Cube Draft Reports - October 2025

I played so much cube in October. Even not including the cubes I played at California Cube Championships (you can see my writeup of those cubes here), I made it out to all five Wednesday cube nights in October, and we had some unique cubes on offer this month, so let’s get into it! As always, the caveat bullet points:

• I purposely don’t look at cube lists before drafting. The mystery and surprise of it all and having to piece together the puzzle on the spot is one of the main draws of Magic for me, and some of that is spoiled by knowing the shape of what is there in advance. I only really go in knowing what the cube owner says in their pre-draft setup spiel, and any loose memories knocking around from previous drafts.
• These draft reports are first and foremost for me, but format and level of detail about certain aspects are something I’m interested in experimenting with. If you want to hear more about say, my thoughts during the draft or my feelings about XYZ, let me know and I will almost certainly take it into account, even if I don’t seem to actively do anything about it.

Bryan’s 8-Card Wink (October 1, 2025)

It was a smaller pod of 4 this week for an exceptionally unique cube, unique enough we’re switching up the typical format. Bryan’s 8-Card Wink cube is a micro cube where drafting is part of each match and decks are shifting throughout. The format is as such: you and your opponent for the match each get a 15-card pack, and will draft these packs back and forth. This means a few things:

1. You will know what is in (almost) the entire 30-card draft pool for the match by the second pick.
2. The only hidden information is your first pick; the rest of the draft is done face-up to really hammer that home.
3. Your entire draft pool is just 15 cards.

This is also a desert cube, so what lands are in the pool is really important as to what spells can actually be cast. After the draft, the match starts, and players build hidden 8-card hands from their draft pool. Players then play a (mostly) typical best 2 out of 3 match of Magic, with all 8 cards starting in their hand and no losing to decking.^[1]

However, after each game in the match, all cards in both players’ hand and sideboard are revealed. Then, there are bans. The winner of the just-played game must ban one non-land card from the loser’s card pool, and then the loser must ban two non-land cards from the winner’s card pool. The banned cards are removed from the player’s pool and cannot be used when building hands for the rest of the match.

Match 1

My first match, I was trying to wrap my head around the whole format. I first picked Crucible of Worlds because the pack had a lot of sacrifice lands like Crystal Vein and Tinder Farm and I figured I could get some good value off of recurring lands to make a lot of mana. I didn’t see a great target besides Myr Battlesphere, so I also speculated on some other miniature plans: Shrine of Burning Rage as a long-term win con, cheating out Myr Battlesphere with Jhoira of the Ghitu, and some sort of token shenanigans with Mimic Vat, Nesting Dovehawk, and Reef Worm. My deck felt vaguely unfocused by the end of the draft, but I quickly learned having multiple game plans was very good.

Game 1 I assembled a hand of Shrine of Burning Rage, Mimic Vat, Plunder, Kargan Dragonlord, Crucible of Worlds, Firelit Thicket, Crystal Vein, and Tinder Farm. I knew from the draft my opponent had a Reclamation Sage, so I tried to bait it out by ramping into my Crucible of Worlds so I could land Shrine of Burning Rage as a long-term threat. It did, indeed, draw out the Reclamation Sage, but I realized since I had sacked both the Crystal Vein and Firelit Thicket to be able to play both Crucible of Worlds and Kargan Dragonlord on the same turn, and had only brought back the Firelit Thicket before the Crucible of Worlds got blown up, I would only be able to get to three mana to activate the Shrine of Burning Rage or the Mimic Vat by sacking my Tinder Farm, leaving me without anything to do after. Instead, I slowly leveled up my Kargan Dragonlord while my opponent waited for their Giant Dustwasp to come off suspend, then they bounced my Kargan Dragonlord with Quandrix Command and I died thereafter.

My opponent banned my Crucible of Worlds, which made sense, while I banned their Quandrix Command and Reclamation Sage, as those were pretty much the only pieces of interaction in my opponent’s pool. Game 2 I learned from my not-enough-lands mistake and plotted out my turns and what lands I would need, crafting a hand of Jhoira of the Ghitu, Myr Battlesphere, Kargan Dragonlord, Shrine of Burning Rage, Tinder Farm, Firelit Thicket, Thriving Grove, Crystal Vein. Turn 2 Kargan Dragonlord into turn 4 suspending Myr Battlesphere with Jhoira of the Ghitu proved to be too much pressure and inevitability for my opponent to deal with, even with their Elixir of Immortality.

