Who's the Beatdown? A Macroarchetype Cube

[japahn]

Work in progress list:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/whosthebeatdown

No big write-up this time. This is going to be a low-effort blog.

I discussed this a bit already in this thread: https://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/macroarchetype-cube-or-whos-the-beatdown-cube.3670/

I'm building a cube without microarchetypes. It will focus on the macroarchetypes in the aggro vs control spectrum.

I will support aggro, control, midrange and aggro-control, though arguably you could say that aggro and aggro-control are very related, so let's bundle them together. In terms of archetype shapes, I want all colors to support all 3 macroarchetypes, so what I'm looking at is very simple:

Aggro/Aggro-control
Midrange
Control

The intention is to focus on card selection, rather than archetype selection, and leverage this flexibility to push for other goals:
Gameplay Agency: I want cards that make for good games. I want players to understand why they won or lost.
Resonance: I want cards that make sense. I want players to grasp what concept cards are representing and easily understand and memorize them.
Joy sparkling: I want cards that I just... like. Pretty sure this is a function of the above, plus elegance and emotional connection to some cards.

And that's it for the first post.

 

[japahn]

Ok, the biggest challenge of this cube is going to be that colors are just not as good as each other at aggro, control and midrange. A more natural arrangement would be something like:
Aggro
Aggro-control
Midrange
{W/R} Control

Fortunately, I'm not playing chaos drafts, and this is cube, so I pick which cards I include. The goal is to run similar densities of cards in all colors appropriate and specific to those archetypes, at similar power levels, and get as close to the goal as possible - though recognizing that some colors might still be better than others at certain macroarchetypes. We can fortunately get some help from the self-correcting nature of draft to smooth out these imbalances. Still, I'll make an effort to have macro archetypes be as balanced between colors as much as can reasonably be done.

There are lots of challenges, so let's work through them. Fortunately, this was the design of the Elegant Cube for years, so I actually have a good idea of what I'm dealing with!

Challenge: Control is blue
Why is control almost always blue? Because of counterspells and good card draw.

Counterspells are the only things* that can interacts with sorceries. Artifact removal and counterspells are the only things that can deal with artifacts. Same for enchantments. Counterspells are even good against planeswalkers - though burn, and attacking creatures can also interact with those.

* discard can interact with all of those actually, but it's not reliable in long games because a topdecked card has no window to be discarded.

No other color has the versatility to answer threats that blue has, though white comes fairly close with is Oblivion Rings. Also, no other color has a meaningful amount of counterspells.

Card draw is another area where blue is significantly above the rest. Control's plan is to build card advantage while not dying, and to build card advantage, nothing is as consistently effective as drawing cards is. Black has card draw too, but often worse and tied to loss of life. Red's card draw doesn't allow it to accumulate resources usually, using the exile card draw of Light Up the Stage. Green has card draw but often tied to having creatures.

How do we overcome the fact that blue is the best control color?

Well first, let's recognize that it will likely still be the top control color if I'm running anything resembling typical blue. With that out of the way, let's mitigate the imbalance between blue and other colors!

Because blue aggro-control will be heavily supported, the blue card pool will not be all usable by control. This scarcity in blue control cards should prevent blue from being drafted too many people in the same pod. Running a significant amount of cards aligned solely with aggro-control and not with control, like Force Spikes, is necessary to create this scarcity.



Card draw is a powerful way to create a strong endgame, but card draw scales well to power level, and other colors can match this card advantage at a lower power level if they are provided with tools to create this advantage over time with a similar profile. Note that if these CA-positive cards are tempo-neutral or even tempo-positive, they are more like midrange cards than control. True analogues of card draw should be tempo-negative. This will cause me to run some pretty particular cards that can perform this role.



Of course this introduces the constraint that the environment has to be slow enough that these are playable.

Colorless card draw like Cosmos Elixir and Sunset Pyramid can also replace blue card draw in non-blue control.



To add to card advantage in other colors, we can use effects that create card advantage by being more card negative to the opponent than a 1-for-1. Notably, wraths are good at this while not letting you get ahead yourself, preserving them as control tools and not midrange. We can also use other defensive 0r neutral 2-for-1s.



