GiftsForgiven's Riptidian Synergy Cube

[GiftsForgiven]

Hi there! This is a cube that I've been working on for quite a while. It's currently in what I would consider a 'beta-state.' That is to say, I like the look of it, but am unsure about some specific card choices, power-band, and some of the synergy/philosophy behind it.

Cubetutor draft link: Here!

Why make this cube?

This cube arose from two needs. The first, a need for a cube that is more synergistic, and keeping with Riptidian theory. My other cube (link is in my tag) operates as a 'Legacy ++' cube, with powerful cards and a 'managed powermax' feel to it. It's a great cube, but because it's essentially a 'best of' cube, it lacks some of the benefits of applying Riptidian theory to one's cube.

The second need was for a cube that isn't so damned expensive! My 'current iteration' cube is about 85 percent foiled at this point, and It has reached the point where I would not feel comfortable taking it down to my LGS. This makes me sad, and I wanted to have a cube that, while not budget, is one that I don't have to stress over being out in the open.

The Archetypes:

I always try to cover most of the color pie with archetypes, but inevitably some get left out. Below are the intended archetypes for each color pairing.

• U/W: Control
• U/B: Artifacts/Control
• R/B: Sacrifice
• G/R: 'Big Gruul'
• G/W: None
• B/W: Tokens
• G/B: Self-mill, +1/+1 counters
• U/G: None (draw? Simic is hard...)
• U/R: Spells matter, Energy
• R/W: Vehicles, Metalcraft

As you can see, Selesnya kind of got left out in the cold. It's main things are +1/+1 counters and tokens, both of which are kind of... already taken. That was by design, but... still.

Doubling up:

I'm trying doubling up on certain cards for the first time in this cube! It annoys me a bit, but hey. We'll see how it goes! The cards I'm doubling up on are...

• Young Pyromancer
• Dynavolt Tower
• Gravecrawler

Thank you for reading! I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys could give, either regarding the power band, etc. (I think reanimator might be a bit anemic atm) You guys are the best guys I know when it comes to cubing, and are MUCH more well versed in Riptidian Theory than I. I'd love to be able to refine this cube a bit more, and have it be a fun, engaging format.

 

[Fulcrum]

I drafted this UW Artifact Deck

UW Artifacts from CubeTutor.com

I ended up going with a grindier version of this deck than I ha originally intended. I first picked Thopter Foundry hoping I would see Sword of the Meek, which I admittedly didn't check to see was in the cube. Luckily for me I fell into UW artifacts. Foundry seems like it pairs well with Thopter Spy Network and Trading Post to grind games out.

Here are some thoughts I had during the draft.

• I see Grillo talk a lot about not letting blue card draw be really strong in cubes that are on the lower power end of the spectrum and now I'm going to say it since it happened to me twice in this draft. The first time was when I saw Renegade Map. I snap picked it because it fits my theme and fixes my mana (which was pretty bad). As soon as I picked it, the page took like 1 second to go to the next pick and I saw Preordain out of the corner of my eye and I thought, "I should've taken that". I was going too fast and had I not I would've picked the Preordain 95% of the time I think. The second time was when I picked Glimmer of Genius. It's a neat card, I like playing it in standard, and it fits with the energy theme going on in this cube. The next pack had Dig Through Time and I immediately felt bad. I don't think I had a lot of ways to fuel the graveyard at that point but it still felt like Dig was a top 3 pick at the NBA Draft and Glimmer was a 40 year old dude playing pick up ball at the YMCA.
• This might be wrong but I was intimidated by Metalworker Colossus' Converted Mana Cost. At the time I was a much more aggressive deck but even with how the deck ended I think I would still be hesitant to play Metalworker. I would hate to have it in my opening hand.

If you're curious, here's the aggressive cards I picked that could slot into this deck. I ultimately didn't go down that path because I ended up not having enough creatures to do it I feel.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

I drafted this UW Artifact Deck



I ended up going with a grindier version of this deck than I ha originally intended. I first picked Thopter Foundry hoping I would see Sword of the Meek, which I admittedly didn't check to see was in the cube. Luckily for me I fell into UW artifacts. Foundry seems like it pairs well with Thopter Spy Network and Trading Post to grind games out.

