Nanonox's 1vs1 cube

[Nanonox]

I am trying some more cuts. I'd like to get down to the 400 range. I might be supporting too many archetypes to get there though.
The first round of cuts were rather effortless, but these hurt more.

One area to improve upon is UB discard. I've put Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer in, but it has been tough to get it working. I'll be trying at least one swap, if you have other suggestions, I'm all ears:

Out -> In

->

Also,



Seems perfect as a repeatable discard enabler. Maybe cutting Venser, Shaper Savant?

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Some decks that were drafted that are exactly what I want from my cube.
First up, mono Green artifacts:



This has great overlap between discard, GY, artifacts and lands. Bazaar of Baghdad shining as an enabler that is fetchable with Golos and excels with Life from the Loam. I would have liked another artifact payoff here (like Karn, Scion of Urza) and another discard payoff (like Currency Converter).
It really makes me consider dbs's approach of double Urza's Saga and Containment Construct for a colorless base that slips into any deck.



Another take on the GY, discard and artifact overlap, but this time with a sacrifice twist. With Cookbook and Bloodcaster, there can be plenty of artifacts, but I find myself once again with a lack of artifact payoff for these decks. Any suggestions?



This next one was the work of Dom Harvey. It's a really sweet take on a combo Oath deck with Lands shenanigans. Oath is probably my favorite build around because of how out of the norm it is and how much of your GY can be dumped at once.

Thanks to Erik Twice and Dom Harvey for all the drafts. It's really helpful having an outside perspective.

 

[inscho]

Another take on the GY, discard and artifact overlap, but this time with a sacrifice twist. With Cookbook and Bloodcaster, there can be plenty of artifacts, but I find myself once again with a lack of artifact payoff for these decks. Any suggestions?

I think you run most of the pieces that scale up to your power level:

+ baubles and other misc support

There's enough there to easily support sacrifice, welder based reanimator, and artifact aggro. Hard to imagine you really need much else imo.

You have Tangle Wire, but you are missing other stax components ?



There are also these which pair pretty nice with the other aggro pieces....cranial plating, scrounger, etc:


But they aren't really artifact payoffs.

I don't know if these are good enough here:


Although, I'm starting to reconsider Master with the influx of treasure-generating cards that help ramp into and trigger it. As a master-alternative, I'm also looking at:



Triggers on both sides of the board can be relevant in an artifact heavy environment. Still reasonably narrow.

I've been playing around with


and it has been fine. I'm not in love with it, but it is nice to bridge the artifact tokens with the cheat angle.

I think that's all I got.

 

[Nanonox]

I think you run most of the pieces that scale up to your power level:

I guess I am looking for a more open-ended artifact payoff in the vein of Urza's Saga and Nettlecyst. One that could fit equally well in the Green and Rakdos decks I posted above.

How far above the power band would this be?

You have Tangle Wire, but you are missing other stax components ?

I have Tangle Wire as a tempo play more than a stax piece in this list. I am not convinced that Braids and Smokestack are going to cut it. I have decided to keep top tier removal in this cube and they don't line up super well against that.

As for the equipment, they were in when I was in the 430+ card range, but got the axe as I slimmed down. Definitely a consideration!

Marionette Master is one of my favorite cards and this cube uses all parts. You have artifacts, sacrifice, tokens, humans and counters. I think it could do work for sure.

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I am looking to include some cards I've missed:



Colorless sacrifice outlet that provides artifacts to sacrifice again. The 2 mana cost is key here.

or

I am missing another wrath effect in Black. I am used to Deluge and like it a lot, but it might be a tad too powerful against aggressive decks. Languish is fine, but a bit uninteresting. Sure you can work to have creatures survive, but I don't like the conditional nature of it.

 

[Nanonox]

I have a few ideas I'd like to implement in the cube, the first is extending the Selesnya Earthcraft/Rishkar/Katilda ramp archetype to being a 5 color one.

At it's base, this archetype is a ramp deck that uses creatures to ramp rather than mana rocks, spells or actual mana dorks. This makes it less consistent since you need to combine multiple pieces, but the output you get is pretty nuts.

Open-ended mana engines



You just need creatures, no conditions asked. You could probably get away running the archetype with just these 3 cards and be fine at smaller cube sizes. However, the decks would likely look pretty similar and IMO, would get old quickly. There are plenty of alternatives though! For that reason, I'll be using Earthcraft and Cradle and forgo the Rites.
There is also Xenagos, the Reveler who's +1 is a Cradle activation. He also provides bodies and is very strong in the deck. Outside of the deck, the play pattern of casting him on curve, ticking him up and casting another threat is very potent.

