Chris Taylor
Contributor
Looking for an excuse is an excuse
Diakonov's Cube (450)
- Thread starter Diakonov
- Start date
Looking for an excuse is an excuse
Almost exactly a year since I last updated.
After Onderzeeboot launched the discussion about rearranging the color pie, I decided to look at my cube under that lens to see if any patterns emerged. I discovered that the 5 biggest shard/wedge themes I've been working on, purely by coincidence, formed the following color pie:
Jeskai - Spells
Grixis - Artifacts
Sultai - Graveyard
Abzan - Enchantments
Naya - Pump Aggro
From here, I decided to see how I should break down my guilds. I figured that any overlapping guilds will be somewhat preoccupied with supporting two of the shard themes, so the non-overlapping guilds had some room for 2-color themes.
Overlapping:
Izzet - Spells, Artifacts
Dimir - Artifacts, Graveyard
Golgari - Graveyard, Enchantments
Selesnya - Enchantments, Pump Aggro
Boros - Pump Aggro, Spells
Non-overlapping:
Azorius - Spells, UW Control
Rakdos - Artifacts, Sacrifice Synergy
Simic - Graveyard, Tempo
Orzhov - Enchantments, Tokens
Gruul - Pump Aggro, Hasty Fatties
I'm going to keep a portion of random cards in (and mini-themes like blink) to let people be purely creative and to retain an organic feeling, but I plan to adhere to the above as much as possible as I make changes in the future.
Another quirk: I like having mono-black as a theme, which would theoretically throw things out of balance. Since the Sultai Graveyard theme is centered around black, that's the theme is potentially most affected. One solution is to spend more of my blue, green, and blue-green slots on the Sultai Graveyard theme than the Simic Tempo theme. This works perfectly in my eyes, since the Simic Tempo theme was the most precarious guild theme anyway (I still want it to exist, but only if the cards come together just right).
Prior to considering the color pie, I was bent on somehow incorporating Madness in a non-poisonous way. There are some great madness cards in red, but it's tough to come by worthwhile enablers (cheaply and consistently), and white...just sucks at madness. I've also been looking for ways to expand the Sultai Graveyard theme, so I'm hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
Sultai Graveyard Theme
Efficient, Consistent Self-Discard + Madness + Self-Mill + Recursion + Reanimation + Delve + Flashback
Here's a jumping-off point for what I've been considering (some of which is already in my cube).
I'd love to hear people's thoughts.
After Onderzeeboot launched the discussion about rearranging the color pie, I decided to look at my cube under that lens to see if any patterns emerged. I discovered that the 5 biggest shard/wedge themes I've been working on, purely by coincidence, formed the following color pie:
Jeskai - Spells Grixis - Artifacts Sultai - Graveyard Abzan - Enchantments Naya - Pump AggroFrom here, I decided to see how I should break down my guilds. I figured that any overlapping guilds will be somewhat preoccupied with supporting two of the shard themes, so the non-overlapping guilds had some room for 2-color themes.
Overlapping:
Izzet - Spells, Artifacts Dimir - Artifacts, Graveyard Golgari - Graveyard, Enchantments Selesnya - Enchantments, Pump Aggro Boros - Pump Aggro, SpellsNon-overlapping:
Azorius - Spells, UW Control Rakdos - Artifacts, Sacrifice Synergy Simic - Graveyard, Tempo Orzhov - Enchantments, Tokens Gruul - Pump Aggro, Hasty FattiesI'm going to keep a portion of random cards in (and mini-themes like blink) to let people be purely creative and to retain an organic feeling, but I plan to adhere to the above as much as possible as I make changes in the future.
Another quirk: I like having mono-black as a theme, which would theoretically throw things out of balance. Since the Sultai Graveyard theme is centered around black, that's the theme is potentially most affected. One solution is to spend more of my blue, green, and blue-green slots on the Sultai Graveyard theme than the Simic Tempo theme. This works perfectly in my eyes, since the Simic Tempo theme was the most precarious guild theme anyway (I still want it to exist, but only if the cards come together just right).
Prior to considering the color pie, I was bent on somehow incorporating Madness in a non-poisonous way. There are some great madness cards in red, but it's tough to come by worthwhile enablers (cheaply and consistently), and white...just sucks at madness. I've also been looking for ways to expand the Sultai Graveyard theme, so I'm hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
Sultai Graveyard Theme
Efficient, Consistent Self-Discard + Madness + Self-Mill + Recursion + Reanimation + Delve + Flashback
Here's a jumping-off point for what I've been considering (some of which is already in my cube).
I'd love to hear people's thoughts.
Was the treefolk harbinger squad decent? I saw it in your earlier posts but can't seem to find why it was cut.
I did like that one, actually, and I might bring it back. I can't remember the exact reason I cut it, but I think I was in a mode of trying to reset symmetry in my gold section.