Here are some thoughts I had during the draft.

• I see Grillo talk a lot about not letting blue card draw be really strong in cubes that are on the lower power end of the spectrum and now I'm going to say it since it happened to me twice in this draft. The first time was when I saw Renegade Map. I snap picked it because it fits my theme and fixes my mana (which was pretty bad). As soon as I picked it, the page took like 1 second to go to the next pick and I saw Preordain out of the corner of my eye and I thought, "I should've taken that". I was going too fast and had I not I would've picked the Preordain 95% of the time I think. The second time was when I picked Glimmer of Genius. It's a neat card, I like playing it in standard, and it fits with the energy theme going on in this cube. The next pack had Dig Through Time and I immediately felt bad. I don't think I had a lot of ways to fuel the graveyard at that point but it still felt like Dig was a top 3 pick at the NBA Draft and Glimmer was a 40 year old dude playing pick up ball at the YMCA.
• This might be wrong but I was intimidated by Metalworker Colossus' Converted Mana Cost. At the time I was a much more aggressive deck but even with how the deck ended I think I would still be hesitant to play Metalworker. I would hate to have it in my opening hand.

If you're curious, here's the aggressive cards I picked that could slot into this deck. I ultimately didn't go down that path because I ended up not having enough creatures to do it I feel.

Thank you so much for your feedback! I still can't believe that I posted this in the wrong forum... hopefully the Mods will be able to move it, or at least delete it so I can repost in the proper place >.>

First of, deck looks pretty sweet!

I can totally see the point with the really good cantrips (ponder/preordain/etc.) This is a problem I've been grappling with for a while, because the 'spells matter' theme kind of needs those kinds of spells in order to remain relevant. I threw some 'engine spells' (mystic speculation/flame jab) in the cube, but I'm going to try and more heavily explore some other avenues of making 'spells matter' function than just throwing in all the good 1cmc manipulation spells.

I may need to edge out cards like dig in the cube. I think Glimmer is a perfectly serviceable spell (scry 2 draw 2 at instant speed is the real deal) and I was hoping that Dig would fill kind of a 'big, bombastic blue spell' slot, but it may just be too strong.

Metalworker colossus is an interesting card. I think that it's probably not correct for the deck you are playing, and really abuses the fact that vehicles are only 'sometimes' creature spells. I've made note of your aversion to it however, and will keep an eye on it. If it gets too many notes like that, I'll have to search for another artifact payoff dude/reanimation target in it's slot.

 

[James Stevenson]

Shwoooop problem solved

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Shwoooop problem solved

You sir, are a saint.

 

[Fulcrum]

Thank you so much for your feedback! I still can't believe that I posted this in the wrong forum... hopefully the Mods will be able to move it, or at least delete it so I can repost in the proper place >.>

First of, deck looks pretty sweet!

I can totally see the point with the really good cantrips (ponder/preordain/etc.) This is a problem I've been grappling with for a while, because the 'spells matter' theme kind of needs those kinds of spells in order to remain relevant. I threw some 'engine spells' (mystic speculation/flame jab) in the cube, but I'm going to try and more heavily explore some other avenues of making 'spells matter' function than just throwing in all the good 1cmc manipulation spells.

I may need to edge out cards like dig in the cube. I think Glimmer is a perfectly serviceable spell (scry 2 draw 2 at instant speed is the real deal) and I was hoping that Dig would fill kind of a 'big, bombastic blue spell' slot, but it may just be too strong.

Metalworker colossus is an interesting card. I think that it's probably not correct for the deck you are playing, and really abuses the fact that vehicles are only 'sometimes' creature spells. I've made note of your aversion to it however, and will keep an eye on it. If it gets too many notes like that, I'll have to search for another artifact payoff dude/reanimation target in it's slot.

