General Single Card Archetypes

[Rowan_CB]

This post is inspired by this card:



There were lots of posts in the M19 spoiler thread laying out fun things that could be done with this card, and in testing with it a bit, it is even better for my cube (and I suspect many cubes) then I anticipated.

It's a complete nothing in M19 limited, but most riptide cubes have ample graveyard interactions. What I'm starting to suspect, though, is that this is not only a card that can only be slotted into pre-existing cube archetypes for extra value, but that can create entirely new and valid decks if built around. Here's an example:

Esper Tomb from CubeTutor.com

NB: this deck is misbuilt (sometimes I get lazy putting the actual final deck together on cubetutor) and should include more lower CMC creatures to take advantage of Bishop of Rebirth and Reveillark, but the potential shines through: This deck has 15 cards that trigger the tomb, all of which were already in my cube, but now, with the addition of this single card, can be drafted together as a deck that's entirely different from anything Esper was doing before. That is exciting!

The best part is, Esper is just one potential color configuration to build around the tomb. Green may actually be the second best support color for this effect, behind black, and red has pieces like Squee, Goblin Nabob and phoenixes that can trigger the tomb over and over.

This got me thinking about other cards, which can open up entirely new decks by themselves when they are added to a cube. The first that comes to mind is:



Now, neither of these cards are really "single card archetypes", in that you can't just throw a Loam or Tomb in any deck and have the deck viably revolve around them, but I think they both have the benefit of synergizing with cards most people already run, and offering powerful enough synergies that they can become the focal point of a deck that wouldn't exist without them.

Are there other cards that fit this description? Tell me about cards that you run, or have run, that can single handedly open up new design space for decks in your cube!

 

[inscho]

It can fuel aggressive U/B or G/B dredge decks:



You can also use it as a win-con with either:


or in control builds alongside things like:



While tapping less things using delve/free cards: Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Murderous Cut, Gush, Force of Will

You can also hold off decking indefinitely with:


and it can set you up for big turns with:


It single-handedly made a lot of strategies viable in my cube.

 

[sigh]

first one that comes to mind:

This card can single-handedly open up a very unique version of "UR Spells"

UR goggles from CubeTutor.com

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

Yay, I get to be first to say my favourite

 

[inscho]

Some other favorites:

 

[safra]

for 1-card archetypes I run Cataclysm, Pod/CoCo ('cheating', 2 copies each), Kiki-Jiki, Jeskai Ascendancy, and Lab Man. Big ups to all those guys.

 

[ravnic]

This card alone makes me go mono green and try to draft a unique, suited version of a ramp deck, where Search for Tomorrow becomes better than Mana dorks (except Arbor Elf!) and you want the really big mana sinks to go crazy.




I think you all know what this card can do if effectively drafted around ...

 

[Aston]

for 1-card archetypes I run Cataclysm, Pod/CoCo ('cheating', 2 copies each), Kiki-Jiki, Jeskai Ascendancy, and Lab Man. Big ups to all those guys.

Are you still on Doomsday?

 

[safra]

Are you still on Doomsday?

I am, yeah, but it's not really a 1-card thing. sort of 'safe storm'.

 

[frostymoose]

I'm not sure if it's an archetype or just a different win con for control.

 

[Dom Harvey]

Good thread here

I like the cards that sustain this kind of interest by themselves but combine to form a new constellation of pieces that suggest their own direction, e.g.



Any one of these will catch my eye and make me look out for cards that work well with them but, when you have more than one, each of the others becomes that much more appealing and you can really commit to building around them

 

[Aston]

I haven't run it yet but I think it'll be in for my next draft:



Although it kind of goes with Abzan Falconer and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan so maybe it's not strictly a single card archetype.

 

[Rowan_CB]

I'd definitely say it counts. Honestly it's a bad thread title, because there really isn't such thing as a single card archetype. I think more what I'm getting at is single cards that can enable new decks once they're introduced into a cube, without also having to put in cards specifically to support them.

I think Hardened Scales would work, as there are plenty of incidental +1/+1 counters running around in most cubes, that you could put it into a cube environment and all of sudden there would be a "Hardened Scales Deck", even if there wasn't a viable +1/+1 counters deck before.

 

[sigh]

Have been having a lot of fun with this one.

(this is mostly just nit-picking, but a true "single-card archetype" is exceedingly rare, even as described above. I made some specific selections to improve Goggles in the cube, for instance, even though it could have simply been plopped in. Fiery Confluence and prophetic bolt come to mind. I get what you mean though)

 

[Aston]

Perhaps "build-arounds" is a better term than "single card archetypes", but at that point it's just semantics really. I think we're all on the same page here.

 

[CaptnIrony]

Perhaps "build-arounds" is a better term than "single card archetypes", but at that point it's just semantics really. I think we're all on the same page here.

I actually see them as different.

