Inscho's Graveyard Combo Cube

Deck Wont save on cubetutor, so screenshotted it.
Crow Storm.jpg

First Picked Crow Storm and went for it. Deck is bad. Build is wrong, but shows where I wanted to go. Tried to wheel a Dream Halls and failed, but probably would have gotten it IRL. That would have made Cruel Ult more playable. So would Vampiric Tutor, Brainstorm. Could really use Frantic Search, more one drops, more mana fixing, and more Draw 2-3 spells if I got dream halls.

Double Frantic Search?
 
Thanks for drafting! I'm sticking to strictly singleton for now, but I do think I could use an extra couple cheap spells for the archetype if I decide to keep it in. I'm not yet convinced that Storm is the appropriate explosive combo deck for my environment. I don't really like the non-prowess spells-matters deck which is Storm's primary segue into other archetypes in the cube.

Somewhat of a tangent, but not completely....I've been considering shifting even more towards artifacts:


bringing back:


along with more eggs:



potentially even (thanks Dom):



Sculptor and Inspector could give the artifact deck a storm/combo option (esp. with Ironworks/Altar) or shift more towards stax with cards like Scrap Trawler and Braids, Cabal Minion.
 
Krark-Claw Ironworks has always seemed super interesting to me in a format with a bunch of baubles in it, especially if you run Second Sunrise and Faith's Reward since they can do a pretty good Rally the Ancestors impression and not be strictly combo pieces. Scrap Mastery is another card that plays well with Ironworks too.

