Sigh, a cube has sat idle for almost three years... it's time for a fresh start! I love the groundwork I chose for the original cube, so I don't anticipate any major changes to that. Still heavily based on the graveyard, synergy-driven, and slightly down-tempo to allow time for a player's unique gameplan to develop. I'm looking for a rebuild of the same skeleton, and at this point it's a better idea to take the original ideas of the cube and start from a blank slate, rather than trying to freshen up the original across three years of sets. Three years of sets! I have a lot of homework ahead of me
I'll start with some basic decks for the color pairs. I'd like to build out an "idealized" version of each deck after review of all the cards I've missed out on since 2018, followed by selection of cards for the cube off of what works from those decks. Basically I need to figure out what my archetypes will actually need in order to function properly, and I can work on card selections from there. Fill in the cracks with whatever cross-archetype support and unique standalones I can find and bingo bango! new cube.
: Flying Tempo, "classic" counterspell control
: Graveyard-control, reanimator
: fast ramp-tempo
: spell-recursion/casting tempo
: weenie recursion death & taxes
: double-strike equipment aggro, artifact recursion
: land-ramp big spell beatdown
: self-mill recursive rock
: lands matter grind, ramp-smash
: low to the ground sacrifice-aggro
Some overarching concepts I will be looking to include if possible:
: tokens almost entirely flying (and lower qty than otherwise). Direct support for the fliers deck, and evasive support for things like the equipment deck. Need a focus on opponent-control, particularly GY control, as counterpoint to the GY being a ubiquitous feature of the cube.
: carryover from sigh 1, a heavy focus on draw-discard, rather than pure draw. This 1) fuels GY strats, and 2) opens up space for other colors to have draw spells without them being drowned out. Probably put the pure draw spells into higher cost slots for the controls decks to still utilize in their mid-game.
: Not super surprising, but needs to form the backbone of various GY strats. Fair reanimator spells, recursive bodies, sac outlets, etc.
: I want to focus heavily on lands. Ramp will be heavily land-focused, green will have ample ways to bring lands into the player's hand. 1 drop mana dorks will be heavily reduced so as not to drown out this approach. This approach opens up space for my lands archetype, and adds robustness to ramp archetypes in other color combos.
: little token focus, as red doesn't have great ways to capitalize on them. spells decks will be more vertical and less horizontal, and overall slower paced than you'd find in a constructed setting; same with aggro decks like the double-strike deck. Some token support can be helpful, but mainly I want to focus on impactful non-token creatures that are tended to.
: I love artifact decks, so definitely looking to support one in this cube. Boros had decent success as an artifact pair in the previuos iteration, so I'll try to build off that with blue support as needed. Mana rocks will be tempered so as not to step on the land-ramps toes.
Overall: looking to keep things at a brisk pace. Not breakneck but not lethargic. I'd like to avoid board clutter to some extent, so I'll be taking work done on Eric's cube to heart in choosing my P/Ts carefully to mitigate board stalls while not pushing the tempo too far upwards.
First order of business: going over the monster backlog of sets 1 by 1 and making a little portfolio of cards I like from each. I have to set up my envelope of cards to consider before I can begin the work of hashing out dream decks.
I'll start with some basic decks for the color pairs. I'd like to build out an "idealized" version of each deck after review of all the cards I've missed out on since 2018, followed by selection of cards for the cube off of what works from those decks. Basically I need to figure out what my archetypes will actually need in order to function properly, and I can work on card selections from there. Fill in the cracks with whatever cross-archetype support and unique standalones I can find and bingo bango! new cube.
: Flying Tempo, "classic" counterspell control
: Graveyard-control, reanimator
: fast ramp-tempo
: spell-recursion/casting tempo
: weenie recursion death & taxes
: double-strike equipment aggro, artifact recursion
: land-ramp big spell beatdown
: self-mill recursive rock
: lands matter grind, ramp-smash
: low to the ground sacrifice-aggro
Some overarching concepts I will be looking to include if possible:
: tokens almost entirely flying (and lower qty than otherwise). Direct support for the fliers deck, and evasive support for things like the equipment deck. Need a focus on opponent-control, particularly GY control, as counterpoint to the GY being a ubiquitous feature of the cube.
: carryover from sigh 1, a heavy focus on draw-discard, rather than pure draw. This 1) fuels GY strats, and 2) opens up space for other colors to have draw spells without them being drowned out. Probably put the pure draw spells into higher cost slots for the controls decks to still utilize in their mid-game.
: Not super surprising, but needs to form the backbone of various GY strats. Fair reanimator spells, recursive bodies, sac outlets, etc.
: I want to focus heavily on lands. Ramp will be heavily land-focused, green will have ample ways to bring lands into the player's hand. 1 drop mana dorks will be heavily reduced so as not to drown out this approach. This approach opens up space for my lands archetype, and adds robustness to ramp archetypes in other color combos.
: little token focus, as red doesn't have great ways to capitalize on them. spells decks will be more vertical and less horizontal, and overall slower paced than you'd find in a constructed setting; same with aggro decks like the double-strike deck. Some token support can be helpful, but mainly I want to focus on impactful non-token creatures that are tended to.
: I love artifact decks, so definitely looking to support one in this cube. Boros had decent success as an artifact pair in the previuos iteration, so I'll try to build off that with blue support as needed. Mana rocks will be tempered so as not to step on the land-ramps toes.
Overall: looking to keep things at a brisk pace. Not breakneck but not lethargic. I'd like to avoid board clutter to some extent, so I'll be taking work done on Eric's cube to heart in choosing my P/Ts carefully to mitigate board stalls while not pushing the tempo too far upwards.
First order of business: going over the monster backlog of sets 1 by 1 and making a little portfolio of cards I like from each. I have to set up my envelope of cards to consider before I can begin the work of hashing out dream decks.