Rasmus Riptide Cube (360 Unpowered)

[Rasmus Källqvist]

I write and theorize a shit lot on this board and then I play occasionally and that definitely brings me back into reality.

We hooked up with some new peeps that drafted with us and had some really insightful things to say. I've done an order prior to the draft that led to a revamped cube list.

This is just a note to myself, but you riptiders out there are welcome to take a peak, run a few test drafts or just poke hole in stuff I've got going on.

New List:
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/41453

Some things to occupy myself during a rainy night, a list of things suggested to me by my players or just my own notes:

• Control needs more interactive finishers
• Sac Aggro was fun to play but could do with some more explosive cards, because the speed of the cube doesn't allow too much cute durdeling. Hallowed Spiritkeeper could be a card to help that.
• Black could do with some more disruptive cards to give it reach and let the aggressive player feel more actively part of their match ups vs bigger decks
• Ramp could maybe need to more fleshed out, so that it has some targets as well as support cards that don't get sniped by greedy midrange decks. I want ramp to feel almost like a combo deck, more elves and eldrazi ramp than innistrad jund.
• I would like to see if I can try out a GR landfall subtheme to help give the zoo deck an identity. Kird apes and nacatls already care about lands, so it feels natural.
• As I get some more drafts under my belt, I should start looking into what the dynamics are between all the involved decks in the meta. It'll be easier to make decisions about card inclusions when I know what the different archetypes should be able to do in terms of their own game plan and how the interact with the other archetypes.
• GB Pod has been a deck that comes together a couple of times and seems to be a deck people enjoy. It looks to be such a pronounced deck that I potentially could view that as its own color pair and seed the cube with cards accordingly.
• Maybe I can try to find some room for non-fixing lands in the cube. It would add some tension to how much fixing to run vs utility lands, and could make certain cards more attractive (ie makes Knight of the Reliquary considerably more techy)

Archetypes that I've seen the last two drafts that wasn't just "architected" by me but drafted by my players:

• UW/x Counters and Sweepers Control
• UB/x Dread Return / Diabolic Servitude Reanimator
• GB Birthing Pod
• WB Sacrifice Aggro
• Naya Kird Ape Wild Nacatl Zoo
• Splashed RDW

Going forward I just hope I can get some more drafts going, making the way the cube plays more apparent. Plus playing Magic with peeps is fun.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Something for you lurkers to do if you don't want to dive into the deep end would be to just throw suggestions for "blue control finishers". I'm pretty sure both the blue/x control players in my group last sunday just underestimate some cards (sphinx's tutelage ended up in an aggro players sideboard and sphinx of jwar isles was deemed "too janky" by the guy ending up 3-0). Still, I don't mind adding more interesting ways for control to close out the game. I wouldn't mind them being non-creatures as well.


I'm considering maybe getting hold of this one and running it in the main.

 

[blacksmithy]

Drafted the new list and got a super-sweet Bant deck built around Evolutionary Leap, Edric, and Reveillark. Looks fun from where I was standing!

Edit: If you're looking for a landfall theme, I think you're off to a good start. Scapeshift can give a landfall deck a pretty swell combo-esque edge. Just imagine: Plated Geopede, Retreat to Valakut, Scapeshift, ur dead?

Edit edit: My group love/hates Increasing Confusion as a blue control finisher. Elsewise you've got quite a few already! Might just be a player preference thing.

 

[B8R]

Hi Rasmus, I like your cube! All the stuff with counters is kinda interesting, I take it that's a thing around here? I was curious, have you tried niche cards like Daghatar the Adament, Hardened Scales, or Bioshift?

 

[James Stevenson]

Hi Rasmus, I like your cube! All the stuff with counters is kinda interesting, I take it that's a thing around here? I was curious, have you tried niche cards like Daghatar the Adament, Hardened Scales, or Bioshift?

We have a couple cool +1/+1 counter threads floating around. It's an archetype people have taken in different directions. I personally love it as a RG aggro deck, but I tried to make some overlap with charge counters and some control cards too. I don't remember, but I don't think that really panned out.
I run Daghatar, his stats are decent as he is, so there's no reason not too.
Post in this thread and you might get more people chiming in with what they run:
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/1-1-counters.379

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Edit: If you're looking for a landfall theme, I think you're off to a good start. Scapeshift can give a landfall deck a pretty swell combo-esque edge. Just imagine: Plated Geopede, Retreat to Valakut, Scapeshift, ur dead?

Scapeshift sounds like a pretty hard card to create an environment for but I'm intruiged. I cut some of the jankier stuff and threw in a couple of lands like the bfz blightlands and some innistrad spell lands to help make cards like life from the loam more fun. Might grab a retreat to coralhelm though! I feel like retreat to valakut might be too slow?

 

[ossa]

Drafted a couple of decks, Rakdos recursive aggro, and RUG delver. Passed a gravecrawler for a burn spell as I didn't see enough zombies to make me want it, and an arbor elf would have been nice over a llanowar/fyndhorn elves with the duals and shocks.