Every time I play a command it just feels so.... good. Cryptic Command and Primal Command are nuts, I don't even mind shoehorning Profane Command in when I can.

Makes me sad it's probably near impossible to design commands (that is, four different modes, choose 2) that are tournament playable but not utterly format warping.

Rake is still way too high

Built a pool 2 ways to practice for OKC, comments?

I prefer RW. Didn't look the whole pool so not sure if there is something better than the two decks though. Spark Joint has been underwhelming, I'd rather play another creature.

Not sure if Wheel of Fortune should be in deck.

Can't see the details (pic too small) but generally speaking I really like Wheel of Fortune in the red based low curve/burn decks - the more burn you have, the more I like the wheel. A lot of the time I find myself just a few points short of burning someone out, in which case Wheel says "I win."

Don't like the splash at all though... the deck should be winning as fast as possible, so having a dead card in hand because you didn't find and appropriate land is a real killer.

Think I can make out a bonfire and a devil's play in the sideboard? I'd easily consider one or both of those over your green cards. They aren't great given (again) you want to win fast, but at least they'll do *something* for you.

The splash is too good and too free to not play IMO

Do you only draft red burn?

That's a cool cube experience you have for yourself and project onto others...

Someone's got to keep them honest

And yeah, I think this time green splash was good since like ZeeJustin said, it was almost free. I think it is still fairly close, I wouldn't do it with 3 sources I think. There is also the Kird Ape which really is green card. Normally I'd like to play 1 X-spell, but this time I have only 15 lands and couple of things which eat my own lands + bloodbraid. X-spells have been quite good in other decks, but those ones have had 16-17 lands.

Not sure if trolling or serious... red burn is actually a pretty cool cube experience, and quite frankly I'd rather play the guy who is going to try and kill me on turn 6 than the guy who is going to play Vedalken Shackles on turn 3 and then spend the game countering everything while pecking me to death with Faerie Conclave on turn 25.

Usually "mono red sucks" is just code for "my curve starts at 4 and I'm annoyed my opponent won't let me get away with playing Cryptic Command, Visara the Dreadful, Nicol Bolas, and Elspeth, Knight Errant all in the same deck."

Then again, I grew up playing MtG in a time when land destruction cost 3 instead of 5, hand destruction was cheap and random instead of expensive and by choice, and it wasn't a given you could sneak game ending threats under countermagic every game. I guess players these days just take it as a given they'll go ahead and get to cast all the spells in their deck without being disrupted. Meh.

#oldmanrants

This cube has tons of fixing which leads people to play all those durdley decks like you mentioned and aggro will just stomp so many people. Mono-red gets the most hate, but white and green can also run everyone over. I had some bad drafts to start this round of cube trying to go deeper but am 3-0 in my last 3 just drafting efficient single color decks with maybe a small splash.

Favorite play so far was turn 2 rofellos, turn 3 primetime, turn 4 sundering titan, almost like the power cube starts

Any thoughts on which color to choose for the prerelease?

Went black for my first pool. My rares:

Stormbreath Dragon
Hero's Downfall
Ember Swallower
Abhorrent Overlord (foil)
Firedrinker Satyr
Reaper of the Wilds
Hundred-Handed One

That's a pretty damn solid pile of money for a pool without a planeswalker in it imo.

Also just noticed that Stoneshock Giant is an uncommon, not a rare. Is it just me or does that totally break limited? I mean, a 5/4 for 3RR is very fair/solid, then it just has the ability "6RR: You win the game." tacked on?

Giant is confirmed nuts.

You know that feeling when you're racing an opponent, then you cast Feudkiller's Verdict, and the game goes from "close" to "lol winning?"

It's definitely not as good as Verdict, but the white ordeal definitely has the same feel good/"you didn't think this was a race did you?" feeling.

8mana is a ton and getting lashed or bounced in response is really brutal

It's not in the vampire nighthawk in zendikar or opportunity level uncommon

Got the bug just now where MTGO ignores the fact that you've submitted your deck and just puts your entire pool in your "deck" along with some random land in a 130+ card deck.

Added fun though: It also added the "Hero's Path" avatar, so during game 1 I have an avatar in my command zone that I can tap to give a dude haste. :P

Well that is bit bizarre. It is pretty sweet for prereleases though since you get full comp and keep the cards. The wizard customer service is really fast these days, I have often get refunded in few hours.

Yeah, no complaints about a freeroll, just a really weird bug. I actually felt bad since I actually won a few of my game 1s.... giving a guy haste every turn for free is serious business.

A little Theros release queue action. Thoughts?

^^
I just noticed the Cavern Lampad in the sideboard, too. Good thing I'm still playing and can swap it in between games. Probably going in for the 3W tapper, or something else depending on matchup.

I'd probably main board the Ray - it's straight hard removal at instant speed - especially in sealed. It's performed better then Last Breath which is a lot more match-up dependent.

Yeah I'll agree to this.... pretty much the only time I don't end up using the ray is vs. red/black minotaurs.

This is kind of a weird fringe thing, but I'd love to hear Maro (or whoever) talk about Nessian Asp. I'm pretty sure I'd consider it a pretty big design failure, because people are consistently forgetting that the thing has reach. I'm winning games left and right because of it and (for now) actually increase my value assessment of the card because people are so likely to misplay around it.

They should have made it's stats more spider-like (like 3/7 or lower the cost and make it a 2/5) or even just left it as a 4/5 and made it a spider instead of a snake. People just don't assume a 4/5 snake would have reach, especially when the monstrosity ability is the "eye grabbing" part of the card.

Newsflash: most mtg players are bad

About the deck, I think your curve is too top heavy. You need more early game creatures/removal, not God's Willing or Harpys.

Client crashed mid pack 2 of a Theros draft. Literally got it restarted just in time to see a r/g planeswalker in my third pack, with :01 left on the timer. Didn't get it. Bummer.