Riptide Artifact Cube?

[LadyMapi]

Kinda inspired by ZKR, but... what if we centered the four big macroarchetypes of Things Wot You Can Do With Artifacts in the four non-green color triangles, and then filled out the rest of the cube with build-arounds and microarchetypes? So the cube would broadly look something like:

: Artifact bounce (Make artifacts go HAND -> PLAY, and vice-versa)
: Artifact aristocrats (Make artifacts go PLAY -> GRAVE, and vice-versa)
: Artifact spam (get a LOT of artifacts out - also equipment because whatever this is where all the support is I guess)
: Artifact cheat (get SPECIFIC artifacts out)
: The Fun Police, the police of fun.

I feel like that kind of ZKR-ish tools-over-decks(-over-cards, because we're still RiptideLabs) might be a more natural way to think about a cube that's so heavily centered on an archetype that leans so hard on colorless cards.

 

[ravnic]

I like it, but I also think it would ba a bit too strict to have green as anti-artifact-color only

 

[LadyMapi]

The idea was that you'd have a little bit of the macroarchetypes in their "off" colors (kinda like how ZKR has at least one card of each Party type in each color). So (to give a bit of a silly example) a player on a sac deck might splash into green because they drafted



from the Food microarchetype, adding a bit of extra flavor to their deck.

Or they might pivot a little bit because they drafted this one-card buildaround, and become a Ramp deck:

 

[alvoi]

I like it, but I also think it would ba a bit too strict to have green as anti-artifact-color only

Yes, I am similarly worried, but maybe it could be fine if we add also many green cards that have good synergy with artifacts?

artifact aggro with tempered steel and master of etherium, affinity
artifact control with tezzeret the seeker and grim bauble
artifact sacrifice synergy with oni-cult anvil, deadly dispute and ichor wellspring
artifact aggro with equipments? and modular creatures, also +1/+1 counter synergies?
maybe food and lifegain centered, with some strong support from the green part of the cube
artifact combo and cheat with goblin welder, reshape and similar things

Something like this for the archetypes?

 

[TrainmasterGT]

The user is requesting an unusual and provocative question relevant to the forum. I’m thinking about options like, “Do you secretly engineer your curve to force power level parity between blue and non-blue?” or “Is 'Power 9' in a low-power cube a gimmick or an actual balance tool?”

Are you an artifact creature?