2007

Brad · 2025-12-21T02:31:37-0500

EDIT: mtgtop8 added tournaments as I was making this and it shifted the list, causing me to miss 4 tournaments when I changed the page. Don't read this thread until tomorrow. All the numbers are slightly off right now.
Boomer Nostalgia
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/TSPto10E

That's not a 4700 card cube. That's a list of every nonland card in a Standard deck on mtgtop8 from the release of TSP to before the release of Lorwyn. There were 15 tournaments of top 8s and undefeated decks available.

I thought we should take a look at Ravnica-TSP Standard and try to figure out what made it tick. We have a list of cards that impacted the format as well as how many of them were present. I also have a spreadsheet with deck classifications to break down the meta from that perspective in my next post. There will also be references to Kamigawa-Ravnica Standard at times.

If that sounds good to you, then you're probably like 35 years old and some combination of your knees, shoulders, or back hurt.

Color Breakdown
It's first worth noting that Signets, hybrids, off-color costs, etc are all in multicolor sections.

322
Featuring 83 Wrath of God, 58 one drops, and 52 two drops.

919
Featuring 103 Compulsive Research and a total of 309 counterspells (190 of which are Remand).

512
Featuring 96 Dark Confidant.

1044
Featuring 802 cards with the word "damage" on them.

552
Featuring 72 mana dorks, 109 goyfs, and 45 Troll Ascetic.

1222 Multicolored cards

389
Mostly Signet, Court Hussar, and Momentary Blink.

58
Only 5 cards that aren't Signet or Mystical Teachings.

37
They're all Rakdos Guildmage or Crypt Champion (Project X combo) except 4 Sedge Slivers. Special mention to 23 Hit // Run in the Jund section.

124
Nice mixture of aggressive dudes. I moved Kird Ape to the Gruul section.

128
Featuring 57 Loxodon Hierarch and 49 cards that are nearly exclusive to Project X.

99
Including 48 Castigate.

24
19 Signet and 5 Electrolyze.

18
9 Elves of Deep Shadow and 9 Putrefy.

179
Featuring 125 Lightning Helix!!

33
15 of these are Mystic Snake.

102 of the 133 three colored cards are Jeskai. 84 Lightning Angel and 18 Numot.

Right off the bat, we can see that the format is skewed on colors and heavily multicolored. A classic battle of red aggro vs blue control is central to the format. If we want to build a cube that plays similarly, swapping multicolored cards for functionally similar cards will be just as important as focusing on classic aggro and control decks.

Brad · 2025-12-21T03:12:40-0500

Aggro Decks
There were 157 total decks available on mtgtop8.

Gruul Aggro 15.3%
Rakdos Aggro 5.1%
Boros Aggro 2.6%
I'm classifying these as traditional red aggro decks making up 23% of the format.

The gruul lists had Tarmogoyf and Troll Ascetic, sometimes including a couple Moldervine Cloak or Loxodon Warhammer to try to pants the Ascetic. Frequently included Call of the Herd and Tin Street Hooligan to destroy Signets. Used Kird Ape while 9th was legal.

Rakdos lists had Dark Confidant, the most popular black card of the format, as well as the Hit side of Hit // Run as a damaging kill spell.

Boros Aggro put up all 4 of its results at Worlds 2006 with only TSP available from the block. It used Savannah Lions and Icatian Javelineers as one drops as well as Lightning Helix, Soltari Priest, and Knight of the Holy Nimbus to be problematic to opposing red decks, which were popular at the tournament.

Red decks would sometimes play a sacrifice package including Greater Gargadon, Mogg War Marshal, Martyr of Ashes, Mogg Fanatic, and sometimes Threaten.

The thing that ties together the red decks is the heavy usage of burn spells. Almost all of them run 4 Char, 4 Incinerate, and 4 Rift Bolt. 4 Seal of Fire was also extremely common, especially when it pumps your goyf. 4 Lightning Helix was a necessity in Boros decks as well as Naya Zoo decks of Kamigawa-Ravnica era. Decks with 9th Edition legal often had Volcanic Hammer and Shock.

Red aggro decks towards the end of the format typically ran the full suite of 16 Char/Incincerate/Rift Bolt/Seal of Fire.

The Rack 7.6%

Discard based deck typically looking to use a massive Tarmogoyf to control the board, though one of the four Rack decks was WB with Smallpox and Flagstones of Trokair. Discard your opponent's hand while Dark Confidant fills your own.

Of note are Cry of Contrition, Augur of Skulls, Ravenous Rats, Stupor, and draw step Funeral Charm.

Glare 1.3%

A Selesnya aggro-midrange deck looking to use oversized creatures starting on turn two to beat down slower decks as well as effectively block the red decks. Oh, it's a green deck, so it's obviously running Tarmogoyf.

Only uses a couple copies of Glare as a removal spell of sorts rather than relying on it like Ghazi Glare decks from Kamigawa era.

Other 2.6%

There was a mono green aggro deck that used Silhana Ledgewalker and Troll Ascetic with pump spells, AKA a Bogles deck. There was also an Orzhov aggro deck that used Dark Confidant, Hypnotic Spectre, and Ghost Council of Orzhova. A mana dork into land destruction deck. And a random Slivers deck.

I may have glanced over some stuff in the interest of brevity and I may have missed some stuff because I either forgot to mention it or didn't realize it.

How do I tell a ]ci[ to use the Ravnica version?

Brad · 2025-12-21T04:11:34-0500

Control
I want to preface this by saying that most of this is blue based control with Remand and probably some other counterspells. However, the decks are different enough that it doesn't make sense to lump them together like it did for red based aggro.

INCOMPLETE POST FOR NOW

Blink 8.9%

Most cube designers will be familiar with this deck concept. Play ETB creatures and blink them. The deck was obviously always based in Azorius and always ran Remand as well as the card images above.

Jeskai was the most common version and could run Avalanche Riders and/or Akroma, Angel of Fury to blink-flip after a morph. Red's real strength lies in the life stabilizing kill spell Lightning Helix as well as a vigilant beatdown in the form of Lightning Angel.

Less often, green version would run Mystic Snake and black versions usually went for Blink Touch or Solar Flare instead.

Angelfire 7.6%

An aggro control deck that sorta ran all the best stuff. Running Wrath alongside Lightning Angel looks a little weird, but Angel is one of the best finishers for a control deck.

Use Signets to get ahead on mana, then gain card advantage with Compulsive Research and Aeon Chronicler. You've got the format's best spells in Lightning Helix and Remand. You can play a Wrath when you need to or start beating with Angel if you don't need to Wrath.

The deck's sideboard typically included half anti-aggro and half anti-control so that it could lean into its faster or slower side when needed.

Solar Flare 6.4%

Chord 5.1%

Blink Touch 3.8%

Basically a cheat blink deck that uses Touch to try to land a Bogardan Hellkite (less often, an Angel of Despair) to rip up the opponent's board and get a block in.

If you have 2 more mana, you can blink it to rip their board up even more and permanently keep the Hellkite. If you can't blink it, then 4 mana for 10 damage and drawing a card is still a good deal.

If you aren't lucky enough to hit the Hellkite, you'll probably get to bounce something and add a Riftwing Cloudskate or Venser to your hand.

While Angel of Despair is a bomb to hit off of the Touch, the deck tends to opt for red to have access to Lightning Helix.

Tron 3.2%