Nanonox's 1vs1 cube

[Nanonox]

I play multiplayer games with my group, but I've been meaning to build a 1vs1 cube too. It's mostly a thought experiment at this point, but I could definitely see myself acquiring the cards IRL.

Here is the list I am working on right now:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/kmu7

Inspiration
Erik Twice's cube list
Dom Harvey's cube list
Dom's list is higher powered, but both are built around synergy and overlapping archetypes. They support themes I want in my cube, so they seem like a good baseline to draw inspiration off.

Inscho's cube list
Dbs's cube list
These cubes are too combo centric for this project, but I like the potential for "explosive synergy". Also, the heavy use of Baubles and cantrips is something I will definitely be using to enable archetypes and smooth out draws.

My multiplayer cube (yes, I know it sounds cocky )
I really like where this cube is at and would like to have something similar but geared towards 1vs1.

Power level
I'd like the cube to be relatively high powered. I do enjoy playing with efficient threats and removal. The tricky part is avoiding auto picks that would drown out synergy decks.
I really enjoy Erik Twice's cube and even cloned it to make a few personal swaps. The list plays out really well, has a lots of themes I enjoy, but I do miss some higher powered cards.

Speed

I want a lean mana curve because I really enjoy playing as many cards as possible every turn. This also happens to allow decks to function better under mana screw. I also want to limit ramp, because I'd rather have decks curve out than cheat the mana curve. That being said, some mana dorks and mana rocks allow for certain strategies to shine.

Synergy/archetypes
I want synergy to be not only playable, but actively good. Here are a few notes I try to use:
- Have the most powerful cards of the environment be the archetype build arounds
- I would like synergy decks to exist in all macro archetypes (aggro, midrange and control)
- I'd like to favor "explosive synergy". Stuff like Wheel of Fortune + Wild Mongrel (+ Berserk?)
- I find broad archetypes spanning multiple colors to be the most interesting, as you can end up with whacky combinations.

Size
This is a tricky one. I initially planned a 360 cube, but I can already tell it will be near impossible for now to get that low. I am at 400ish cards right now and want to add a lot more. For now, I am aiming at 400-420 card cube.

Drafting
I intend for most if not all of the cube to be drafted at once. This means your plans won't be thwarted by not having a key card left out of the drafting pool.

Singleton
I am starting off singleton (except fixing lands) and would rather keep it that way, but have no qualms about breaking it for certain cards.

Combos
I don't want easy 2 card combos, but I am on the fence for something like the persist combo. It could add a little spice, but I don't know if counter play is needed or not.

Archetypes I want to support
Artifacts (grindy, cheat and go wide)
Lands (GY recursion or landfall)
Sacrifice
Tokens
+1/+1 counters
Self-mill
Discard aggro
Magecraft

Suggestions, comments, questions and drafts are all welcome.
Thanks for reading!

 

[Nanonox]

As an example, here is an example of an aggro deck I really enjoy:

Artifact human counters aggro

It rolls off the tongue.

I want an aggressive human deck based off of



For aggro decks to work, I believe disruptive elements help a ton:



So humans and counters, but also some artifacts in there too. So having an artifact counter package opens the deck up



As does having more artifact aggro cards



Humans are sprinkled in the other colors, so you can hopefully find more support.

Here is a mono-white version that has a blend of things going on. First off, the light human theme with some counters. However, the artifacts steel the show with a grindy Scrap Trawler + Arcbound Ravager engine that can either make a huge dude or get you value. The Ozolith gives you survivability against wrath effects as do the blink effects against removal.



And here is a Selesnya variant which goes a little wider with artifacts thanks to the Karnstructs. Value creatures threaten to take over the board, but there is also some fun to be had. Rishkar + the X mana cost creatures can make huge beaters and Basri's Lieutenant can give you some protection.



The goal of this post is to show the kind of decks and synergy I am going for. Hopefully, I have more decks to showcase!

 

[astraedm]

looks very similar to my white aggro section! i love having the artifacts to glue together multiple colors of aggro decks. i've found that Dancing Sword performs much better than it looks, and is particularly nice to sacrifice the equipped guy to Ravager if you need to flip into some evasion to close games out. More Stoneforge targets is also never a bad thing especially with blink enablers in the format too!

