The Orzhov Oppression Cube (Color Imbalance, 360 Non-Powermax)

[Chriskool]

Ecumenopolis Enslaved: The Orzhov Oppression Cube​

Check out the visual spoiler courtesy of CubeTutor

The Idea​

A color-pair-skewed cube constructed to operate similarly to other cubes (shuffle up 360 and deal 15-card packs) with a heavy morph focus. Think Judgment if it had been made part of Ravnica. Okay, maybe think Judgment meets Khans. The cube should play closer to a traditional limited environment than a power cube or the Magic Online cubes.

Singleton is broken mostly in the lands, to get critical density of the cycling and manafixers aligned with the cube's color-wheel layout, but also in spells to (1) create redundancy in morphs/tricks/conditional removal and (2) to support themes properly.

Drafting should challenging players with temptations to wander into other colors as well as take spells over lands (and vice versa). Several players should be fighting over each color pair /triad during drafting. Getting to 25 or more playables shouldn't be the issue; assembling a deck with a preponderance of synergies and proper fixing is the hurdle to overcome.

Gameplay should last more than 7 turns on average. Morphs, cycling and fixing ensure decks are engaged in action by turn 3. Bounce lands and cycling lands allow players to transition into the later game more smoothly. Situational removal, morphs and a bevy of tricks make combat decisions a focal point. Planeswalkers are present in weaker cards. Most decks look for small synergies to get more mileage out of their cards.

The Method​

The colors break as follows:

- - - - -

For numerical breakdown, I aimed for roughly 60% of the cube to be mono-colored (26% B, 26% W, 22% G, 13% U, 13% R), about 25% to be multi-colored (50% Orzhov, 16% Simic, 16% Gruul, 12% Temur, 3% Naya, 3% Sultai) and about to be 15% land (skewed similarly as multicolored, but containing mono-colored lands as well).

Generally, I aimed to adhere to these guidelines (but am open to changing them to enrich the environment):

• Very low # of 1cmc creatures and spells; these cards shouldn't trade 1-for-1 with morphs
• Low-to-moderate # of 2-power, 2cmc creatures
• Low # of red-blue-green 3cmc creatures without morph
• Conditional removal (primarily)
• Khans of Tarkir 5-mana-to-unmorph-and-trump-a-2/2-in-combat rule is mostly adhered to (except each color has a “fair” card that can do it for 4 mana)
• Up to 3 of a single card name, but mostly singleton

Then, finally, the themes were chosen with their primary locations in the color scheme. My hope was to allow each color group to have a few competitive directions during the drafting portion, with demand overlap to create tension and varying card evaluations from draft to draft. (Please note that the tribal synergy has been mostly removed outside of the black-white spirit/arcane theme.) The themes are as follows:

Color-Grouping Themes​

Orzhov -

• life drain synergy (gaining life provides bonus resource & decks that aim to win through chipping away enough to alpha strike)

• enchantments (Tallowisp, the Theros enchantment synergies and additional incentives)

• restrictive color requirements (to prevent Temur, Simic or Gruul decks splashing white and/or black cards as they please)

• spirit/arcane (Kamigawa block triggers)

• sacrifice (accrue value by sacrificing creatures)

Naya -

• +1/+1 counters (primarily interacts with persist and creatures that remove counters for effect)

• cycling (Vintage Masters strikes again)

Temur -

• big creature power (sprinkling of Naya and Temur mechanics from retail sets)

• morph (primary location of mechanic)

• dragons (just a sprinkle)

Sultai -

• control-style mill (slow but repetitive, with top of library removal and defensive measures)

• graveyard matters (everyone’s favorite pedestrian, NWO triad mechanic)

The Fluff​

The Orzhov Guild has conquered the vast majority of their sprawling city-plane and are cashing all souls they've accumulated over the aeons with an eye on acquiring new ethereal wealth through invasive, violent planar overlay. Will the besieged of the Multiverse and downtrodden of Ravnica resist and survive or will the price for independence be too high to pay?​

Presenting... Ecumenopolis Enslaved​

Spoiler: original post

Thank you to everyone here posting all of your crazy whims and then proceeding to discuss their implications and nuances for days on end. Without these forums and interactions, I would probably still be trying to make an Invasion-Block cube obsessed with card cycles and strict color composition.

