Article Cube Design - Tri-color Cards

GenericZero

GenericZero

I realize that there shouldn't probably be ANY ally colored gold cards, but people have small expectations & I don't think it would hurt much to have just 2 gold cards for each ally pair. It might technically make each clan have 5 gold cards, but in not so sure that's a terrible thing...

I also really just want to curve savage knuckleblade into huntmaster into surrak dragonclaw...
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
i remember pros were fond of drafting uw aggro in shards, but in my own experience decks were never two colour
 
CML

CML

Contributor
Jason Waddell said:
How common is/was it to play a strictly two-color deck in Khans / Alara?
Click to expand...


the ars arcanum article by matthew watkins has some pretty convincing data i can't find. it is interesting for contrasting violently with the mtggoldfish.com data which claims 2-color decks are less popular and less successful than watkins, have no idea what the real #'s are obv
 
CML

CML

Contributor
I really think you have to powermax these or make them "archetype-defining" in order to make them work. So far here are my ideas:

 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
i love the idea of self-mill in BUG and really like Sidisi

that said, for a three colour card like her to be worthwhile, the power level would have to be capped. even in my middling-power cube i don't know if she'd cut it
 
CML

CML

Contributor
mimeoplasm is probably stronger. i am trying sidisi because she is a theme unto herself and it is likely i will take her out and reconfig afterwards. however as i type out the rejects i am encouraged that a lower power cube (w/ powermaxing) could easily run a full cycle or even more.

rejects:

zur the enchanter -- seamlessly themey but not quite powerful enough and a hair too restrictive. like you'd think "guy that gets enchantments" is super open-ended and it is, but in tandem with 3c nobody ever played him. also you can't really justify running the higher-impact targets like steel of the godhead that have made zur a constructed card
doran, the siege tower -- too hard to cast w/r/t power level here. has a home in lower power level cubes, i think. also the origin of the triple pun "junk in his trunk"
thornscape battlemage -- deceptively good
bant sureblade and friends -- fun in a different environment

worth a look for someone somewhere

 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
GenericZero said:
I realize that there shouldn't probably be ANY ally colored gold cards, but people have small expectations & I don't think it would hurt much to have just 2 gold cards for each ally pair. It might technically make each clan have 5 gold cards, but in not so sure that's a terrible thing...

I also really just want to curve savage knuckleblade into huntmaster into surrak dragonclaw...
Click to expand...
The beauty of excluding ally colored gold cards is that then you can pair any gold card that shares a color with another one (say {G}{U} with {U}{R}) and arrive at a supported three color gold combination. If you start including allied gold cards this is no longer the case, and that might create unfulfillable expectations. If I first pick said Huntmaster of the Fells, then second pick Abrupt Decay, I'm gonna be sad when I find out Jund is not supported.

I admit I included Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas in my Grixis section though, because I really want to support the artifact subtheme in those colors. It's very hard to kill your darlings, even when you know that your cube environment would probably play better without them.
 
CML

CML

Contributor
bumping because i want to hear what peoples experiences have been with the khans cards mainly

plus i like gold cards
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
The first draft with my new shards & wedges cube was a (dune)blast.

But... I drafted a 2-color deck. Lost to a Grixis player who was very happy playing both Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and Cruel Ultimatum though.
 
FlowerSunRain

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
Siege Rhino and Butcher should be fine, they can make almost any deck that can cast them.

I'm also running 4 tri-color cards.

Rafiq has been a stud so far, he just fits in a lot of decks and wins games.

Sidsi and Marchessa have been having the "third pack" syndrome where their clearly is a deck they fit in, but since they appear late in the draft they just go last pick because they don't have the raw power to make a list that isn't using their unique strengths. They'd benefit greatly from a loaded draft structure that forces them out early.

Azban Ascendancy seems really good, but hasn't gotten play yet, I'm pretty sure its nuts in human tribal. I'm considering swapping it for Anafenza as although she is less unique, she kicks a lot of ass.
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
Rafiq is a great suggestion! i had him in my cube once upon a time, but back then, bant aggro was a trap (that one unfortunate player kept falling into, over and over). now that the deck is a real thing... i should try him again.

on that note, would this possibly be better than Rafiq? i only ask because Zvi's Mythic deck from a couple years back started with Rafiq, before people eventually figured out that this card was an "invincible" version of him

 
FlowerSunRain

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
That's an interesting question. I run tons of land light decks, so 5 mana scares me a little, but Bant decks might not care about hitting 5 that much? Or maybe they do because they want to keep mana open? Another concern is that Cloudfin Raptor and Experiment 1 are often important cards in the deck and Rafiq can make them bigger while Finest Hour can't. Finest Hour triggers enchantresses, though and what deck wants to swing twice more then the one with an armadillo cloaked dude?

I'd say this is a toss up, but I'm favoring Rafiq very slightly on mana cost.
 
Lucre

Lucre

Rafiq seems like a hard question card like sower of temptation or wolfir silverback.
It sorta just reminds me of voltron strategies really, and he doesn't do anything particularly cool with the naturally forming bant decks that already have a lot of well built creatures in the 4-5 slot.

I'm always happier to see cards that can fit into more decks. If a card is 3 colours I want it to be strong splash in a number of archetypes and not really only pertinent to one. The exception to that rule is cards like ultimatum that table often and essentially provide the thrust of your strategy. The other exception is like idiot bombs for the ramp deck that can usually afford to be in a double splash by the time they are at 6-7.

I really hate looking at packs with too many gold cards, it gets really hard for me to tell what I want to be tabling and what guesses to make about table. Like we don't have the consistent cues in cube the way boosters do and we can't bank on themes built into different packs. I feel sorta adrift without a paddle and like I better start working on my 3 colour "any playables" deck rather than doing anything interesting or progressive.
 
James Stevenson

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
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James Stevenson

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
I was looking for a Morgan Freeman/Barack Obama mashup to post after "Dr. Malcolm Luther X, Jr.", but that's all I could find.
 
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