 

[inscho]

I've long been a fan of your multiplayer cube, so I'm excited to dig into this list. The sample decks look great. I've been dancing around a similar archetype in my cube, but mostly from the sacrifice angle. You definitely show some of the merits to committing to the +1/+1 counters subtheme.

As someone that has leaned too hard on the term "explosive" to explain my design goals in the past, I'm upset that I never thought of "explosive synergy", but you can be sure that I will be promptly co-opting it.

But I for real need to sit down and update my first post with current design theory and archetype guide. It just such a daunting task. For now I’m all EFFICIENCY, TEMPO, EXPLOSIVE, SYNERGY, INTERSECTIONS, DYNAMISM. I feel like I’m back in art school critique with its dualities, juxtapositions, and liminal spaces. I get that I’m being a bit cartoony

I was one comma away....

 

[Nanonox]

On Storm

Mana
For this cube, the biggest challenge with Storm decks is going to be mana production. Right now the three biggest ways to net mana involve Fastbond, Dark Ritual and Urza, Lord High Artificer. There are some free spells which definitely help, but don't generate mana (Baral excluded).

dbs's post is an elegant way to get High Tide working, but this is more slots than I want to devote to the archetype. Rude Awakening would also then be a consideration.

Erik Twice's post on Lion's Eye Diamond, might be more in my wheelhouse. It's a single slot that has a huge influence. Being an artifact means that Urza's Saga is live to go fetch it and it has fun interactions with Emry, Lurker of the Loch. Narrow yes, but very high impact.

I am also considering these cards as sources of extra mana



Academy is very strong, probably too strong, but it is an include that many decks will want. Most of my artifacts being Baubles, there might be tension between when to make mana and when to cash them in for cards.
Lake is a card that intrigues me, but I suspect it isn't all that great. Outside of a Storm deck, it would be mostly a Golgari card because Green can leverage the land recursion.
Lumberjack gives a nice boost, but it is double off color. For some reason, it has never occurred to me before, Lumberjack and Lake could spawn some fun Jund decks. Food for thought!

Win conditions
Now, with the mana expectations set (small bursts here and there, but nothing resembling a true Storm deck), I have to adjust the win conditions a bit. The token makers such as Monastery Mentor, Sedgemoor Witch and Young Pyromancer all give value whether you play all your spells in one turn or multiple, so that works perfectly. In a similar vein, I will be testing



as extra incremental payoffs/win conditions. They give you board presence which Storm decks usually lack and give you a decent reward for chaining 4+ spells.
I also have a Brain Freeze as it can be a great enabler for Underworld Breach and Yawgmoth's Will and a win condition too.

The final kind of win condition I think has merit is the reanimator type



Niv-Mizzet and Horror in particular are win conditions if you chain enough spells together. Griselbrand is in a league of it's own, but I like it better than Archon of Cruelty for my goals.
The trick is tailoring the reanimation suite to make sure they aren't overbearing too early. I am a fan of



Stitch Together is seen less often, but I think it is a cool design. You have to work for it if you want it early, naturally limiting it's broken potential, thereby increasing the odds it goes to the reanimator deck and not some random value pile.
I would love to include Persist, but it won't work with this creature suite. Also Necromancy would be at the right mana cost, my only hesitation including it stems from it being an enchantment which does nothing for my archetypes and it hitting both GYs.

Cards
Between cantrips, draw 7s, recursion and just plain draw spells, this is the easiest part to fill out.

Decks
(This is before I added the cards mentioned above)

This first deck I drafted first picking Bolas's Citadel (one of my favorite cards). The has a ton of card selection and draw, but it lacks in both mana and win conditions. This is precisely why I need to make a few changes, because having a deck fail is no fun.



The second deck was drafted by dbs (thanks!)



This is a much better deck than the previous having both cards and win conditions. The mana is limited to Dark Ritual, meaning the turns will never be super explosive.

Tl;dr
- Mana is limited, so win conditions need to be adjusted to reflect that.
- Incremental win conditions work better than explosive ones for this cube.
- 3 kinds of Storm decks I want to enable aggro, control, combo.

 

[Erik Twice]

Thanks for the shoutout Nanonox!

First, before looking at the mana, I would look at what kind of storm you can to support. If you want to keep it as a small archetype, you should look at maximizing the impact per slot. I think the highest impact of all cards is in Dream Halls, then Lion's Eye Diamond.

