Edited September 15, 2014 - Fatties. Starting observations and conclusions.
Edited August 9, 2014 - Colorshifting; addressing comments to make it look like I'm psychically answering them preemptively; telling myself I need to edit for wordiness when this is all over.
Edited August 1, 2014 - Addressing Green's Functions
Your involvement:
I know it is crazy and don't expect anybody to even remotely consider it. It's something I'm going to do when there's time to kill. I'm just sharing.
Background:
My own Cube is wholly theory for me and exists only as a spreadsheet. I acknowledge that it is a poor learning experience from making changes and not seeing the impact of changes without playtesting. Cube is a creative outlet that allows me to explore a larger portion of cards with each set release than otherwise would not be possible if I was only thinking about Limited/Constructed. This is just a thought exercise to see if archetypes can be pushed in a lower-powered 360 Cube that otherwise would not be possible with only 50-60 cards in each color. I am constantly wary that pushing archetypes too hard will result in a very railroad-y format like Modern Masters.
I dislike Green. That bias probably needs to be put out there. In Limited its whole "thing" along with whatever block gimmick is to produce more powerful and tougher creatures than the other colors for the same cost. In Standard Constructed I thought Fauna Shaman and Birthing Pod were the greatest things Green has seen in a very long time but ultimately the color went back to being all about monsters and when it comes to color viability in Constructed or Cube, when you put all your bets on monsters, it is kinda depressing when your monsters get outclassed (e.g. Desecration Demon, Baneslayer Angel).
An argument can be made that Blue, my preferred color, is even less interesting than Green; especially in Cube when essentially every card in most lists are countermagic, card advantage or finishers. And I'm really just saying this preemptively because some person in any conversation in Magic typically makes some statement challenging my opinionated generalization with some other opinionated generalization.
Why:
I see this immense chunk of Green that needs to remain inviolate because it is a) part of a ramp package and b) a bunch of sick value cards like ETB Naturalizes and Eternal Witness that feel "wrong" to replace with crap I want like Satyr Wayfinder. I already kicked Vampire Nighthawk out because it's just so flagrantly good and Green just seems like full of these effortless cards. Not that there is anything wrong with roleplayers like countermagic, Llanowar Elves, removal, and Aggro-enablers like Goblin Guide but I really prefer creatures that have a higher potential ceiling when looking above 2CMC like Agent of the Fates.
Addressing Green's Functions:
There's an idea that I would suggest to keep in mind as you read further. The idea is that the "interesting" Green cards are very few: Fauna Shaman, Life From the Loam, Birthing Pod, you know who they are. Then if you look for more interesting fatties you will see that Green really doesn't have that many options.
Furthermore, I acknowledge that Green DOES fair things. However, at the same time it doesn't play fair. Wall of Blossoms, Strangleroot Geist, Wall of Roots, and even lowly Nest Invader brick Aggro a bit too hard for my tastes. There's no problem in my mind at higher CMC dropping your large guy in any color and having it spawn an instant army because you're earned it. What you didn't really earn was a Skinrender-grade 2-for-1 on T2. Perhaps I care too much about Aggro; I understand why people would rather nix the Aggro cards over Green's cards.
Naturalizes
I personally think that anything involving Acidic Slime feels excellent. Cast, Flicker, Combat, Pod, and Reanimate it all seems great. Hitting lands is on top of what it already does is what makes it excellent for me and I love the fact that it is easy to slap its body off the table.
Green's Naturalizes are maindeckable because they're such efficient beaters on top of what they already do and because of the ramp mechanism, it's not that hard to get them in. And playing other people's Cubes I have experienced a few too many time where someone was trying something nifty only to just get wrecked because Green snipes some key piece like Opposition - and before long Opposition and Trading Post and their ilk becomes pariahs in Cube. And I don't want to put all the blame on Green; Oblivion Ring does the same thing and is arguably better at doing that.
The point is that I don't want the foil to these dopey Enchantment/Artifact build-around decks to a monster that is on the path to an even larger monster.
When it comes to preventing Enchantments/Artifacts from getting out of hand without Green, I hope to find some way to emulate the way Keening Apparition was played in RTR - it wasn't as good as the other 2-drops, but it smoked some random Enchantment often enough to not hate for simply being a bear most of the time. In Cube it gives Aggro a sub-optimal beater, but a beater nevertheless. Perhaps I'm just taking Green's problem which I just talked about and colorshifting it to White Aggro. Or Red Aggro as the case would be for Torch Fiend. Maybe I'm just an idiot and should have just replaced all the Stomphowlers with Viridian Zealot.
