The Penny Pincher Cube (360)
- Thread starter Grillo_Parlante
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Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I would suggest skimming, he likes to pontificate about how how much he dislikes the pauper brewing community from 2013. 
Common Deckbuilding Mistakes part 1
Common Deckbuilding Mistakes part 2
What I have been really looking for is an old set of articles by a pauper brewer named David Shaffer, as he actually breaks down the elements of what constitutes the different major archetypes. There is this youtube video
but all of the original articles seem to have been taken down when the community crashed when wizards brilliantly banned the dailies. So you kind of get stuck with a meandering discussion about a niche format, which is too bad, because a lot of his ideas seem like they would be interesting to dissect for the archetype building that occurs in cube.
15:00 he talks about the elements of combo
25:45 is control decks
38:00 is aggro decks
Common Deckbuilding Mistakes part 1
Common Deckbuilding Mistakes part 2
What I have been really looking for is an old set of articles by a pauper brewer named David Shaffer, as he actually breaks down the elements of what constitutes the different major archetypes. There is this youtube video
but all of the original articles seem to have been taken down when the community crashed when wizards brilliantly banned the dailies. So you kind of get stuck with a meandering discussion about a niche format, which is too bad, because a lot of his ideas seem like they would be interesting to dissect for the archetype building that occurs in cube.
15:00 he talks about the elements of combo
25:45 is control decks
38:00 is aggro decks
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
a few very minor tweeks
cut somber hoverguard for spined thopter. Thopter is a better role player than hoverguard for what the cube wants to do as a whole, even if it isn't the most exciting of cards. I'm also cutting the kiln fiend for a frenzied goblin. Kiln fiend is ok, but its kind of awkwardly positioned in the cube, and I think people are getting confused by it. This is another one of those cards, like triad of fates, which is probably much better than it looks, but people are having too hard of a time with the concept of building turns for it.
I'm trying frenzied goblin because being a one drop is quite valuable in this particular cube, and evasion is important in making players feel safe in going with aggro decks. The ability also seems quite powerful, as you can build towards turns where you deal a massive burst of damage, but isn't so esoteric where it confuses people, and those play dynamics are very attractive to me.
I also have an algae gharial sitting in my binder, waiting to be called off the sidelines. Lumberknot is a great, great card, but I also have rancor in the cube, so I have to consider the possibility that it may become correct to run gharial in place of lumberknot at some point.
However, there is only one potentially problematic card in the cube that works uniquely with lumberknot rather than gharial, more often the is a more important limitation than a two card combo, and lumberknot is just a much more appealing card to actually play with in terms of art, flavor text, and reputation. So i'm sticking with the knot until this becomes an issue.
Bonus random lumberknot story. We had an awesome game a couple weeks ago where a lumberknot deck had the abyss lock going against a G/B/W graveyard deck, who was just holding on through top deck fodder draws and necrogenesis. I had no idea how he was going to win and why he didn't just concede, until lumberknot's arch nemesis hit the battlefield
Which just made the board state awesome, as now the lumberknot is kind of obligated to keep on swinging in, but the graveyard player can convert every exchange into more 1/1s to buy time and to grow the swarm. Its just this perfect synergistic board state to counter the lumberknot threat and close out the game, assuming he can preserve it. However, things swing back the other way, when the lumberknot player, who was approaching dead through the air, upped the ante with
The lumberknot at this point is just huge from eating saprolings (the game ended with it over 20/20 lol) so his side of the board is this massive lumberknot that only needs to connect once to win, a cloud of faeries, and pelakka wurm.
His opponent has a bunch of 1/1s, and swarm of bloodflies. I can't remember exactly how the board looked, but it ended up where he couldn't quite deal with the blockers, stay alive, and kill the pelakka wurm, which he couldn't afford to just chump because his life was so low. If his opponent alphas on the next turn, he basically either dies or losses his board, and can't really win.
So he swings with the swarm of bloodflies, his opponent declines to block, mumbling something about how he is is sure the guy has a fallen angel in hand, and is just looking for a window to combo kill him with angel + bloodflies. Guy looks irritated at the lack of a block, than drops
The plan he had been building up to was that the opponent would chump with the faeries, which would than mean one of the big threats has to go. This is a really on point play, because even though hes expecting cloud to hit the bin, he can sacrifice a saproling, and have just enough power to both survive and kill the wurm if it comes in.
So now its quiet, everyone is imagining the faeries getting sacrificed.
Guy picks up pelakka wurm and bins it!
He's so convinced that his opponent has a fallen angel in hand, and is playing towards a combo kill in the air, that he would rather sac the wurm, digging through his deck, looking for a removal spell, and keep the cloud of faeries around to buy as much time as possible.
This is without a doubt, i.m.o, a misplay. As fallen angel wasn't really something he could afford to play around (and he, of course, didn't have it in hand).
This creates a window for swarm to just take over the game, while lumberknot could do nothing but sit there growing ever more monstrous.
Anyways, just a random story of the kind of sweet game states lumberknot can create: its almost like a prison card in a lot of situations.
cut somber hoverguard for spined thopter. Thopter is a better role player than hoverguard for what the cube wants to do as a whole, even if it isn't the most exciting of cards. I'm also cutting the kiln fiend for a frenzied goblin. Kiln fiend is ok, but its kind of awkwardly positioned in the cube, and I think people are getting confused by it. This is another one of those cards, like triad of fates, which is probably much better than it looks, but people are having too hard of a time with the concept of building turns for it.
I'm trying frenzied goblin because being a one drop is quite valuable in this particular cube, and evasion is important in making players feel safe in going with aggro decks. The ability also seems quite powerful, as you can build towards turns where you deal a massive burst of damage, but isn't so esoteric where it confuses people, and those play dynamics are very attractive to me.
I also have an algae gharial sitting in my binder, waiting to be called off the sidelines. Lumberknot is a great, great card, but I also have rancor in the cube, so I have to consider the possibility that it may become correct to run gharial in place of lumberknot at some point.
However, there is only one potentially problematic card in the cube that works uniquely with lumberknot rather than gharial, more often the
is a more important limitation than a two card combo, and lumberknot is just a much more appealing card to actually play with in terms of art, flavor text, and reputation. So i'm sticking with the knot until this becomes an issue.Bonus random lumberknot story. We had an awesome game a couple weeks ago where a lumberknot deck had the abyss lock going against a G/B/W graveyard deck, who was just holding on through top deck fodder draws and necrogenesis. I had no idea how he was going to win and why he didn't just concede, until lumberknot's arch nemesis hit the battlefield
Which just made the board state awesome, as now the lumberknot is kind of obligated to keep on swinging in, but the graveyard player can convert every exchange into more 1/1s to buy time and to grow the swarm. Its just this perfect synergistic board state to counter the lumberknot threat and close out the game, assuming he can preserve it. However, things swing back the other way, when the lumberknot player, who was approaching dead through the air, upped the ante with
The lumberknot at this point is just huge from eating saprolings (the game ended with it over 20/20 lol) so his side of the board is this massive lumberknot that only needs to connect once to win, a cloud of faeries, and pelakka wurm.
