The opposite of a profound truth may very well be another profound truth. – Niels Bohr

I have to be honest, I voted for the $400 version of this cube. The vote came very close between $200 and $400 and I was hoping that if I just gave it another day things might turn out my way. Alas, at $200 it stayed. Now I am not sure if building a cube for $200 being difficult is a profound truth, but after coming up with the white section it seems, first of all, that it is at least a real truth, but more so, that the opposite might be true as well. The accumulation of the cards, or building, of a $200 cube should be very easy. It also may ending up costing you, if you try really hard, less than $200 dollars.

One thing became clear to me as I was putting the first section of this list together: this was going to have to be a theoretical $200 build. It would be possible if every seller on TCGPlayer was a super shipper participant, but it is not so. First of all, there is absolutely no room for shipping fees with only $25 allocated per section, no way no how. Second, if you can’t handle white-bordered cards you better get out your sharpie because this cube is going to be full of them. Third, I avoided any cards that were in damaged condition and I only needed to get one that was heavily played, but lightly played and moderately played are the name of the game. Well, Magic is the name of this game, but there are a lot of non-NM cards in this cube.

The other side of truth: Even though I built this list using TCGPlayer low I think you can actually build it for less than $25. So many of these cards are worth so little that if you put out a call for the cards worth under 50 cents – which is 25 of 36 – you could get most of them for free from you friends. The rest of the cards should be really easy to pick up in trade as throw-ins or for really good value.

The Puzzle Box : White Section

[deck title= The List According to Type]

[1CC Creatures]

*Elite Vanguard

*Mother of Runes

*Savannah Lions

*Student of Warfare

[/1CC Creatures]

[2CC Creatures]

*Accorder Paladin

*Kor Skyfisher

*Lone Missionary

*Soltari Monk

*Soltari Trooper

*Wall of Omens

*Porcelain Legionnaire

[/2CC Creatures]

[3CC Creatures]

*Blade Splicer

*Fiend Hunter

*Flickerwisp

*Mirran Crusader

[/3CC Creatures]

[4CC Creatures]

*Calciderm

*Hero of Bladehold

*Kor Sanctifiers

[/4CC Creatures]

[5CC Creatures]

*Cloudgoat Ranger

*Serra Angel

[/5CC Creatures]

[6+CC Creatures]

*Sun Titan

*Vengeful Archon

[/6+CC Creatures]

[Planeswalker]

*Gideon Jura

[/Planeswalker]

[Instant]

*Condemn

*Mana Tithe

*Swords to Plowshares

*Disenchant

[/Instant]

[Sorcery]

*Balance

*Armageddon

*Day of Judgment

[/Sorcery]

[Enchantment]

*Journey to Nowhere

*Pacifism

*Arrest

*Oblivion Ring

*Faith’s Fetters

[/Enchantment]

[Artifact] *Shrine of Loyal Legions

[/Artifact]

[/deck]

[deck title= List According to Cost]

[$3+]

*Mother of Runes

*Hero of Bladehold

[/$3+]

[$2-$2.99]

*Gideon Jura

*Swords to Plowshares

*Student of Warfare

[/$2-$2.99]

[$1-$1.99]

*Armageddon *Mirran Crusader

[/$1-$1.99]

[$.50-$.99]

*Day of Judgement

*Wall of Omens

*Balance

[/.50-$.99]

[$.25-$.49]

*Soltari Monk

*Savannah Lions

*Blade Splicer

*Flickerwisp

[/.25-$.49]

[$.01-$.24]

*Pacifism

*Mana Tithe

*Condemn

*Fiend Hunter

*Vengeful Archon

*Oblivion Ring

*Accorder Paladin

*Porcelain Legionnaire

*Shrine of Loyal Legions

*Lone Missionary

*Cloudgoat Ranger

*Calciderm

*Elite Vanguard

*Journey to Nowhere

*Soltari Trooper

*Serra Angel

*Disenchant

*Arrest

*Kor Sanctifiers

*Faiths Fetters[/.01-$.24]

[/deck]

Final Price $24.83

Just a reminder, we are shooting for a powerful-feeling cube for little money – that’s the goal. Thus, we will need powerful cards. Luckily for us, at least some of them are cheap. Cards like [card]Balance[/card], [card]Armageddon[/card], [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card], [card]Gideon Jura[/card], [card]Hero of Bladehold[/card], [card]Mirran Crusader[/card], and [card]Day of Judgment[/card] are worth high picks in a non-budgeted cube. Unfortunately, there were some slots that needed filling that weren’t so cheap, [card]Banslayer Angel[/card] devolved to Serra Angel, and [card]Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite[/card] – who is a control finisher as well as a solid reanimator target – I replaced with the best white finisher/reanimator target I could find: [card]Vengeful Archon[card], a 7/7 flyer that, for a cost, kind of does what Elesh Norn does – decrease damage towards you and increases damage towards them simultaneously. If you have a white finisher/reanimator target you like better, feel free to switch it up. Also, [card]Isamaru, Hound of Konda[/card] was in the list for a long time until I realized that I was paying $1.56 for one point of toughness compared to a [card]Savannah Lions[/card] that I had cut early on. In the end, the lion ate the hound and that was that.

Another card that seems a bit odd in this list is [card]Shrine of Loyal Legions[/card]. You can fit it into you curve in an aggro deck and use it to help swarm, or you can drop it on turn two in a tap-out control deck. After you’ve drawn the game out long enough it kind of acts as an [card]Entreat the Angels[/card]-style finisher. And as soon as you can replace it with [card]Entreat the Angels[/card], do it! I love that card so much I play [card]Noxious Revival[/card] in my cube, and take it high, so I can Entreat twice for good measure!

One thing that was a bit of a problem is that the budget only allowed for one Wrath. If you can help me out with this issue that would be great. I made up for it by adding two one-for-one removal spells: [card]Arrest[/card] and [card]Pacifism[/card]. It’s not ideal, but I am open to suggestions.

I could be convinced to take out [card]Disenchant[/card] to add another aggressive one drop. This list comes from a powered cube with all of the swords and fast mana, so [card]Disenchant[/card] is probably not as needed here, but I’ll leave it in for now and will address it later.

Seeing as this is the first of the build the cube articles, there is still a little bit of housekeeping to do. After this week, I’m planning to cover two sections per article. The multicolored and land sections will each get their own article.

After the cube’s completion, I’ll discuss new cards as they come out, but as a rule, the final cost will be governed by the TCGPlayer low. This also means if one of the cards in the list finds a home in a Modern or Legacy deck and spikes, thus becoming too expensive, it will get cut from the list. I’d like this to be a continuing resource for future cube builders to come and have a place to find a powerful list for $200. This also means that we wait with bated breath for rotation and ban hammers!

But again, this is a starting point that’s meant to give you an awesome play experience quickly. If you have a Baneslayer lying around, boot that [card]Serra Angel[/card] and go to town!

Next time we’ll cover the blue and black section. Thanks for hangin’!

Andrew