Human/counters mana engines



I am lumping these two together because of how intertwined they usually are. The aggressive human payoffs stack counters on creatures enabling Rishkar. And Katilda says human…
One challenge I’ve found is that you need to include mana dumps that can be played early or late (Intrepid Adversary, Mikaeus the Lunarch).

I've also noticed that this is a great way to get an artifact deck into Selesnya as well since Esper Sentinel, Ethersworn Canonist, Blade Splicer can get pumped by a Steel Overseer, which in turns lets you get a huge Hangarback Walker or Walking Ballista as mana sinks.

Sacrifice mana engines



These cards were mentioned by Dom Harvey earlier in this thread. The artifact sacrifice outlets are particularly critical to include if you want this archetype to work in non-Green decks. Alongside Gaea’s Cradle you have 3 colorless engines and all the mana you could need. For these to work, the payoff needs to be huge since you are sacrificing your board presence. I’ve found that the X spells that give you tokens are great, but more on that later.

I appreciate that this archetype diversifies the sacrifice decks somewhat. You could include Blood Artist type effects, but you also don’t need to.
I’ll mention Pitiless Plunderer as a great piece to these decks. If you have a sacrifice engine, then it acts as a Phyrexian Altar. If you have one of the pieces, it doubles your mana. And can work wonders with the next category of cards.

Artifact mana engines



To cap things off, you could go off with artifacts. Academy can be seen as being adjacent to Cradle. Urza is a total package as it offers a mana sink in addition to the ramp. Galzeth is the most narrow of these in terms of restrictions, but the floor of the card is fine even outside of synergies. I've had the dragon in my MP cube, but it wasn't until I was writing this post that I realized that it fit the archetype. I'll have to try and draft a UR "Earthcraft" deck!

You need solid artifact architecture in the cube to make these tick however. Treasures, clues, servos, thopters, baubles, whatever.
I personally love cards like Lonis, Cryptozoologist as you want to be casting creatures and the clues provide both mana and cards.

Payoffs

The dream is to have your X spells create tokens so that it’s both a set up card and a payoff.
Speaking of, watch out for cards like Chandra, Acolyte of Flame that not only provide bodies, but also let you recur your X spells that you may have used early.

Going wide



I'd love to have a Black X spell as well. Right now, the closest I am happy with is .

Going tall



Misc



I've never actually played with the last two, but they seem like they could be sweet, especially with the Altars. Sacrifice your board, get it back with ETBs, sacrifice it again and profit! Do you have experience with these two cards? Wake the Dead's timing restriction seems a bit too limiting, but Rally seems great.

Adds

Lonis, Cryptozoologist
Gaea's Cradle
Tolarian Academy
Ashnod's Altar
Phyrexian Altar
Galazeth Prismari

Cuts

Not sure about the cuts as I am still figuring out if I want to reduce the cube size to around 400 cards or go up to 420-450.

Example decklists

Spoiler: Bant artifact Earthcraft

Taken from my MP cube. The mana engines here are Urza, Academy and Earthcraft. Tracker, Lonis and Goose provide a steady flow of artifacts and from there you have big X spells. Map, Golos and PrimeTime are great for finding the Academy and providing some redundancy.

Spoiler: UG Earthcraft human counters

Taken from my 1vs1 cube. Humans + counters + Earthcraft for big mana. Pretty classic!

Spoiler: UG artifact, counters Earthcraft

Taken from Erik Twice's cube. This time we have a counters, artifacts and Earthcraft combination. I really love that all of these cards are good on their own, but put together it can blow up. That needs to happen if you want your synergy decks to keep up with good stuff decks IMO at higher power level.

Spoiler: BR sacrifice ramp

Taken from my MP thread. Gaea's Cradle, Pitiless Plunderer and the 2 Altars serve as the ramp package to power out some X spells. There are even some tutors (Golos, Tireless Pilgrim and Enlightened Tutor) to add redundancy.
Then you have typical token or sacrifice matters payoffs that give some reach in Corpse Knight, Goblin Bombardment and Mayhem Devil. Sprinkle in some artifact synergies and you have a really cool deck IMO.

Did I miss anything? Particularly interested in hearing about the 2 Altars as I have the least experience with those!