Looking a bit deeper into your list I feel like the trio of Thought Scour, Mental Note, and Careful Study might serve you well. They're cheap enough for them to work well with the spells matters archetype as well as being synergistic with other cards in the cube although you lose out on the top of library manipulation. They work well with the grave pulses in green as well as Flame Jab and Firebolt in red. Careful Study might also help with your concerns about Reanimator being Anemic. You could even double up on Careful Study since it's a pretty unique effect. These three spells aren't as powerful as Ponder and Preordain but they also aren't embarrassing to play. I feel your pain on this topic as I love my 1 CMC blue cantrips.

I really like Glimmer and I think it's at an appropriate power level. I think balancing the format so that you're excited to play Glimmer is a good place to be.

I was thinking about the Colossus a little bit and it's not as bad as it seems once you get a chance to think about. (Bad meaning the 10 CMC is scary). In my deck for example, Blade Splicer into Sram's Expertise into Master of Etherium lets it come down on Turn 5. There's a bunch of artifacts that make it a reasonable 6-7 drop so it's probably pretty good if you can overcome the sticker shock.

 

[shamizy]

Drafted a handful of different lists to get a feel for the environment:

Grixis Artifact Control from CubeTutor.com

RW Aggro from CubeTutor.com

UW Control from CubeTutor.com

BG Midrange from CubeTutor.com

Of these lists, I think the Grixis Artifacts and BG Midrange are a good representation of what you're hoping for within those archetypes. UW Control's issue for me during draft was a lack of roleplayers to really fill it out. I forced it after picking Gideon Jura (a card you should probably keep an eye on) and seeing a Tamiyo later and it sort of worked out with finishers, but it looks like the decks gameplan would just be to grind through slowly until it can chain walkers and finish up with a Linvala or Whale. I would like to see more counterspells (I think 5 legitimate counters is a bit too low at 405+) and interaction available with cards like Oblivion Ring or Banishing Light as catch-alls.

RW Vehicles feels a little loose as a theme with only the Vehicles and some Pilots in red that I saw in my drafts. I saw some traditional red aggro creatures and that sort of threw me off on what to expect for the rest of the draft. There weren't enough aggressive early drops to make a typical R/x Aggro deck come together. If you want to keep Vehicles as a theme at this power level (completely doable), I think you need more of a density of effects to make it stand out. Unless I see Vehicle, Pilot, Vehicle in subsequent packs it's a little hard to pick out. I think you could actually transition it from just being vehicles to a Dwarf/Fabricate subtheme as well. Some possible additions to flesh RW out:



One thing that I'd also look at is the number of 1/3 and 0/4 bodies that get in the way of aggressive decks. During draft, I just saw a ton of bodies that I could stick on the ground and just clog the board with if I faced a deck of small aggressive creatures. You may want more ways to push through damage with pseudo evasion and a few swaps here at here. Like Hellrider for instance becomes insane in any go-wide strategy with a ton of damage out of nowhere and a better option maybe Hero of Oxid Ridge to get around tokens + UW walls. You might want to make room for something like a War-Name Aspirant instead of a card like Lightning Mauler.

There are a handful of cards that I ended up picking when drafting certain archetypes due to needing filler, but I wasn't really all that enthused by them or their inclusions. Like Aether Theorist for instance. I understand that it's there for energy + control support, but it just feels like there are better options to slide in there when you already have a way better inclusion in Shielded Aether Thief.

On first glance when looking over your list, the handful of cards that I'd look into alternative options for (most based on a power level, some because I think you could find better/more interesting options) would be:


Some suggestions (mostly pushing more KLD themes I guess):

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I like what you are doing, but here I am going to wade on in with another stream of conscious criticism piece, get ready for the ramblings!

There is generally some significant issues with power variance, which makes sense since you are coming from your normal high powered world. I suggest checking out this channel fireball article, which kind of sums up what a "synergy" format should be about: decks not cards.

P1p1/p2p1/p3p1 its fine for them to power/max the pick (but power disparities should be rather narrow), but after that we want more nuts-and-bolts picks, with them picking cards that seem to open up the most possibilities. Not "whats the best shell for these ridiculous cards" but more "whats the sweetest interactions I can make with these reasonable cards."