Ok, we have given other colors options to match blue's card draw. What about the fact that counterspells are clean answers to everything?

To start, we should be careful with permanents that have valuable ETB effects, particularly effective ones against control. The reason is that removal is much worse than counterspells against them, so we make removal better relatively to counterspells by limiting our Cloudblazers. Note that ETBs that are not good against control like Flametongue Kavu or Lone Misisonary aren't much a problem for this, and their inclusion actually makes counterspells better than removal in aggro/aggro-control decks, effectively buffing blue aggro and making it draw more generic cards from control!



Then, we must make sure combinations of colors are versatile enough to have answers to threats. Non-ETB creatures are ok because they can be dealt with with removal and wraths. We're more concerned with artifacts, enchantments, sorceries (instants too I guess?) and planeswalkers.

White and green have tools to deal with artifacts and enchantments. Red can deal with artifacts and planeswalkers. Black can deal with planeswalkers and use discard somewhat. We need maindeckable effects in these categories that control can run, and versatility really is key to make them maindeckable.

 

[Nanonox]

This is a cool write up, enjoyed reading it.

In regards to Blue having the best draw and giving tools to other colors:
What’s to stop Blue from also picking up those cards in addition to its draw? I think that is part of the challenge to more diverse control decks. Multicoloured cards could be a solution.

Maybe some of your wraths are in a different color pair



Some powerful finisher without Blue. I think Planeswalkers would be a big draw for getting people to latch onto a control strategy. Examples that grant value, but still need a board to maximize their ultimates:



Some non-blue value threats/answers like these Mardu ones, that are ok in White, but powerful in Mardu.



Food for thought!

 

[japahn]

Well, blue will pick up many of those cards, like Wraths, but the important thing is to offer replacements for counterspells and card draw. Blue isn't particularly interested in those because it already has those tools, and it can only run 23 cards.

I do run Ajani and could run Garruk. I'm about 101% sure Archangel of Wrath is too much in terms of power level, Mythos seems like it could be a good fit but for midrange not control.

Edit: actually Mythos seems great for control too, giving Mardu control more of a reason to run defensive creatures. I'm not sure though, tricolor cards are so narrow.

 

[Nanonox]

Well, blue will pick up many of those cards, like Wraths, but the important thing is to offer replacements for counterspells and card draw.

Well first, let's recognize that it will likely still be the top control color if I'm running anything resembling typical blue.

I guess I was suggesting that since Blue is always going to be better than the others at control, you need a clear reason to entice them to go elsewhere.
Offering good value and answers in other colors is necessary, I agree with you. But if those don’t compare to the Blue alternatives why bother with non-Blue control.

However, if the best wraths are multicoloured, then you have a reason to stray away from Blue control. Same thing with finishers.

So, power outliers in non-traditional control color combinations that are better than what mono-colored cards can offer.
Since you are operating at lower power level, I think it could be done.

 

[japahn]

They should "compare" to the blue alternatives. I guess what I'm saying is that if blue ends up being still a better control color than the others, in a vacuum, I'm not going to sacrifica too much of the other goals trying to seek this one. For example, if there's on average 1.5 blue control decks a draft versus 0.7 green control decks, that's fine. As long as there aren't on average 2.3 blue decks and 0.1 green ones.

The issue with pushing for multicolor control cards to entice drafters away from blue is the control decks are more capable of playing more colors, and I'm at risk of just making 5c control really good. I'd like decks to use green control tools, not just green to get lands to cast Mythos. I can run multicolored control cards to some extent, but can't rely on it much to balance colors within control.

 

[landofMordor]

To follow up on this excellent control discussion with some devils' advocacy -- I think as a drafter of this cube, my plan is to either draft control or non- slower midrange. I'd play wraths in a base-green creature deck only under extreme duress (or idk if I got a free Companion or Conspiracy, I guess). I'm also never stooping to play Red or Blue conditional "wraths" when literal Wrath and Damnation are in this cube. If drafters are following Mike Hron's dictum of "draft the good cards", then I don't think anything but -based control will come together when the power band is this wide.

