Hanjo’s Love Letters

<3

I was 15 years old when you were printed, just a little kid playing the local FNM every week. I remember seeing you and being in love. I was an Arc-Slogger enjoyer in the amazing Big Red deck and it was easy to draw the parallel to you. But there was something else really cool going on with you. You could combine you with this other really cool card that was just printed: Horobi, Death’s Wail. 

The two of you were a real Johnny dream. Having a Terminate at my disposal for each 2 mana I had left, that just sounded awesome. I started brewing with the two of you, and I was very unsuccessful. It sounded more awesome than it actually was, because I could never really find a shell where the two of you could actually shine, but those dreams never left. 

Inset Cube. The two of you are in my Gimmicky Cube and man you, Kumano, are still so awesome. The other night I was playing against you and my opponent also had Onyx Mage in play and the two of you were wrecking havoc on my board. And I just loved to see it, my dreams coming true. Because that is the great thing about Cube, having those kid Johnny dreams having an actual home instead of failing horrible in a competitive envoirement. I tried to maximise the fun Johnny dreams my drafters can have with you, Kumano, because you are such an amazing card. Your friends in this Cube are:  

• Embermaw Hellion
• Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• Mechanized Warfare
• Gratuitous Violence 
• Basilisk Collar
• Onyx Mage
• Horobi, Death’s Wail

And even though it’s a lot of fun as a Cube designer to see your players live your 15-years old Johnny dreams, next draft I just have to make sure it’s me that is living that dream. Because next time I want to be controlling you, wrecking havoc. It looked way to much fun. 

With love, 

Hanjo

<3

You are in 3 of my Cubes, but I love you for sure the most in my Gimmicky Cube. These days I am very busy editing my 2nd draft video ever, a draft with my Gimmicky Cube. My friend Daan is the featured drafter and he drafted you. I thought he picked you up too early in the draft, you were in a very strong booster for his deck. But he did so anyway and during the games, which I watched multiple times by now because of editing and commentary, you proved why. 

I always loved Basking Rootwalla’s play patterns. Yes of course the 0 Madness cost is what makes the card awesome, but I really always enjoyed that activated ability. It always offers a little puzzle to solve. Do I attack, if he blocks is it worth it to me to spend 2 mana on the ability, what if he then has a trick in response, is he bluffing, am I bluffing. I really love combat tricks as I wrote earlier in my love letter to Thrill the Hunt, and both Basking Rootwalla and you, Festerleech, have a combat trick printed on your card. 

But the reason why I love you so much as I do is that your second ability is also absolutely awesome. Because in my Gimmicky Cube I try to tempt my drafters to explore the Gimmicky synergies and combos Magic has to offer. And Daan, as I have seen multiple times by now, in my match against him, he milled Squee, Goblin Nabob. My heart jumped every time with joy when I saw it happening, even in my own match against him. 

With love, 

Hanjo

<3

Goddamn you are a strong magic card. People are spoiled with Power Cube and Inti, Seneschal of the Sun. And I get it, Inti is an unreasonable strong card, and also a whole lot of fun. But in the right context, in the right Cube, you, Conspiracy Theorist, are just as good and fun as Inti. 

Last Friday I drafted my Gimmicky Cube at my dear friend Danny. I drafted a black and red discard deck with a whole lot of removal. On the surface you sound like the perfect card for the ‘discard deck’ part of that sentence. And of course, you were strong with that part. But you are secretly better with the ‘a whole lot of removal’ part of that sentence. Even in a Synergy Cube, just using synergies isn’t an in game strategy. A player still has to read the game and how they are going to use those synergies, to be aggressive, to put tempo in the game or to control the game. 

I started game 2 against Danny with you, Conspiracy Theorist, and your partner in synergy Reckless Detective. Danny drafted a black and green ‘leave graveyard’ deck with a lot, a whole lot, of recursion. I read the game that because I had the 2 of you, and all the recursion Danny has, I had to temporise the game. Using my removal proactively to pressure the game, trying to win before he would take over the late game with all his recursion. Because that was the problem with ‘a whole lof of removal’, it wasn’t as effective against all his recursion. But you, Conspiracy Theorist, helped me use all the removal effectively. Discarding them at the beginning of combat, using them before blockers were declared, and drawing cards along the way ensuring I would draw more removal or pressure. Using the madness on Avacyn’s Judgment, just casting Overkill and Murderous Cut, cycling Locust Spray, for tempo and value. 

But Danny had Soul Enevervation to gain him just enough life to stabilise. And I made the error of using Avacyn’s Judgment just a tad too proactively. I doubted when playing it, because I also knew, I might need that Fireball for his face in the late game. Turns out, 10 turns later, I still had removal left in hand and all I needed was a burn spell for the last 3 points of damage. Such an amazing game of Magic, the reason I love this game and Cube so much, and all thanks to you, Conspiracy Theorist. 

