Pulp Nouveau: Mystery, Madness, & Magic

[landofMordor]

Like a private eye, a tomb raider, or a cult leader, this cube is bold but instantly recognizable. It is full of darkness and danger that bring the player solace and comfort. It is exaggerated, straining the suspension of disbelief, but knowingly so.

Introducing Pulp Nouveau, a medium-power cube that fuses theme and mechanic.

Link: https://cubeartisan.net/cube/13/list or https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/pulpnouveau

Theme​

Pulp Nouveau borrows from stories and tropes set during or shortly after the fin de siecle and Gilded Age (1880s-1940s). Corruption, intrigue, decadence, and madness permeate tales like Indiana Jones, The Maltese Falcon, Christie's Murder on the Nile, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, or Wells' The Invisible Man. These, among others, are the sourcebooks for Pulp Nouveau.

The settings I most avidly pursued were those of Art Deco grandeur and film noir (New Capenna/Ravnica), light cosmic/body horror (Eldritch Moon/the Simic combine), and pulpy archeology (Amonkhet, Dominaria, Kaldheim, Zendikar).

(Obviously, these themes carry some problematic tropes, including but not limited to problematic gender tropes (e.g. Indy's machismo), glorification of violence, and the tacit approval of extractative colonialism inherent in Western archeology. I don't condone these themes, and in fact, the undercurrent of horror in this cube serves as a kind of counter-narrative: the explorers and capitalists of Pulp Nouveau are only one dark alley away from comeuppance. The cube's players have the agency to repurpose these game pieces, changing the narrative.)

Individual cards don't necessarily need to hit all of these themes, but need to plausibly fit this fictional world. Selecting for flavorful cards has led to an emergent set of constraints and mechanics for the format's gameplay:

"Mission Statement" cards

Rules of Engagement​

The prioritization of flavor in this cube sets firm bounds on power level. These cards are roughly Standard role-players or worse; or, to use the LR grading system, they were "B+" in their respective Limited formats. I can't creep them out of viability by including tons of Constructed staples, efficient removal, or S-tier bombs.

Moreover, the themes of mystery and madness naturally lend themselves to and cards. Rather than relax my thematic constraints, I've chosen to lean into this color imbalance. There are more -adjacent cards present than -adjacent, but I've gone even further: The only freely available basic lands are Swamps.

​

Black Sun, Total Eclipse​

Restricting basic land availability is not new. "Desert" cubes have embraced this constraint for years, often leaning into the eponymous card's flavor with nautical and arid themes. The harsh, technical restrictions on manabase in a Desert cube are a lot of fun for me, even though I don't care for Desert themes.

Hence a modified Desert stipulation that I've dubbed Black Sun: players must draft all their lands except basic Swamps. In the world of Pulp Nouveau, it's fitting that a mage can effortlessly access the color of greed, betrayal, and decadence. And, equally important, the restriction allows me to access the punishing Desert-style decision-making that I love so much.

The effects of the Black Sun restriction profoundly shape gameplay:
- Black cards begin to resemble "colorless"
- Since only ~20% of the cube's spells are mono-, these cards will be scarce (average of 8 spells per drafter)
- The gold sections are deep, providing incentives to pair with other colors
- The (nonland) fixing/filtering that exists is concentrated in other colors

Archetypes​

Most archetypes in Pulp Nouveau are unplanned and emergent. Because drafters naturally look to maximize the power of their game pieces, I expect synergies to coalesce around the format's power outliers, which I've selected for replayable, novel, and fun gameplay. Moreover, because the cards are pulled from a small subset of blocks, I expect that mechanics will repeat fairly often, leading to a more beginner-friendly experience than my usual cube.

Of course, the theme of the cube means that the graveyard is a very active zone in Pulp Nouveau. I haven't exploited this inclination to the graveyard much, except in one notable case: Reanimator.

My historical issue with Reanimator is the polar incentive structure -- either you're cheating enough mana to make a A+B+C combo worthwhile, or you're better off playing fair Magic. Pulp Nouveau has several features to integrate this strategy with less friction:
- A deeply integrated set of discard-adjacent synergies establishes one Reanimator enabler as a pillar of the format
- Madness piggybacks on this infrastructure to guarantee competition over discard outlets.
- The format's Reanimator targets primarily gain value by staying on the battlefield (i.e., "Baneslayers"), or exploiting synergy
- The mana value of the Reanimator targets is firmly in the castable range (5-6 mana), so that various Zombify effects aren't buying mana advantage, but virtual card advantage. This strongly reinforces the feature above.

In other words, players should only attempt to Zombify a creature if they have a strong synergistic reason for doing so, but in return for this discipline, the risks of Reanimation are less pronounced than in traditional cubes.