A good indication that we are on the right track, is when we can actually talk about decks rather than just cards. The more your format can be the archetype spotlight, rather than the single card spotlight, the better.

Seeing that my full time job on riptide lab is to write reams upon reams of posts about how to build simic, and had just engaged in an exchange with Chris about building simic and G/W, I began frothing from the mouth and collapsed in a catatonic state when I saw that you had no idea what simic identity was or could be (just kidding having some fun). Where is your bident of thassa argh! Simic is a shallow but fun guild, the blue portion of it is flyers, draw and disruption, the green portion of it is trample, disruption, and pump. Its the ophidian deck, theros block mono-u aggro split into two colors with green muscle. Thats the core of any simic list. At your power level, you have some exciting and fun options




Since you are running energy and counters (skyship plunderer) thats a natural sub-theme for these decks, that can be tied together with empyreal voyager, which is both a bigger evasive body, a nuts-and-bolts synergy piece, is begging to be buffed, and fuels whatever green or blue energy sinks you provide.

This is my disappointing UG deck

U/G from CubeTutor.com

Again, we have the issue of the blue smoothing and draw being magnitudes better than other options. This creates a long term structural problem, because it basically negates a number of non-blue midrangy combinations (B/W, G/W, R/G). The blue draw is so much more powerful, that the "correct" drafting approach becomes just finding the best shell for it: what deck "wears" dig through time, or ponder, the best. The cheap cantrips like ponder and preordain are, in particular, a beating, because any blue midrange deck is pretty much automatically better than its non-blue equivalents, due to the giant advantage those cards provide in a top-deck war.

There are a lot of blue ground creatures in the list, which is part of the problem. I can't really do anything with man-o'-wars unless I have a moldervine cloak or boar umbra or something to grow them. There is also a lot of really bad green "combo removal" which doesn't help the situation. The removal in general seems heavily conditioned, which--in conjunction with planeswalkers--I'm guessing is going to result in proactive lists and board clogging--kind of battlecruiser magic with a limited selection of battlecruisers to break board stalls. With the answers being so limited, I wouldn't be excited about playing control.

Anyways, here is an example of a highly synergistic (and higher power) UG list from the min/max:

U/G from CubeTutor.com

Shrine of loyal legions, precursor golem, mindstone and bident all work synergisticly with whirler rogue. Golem, saproling burst, and shrine power the ophidian draw engine (bident + edric). Whirler rogue, guardian, precursor, shrine all provide a variety of ways to sneak in a big buffed hit from wolfir, vines, defense, or become immense, and you have cheap reactive plays to disrupt and protect your big damage plays via counterspell, vines, and defense. The only way this could have become more synergistic would have been if it had been smart enough to grab chord of calling rather than harmonize, because I could than chain witness-chord to create a shrine, golem, whirler rougue, saproling burst powered tool box.

Since you already went tokens for B/W, it makes sense to run bident as part of your UG support. UW and UG are both conceptually similar, because UW will pouch B/W's token makers (which B/W needs since the combination is also very shallow) and both UG and UW are now in the market of leveraging broad horizontal board states (UG inevitably ends up with mana dorks most of the time), backed up by counters.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

I like what you are doing, but here I am going to wade on in with another stream of conscious criticism piece, get ready for the ramblings!

Man, there's a lot to unpack here. It seems I hit a nerve (jk)

I'm going to break down a few points that I'd like to respond to- not because I don't think it's all worth responding to (it is), but I don't write streams of consciousness very well. Well, that or my streams of consciousness tend not to be particularly deep or insightful.

On Cantrips:

This is a major issue that I've been battling for a while with this cube. One mana cantrips are good. Great, even; to the point of pushing alternative strategies out for the color that they exist in. The thing is, though... how else would a U/R spells matter deck be able to function? It requires cheap spells to fuel it's engine, and there aren't all that many good cheap spells out there that aren't cantrips. Removal at 1cmc tends to be either superbly efficient (vapor snag) or anemic (gigadrowse). There are only a few true engine cards worth running (mystic speculation), and at a certain point... what else is there? (there was a joke on here awhile back about making a custom card that is just "U: do nothing." I'm kind of feeling the pain now.)

