Cube cleanup
I didn't expect there to be so many Strixhaven spoilers I'd be interested in and I find myself needing cuts. Thought it could be a good time to check out various archetypes and their support as well as some of the more fringe cards in the cube.
+1/+1 Counters
There are two sides to the counter theme. The first is entrenched in the colorless section and limited to artifacts, the second is more widely spread out across the colors. The payoffs that bridge both camps are
The
creatures are the glue that holds this archetype together. They serve as targets to grow and come into play with counters making them function immediately with the various payoffs.
Soul Cauldron is an enabler and a payoff, while also acting as GY hate. It goes hard with Ballista and Hangarback, Ravager and Overseer among others. You don't have to go all in with counters for it to be worthwhile, though of course it helps.
The Ozolith is the narrowest card here, giving you resiliency and the ability to redistribute your counters with a sacrifice outlet or via creature combat. That could mean something as simple as putting your counters on a flyer to sneak some damage through to loading up a
Jacked Rabbit to make a massive amount of tokens. If I needed to make a cut from this list, this would be the card, but it does a lot for a single mana even if the counters deck doesn't always come together.
+1 Slot?
Rishkar is a narrower
Enduring Vitality, but I'd rather promote the counters archetype, especially since I have
Earthcraft, for a generically good version of this effect.
The artifact version hinges around these cards
Two classics with a bunch of hooks. Ravager makes blocking hell and goes well in grindy artifact decks thanks to the sacrifice outlet. Overseer grows your board and loves a
Paradox Engine or
Jeskai Ascendancy. I decided to eschew
Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade for flavor reasons, but if you don't mind, it has a good set of abilities.
Both of these require a high density of actual artifact creatures and is one of the reasons I aim to push artifact density in the colored sections, so that this little package can take on various flavors depending on each color's strengths.
Looking at the extra support, we have
Stonecoil enters with a bunch of counters meaning it works well with the payoffs we have and is generally solid as a scaling beater. It basically only gets played in the counter deck in my experience and is a lot less essential than the 3 others
creatures. I could stand to lose it especially because there are more counter stuff in the colored section thanks to recent sets.
+1 Slot?
Syr Ginger is also serviceable at 2 mana, but no one is realistically going to play it outside of a dedicated artifact deck as two drops are quite a bit more potent than just 3/1 stats. I am realizing that if that is the case, then I have more interesting artifact payoffs and this slot could be used for something else. I won't be sad to lose the art either, not a fan.
+1 Slot
As alluded to above, the non-artifact version has some solid aggressive enablers that distribute counters
These can choose which creature they will buff, giving you options with payoffs like
Dreadhorde Arcanist,
Jacked Rabbit,
Emperor of Bones and so on. They also just buff random dorks and that gets the job done even if less exciting than A+B "combos".
Tl;dr: I like the general shape this archetype is in and can stand to lose one of the lower impact support pieces in Syr Ginger. Depending on how starved I am for slots, 2 more cards could be cut, but I am reluctant to do so, especially
The Ozolith because of how unique it is.
Artifact matters
This is a very broad theme running across the whole cube. I want to look at the payoffs and see if they are worthy enough to stay in the cube. I am excluding cards like
Third Path Iconoclast that trigger off noncreature spells as I feel that is broad enough to warrant its own discussion.
In Blue, you find some of the most busted artifact payoffs out there and I love them all.
Academy Ruins is a step down compared to the others, but that is a plant for Simic artifacts and it does a great job. These are all safe.
The goblins are classics, the interaction solid and the robots are growing on me as a steady source of artifact creatures. Not touching a thing here.
It's unclear if
Channel is staying long term, but I like it for now, seeing as I cut the 7+ MV artifact creatures.
The KCI package gives you the chance to cast a ton of spells, get a bunch of enter and death triggers, but isn't always deterministic. That can be a problem from a gameplay mechanic if the pilot isn't proficient. From a synergy perspective though, it's fantastic and I sometimes consider adding redundancy in the shape of
Junk Diver,
Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and
Ashnod's Altar. For now, I am happy with it coming together occasionally and consider it an integral part of the cube.
Still don't have enough experience with Tezzeret to confidently say whether I like him or not, but I do view him positively. Gives pseudo vigilance or generates mana with the +1. The tutor ability has plenty of high impact targets which is great and the ultimate doesn't take over the game immediately. The ease at which it gets loyalty counters is where the potential issue lies!