It's pretty interesting how certain format decisions (Bouncelands, eggs, etc.) can give a format the ability to support combo decks. I wonder how many eggs you would need.

~~~~~~~~

Glissa is a super sweet card that wins pretty much every combat step.
 
You may not need all that many eggs if you are looping stuff with cards like Scrap Trawler and Myr Retriever. I need to see what the cost of inserting this package into my cube is...I'd need to cut at least 2 cards per color. Easy in blue if I cut storm. I could also take this opportunity to bring in Grand Architect.
 
Maybe Transmute Artifact....oh, wow. That's gotten expensive. I hope I still have one. :oops:

The trips Blue on Whir is a little intimidating, but I like instant speed. Don't think I want to run Fabricate alongside Tinker.

EDIT: Thinking about Whir some....



With a couple counters on it....net 3 "mana" towards your Whir (2 Blue).....then fodder for Ironworks.
 
Nailed those drafts, Dom. Happy to see someone draft such fleshed out versions of archetypes outside myself :D Not that I’m surprised because your cubes have inspired some decision making in my own, but I think sensibilities are somewhat akin to one another in general.

Any comments you have after giving it a few spins?
 

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Format looks good. I just want to say how much vastly better this type of format feels with access to ample discard outlets. As in amazingly better compared to what I am accustomed too, and I wonder if it dosen't represent a significant breakthrough.

Ample access to looting and sifting allows you to run narrow, situationally relevent cards, but not be unduly punished for doing so. That was always the problem with the combo formats--they really wreaked you if you didn't get on the proper rails.
 
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and drafts. I'm feeling better about my cube than I have in a long time, tbh. I've identified a few things that really helped me get out of the rut I was in with my cube:

1) Increasing graveyard interaction: For the reason Grillo just stated, but also just pushing graveyard interaction to be more of a state of the cube environment rather than a singular strategy was important. As with anything, there's a point in which the graveyard interaction goes from being interesting and productive to becoming a hokey cartoon drafting experience....zeroing in on that line in the sand has been a process.
2) Increasing the role of artifacts: Shifting the artifact deck from being a purely izzet deck to having a role in Reanimator, Stax, control and aggro strategies has been a revelation for me. Colorless pivot cards really free up cube real estate, and adds a dynamism to drafting thats counter to the generic p1p1 Wurmcoil Engine phenomenon. Dom recently posted some good thoughts on this.
3) Embracing combo: Most of my favorite formats had some kind of combo deck in the environment. Not as much because I love playing combo, but I appreciate how it demands the "self-awareness" other strategies....I have an affinity for durdling, but an environment that just lets decks spin their wheels without paying much mind towards disrupting your opponent's strategy is pure hellish misery to me. The presence of combo incentivizes disruption, and adds another layer of complexity to the drafting process.
4) Embracing resource denial: If I was going to let decks do unfair things, I needed to give other strategies meaningful ways to interact beyond counterspells and discard which is purely focused on timing and chance. Previously, this meant just running Braids, Cabal Minion, Wildfire, Tangle Wire, and Smokestack and calling it a day, but that has been expanded on by quite a bit now.

Current things on my mind:

1) Shoring up the identity of Azorius. The main decks I see at the moment are Artifact Control, Prowess Tokens, and Rector/Show and Tell. There's a pretty uninspiring Skies deck. The guild is in better shape than its been in a while, but I feel like each archetype needs some tweaking.
2) Making control strategies more alluring. Increasing the presence of control in general, but specifically interpreting the old school draw-go deck into my environment. I feel like it's almost there with Gifts Ungiven acting like Intuition > Accumulated Knowledge with all of the flashback and graveyard oriented cards, but it's needs to be fleshed out and refined
3) Exploring where the tipping point is for artifact density.
4) Identifying superfluous additions. A couple months ago, I sat down and wrote out every 2 color archetype I could imagine. I made three columns: one for each color in the archetype and one of colorless. I counted how many cards in each color were usable towards the archetype and notated that number in each corresponding column. It was a little arduous, but really helped me addressing where best to shift resources. I need to do that again. Just need a few free hours. Maybe I'll call in sick one day from work. :D
 

Dom Harvey

Contributor
I've had problems finding a niche for UW too; maybe that wants to be the draw-go control deck? White has some of the best instants and flash threats on top of Wraths etc
 
Yesterday I inserted the artifact combo package into my cube and ran a few test drafts. I'm going to shelve the idea as it involves a significant restructuring of the cube including the removal of Storm...which ushers in a windfall of other changes when I really start looking at it....For now, I'm content with the pieces I have.

Shifting focus to one developing control archetype. I'm hunting for another card that really lures someone to draft the deck:

Creatures:


Draw Suite:


Removal:


Alternate Wincons:


Misc Support:



I feel like there's a lot of good pieces, but there's something lacking to solidify it. Cards I'm contemplating:



I specifically want to avoid Drake Haven, and I've intentionally omitted flip cards like Thing in the Ice.