Another way I'm thinking about this: what's the beginning of the path through a draft where the terminus is non- control? I think of Wrath and Damnation and Pyroclasm as secret gold cards, where they might as well be Supreme Verdict. Starting with strong non- finishers puts me into midrange, because I don't want the anti-synergy of Wrathing the playable creatures I'm sure to get for free if the color is open. And starting on or or spot removal is pretty macroarchetype-agnostic, such that I'll only move into control if is open, and will otherwise move into aggro or midrange. And counterspells either lead me into Delver or Control. I don't know what other cards it's possible to pick from this cube where I am naturally led into non- control. (Maybe our definitions of "control" are different.)

I am curious about a tension I percieve in your goals. Supporting non- control is closer to reinventing the Magic game engine than it is to recapturing a well-known phenomena. It's cool, but it's not supported by a random sampling of cards throughout Magic's history. If your cube cards are biasing toward cool, strong, historically powerful effects for resonance and grokkability, you'll tend to not support decks that are color pie breaks. And if you're not picking cool/strong/powerful cards, that pulls against your goal of grokkable and resonant card choice. Is that tension salient to you? Just curious. Thanks for sharing your design thoughts!

 

[japahn]

Wrath of God and Damnation are not blue, so you can definitely play those in non blue decks. I don't think the red wraths are much worse. They are possible build arounds, since you can include high toughness creature that survive them, and doing so is a powerful way to "mask" the fact you have a wrath and force opp to overextend into your wrath. Carven Caryatid is much better with Sulfurous Blast than with Wrath of God. There aren't really any blue Wrath's, though there are some mass bounces of which I''m including two to see if anything comes out of it.

Also, green decks with Wrath's shouldn't play many creatures, and I'm making an effort to include creatures that survive Wrath's, provide value when they die, ways to make your creature survive your Wrath's, and engines that make it ok to lose some of your creature too so that they can still play some.

I do perceive a bit of those tension when selecting cards in some categories that have few good options, like maindeckable artifact/enchantment destruction and red card advantage. If I were at a higher power level this would be impossible. By the way, I haven't talked about power level in this post yet, but the idea is to have low power level resilient threats and an assortment of power level creature removal/spells. This slows down the environment so that the control value engines are playable.

There is also some tension in that I'm picking threats that aren't very popular and few people know those cards, but in those cases I can rely on the resonance of the card concept. For example, look at Azra Oddsmakers and Corrupted Conscience. You might not have a connection with the cards, but it's easy to grok then because they represent known concepts. And if you look at the list, the cards aren't that unknown on average, I'd say people in my playgroup will already know half of those.

How do you get into control? For me, you take a wrath, of course, or a powerful engine like Genesis. Could also start by taking good answers, a Bolt, Counterspell, then seeing more defense than offense passed to you.

I don't feel like I'm reinventing Magic, but capturing a kitchen table feeling when people play a non-blue deck with the cards they own that aren't good but make cool dumb combos or the random 6-drop they play because it's what they own. This experience is as resonant to me than playing Azorius Control.

 

[landofMordor]

Wrath of God and Damnation are not blue, so you can definitely play those in non blue decks.

Hm. Maybe I'm communicating poorly. I didn't mean that one literally cannot do this. I just mean that I (a drafter motivated by game engine mastery, uninterested in building fun decks for their own sake) will only do that in extreme circumstances, like when I have a Companion or Conspiracy stipulation.

Another miscommunication of mine: I noticed you're on Phasing of Zhalfir and Time of Ice and mass-bounce, which is why I said wrath-with-airquotes. And the damage-based Wraths are likewise conditional.

I do understand that careful threat selection can partially break parity on conditional wrath effects, but my point is that is so much more work than just pairing actual factual Wrath with blue cards. And you heavily support the latter, and you heavily support beatdown midrange too, so why jump through the hoops to combine the riskiest parts of both strategies? Kinda akin to what Sam Black's podcast said about paying attention to a format's "staples".

See screen-shot for another analogy. I think you have to play a lot of relatively weak cards to make non- control happen, when the opportunity cost is to just play strong cards and end up with a less risky deck.