Thing in the Ice is very good in general and also in Storm-like decks. Smoldering Egg is much worse, though. The issue is that 4 spells is easy, 7 mana worth of spells is not. Part of the reason is that the more spells you put in your deck, the lower their average mana value gets, which, ironically, makes it harder to flip the Egg. Still, it's worth a try. Note that I don't play Thing in the Ice because it's a dual-faced card, not for any mechanical reason.

Reanimating or storming into Grieselbrand will win you the game. That will be an issue, I think it's too powerful even if you cheat it at 5 mana. It says "Win the game" to a degree no other target does.

As for the three types of Storm decks, I think you are on the good track with the idea of three decks. It should work and they should all overlap quite well.

 

[Nanonox]

Thanks for the feedback. Dream Halls is a great one I forgot about and will revisit once I get a few reps in with LED.

I was seeing Smoldering Egg as a plant for the control spells decks I was talking about. It might be too narrow though, especially since I already have Magmatic Channeler. Channeler is much less explosive, but better in the average deck.
I am going to try this aggro prowess package in Boros



What I find interesting is that these mostly trigger off of noncreature spells so there is flexibility in what enablers you use. These happen to be humans for the most part adding some overlap.

As for aggressive spells to support the archetype, equipment is obviously great, but I am looking for more cards like Reckless Charge.
Servo Exhibition would fit with artifacts and spells nicely, but this brings me to something that may be an issue (or not and I am overthinking this): I might have too many 2 drops

Charming Prince
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Intrepid Adversary
Seeker of the Way
Thalia's Lieutenant
Seasoned Hallowblade
Luminarch Aspirant
Ethersworn Canonist
Stoneforge Mystic
Clarion Spirit
Selfless Spirit
Wall of Omens
Barbed Spike
Servo Exhibition

If I had to single a couple out, it would be Charming Prince and Seasoned Hallowblade.

Hallowblade is resilient, but he often ends up costing you a lot of cards because every single creature lying around trades with him.
Prince is nice because he is both a blink target and enabler for decks that want it (Gyruda combo?!). It's a mediocre value card that fits everywhere.

Are there some obvious cuts I am missing (trying to support humans, artifacts and prowess aggro)?

 

[inscho]

As for aggressive spells to support the archetype, equipment is obviously great, but I am looking for more cards like Reckless Charge.

I like this Aggro spells package:





Adventure creatures really help keep your spell count up for


The white adventure creatures each offer 2 spells for clarion spirit triggers and two counters on the shrine

You run most of these, and looks like you recently cut some. Really it’s Shepherd of the Flock that is such a stud in this archetype imo. It, Giant Killer, Rimrock Knight, and Bonecrusher Giant is such a tidy boros package imo

 

[Nanonox]

You run most of these, and looks like you recently cut some.

Yup! I had all of these in the first draft, then cut some to make room for other packages.

My problem right now is that I am all over the place. I am experimenting with all of these
Humans aggro (W, B, r, g)
Prowess aggro (W, R, b, u)
Artifact aggro (W, R, U, b)
Discard/GY aggro (B, R, G)
+1/+1 counters aggro (W, G, b)
Sacrifice aggro (W, B, R, G)

I think there is enough overlap to make these decks blend into one another, but I haven't found the balance yet (White is too present in these archetypes!)

For the adventures, I've played them in different cubes and always enjoyed their play patterns. I'll be trying them again, thanks for the reminder!

 

[Erik Twice]

White was the best colour in my cube and it might still be. You have great creatures, a good range of high-quality, broad interaction and it pairs well with all other colours. You actually run Skyclave Apparition, Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile so I would be surprised if it wasn't good. It's not worrysome. White being good is a good indicator. The difference will get less noticiable as you work on the cube anyways.

Regarding your cuts, you'll be dissapointed by Servo Expedition. The only two mana token-maker I've liked in white is Shrine of Loyal Legions. Then the most expendable card is Seasoned Hallowblade. Don't give the discard outlet too much credit, 95% of the time it's just going to turn sideways.

Also, Firebrand Archer seems quite weak. I'm not sure about how it scales with cube size, but six cards seems too high. You can probably cut it.

