Conspiracy-ing
- Thread starter Changling Bob
- Start date
I'm continuing to have doubts about artifacts, so thinking about other WUx themes. Brainstorm time (the activity, not the card):
- Merfolk/fish
- Skies
- Prison-y/fun police go here
- miracles (blech)
- Cawblade without the caw (draft secret summoning) and with considerably less good blades
- Slivers (changelings are slivers! and dragons!)
- Clone armies
- Other
This thread is interesting and has some good ideas but I feel like I could contribute more if you could share more about what you're trying to do, other than just cards I like...
I don't have a set of well defined goals, other than 'playing big dumb stuff should be fun'. It's basically not quite a timmy cube, I guess? It's what everyone wishes EDH was but isn't? That sort of goal.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Its sounds a little bit like ROE? Tasteful dragon(storm) magic?
I can get behind that. A few thoughts though:
It would be helpful to know if this was a cube that was looking to put a lot of pressure on the board early, or a more relaxed one where people were sitting back and building up resources. Is mass mana management a theme of the cube? Are you looking to have answers that are weaker or stronger than your threats? Are there any specific interactions that you love and really want to see? Are there specific turns you would like to see play out a certain way?
Thus far it seems we have: scapeshift, domain, dragonstorm, and an artifact theme. I'm not sure if there any unique challenges with forming color pair identity in a domain setting, maybe the eldrazi domain cube might shed some light on that? The artifact theme already seems the most disconnected of the ones listed.
However, since scapeshift seems to be the core mechanic, and if so, it takes us down a few initial thought paths that I'm still not quite clear on some of the details concerning.
1) We know that we want the scapeshift decks to be able to consistently survive to four mana and be able to go off, sacrifice a bunch of lands, and play out a bunch of lands. This seems to suggest we want a slower, more midrange format; but do we want turn 4 to be more decisive? How much early game pressure would be fun? Do we want them just winning here with scapeshift combos?
2) If capeshift is central to the cube, should we run less counterspells? And what are the broader implications of that? Should there be other disruption, such as thoughtseize or mesmeric fiend?
3) We know that we have mass landfall triggers and the potential to have large amounts of utility lands coming into play. Should domain and landfall be key mechanics? What are the potential utility lands and how do they shape the format? Should there be an archetype consideration for the impact of those utility lands, and the ability to tutor for them: crop rotation, tolaria west, knight of the reliquary.
4) With lands going to the graveyard, does this suggest a theme for cards that care about graveyard land count, such as threshold and wurm harvest?
If it’s a slower more dragony format based around mana management, you could consider U/W levelers as an aggro strategy, maybe defender decks with vent sentinel. You also probably have a few different flavors of possible threshold decks, and probably a wurm harvest deck. An elf combo deck might work, as well as a G/W landfall deck, maybe even a blue based mill deck exploiting landfall with hedron crab.
Basically, what do we know we want, what are the concrete implications of that, and then how does that fit into the color pairings? Also, what impact does our vision have on the overall power level of the format, as that will have huge implications on what can or cannot be run and what is and is not a workable archetype.
I can get behind that. A few thoughts though:
It would be helpful to know if this was a cube that was looking to put a lot of pressure on the board early, or a more relaxed one where people were sitting back and building up resources. Is mass mana management a theme of the cube? Are you looking to have answers that are weaker or stronger than your threats? Are there any specific interactions that you love and really want to see? Are there specific turns you would like to see play out a certain way?
Thus far it seems we have: scapeshift, domain, dragonstorm, and an artifact theme. I'm not sure if there any unique challenges with forming color pair identity in a domain setting, maybe the eldrazi domain cube might shed some light on that? The artifact theme already seems the most disconnected of the ones listed.
However, since scapeshift seems to be the core mechanic, and if so, it takes us down a few initial thought paths that I'm still not quite clear on some of the details concerning.
1) We know that we want the scapeshift decks to be able to consistently survive to four mana and be able to go off, sacrifice a bunch of lands, and play out a bunch of lands. This seems to suggest we want a slower, more midrange format; but do we want turn 4 to be more decisive? How much early game pressure would be fun? Do we want them just winning here with scapeshift combos?
2) If capeshift is central to the cube, should we run less counterspells? And what are the broader implications of that? Should there be other disruption, such as thoughtseize or mesmeric fiend?
3) We know that we have mass landfall triggers and the potential to have large amounts of utility lands coming into play. Should domain and landfall be key mechanics? What are the potential utility lands and how do they shape the format? Should there be an archetype consideration for the impact of those utility lands, and the ability to tutor for them: crop rotation, tolaria west, knight of the reliquary.
4) With lands going to the graveyard, does this suggest a theme for cards that care about graveyard land count, such as threshold and wurm harvest?
If it’s a slower more dragony format based around mana management, you could consider U/W levelers as an aggro strategy, maybe defender decks with vent sentinel. You also probably have a few different flavors of possible threshold decks, and probably a wurm harvest deck. An elf combo deck might work, as well as a G/W landfall deck, maybe even a blue based mill deck exploiting landfall with hedron crab.
Basically, what do we know we want, what are the concrete implications of that, and then how does that fit into the color pairings? Also, what impact does our vision have on the overall power level of the format, as that will have huge implications on what can or cannot be run and what is and is not a workable archetype.
This is a good post and I want to spend time thinking about it, but my time has been aggressively stolen by Crusader Kings 2. On the plus side I am king of England now! I will get back to this Soon(TM) though.