Howdy, gamers! How is everyone doing today? Are you living the dream? If not, you soon will be, as the Live the Dream Cube is returning to Magic Online (MTGO) for a two-week run!
Cube Overview
For previous runs of the Live the Dream Cube, I’ve just gone over the changelog, similarly to how I handle the MTGO Vintage Cube. I think that this Cube is due for a more general overview, which is also more important, as players draft it much less frequently. For starters, you can check out designer David McDarby’s write-up on the mothership. I’ve also ported the list over to Cube Cobra for ease of analysis.
It’s fitting that McDarby’s write-up highlights the differences between this environment and Vintage Cube, because I actually find this Cube most approachable in terms of the similarities between these environments. The short version is that Vintage Cube is a high-power format that starts on Turn 1, accelerating out powerful spells with fast mana, and the Live the Dream Cube is a high-power format that starts on Turn 2, accelerating out powerful spells with fast mana. The key difference here is that Vintage Cube allows you to cast a bunch of efficient spells off Moxen, and Live the Dream Cube sets you up to jam a bunch of haymakers off Signets.
In McDarby’s closing notes, he recommends drafting lots of mana ramp and prioritizing fixing, which falls perfectly in line with my suggestion that the Cube is an environment largely revolving around mana rocks. Only a handful of cards in the Cube allow you to try to go under your opponent, and overwhelmingly you’ll want to try to do the biggest thing possible as quickly as possible. That in mind, let’s break the Cube down by color and look at the most powerful things every color is bringing to the table!
White
White provides a couple of options to try to run away with games early. Luminarch Aspirant and the recently minted Ajani, Nacatl Pariah and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd are standouts in this regard. In general, it’s worth taking note of cards that are competitive in Vintage Cube in this environment, as many of them will be all-stars here. Phelia stands above the other two-drops for the ability to scale well into the late-game with all of the other blinking shenanigans going on.
Anything named Elesh Norn will be a house here, with Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines being both a doubler for all of your powerful enters effects and an effective hoser for many of the other more powerful cards in the Cube. White will rely on these haymaker-style permanents more than any ability to draw cards, so these will be important cards for white drafters.
With big effects and cheating on mana largely being the name of the game, Collector’s Cage has the capacity to dominate battlefields in this Cube. Cheating a big spell with the hideaway ability off an early Thraben Inspector and friends should convert to some number of quick wins, and even just continuing to put +1/+1 counters on your creatures should be beneficial to make good attacks into the late-game.
White is a middle-of-the-road color in this Cube, with a few options to try to pressure opponents early as well as some more reliable big and swingy effects to try to take over games late. Cards that split the difference, like Phelia, and individually powerful cards, like Elite Spellbinder, will offer the best chance of succeeding with white.
Blue
Blue is one of the two most powerful colors in this Cube. It’s probably more powerful than green, and Sublime Epiphany is just the most powerful individual card in the Cube, so that very likely does put it over. Drawing extra cards, taking extra turns, and countering spells will all be very powerful here, just like they are everywhere else.
Once again, cards that are powerful in Vintage Cube will also shine here, and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student and Urza, Lord High Artificer are two great tastes that taste great together in that regard. I don’t pass them often in Vintage Cube, and I would pass them even less often here! Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Fact or Fiction are also effective ways to bury your opponents in card advantage.
I’ve said more than once that Aminatou’s Augury would be a welcome addition to the Dream Halls package that rotates in and out of the MTGO Vintage Cube, and the big reason you don’t generally see it is that it costs eight mana. Well, that’s not much of an issue in Live the Dream Cube! I think you’ll have a hard time netting less than fifteen mana worth of spells with it in this environment, making it among the best cards in the Cube in terms of generating both card advantage and mana advantage.
Move in on blue early. Draft blue often.
Black
Black has much in common with white in this Cube, with a few early-game options that can take over games as well as big, swingy effects higher on the curve. An unsaddled Caustic Bronco stands to deal you a lot of damage, given the Cube’s mana curve, but a saddled one flips that script. Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor is another “good early, good late” card that would easily make all of my black decks here. The question is whether you want to move into black at all. Most of the great black cards cost multiple black pips, making splashing difficult.