With love, 

Hanjo

<3

On the surface you are quite an inefficient removal spell. Four mana for just -4-4, heck Dark Deed was recently printed and there you get the same effect for only 2 mana. That is the thing with removal, if you pay less mana for your removal spell than your opponent did for their creature you can get some nice tempo out of the play, especially if you are also clearing a blocker to get through some damage. But even though you are an inefficient removal spell, last Friday night, my dear friend Danny completely wrecked me twice with you. 

You are not just a removal spell Soul Enervation. You are a synergy piece. No wonder that you are part of my Synergy Cube, full with ‘leave graveyard’ synergies. And that is why Danny drafted you, because of your synergies. He drafted a green and black ‘leave graveyard’ deck. I also drafted black, together with red, and I picked up almost all the removal in the draft. Danny didn’t pick up a lot of removal, he only had you, Soul Enervation. 

The thing in a Synergy Cube is that removal is usually very strong because destroying something to tear apart a synergie usually nullifies other cards as well. So my strategy in the draft was to draft all the removals. Danny didn’t pick up any non-synergistic removal in black, and the other red drafter, Oskar, didn’t pick up any non-synergistic red removal. Oskar had a red and blue looting deck with cards like Monument of Endurance and Irencrag Pyromancer. Danny was punished by Oskar for not drafting removal, because Oskar burned his face to shreds with these powerful cards. Personally with all my removal I had quite an easy matchup against Oskar, tearing up his synergies. I didn’t have an easy matchup against Danny. 

The thing with my strategy was that I picked removal over cards like Moonshadow (which Danny picked up) and Marauding Mako (which Oskar picked up). My deck had a hard time applying pressure. And against Danny and all his green and black recursion like Vanille, Cheerful l’Cie and Deadwood Treefolk my removal was not as efficient. I had to race him before his late game would run away with the game. Both games I got him to 3 life, before you, Soul Enevervation, hit the battlefield. Not only killing my best creature, but afterwards slowly getting Danny out of reach, one drain at a time. 

I could state that Danny was lucky that he drew you both games, because without your removal and lifegain he wouldn’t have won those games. But I should have drafted better. I had an abundance of removal, where I should have drafted more aggressive creatures to be able to pressure my opponent better. Danny should have drafted a couple of removal spells more instead of purely focussing on the synergies. A drafting lesson for us both. But I do love that the best removal spell of the evening, is on the surface, just an inefficient removal spell. 

With love, 

Hanjo

<3

Writing about Treetop Village yesterday made me remember this other card I really, really love: you, Kitchen Finks. You were a Death Cloud staple. You were an iceberg stopping every aggressive deck out there. And you remained in play after a Death Cloud thanks to your persist ability. You were a perfect Magic card to me ever since you were printed, my multicolor Eternal Witness, Flickerwisp, Vampire Nighthawk, Man-o’war. 

I loved it when Luiss Scot Vargas made top 8 with you playing you in a Black and White tokens list, combining Ajani Goldmane together with both you and your persist brother Murderous Redcap. A great synergy getting those -1/-1 counters removed and resetting you guys. Later you became an absolute Modern staple in the Birthing Pod and Melira, Sylvok Outcast combo decks. At that point in time you were a 15 euro/dollar uncommon, absolutely insane. My personal favourite play pattern with you was resetting you time and time again with Oran-Rief, the Vastwood in my Death Cloud decks. 

You have been a Cube staple since the beginning, and have been in my Peasant Cube since day one. You are also part of my 2009 Power Cube. But in both Cubes you are not a combo piece. You are a strong creature for any deck, a flexible pickup because of your hybrid mana cost. Aggressive decks like you because control decks have to solve you twice. Control decks love you because you an iceberg than gains 4 life. Midrange decks love you because you fulfil both roles. The perfect flexible card us Cube designers love. I’m ok with that you are not a combo piece in any of my Cubes. Because I never loved you as a combo piece, I loved you just the way you are. And maybe sometimes I love getting those incremental advantages by just removing that -1/-1 counter every now and again. 

With love, 

Hanjo

<3

You are such an icon of your time. You dominated in Block, Standard and Extended when you were printed in 1999. And you did that all over again when you were reprinted in 2007 for both Standard and Extended, but most notably in Modern in the most dominant deck Modern has ever seen: Jund. It took the printing of the first Modern Horizons set to push you to the background in Modern, changing its landscape forever. But you had already found your way into another format to dominate: Premodern. 

I love man-lands. I love it when the resources of our game are more than just a resource. I love utility lands like yourself. I see this problem with the 100 Ornithopters Cube. Because Ornithopters don’t do anything on their own, they need other game pieces to actually impact the game, they become just another resource. And having 26 resources in your deck means there are only 14 cards in your deck that actually impact the game. Those are not good numbers in my experience. And that is why I love utility lands so much, they change those numbers. Because even a 16 resources – 24 impact cards situation could use some help in my opinion. I just love the added complexity and depth you provide the game. 

You are the first man-land I ever played with. I played you in my favourite deck from when I started playing Magic: Death Cloud. I played Death Cloud first in Standard and then in Extended. That was my favourite way to play with you. After resolving a big Death Cloud, leaving 3 lands including you, and start smashing my opponents face in together with you. The only problem I realised while writing this letter to you, is that I currently have no Cube where the 2 of you are in together. I of course do need a retirement home for all the amazing memories I have of the two of you. I guess I will just have to write a love letter for Death Cloud within the next 273 days to fix that. 

