Retro Combo Cube

[ahadabans]

UR Delver
Basically the spells matter deck. I made this faster and lower curve than what was typically in my midrange list (which was a bit more agro-control). Not sure this is an optimal build. Gold fish's reasonably fast. And treasure cruise gets better in a list like this. I feel like mulligans are important with a deck like this. Slow starts and you really can't make up much ground later. An opener with Delver that flips right away is pain for anyone light on removal. A 3/2 flyer for 1 mana and active on T2 is pretty obscene. I threw in the pestermite/kiki combo. Both cards are useful on their own, though kiki is expensive and might not be doing much if all you have are your own creatures to target. Still, it's here. Talrand is slow, but if you drop him and then chain off some instants/sorceries, he can sort of get out of hand quickly. So I suppose that is the long game option, though it feels pretty weak compared to what other long game decks will be doing in this cube. It would be horribly painful to run something terrible like Phantasmal Bear, but it might be the better card in this list (and it would go in other more creature heavy Ux tempo builds). Still, that card offends me horribly.

 

[ahadabans]

Mardu Sacrifice
So, as this exercise progressed it started getting difficult for decks to be purely focused on one thing and yet still be using all the cards in the cube. This is not a pure sacrifice deck (at least not an aggressive one). It's also sort of a combo/control deck. It's not at odds with itself really (though that sounds incorrect on the surface), but it would probably be a better deck if it choose one way to go instead being a bunch of things at once. It has sneak attack and some big things to drop in play. Nothing ridiculous like reanimator or the tinker deck. But there's more value here because it ties into the sacrifice element and all the cards are castable so you don't need sneak at all. Feldon of the Third Path very nearly made the cube and this deck wants him. Like a lot. So I may figure out how to get that in here. That said, this list probably doesn't need it. Gold fishing has been odd. Some games I drew the more aggro friendly portion of the deck and it just drops stuff, swings for the fences and sacrifices to win. That is how this deck worked in my midrange cube and it was one of the best (if not THE best deck there). But the sneak attack / Firemane Angel aspect of the deck encourages some slower (trickier?) play. There's a of synergy here is the thing. Sneak forces you to sacrifice, something you are already interested in doing, so with the right cards out it hardly feels like a drawback. Blood artist is doing damage from everything happening here (on both sides of the table). That card is horribly degenerate with a ton of stuff on the board (and your opponent can't kill it). Dread return is sacrificing again to return stuff you can then just sacrifice once more. I really like how those elements tie together. It's an unorthodox deck though. I've played these before and if you draw well you feel like you just made the best deck ever. But if you draw the wrong mix of things, it's sort of a mess. I got stranded with stuff I couldn't cast in hand and no way to bin for reanimation or one aggroish card and nothing to back it up leading to nowhere. Playing against these decks if frustrating too (which works in our favor) because one game you think you are facing something really aggressive. Next minute there's all this durdling happening and dragons are appearing and you are like WTF is this deck you just made I'm confused? I think this deck will be the one with the most play mistakes made against it.

 

[ahadabans]

Elves!
This deck is degenerate as hell. It auto loses to pyroclasm and really most decks with decent spot removal, but if you can't answer the elves that come down early, you are just going to die out of nowhere. The finisher of choice is Craterhoof. That card is so stupid it sort of makes a mockery of my cube design (high powered spells / low(ish) powered creatures). What is really great about it though is that no other cheat strategy really wants it. Just Natural Order or Elf decks. And it's so painfully good there. I went with a tiny red splash for the classic Elf-ball combo. Channel is here to add further degeneracy, either feeding elf-ball or just dropping a Sundering Titan on T2. My original design had only brown artifacts, but it was too constraining. I didn't go full tilt though. Titan is very good, but Battleshere is better. Wurmcoil is better (and infinitely more castable in other decks). Eldrazi are better (especially in super mana decks like this). It's the tamest thing that's still worth channeling for that I could include. Trike is another target though I think it works better in welder lists (hmm... maybe I should have included welder here). Green Sun's Zenith is one of my favorite green spells. Gets you Rofellos if you have the forest density. Or whatever else you need. Natural Order is ridiculous and how this deck wins T4 or earlier. Ramp out a Deranged Hermit with NO in hand and they need a counter or a fog or the game is over. Firewood Symbiote is a really sweet combo piece. Untapping Rofellos is just not fair pretty much ever. Chancellor of the Tangle is a weird choice, but it's a spirit guide on T1, and can enable a super early Rofellos which if not answered just wins.

