General Single Archetype Spotlight Thread

Dom Harvey

Contributor
Ok so, rather than make a separate thread for every ill-conceived flight of fancy we feel like inflicting on our Cubes, I decided to start a containment thread for them. Discussions will naturally be less frequent but more detailed than the Card Spotlight, but hopefully they can serve their purpose.

The first deck I want to talk about is a graveyard-focused aggressive deck in BG. The midrange/control graveyard decks are worth more discussion but are a lot simpler to make room for. The aggressive version is a bit harder, not least because drafters are liable to get confused about what's going on. In my Cube, BG also supports the sacrifice/token/recursion deck, and it's tempting to mesh the two together; you end up with a deck that can't cast its spells, can't apply pressure well, and can't play defense either - I know Grillo has mentioned this problem before. What I have in mind instead is a deck that:

- Uses the beefy creatures in green that care about the graveyard or cheats on resources with Delve (an early Tasigur or Tombstalker), creatures that recur themselves
- Exploits graveyard synergies for late-game power
- Can use reanimation to seize control of the mid-game; not sure what non-oppressive reanimation targets are realistically castable? Maybe you're just trying to get a discount on Wolfir Silverheart or something
- If you do use the recursive creatures in black, pairs them with equipment or Rancor/Moldervine Cloak to make the body relevant

Something like:













?

Maybe you need double Wild Mongrel or double Tarmogoyf to make this worthwhile, I'm fine with that though.
(double Vengevine?)
 

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
The problem I have with these decks is that they tend not to be very good at exerting early pressure, due to a lack of aggressive one drops. So they kind of become a slightly bigger aggro decks, that feels like it would actually be much better as a midrange deck recurring threats with ETBs.
 

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
I wanted to see what this kind of archetype would look like in my cube. So I took a GB graveyard deck drafted in cubetutor and embellished it a little to make it 'aggressive':

BG Graveyard Interaction from CubeTutor.com











I think that the problem with this kind of deck in my cube is that green doesn't really have anything in the two drop slot that wants to help here. Bloodsoaked Champion is what makes you want to go down this path if you pick them up and see a Lotleth Troll go by.

Aggro is all reliant on the one and two drops. Your (Dom) deck above showcases all the great 2-drops in those two colours that make you want to go down this route. The fact that I don't have Tarmogoyf and Wild Mongrel and instead have double Satyr Wayfinder to support my graveyard based decks mean that they don't want to be aggressive. They are always some midrange grind engine. This isn't to say that a deck above couldn't happen it just isn't where I wanted BG to be in my cube.

Moldervine Cloak seems like a great addition to make these sort of decks appear more.
Bloodsoaked Champion + Moldervine Cloak is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

Went searching around other people's cubes to see what I could find in this vein and looky at what I found in Safra's decks:

15-land junk aggro from CubeTutor.com









Deck is perfection.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I dunno, I love me some threads dedicated to a single archetype, but more than happy to leave this one up and open.
 
I dunno, I love me some threads dedicated to a single archetype, but more than happy to leave this one up and open.

I will second this, I can understand the advantages of the single card thread, but I don't think this makes much sense. There's too much potential information and discussion on each archetype. Also, separate threads is much better when revisiting something a year or two later, just go back, add more, continue discussion. Archetypes with not enough support may get there in a year.
 

Dom Harvey

Contributor
It was more intended for archetypes that 'aren't quite there', i.e. we don't need a thread for every random tribe or off-the-wall idea but something like artifacts matter or spells matter that merit their own thread can still have one
 
In that case, a new name like "Archetype Incubator" or "New Archetype Testing Zone" might help as the current one seems a bit more general than your intended topic. I also think these kind of discussions could probably go in CBS until there's a critical mass to put them in their own individual threads.
 
I figured "Cube Bullshit" was enough...

Maybe what we're looking for is a Multiple Card Discussion thread? SCD and Fight Club take care of cards on an individual level, maybe MCD has discussion about a set of cards (2-5 cards) and their merits, anything bigger gets its own thread (Like the "Start Your Engines" thread).
 

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
I dunno, I like the idea for this thread. It's funny because GB Dredgevine is almost certainly an archetype that deserves a thread all its own, but in general, I'm down with the concept for this thread, that being to post more ephemeral, half-baked deck ideas that require more brainstorming and fleshing out.
 
It was more intended for archetypes that 'aren't quite there', i.e. we don't need a thread for every random tribe or off-the-wall idea but something like artifacts matter or spells matter that merit their own thread can still have one


I don't totally disagree with that, but I think that even your "GB graveyard aggro" you started off with probably even deserves its own thread.
 

Aoret

Developer
Yo guys imma let you finish but that deck I drafted is the best GB aggro deck of ALL TIME.


... but no seriously, I did one draft on a lark last night and ended up there and it's one of the best versions of that deck I've ever seen come out of my cube
 
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