Hmm.. I am very tempted by some Ninjas, but these have the same anti-synergy with Morbid that Bloodthirst did. Maybe we turn it into a color-identity thing? Jund Morbid, Blue(ish) Ninjas?
Eldrazi Domain Cube
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
Perhaps this would work better as a Planeswalker in a spawn-token filled environment?
Regarding the Ninjas, one of the biproducts of Jund being so ramp heavy in Rise of Eldrazi is that Blue and White had to pick up some of the slack as the attackers (the Blue-White leveller deck). Similarly, we'll need to give blue a slightly more aggressive slant here. I am thinking of using the Ninjas, as well as some Detain / Unblockable / Curiosity effects to give these decks a way of pushing through damage (along with the usual suite of fliers). I particularly like Mistblade Shinobi here, with the presence of so many tokens.
Maybe even a couple black Ninjas could work here too. I think different blocking dynamics can work so long as they are not too overlapped on the color pie.
I like the Overgrown Battlement ramp plan. Do we have other useful walls that could play an interesting role?
Gatewarden gives us triple duty: multicolor, proliferates, Defender.
Structure is starting to come together...
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
Don't forget vine trellis!
People always forget vine trellis.
People always forget vine trellis.
I think in order to allow for some mild synergies in drafting I'll go with 2 Overgrown Battlement instead of Overgrown + Vine Trellis.
I am approaching the initial 360 card rough rough draft.
The basic card outline is:
Monocolor - 230 cards
Multicolor - 65 cards (many hybrid)
Fixing - 45 cards (Two Fetch, ABU, Shocklands, 5 5-color lands)
Colorless - 20
Currently working on a weird aggro-proliferate package. Not sure if it'll work yet. Things are color coded in the file now. Anything that wants to be proliferated is blue (I probably missed many cards here). Anything that wants to be populated is green. Batallions are red, evokes are grey.
The layering is slowly getting there, but it's still super loose. The gold cards that have been chosen are fairly haphazard at the moment. With this kind of design I think there's only so much time that's useful to spend on it before actually playtesting. Some of these ideas might fall apart entirely.
The 5 or greater thing is basically dropped. There are sadly no cards that really make it worthwhile. Thanks Wizards!
Biggest holes are the white and black monocolor sections.
Color pairs that currently feel least connected:
Orzhov
Dimir
The basic card outline is:
Monocolor - 230 cards
Multicolor - 65 cards (many hybrid)
Fixing - 45 cards (Two Fetch, ABU, Shocklands, 5 5-color lands)
Colorless - 20
Currently working on a weird aggro-proliferate package. Not sure if it'll work yet. Things are color coded in the file now. Anything that wants to be proliferated is blue (I probably missed many cards here). Anything that wants to be populated is green. Batallions are red, evokes are grey.
The layering is slowly getting there, but it's still super loose. The gold cards that have been chosen are fairly haphazard at the moment. With this kind of design I think there's only so much time that's useful to spend on it before actually playtesting. Some of these ideas might fall apart entirely.
The 5 or greater thing is basically dropped. There are sadly no cards that really make it worthwhile. Thanks Wizards!
Biggest holes are the white and black monocolor sections.
Color pairs that currently feel least connected:
Orzhov
Dimir
Cost matters as an interesting effect in an Eldrazi cube? Duskmantle may be a little OP in this setting.
Ludicrous ways to create lots of mana?
Ways to flip the bird to Eldrazi tokens.
Things to populate (just kidding, legendary token).
Ways to spend lots of mana.
For the utility land stack:
The other theme I was looking at is our favorite five-color tribe, Elementals. Obviously we have Evoke and its really nice interplay with Morbid.
I wonder if we can't support some sort of Elemental control deck. Unfortunately there don't seem to be many cards that care about elementals, but it's super possible I've missed some.
Primal Beyond would be for the utility stack, not the main cube. Bladewhirl is probably not where we want to be. However there are a ton of just random elementals that can fill various slots in the design file. This would be another one of those anchor things. Usually you take the elementals for their inherent value, but sometimes you can jam a deck full of them. Smokebraider doesn't feel like the worst as a 1 or 2 of if that's a pushed archetype.
The other theme I was looking at is our favorite five-color tribe, Elementals. Obviously we have Evoke and its really nice interplay with Morbid.