I banned my opponent’s Giant Dustwasp, as it was their only flyer remaining in their pool, and they had no trample or other way to push damage besides through combat. Meawhile, my opponent banned I believe my Shrine of Burning Rage and Myr Battlesphere. I assembed a hand of Nesting Dovehawk, Mimic Vat, Reef Worm, Thriving Grove, Tinder Farm, Tree of Tales, Firelit Thicket, and probably Plunder. I managed to get out Nesting Dovehawk, Mimic Vat, and Reef Worm all at once. My opponent had no win condition besides combat damage, letting me block with Reef Worm and stick it into the Mimic Vat. From there I could pump out tokens Mimic Vat and populate them with Nesting Dovehawk, which was free to swing in the air and was growing in the meanwhile, securing my win.

Match 2

Match 2 my opponent and I agreed I had probably won our match in the draft phase. I first-picked Blackmail because taking away one of my opponent’s very limited cards (and them not knowing I could do it) seemed excellent. Around pick 5 was when I realized there was only one way to make green mana between the two packs in the form of Thornglint Bridge and picked it up. That rendered around 4 cards in the 30 total cards in the pool completely useless to my opponent, who also stated that I kept picking up exactly the cards they wanted right before throughout the draft. That one was less deliberate, but gratifying nonetheless.

Still, our first game of the match was a huge grindfest. I assembled a hand of Blackmail, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, Steel Seraph, Glen Elendra, Archmage, Mishra’s Foundry, Sulfur Vent, Sunken Ruin, and Molten Slagheap. They, as it turned out, had first-picked Bitterblossom, and with Leonin Bola were tapping down all my threats. Still, I had an extremely threat-heavy hand^[2] and balanced chipping in with Mishra’s Foundry and loading Molten Slagheap up with storage counters to eventually cast Steel Seraph^[3]. Having flying blockers in Steel Seraph and Glen Elendra, Archmage definitely proved useful as I was able to chip in just enough damage before stalling out the game until my opponent perished to their own Bitterblossom before they could kill me.

My opponent, rather understandably, banned Blackmail and Steel Seraph, while I, also understandably, banned Bitterblossom. I turned on the aggro plan for game 2, assembling a hand of Thornglint Bridge, Ensoul Artifact, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, Cathar Commando, Mishra’s Foundry, Sunken Ruins, Molten Slagheap, and I believe Pillage. Turn 3 Ensoul Artifact on my indestructible Thornglint Bridge went unsurprisingly crazy. My opponent played a Hangarback Walker for X=1 and suited it up with Leonin Bola on their turn in preparation to try and stall the game out, but a flashed-in Cathar Commando made my opponent just scoop it up, especially given their only other nonland permanent on board was yet another artifact in Shrine of Loyal Legions.

Match 3

There had been chatter about the number and type of lands hampering playables depending on luck of the pack draw^[4], so we were told to throw back packs without at least 3 lands. Luckily it wasn’t a problem, but the lands in my pack consisting of options like Ancient Tomb and Ancient Ziggurat definitely made the thought of casting some spells pretty dicey. From this conversation, and my experience in the last two matches I first picked Thriving Isle, as I found being able to choose a color incredibly valuable to make use of the spells, passing on such cards as Sol Ring and Lurrus of the Dream-Den. This was the pool I definitely felt the sketchiest about all night, having exactly zero clear plan of what I as doing and casting my spells seeming like an incredibly sketchy prospect.

The first game, my hand consistent of Giant Killer, Marang River Prowler, Aether Channeler, Thrun, the Last Troll, Lurrus of the Dream-Den, Thriving Isle, Ancient Tomb, Wooded Bastion, and a vague plan to murder myself with Ancient Tomb to cast my spells. My opponent started off with a Mox Ruby, which was a surprise both as it was clearly their first pick and also I didn’t realize there was power in this cube. They used that and the Sol Ring they had nabbed to ramp into Goldvein Hydra. I picked it off with Chop Down on Giant Killer, but they followed it up by using the treasure to ramp into Bosh, Iron Golem and they were able to just fling it at my face.

