General Spells Matter: Astonished With a Freedom

is there any way to encourage this deck in B or G? obviously you’re just GONNA be in U and/or R but i want to encourage the deck in 4 colors in my cube.... so URw_

Green can have a spell velocity component which works with it, which I run (also check DBS's cube)


In my current cube iteration green is pretty heavy on spell velocity, but mostly creature spells. Usually the bottleneck to velocity is mana generation. In blue you can increase your spell to mana ratio with something like:



and green kinda does the same thing with creatures:



The difference being Frantic Search draws you deeper, gives you a spell count, and generates mana all on its own whereas Elvish Mystic doesn't do that. But that's where the other pieces of the puzzle come in like:



Tokens are a natural extension so I often seen the pairing with Red. In this case you can mix creatures and non-creatures:



Or, since you're doing velocity + creatures, the pairing with white ETBs is also common:



I think right now I could do more to support a pure non-creature version. Red/Green spells is kinda a deck - I've seen it drafted successfully before. The problem is, if you're already cutting Red and Green from other drafters, the power offered by say Earthcraft and Purphoros, God of the Forge is too high to turn down and you're more likely to get them. Instead the green non-creature spells deck tends to be lands matter cards like Harrow, Heartbeat of Spring combined with Turnabout, Frantic Search, that kind of thing. Maybe I'll try balancing out non-creatures options in green a bit to open up the available directions some more.

As a likely less helpful aside, I have been exploring the non-creature spells matter theme in Green/Black that focuses on paying and gaining life:



It's not currently enough to be it's own dedicated deck - it's more a small subtheme that can naturally come together. There's probably a low power version of this where you're not all-in on combo, but using lifegain as a control element to beat aggro while combining it with card advantage so it's not worthless against grindier decks.

EDIT: In basically all my posts, I use the same like 10 cards as examples, but they are just so fun and flexible lol
 

M21 Burlfist Oak
UB is particularly rich with spells for a control deck
B has lots of removal and draw spells that could slot right in and has the only spell that matters
G has a few heroic cards for Naya Heroic

I'm going to be investigating this deck for The Black Cube at some point and might return.

If you want to check it out for yourself, I'd look at Kalamax and Kess EDH lists.
 
Has anyone really made this theme work in white? I get as far as Monastery Mentor and Seeker of the Way, and then things kind of...peter out.

I'd like the bridge to be artifacts:



but so much of white's artifact support relies on generating artifact tokens as opposed to casting artifacts:



So white can support an artifact theme nicely, but it doesn't really bridge to "casting noncreature spells". I've also tried to make heroic work, but most of the support cards are narrow, and the heroic creatures look out of place at my power level. We had one beautiful Bant heroic deck come together, but it's an expensive theme in terms of cube slots. How have you made spells matter work in white?
 

Some ways to continue casting spells in white. and really white doesn’t need a lot of payoff cards because the base power of its noncreature section is quite good and makes it a natural support color to the prowess deck.
 
Has anyone really made this theme work in white? I get as far as Monastery Mentor and Seeker of the Way, and then things kind of...peter out.

I'd like the bridge to be artifacts: ...


I think white works well with artifact tokens. You have decent payoffs and lots of enablers. Have you tried these guys (in addition to Angel of Invention and Blade Splicer)



Shrine only rewards you for casting white spells, but if you play the other enablers, it grows fast. Expertise can allow you to gain some velocity by going double spell in a turn and Spear triggers prowess while buffing all these artifact tokens you've made. Servo Exhibition is a little lower power level than the other cards, but it's not embarrassing and the synergies are nice.
 
it’s not bad, but it would be way more interesting if the creature mode had some kind of ability.
EDIT: if you are looking to have a low overall cost curve, this is a sweet and safe 1-drop for the prowess deck that can become a huge threat over time.
but it really depends how long you expect your average game to last
 
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