Example Reanimate targets

Planned Updates​

At time of writing I've drafted Pulp Nouveau only twice, neither time with the Black Sun restriction. My first planned update will focus on mana fixing and card filtering. I'll also attempt to identify the right level of complexity for the cube's manabase. That will be followed by honing in on an appropriate power level for the upper crust of threats.

As I playtest, I will assess the gameplay effects of the Black Sun restriction, identify best practices for supporting this asymmetrical structure, and contrast Black Sun with a "vanilla" Desert restriction.

My ultimate goal is to have an accessible, thematic format where player decision-making is tightly bounded far from the usual Magic experience, but creativity and adaptability within those bounds creates fun and success.

---

Thanks for reading! Share your thoughts below. Cheers!

Cube link: https://cubeartisan.net/cube/13/list or https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/pulpnouveau

 

[landofMordor]

First Playtests​

Allison's 3-0 Grixis Regimen

Allison's deck has several surprisingly powerful threats: Poet's Quill often fetched Inkling Summoning and provided uninteractive lifegain thereafter; Sparring Regimen did similar things, and Evelyn, the Covetous shut down the battlefield (3/3s are huge but get stonewalled by her!) while earning a 3-for-1 at the minimum. Toluz also impressed as a 3-mana Mulldrifter who promises additional value with the deck's many discard outlets. Add the consistent manabase and the skilled pilot to this powerful deck, and it's no surprise it earned the 3-0.

My 2-1 Sultai

I lost to Allison in the finals in a close, but extremely grindy, set of 3 games. This deck's top end was fairly insane -- able to spend arbitrary amounts of mana productively, but also turning the corner for consistent pressure as early as turn 3. Tutors and slight graveyard recursion aided its consistency. The hidden bomb was Thwart the Grave combined with Prime Speaker Vannifar's Wizard typeline. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant was also an insane bomb, even without much self-mill in the format. Dogged Detective and Sinister Concierge were extremely strong two-drops that bought me time to fix my mana, and I've never seen Slogurk, the Overslime look so good! A fun deck to pilot, if a little board-stally.

Andy's 2-1 Rock

My deck was the only one to beat Andy, and frankly Lotleth Troll hard carried me during our match. (That card was not fun. Correct play pattern was to have up at all times and never attack with it.) It's not hard to see why this deck is so strong -- a consistent manabase and green "tarmogoyfs" that hit as hard as trucks. Sarulf, Realm Eater and Transmogrant's Crown were standouts here, especially Crown. The Madness-style enablers came together too, with more than one T4 Honored Hydra seeing play this evening. Andy also told me that Shadow of Mortality was not strong but he wanted to crew Dodgy Jalopy with it (fair 'nuff).

---

I don't have the word-count nor the patience to type out the rest of the evening's decklists, but I wanted to briefly highlight the creative, powerful, and unique decks that this format can produce! Thanks to all the drafters who embarked on this crazy experiment.

My next post will discuss card design notes in conjunction with an influential theory article I saw posted in the RTL Discord this week. Cheers, and thanks for reading!

 

[landofMordor]

Investment & Threats​

Patrick Chapin wrote an article in 2016 that I highly recommend, about how threat design impacted the health of Standard:

• In 2016, Standard had a long list of cards that were seeing play in over a quarter of decks (KLD Energy era)
• Chapin asserts this is because "Standard has far more auto-includes than interesting options", i.e. the format's diversity is compressed by power outliers
• Chapin "would like to see more Kings made with built-in weaknesses", and not just dying to removal after bringing a powerful ETB or pushing damage

Healthy format pillars, in Chapin's opinion, require investment -- and cheap cycling, haste, ETBs, death triggers, cantrips, untapped lands with low opportunity cost, and cheap cards don't have much of that! "There needs to be a tradeoff... in how much of their power comes from these traits vs from investment." Threats that require investment allow counterplay. Even Wingmate Roc or Butcher of the Horde, very powerful Standard cards with (conditionally) immediate value, required the player to take risks and make sacrifices. A counterexample is The Scarab God, whose death trigger and "outrageous rate" punish the opponent for playing cool creatures and kill spells. Prior cards in this mold didn't have resiliency and rate in a single package -- to the benefit of their Standard formats!

There's a special kind of investment for Limited that Chapin didn't mention: investment during draft. A card like Oko, Thief of Crowns may be Eldraine's best card -- but drafting him in ELD required commitment to a weak color pair, and/or prioritizing Golden Egg-type smoothing. To unlock Oko's investment-free gameplay, the player had to make significant investments during draft.

Chapin's suggestions on a healthy suite of threats:

• Decrease the emphasis on one-cost and two-cost threats that generate snowballing advantage.
• Increase the amount new mechanics are propped up by contextual strengths, while decreasing the subsidization from rate and [low] opportunity cost
• Build in more potential weaknesses and opportunities for counterplay, with plans for how to eventually leverage that to change the format.
• And most importantly, increase the percentage of the best cards’ power that comes from investment.

