Brad Loves Eldrazi

[Brad]

Another color switch I'm considering is to run 5 guilds and 5 triplets while running 4x of the MDFC lands for those guilds.

Specifically, these 5 are ones that I like that make a color wheel:

4x of each would increase land density for all the decks. Aggro decks can also shave some lands by running MDFCs in their place. Whenever I draft a MDFC on CubeCobra, it immediately goes into the deck if it's on color.

Might try to run multiples on monocolor MDFCs as well.

I'm a little skeptical on Glasswing Grace, but it seems like a bit of a bomb if the opponent is tapped out and your 3/3 gets in for a 10 point life swing.

I've been wanting to try some multiples in a symmetrical way and hadn't thought of this until now. I made a Dragons list that had 4x of each Exhale and I liked the symmetry and significance of the multiples.

Combining the last two ideas: I like all the green 2c MDFCs decently.

 

[Brad]

Raise the Reef?
Listing all the elementals that are within the realm of my preferred power level for my own reference. I like Risen Reef a lot and some of the new ones are cool, so let's check it out.

Spoiler

No Shriekmaw cus it kills titans easily and no Shatter/Naturalize guy cus they kill mana rocks too cheaply and are narrowish.

Could run scam, blink, elemental tribal stuff.

I like the idea of multiple Risen Reef and Fecund Greenshell ramping up pretty quickly.

I've always liked 5C stuff, so Vivid elementals are appealing.

 

[LadyMapi]

How many elementals would you have to run before this fine fellow is worth it?



Also, I will always suggest



especially since it gives your 0/1 Spawns and 1/1 Scions some late-game oomph.

 

[Brad]

How many elementals would you have to run before this fine fellow is worth it?

Probably never? I don't think the elementals deck will be attacking opponents down until later in the game after establishing some control, so the buff seems mid and I feel like spending a card for the ability to ~Evoke cards isn't that good. If I look at the list above, there's not a ton of cards that I'm much happier Soulstoking than casting. Most of them are low MV or have Evoke.

especially since it gives your 0/1 Spawns and 1/1 Scions some late-game oomph.

Yeah that's sweet to send the little dudes with, but green 5 is super competitive here, so it's a maybe. I probably should cut 3-4 of these as it is:

I'd rather see my green 5-6s advance a player towards more mana than end the game before Eldrazi can see play. Still a fun interaction and a nightmare for blocking if I wasn't trying to drag late games like I am.

 

[Brad]

Vivid Dreams

Spoiler

I wonder if all the new hybrids can bridge this into
Devotion

Spoiler

Skipped the two color Gods because the point of the hybrids is to bridge the gap between mono and multicolored themes. The two colored ones are also super variable on power level.

Hybrids

Spoiler

A lot of the hybrids are commons, so it's a little lower powered. I worry that the disparity in power level is too wide between some of the hybrids and the Gods they're meant to enable. Maybe there's enough options to not sacrifice power level much.

A lot of random tokens in the devotion and hybrid section. I'd have to give up my minimalist tokens package to make that work.

I'll think more on these ideas. Wanted to put the list together for myself to look at and you guys can give opinions if you'd like to.

Multicolor, devotion, and colorless Eldrazi. How else could we mess with color?

 

[ravnic]

I like the idea to combine these two seemingly opposing themes through heavy hybrid use. Not that devotion is not the only way to mechanically care about one color, stuff like e.g. Cinder Pyromancer exists.

 

[Brad]

The last post was huge, so let's try to narrow it down a bit...
Devotion/Mono

Spoiler

How many mono payoffs are needed? My gut says not many because they're even narrower than multicolor cards. I'm thinking a God and another card or two per color?

I like these ones because they can go into a white attacking deck or a slower white deck.


Blue is more controlling and I think that these can work. Singer seems like a really efficient blocker.

Didn't go with Archmage's Charm because someone will forgot that they stole a card and they'll shuffle it into their own deck.

Didn't go with Thoracle because you can get similar card quality spells that aren't as narrow and the win con would be a rare late game occurrence when Eldrazi should shine.


I had a harder time narrowing this one down. Maybe because of my last cube. Either way, some sort of Swamp ramp or MBC alongside heavy black hybrids might be possible.

Maybe even break singleton on Coffers and Crypt Ghast. Coffers plus Swamps hits 10 mana on turn 7. Ghast does it on turn 5.


These are all hitters. Whirler wipes Spawns with potentially too much efficiency. OG Purphoros is a little too scary in a format that's forced to run a lot of tokens.


These all either ramp or support the Titans.

Not sure if the ramp creatures are significantly better than artifacts or sorceries around the same cost.

Charm is a little weak, but the exiling enchantments mode is important if we add 5-6 Gods here. The land options add 2 late game mana at best, but that's decent.


These are a solid mana incentive for any mono color deck to go for Eldrazi.

Hybrids

Spoiler

Cirina must be decent, right? Bad Stoneforge with flying? Maybe not...


Nightbonder would require intentional support. It can play as a bad Shock on attackers. Tome-Skimmer and Nightbonder probably go or stay together.


Rakdos Cackler is stronger than I want my red one drops to be.

Not sure Cutthroat gets there, but it's pretty easy to get a 4/3 for 3 on a very easy cast.

I think Boggart could be easy to support with some Goblins and it's a decent card in Black Control to get a blocker and a Swamp. Pretending the entire deck with 16 hittable lands and 39 total cards are left, there's a 12.1% chance to miss with it. Add 4 Goblins and that drops to 5.6%. Obviously, the math isn't perfect here, but the point is that the odds are pretty good.


I could see all of these in red aggro or green midrange except maybe a couple. Seems like a good set of cards.

Two concerns are that Raiders could outgrow Eldrazi and Surfer adds a unique token.


Couple unique tokens here, as well.

Pig is digital only, but easy to proxy and play in paper. A God-killing piglet is always useful in cube.

I rather like both abilities on this Guildmage in a long game, but it's only slightly better than a bear until later.


Second Pig is also very playable in paper.

Not in love with these WB ones. They all feel a little boring to me.


Same thoughts on this Guildmage as with Selesnya. Can be great later, but pretty mild early.

Not sure about the two commons here. Both have potential, but are kinda slow.


Even more new tokens.

Skipped Ravenous Squirrel for going too crazy with Spawns.


So many three drops, but they're all quite good. Low MV RW creatures are easy to make because the colors want their creatures doing the same thing.


Tam could be accidentally annoying in same color matchups in a way that's random and unfun.

Omo tracking is a little annoying, but it's a nice wall, fixer, and Domain enabler.

Sentinel does a lot. A 3/2 plus a counter plus potential counterspell for 3 worries me.


These might make the cut with a multicolor theme. Would be nice to have a little more removal that can't hit Titans.