The Road To Cube Worlds Continues With The Best Deck Yet

[@javibelcebu]

56 min video with the best deck yet, im ready to get sad

[@alltheorynopractice5467]

This has been my experience so far, too. Appreciate all the attempts to study, and knowing that it's rough for *everyone* helps.

[@SuperbFairy]

Hey LSV, been watching you since I was in college and always love your vintage drafts, stormless storm still a comfort video of mine

[@josephclites6971]

LSV is in a vintage cube slump. Makes me think something not right in the world. And if my life was riding on someone to draft and go 3-0 in vintage cube...still taking him every time. Love ya man. You gotta get to the Vegas Vintage Cube draft. Rooting for you!!

[@silnetto2710]

It's Noon which means another Cube and another opportunity to be disappointed! Or pleasantly surprised...

[@actualjessielive783]

I was in this tournament with you. I got the most mediocre GR deck and the went 3-0 then 0-1 :(

[@M-Casas]

Hi LSV, given that I'm a random KZbin commenter and you're just one of the most accomplished players in the history of the game, have you ever considered listening to my advice, given that it's based on no data and given my extensive experience with the Cube (personally watching you play it on KZbin)?

[@colesmith5114]

Love the vids, sending good vibes for the grind!

[@BirdNatureView]

You are absolutely amazing! Sometimes I wonder if you would be a little better if you would draft a little less colors :D This draft was the exception btw :P I think you drafted a bit more disciplined pack 1 and got rewarded for it with the best mox! I really hope you get there soon, you deserve it!

[@nathan135]

Feel like the Verdant over Torsten pick was unfortunate. Bant with Flash, Natural Order, Vaultborn, Torsten would have been sweet.

[@arpacoo]

Lsv, wisely: "you should think: how is my deck going to win on the draw? Lsv, a lil less wisely, upon drawing a 5 lander+5drop+uoat: "I think I should keep this hand".

[@brandonbagley795]

Being a one mana card that will often win the game on it's own I think I'd still have to give the nod to Hexdrinker for best pure green card. Would probably follow it up with Natural Order given how much better it's gotten with Atraxa, Vaultborn and other hits. Channel, Vaultborn, Rumble, Birds, the OUaT... green has a lot more going on than in years past.

[@LizEllwood]

I disagree, I think Vaultborn still outweighs Hexdrinker for a few reasons: 1) Green 1 drop is a very highly contested spot, and in a rampier deck, Hexdrinker is just worse than Halfling, Birds, or any other mana dork. 2) Vaultborn is easier to get out imo. Between Flash, reanimation, Natural Order, and the ease of casting it in a late game, it remains pretty flexibly well throughout the game. I will say some positives for hexdrinker definitely includes the fact that it has to get answered extremely quickly does kind of fall off with cards like Pick Your Poison (I think that's not in this iteration tho), Edict, Lilliana, etc. You run into a lot of issues with black specifically, which I think Vaultborn is better into. As well, being a one-drop that just gets pumped, it is extremely easy to have things to do when Hexdrinker is up. I just feel that the top end of Vaultborn is higher than hexdrinker and the floor is less worrying since Vaultborn has a lot of ways to pump it out However, I'm just some idiot on the internet so I wouldn't exactly take my word as gospel

[@eq.8640]

I’ve had some games where hexdrinker is great- play it early, pump it like crazy and if they don’t have removal they die in 3 hits from the 6/6. Still tho, that requires the mana investment and the opponent not having removal. Hexdrinker is strong, but the mana investment prevents it from being the best green card imo. It’s not a green one drop, it’s a green 9 mana investment.

[@traycarrot]

Good thinking! Hexdrinker definitely a contender. If you value high floors it's gotta be Hexdrinker, high ceilings then Vaultborn (I think). It's a 1 mana splashable threat that demands removal, fills your curve, and potentially solos a game which I feel deserves a mention. EDIT: He said P1P1, which definitely goes to Vaultborn for the higher ceiling.

[@n8rboy]

Clearly the "spoiler" worriers have never gone through the character growth of being a fan of a bad sports team. Just because you think you know the outcome doesn't mean that you can't still have fun watching the games.