 

[Erik Twice]

I've been very happy about my Earthcraft-like archetype. The card itself (and Chord of Calling, which is my second copy) is the only parasitic slot, everything else (Rishkar, Gala Greeter) is extremely versatile. Katilda is a good bridge and while it's not the most useful piece, it sits just right for a multicolour card.

I haven't really had any experience with the Altars, I never know how to build those decks right!

 

[Nanonox]

I've been looking at ways to spice up the cube and I think that a solid option would be



Even though it's narrow by virtue of being a three color card, it triggers off of noncreature spells making it versatile.

In Jeskai colors, the most obvious way to go off would be with artifact payoffs



However, it doesn't mean it's the only way!

I think a counters archetype could work with



Then there is also just value Ascendancy using



If you manage to add Green to the mix, Earthcraft, Rishkar, Peema Renegade and Katilda Dawnhart Prime get even more potent. Knight of the Reliquary also goes off as do random mana dorks.

I'll be adding Crystalline Crawler as part of the Ascendancy package, would you recommend something else?

 

[inscho]

?

Additional sifting for your hand, and its second ability can be a mana sink which could also trigger Ascendancy

I'm not a huge fan of Crystalline Crawler at your power level tbh. While it can be good in a specific context when you're trying to go off, the rate isn't great, it's pretty narrow, and wasn't that useful by itself when I tried it.


?

As an alternative (or supplement) to Ascendancy there's also @dbs favorite:



Which can be super strong, and has a wider range of uses than Ascendancy

 

[Erik Twice]

Paradox Engine is a very versatile card, it is worth testing, at least.

 

[Nanonox]

Oops, processed the post in my head, but forgot to answer here! Thanks for the responses.

Plargg is a good suggestion, but I don't know if it's worth the complexity. The backside is also very decent as a stand alone White card, which adds to the complexity. A WB token deck can play the card just for the backside which is very unintuitive.

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I'm less down on Crystalline Crawler than you. I kind of see it like one of those Planeswalkers that refund you mana as an ability (Garruk Wildspeaker or Chandra, Torch of Defiance). You need to cast it with 3 colors of mana to be worth it as a 4/4 and then you can cast a 2 or 3 drop on the same turn. After that it's essentially a mana dork.

Combined with other +1/+1 counters cards, you can use it as a mini ritual (Verdurous Gearhulk, Steel Overseer, Mikaeus, the Lunarch).

However, things can get pretty nuts with some specific cards. Arcbound Ravager your board for a big Fireball? Jeskai Ascendancy infinite?
That's actually pretty much it. I thought there were more cards it combined with for explosive plays. I think I will try it out a bit more, but will also include one of the cards that allow it to shine



I've tried it before, but cut it when I was at a smaller size. As I gradually increase to 450, I find myself with room for a few more specialized payoffs. Accumulating counters and then dumping them on a Walking Ballista, a Reyhan of the Abzan or a random flying token is powerful and gives counters decks some staying power.

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Metalworker is a little too fragile for my tastes. As explosive as it is, a 3 mana value mana dork with no protection and low toughness is a rough place to be.

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Paradox Engine is a very cool suggestion I had forgotten about. Definitely giving it a shot. I'll be adding a few more mana rocks to help with that strategy



And will have to properly think about other more subtle adds that could be interesting with it.

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Erik drafted some very sweet Esper Storm decks which made me realize I am actually missing



Unlike Brain Freeze, I don't think it really fits at a smaller size, but at 450 it gives some redundancy.

Check this out with Lurrus as a companion!

 

[Erik Twice]

That deck does look like a blast, it makes me a bit jealous of not running Lurrus and Thing in the Ice. I just like how it's slighty awkard, with Stitcher's Supplier to fill the graveyard and other convoluted nonsense to get things done.

 

[Nanonox]

Continuing the combo talk, I'm really happy with the spread and look of combo decks popping up.

Izzet Breach



Breach + LED + Wheel of Fortune/Frantic Search means you can mill your deck and Brain Freeze the opponent. This deck has more interaction and board presence than other combo decks which might make it just the superior version. You can play a normal gameplan of cantrips + Young Pyromancer and chose when to go off.

Birgi, God of Storytelling might be overkill as I don't think it is needed to combo and is mediocre during normal turns.

