The Rama Pair Cube

[Ramadamadingdong]

This cube started as a thought experiment: what would be the most focused cube draft possible? It's an attempt to create a highly focused list with as many cross-archetype synergies as we can get away with. The structure of the cube goes something like:
31 pairs of cards in each colour for a total of 155 pairs, 10 pairs of artifacts, 10 pairs of bouncelands, and 1 gold card in each guild as a signpost for the pair's themes, namely:
UW: Fish/Enchantments
WB: Aristocrats/Warrior Tribal/Lifegain
WR: Heroic/Spells
WG: Counters/(small enchantment theme)
UB: Getting Attacks In (Raid, Inspire, ninjas)
UR: Storm/Spells
UG: Flash/Defenders
BR: Madness Aggro
BG: The Spider Spawning Deck
RG: Heroic/Power Matters

Some Theory: I theorised that to avoid parasitism in a cube with high redundancy, as many cards as possible should be cross-archetypal support. My goal here's to try and swap out the former for the latter, while still allowing sufficiently creative drafters to go for the niche engine decks like Assault Formation or Ux Drake Haven. Really I'm looking for underperformers to remove.

Some questions i'm looking to answer:

Where might an aristocrats theme go? What is the best place to put it? (BW and BG are both a bit unfleshed)
What is black's role other than aggro creatures and removal? What engine cards can i put in there?
Are the voltron decks too widespread (My playgroup really enjoys the 'build a giant and two-hit KO' dynamic, but there is too much of a good thing)
Is there room to buttress storm further?

Link: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/45499

Hope this provides some fun, and happy drafting!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I've got one card or you that I've been an absolute fan of and that works like a charm in a white based aristocrats deck:



I did a draft, and I think your fixing count is a bit low. I run 45 lands (counting the five borderposts) in a 450 cube, which means 10% mana fixing. In contrast, your cube currently runs only 20 in a 356 cube, or under 6%. This means a lot of drafters will end up with one or no mana fixing a lot of the time, potentially leading to more color screws than seems necessary.

That said, draft was interesting, definitely pushed me in some angles I don't run in my own cube The Dream?

t6 Thousand-Year Storm
t7 Faithless Looting, front half of Insult // Injury, back half of Insult // Injury, deal 24 damage

 

[astraedm]

Also did a draft, and I agree on all counts. I had a pretty neat storm deck going, but didn't pick up much fixing to do the Wilderness Reclamation splash I wanted to get in. The pair idea seems to work wonderfully, one of those ideas where I wish I would have thought of it first.

For giving Black an identity, you could lean harder into the aristocrats theme, perhaps. Something like replacing Pain Seer with Priest of the Forgotten Gods pushes you closer to aristocrats combo-aggro.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

I've got one card or you that I've been an absolute fan of and that works like a charm in a white based aristocrats deck:



I did a draft, and I think your fixing count is a bit low. I run 45 lands (counting the five borderposts) in a 450 cube, which means 10% mana fixing. In contrast, your cube currently runs only 20 in a 356 cube, or under 6%. This means a lot of drafters will end up with one or no mana fixing a lot of the time, potentially leading to more color screws than seems necessary.

That said, draft was interesting, definitely pushed me in some angles I don't run in my own cube The Dream?

t6 Thousand-Year Storm
t7 Faithless Looting, front half of Insult // Injury, back half of Insult // Injury, deal 24 damage

I should not have traded away my Thousand-Year Storm for a Knight of Autumn. It made sense at the time, but people keep giving me reasons why I should be running the storm .