I don't feel like I'm reinventing Magic, but capturing a kitchen table feeling when people play a non-blue deck with the cards they own that aren't good but make cool dumb combos or the random 6-drop they play because it's what they own. This experience is as resonant to me than playing Azorius Control.

Ah, gotcha. This clarifies a lot for me. I hope my feedback going forward will be more useful to you now that I understand this.

That said, I personally am rarely interested in cool dumb combos. I'm not exactly a Spike, but I do conceptualize formats as having non-optimal strategies that don't impact common gameplay patterns. Hopefully that's still helpful for you, as you're trying to balance this cube to make fun and optimal the same thing

 

[Zoss]

More than anything else, I think the natural tendency of wrath-friendly effects towards aggro/midrange is going to be the biggest hurdle. I can see a deck going Young Wolf, Strangleroot Geist, Dreamstealer Vengevine, Damnation + Blood soaked Champion or Deathbonnet Sprout working just fine, but finding similar cards that tend towards control would be tricky. Perhaps having an abundance of the NEO saga creatures could help, or critters with suspend? Those play very nicely with wraths and certainly aren't limited to Blue.

 

[landofMordor]

And even then, you don't see DredgeVine playing wraths just because all its stuff comes back from the grave. You don't need additional win equity against creature mirrors, you need equity vs. Grafdigger's Cage so you play Ancient Grudge. (Or in the case of Cube, I expect a BG recursive midrange deck like Zoss theorycrafted would need help on T1-T2 vs aggro, or to beat control's planeswalkers, more than they want a Wrath.)

 

[japahn]

Uh I think I miscommunicated this time, the intention is not that control will be a midrange deck with wraths. It's a wrath deck which uses midrange and control threats as finishers. The resilience of threats is mostly so that aggro and midrange can fight wraths and aren't completely hosed by the high power level of answers. Again, non-blue control should NOT be beatdown + wraths. It's a different game plan.

For example, Zoss's example creatures, I don't expect Dreamstealer, Bloodsoaked Champion, Deathbonnet Sprout, Vengevine to be played in control decks. those are aggro-control, aggro/aggro-control, midrange, and aggro/midrange threats to me, respectively. Young Wolf, probably not either, but Strangleroot Geist would be ok if unimpressive just as a 2-for-1 blocker.

I said: "I'm making an effort to include creatures that survive Wrath's, provide value when they die, ways to make your creature survive your Wrath's, and engines that make it ok to lose some of your creature too so that they can still play some."

Examples are:

I noticed you're on Phasing of Zhalfir and Time of Ice and mass-bounce, which is why I said wrath-with-airquotes. And the damage-based Wraths are likewise conditional.

I don't see those as real wraths... Phasing of Zhalfir I'm not sure what to make of, and I'm kind of throwing it in there to see if it is maye a wrath, maybe a midrange card, maybe just garbage? I'm not sure, I just liked the concept and thought players could do something cool with it. Time of Ice is tempo card, either for aggro-control or control to buy time. I suppose it follows a similar role to wraths, but I'm looking much more to combine it with Wake Thresher than Deep Analysis.

Ah, gotcha. This clarifies a lot for me. I hope my feedback going forward will be more useful to you now that I understand this.

That said, I personally am rarely interested in cool dumb combos. I'm not exactly a Spike, but I do conceptualize formats as having non-optimal strategies that don't impact common gameplay patterns. Hopefully that's still helpful for you, as you're trying to balance this cube to make fun and optimal the same thing

I'm a spike when I play, but I want to design an environment where it is correct in some seats to play non-blue control, so I'm definitely not saying "let's not balance these control colors". I appreciate the discussion! Ideally though, building the fun deck is the optimal path sometimes. I believe it's a false dichotomy that you either build the fun thing or the good deck. That may be true for most environments - and I see that in most cubes, completely agree with Sam Black on this. I cannot (and see no reason to) start the journey from the axiom that the fun thing cannot be optimal.