His opponent has a bunch of 1/1s, and swarm of bloodflies. I can't remember exactly how the board looked, but it ended up where he couldn't quite deal with the blockers, stay alive, and kill the pelakka wurm, which he couldn't afford to just chump because his life was so low. If his opponent alphas on the next turn, he basically either dies or losses his board, and can't really win.
So he swings with the swarm of bloodflies, his opponent declines to block, mumbling something about how he is is sure the guy has a fallen angel in hand, and is just looking for a window to combo kill him with angel + bloodflies. Guy looks irritated at the lack of a block, than drops
The plan he had been building up to was that the opponent would chump with the faeries, which would than mean one of the big threats has to go. This is a really on point play, because even though hes expecting cloud to hit the bin, he can sacrifice a saproling, and have just enough power to both survive and kill the wurm if it comes in.
So now its quiet, everyone is imagining the faeries getting sacrificed.
Guy picks up pelakka wurm and bins it!
He's so convinced that his opponent has a fallen angel in hand, and is playing towards a combo kill in the air, that he would rather sac the wurm, digging through his deck, looking for a removal spell, and keep the cloud of faeries around to buy as much time as possible.
This is without a doubt, i.m.o, a misplay. As fallen angel wasn't really something he could afford to play around (and he, of course, didn't have it in hand).
This creates a window for swarm to just take over the game, while lumberknot could do nothing but sit there growing ever more monstrous.
Anyways, just a random story of the kind of sweet game states lumberknot can create: its almost like a prison card in a lot of situations.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
After the last round, where I finally got to see the marriage of rancor and lumberknot, I am sadly going to have to cut lumberknot for algae gharial.
What makes lumberknot a fun and balanced include is taking a durdly 4 mana 1/1, than advancing a long-term gameplan around it where you build the abyss, trying to slowly chew apart their board, while the oppo finds ways to play around that. Once you add trample to the equation there is nothing really to play around. Right now, the only ways to give lumberknot trample are rancor and tuskguard captain; and I was kind of skirting the issues because lumberknot is just so iconic.
I knew this day would come eventually, and sadly it has finally arrived. Farewell lumberknot, you will be fondly remembered:
What makes lumberknot a fun and balanced include is taking a durdly 4 mana 1/1, than advancing a long-term gameplan around it where you build the abyss, trying to slowly chew apart their board, while the oppo finds ways to play around that. Once you add trample to the equation there is nothing really to play around. Right now, the only ways to give lumberknot trample are rancor and tuskguard captain; and I was kind of skirting the issues because lumberknot is just so iconic.
I knew this day would come eventually, and sadly it has finally arrived. Farewell lumberknot, you will be fondly remembered:
We should probably keep him in for the Penny League to keep the list consistent. He will only be in one more draft anyway. Let's call it his final send off.
Also, I sent a terrible alter of one of these once. I can only ever see it with googly eyes now
RIP Lumberknot. You made me lose more grid drafts than you probably should have.
EDIT: Sorry for the potato-like quality camera. Your eyes deserve better.
Also, I sent a terrible alter of one of these once. I can only ever see it with googly eyes now
RIP Lumberknot. You made me lose more grid drafts than you probably should have.
EDIT: Sorry for the potato-like quality camera. Your eyes deserve better.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Since its been over a year since the cube went into development, I kind of wanted to do an archetype breakdown at this point. The amount of data I have is immense, consisting of a years worth of RL drafts covering both normal single player drafts from two play groups, free-for-all multiplayer drafts, the nine pages worth of cube tutor drafts (largely thanks to the featured cube status from cube tutor), as well as the grid drafts we've done here.
With some people looking to build the cube, I think there is some value in providing context for why certain cards are being run, as well as a general touching point for lower power archetype design in cube.
I've been trying to keep track of draft patterns, and these appear to be the most consistent, leaving out shards/wedges, which I do not consider a design focus of the cube. Maybe I'll do a weekly update of each color combination's decks/sub-decks. I can do U/W, and if there is any interest, I can keep on going.
UW: Splicers Midrange/Flash tempo or draw-go control
UB: Ninjas Tempo-control/Tool Box control/solar flare
BR: Aristocrats Aggro/Discard based Midrange strategies
RG: Control Ramp/Power Matters aggro
GW: Splicers Midrange/Selesnya Kitty/Counter Lords
BW: Lifepay Control/Orzhov Kity reanimator
UR: Artifact themed Control/spell velocity based tempo
BG: Rampaimator/Value Grind
RW: Wide Aggro/Artifact themed or boros kitty Midrange
GU: Aura Prowess/Hexproof
As a tribal strategy, it relies on gathering together a critical mass of golems and golem produces, but unlike most cube tribal strategies, the splicers are independently strong enough to justify making the final 40 of a list on their own, while the splicers themselves simultaneously contribute to that critical mass while acting as the deck's payoff cards--the lords that make it all worthwhile.
In addition, because the splicer's are powerful cards that make artifact golems, they help ensure the cube has a critical density of this necessary permanent type, which people will pick and play highly. Master splicer is one of the rare main color singleton breaks to ensure that this archetype maintains a healthy position in the metagame, for these reasons. This is also part of the reason why sensor splicer is ran, despite being the worst of the possible splicer lords, and why there are two rusted relics. This structure--and deck--is core to the cube's foundation.
Outside of generally being able to create 11 power and toughness out of nowhere via resolving a master splicer onto a board with a rusted relic, the decks other big strength comes from blink effects:
The instant speed variety is particularly brutal, as it can be cast in response to removal on the splicer lord. This, coupled with blue's general access to counterspells and bounce, creates a very tricky deck to play against, that can assert a crushing midrange ground plan backed up by reactive elements that both protect and generate tempo. It also can run white's temporary protection effects or tap into self-bounce mechanics to generate more value (though this can be problamatic in many matchups due to the CC of the splicers).
A few other notable cards include:
Trinket mage has the adorable interaction of being able to fetch chronomaton (creature type golem!) or any of the numerous selection of 1cc baubles or eggs or equipment to turn on metalcraft for the rusted relics. Salvagers can recur chromatic stars or spheres as a grindy draw engine, or voyager staff, to completely take over the board.
