Wielding Equipment

We are back! Join Team Uber Cube as we discuss the current state of equipment in cube. During this episode, the team banters on the latest equipment mechanics and how the “Living Weapon” design of modern cards can increase the deck building variety within your cube environments. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Welcome back to Ubercube, the podcast where we discuss all things cube. But with refreshments, this is your host. You probably don't remember me. Anthony Adams, aka Uberbearer. I don't even remember. I don't remember. We haven't done this, what, in almost two months? Are we? Yeah, who are we? What are we doing again? I don't know. Yeah. I thought it'd be nice to address this before we get going. So we decided to take a little break, right? I mean, the weekly cadence, you can consider that over as a fan just because of the work-life balance and trying to run a podcast and maintain a career and family and my physical fitness and whatnot. So we're gonna reformat here at Ubercube. We're gonna do these when we want to do these. Yes. And that's how we'll do it. I like that. Yeah. So it may be monthly, may not be. We'll try. We'll see what happens. Maybe every two weeks. You might get a couple back to back. I don't know. They'll always be on Mondays, that I can assure. And they will always be at 7 a.m. So just sit by, hold your phone, open up your favorite listener, and just watch the time tick, and you'll probably see an episode. Hi, May. Missed you.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Hi.

unknown 1:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Missed you too. We have it. It's not just that we haven't done the podcast. Like, May, this is the first time we've hung out and chatted in a long time since we finished recording the last time. Anthony, you and I have only seen each other a couple of times, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Yeah. So if you're a first-time listener, go back 200 episodes ago. Four plus years ago. Four years. Four years and 200 episodes ago. We started recording this cool little thing called Ubercube, and we were doing it at a weekly pace. Yes. I don't mind a weekly pace. Actually got addictive. You get a rush from it. It was really weird whenever you couldn't even get a hold of people and you just had to go record on a Friday at 3 p.m. But there was a point where my travel has picked up and I wanted to get a grip on my fitness and do some other things too. Kind of want to refocus a little bit on the game, a little less about talking about the game too. Been playing a lot better.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

But yeah, at least I think so. At least I get it to sit at the chair with Thomas more than I normally get to sit. Because Thomas is our 3-0 guy, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

I beat Thomas the last time we played, I beat Thomas.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

You're not allowed to speak to me then, because we're you're in a different you're in a different level than me. I want I'm is that is that how I elevate? That's how I ascend. I can now speak to Sam's level, but I cannot speak to yours. I beat Sam last night, so we'll call that my little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

So you're at like A tier and I've I've gone up to like S tier. Oh yeah, I'm not at yeah, I'm not the S tier.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Yeah, so I don't have all the glitter and whatever. Okay. May what have you been up to? Updates.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Uh well just been keeping busy and doing social stuff and taking care of myself around you know, my local area. So mostly hanging out with friends and taking a break for myself.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

So I've been growing some tomatoes in the backyard. I built a new cube.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Oh, yeah. New cube. Okay, so first of all, before we get to the cube, May, what you reading?

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Uh well, let's let's go down the list. Uh I've been reading Wicked. I have been reading a bunch of other nonfiction things. Most of it is about like pharmacy stuff. Some of it was about sign language. I've been learning some French.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

That that's been crusade avec moi, ce soir. Ferme la grande bouche.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

I don't know much French. I'm working on it though.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

I just exhausted all my. And a new cube.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah, I got I Spy, which is like a very Dan Dan inspired top deck manipulation type cube.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

It's a lot of scrying, surveilling. We'll talk about it on a future episode. It is actually came out the gate pretty good because I opened it up on day one to feedback and I did not color balance it. These two things allowed it just to play well out the gate.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Alright. Let's start with, because this is as is our tradition. What you drinking? Let's start, May. I understand there was something brewing in the background for you. What you got?

SPEAKER_00 4:09

I guess I made myself some English breakfast tea. Always good.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Always good. Anthony, what you got?

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Actually, I'm cutting it back again on the alcohol. So it's an athletic, it is the free wave, non-alcoholic IPA. It's a hazy.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Nice. I'm gonna try it out. Ooh, okay. Good for you. I got myself, I'm I'm taking it easy. I've got a highlight. It's an easy IPA. It's like a low.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

I've been running and stuff a lot and doing I'm trying to work out and getting back into it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Oh, I'm glad.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

So we're gonna do a flashback to the episode that May missed. It was episode number one. And what I thought it would be neat during this episode, we did our very first episode in May of 2022 when Stu and I first sat down to these chairs on our nervous mics and all of our discussions. We decided we want to talk about the swords of fallen favor. We have referenced that a lot. Audio quality, absolutely atrocious. Some of the points, they're okay, they still hold up. But we basically at the time talked about the different swords. What would have been at the time the eight swords trying to predict the other two swords, which is a fun little community thing. We got some responses. We got fairly close, but we definitely did not get them right. No. And we talked about Jite, and we talked about like the, I guess, where equipment of the time in May of 2022 lands. So I thought it would be neat for us to talk about equipment, but now we're gonna fast forward all the way up to July of 2026. And we're gonna talk about how the landscape of cube design in reference to equipment and what curators and designers can do and players, everybody, how they feel about different cards and how they fit into different genres. We're gonna use our base rate that we normally talk about. You know, you've got your thematic designs, you may hear us say that a few times. We're gonna reference some of our cubes. Again, if you're a new listener, we may say some pauper, some peasant, we may say some fake cube, we may just for different or powered vintage, vintage, legacy, you'll hear us reference that, but we're not gonna focus on power level so much. We're just gonna focus on, I guess, the fun factor of a lot of these cards, but we may have some steep conversations.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Well, you say let's not focus on power levels. No, I came out then.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

I came out the gate.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

As as is our custom, the first card that is shown in Anthony's show notes that we always upload to our Discord is probably the most iconic equipment adjacent card, certainly from a you can go all the way from constructed to vintage cube to I don't know, probably a gazillion other cubes that's out there, and that is Stoneforge Mystic.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

What does it do? For somebody that may or may not know what this card is and they've lived under a rock.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Okay, so Stoneforge Mystic, it's a creature core artificer, one colourless and one white. When it enters, you may search your library for an equipment card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library, and you can pay one a colorless and tap. You may put an equipment card from your hand onto the battlefield. And you've got a couple of examples below Stoneforge Mystic as to what was kind of the jam back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