Burning Vengeance in Innistrad was a build around most of the time, while Sarkhan's Unsealing in M19 is not. I've been exploring the difference and different types of cards for an eventual 2nd cube and here's basically the litmus test: can you remove the card? Do note this heavily depends on the environment. A Burning Vengeance deck without it doesn't work. You built around the card, and need it to function. A Sarkhan's Unsealing deck without it is a top heavy RG midrange deck. You add Sarkhan's Unsealing to a top-heavy midrange deck and you get a Sarkhan's Unsealing's deck, as it now functions differently because of a single card. Single card archetype.

Let's take Hardened Scales as an example:
Normal: The +1/+1 counter deck is supported, and this is a pay-off. (Hardened Scales, Abzan Battlepriest, Armorcraft Judge)
Build around: There are a lot of cards that have +1/+1 counters, but nothing tying them together, you can make a deck around Hardened Scales, which is just a pile of random cards without it, but becomes a deck once Hardened Scales is added. (Advocate of the Beast, Algae Gharial, Academy Drake, Ageless Entity, Gorehorn Minotaur)
Single Card Archetype: A deck that exists in one form but becomes another with the addition of a card (Carrion Feeder + Mortician Beetle + Ninth Bridge Patrol in Arristocrat now get a focus on +1/+1 counters, Salt road Quastermasters/Spikes now play differently, same with Mindless Automaton or Pentavus in a random artifact deck)

In my cube Abandoned Sarcophagus is a single card archetype.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Yeah, well put: the deck already exists but gets pushed into something that feels very different when the card in question is drafted and played. That way the card in question can be picked early or late without diluting the draft.

I don't really like build arounds, but those sort of cherry on top cards I like quite a bit. Build arounds feel like overly narrow to me: really interesting early picks, but becoming more like trap picks the later in the draft they are taken. Even worse, too much density of them can really chip down on the number of "real" picks in each pack.

 

[sigh]

Your definition of "build-around" is exactly how Rowan wants to be defining "single-card archetype", so it really just is coming down to how we individually want to assign meaning to certain words (semantics), and I really do just have to agree with Aston at this point: we are all basically on the same page, right?

Anyways. I think most three color cards end up being this? Like Jeskai Ascendancy as mentioned, and then also like

probably partially because the nature of being three(+) colors means they have to be more focused/"unique"

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Eh...I don't know, if we're steering away from build arounds, we kind of need to talk about the pieces that go with the card that prevent them from being overly narrow. The difference between the two catagories isn't inherient in the card itself, its in the presence or absence of supporting pieces, which changes how the card behaves in the draft.

Goggles, demonic pact, lab maniac, G&G, scales ascendency, birthing pod, and sidisi are all cards that change very quicky in how flexibly they draft depending on the presence or absence of the supporting architecture.

 

[Rowan_CB]

Not to belabor the point, and apologies if this is all getting overly-semantic, but I think part of the problem is that I was unable to present my thoughts very eloquently in the OP. Some of the recent posts are helping to bring what I had in mind into focus.

If you take CaptnIrony's post, but replace instances of "deck" with "cube", that's something more like what I was trying to say. Essentially: cards that open up new decks with little or no opportunity cost to the cube as a whole beyond the single slot they take up. The best of these, I think, can escape being overly narrow by still providing incidental value to decks that aren't built around them, because the density of effect that they trigger off of is high enough in the cube that it is reasonable for that effect to appear in numerous different decks.

This requires assumptions about the types of cards that are in any given cube, which are bound to be wrong in certain cases. For instance, Desecrated Tomb operates as a "single card archetype" enabler only if a cube has ample graveyard interaction (e.g., creature recursion from the graveyard, and cards that otherwise target creatures in graveyard, whether that be graveyard removal, delve, etc.) The existence of a Life from the Loam single card archetype assumes that some density of lands will end up in the graveyard somewhere within the normal course of cube matches anyway. For many cubes on this forum, I think both of those assumptions are fairly safe, but that doesn't mean it's worthwhile to frame things so generally.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Its cool dude, its a good discussion

Some of the supporting pieces for these cards I would love to see, since cards like vernal bloom don't get a lot of attention around here, and it got me curious.

 

[japahn]

I haven't tried it, but this card seems perfect as a Single Card Archetype:

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

That seems amazing with battalion creatures/go wide/small overruns. And I love the etb ping is you can run stack that with other ping creatures. That was always so annoying to work with because you tend to get two many similar or lackluster cards stacking up at awkward mana points. A 2cc r/w enchantment is good for sequencing, and a nice signal, with kor skyfisher synergy.

Also, fliped side is good, and a sweet finisher/board control card for more grindy games.

 

[genericco]

That design is super inelegant though. Like I kind of see the top down thing they were going for but frankly it doesn't entirely grok

 

[genericco]