One of the major issues that this deck has is just the CC of many of the spells it wants to run, causing it to fall behind. There is a high volume of desirable 4cc cards in white, and stormscape familiar/grand arbiter help address this by lowering costs or more reasonable levels. Snap and cloud of faeries can gush mana with bouncelands, to help sequence out multiple costly spells in a turn.
UW splicers is a powerful deck that usually represents some mixture of midrange, tempo, or control elements, gravitating in one direction or the other, depending on the flow of the draft. Some of the more techy hate cards against it include: acidic slime, icatian javelineers, death spark, plagued rusalka, and sulfurous blast.
This deck trends away from the blink interactions, and these decks either become something of a U/W flyers style list with more of a tempo focus, or splash black for a hard draw-go control build. Its also worth noting that the dreaded familiars combo deck falls under this listing. You can read about an early iteration of that deck here.
The more pure U/W lists will be a combination of flyers, ninjas, counters, bounce, and temp protection effects, interested in moving at instant speed, protecting evasive threats, and triggering prowess. Flickerwisp or bounce that can hit bouncelands are in particular nice. Sometimes you might see the wellspring engine as well.
Notable cards include:
Black splashes might be looking for lifegain from effects like faith's fetters to fuel slaughter in more controlling builds, or mystical teachings. Psychatog is another strong card in those decks, as they tend to want bounceland heavy mana bases as well as compulsive research, all of which helps fuel atog.
The ability to abuse untap effects in these decks, and to to ramp out multiple spells in a turn, is particularly great especially when at instant speed for a big stroke of genius, or surprise draining whelk.
Grand arbiter is also very good here, as well as the familiars, which just makes the deck function much better. Stormscape familiar acts as a cheap evasive ninjutsu target, and sunscape familiar helps hold the ground against early betters.
Generally, ninjutsu creatures are either looking for cheap evasive creatures with ETBs to carry them in, or disposable tokens that let them sneak in on a horizontal axis. This deck achieves ninjutsu with cheap evasion, many of which carry useful ETBs.
This is another strong deck, whose greatest advantage is in its flexibility and how difficult it can be to play against.
With some people looking to build the cube, I think there is some value in providing context for why certain cards are being run, as well as a general touching point for lower power archetype design in cube.
I've been trying to keep track of draft patterns, and these appear to be the most consistent, leaving out shards/wedges, which I do not consider a design focus of the cube. Maybe I'll do a weekly update of each color combination's decks/sub-decks. I can do U/W, and if there is any interest, I can keep on going.
UW: Splicers Midrange/Flash tempo or draw-go control
UB: Ninjas Tempo-control/Tool Box control/solar flare
BR: Aristocrats Aggro/Discard based Midrange strategies
RG: Control Ramp/Power Matters aggro
GW: Splicers Midrange/Selesnya Kitty/Counter Lords
BW: Lifepay Control/Orzhov Kity reanimator
UR: Artifact themed Control/spell velocity based tempo
BG: Rampaimator/Value Grind
RW: Wide Aggro/Artifact themed or boros kitty Midrange
GU: Aura Prowess/Hexproof
UW Splicers
This was one of the original top tier decks from the cube's first iteration, and its still very strong. Sometimes it will spash into green to pick up vital splicer or maul splicer or red due to its ability to trigger metal craft on bombs like jor kadeen, the prevailer, but the key cards are instant speed blink effects and the way master splicer interacts with rusted relic to trigger metalcraft, and create an obscene board presence.As a tribal strategy, it relies on gathering together a critical mass of golems and golem produces, but unlike most cube tribal strategies, the splicers are independently strong enough to justify making the final 40 of a list on their own, while the splicers themselves simultaneously contribute to that critical mass while acting as the deck's payoff cards--the lords that make it all worthwhile.
In addition, because the splicer's are powerful cards that make artifact golems, they help ensure the cube has a critical density of this necessary permanent type, which people will pick and play highly. Master splicer is one of the rare main color singleton breaks to ensure that this archetype maintains a healthy position in the metagame, for these reasons. This is also part of the reason why sensor splicer is ran, despite being the worst of the possible splicer lords, and why there are two rusted relics. This structure--and deck--is core to the cube's foundation.
Outside of generally being able to create 11 power and toughness out of nowhere via resolving a master splicer onto a board with a rusted relic, the decks other big strength comes from blink effects:
The instant speed variety is particularly brutal, as it can be cast in response to removal on the splicer lord. This, coupled with blue's general access to counterspells and bounce, creates a very tricky deck to play against, that can assert a crushing midrange ground plan backed up by reactive elements that both protect and generate tempo. It also can run white's temporary protection effects or tap into self-bounce mechanics to generate more value (though this can be problamatic in many matchups due to the CC of the splicers).
A few other notable cards include:
Trinket mage has the adorable interaction of being able to fetch chronomaton (creature type golem!) or any of the numerous selection of 1cc baubles or eggs or equipment to turn on metalcraft for the rusted relics. Salvagers can recur chromatic stars or spheres as a grindy draw engine, or voyager staff, to completely take over the board.
One of the major issues that this deck has is just the CC of many of the spells it wants to run, causing it to fall behind. There is a high volume of desirable 4cc cards in white, and stormscape familiar/grand arbiter help address this by lowering costs or more reasonable levels. Snap and cloud of faeries can gush mana with bouncelands, to help sequence out multiple costly spells in a turn.
UW splicers is a powerful deck that usually represents some mixture of midrange, tempo, or control elements, gravitating in one direction or the other, depending on the flow of the draft. Some of the more techy hate cards against it include: acidic slime, icatian javelineers, death spark, plagued rusalka, and sulfurous blast.
U/W Flash
This deck trends away from the blink interactions, and these decks either become something of a U/W flyers style list with more of a tempo focus, or splash black for a hard draw-go control build. Its also worth noting that the dreaded familiars combo deck falls under this listing. You can read about an early iteration of that deck here.
The more pure U/W lists will be a combination of flyers, ninjas, counters, bounce, and temp protection effects, interested in moving at instant speed, protecting evasive threats, and triggering prowess. Flickerwisp or bounce that can hit bouncelands are in particular nice. Sometimes you might see the wellspring engine as well.
Notable cards include:
Black splashes might be looking for lifegain from effects like faith's fetters to fuel slaughter in more controlling builds, or mystical teachings. Psychatog is another strong card in those decks, as they tend to want bounceland heavy mana bases as well as compulsive research, all of which helps fuel atog.
The ability to abuse untap effects in these decks, and to to ramp out multiple spells in a turn, is particularly great especially when at instant speed for a big stroke of genius, or surprise draining whelk.
