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Magic Online Cube Draft Walkthrough: U/G Tempo

Usman Jamil walks you through another Magic Online Cube draft, this time drafting a U/G Tempo deck. Check it out!

In this video article, I decided to do another draft with the most recent iteration of the Magic Online Cube.

Draft

Unlike the previous Simic deck, I felt that this deck didn’t have enough ways to really use Exploration since I didn’t have any bouncelands and it’d be dependent on when I drew it. It also suffered from being the color that was my minor color, which made it harder to cast in the early game.

Deck


In draft walkthrough articles, I usually talk about the changes that I’d make—and this one’s no exception—but I think the changes in this one would be more sweeping.

Joraga Treespeaker, Primeval Titan, Avenger of Zendikar, 4 Forest

+ Coralhelm Commander, Nantuko Vigilante, Future Sight, 4 Island

These changes emphasize the more tempo-ish direction I should have taken the deck by taking out the double green cards and keeping green as a splash. As a splash card, Joraga Treespeaker just doesn’t cut it. With this hypothetical build, I also considered taking out Coalition Relic for something like Deep Analysis because Future Sight could take advantage of the deck’s low mana curve.

That said, I was happy with the deck that I drafted. Even with the awkward double green spells in a mostly blue deck, the deck didn’t have many problems with those costs.

Round 1

I’ve played on the Magic Online Beta enough to have a lot of experience, so I should have stacked the Avenger triggers correctly after the Eureka did its thing. Also, I have no idea why I didn’t equip Consecrated Sphinx with Jitte during my second main phase, but thankfully Umezawa’s Jitte still dominates combat without being equipped to the right creature. In game 2, I shouldn’t have countered Yeva since it was likely a test spell, I wasn’t under pressure at the time, and my opponent probably thought I had a counterspell after being in the tank when they cast the Tutor. Oh well, Daze still does its thing.

Round 2

I was a little surprised that I didn’t get killed by a Hellspark Elemental in game 1 due to unearth, but I think my opponent may have just forgotten. It was unfortunate that Aurelia’s Fury countered my Ancestral Vision whenever I suspended it, but I wasn’t offering a lot of pressure and the opponent had time to see it coming. I also should have equipped Umezawa’s Jitte on to a Plant to possibly scare the opponent from attacking (if the opponent thought that the 0/1 Plant would get Jitte counters), although that may have been a bit of a stretch since it wasn’t like I was doing anything better with the mana.

Round 3

Alas, I once again got ringed out. With the amount of clock I was taking up, I should have definitely gone for the more tempo build (and I felt that I did in game 3 to an extent, but I could have gone deeper down the path and should have gone more for the mostly blue splashing green build), although the last game was a very hard one for me to win since my opponent sideboarded into every sweeper available.

Still, I think the deck performed well. I didn’t get as much use out of Opposition as I like to in Simic decks, but I think the deck did a pretty good job of showing how a good more tempo-based blue deck can be, even if it’s missing a lot of the early mana dorks. I hope that you enjoyed it.

May all of your opening packs contain Sol Rings!

@UsmanTheRad on Twitter
My blog featuring my updated pauper and regular cube lists: I’d Rather Be Cubing
Cube podcast that Anthony Avitollo and I co-host: The Third Power