Hello everyone! My name is TrainmasterGT and this is my cube. The first post in this thread will always be discussing the most current design of my cube. Subsequent posts will discuss earlier iterations in order. Currently, you are reading about Iteration 2 of my cube.
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My cube is a medium-power environment. Players can still do plenty of "broken" things, chiefly Tinker combo decks. The power level is still low enough to allow for some quirkier cards to have a chance in the spotlight, such as Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Archfiend of Ifnir.
Iteration 2 Design Philosophy
Iteration 2 is not a complete overhaul of my cube. Instead, it was a large update streamlining the cube's design and fleshing out some previously undefined color pairs. UW, RW, and RG were all given some much-needed definition. I re-worked and expanded my gold slot in this update to better-reflect each 2-color pair. I
Iteration 2 Archetypes
Azorious
Major Archetype: Heros
Minor Archetype: Control
Heroic is an archetype which I find to be incredibly enjoyable to play. Players get a reward for slapping some pants on their small creatures, incentivizing them to play more auras in their decks. I took a more value-based approach to the construction of my heroic archetype. TBasically, the idea is to have the heroic trigger not be the payoff for playing the deck, but rather an incentive to get players to draft their decks around the heroes. The goal is to play value auras like Cartouche of Knowlede and Eidolon of Countless Battles targeting creatures like Battlewise Hoplite and Fabled Hero.
The Secondary archetype of U/W is an Enchantments control deck. Blue and White have many enchantments that act as removal in my cube. This archetype is designed to flourish around the influx of permanent-based removal. Cards like Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety slow down the game until a fatty like Glyph Keeper can finish the job.
Dimir
Major Archetype: Discard Matters
Minor Archetype: Reanimator
Cycling was originally going to be one of the cube's major themes. Over time, this morphed into a more universal "graveyard matters" deck featuring a heavy emphasis on cycling and discarding cards. U/B cycling comes together in one of 2 ways. The first is a more synergy-oriented build, where players try to gain value from cycling/discard payoffs like Drake Haven, [Archfiend of Ifinir[/c], and Shadowstorm Vizier. Low cost and free repeatable discard like Tomb Robber, Oona's Prowler and Psychatog allow for maximum gravy from the triggers.
The second way Cycling comes together is in a more control-oriented manner. Control builds seek to garner an advantage by always having answers or the means to find them. Miscalculation, Lay Claim, and Curator of Mysteries. Although black does not have as many synergies in the control build, cards like Hero's Downfall and Damnation are vital to the deck's success.
Reanimator decks use cheap discard outlets like Cryptbreaker, Enclave Cryptologist and the aforementioned Oona's Prowler to get large creatures directly into the graveyard. These fatties can include cards like Terastodon, Inkwell Leviathin, and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Reanimation spells like Animate Dead, Necromancy, and Dread Return can quickly send the game sprialing in the reanimator player's favor.
Rakdos
Major Archetype: Discard Aggro
Minor Archetype: Reanimator
This archetype is focused on doing as damage as quickly as possible while still having a bit of late-game reach thanks to some graveyard synergy. Explosive plays involving cards like Flameblade Adept and Hollow One in conjunction with discard effects like Faithless Looting can really kick the game into high gear early. Black's Scrapheap Scrounger, Dread Wanderer, and Undead Gladiator can come back from the grave after being either killed or discarded for value. B/R also has some "power at a cost" cards like Master of the Feast, Bloodrage Brawler, and Herald of Torment that can deal massive damage early in the game. Cards like Bloodhall Priest and Kolaghan, The Storm's Fury can help to get in that last bit of damage in the late game. This deck attacks early and often but doesn't run out of gas in the late game.
B/R Reanimator builds play very similarly to their U/B counterparts. Red discard effects are slightly quicker than those in blue, allowing for faster finishes.
Gruul
Major Archetype: Beatdown Dinosaurs
The very nature of my playgroup means that there are going to be a lot of newer players trying to navigate their way around a complicated format. Iteration one pretty much-ignored R/G as a color pair, and there wasn't any synergy between the two colors. Despite this, newer players would often gravitate towards R/G stompy decks. With the Introduction of Dinosaurs as a tribe in Ixalan, it made sense just to embrace what R/G was already up to and add some Stompy Dinosaurs.