I banned their Mox Ruby and Sol Ring, as I knew I would need time before they got to their big threats, whereas they banned my Giant Killer. Given Ancient Tomb was incapable of producing colored mana to give me more options on what spells I could use and was actively detrimental to my life total to boot, I basically set aside all the non-creature spells in my pool to make use of Ancient Ziggurat as fixing and try to race my opponent before they could cast something big, with a hand of Chronomaton, Goblin Welder, Lurrus of the Dream-Den, Marang River Prowler, Aether Channeler, Ancient Ziggurat, Thriving Isle, and Wooded Bastion. The plan to smack in with my small drops proved effective, as I knew the only interaction my opponent had in their pool was a Bontu’s Last Reckoning they couldn’t cast with the lands in their pool. My opponent loaded up a storage land to cast a decently sized Goldvein Hydra, but I bounced it with Aether Channeler and had enough on-board to kill them after.

I banned their Goldvein Hydra to buy me even more time, while they banned my Aether Channeler and my Thrun, the Last Troll. I had no real plan besides swinging in with little guys, though without any interaction the plan was significantly more frail than before. Still I put together a hand of Chronomaton, Goblin Welder, Lurrus of the Dream-Den, Marang River Prowler, Ancient Tomb, Ancient Ziggurat, Thriving Isle, and a Sevinne’s Reclamation I could cast if time’s got rough. My clock was slow, but it was a clock. Fun fact: Bosh, Iron Golem is a legendary creature, even in the original Mirrodin printing where its a “Golem Legend”, and thus Mechanized Production does not work with it. My opponent lamented that they definitely should have enchanted their Silverbluff Bridge instead if they realized, and neither of us wanted to fully do the math on whether that would have outraced my incredibly slowly-ticking clock as my 1/1’s did their job of getting in their and reducing my opponent to 0 life.

I had a blast with this cube; I loved how the bannings forced you to constantly change up your hand throughout the match, and made you consider in deckbuilding if you could win without your best two cards. Figuring out how to cast your spells with the peculiar lands you had access to was also fascinating in small doses.

Value Town (October 8, 2025)

Next up was Welcome to Value Town, a cube, as the name implies, all about generating value. I had missed the debut of this cube last month so was excited to get a chance to play it.

I first picked Grim Lavamancer, and thought while my opponents were likely to build midrange value piles^[5], there were enough 1 and 2 drops in red going around and around for me to build a credible mono-red aggro deck to prey on them.^[6] And so I did, and pretty much all the stuff I wanted wheeled. Let’s go.

My first match was against an Esper deck companioning Lurrus of the Dream-Den^[7]. I ran them over both games; the first I had a lot of aggression early, but they built out their board while I was stuck on three lands before I finally drew my fourth to play Headliner Scarlett and shove through all my creatures, while in the second they got stuck without white mana while I just jammed.

The second match was against a Selesnya counters deck piloted by the cube owner. The first game they mulliganed to five while I dumped my hand. They got to some semblance of a board stall, but I drew Fiery Confluence to close out the game. The second game I kept an extremely sketchy 4-land hand with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer to maybe flip things to do off my opponent’s deck, but my opponent removed it and I drew 5 more of my 16 lands for my troubles as I got beat up by huge creatures. The third match I got them down to 1 life thanks to Screaming Nemesis, but topdecked two lands as they wiped the board and killed me with a very Jacked Rabbit and his compatriots. Earlier that game Feldon, Ronom Excavator had unfortunately exiled both my Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning earlier, so my number of outs was slim, but it was still unfortunate. My opponent in the post-game chat also told me to play Sunbaked Canyon, which I had forgotten was in my sideboard but was definitely correct to try and cycle my way to some action.

My final match was against a Sultai planeswalkers deck. I got 'em dead very quickly in the first game, finishing them off with Ghostfire Slice on their end step into Chain Lightning and Grim Lavamancer on mine for a cool 9 damage. The second game I could not beat the life gain from Qarsi Revenant; I had a Screaming Nemesis but no way to trigger the “can’t gain life” clause until I was already dead on board.^[8] In th third game Shifting Woodland’s tapped clause haunted my opponent as I killed them on my turn 4, before they got up to three mana to play the Qarsi Revenant they showed me in their hand that almost certainly could’ve turned the tide of the game.

The best value you can get is reducing your opponent’s life total to zero. Beep comma beep.

Chaos Museum (October 15, 2025)

Chaos Museum I had heard the owner talk about a fair bit in the weeks prior: it replicates a chaos draft by consisting of a bunch of prebuilt 15-card packs for a variety of different sets in Magic’s history. Packs are roughly color balanced within themselves and there is loose power balance throughout the cube, but there is no overarching synergies between the packs: instead, packs are meant to be emblematic of some of the most fun, iconic, and powerful cards originating from their set.