Deck List

 

[ahadabans]

Astral Shit Show
So, Astral Slide has become a pet card. And it's cool but it's probably not doing enough in this cube (or most any cube not designed heavily around cycling). The new Bicycle lands are going in this list to replace the tangos once released. And this deck wants them like nobody's business. The onslaught cycle lands are going to be squadroned (2 of each). This deck really isn't focused on Astral Slide though. In fact, the deck is a bit of a mess. Now, it will play slide and try to use it if that line of play exists. But in a dozen or so gold fish draws, that came together maybe twice? Once was a nice engine with mulldrifter to draw cards. Another with Venser to do bounce shenanigans. I like that slide removes from the game for the main phase, so you can do wrathy type stuff without killing your creatures. It's ultimately pretty disruptable obviously (utility creatures being key to the combo), and awkward in a way that makes you really appreciate the high efficiency flicker options available to modern lists (momentary blink is probably better 90% of the time). Best line of play is Academy Rector/Show and Tell into either Omniscience (card is dumb) or Form of the Dragon (also dumb but less so). Both plays can also get slide, but why would you do that when you can grab either of those two ridiculous cards? I can see a really feel bad moment with Show and Tell through where you drop Form and your opponent plops down a Reclamation Sage. Haha. Ouch. I think this deck probably sucks. I guess they can't all be winners though. This exercise was really hard.

 

[ahadabans]

Naya Zoo
Last deck. This one is pretty tight. Against an open board, it's the fastest thing going (outside maybe a nut elf draw). Scary stuff. There's a landfall theme going on here, but it's pretty loose (really just lion and geopede). This deck misses adventuring gear, but no equipment in the cube and it might be too slow for a combo cube anyway. Still, crucible/loam feeds the landfall thing, which can feed lavamancer and get Vengevine in the yard. This list is built for mongrel, which hits hard and tosses the pieces. So not a straight zoo deck. It has a bit of spice going on. I'm a fan of armadillo cloak. Friendly auras are fairly weak due to the 2 for 1 effect, but cloak I think adds enough value to be worth the risk. It's good in a list like this too because so many of your threats can't be ignored (leaving less removal for when cloak comes down).

 

[Fulcrum]

I love looking at all of these archetype posts. I'm excited to thoroughly read through them. I wonder how many cyclers you need to make Astral Slide and friends playable. I've been working on a peasant cube and I want cycling matters to be a thing, but I don't think there's enough density for it yet. Standstill feels like a distant cousin to Astral Slide and Lightning Rift. Being able to do stuff with things like Decree of Justice, Slice and Dice, Solar Blast, and Complicate with Standstill in play seems really good.

 

[ahadabans]

Thanks. Those are good suggestions. I had Decree of Justice in there originally, but wanted to toss in the two miracle white cards so it got dropped. Standstill and Complicate are good suggestions though. I like that interaction with cycling. I should probably just cut Astral Slide and put in Momentary Blink (or eliminate that archetype entirely). It was really the only deck that didn't come together.

EDIT: The better Astral Slide deck would be in green to get LFTL/Eternal Witness/Cycling lands. So I might try to build that deck and see if it's more functional than the UWR version above.

 

[ahadabans]

So I did make an Abzan list with Slide, and it's considerably better than the janky garbage Jeskai list above.

LFTL, cycle lands + Slide feels very legit in a value based midrange/control shell. I'm a fan. Here's the list. I also posted this in the general forum in the Astral Slide thread.

Just to talk quickly about the deck. I used an Abzan rock shell (similar to the rock deck I posed earlier in this thread), but added in the loam+cycle lands. Because the deck was already graveyard focused, it didn't need a lot of tweaks and I feel it added a lot of new lines of play plus a bunch of additional value. Really neat deck that goldfishes like a dream. It's slow, but the number of options you have at any point in the game is substantial, usually a good sign that a deck will play really well. In my combo list, this type of deck may struggle against pure combo (storm for example), but it's going to have game against most everything that faces it. I'd probably try and get more hand disruption in this. Very few decks can out value a list like this, so you really should only lose to pure degeneracy or speed.

 

[ahadabans]

I wanted to mention that I've been using a couple cube tutor lists for inspiration on some card choices as my testing/tweaking continues. Combo is a difficult thing to try and capture I feel because a lot of it can be niche (and hurt drafts in the process) and other stuff needs very specific support but can also be very dynamic if you provide some cards to bridge archetypes. One such example of this is Storm and Turboland (defined really as things like Fastbond, Exploration, Oracle of Mul Daya, etc). There was a really interesting thread on MTGS about turboland by a guy who got banned for rocking the boat a little too much over there. His list in particular I think has a lot of interesting ideas in it, particularly with trying to blend some combo themes and making them a bit more dynamic and draft friendly (talking namely storm). Here are links to what I think are fairly representative cube lists (neither of which seems to be active anymore which is a pity).