Ecumenopolis Enslaved: The Orzhov Oppression Cube​

Check out the visual spoiler courtesy of CubeTutor

The Orzhov Guild has conquered the vast majority of their sprawling city-plane and are cashing all souls they've accumulated over the aeons with an eye on acquiring new ethereal wealth through invasive, violent planar overlay. Will the besieged of the Multiverse and downtrodden of Ravnica resist and survive or will the price for independence be too high to pay?

Presenting... Ecumenopolis Enslaved

The Idea​

A color-pair-skewed cube constructed to operate similarly to other cubes (shuffle up 360 and deal 15-card packs) with a heavy morph focus. Think Judgment if it had been made part of Ravnica. Okay, maybe think Judgment meets Khans. The cube should play closer to a traditional limited environment than a power cube or the Magic Online cubes.

The Method​

The colors break as follows:

- - - - - ​

For numerical breakdown, I aimed for roughly 60% of the cube to be mono-colored (25% B, 25% W, 20% G, 15% U, 15% R), about 25% to be multi-colored (48% Orzhov, 12% Simic, 12% Gruul, 12% Temur, 8% Naya, 8% Sultai) and about to be 15% land (skewed similarly as multicolored, but containing mono-colored lands as well).

Generally, I aimed to adhere to these guidelines (but am open to changing them to enrich the environment):

• Very low # of 1cmc creatures and spells
• Low-to-moderate # of 2-power, 2cmc creatures
• Low # of 3cmc creatures without morph
• Conditional removal (primarily)
• Up to 3 of a single card name, but preferably singleton
• Khans of Tarkir 5-mana-to-unmorph-and-trump-a-2/2-in-combat rule is mostly adhered to (except each color has a “fair” card that can do it for 4 mana)

Then, finally, the themes (tribal and mechanical, similar to Innistrad) were chosen with their primary locations in the color scheme. My hope was to allow each color group to have a few competitive directions during the drafting portion, with demand overlap to create tension and varying card evaluations from draft to draft. The themes are as follows:

Tribal Synergy
(All are minor, except for spirits, which supports the spirit/arcane theme below):

• Orzhov - - Spirits
• Gruul - - Beasts
• Simic - - Rogues
• Temur - – Dragons

Some examples of the above, in order:


Color-Grouping Themes

• Orzhov - - life drain synergy (gaining life provides bonus resource & decks that aim to win through chipping away enough to alpha strike)
• Orzhov - - enchantments (Tallowisp, the Theros enchantment synergies and additional incentives)
• Orzhov - - restrictive color requirements (to prevent Temur, Simic or Gruul decks splashing white and/or black cards as they please)
• Orzhov - - spirit/arcane (Kamigawa block triggers)
• Orzhov - - sacrifice (accrue value by sacrificing creatures)

Some examples of the above, in order:

• Naya - - +1/+1 counters (primarily interacts with persist and creatures that remove counters for effect)
• Naya - - cycling (Vintage Masters strikes again)

Some examples of the above, in order:

• Temur - - big creature power (sprinkling of Naya and Temur mechanics from retail sets)
• Temur - - morph (primary location of mechanic)
• Temur - - mana ramp (morph costs are expensive, and dragon mana costs are expensive)

Some examples of the above, in order:

• Sultai - - control-style mill (slow but repetitive, with top of library removal and defensive measures)
• Sultai - - graveyard matters (everyone’s favorite pedestrian, NWO triad mechanic)

Some examples of the above, in order:


Unfortunately, CubeTutor doesn’t support bulk upload tagging, so here are the cards I’ve considered and benched (for whatever reason, including ignorance):

Spoiler

Please, crack this nut open and tell me everything that is missing and/or seems oppressive! Feel free to draft on CubeTutor, but be aware: CT's bots are huge noobs.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Hmmm....could we talk about the mana base a little bit? I was having a very difficult time supporting a rug deck. I'm not sure thats a design of the cube, or if the fixing could be better.

 

[Jason Waddell]

This is a pretty unique idea. Have you run any real drafts with this yet? If so, how di dthey go?

 

[Chriskool]

Jason : Only CubeTutor drafts have occurred this far. I might build it on MTGO after a bit of tuning if there is interest! (Should be cheap.)

Grillo: I take lands pretty highly when in non-Orzhov, so it may skew the bots. I have been thinking there should be a bit less Orzhov-only lands. Perhaps adding more Terramorphic/Evolving Wilds would be a good consideration. Note that I draft Jungle Shrines as RG lands and Opulent Palaces as UG lands.