Red-Green dinos decks want to start playing mana dorks and enchantments like Arbor Elf, Utopia Sprawl and Whisperer of the Wilds early. As early as turn 2, the deck can then start dropping Runic Armasaurs, Thrashing Brontodons, and even Ripjaw Raptors. Later on in the game, Charging Monstrosaur, Territorial Allosaurus and Regisaur Alpha can do some real damage. There is also a bit of a "high-power matters" theme in this color pair, including the Ferocious cards, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Xenagos, God of Revels, and the build-around Sarkhan's Unsealing.
The beauty of this archetype is that it doesn't rely on specifically dinosaurs to win. There are still plenty of good non-dinosaurs for this deck to play, such as Polukranos, World Eater, Honored Hydra, Grand Warlord Rahda, or even just Thunderbreak Regent. The dinosaurs just add a fun flavor (and marker) to the archetype.
Selesnya
Major Archetype: Enchantress
G/W decks want to play enchantments. They want to put auras on their dudes and then turn them sideways. If there were ever a deck for Etherial Armor and Eidolon of Blossoms, or one which would happily play it's enchantresses, this would be it. The basic goal of the deck is to slam some early dorks like Adorned Pouncer and Herald of the Pantheon and give em' some pants. Auras can range from the humble Rancor all the way up to the mighty On Serra's Wings. Bestow creatures like Boon Satyr allows the deck some additional value even if an enchanted creature leaves play. Last but not least, card advantage and value engines like Satyr Enchanter and Sigil of the Empty Throne can help to close out the game.
One nice thing about this archetype is that about half of green's ramp can interact with auras in some way, shape, or form. Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, Wild Growth and Overgrowth are all enchantments, while Arbor Elf and Voyaging Satyr both care about untapping lands. It just oozes with synergy.
Orzhov
Major Archetype: The Fault in our Stars (Constellation)
Thought Experiment: Zombies
This deck is very similar to the Selesnya archetype, but the emphasis is placed more on playing enchantment creatures rather than playing specifically auras. Black actually has the highest volume of Enchantment Creatures out of any color in the cube. Grim Guardian might not look like much at first glance, but it's large butt and drain ability can really hurt your opponents over time. From here, players can build a more controlling deck, capitalizing on ConstellationTriggers and Aura-based removal, or they can build more aggressive decks using W/B aggro creatures and Bestow dudes. Either way, a there is a lot of value to be had here.
I'm trying to decide whether or not to support a W/B zombies deck in my cube. I really like Wayward Servant as a card, and I want to see if I can support a minimalist zombies archetype in the cube. That said, I just don't have very much support for that type of deck. Cryptbreaker is great, and Liliana's Mastery becomes significantly better than it already is if zombies are indeed a thing, but I'm not sure this fun archetype is worth the baggage to fully support. It's future inclusion honestly depends on whether or not it works out as a subtheme of W/B enchantress, since there are actually a surprising number of zombie-related cards that already pair with that deck.
Golgari
Major Archetype: Graveyard Shenanigans Reanimator
Minor Archetype: Constellation/Enchantress mashup
Reanimator is one of the staples of cube. Like their U/B and B/R counterparts, B/G reanimator decks use black's efficient discard outlets like Cryptbreaker and Oona's Prowler to get creatures into the graveyard quickly. Green brings more efficient mass dump mill cards like Commune with the Gods and Gather the Pack to the table. Green also has a fairly broad range of bigcreatures that players can reanimate.
The secondary enchantress/constellation archetype is the byproduct of both Green and Black both supporting enchantment decks with white. This is probably the grindiest version of the deck. Courser of Kruphix, Doomwake Giant, and Eidolon of Blossoms, in addition to the Mana Enchantments can gain huge incremental advantages for constellation players. Pharika's Mender is also essentially a Regrowth on a stick for this deck.