Basically a better Mox in the right deck. This is definitely at the peak of my power band, but I am okay with it as it is accessible to every color and not trivial to get active on turns one or two where the boost to mana is the most important.
These convert your random artifacts lying around into wins.
Cranial Plating looks somewhat suspect compared to the other cards who all provide you with big bodies. It does have the instant speed equip cost if you are in Black which does count for something, but it looks like the least impactful of the bunch.
+1 Slot?
The Automaton isn't strictly needed, but it does go off hard with a number of cards (
Warren Soultrader,
Samwise Gamgee and
Lonis, Cryptozoologist for example). If I do cut it, the replacement would need to be a key card for an archetype rather than just filler.
+1 Slot?
A sacrifice outlet that can act as an enabler or a win condition. It doesn't fit into a ton of decks, but it's unique enough that I don't see myself cutting this as long as they cube stays GY, artifact and sacrifice heavy.
Tl;dr: I love my artifacts and happy with my suite of payoffs.
Cranial Plating seems like the most expendable card from the section, but I'd like to keep it if I have room.
Stridehangar Automaton is one of the more narrow and less busted artifact payoffs here making it a candidate for a cut. It has its role in certain decks some of which could use the support though (like Selesnya artifacts), so maybe it stays for now.
I'll take a break from archetypes and look at individual cards for now
Utility lands
When fighting for slots, I tend to look more critically at my utility lands. I don't know if that is fair as they are some of the most main decked cards by virtue of not competing with the 23ish nonland slots. Some are more impactful than others, so I am mostly looking at these aggro-centric lands
After playing more with
Strip Mine in the Arena Powered Cube, I'm convinced I still don't want it here. It leads to too many non-games when paired with recursion. I do value temporary disruption and I think
Rishadan Port is great in that regard while being a nice complement to
Wasteland.
I could stand to lose either Factory or
Mutavault as they are quite similar and not always main decked as the cost of running a colorless land is not negligeable. Not clear which is the cut (zombies vs artifacts).
+1 Slot
Narrow build arounds
I'm quite high on Renewal right now, but almost never find myself adding
Second Sunrise to decks. The spots where it does shine are Abzan land sacrifice shells with
Zuran Orb or
Squandered Resources to double up on mana. White does actually quite well there with
Felidar Retreat,
Balance,
Cataclysm,
Sevinne's Reclamation and
Serra Paragon. To the point I could cut
Second Sunrise.
+1 Slot
Talked about these in past posts. I tried cutting them, but felt their absence. They add a unique element to the color and while they don't work often, they are amazing and the centerpiece of decks when they come together.
Great card selection alongside the many fetchlands I run. Has niche applications with
Tinker and
Oath of Druids and can prevent you from decking in a turbo self-mill deck. I don't see this as essential, though I love having old cards be relevant.
+1 Slot
A pure control piece that turns the game up on its head in a frustrating way. When drafting Bridge, you have to consider alternate win conditions or ways to remove it lest you be stuck under it yourself. You get small edges from dumping
Chromatic Stars and friends on the board and cracking them at opportune times. It lets you mitigate the downside of
Bazaar of Baghdad and
Firestorm. For all these reasons, I want to keep Bridge.
A rare sacrifice outlet for lands that effectively doubles up your mana. It's a bit of a pet card and I have no desire to cut it!
To recap, there are some cuts I can live with and some I'd like to avoid if possible.
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Keeping aggressive artifact density high, but with a focus on the colored sections.
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Even though the ETB tapped of Helping Hand is painful, the sheer rate of basically
Unearth is too good to pass up. It's a nice spell for Boros discard with
Hardened Academic and is a proactive target for
Dreadhorde Arcanist.
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If I want to diversify my Green section a bit, I need to make some tough cuts. STE is an all star, but it's the most replaceable effect I find.
Explore is quite versatile in the decks that want it. It can be a ramp spell for control, a cantrip for storm or a synergy piece for draw 2+ decks.
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A bit more recursion that specifically pops with the Storm cards, giving spell velocity decks a reason to go into Green.
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Recently diversified my discard payoffs to also work with self-mill and cut
Hollow One in the process, but I miss its explosiveness. Free spells are fun! Deciding to cut Mutavault, because the nostalgia from Factory is too much!
Going to keep a critical eye on the rest of the cube and try to patch holes as I see them. As always, feedback is always appreciated and welcome