Grand arbiter is also very good here, as well as the familiars, which just makes the deck function much better. Stormscape familiar acts as a cheap evasive ninjutsu target, and sunscape familiar helps hold the ground against early betters.
Generally, ninjutsu creatures are either looking for cheap evasive creatures with ETBs to carry them in, or disposable tokens that let them sneak in on a horizontal axis. This deck achieves ninjutsu with cheap evasion, many of which carry useful ETBs.
This is another strong deck, whose greatest advantage is in its flexibility and how difficult it can be to play against.
That's pretty cool. I feel that all the gold cards should be mentioned, just so then you know what archetype it was meant for. I only mention this because Glassdust Hulk wasn't mentioned (you are also showing two Voyager Staff's in the Blink Section). It is pretty obvious what archetype it is meant for but it just hammers the point home that it does belong in the cube.
Also, would you be willing to let others do some writeups? I would love to do one for GB, since I seem to go for that archetype more than any other. I'll give it to you to proofread and post so I don't miss any detail you can think of.
Also, would you be willing to let others do some writeups? I would love to do one for GB, since I seem to go for that archetype more than any other. I'll give it to you to proofread and post so I don't miss any detail you can think of.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Yeah thats fine, you are basically the master of that deck. Funnily enough, it was originally one of the under drafted archetypes way back when.
Warwolt's draft of The Penny Pincher Cube on 15/04/2016 from CubeTutor.com
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I took the cube for a spin again. Tried to go for a UG giant growth + unsummon deck similar to the one I saw you play in a video vs kirblinx. A lot of pieces seems to have fallen in place now with the cube. I was thinking about steering my cube to a more low power synergy oriented place (essentially rebuilding it), so this cube is of course a beacon for design decisions.
My question to you is, if you didn't have a budget restraint, are there any places you would like to take the cube that you can't really do right now?
Edit: I did notice that this question was asked a few pages back already, but maybe I can take the opportunity to ask if you would like to add anything to the things you mentioned there. With the cube so settled.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
At this point not really.
I already went and started running some higher value cards; and the format isn't budget max. There are no cards right now that I want to run, but which I am excluding purely for money reasons.
Because its power level apexs around 2006-2007 RGD rares, which are now largely obsolete cards in terms of power max, there is not a lot to drive costs at the power point I am interested in.
As for the decks themselves, the focus is more on tuning matchups and balance, which means that the cube is very picky about what it wants or doesn't want.
You could take the basic structure and make some very interesting changes to it, but even those I don't think would result in an increased price point, as the structural focus should be fixed on commons and uncommons.
To increase the power level across the board is certainly possible, but would result in a fundamentally new format.
I already went and started running some higher value cards; and the format isn't budget max. There are no cards right now that I want to run, but which I am excluding purely for money reasons.
Because its power level apexs around 2006-2007 RGD rares, which are now largely obsolete cards in terms of power max, there is not a lot to drive costs at the power point I am interested in.
As for the decks themselves, the focus is more on tuning matchups and balance, which means that the cube is very picky about what it wants or doesn't want.
You could take the basic structure and make some very interesting changes to it, but even those I don't think would result in an increased price point, as the structural focus should be fixed on commons and uncommons.
To increase the power level across the board is certainly possible, but would result in a fundamentally new format.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Also, I might as well keep these going
Ninjutsu is a great mechanic, but requires some specific support, namely in the form of cheap evasive creatures, preferably with some sort of ETB effect. These decks want an early board presence, building up to a turn where they ninjutsu in a threat, and than snowball the effects of that play by using removal, bounce and counters to maintain pressure, while keeping the opponent on the back foot.
In addition, they gain access to black's hand disruption, which can make it very difficult for strategies that want to build toward large mid or late game plays. Access to black's raise dead effects, also makes it challenging to shut down purely with removal.
Some key (non-ninja) cards
Marsh flitter and bone shredder are too of the strongest ninjutsu enablers, due to the power of their ETBs and evasion. Flitter is more expensive, but can use its tokens to push through a ninjutsu threat, in addition to flying over, and its very good at stabilizing boards if you need to buy time.
There are quite a few raise dead type effects that black has to select from, and this means that the deck can play something of a limited value game, but which is supplemented by blue's card raw advantage. Combined with midrange hand pressure like nightmare void or persecute, this can be a tough combination for B/G/x midrange opponents to out value. Notable cards here will vary based on the build. Any of them can potentially work: reaping the graves if you can generate storm (snap, frantic search etc), and entomber exarch are usually solid.
What really makes the strategy though is the top end black removal. Slaughter and consuming vapors are like mini wraths that can just break a board state open to damage triggers, or stabilize it.
The ninjas themselves are of course the big payoff cards.
These are the cards that makes this such a powerful tempo deck, as repeat attacks from any one of these cards will shut an opponent out of the game, making all of the bounce and removal much stronger.
The biggest weakness that this deck has is that if you can keep them off of their ninjutsu enablers, they start to look more like a sub standard control deck. U/B also tends to have limited sources of lifegain, so unless they are splashing white (which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do) they can succumb to damage attrition and reach. White effects that exile or pacify rather than sending to the graveyard are also extremely annoying, as that can shut off or slow down cards like ghastly demise, the delve cards, or the raise deck effects.
I'm referring to this as UB teachings, because even without its namesake card, the decks still gravitate towards a basic structure where mystical teachings should be the best card in the deck. Depending on the build, some of the ninja cards may see some play.
Notable cards include:
Some of the strongest effects are marsh flitter, wing splicer, mnemonic wall, and archaeomancer. The ability to reuse blacks (or splash white) removal is essential for spell based based attrition strategies in a singleton format, which often times find themselves starved for that type of effect, unlike the ample reanimate or raise dead effects that creature based attrition strategies enjoy.
Marsh flitter and wing splicer clog the board, buying time to develop a crushing late game strategy.
Mystical teachings, if you're fortunate enough to get it, makes the deck much more consistent, and helps solve the problem of calibrating your removal to an opponent's threats.
After that you have the value pieces. Things like unearth or repeal on bone shredder, slaughter soft locks, crushing persecutes, or game ending draining whelks.
I do really like the white splash for UB decks, aven riftwatcher and crib swap are both probably the best reasons to splash white, though if you can support a higher white commitment, flickerwisp is another amazing card.
UB Ninjas
This is arguably the strongest deck in the format, and has been for some time. It can take much of the evasive tempo generating tools of the U/W flash decks, but combine those with blacks powerful removal and disruption suites. This allows the deck to play a hard control game if it needs too, but also makes it easier to clear the path for blue and black's ninjas.Ninjutsu is a great mechanic, but requires some specific support, namely in the form of cheap evasive creatures, preferably with some sort of ETB effect. These decks want an early board presence, building up to a turn where they ninjutsu in a threat, and than snowball the effects of that play by using removal, bounce and counters to maintain pressure, while keeping the opponent on the back foot.