 

[inscho]

I’ve tried servo exhibition and it isn’t good. If it was instant speed it’d be worth considering

 

[Nanonox]

You are both right. I am going way too deep into specific archetypes that don't need extra support. Just playing a few prowess creatures and my existing artifact creatures is enough to support the theme. I've also come to a few realizations:

1. The +1/+1 counters are more of a little subtheme than an archetype. The payoffs cards are Basri's Lieutenant and Rishkar, Peema Renegade which are both playable by themselves. And that is the issue with other payoffs (Hardened Scales, The Ozolith, Conclave Mentor, ...), they are narrow. A card like Reyhan, Last of the Abzan is perfect, but not in the right colors for me. It's actually so perfect I kind of want to make it work...

2. Artifact aggro opens up the range of colors for aggressive decks. The obvious example is with Blue. It is notoriously hard to find playable one drops and generally aggressive cards for the color, but if the colorless section provides them, then it becomes possible to draft an aggressive deck based on the color's strength (bounce, counterspells and flyers).

3. Artifact aggro on rails?
With the most important artifact aggro cards (Arcbound Ravager, Steel Overseer) needing a critical mass of artifact creatures, I have to be careful of not making drafting this archetype be on rails.
Seeding artifact payoffs into different colors (or guilds) could be a decent way to help diversify the decks.

Orzhov Disruption



Backed by Black hand disruption and White hatebears.

Selesnya Counters



With a humans theme that can blend in.

Izzet Go wide



Token spam, that hints at sacrifice possibilities. Sai is usually hard to make work, but I have a ton of artifacts to cast in this cube making it realistic. Maybe Master of Etherium is better because boosting your team when you flood the board is really strong. The worst case scenario kind of turns me off though (3 mana 1/1).

Rakdos Aristocrats



With various artifact token makers.

Boros prowess aggro

See above post.

Questions for you
What are your thoughts on artifact aggro being drafting on rails? If so, how do you suggest to combat it?

 

[inscho]

Questions for you
What are your thoughts on artifact aggro being drafting on rails? If so, how do you suggest to combat it?

Not at all….artifact aggro has go-tall, go-wide, disruption, and sacrifice as different angles of attack that easily blend into each other or pivot into other artifact-centric strategies

It meshes with stax well with tangle wire, scrap trawler, and smokestack and the welders

It pivots to value artifacts and welder reanimator as a many of the glue cards overlap

Being so heavily colorless it’s easy to shift your colors as opportunities open up

It offers a pretty deep synergy matrix in my experience

 

[Erik Twice]

I don't think you need much to create artifact aggro decks. Strictly speaking, I don't support artifact aggro in my cube, it just comes up naturally. The reason is that I have a lot of good support for artifact decks in URb and enough versatile fodder that it just comes up naturally. The only exceptions are:



And I only added the latter because of you, Nanonox! You either use these two or combine them with some good-stuff cards that just get really good when you have artifact synergies or are artifacts in and on themselves:



I even discovered some support cards can be played in Aggro to great benefit:



Rather than trying to boost artifact aggro per se, I would look to artifact the cube as a whole. Then, I would look into adding an extra piece or two, you probably don't need many. Some additions you've made that seem interesting to me are:

plus Moxen

Most of these are painless additions. I might like them more or less but they fit the cube well and I've considered them at various points. Arcbound Raver is the most fun artifact pay-off, in my opinion. Sure, it is a massive trap but it is a fun one.



Signal Pest reads better than it actually is. Sai needs a massive number of artifacts to be decent and it's rarely better than decent. Whirler Rogue fits but I cut it because it was a spammy token-maker that didn't win the game. Steel Overseer is very narrow since it only affects artifact creatures. That's two subsets so I don't like it. The Myr is just very, very middling and will wheel a lot. Some ideas from the top of my head:



By the way, this is a bit of a bummer but remember to have appropiate versions of your cards if you run Heirloom Blade. Sometimes the subtypes are off. For example, it is important to know that Llanowar Elves is a druid

 

[Nanonox]

Thanks inscho for confirming my thoughts. Not sure why I am doubting myself so much with this new cube project!

You hit an interesting point Erik Twice, are the Arcbound Ravager + Steel Overseer too narrow to be worth it?

Ravager allows for some really fun play patterns as you say. It's a free sacrifice outlet if you have enough artifacts. It can land counters on Walking Ballista for a quick kill. If they have a single blocker and you attack with Ravager + other artifact creature, you get through. Sacrifice your board and Berserk, etc. So while narrow, I do believe it makes for an interesting piece in the cube.

