By now it's surely no secret that my favorite format is Vintage Cube. I think Cube Drafting provides some of the best possible Magic: The Gathering experiences, and it encompasses everything that Magic is supposed to be. It has huge swings, it has great comebacks, it has a tremendous amount of interaction, it rewards skill level, and it lets you play with some of the best and most powerful cards that have ever been printed. It is by far the most quintessential Magic experience I can think of, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried a Vintage Cube Draft before.

All of that being said, there are some definite changes that the Magic Online Vintage Cube could use. These are cards that, time after time, I wonder why they're still in the Cube, either due to redundancy or irrelevance, and sometimes both. As someone who absolutely loves tweaking my own Cube (I don't think that's a euphemism...), I can't help but notice how many small changes might make a big difference.

Let's talk about those changes.

Cards I'd Remove

One thing I not only hate, but have talked about at length, are all the early Black creatures that can't kill Black and artifact creatures. With cards like Ravenous Chupacabra and Noxious Gearhulk bucking that trend, it's time for cards like Boneshredder to just disappear. I cannot tell you how many times I've needed to kill a Baleful Strix, or a Phyrexian Metamorph, or a... you get the picture. These cards are just feel bads. They have one goal as cards, and a lot of times they can't even accomplish that goal. It's like having a creature that can only attack certain players or on certain turns.

Have you ever seen anyone cast a Reveillark? It's just too slow and not nearly good enough for its cost. The Cube also doesn't have any good archetypes to support it really. Control decks don't want it, and the more low-to-the-ground decks want cheaper options. If you're playing 5-drops, you're far more likely to cast lifelinking angels.

No one has ever played Show and Tell and come out ahead. Okay, maybe one dude. Once. But other than that, never. This card is a trap, everyone knows it's a trap. It often tables. No one takes it. Why is it still in the Cube? The Cube should be filled with cards people are excited to take, and we should work to minimize the cards that people only take 1 out of 1,000 times, because maybe they finally drafted the deck it might work in.

Similar to Show and Tell, these cards are just never taken, and never used to successful effect when they are taken. In the Cube, and especially when building 40 card decks, it's simply too difficult to get the required curves necessary to make these cards really shine. There were so many times I picked a Birthing Pod early, or relatively early, only to have a single 5-drop in my deck, or no 4-drops. Just these tiny issues that really make the entire strategy kind of fall apart.

Sure, this does something that Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Wishclaw Talisman, Dark Petition, and Imperial Seal don't do, but who cares? It costs four mana, and Vintage Cube isn't a format where you're going to be leaving versatile cards in your sideboard. Even cards like Disenchant and Ancient Grudge are maindeckable in this format, so I can't imagine the thing you would want to spend four mana to get out of your sideboard, only to likely have to play it on the following turn. Do we really need a sixth tutor in the Cube that's equal to or greater than twice as expensive as all the others?

I actually really like Freyalise as a Magic character. The problem is that this slot used to belong to Vivien Reid, which is just a significantly better five-mana planeswalker. Both of them cost five mana. Both of them can destroy an artifact or an enchant. But Vivien can also destroy a flying creature, which is a huge deal. While Freyalise instantly gives you a 1/1, Vivien has the potential to give you something that could actually impact the game. Vivien also starts at five loyalty, to Freyalise's three. I think Vivien was a solid improvement over Freyalise when she was printed, and I'm not sure why the Cube reverted back.

I'm of the belief that the VIntage Cube doesn't need ten one-mana mana dorks, and that the eight that exist in Green outside of these are fine. Nine times out of ten Avacyn's Pilgrim and Elves of Deep Shadow are tapping for colorless mana anyway. I think with Mono-Green being the most popular Green archetype, with Blue/Green right behind it, these are two cards that aren't super useful, and if you do happen to be playing White or Black along with your Green cards, there are still numerous ways to accomplish your colored mana production.

Cards I'd Add

This is a super fun card that I'm surprised hasn't made an appearance in the Cube yet. It can gum up the ground, preventing your opponent from wanting to attack into it, and it can incentivize you to find ways to sacrifice it. Being able to cheat an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon or a Karn Liberated into play is the exact kind of shenanigans Cube was built for, and considering cards like Channel and Tolarian Academy already exist, I'm not sure this one is really too powerful.

This was a card I was reluctant to add until I added Showdown of the Skalds to my own Cube. This is one of the best possible interactions, and it works just great in Standard as well. But Shepherd also works fine and has favorable interactions with a ton of other cards in the Cube too. It also fits into the Mono-White Aggro archetype, which is one of the most popular White archetypes. I also have things like History of Benalia, Blade Splicer, and Skyclave Apparition, which all make great targets to bounce.

This is another card I'm surprised hasn't made the cut yet. It's very similar to Natural Order, only it can work with non-Green creatures, it takes a little more work to set up, and it can search for any creature, not just Green ones. This feels like the perfect power level for the Vintage Cube and I have a copy in my own. It's also a cool two-card combo with Devoted Druid, as you can attach this on turn three, then untap the druid twice to trigger it. Overall, Pattern of Rebirth has a cool amount of versatility, and the kind of big, splashy effect you'd expect from the Vintage Cube.

This card should never have been removed from the Cube. This card more than any other expensive Green card gives Green the most identity. I think the logic was that it was replaced with Turntimber Symbiosis, but that's not really a great replacement, and the two cards function completely differently in practice. Just put this back.

There are a bunch of other cards I simply don't like - such as Smokestack, Emrakul, the Promised End, and Sensei's Divining Top - but this is more of a personal preference of mine, and I do understand why they're in the Cube. Unlike a lot of the cards I went over today, which I think have just outlived their usefulness when it comes to the VIntage Cube. I think rotating or replacing a lot of these cards would keep the Cube a lot fresher from season to season, especially with so many new cards coming out month after month.

As the Vintage Cube is up right now on Magic Online until March 24th, let me know what you think. Do you have any other suggestions or changes that you would make? Are there any cards that make you wonder why they're in there or any cards that make you wonder why they're not? Let me know in the comments below!

As always, thanks for reading and I appreciate all the support. Remember to use promo code FRANK5 for all your CoolStuff purchases! I hope you're getting vaccinated if able and staying safe, and I'll catch you next week!

Frank Lepore

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