. The RTR+ Cube sounds boring. Maybe the New Era Cube? Yeah, that's what it is about: a new era of popularity for Magic that began with RTR.

I was thinking about this cube very early this morning on my way to work, and I know it can be a lot of fun. I know the range of sets from which to pull from: from Return to Ravnica to date. RTR was issued October 5, 2012, and it heralded a new era for Magic the Gathering. RTR+ brought in many new players to the game. Today, almost five years later, we can still find booster boxes for RTR at a price similar to that of a newly issued set. The RTR+ range has cheap packs, and I am all for that. The exception is Khans of Tarkir, on account of the fetchlands, but I have already hedged against this issue by buying a booster box of KTK a few months ago.

 I already have most of the cards I would want in this cube, but I love cracking packs too much to make it that unchallenging. It is way more fun, and more challenging, for me to build the cube mostly with new packs, with packs I currently do not own. I think I just heard my wallet utter a deep, painful groan.

First, let me lay down a few ground rules:

1. Size: I should aim for 360 cards.
2. Level of duplication: with 360 slots, only a single copy of each card will do. I will be able to include the best 360 cards issued RTR+.
3. Closed or open? Open, of course. The fun is in bringing new cards in with each set.

But that's only 360 cards, and we are talking about cheap packs. How about several sub-cubes? The fourth rule of the New Era Cube: the cube is composed of multiple sub-cubes.

1. The best 360 cards. There are 24 packs of 15 cards each in this sub-cube. As many as four people can play it as a sealed event, and as many as eight people can draft it. This number of cards is the equivalent of ten constructed decks. I plan to aim for one deck in each Ravnica guild made up with this selection to make sure the card pool is playable, and then I can reshuffle all ten decks in to the packs.
2. Another singleton sub-cube with the next best cards since RTR. The cards that get replaced out of the best 360 cards go here. Size? I don't know yet, but definitely more than 360. This sub-cube can be better balanced for drafting. This cube is arranged in packs of 15 cards each. It can be drafted or played sealed.
3. A sub-cube of constructed decks, aim for two tiers of ten decks each. Tier 1 of ten decks for the most powerful decks possible. Tier 1 here is not ten tournament decks, just the best decks I can build from my current card selection and cheap packs I crack. I don't know how many tiers I will have, and I hope I have at least two (that's twenty decks). I could have a tier just for intro pack decks since these are cheap.
4. A sub-cube with all of the leftover cards. For this sub-cube, I am planning to play these cards in their own format, what I call the Minus Two format, in which every cost gets decreased by two mana-casting, mana abilities; and only cards with 1 or more mana in any cost, after this subtraction, can be in this sub-cube.

There will be cards left over after I have placed all cards in the sub-cubes that they fit in. Those cards will not be in this cube.

It's great that many sets have been issued since RTR:

1. Return to Ravnica (Large)
2, Gatecrash (Large)
3. Dragon's Maze (Small)

4. M14 (Large)

First pass at the RTR Block + M14 selection:
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-return-to-ravnica.html

5. Theros (Large)
6. Born of the Gods (Small)
7. Journey into Nyx (Small)

8. M15 (Large)

First pass at the THS Block + M15 selection:
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-theros-block-and-magic.html

9. Khans of Tarkir (Large)
10. Fate Reforged (Small)
11. Dragons of Tarkir (Large)

12. Origins (Large)

First pass at the KTK Block + Origins selection:
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-khans-of-tarkir-block.html

13. Battle for Zendikar (Large)
14. Oath of the Gatewatch (Small)

15. Shadows over Innistrad (Large)
16. Eldritch Moon (Small)

First pass at the BFZ and SOI blocks selection:
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-battle-for-zendikar.html

17. Kaladesh (Large)
18. Aether Revolt (Small)

First look at the Kaladesh Block selection:
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-kaladesh-block.html

19. Amonkhet (Large)
20. Hour of Devastation (Small)

That's 12 large sets, and 8 small sets. Because large sets count twice, that's the equivalent of 32 small sets, and at 11.25 cards share for a small set, we can make it 10 cards from small sets, and 20 cards from a large set, on average, to have good representation from all of these sets. I am rounding down because additional sets will be added to the cube as they are issued. With the lower number (10 or 20), we are starting off with 320 cards I should be selecting.

I have begun with some early work: a quick look at the cards I have selected and ideas of how to group these cards for play.
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-early-work.html

All right, enough planning, let's build a White/Blue deck.
http://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-new-era-cube-white-blue.html

Standard Amonkhet Golgari -1/-1 Counters

This is the deck I really wanted to play out of this set, and it does not disappoint. I love it. Trial of Ambition is the MVP of this deck. If I get enough of them and by opponent is not able to cast enough creatures, it is gg all the way.

Win 1: Trial of Ambition forcing my opponent to sacrifice.

My opponent had a solid plan. I really like their deck. I am taking a double hit from Trespasser's Curse every time I cast a creature.

Here, my opponent can win from six hits for two life each from Faith of the Devoted, but...

... they don't have enough mana for the last two triggers. I lucked out.

I cast my black cartouche (Cartouche of Ambition) to recover my MVP.

And I force the sacrifice. It wouldn't have mattered here, but still, I love this card.

Win 2: I was able to generate a deathtouch token from Hapatra, stopping my opponent. I also have the only flyer on the board.

MVP time.

Win 3: Forcing your opponent to sacrifice their only creature is great.

I do it again. It's a win from here onwards.

Modern White Black Amonkhet Zombies

This deck works well. It suffers from what all tribal decks suffer: it lives or dies by how many Zombies you have on the board. If I play Miasmic Mummy and discard a Gravecrawler, I lost nothing to that discard.

There wasn't much I could do against this Genesis Wave deck... it happens.

Here are a couple of wins. Here, I was able to land my Zombies at a good clip.

In this win I scored thanks to three Wayward Servants on the board.

Modern Amonkhet Tibalt

I am such a fan of the worst planeswalker in Magic, that every time some new support comes out for the graveyard, I like to give old Tibalt a try. The Embalm and Aftermath cards from Amonkhet are fun, and good in Standard, but way too slow and unbroken for Modern. I first tried a White/Black/Red deck using a reanimator shell.

The deck just had too many things going on. I had a little fun thanks to variance, but most of the time I lost due to how slow the deck can be to go off. I then cut black out, and that was a desperate measure.

The new cards just aren't fast enough for Modern, and maybe dear old Tibalt does still deserve to be the worst planeswalker in Magic. Through variance I beat a Red Deck Wins deck, and that was cool; but this event only happened because I drew all four Path to Exiles early in the game. That was just dumb luck.