Laz
Developer
Scuttlemutt Cube on CubeTutor.com
Running tallies:
Progenitus hardcast - 0
Progenitus cheated into play - 0
Azor's Elocutors filibuster victory - 1
This cube is exploring the design space that is colour in Magic, and focusing upon a highly synergistic environment instead of simple power-maximisation. It is heavily inspired by Jason Waddell's Eldrazi Domain cube.
There are a number of overlapping themes throughout the cube, although a lot of it boils down to colours and counters. Colour is a space that has been quite heavily explored in Magic's history, although always sporadically, here is an attempt to bring much of that exploration, from places such as Shadowmoor, Ravnica, and Alara together. Likewise, counters have been omnipresent through Magic's history, and so there has been a conscious effort to take counter manipulation and place it front and centre as a value mechanism in the cube.
In emphasising colours, reliance upon controlling cards of other colours is a primary concern. A number of cards include text to the effect of 'if you control a <black/green/multi-coloured/etc> permanent' features fairly regularly. In order to enable this without necessitating incredibly stretched mana-bases, the cube features a huge number of cards with hybrid mana costs. These hybrid cards also serve to increase the number of 'practical playables' in each colour. Where most 360 card cubes tend to have ~47 cards that are playable with any particular colour, this cube has ~57 cards that are playable with a single colour, though, naturally not without competition from the colours which they share. While it may be too early to claim yet, hybrids seem to be one of the design triumphs of the cube, adding competition in the drafting phase, reducing the strain on mana-bases, and increasing the number of cards available to any particular drafter, no matter the colours they are in, as well as supporting other colour-aware themes, such as multi-coloured aggro; devotion; and colour-matters.
Another aspect of colour emphasis is through domain. Domain is based in Blue, but branches out to other colours, most notably Red, for Tribal Flames. Domain is mostly a control-oriented mechanic, with the rewards tending towards card draw and selection, as well as counter-magic. Other domain cards will tend towards acting as reach for more aggressively oriented decks, which, due to the nature of the cube, will almost certainly have more than 2 types of basic lands. Tribal Flames and Tromp the Domains fall into these categories.
Making multi-colour aggro work is a challenge that tends to be handled poorly in more typical cubes. This cube attempts to tackle the problem through not only a high density of hybrid cards, but also through the use of the Alara 'shard'-blades, who are excellent 2-drop aggressive creatures in concert with the high number of hybrid cards which act to satisfy the 'another multicoloured permanent' requirement. Civic Saber also plays wonderfully with the tri-colour 'shard'-blades.
Other minor colour themes are devotion, which is emphasised in Black, but present in the other colours, which is transformed from a mono-coloured mechanic to one that can span colours via hybrid mana. There is a small 'white-matters' theme, with cards such as Honor of the Pure putting emphasis upon creatures being white. Again, hybrid mana is an excellent enabler here.
Hybrid mana inevitably leads to a heavy Shadowmoor/Eventide influence in the Cube. In these sets there was an interesting -1/-1 counter theme, through both Wither and Persist. These are interesting mechanics because they can be augmented by manipulating the counters once they have been applied. Creatures afflicted by 'Wither-ing' can be killed through effects which add counters, like Proliferate, while Persisted creatures can be re-invigorated by removing the -1/-1 counter somehow.
Manipulation of counters is a central theme in this cube, from the value interactions listed above, through Proliferating Vivid land counters, to utilising Ion Storm to ping the opponent to death.
Errata'ed Cards in the Cube
Vivid Lands now have a basic land type. This makes them fetchable, and count towards Domain.
Scuttlemutt is now a 2-mana 1/2, as opposed to a 3-mana 2/2. This brings him online faster.
Tangle Wire now has Vanishing 4 instead of Fading 4. These are slightly different mechanics, but given how Tangle Wire works, are indistinguishable in virtually every situation. Vanishing is more consistent with the rest of the Cube.
Naya Hushblade now has Trample instead of Shroud. Shroud is a terrifyingly un-interactive mechanic and I dislike it. I mean, it is no Hexproof, but...
Gemstone Mine now uses charge counters, as opposed to mining counters. This makes it work with Ion Storm, and is more consistent with the Vivid lands above, and Tendo Ice Bridge.
Evolving Wilds is now a basics fetch-land. i.e
, sac, pay 1 life: Put a basic land card into play.
Lands not entering tapped is pretty important.
Jolting Merfolk has Vanishing 5 instead of Fading 4, for consistency. I am not too worried about that one extra thing that might be tapped if you choose to play the card as a Gridlock...
Custom Cards in the Cube
Listed as Thoughtsieze in the Cube Tutor List
Listed as Power Conduit in the Cube Tutor List.
High density of Hybrid mana cards.
I can see a problem pretty early here. There are not exactly a wealth of awesome hybrid cards. We will see how far we can get before custom cards come into play, but I suspect that it won't be very far. Standard lately has taught us that Hybrid plays really well with Devotion, so this could be a theme. I kind of want to do a riff on the mono-black archetype that every non-riptide cube seems to have, emphasising Black devotion, except using hybrid Black cards to produce competing demand for that otherwise unplayable BBBB card (yes, I am looking at you Phyrexian Obliterator).