We left out Loxodon Warhammer, and it would have been kind of chasing Loxodon Warhammer, Batterskull. Batterskull. Whatever they had, the swords. Yeah. And what were you doing? Okay, let me ask you a question though. In in the modern era, and let's go power max just for a minute. Let's go down the the level of power advantage. In that world, Stoneforge Mystic as a tutor and the ability to cheat it out, you know, get the get the equipment at instant speed onto the battlefield. Is it still relevant? And why was it Batter Skull?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Okay. So Batterskull presented a significant threat. It enters and creates the 0-0 germ. So not only are you getting an equipment, you're getting a creature built in that it's attached to. And so, you know, typically the line was as quickly as possible, get Stoneforge Mystic down. Next turn, you know, probably you would play something can pass, make sure you've got your two mana up, and then at the end of your opponent's next turn, pay the two, tap, get batter skull in, and start swinging. Get a 4-4 lifelink. You get a 4-4 lifelink. That you can bounce back. Yeah, exactly. So I'll be honest, it's a fun play, but I kind of think that Batterskull was on its last legs for a while in a vintage cube perspective. And maybe it just kind of was carried by reputation, at least towards the latter stages of Batterskull's real, you know, sort of power level when it was in that vintage cube environment. However, Stoneforge Mystic got a new toy. Yeah. And I think it was that new toy that took it off life support, albeit briefly, and kind of gave it some life again. Cauldra complete. And that was Cauldra Complete.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Complete spelled weirdly complete.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Spelled very weird. Complete. Complete art. Complet.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Whatever.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

May's learning French. Maybe she can tell us what that means.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Faire la Grambouche.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

That's ambitious. Very new to French. Yeah, I really do think, at least from a vintage perspective, that Cauldra was just the card that extended Stoneforge Mystic's life for a short period of time. I haven't seen it in many of the lists that I follow on Cube Cobra and some of the, you know, the really more popular vintage cube content creators with their cubes. It's just not in there. There's no Battle Skull, there's no Cauldra, there's no Stoneforge. And I think the reality is that as much as it's a fun play, Stoneforge and the adjacent high power Chidi interplay equipment that were also prevalent for a long time in the Vintage Cube, they're just it's just not strong enough anymore, which is so unfortunate.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

I disagree. Well, so we had this debate last night, and I actually didn't go into a full-scale war with Chris because I do agree with part of what you said. Actually, my original thought process was it's just not strong enough, or it feels it's not even a matter of strength. It feels stagnant, it feels not as interesting as modern magic has become. Everything does so many things. The fact that you have to have two pieces in order to form this, you know, I got you combo that they're well aware is dropping down a 4-4 of vigilance. It would normally cost you five, and if they break that chain, you're in trouble. We know all that, right? In the in the individual pricing of it. However, I got to talking about it. And my 540 power vintage list, I still have Batter Skull. And I've been looking at it, and it has become a little bit of an eyesore for me. And I'm willing to keep it because you could still let's go with the theoretical, I'm desperate, I'm tinkering it out, whatever you can think of. There's all kinds of ways. Not saying that's ideal, but I'm saying it's still viable because it has legs. In the advent of a living weapon, and we'll call it pseudo-modern magic now, everything just comes with legs on it already. It used to be I'd have to hand you your shield. Here's your shield, mei, here's your axe or your sword. Now you don't have to do that at all. You just automatically come in and you show up and you go, I've got my halibert. Absolutely. It's right here. I'm already wearing it.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

And that's the case for both of those, for both Badaskull and Cauldra. So they both came down with a body. But it's interesting. So you're obviously going to be emotionally invested in it when it relates to your cube, right? Yeah. But now let's take the context of vintage cubes, and I know we're kind of sticking to that high power level right now, but I feel like it's it's worthy for a card like Stoneforge, right? So now you think, okay, your cube, where would you rank it in the overall sort of optimized rankings? Oh, extremely low. It's quite low.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

The reason why I brought this up just last night is Chris runs a 360. And he did not confirm his list, but I just asked him out of curiosity, are you still running like Stoneforge and Batterschool? It kind of came up. We didn't really harp on it too much, but he said, I think so. I think yes. And that kind of took me aback for a second. Because at 540, I get grace. Look, if I'm trying to run the peaks of power and you've got this inner core of, you know, all the most powerful magic you can have, I'm allowed to have the outer band. 100%. But at 360, you know, he's if he's following that whole dogma of I'm going to be the best in town, right? Then it gets it becomes a real squeaky wheel real quick. And let's be honest. Or at least it takes a spot.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Well, but he's also kind of not, if you were to look at it, right? Because Chris does not run time vault combo. That's correct. He's not running initiative. Uh it's just an So I know that those are mechanics that generally uh there's a lot of negativity about them, and people are tending to avoid including them on a vintage cube. But now you're already talking about two levels below what a really truly optimized vintage cube would look like, especially at 360. Yeah, that's no home free.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

I'm gonna use a derogatory comment, but there is, and I always felt this way about mine, that the vintage cube does fall subject to a degree of hive mind. That sounds horrible. I don't know else to call it, like groupthink, whatever you want to, right? Where everybody, you sit down and they're wondering why you're not running Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this and that, right? Just because maybe you took a week off or you took a year off from your cube. But there is a point where as we have become, and I don't want to go off this tangent too much, but as we have become much stronger designers, we have now decided what is healthy for our cube. Go back to the initiative, not to go off on the tangent, but we uh it wasn't just the community, it was people falling off, everybody put in the initiative, and then it started breaking cubes in half and giving purpose, but then suddenly we realized it just wasn't fun either.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

So there's a point where you can take a powered max cube and still put your own spin on it, and it doesn't have to follow this optimization like it doesn't have to, but if you want it to be at a relatively high power level, doesn't even have to be at that max power level, then again, I think if you want to try and keep things as as clean and as balanced as possible, then you may struggle.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Let's double back to Stoneforge Mystic. A tutor and a fast cheetah, tutor and a body, and a body is very Snapcaster in that formatting, right? It gets a thing, does a thing. It's an engine, if you will, right? Now we're looking at modern magic cards, may we're looking at something different. We're not gonna talk about the batter skulls and all that. The field of battle has changed. These things do more things now, and they're a lot more interesting. So back to my dilemma I presented you. Stoneforge keeps getting like reinvigoration over time. Sure, we had Cauldra Complete and it said, yeah, let's go again, let's do it again. But now we got stuff like Iron Man armor or skateboard. And these, even though they cost less than the reason why you were attempting to cheat in at instant speed with the Stoneforge Mystic ability after you fetched it, now you can cheat in other things that do more interesting things, may? There's not enough Colossal Dreadmask in this conversation. Oh, I love that card. I'm glad you brought it up.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Truly the most powerful card. A Colossal Dreadmaw in living.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

First off, if you ever, if you have a cube, I want you to reach out to us. If you have Colossal Dreadmaul and then you put a Colossal Dreadmask on the Colossal Dreadmaul, you are my hero. That's a win. Dreadmaw and your dreadmall. I'm just gonna I'm gonna scoop. I'm going to.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

I don't care what your record is, you win.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Iron Man armor, just for context. This is from the new Marvel set, and that's our current version of new at today's recording of July the 10th. We're looking at artifact equipment. When this equipment enters, attach it to target creature you control. That is gonna be a benchmark we're gonna talk about here. Just auto-attaching now. So now you've got your stoneforge. You drop this down, and it just sticks to a creature.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