[@nikolo14]

I mean, I agree to an extent, but if given the option I much more enjoy the game not knowing the outcome!

[@smithjohn2154]

I'm not sure it makes sense to imply that lsv is a bad sports team.

[@bricelory9534]

There are plenty of people who don't want to hear the results of sporting events before they get a chance to watch it too. So what?

[@jontrumble5315]

​@@smithjohn2154 yeah you're right he was definitely saying LSV is 1-to-1 a bad sports and wasn't making an abstract comparison

[@cronosdimitri4584]

no correlation when u cheer for a bad team u still hope they win against their odds and knowing the result for sure ruins the experience

[@kiDchemical]

Luis needs to face the fact he can’t whistle. I say that with sympathy as a man who is similarly afflicted.

[@Kumagoro42]

He *can* whistle, he just needs the right draws for it.

[@LucianDevine]

I am REALLY glad that you took Flash, specifically because Etali, Torsten, Worldspine are all gone. You weren't in a position to take them, but passing Flash to somebody that might have taken all of them hoping to get Flash, knowing you might have to face them, seems like a bad idea.

[@rossmcbeath4997]

And there was nothing that important in that pack anyway.

[@LucianDevine]

@@rossmcbeath4997 Well, he was strongly considering Nissa, which he was in the process of dragging to his deck before he reconsidered.

[@modestbukowski]

LSV - I'm curious if you use any tools to keep statistics of decks you play and win-rates? It feels like you are in a slump, but I'm not sure if it's the game that has changed with recent releases and you haven't adapted. I mean this as no dig as I watch your videos daily. I'm just curious if any stats would help you understand what's working and what's not? We all have our preferences and biases and sometimes it can be hard to see past that.

[@ultimateo621]

Yes! Please do an updated p1p1 ranking

[@MarkChaney-b8k]

Your thoughts on Alex Bertnotchi possibly willing a trip to cube worlds ?

[@rij9889]

I liked the misspoken academy after game one: The first use of karakas in that game was to make a-cat-army.

[@GuillaumePoulin]

LSV Soup du jour for you!

[@Atom1c1141]

So genuine question, the flash pick - is it worth it to just hate the flash even if we don’t think we are playing it knowing that Etali/Torsten/Worldspine are all floating around? We aren’t giving up much in that pack between Nissa/Goyf and green has been pretty open so we are likely to get one of those back anyways. I just don’t see this deck being able to beat a flash.

[@sanctuarygaming4984]

I like how, very slowly, over time, LSV is singlehandedly turning the meta away from broken blue decks. I'm sure there are no ulterior motives for this. It's not like this all has been some mad scheme to have blue decks be more open in cube, that would be preposterous!

[@emiach]

It’s more that the Cube has evolved to where you can’t just blindly force blue draw-go every draft, which is probably a good thing

[@Quicknick777]

Really enjoying these high stakes games. But given the prizes, does it make sense to share your list with others in the pod?

[@EastWindCommunity1973]

Also a little colludey... Other players don't get to know

[@LSVargas]

Answered above but it’s mostly because we both just posted our lists in our group chat, wasn’t really for any sort of edge (and we played round 2 anyways).

[@brothertobias]

How does Shifting Woodland work with Ajani? Can you turn the Land into Ajani and flip it to the Planeswalker?

[@dementievatz]

This is complicated. From what I’m reading, I think that if Woodland is copying Ajani, and a cat you control dies, you may exile the Woodland, but it will stay exiled because it can’t return transformed.

[@alexanderdickens2517]

In the turn at 48:42 was Seasoned Pyro to turn on Ajani, make two tokens, ping a creature for 4 an option?

[@lettersclinical]

I wonder if the BK/LSV rankings have gotten so meta that it is overlooking the power of classically powerful cards, i.e. tomb, mind twist, or picking an enabler early in the draft, and instead seems to be more focused on value/synergy that then loses to the unfair strategies. Generally speaking, of course, as, for example, channel is now being more respected again.

