The Asylum

[Nanonox]

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/asylum

You'd have to be out of your mind to draft this cube! With cards in all zones, a plethora of counters and explosive plays, it's going to be a challenge. A challenge I hope will be rewarding, as there are some novel themes (for me at least!) being explored here.

This is the evolution of my Lower Powered Riptide cube, where I've kept some of the things I liked about it and explored some new ideas. The cube is unfinished right now, but the 300ish cards included overlap very nicely and I would love input on how to continue building it. But first, here is what's already in.

The main archetypes right now are

- From exile
- Suspend
- Counters/proliferate
- Artifacts
- Enchantments
- Bounce to hand

Bounce to hand

Bounce is a less oppressive way than blink to give grindy value to decks, and has a few advantages. It’s easy to hit all permanent types, increasing synergy potential. It’s less snowbally, giving games more time to develop. Finally, it plays nicely with other archetypes that care about casting 2+ cards and other includes like Adventures and Sagas.

Enablers



The theme is widely supported and spans non-Red colors. Green has been added compared to my LPR cube, turns out there are enough payoffs and enablers to make it work.

Payoffs



The possible payoffs are quite varied which is why the theme is so appealing.

Suspend



No casting cost suspend cards are a fun drafting challenge that let me add splashy spells that you must work for if you want to maximize them. I appreciate these low cost Suspend cards because if you draw them early, you can fire them off there and then, but if drawn late, then you have the option to use your synergy pieces. And there are a lot of them! Look at Black’s spread of ways to cast them without suspending



These hint towards a combo deck of sorts and means you might prioritize a Wheel of Fate or Gaea’s Will as your payoffs. There are a lot of ways to cast these sorceries in most colors except for Green. The two main ways to involve Green into the mix is via Cascade/Discover, but that is to be explored. I've also included Lotus Bloom and friends, which I'll talk about more in the ramp section.

There are also some fair Suspend cards that are known quantities that play well



All these Suspend cards come into play via exile, which leans into another theme of this cube

From Exile

I explored the from exile theme here and liked the possibilities! A surprising number of cards work well in this space

Enablers



There is a wide spread of cards that are cast from exile, giving drafters multiple avenues to trigger the payoffs.

Payoffs



Lots of cards actively want you to cast spells from exile. A lot of the payoffs are in Red (Proser, Faldorn, Pia Nalaar), but other colors support the archetype too.

Counters

This cube has a heavy counter theme. Not just stacking +1/+1 counters, but also counter manipulation for various benefits.



That's right, Energy counters are in here for more logistical issues. Most of the Energy cards are bread and butter effects, but there are a few self-contained payoffs you can build around



Enchantments

I started this cube off with just enchantments in mind, but as always, I included some artifact stuff. I just can't get away from them! With the Bounce to hand and Counters theme in already, Sagas are a very appealing route to explore, especially with the FF creature Sagas.

Bounce
Proliferate
Remove counter
Bins itself
Leave battlefield

Thanks to the last two points, Revolt and GY themed enchantment stuff makes sense. Sagas are also Historic and can be used with Bargain to tie artifacts and enchantments together.

Saga synergies



Ramp

There are some strong options that need support to shine



More suspend nonsense. These are sweet with White’s recursion, Blue and Red’s artifact cheat and the Black cards above.



Though Green got shafted with suspend, it shines with counters. There is a smattering of proliferation in the cube, and these can generate a lot of mana in the right deck.



This type of ramp might be my favourite because it is built into the fixing lands of the cube. This one is almost exclusively Blue and Green cards, but there are enough of them that you can go UX or GX and still get there.

So that's where I am right now! I feel like Suspend, Exile and Bounce are a wrap. But I would love ideas on where to take the cube. Here are some I am considering
- Big ramp payoffs
- Spell velocity payoffs (always thinking Storm)
- Adding sacrifice to the cube?
- Fleshing out the themes already present (more enchantments, GY, discard and artifact synergies)

Thanks for reading!

 

[Nanonox]

Wanted to expand more on enchantments as it's a deep theme that can go in multiple directions.

Sagas

As part of the enchantment theme, I want Sagas to be a defining feature of the format. They will set the pace for the speed of the format, because if the aggressive decks are too fast, you'll never have the time to take resolve the final chapter on the most expensive ones. One thing I like about them is that they have an expiration date, which limits their effectiveness somewhat and might lessen the need for excessive enchantment removal.

I'll be using the FF creature Sagas and traditional noncreature ones from all sorts of sets.



I'd like to include Summon: Good King Mog XII and Summon: Titan but they are pretty big power outliers and have acceptable replacements in Murmuration and The Mending of Dominaria.

The noncreature Sagas I've broken up into various categories

Interaction



While these do interact with the board, they tend to also give value one way or another, meaning they're likely going to be roleplayers for controlling decks.

Never thought I'd ever have a home for Vault 112 (mostly because I'd never seen the card), yet it's kind of perfect here with Energy, Stun counters and cast from exile in addition to being an enchantment.

Value



Except for Showdown, these are pretty slow to get going. Mending and Conjecture in particular have fantastic final chapters.

Bodies



Tymaret's rate isn't the greatest, but it does mill which is definitely a positive. Redemption giving a 3/3 for 3 is perfectly fine though and the rest of the chapters are a nice bonus.

With that out of the way, what do we do to make these cards pop?

