FrogsHateBlue Cube
- Thread starter EzPzJapanezy
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Really happy with this Dragonstorm Draft:
Dragonstorm
| Creatures (5) 1 Harvester of Misery 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star 1 Tyrant of Kher Ridges 1 Velomachus Lorehold 1 Utvara Hellkite Instants (3) 1 Repeal 1 Flash 1 Force of Negation Sorceries (9) 1 Firebolt 1 Arc Trail 1 Life from the Loam 1 Show and Tell 1 Wheel of Fortune 1 Kodama's Reach 1 Bonfire of the Damned 1 Time Spiral 1 Dragonstorm Artifacts (3) 1 Mishra's Bauble 1 Mana Crypt 1 Lavaspur Boots Enchantments (3) 1 Oath of Druids 1 Heartbeat of Spring 1 Mana Reflection | Lands (17) 1 Caves of Koilos 1 Volcanic Island 1 Shivan Reef 1 Reflecting Pool 3 Mountain 6 Forest 1 Swamp 3 Island |
This is by far, the coolest Dragonstorm enabler / target I have seen printed to date. Absolute gem of a spoiler, bravo WoTC.
I was severely underwhelmed by all of the Elder Dragons from the first foray into Strixhaven other than Velomachus Lorehold coincidentally enough, but if the other 4 are even half as cool as this I will be excited.
Enhancements with Enchantments
Enchantments are a really cool part of Magic the Gathering. It is honestly a bit of a shame to me that there is such a pervasive dogma surrounding certain aspects of cubing, in particular, the commentary regarding 'doing nothing', which unfortunately most enchantments can be categorized under at first glance.
And to be fair, I do get where the concern comes from. It is more a cautionary tale than anything, but over decades of shared cube knowledge eventually these quick tidbits of shared knowledge become somewhat etched in stone as truths to best be left unexplored.
I somewhat stumbled into supporting Enchantments over the years. Inspired primarily by EMA, I had a few failed attempts at making an Enchantress theme feel integrated into a greater cube environment, and then heeded the wisdom of my cube elders to leave Enchantments behind for greener pastures. But being a closeted Izzet Mage (gross), most of FrogsHateBlue has been my personal journey of trying to balance Combo into a traditional 'Aggro', 'Midrange' and 'Control' list, and over time, more and more Enchantments found their way in.
A lot of Enchantments are great Combo support pieces. Great can mean a lot things. Some are exceptionally narrow, but excel wonderfully within their niche. Solemnity is a perfect example of this.
Some are exceptionally good 'Combo-Lite' pieces. Take Virtue of Loyalty. A solid anthem / untapper for midrange, but its particularly appreciated in my list as I support Intruder Alarm and friends. Weaker support pieces like Steward of Solidarity and Thraben Doomsayer now don't need to be going infinite to synergize and find a home.
To keep the focus on White Enchanments like Virtue of Loyalty, I want to give a shout out to Valkyrie's Call too. It's a persist support piece in a similar fashion to Luminous Broodmoth, but I can't help but focus on how Virtue and Call interact with Opalescence. Something about a creature-fied Virtue of Loyalty untapping / buffing itself after attacking or a Valkyrie's call reviving itself after trading in combat nurtures a wellspring of Joy within me, the very same joy I feel when comboing off. Enchantments are cool. Very Cool.
Since a solid foundation was already present, I think it's time to fully extend Enchantments as a core theme in my cube. White is getting Opalescence as a core build around. Blue is deepening its tempo / stax support (needed some more hate to match the list's namesake). Black is moving some Pox support into Enchantments. Red is only getting 1 addition, but it already had some pretty good Enchantment density before. And finally, Green is deepening its pool of Enchantments that support creature combos.
But it's about that time to stop ranting and just list off some includes:
White:
- Touch the Spirit Realm : Leaning a bit more of Whites removal suite into Enchantments. Has been in before and performed excellently.
- Opalescence : One of the few actual signposts for 'Enchantments Matter' in White along with Replenish & Academy Rector. Awesome effect, can't wait to see what combinations drafters either come up with or stumble into with it (except Humility lol)
- Valkyrie's Call : Persist support (and other)
Blue:
- Proft's Eidetic Memory : A strong tempo card that gets pretty spicy with Wheels
- Attunement : One of the more interesting Looters in Blue. I'm fine having a Looter not strong enough to kick it outside of Reanimator or Dredgy lists and want to see what its recursive nature allows for.