Ramp
Killing the T1 Manadork seems like the right answer. The T1 Manadork is in the Cube because you've made the ramp more vulnerable. However, if you fail to kill it, you're facing down a Blade Splicer, Courser of Kruphix, or god help you a Kitchen Finks.
At T2 Wall of Roots and Overgrown Battlement, which feel super great. I'm sure they're fine in moderation but in Cubes I play they seem plentiful. So if the solution is to replace them with Rampant Growth you're just including a card that does a very linear thing and is simply not as flexible as a ramp-body especially when we got Birthing Pods running around.
I see this as a interesting thought challenge in design on deciding what ramp cards should be made available. Do you want them on bodies, vulnerable to removal yet strong against creature decks or do you want them narrow but guaranteed to work when you untap. We're skirting too close to the signet-mana-rock discussion but I like thinking about exactly how ramp interacts (or doesn't) with the rest of the game aside from acceleration. Viridian Shaman, Nest Invader, and Wall of Roots all do different things whether or not someone decides to swat them, which is maybe why variety is the way to go. It would be interesting to see in a Cube what it would be like if all the 2CMC ramp slots just replaced by a single ramp card just to see the impact - "This is your Cube on Farseek, this is your Cube on Overgrown Battlement, this is your Cube on Nest Invader."
But for the purposes of this exercise I'm leaving that thinking behind. If ramp would enrich some strategies I'll explore the Myr before considering the rocks.
Fatties
I like them to act like vanilla creatures when cast but only do something nasty when they're interacted with not both when cast. I want them to be more than just roadblocks that just go out of control because when you look at most of them, they're just massive assholes that you can't battle your way through and when they're like that they're just interchangeable like Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Consecrated Sphinx. However, because of their place on the curve they do need to serve as some sort of roadblock to be effective and it does no good to have them lose all their capacity for stabilization if the opponent happens to have a Doom Blade; but that being said you can't be super liberal with army-in-a-can creatures like Cloudgoat Ranger.
They have to battle like champs but not be excellent at it, they need a little bit of effort to get value, and if they die so be it. A ridiculous order, but it's what I want. Great examples are cards like Serra Angel and Pelakka Wurm. And to make it even more demanding, I'm not necessarily a fan of keyword dumps like Baneslayer Angel.
When I assess a curve-topping bomb I look at where its toughness sits relative to the other creatures in the Cube and Brimstone Volley and Tragic Slip. A fair toughness means it will murder everything at CMC1-3 and hopefully trade with the opponent's best creature if they swing all-out and the opponent is going to have to 2-for-1 themselves in order to use Brimstone Volley or Tragic Slip when Morbid is online. I like cards like Flayer of the Hatebound, Arbiter of the Ideal, Vengeful Pharaoh, and Reveillark. Reveillark has a perfect toughness to match its abilities because it just outright dies to Brimstone Volley, which means the opponent does not have to commit another card to killing it, which balances against its leaves-the-battlefield effect.
The Titans (and Wurmcoil) I don't include because they're just too huge. Not only did they render every other creature in Standard meaningless but they are also unmatched against every other creature in the history of Magic. I'd love to adjust their P/T for my purposes but that will be for another day.
Okay, finally we'll talk about Green's fatties. The bottom line is that they're all just massive trampling assholes that are bigger than every other color's fatties. They take no effort to drop and very often you don't need to get fancy with them. Hornet Queen, Deranged Hermit, Woodfall Primus are all nasty on cast and the moment you flicker them or something they just are out of control to all but the most specific cards. When you step down from that you just find Yavimaya Wurm variants, there's just nothing in between except Acidic Slime and Pelakka Wurm.
Colorshifting:
These are just my sacred cows in Green. I'm not certain whether I'm keeping them because of the redundancy they create with cards that already may exist in their color (a good reason to keep Green around you might say) but I valued their contribution in establishing Green's identity. I'll need to be careful to ensure I'm not spoon-feeding people mono-colored deck archetypes. At the same time, people seem to enjoy pushing/playing RDW so I don't see why any other color can't have its own degenerate mono-color gimmick.
Life From The Loam - White
It's nice to recur lands for Steppe Lynx, Flame Jab, and Wastelands. This can just as easily go into Blue or Black. It's low investment to include and does some nifty things.
Thragtusk - White
I didn't even have this card in my Cube. But now I see an incredibly filthy card that also helps out some sort of Crystal Shard or lifegain strategy. It seems wrong to imagine you could do dumber things with Thragtusk with less effort in Venser colors.