Perhaps Time Spiral is the card I'm looking for....with the abundance of delve and Psychatog, it could both selectively stack a deck as well as promote a Lab-Man win. Commit // Memory would be a perfect thematic addition, but tapping out for Memory seems like a difficult thing to commit to in this deck. EDIT: Just realized that Torrential Gearhulk can hit Memory.....:cool: hmmmm
 
Promote...not promise. Doomsday is probably the closest to a promise you could get.

The deck is stuffed to the gills with card filtering, dredge, and cycling. You hypothetically burn through most of your deck, selectively exile your graveyard via delve/tog, and cast Time Spiral shuffling the remaining spells that can help you chain through to a Lab-Man win. You'd have to burn through most of your deck before that could be a reality, but windfalls and stinkweed dredging can make it happen faster than it might seem.

Of course you don't need spiral at all, but maybe you get a second chance to get back your maniac along with some counter magic for protection.
 
Sorry for the succession of posts, but I'm shifting some stuff around.

OUT>IN
>
Going to test out C2M for now, and something had to give. I think there's an easy argument to be made for cutting Pulse of the Grid instead.

>
Deadbridge was competing with Roar of the Wurm and Honored Hydra so it feels like an easy cut. Raptor provides a non-graveyard related source of value while giving more incentive to draft cards like Devastating Dreams.

>
Revelation was a holdover from the days of Mystical Teachings (RIP :() . Control needed another wrath effect, and making that available in a guild slot seems like a reasonable solution.

>
Entity is a nice but middling card, and often feels like the awkward guy at the party for what my izzet decks want to be doing. With several fringe strategies in izzet, it's nice to have a card available that pretty much any archetype wants to run.

>
With Commit // Memory coming in, I didn't want the redundancy of Expulsion occupying a guild slot. Keranos comes in to test as I've been very interested in its intersection with Academy Rector and Oath of Druids, as well as providing pseudo planeswalker value for control decks.




Beyond those changes, I feel that I need to tweak my burn suite....There's a few too many hoops to jump through at the moment:



Every card has either a condition to meet or a timing restriction....Which feels a little too fussy for aggro at times. I'm mostly happy with the pool, but I could really use an unconditional instant speed burn spell. Current considerations:



Incinerate over Searing Spear et al, because the Mirage art is rad as hell. Lightning Helix could take Boros Charm's slot pretty easily. Would love to hear anyone's opinions or suggestions.




EDIT:

Pulled over from my post on Sigh's thread:

VS

Which one?
 
Considering how similar it is to my burn suite, I'm pretty happy with yours as is :p

I think Incinerate and Lightning Helix would be good adds. I've never been much of a fan of Boros Charm, Helix still pushes direct face-damage, and has much more progressive utility besides that imo.

I also like the original:

though I know it draws a lot of flak 'round these parts
 
I don't have any issues running Lightning Bolt per se, but my creature P/T:CMC is centered around burn's efficiency being 1cmc=2pts of burn, 2cmc=3pts of burn, etc....or having some other condition to meet.

for now, I'll just switch:
>

Baby steps :D
 
I like Linvala, the Preserver much more than I like Yosei, the Morning Star. It takes some maneuvering to get full Linvala value, and even at full value it's possible to interact with it.

Yosei, on the other hand, can be dropped on pretty much any board state and be good, and the ceiling is 'your opponent never untaps again' if you successfully recur it. I tend to be pretty wary of that kind of effect, but some players do like it.

As for burn, I'm a big fan of Burst Lightning but I'm not sure what exactly the cut would be.
 
Made the switch to Linvala.

Also realized that my white section had one too few cards so in comes:




I've been avoiding this card as I've never felt like I had enough enchantment support for it. Then it dawned on me that I could just treat this as a Breath of Life for enchantments with upside....which fits perfectly in the Rector Show and Tell deck.
 
Got a four man draft on Tuesday. The decks were Storm (me), Keranos Control, Grixis Value Reanimator, and White Weenie

The decks:

3-0










2-1










1-2










0-3












Lots of good/close games. Drafted 4 packs of 15, burning the last 4 of each pack. Aggro, Midrange, Control, and Combo were all represented which was pretty great. Green was unfortunately not to be found.

I went out on a limb and took a p1p1 Mind's Desire, and watched all of the pieces come my way. Only problem being my complete lack of board interaction. The Keranos Control drafter sniped all of the cheap removal. As a result, I was forced into ignoring my opponent's developing boards while trying to race. Each of my matches went to 3 games, and I got very close to winning 2 of the 3 matches. Moral of the story is drafting storm is hard! I lost one game to decking myself.

EDIT: I just remembered one clutch play in my match against Keranos Control: I start with an ideal opening hand, and it looks like I can probably combo enough on turn 5 to win the game. My opponent Gitaxian Probes me, sees my sick grip, and then nails me with Collective Defiance on turn 3 forcing me to pitch my combo. I never saw that play coming, but it was ever so perfect at thwarting my plans.

Spoke a good bit with my friend about his White Weenie deck. He had to mulligan to 5 both games against the grixis reanimator deck. The Keranos deck clutched the match with a timely Abrade on his Shrine of Loyal Legions. Similarly, that same Abrade nailed my Gilded Lotus the turn before I was set to go off and win the match.

I'll follow up this post with some changes that I've made since my last posting.

EDIT: What's up with all the broken images?
 
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