In addition, they gain access to black's hand disruption, which can make it very difficult for strategies that want to build toward large mid or late game plays. Access to black's raise dead effects, also makes it challenging to shut down purely with removal.
Some key (non-ninja) cards
Marsh flitter and bone shredder are too of the strongest ninjutsu enablers, due to the power of their ETBs and evasion. Flitter is more expensive, but can use its tokens to push through a ninjutsu threat, in addition to flying over, and its very good at stabilizing boards if you need to buy time.
There are quite a few raise dead type effects that black has to select from, and this means that the deck can play something of a limited value game, but which is supplemented by blue's card raw advantage. Combined with midrange hand pressure like nightmare void or persecute, this can be a tough combination for B/G/x midrange opponents to out value. Notable cards here will vary based on the build. Any of them can potentially work: reaping the graves if you can generate storm (snap, frantic search etc), and entomber exarch are usually solid.
What really makes the strategy though is the top end black removal. Slaughter and consuming vapors are like mini wraths that can just break a board state open to damage triggers, or stabilize it.
The ninjas themselves are of course the big payoff cards.
These are the cards that makes this such a powerful tempo deck, as repeat attacks from any one of these cards will shut an opponent out of the game, making all of the bounce and removal much stronger.
The biggest weakness that this deck has is that if you can keep them off of their ninjutsu enablers, they start to look more like a sub standard control deck. U/B also tends to have limited sources of lifegain, so unless they are splashing white (which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do) they can succumb to damage attrition and reach. White effects that exile or pacify rather than sending to the graveyard are also extremely annoying, as that can shut off or slow down cards like ghastly demise, the delve cards, or the raise deck effects.
U/B Teachings
There are a few different variants of this. If you can get a density of flash creatures, it may play more like a flash deck, perhaps more tempo focused, or alternately it can focus more around spells and try to play like a hard draw-go control deck. Most often it should probably meet somewhere in the middle, and splash white.I'm referring to this as UB teachings, because even without its namesake card, the decks still gravitate towards a basic structure where mystical teachings should be the best card in the deck. Depending on the build, some of the ninja cards may see some play.
Notable cards include:
Some of the strongest effects are marsh flitter, wing splicer, mnemonic wall, and archaeomancer. The ability to reuse blacks (or splash white) removal is essential for spell based based attrition strategies in a singleton format, which often times find themselves starved for that type of effect, unlike the ample reanimate or raise dead effects that creature based attrition strategies enjoy.
Marsh flitter and wing splicer clog the board, buying time to develop a crushing late game strategy.
Mystical teachings, if you're fortunate enough to get it, makes the deck much more consistent, and helps solve the problem of calibrating your removal to an opponent's threats.
After that you have the value pieces. Things like unearth or repeal on bone shredder, slaughter soft locks, crushing persecutes, or game ending draining whelks.
I do really like the white splash for UB decks, aven riftwatcher and crib swap are both probably the best reasons to splash white, though if you can support a higher white commitment, flickerwisp is another amazing card.
Solar Flare
Solar flare is a graveyard based control deck, that typically wants to win by controlling the game until discarding and reanimating a finisher. The nice thing with this cube, is that because of the bounce lands these decks can take a reanimation approach, but the strategy isn't as all-in since they can always just ramp their way into it. Reanimation is something of a combo approach, and by its nature somewhat inconsistent in a limited format. The ability to play a control game as an alternative, helps address that weakness, while preserving the reanimation style gameplay.
Deck composition is going to be similar to the above, with a few notable key pieces:
Artisan is probably the best finisher target, while the rest of the cards act as reanimation spells or discard outlets.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
sAnd onto our next one, to make up for missing a week of these. Also, this features our first aggro decks.
Aristocrats Aggro/Discard based Midrange strategies
All of which is supported by cheap early hand disruption that also exerts pressure
Or just raw disruptive power at the top end
Being black it also has access to top shelf black removal, which can control the game, or clear blockers
Early disruptive or pressure elements can be turned into the fodder that supports the mid or late game reach plan. Other sources of fodder includes echo creatures like ghitu slinger, and keldon marauders.
Running red, it also has the option to just kill people if it needs to:
Though it has disruption and anti-sweeper tools, the decks biggest weakness is poorly developing draws against a deck able to board clog, board sweep, or generate life.
Aristocrats Aggro/Discard based Midrange strategies
B/R Sacrifice Aggro
This is an aristocrats strategy, using disposable tokens to exerts early pressure backed by hand disruption, and runs a reach plan powered by large damage burts, burn, or slow attrition from death triggers. The combination of hand disruption, flexible removal, and recursion means it can play a surprisingly multi-faceted game: clogging and controlling the board, generating value, blanking removal, and playing towards its ultimate end game reach plan.
The red token generators deserve some special mention, as they provide an alternative way to sneak black ninjas onto the battlefield: throat slitter, okiba-gang shinobi, and ink-eyes, servant of oni. This compliments the evasive flyers from black, such as bone shredder and liliana's specter.
Powerful black delve spells, such as gurmag angler and sultai scavenger, allow the deck to run at very low mana counts, but still generate serious midrange muscle.
The disposable tokens work well as not only early sources of pressure and chump blockers when the game transitions, but also power the death trigger or sacrifice based interactions that can take over the mid or late game. A sac outlet can become an engine piece, or a death trigger card can turn a token swarm into a minefield impossible to slog through.
All of which is supported by cheap early hand disruption that also exerts pressure
Or just raw disruptive power at the top end
Being black it also has access to top shelf black removal, which can control the game, or clear blockers
Early disruptive or pressure elements can be turned into the fodder that supports the mid or late game reach plan. Other sources of fodder includes echo creatures like ghitu slinger, and keldon marauders.
Running red, it also has the option to just kill people if it needs to:
Though it has disruption and anti-sweeper tools, the decks biggest weakness is poorly developing draws against a deck able to board clog, board sweep, or generate life.
Jund
This is basically a jund deck (and in fact often splashes green) that combines solid removal, efficent creatures, and powerful hand disruption. They play a bit quirky for a value deck, though are of course, attrition based midrange strategies at the end of the day. It tends to stay away from cheap token based strategies, as this commonly results in inconsistent, awkwardly developing draws (and may be a trap for new drafters).
High mana amounts means that it can run a higher concentration of black 4cc haymakers (disruption and removal), while the disposable nature of cheap 3cc value creatures means it has the option to run higher CC red sweepers like starstorm or sulfurous blast. Because its creatures tend to be larger, it can calibrate these spells to create a one sided wrath effect.
