Cuber DJ – Top 10 Unusual Cards From My Cube’s History

I thought I would do a more lighthearted article this week to break up all the seriousness about the new set.  I have been cubing for years now, and I occasionally like to throw curveball cards in the mix for my players that are pretty obscure. Many of them are from Unglued and Unhinged.  Here’s my retrospective of odd cards from my cube’s history.

Honorable Mention

Mana Crypt

There were a few other cards that I’ve run in the cube that could have possibly made this list.  I tried for a while to make Contract from Below work, for instance.

My number eleven was Mana Crypt.  It wasn’t as obscure as the other cards in the list and still sees Vintage play. It is a powerful card that is designed terribly.  I’ve seen many players flip coins till they died!  I cut it with the rest of the fast mana.

Number Ten

Chaos Orb with Cube Errata

In my cube, it looked like this:

I decided to place this at number ten because a number of cube owners use it in this manner and do not consider it unusual at all. Chaos Orb is a card, originally from Limited Edition – Alpha, that you have to physically flip in the air when you activate its ability. Whatever cards it lands on are destroyed, as is the orb, if certain conditions are met.

The card is universally banned in tournaments, except 5-color.

Many cube owners have decided to turn the card into a colorless Vindicate by rewriting its abilities. This allows killing of hexproof and shroud creatures. Tom Lapille’s cube had been using this errata when I created my cube.

Chaos Orb was a very powerful draft pick. Academy Ruins was absolutely absurd with it.  However, I decided it wasn’t worth explaining, every draft, why I rewrote the abilities of a card and have since cut it.

Number Nine

Carnivorous Death-Parrot

This feathered beauty will tear you limb from limb. I felt this warranted an inclusion at some point, because the mana cost was efficient for it’s stats.

Most players would not actually play the drawback properly and arguments ran out. Was pointing to the flavor text enough? Did you have to say the entire phrase every turn? I decided the rules issues were annoying enough and cut it.

I still like the art very much. This card made it into my pirate-themed Commander deck, recently. It is the only parrot in MAGIC after all. My friends let me get away with silver-bordered just this once!

Number Eight

Gem Bazaar

In my cube, it looked like this:

Now, here is an obscure one! It only appeared in the Shandalar MAGIC computer game from Microprose. When I first built my cube, I wanted a card from every single MAGIC expansion. I decided I also needed a card from what is known as the Astral Set. The Astral Set were 12 cards made exclusively for the computer game, and they all use randomness in some way. Many were completely unplayable in paper form, like Whimsy. Gem Bazaar was an exciting mana-fixing card and was playable with 6-sided dice. I chose it to represent the Astral Set. When it was first in the cube, mana burn still existed, so tapping it, for no reason, to change the color was sort of risky. It got better after the removal of mana burn, but I still decided to cut it. More powerful, mana-fixing lands were printed recently that trumped its power level. The art is very unusual in that it’s a bird’s-eye view.

Number Seven

Rocket-Powered Turbo Slug

This is another silver-bordered gem that had rules issues. It was the precursor to the pact cycle from Future Sight. It allowed some blowout games and was quite powerful. I like that the art shows the slug is faster than Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Kamahl, Pit Fighter! Both are former cube cards that have haste. Red was already a force to be reckoned with without free creatures.

The issue we came into was, “If the creature died, did you still have to pay the mana cost?” With only 1 toughness, this issue came up quite often. The Unhinged FAQTIWDAWCC was no help. We couldn’t come to a consensus, so I cut the card.

Number Six

Strategy, Schmategy

Strategy, Schmategy is another die-rolling card. I found it to be quite fun, but I think I was the only person who drafted it. It intrigued me because it could be a two mana Armageddon or even a two mana Obliterate! I drafted it quite highly and often won with it. I like randomness in my games to some degree, but I found most of my other players did not, so it left the cube. I think the fact that they lost to a silver-bordered card irked my players more than it otherwise would have.

Number Five

Jack-in-the-Mox

This is a deceptively powerful card that I ran in my cube for a long time. It was cut with the rest of the fast mana some time ago. There were a lot of fun occurrences where it blew up in people’s faces the turn they played it. Key plays were often made when the correct mana cost was rolled. I remember a player needing blue mana to cast a Mana Leak for the win and rolling the 3! It’s an exciting, edge-of-your-seat card that I recommend for powered cube builders.

Number Four

Gifts Given

Oh, my, this is such a griefer card! You rip the best four cards out of your opponent’s deck and get the chance to play two of them yourself. This card is one of the holiday promos given out to Wizards employees and vendors. I equate this card in frustration level with Mind Twist. It is a very demoralizing card to have played against you. I’ve even see people play it multiple times per game to Jester’s Cap the opponent of any chance of winning. Recursion engines include Eternal Witness and Izzet Chronarch with either Crystal Shard or Erratic Portal. It has lost some of its usefulness lately with the resurgence of aggro. I like the balance this has created. Gifts Given is often passed a few times before being picked up now instead of an obvious first-pick.

Number Three

Gleemox

In my cube, it looked like this:

This card was a promotional card for MAGIC Online. It is more powerful than 5 of the Power 9 put together. It even says it’s banned in the rules text! It was the de facto first pick except Sol Ring for the entire time it was in my cube. You could put it in any deck and splash just about any card you wanted. It accelerated you and mana-fixed you in a way that only Black Lotus could possibly rival. I cut it for power reasons before I cut the rest of the power and fast mana cards. It was just ridonk!

Number Two

Arden Angel

In my cube, it looked like this:

This card was only printed in the Sega Dreamcast MAGIC game from Japan. I wanted a representative from that set in my cube as well when I first created it. The other Dreamcast cards were pretty weak except for Lydari Druid.  Lydari Druid was powerful, but unfeasible, to play in the cube.

Arden Angel, however, was playable with the use of a 4-sided die. It has a 25% chance of entering the battlefield from your graveyard at the beginning of your upkeep. Essentially, it’s a free, 4/4 flier. I have seen many a game where people drew to eight and immediately dumped this card in the bin without playing a land. It is a very risky play that often pays off for the gambling player. Here is a gameplay video of someone getting the turn two Arden Angel onto the battlefield!

I still run this card in my cube because nothing has been able to beat a free, 4/4 flier, yet. It also hasn’t needed to be cut for power issues.

Number One

Booster Tutor

I saved the most powerful for last. This card was only played for one draft night before I cut it due to power reasons. We used the remnants of the cube to represent the booster in this card. Picking one card from fifteen of the most powerful MAGIC cards ever printed was such a mistake. The player that drafted this card in each draft was the winner for both tournaments. Searching through fifteen cards was a huge time waster, too.

Booster Tutor is a boon at any point it is drawn in a match. It’s an instant and only one mana. Don’t even get me started on the second tournament where a player put this card on Isochron Scepter multiple times…

I hope this list was crazy enough for you! I’m always looking for the next intriguing card to come out of my favorite game.

‘Til next time,

DJ

cuberdj@gmail.com

All images owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro and its affiliates.