Colby's list: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/12767
Gubbe85's list: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/12594

What I really like and what seems to be working in my own list is adding things like fastbond mechanics to a storm list. Speed is essential for the deck to work. Nothing else really matters. And playing additional lands per turn makes the deck faster in similar ways to what mox and other fast mana would do (at the cost of more cards from your hand obviously, so it's weaker overall). In testing, you can pretty easily chain some draw 7's with a fastbond and just dump 10 lands into play (assuming your life total permits it). In the same way Dream Halls can enable a storm turn, fastbond has another mode of action and it also feeds a lot of other decks too (ramp, even fast aggro strategies like landfall, etc). This overlap is nice and one of the first ways I've seen to make storm a bit more palatable and blend better in general (maybe akin to familiar/untap cards in the peasant version of storm?)

On another note, in my own list I've conceded the goblin package entirely and removed it. Not because it lacked viability as a deck, but because the linear nature of drafting it is not conducive to what I'd like to try and do more of (namely cross pollinate a bit more with some of these archetypes). 2-3 piece combos are fine as linear in nature since they slot in many deck lists , but goblins was more like 6-7 and had to be the central theme of the deck. Captain Obvious moment, but that's just too hard to assemble in a real draft unless you always draft the whole cube. This decision to remove goblins creates a void in red, part of which I want to fill with more graveyard support. Still, I need a fast red strategy. I dislike traditional RDW style of gameplay, and figuring out where to cap creature power is going to be more challenging that just running goblins, but it's a necessary evil I feel. And not having red with aggressive lines of play is just fundamentally dumb IMO from a design standpoint. I don't care if you can do it, it's just forcing something that goes against what the color does in a way that just isn't going to make for a fun cube. I really feel that way.

Shifting gears a bit, I mentioned in one of the main threads, fattie selection has been problematic. Some are narrow. Some are just too good for what I'm trying to assemble. I took out Craterhoof for instance. Card is awesome but it's also just too good and the combo is way to easy to draft and build with all this silly mana generation in green (rofellos and priest). It's weak to removal, but there's a little less of that across archetypes simply because decks are less focused on interaction here and more focused on assembling some sort of degenerate engine. In a way, combo is inherently a lot less interactive. But creature based formats by contrast are very linear so there's a tradeoff there. I don't think it's necessarily a good tradeoff either.

If I ever tried to design my own version of Magic, I would include generic actions you could take. Like exile three cards in your hand to destroy any one target non-land permanent. Something like that so that you didn't feel forced to pack answers (or side board them in) but just answering everything would be too severely punishing for you to just over use this mechanic. Games would be very interesting with a mechanic like that. No matter how broken something you assembled was, it could be disrupted if your opponent gave you a 3 for 1. This would inherently make one-shot spell effects much stronger since they couldn't be disrupted by your opponent through this mechanic. That might help bridge the gap between spell creatures and plain old spells. A lot of work would need to be done to flesh out an idea like this, but I think it has potential.

 

[ahadabans]

Headed to San Diego for the weekend but wanted to make a quick post before I left. I referenced a blog post awhile back from Nick that talked about the two different types of cube - midrange and combo. I've been using this in card evaluations for a few months now and I think it's extremely insightful and has added a new level of understanding about my own cubes. I wouldn't have immediately arrived at this distinction on my own I don't think, but it explains a great deal of how some cards have universally high praise while others can get wildly different evaluations from the cubing community (depending on which way a person's cube slants). Again, the basic idea is that in a more degenerate list, combo essentially replaces midrange as a theatre. Value based "fair" strategies (mostly midrange by definition) due poorly in a degenerate environment and essentially are not viable (replaced by combo).

Two other posts were made by Nick discussing the tier 1 archetypes in each type of cube. I think this is also worth reading through as it highlights the different shifts that happen when you move towards degenerate game play. Take something like white weanie. It's more a fair aggro/midrange deck in a midrange cube and morphs into a hate bears type of deck in a combo cube. Essentially, the disruption element becomes the only way it can compete and so WW suddenly cares more about things like Imposing Sovereign which strikes me as loose in a midrange list, here becoming a top pick for the WW archetype in a combo cube. For your reading pleasure, I recommend people check these out:

http://mtgcube.blogspot.com/2016/11/top-16-powered-cube-archetypes.html
http://mtgcube.blogspot.com/2016/11/top-8-drafting-cube-archetypes.html

For clarification, drafting cube is the midrange list (less degenerate). Powered list is the combo cube (more degenerate), and at least for Nick's group, decks are assembled in more of a constructed style versus being drafted. For that reason - and also because combo opens up more archetypes by default - a combo cube has a more diverse meta (though potentially less balanced for obvious reasons).

One last thing I wanted to talk quickly about relates to power max cube design.

