Alternately, Blue-Red Multi-Spells, maybe Blue-Red Spell Velocity, something like that.
TL;DR: Trying to take Blue-Red Spells beyond counting the instances of "instant and sorcery" on your cards.
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Hi, Riptide Lab! Long time lurker, first-time (and ideally many-more-time) poster.
In putting together my most recent cube overhaul (I'll hopefully have my own blog up about this soon), I came upon the curious case of a once-noble archetype that may have suffered a bit in recent years: Blue-Red.
The typical home for the pair in cube environments has been, of course, Spells!
When drafting up my archetypes, I've realised that this colour combination is... a bit lonely. It's difficult to bleed the archetype into other colours. After the evergreening of the Prowess mechanic and some spell-dudes, white occasionally gets a look-in, but that's about it.
Perhaps the whole "instant or sorcery" deal is a bit tired - perhaps we can make Spells! about, well, any spell.
A card I've always liked, but never been amazed by, is this guy:
Jori En fills a weird little void - he doesn't care what spells you're casting or what their type-line is - he just wants you to cast a few a turn and he'll reward you with some value here and there. I've eventually been forced to cull him, but before doing so, I issued myself a challenge: can we make this little Merfolk Wizard into his own archetype?
Down the rabbit hole we go!
Question 1: How can we sustain casting multiple spells a turn as often as possible?
Retrace cards:
Alright... bit of a dull offering. Flame Jab's okay I guess. How about...
Cascade cards:
A bit... goodstuff-y? I've never been a huge fan of Cascade in limited environments, as it places some awkward constraints on deckbuilding (you don't want to cascade into Miscalculation, but you sure do love having Miscalculation in your deck) and can be a bit variance-y. Through its lifetime, its chief purpose has been to abuse a subsection of...
Suspend cards:
Possibly a bit much for a low-power environment. How about...
A little bit more to chew on here, perhaps. Some of these are likely kicking around in our cubes already, and some might be nice tie-ins to other archetypes (Fungal Behemoth to +1/+1 counters, Veiling Oddity to saboteurs/ninjas, Search for Tomorrow to ramp, Roiling Horror to the BW syphon decks).
The cycle of "re-suspenders" (Arc Blade, Reality Strobe, Chronomantic Escape, Festering March, Cyclical Evolution and Epochrasite) can help set up a little engine to keep Jori En chugging over a few turns. It may be a push, but the "suspend-tension" cards (Nihilith, Deep-Sea Kraken, Curse of the Cabal, et al) offer a bit of spice to gameplay. Maybe we're onto something?
Rebound cards:
The younger cousin of suspend doesn't have much for us, however. Back to the bin:
Flashback cards:
We aren't necessarily looking to play both halves on the one turn, but we'll often enter the midgame with a few of these lying around in the graveyard. As we roll on, a lot of the otherwise-marginal spells get a little more attractive if you staple "draw a card" to them. How about the new breed of flashback?
Jump-Start cards:
A few winners here, too. Some perfectly serviceable removal/card-draw spells, and the jump-start mechanic folds nicely into the cycling or discard-for-value decks usually finding homes in the BUG colours.
How about some nutty stuff:
I've been pleasantly surprised that Frantic Search isn't completed cooked in a low-power-level environment, but Treachery is jolly horrid.
The tried and true:
Yup, cheap cantrips. Fairly uninspired, but certainly let us fit in that second spell in a turn.
Red 'card advantage' spells:
These let us cast the second spell without already needing it in hand (this may quell some frustrations I can imagine playing the deck), and a few already have safe spots in cubes.
Question 2: Aren't we putting the cart before the horse a bit here?
I'm getting ahead of myself. Isn't this just a whole pile-a-junk if we don't have Jori En in play? What else is going to pay us off for casting multiple spells a turn? Hmm...
I can see these being reasonable anchors for the archetype, despite the dreaded "instant or sorcery" on some. We definitely need some more. Let's chuck in a smattering of speculative picks:
+ 'fair-storm' spells (dangerous territory, I know)
+ most of the "...number of instant or sorcery spells..."-type cards already paying off the UR player
These are all on the cusp of playable. It's really a shame that the Surge spells were all a bit shit.
I guess this is where I'm falling down. Jori En may not be enough to pull to a budding drafter into this potential archetype, and the rest might not be enough either.
I see this as a spectrum between the traditional Spells! deck and full-blown Storm. I want to see if there exists a deck that can sustain a reasonable spell velocity (and benefit from it) without being all sorts of busted/poisony Storm nonsense and stomping all over the other archetypes.