Counters

Sagas have counters and we have a counter theme



This suite of cards allows us to keep our Sagas around and rebuy powerful chapters or keep Saga creatures alive. I'm unsure how many of these I actually want, but Hex Parasite and Thrull Parasite are decent candidates. Clash of Eikons is also a solid fight spell with back up Saga fun.

On the opposite end, proliferate is a way to get extra value from noncreature Sagas



I have more proliferate cards, but these are the most open-ended and repeatable ones. I like the idea of sprinting to powerful final chapters like on The Mirari Conjecture for a surprise turn.

Leave battlefield

Even though I don't think I want a full blown sacrifice theme, Sagas naturally go to the GY. Revolt is a great way to profit from this and these strike me as the top tier Revolt spells (minus Fatal Push)



Both Sagas and Revolt are great with Bounce to hand



These cards are almost exclusively Azorius unfortunately.

GY

A Saga is in the GY, now what?



While I could go big and go the reanimation route with Summon: Bahamut, Overlord of the Mistmoors, Academy Rector,Abuelo's Awakening and the like, I'm not necessarily into that. It's a tried and true archetype that definitely works and I will have a few pieces for it, but I want to explore new themes in this cube.

In addition to Sagas binning themselves Cycling is another easy way to make sure your GY is stocked. Enchantment based interaction can also do the trick too, but is more board dependent. Self-sacrificing enchantments or enchantment creatures dying ensure we have plenty of fodder too.



Aphemia pays you off for having enchantments to exile, but there are other sweet cards to consider



Sending requires some enchantment creatures to work properly, but we have those with FF Sagas and Bestow creatures. Wings randomly buffing zombies is perfect with the other cards and is self-contained anyways. Teval is slow to get going, but just like Monument to Endurance, can accrue a lot of value over the course of a game.

Dance and Tameshi are great because they tie artifacts and enchantments together.

Historic/Bargain/Prowess/Delirium

These mechanics are clean ways to tie in artifacts and enchantments.

I don't think I'll be going out of my way to make legendary creatures work for Historic, but there are bound to be some laying around. I like these cards that care about Historic



Basim Ibn Ishaq is too strong for this cube, but is another thematic one. White is clearly over represented here and I can't realistically fit all of these because White already has a bunch of enchantment payoffs. Teshar is a lock and so is Samwise. Not sure between Sarah Jane and Elena.

As for Bargain, these stand out to me



Big fan of Beseech and Grim Search. Beseech is a Suspend synergy piece, while Search lets us fill the GY efficiently. Tomeseeker is efficient enough and Stopgap has applications in the bounce to hand theme. Torch is ok, but I would need other Red sacrifice effects to consider a Bargain card for the color.

And honorary Bargain cards



Conquest could be a redundant piece for Living End which would make the deck more realistic. Sugarmaw is a decent 2 mana play and an above rate body on 4 mana. It doesn't really fit cleanly into a theme though. Malevolent Witchkite is a bit too expensive for my tastes, but the idea is there. Currently leaning towards keeping Bargain in Black as they are the most on theme and compelling cards.



Baba and Braids are solid ways to generate card advantage if you have fodder lying around. Once again, these are great cards to tie artifacts and enchantments without it being too obvious.



Decent removal.



These two are great targets for sacrifice or bounce to hand. Abundant Growth is there too and I would love more of these types of effects.

Land destruction



This is enchantment adjacent since these big effects conveniently dodge hitting them. I'm not sure they are the right fit for a bounceland format tough. I would feel kind of betrayed as a drafter if my lands get blown up.



These ones could be decent effects however. Both work nicely with artifact ramp and neither completely shut down the game as lands are still available. Bouncelands are actually pretty good with Wildfire since your 4 lands tap for more than 4 mana. Fall being a Saga is clutch, but it might be a little much recurring it multiple times.

While these could fit, not sure they are needed.

Saga specific



Rydia becomes even more of an all star here, 10/10 no notes. Garnet, Princess of Alexandria is very narrow, but could theoretically fit with enough Saga density. There are some cool 3 color cards that care about Sagas, but being 3 colors and only caring about Sagas is extra narrow, so pass for now.

Constellation/Eerie/ETB

This last one is probably the most obvious (and somehow I almost forgot about it). Get rewarded for enchantments entering the battlefield. I painted a pretty picture about how much artifacts and enchantments can benefit from the same payoffs, but I don't hate the idea of having enchantment specific ones in small numbers. I'm ignoring Eerie because of Rooms and all the rules bagage they bring, but it would fit!

My favorites are



I want at least one Enchantress effect and Eidolon of Blossoms is appealing because of triggering itself. The other similar effects all have various upsides, it's tough to pick the right one.

Interested but too pushed

Eidolon of Astral Winds is quite the pump spell. Evasion AND a power boost is nuts. On top of that it's a 2/4 Vigilance for 3 and triggers off itself.

Tatsunari, Toad Rider represents a lot of power for little work. It's a nice way to get repeatable fodder easily, but I'm afraid it will snowball too fast.

Other considerations include

Doomwake Giant
Argothian Enchantress
Enchantress's Presence
Setessan Champion

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That was my Saga deep dive and I like most of what is there.

Bargain, Revolt, Bounce, Constellation, Historic, Counters (+ and -), Leave the GY and recursion are themes I am happy to support. They enhance the Sagas in a lot of different ways that feel somewhat unique. I will also be adding some other enchantments, but this has helped me narrow down what themes are present in the cube and chose my enchantments accordingly.