Inscho's Graveyard Combo Cube

[inscho]

The timing on our posts is too funny

Have you given up on the Berserkers game plan?

That might be more of a supporting cast than an archetype though.

Yeah, I still like it for giving Aggro a combo quality, but I think it might be better as icing on the cake than a dedicated deck

the Manual is usually a second Sneak Attack.

Have you tested it? It’s intriguing

Jinnie Fay has been an amazing payoff for
all the artifacts you can produce. Turning inoffensive game pieces into real threats.

This may be a legitimate path once the new Eldraine set releases. It feels a couple connective pieces shy of what I’d like to see at the moment.

I admittedly didn’t take this card very seriously when it was spoiled, but it has a lot of potential!

Oh, I forgot one card I’m looking hard at for the Gruul Turboland deck:



I love that it’s both Exploration fuel and a win condition in one card. I don’t like that it costs 3, does nothing by itself, and is not appealing to any other color pairings.

 

[Nanonox]

Scattered thoughts:

Monster Manual

Do you usually Sneak Attack on turn four and hope to untap with it or do you jam it on 5 and activate it right away?
If the latter then they are somewhat comparable since they both get the fatty down on the same turn.
I haven’t played it yet, but I tend to cast Sneak Attack asap, so the comparison makes sense to me.

Gruul turbo land



You have Radha as a much needed land from top of library with Fastbond and Exploration, but i think that having Augur is nice since you get to run Escape. This allows you to refill in a big way and continue developing your mana.
Explore works similarly but at a more affordable price point.

Valakut has been good in my slower MP cube, but the 3 mana has turned me off it for my 1vs1 cube. However, with Fastbond, Exploration and 1 mana mana dorks it can be a good. I think big draw engines like Escape and Wheel of Fortune could make it more reliable.
I’ve had it in controlling Boros decks where it looked good:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/6b1f4921-6e1b-40c5-a62c-e97d5af3171d

Or in 4-5 color Omnath, Locus of Creation decks.

By the way, what is your take on Golos, Tireless Pilgrim for Green artifacts? I really like the bridge it creates between lands and artifacts. Tutors your Saga, Academy or Cradle and plays well with Welder and friends.

Midrangey monsters would benefit from these 2 IMO.



The Emissary is kind of like the Rootwallas to the discard deck at higher power level for me. Free creature for Vengevine as well.

The Greeters is a nice bridge between your artifact sacrifice deck and the monsters. You can either grow it big or use it for mana for the higher end of your curve.

Domain?
Probably not quite fleshed out enough, plus you cut the triomes. Those burn spells are appealing though!



With all of this mana from sacrificing artifacts or turbo lands, Shivan Devastator becomes interesting especially if ou have a monsters deck.

 

[inscho]

Monster Manual

Do you usually Sneak Attack on turn four and hope to untap with it or do you jam it on 5 and activate it right away?
If the latter then they are somewhat comparable since they both get the fatty down on the same turn.
I haven’t played it yet, but I tend to cast Sneak Attack asap, so the comparison makes sense to me.

It depends on the matchup, the hand, and when you can catch an opponent tapped out. Sneak being able to drop multiple hasted threats in a single turn changes the calculus a lot compared to something like Manual.

I do like that the manual activation is instant speed. Being an artifact is always a bigger deal than it seems on paper. The Adventure, while expensive, is some nice built in value. It still feels a bit weird next to top shelf reanimation, but it might be better than it looks.

It has also made a minimal showing in legacy, so maybe it's worth testing:
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=45375&d=535187&f=LE

Gruul turbo land

You have Radha as a much needed land from top of library with Fastbond and Exploration, but i think that having Augur is nice since you get to run Escape. This allows you to refill in a big way and continue developing your mana.
Explore works similarly but at a more affordable price point.

Good points on these. Augur aids the sacrifice deck and creature heavy decks as well which is a nice bonus. I wish Escape played better with Sneak Attack...

Midrangey monsters would benefit from these 2 IMO.

The Emissary is kind of like the Rootwallas to the discard deck at higher power level for me. Free creature for Vengevine as well.

The Greeters is a nice bridge between your artifact sacrifice deck and the monsters. You can either grow it big or use it for mana for the higher end of your curve.

