General Yet Another AEther Cube

[Tzenmoroth]

So I've been thinking about designing a cube with the twist that players play with this beautiful piece of cardboard in effect as an emblem. This has been one of the most fun cards in my Type 4 cube and we've even played casual constructed and cube games with it, it is just such a blast. Unfortunately, the mana cost is prohibits it from being an include in pretty much any cube. At this point I want to see if I can get a 360 list together that actually looks like something I want to build, but first I have a lot of questions to answer about how to actually put this cube together.

What are the implications of giving every creature haste? Fetchlands, top, etc, probably need to be excluded for power level reason but what about slow fetches, temples? How many I/S do I even want in this format given that they become inherently worse?

Vortex has a rules interaction where the card revealed on top does not enter, so ETB triggers don't occur. Static things like planeswalkers getting loyalty also don't happen. Should I even include ETB creatures? Are some worth running? Are planeswalkers worth running? Should planeswalkers work in this format and be able to use an ability on top of library? Is it worth bending the rules?

Let me know if I'm completely off my rocker here and this is a terrible idea.

Assembling the cube here

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

This is a great idea.

This sounds like it would be a lot of fun as a multi-player format with a communal

 

[Aoret]

Hate multiplayer, but love emblem cubes. Interested to watch this develop

 

[Tzenmoroth]

I thought about Pyxis of Pandemonium and the like. I feel like those effects might lock people out of the game a little much. Its bad enough that the Modern deck exists. This cube could probably be played multiplayer but I'm more of a 1v1 player myself.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to develop archetypes and how to evaluate cards here.

 

[Tzenmoroth]

Draw engine for the artifact deck. Draw engine.



Let's take a moment to appreciate that a cube has to reject this card because its actually too powerful.



Combo piece to abuse with a death trigger.



There might be a lands deck in here, something that maybe looks kinda like legacy lands but plays kinda like dredge somehow. I think this is a draw engine somewhere. I just haven't wrapped my head around this deck yet.



Cards that sac themselves should cost mana at least I think and if they draw themselves, they should at least loot and cost mana.



This one might be fine since it at least costs 3 and 1+ each time and it acts as a control finisher.



So this can attack while on top then you can take a creature on your upkeep and draw the thief while an opponent controls it. This is a bomb maybe.

 

[MusicalBen]

So the actual tension of the emblem is, perhaps, wanting to keep a certain card on top of the library? So a simple Flamekin Harbinger searching for, whatever, Living Hive actually turns a bad tutor into a kinda reanimator strategy. And then you try to skip your draw step?

 

[safra]

Pursuant to a discussion Kirblinx and I had while he grid-stomped my face in:


(but please don't)

 

[MusicalBen]

The real question though is whether clash is finally the great mechanic it was always destined to be.

 

[Tzenmoroth]

Yeah, I think "sneak" plays one of the "Words of" enchantments and tries to get something powerful on top? I'm going to try Mwonvuli Beast Tracker because its flexible and at a fair mana cost.

Also: CLASH! What even is that mechanic here?

 

[MusicalBen]

Also: CLASH! What even is that mechanic here?

It's a great bet. Adder-Staff Boggart is actually interesting because - since you know what's on top - you can choose whether to play it when you're sure you'll win the clash or not. But it gets even more interesting: since both players can choose whether to send that card to the bottom or keep it at the top it's not a hard counter or fun-killer but a scry. A bet. I mentioned it as a joke but the more I think of it the funnier it gets.

The real challenge is finding the clash cards that don't suck.



How crazy is Whirlpool Whelm?

 

[safra]

Yeah, I think "sneak" plays one of the "Words of" enchantments and tries to get something powerful on top?

Close, but you're thinking of the strongest version of Omni-Tell (requiescat in pieces you pile of shit) which would Show and Tell in Omniscience, which it would use to free-cast Enter the Infinite, putting Emrakul on top of its one-card library, and then free-cast Release the Ants (honest-to-god) for the other player's life total.

Sneak and Show is, by comparison, a fair combo-control deck that "just" drops t2/3 hasty Emrakuls and has some really cool and intricate lines of play. Neither plays Words of War outside of, like, Japanese meta 1-ofs; it's too mana intensive in a deck that wants to run Lotus Petals and sol lands.

I really like this Clash/TOL idea and I'm gonna brainstorm some stuff for a bit.

 

[Tzenmoroth]

I don't think Whelm is playable because if they win the clash, it stays on the battlefield, but I guess they'll draw it? Also, if you target the creature on their top, they can bottom it... wut. Ringskipper might be good because if it dies while on top (even if its milled!) you get the death trigger. I don't think it does much though. Death triggers + self mill / sac is maybe an archetype?



When you draw this, if the next card is a land, you can sacrifice it. This is the cutest.



I think I finally found a home for Zur.

 

[Meltyman]

I would vanguard this idea.

Take wacky vanguard cards just like aether and bid for them, then draft your cube and play, it was really fun when i tried it.
Bidding starts from 25 life and 7 cards, then you bid from 25life and down / 7 cards.
When life total goes under say 5 life, then you switch biddin to 25 life / 6 cards etc..

I had Dream Halls as my vanguard with 5 life and 3 starting hands, i still won all but one of my games, my only opponent i lost to had naturalize effects main against me so i couldn't win

Other vanguards we had that i remember: Aluren and Cathedral of War
We had like 8 players and 9-10 vanguards to choose from..

 

[psly4mne]

You can keep it on top of your library, but your opponent can sacrifice the top card of their library, unless you play it when they have an instant/sorcery on top. Probably bad for the game, but awesome.


Just hilariously bad.


A mite too good


I remember loving this card when I was new to the game, and it would go great here.


More LTB fun.

 

[Tzenmoroth]

I would vanguard this idea.

Take wacky vanguard cards just like aether and bid for them, then draft your cube and play, it was really fun when i tried it.
Bidding starts from 25 life and 7 cards, then you bid from 25life and down / 7 cards.
When life total goes under say 5 life, then you switch biddin to 25 life / 6 cards etc..

I had Dream Halls as my vanguard with 5 life and 3 starting hands, i still won all but one of my games, my only opponent i lost to had naturalize effects main against me so i couldn't win

Other vanguards we had that i remember: Aluren and Cathedral of War
We had like 8 players and 9-10 vanguards to choose from..

I don't think I can actually balance a format where players can stuff their entire deck with free spells. There's no way I could make a fun cube format around the t1 combos dream halls and aluren provide. Maybe there are other cool vanguard effects though if I want to go this route. Possibility Storm could be a tad more fair, Wild Evocation maybe. Hive Mind,Upwelling, probably a lot of interesting options. The problem with this option is that the cube really needs to be evaluated in terms of how everything fits into and interacts with each vanguard. There's a lot to balance around I think. I'm not sure if its worth it to try to build a vanguard cube when I could just stick to building a cube around Vortex but its something to think about.