Its engine comes from graveyard manipulation, which generates card advantage and blanks removal:
It has smoothing and card draw from phyrexian ravager, magmatic insight, and tormenting voice. As its crowning jewel, it has the wort package, which can recur nameless inversion or tarfire to create an insurmountable advantage, or as a sort of one sided sulfuric vortex. Nightmare void and darkblast are other recurring cards, which can be very difficult for some decks to deal with.
While its generally best to stay away from the little token makers (with the possible exception of war marshal) the big token makers are fine, and help enable some interesting sudden kills. Marsh flitter and beetleback chief are great at holding the line, and in conjunction with natuko husk, swarm of bloodflies, or fallen angel, can engineer sudden kills with assault strobe. The same holds true for moltensteel dragon.
Its somewhat similar to its G/B kin in a sense (reflected in the favor for splash green) but it trades green for slightly different recursive tools, access to sweepers and draw, as well as stronger removal.
Like most slower graveyard based strategies, it can have a difficult time with white's exile or pacifism based removal.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Did anyone else read this as aristoc-rats?
Love these write-ups, though Big Red is kind of a misnomer when you're mainly mentioning black cards?
Love these write-ups, though Big Red is kind of a misnomer when you're mainly mentioning black cards?
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I really wasn't sure what to call it. I really want to just call it jund, but thats a bit of a misnomer as well.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Big thanks from Kirblinx for the color pair summary!
G/B Rampanimator
If you are a fan of getting big creatures out quickly, then this is the deck for you. No other deck is more about trying to get the following CMC 6+ creatures out as fast as possible:
As the name suggests, this is by either ramping mana or by reanimating the creatures. The cards that help with both of these categories are the bouncelands. If you try and draft this archetype I would pick Golgari Rot Farm really high. The reasons are threefold:- They allow you to ramp with land untappers
- They give you a discard outlet on the draw
- They provide an alternate form of ramp outside of explicate ramp cards
The ramp side of the rampimator is mainly focused on bouncleands and land untappers. These are:
There are the best rampers in the cube. There are a couple of creature untappers and land enchantments that also work with these guys, but they don't really work without them.
Going ramp gives you access to some strong non-creature finishers that you can use to push through:
Rude awakening also doubles as a potential ramp effect with the bouncelands. The reanimator side mainly focuses on either creatures that get to the graveyard themselves:
Cheap discard outlets:
Or the aforementioned bounceland on the draw. If you don't have access to these, it doesn't really matter as the reanimation spells can just be used to bring back your threats once they are dealt with when you ramp into them. Having either option is what makes the deck a fun to play as you aren't entirely relying on reanimation to get the threats out.
The reanimation spells you want are:
The deck loves to splash blue as it gives it access to land untapping spells and discard outlets, Frantic Search being the most obvious inclusion. A red splash focuses more on the ramp side and gives you sweepers to handle early onslaughts. White would mainly only be splashed for the flashback of Unburial Rites.
The two pronged nature of the deck can lead to some wonky draws where you get land untappers, reanimation spells and not large creatures. It also has a rough time against any tempo deck as having the large creature you just played returned to your hand or countered sets you back a long way. The same is true with white's Pacifism effects.
G/B Value Grind
This is the deck that I (Kirblinx) seem to want to fall in more often than not. It comes in so many different shapes and forms which makes it a blast to draft, as you never know how it will end up. The common thread that ties these decks together is the high creature density and ways to get them back.
It plays a lot of dorky creatures with effects when they leave or enter the battlefield. These subtle 2-for-1's help start to grind that card advantage that these decks use to win.
Notable creatures include:
All these creatures either gain you a card or make the opponent lose one, while putting a body on the battlefield. The bodies can then be used to either start beating down (highly unlikely) or just be used to chump block, or possibly trade with some double blocking.
You use these with the recursive tools that BG have at their disposal such as:
Pick the card that helps you most in the spot you are in and go back on the value train. Speaking of recursive options, there are also the dredge cards, which give you concrete options for your draw step instead of something random. Plus dredging things into the graveyard gives you more options with the recursive tools mentioned above and can get you the right card you need for the situation quicker.
Since the goal is to have little guys out early that are going to die (repeatedly) then these guys start to get out of hand:
This deck loves to splash colours as well. It is a great base for any midrange style deck, so if you see any 3-4 colour good stuff piles, chances are two of those colours are BG. It can access red to get sweepers or go for a more aristocrats style sacrifice engine. This is where Safra, Queen of the Golgari loves to shine. White gives you access to some flicker engines to reuse your dorky creatures. Blue gives you more raw card draw instead of relying on the ETB creatures and generally ends up as a more as a Mystical Teachings-esque deck.
That isn't to say this deck doesn't have problems. It takes a little while to get going, and can get flattened by fast aggro decks or a vertical burst damage deck when tapped out. It also generally has trouble against blue decks as raw card advantage and quick tempo plays make the slow value gains moot.
Looks like something went wrong with the card images for the value grind section. I'll just copy it and show how it is supposed to look until Grillo fixes it.
It was fun to write up and I would be game to do another if this one wasn't too waffly. Although I don't know what other archetypes I know in detail. Maybe UR or WR. I do seem to have trouble passing Jor Kadeen for a man who is firmly in camp Pelakka Wurm.
It was fun to write up and I would be game to do another if this one wasn't too waffly. Although I don't know what other archetypes I know in detail. Maybe UR or WR. I do seem to have trouble passing Jor Kadeen for a man who is firmly in camp Pelakka Wurm.
GB Value Grind
This is the deck that I (Kirblinx) seem to want to fall in more often than not. It comes in so many different shapes and forms which makes it a blast to draft, as you never know how it will end up. The common thread that ties these decks together is the high creature density and ways to get them back.
It plays a lot of dorky creatures with effects when they leave or enter the battlefield. These subtle 2-for-1's help start to grind that card advantage that these decks use to win.
Notable creatures include:
All these creatures either gain you a card or make the opponent lose one, while putting a body on the battlefield. The bodies can then be used to either start beating down (highly unlikely) or just be used to chump block, or possibly trade with some double blocking.
You use these with the recursive tools that BG have at their disposal such as:
Pick the card that helps you most in the spot you are in and go back on the value train. Speaking of recursive options, there are also the dredge cards, which give you concrete options for your draw step instead of something random. Plus dredging things into the graveyard gives you more options with the recursive tools mentioned above and can get you the right card you need for the situation quicker.