That's that's not the living weapon, it's not making this creature, but then if you find that boring because it makes a 2-1 and it has flying, and you may not, that's pretty interesting. But now you can pay too. If this equipment isn't a creature, it becomes a 0-0 construct hero artifact creature with flying. This creature gets plus one, plus one for each artifact you control until then turn equip two. It's very streamlined. We're looking at a two-equip cost, auto-equip. We're looking at three to get this thing out. Good stats. I don't feel like plus two, plus one and flying is nice. Granted, this isn't gonna go vintage, or maybe it does. It might get tested in a new one. We never know. We haven't seen that list. But in the current idea of it, it doesn't. But this Stoneforge Mystic is pretty neat. Uh it just it does things. There's no I that's I guess everything does things now. Nothing comes in, nothing's boring. And it's got a lot of stats and a lot of interesting interchange between different cubes. And we I could throw this in my artifact cube. I have to pick up a copy. You could throw this in your space edition cube, like the Chrome Wars, it's gonna be featured at KubeCon 2026. You can just probably not put this in the fake cube unless you want to. Tony Stark might not go in there. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

That's funny.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

You're a good one, but it has a lot of like power variability about this card, depending on what you're doing. That I would not scoff at this if I if you said this is my powered cube, and I saw this card, I would be like, Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

I mean, the fact that it auto-attaches obviously makes it pretty aggressive, and the fact that it gives evasion as well as a nice little plus two, plus one bump is nice. I also look at this as I would love to have this in my hand if I've if I'm playing a cube where creatures connecting and getting triggers from from them is something important. Like, pretty nice to play like a turn two ragavan, even, and then slap this down, put this on Ragavan. Now I've got you know a flying Ragavan that's kind of beefy.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

I mean, the monkey does everything already. Matter of fact, except fly as a tangent last night, I was playing against our good friend Chris and his XL File Cubes, also at KubeCon 2026, and he played Ragavan. And I put Swift Reek configuration on that card. And then I said, now you actually have a ragavan. So let's get back to the use case of Stoneforge Mystic. Okay. I still I'm I'm gonna hold on to it. I was gonna cut it, but I feel like equipment evolution with the ability of not only do I get to cheat it in, and then I get to auto-equip, and then I get a benefit. I I know it's not a batter skull. The once was says you got the thing out that cost more than you could afford. You were skipping turns, right? You were air quotes time walking.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

It's a little cheaty.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Even if it was Loxedon Warhammer, you were getting ahead of the race. No doubt. You were cheating ahead. These are less cheating the curve so much, is just getting more value, more interesting things, more dynamics on the field faster.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

I am never gonna be mad about playing it. I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

I'll I'll end my little show with that.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

There's also two important contexts with a card that tutors and cheats into play at instant speed, mind you. That's the important part, is like you can hold up interaction, then use that mana to just drop an equipment during your opponent's turn and then use it to equip. So when you have that amount of utility, it is very hard for that type of power to be pushed out because its tutors are always going to be increasing. Like, for example, even outside of units versus beyond, like if you just throw this into a deck with like Cory Steel Cutter or like a Colossus Hammer or whatnot, you're cheating. Being able to just grab those being able to just grab those is very spooky.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Yeah, and that that's gonna be one of my arguments. We'll cut to Corey Steel Cutter in a moment, but as the weapons get better, I think Stoneforge also gets better unless you want to play them on curve and you know put them out on your own. There's nothing wrong with that because we're gonna talk about that too. But most of these come with nice warm bodies attached to them now. They're all living weapons of some sort, or they do something to make produce their own built-in mechanism in order to mass-produce the things that you want to attach to them. There's no more world of I've got the Loxedon Warhammer, now I go to stick it to the creature and you remove it with your Doom Blade. And I go, oh man, I just spent all this mana, right? Or Colossal Dreadmaw, you took it out, right? It's a different world now, and I think it changes the way that we're going to look at equipment in the year of 2026. It just plays a different thing. Now, I I think the edge case, I don't disagree with anything you said about Stoneforge Mystic holding on by the fringes, but as the equipment gets more versatile, I see the use cases increasing. Just different.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Yeah, I mean, I I think sort of the one slight counter-argument I would have is that even though yeah, I think Corey Stillcutter is a great example of like modern, very, very streamlined, bordering on overpowered equipment. Yeah, I mean, the the kind of decks that you're gonna play that in, uh, do you need or want a Stoneforge Mystic, right? When you think about what you do not what card, yeah, no, you don't need it. You don't need it. Corey Stillcutter is a card that you just kind of put in whatever you like, and it's such a strong built-in engine threat, creates monks with prowess. I mean, you don't need that.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Do you even want to be able to Well, let's skip ahead of the script here because that is a discussion. I mean, I've got a layout here, but it doesn't particularly matter. But let's go to Corey Steel Steel Cutter. Tell the audience what that does.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Alright, it's it's it's pretty strong. So Corey Steel Cutter, one and a red artifact equipment. Equipped creature gets plus one plus one and has trample and haste. Yep. So now you're getting double keywords as well as plus one plus one for two mana, not three. Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, create a one-one white monk creature token with prowess, and you may attach this equipment to it. So automatically now you're getting a bump for the creatures as well as the creatures themselves. You're getting, you know, the plus one plus one bump, multiple keywords, and you're creating creatures and the Cory Still Card is attaching it to itself to it.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

When this first came out, I, you know, Uberbear's Artifact Cube. By the way, let's pause for a second. We're all gonna be at KubeCon 2026, at least I am. I don't believe you other two are, but just so everybody knows, tickets are available for KubeCon 2026, myself, Samich, and others will be joining us. A good friend David Walt Welsey is gonna be there, our regional dragonologist. That's right. Model White Cube's gonna be in there. We've got a lot of stuff. Matter of fact, Uberbear. Supercube picked the mono white cube this year because it's pretty sick we got that last night. Alright, that's enough of that weird commercial break and interruption. Back to the Corey Steel Cutter. When this card was first revealed, I looked at it. I evaluated it for my artifact cube. On paper, it looks neat. And then you know, to follow May's trend, is I just didn't want to have monk tokens and additional ideas going on. And the more I have seen this card in play in action in Samuit's Exile Files, he ultimately, at the moment of me speaking, as you know, he'll put it right back, but he has cut it. He cut it because we made a case. I made a case and he didn't particularly listen to me. And then Bill said the same thing I said, just better, and then suddenly listened to it. But love you, Chris. But that's how this always works. And you know, like mom. But which is back in, by the way. But Corey Steel Cutter is out. And the reason why in the Exile files, it's all about exiling and manipulating, you know, game spaces and game pieces, objects outside of the game state, pulling them back in, stuff like Fortel and all that. This card was just a strictly value engine. Just a value engine. The logic that I believe, because Chris and I talked about this a lot of times, was well, if you're doing this exile thing and you're bringing a creature back in, you get rewarded for the multiple casting, the flurry, right? You're bringing you're bringing things in. You're intended to pay reduced costs, like foretell or whatever you're doing, and then bring it back in. So there's good opportunity cost for you to make this happen and make a monk. Agreed. But it didn't particularly much matter. It didn't matter at all. Just kind of plays its this card plays itself. Yes. It just happens for playing magic. Right. Even if you don't follow the bit. You can put this card in most cubes, and if you're running it, I'm I'm proud of you. But you give it most cubes, and it literally just says if you play magic, you get a really good board state.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