I've gone on a lot of tirades over it and am likely repeating the same arguments, but wanted to reinforce something that I feel needs to start being discussed more in the mainstream cubing community. Namely that the arms race in cube is strangling creatively to the point that I think the format is being damaged by it. Take the latest set. You will be hard pressed to find a single cube review for Amonkhet by anybody that doesn't say every cube should windmill slam Manglehorn as a direct upgrade to Viridian Shaman/Uktabi Orangutan. Same body but with a more powerful effect... blah blah blah. My problem with this sort of evaluation is that it's lazy and puts no energy into asking what upgrading this effect for green decks might do to your meta. While I think this is likely a good upgrade in most cubes, what if were at a point where artifact ramp decks (or control decks reliant on that effect) were struggling to be tier 1 decks. And that a card like this pushed this problem farther the wrong way? I'm not saying the state of most cubes is this - in fact it's mostly likely the opposite and Manglehorn is a really good card for cube health - but the point is no one is even asking that question. And that's the pattern I see with cube card evaluation across the board. Is this card better than what I have? Auto-include. Take the new 2/1 recurring 1 drop zombie. Slam dunk right? Why? Do your black aggro decks need more of this effect? No one even asks that question. They see Carnophage or that shitty 2/1 vampire and assume that swapping these cards automatically makes their cubes play better. To me, this is nonsensical because everything has to be considered in context with everything else.

A strict power upgrade is not always a cube upgrade. I'll go to my grave defending this idea.

Part of my resistance to this philosophy is simply because increasing the average power level of filler cards is squeezing out a lot of creativity from cube. Take the sex monkeys... you really can't afford not to get the 2 for 1 from them because a grey orge is so crappy now that you lose way too much tempo/board presence wasting a turn on that play without a target. I made this point in the main forum and I feel it should be restated here: A good deal of the charm of cube (at least for me) was in seeing all the powerful synergies that you could create in cube. And as average power level increases, that synergy gets lost in raw power obsoleting synergy based gameplay. The new 2/1 zombie pushes synergy - I'm not suggesting people shouldn't run it. Manglehorn likely addresses some control artifact power issues in a lot of lists. Both cards are likely auto-includes. Don't misunderstand the argument. I'm not questioning including them. I'm questioning the reason behind why we should be.

 

[sigh]

I was thinking about that 2/1 last night. Was originally planning on swapping it in for diregraf ghoul, but then I was like "why"? I've already got Bloodsoaked and Gravecrawler, not to mention my two drops... no need to add word density to my drafting, the way I see it. I think there's a lot to be said for always thinking of swaps contextually. Does this improvement for X mean a worse downgrade for Y? Good stuff.

 

[ahadabans]

I came to the same conclusion on the that 2/1. I did test it and the trigger is harder than both crawler and blosdsoaked. And then there's all that text on it versus sarcomancy (my likely swap target) and it didn't feel worth it to me. I may revisit but for now likely not.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I mean I wasn't running diregraf ghoul, but he does let you restart chains with some difficulty. That's why I added him.

 

[ahadabans]

The Original High combo list has been expanded to 405 cards. It started 360 but after doing mock drafts in cube tutor, I wanted some variety in a regular 8 man draft. I first expanded to 380, then to 400 and finally 405 after I added in 3 conspiracy draft matter cards (Lore Seeker, Deal Broker and Cogwork Librarian). Here is a link to it:
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/63093

Other changes I made... I pulled generic RDW and put Goblins back in. I like that it's combo centric. I've drafted it a few times now online and it's not hard to do in an 8 man. I also think RDW is an easy deck to recover from in a draft. Even if your goblin list is weak, it's still got really strong burn and game winning agro staples like Sulfuric Vortex. Combo is hard to draft in general and ideally all tier 1 archetypes should have some level of the same difficulty. This isn't a list for beginners. I don't think the general cubing community subscribes to this concept. Particularly with agro, where I think most cube managers believe something is wrong with your list if you can't sleep walk to a great agro deck. But especially wth a combo list where some of the decks are simply hard to draft in an ideal way, you really need some way to balance that against more redundant / simplistic strategies. In short, the better the deck the harder it should be to draft optimally (IMO). I don't think there are many cubes where this is true, especially with agro.

As mentioned in previous posts, all cards have been put into basic decks for testing. I've done simple gold fishing on deckstats and each deck is at least functional. My deck list was 13 total originally, it is now 14 since the cube is larger. The new deck I added is a UB control deck featuring some rocks and upheaval/tog. Some card swaps have been made between the different basic decks to facilitate this but they are not dramatically far off from the archetype lists I posted above. I may repost the lists eventually, but not anytime soon.