This is a huge insight for me, and sparked a deep dive on my threat selection in Pulp Nouveau.

Single Card Discussion: Investment



Evelyn, finisher of Allison's 3-0 deck from last post, is a fairly low-investment card that may not read like it. The hybrid mana boils down to "mono- with 3 buyout clauses", the lowest-risk mana cost in the Black Sun format. Flash presents even more flexibility and value (mid-combat, or after the opponent taps out). The 2/5 statline blocks far better than it attacks, extending the game, while the ETB helps assure those extra turns will favor Evelyn's owner. Speaking of which -- though Evelyn may read like a "vampire lord", which would require drafting risk, note that she instantly earns +2 card advantage by herself! Extra Vampires are just gravy. Verdict: Too little investment in gameplay and draft. Chopping block.

I've written on my main cube blog about how FIRE-era threats muffle any changes I make underneath their power level, and Chapin allowed me to realize this is because they are risk-free investments. I want Pulp Nouveau's premier threats to require investment.



Chun-Li is one of the reasons I built this cube. Pulp flavor, resonant design, but not in-your-face with the cross-property flavor. Her mana cost is rough in this format, requiring significant draft investment just to cast her. During gameplay, she's also vulnerable to a wide variety of removal, and even her snowballing potential requires her to enter combat (with all its risk of battlefield trades). I'm certain she couldn't happily co-exist in Evelyn's format, and so there's a reason I'm cutting Evelyn! Verdict: Platonic ideal of investment -- maybe even too much.



GCG (x3 copies) is Green's premier proactive 2-drop. The Adapt ability grows it into a 4/4, draws a card, and can be activated at instant speed. GCG is the definition of "low-risk value" when it's in play, but I think this still requires significant investment during draft. Not only must you acquire >1 copy to really reach the ceiling on GCG, but you must draft ~8x lands to cast them on curve, pulling you away from a low-risk manabase! Verdict: High draft and deckbuild investment justifies the low gameplay risk.



Ishkanah was the card from my 2-1 deck that generated the most concessions from my opponents. The ETB requires deckbuild/draft/gameplay risk to trigger, but if it succeeds, then Ishkanah presents an insurmountable, defensive battlefield presence. But then again, the 5-mana, non- casting cost affords plenty of opportunity for counterplay from proactive opponents... Verdict: Sufficient investment for its power, but it's possibly unfun if it's good. Watchlist.



Probably the best of the (many) Emerge Eldrazi in this cube. Obviously, it's difficult to cast for , so the workarounds my format provides are 1) Zombify effects, and 2) Emerge. In case 1, you cheat 4 mana and get a 5/5 body (no cast trigger). In case 2, you get a 3-for-2 card advantage. In both cases, it'll hurt if Mindbender gets Price of Fame'd, but is still a huge threat that can win the game unopposed. Verdict: Another Platonic ideal of risk/reward in this format.

Investment by Design

Given the SCDs above, we can narrow down the price of appropriate removal in this format, such that threats are appealing without being risk-free auto-includes.

Removal	Trades with 2MV threats, highly conditional 2-for-1s	Trades with 3MV threats, or 2-for-1s 2MV threats	Trades with any creature, or 2-for-1s 3MV threats	Trades with any permanent, or 2-for-1s any creature	Board wipe(?)
Threats	2/1s and 1/2s with upside	X/2s with upside	X/3s with upside	X/4s with upside; going rate for mana-cheat effects	X/5 and up
Removal/Threat Examples	Shock, Academic Dispute, Thraben Inspector	Tragic Fall, Light 'Em Up, Growth-Chamber Guardian, Dogged Detective	Igneous Inspiration, Mortify, Chun-Li, Countless Kicks	Price of Fame, Curator of Mysteries, Vigor Mortis	Introduction to Annihilation, By Invitation Only, Honored Hydra
Black Sun "Pressure Valves"	non- colors get Cycling and cantrips; gets free Swamps	gets cycling and filtering; Environmental Sciences; Other colors get 2-for-1s

In summary: My format's removal should generate a mana advantage in the early game (the risk I've deemed appropriate). Larger mana advantages are permitted against the format's most expensive threats, and card advantage is permitted with higher risk or smaller mana advantage.

This table is also opinionated on the power level of threats, in a way that really narrows the possible power level band for this format. I don't hold firmly to this table in a dogmatic sense, but restrictions like this help to triage possibilities, letting me focus on a more tractable subset of options.

Draft Investment under the Black Sun

Finally, I've made several intentional steps to increase the risk of during draft. Black cards are very low-risk in this draft format, since they don't require a second pick of a fixing land to "turn on".