If you're in green and blue, well, if you're willing to splash, you're also going to put this in there because you get a really good board state. Correct. And that doesn't make the card bad, that just makes this card, in my eyes, slightly unhealthy in the sense that it can one-sided stabilize, take over games, very much like our Jitte story we told a long time ago. The ability just to stand up on its own legs and go, I win. And all you had to do was play magic.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

I don't find that rewarding in my equipment.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

I agree. I want more. I agree. I will be honest, I think this is a powerful card. I don't really like the design of it because I'm not a huge fan of cards that there's not really a thought process that you need to attach a deck to or a drafting process in order for this to become, like you say, very overwhelming. So to me, it's an undoubtedly, undeniably very strong card, but I don't find cards like this exciting.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

I want to do a flashback conversation to May, and you have said this a lot about artifacts, and I want to have you kind of engage with this one. It was about when artifacts were at the time predominantly colourless, you would kind of say they were contested. As in you never knew which direction they're gonna go. They're in the wind. Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Uh yeah, I still agree with that. Like, if you have a powerful enough artifact that like even if like it's a particularly not in theme, you're still gonna have drafters being like, oh, this is a good card. I'm gonna throw it in my deck. Right? Because they just have access to it at any point. It makes it highly contested, as opposed to once you start throwing in extra colors, then only the people that are now at in those colors are interested in it.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yeah. Well, now I don't think we can say that anymore. I'm challenging that. I'm gonna say Corey Steel Cutter with its one red splash is also fair game to the table. Correct. And that anybody that's is good enough to swing the direction. Yeah, and it do it you might be building this sick aristocrats build that you're so proud of in Orzov, and you're really following that train, you know, you're picking up the pieces, and then this comes around the table and you go, This has nothing to do, but oh, they make monks and monks die, I guess. So I'll use that as my cannon fodder for my aristocrats. And next thing you know, your aristocrats really aren't doing anything.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Let me reframe your argument so that way you can kind of realize why I'm still gonna push back on it. Remember when mono red decks were running Oko? They were splashing Oko just because Oko was that stupid? Yeah. So that means all planeswalkers no longer have to worry about the color restrictions, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Yeah, I think you can hit this power potential that the thing that we leaned on doesn't translate to gameplay. Like we would say, well, the only people are gonna want this are the spells matters, and that you know, maybe the Is It deck might want this, and maybe maybe the mono red deck might play this with some burn, and you can you can trap yourself in that idea. You can be like, Sue, this is what it's going to do. And then Stu picks it up and goes, you know what, I'm a gruel smashy, and I got some rampant gross, and I'm just gonna I'm gonna beat you to death with a Cory Steel Cutter, and it has nothing to do with what the deck does. Now, I understand that people like that, but I think cards like this fall prey to being soupy, as in creating soupy decks. I like to see, I know we're drafting, and we're drafting from a cube, and you're never gonna get the same deck twice. I I know that. But it is really neat whenever your deck has like synergies and it kind of folds into it, it looks like you took some time and it's got a nice curve, and you look like you constructed it, right? You constructed it in 20 minutes and you played and you 306-0'd. I do not get rewarded as a human being if I build a really crappy deck and then I win because of Corey Steel Cutter. No, it just doesn't do anything. There's no satisfaction there for that. I mean, you can say you won, but I mean, I I think Corey Steel Cutter won.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Just like NT won. Yes, Chris, if you're listening.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

Yeah, NT1. I'm so good at magic. I know. Mom won. We know. I but that's kind of the gag reel here. So I would say that as our good friend uh Usman says, you know, just get a little, a little, a little splash of this, a little, you know, bring it to taste. But don't don't I wouldn't go dumping the whole bottle of cayenne pepper and Cory Steel cutter into your cube. I just I think I think these type cards have to be traversed with care. And that's kind of I agree with that. That's kind of that. Let's move over to another one here. That is gonna seem a little weird that I'm saying all this, but I feel like it's a little bit more in the vein of what you're trying to do, and that's Glimmer Lens. Specifically, I want to talk about four Miradin. This is a mechanic that I'm huge, I love this mechanic. I love it in all forms, and I just picked a few cards from it. But when this equipment enters the battlefield, create a 2-2 red rebel creature token, then attach this to it. The only thing I don't like about this is one, it's it's a red rebel. Like, I'm so over the token game at this point, but because you've got to have a token for everything. Everything makes a token, then you get a red rebel token with vigilance, and you'll get a 3-1 rebel token with flying. And it just gets after a while, I'm just like, I can't do this anymore. Everything's a 2-2. But regardless, the four mirrored in mechanic was to me so elegant, so clean. You get the you get the two thing, yes, you have to have the token or the whatever you're doodling on, but it attaches itself, glimmer lens, whatever equipped creature, and at least one other creature attack, draw a card equipped for one colus and a planes. It's not bad. It's a good on-rate card. I like it. It's encouraging combat. It's doing what this deck is going to do, anyways. And while other decks might run this and people may argue this, this is going to be less contested. Although I know some control decks and whatnot will go, like, I'm running Glimmer Lens, I'm gonna get some card draw. I get it.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

I think even a I yeah, I think even aggressive decks will be will be relatively happy to have it. Keep your it doesn't, you know, there's again, there's there's not a whole lot of of cost associated with it, right? You're paying two mana for a 2-2, which, you know, okay, it's not great by today's standards. But the equipment having a relevant ability of drawing a card is is good enough. Again, at the very, very ultra high power max levels. Is this kind of you know, falling by the wayside maybe a little bit, sure. But again, at a 540, if we're gonna start at that kind of vintage level, then I think for sure it can it can find a home, especially in the sort of non-time vault non-initiatives. But I think it's also it's a it's it's a fun card, right? I don't think it's high power. And I actually, we had this discussion, we'll talk about our friend Chris again, and May, I don't know how if this is something that you tend to either actively try and include in your cubes, but I know that this is something that I've talked about with Chris in some of his is anything that is only draw a card, right? So you pay something, a creature comes into play, and you draw a card. And maybe there's you know some inadvertent even or even purposeful synergies for things like bounce to allow you to draw multiple cards, just the act of drawing a single card isn't great. Yeah, for like a one-one that comes in like a right, but a repeatable effect is not that's that's a bit of glimmer.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

It's different, and it's worth you paying this additional cost. Now let's let's roll this back to the top of the episode. Corey Steel Cutter and Glimmer Lens. Are you going to use Stoneforge Mystic?

