Cube’s Big Show - The AlphaFrog Invitational!

Posted on Nov 27, 2023

Hi everybody, MTGOTony here!

We have a very special Cube Spotlight treat starting tomorrow on our Twitch channel - plus it will be available for everyone to try in Magic Online for two weeks starting Wednesday, December 6! Speaking of that stream …

Cube’s Big Show - The AlphaFrog Invitational!

This alt-Vintage Cube will be featured on the AlphaFrog Invitational, a weekly series streaming on the official Magic Online Twitch channel starting tomorrow at 1 p.m. Pacific time (21:00 UTC). Every Tuesday for eight episodes, a group of eight Magic celebrities will take on the challenge of this very Cube, with winners returning the next week to face new foes.

Stacked doesn’t begin to describe the lineup of players in Week 1: 

• The current World Champion - Jean-Emmanuel Depraz  
• Last year’s World Champion - Nathan Steuer 
• Two Hall-of-Famers - Luis Scott-Vargas and Reid Duke 
• Fresh off his Super League victory – Corey Baumeister 
• And three other winners of PT-level tournaments - Luis Salvatto, Eli Kassis, and Kyle Rose! 

Anuraag Das and Cube creator Gavin Thompson-Exner host each week’s festivities. Tune in to see what craziness ensues in this battle of MTGO titans and who gets to come back and draft again next week! Now to tell you all about what to expect from the Cube, here’s Gavin: 

A Wild AlphaFrog Appears!

Hello, Cube fans! I’m Gavin Thompson-Exner, or AlphaFrog - or possibly better known as that guy who runs the server where LSV Cube drafts! I’ve been playing MTG my whole life, mostly on MTGO. I was a member of the Magic Pro League and played on the Pro Tour for several years. During my time on the Pro Tour, I organized and captained one of the more successful teams, The Sewer Rats. I’m no longer qualified for the PT, which has given me time to focus on my favorite kind of Magic – CUBE!

Let’s dive into how my Cube came to be, how it has evolved, and some of the cool things you can look forward to drafting when it’s on Magic Online!

A Good Origin Story

Like many others, I fell in love with Cube through MTGO. Over the years I’ve drafted pretty much every Cube on there and even challenged myself to be trophy leader a few times. Several years ago, I joined a group of competitive players to organize our own drafts through the MTGO single elim queues, and that group has grown into a huge community of dedicated Cube enthusiasts that include some of the best players in the game! We became known amongst competitive players as the place to practice Cube if you qualified for the MOCS; our group includes several MOCS Cube Draft champions. Without Grands Prix to draft at every weekend, many of that competitive draft crowd have found a place in my group to scratch the itch by drafting Cubes online.

As we grew in numbers, we started drafting even when the Cube wasn’t on MTGO, and so I decided to try my hand at streamlining the Cube as best as I could for our competitive environment. I started by cutting unpopular cards that tend to never be drafted in favor of archetypal cards and combo pieces. I joined Cube groups and pored over Cubes online looking for interesting cards and ideas. With plenty of engaging feedback from the Cube community, I have crafted a Cube that I hope sparks joy!

This is the same Cube featured in many of LSV’s videos and streams, as well as my previous AlphaFrog Invitational shows. If you are one of the many people who have asked me if there’s a way to join in the fun, here is your chance!

AlphaFrog Cube Breakdown

Because my Cube is based entirely on the MTGO Vintage Cube, it will feel familiar. Some of the recent updates to the MTGO Cube were even inspired by my Cube; they are growing together! There are about 10-15 cards different per color group - about 100 changes in all - so let’s talk about the biggest differences in each color. 

White

White is powerful because its threats are diverse and its removal is cheap and effective. Many cards are versatile and fit into aggro, midrange, and control plans. My Cube features a couple of combos as well.

• Heliod, Sun-Crowned allows you to give either Walking Ballista or Triskelion lifelink to deal infinite damage.
• Auriok Salvagers can loop Black Lotus or Lions Eye Diamond for infinite mana. If you’re comboing with Lion’s Eye Diamond, you want something like Chromatic Star or Mishra’s Bauble as well to make sure you can spend the mana on something productive.
• Swift Reconfiguration combos with Devoted Druid to produce infinite mana, since the vehicle can withstand as many -1/-1 counters as you want to put on it.
• Additionally, Seasoned Dungeoneer gives aggro players access to Initiative at a reasonable mana cost.

Blue

Blue boasts the best card selection and combo.

• Hullbreacher is back to turn your opponent’s cards into Treasure (and tears).
• True-Name Nemesis is a two-way threat to help with board control or forcing through damage.
• This Cube features Gifts Ungiven, which is great for creative players. There are numerous ways to take advantage, but the classic combo is to search for only two cards - Unburial Rites and the creature you want to reanimate - so your opponent has to put both into the graveyard for you.

Black

Black is distinctive for hand disruption and reanimation, and it has good removal.

• In my Cube there are more black creatures with enters-the-battlefield triggers to help your midrange Reanimator decks run a little smoother.
• There are more ways to reanimate creatures as well, so if you go into that strategy you can have a little more confidence that you will find what you need. In particular, I’ve added Unmarked Grave for Entomb redundancy.

Red

Red excels with cheap burn spells and snowballing creatures. It also features artifact synergies like Goblin Welder and Daretti, Scrap Savant.