Emissary is interesting. It's just tough to find slots for everything lol.

I briefly tested Greeters, but the tapped Treasure token bothered me so much that I cut it. There's just no way to really abuse it. It represents a lot of value over several turns, but I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for here.

Domain?
Probably not quite fleshed out enough, plus you cut the triomes. Those burn spells are appealing though!

I think the domain zoo deck is super cool, but not for this cube. Wild Nacatl and company just outclass the madness deck's threats and the hurdles it jumps through to generate comparable bodies early.

Territorial Kavu is fine, because it just needs to be a 3/3, and it's two triggers are very relevant for my environment.

By the way, what is your take on Golos, Tireless Pilgrim for Green artifacts? I really like the bridge it creates between lands and artifacts. Tutors your Saga, Academy or Cradle and plays well with Welder and friends.

Golos is cool. I forgot to include it when cradle and academy came back. Another card to find room for!

 

[inscho]

In:


Out:


Lost Caverns of Ixalan looks to be an above average set for the GCC with 9 cards being tested. My thoughts on the set here. Really excited with the influx of 1cmc roleplaying critters to the mix, and I hope they don't prove to be too low impact. I'm definitely sad to see some old standbys dethroned after being in the cube for several years, but I'm excited by their replacements!

 

[inscho]

Started reviewing my guild archetypes, and realizing how out of whack things have gotten over the last few months. A lot of redundancies, and I’m craving some new archetypes…with more highs and lows

Going to do a little bit of an overhaul as I try to bring back some of the spirit of the v1 list

Storm and tokens are on the shortlist of things to bring back

Very excited about:


and the return of:


as well a nice infusion of MH3:

and maybe more

stay tuned!

 

[Schafkurai]

Started reviewing my guild archetypes, and realizing how out of whack things have gotten over the last few months. A lot of redundancies, and I’m craving some new archetypes…with more highs and lows

Going to do a little bit of an overhaul as I try to bring back some of the spirit of the v1 list

Storm and tokens are on the shortlist of things to bring back

Very excited about:


and the return of:


as well a nice infusion of MH3:

and maybe more

stay tuned!

Very exciting, to see where this takes you! I plan to include all of these (nonland) cards plus another 10 or so, we definitely share some design goals .

 

[Nanonox]

Ahhhh! I immediately forgot about Crow Storm again, will have to steal this idea from you.

If I may, I’d suggest looking into Chatterstorm too. It’s been uniquely good in creature combo decks with stuff like Skullclamp, Earthcraft, Yawgmoth and Cradle. I also run Warren Soultrader and Insidious Roots as more ways to convert tokens into mana.
What is great is that it's a payoff or an enabler and Green is very well set up to using all of the tokens.

Storm and tokens are on the shortlist of things to bring back

I was complaining about lack of fodder for sacrifice decks and tokens in general, MH3 has got you covered on that front. Happy brewing!

 

[Galmara]

Hope your having fun with your cube despite not being too active on here, but I hoped I could pick your brain about some choices in your current list on Cubecobra? My first question is whether you intentionally have omitted disenchant on a stick creatures? Especially in green i'm suprised by Pest Infestation over something like Reclamation Sage, given the pressence of birthing pod. Personally I have a soft spot for foundation breaker because of the modality and the sac synergies. Is it because the possibility of recursion is undesirable or maybe Pest Infestation does something I'm not seing?

The other thing is if you have considered Overlord of the Balemurk in black? It does a lot of subtle things. Of course it can be blinked by some of the white creatures, but also counts a casting a creature for vengevine, is a non-embarassing reanimation target, finds extra stuff to put into your sneak attack after sneak attacking, etc.

 

[inscho]

Thanks for checking out the list, and adding some comments!

My first question is whether you intentionally have omitted disenchant on a stick creatures? Especially in green i'm suprised by Pest Infestation over something like Reclamation Sage, given the pressence of birthing pod. Personally I have a soft spot for foundation breaker because of the modality and the sac synergies.

I originally cut Reclamation Sage for Scrapshooter once it was spoiled. Now I'm realizing I misread Scrapshooter and thought you gifted on ETB not on cast lol. So I just switched that back.

