The Cube is Broooooken...

Channel is the most broken card ever printed.

There’s actually a story behind this.

Last night I finally got to experience the fun, hilarity, and power of drafting The Cube at the Blystone’s house. We had six players—Twaun, Guhstin, Jeff, TK (later replaced by the Late JC), Budweg, and myself—and so decided to play the best six-player format ever, Generals. And we built decks for that by Winston drafting from The Cube.

In my first draft, with TK and Guhstin on my team against Jeff, Twaun, and Budweg, I was starting to draft mostly black. I had picked up Demonic Tutor some removal cards like Nekrataal, and topdecked a Hypnotic Specter. I had Dark Ritual and Cabal Coffers too. Then Darksteel Colossus came around and my goal became getting that into play with mana acceleration. Then Channel came around. Then Vampiric Tutor. Then Sylvan Tutor.

Suddenly my deck became combo-avec-jank. I had six cards to combo with: three tutors, Channel, the Iron Giant, and Recollect in case something went wrong. In a 40-card format, I like my odds. The rest of my cards were pretty inconsequential, though I had some removal and some guys.

We shuffled up for the first game, me across from Budweg’s right-flank, Twaun. My opening hand has Forest, Llanowar Elf, Demonic Tutor, Channel, Swamp, Swamp, Lotus Petal. Undisrupted, that is a second turn Darksteel.

I showed my hand to my teammates, and Guhstin started freaking out! If this were to work, it would be the most amazing thing ever in Cube draft.

I played a Llanowar Elf and passed, trying to be casual. Twaun sent a Lightning Bolt at its head, trying to slow my development. I thought my clock had been pushed back to third turn, but Guhstin gesticulates wildly to show that it wasn’t. Finally I realized what he was talking about, played another land and Lotus Petal, then Channeled into Demonic Tutor for Darksteel, sending myself to eight life.

Darksteel romped all over Twaun’s life total, then got a healthy 11 in on Budweg before it was Duplicated. We still had enough juice to finish them off, though, and a Ravenous Baloth from me punched through for the victory.

Game two was pretty much the same story, though I didn’t have to tutor for Darksteel.

Twaun was real emo after that. I guess he hasn’t won a game of Magic in, like, three years or something. Sorry, dude. Attack for 11, I guess.

Later, after the Late JC tagged out TK, I drafted Channel again, in a deck that included Fireball and Demonfire. And opened my first hand to find them both! How good!

It would have been shaky since I was at four life and my right flank was at three, but I think we were on our way to victory there. They scooped anyway.

Thinking about it, I think Winston drafting means generally more coherent but less powerful decks from The Cube. Since the entire Cube is divided up into 45-card chunks, which are then shuffled together in pairs to make 90-card drafting piles, a player can’t plan ahead on looking for certain cards because there’s a good chance they’ll be in someone else’s pile. Or not in the drafted cards at all.

What this indicates to me is that, in that situation, the most broken card that can be played (actually cast) and supported (cast in a deck that can use it) will win the game. This also means that if you find an exceptionally broken card (Tinker, Channel, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, Necropotence, Yawgmoth’s Will, et al.), you darn well better pick it up, pretty much regardless of whether you can use it or not.

Whenever a Wizards know-it-all talks about broken cards and combo, they usually mention the concept of an “engine,” a card or series of cards that turns one resource into another.

In my opinion, the best examples of these cards are, in order, Channel, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, and Necropotence. These are the most broken cards in Magic; if they were differently costed, every deck would play them. These cards are the best at taking your top early-game resource, life, and turning it into a more useful resource, either mana or cards.

Channel is super, super cheap for what it does. Two green mana and some life is a pittance to make 19 mana. If it cost UU or BB, it would be played in every Vintage deck that could support it, probably for exactly the same thing I used it for—playing some massive artifact with which to beat face.

Also, it’s the best card in Belcher; anyone who cuts it is an idiot and I hate them.

Yawgmoth’s Bargain and Necropotence change life into cards, and everybody knows that card-drawing is where it’s at. The problem with these cards that keeps them from being more broken than Channel is that the former is too expensive for the early game (usually, Dark Rituals aside), and the second has an awkward clause about not giving you the cards until next turn and before you discard.

Yawgmoth’s Will is probably fourth. It’s undercosted and has an amazing effect on your hand-size, but it loses some strength based on it needing some buildup to be really good. Obviously there are decks (GrimLong and other tendrils-based combo) that can abuse this, but for most decks it’s a game-breaking mid-game card, rather than a game-winning early-game card, like Channel.

Anyway, I’m sure everybody knows and has their opinions about broken cards in Magic. I don’t really want to get into a debate. I’m just saying that, in my opinion, Channel is the most amazing card ever printed and you would be loath to let it pass you in a Cube draft. From there, any big spells you can play off of it (Demonfire anyone?) will win you the game.