Has anyone found this happy middle anywhere?
TL;DR: Trying to take Blue-Red Spells beyond counting the instances of "instant and sorcery" on your cards.
----------
Hi, Riptide Lab! Long time lurker, first-time (and ideally many-more-time) poster.
In putting together my most recent cube overhaul (I'll hopefully have my own blog up about this soon), I came upon the curious case of a once-noble archetype that may have suffered a bit in recent years: Blue-Red.
The typical home for the pair in cube environments has been, of course, Spells!
When drafting up my archetypes, I've realised that this colour combination is... a bit lonely. It's difficult to bleed the archetype into other colours. After the evergreening of the Prowess mechanic and some spell-dudes, white occasionally gets a look-in, but that's about it.
Perhaps the whole "instant or sorcery" deal is a bit tired - perhaps we can make Spells! about, well, any spell.
A card I've always liked, but never been amazed by, is this guy:
Jori En fills a weird little void - he doesn't care what spells you're casting or what their type-line is - he just wants you to cast a few a turn and he'll reward you with some value here and there. I've eventually been forced to cull him, but before doing so, I issued myself a challenge: can we make this little Merfolk Wizard into his own archetype?
Down the rabbit hole we go!
Question 1: How can we sustain casting multiple spells a turn as often as possible?
Retrace cards:
Alright... bit of a dull offering. Flame Jab's okay I guess. How about...
Cascade cards:
A bit... goodstuff-y? I've never been a huge fan of Cascade in limited environments, as it places some awkward constraints on deckbuilding (you don't want to cascade into Miscalculation, but you sure do love having Miscalculation in your deck) and can be a bit variance-y. Through its lifetime, its chief purpose has been to abuse a subsection of...
Suspend cards:
Possibly a bit much for a low-power environment. How about...
A little bit more to chew on here, perhaps. Some of these are likely kicking around in our cubes already, and some might be nice tie-ins to other archetypes (Fungal Behemoth to +1/+1 counters, Veiling Oddity to saboteurs/ninjas, Search for Tomorrow to ramp, Roiling Horror to the BW syphon decks).
The cycle of "re-suspenders" (Arc Blade, Reality Strobe, Chronomantic Escape, Festering March, Cyclical Evolution and Epochrasite) can help set up a little engine to keep Jori En chugging over a few turns. It may be a push, but the "suspend-tension" cards (Nihilith, Deep-Sea Kraken, Curse of the Cabal, et al) offer a bit of spice to gameplay. Maybe we're onto something?
Rebound cards:
The younger cousin of suspend doesn't have much for us, however. Back to the bin:
Flashback cards:
We aren't necessarily looking to play both halves on the one turn, but we'll often enter the midgame with a few of these lying around in the graveyard. As we roll on, a lot of the otherwise-marginal spells get a little more attractive if you staple "draw a card" to them. How about the new breed of flashback?
Jump-Start cards:
A few winners here, too. Some perfectly serviceable removal/card-draw spells, and the jump-start mechanic folds nicely into the cycling or discard-for-value decks usually finding homes in the BUG colours.
How about some nutty stuff:
I've been pleasantly surprised that Frantic Search isn't completed cooked in a low-power-level environment, but Treachery is jolly horrid.
The tried and true:
Yup, cheap cantrips. Fairly uninspired, but certainly let us fit in that second spell in a turn.
Red 'card advantage' spells:
These let us cast the second spell without already needing it in hand (this may quell some frustrations I can imagine playing the deck), and a few already have safe spots in cubes.
Question 2: Aren't we putting the cart before the horse a bit here?
I'm getting ahead of myself. Isn't this just a whole pile-a-junk if we don't have Jori En in play? What else is going to pay us off for casting multiple spells a turn? Hmm...
I can see these being reasonable anchors for the archetype, despite the dreaded "instant or sorcery" on some. We definitely need some more. Let's chuck in a smattering of speculative picks:
+ 'fair-storm' spells (dangerous territory, I know)
+ most of the "...number of instant or sorcery spells..."-type cards already paying off the UR player
These are all on the cusp of playable. It's really a shame that the Surge spells were all a bit shit.
I guess this is where I'm falling down. Jori En may not be enough to pull to a budding drafter into this potential archetype, and the rest might not be enough either.
I see this as a spectrum between the traditional Spells! deck and full-blown Storm. I want to see if there exists a deck that can sustain a reasonable spell velocity (and benefit from it) without being all sorts of busted/poisony Storm nonsense and stomping all over the other archetypes.
Has anyone found this happy middle anywhere?