SPEAKER_01 31:02

No.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Well, not for Glimmer Lens. For Cory Steel Cutter, yes, probably.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Could we use that as a baseline? Like, um, even if you're not running it, would you if you had a deck that Cory Steel Cutter in it and you had Stoneforge Mystic, would you put them in the same deck together with the intention of fast tracking out Cory Steel Cutter? Probably. Probably. I would. I would.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Cory Steel Cutter is strong enough that it can overtake the game. Like being able to just have another card that lets you get access to it and sheet it in during your opponent's turn is pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

With all the costs attached. So we can make a stoneforge mystic test for equipment to it a great. If you really think about it, right? Like if you had these cards, would you desire to seek out this other card as you're pairing? And you we said what yes to one and the other one, and we didn't, right? I mean, I know everybody would do it in circumstances, but let's just go with a baseline. I got these cards, am I gonna roll these up in the same deck? I think I would I agree with you. It'd be yeah, steel cutter all day, every day. All day. And why is that? Because it's super powerful and it's worth going through the hoops to get that card out to start getting the action on the field. Absolutely. Yeah, drawing cards, we'll figure that out later. Yeah. All right. What about this next card? I've seen this in Power Adventures, and I want to talk about the specific mechanic that's attached to it because it's like for a mirrored in, and I love it.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Are you talking about job select on Astrologian's Planosphere?

SPEAKER_02 32:17

I didn't think I loved it at first, and I did not really find a home for it in any of my cubes, but I have played this in a multitude of cubes, job select cards, and I have enjoyed them every time. I just I don't a lot of them don't fit the vibes of my cubes or the the art's a little off-putting for me for whatever reason. You know, I don't I don't I'm not an anime type and it seems to have that a lot. I like Final Fantasy and all that. But it's been pretty cool. And what does Job Select do?

SPEAKER_01 32:43

So job, so again, we'll we'll do this from the top. So Astrologian's Planosphere, this is one colorless one blue for an artifact equipment. It has job select. When this equipment enters, create a one-one colorless hero creature token, then attach this equipment to it. Equipped creature is a wizard in addition to other types, and has whenever you cast a non-creature spell and whenever you draw your third card each turn, put a plus one plus one counter on this creature. So brainstorm and ponder, yeah, you know, that kind of stuff. Pretty pretty nice.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Another thing that was brought to my attention recently, my friend, our friend Jason's working on, you know, he's always working on his perpetual cubes, none of which I'll ever get to play because I don't know if they exist, but he has the Lord of the Rings cube, never played it, heard it exist. But now he's working on a Marvel cube, never played it, heard it's gonna be existing. But he mentioned to me that the hero subtype there, or the hero type, that class or whatever you want to call it, is paying off dividends now that Marvel's come in. And it's now these cards are hitting real good.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Yeah, because there's like a gazillion legendary creatures in these newer sets, and and the hero is is very much very prominent in that. And I also like Planet Sphere, I I like typal stuff. So the fact that it adds the wizard type to the creature is pretty nice. So then, you know, either if wizards are a theme in the cube, or even if you want to go even a little bit deeper than that and start including cards that care about the about the type, specifically wizards. So you could look at, I believe it's flame of an ore, which is the one that cares. You can choose both uh two modes if you've got a wizard in play. So I think things like this, you know, so much flexibility, it grows a creature, it's relatively inexpensive to come down, and it and it has a decent payoff.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

I like cards like this, May, because the the way they read is you open this up in a pack and you see it, and it inspires a cube. Like, I want a cube that this works really well in. I'm gonna do some wizards, I want some jobs. It like it kind of spring, it's a springboard type card that kind of signals a lot of like different things you can do with the code.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

You can do lots of things. You can go counters, you can go typal wizards, you can you know go control with the non-creature stuff.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Yeah, maybe I mean I think that not only just that one's a good card, like I actually threw a lot of the job select cards into the fake as an example, because usually when we're looking for like living weapon type stuff, finding good thematics is a little difficult when I'm in a very restricted theme. However, there were a lot of these types of job selected cards that have genuinely pretty good effects while also being like the best thing about them is that not only do they have the specific types that you might be looking for, but these are equipment that also come in as creatures in a way that makes them a lot more draftable than just are you in the equipment deck? And I think that that is one of the more like attractive factors to like living weapon style cards. And I think Job Select did a really good job of like implementing that because it's just like if you have a cube that cares about typo stuff like the Faye Cube does, it was a great way for you to like introduce ways to add more party members without having to worry about like uh my stuff's getting removed or whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Yeah, and I think 4 Mirrored in and Job Select did a great job of making it not feel so like uh you know the Lock Sidon Warhammer. I have this piece of equipment, I'm gonna attach it to this creature, I'm gonna try to win. It feels more like a creature, right? It is, it is when you cast it, it has all the look and feel of a creature. And it doesn't feel any different, it doesn't feel like this other game object so much until you gotta move it later. I get that, but initially it doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

It plays a bit more like a story piece rather than just a you know, just something that comes down.

SPEAKER_02 36:24

Just I put a thing down, yeah. Which I do adore this next card, but I want to kind of go back to the living weapon concept for anybody that's not familiar or you're new to magic, whatever. When this equipment enters the battlefield, create a 0-0 black phyrexian germ creature token, then attach this to this. And this is kind of the springboard for most of these other effects we have seen. It works. So Nettle Syst is a card that I decided to highlight on here. This is not modern. I think it's from Modern Horizons, actually. It is Modern Horizons 2. Yeah, Modern Horizons 2. It is a good card, it is a three-colorless artifact equipment. Quip creature gets plus one, plus one for each artifact and or enchantment you control. Quip 2. I run this in Uber's Artifact Cube. On the grand scheme of interesting, I no, not really. I don't think it's very interesting. It's just counting, it's you know, I've got an artifact cube, it's counting how many you got, and there you go. You got a you got a thing that attacks. No, no real special thing for it. I like it because it's, you know, it's a condensed version of a creature.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

And I will say, I I there's cards like this that they look like they belong so organically in a cube like that.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

But I will say that there's cards like this that it surprises me that you do choose to include. Just because in the artifact cube, where artifacts are obviously a significant theme, you expect players to have a bunch of them out there, and all you have to do with this is play it, and now you've got a threat, and all you're doing is turning it sideways. Is it strong? Yes. Is it is it exciting? Not particularly.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

It has no form my my justification for the three cost and dropping it in and counting that I've got six, and now I have a six, six artifact nettle cyst, whatever. That's great. But I justify it because it's basically a vanilla creature, it has no form of evasion really. Right. So, yeah, it's a beater, but it's it's a colossal dreadmall without trample. It is, that's all it is. I I I accept that.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

And it to equip is is pretty cheap as well, considering how how much beef you can give to another creature with that. But there we go.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Yeah, I poured one out for the OGs on here. I put it on my list, but I don't know if we're gonna really talk about it. We're kind of going back to the Stoneforge Mystic type thing. And and looking at the difference in these cards, we've got a skateboard up here from Teenage Munit Ninja Turtles, which has it's a really great card. It's really good in your Nadu deck. I mean, who doesn't want to do that? Or your aggressive deck? Basically, lock down, tap down a creature. This is what we're dealing with now. But our OGs would have been stuff like Skull Clamp, which was a mistake that you would have gladly gotten with your Stoneforge Mystic, or Umaza's Jite.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Yeah, maybe. I think Skull Clamp just belongs maybe in a completely different conversation that Jite does, because Jite belongs in very aggressive decks and can just do so much work by itself, whereas Skullclamp, obviously, the mistake of the minus one and just being such an incredibly strong and difficult to deal with draw draw engine, drawing two cards is is just simply insane. So, but I think Stoneforge typically and more traditionally would be treated as a more aggressive card, whereas Skullclamp less so, and GTA obviously more so, but certainly belonging the annals of the Bunkers Powerful.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