As for Overseer, it's range of targets is definitely small, but it does still buff itself if nothing else. Plus I really like it (and Signal Pest) as a token payoff for Izzet decks. Since your tokens are mostly going to be artifacts, having an anthem is really nice. It also lets Rishkar, Peema Renegade pop off in conjunction to the X spells artifact creatures (like Ballista mentioned above). For me, it fits into that explosive synergy potential. Sometimes it flops pretty hard, but sometimes you survive a wrath thanks to Basri's Lieutenant + counters on your team.

Sai, Master Thopterist + Myr Retriever

I am actually coming around on these quite a bit. I support grindy artifact decks based around these enablers



I haven't been able to draft it yet, but there is an Azorius artifact recursion deck lurking in the cube and it's one of my favorite decks.
So regarding Sai, Lurrus, Emry and Trawler all allow you to get extra casts, as does the Retriever. I think getting a couple of tokens is realistic.
The Retriever will wheel as you say, but at the same time it really helps these decks go off (quite literally with Teshar). I realize it's a bias of mine, but I want to support these decks and the Myr does so very well.

Regarding your suggestions (thanks!), I think they are a bit to middling to be worthwhile inclusions. The Dwarf is powerful, but I already have a lot of things going on in White. Likewise, the Tank plays well in my experience, but I already have a bunch of spells + artifact support.

By the way, this is a bit of a bummer but remember to have appropiate versions of your cards if you run Heirloom Blade. Sometimes the subtypes are off. For example, it is important to know that Llanowar Elves is a druid

That's a great point and I will cut the equipment immediately. I'm not sacrificing my old bordered cards just to accommodate the Blade!

One last card that I've been eyeing is



It's an early discard outlet and hits a bunch of different strategies, kind of like an Epochrasite. The ping ability can be situationally useful, but it's hardly a consideration when evaluating the card.

 

[Dom Harvey]

Did a bunch of drafts and had a lot of fun, looks like it's off to a great start!

 

[Nanonox]

Thanks for all the drafts Dom and the kind words. Thanks Erik and inscho too, your feedback is much appreciated!

Lower mana value

One thing I am considering is slashing the mana cost of the cube. With the release of the new Kamigawa set, I am finding myself overloaded with cheap cards I want to play. Take Red one drops for example:



Almost all of these fit into themes and most can scale into the late game. I am even excluding some bangers like Goblin Guide, which while better than most of these in pure aggro decks, has no real synergy with the rest of the cube.

If I am dropping the mana value, it's important to have
1. Early threats that can scale: This can be on the card directly (Blazing Rootwalla and Dragon's Rage Channeler) or using equipments (Rabbit Battery and Lizard Blades) to have small creatures stay relevant late.

2. More mana sinks: What is bound to happen if the curve goes down is that you will find yourself empty handed faster. So having mana sinks that give you things to do with extra mana or lands with abilities is a great place to be. Staying in Red, here are some examples I like



That would mean cutting some top end cards to make room for all of this, but that doesn't seem like a bad proposition. Losing cards like Angel of Invention and Verdurous Gearhulk strikes me as not a huge loss.

Breaking singleton

Currently looking at breaking singleton for set up pieces but not for build arounds. The different build arounds are what make games memorable IMO so keeping them diverse seems important.



Faithless Looting tends to be the first card I want to double up on. Cathartic Reunion and Thrilling Possibility are playable to be sure, but the extra mana, the discard first and the lack of flashback make them so much worse. And if the curve goes down, then it becomes even more important for draw spells to be efficient since they generally don't affect the board.

Manamorphose is very close to the perfect cantrip. It's hybrid meaning it goes into many decks, it fixes your colors, replaces itself and is mana neutral. This allows for explosive turns and really makes prowess creatures pop.

Mishra's Bauble is just a cleaner version of Urza's Bauble. This change is more cosmetic than anything else, meaning it might just be wrong.

Increasing the amount of Chromatic Stars on the other hand is more related to actual gameplay. This giving value even when sacrificed is the big deal since Goblin Welder and company, Greater Gargadon and even Mukotai Soulripper all care about that trigger. Maybe the biggest one to benefit is Arcbound Ravager and I am all for supporting Ravager properly.
The extra Stars (I am thinking 3 or 4 total) would replace a bunch of Soul-Guide Lantern type cards that I included for density. The big upside is that you get extra fixing for free and even better, this is more like a real cantrip since you get an immediate refund on the mana.