• is not plentiful enough to build mono-color decks, and the demand from all players will further decrease these chances
• -adjacent gold cards are stronger on rate than monocolor options, incentivizing splashes even on drafts that begin mono-
• has weaker mana fixing and card smoothing, meaning that -based multicolor decks are high risk.
• 's cards should require more synergy (i.e., draft risk) to contribute as much power as non-Black threats.

These countervailing forces will prevent true degeneracy while still setting novel rules of engagement in this format.

---

Thanks for reading, and cheers!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

This would be an interesting lens to view through for any lower power Riptide cube. It feels adjacent to my design goals, despite the vastly different starting point. For example, at one point I figured out I wanted to give aggro more breathing room, and I did this by moving my mana rocks to 3 mana, and my wrath effects to 5. I do run some creatures that break the curve on the toughness side, e.g. Courser of Kruphix, but the idea is that you can't get something that starts out with both power > mv and toughness > mv at lower mana values, Feather, the Redeemed being the only exception (she cool though). Anyway, lovely write-up!

 

[landofMordor]

you can't get something that starts out with both power > mv and toughness > mv at lower mana values, Feather, the Redeemed being the only exception (she cool though)

Not only is she cool, but she also requires significant investment to cast on curve. So, sure, by the time you're putting Feather on the stack, it feels like you're getting away with something, but don't forget you made a lot of sacrifices during draft and deckbuild to enable that gameplay moment. So I think she's fine, even if her stats-per-MV are high.

Thanks for the kind reply!

 

[LadyMapi]

I feel like I need to steal that table (OK, the idea behind it, not necessarily the table itself) the next time I fiddle with a new cube...

 

[landofMordor]

Complexity: Mechanics, Manabase, and Singleton​

During a hectic weekend at Magic Con Philly, I was able to fire two draft pods of Pulp Nouveau. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with this cube and the Black Sun restriction, and have some reflections on this process.

• Upon the phrase "only freely available basics are Swamps," my drafters' faces would often spark with the anticipation of interesting decisions. That was extremely rewarding.
• The next question after that pitch was always "How many lands are present?"
• Once the draft began, somebody would usually say, "wait, is this cube singleton?" or "do you play Lessons?"
• But what I rarely heard from 16 newcomers: "what's this mechanic do?" or "what are the supported archetypes?". I take this as a major sign of success -- my players weren't experiencing cognitive overload despite a change in Limited's most fundamental rule.

Complexity informs every step of this process. Pulp Nouveau's primary appeal is an intentionally and unreasonably tension-filled draft. It's a big success that the card-level choices enable difficult decisions while remaining tractable. That said, my card pool is designedly obscure -- probably less than 10% of them have seen competitive play, and so I wanted to reflect on successes and failures w.r.t. complexity, and how I can tune my format's gameplay while maintaining the overall positive newcomer experience.

Mechanic Census, circa 2/27/23

Density	Mechanics
15+	+1/+1 Counters (46), Cycling (26), Surveil* (16)
10-15	Madness, Lessons, Flashback, Unearth
6-10	Adapt, Emerge, Investigate
2-5	Blitz, Connive, Explore, Vehicles, TDFCs, Delve, Scavenge, Dredge, Kicker, Casualty
1 with reminder text	Training, Convoke, Intimidate, Shield counters, Suspend, Level Up, Aftermath, Evolve, Untap symbol
1, no reminder text	Aftermath**, Regenerate, Blood tokens

* Surveil has 16 with the mechanic named, and 2 with the mechanic pre-erratum. Blood Operative triggers on Surveil.
** Cut//Ribbons is the sick SLD version which is perfect for this cube aesthetically but is hard to read
§ I'm ignoring "keyword actions" that always have their full rules text spelled out, like Alliance, Landfall, or Raid.

There's 31 mechanics total. More than half of these have less than 5 instances in the cube, and a third have only 1 instance, inviting a close examination of the latter third. Familiarity lowers complexity, and that can't happen if I only have 1 or 2 of a given mechanic.

An example: the first time my opponent activates Curator of Mysteries, I may have already been cycling my own cards, or passed several in the draft portion, so I can shortcut a full line of rules text. But nothing in the entire format can provide that familiarity when my opponent casts Rigo, Streetwise Mentor. It's even worse for Experiment One's Regenerate, which doesn't have reminder text! That said, Experiment One's flavorful fit earns it a pass, for now -- the real trouble is cards like Old Rutstein and Rigo Streetwise Mentor, who lack appealing aesthetics and also resist familiarity during a thinky draft.

The 2- of and 3-of mechanics in my format, like Blitz and Connive, are also suspect, because you might not see a copy of Raffine's Informant to explain Toluz, Clever Conductor like you would in SNC Limited. (Vehicles with Crew reminder text are also missing here.) It should be easy enough to just sprinkle more examples of these cards throughout the format, rather than cutting them entirely.