Sultai Paradox Oath



Here you use Oath as a way to dump your library into the GY and from there you can Life from the Loam + Fastbond for a ton of mana. Yawgmoth's Willas a mega Regrowth or just Jace/Oracle.
Tinker gets you a Battleball or a Paradox Engine depending on your draw and you have plenty of mana rocks to both cast Tinker and enable the Engine. Cantrips and ramp can let you churn through your deck and once again win with Jace/Oracle.

While very explosive, this deck is also very fragile with only a Counterspell + FoW as disruption/protection. Against hand hate, you will have to bank on a recursion spell to save you. Against counterspells, well tough luck!

Jeskai Aritfact Ascendancy




Thank you Dom for the draft. While not deterministic when going off, it has to be pretty darn close. Urza + Ascendancy with 5 artifacts is just insane. Mentor and Iconoclast provide fodder for the anthem part of the Ascendancy. I especially like Currency Converter that allows you to use the looting part of the enchantment to great use.

I haven't done a ton of drafts with Jeskai Ascendancy yet, but the few I've seen convinced me that it's a great fit for cubes with explosive gameplay that have a good artifact package. Yes it's a narrow card that is 3 colors, but in the right context, it spawns a deck by itself and that has to be worth a cube slot. Especially since you don't need to go out of your way to support it. I'll be cutting Crystalline Crawler as an unneeded combo piece.

Esper Storm



As mentioned above, thanks again Erik. This is a more classic storm deck. Fast mana, draw 7s and a win condition. Won't go into much detail because it's already been talked a lot about.

I don't have a lot of Black based combo decks and I suspect that the lack of Tendrils of Agony as a win condition has definitely impacted that, as evidenced by a few combo decks missing a wincon. The cards are there with tutors, fast mana and big engines, so I'll be trying to draft some.

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I have pretty heavy combo support in this cube, but some cards are notably missing.

Red rituals



I think that these are too narrow to be worthwhile. They do things with Yawgmoth's Will and Underworld Breach, but they have less appeal in other decks than artifact mana. I could see Seething Song being worthwhile if I supported a big Red deck, but that isn't the case right now.

Mana doublers



I do not support super ramp and have shied away from the Green untap package (Wild Growth + Arbor Elf). I think I would want both of these archetypes before adding the mana doublers to the cube.

Extra turns



The appeal is having a one card deck similar to Jeskai Ascendancy, however this one plays in more shells. Regrowth, Eternal Witness, Snapcaster Mage and others let you chain the sorcery over and over. What has me hesitating is how uninteractive this is even for a combo deck and the fact that you don't outright win even if you do chain your combo. Thoughts on this one?

Other storm cards

The step down from Brain Freeze to Tendrils of Agony is pretty big IMO. The step down from Tendrils to Empty the Warrens or Chatterstorm is even bigger. So much so, I'd rather skip on them and play less narrow cards.

Not sure what to end on, other than mention how fun it is to draft these. The cards you need to put together are generally high picks so they don't come together often, but when they do it's a blast.

 

[inscho]

I share your position on the Red Rituals and Tendrills, Warrens, etc. For environments like ours, there are enough other ways to support combo these days that are less narrow. I ran the mana doublers at one point, because they were appealing for Turboland as well as the heavy spells decks with untap effects, while also having a shred of value as another way to get fatties for the Sneak Attack deck into play. I don't really miss them these days. There's just a wealth of combo options now....and it's much easier to just jam your artifact and creature anchored combos. They can be just as explosive, but don't completely fold over like the Storm deck can.

I think Time Warp is a great add.

I should consider Brain Freeze a little harder. It could easily occupy the Otherworldly Gaze or Mental Note slot in my cube. But I really like both as a cheap way to dig through your deck with Breach, and Brain Freeze has a lot of associations.

I like Lava Dart a lot as a low risk piece of additional support...it kills a lot more than it might seem at first glance. I'm also looking at Gush again. Generating a large finite sum of tokens in a single turn off the back of Young Pyromancer or Third Path Iconoclast is just as fun as trying to make Empty the Warrens work...if not more, because they are substantially more flexible, and can exist outside of a combo shell.

A quirkly combo enabler that's bounced in and out of my list is Burning Inquiry. It'd be harder for you to support than me, but I really like how it plays with Underworld Breach to burn through your deck. It's also functional in a hyper aggressive madness/dredge deck with Rootwallas, Phonecies, Hollow One, Gurmag Anglers, etc....or Glint-Horn Buccaneer, and drawback can be mitigated somewhat with Containment Construct and Conspiracy Theorist.

