Atraxa EDH Micro Cube

[RedShirtDown]

Backstory
After designing a few cubelets and micro cubes, I had a burning question pop up that I couldn't ignore.

What if your commander deck could also be a playable micro cube?

I have had this project on the back-burner for some time. Recently in the Reddit community there have been a deluge of micro environments, so I saw an opportunity to sit down and finish it. Not bad timing anyway, because I'm secretly trying to convert my LGS away from commander and more into draft.

The List
https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/Atraxa_EDH_MicroCube

Design Challenges
First thing I knew sitting down is that no commander player will believe it's 'not that Atraxa', so I had to aim for bracket 3 (formally power level 7). I also have the dichotomy of both formats tugging at the project, with commander being a battlecruiser format and cube typically much faster. There were things that needed to work independently from the commander, because as a cube you won't have one. As such, no commander staples like Command Tower orArcane Signet could be played with.

Likewise, I'm not a dumb man, so no Sol Ring!

Because it's going to have to fit in a commander deck box, that also means by definition it has to be a desert cube. I've started with my commander-staple 38 lands, though I may have to increase to make the draft a bit more playable.

How to Play
My plan for this environment is 2-4 players, Housman drafted. If the card pool is too restrictive for that, I'll fall back on Grid drafting.
Deck size 15, no milling out. No other rules changes.

For no, I'm going to leave Atraxa draftable. It might be too strong since it synergizes with the whole deck, but if you want to draft and play it you have to really prioritize fixing.

Design Ideas
Going into this as a cube first, I had a few ideas playing around in my head. Modular, poison, experience counters, energy, planeswalkers. At one point, there were over 400 cards in the project! So I've made heavy cuts, trying to keep a bit of each of the themes represented. As such, I believe that the draft is much less on-rails, but I hope that there's enough support regardless.

Some of the cards aren't the 'best-in-slot' for a reason, as most will need to fill multiple rolls. Cards like Doubling Season would be great for commander, but Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion does an alright impression on a decent body.

Game Changers
Because this is also a fully functional Commander deck, at bracket 3 I get three. I think I've chosen the best 3 to be used in the multi-format play.


In cube, these are much worse than in commander. So if you think that there's something that would better benefit both the cube and the deck I'd love to hear it.

Speaking of which, if you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! I'll be drafting this within the coming weeks, and will try to post a draft report the same day.

 

[alvoi]

Game Changers
Because this is also a fully functional Commander deck, at bracket 3 I get three. I think I've chosen the best 3 to be used in the multi-format play.

Well, you are not forced to have Game Changers in your EDH deck, like you are not forced to have Sol Ring and Arcane Signet

By the way, this is a genius idea! And it looks like very well-realised, as well!

 

[RedShirtDown]

I know I'm not forced, but nobody's believing me when I say my Atraxa is a 2! If it's going to be a target anyway, might as well use up all that design space.

Thanks for the kind words. I'll have it together soon and report on how well the first drafts went.

 

[LadyMapi]

This is a pretty cool idea!

I do think that you're going to be limited to two-player drafts if you're treating it like a desert cube, because you'd need at least ten more lands for a three player draft unless the curve is really low (and that's not going to be the case with an EDH deck).

 

[RedShirtDown]

First draft report:
At this point, I have been...unsuccessful at convincing my LGS full of commander players to try out drafting. So, I've done it myself. Yesterday I grid drafted and played 3 matches, and came away with some lessons learned. I'm playing this as a king-of-the-hill format, so the winning deck continues until it's dethroned.

1) Removal is vital, and tempo is high. Not surprising given how I usually design cubes, but it's difficult to have a functional commander deck that also includes enough draftable removal, so creatures tend to fill the board.

2) Fetches are...bad? In a format where half of your deck is in your starting hand, fetches are pointless. Not sure how I'm going to bring deck and cube needs into alignment here, it might just be a necessary evil.

3) Colors are easy. Adding to point 2, none of my decks ran less than 3 colors. I don't think that this is a problem per say, but just something I noticed.

4)Card draw is bad, to a point. Again, highly needed for the commander deck to work, but aside from the first couple of turns card draw is just a dead ability. Dusk Legion Duelist hasn't mattered, once.

Anyway, on to the draft decks:

Match 1 : Poison 2-0 Atraxa Big Mana


This was the first matchup, and one that surprised me greatly. I thought that the big mana deck would just be too hard to fight against, especially because it also included the commander! But the deck above absolutely wrecked it, without any poison wins either. The loser deck had Atraxa, big Teferi and Wrenn&Realmbreaker, but the poison deck won with fast starts and timely removal. Note on Wrenn, I think it's just bad here. If you are able to ult it'd be great, but the mill loyality is just awful, and I really don't want to animate one of only a few lands.

Match 2 : Atraxa Control 2-0 Poison


The second match, and I ran back Atraxa/Teferi to get their redemption. But, they weren't the driving factor here, Basri is! Once played, it's fairly easy to ult, which just out-tempo and out-value at the same time. It made me realize that walker removal is a must, as in both games the poison deck was holding onto Anoint without a good target.

Revision 1 : Time for some changes
Armed with far too little data but some intuition, it was time to make some changes.
Wrenn and Realmbreaker -> Nissa, Ascended Animist
Anoint with Affliction -> Baleful Mastery
Simic Ascendancy -> Signature Slam

The first two are pretty self-explanatory, they're just upgrades for the 1v1 format that are still ok in commander. The last one was a bit harder. I knew that I wanted green to have access to a fight/bite spell, and wanted it to add a counter to synergize with the rest of the deck/cube. This was the best one I found, but if anyone has an idea here I'm all ears. Even though I would've liked to remove color for color, I need all of the dorks in green because the deck isn't running any typical ramp. So, considering that simic had '3' multicolored spells, I feel confidant removing an alt win con from the commander deck, and a card that I'll never draft.

Match 3 : Sultai Tempo 2-0 Atraxa Control


Last match of the night, and another trouncing. The Llanowar Reborn/Biophagus combo was nuts, giving all of the creatures their first counter to proliferate. The deck ran only 1 removal, but somehow it was always in hand at the right time. Perhaps the control player should've played slower and more timely with the counterspells, but it was late and the gameplay was suffering.

Final Thoughts
For now, there's a few more things I'd like to change. Swords to Plowshares might be better off as a the slower Get Lost, just because it can hit walkers too. But, I'd still like to have exile removal in here for when it is a commander deck. I think that white needs a wrath, to give a possible control deck an out, plus it would be useful in EDH, but I have no idea what a good cut would be. I'm on the fence with Dovin's Veto, in commander it's excellent, but here it just seemed to clog up the hand. Finally, in both cube and commander recently I've been in love with Fog/Holy Day, it'd be great to fit those in too. More testing needed obviously, in the days to come. I will continue king-of-the-hill format with the winning deck so far, but it's been cool to see that no deck has been a repeat winner yet.

Final musing: 9 grid drafts leave 12 cards in the SB. Not sure if that means I can introduce more cards for commander that aren't even meant to be played. It would reduce the draftable pool, but if the deck is better for it maybe that's ok. Decision TBD at a later date.