Finally, it's worth looking at how I achieved higher densities of mechanics. Adapt wouldn't be where it is without breaking singleton; Emerge runs every card but 2 with the mechanic; all my other high-density mechanics benefit from heavy use of non-singleton. It's really refreshing to lighten my players' mental loads by running 2 perfect 1-drops instead of adding out-of-place or clunky singleton versions. Strict flavor requirements and complexity monitoring combines to be an intuitive and rewarding way to design a cube.

​

Manabase
Currently I run:

∞ Swamps
10x Forest, Plains
11x Mountain, Island
3x each Odyssey cycling land
10x Shocklands
10x Painlands
10x Bouncelands
10x Checklands
A loose cycle of Treetop Villages and stuff like that.

Complexity is OK, again thanks to the high density of non-singleton effects. The combination of Shock/Check is elegant and resonant, and Pain/Bounce are both fine too.

However, in the past two drafts, I've had people play non-Black decks with 3 or 4 colors and do quite well with them. On one hand, I applaud that extra effort of drafting 40 maindeck cards in 45-52 picks. On the other hand, the fact that they filled all the holes in their gameplan despite the risk is... problematic.

I see 3 causes for this phenomenon:

• Non-black fixing was flowing because more players were interested in -adjacent fixing, for obvious reasons.
• The heavily basics-focused manabase is kind to my players' mental processing, but is fairly forgiving to shaky manabases.
• The format is synergy-agnostic enough that players can end up with a cohesive maindeck without really trying, allowing the rest of their picks to go towards mana.

My next steps will address these issues.

Next Steps

Manabases: I think I'd like to add two cycles of Tainted lands. Or maybe two more cycles of -aligned Painlands; something to address the high demand for lands that that connect players from Black to their next color. I may cut basics for these, or I may add some small amount of "strictly worse" basics that are still better than a basic Swamp. Like... idk, Pine Barrens? or Snarls? Help!

Synergy: I need more incentives that require the context of other cards to be strong. Without synergy, draft can just be an indistiguishable khaki of "hey, I drafted a bunch of Cycling and Lessons as ways to fix my mana, which incidentally enables everything in my deck except the bombs".

High Investment Cards

Feel free to add any suggestions for your favorite build-arounds! I have some more listed below but am far too lazy to link all of them.

Spoiler: Other random support cards I might add

Vehicles: Capenna Express, Funeral Longboat, Hoard Hauler, Mysterious Limousine, Ovalchase Dragster, Fleetwheel Cruiser, Smuggler's Buggy, Untethered Express, Hoard Hauler, Renegade Freighter

Tribal stuff: Demonic Taskmaster, Falkenrath Pit Fighter, Voldaren Estate, Gift of Fangs, Olivia's Bloodsworn, Archpriest of Iona, Nimble Trapfinder, Coveted Prize, Journey to Oblivion, Bloodlord of Vaasgoth, Falkenrath Pit Fighter, Acquisitions Expert, Squad Commander, Anowon the Ruin Sage

Other cool cards: Death's Shadow, Mukotai Soulripper, scheming fence, seekers' squire, merfolk branchwalker, Angel of Condemnation, Mark of the Oni, Oni Possession, Shadowborn Demon, Primal Forcemage, Fists of Flame, Expedite

More shield counters?: Wingshield Agent, Falco Spara Pactweaver, Boon of Safety <- Gods Willing

Thanks for reading!

 

[japahn]

I really like how you've outlined in your table how the removal is supposed to match up with the threats. This is something we discuss a lot but never that thoroughly.

I've noticed most removal matches up with threats with an advantage. That sounds like it would create an environment where control is is the meta, however I think that removal power is pretty normal in cubes and it doesn't create control metas... probably, maybe it does and Sam Black know it.

What I think happens is that the awkwardness of the removal sometimes not lining up with threats compensates this advantage when it works out. Trying to put it in numbers:

Removal works for the threat = +2 utility 60% of the time
Removal doesn't work for the threat = -3 utility 40% of the time
Overall = 0

So we're balancing the risk of the removal not working with the advantage of it working and giving you an advantage. But the expected value for a single removal spell is just one instance of it in the context of a Magic game. In a real game you have multiple removal spell options to deal with multiple threats that are rolled out at different times, and you can withstand some amount of hits or tolerate some blockers thwarting your offensive to get them to line up properly. That means it's basically impossible to run this analysis unless using some sort of simulation.

Is that why you arrived at the table's contents or was it more a matter of adding the cards you wanted and reverse engineering what the rule of fairness was?

 

[landofMordor]

I really like how you've outlined in your table how the removal is supposed to match up with the threats. This is something we discuss a lot but never that thoroughly.

Thanks!

I've noticed most removal matches up with threats with an advantage. That sounds like it would create an environment where control is is the meta, however I think that removal power is pretty normal in cubes and it doesn't create control metas... probably, maybe it does and Sam Black know it.