If we look at modern back to the idea of modern equipment, we back then you had it was such such a disparity between the really crappy little short sword that you had versus Loxedon Warhammer and a batter skull, and they were very much separated way apart, right? By swords as well, right? You do have to give it this canyon, this top end of these things that just put themselves in full sets of everybody's cubes at the time, which was predominantly at the time, vintage cubes, and they're like, gotta have the best of the best. Well, unfortunately, these 15 different pieces of equipment that require a creature were the best of the time. Yeah. Right? Now we're looking at a lot more diversity in these cards. The things that if those best in the colorless coordinate there would have done back then, we would have considered bad. That now, looking at all these four Mirrodin cards like Hexplate Wallbreaker or Kimba's Banner, and I'm just gonna include these in the show notes, or Mirden Bodish, Silvach, Battle Chair, Volshock, Splitter. But now you can actually get flavor wins and put these in cubes of all types, right? They open up a whole new array of cubes and they don't look as goofy as say a short sword. I mean, at the time.

SPEAKER_01 40:36

Well, I think also there's just the reality that, you know, in modern magic, as much as there's good stats on something like Hexplate Wallbreaker, so I'll cover that one real quick. Three colourless, two red for an artifact equipment. So equipped creature gets plus two plus two. Whenever equipped creature attacks, if it's the first combat phase of the turn, untap each attacking creature. After that phase, there is an additional combat phase. So that is a that is a very powerful effect.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

You basically get a four-four for five mana.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

You do yeah, essentially. I didn't include the four mirridin, right? Yeah. So if you took out the four mirridin and it just had the rest of the text on that card, how how playable would that be? And where would you kind of have to figure that out as far as the overall overall power level of your cube in order for it to be viable to spend five mana on something that doesn't do anything?

SPEAKER_02 41:25

You would really be spending, what am I counting there? You'd be spending nine mana over two turns. And that's if you've got two.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

And you've got to have, in that case, another creature. So you've got to have a board state that supports.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

You get a 3-3 that encourages combat.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Exactly. For nine mana. Right? So it but the fact so I think for something like that, and if you look at you know, Kemba's banner and Mirambardish and all the other cards, I think for this for the sake of what modern magic is like, they they kind of have to. They have to come down with a creature attacked other attached to them. Otherwise, they're just not going to be good enough.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

One of the big things that I think that kind of gets overlooked is something like Aether Spark, for example, where it kind of has that I would say almost inverse J-Tay type type role, right? Where it's just it comes down, it generates you a lot of value, but it's not really pressuring your opponent in the same way that JTA does. But it's one of those things that it's just like easier. We have like an artifact equipment planeswalker thing that you can just drop on the board, make your thing bigger, and you just keep drawing a bunch of cards and eventually just out mana your opponent. And that's like one of those cards that is just like we have a lot more complex and dynamics, not the word, but a lot more complex designs for cards because Batterskull came out like 15 years ago or so, right? Like a lot changes in 15 years.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Your menu of a designer doesn't look like the shortened lunch menu at a restaurant, right? You get you get the full you get the full entrees now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Even when you think about it as something that like follows the similar beats to Batter Skull, like Cauldra Complete, right? Cauldra Complete is another one of those living weapon tile style cards. It comes down, it's very threatening. It's uh uh the equipment itself is indestructible. And how much are people really like looking to put that in the deck? As a genuine question.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

And what people don't remember is you used to have three cards to build Cauldra, and I could never get all three. I only had like the helmet. You remember these Cauldra cards? It was Cauldra's sword and Cauldra's like helm or something. You got three pieces and you build a Voltron and put them all together, and you're like, yeah, completed the assembly of Cauldra. So you know they just cheat ahead in Modern Magic and go, here, he's complete anyway. They're complete.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

That would be a design that I could get behind if you had like three or four. It'd be like an RPG video game, right? You where you know you've got these different sets, right? I'm a big Diablo 2 guy, so you know, you've got these three, four, five, six pieces of equipment that belong to the same like quote unquote set. So, you know, imagine if you had Cauldra complete, but it was three or four colours. But if you got them all on the same creature, it'd be like plus fifty, plus fifty, flying indestructible, hamp trample, haste, annihilator fifteen, something along those lines. Okay. You know, obviously that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

I'm here for like assemble Exodia style.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

Exactly. Like, how fun would that be, right? Obviously, now there's a bit of sort of hate drafting element into it because it's like, oh, do I want someone to really get it?

SPEAKER_02 44:20

Thomas Thomas got to pull off the Brazella thing last night. Was it Gisella plus uh the Gisella voice supply or whatever it is? Yeah. The thing was disgusting. Meld, baby. I love that. So going back to some cards that give you a little bit more deck building diversity or cube building diversity, and we're gonna kind of stick with the cards we have on here. Check out our show notes. But like Black Mage's Rod, it's another one of those job selects that comes in, the creature gets plus one, and whenever you cast a non-creature spell, this creature deals one damage to each opponent, and it's a wizard indigenous other types. Now, this one damage to each opponent uh could work, say, in my two-headed giant cube. It could theoretically work in the Faye Cube because you're supporting the wizard's concepts. It could go into what is that, a common? It's common, right? Am I reading that right? Common? Or is that it doesn't matter. We'll call it either pop peasant, it's probably peasant. I can't tell what it is. It's a common, it's a common. Black Mage's rod is a common case. It's fantastic for a popper cube, right? You're gonna have non-creature spells, maybe maybe a little bit more creature-centric in those, but with modern magic and what's happening, sure. Yeah, I'd rock this in a popper cube all day. Our good friend Chris wanted me to highlight a card for peasant cube that he has been saying is killing it. Normally means it's super optimal if we know Chris, right? But dragon dragon's lance for one colis and a white, you get an artifact equipment, another job select. We got a Cooper in the background. Equipped creature gets plus one, plus zero, and is a knight in addition to other types. I don't think that matters a whole lot, but during your turn, equipped creature has flying. So basically you're getting a what is it? You're getting a 2-1 flyer for two. That's pretty good stats for a peasant cube, right? I mean, most of the stuff's coming down the ground. It's a good aggressive card. I don't think I particularly love it, but here we are. It's a card.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

I mean, obviously it kind of fits how Chris likes to construct. Certainly, he likes to play aggro, so you know, typically you're gonna find a lot of cards like this in his cubes, especially in Boros, where again, this comes down, you create the 1-1, the equip creature gets plus one plus zero, it has a typo effect. I don't know if knights are a big deal in that cube, but it's two mana for a two-one, and on your turn it has flying, so you got a decent chance that it that it can swing and attack. The the thing I don't like about it, honestly, is the equip four, I think, is incredibly overcosted, even though I mean just for plus one plus zero and flying, I I think that's incredibly excessive. I don't I don't know why the equip cost is so high on that.