Make colour dependent removal good. (Deathmark,Glare of Heresy, etc)
I think that this requires a large number of factors to all fall into place in order to be a viable thing that drafters are looking to do. I suspect that increasing the density of targets artificially through emphasizing hybrid-cards and gold cards is useful, but that still doesn't make these cards main-deckable. Another factor in enhancing these highly conditional removal spells could be lowering the overall removal quality in the cube. Have instant-speed removal cost 3-4 mana, and run a lot of sorcery speed removal. This has the bonus of making Auras/combat tricks viable.
Focus the colour-changing in Blue/White
These are the only colours that seem to have good colour changers (full list). Cloudchaser Kestrel, Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, Govern the Guildless, and Blind Seer. Alongside Scuttles of course.
Benefits to creatures having certain colours/multiple colours
Cycle of Lieges, Civic Sabre, Eventide/Shadowmoor 'if creature is xxx ... , if creature is yyy ... ' Auras. This plays nicely with high hybrid/gold density as these a genuine value creatures, plus it makes colour changing an effective offensive and defensive play. Radiance keyword from Ravnica is also cool. Jason made a point about playing with protections.
General multi-colour goodies.
I am sure CML can, from the top of his head, give me a comprehensive list of awesome and stupid cards dependent upon multiple colours. Bloom Tender is one of the only ones I can think of off the top of my (admittedly less well researched) head.
More Archetypes?!
There is so much to consider for colours, thinking about other archetypes is hard...
Counter Manipulation - Emphasising charge-counter artifacts and -1/-1 counters, I had +1/+1 counters as a theme in my cube for a while, it was boring. This seems much more interesting. Probably spans BUG, although Black might be about removing counters from things (Persist creatures? Custom Thrull Parasite/Vampire Hexmage, etc to target suspended cards?) Plays nicely with Wither...
This crosses over with multi-colour through the Shrines (Loyal Legions, Burning Rage)
Domain - Duh. Although I am not sure which colours should emphasis this. Domain being a 5 colour keyword doesn't tie to individual colours very easily.
... Help?
I am reaching out to you guys here, hoping that you can think of some interesting interactions which play nicely with some of the types of cards which I have discussed here. Or if not that, then cool cards which you think are awesome and should be worked in somehow. Those are awesome too.
Running tallies:
Progenitus hardcast - 0
Progenitus cheated into play - 0
Azor's Elocutors filibuster victory - 1
This cube is exploring the design space that is colour in Magic, and focusing upon a highly synergistic environment instead of simple power-maximisation. It is heavily inspired by Jason Waddell's Eldrazi Domain cube.
There are a number of overlapping themes throughout the cube, although a lot of it boils down to colours and counters. Colour is a space that has been quite heavily explored in Magic's history, although always sporadically, here is an attempt to bring much of that exploration, from places such as Shadowmoor, Ravnica, and Alara together. Likewise, counters have been omnipresent through Magic's history, and so there has been a conscious effort to take counter manipulation and place it front and centre as a value mechanism in the cube.
In emphasising colours, reliance upon controlling cards of other colours is a primary concern. A number of cards include text to the effect of 'if you control a <black/green/multi-coloured/etc> permanent' features fairly regularly. In order to enable this without necessitating incredibly stretched mana-bases, the cube features a huge number of cards with hybrid mana costs. These hybrid cards also serve to increase the number of 'practical playables' in each colour. Where most 360 card cubes tend to have ~47 cards that are playable with any particular colour, this cube has ~57 cards that are playable with a single colour, though, naturally not without competition from the colours which they share. While it may be too early to claim yet, hybrids seem to be one of the design triumphs of the cube, adding competition in the drafting phase, reducing the strain on mana-bases, and increasing the number of cards available to any particular drafter, no matter the colours they are in, as well as supporting other colour-aware themes, such as multi-coloured aggro; devotion; and colour-matters.
Another aspect of colour emphasis is through domain. Domain is based in Blue, but branches out to other colours, most notably Red, for Tribal Flames. Domain is mostly a control-oriented mechanic, with the rewards tending towards card draw and selection, as well as counter-magic. Other domain cards will tend towards acting as reach for more aggressively oriented decks, which, due to the nature of the cube, will almost certainly have more than 2 types of basic lands. Tribal Flames and Tromp the Domains fall into these categories.
Making multi-colour aggro work is a challenge that tends to be handled poorly in more typical cubes. This cube attempts to tackle the problem through not only a high density of hybrid cards, but also through the use of the Alara 'shard'-blades, who are excellent 2-drop aggressive creatures in concert with the high number of hybrid cards which act to satisfy the 'another multicoloured permanent' requirement. Civic Saber also plays wonderfully with the tri-colour 'shard'-blades.