What I think happens is that the awkwardness of the removal sometimes not lining up with threats compensates this advantage when it works out. Trying to put it in numbers:

Removal works for the threat = +2 utility 60% of the time
Removal doesn't work for the threat = -3 utility 40% of the time
Overall = 0

So we're balancing the risk of the removal not working with the advantage of it working and giving you an advantage.

Yes, absolutely! The fail case on removal isn't even "the Shock didn't kill the 3/3", it can even be "I didn't draw the Shock until the 2/2 had gained a bunch of value or punched me for 6 over several turns, or turned on their synergy, or had an ETB or recursion". And those fail cases aren't captured in the table, so I don't even think it's as lopsided as your thought experiment might suggest. If anything, removal needs the help to stay competitive!

... it's basically impossible to run this analysis unless using some sort of simulation.

Is that why you arrived at the table's contents or was it more a matter of adding the cards you wanted and reverse engineering what the rule of fairness was?

Yes, it is a bit intractable. I reverse-engineered using the following premises:
1. Channel+Distended Mindbender exists here, and I want that success rate to be neither a 100% guarantee nor a 50% gamble.
2. I want players to be able to tap out for a 5-mana Baneslayer without getting dunked on by a cheap removal spell.
3. Zombify-priced reanimation also exists, but is cheating relatively modest threats. If "normal cubes" run Doom Blades vs. Reanimate, then 4-5 seemed like the right spot for unconditional removal (see 2)
4. I'm still running plenty of aggressive things that can snowball at 1-4 mana, so cheaper removal also needs to exist, but it just needs to target small stuff.

Points 1-3 pretty much established a couple of reference points, and point 4 the "slope" of that curve, so I was able to fill in the regression from there.

Thanks for your response!

 

[landofMordor]

Got to talk about this cube with my friends on Lucky Paper Radio!

 

[Jason Waddell]

Where's the draft report?

 

[landofMordor]

MOM Testing​

March of the Machine was actually pretty kind to Pulp Nouveau -- the plane-hopping flavor meant that there's a few noir-themed cards that don't reference Phyrexians too overtly.

Will actively search out:
Errant and Giada - perfect theme, sideways support for Angel tribal, bolsters a color pair that needs the help here
Deeproot Wayfinder - again, perfect mechanics/theme blend. Only bummer is that it's not a Party type
Omen Hawker - Again, flavor is good here. It can pay Cycling, Unearth, Clue costs, Equips... idk, maybe it's too weird but I'll try it
Archpriest of Shadows[EDIT] - A perfect reanimation spell in this format that I initially overlooked.
Scorn-Blade Berserker[EDIT] - Flavor's a little off here, but I like Backup enough to try it.

May test if I happen upon one:
Streetwise Negotiator - Mostly for flavor. I think the 3/3 statline default might be too strong
Stormclaw Rager - On the other hand, this card's flavor is off, but as Ravnic said in the spoiler thread, it's the perfect uncommon sac outlet
Oracle of Tragedy - I'm a sucker for graveyard loops, and this one works with Thwart the Grave effects beautifully

May test if I hear high praise:
Wary Thespian - I just don't think that 3/1 body is gonna hold up

Art Upgrades:
Juri, Judith

I'm cursed with too many Green s!

---

Separately, I got in another draft with this list last week. I went undefeated in team draft with Abzan Power Outliers:



My table didn't respect Transmogrant's Crown or Poet's Quill (the most first-pickable cards in the cube, IMO), and I got two early Professor of Symbology, so that established my main colors. Drafting my lands meant I priced myself into ambitious splashes.

Karador ruled. It felt so cool to cast, was powerful but fair, and gave me an aspirational goal while drafting. My opponents felt similarly about Hollow One, Asmor, Sidisi Brood Tyrant, etc. This is a validation of my "cards that require investment" changes that I feel really good about. (Flip side: I never drew Ryu, and Sigarda completely ended a couple games... but I'm going to give them the benefit of doubt for now.)

On the other hand, I don't love how game-haltingly powerful Scavenging Ooze in this format. Deathgorge Raptor and Sungold Sentinel are much less egregious, but still maybe too pushed. Ashnod's Harvester and Scrabbling Claws feel about perfect for this effect -- I just wish Green and White had versions at this power level. Beckon Apparition? Purify the Grave? Mardu Woe-Reaper? ...Yixlid Jailer? I wish Thraben Heretic didn't limit the exile to creatures. Input welcome.

Final note to self: sleeve up about 20 more Swamps!