[@dementievatz]

I very much want to see Parallax Wave in the top 50. It feels like it wins the game at a tremendous rate when it hits the battlefield and isn’t answered.

[@kufkzxkxzvkdvkxz]

Sixth pick skullclamp seems insane to me in a serious draft.

[@californiaplant-basedeater2761]

I went Karakas green white beats splashing Mind Twist here, hating Archon over Mox wheeling Once Upon, Torston wheeling Vengevine, Worldspine Wurm wheeling Arwin, wheeled Myr Battlesphere, wheeled Pyrokinesis (Shifting good too but player to left is not green or white, imo) If you don't care I'm sorry you read this far but you're in the comments to read something. Wasted picks: lightning bolt, Bloodbraid Challenger Edit: note to self, Carnage Interpreter worth hating if possible, and Glorybringer over Bolt to cut/play a gamewinner

[@dementievatz]

Archon over Mox is an insane pick.

[@colesmith5114]

With all of our acceleration I thought mind twist was great for a splash here, but love seeing lsv and his thought processes

[@californiaplant-basedeater2761]

@@dementievatz That was the one that sticks out, isn't it? Well, everyone at least agrees the green Mox is the worst. The green deck already has ramp. To me artifacts in that deck are just a liability to random removal spells. The non league drafts need hate drafting. That's how one consistently wins. He had the Karakas, Archon is not a legend and a huge problem, Torston would be a problem too, as would Worldspine, and imo the cards for his deck in those packs (or at least the ones I could have picked for mine) were weak af. For me I wheeled one each time anyway and neutered the reanimate and flash decks in the process, and getting a Torston to play should it prove feasible after another pack and a half. The Mox is just a glorified mana dork. It could be looked at as a hate draft but at least it will most likely be off color for the person who takes it and could hurt them. No one is most likely mono red or mono white where it could really shine. And after passing it, maybe that makes the pest infestation a first go around pick, idk.

[@dementievatz]

@@californiaplant-basedeater2761 I think you’re severely undervaluing the Mox. It’s a land that doesn’t require a land drop, and a mana dork that doesn’t have summoning sickness. The power of a Mox, in a deck that isn’t specifically comboing with it, is that it is acceleration. Vintage Cube is so fast that it’s hard to imagine a deck that isn’t made better with an original Mox.

[@californiaplant-basedeater2761]

@@dementievatz These singleton decks aren't coordinated enough to compare this format to Vintage. Here, an off color mox is great in a mono colored beatdown deck, the all artifact deck, and to me that's just about it. Unless one has multiple Moxes/Mana Crypt, but that is rare. And... another deck might draw the Mox in the opening seven every now and then, but after that it is blah. The Archon can be Entombed or otherwise searched for.

[@Anusien]

I wonder if you should be ranking Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox higher. Karakas is busted for sure, but so is fast mana especially on the draw.

[@californiaplant-basedeater2761]

Both are less than a card. They suck. Draw 7 deck only for me, or very, very dedicated lands deck.

[@emiach]

They’re pretty bad in cube except in very specific decks. If anything LSV overvalues Mox Diamond

[@robertfuson2253]

"I really like cornering the market on Green" -LSV 2024

[@jordan8119]

I love all the retros

[@konner359]

Is there a list of people that have Q'd for Vegas?

[@LucianDevine]

Would Craterhoof be ahead of Vaultborn if it were allowed into the cube?

[@entrer1]

I don't have any idea if hoof would be strong, but I certainly miss it.

[@LucianDevine]

@@entrer1 With all the mana dorks, I feel like it prolly would be, especially as long as Natural Order and GSZ are in the cube.

[@ozza000]

Craterhoof was taken out because the general consensus was its time had kinda passed. It was very one dimensional pretty much only used as a Natural Order target that required you to have a lot of mana dorks. The newer stuff is much more multi-dimensional like Vaultborn and Atraxa, they work with more things, and require less support.

[@LucianDevine]

@@ozza000 Which is fair, though the number of mana dorks has also increased, maybe not quite doubled, but close. I also think it could be good in GW, GR, or Naya pending whether you are using GSZ, Natural Order, Orcish Lumberjack, or even Cradle to cheat it into play. to cheat it out. Both colors have a fair few cheap creatures to enable it to swing for lethal.