That said, I don't know why we're talking about non-blue control as if it was a phoenix tribal deck. I'll try to show that blue and non-blue control can be balanced:

Imagine there is no blue card draw and no counterspells appropriate to control, say everything is Chart the Courses and Dazes. Then, put that in an environment where threats are low power relative to answers. Whatever long-term engines you put in other colors are control cards, and control is better if it's non-blue. Now, dial up the blue control a bit: replace some of those Dazes with Mana Leaks and Counterspells, some of those Chart the Courses with Compulsive Researches and Deep Analyses. There is some point where non-blue control is roughly as good as blue control.

 

[landofMordor]

Mm yeah makes a lot of sense. I think we're on a similar page now.

Imagine there is no blue card draw and no counterspells appropriate to control, say everything is Chart the Courses and Dazes. Then, put that in an environment where threats are low power relative to answers. Whatever long-term engines you put in other colors are control cards, and control is better if it's non-blue.

I like this thought experiment. You're certainly right that blue decks can use off-color removal (Doom Blade) and finishers ('walkers and yeah even Squirrel Nest). And you could construct a format such that countermagic is superfluous and Doom Blade is functionally equivalent to Mana Leak and Cast Out's cycling is as good as anything in Blue.

Now, dial up the blue control a bit: replace some of those Dazes with Mana Leaks and Counterspells, some of those Chart the Courses with Compulsive Researches and Deep Analyses. There is some point where non-blue control is roughly as good as blue control.

ok, I am on board

 

[japahn]

Let's shift gears a bit and I'll write something about my cards recently triaged while on public transit. I'm filling the multicolored sections, let's start from the top, Azorius:



Useful when games go long. I like mana sinks, and when mana is plentiful this thing can be seriously powerful. Surprisingly useful unique 2U ability that prevents high cost activated abilities if you keep mana up, like planeswalker ults, Perilous Vault, Pernicious Deed, Myojin activations, etc. But of course, the most useful part is just 2W for tapping big beaters. If the game goes too long, this can actually dominate it keeping 2-3 creatures in check. Versatile card, playable in aggro just because it's a bear that taps blockers in the long game, but better in random midrange decks. Probably weaker than most cards in the cube, though.



I don't know how this will play. The flavor is great, though. I have reservations with the double-facedness but the card is such a flavorful execution that I think it's worth it.



Aggro-control wants this sort of effect - accelerates a clock, produces CA and most importantly helps aggro-control vs its usually bad matchup vs aggro. Plenty of protection effects makes this very playable in this cube, and it could even end up being too good, since lifegain is supposed to be scarce. We'll see.



Classic counterspell. Counterspells struggle against aggro so the effect is welcome to round out the card. This is very cuttable if necessary, but I appreciate it bringing down word count. I expect this to be about average in the cube, and be primarily a midrange/control card.



I've never played with this. It might end up being really good, or really bad, I have no idea. I imagine this is good in tap-out midrange/control, with activated abilities, and especially with instant speed removal and counterspells since tempo-positive 1 for 1s are great when you're drawing lots of ards.



Control, control, control. I haven't actually run this card for long. I expect this to be powerful and a draw into Azorius Control. It might need to be cut if the archetype is too strong, but I'm fine with it being P1P1 material.



Cute flavor! As I said before, I'm a sucker for tutors, and this is a pretty playable one even when you don't have anything that great to tutor. I like tutors in limited because it makes low picks more interesting and increases the amount of cards you use from your pool. A bit concerned with the card getting shuffled with the deck at the end of the game. This is a balanced card which isn't particularly great in any macroarchetype, probably a bit better in aggro-control and midrange than aggro and control. I expect this to be a low pick. If it's unplayable, I'll replace it, but I want to try it.



Suggestion from @Zoss. This is quite versatile and has the interesting feature of not protecting itself, making it not very good in constructed, but at maybe an appropriate power level here. I still expect this to be a mid to high pick, due to its versatility and due to the 4 turn ultimate being a legit win condition. It's kind of interesting how it can untap your creatures and tap opponent's creatures, since at sorcery speed this effect is actually aggressive, making me wonder if this might be playable in aggro-midrange. Definitely a midrange-control card primarily, though, especially since it can produce 2 mana with a signet, and it can be better protected by these decks.