Simic
Major Archetype: Super Ramp
Minor Archetype: Squirrel Combo
Simic decks try to combo together Mana Enchantments like Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth combined with Untappers like Arbor Elf, Vizier of Tumbling Sands, and Kiora's Follower. The mana production created by these cards can be used to ramp into big creatures like Foe-Razer Regent, Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Inkwell Leviathin ahead of schedule. The deck can also use repeatable mana sinks like Mystic Archaeologist and River Hoopoe to draw into its finishers.
Did you guys know that Squirrel Nest, Intruder Alarm, and an Untapper can make infinite squirrels? It's like a fun, non-GRBS version of Splinter Twin. And in case you're wondering, this deck has come together twice before in draft. It's legit.
Izzet
Major Archetype: Historic
Izzet decks in my cube want to use the abundance of Mana Rocks and efficient artifacts matter finishers. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is generally going to act as the main "engine" of the deck. Not only does she trigger off of casting Artifacts, she also triggers off of the casting of Legends. Blue-Red has the highest ratio of legendary to non-legendary permanents in the cube. What's more, many of these legends care about artifacts, such as Pia Nalaar, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Captain Lannery Storm, and Sai, Master Thopterist.
Beyond its artifacts matter theme, Izzet decks play a very tempo-oriented game. Cards like Electrolyze, Izzet Charm, and Thassa, God of the Sea can help Izzet decks keep the upper hand against opposing strategies. The nice thing about the tempo deck is that it plays very nicely with the full-in artifacts matter deck. Whirler Rogue just is a good card regardless of whether it's being played for its artifacts matter abilities or evasive utility.
Boros
Major Archetype: Attachment Disorder
Boros attachment decks formed from seeing base red aggro decks using some of white's low drop heroes and auras to great effect. These decks were fun, but they didn't have a whole lot of synergy. Slamming Bloodrage Brawler and then giving it some Flying Pants. Since I had no real archetype in this color pair, supporting the deck people were already playing made the most logical sense. Thanks to Dominaria, an Auras and Equipment was able to form thanks to Danitha Capashen, Paragon, Tiana, Ship's Caretaker, Valduk, Keeper of the Flame, and Champion of the Flame. I allowed this deck to hedge into red's artifact theme a bit by giving it some powerful equipment, namely Bloodforged Battle-Axe and Umezawa's Jitte. Other than that, the deck plays like a mix between U/W heroic and Mono-Red Aggro.
Bonus Archetype 1:
Mono Red Aggro
In the first cube I ever built, I avoided adding a mono-red deck because I felt supporting mono-color decks was a trap (I still do to some extent). Then, 2 very important things happened. First, I opened a Goblin Guide in a Modern Masters 2017 pack. Second, Amonkhet Block was released, introducing a whole new archetype to standard: 2-tix red. This was the first time since I started playing magic that I thought a currently competitively viable red aggro deck looked Fun. I thought the deck's gameplan of using Cartouche of Zeal and Ahn-crop Crasher to stop the opponent from blocking was really unique. I knew I had to add the archetype to my cube! RDW in my cube ends up being some amalgamation of 2-tix red and Modern Burn. It's pretty self-explanatory and very fun.
Bonus Archetype 2:
Sultai Sidisi Whip
Another old standard deck, Sultai Sidisi Whip tries to use Sidisi, Brood Tyrant in conjunction with Whip of Erebos to create a soul-crushing game-winning combo. Sidisi can mill creatures into the GY which Whip can hastily reanimate. Other than that, Sidisi Whip decks usually play like a mix between UB and BG Reanimator builds.
Bonus Archetype 3:
Mono-Black Devotion
Mono-black decks can work. I have seen them work. The Pack Rat Rat pack reunion tour featuring Gray Merchant of Asphodel is on now! Starring the new backup band of Gifted Aetherborn, Vampire Nighthawk, and Cryptbreaker. They'll enthrall you all night with songs of Profane Commands, Vanquishing the Weak and Damnation. It's sure to be one heck of a show!
Bonus Archetype 4:
Treasure Masters
This deck is looks, but it has come together before, and when it does, it is one of the most fun decks in the cube. This is a 2-card combo between Marionette Master and Spell Swindle. The basic idea is to counter a thing that costs 5 or more mana with Swindle, then on the next turn play a Marionette Master adding the counters. Then players can sacrifice the Swindle Treasures, usually to win the game on the spot.