Fauna Shaman - Black or Blue
If I put this thing in Blue, I need to look at Merfolk Looter. If I put this thing in Black, I need to look at Pack Rat and Oona's Prowler.
Birthing Pod - Black or Blue
It either goes in Blue or Black. I'm leaning in Black because Blue already has its novelty clunky artifact/enchantment deck with Opposition and Black doesn't really have one. There's an argument for Black because of the possibilities with double Living Death and that same reason could be used to put Birthing Pod in Blue to solidify a U/B deck.
Vengevine - Red
Seems straight forward enough. Black and Blue will have some excuse to dump it into their yard and I expect some aggro-Boros deck will occasionally Kor Skyfisher this sucker back into play.
Kozilek's Predator - Red
Replaces Emrakul's Hatcher.
Awakening Zone Red
Something's got to feed Greater Gargadon right? Right?
Archetypes to explore more thoroughly:
Junktroller, BW Lifegain, Furnace Celebration, Graveyard Shenanigans, UR Delver/Spells, UW Crystal Shard Kor Skyfisher, Wildfire
I expect to include crappier cards. Functional on their own, but notably weaker without some sort of synergy like Ajani's Pridemate. Custom cards is not something I'm willing to explore no matter how much I want a 2/1 or 1/2 Bloodthrone Vampire.
Observations: *IN PROGRESS*
As people have predicted in the thread, the loss of a whole color has made it a bit easy to draft a "coherent" deck, specifically a mono-colored deck. There's no reason to branch out into another color when you're still getting solid choices half way through a 15-card pack. It's going to take much more testing. I still expect that the increase in concentration of mediocre cards would still reward drafting the best card for a deck over just picking an on-color card. For example, you may be in some mono-red deck but you're still not going to pass that Reveillark.
With the Green duals and fetches gone there needs to be 3 of each remaining dual and fetch, leaving us with 36 lands.
Vengevine is outright better than Hero of Oxid Ridge and Hellrider and goes in more decks. It blocks well if you want to play Red away from aggro strategies and the ability to come back from the dead makes it more interesting to play. When Vengevine was just some random card in any Green deck, the fact that its in Red for me gives it much more interesting interactions with other colors that wouldn't have worked when the card was in Green. It works well with Zombies in Black, Crystal Shard strategies in Blue, and Kor Skyfisher-esque interactions in White.
Edited August 9, 2014 - Colorshifting; addressing comments to make it look like I'm psychically answering them preemptively; telling myself I need to edit for wordiness when this is all over.
Edited August 1, 2014 - Addressing Green's Functions
Your involvement:
I know it is crazy and don't expect anybody to even remotely consider it. It's something I'm going to do when there's time to kill. I'm just sharing.
Background:
My own Cube is wholly theory for me and exists only as a spreadsheet. I acknowledge that it is a poor learning experience from making changes and not seeing the impact of changes without playtesting. Cube is a creative outlet that allows me to explore a larger portion of cards with each set release than otherwise would not be possible if I was only thinking about Limited/Constructed. This is just a thought exercise to see if archetypes can be pushed in a lower-powered 360 Cube that otherwise would not be possible with only 50-60 cards in each color. I am constantly wary that pushing archetypes too hard will result in a very railroad-y format like Modern Masters.
I dislike Green. That bias probably needs to be put out there. In Limited its whole "thing" along with whatever block gimmick is to produce more powerful and tougher creatures than the other colors for the same cost. In Standard Constructed I thought Fauna Shaman and Birthing Pod were the greatest things Green has seen in a very long time but ultimately the color went back to being all about monsters and when it comes to color viability in Constructed or Cube, when you put all your bets on monsters, it is kinda depressing when your monsters get outclassed (e.g. Desecration Demon, Baneslayer Angel).
An argument can be made that Blue, my preferred color, is even less interesting than Green; especially in Cube when essentially every card in most lists are countermagic, card advantage or finishers. And I'm really just saying this preemptively because some person in any conversation in Magic typically makes some statement challenging my opinionated generalization with some other opinionated generalization.
Why:
I see this immense chunk of Green that needs to remain inviolate because it is a) part of a ramp package and b) a bunch of sick value cards like ETB Naturalizes and Eternal Witness that feel "wrong" to replace with crap I want like Satyr Wayfinder. I already kicked Vampire Nighthawk out because it's just so flagrantly good and Green just seems like full of these effortless cards. Not that there is anything wrong with roleplayers like countermagic, Llanowar Elves, removal, and Aggro-enablers like Goblin Guide but I really prefer creatures that have a higher potential ceiling when looking above 2CMC like Agent of the Fates.