This definitely held true as I opened my first pack and was faced with all five Lorywn planeswalkers. I admired them for a bit before taking a card I didn’t realize was from Lorwyn: Thoughtseize. I got passed an Adeline, Resplendent Cathar two packs later in the Midnight Hunt pack, and committed to playing it. Pack 2 I picked up a Blade Splicer from the New Phyrexia pack I opened. I was intending to go two-color, but I had grabbed Scattered Groves rom the Amonkhet pack during pack 1 mostly as a cycler but also speculatively for my wheeled Triumph of the Hordes. Back-to-back fetches in Marsh Flats and Windswept Heath from the Zendikar and Onslaught pack definitely swayed me closer to three color, and green’s place was secured by a Gaea’s Anthem from the Planar Chaos pack. I noticed I was a smidgen light on cheap creatures, and needed a way to close out games. This problem wasn’t entirely fixed by pack 3, but I did pick up an Eerie Ultimatum from the Ikoria pack, so new goal: try and cast it.

My first match was against a Jund deck; both games we both mulliganed to 6 and both games I had Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and ran them over. The first game I suited her up with Bonesplitter, and used a Mana Tithe to stop her from dying from Bituminous Blast. The second game Gaea’s Anthem gave all the Human tokens a boost to close out the game while I guarded Adeline, Resplendent Cathar with Vines of Vastwood and Mana Tithe.

My second match was against what I can only describe as a better Orzhov deck, centered around sacrifice. The first game I kept my hand for Thoughtseize and Thraben Inspector was rewarded by plucking Braids, Cabal Minion from my opponent’s hand, but failed to realize I didn’t have double green mana for the Gemrazer and Gaea’s Anthem in my hand. I stumbled on things to do and died to Scrapheap Scrouger and Kitchen Finks beats for my troubles. The second game Braids, Cabal Minion dominated; I had to balance sacrificing my lands and creatuers while my opponent instead repeatedly sacrificed their Scrapheap Scrouger and Kitchen Finks, all while Bygone Bishop was smacking me in the air. When my opponent finally sacrificed Braids, Cabal Minion, they were rewarded by top-decking Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, which was especially bad for me given my only Human board of Thraben Inspector and Blade Splicer^[9]. The Meathook Massacre had also landed at some point during the Braids, Cabal Minion era, so I didn’t have enough life to remotely stabilize, and a Zealous Persecution finished me off both games.

The third match was against an Esper midrange/control flicker deck. I just didn’t have enough creatures to beat in past my opponent’s 3 board wipes, while they were accruing a ton of value from Soulherder, Urza, Lord High Artificer, and Oona, Queen of the Fae. The second game was more promising in terms of my aggression, but I simply had no answer to the flyers produced by Aven Mimeomancer and I lost the race.

The draft of this cube was such a joy. Each pack was such a delight to go through; I was excited not just for my next pick but also to just see what set the next pack was. I love card cycles, and getting to see them all next to each other in the pack and having all the cards be aligned in frame and theme and flavor within a pack was a particular joy you don’t really get in other cubes.^[10] Never got to see Eerie Ultimatum though, which is a loss.

A(n) Cube (October 22, 2025)

This week it was my cube back at the table. I hadn’t touched it since Cali Cube Champs^[11], so was excited to give it another spin before I started properly tinkering with it again. Notably, because I hadn’t touched it, I hadn’t organized it, so there wouldn’t be any pack seeding, as is its normal mode of operations at cube nights, so that would be interesting to try, at least.

After a false start^[12], I slammed Crystalline Giant, my beloved, as my pack 1 pick 1 before picking up a Llanowar Elves pick 2. From there I grabbed all the green ramp and huge 6+ drops. I was wavering between red and blue for a splash color, as a Gruul War Chant and Atalan Jackal package and a Phantasmal Image and Lord of Change package both seemed pretty appealing. However, a Tranquil Landscape leaned me towards the latter. I picked up Animus of Predation pack 2, and was so tempted to remove the Qarsi Revenant I saw pack 3 pick 1 to it, but picked up Quantum Riddler instead. Still, I managed to get flying, menace, lifelink, and haste via other cards; the only keyword I really missed was vigilance.

My first game my opponent was on Boros aggro. They had pretty rough hands both games, mulliganing to 5 and 6 respectively. They had enough pressure to get me down to 1 on the first game, but I managed to get up to 6 mana in time and Frost Titan did a great job stymieing the aggression. Then and Titan of Industry saved me by letting me gain 5 life so I could stabilize at 1 life instead of just being dead. From there, I managed to swing in with my massive creatures for the win before my opponent could draw one of their burn spell outs. The second game I ramped to Frost Titan even faster thanks to Llanowar Elves and my opponent had no way to deal with it, and I won from there.