 

[TrainmasterGT]

On the other hand, I don't love how game-haltingly powerful Scavenging Ooze in this format. Deathgorge Raptor and Sungold Sentinel are much less egregious, but still maybe too pushed. Ashnod's Harvester and Scrabbling Claws feel about perfect for this effect -- I just wish Green and White had versions at this power level. Beckon Apparition? Purify the Grave? Mardu Woe-Reaper? ...Yixlid Jailer? I wish Thraben Heretic didn't limit the exile to creatures. Input welcome.

I like Deathgorge Scavenger and Mardu Woe-Reaper.

Some other cool options:

 

[inscho]

Scrabbling claws is by far my favorite fair graveyard hate..it's pretty hard to top it imo. I think Deathgorge Scavenger is a good power level here. Jack o' Lantern maybe...I like Mardu Woe Reaper. I see you run Remorseful Cleric which I always thought was too effficent and abusble for my graveyard-centric cube. I think Deathgorge is more reasonable than the cleric fwiw.

I used to really enjoy:


as mass graveyard hate that doesn't feel so bad and can also shuffle back your own business spells. It's always played very very well for me at a variety of lower power levels. So maybe consider it if you think Deathgorge is a bit pushed for your format? Fun times with Stream of Thought

Adding a couple pieces of exiling burn can help Selesnya splash graveyard hate. Obliterating Bolt, Magmatic Spray, Pillar of Flame, Scorching Dragonfire, etc.

There's also:


Which never felt like the right fit for my format, but does provide some incidental graveyard hate while being versatile.


?

Other low powered options:


Turn was always interesting to me as it can target multiple graveyards at once, but never lasted long in my lists as it's so low impact.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

?

I think this card is unbeatably strong in low power. It snowballs very fast!

 

[inscho]

I think this card is unbeatably strong in low power. It snowballs very fast!

Fair enough. I've never tried it myself

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Fair enough. I've never tried it myself

Makes sense. My experience with it comes from Pioneer and SNC retail. The card is nutty!

 

[Chris Taylor]

Even if it wasn't too powerful, Hearse is a sledgehammer in terms of graveyard hate, like a rest in peace that can attack and block.

I had to nerf it, and my format isn't particularly low power (Made it ETB exile one, tap exile one and it still feels extremely frustrating to play against if you're interested in your graveyard)

 

[LadyMapi]

Some other options (including a pet card):



There's also this weird set of cards, which are kinda-sorta graveyard hate if you squint?



The Advocates don't directly hate on graveyards, but they can mess with strategies like reanimator that rely on getting "useless" cards into the graveyard, and their activated abilities often end up being really strong if you're facing an opponent that's stocking their graveyard.

 

[landofMordor]

Thanks for the feedback, everybody!

I like Deathgorge Scavenger and Mardu Woe-Reaper.

I'll bring in Woe-Reaper and maybe Verdant Command and see what happens. Dryad Militant is already in.

Scrabbling claws is by far my favorite fair graveyard hate..it's pretty hard to top it imo. I think Deathgorge Scavenger is a good power level here. Jack o' Lantern maybe...I like Mardu Woe Reaper.

Agree with all of this. Deathgorge can stay for now.

I see you run Remorseful Cleric which I always thought was too effficent and abusble for my graveyard-centric cube. I think Deathgorge is more reasonable than the cleric fwiw.

Agreed here, too -- Cleric will be cut next update. Turn the Earth may also come in (love the graveyard loops).

a sledgehammer in terms of graveyard hate

Great way to sum up what I'm trying to avoid in this cube. I want every deck to have options against Reanimator and graveyard loops, but I want the Reanimator player to believe that the right topdeck or tactic can still prevail vs some interaction.

Some other options (including a pet card):

Ooh Purify! Might try it.

There's also this weird set of cards, which are kinda-sorta graveyard hate if you squint?

I'd love to see the MH3 version of the Advocates with reasonable stats and stuff. I guess Forcemage Advocate is about as good as Yixlid Jailer - unplayable in most cases but can be brought in vs. an opponent who's up to no good.

 

[landofMordor]

CubeCon & LCI Testing​

I took Pulp Nouveau to CubeCon 2023!

If this is your first time hearing about CubeCon, then go read my tournament report, go read @Dom Harvey's report, go watch the vods. It was, quite simply, the best Magic weekend of the year. Can't wait to go next year.

I actually don't have any design thoughts quite yet. I have access to the 3-0 deck archives, and a quick glance indicated that winning archetypes were fairly well represented and balanced among colors. Plus, I'm not putting too much faith in such a small sample size. Mostly, I just wanted to express my excitement at how fun the weekend was, and how grateful I am that so many folks had a good time drafting this list.

LCI Testing

So, I didn't test any cards from WOE or LTR or MOM:Aftermath in Pulp Nouveau -- nothing fit the hardboiled vibe. I did find and cut a few more power outliers and complexity outliers in the intervening time, and CubeCon forced me to have a 100% accurate match to CubeCobra. Will recap those at another time.