Cube Link
Visual Spoiler
Draft It
Cube Link
Visual Spoiler
Draft It
My cube is a medium-power environment. Players can still do plenty of "broken" things, chiefly Tinker combo decks. The power level is still low enough to allow for some quirkier cards to have a chance in the spotlight, such as Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Archfiend of Ifnir.
Iteration 2 Design Philosophy
Iteration 2 is not a complete overhaul of my cube. Instead, it was a large update streamlining the cube's design and fleshing out some previously undefined color pairs. UW, RW, and RG were all given some much-needed definition. I re-worked and expanded my gold slot in this update to better-reflect each 2-color pair. I
Iteration 2 Archetypes
Azorious
Major Archetype: Heros
Minor Archetype: Control
Heroic is an archetype which I find to be incredibly enjoyable to play. Players get a reward for slapping some pants on their small creatures, incentivizing them to play more auras in their decks. I took a more value-based approach to the construction of my heroic archetype. TBasically, the idea is to have the heroic trigger not be the payoff for playing the deck, but rather an incentive to get players to draft their decks around the heroes. The goal is to play value auras like Cartouche of Knowlede and Eidolon of Countless Battles targeting creatures like Battlewise Hoplite and Fabled Hero.
The Secondary archetype of U/W is an Enchantments control deck. Blue and White have many enchantments that act as removal in my cube. This archetype is designed to flourish around the influx of permanent-based removal. Cards like Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety slow down the game until a fatty like Glyph Keeper can finish the job.
Dimir
Major Archetype: Discard Matters
Minor Archetype: Reanimator
Cycling was originally going to be one of the cube's major themes. Over time, this morphed into a more universal "graveyard matters" deck featuring a heavy emphasis on cycling and discarding cards. U/B cycling comes together in one of 2 ways. The first is a more synergy-oriented build, where players try to gain value from cycling/discard payoffs like Drake Haven, [Archfiend of Ifinir[/c], and Shadowstorm Vizier. Low cost and free repeatable discard like Tomb Robber, Oona's Prowler and Psychatog allow for maximum gravy from the triggers.
The second way Cycling comes together is in a more control-oriented manner. Control builds seek to garner an advantage by always having answers or the means to find them. Miscalculation, Lay Claim, and Curator of Mysteries. Although black does not have as many synergies in the control build, cards like Hero's Downfall and Damnation are vital to the deck's success.
Reanimator decks use cheap discard outlets like Cryptbreaker, Enclave Cryptologist and the aforementioned Oona's Prowler to get large creatures directly into the graveyard. These fatties can include cards like Terastodon, Inkwell Leviathin, and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Reanimation spells like Animate Dead, Necromancy, and Dread Return can quickly send the game sprialing in the reanimator player's favor.
Rakdos
Major Archetype: Discard Aggro
Minor Archetype: Reanimator
This archetype is focused on doing as damage as quickly as possible while still having a bit of late-game reach thanks to some graveyard synergy. Explosive plays involving cards like Flameblade Adept and Hollow One in conjunction with discard effects like Faithless Looting can really kick the game into high gear early. Black's Scrapheap Scrounger, Dread Wanderer, and Undead Gladiator can come back from the grave after being either killed or discarded for value. B/R also has some "power at a cost" cards like Master of the Feast, Bloodrage Brawler, and Herald of Torment that can deal massive damage early in the game. Cards like Bloodhall Priest and Kolaghan, The Storm's Fury can help to get in that last bit of damage in the late game. This deck attacks early and often but doesn't run out of gas in the late game.
B/R Reanimator builds play very similarly to their U/B counterparts. Red discard effects are slightly quicker than those in blue, allowing for faster finishes.
Gruul
Major Archetype: Beatdown Dinosaurs
The very nature of my playgroup means that there are going to be a lot of newer players trying to navigate their way around a complicated format. Iteration one pretty much-ignored R/G as a color pair, and there wasn't any synergy between the two colors. Despite this, newer players would often gravitate towards R/G stompy decks. With the Introduction of Dinosaurs as a tribe in Ixalan, it made sense just to embrace what R/G was already up to and add some Stompy Dinosaurs.