I put together a grid in excel with all 14 decks. My testing goal will be to play best out of 3 matches against all combinations. That's 91 combinations by my calculations - a daunting task. I'm not optimistic I can do that much testing on my own (or even with other people), but that's what I'm planning at least. If I get through this, it will go a long way to expose all the weaknesses in the archetype skeleton I used and specific cards I'm including in the cube. For each match I'll post the results and thoughts about cards and how things performed. Mostly this is for my own notes, but I'll also highlight unusual cards if they perform well in case anyone following this thread finds the information useful.

 

[ahadabans]

Mono Black vs BUG Reanimator

Match one went 2-1 for Mono Black. I doubt each match will be this neat and tidy. The BUG list had Simic Sky Swallower, Bogardan Hellkite, and Borborygmos Enraged as it's prime targets. Blue discard with some tutors in black. Fast (aka broken) reanimation spells. Oath of Druids is very synergistic with this deck and rounds out the green splash. Mono Black is powered by Necropotence, Lake of the Dead, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Dark Ritual and includes classic black power cards (hymn), value (ETB creatures) as well as things like Gary and Stax components.

Game one went to reanimator off a decent start and a too-late-to-matter answered oath, finishing with a well timed top decked reanimation spell. Mono Black could not remove a hell kite and died 2 turns later. It wasn't an amazing draw honestly for BUG and after this game I thought the Mono Black deck would just lose all 3 games. That didn't end up happening though thankfully. Game two went to mono black off the back of a lucky top deck Necropotence. I took 10 damage from it over 2 turns, used Lake of the Dead to dump out my entire hand and got a double smokestack online plus Braids to lock the BUG deck out of the game (which was 1 land away from turning the game completely around with a Living Death). It was a very close game. Game 3 was won with a combo hymn + hippie. The BUG deck could not keep cards long enough to make any sort of run. Hymn to Tourach is a really busted card and an unanswered Hypnotic Specter is equally destructive. People have forgotten about that card in most lists, but it's extremely good. Random discard is just so brutal.

In all three games, Mono Black had an early Mesmeric Fiend that was a key card. BUG had very little actual removal and fiend comes down early enough to be very disrupting (stealing a reanimation spell all three times it came down). Nevinyrral's Disk was also extremely crucial for the Mono Black deck because it was literally the only solution to an Oath of Druids. For those who have not used Lake of the Dead or Necropotence before, they are both stupid (good) cards. With Lake + a swamp, you can get 5 mana. And with Necro and life, you can draw enough cards to always ensure you have the swamp you need. These are cards that will pull me into mono black, probably even more so than Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Lake + Necro enables you to decimate the board with Pox type effects, sacrifice lands and still empty your hand (with 2 lands remaining in play). It's high risk but just wins the game if unanswered. BUG had plenty of cheap and fast ways to reanimate monsters but Mono Black was actually one step ahead and able to control the board very easily in the two games it won. I'll be curious to see how strong this combination is against other decks. I honestly didn't expect BUG to lose this. It's a really strong list and the nut reanimator deck has typically been one of the best decks at any table I've ever played at.

 

[inscho]

I've admittedly not given Lake of the Dead much consideration, but it sure sounds like a lot more fun than Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Especially with land recursion and Titania, Protector of Argoth.

I've been trying to make a slot for Mesmeric Fiend, I used to get so much mileage out of it back in the day. Glad to hear that it did some good work for you.

 

[ahadabans]

4 Color Storm vs GUw Opposition

I was anxious for match 2. Storm is a bit of a albatross. It's hard to draft, really hard to play, extremely draw dependent, un-interactive and highly polar in how it goes off (all or nothing). GUw runs Opposition, which is probably the most broken card in my cube and I've contemplated whether I should keep it. Sadly, this match did not make me feel better (though I didn't feel worse, so I suppose there's that).

The Storm deck is an all-in strategy with all colors except white. It's looking for Yawgmoth's Will + Lion's Eye Diamond or High Tide + Islands or Dream Halls or Yawgmoth's Bargain + life and FastBond + Turnabout + Rituals for mana. Brain Freeze and Tendrils of Agony are the only win conditions in the deck. Mind's Desire can storm into these cards, but there's literally no other way to win. GUw Opposition is a typical Simic tempo deck with a white twist - Sunscape Familiar making everything you play cheaper and Armageddon to essentially lock in a lead. Opposition and Armageddon are the two broken cards that typically just win the game, at least on paper.

