Hi guys!
After a long hiatus, I am back on the Cube train
I already had a thread in here, but since I decided to rebuild from scratch, I felt it was appropriate to dedicate a new "blog" to my new list - here is the Cube Tutor link.
So, why rebooting?
Background
When I first built my Cube, the idea - the hope - was to assemble a more-or-less fixed playgroup and make Cubing a recurring, regular event. We had players with varying skill levels, but the idea was that through reiterated gameplay everybody would learn to master the intricacies and nuances of the format.
This didn't last long, though. You know how life is. One of the guys moved to another city, another started working at a bar, another is going to be a father soon... I myself found a job in another city and only come back to my hometown on weekends. It was difficult to gather more than 4 people, thus forcing us to look somewhere else for players, taking in players who sometimes were total beginners to the game.
In short, Cubing had come to a halt. But now that I have found a bit more of balance with my job etc., I would love to bring it back. I thought it would be better to build a new list, though, because I think the situation is very different now, compared to when I first built my Cube. With my new list I would like to accomplish these...
Goals
With my previous list, I tried to give each colour pair an identity. This worked decently, but in some cases I felt like selecting a certain colour pair would force the drafter on a fixed path. This is not what I am looking for; I want to provide guidance, but players should be able to walk different paths if so they choose. That is why this time I tried a new approach: I now chose a main theme for every shard/wedge, anchoring that theme to a main colour. This means having 10 themes (as interwoven as possible, of course), with every colour acting as the anchor for 2 of them. The drafter can choose a second (and maybe third) colour based on their inclination and still have various archetypes available.
Themes
WUB - Reanimator
UBR - Welder
BRG - Lands Recycle
RGW - Wide Aggro
GWU - Hatebears
WUR - Artifacts Control
UBG - Graveyard Shenanigans
BRW - Artifact Aggro
RGU - Ramp
GWB - Recursive Aggro
This is it! This Cube iteration is actually still untested - sorry for this, but as you can see this does not mean that the list is based on pure theory-crafting. I actually tried to implement here the lessons learned from my previous Cube and to adapt the 405 to a new set of goals. In the past, comments on these forums have been invaluable in tuning my list - many changes, big and small, were suggested here and more often than not they proved to be spot on. I know that there is room for major improvements, so... if you have any comments, please shoot them!
After a long hiatus, I am back on the Cube train
I already had a thread in here, but since I decided to rebuild from scratch, I felt it was appropriate to dedicate a new "blog" to my new list - here is the Cube Tutor link.
So, why rebooting?
Background
When I first built my Cube, the idea - the hope - was to assemble a more-or-less fixed playgroup and make Cubing a recurring, regular event. We had players with varying skill levels, but the idea was that through reiterated gameplay everybody would learn to master the intricacies and nuances of the format.
This didn't last long, though. You know how life is. One of the guys moved to another city, another started working at a bar, another is going to be a father soon... I myself found a job in another city and only come back to my hometown on weekends. It was difficult to gather more than 4 people, thus forcing us to look somewhere else for players, taking in players who sometimes were total beginners to the game.
In short, Cubing had come to a halt. But now that I have found a bit more of balance with my job etc., I would love to bring it back. I thought it would be better to build a new list, though, because I think the situation is very different now, compared to when I first built my Cube. With my new list I would like to accomplish these...
Goals
- I expect the playgroup to be ever-changing, as we all have other commitments and I assume the Cube to be low in everybody's list of priorities. The supported archetypes should therefore be clear enough that anybody could draft a decent deck without knowing the entire 405. At the same time, the Cube should have enough depth not to get stale after a couple sessions.
- Like it or not, some players (especially newer ones) equate Cube to power-max. That is not the kind of experience I am looking to provide, but I think a good compromise would be to offer a nostalgia-slanting Cube. By this I mean that I want to include as many iconic, old-fashion cards as possible. The same applies to archetypes: they should be attractive and, possibly, have a long tradition in the game.
- The power-level should not be overly high, but I do want to give players some spikes. I want them to have stuff to be excited for.
- I want to remove my own archetype bias. I realised that some of the archetypes I included in my older list were only there because I loved them, but didn't actually do much for the environment (examples? Pod, that had to be cut for being waaay too powerful and consistent; and Aristocrats, that I think was never drafted by anyone besides me). So I want to try and include archetypes based on their own merits and coherence with the environment, regardless of my personal taste and preference.