Since the goal is to have little guys out early that are going to die (repeatedly) then these guys start to get out of hand:
This deck loves to splash colours as well. It is a great base for any midrange style deck, so if you see any 3-4 colour good stuff piles, chances are two of those colours are BG. It can access red to get sweepers or go for a more aristocrats style sacrifice engine. This is where Safra, Queen of the Golgari loves to shine. White gives you access to some flicker engines to reuse your dorky creatures. Blue gives you more raw card draw instead of relying on the ETB creatures and generally ends up as a more as a Mystical Teachings-esque deck.
That isn't to say this deck doesn't have problems. It takes a little while to get going, and can get flattened by fast aggro decks or a vertical burst damage deck when tapped out. It also generally has trouble against blue decks as raw card advantage and quick tempo plays make the slow value gains moot.
This is the deck that I (Kirblinx) seem to want to fall in more often than not. It comes in so many different shapes and forms which makes it a blast to draft, as you never know how it will end up. The common thread that ties these decks together is the high creature density and ways to get them back.
It plays a lot of dorky creatures with effects when they leave or enter the battlefield. These subtle 2-for-1's help start to grind that card advantage that these decks use to win.
Notable creatures include:
All these creatures either gain you a card or make the opponent lose one, while putting a body on the battlefield. The bodies can then be used to either start beating down (highly unlikely) or just be used to chump block, or possibly trade with some double blocking.
You use these with the recursive tools that BG have at their disposal such as:
Pick the card that helps you most in the spot you are in and go back on the value train. Speaking of recursive options, there are also the dredge cards, which give you concrete options for your draw step instead of something random. Plus dredging things into the graveyard gives you more options with the recursive tools mentioned above and can get you the right card you need for the situation quicker.
Since the goal is to have little guys out early that are going to die (repeatedly) then these guys start to get out of hand:
This deck loves to splash colours as well. It is a great base for any midrange style deck, so if you see any 3-4 colour good stuff piles, chances are two of those colours are BG. It can access red to get sweepers or go for a more aristocrats style sacrifice engine. This is where Safra, Queen of the Golgari loves to shine. White gives you access to some flicker engines to reuse your dorky creatures. Blue gives you more raw card draw instead of relying on the ETB creatures and generally ends up as a more as a Mystical Teachings-esque deck.
That isn't to say this deck doesn't have problems. It takes a little while to get going, and can get flattened by fast aggro decks or a vertical burst damage deck when tapped out. It also generally has trouble against blue decks as raw card advantage and quick tempo plays make the slow value gains moot.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
fixed
After the grid draft I have a few slots I decided I wanted to tinker with
thrashing wumpus-> pestilence
Like I mentioned before, wumpus feels often more like a win con than a stabilizing device, because of how vulnerable it is bounce and removal.
favored hoplite -> mardu woe-reaper
As part of the continued deescalation of the the heroic mechanic. Heroic is, ironically, probably one of the worst ways to go about voltron design in cube, as its essentially an inconsistent combination mechanic. Heroic creatures that aren't actually good on their own are often times unplayable, and hoplite is one of the worst offenders. I don't actually really like this swap, as woe reader's warrior clause has the potential to create a fair bit of drafting confusion, but its the best aggressive one drop I could swap to. I also have been looking to up the graveyard hate somewhat, and options for that are very limited.
The way to do voltron is UG, because blue provides the cantrip effects needed to sort out awkward draws.
Exhume -> corpse churn
I've been really wanting to try corpse churn, as its one of the few non-narrow ways to feed a light graveyard theme, and a raise dead effect is quite reasonable here. Exhume is kind of a poor card in general, for cube, two black reanimation spells is sufficient density at 360, and I want to weaken slightly the density of those sorts of plays.
Insidious dreams -> rotfeaster maggot. Dreams was very strong when the cube had more of a combo presence, but with that being less of a focus, there isn't really the reward to justify dreams' investment. Rotfeaster I'm actually pretty excited about. I'm looking for a little bit more stabilizing lifegain and graveyard hate, which rotfeaster does both admirably. I don't want to run gray merchant, because the devotion clause is unhealthy for draft mechanics, and rotfeaster hits all of the right notes: life gain, big body to block with, high toughness to break symmetry on damage based sweepers.
reclaim->pulse of murasa. I can use this to start justifying a reduction in blacks raise deck effects if I need to for balancing purposes. It adds a little more incidental life gain to the cube, which I feel its been wanting, and reclaim is a bit redundant with noxious revival in the same format (noxious revival stays because blue decks can run it). Still its a powerful effect, so we will see.
Than I have a few cards that I kind of want to cut, but am not sure what to cut for them:
mangara of coronodor: Such a strange feeling card. Very fragile and clunky, but very powerful. Was looking at razor hippogriffor stonecloaker. I still don't like stonecloaker, as white is already pretty good at pressuring graveyard based strategies, and I don't think its healthy to have another removal counter in white. Razor hippogriff looks good, as its another recursive, lifegain piece. Its a card that I expect to wheel until it gets around to the af deck, which is probably fine?
cadaver imp: Black three drops are overrepresented already, double black, and I should go down at least one black raise dead/reanimation effect I think. No idea what to run here though. Kind of want crypt incursion, but I've been told thats madness, kind of want dimir house guard for the gy feeding transmute and sac outlet. Is getting pestilence now enough of a justification for its transmute?
Lust for war: Pretty disappointing card here, so far. No idea what to replace it with.
Than aston had a few complaints about the swingy nature of mindshrieker which are worth discussion. Its a card that people have enjoyed playing over here, which doesn't necessarily mean its good to include. I kind of want to run another big evasive prowess creature in blue for the UG decks:
.
After the grid draft I have a few slots I decided I wanted to tinker with
thrashing wumpus-> pestilence
Like I mentioned before, wumpus feels often more like a win con than a stabilizing device, because of how vulnerable it is bounce and removal.
favored hoplite -> mardu woe-reaper
As part of the continued deescalation of the the heroic mechanic. Heroic is, ironically, probably one of the worst ways to go about voltron design in cube, as its essentially an inconsistent combination mechanic. Heroic creatures that aren't actually good on their own are often times unplayable, and hoplite is one of the worst offenders. I don't actually really like this swap, as woe reader's warrior clause has the potential to create a fair bit of drafting confusion, but its the best aggressive one drop I could swap to. I also have been looking to up the graveyard hate somewhat, and options for that are very limited.
The way to do voltron is UG, because blue provides the cantrip effects needed to sort out awkward draws.
Exhume -> corpse churn
I've been really wanting to try corpse churn, as its one of the few non-narrow ways to feed a light graveyard theme, and a raise dead effect is quite reasonable here. Exhume is kind of a poor card in general, for cube, two black reanimation spells is sufficient density at 360, and I want to weaken slightly the density of those sorts of plays.