Okay, well maybe we can bump the CMC up of the cantrips, right? Instead of ponder, have impulse. Instead of preordain; telling time. But can a U/R spells deck keep up with an even moderately-strong creature deck playing on curve when it has such a tempo loss attached? Cards like baral, chief of compliance help a lot when you have a lot of 2cmc filtering, but then you have this weird situation where the deck becomes obscene with the cost reduction in play, and anemic without it. I'm not a fan of feast/famine archetypes at the best of times, so that's a bit awkward.

I'm frankly not sure what the solution to this issue is. Is it just to run the 'untap lands' effects from Urza's Saga? (snap, etc.) If you have any insight on how to cut these defining cantrips from the cube without negatively impacting the U/R spells and U/W prowess themes, I would love to hear it.

On Simic as a color:

Part of the issue I've been having with Simic is that I designed this cube to specifically lack any 1cmc 'mana dorks.' Because of this, Simic's usual plan of getting a tempo advantage doesn't really work, as it's hard for them to get ahead when they can't abuse their mana advantage to cast multiple spells in one turn (or even better, cast a spell with counter/protection backup!). This makes it difficult to create a traditional tempo deck, as they are essentially playing on a level playing field.

I decided not to have T1 mana dorks as an attempt to create a cube with a more deliberate power curve, but this does rob the traditional U/G deck of it's primary advantage. One thing I will agree on however is a noticeable lack of blue fliers to give a possible U/G deck it's edge. Without fliers, it just becomes 'worse Gruul,' and... that's certainly not ideal. That is something that I will attempt to fix, soon.

On Energy:

Wow, where to begin. I really like energy. I like the management metagame that it introduces, and overall I am greatly enjoying the fact that Wotc has managed to make most of the energy-reliant cards non-parasitic (for the most part.)

However, I'm uncomfortable with spreading it into green. Energy is currently a U/R only deck, and I just have this worry that if I spread it into green, it'll just sort of take the cube over. It's super awkward to have an energy producing card (attune with the aether) in a deck with no outlet for it, and the idea of spreading it into green makes me uncomfortable- perhaps because it feels like I'm taking away from what makes U/R unique. Maybe I'm just wrong- I do really like a lot of the green energy cards...

On efficient removal:

As you clearly noticed, the removal in the cube is deliberately throttled. I'm coming from a cube that's as powerful as it gets, and I'm searching for something a little different in the creation of this format; toying around with conditional removal and the like. I'd like this to be a format where a player can feel properly rewarded for playing a large creature. A format where a player doesn't feel bad that their big creature just got instantly nuked by a 1cmc removal spell... oh....


...oh my god.

I'm turning into the New World Order design team...

Quickly, run before it spreads!

SAAAVE YOURSEEEEEEEEELVES

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Wall of text!

That was an incredibly insightful assessment, thank you! I think you're quite correct about a lot of individual card choices. I will be making adjustments based on a few of your suggestions.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Simic should be fine without mana dorks: even with them present in a cube, you have to assume that they won't get them every draft, or game, or that they won't get t1 killed. Flyers/tramplers with disruption is a perfectly valid strategy. Typically its nice to give them a few "hard" targets to buff up: stuff like bristling hydra. You'll need to move energy into at least a third color, unless you are interested in encouraging on-rails drafting.

You don't actually need UR to be small prowess triggers--especially with an artifact sub theme. However if you want more reasonable TOL smoothing (keeping things NWO), I would look at first:



The issue with the removal, is that much of your removal is sparser and more heavily conditioned than the penny cube removal, but you have more serious creature threats and walkers. Its difficult to see how an actual reactive strategy can exist when the reactive pieces are so much worse than the proactive pieces. The format is framed in a way thats anti-control, but we're anticipating UW as a control pair, with the best removal being in red and black. And that story is kind of carried out in fulcrum's deck, which is basically no removal with bad pressure.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Alright, I've made a BUNCH of changes based on feedback.