Just a cool card. Very much a vulnerable removal check, so I expect this to be a mediocre midrange card or a 6-7 mana control finisher to be protected. Low pick, but should have its uses and snowball when the time is right. Pretty good with Shore Ups and Counterspells.

Looking at this, I think I need to replace some 2 midrange/control cards with aggressive ones.

 

[japahn]

Ok, replaced Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset with an aggro aligned-card. Teferi is quite (quite!) wordy and after reading it more attentively, it's not that interesting.



Mimeomancer is... probably really good in some games, and pretty bad in others? It's an interesting aggro card that gets better the less evasion you have, and can make some cool combos with saboteurs. I don't love the strange counter type, but the effect is intriguing. I'll give it a try - I expect this to be a mid to low pick at first but I think it'll prove itself stronger than that.

On to Rakdos! I actually picked 14 cards and then ranked them and cut the bottom 5. I had too many 3s, so I somewhat favored other CMCs despite liking a particular 3 better in a vaccum. In general, when I'm looking at Rakdos cards, I'm looking for what one color can offer the other, since black and red are so similar already in their removal density and reckless attacking/sarificing. Black can offer red card draw, discard and evasion, and red can offer black artifact removal, reach, and power buffs for evasive creatures. I like Rakdos for the environment because it's very card-negative - votes for small games - and simplifies things, while being very interactive with anything except for enchantments. The risk/reward mechanics of losing life are also interesting to play with.

Honorable mentions (cards that got cut): Mogis, God of Slaughter, Underworld Cerberus, Toil // Trouble, Dreadbore, Mahadi, Emporium Master, Slaughter-Priest of Mogis.

On to the chosen cards, from lowest conviction to highest:



I'm torn on this because this looks a bit snowbally and all-or-nothing, but I needed a 2-drop and this looks appropriate to the cube. It is of course an aggro/aggro-control card that benefits from removing blockers and is somewhat resilient to removal. I expect this to be a mid-high pick due to the snowball potential and the decent floor.



Specter looks like the poor man's Hypnotic Specter, but haste completely changes it evaluation in a removal-dense environment. This usually produces card advantage. Specter is a versatile card, sort of playable in any deck and its evaluation depends more on what the opponent is playing, really, making it a spectacular sideboard card, whether it's coming in or out. I expect this to be a mid to low pick since it's not particularly necessary for any deck to function and a 4-drop, but there are some games in which it really shines.



I'm not sure if this is good or unplayable. Looks good in aggro to provide card draw when attacks are getting through and a long-term engine that threatens control. Aggro-control should be able to get damage through often, so it should work well there too. I don't think control decks will use this since 4 mana to access CA is quite a bit.



Removal spell. Removes everything black and red are capable of. Just a glue spell that can be played in any deck, providing maindeckable artifact hate and an answer to planeswalkers. Being versatile is an important feature in control decks, which have to have ways to deal with everything. Expect this to be a mid pick due to the colored mana requirements.


Removal! Well, this time it's a very different removal spell. Like Bedevil, valuable in control decks since they need versatility, and this can also provide card advantage and benefits from slowly and deliberately playing out your spells, since using the other removal tactically to remove the non-3 CMC permanents and avoiding to cast your 3 CMC permanents can make this into a game-winning blowout. I like Void, but it's pretty brutal to get hit with it, hence why it's not higher on the list. This should be a mid-high pick due to versatility, splashability, and high upside.


Removal spell again. Card advantage options are important for non-blue control and Bituminous Blast stops short of being card draw, but it's sort of card draw. If you don't play blue, especially, since cascading into counterspells is a nonbo. This is a lynchpin of enabling non-blue control, and with the relatively small statlines in this cube, it can kill everything except for control finishers/ramp targets being CA positive and sometimes tempo positive too. This is a midrange/control card, and I expect it to be a mid to low pick since it's narrow, but also for it to be a great roleplayers in the right decks.