Storm ended up winning 2-1, but the first game was very close and could have gone the other way pretty easily. First game, Storm got an early Lotus Bloom and land drops into a Time Spiral that drew Lion's eye and Yagmoth's Will. Gush pulled the brain freeze and it was exactly enough to deck GUw. Without the second island for the alternate cost on gush, this would have been a fizzle though and GUw curved like a boss in this game and was lethal the next turn. And either Opposition or Armageddon would have locked the game a turn prior. Game two GUw got a Mystic Snake + Waterfront Bouncer online and storm was just dead on arrival. I tried to fight through it but 3 straight turns of that and it was over. There was no answer and key cards were getting countered killing all momentum. Third game, GUw could not get enough board presence (again, Opposition just wins but I never drew it). T6, storm has been setting up while completely oblivious to GUw and just goes off in a ridiculous fashion. I could have easily drawn my entire deck twice over and won with brain freeze or tendrils with virtually any storm count I wanted.

Shardless Agent is a really great card in a tempo deck. I drew it every game and it was such a boost. That second game GUw won, it had such a board lead, there was literally no way to recover. Agent came down T2 off a birds of paradise and then cascaded into a Lotus Cobra. Just ridiculous. By T4, I had practically dumped my hand and Storm was sitting on 3 lands and nothing else. Utter demolition.

 

[ahadabans]

Goblins! vs Dimir Show and Tinker

The Goblin deck is what RDW looks like in this cube list. The key pieces are Goblin Lackey, Goblin Warchief, Goblin Chieftain, Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Recruiter and Goblin Ringleader. In addition, we have high powered RDW pieces. Sulfuric Vortex and Fireblast being most notable. Aether Vial is a broken broken card that is IMO very underrated in cube. And it doesn't just go in aggro either. I love it in midrange and have even used it in control lists (with a high creature count - so Bant lists mostly). It's broken because it represents unfair amounts of free mana and gives creatures flash and uncounterable. Card is just stupid. The Dimir list is basic control elements - wraths, mana rocks, Sphinx's Revelation plus tinker, show and tell and giant creatures. Darksteel Colossus being the baddest thing in the deck. This is a toned down version of what you would find in high powered cube because the top end creature suite in this cube is 2008 power level, not 2017. It makes a big difference.

Goblins! wins 2-1!

Game 1 goes to Dimir off a Show and Tell Darksteel Colossus. This was quite the turnaround too because Goblins landed an avalanche riders on a karoo land and it had superior board presence for much of the match. Maybe a misplay by Goblins not attacking into the colossus as Austere Command on the next turn just ended the game on the spot (I don't think the math was there though TBH). Game 2 was a strange one. Dimir had very slow lands - two temples and a karoo. So it did next to nothing for several turns. A T1 Goblin Lackey that would have won the game was answered with a Swords to Plowshares and from there Goblin's stumbled. An interesting play whether to use Wing Shards on the Blistering Firecat or hold it for the very obvious combo turn (Aether Vial + Ogre Battledriver). In the end, Dimir was going to lose regardless as Goblins had Siege-gang Commander, Fireblast, Empty the Warrens and Mogg War Marshal (very good with the Ogre). It was wrath or bust. Wing Shards is sweet and I think more people should be running it, but in this game it just wasn't good enough. Game 3 went to Goblins. T1 Aether Vial into T2 Goblin Guide + Phyrexian Revoker to shut down Dimir's signet sets the tone for the game (revoker is always clutch - people should be running this card too). Wing Shards does a lot more work this time, but Aether Vial is Aether Vial and by T5 Goblins is swinging with an army of hasty Goblins thanks to warchief and chieftain. Even a Sphinx's Rev for 9 (courtesy of Tolarian Academy - another busted card) isn't enough to avoid death.

RDW is generally the best deck in any traditional high powered cube. It's easy to draft and over supported in the average list. Goblins is more explosive but less consistent. When it's on though, it's frighteningly powerful and capable of powered cube level of degeneracy. I really love the gobos.

 

[ahadabans]

White Weenie vs The Rock

Drafting in this cube is more linear than in more traditional lists. This is on display with the WW deck. It features three 2 mana CC cards - the soltari bros and Crusade. In the case of the latter, it's obsoleted by honor of the pure in modern cubes but I wanted this effect to be tied heavily to white. You want anthems, you need WW. White weenie is slightly slower than other agro strategies but it's a much more consistent deck. Where it lacks reach, it makes up for with hate bear style disruption. The rock is a traditional Golgari list with a white splash to enable combo elements - Mirari's Wake and the Astral Slide / LFTL package. Lots of value pieces including Karmic Guide / Reveillark and Eternal Dragon. I think white weenie is going lose but let's see what happens.