So, we've got a couple cards which are right on flavor -- paleontology, tomb robbing, reliquaries, petrification, greedy freebooting (note the Raiders sendup here). We've got Explore, which I'm eager to increase the as-fan of as a tool to reduce the first-time complexity of this format. We've got a couple reanimation spells I like more than what I've got. And there's an Angel that can be Unearthed/Helping Handed, who I'm guessing will become Skaab Ruinator's partner in crime. I'm most excited about the cheap Explore creatures, and most skeptical of all the non-creature spells.

I guess more notable is what I didn't include. I still haven't finished reading the reminder text on Craft or Discover, and I don't really care to own Map tokens, either, so those are all right out. I don't mind Caves, which synergize with the Indiana Jones vibes, but it's still a no at the moment. And I still have a huge handful of cards "on deck" that I can't find enough space for, so I didn't feel the need to test anything more than the bare essentials.

EDIT: To support Intrepid Paleontologist, I think a handful of Dinos might be appropriate -- some of the cheap ones, some of the basic landcyclers from LCI (double duty, as they engage with Pulp's central conceit). Currently I've only got one.

 

[landofMordor]

Murders at Karlov Manor​

This is Pulp Nouveau Set Rotation Season at this rate.

I'm most excited to add higher densities of Clues and Surveillance, Collect Evidence, and all-around awesome noir flavor. These will all benefit the core themes and mechanics of this format.

Will actively search out
Novice Inspector
Extract a Confession
Gleaming Geardrake
Scene of the Crime
Homicide Investigator
Macabre Reconstruction
Snarling Gorehound
Unscrupulous Agent
Innocent Bystander
Pick Your Poison
Rubblebelt Maverick
Sample Collector
Curious Cadaver
Evidence Examiner


Will test as packages
It Doesn't Add Up
Convenient Target
Branch of Vitu-Ghazi
Nightdrinker Moroii
Shady Informant
Concealed Weapon
Nervous Gardener
Museum Nightwatch
Granite Witness
Fugitive Codebreaker
Gadget Technician
Mistway Spy
Chalk Outline
Underground Mortuary
and the other 9 Surveil lands.

Suspect is obviously a flavor home-run, but it might just be a mechanical annoyance. Disguise/Cloak is also sweet on flavor, but is far from simple, and the cards with these abilities don't seem very powerful either. Making matters worse, the only design that really speaks to me is Branch of Vitu-Ghazi.

Might Test

Case of the Stashed Skeleton
Harried Dronesmith
Red Herring
Sharp-Eyed Rookie
Blood Spatter Analysis


No RavniClue, you ask? No. I'm still unconvinced those goofy hybrid cards are real (much less that I ought to allow 7 guilds access to such powerful rates in a cube where mana restrictions are supposed to be a core gameplay feature).

What to Cut
(at least one) Thraben Inspector is an easy cut for Novice Inspector.
Earthshaker Khenra might be a little too good
Cutthroat Contender out for Gorehound
Coiling Oracle easy cut for Evidence Collector
Blanchwood Prowler loosens up green's 2s by adding Rubb Mav
Tibalt, Thrill of Possibility, one Unlucky Witness out for various Black and Colorless cards
Mishra's Research Desk -> Innocent Bystander
Transmogrant's Crown and Brokers' Ascendancy might take a break

 

[anubis647]

Just wanted to comment on the evocative flavor of this Cube that helped inspire me in designing my own environment heavily themed around hardboiled detective stories. I think this is the first Cube I've seen that truly blends both mechanics and flavor, which instantly had me hooked. I'm interested to see how you approach potential additions from Outlaws of Thunder Junction; some of the themes and tropes fit within that overarching era of fiction and pop culture, but with a very different feel.

 

[spicewitch]

* This update's gonna make me wanna force izzet
* i don't find granite witness inspiring, but i'm super into morphs that i can flip for hybrid black
* aftermath analyst is doin' stuff in constructed, this cube is graveyardy enough that we might wanna squeeze it in!

 

[landofMordor]

Just wanted to comment on the evocative flavor of this Cube that helped inspire me in designing my own environment heavily themed around hardboiled detective stories. I think this is the first Cube I've seen that truly blends both mechanics and flavor, which instantly had me hooked. I'm interested to see how you approach potential additions from Outlaws of Thunder Junction; some of the themes and tropes fit within that overarching era of fiction and pop culture, but with a very different feel.

That's awesome! Somehow I missed this notification and never responded, but send me your list when you get a chance!

* This update's gonna make me wanna force izzet
* i don't find granite witness inspiring, but i'm super into morphs that i can flip for hybrid black
* aftermath analyst is doin' stuff in constructed, this cube is graveyardy enough that we might wanna squeeze it in!

hmmmm you could maybe convince me on Analyst except that its body is so passive, and the cube is already stuffed with green 2-drops.