This is a card I'm pretty excited to try. Card draw that works in aggro decks is always welcome, and the symmetric effect play really well when you have a very low cost deck, shifting the bottleneck further from CA to tempo. Being an effective 3 power 2-drop with evasion is quite powerful too. I expect this to be a high pick after people figure out it's good (I think it is at least?) and be a corner stone of Rakdos aggro. A strike against it is that targeted discard becomes much worse.



I've always liked Blightning. It's a Mind Rot, yes, and sometimes doesn't do anything when you're losing, and that's why it should go in aggro decks. Lava Spikes are situational, Mind Rots are situational, but stapling them together in a card makes it much more well-rounded. Given I want aggro and especially aggro-control to play somewhat slow and resilient, this source of reach, disruption and card advantage should slot in nicely. Still, I expect this to be a low to mid pick since it's narrow, not as essential as good creatures and 3-drops.



I love the concept of this card! You bet on a creature, and if it hits your opponent's face, you get a payout! This is great with evasion, and great with blocker removal, and I like Rakdos aggro-control very much (and my wife does too!) so anything that looks this good there is an easy include. I expect this to be a mid pick, because betting on a creature is kind of risky and with all the removal there's ample opportunity to get blown out.

 

[japahn]

And now, Dimir! In Dimir I'm looking for cards that work well in aggro-control, cards that work well in control, and cards that work well in either. It's a color combination that doesn't tend to midrange very often, but the generic cards make midrange quite possible.



Generic removal spell, trying to get value out of the -3/-0 is an interesting puzzle but this often is kill a creature + 2 or 3 life. Weird better in non-evasive aggro and midrange, but perfectly good in aggro-control and control too. Mid to low pick due to versatility, but being a removal spell that's gold drags it down since it will rarely get you to commit early and can often be wheeled.



I saw this get played in AFR limited and it looked like a good way to break board stalls. This is a well-rounded card; in aggro it lets you get your beaters through; in aggro-control it gets through for 2 and a scry and guarantees long-term damage; in midrange it blocks well, then turns into evasion for larger creatures; in control it's a 1/3 that can be a wincon, though it has to play around Damnation. Still, I expect this to be a low pick since the rate for the mana is not great and this is gold.



I don't like cards that play your opponents cards, partly due to confusion, partly because it's uh... violating. However, this is so part of Dimir's flavor that I'm fine running a couple so that people can play the villain sometimes, as long as the condition is reasonably difficult to achieve. Rogue Class embraces the "difficult to achieve"! Hitting your opponents and spending 9 mana, then having to cast the cards makes this probably pretty bad. However, Dimir aggro-control is really good at getting small attackers through, and dropping this down and getting chip damage here and there makes this a late-game insurance policy against long games. This is absolutely a low pick, but it provides aggro-control a long-term plan, and in a slow environment where CA is the bottleneck, the mana to access the cards will often be available.

But really, I'm just running this for the flavor.



So, this is quite a strong card in contrast with Rogue Class above. At the very least, this makes a Ninja, then draws a card next turn. Planeswalkers for aggressive decks are hard to come by, and this one is perfect for aggro-control. I expect this to be a high pick, and a draw into Dimir aggro-control.



I have a theory that cubes were created just to play this card.

It is, again, good in aggro-control, but at 3 mana it's almost more of a midrange threat than one that threatens to seriously reduce the opponent's life. I expect this to be a mid pick.



The most generic of Dimir cards. Any Dimir deck wants this to a degree, but aggro-control and control in particular are in the market for it. Aggro-control appreciates the disruption with a serious clock acceleration, and control just wants the hard counter. This is a mid pick, thought the power level is lower than that, the versatility compensates.



The flavor on this is kind of awesome, and it's not a bad card either! This is a way to steal your opponent's creature but giving them a chance to interact with it, and it does so in such a resonant way that makes this a card I'm very happy to run. This slots in midrange and control, and though it's often just a Clone under pressure, if it can be supported by slowing down the tempo of the game, it's also removal. I expect this to be a mid pick.



I think this is pretty bad. But I also thing that this has some deep utility in getting rid of large creatures and problematic artifacts/enchantments, something Dimir is very bad at, and opens the door for some awesome and very situational plays. The flavor is also spot-on. This is a midrange/control card and needs some support from the deck to be usable, making it a low pick.