My second match opponent was on a Sultai reanimator deck. The first game Faerie Artisans blanked all of my big threats; I eventually had to let them get a Quantum Riddler copy to try and draw an answer, but my Lord of Change and Titan of Industry definitely stayed trapped in my hand as I got beat to death in the air. The second game, we traded back and forth until I got to enough mana to overwhelm them with a Titan of Industry that I immediately copied with Phantasmal Image. In the third game I had sided in Kimahri, Valiant Guardian to provide some early blocks and give me something to do, and it, as is often the case with me and sideboarding, turned out to be the best card in my deck. I got it out turn 3 thanks to Llanowar Elves, and I got to copy their Qarsi Revenant, Thief of Sanity, and Grave Titan for a bunch of fun value. I dodged all of their removal and Kimahri, Valiant Guardian ended up with around 6 +1/+1 counters and I was around 25 life from copying Qarsi Revenant by the time I cracked in for the win.

My last match was against a super cool Golgari aristocrats deck. In the first game, a wide board was dumped very quickly with Blade Splicer and Sling-Gang Lieutenant. That combined with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Within Range was approximately a million damage and value that I couldn’t outrace with my Animus of Predation lifelink. The second game I probably should have copied my opponent’s Blade Splicer with my Phantasmal Image, but instead I chose chaos and copied my Crystalline Giant, leading to a hilarious board state where I needed to borrow another phone to keep track of both^[13]. My opponent once again had Yawgmoth, Thran Physician to target and force me to sacrifice my Phantasmal Image copy^[14] and Liliana’s Triumph for the second, so the fun was short-lived. I followed it up with Animus of Predation, but they had Virtus’s Maneuver and then Dance of the Dead to reanimate my Animus of Predation. I was stuck on 5 lands and didn’t have an answer to that regardless, and perished to my own Animus of Predation.^[15]

An excellent time, and a good baseline for what my cube feels like, especially as I now intend to enact some experimental shenanigans. Stay tuned.

Blaster Cube (October 29, 2025)

Rounding out the month was Blaster Cube, a 720 card powered vintage clone of wtwlf123’s Cube. I am not particularly versed in traditional vintage cube, so was interested in getting my teeth stuck into one.

I failed to open the ultra-cracked pack^[16], but felt good picking up Palantir of Orthanc as a flexible card advantage engine. From there I second picked Fauna Shaman and figured I could maybe do some reanimator/creature combo shenanigans, especially with the mill on Palantir of Orthanc. I speculated on some big creatures and other odds and ends, but there wasn’t anything super exciting coming around. By the wheel I figured I needed another plan, and there were some red aggro cards coming around like Ivora, Insatiable Heir, so I started picking up those. From there, I was sort of split between base-red aggro that had to be supplemented by black cards to fill it out, and this big creatures plan, including picking up an Etali, Primal Conquerer. The only reanimation spell I saw was Living Death, which is not quite what I wanted, and I took Griselbrand over it figuring that could go into a cheating-cards-into-play deck, which only materialized in the form of Flash, which does not work with Griselbrand, and Monster Manual, which didn’t quite have the oomph I wanted. By the time I committed to some sort of aggro plan I had exactly enough playables and literally nothing worth anything in my sideboard. I did get to splash for a Psychic Frog, though.

My first match was against a Selesnya splashing red iniative/channel deck, though I saw them mostly as a straight up ramp deck.^[17] In game 1, I cracked in for 10 damage with Slickshot Show-Off on turn 3 thanks to Chromatic Sphere, Firebolting the Spider-Woman, Stunning Savior that had me play the Slickshot Show-Off tapped last turn, and a Monstrous Rage to bring back flashback of old Standard. I only had lands in hand and a Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer that couldn’t get in on the ground after that, but my opponent opted to play Caves of Chaos Adventurer and the initiative gave me the rest of the damage I needed from the Forge and Trap, as they had no way to deal with my flyer.^[18] The second game, I kept a terrible hand with only three drop creatures and 2 lands. I barely scraped my way to three mana via Chromatic Sphere, but my opponent ramped with Avacyn’s Pilgrim into a turn 2 Sentinel of the Nameless City and I could not keep up, especially past the vigilance. Game 3 I curved Grim Lavamancer into Ivora, Insatiable Heir, but my opponent played Titania, Protector of Argoth and sacrificed a bunch of their lands to Zuran Orb, and I could only just about use my damage to draw the game out before my death.