I love Foundation Breaker's modality, but it doesn't really play nice with my White recursion package:


And making Selesnya sequence better has always been a priority for me. It so often has felt like a mashup of good cards, but is often clunky where parts don’t quite fit together and sequence out smoothly. Breaker was often just a 2 mana disenchant which is great with Black's recursion, but I didn't love it elsewhere.

I've considered Loren of the Third Path, but I generally don't like how Gray Ogrey creatures feel in my cube, and that's why I was so quick to sub out Rec Sage before fully reading Scrapshooter haha. Instead I run Cathar Commando which I much prefer the tempo of, and I already have Skyclave Apparition occupying a similar role.

Regarding Pest Infestation: There are a couple green-centric archetypes that generate large amounts of mana or infinite mana (Creature Combo, Turboland), and I wanted another card that could end the game that was in green (like Finale of Devastation). I also have a softspot for Oath of Druids, and like to keep around some cards that can create creatures without diluting the creature pool for Oath.

It's also just a very good card in an environment that is so artifact dense.

The other thing is if you have considered Overlord of the Balemurk in black? It does a lot of subtle things. Of course it can be blinked by some of the white creatures, but also counts a casting a creature for vengevine, is a non-embarassing reanimation target, finds extra stuff to put into your sneak attack after sneak attacking, etc.

Good suggestion. I haven't really given it much consideration, but perhaps I should give it a harder look. Part of that my initial dismissal is just general keyword fatigue, and this would be another instance of adding a one-off keyword and more cognitive load. Do I really want a single Greater Gargadon and single Overlord of the Balemurk in the cube together? Suspend and Impending are already so close mechanically. It reminds me of how I avoided including both like Embalm and Eternalize in my cube a few years back.

What I'm primarily looking for in current printings are things that plug a glaring hole, better ties together the cube architecture, or reduces mental taxation.

With exception of the key artifact reanimator targets (Wurmcoil Engine, Triplicate Titan, Sundering Titan), most of my creatures >4cmc either...

bin themselves in the graveyard:


have some cost reduction component:


or are happy being discarded early on:


I tend to favor this model for higher casting cost creatures in my cube, and while Overload of the Balemurk has a cost reduction component it doesn't enter play for 4 turns which I don't love. It does seems very good and conducive to a graveyard environment. It's definitely amazing with Sneak Attack. I like impending/suspending with things like Balance, Armageddon, Devastating Dreams, Winter Orb, etc etc. It's a good body for Delirium and Goyfs.

I'll give it some more thought. It's difficult finding cuts these days. Perhaps @Nanonox can chime in, they run Balemurk and their cube has a similar tempo.

 

[Nanonox]

You raise a good counter argument against the Overlord: another one-of mechanic that you have to learn. I think that’s the only downside though as the card is such a good fit in a GY cube.
This is a 2 mana value GY enabler with a bunch of synergies first and a 5 drop second.



The curve is perfect for these two to blink the Overlord for massive value. In addition to the self-binning creatures + reanimation which is a strategy in BW in Inscho's cube, I think we are getting close to a blink-cheat archetype. Steel Seraph and Phyrexian Fleshgorger aren't super exciting by themselves, but add the 2 above blinkers or Charming Prince + Restoration Angel and once again you have a lot of value.

Then you have the control element that Inscho mentioned where Balance and Wraths are even better when you have a "free" threat waiting to smash in. Same idea with the discard cards like Carnage Interpreter where you empty your hand before casting it.
Here is an example from my cube of a control deck with the Overlord



It mainly serves as self-mill enabler to get Phlage, Lingering Souls and Jace online. But in the late game you should get to 5 mana and take over from there.

Basically Galmara I think it's a totally legit addition to the cube if you can stomach the mechanic!

 

[inscho]

I've been combing through my list lately, and considering where I can clean up things. I feel like I've accumulated a few too many fringe synergy pieces out of the sake of novelty. I compensated for this over the last couple years by increasing the draft pool to 3x16 packs which allowed some extra wiggle room to include these rarely relevant cards. However, there's a cognitive cost to these fringe cards as most of them don't have obvious applications and rarely stand on their own....they're iciing on the cake...goosing your exsiting archetypes an extra 5%

So I'm currently doing some house keeping, reviewing archetype/theater spread, and likely trimming the list down to 360 cards....while looking at some printings from the last couple of years that I may have glossed over. Which brings me to this post I made back in 2023......