 

[LadyMapi]

You're trying to support Green control (among other things), and you haven't broken singleton on Eternal Witness/Primal Command? I am disappointed.

(In all reality, it's probably for the best — I would force it in literally every draft forever.)

 

[japahn]

So, I'm debating whether drafting this cube as a Twin Cube is a good idea. If that's the case, 2x EWit + 2x Primal Command is on the menu :o

 

[japahn]

Let's talk Gruul, I'll be a bit shorter.

Gruul is a midrange/ramp combination traditionally. Our gold slots are important to pull drafters in Gruul aggro or Gruul control.

Honorable mentions: Atarka's Command, Yavimaya Iconoclast, Firespout, Bloodbraid Elf.



I am trying it. I expect this to be a control card, since it works best when the creature it can hit are mostly large, but is happy to hit non-creature spells. Control can also use a 1/4 blocker better and clear the way for attacks. Still, expect this to be a low pick.



Despite wanted to pull drafters into aggro and control, I also wanted a solid midrange threat. Sunder Shaman is cheap enough to be cast holding up protection, or ramped out on T3 as an early threat. It gets bonus points because it's a way to get rid of artifacts are enchantments, which makes it an out for slower decks and control when facing a problematic one. 5 toughness survives all the red board wipes, making it quite solid as a "bastion" to force an opposing aggro deck to overextend. Expect this to be a mid pick, since 5/5 for 4 is actually huge in this environment but since it trade s unfavorably with white and black removal spells keeps it from being a high pick. Note the low amount of tokens makes this not so cheap to chump block.



Svella is a card I have experience with on Kaldheim, and it is a very good blocker (2/4 for 3 is great) which allows holding up mana, ramping aggressively, and places pressure to get removed because at 8 mana it becomes a win condition. I am annoyed by having to get these tokens and by the completely irrelevant snow subtype, but this is a card with unique play patterns for Gruul that changes how a deck plays. Expect this to be a mid pick.



The fail case is Open Fire that can't hit players or planeswalkers, which is alright, but often this can hit two targets are be a serious blow. This is a card that can be used early at lower efficiency or later at higher efficiency, and choosing when to play is it a meaningful and simple decision. This is the most generic Gruul card, and I expect it to be a mid to high pick.



I'm not sure where this card goes exactly, it might be one of those that are worth or not playing more depending on the opponent's deck than yours. I see this as a Naturalize variant with a very solid backup plan that allows it to be maindecked. Naturalizes are better in control and direct damage is better in aggro, so I think this is a balanced artifact/enchantment removal which can be stellar in the right matchup. Still, I see this is a low pick since decks don't need this to function, it's more of a nice to have.



A 2-drop is something I'm aiming to have in all gold sections, and there aren't many good options. Fortunately, Watchwolf with upside is quite solid and slots into anything between aggro and midrange. Expect this to be a mid-pick.



Gruul control has as advantages the ease of ramping and solid defenders from green with the red board wipes. Savage Twister is a subtle reminder of this, and being able to adjust the damage is really, really strong. Expect this to be a mid-high pick.



Another control-aligned card, this is a long-term plan for card advantage that requires a low tempo game but combines well with ramp, large creatures, and removal. Expect this to be a mid-low pick since it's not a card that allows that low tempo game like Savage Twister above, but a card that requires one.



When I think of Gruul, I think of this card. It's ideal in aggro and midrange, but it's a good blocker too. This is a mid-high pick.

 

[alvoi]

What do you think of Fires of Yavimaya and Rhythm of the Wild?

 

[japahn]

Fires is a very specifically midrange card, and it has its moments when cast on curve with 4 and 5 drops to follow, but it's not something I am usually looking to play. I didn't want to run it based on power level, but I could be convinced otherwise since I like the card and it's historically relevant.

Rhythm of the Wild is in general better Fires, and less narrow since aggro is also looking to pump its small creatures with counters. It was in my shortlist, but I just didn't see much of a reason to run it and the others got ahead. Again, could be convinced of its merits as I think the card is flavorful and cool.