Archon of Cruelty is a great reanimator target, linking with The Cruelty of Gix and Liliana, Death’s Majesty as options, though you’ll be casting it for eight about as often. Crabomination appeared in the last run of the MTGO Vintage Cube and didn’t make significant waves there, but six mana is a much more reasonable hurdle here, and your opponent really doesn’t have much option but to fill their deck with juicy spells for you to steal!
There are some sacrifice synergies, though I would generally avoid token makers until you have a busted payoff for them. Yawgmoth is a great card draw engine, but Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia is just dumpy on its own. If black is open and you can pick up its best haymakers and mana-fixing late, then there’s a lot to like here, but I’d be a little tepid about moving in early given the somewhat harsh mana requirements, as well as cards that need a little more setup to really hum.
Red
I don’t value Magda, Brazen Outlaw highly in Vintage Cube, but it’s far easier to get early attacks in here and there are more Treasure synergies that make you more likely to cheat out some big Dragons and/or artifacts to boot! Broadside Bombardiers is a pretty busted Vintage Cube card, and it can surely push obscene amounts of damage here, too.
I’m ice-cold on Goldspan Dragon in Vintage Cube, but you actually want to jump from five to seven-plus mana in this environment in most games with most decks, so it’s actually a high pick in this environment. Vintage Cube all-star Etali, Primal Conqueror ranks highly among the busted things you’re trying to ramp into.
There are some mana generators and spell doublers that can do cool things in the spread, with Chandra, Hope’s Beacon doing both and generally being the most powerful option in the category. Mizzix’s Mastery is okay in Vintage Cube but is much easier to just cast for eight here, and will be able to more easily flash back bigger spells in this environment as well.
I like red a decent amount more than black and white in this Cube, though I can’t always separate out how much of that is my general red bias, so take that with a grain of salt. It’s still firmly a weaker color than blue and green, but you’d never know when you’re attacking with Etali, Primal Storm!
Green
In a big mana Cube, Birds of Paradise is king. Green gets the mana acceleration started a full turn faster than the other colors, and cards like Lotus Cobra and Fanatic of Rhonas promise a much bigger surge of mana than a Signet can provide.
It’s been many years since Primeval Titan was worth much in Vintage Cube, but this is a Cube where just dropping a bunch of lands, no matter what they do, will be powerful even at the cost of six mana. Similarly, Oracle of Mul Daya will be a great tool to pull ahead in the mana race, which will enable you to pull head in the “casting powerful spells” race.
The more mana a card generates, the better, and the more it cares about attacking and blocking, the worse. Fight Rigging exists in a space between the two where the potential mana cheat that comes with hideaway makes it quite appealing, though abstractly weaker than just taking Kodama’s Reach without the right setup of cheap creatures to really push it.
The decision between green mana creatures and Signets will often be close, but the important thing to keep in mind is that you would much rather be green than any amount Mardu in such a big mana environment.
Gold
This is my short list for the most first-pickable gold cards in the Cube, with the important note here being that gold isn’t really much a drawback here, provided that the card is at least blue or green. You’ll almost always want to play those colors if you can help it anyway. I tend to find myself playing eighteen lands in Cubes like this, and games tend to take a little more setup, so you will typically have time to get your colors online.
If it generates mana and/or card advantage, it’s probably where you want to be!
Colorless
My general notes here just repeat everything I’ve said to this point, except that colorless cards are by their nature very easy to cast! It’s worth pointing out that Karn Liberated is considerably less powerful than Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, assuming that both are castable. With Triomes and fetchlands and Signets, it’s not all that difficult to play five colors, and I would definitely advocate for drafting the more powerful cards here and making sure you get the fixing to cast them over “staying open”.
Lands
The lands in this Cube aren’t messing around, and there are 72 mana-fixing options without any general utility lands in the spread. Fetchlands, shocklands, dual lands, surveil lands, creature duals, slow lands, and Triomes are all available, making playing three-to-five colors a pretty reasonable goal. I’ll take lands over almost anything that only attacks and blocks in this Cube while trying to ensure that an early Luminarch Aspirant isn’t just lights out for me, while worrying far more about making sure that I can go bigger than whatever six-plus-mana spells my opponent is trying to cast!
Live the Dream Cube is a fun environment for offering something very different from what we’re used to, while still following many of the basic principles of mana and card advantage that matter in Vintage Cube and the world of Cube broadly. If you like generating a lot of mana and casting big, swingy spells, this one’s for you!
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