Lastly, I am considering swapping Gravecrawler for a second Bloodsoaked Champion. I don't really have the density of zombies to make Gravecrawler reliable, so I'd rather lean into the human synergy.

 

[Erik Twice]

I see no loss in cutting Angel of Invention but I've grown very fond of the Gearhulk. It's one of the few chunky creatures I run and, despite its efficiency, it has never been unfun. It has always seemed fun to me and the artifact synergies are big. With it and Esika's Chariot you can get good artifact decks in Gruul.

I think adding a third Chromatic Star is a good move.

Regarding Gravecrawler, I've been thinking about it myself. It's tempting because more humans is always great and both cards fill a similar role. However, the reason I haven't pulled the trigger is that most of the black cards I want to run are zombies already. I don't see myself ever cutting the likes of:



So I don't see it having an impact beyond one slot. If you could replace more zombies with humans and end up with a net positive, it would be one thing, but so far I don't see many options to do so.

 

[blacksmithy]

I think adding a third Chromatic Star is a good move.

hear hear!

 

[Nanonox]

I see no loss in cutting Angel of Invention but I've grown very fond of the Gearhulk. It's one of the few chunky creatures I run and, despite its efficiency, it has never been unfun. It has always seemed fun to me and the artifact synergies are big. With it and Esika's Chariot you can get good artifact decks in Gruul.

I am not 100% sure it's needed, as these have all been great support for artifacts in Green:
Traverse the Ulvenwald
Gilded Goose
Tireless Tracker
Tireless Provisioner
Esika's Chariot

However, like you, Golgari-Grave Troll has been a little too narrow, so I can add the Verdurous Gearhulk in instead. I also want more support for the artifact counter deck. Speaking of:

BG sacrifice/artifact/counters



I wasn't sure whether or not the counters matters subtheme was worth expanding to Black or not, but I think this shows that it at least is worth continuing exploring.
The pairing of Nettlecyst, Urza's Saga and Karn, Scion of Urza secure the artifact theme in any color and then each color can add it's distinct flavor.



Are particularly good here as a glue between all 3 themes in the deck (sacrifice, artifact and counters). Thinking about it more, I think these two cards would be fine additions:



The Crawler in particular could be a novel mana engine for some decks, especially with Reyhan providing a direct means to dump counters on it.

On another note, I am happy with the look of this "combo" deck. It's a Fastbond deck that uses both the Graveyard and draw 7s as ways to abuse the enchantment. The Wheels mitigate the card disadvantage of the fast mana and topdeck tutors. The win conditions aren't great, but with a lot of mana, the X spells or Teferi can probably close out a game.
I am just happy to see "combo" run on another axis than spells matter.



A few cuts I am considering:

Metallic Mimic: The only real tribal here is Humans and White has enough counters/humans/artifacts overlap. This would come back in if there were some persist combo going on.

Primeval Titan: Cutting on the mana means making some painful cuts. I have a lot of lands matter cards in Green and this one goes in less decks because of the mana cost.

Fiend Artisan: I have a million Golgari cards. Sure this is hybrid, but it doesn't often go outside of those colors. Grim Flayer is the more important 2 drop IMO.

Birthing Pod: With lower mana costs, my curves are a little wonky and not reliable enough for an already finicky card.

Some black cards. I have a pretty big color imbalance in terms of number of cards in Black. Could use help to identify some cuts as I like them all!

 

[Erik Twice]

Some thoughts after a brief break.

First, I like the stuff you talk about your first bit and I'm glad you are keeping the Gearhulk for now. It just works with everything you have listed.

Regarding the cuts, I think Metallic Mimic is not necessary. Like you say, it's needs Persist combo or something else to justify its slot in the cube. Primeval Titan is cuttable, even if it's a real shame. Fiend Artisan was mediocre, it ate a real slot and ended up being a much worse copy of Birthing Pod.

I would keep Birthing Pod. Even at lower mana costs, it can be really good and fun. It won't always create a deck but it's uniqueness and value makes it a keep for me.

 

[Nanonox]

I like returning to a cube project after a break as it helps take a step back.