 

[Nanonox]

I should consider Brain Freeze a little harder. It could easily occupy the Otherworldly Gaze or Mental Note slot in my cube. But I really like both as a cheap way to dig through your deck with Breach, and Brain Freeze has a lot of associations.

I assumed you weren't running BF because it was too powerful or too easy to abuse in your cube. Especially in your environment, I think it has a lot of play both as an enabler, a finisher or both if you can recur it. Highly recommend if you aren't afraid of it's power level.

I like Lava Dart a lot as a low risk piece of additional support

Good call. The one damage kills 1/3 of my creatures roughly and the two damage 2/3. That's probably worth investigating at least and maybe Darkblast should be considered too. I really think synergistic removal is at a premium with synergy based cubes.

A quirkly combo enabler that's bounced in and out of my list is Burning Inquiry.

As you say, that's maybe a little too all in for my cube, all though not by much. Past Faithless Looting, I'm not super happy with Red discard effects and this one has the benefit of being cheaper than most and potentially disrupting the opponent.

 

[inscho]

I assumed you weren't running BF because it was too powerful or too easy to abuse in your cube. Especially in your environment, I think it has a lot of play both as an enabler, a finisher or both if you can recur it. Highly recommend if you aren't afraid of it's power level.

Nah, it was only a general hestitancy to bring back the mechanic. One storm card in a draft, and suddenly it seems like an entire archetype is supported.

I've been thinking about Darkblast as well. I ran it at lower power levels, and it was always a lot of fun. My favorite is dredging Darkblast with The Gitrog Monster in play....you can usually machine gun a few creatures and stock the yard in the process.

 

[Erik Twice]

I think it costs very little to add Tendrils to your cube and see how it works. It's a win condition that cannot be easily replaced and it may promote combo decks in other colours, most notably BR. I did miss it when I drafted your cube.

 

[Nanonox]

I actually did add Tendrils following your drafts. I’ve felt the need in BR decks specifically as you mentioned. I’ve drafted a few and had no win conditions!

Yes it’s narrow, yes it rots in SBs, but when it’s good it makes the whole deck viable. Worth the single slot.

 

[Nanonox]

After taking some time off from this cube, I am coming back with a fresh set of eyes.
The first thing I did was try cutting the cube down to its bare bones to see where the fluff was. In doing so, I realized that I could probably cut it down to 384 cards (increasing the pack size to 16).

I tried to keep my 60 fixing lands and cut down, but I was always 3-5 cut short of getting there. I therefore cut all 10 Triomes. This allowed me to add utility lands and save a few darlings. I really like the NEO channel lands here, in addition to some creature lands for maximum threat density in decks.

Some support had to go still, and one of the most affected archetype is +1/+1 counters. The narrower payoffs have been cut, relegating this to more of a subtheme now. Rishkar, Peema Renegade's and Basri's Lieutenant's floor and ceiling are high enough that they are worth keeping around IMO.

Spoiler: +1/+1 Counters cuts

The Aristocrat deck is changing a little too. I've come to realize that in this environment, I don't actually need the dorky Blood Artists to have a functional sacrifice deck. The bodies are just too vulnerable and not hard hitting enough for my tastes. I kept Mayhem Devil as it's an open ended-card with decent stats. I addedVoldaren Bloodcaster, because it's an aggressively costed glue card for multiple themes and Vraan, Executioner Thane for some reach. This makes the sacrifice deck a little less explosive, but more reliable IMO. I've also decided that Gravecrawler wasn't a good fit anymore as I have a limited amount of zombies to make it work.

Spoiler: Aristocrat cuts

There are definitely some cards that I miss and will need to test if the numbers are right at this size. For example, I suspect the discard/GY decks are too heavily supported.

If anyone wants to help with some drafts and/or has feedback on the changes, I'd appreciate it!

 

[blacksmithy]

i think the cuts are mostly good, but i do worry about Rishkar being able to keep up without support. although i guess it gets you from 3 to 6 and is technically 4/4 worth of stats... idk.

 

[Nanonox]

i think the cuts are mostly good, but i do worry about Rishkar being able to keep up without support. although i guess it gets you from 3 to 6 and is technically 4/4 worth of stats... idk.