I wonder if we can't support some sort of Elemental control deck. Unfortunately there don't seem to be many cards that care about elementals, but it's super possible I've missed some.
Primal Beyond would be for the utility stack, not the main cube. Bladewhirl is probably not where we want to be. However there are a ton of just random elementals that can fill various slots in the design file. This would be another one of those anchor things. Usually you take the elementals for their inherent value, but sometimes you can jam a deck full of them. Smokebraider doesn't feel like the worst as a 1 or 2 of if that's a pushed archetype.
would 'lark be too much or not ?
It's in the file, I forgot to post it to the thread.
seems i forgot to check the file then.
I'm already looking forward to "the 'larking of the 'drifters".
As far as the aggro decks go, I'm not sure if battalion is the best mechanic for W/R, as it's hard to set up and fairly easy to disrupt, and usually for small, marginal gains. But maybe some more support, in the form of more tokens, would help push it along and make it more viable.
For blue aggro, I really like the idea of ninjas. Detain could be the thing that nudges people toward W/U aggro, and along with that, the "tap a guy, it doesn't untap" set of creatures could bolster the tempo decks.
For blue aggro, I really like the idea of ninjas. Detain could be the thing that nudges people toward W/U aggro, and along with that, the "tap a guy, it doesn't untap" set of creatures could bolster the tempo decks.
The nice thing about the set of Batallion cards is that since the benefits are marginal, the cards tend to be pretty playable on their own. Legion Loyalist, Firemane Avenger and Daring Skyjek aren't too far off of playable without a batallion clause. I like the token ideas (a little bit), but am also wary of creating to much board clog. We'll see though.
I really like the Hookmaster and Dungeon Geists suggestions. I still have no idea how powerful to make any given strategy as it's pretty much impossible to evaluate without hands-on testing. I suspect my current file has some pretty spectacular flaws in it. I'm approaching the card acquisition phase.
I really like the Hookmaster and Dungeon Geists suggestions. I still have no idea how powerful to make any given strategy as it's pretty much impossible to evaluate without hands-on testing. I suspect my current file has some pretty spectacular flaws in it. I'm approaching the card acquisition phase.
The Land-destruction might be too much, and the kor might be too weak, but i thought i should throw em out here for you to see.
It's certainly worth testing. In any case I appreciate any and all suggestions. Once we start playtesting, the power level of different archetypes will need to be adjusted up and down, and suggestions like these are great for when I need to go back to the drawing board.
All I can say to these two cards is that I'm sorry it took so long.
Well, what I'm currently looking for are the cards that fit the themes pushed in the cube best. There are a ton of high-power cards not on the list, so that the pushed themes actually have room to shine. Regarding Fires, we're going to have lots of pesky little Eldrazi Spawn Tokens running around, and Fires can be a legitimate kill spell. I think it'll be a great limited card, and will probably fuel some hasty Primeval Titans.
The more objectively powerful cards may get slotted in eventually.
The more objectively powerful cards may get slotted in eventually.
Alright, I now have the first rough draft. 360 cards. It is undoubtedly very terrible, but if anybody cares to take a look and tell me specifically in what ways they think it's terrible, I would be most appreciative.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkmGq9EqXDoidDFneWw2MEVRRFd2RVl4T3RRYkU2S0E#gid=3
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkmGq9EqXDoidDFneWw2MEVRRFd2RVl4T3RRYkU2S0E#gid=3
If anybody wants to test draft it, I put the list on TappedOut:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-cube-drafts/future-cube/
http://tappedout.net/mtg-cube-drafts/future-cube/
Did a quick draft with it. Needed to make two more cuts for a Simic rampy deck. No Primeval Titans. 
I've had this itching feeling lately that maybe the set shouldn't have a "flat" structure, in the sense that maybe not all color pairings should be equally represented in my multicolor section. Some of the cards feel super important to the design, and some feel like they're just taking up space.
Intersection between fetchlands, aggro, proliferate and populate.
Additional appropriate PWs.
Proliferate aggro targets:
More exciting than Slagstorm:
Intersection of populate and control:
is there no rampaging baloth's in your list ? it seems like a perfect fit.
Primeval Titan is more important to the design. Fits well, but other cards fit better.