- I want to encourage synergy over raw power; but at the same time, I don't want to punish too much players who fail to immediately identify an open archetype.
With my previous list, I tried to give each colour pair an identity. This worked decently, but in some cases I felt like selecting a certain colour pair would force the drafter on a fixed path. This is not what I am looking for; I want to provide guidance, but players should be able to walk different paths if so they choose. That is why this time I tried a new approach: I now chose a main theme for every shard/wedge, anchoring that theme to a main colour. This means having 10 themes (as interwoven as possible, of course), with every colour acting as the anchor for 2 of them. The drafter can choose a second (and maybe third) colour based on their inclination and still have various archetypes available.
Themes
WUB - Reanimator
This deck is centered in Black, as the colour offers efficient ways to fill the graveyard and decent reanimation spells. This is not supposed to be the super-fast combo version of Reanimator. It is the controllish version, requiring time to set up. Support colours can be White or Blue, but Red is a viable option too.
UBR - Welder
The main colour is obviously Red, that offers all the artifact-swapping cards. The most obvious support colour is Blue, but Black is also a solid choice that can add consistency, courtesy of the reanimation spells. White can be serviceable too, although it lacks the ability to easily dump artifacts in the graveyard - something that Blue and Black can do without problems.
BRG - Lands Recycle
This is one of the archetypes I am more doubtful about. It is a Green-based deck that aims at retrieving lands from the graveyard and putting them to good use, courtesy of either Black or Red. I'm afraid this is a difficult archetype to pick up, because it depends so much on Life from the Loam that few people would actually venture drafting it unless they find Loam P1P1. It also comes with a fair share of cards that are mediocre at best outside of the archetype. At the same time, I think it might add some depth to the Cube by offering a complex archetype that people might pick up after a while. Opinions are much appreciated.
RGW - Wide Aggro
GWU - Hatebears
It is a White-based deck that exploits the colour's soft-lock pieces to hinder the opponent while chipping away at their life totals. Blue and Green are the best supporting crew, with cards that also take advantage of White's ability to go wide. Red and Black are not bad either, though. This is maybe a themeless theme, but I think it could make for interesting decks.
WUR - Artifacts Control
A Blue-based deck that takes advantage of artifact-focused deck manipulation. It obviously has a lot of overlap with the Welder archetype, making Red a solid splash colour. White is excellently positioned, too. Black has potential as well, although its upsides are smaller.
UBG - Graveyard Shenanigans
A controllish archetype using Blue as the main colour. Blue offers scarce rewards for filling the graveyard, but it has the best enablers. Those are the backbone of the deck, enabling either Black or Green to do the dirty work. White and Red also interact with the graveyard in a number of ways - graveyard exploitation is quite central in this Cube, in general.
BRW - Artifact Aggro
The Red-centered aggro deck. In early Cube Tutor testing, it seems like it is actually possible to build this as a mono-Red archetype. We all know how CT's AI behaves when it's still new to a specific Cube, though; I expect that, more often than not, Red will be paired with either Black or White. Blue is also possible, resulting in a slower deck. I think I probably went a bit too far in signalling this archetype; some cards are probably not worth running, regardless of the density of artifacts in one's deck; the really good payoff cards might be enough to push drafters towards this archetype. Thoughts?
RGU - Ramp
One of my least favourite archetypes, but one that never fails to show up if the tools are there. Green is of course the main colour, courtesy of the good ramp options available and the excellent curve-toppers. Red and Blue support this strategy very well, but it's not like White and Black have no ways to put mana to use, really. This archetype also generates competing demand for fatties, which Reanimator and Welder players require too.
GWB - Recursive Aggro
The Black-based aggro deck that keeps coming back. The best support colours are Green and White, but Red is also solid here. This is a deck that overlaps nicely with many of the Cube's themes: artifacts-centered decks, wide aggro... and anything graveyard-related, really.
This is it! This Cube iteration is actually still untested - sorry for this, but as you can see this does not mean that the list is based on pure theory-crafting. I actually tried to implement here the lessons learned from my previous Cube and to adapt the 405 to a new set of goals. In the past, comments on these forums have been invaluable in tuning my list - many changes, big and small, were suggested here and more often than not they proved to be spot on. I know that there is room for major improvements, so... if you have any comments, please shoot them!