WW wins 2-0 (3-0)

Game 1, WW curves into Stoneforge Mystic (search for Fire and Ice). The Rock has removal but finally runs out and the bleeding starts. Brutal mana tithe of Pernicious Deed is what really wins the game, that and the self damage the Rock is taking with Elves of Deep Shadow and pain lands. Game 2 is more of the same. Stoneforge gets answered but spot removal isn't stopping all the bleeding. Silverblade Paladin dual wielding a bone splitter and SoFI finally starts beating down hard. It dies but The Rock is on 2 life. Recurring Nightmare Angel of Despair plus a Decree of Justice Angel token looks great on paper but is all for naught against Recruiter of the Guard into Soltari Monk. I did play a third game which The Rock lost. White Weenie was just too solid. Mother of Runes to protect a Banisher Priest that had removed Lotleth Troll. Even a Cast Away isn't enough as WW has unexpectedly absent in response. Harm's way screws up more combat math and a Lodestone Golem under mother's protection does the final 5 damage.

So my fist lopsided match. Wasn't really close either. I most likely need to tweak the Rock list, but I might make some card upgrades too. Blackmail is loose and probably needs to be Thoughtsieze. This deck also really needs some life gain. Thragtusk is a card I hate and won't be running but I might revisit Noxious Gearhulk since it overlaps with Tinker (another deck that lost).

UPDATE:
Maybe premature to be making changes after one match, but this was painfully noncompetitive. So the following swaps have been made:
Noxious Gearhulk in for Kokusho, The Evening Star - life gain and another ETB effect to abuse with Astral Slide. Also overlaps with tinker.
Thoughtseize in for Blackmail - more life lost but it does more work early in a game.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth for Gerrard's Verdict - I have enough Orzhov stuff, this was filler anyway. Meren is insane in my midrange list. It's a build around and fits the rock.

 

[ahadabans]

UR Spells vs RBW Sacrifice Combo

I'll refrain from making any predictions since that went super badly with the last match. UR spell is a pretty typical list. Snapcaster Mage, Young Pyromancer, Guttersnipe, Treasure Cruise with lots of burn and cheap cantrip type spells (sprinkled with some counter magic). The RBW sacrifice deck is a smorgasbord of stuff. Blood Artist and Abyssal Persecutor, token makers, Goblin Bombardment - all the standard aristocrats stuff but also some high end creatures, Sneak Attack and a light splash of reanimator. Feldon of the Third Path, Kiki-jiki, mirror breaker for who knows what. Even has some TOL miracle shenanigans. This deck could suck (and certainly will suck with the wrong combination of cards). I'd probably label it goodstuff if someone drafted it, though it's a bit schizophrenic. I hope it loses. How about that?

UR wins 2-1!

Wow. So game one is a classic. UR gets off to a quick start, Young P followed up by a Standstill. RBW goblin bombardment some lingering souls tokens and we are at stalemate. Abyssal Persecutor gets countered, Kolaghan's Commanded back to hand, then remanded and into the roiled. Jesus. All the while UR is dropping threats but they all keep dying to removal. Triskelion comes down for RBW and does a ton of working killing Talrand, Sky Summoner which was about to go crazy with flashback spells. Grim Lavamancer +Izzet Charm does some work dealing with Olivia Voldaren which was about to take over. Each deck is basically one turn away from just running away with things but it never happens. Vendilion Clique away Feldon, Treasure Cruise for max delve refuels and UR is back in the lead, but RBW keeps drawing gas and has a billions land in play now so starts dropping really big things. Abyssal Persecutor finally sticks after attempt 5 and the hurt starts in earnest now. Another swing from the demon and UR is at 2 life. It's looking bleak. UR has just a 2/2 flyer left and nothing else. RBW on 5 life with the demon out and bombardment out, casts Catastrophe destroying all lands. Game right? Nope. UR has one card in hand - a mountain. And top decks... lightning bolt. Swing with the flyer, bolt to face. UR wins game one. Damn. I probably misplayed in a few places but who cares? This game was nuts regardless.

Game 2 goes to RBW. Much less insane than game one, but still very competitive with a lot of swings. UR counters an early vindicate with izzet charm. But Feldon, Firestorm (discard Triskelion) creates a serious problem for UR - man, that 3rd toughness on Feldon is massive in this matchup. So many 2 damage effects that can't get it done. Tangle Wire buys some time for UR but RBW has too big of a lead and UR finally succumbs. Game 3 goes to UR. UR gets a big tempo lead. RBW burning wish for Balance to reset things. But UR gets back in front easily with a Treasure Cruise. RBW is back on the Feldon/Triskelion plan, but that goes up in smoke as Clique makes Feldon go away (replacing it with a land). 3 land draws in a row and UR has a board with counter backup. RBW has a billion land but no gas. Game, set match.

UR is a very resilient deck. It's hard to beat a balance especially when it ruins your board. But Treasure Cruise is dumb and balance plays right into making it dumber. I've always enjoyed playing UR. This build of aristocrats was not as focused as what I've seen in my midrange list. And if it does poorly I may bring in Outpost Siege. That card is really good in this deck.