[@giancarlocafaro6734]

@@LucianDevinehoof was taken out when all these things were in the cube. You are really focusing on the best case scenarios, but it’s a super expensive card that does nothing sometimes. It just doesn’t win as often as you’d like for a card like that.

[@nicolobelmonte5219]

M1G1, wasn't reasonable to kill the cat token with command to flip Ajani turn 3?

[@LucianDevine]

He wanted to pressure what looked like a combo deck by putting more pressure on the board, as he said immediately after playing Inti. There are several lines there, all of which are good and bad against several different deck types.

[@CullingCrimson.]

The disrespect of ancient tomb kills me

[@BlTCHEZAlNTSHlT]

fastbond is the best green card in the cube

[@kungfupandaluver6919]

oh yeah Green gamers

[@fpejanovic]

Is this version of the cube (for the road to cube worlds) even good? it seems like you lose a lot :( vs your own cube that you play on the custom server. those decks tend to be way more interesting and varied

[@GeeBeeEh]

Honestly not the biggest fan of fury p3p1. Seasoned pyro combo with skullclamp might have lured you into red

[@jackcarsen6247]

LETS GOOO

[@dannyketch7683]

IMHO Luis undervalues lands without basic land types like creature lands and fastlands.

[@rossmcbeath4997]

He used to love creature lands, but thinks they are too slow now I guess.

[@peisenxu952]

Hey Luis, great stuff. Have you ever considered adding in like 30 minutes of dead air to the end of streams so that the duration doesn't spoil anything for the viewers?

[@RyanSandorRichards]

You can’t do that on KZbin because the algorithm heavily weighs the total percentage of a video played when recommending videos to new audiences. So doing that would kill his growth and views.

[@LSVargas]

No

[@peterklarskov1620]

@@LSVargas Why is that? My second-favourite content creator is Caedrel who streams League matches, and he always adds anti-spoiler duration to videos. It's really anti-climatic to watch you go into a match with 8 minutes left of the video.

[@peisenxu952]

@@LSVargas 😂

[@LucianDevine]

@@peterklarskov1620 Just try not to move your mouse when he goes into match 2.

[@irifhir]

Last one was pretty good...

[@LucianDevine]

Yeah...pretty good is one way to put it...

[@dementievatz]

Inquiring minds want to know - did Troll end up winning the pod?

[@LSVargas]

Unfortunately not

[@MarkChaney-b8k]

Too bad his deck looked nuts

[@wasup1193]

goddamn troll

[@LucianDevine]

That last game was disgusting!

[@vanwright7821]

Lunch time

[@RafiRuff]

A 1RR card in this deck seems weird to me

[@oscarluebenson7561]

Smith Betty Jackson Donald Clark George

[@itslevi00]

Red-based aggressive decks are the best decks in the MTGO cube

[@HuttVita-w2o]

Allen Matthew Gonzalez Barbara Hernandez Thomas

[@leebosley5984]

Really think you need to value Mind Twist higher :)

[@traycarrot]

I KNOW Mind Twist is not good, but my heart says otherwise

[@Nalianna]

4:44 "There's also a lumberjack" - And he's okay.

[@Matthew19Vexthem]

Spoiler Alert*** New Onlyfans intro

[@jmdamas]

Unfortunately, Troll is too strong

[@TuttleVictoria-i8j]

Perez George Martin Edward Gonzalez Daniel

[@timmifransson]

For all you oldschollers out there; when did combo loose it's meaning and became synonymous with synergi? A decade ago and earlier there was a huge difference between the two and combo exclusevly meant a combination of cards that won you the game.

[@timmifransson]

Would like to clarify that I scarcly hear the word synergi enymore.

[@bobboberson8297]

combo's meaning hasn't changed. it's always just been short for combination which can mean a lot of things. i've played for a decade too btw

[@bricelory9534]

​@@bobboberson8297 back in the early 2000s combo was primarily used for game winning combos, while cards that grew more powerful off interacting with one another were synergistic. It is certainly true that "combo" has taken over both usages

[@giancarlocafaro6734]

@@bricelory9534is flash/atraxa a combo or a synergy?