With love, 

Hanjo

<3

I feel like there is this split between Cube players. You either like the repeatable play patterns of cards like Recurring Nightmare or Crystal shards, or you absolutely hate them. Personally I kinda like them, but it also might be that a lot of cards with those repeatable play patterns are such classic Magic cards that I feel a lot of nostalgia for them. But I can’t deny that I am also a sucker for engine building. 

I am not a big fan of the board game Terraforming Mars. The only thing I actually really like about the game is engine building. Having those few turns where you get to pop off, do your thing. I do really enjoy that, and I think it is the same with Recurring Nightmare and Deranged Hermit. For a few turns you just get to pop off and as a result flat out win the game. But I can see why Cube players can dislike those play patterns. Especially as the opponent they are repetitive, boring and you just see the game slip away from you, one activation at a time. 

When opponents also see a game slip away from them one activation at a time is with you, Birthing Pod. But the great thing about you, and why nobody hates you, is that you are not really repetitive. Because your outcome is different every activation, also depending on the board state. You find silver bullets with each activation, perfectly shaping the game around what it needs. But it’s not the reason why I love you. No I love you for how you challenge drafters. Because you do ask something from a deck, which is very easy to do in constructed, but not as easy in limited. Picking a 5 drop solely for the purpose of filling the curve so you can get to that Sun Titan over some other very strong card in booster 3 is a decision I really enjoy. You make the draft so much more challenging and complex, but you do offer the reward. Because once you have that suite of creatures you need, you, Birthing Pod, do win a whole lot of games. One activation at a time. 

With love, 

Hanjo

<3

You are a relic of the past. You are one of the only constructed playable cards ever only printed in the Portal sets. You saw some Legacy play, most notability in the mono Red Painter Servant combo. I always looked at you with wonder, admiring your unique ability. 

Your ability isn’t that unique anymore. In 2016 with Recruiter of the Guard your counterpart was printed. And in 2021 you got a reprint into Modern with Modern Horizons 2. With the result of also popping up in Modern every now and again, but by that time your place in this world of Magic was found. It was definitely Cube where you have always belonged. 

Because that is what I love about you most. Because even though you have a counterpart these days, your ability is still very unique. And your best and most unique play pattern is in Cube. Playing you, finding Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Then playing Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, copying you, finding either a Pestermite or a Deceiver Exarch and just flat out win the game. Win the game, just by casting you. That play pattern always mesmerised me, you being the perfect piece in a singleton format for this legendary combination. I love it so much that a card that is so unique, so legendary, has its best home in Cube. Not as a retirement home, not for aesthetics, but for sheer play patterns only available and potent in Cube. You are very unique for that. 

With love, 

Hanjo

<3

I am not the biggest fan of Planeswalkers. Especially in the beginning there was so little ‘destroy a Planeswalker’ removal available that Magic just hadn’t adapted to you guys yet. That made you guys a design challenge in Cubes. For the longest time Planeswalkers dominated and I played Magic intensively during that time. There is a really good reason why Chapin titled his song ‘Jace the Mindsculptor, better than all’. 

But I didn’t mind you first 5. You were reasonably balanced, not stretching the power level of Planeswalkers like Jace, the Mindsculptor or Oko, Thief of Crowns did. You first 5 saw a whole lot of play, taking both Standard and Extended by storm, but you first 5 didn’t dominate those formats, you were nice additions. At first I was more into Garruk Wildspeaker and Liliana Vess because of my love for Death Cloud, my love for you came a couple of years later Jace Beleren. 

Back in those days the Legend rule was different. At the time I fell in love with you, it was so that if a second ‘Jace’ Planeswalker would hit the battlefield, both would be put in the Graveyard. For example: for the longest time, the best removal for Umezawa’s Jitte, was an Umezawa’s Jitte. And the same was the case for Jace the Mindsculptor (better than all). The best removal for that guy was you, Jace Beleren, and we together took full advantage of that. You come down a turn earlier than your bigger alter ego, even when on the draw, and have netted some card advantage at that point. I remember playing at a Pro Tour Qualifier in Amsterdam. On turn 3 on the draw I played you, Jace Beleren, and drew a card. It was a control mirror and my opponent went in the tank on turn 4, only to result in a big sigh and they went on to cast their Jace the Mindsculptor on turn 4 to kill you. “Such a waste” my opponent remarked. But you were no waste for me. No. On the contrary, you were my favourite thing to have in the graveyard. Because there is till this day nothing better to recur with a Sun Titan. Which I did on turn 6, my opponent stating that he could not battle through that and promptly losing the game. 

The only problem I found out while writing this love letter, that in none of my 19 Cubes, both you, Jace Beleren, and Sun Titan are in there together. I guess it’s a good thing reader Joe gave me the very good idea of building a Cube combining all the cards from the 365 love letters I am going to write. Because with this letter, I’ve got that problem solved. Thanks Joe! 

With love, 

Hanjo