I mostly view Rishkar as a worse Luminarch Aspirant that can sometimes go off. I think it being a 3/3 (baring a Twinshot Sniper or something) is a decent enough floor to be worth it considering its ceiling.
I don't think you need explicit support as the cube already has a bunch of +1/+1 counter cards. Could be wrong though.

If you have cuts you disagree with more strongly, I'd love to hear them btw.

 

[inscho]

I’m working on a 180 card micro version of my cube that has me prioritizing the versatility of cards over ceiling, and it made me realize how good Vraan likely is. I’m running it at that size over other options

If running both artist and Zulaport Cutthroat, I’d easily swap out cutthroat for Vraan. Cutthroat is really only good for comboing out. Blood Artist is a different beast since it triggers off both sides of the board….which can really warp combat in addition to having the combo kill. I can understand cutting them both, but I could also see cutting Priest of Forgotten Gods instead of Artist.

I like most of the cuts!

I think Ravager might be worth cutting over something else more useful.

 

[blacksmithy]

i do really like that Vraan is just gonna be a deece body and reward you for running removal and swinging in, rather than being completely irrelevant outside of the combo.
and as much as i love Priest of Forgotten Gods, i could never support her well enough. if only she could sac ANY nonland perms... thats a custom in my future

 

[Nanonox]

Coming back again after a break. Some points stood out to me:

1. Artifact payoffs

Artifact support is good, but could use some more enablers (later) and the payoffs could be more varied.

Discard matters payoffs



Love all of these. They form a strong base for any discard deck and even make Green discard decks tick (special mention to Bazaar of Baghdad as a colorless enabler tailormade for Green decks).

Sacrifice matters payoffs



Ravager + Trawler are the real pulls into the archetype. They combine well together even though the Ravager is more aggressive and the Trawler benefits from grindier games. The Myr rewards you for already being in the grindy artifact deck, but doesn't pull you in. For that reason, I'll be cutting it and trying a different, more compelling payoff.

Flooding the battlefield payoffs



Make mana, make big tokens or big equipments. I am thinking that there is some overlap between making big tokens and making creatures big via equipment. Maybe the Cranial Plating can go in favor of other payoffs. You miss out on some cheeky kills and Lurrus loses an equipment (oh no, weaker Lurrus!), but I think Nettlecyst is more important to have.

So if we are cutting Myr Retriever and Cranial Plating, this opens up two slots. Here are some options



The Ozolith: Gives Urza's Saga decks a new toy as well as giving more resiliency to counters matters decks. I'd be hard pressed not to include Ozolith, the Shattered Spire alongside it as I think the card has merit too.

Academy Manufactor: This one is niche to be sure, but also very cool when it pops off. This would require a decent shakeup of the cube, but I am looking to include more Food/Clue/Treasure producers (more on that in the enabler discussion).

Krark-Clan Ironworks: 4 mana is a lot, but the return can be so much more. Right now, I don't think my top end warrants such an extreme ramp card as the curve is pretty low.

Another way to do this is to cut the two and add some utility artifacts instead. These caught my eye



Zuran Orb: Bursts of life gain aren't super useful (minus Bolas's Citadel), but binning lands is! Balance, Crucible of Worlds and Titania, Protector of Argoth are probably the biggest winners. This is a narrow one and as such might not be worth the slot despite how explosive the reward can be.

Cloudstone Curio: I would like to promote more creature based combo decks and this seems like a great tool for it. Getting mana seems like the tough part for this engine (like most engines to be fair). Burning-Tree Emissary getting bounced is the dream, but I don't have much besides that and Earthcraft. Birgi, God of Storytelling would be good, as would something like Dockside Extortionist due to the artifact heavy nature of the cube.
Outside of combo, is it worth it as a value engine? Maybe? This can give you land drops to trigger landfall, it can reset random enchantments (Ranger Class, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Legion's Landing, etc.) and get creature ETBs easily.
Ultimately, I think this is too slow, but has potential. Thoughts?

The One Ring: High risk, high reward. The protection clause on this means you can take a turn off to cast it and you essentially get 3 cards for the loss of one life on the first turn of using it. That's one hell of an engine. Based on Modern results, it seems this fits in a ton of archetypes and color combinations. I might have just convinced myself to try it

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2. Artifact enablers

I've realized that I am missing a few artifact enablers that would go well with the cube. They conveniently all make tokens that trigger Academy Manufactor which is why I was considering it.



I think these are all good cards and would naturally increase the amount of artifacts present in the cube will also allowing some build arounds. Cuts are tough to find though, more on that in another post.