Red-Green dinos decks want to start playing mana dorks and enchantments like Arbor Elf, Utopia Sprawl and Whisperer of the Wilds early. As early as turn 2, the deck can then start dropping Runic Armasaurs, Thrashing Brontodons, and even Ripjaw Raptors. Later on in the game, Charging Monstrosaur, Territorial Allosaurus and Regisaur Alpha can do some real damage. There is also a bit of a "high-power matters" theme in this color pair, including the Ferocious cards, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Xenagos, God of Revels, and the build-around Sarkhan's Unsealing.
The beauty of this archetype is that it doesn't rely on specifically dinosaurs to win. There are still plenty of good non-dinosaurs for this deck to play, such as Polukranos, World Eater, Honored Hydra, Grand Warlord Rahda, or even just Thunderbreak Regent. The dinosaurs just add a fun flavor (and marker) to the archetype.
Selesnya
Major Archetype: Enchantress
G/W decks want to play enchantments. They want to put auras on their dudes and then turn them sideways. If there were ever a deck for Etherial Armor and Eidolon of Blossoms, or one which would happily play it's enchantresses, this would be it. The basic goal of the deck is to slam some early dorks like Adorned Pouncer and Herald of the Pantheon and give em' some pants. Auras can range from the humble Rancor all the way up to the mighty On Serra's Wings. Bestow creatures like Boon Satyr allows the deck some additional value even if an enchanted creature leaves play. Last but not least, card advantage and value engines like Satyr Enchanter and Sigil of the Empty Throne can help to close out the game.
One nice thing about this archetype is that about half of green's ramp can interact with auras in some way, shape, or form. Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, Wild Growth and Overgrowth are all enchantments, while Arbor Elf and Voyaging Satyr both care about untapping lands. It just oozes with synergy.
Orzhov
Major Archetype: The Fault in our Stars (Constellation)
Thought Experiment: Zombies
This deck is very similar to the Selesnya archetype, but the emphasis is placed more on playing enchantment creatures rather than playing specifically auras. Black actually has the highest volume of Enchantment Creatures out of any color in the cube. Grim Guardian might not look like much at first glance, but it's large butt and drain ability can really hurt your opponents over time. From here, players can build a more controlling deck, capitalizing on ConstellationTriggers and Aura-based removal, or they can build more aggressive decks using W/B aggro creatures and Bestow dudes. Either way, a there is a lot of value to be had here.
I'm trying to decide whether or not to support a W/B zombies deck in my cube. I really like Wayward Servant as a card, and I want to see if I can support a minimalist zombies archetype in the cube. That said, I just don't have very much support for that type of deck. Cryptbreaker is great, and Liliana's Mastery becomes significantly better than it already is if zombies are indeed a thing, but I'm not sure this fun archetype is worth the baggage to fully support. It's future inclusion honestly depends on whether or not it works out as a subtheme of W/B enchantress, since there are actually a surprising number of zombie-related cards that already pair with that deck.
Golgari
Major Archetype: Graveyard Shenanigans Reanimator
Minor Archetype: Constellation/Enchantress mashup
Reanimator is one of the staples of cube. Like their U/B and B/R counterparts, B/G reanimator decks use black's efficient discard outlets like Cryptbreaker and Oona's Prowler to get creatures into the graveyard quickly. Green brings more efficient mass dump mill cards like Commune with the Gods and Gather the Pack to the table. Green also has a fairly broad range of bigcreatures that players can reanimate.
The secondary enchantress/constellation archetype is the byproduct of both Green and Black both supporting enchantment decks with white. This is probably the grindiest version of the deck. Courser of Kruphix, Doomwake Giant, and Eidolon of Blossoms, in addition to the Mana Enchantments can gain huge incremental advantages for constellation players. Pharika's Mender is also essentially a Regrowth on a stick for this deck.
Simic
Major Archetype: Super Ramp
Minor Archetype: Squirrel Combo
Simic decks try to combo together Mana Enchantments like Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth combined with Untappers like Arbor Elf, Vizier of Tumbling Sands, and Kiora's Follower. The mana production created by these cards can be used to ramp into big creatures like Foe-Razer Regent, Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Inkwell Leviathin ahead of schedule. The deck can also use repeatable mana sinks like Mystic Archaeologist and River Hoopoe to draw into its finishers.