 

[ahadabans]

Elves! vs UWR Firemane Control

Elves is fairly straight forward. Lots of forests, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, Green Sun's Zenith for some toolbox action, Terrastodon, Primeval Titan, Silvos, Rogue Elemental for top end. The UWR deck has a lot of elements going. Much like the RBW deck above, it's a smorgasbord of stuff. Control elements, Wrath of God, etc. Wildfire + mana rocks, Firemane Angel and discard, Academy Rector + Form of the Dragon.

Elves wins 2-1!

Game 1 starts great for Elves. Rofellos T2 into T3 Prime Time is answered by a miscalculate (ouch). It's OK though, Harmonize and wood elves gets more land and gas so pressure resumes. UWR resets with a wrath and works towards exalted angel + wildfire, but Terrastodon blows up the angel and ruins that plan. Crater Hellion buys time but it's not enough. Elves wins game 1.

Game 2 UWR sees some timely counters to big threats early. Forsake the Worldly deals with a Pattern of Rebirth, but Terrastodon comes down off a Natural Order anyway blowing up UWR's only island. A pivotal point in the game where Elves must decide whether to swing into an academy rector. I know it's not a good idea but what would another player think not knowing Form of the Dragon is what awaited them? I don't know. Any other enchantment and Elves probably wins anyway, they had 6 cards in hand and threats galore. So I swing with reckless abandon. But it's a fatal mistake as Elves ends up with no answer to Form of the Dragon. Green Sun's for Reclamation Sage would have been the next draw, but sadly a turn too late. On to the rubber match...

Both decks start slow in game 3. Weathered Wayfarer doing work early for RWU though. I misplay by using the ability one extra time after I scry and see Academy Rector (which I think would have won the game). Rector gets shuffled and that plan is gone (oops). Ohran Viper draws some cards for Elves but they are stuck on 4 lands and a wall of roots. Exalted Angel comes down and starts a clock. Avenger of Zendikar looks to out race but pyroclasm deals with the tokens and RWU is back in the lead. Terrastodon gets hard casted and beast within deals with the angel but Academy Rector comes down and it's back to stalemate. Lucky Overrun top deck for Elves though and it's enough for lethal. Elves wins game 3!

Really good match. I was rushed to get this one done so made more mistakes than usual. Still, these are clean fun games. I originally had Craterhoof Behemoth in the elves deck but it's now a living wish target only. The card is too good with Pattern of Rebirth and Natural Order. This deck just does nothing else if it has that play. Terastodon is another really great card. It's powerful but not broken and it offers a lot of interesting lines of play.

EDIT: I think I misplayed in game 1 and used Terastodon on Exalted Angel. It was morphed and I think I just spaced out on it being a creature. My bad. I really rushed these games since I had to leave for game night. That could have swung game one potentially, although I think Elves was in a good position to race the life gain on Angel. Hard to say though.

 

[inscho]

Terastodon only hits noncreatures

 

[ahadabans]

Yeah. That sucks but it's still powerful. I usually target my opponent's land if I can keep them off a color or I think that tempo hit gives me time to win. Then I will typically blow up my own lands. But there are cases this is not the right line of play and that's why I think the card is cool. It hasn't been in my cube for a long time and it's fun playing with it again.

 

[Kirblinx]

All these match writeups are awesome!

Just know that I am enjoying your testing and just know there is going to be some decks that are just going to have terrible matchups against specific deck. I don't think it is possible for every deck is going to have an enjoyable play experience versing every deck.

I look forward to reading more!

 

[ahadabans]

Thanks! I was badly rushed with the last one I did so made a ton of mistakes. Play mistakes are one thing but stuff like Terastodon killing a creature, that's just really sloppy. So I'll try to be better in future write ups. There's not much value to these if rules are being broken. I'll be out of town for a week, so I can't do more of these until I get back, but I want to try and do 1 a day. Should I miraculously get through all 91 combinations, that would be sweet. I know some matchups will be bad. And I'm cool with it as long as in the end there isn't much deviation. The worst deck I'm hoping will still have a 40% win rate against the field. Maybe that happens and maybe it doesn't.

Observations so far through 6 matches... agro has done very well. And all mono colored decks won their matches. That seems reasonable given these are idealized somewhat. It's hard to actually draft a mono colored deck and I'm happy to see they perform really well. So there's incentive to trying to do it. Or so it seems right now anyway. The less focused "goodstuff" strategies are doing less well and that also seems good to me. We'll see if this trend continues as we go on. Next match is Naya vs UB Tog Upheaval. The Upheaval deck is more focused than the other controlish decks, so it may do better. I guess we'll see. Results next week.