Addressing Green's Functions:
There's an idea that I would suggest to keep in mind as you read further. The idea is that the "interesting" Green cards are very few: Fauna Shaman, Life From the Loam, Birthing Pod, you know who they are. Then if you look for more interesting fatties you will see that Green really doesn't have that many options.
Furthermore, I acknowledge that Green DOES fair things. However, at the same time it doesn't play fair. Wall of Blossoms, Strangleroot Geist, Wall of Roots, and even lowly Nest Invader brick Aggro a bit too hard for my tastes. There's no problem in my mind at higher CMC dropping your large guy in any color and having it spawn an instant army because you're earned it. What you didn't really earn was a Skinrender-grade 2-for-1 on T2. Perhaps I care too much about Aggro; I understand why people would rather nix the Aggro cards over Green's cards.
Naturalizes
I personally think that anything involving Acidic Slime feels excellent. Cast, Flicker, Combat, Pod, and Reanimate it all seems great. Hitting lands is on top of what it already does is what makes it excellent for me and I love the fact that it is easy to slap its body off the table.
Green's Naturalizes are maindeckable because they're such efficient beaters on top of what they already do and because of the ramp mechanism, it's not that hard to get them in. And playing other people's Cubes I have experienced a few too many time where someone was trying something nifty only to just get wrecked because Green snipes some key piece like Opposition - and before long Opposition and Trading Post and their ilk becomes pariahs in Cube. And I don't want to put all the blame on Green; Oblivion Ring does the same thing and is arguably better at doing that.
The point is that I don't want the foil to these dopey Enchantment/Artifact build-around decks to a monster that is on the path to an even larger monster.
When it comes to preventing Enchantments/Artifacts from getting out of hand without Green, I hope to find some way to emulate the way Keening Apparition was played in RTR - it wasn't as good as the other 2-drops, but it smoked some random Enchantment often enough to not hate for simply being a bear most of the time. In Cube it gives Aggro a sub-optimal beater, but a beater nevertheless. Perhaps I'm just taking Green's problem which I just talked about and colorshifting it to White Aggro. Or Red Aggro as the case would be for Torch Fiend. Maybe I'm just an idiot and should have just replaced all the Stomphowlers with Viridian Zealot.
Ramp
Killing the T1 Manadork seems like the right answer. The T1 Manadork is in the Cube because you've made the ramp more vulnerable. However, if you fail to kill it, you're facing down a Blade Splicer, Courser of Kruphix, or god help you a Kitchen Finks.
At T2 Wall of Roots and Overgrown Battlement, which feel super great. I'm sure they're fine in moderation but in Cubes I play they seem plentiful. So if the solution is to replace them with Rampant Growth you're just including a card that does a very linear thing and is simply not as flexible as a ramp-body especially when we got Birthing Pods running around.
I see this as a interesting thought challenge in design on deciding what ramp cards should be made available. Do you want them on bodies, vulnerable to removal yet strong against creature decks or do you want them narrow but guaranteed to work when you untap. We're skirting too close to the signet-mana-rock discussion but I like thinking about exactly how ramp interacts (or doesn't) with the rest of the game aside from acceleration. Viridian Shaman, Nest Invader, and Wall of Roots all do different things whether or not someone decides to swat them, which is maybe why variety is the way to go. It would be interesting to see in a Cube what it would be like if all the 2CMC ramp slots just replaced by a single ramp card just to see the impact - "This is your Cube on Farseek, this is your Cube on Overgrown Battlement, this is your Cube on Nest Invader."
But for the purposes of this exercise I'm leaving that thinking behind. If ramp would enrich some strategies I'll explore the Myr before considering the rocks.
Fatties
I like them to act like vanilla creatures when cast but only do something nasty when they're interacted with not both when cast. I want them to be more than just roadblocks that just go out of control because when you look at most of them, they're just massive assholes that you can't battle your way through and when they're like that they're just interchangeable like Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Consecrated Sphinx. However, because of their place on the curve they do need to serve as some sort of roadblock to be effective and it does no good to have them lose all their capacity for stabilization if the opponent happens to have a Doom Blade; but that being said you can't be super liberal with army-in-a-can creatures like Cloudgoat Ranger.
They have to battle like champs but not be excellent at it, they need a little bit of effort to get value, and if they die so be it. A ridiculous order, but it's what I want. Great examples are cards like Serra Angel and Pelakka Wurm. And to make it even more demanding, I'm not necessarily a fan of keyword dumps like Baneslayer Angel.