My second match my opponent was a 4-color pile, with a strong artifact bent. Game 1 I started with Urza’s Saga, though I had 2 of my 3 targets in hand already in Skullclamp and Chromatic Sphere. I didn’t draw the Lavaspur Boots before the third counter though, so never yet punished. My opponent killed my Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and Slickshot Show-Off when they were suited up with Skullclamp, so I had a lot of cards to play with. My bevy of 1-drop artifacts also paid off, as my opponent played a Tangle Wire that frankly impacted them more as I could tap my trinkets and they struggled with what lands to tap to make their mana work. My opponent eventually cast Wrath of God, but I had Rampaging Raptor and Monstrous Rage for the last points of damage I needed. The second game I had Searslicer Goblin and Skullclamp to generate some good value, but my opponent used a bunch of talismans to ramp into Wurmcoil Engine. I warped in Nova Hellkite to be able to chip in some damage and offset some of the lifegain, which proved useful when they played Bolas’s Citadel after. They flipped Moat and Wrath of God, bringing them to 7 while leaving behind the Wurms. I top-decked Slickshot Show-Off, which let me fly over the Moat and seal lethal with Chromatic Sphere and Burst Lightning.

Game 3 was against a Naya midrange deck.^[19] The first game I kept my worst hand possibly lifetime: it had 3 red 1-drops, but my only land was Urza’s Saga, and my only way to make red was the Chromatic Sphere. I got a little bailed out by drawing Troll of Khazad-dûm the third turn my Urza’s Saga popped and left me with zero mana, allowing me to grab my Blood Crypt, but given my opponent used Elvish Mystic to turn 3 Minsc and Boo I felt like even a good hand from my deck would have struggled and thus did not feel as bad as I definitely should have. The second game hand proved the opposite of last with 5 lands, but it did have Psychic Frog and both my blue-producing lands to cast it, so I kept and definitely won the game off the back of it. It eventually got blown up by Alpha Deathclaw, but by then I had a Sedgemoor Witch suited up with a Monstrous Role from Monstrous Rage that my opponent couldn’t kill without dying to the Ward trigger, and couldn’t block because they didn’t have another creature, and opted to choose their own death by scooping it up. The last game I had a much more aggressive hand, with Skullclamp to refill it after dumping out my threats. I took three hits from Questing Beast in there, but Slickshot Show-Off let me keep getting in for decent damage in the air, while triggering off of and then getting suited up by Lavaspur Boots. I took a heavy beating down to 1 from a full swing from Questing Beast, Raging Ravine, a buffed Pawpatch Recruit from Springheart Nantuko, and a Pawpatch Recruit copy,^[20] but I had fully tapped out the previous turn to get in enough damage to ensure that I could close the game the next turn with Nova Hellkite and Firebolt, even if my Slickshot Show-Off had been removed, and did just that (but with Slickshot Show-Off overkill).

Game 4 was against a Grixis discard/reanimator deck.^[21] Game 1 they discarded Trumpeting Carnosaur to remove my Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and recycled it for a 2/2 Rogue via Currency Converter. I played Sedgemoor Witch as another threat, but my opponent got in with their Rogue that I didn’t feel like blocking, Time Walked, swung in again, and then cast Living Death to bring back their Trumpeting Carnosaur, which discovered Overload of the Balemurk, and I died real bad. The second game I played really sloppily; I really wanted my Skullclamp early and didn’t think about how playing Urza’s Saga as my first land meant I wouldn’t have mana to make the Construct token. Then my Slickshot Show-Off and Ivora, Insatiable Heir got wiped to Firestorm for X=2; I had played the Swamp in my hand rather than my Blood Crypt with plans to crack the Blood token, but it meant I couldn’t cast Monstrous Rage to protect the former. The Firestorm also left behind a 1-mana Hollow One, which beat me up while I didn’t draw another creature, and eventually died to Hollow One and Trumpeting Carnosaur.

I felt all my packs were annoyingly fair, but that’s just a skill issue I guess. I knew I was probably getting cut on my reanimator/cheat plan, but didn’t process how much it being a 720 cube would impact trying to get those more-specific-but-still-not-2-card combo cards. I wish I would’ve committed to a plan earlier, but eh. I had a good time.

Footnotes