• Goblin Engineer and Phyrexian Dragon Engine are a nice newer pairing.
• Voldaren Epicure and Charming Scoundrel are cheap aggressive creatures that can be played by decks that need discard outlets.
• Reckless Stormseeker helps aggressive decks snowball, or if you’re R/B Reanimator it gives your big monsters haste.
• Chandra, Hope’s Beacon is a sweet curve topper. The dream is using the +2 to cast Time Walk on the same turn you cast her.

Green

Green is a versatile support color and home of the Lands combo deck, which uses Fastbond plus either Crucible of Worlds or Ramunap Excavator to do broken things with Zuran Orb, Strip Mine, Wasteland, and more. It’s also the best color to support the Dark Depths/Thespian's Stage combo, with Elvish Reclaimer, Knight of the Reliquary, and Primeval Titan being the most consistent ways to get the pieces into play.

Other highlights in green:

• Undermountain Adventurer is the most powerful green addition to my Cube.
• Heartbeat of Spring replaces Mana Flare as green is better at putting extra lands into play.
• In that same vein, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove gives you another Exploration effect and is also a cheeky way to combo with High Tide.
• Monster Manual gives you a little extra help if you’ve drafted an Oath of Druids or Channel deck that wants to put big Eldrazi types into play.

Multicolor

Two multicolor all-stars unique to my Cube are

• Comet, Stellar Pup, and Torsten, Founder of Benalia. Comet is a fun planeswalker that tests your die-rolling skills
• Torsten is one of the best cards to pair with Flash, Sneak Attack, or Through the Breach.

Artifacts & Lands 

There are some great single-card strategies among the artifacts added to this Cube: 

• Currency Converter is one of the cooler utility cards. Cheap, colorless, and functional, you’ll find uses for it in most decks. It really shines when your deck is already discarding a lot of cards because it’s easy to slip into play and generates free 2/2s and Treasures! 

• Coveted Jewel is a fun card - try and unlock its potential! I’ve found it pairs best with Goblin Welder and Displacer Kitten. Should you have to give the Jewel up, Narset, Parter of Veils; Leovold, Emissary of Trest; and Hullbreacher act as insurance against your opponent taking full advantage.  

• Agatha’s Soul Cauldron was recently added to the MTGO Cube, so I’ve added a handful of ways to help it out, including Mikaeus, the Lunarch, Heliod Sun-Crowned (for those Walking Ballista/Triskelion combos), and Voldaren Thrillseeker. 

Finally, I added some of the Restless Creature lands to give more access to that effect, while Lotus Field is there for land combo fans. Try untapping it with Candelabra of Tawnos or Garruk Wildspeaker! 

Additions from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan 

New set, new Cube cards! LCI has a lot of neat things from which to choose: 

• A couple older cards get upgraded: Suspicious Stowaway is turning into Malcom, Alluring Scoundrel and Brain Maggot is being replaced by Deep-Cavern Bat.  
• I think Ojer Ksalem, Deepest Growth and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal are the two best Gods and I’m excited to see how they perform.  
• Inti, Seneschal of the Sun is an awesome aggressive threat as well as a good discard outlet–if you play it with Laelia, Blade Reforged you have a theme deck!  
• White and Black each get a nice cheap piece of interaction in the form of Get Lost and Bitter Triumph.  
• I added Sentinel of the Nameless City to beef up Green and hopefully make Turn 1 Llanowar Elves a little better. 

Moments of Magic

Here’s a few inspiring combinations people have put together:

• Tourach, Dread Cantor + Wheel of Fortune to gain +1/+1 counters
• Lotus Field + Balance to eat your opponent’s lands
• Beseech the Mirror + Yawgmoth’s Will to cast all your mana generators and then Beseech again for Tendrils of Agony
• Unmarked grave to get echo of eons to have access to another draw 7
• Show and Tell + Portal to Phyrexia to trick your opponent into throwing away their best creature
• Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim + any draw 7 to give your Spirit Token and Teferi tons of counters
• Staff of the Storyteller + Retrofitter Foundry is a nice way to keep cards flowing and maintain board presence in grindy games.
• Soulherder + Reveillark will soon bring your whole graveyard back into play. Reveillark particularly likes to be paired with Phantasmal Image and Phyrexian Metamorph.
• Goblin Welder + any of Ragavan, Magda, Brazen Outlaw, or Fable of the Mirror Breaker + Mindslaver, to control your opponent for the rest of the match!
• Displacer Kitten has so many sweet interactions it’s impossible to list them all, but there are some common combos that come up a lot: with Tamiyo, Collector of Tales, and Time Walk or Time Warp, you can take infinite turns, or if you have Seething Song, Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, etc you can generate infinite mana. With Teferi, Time Raveler, and any mana rock that nets mana, such as a Mox, or Mana Vault, you can generate as much mana as you have cards in your deck, and draw them all.
• Hullbreaker Horror can also generate infinite mana and storm with 2 mana rocks.
• Fastbond + Upheaval, you can replay all your lands.

The most spectacular play I’ve ever made was to cast Fastbond on turn 1, followed by enough lands to cast Timetwister and Time Walk. I then proceeded to find Time Spiral to shuffle everything back, and with Courser of Kruphix, Timetwister, Regrowth, and Time Walk, played every land in my deck and took extra turns until I was able to win before my opponent got to take a single turn!

Game On!

That pretty much covers things. I hope you enjoy this Cube as much as I do. It’s been a real pleasure to work with so many different drafters to put these ideas together curating the Cube. I look forward to the future of Cube on MTGO. 

Be sure to play in Leagues starting Wednesday, December 6! 

AlphaFrog Cube Full Cardlist