So I feel pretty happy with the artifact sacrifice pile as the third archetype. Turning my attention towards the 4th Gruul archetype...

I wish I felt good about Green's contributions to the Sneak Attack deck, but with Feldon of the Third Path fading out of relevance, See the Unwritten being outclassed, and much of the Cube's top end threats being trimmed down, that's not looking very good...but let's see if it's workable. :

that received a relevant printing last year in MH3 that I completely ignored:



Fanatic provides a defensive body for the Sneak Attack deck, it ramps you into Sneak Attack, and when eternalized it ramps you into your other fatties as early as turn 4(!)

It's a great card for this deck, is generally useful to other archetypes, and it helps shore up a gap in my cube list.

Just thought I'd share! Hope to have more updates soon.

 

[inscho]

Scattered thoughts...apologies for the disorganization...

There's not much sense in running through all of my changes, because I haven't posted updates in here in a long time. However, some other cards that I haven't given much attention to that I'm going to try out:
In>Out:
>

With the addition of Fanatic of Rhonas to bolster Gruul Sneak Attack, I'm going to cut Valakut Exploration which is a piece exclusively for the Gruul Turboland atchetype. Bitter Reunion is a great delirium piece, a glue card for reanimator, and has some fun synergy with Lurrus and Six

>

Another card I overlooked, Portal offers an interesting Tinker, Welder, Ramp piece that provides immediate board impact. I've been looking for a cheat piece that isn't just a hulking body. Paradox Engine is a very cool combo piece once it gets going, but is a bit win-more and functions best in decks that are pretty off the beaten path so it's not often relevant in the average draft.



I briefly included Woodland a few months back and cut it to make space for other things. I'm giving it a second look now. It's a nice little piece of redundancy for the Gruul cheat deck. The opportunity cost is low, and the payoff and fun factor is high.

>

I really liked the idea of Kidnapper as a repeatable blink target, but the Bat is much cleaner and the evasive body is much more relevant than the ground-bound 2/1. This was an easy opportunity to reduce complexity.

>

After turn one there isn't much difference tempo-wise between Rumble and Harvest, and since I don't support spell velocity in green this seems like an easy flavorful substitution. However, it adds complexity by nature of the lone spawn token in the cube so I'll be quick to cut if it underperforms.

In:


Out: 1 cycle of shock lands

With two cycles of fetches and two cycles of shocks, the cube's mana was feeling a little too slanted towards aggro. I'm hoping that adding a cycle of ETB tapped lands will make it fractionally more challenging to draft aggro.

Other changes:



Containment Priest has been around for ages, but with the printing of Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd it's more than just a reanimation hoser now. Shepherd + Flickerwisp + Touch the Spirit Realm is a fun little package to shift blink synergies to be more aggressive. Not 100% sold on this, but giving it a test.

I spent a few month pushing the limits of what felt reasonable to include, and now it's time to dial things back a little bit. Removing:


Crow Storm goes leaving Brain Freeze as the only remaining storm piece...which is fine as self-mill is a prevalent theme in the cube, and it specifically combos with Underworld Breach. However, it may be out the door soon for cheat package to be mentioned later.

Armageddon is coming out for an old favorite of mine, Cataclysm. I feel bad enough including Strip Mine, but Mine feels more necessary for Gruul Lands support since Wildfire is outclassed. Armageddon wasn't a necessity, and Cataclysm is more interesting as a buildaround.

Orcish Bowmaster is good everywhere and with everything. An awesome brainless draft pick. There's never a reason to pass it, and I've always tried to avoid cards like that. Fortunately, we now have Marionette Apprentice to fill the void in the ways that are most important to my cube.

Luminarch Aspirant is the most likely to return of these due to it's highly interesting play patterns. It's not quite as brainless as Bowmaster, but it is a card that you don't really pass if your gameplan involves turning creatures sideways. White aggro is pretty sufficiently supported and has a lot of depth as it is. The aspirant just glosses over some of those subtleties in a negative way imo.