Did you guys know that Squirrel Nest, Intruder Alarm, and an Untapper can make infinite squirrels? It's like a fun, non-GRBS version of Splinter Twin. And in case you're wondering, this deck has come together twice before in draft. It's legit.
Izzet
Major Archetype: Historic
Izzet decks in my cube want to use the abundance of Mana Rocks and efficient artifacts matter finishers. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is generally going to act as the main "engine" of the deck. Not only does she trigger off of casting Artifacts, she also triggers off of the casting of Legends. Blue-Red has the highest ratio of legendary to non-legendary permanents in the cube. What's more, many of these legends care about artifacts, such as Pia Nalaar, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Captain Lannery Storm, and Sai, Master Thopterist.
Beyond its artifacts matter theme, Izzet decks play a very tempo-oriented game. Cards like Electrolyze, Izzet Charm, and Thassa, God of the Sea can help Izzet decks keep the upper hand against opposing strategies. The nice thing about the tempo deck is that it plays very nicely with the full-in artifacts matter deck. Whirler Rogue just is a good card regardless of whether it's being played for its artifacts matter abilities or evasive utility.
Boros
Major Archetype: Attachment Disorder
Boros attachment decks formed from seeing base red aggro decks using some of white's low drop heroes and auras to great effect. These decks were fun, but they didn't have a whole lot of synergy. Slamming Bloodrage Brawler and then giving it some Flying Pants. Since I had no real archetype in this color pair, supporting the deck people were already playing made the most logical sense. Thanks to Dominaria, an Auras and Equipment was able to form thanks to Danitha Capashen, Paragon, Tiana, Ship's Caretaker, Valduk, Keeper of the Flame, and Champion of the Flame. I allowed this deck to hedge into red's artifact theme a bit by giving it some powerful equipment, namely Bloodforged Battle-Axe and Umezawa's Jitte. Other than that, the deck plays like a mix between U/W heroic and Mono-Red Aggro.
Bonus Archetype 1:
Mono Red Aggro
In the first cube I ever built, I avoided adding a mono-red deck because I felt supporting mono-color decks was a trap (I still do to some extent). Then, 2 very important things happened. First, I opened a Goblin Guide in a Modern Masters 2017 pack. Second, Amonkhet Block was released, introducing a whole new archetype to standard: 2-tix red. This was the first time since I started playing magic that I thought a currently competitively viable red aggro deck looked Fun. I thought the deck's gameplan of using Cartouche of Zeal and Ahn-crop Crasher to stop the opponent from blocking was really unique. I knew I had to add the archetype to my cube! RDW in my cube ends up being some amalgamation of 2-tix red and Modern Burn. It's pretty self-explanatory and very fun.
Bonus Archetype 2:
Sultai Sidisi Whip
Another old standard deck, Sultai Sidisi Whip tries to use Sidisi, Brood Tyrant in conjunction with Whip of Erebos to create a soul-crushing game-winning combo. Sidisi can mill creatures into the GY which Whip can hastily reanimate. Other than that, Sidisi Whip decks usually play like a mix between UB and BG Reanimator builds.
Bonus Archetype 3:
Mono-Black Devotion
Mono-black decks can work. I have seen them work. The Pack Rat Rat pack reunion tour featuring Gray Merchant of Asphodel is on now! Starring the new backup band of Gifted Aetherborn, Vampire Nighthawk, and Cryptbreaker. They'll enthrall you all night with songs of Profane Commands, Vanquishing the Weak and Damnation. It's sure to be one heck of a show!
Bonus Archetype 4:
Treasure Masters
This deck is looks, but it has come together before, and when it does, it is one of the most fun decks in the cube. This is a 2-card combo between Marionette Master and Spell Swindle. The basic idea is to counter a thing that costs 5 or more mana with Swindle, then on the next turn play a Marionette Master adding the counters. Then players can sacrifice the Swindle Treasures, usually to win the game on the spot.
Cube Link
Visual Spoiler
Draft It