[@hugodiazroa]

spoiler blocker

[@shawnosnap3462]

P1p3 is ez emperor of bones imo

[@LucianDevine]

Except that he's done better with the green/X decks when it's counted the most, and it's the 2nd best creature in the Flash, Sneak, Breach, Reanimator decks, with further outs to Natural Order and GSZ.

[@dementievatz]

I agree with the general sentiment. Emperor of Bones feels like it gets picked a lot later than its power level.

[@peeporiot9948]

*obligatory comment complaining about how this qualifying structure rewards luck over skill*

[@shawnosnap3462]

Can you say more about what you’re talking about?

[@bricelory9534]

​@@shawnosnap3462 you have to 3-0 multiple drafts in a row, which as we can see with someone as skilled as LSV, rewards lucky drafts and opens more than requiring more long-term results that reward more consistent results and thus the skilled players. Of course, since the reward is getting to keep Cube cards, it's a bit more of a raffle/lottery type tournament anyway, so it makes business sense to have the qualifier reward the lottery a bit more than a more consistent qualifying requirements.

[@anosmianAcrimony]

Good thing his name is LUCK SKILL VICTORY

[@peeporiot9948]

@@shawnosnap3462 the format to qualify is you have to 6-0 the entire tournament. My issue with that is cube does require a lot of skill but the variance in what you need to draft and open to get 3-0 two times in a row rewards luck more than skill.

[@bbld294]

What, do you want them to play 100 drafts and take the player with the highest win-rate? Obviously 3-0ing two drafts in a row takes luck in addition to skill, but that's going to be the case for any practical structure for narrowing hundreds or even thousands of strong, invested players down to eight.

[@cesarramon4636]

.

[@LucidVision1]

updated top 50 list plz lord lsv!

[@hodlsage8968]

LSV - ADVICE - I have watched all your drafts ( 3 months in the hospital watched non-stop ). I have the statistics, and here are some helpful points. 1. Domain and 5 colors - No, just no... You get rolling out a good 2 or 3 color deck, then see some off-color card you love, and ***Squrriel*** abandon your build ( IE this draft running green deep some red and splash of black then... FLASH ??? ). 2. You focus a lot on lands, almost to a fault. Due to running so many colors, you now pick lands over spells ( see point 1. ). 3. When you ran Izzet, you crushed it !! You would focus more on counters and removal rather than good stuff. You play an amazing spell slinger, even Grixis ( again, see point 1. ). 4. As of late, you are very light on counter spells and removal ( see point 3. ). I hope this helps and if you think it does not, let's have a bet, you run Izzet and if you win, I will have my LGS all subscribe and if you lose, I will comment " you are right and I am wrong " on all your videos. However, just know I have a spreadsheet on your stats, and Izzet is the way!! 😅

[@LSVargas]

Appreciate the effort but this isn’t very useful to me 😄

[@hodlsage8968]

@@LSVargas Ha, I get it to many words... Then, simpler, you win more rounds of cube draft with two color decks, mainly red and blue. Sometimes a splash of a third color. Control / Arifacts / Spell slinger over Domain good stuff... I Hope this helps.

[@emiach]

The cube changes a lot, tracking long term isn’t that useful although I think some of your points are fair

[@casparash5370]

​@@hodlsage8968nice idea 👍 I think this approach misses a bit of the nuance of drafting. Especially with high level opponents. If LSV made an effort to push for certain types of decks I assume the win percentage would suffer. VC seems like a format that rewards drafting the hard way and being flexible. Remember that the odds will balance out over thousands of games...3 months seems like a long sample time but probably isn't (ask serko) Also the cube changes quickly enough that this advice is probably only relevant to briefly to act upon 😅

[@hodlsage8968]