- Equilibrium : Exodus art is simply adorable. Tempo / Bounce has long been a thing in my list. Deepening support to make Aluren feel less 'all or nothing'
- Mana Breach : Both Exodus and 7th Ed art are simply incredible. Blue Stax / Land disruption was left to the wayside a bit as my list got bigger and I want to bring it back in.
- Parallax Tide : see 'Blue Stax / Land disruption was left to the wayside a bit as my list got bigger and I want to bring it back in.' But joking aside, such a cool card, like its flickery friend Parallax Wave
- Rising Waters : I include this just so I see Elves suffering every time I scroll past my Blue Section. I don't mind including a slower Winter Orb just to have more access to the effect at 1080
- Mind Over Matter : I don't really know what to make of M.O.M here. There are more interactions that I can count that excite me, and Omniscience is pretty boring in comparison so this takes the 'Hard to cast Blue Enchantment that does powerful things' slot.
Black:
- Whip of Erebos : The static lifelink is really good with how heavily I support Pox in Black. Grindy reanimator support is very welcome as well
- Waste Not : My Beloved. I really want to keep this around forever but if Strixhaven spoils some new Pox tools unfortunately this is probably the first to go.
- Oppression : Original art is spectacular. Hard to say how this one is going to work out. With more Aggro Discard payoffs than ever before I want to give it a shot though
- Grave Pact : Great effect in my list, a little surprised I have yet to run it until now
Red:
- Pandemonium : Here to support Tokens, Creature Loops (Blink / Sacrifice / Bounce), and Creature Storm. A lot more interesting as a game piece with Opalescence than Purphoros ever could hope to be. Plays nicely with the slight 'Power Matters' theme I have in Red, I really love this card. The symmetrical effect is 10/10 flavor wise. Also the Exodus art might actually be one of my favorites in the entire game.
Green:
- Concordant Crossroads : Deceptively acts like a 'Fires' support piece but it honestly is here more for Creature Storm than anything else. If treated as 'All creatures have haste. At the beginning of the next Opponent's combat phase, you lose the game' it is still incredibly powerful to aid an explosive finish
- Hardened Scales : Boring +1/+1 support but its good rate and effective
- Fecundity : Draw Engine for Sacrifice-based creature loops
- Greater Good : This card is actually an insane. A free sacrifice that also draws / discards is honestly so good but is held back only by its mana cost. At my size I have the slots for both a Sac engine and a win-con wrapped-up-in-one at 4cmc. (Also love the 9th ed art)
- Doubling Season : The penultimate 'do nothing' makes its FrogsHateBlue debut. It is the most playable 'Super Friends' card I can think off that also overlaps into my other supported themes in green, so I am excited to try it.
- Saproling Burst : Does cool things with both Doubling Season and Pandemonium. Moreso I included this because I forgot it existed until I did an enchantment deep dive. One of the more mechanically interesting Token Producers in Green, I would play it without any sort of 'combo' but I'm glad it has some too
Multicolor:
- Invigorating Hot Spring : What a joyous card. Deepening of 'Fires' redundancy.
Enchantments are a really cool part of Magic the Gathering. It is honestly a bit of a shame to me that there is such a pervasive dogma surrounding certain aspects of cubing, in particular, the commentary regarding 'doing nothing', which unfortunately most enchantments can be categorized under at first glance.
And to be fair, I do get where the concern comes from. It is more a cautionary tale than anything, but over decades of shared cube knowledge eventually these quick tidbits of shared knowledge become somewhat etched in stone as truths to best be left unexplored.
I somewhat stumbled into supporting Enchantments over the years. Inspired primarily by EMA, I had a few failed attempts at making an Enchantress theme feel integrated into a greater cube environment, and then heeded the wisdom of my cube elders to leave Enchantments behind for greener pastures. But being a closeted Izzet Mage (gross), most of FrogsHateBlue has been my personal journey of trying to balance Combo into a traditional 'Aggro', 'Midrange' and 'Control' list, and over time, more and more Enchantments found their way in.
A lot of Enchantments are great Combo support pieces. Great can mean a lot things. Some are exceptionally narrow, but excel wonderfully within their niche. Solemnity is a perfect example of this.
Some are exceptionally good 'Combo-Lite' pieces. Take Virtue of Loyalty. A solid anthem / untapper for midrange, but its particularly appreciated in my list as I support Intruder Alarm and friends. Weaker support pieces like Steward of Solidarity and Thraben Doomsayer now don't need to be going infinite to synergize and find a home.