Mox Opal: Artifact decks are among the fastest in the cube, and need to be checked a little bit. Opal is unnecessary juice.


A package of cards I'm currently considering:


I'd include Flash and Show and Tell without hesitation if red had a juicy artifact cycler other than Ruin Grinder. Trumpeting Carnosaur is interesting, but doesn't overlap with artifact cheat which is necessary. If the blue cheat cards come in, I can easily see myself bringing in Tyrant and possibly Hulk. I'm on the fence as it stands, but it's actively under consideration.

 

[Erik Twice]

Don't you feel it's too good of a blocker? Os has that not been an issue?

 

[inscho]

Don't you feel it's too good of a blocker? Os has that not been an issue?

It's a good point to bring up. Fanatic is not a perfect card, but it's the best piece I've found for my needs so far. I'm generally okay with larger-assed creatures in Blue and Green since removal is largely nonexistant in those colors. I run most of the top shelf removal, and my creature suite is pretty strong. I don't think it will be much of an issue, but I'll need to be mindful of that in testing.

 

[Nanonox]

I like most of these changes and might steal some ideas for my own cube (Containment Priest is a cool one!). I am a bit wary of a couple of the cards though as they seem so powerful that they will just obsolete the synergy side of the cube.

Phyrexian Portal: If you cheat this out (Welder/Tinker) you invalidate a lot of the early game and make this a pretty big removal check. Unlike beefy artifacts, you can't really race this since you just got wrathed. Something like Coveted Jewel would make for more dynamic gameplay and could reasonably be cast. Doesn't affect the board though so probably not what you are in the market for.

I like the cheat package and have considered shaking things up to accommodate it (and probably Natural Order too). However, contrary to Protean Hulk which can lead to some really cool and unique decks that don't necessarily look the same, the Dinosaur is just a stat monster that stabilizes with life and is resilient to removal. To keep in line with the combo/creative spirit of the cube, I'd love to see something like Lumra, Bellow of the Woods or even Gruff Triplets for some sacrifice/berserkers shenanigans.

 

[inscho]

Phyrexian Portal: If you cheat this out (Welder/Tinker) you invalidate a lot of the early game and make this a pretty big removal check. Unlike beefy artifacts, you can't really race this since you just got wrathed. Something like Coveted Jewel would make for more dynamic gameplay and could reasonably be cast. Doesn't affect the board though so probably not what you are in the market for.

Yeah, you might be right. Although you can cheat this out on turn 3 with a Tinker, maybe nuke a couple small critters, and the only have those small creatures to recur. It’s situationally game breaking but I see instances where it’s underwhelming. I’m going to try it. The only other comparable card I can think of is Mindslaver which I ran for years, but wasn’t exactly a crowd favorite lol.

I like the cheat package and have considered shaking things up to accommodate it (and probably Natural Order too). However, contrary to Protean Hulk which can lead to some really cool and unique decks that don't necessarily look the same, the Dinosaur is just a stat monster that stabilizes with life and is resilient to removal. To keep in line with the combo/creative spirit of the cube, I'd love to see something like Lumra, Bellow of the Woods or even Gruff Triplets for some sacrifice/berserkers shenanigans.

The stat bomb doesn’t really bother me…Triplets is a stat bomb as well just spread over multiple bodies. Lumra seems too fair to try and cheat out. There’s always Woodfall Primus. I particularly like Protean Hulk with Dread Return/Living Death decks

The green limitation on natural order really ruins the card for my cube. I’d consider Turntimber Symbiosis if I ran dfcs, or maybe Selvala’s Stampede if I wanted another effect like that.

It’s just a matter of time until they print a couple of the missing pieces like the big red cycling artifact creature or the green creature cheat that meshes with our cubes. I don’t think I want to run Flash and Show and Tell until we get at least one of those pieces, but we are getting close!

 

[inscho]

Ahh…I forgot another newer card that I’m taking a hard look at:



I never thought I’d give a second look at any energy card, but the prospect of a fixed Recurring Nightmare is very very intriguing. I particularly like that you can work up to reanimating larger creatures by cycling through 1-2 cmc spuds