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3. Black combo support



I've added Tendrils of Agony to Black as a way to cement the color in the Storm archetype. However, with both Sheoldred and the Bowmasters existing now, Tendrils looks awfully narrow! I would like to add these two creatures to the cube, but I don't know how much of a power outlier they would be. They seem very strong in conjunction with a Wheel effect, but I only have 4 of those. As singleton cards, they strike me as powerful but not egregious. Would love some thoughts on these two!
Doomsday is an engine in and of itself. I think it's a really cool card, but I am limited by my play skill. It's very complex and except for Thassa's Oracle, I'm not too sure what to do with it. Because of that, I am afraid to include it.

 

[Nanonox]

More concrete changes:

Out -> In (if this is the reversed presentation, suck it up, I can't do it the other way )

->
->

Playing and watching various cubes, there is always a bottleneck on cheap cantrips. It doesn't have to be that way though, so I am increasing my density. I like these instant speed ones that give you flexibility as to when to cast them.

Cutting Gifts Ungiven as an expensive tutor effect. The power level is there, but 4 mana is a big commitment. I could see myself coming back to it or maybe even Intuition as a cheaper version.

As for Sai, it turns out I already have a lot of Blue artifact payoffs. Tinker, Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Urza, Lord High Artificer are enough (he would be 4th on the list). They have the advantage of not caring about actually casting artifacts and also working with Jeskai Ascendancy and Paradox Engine as combo cards.

->

Two mana 1/1 that needs additional cards and mana to make work isn't how I see the cube going right now. It's a great repeatable discard outlet, but I have enough of those as is.
Dream Halls is a risky, but fun way to cheat on mana, makes draw 7s very good and is another cheat effect for Reanimator (minus the artifact creatures). Erik Twice suggested it to me maybe a year ago(?), but I didn't pull the trigger. Having seen it in action in the MTGO Vintage cube helped set my expectations for the card.

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Not a fan of this swap as I really like Blade of the Oni. It's a cheap, evasive beater that has a relevant type line and is a mana sink! However, I cannot seem to find cuts in Black. Maybe I just go up a few cards instead of trying to cut down. Either way, Bowmasters will be a powerful threat with a high floor and crazy ceiling. The fact it only has one toughness and is easy to remove is why I am trying it out.

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Part of the Black combo package I talked about last post. Bowmasters + Sheoldred make me interested in a card Inscho recommended at some point: Burning Inquiry. Messing with their hand and getting some triggers seems sweet!

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I like having a 2 drop that can slot into slower decks, but Wall of Omens is more narrow than I would like. It's obviously great in Blink, but I don't have a ton of enablers for that deck, so a more open-ended 2 drop is nice. Being able to draw multiple cards with the Staff is definitely upside that all decks can benefit from.

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As the curve lowers, the cube becomes less forgiving. That means that sacrificing a land and having your spell countered is a huge setback that you might not recover from. Lonis comes in as a synergistic value engine.

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As a compromise towards Academy Manufactor, I've decided to go with Jinnie Fay instead. She will trigger off of similar tokens and instead of durdling, she progresses the game by converting Treasures into Cats. While she isn't colorless, most of the artifact tokens that would have triggered the Manufactor are in Green, making it a fake colorless card.

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Priest is pretty tough to set up and therefore mostly fits into sacrifice heavy builds. I want to support a sacrifice deck, but using generically more appealing cards.
Lotho encourages play patterns that I like and rewards you with mana to do some busted things. Triggering off both players can lead to fun sequencing and if life totals are low, can backfire.

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Speaking of backfiring, you better win in a short amount of time if you start activating the Ring. The amount of cards you see is great, but it might just be too generic and too good. A turn of protection and 6 cards for 3 life feels like a lot. Curious to try it out though!

Going to try these changes for now, but there are more cards that I would like to squeeze in. I'd appreciate any test drafts or suggestions for cuts that stand out to you. Thanks for reading!

 

[inscho]

I've run Dream Halls with varying degrees of success in the past so I'm interested to hear how that goes. We've both shifted our cubes more towards a leaner curve, and I haven't really considered Dream Halls as a viable card for my cube in a while. Testing it makes sense with some of the other combo enablers you support (that I don't).

I prefer Gifts to Dig Through Time. I think it's more interesting, versatile, and splashable.