To keep the focus on White Enchanments like Virtue of Loyalty, I want to give a shout out to Valkyrie's Call too. It's a persist support piece in a similar fashion to Luminous Broodmoth, but I can't help but focus on how Virtue and Call interact with Opalescence. Something about a creature-fied Virtue of Loyalty untapping / buffing itself after attacking or a Valkyrie's call reviving itself after trading in combat nurtures a wellspring of Joy within me, the very same joy I feel when comboing off. Enchantments are cool. Very Cool.
Since a solid foundation was already present, I think it's time to fully extend Enchantments as a core theme in my cube. White is getting Opalescence as a core build around. Blue is deepening its tempo / stax support (needed some more hate to match the list's namesake). Black is moving some Pox support into Enchantments. Red is only getting 1 addition, but it already had some pretty good Enchantment density before. And finally, Green is deepening its pool of Enchantments that support creature combos.
But it's about that time to stop ranting and just list off some includes:
White:
- Touch the Spirit Realm : Leaning a bit more of Whites removal suite into Enchantments. Has been in before and performed excellently.
- Opalescence : One of the few actual signposts for 'Enchantments Matter' in White along with Replenish & Academy Rector. Awesome effect, can't wait to see what combinations drafters either come up with or stumble into with it (except Humility lol)
- Valkyrie's Call : Persist support (and other)
Blue:
- Proft's Eidetic Memory : A strong tempo card that gets pretty spicy with Wheels
- Attunement : One of the more interesting Looters in Blue. I'm fine having a Looter not strong enough to kick it outside of Reanimator or Dredgy lists and want to see what its recursive nature allows for.
- Equilibrium : Exodus art is simply adorable. Tempo / Bounce has long been a thing in my list. Deepening support to make Aluren feel less 'all or nothing'
- Mana Breach : Both Exodus and 7th Ed art are simply incredible. Blue Stax / Land disruption was left to the wayside a bit as my list got bigger and I want to bring it back in.
- Parallax Tide : see 'Blue Stax / Land disruption was left to the wayside a bit as my list got bigger and I want to bring it back in.' But joking aside, such a cool card, like its flickery friend Parallax Wave
- Rising Waters : I include this just so I see Elves suffering every time I scroll past my Blue Section. I don't mind including a slower Winter Orb just to have more access to the effect at 1080
- Mind Over Matter : I don't really know what to make of M.O.M here. There are more interactions that I can count that excite me, and Omniscience is pretty boring in comparison so this takes the 'Hard to cast Blue Enchantment that does powerful things' slot.
Black:
- Whip of Erebos : The static lifelink is really good with how heavily I support Pox in Black. Grindy reanimator support is very welcome as well
- Waste Not : My Beloved. I really want to keep this around forever but if Strixhaven spoils some new Pox tools unfortunately this is probably the first to go.
- Oppression : Original art is spectacular. Hard to say how this one is going to work out. With more Aggro Discard payoffs than ever before I want to give it a shot though
- Grave Pact : Great effect in my list, a little surprised I have yet to run it until now
Red:
- Pandemonium : Here to support Tokens, Creature Loops (Blink / Sacrifice / Bounce), and Creature Storm. A lot more interesting as a game piece with Opalescence than Purphoros ever could hope to be. Plays nicely with the slight 'Power Matters' theme I have in Red, I really love this card. The symmetrical effect is 10/10 flavor wise. Also the Exodus art might actually be one of my favorites in the entire game.
Green:
- Concordant Crossroads : Deceptively acts like a 'Fires' support piece but it honestly is here more for Creature Storm than anything else. If treated as 'All creatures have haste. At the beginning of the next Opponent's combat phase, you lose the game' it is still incredibly powerful to aid an explosive finish
- Hardened Scales : Boring +1/+1 support but its good rate and effective
- Fecundity : Draw Engine for Sacrifice-based creature loops
- Greater Good : This card is actually an insane. A free sacrifice that also draws / discards is honestly so good but is held back only by its mana cost. At my size I have the slots for both a Sac engine and a win-con wrapped-up-in-one at 4cmc. (Also love the 9th ed art)
- Doubling Season : The penultimate 'do nothing' makes its FrogsHateBlue debut. It is the most playable 'Super Friends' card I can think off that also overlaps into my other supported themes in green, so I am excited to try it.
- Saproling Burst : Does cool things with both Doubling Season and Pandemonium. Moreso I included this because I forgot it existed until I did an enchantment deep dive. One of the more mechanically interesting Token Producers in Green, I would play it without any sort of 'combo' but I'm glad it has some too
Multicolor:
- Invigorating Hot Spring : What a joyous card. Deepening of 'Fires' redundancy.
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