SPEAKER_00 46:44

Um I interest you in humble barbed spike.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like barbed spike.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

It's just a two-one that same thing.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

It has flying, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:53

Yeah, yeah. I can get down with that.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

It doesn't give flying, but but it has.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

You don't get to select a job. You don't get a ship. You don't you don't get a career. You don't get a career, you just got a barbed spike.

SPEAKER_01 47:03

But you can be a hero, though.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

You can be a hero here too. You can walk around. Imagine going to the office and telling everybody you got selected for the job and I am a hero. Everybody's gonna love you. You're gonna do great.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

No, no, we're talking about heroes all the time on the week that Bonnie Tyler passed away as well. So shout out to Bonnie.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

Another one that I have seen showing up in a ton of cubes, and I love to see it. I want to say it was like in Choop's uh whatever, A Toll something, Pirates, Desert Cube. Can't think of the name of it, Bloody Bay, whatever he's calling the thing. It's a really cool cube. So Desert Cube. Also, totally screwing that up. Shout out Shoop featured at KubeCon 2026. But Machinist Arsenal is a really cool card for four colors and one white. You get the job select again, it's equipment. And is an artificer in addition to its other types.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Is this in your artifact cube? No, I've thought about it.

SPEAKER_02 47:50

I have stared at it for a while, but five mana, I have gotten a little too optimal for the number five.

SPEAKER_01 47:54

Yeah, but five mana? I mean, let's say you've got I'm not gonna do it. Let's say you've got three other artifacts, right? So you've got a one-one plus uh that's a seven seven.

SPEAKER_02 48:03

I know, but it f it's also a seven seven that has no evasion. I've got cards in the five drop slot that just do a whole lot more than this card. But I have seen this card showing up in a lot of different cubes, and I do appreciate what it does.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

Do you have any artificer matters?

SPEAKER_02 48:17

I did. I did at first, but it felt like it was so hidden and weaved into the cube. Like I had the goggles in there and all at one point, but nobody seems to even notice that. Like making people play your cube that's already complicated and may, I don't know, maybe has a few commander cards in there. Also have to pause and look and go, oh, well, that's a wombat. I got a wombat payoff. If my wombats get this, I mean, come on, you're killing me. So yeah, I I I just felt like it was a little too much Easter egg-y, so I kind of pulled it back out.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

That's fair, that's fair. And I like obviously artifacts are a fun type, and I think the the I suppose maybe the problem I have is that there's too much artifact matters and not artificer matters, and maybe that's just an overall magic thing that there's a lot of you know things that care about the number of artifacts or do things with artifacts. Make artificers do something.

SPEAKER_02 49:04

Well, that's what I like about this too. This pulls in like the classes and kind of folds in cube ideas and and you get type type stuff folded into it. Because I'll see like monks and I'll see knights, and some of them make an artificer. I do like that because it plays into a lot of different cube diversity at that point. I agree. It's not just the batter skull that comes down and says, I got four or four lifelink, I got a creature attached to me. I just want there to be enough.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

I just want there to be enough support for diversity and interesting deck building opportunities depending on the type creature type that you're that you're referencing, right? I'd I would probably do it after this, after we finish recording. Like exactly what is out there for something like Artificer that is that is fun. I've got a bunch of them. There's probably a bunch. What about Hero? There probably wasn't much before some of the newer sets, but what other type stuff is out there that you can make interesting?

SPEAKER_02 49:57

What would I think that this modern outside of the union is? Well, I want to think these mostly colored modern equipment coming out nowadays does a lot more, at least from my perspective, provides a lot more rewarding play experience and a lot more opportunities to like I feel smart because I did the thing instead of just making this colorless thing that counts how many artifacts I have. Sure. Right? It's just a different it's a rewarding feeling in the gameplay experience that I do miss whenever I play that because sometimes all the cards start feeling kind of samey on the landscape. Yeah. I like it when I get something out that says job select, and I can I feel like I'm casting non-creature spells and pinging you for one. I feel like I'm playing a smart game of magic, opposed to I'm turning this nettle cyst sideways, which I do love, and I just counted my six artifacts, and you gotta deal with this tread treadmall.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

Alright, so sometimes I like to let's just unga bunga turn things sideways. Sometimes I want to do more complex things.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

Yeah, and I think from a cube design perspective, you're you probably are going to, if you have eight players in your cube, there is going to be someone, if not more than one, that enjoys doing so. Or even just, you know what, I've had a rough day and I show up to play magic, and you know what, I don't want to think too much. I don't need to play no crazy combo deck today. I want to play magic, but sometimes I just want to turn creatures sideways and not have to think too much.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Well, I want to take it back to the top of the episode and ask about now I know that I picked some very select cards here, literally bum-bum, shh, but back to the Stoneforge Mystic conversation we topped it off with, right? Does it look like there she is as compatible with these modern cards as she was when there were bigger I'm answering the question for you, it's a loaded question, but when your equipment was big old chonkers, right? Loxed on Warhammer, Batter Skull, even before Cauldr existed, and Sword of X and Y. She seemed really important. At least in the vintage queue. But Iron Runner, even in my Uber Bear's Artifact Cube. But she feels less like less important now that a lot of these kind of do the thing on their own.

SPEAKER_01 51:50

It's a bit of a shame though, isn't it, really? Because there are, you know, equipment has come a long way. There's always going to be equipment that's created new equipment in every set that comes along. So there's a lot of diversity and a lot of opportunity for design options and choices. But maybe trusty machete, make it great again. Yeah, I mean. I don't know. And and I'll put put this question out to you guys. Like, do you feel like maybe something like Stoneforge Mystic that had a great reputation for a long time and then kind of lived on life support for a while as well? Do you kind of feel like, and and this is probably not just exclusive to Stoneforge, but as is a card that people have said, you know what? That card had its time in the sun, it had its time in vintage cubes, it had its time in constructed format, and now I'm just kind of looking for other things to do. May tell us about, you know, you're obviously uh established cube curator, you've got a whole bunch of cubes. Where is the landscape of equipment in general across your cubes? And how has the last let's even talk about the last kind of three or four years since we've been doing this podcast, and since, like, you know, back then the swords were falling out of favor, Sophie just didn't have the the power level that it did back in the day. Where is equipment in general in your cubes?