White:
I increased the efficiency of white removal by a fair bit. I'm still going to try to get away with not just dropping every 1cmc exile effect, but the removal suite should be a fair bit more efficient. Prior to this, I added a few more dwarves to suit red/white's theme.

Out:


In:




Blue:

I tweaked the creature base to include more evasive, resilient threats; lowered the power of the cantrip suite and at the same time upped the interaction side of things.

Out:




In:




Black:
I'm actually kinda digging black right now. No changes... for now.

Red:
Pushed the one-drop slot a little more, added a piece of artifact hate and altered a few things to fit more in line with the archetypes I'm going for.

Green:

We now have energy in green, yay! Also gave green a bit more punch, so to speak.

Out:



In:


Colorless:

Not too many changes here. Decided to try for a bit more power on the vehicles front, and added the ol' looter scooter. Also addedinspiring statuary. Could be a bust, but who knows? The draft does have some great mana sinks (villainous wealth, devil's play, etc.). It may just inspire someone to draft something huge!

Multicolored:

Based on Shamziy and Fulcrum's feedback, I added Depala, pilot exemplar and Brago, King eternalto their respective color pairs to greater emphasize what those colors do.

Where are we at now?

Well, I just realized that large portions of my cube now look like Onder's Crumble Pie... I'm not sure how to feel about that, but take it as you will.

I'd love to find a replacement for Serendib Efreet in this list that isn't vendilion clique. Haven't found any reasonable adds tho.

Still not quite sure how to handle Selesnya. Probably will just keep it with a couple of undercosted beaters and call it a day.

 

[Fulcrum]

I'd love to find a replacement for Serendib Efreet in this list that isn't vendilion clique. Haven't found any reasonable adds tho.

Still not quite sure how to handle Selesnya. Probably will just keep it with a couple of undercosted beaters and call it a day.

What don't you like about Serendib Efreet? What are you looking for in a replacement? Do you want to stay at 3CMC?

 

[GiftsForgiven]

What don't you like about Serendib Efreet? What are you looking for in a replacement? Do you want to stay at 3CMC?

I'm just getting the feeling that it's kinda boring... but maybe just a fat p/t ration on an evasive beater is just what decks like simic need...

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Update: The cube is officially in a place where I am comfortable purchasing it in order to further refine it (it helps that it's a budget cube, for the most part!) The drafts seem fairly intuitive to me, and the archetypes are mostly well-defined. I'm still a little leery of reanimator as a deck as I think it's a little anemic, but it'll stay for now.

Here are some sample decklists!

Rakdos Sacrifice from CubeTutor.com

B/G +1/+1 Aggro from CubeTutor.com

U/R Spells Matter/Artifact Reanimator from CubeTutor.com

W/B Tokens/Humans from CubeTutor.com

I will be travelling to New York in two weeks; hopefully the cube will be ready by then so I can cube with my mates, and get some real testing in! A small note: I'm not sold on the current land base. I think for formal testing, I'm going to go with Scryland -> Tapland -> Checkland as the three cycles.

 

[Dom Harvey]

Are you going to GP NJ?

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Are you going to GP NJ?

I'd love to, but no :c

I'm just going to visit some friends and take care of a few university things. I should be present at the triple GP weekend in Las Vegas this summer though!

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Personal notes:

• Falkenrath Noble a possible good pick for B/R Sacrifice theme?
• Attrition Possibly too strong (especially with Liliana, the last hope in the draft. May need to cut Lili for Lili OTV, or a different option. There are quite a few X/1s in the draft...
• Feldon of the Third Path seems like a shoo-in, now that I think about it. May need to test this, but what to cut...
• Chimeric Mass does not help Metalwork Colossus. May want to consider Rusted Relic in it's place. Is Rusted Relic too weak? Maybe. Maybe Precursor Golem? That card is so strong though...
• Vehicles might need a bit more punch. Maybe Peacewalker Colossus? It's not great in draft, but it's aggressively costed and pushes the archetype...
• Subtle Strike might just be too bad to have a slot, even though it's a cute synergy.
• There are currently 5 reanimation cards in the cube (including whip of erebos). May want to make room for a sixth...
• Kruin striker feels a bit anemic. What to replace it with? Keldon marauders, maybe?

