By: Jason Waddell
One of the more recent trends in cube design is to give black aggressive decks a unique and more effective identity. The new-look black recursive archetype was first introduced in my two part article series (Part One, Part Two), and later explored by Andy Cooperfauss and the Channel Cube Cast crew in this podcast episode.
Without entirely re-hashing above articles, the basic idea is to start with multiples of the following cards:
and building in synergies and interactions through the rest of the cube.
The idea is not to build a single mechanically isolated archetype (i.e. monoblack aggro) but to build a web of overlapping effects and strategies across all five colors.
In my cube, I wove in the following five components:
Creatures that like to be sacrificed
Cards that like to sacrifice things
A quartet of Birthing Pods
Threaten Effects
Zombies in all five colors
The result is a flexible array of effects that can be mixed and matched from draft to draft. Further, these decks are loaded with intricate interactions and skill-testing lines of play. This BR aggro deck, for example, 3 – 0’d a draft and was an absolute blast to pilot.