SPEAKER_00 53:06

I think equipment was in a weird spot for a long, long time, and unless you explicitly were supporting equipment, there were a lot of people that were very hesitant to start using their equipment. And then the people who loved equipment would just start throwing it at everything because they were the equipment people. And once we started getting more generic options, like the JavaScript, living weapon, etc., and we started actually seeing those be fleshed out so that way there's high enough density so that we can have high like enough packages to make them feel draftable, especially with like equipment that just ETVs does things, or something like A, there's supermarket where just the impetus comes in, generates lots of value. I think that the scope of equipment is going to continue to improve and get more complex and get more things that are immediate that give people the feel good of doing either something complex or doing something unga unga like classic. And so long as we keep getting those options, that there's always going to be a home for things like unfortunately, and there's always going to be a home for things like uh even classic living weapons like uh school. Sometimes people want the old easy, sometimes people want to explore new things, and I think that it is very difficult to apply a blanket context, but I think that the amount of options that we have nowadays has drastically improved the cube design space for equipment as a whole. Because it makes a lot more cube that isn't uh uh equipment centric be able to feature some more equipment. And that it has been an upside as a whole.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

And on that note, I'm gonna open up this really tasty, non-alcoholic athletic to just probably just empty calories.

SPEAKER_01 54:44

And so what are you saying? So, Anthony, just before we wrap up, as I've I asked May about equipment, so I'm gonna kind of pose this to you. Do you feel like and and I think sort of following on from what May said, it's not it is interesting, and we all want interesting cards in our cubes. I think the fact that the the the modern sort of equipment design is bringing the equipment in attached to a body, I think is incredibly important. So again, these four mirrored in and getting monks and rebels and stuff like that is kind of critical to their success in a lot of cubes. But I'm I'm just interesting.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

I think they blur the lines on creatures versus equipment now. They don't, they're they're really not they're inseparable at this point, at least with the modern designs, right? So before I would have dedicated a slot in my cube to a sort of X and Y, and Stoneforge would have held a slot and it would have sought them out, right?

SPEAKER_01 55:33

But now they're kind of coded.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

So now they take a slot in my red select section if they do enough. Yeah. That's it. So that changes the whole way you look at it. Almost like streamlines the cube building process. My only fear is that the cards are so standalone and so they're on an island all by themselves that they don't have to look at the other equipment to care what you got going on, right?

SPEAKER_00 55:53

Whereas before you How much do you really have to build for Corey a steel cutter as an example?

SPEAKER_02 55:58

Yeah, it was really exciting before when you built this. I didn't like it, but people felt really cool when they got this giant juggernaut, right? You can't stop the beat down coming at you. The sword of Sophie's on it, and it's oh man, now they're attaching batter skull to it. Like, what is this thing coming at me? No, let's put a bone splitter on it.

SPEAKER_01 56:12

Even Cauldra. Like, how many times have you watched your opponent put Stoneforge and then Cauldra down and been like, you know what? If I don't have an answer to this, which requires a fairly specific answer, I'm gonna die in like three or four hits.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

And the funny thing is, I still cannot run Cauldra Complete in my artifact cube. It's just it's back to it. Well, it just asks a question that I can't answer, and the only thing I can say, well, it dies to removal if you if you drew the removal. Oh, and also if you'd gotten the removal out of your sideboard and put it in your main deck, oh you took it out? Oh, um, well, you got you always got next game to try to recover.

SPEAKER_00 56:42

Cauldra complete is indestructible.

SPEAKER_02 56:43

Yes. Yeah, yeah. So I just kind of like to avoid cards like that from a curation standpoint. I like these new ones because they're vulnerable. They do get a little bit like soupy, I think, even though modern original equipment was soupy too. I mean, there it's always been soupy. But at least now the cards, as they read, can inspire a cube direction. They go, hey, if I got a wizard thing, I can do a thing. If I got a night thing, maybe I can put this in there. Or maybe I've got a non-creatures not really spells matter thing, I can do a thing. It opens up more avenues of thought.

SPEAKER_00 57:13

But they kind of equipment like Chainsaw that just ETB likes. I like that card.

SPEAKER_02 57:17

I like that card a lot. I love Chainsaw. Yeah, it was Chainsaw. That's in three cubes right now. I've got it my artifact cube, my vintage cube, and my horror cube, because it fits all three. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 57:27

Having we have so much equipment that ETB does things that it feels a lot less bad to run them, right? And I think that that is overall a good thing as opposed to just, ah yes, here's my equipment. Yes. I now attach the equipment. Oh no, you remove my thing that I equipped it to. Yes. I'm gonna sit here until I get another creature. I re-equip it, you remove the thing, I'm gonna cry.

SPEAKER_01 57:46

Yeah, it has to develop a board state and not just something that sits in front of your lands.

SPEAKER_02 57:53

My son calls it TikTok brain, where all this basically everything has to be in under five seconds, 15 seconds. Exactly. Now we don't we don't do this old school like well. I just played my Savannah lines. Now uh let me go ahead and pay my uh pay my two. I'm gonna attach my trusty machete, and you're like, remove Savannah Lions. We don't you don't have to do that anymore. Now you just get it all at once. You get a Savannah lines, you get a trusty machete, let's go. With haste and flurry.

SPEAKER_01 58:15

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 58:15

All right. Well This is fun. Yeah, it's fun. It's kind of good to have the game back on. We probably will. We're again we're gonna do this at our leisure. If it's your first time listening to Ubercube, share it with your friends, run out in the streets right now, scream this is the best podcast you've ever heard in your life. They're all gonna laugh at you, but you'll have fun doing it anyways. And we're gonna do this intermittently as we feel we see fit. It is an addictive thing, so it is. I may open up this mic a little sooner. Every time Chris makes me mad, I told him I'm gonna record an episode.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

What's next week, mom? Mom, mom, mom, mom the episode.

SPEAKER_02 58:48

We're gonna do mom mom the meatloaf episode. Oh gosh. Where's my meatloaf mom?

SPEAKER_01 58:52

Don't threaten me with a good time.

SPEAKER_02 58:54

So we are yeah, we could do a whole episode about that. We don't have patrons anymore. We do appreciate our patrons supporting us for the first 200 episodes. We I have shut that thing down, and we're gonna do this as we want to. Thanks for all the people supporting us. One cool thing that did happen, and we took our month and a half off, our downloads did not drop a whole lot, by the way. People apparently missed us. That's nice. Or they were accidentally hitting play a lot. That's nice. It could have been either one.

SPEAKER_01 59:17

Thank you to all of our listeners.

SPEAKER_02 59:18

Yeah, my mom was really good putting in the work, hitting play.

SPEAKER_01 59:21

Yeah, my mom's got like 50 cell phones. We just downloaded our.

SPEAKER_02 59:23

We do got some socials. The socials are gonna be you can find us on the Ubercube Discord, which I will include in the show notes. Ubercube can be found on YouTube, also in the show notes. We're gonna skip past all that, make it super easy. We encourage you that MTG drafting page, also in the show notes. I promise we'll be more organized next time if you really need to hear all this, but I promise you it'll be in the link for the show, and you can find us on all major players. So just hit play. Check us out.

SPEAKER_01 59:51

Hit play.

SPEAKER_02 59:51

Give us five stars. I hope you missed us. And other than that, we're gonna say the thing that we always say here at Ubercube, which is athletic is not that great without alcohol in it.