When I assess a curve-topping bomb I look at where its toughness sits relative to the other creatures in the Cube and Brimstone Volley and Tragic Slip. A fair toughness means it will murder everything at CMC1-3 and hopefully trade with the opponent's best creature if they swing all-out and the opponent is going to have to 2-for-1 themselves in order to use Brimstone Volley or Tragic Slip when Morbid is online. I like cards like Flayer of the Hatebound, Arbiter of the Ideal, Vengeful Pharaoh, and Reveillark. Reveillark has a perfect toughness to match its abilities because it just outright dies to Brimstone Volley, which means the opponent does not have to commit another card to killing it, which balances against its leaves-the-battlefield effect.
The Titans (and Wurmcoil) I don't include because they're just too huge. Not only did they render every other creature in Standard meaningless but they are also unmatched against every other creature in the history of Magic. I'd love to adjust their P/T for my purposes but that will be for another day.
Okay, finally we'll talk about Green's fatties. The bottom line is that they're all just massive trampling assholes that are bigger than every other color's fatties. They take no effort to drop and very often you don't need to get fancy with them. Hornet Queen, Deranged Hermit, Woodfall Primus are all nasty on cast and the moment you flicker them or something they just are out of control to all but the most specific cards. When you step down from that you just find Yavimaya Wurm variants, there's just nothing in between except Acidic Slime and Pelakka Wurm.
Colorshifting:
These are just my sacred cows in Green. I'm not certain whether I'm keeping them because of the redundancy they create with cards that already may exist in their color (a good reason to keep Green around you might say) but I valued their contribution in establishing Green's identity. I'll need to be careful to ensure I'm not spoon-feeding people mono-colored deck archetypes. At the same time, people seem to enjoy pushing/playing RDW so I don't see why any other color can't have its own degenerate mono-color gimmick.
Life From The Loam - White
It's nice to recur lands for Steppe Lynx, Flame Jab, and Wastelands. This can just as easily go into Blue or Black. It's low investment to include and does some nifty things.
Thragtusk - White
I didn't even have this card in my Cube. But now I see an incredibly filthy card that also helps out some sort of Crystal Shard or lifegain strategy. It seems wrong to imagine you could do dumber things with Thragtusk with less effort in Venser colors.
Fauna Shaman - Black or Blue
If I put this thing in Blue, I need to look at Merfolk Looter. If I put this thing in Black, I need to look at Pack Rat and Oona's Prowler.
Birthing Pod - Black or Blue
It either goes in Blue or Black. I'm leaning in Black because Blue already has its novelty clunky artifact/enchantment deck with Opposition and Black doesn't really have one. There's an argument for Black because of the possibilities with double Living Death and that same reason could be used to put Birthing Pod in Blue to solidify a U/B deck.
Vengevine - Red
Seems straight forward enough. Black and Blue will have some excuse to dump it into their yard and I expect some aggro-Boros deck will occasionally Kor Skyfisher this sucker back into play.
Kozilek's Predator - Red
Replaces Emrakul's Hatcher.
Awakening Zone Red
Something's got to feed Greater Gargadon right? Right?
Archetypes to explore more thoroughly:
Junktroller, BW Lifegain, Furnace Celebration, Graveyard Shenanigans, UR Delver/Spells, UW Crystal Shard Kor Skyfisher, Wildfire
I expect to include crappier cards. Functional on their own, but notably weaker without some sort of synergy like Ajani's Pridemate. Custom cards is not something I'm willing to explore no matter how much I want a 2/1 or 1/2 Bloodthrone Vampire.
Observations: *IN PROGRESS*
As people have predicted in the thread, the loss of a whole color has made it a bit easy to draft a "coherent" deck, specifically a mono-colored deck. There's no reason to branch out into another color when you're still getting solid choices half way through a 15-card pack. It's going to take much more testing. I still expect that the increase in concentration of mediocre cards would still reward drafting the best card for a deck over just picking an on-color card. For example, you may be in some mono-red deck but you're still not going to pass that Reveillark.
With the Green duals and fetches gone there needs to be 3 of each remaining dual and fetch, leaving us with 36 lands.
Vengevine is outright better than Hero of Oxid Ridge and Hellrider and goes in more decks. It blocks well if you want to play Red away from aggro strategies and the ability to come back from the dead makes it more interesting to play. When Vengevine was just some random card in any Green deck, the fact that its in Red for me gives it much more interesting interactions with other colors that wouldn't have worked when the card was in Green. It works well with Zombies in Black, Crystal Shard strategies in Blue, and Kor Skyfisher-esque interactions in White.
