General Weird unfinished ideas for inspiration / random brainstorming

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

The green anti creature auras suggestion in the removal auras thread reminded me of an idea I had the other day about some spells matters green creatures that have interaction with +1 counters:



Now green isn't the most spells friendly colour but with things like



You might have something alongside the pitches to force synergy.

I'm not saying this is the greatest thing, but wondered if anybody else had any other groups of cards that were a bit odd or different which could lead to another theme/synergy/archetype? Just throw them out there, somebody might have something that leads to something interesting.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I don't think this is that weird actually. We were talking about something similar in the simic thread: basically this is a spell velocity deck, but instead of generating horizontal growth it generates vertical growth (which is arguably worse), with cheap cantrips, frantic search, cheap counters, maybe some flash cards. Green's mana acceleration lets you vomit out a hand and translate that into a better board position, while blue keeps the card's coming and protects your threats.

I like the idea of running some of the green aura based removal though, as that addresses the decks chief weakness: lack of hard board interaction.

 

[vennythekid]

Hypothetically, you could extend the verticle growth to white as well:

 

[Chris Taylor]

White's also got one of the better spells for protecting a vertical threat that also works well with the 3 you mention:

 

[Jason Waddell]

I want to build a cube with a removal metagame but it would kind of need to be built from scratch. Basically I want the cool "play around this" metagaming that happens in Standard, and that doesn't really happen (to anywhere near the same extent) when 100% of your removal spells are singleton.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

I want to build a cube with a removal metagame but it would kind of need to be built from scratch. Basically I want the cool "play around this" metagaming that happens in Standard, and that doesn't really happen (to anywhere near the same extent) when 100% of your removal spells are singleton.

The easiest way to do this is probably with damage spells and -x/-x as you can identify the 'right' magic 'toughness'.

More ideas please!

 

[blacksmithy]

Going back to your original post, i think green can be a good support color for spells decks. Stuff like become immense and Warriors' Lesson can help you achieve a good mass of spells in your managorger/pyromancer deck.

 

[ahadabans]

It seems like there are more flyers in cube now than ever before (especially tokens). Combine that with Green's ability to generate mana... is it time to bring this bad boy back?

It can be a one-sided sweeper effect and/or fireball to the face. It also kills walkers.

 

[Aoret]

I think I prefer firespout most of the time since it can be pyroclasm too. Granted, it isn't a fireball, but from a personal taste standpoint I prefer not bleeding fireball effects into green. Red has a hard enough time keeping a meaningful identity without us eroding it further. (And yes I get that the card I referenced bleeds pyroclasm into green to a degree since it can pyroclasm the air without red mana, but I think pyroclasm is less crucial to the red color identity overall. There's also a lot of precedent for "green kills flyers")

 

[Chriskool]

This idea is probably compost, but I love it:

 

[Jason Waddell]

This idea is probably compost, but I love it:

I like it in theory, especially with the 1/1 guy who grabs a land from your top 4. Some of these work with Delve and Kotr too.

 

[japahn]

 

[Chriskool]

I forgot about this, Terravore and Knight of the Reliquary!

 

[Aoret]

Vinecrasher is good. Last draft I ran the custom 1GG version that Jason and I discussed on the spoiler thread. It seemed really really strong at 1GG but not horrendously unfair. I think the four mana version is probably playable too, I just have too many green fours as is. It's something I have my eye on though.

 

[Ferritovore]

I want to build a cube with a removal metagame but it would kind of need to be built from scratch. Basically I want the cool "play around this" metagaming that happens in Standard, and that doesn't really happen (to anywhere near the same extent) when 100% of your removal spells are singleton.

What if every card you draft is automatically a 2-of squadron?

Or just go full Standard and make every card a 4-of squadron and mindecksize=60?

 

[Aoret]

"you never go full standard. everyone knows that"

 

[Jason Waddell]

What if every card you draft is automatically a 2-of squadron?

Or just go full Standard and make every card a 4-of squadron and mindecksize=60?

These are possible, but I'd have to entirely redesign the cube from a ground up. And there are plenty of effects that I don't want 2 (or 4) of in my environment, so drafting individual cards gives more granularity.

With either of these approaches I think you have to resort to:
a) having fewer unique cards in your environment
and
b) changing your drafting format, so that players make fewer picks

 

[quanta]

I've been thinking about if there are any other interesting experiments to try with mana fixing lands and what effect they would have. So far, I haven't thought of anything that I think is as interesting as how the bouncelands affect a cube like the penny pincher or even as interesting as multiple fetch/multiple duals. But I feel like there's got to be something with far reaching effects on draft dynamics.

Things I thought might be interesting so far from best idea to worst

(1) 4x filterlands in a 360 or 450 cube. So basically all land fixing would be filter lands. Filter lands are much better for fixing into CC or CCC or god forbid, CCCC costs. But you need a very high density of them to ensure they have an effect on the format. Implications (a) if you run enough filterlands, aggro CC creatures should become more playable; I haven't calculated exactly how much of an improvement it would be. (b) splashing for off color cards that have CC of your splash in their cost becomes much more feasible because you only need one filter land to cast your CC splash card. I think this may actually be really interesting and simultaneously somewhat subtle at first glance for a drafter.

(2) charge counter lands. These are kind of all over the place. Gemstone mine and tendo ice bridge are both fast but can only fix (or even make mana at all) a few times normally. Vivid lands are slow but with a similar limitation. The storage duals are terrible fixing for aggro but have traditionally been thought of as good for breaking control mirrors, etc. Main point is all these lands become better and more interesting if you have a lot of proliferate. But I'm afraid this idea lacks any real depth in terms of how it would affect things.

(3) 4x invasion sac lands. This leads to there not being much fixing, but there being a lot of land-based one-shot ramp. Probably only fun in some sort of weird degenerate yet low power ramp/combo cube.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

The filterland idea opens up lots of design space that hasn't been explored before, which is very interesting. I would imagine they become an essential component in draft, though you could have some interesting support cards like say terrarion.