Edit: Replaced Quicksmith Rebel with Feldon of the Third Path, swapped Chimeric Mass for Rusted Relic.
Now looking at Docent of Perfection. Something... annoys me about that card. Considering soulblade djinn. Note the prowess-like 'noncreature' clause. Works with vehicles/artifacts as well as instants/sorceries. May be better in this format than I give it credit for. Maybe worth testing? Alternatives are the ever-vanilla prognostic sphinx...

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Minor Pre-New York Patch notes:

Out:




In:



Quick run-down:

After taking a look at the list, I felt that I didn't need 2 two-mana black-creature draw engines. I'm keeping Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, and replacing Confidant with Skirsdag High Priest, in order to help better cement a sacrifice theme in black.

Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker was kind of a placeholder card. I like what Chandra, Flamecaller does for this draft as her tokens are strong enough to crew every vehicle in the set, and she also gives fodder for the R/B sacrifice theme. She's a strong planeswalker, but appropriately costed. I like her a lot.

Feldon of the Third Path was a card that should have been in this cube as soon as I wanted to leech artifacts into Red. I took out Quicksmith Rebel for him. Rebel is a neat card, but they both play into the artifact theme, and I think Feldon has a lot more opportunity for interesting builds.

Lightning Runner is a card that I'm trying in an effort to see if I can't get a good strong payoff card for Energy in red. (currently, there are only 3 red energy cards w/o it, and they aren't really payoffs.) I cut the second young pyromancer for it- if this doesn't work out, Siege-gang commander is a strong contender for the slot, or perhaps freejam regent. I might also just put the second peezy back in, or switch things up but still support the archetype with thermo-alchemist. We'll see!

Another note: Looked into 'Inspired' as a cool interaction with vehicles. All the good ones are black, though, and those are off-color for the archetype.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Open question: Is Dack Fayden too strong for my cube? I feel like Saheeli Rai is a bit anemic for what I'm trying to do, but there are just so many things for Dack to steal here. Nothing immediately game-ending, like a blightsteel colossus, but his steal ability will likely be active against 70 percent of the decks in this cube, just because of the artifact supertype prevalence.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

There is a pretty wide power band already with cards like lyzoda, the blood witch, silvos rogue elemental, mulch, and tooth collector living alongside falkenrath aristocrat, righteous confluence, whip of erebos, and chandra, flamecaller.

I would say just go for it and see how it plays. Figuring that kind of stuff out is a big part of this testing process.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

There is a pretty wide power band already with cards like lyzoda, the blood witch, silvos rogue elemental, mulch, and tooth collector living alongside falkenrath aristocrat, righteous confluence, whip of erebos, and chandra, flamecaller.

I would say just go for it and see how it plays. Figuring that kind of stuff out is a big part of this testing process.

I don't mind a generally wide power band in general, but I'd like to ideally like to keep the super draft-warping cards out. Well. In this cube, at least.

I wish Lyzolda's ability cost less, or that she had a better P/T Ratio. She's a bit bleh, but I really need something to cement the R/B sacrifice theme. Maybe Tymaret would be better? Or something not quite so on-the-nose?

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Yeah, thats what confuses me about the format: I don't see how its synergistic at all.

 

[Chriskool]

A small note: I'm not sold on the current land base. I think for formal testing, I'm going to go with Scryland -> Tapland -> Checkland as the three cycles.

Let's talk about nonbasic lands, one drops, low CMC multicolored cards and archetypes. (And note that my "cube" building has my mind tooled to work with much different goals, so I may be horridly off in my comments... ).