The Blade of the Oni cut is tough. Black 2s are so deep these days. Maybe Scrounger could move to colorless or be cut? I also think it's fine to not run the Blade.

Bowmasters and Sheoldred is a high octane include. Seems like a lot of fun that hopefully doesn't prove to be too much for your environment. I'm avoiding it for now although it's a very tempting duo.

I haven't run Harrow in a while. I think that's an easy cut.

Sad to see some of my favorite cube cards go in this update, but I understand most of the changes!

 

[Nanonox]

Dream Halls is either a cheat card or a combo card, making it quite narrow, but very potent in the right deck. Chaining draw 7s or casting a big creature a few turns ahead of the curve can be game winning.
I am missing a UR or R target to make it more playable. Maybe going towards Niv-Mizzet, Parun is the right way to go.

I like diversifying ways to combo out because it makes players feel smart for going off the beaten path and games are less repetitive than always Brain Freeze, LED, Breach.

I like the Gifts over Dig suggestion. You have more control on the cast timing and targets.

Bowmasters and Sheoldred is a high octane include. Seems like a lot of fun that hopefully doesn't prove to be too much for your environment.

If I am being honest, I think they are too much. But I am ok with them dominating for a few drafts.

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On another note, I am interested in a Mardu control package. A low to the ground deck with good threats and removal. Most of the pieces are there: cheap removal (STP, Bolt, Fatal Push), threats that can take over (SFM, Kroxa, Confidant) and the option to branch into some of the themes of the cube. Here it would probably be Discard and Spells matter.



The Raven man triggering on both sides means your Thoughtseizes are that much more potent.
This small package offers disruption, control and win conditions. Combine with stuff like Currency Converter, Seasoned Pyromancer and Lingering Souls and you have a monster of a deck.



These are pretty obvious, but fit really well in the archetype. Build board presence while casting your spells and winning by chip damage. Dreadhorde Arcanist and Magmatic Channeler can also reward you for going down that route.

I would like a bit more disruption and card advantage. To complement what is already in the cube, I would add



I don’t always like Hymn’s play patterns, but it’s iconic and powerful. It creates stories even if not always for the good reasons.
Vindicate destroying lands and consolidating advantages is sweet, even though 3 mana + sorcery speed isn’t.
Command should probably already be in the cube. Versatile 2 for 1 that good players can make shine.
Truths wants you to be in 3 colors and the rate is perfect.

Other options I am less sure about:



Covenant is a one sided sweeper but with a very real downside of costing a lot of life. It’s extremely powerful though and could be a good push towards the archetype.

I usually don’t like adding cards like Helix that have a mostly mono-coloured equivalent, but the life gain is so perfect.

Cling is GY hate and a cantrip with a potential life buffer that speaks to me. It can trigger your spells payoffs multiple times and you don't mind discarding it early if it comes to that.

Tithe is just a solid 2 for 1, triggers things you care about and makes splashing easier. Not a great top deck though!

Weathered Wayfarer's biggest upside is fetching any land. Meaning your Urza's Saga or Field of the Dead are easily found.

Even though the Monarch mechanic would be pretty good here, I am still avoiding it as I don't enjoy it in 1vs1 games. Palace Jailer and Forth Eorlingas! would be bangers though!

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To accommodate all of this, I am thinking of cutting a few themes or subthemes. First victim: the humans subtheme.



The rate and utility on 1 and 2 drops is high enough that you can have an equivalent creature that could fit into other archetypes/themes. Winota was fun when it worked, but is a bit tedious to draft especially since I don't use the correct Oracle text for all of the cards (Old border > rules text for me!).

If humans get cut, I think it's safe to remove the counters subtheme too



Mikaeus and Ranger can still be good, but they are less synergistic with what the rest of the cube is doing if I remove the 2 payoffs. I'll especially miss Mikaeus with Jeskai Ascendancy and Paradox Engine, so it might come back!

I am also considering cutting the Sacrifice archetype to make some room in Black.



I've cubed with most of these cards for so long that I have trouble staying level headed. I like Mayhem Devil and Greater Gargadon caring about more than creatures. Woe Strider coming back from the GY is good too. Bombardment offers reach for tokens deck, but maybe that is too narrow? I need to think more on this. The sacrifice deck hasn't been coming together much and I either need to hard commit with more sacrifice outlets (Spawning Pit), more payoffs (Blood Artist) and more fodder (Cult Conscript) or abandon it altogether.