Other minor colour themes are devotion, which is emphasised in Black, but present in the other colours, which is transformed from a mono-coloured mechanic to one that can span colours via hybrid mana. There is a small 'white-matters' theme, with cards such as Honor of the Pure putting emphasis upon creatures being white. Again, hybrid mana is an excellent enabler here.
Hybrid mana inevitably leads to a heavy Shadowmoor/Eventide influence in the Cube. In these sets there was an interesting -1/-1 counter theme, through both Wither and Persist. These are interesting mechanics because they can be augmented by manipulating the counters once they have been applied. Creatures afflicted by 'Wither-ing' can be killed through effects which add counters, like Proliferate, while Persisted creatures can be re-invigorated by removing the -1/-1 counter somehow.
Manipulation of counters is a central theme in this cube, from the value interactions listed above, through Proliferating Vivid land counters, to utilising Ion Storm to ping the opponent to death.
Errata'ed Cards in the Cube
Vivid Lands now have a basic land type. This makes them fetchable, and count towards Domain.
Scuttlemutt is now a 2-mana 1/2, as opposed to a 3-mana 2/2. This brings him online faster.
Tangle Wire now has Vanishing 4 instead of Fading 4. These are slightly different mechanics, but given how Tangle Wire works, are indistinguishable in virtually every situation. Vanishing is more consistent with the rest of the Cube.
Naya Hushblade now has Trample instead of Shroud. Shroud is a terrifyingly un-interactive mechanic and I dislike it. I mean, it is no Hexproof, but...
Gemstone Mine now uses charge counters, as opposed to mining counters. This makes it work with Ion Storm, and is more consistent with the Vivid lands above, and Tendo Ice Bridge.
Evolving Wilds is now a basics fetch-land. i.e
, sac, pay 1 life: Put a basic land card into play.Lands not entering tapped is pretty important.
Jolting Merfolk has Vanishing 5 instead of Fading 4, for consistency. I am not too worried about that one extra thing that might be tapped if you choose to play the card as a Gridlock...
Custom Cards in the Cube
Listed as Thoughtsieze in the Cube Tutor List
Listed as Power Conduit in the Cube Tutor List.
______________________________________________
Original Post:
Now... I know I want this card to be good, and some people think it is fruitless, but I think it is possible to construct an environment in which colour is central design element. Many of my thoughts on this are expressed here, but as for the environment as a whole: (Excuse my brain-dump)High density of Hybrid mana cards.
I can see a problem pretty early here. There are not exactly a wealth of awesome hybrid cards. We will see how far we can get before custom cards come into play, but I suspect that it won't be very far. Standard lately has taught us that Hybrid plays really well with Devotion, so this could be a theme. I kind of want to do a riff on the mono-black archetype that every non-riptide cube seems to have, emphasising Black devotion, except using hybrid Black cards to produce competing demand for that otherwise unplayable BBBB card (yes, I am looking at you Phyrexian Obliterator).
Make colour dependent removal good. (Deathmark,Glare of Heresy, etc)
I think that this requires a large number of factors to all fall into place in order to be a viable thing that drafters are looking to do. I suspect that increasing the density of targets artificially through emphasizing hybrid-cards and gold cards is useful, but that still doesn't make these cards main-deckable. Another factor in enhancing these highly conditional removal spells could be lowering the overall removal quality in the cube. Have instant-speed removal cost 3-4 mana, and run a lot of sorcery speed removal. This has the bonus of making Auras/combat tricks viable.
Focus the colour-changing in Blue/White
These are the only colours that seem to have good colour changers (full list). Cloudchaser Kestrel, Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, Govern the Guildless, and Blind Seer. Alongside Scuttles of course.
Benefits to creatures having certain colours/multiple colours
Cycle of Lieges, Civic Sabre, Eventide/Shadowmoor 'if creature is xxx ... , if creature is yyy ... ' Auras. This plays nicely with high hybrid/gold density as these a genuine value creatures, plus it makes colour changing an effective offensive and defensive play. Radiance keyword from Ravnica is also cool. Jason made a point about playing with protections.
General multi-colour goodies.
I am sure CML can, from the top of his head, give me a comprehensive list of awesome and stupid cards dependent upon multiple colours. Bloom Tender is one of the only ones I can think of off the top of my (admittedly less well researched) head.
More Archetypes?!
There is so much to consider for colours, thinking about other archetypes is hard...
Counter Manipulation - Emphasising charge-counter artifacts and -1/-1 counters, I had +1/+1 counters as a theme in my cube for a while, it was boring. This seems much more interesting. Probably spans BUG, although Black might be about removing counters from things (Persist creatures? Custom Thrull Parasite/Vampire Hexmage, etc to target suspended cards?) Plays nicely with Wither...
This crosses over with multi-colour through the Shrines (Loyal Legions, Burning Rage)
Domain - Duh. Although I am not sure which colours should emphasis this. Domain being a 5 colour keyword doesn't tie to individual colours very easily.
... Help?
I am reaching out to you guys here, hoping that you can think of some interesting interactions which play nicely with some of the types of cards which I have discussed here. Or if not that, then cool cards which you think are awesome and should be worked in somehow. Those are awesome too.
?