One drops in Riptide cubes seem to fall into a few buckets:

• The mono-red one drop
• The super Savannah Lion one drop (nonred)
• The Llanowar Elf one drop
• The removal one drop (nonburn)
• The card selection one drop

Then, low CMC multicolor cards normally fit into:

• Aggressive creature
• Removal Spell

My cubing observations have seen great aggressive decks assembling either all one-drop red spells OR many of the aggressive cards across 3-4 colors. Drafting lends itself to prioritize removal / mana (and cards with unique abilities, like Sulfuric Vortex) over the one-drop "super Savannah Lion" creatures and aggressive 2-3 drop multicolor creatures, as the removal and mana are where the aggressive decks really compete within the same desired card pool as control/midrange/combo decks. Or more succinctly put: nonred, aggro creatures should table in most draft pods.

Maybe you could expect 2-3 aggro decks in a cube that has a sizable allotment of low CMC mono-red, multicolor and super Savannah Lion creatures. These decks are looking to glean advantage from leveraging a quick clock with some disruption (probably LD, removal and/or hatebear effects) with burn/haste plus an alpha strike on the final turn. To assemble the quick clock, they are looking for nearly 100% mana utilization on turns 1-3 (and I do not mean utilization from the lands coming into play tapped).

I assume the proposed land base of Scry / Tap / Check will slow down a large enough portion of aggro strategies that only the best/luckiest players will do well in this environment due to inefficient mana usage. Even with fetches, shocks, duals and 5-color lands, assembling a Naya deck, for example, with mana that can support a white, red and green one-drop creature is dubious.

But the above is all in a vacuum and without full context of your cube's card pool. For the most part, I don't see "super Savannah Lions" running amok in this list; I think that will help focus the aggressive decks. But I do see a some aggressively postured cards that strike me as out of place given synergies or color alignment. Black and white seem to be the best-suited aggro one drops, so I'd trim them in other colors. These all seem questionable in aggro decks (especially with a slow mana and assuming aggro one drops should be based in one or two colors):

• Experiment One - don't see this pairing well with black decks or white aggro decks, as it would regulate red to the third color; would keep still since black-green has 1/1 counter synergy
• Greenbelt Rampager - midrange card; would keep still
• Kessig Prowler - don't see this pairing well with black decks or white aggro decks, as it would regulate red to the third color
• Servant of the Scale - effect seems marginal
• Inventor's Apprentice - have to work too hard for body outclassed on turn 3.
• Monastery Swiftspear - have to work too hard for body probably outclassed on turn 3.
• Zurgo Bellstriker - bad Isamaru if red deck wins is lower powered
• Viscera Seer - As a 1/1, loses a lot of value in noncombo deck; would want more Threaten effects or a larger payoff for miscellaneous black creatures/sacrifices
• Doomed Traveler - seems like an anti-aggro card
• Thraben Inspector - seems like an anti-aggro card; would keep still
• Voltaic Brawler - I don't see a deck that could cast this on turn two being aggro-focused and successful

I'd probably aim for a black-red or white-red (both decks looking to the nonred color for the foundation of creature base) as the locations of most aggressive decks, as both decks seem to be able to transition into the midgame. To ensure red removal is not just being splashed in midrange/control decks, I'd switch both fireballs to 2-3cmc burn (but maybe one becoming Frenzied Fugue). Sarkhan the Mad may make a good red-black aggro walker (as top-end).

Additionally, it maybe be worth looking into pain lands instead of check lands so that they favor aggressive strategies (and City of Brass/Mana Confluence over Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds). Bouncelands and scry lands already favor slower decks. Lastly, the black-red and red-white creature lands may also be worth looking into over bounce lands as well as over changing Vault of the Archangel (which is a midrange value machine that slaughters aggro) to Slayers' Stronghold.

Uff, normal cubes playing out in draft and games are so hard to visualize!

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Yeah, thats what confuses me about the format: I don't see how its synergistic at all.

Well, I kind of view synergy on a gradient. I tend to dislike 'full synergy' cubes, for various reasons. I prefer cubes with a healthy amount of synergy, with some goodstuff woven in (i.e, sylvan advocate for example). I think you can have synergy and goodstuff in the same cube, so long as the goodstuff is in the minority and carefully managed. That's part of what the testing is for.

You also have to understand that I'm coming from the usual MTGO Legacy/Vintage cube. This is quite synergistic by comparison.