Insidious dreams -> rotfeaster maggot. Dreams was very strong when the cube had more of a combo presence, but with that being less of a focus, there isn't really the reward to justify dreams' investment. Rotfeaster I'm actually pretty excited about. I'm looking for a little bit more stabilizing lifegain and graveyard hate, which rotfeaster does both admirably. I don't want to run gray merchant, because the devotion clause is unhealthy for draft mechanics, and rotfeaster hits all of the right notes: life gain, big body to block with, high toughness to break symmetry on damage based sweepers.
reclaim->pulse of murasa. I can use this to start justifying a reduction in blacks raise deck effects if I need to for balancing purposes. It adds a little more incidental life gain to the cube, which I feel its been wanting, and reclaim is a bit redundant with noxious revival in the same format (noxious revival stays because blue decks can run it). Still its a powerful effect, so we will see.
Than I have a few cards that I kind of want to cut, but am not sure what to cut for them:
mangara of coronodor: Such a strange feeling card. Very fragile and clunky, but very powerful. Was looking at razor hippogriffor stonecloaker. I still don't like stonecloaker, as white is already pretty good at pressuring graveyard based strategies, and I don't think its healthy to have another removal counter in white. Razor hippogriff looks good, as its another recursive, lifegain piece. Its a card that I expect to wheel until it gets around to the af deck, which is probably fine?
cadaver imp: Black three drops are overrepresented already, double black, and I should go down at least one black raise dead/reanimation effect I think. No idea what to run here though. Kind of want crypt incursion, but I've been told thats madness, kind of want dimir house guard for the gy feeding transmute and sac outlet. Is getting pestilence now enough of a justification for its transmute?
Lust for war: Pretty disappointing card here, so far. No idea what to replace it with.
Than aston had a few complaints about the swingy nature of mindshrieker which are worth discussion. Its a card that people have enjoyed playing over here, which doesn't necessarily mean its good to include. I kind of want to run another big evasive prowess creature in blue for the UG decks:
.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I mean if you don't like Lust for War, Skin Invasion has been excellent
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
skin invasion looks pretty bad outside of a midrange shell. Lust for war is a bit more flexible, the problem is that its value seems to fluctuate wildly with the board state.
You can also use dimir house guards to transmute for mystical teachings
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I took all of the feedback from the grid drafts we did, and am putting forward an updated iteration. Its basically a big balancing patch, though these won't be final until I get take it for a few runs. I discussed some of the changes a few posts ago, but here is what I settled upon:
Out
In
If you have questions about specific cards, feel free to ask. I decided I agreed with Aston, so mindshrieker is making way for Lotus path djinn (which may ultimately be better as chasm drake). That slot provides another piece of support for the UG decks, and blue is so powerful (still) that I am willing to run some slightly more focused cards in the set.
Both reclaim and juggernaut are somewhat redundant in functionality, so I am looking to better utilize those slots. Bottle gnomes is another source of lifegain, and can be recurred through a variety of means.
I think I probably still have 1 too many reanimation/raise dead effects in black, despite these changes, so I will keep an eye on it.
Riftwing is out because its a little too goodstuffy, and I've replaced it with lost in the mist which looks like a really interesting card for this format. The ability to both counter a spell while setting an opponent back on tempo has mana drain like implications where reactive counter plays become a threat rather than mere disruption.
Markov blademaster has too low of a floor. Spikeshot goblin provides another control element for the small control strategies.
Lust for war was odd, so I want to try kessig forgemaster, which seems like an interesting upgrade to ashmouth hound, as it also feeds into these sorts of micro control strategies.
Weirding wood because artifact density and none of the other clue producing cards were good enough to make the cut /sigh Clues look hilarious with fangren maurader.
I hate mangara of corondor (expensive and one dimensional) and am trying some replacements, though this slot I am really unsure about. I am trying sanctum gargoyle for now, but not really sure what this will ultimately be.
And rage thrower because this should provide enough critical density to feed a big R/B sacrifice deck.
Out
In
If you have questions about specific cards, feel free to ask. I decided I agreed with Aston, so mindshrieker is making way for Lotus path djinn (which may ultimately be better as chasm drake). That slot provides another piece of support for the UG decks, and blue is so powerful (still) that I am willing to run some slightly more focused cards in the set.
Both reclaim and juggernaut are somewhat redundant in functionality, so I am looking to better utilize those slots. Bottle gnomes is another source of lifegain, and can be recurred through a variety of means.
I think I probably still have 1 too many reanimation/raise dead effects in black, despite these changes, so I will keep an eye on it.
Riftwing is out because its a little too goodstuffy, and I've replaced it with lost in the mist which looks like a really interesting card for this format. The ability to both counter a spell while setting an opponent back on tempo has mana drain like implications where reactive counter plays become a threat rather than mere disruption.
Markov blademaster has too low of a floor. Spikeshot goblin provides another control element for the small control strategies.
Lust for war was odd, so I want to try kessig forgemaster, which seems like an interesting upgrade to ashmouth hound, as it also feeds into these sorts of micro control strategies.
Weirding wood because artifact density and none of the other clue producing cards were good enough to make the cut /sigh Clues look hilarious with fangren maurader.
I hate mangara of corondor (expensive and one dimensional) and am trying some replacements, though this slot I am really unsure about. I am trying sanctum gargoyle for now, but not really sure what this will ultimately be.
And rage thrower because this should provide enough critical density to feed a big R/B sacrifice deck.
Have you considered Hidden Strings?
Feels like a good fit in this cube. It has a lot of functions. The first time you cast it, it can tap potential blockers or untap the lands you used to cast it (with bounce lands, it accelerates; without it's still free). And then after combat and each turn after that, it can do quite a bit. It can untap lands (ramp), it can tap opponent lands (preemptive strike against counter magic), on a first strike/double strike guy it can trigger prowess/heroic for that combat (normal combat damage) or just give your attackers pseudo vigilance.
It's good in tempo, it's good in combo, it can be useful in some creature based control decks. Young Pyromancer is in love with this card (my favorite pairing probably).
Feels like a good fit in this cube. It has a lot of functions. The first time you cast it, it can tap potential blockers or untap the lands you used to cast it (with bounce lands, it accelerates; without it's still free). And then after combat and each turn after that, it can do quite a bit. It can untap lands (ramp), it can tap opponent lands (preemptive strike against counter magic), on a first strike/double strike guy it can trigger prowess/heroic for that combat (normal combat damage) or just give your attackers pseudo vigilance.
It's good in tempo, it's good in combo, it can be useful in some creature based control decks. Young Pyromancer is in love with this card (my favorite pairing probably).
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
What would I cut for it and why?