Lower power Riptide cube

[Nanonox]

Simic removal

In an effort to give Blue and Green more tools with which to be interactive, I decided to up the amount of removal spells in those colors. The options are somewhat limited, but I am reasonably happy with most of these

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Still keeping a bit of draw smoothing with Bushwhack, but also getting that fight. At a single mana, it's tough to complain even though the blowout potential is there at sorcery speed.

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My counters deck don't really intersect with the GY much, even though Restoration is still reasonable there. I think it's a good spot to fit in another fight spell, while keeping Proliferate.

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Here we keep an option of pushing damage through with the Talent's second level. We also get a bounceable fight spell which is exciting. Audacity replaced Rancor which I found too powerful.



Don't have a cut for this one yet, but later if you really need a removal spell, you can make even a puny token formidable. This one could also be Inscription of Abundance which also has late game relevance, but is an instant which is huge. Maybe I should just jam both?



No clean cuts here either, but I feel like I need these. Psy Blast is a classic and goes face which can be a win condition in the right deck with the right recursion.
Downpour is experimental, but should work. Base rate is a little overpriced compared to other enchantments in Blue, but Flash and Storm are big. Imagine casting Snap and then Downpour, neutralizing(ish) 3 creatures.

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Changelings



I have a bunch of cards that care about creature types. They are one of with no other support (except the Golem theme). I have a couple others that I like



This has me thinking about Changelings as a secret archetype. With a few Shapeshifters, you can greatly enhance the above cards and maybe even (the dream) get multiple kindred payoffs in the same deck.



This could be a Black archetype since it's the color with "best" Changelings and most kindred payoffs. The Changelings would then increase the Golem density. For those reasons, maybe a simple Automaton, Mascot and Harvester curve of 1, 2, 3 is good enough.

If I go down this route, what other cool one of creature type matters cards would you include?

 

[LadyMapi]

?

 

[Nanonox]

Yes! Skeletons matters!

I actually had this in an earlier version with more enchantment support. However, looking at it again, Descend is surprisingly open ended and a 3/2 haste for 3 is a reasonable floor even absent the enchantment theme. 3 drops are crowded though, what to cut?

 

[Nanonox]

Changelings, Zombies and Enchantments

Decided to actually give the Black Changeling deck idea some more thought and the kindred payoffs that grabbed my attention the most were



Bouncing back to hand greatly helps the Flurry/Prowess decks while filling the GY or adding to the board. Because Black doesn't really do the whole spell matters theme, I thought the enchantment angle could be a way to tie them into what is already present in the cube.



Which suggest a Zombie/gy/enchantment subtheme. These pieces are individually solid and could lead to a fun deck once in a blue moon especially with exisiting support like Sarcomancy already in the cube.

Speaking of Zombies and the GY, I already run these two



Cryptbreaker is a classic self-supporting Zombie payoff . Welcome the Dead is potent if we are milling/discarding cards.



With a filled GY, we can use these two to both create more Zombies and actually buff them. Once again, these are self-contained engines that get better with more Zombies.

Now that we have many ways of removing cards from the GY (these two + Tymaret Calls the Dead + Aphemia, the Cacophony), we can profit with more Zombies thanks to these two.



Another way to trigger these two are a bunch of Zombie Dragons!



Now we come full circle because the Dragons allow you to return the Dragonstorm enchantments back to hand for more value.

On a different axis, we can also use the Zombie theme to push +1/+1 counters in Black



I think there is real potential for a web of synergy all based around a Zombie theme at this power level. But at that point, the Changelings are pretty useless and I lost sight of the original idea. I searched for a lot of kindred payoffs and to be honest, it's a little underwhelming. The only slam dunk is Exsanguinator Cavalry, the rest are good or not great. Especially after fleshing out the Zombie idea, this Changeling subtheme seems a little empty!

The challenge is to not fall prey to the classic kindred on rails problem. I think most of these are justifiable on their own and don't require you to draft a critical mass of Zombies (minus Champion of the Perished).

Suppose that we do go for the Enchantment theme. I'd like it to branch out to other colors.

White



One of the cleaner ways to get White to care about the GY. This is fairly unique and has a lot of play with discard, mill and sagas. There are also these enchantment creatures that I like a lot. Obviously don't have space for all of them, but maybe a few could sneak in.



In Blue, BoBguyjoe suggested some enchantment bounce effects in a previous post and a number of these could do some work. I especially like Riptide Chimera as an undercosted beatstick that rewards you if you can build around it. There is also one I enjoy from Duskmourn



I'm not sure if I want to pull the trigger on this as it's a big change to the cube, but it's definitely on the table. As always, I value your feedback so if you have any ideas, please share!

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For future reference

Spoiler: Various kindred payoffs

Clerics



Rotlung is a functional piece by itself which is always nice. Taborax is also fine individually as a scaling evasive 3 drop that adds counter density.

Rogues



Burakos gets better the more Cleric, Warrior and Rogue payoffs I have, effectively acting like another Changeling. I haven't been impressed by the Warrior payoffs though and the Rogues are average. The Blackguard could be a nice counters payoff that sometimes buffs a random Rogue. Dicey.

Goblins



Great standalone card, but the typal payoff is minimal.

Humans



Similar to Rotlung Reanimator, but isn't a zombie.

Rats



Decent little dude, not a fan of Control Magic effects though.

Vampires



Champion draws a few cards which is pretty meh at 5 mana and the Baron has a list of nice keywords.

Zombies



Undead Augur would be too if not for the mana cost. The Muse is sure to play well, but can be dangerous depending on how deep I go on Zombies. It's also a 4 drop which is a crowded slot.

Knights



Haakon is a tough one to crack. It definitely needs a bit more support instead of just throwing it in and working by itself.

Skeletons



Death-Priest buffs a bunch of types which can randomly add value to some cards. It seems like a hassle to track though, so not convinced it's a fun way to go. The Skeleton Crew is not much better in that regard, but a nice build around for GY decks.

Demons



I am already running Contract and it's been quite good. Covenant is another sweet one. Mill, draw and big token. Cellarspawn is cost reduction and a cool build around. Counsel would work well with the artifact Changelings as they count for two types for Delirium.