Beyond looking at the land offerings, I have these pondering points/notes:

Look where multiples can create better in-game interactions (e.g. replacing Bloodstoke Howler). I need to head over to kev's thread to see if he has any experience with duplicates.

Up beast synergy by 1-2 cards

Look for more white intensive mana costs

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

The curve seems a bit high for the b/w cards, which makes it seem to me that the 4-6cc part of the curve will fill up pretty quickly. Is there really space for cards like rot feaster maggot, which is a role player, but has to compete with ample powerful alternatives in that slot?

I like the list, it just is going to take a little easing into. I like how you are creating competing strategies in the cube, but its hard to predict how draft dynamics are going to play out. For example, I don't know how realistic of a danger there is in too many drafters going for the power b/w cards, and getting poor decks as they fight over fixing.

 

[Chriskool]

The curve seems a bit high for the b/w cards, which makes it seem to me that the 4-6cc part of the curve will fill up pretty quickly. Is there really space for cards like rot feaster maggot, which is a role player, but has to compete with ample powerful alternatives in that slot?

... For example, I don't know how realistic of a danger there is in too many drafters going for the power b/w cards, and getting poor decks as they fight over fixing.

Some of the higher cmc cards can be played as morphs, but i have no insight on the actual curve at the moment. I need to make an evasion-power-toughness matrix and an evasion-color-cmc matrix to look more into combat and game pacing. This draft was actively "balanced" solely on mechanical density and color distribution. I have added more number crunching to my action items list to better discuss distributions and the role of cards. (I remember Rotfeaster being quite good in its respective draft format by aiding in races and clogging up the ground, but i have no idea if 5 toughness is worry jack in this format. ) I expect the average proactive play mana cost of this format to be between 3 and 4, but that's just gut feeling.

Are you worried about b.w fixing or green-x(-y) fixing (or both)? I am a bit worried about triad fixing. The black/white decks should be good with 0-3 fixers, but there will be some mana-issue losses if they don't build/draft accordingly (i.e. take and play restrictive color requirements in black and white while passing lands for spells). I learned to draft during Invasion, so I find mana prioritization to be an important aspect of drafting. (Coastal Tower and friends were high picks.) The cycling lands will also play a small part in fixing... but maybe a few more scry lands (and Terramorphic/Wilds) would go a long way.

Sorry if the above is confusing. Hard to proofread on mobile!

Ninja edit: i am a bit concerned about the manlands. I don't like how they are providing fixing and extra threat density while only being applicable for half of drafters. On the other hand, none of them have evasion., so they aren't at UB UW power levels. I was considering some colorless manlands... if space for them could be found.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

No it makes sense. I think you have a good grasp of the issues.

Tri color fixing I am worried about, as well as the way curves will play out, but I was also worried about b/w fixing. Its just very difficult to get an idea of how rational those concerns are by toying with the list on cube tutor.

Which cards do you feel are essential to break singleton on? The list feels like it could potential stand on its own as a singleton format.

Since the list is already somewhat bifurcated, how are the tri color portions of the cube supposed to be interacting with the orzhov portions?

 

[Chriskool]

It could probably stand as singleton, but morphs seem like they play better with redundancy. FWIW, I think situational removal and combat tricks play better with redundancy. The advantage is on the receiving end; there is a lot less to consider. I suppose that something like Reprisal, Radiant's Judgement and Valorous Stance are so similar that they might as well be the same card to play around, but the additional mana cost associated with Judgement changes the scenario ever so slightly (but noticeably when it comes up). Also, few utility cards seem to pass muster: Ainok Survivalist seems leaps and bounds better than alternatives.

I've brainstormed some changes based on the preceding posts; specifically, I've cut some cards that seemed just bad (I think all of the domain cards are now gone), fiddled with the synergy/theme cards and improved the mana situation. I still need to look at P/T and evasion. This is where I think I am going:

On the chopping block:


On the bench, ready to tag in:


Thoughts?

 

[Chriskool]

Decided to pull the trigger on (1) updating and (2) purchasing. Hope to get some hands-on experience in the next month.

Spent $110 to complete it. 331 cards purchased, had for valuable cards: Godless Shrine, Stomping Ground, Raging Ravine, Breeding Pool, Tendo Ice Bridge, Vish Kal and The Mimeoplasm. Probably costs $175 to assemble in full via TCGPlayer. Not the cheapest, blindly-bought board game...

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Ha! I randomly clicked the link in your signature. This looks interesting and unique! Curious for the results of the first real draft you fire of with this