With some time over the holydays, I totally reworked my arena cube, and it's become much more ravnic-ish as a result. It has more themes (including madness!), is more thorough and I reduced the multicolor focus a little bit. There is still great fixing and such, though, so no worries, blacksmithy. And there are some really cool decks possible now, like rakdos ramp or boros landfall aggro or azorius proliferate.
Give it a try and help me improve it, I'd love to battle you guys! Of course I'd also be grateful for tips and ideas from people who don't play arena themselves.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/1mkkq
An archetype overview
+1/+1 Counters
The bant colors bring a lot of creatures that gain +1/+1 counters as well as some tricks and other spells that add those. There are a few direct payoffs as well as a quite a few proliferate effects to take advantage of this. I assume the azorius version will play more tempo-like than the green +1/+1 counter decks.
Blink
A lot of etb effects on the esper creatures are to abuse here. White and blue do have more blink/bounce effects and form the most traditional blink deck this way, but dimir can focus more on the ninjas while both black versions will add graveyard recursion, to further retrigger etbs and make the deck less vulnerable.
Madness
Plenty of discard synergies in grixis here. The blue versions can be slower and more value oriented with all their loot effects, while rakdos is probably the most reckless of the three possible 2-color madness decks.
Ramp
While green has the most traditional ramp, of course, all of the jund colors get some amount thanks to treasure tokens. The rakdos version focuses heavily on those and adds some artifact synergies to make use of those beyond ramping out fatties.
Landfall
Green also is king of putting extra lands into play, but red and white do have some very pontent landfall triggers as well, which allows for this naya archetype. The high amount of Evolving Wilds/Terramorphic Expanses helps for sure. While gruul and selesnya are more midrange-y, boros lanfall plays out very aggressive.
Tokens
While all of the mardu colors have a bunch of token producers, boros will have the easiest time to go really wide. Orzhov and rakdos token decks however can get value out of black sacrifice/death trigger effects.
Energy
All temur colors have between six and seven energy cards, not counting the Aether Hubs in the cube's mana base. Those can power up each other. Green and blue can also go really crazy with their proliferate effects, while red allows for aggressive energy decks.
Lifegain
There are plenty of life gain effects in all abzan colors, while each color also has a few strong payoffs. I assume all of the possible 2-color decks will play very midrange-y and have differences due to other synergies they might include. The gain lands help to make this one strong.
Spellslinger
The jeskai colors make use of cheap spells with cards that care about instants/sorceries being cast, or those that trigger from multiple spells cast during a turn. Izzet focuses more on the former category, azorius more on the latter. Boros plays pretty aggressively. All of those love flashback spells.
Selfmill
Flashback spells are also popular in sultai, as well as escape, embalm, disturb and oll those graveyard mechanics. Luckily, those colors are great in milling yourself. Golgari might also care to some degree about creatures, explicitly, being in your graveyard, while the blue versions are fueled by loot effects.
Give it a try and help me improve it, I'd love to battle you guys! Of course I'd also be grateful for tips and ideas from people who don't play arena themselves.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/1mkkq
An archetype overview
+1/+1 CountersThe bant colors bring a lot of creatures that gain +1/+1 counters as well as some tricks and other spells that add those. There are a few direct payoffs as well as a quite a few proliferate effects to take advantage of this. I assume the azorius version will play more tempo-like than the green +1/+1 counter decks.
BlinkA lot of etb effects on the esper creatures are to abuse here. White and blue do have more blink/bounce effects and form the most traditional blink deck this way, but dimir can focus more on the ninjas while both black versions will add graveyard recursion, to further retrigger etbs and make the deck less vulnerable.
MadnessPlenty of discard synergies in grixis here. The blue versions can be slower and more value oriented with all their loot effects, while rakdos is probably the most reckless of the three possible 2-color madness decks.
RampWhile green has the most traditional ramp, of course, all of the jund colors get some amount thanks to treasure tokens. The rakdos version focuses heavily on those and adds some artifact synergies to make use of those beyond ramping out fatties.
LandfallGreen also is king of putting extra lands into play, but red and white do have some very pontent landfall triggers as well, which allows for this naya archetype. The high amount of Evolving Wilds/Terramorphic Expanses helps for sure. While gruul and selesnya are more midrange-y, boros lanfall plays out very aggressive.
TokensWhile all of the mardu colors have a bunch of token producers, boros will have the easiest time to go really wide. Orzhov and rakdos token decks however can get value out of black sacrifice/death trigger effects.
EnergyAll temur colors have between six and seven energy cards, not counting the Aether Hubs in the cube's mana base. Those can power up each other. Green and blue can also go really crazy with their proliferate effects, while red allows for aggressive energy decks.
LifegainThere are plenty of life gain effects in all abzan colors, while each color also has a few strong payoffs. I assume all of the possible 2-color decks will play very midrange-y and have differences due to other synergies they might include. The gain lands help to make this one strong.
SpellslingerThe jeskai colors make use of cheap spells with cards that care about instants/sorceries being cast, or those that trigger from multiple spells cast during a turn. Izzet focuses more on the former category, azorius more on the latter. Boros plays pretty aggressively. All of those love flashback spells.
SelfmillFlashback spells are also popular in sultai, as well as escape, embalm, disturb and oll those graveyard mechanics. Luckily, those colors are great in milling yourself. Golgari might also care to some degree about creatures, explicitly, being in your graveyard, while the blue versions are fueled by loot effects.
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