One thing that immediately stuck out to me was the inclusion of too many specific archetype plants. I want my themes to meld and overlap, but if I give an archetype too many tools, the need to branch out fades.

So I cut back on a bunch of cards that felt less essential and will ponder on their reinclusion.

Spoiler: Cuts

---

I also decided to add a few cards that were missing:



And other triomes.

Shredder is the new hotness and it has been amazing in my MP cube, so I expect great things here too.

I already have Daze as a free card, but didn't think to include FoW.

Bloodcaster is the overlap between artifacts, sacrifice and discard and it is uncapped. High synergy potential!

Lethal Scheme is top tier removal that synergizes with what the cube is doing. Great pickup from SNC.

Birgi is there as a mana engine to facilitate spell velocity decks, but it can also be a card advantage engine should you need it. The worst case of a 3/3 for 3 is serviceable.

I have an Earthcraft theme in the cube and Hermit is a great stand-alone threat and enabler for the deck.

Kavu is a big beater that just got better from additional triomes. The attack trigger being an enabler for the discard decks or a disruptive piece against GY decks is perfect.

---

I realize that I haven't really talked about one of the main archetypes I want to support in this cube: discard matters.
With some new printings from Kamigawa and New Capenna, there is a whole new core to build around. I'll be considering the following as the center of the archetype:



Most cubes here already support expansive GY themes that naturally overlap with these discard decks (this one included). However, since you can now reliably recoup the cards discarded, I think this opens up a new category of cards. The most exciting for me being



So where to go from there? I am a big fan of providing broad archetypes and let the drafters figure out what they want to do from there. I love the sense of exploration in cubes and want others to experience it too. So for now, I won't worry too much about fitting specific cards and see what I can draft and get a sense of what's missing.

Beyond Bazaar and LED, do you have new favorites for the discard deck?

 

[Erik Twice]

I haven't been giving things a look but all thse changes seem good and the archetype seems solid. I'll probably copy it once I have the time =p

 

[Nanonox]

So I was immediately able to draft this pile:



This deck is a little all over the place and yet there are some really cool synergies.

Wheels: Draw 7s are tricky because of their symmetry so you have to somehow take advantage of them. Here, Fastbond, Niv-Mizzet and sometimes the discard package. Memory Jar and Wheel of Fortune also conveniently fuel Underworld Breach to help you mill yourself for Thassa's Oracle.

Discard: Rielle, Construct and Converter all reward you for doing the discard thing. In addition to the wheels, there are a bunch of looting effects that fit right in.

Artifacts: So the deck draws a ton of cards, but it also has a lot of mana. Fastbond as mentioned above, but also Tiress Provisionner and of course Urza. This is where the Cookbook shines as it is a discard outlet that can create fodder for Urza and recur an Oracle from the GY.

Is the deck any good? I'm not sure, as it doesn't have a ton of interaction or board presence, but it can definitely go very big and weaves together 3 themes in a rather unique fashion!

---

Continuing looking over the cube, I've identified a few cards that are on the chopping block:



Even in UB artifact decks, this dude isn't a guaranteed include and is pretty situational. At three mana, I can do better. It's a shame because it ties a lot of themes together, but not at this power level.



On the opposite end of the spectrum, this card is a little too powerful and offers no real synergies to build on. Sure you can use delve and flashback to grow her, but she will likely take over the game before that is relevant.

I am eyeing other cards to cut as they are somewhat narrow build arounds (Crystalline Crawler and Sai, Master Thopterist amongst others). I can't put my finger on it, but there is something that still feels off about this cube to me (that I don't get when drafting Erik Twice's cube or my multiplayer cube for example).
I probably need to draft it to make sense of it, but that isn't happening in the forseeable future

 

[Erik Twice]

I am eyeing other cards to cut as they are somewhat narrow build arounds (Crystalline Crawler and Sai, Master Thopterist amongst others). I can't put my finger on it, but there is something that still feels off about this cube to me (that I don't get when drafting Erik Twice's cube or my multiplayer cube for example).

I don't think your cube is in bad shape at all. I think the feeling that something is off is caused by two things.

1) Your cube is more recent and, hence, is less polished.

2) Your cube is larger. This not only means more "questionable cards" will make their way in, but that the overall quality of decks and synergies will be lower. It takes more time to polish a larger cube.

So I don't think you are far off at all. In fact, I'm copying the cards you've added for the discard archetype!