@casparash5370 I agree here. Note 3 months of watching most all of his videos, and run the numbers, lol. I had nothing else to do. Also, I draft VC a ton ( I have my own cube we run in our play group ). While most are playing cube, I redo my cube research cube data and watch all cube videos, I eat, sleep, and breathe cube, lol. I found that Domain Good stuff just gets beat by guilds' hands down no matter what cube. Think - 40 cards, with slots taken up by mana fixing vs. cards in line with your build ( IE tutors, interaction, extra combo, etc ). Now that being said, nothing is 100%. Domain, as well 5 color work, and I am by far no pro or as good of a player as LSV. However, I feel that more brains are better than one. Thus why I offer some insight and love a good discussion on strategy as well as game play. Disclaimer-- These are only my opinions...

[@littlebandit3451]

- Spoiler Blocker -

[@Mebimuffo]

56 min video :( unlucky

[@jacobwheeler9330]

"we sent each other screen shots after we finished drafting" - isn't that just cheating? You knew about 45 cards your other Opps definitely didn't have and so did he

[@Godot74]

Lol, I would not have put this so aggressively, but I did want to raise my hand and ask LSV if he thought there was any moral grey area here and if he could steelman the case for both sides ..

[@EFGruesome]

Genius or grifter fodder

[@LSVargas]

TBH I didn’t really think about it, we just posted both our lists in our group chat so the lads could see what we drafted. I don’t think it matters a ton but if I were to come up again I suppose I’d avoid doing so

[@jacobwheeler9330]

@@Godot74 You are right; that was more aggressive than it needed to be. I think the impact was pretty low in this case as well.

[@genshinimpactspeedrunner9967]

I think the fact that this is an online match makes it more of an "anything goes" type of thing. Reason being - is that there are probably some people who have friends with them in person drafting and playing with them at the same time. So its possible your being 2v1ed and dont even know it. Or others are sharing decklists or in voice call at the same time. You never know, so I think thats why there arent rules against this.

[@clintUofR08]

To the spoiler warning brigade: how do you ignore the length of the video? And if you've found a way, then why do you care about the comment section? Or is my mistake trying to apply logic to anything at all?

[@TheoryTechDotDek]

He's gone 3-0 in under an hour, I tell myself as he loses game 1 round 2 with 15 minutes less in the video.

[@joshualawall5554]

Hey man, I wouldn’t be bothered with so something you don’t have control over, if people want a spoiler blocker I say let them. Doesn’t hurt no one

[@bricelory9534]

Main problem is KZbin likes to display top comments in many display formats, whether someone wants it to or not, so even if you're trying to avoid comments til after the video, it might just show you the spoiler you were trying to avoid. On the other hand, I do find it easy to ignore video length and not see it beyond the first click of the video.

[@87539319]

even if you know he didn't 6-0, it's nice to make sure you don't get even more details

[@littlebandit3451]

Not only trying to prevent the spoiler of the outcome of all of the matches. Just preventing spoilers of plays or picks made. The video length is a good indicator of the outcomes, but there is no harm in trying to prevent some spoilers to others.

[@mulldrifterz6469]

The moment you took flash was the moment Ive given up as a fan. I'm tired of all these soup decks where you give up solid picks for stronger cards in a vacuum and the deck ends up doing mid things. How did it make sense in pack 3 to take flash with very little fixing to stretch into a 5th color when you had one solid target knowing the best ones were gone. It's infuriating to watch you as a viewer and someone that has watched you for years. Team drafts have ruined you as a player.

[@LSVargas]

Ok bye 👋

[@traycarrot]

Who's gonna tell this guy he isn't forced to watch and comment mean things everyday 😂

[@lp1680]

@@traycarrot looool

[@WesleyMaguire-sy2nj]

​@@LSVargassharpest technical drafting we've gotten to see from you in a while. Thanks!

[@teliots]

Mispronouncing One Upon a Time every time is pretty cringey.

[@zinofwin4973]

The irony is strong

[@LSVargas]

Ouat is the initials, I don’t understand the problem?

[@teliots]

@@LSVargas it makes me cringe

[@rossmcbeath4997]

@@LSVargas It makes me chuckle and it's fine.

[@dementievatz]

It’s fine.