I've started writing Primers for various archetypes in Cube. These are intended for drafters who are new to Cube (or to Limited in general), or just people who are looking to branch out their cube experience to decks that they may not have a lot of experience with.
Questions/Comments/Suggestions welcomed and encouraged!
These are nice. For suggestions on future subjects, I think articles on more card-specific archetypes--like Wildfire, Armageddon, Balance, Recurring Nightmare etc.--decks would be neat to read about and see what cards you think work well with those and what you personally are looking to do when you commit to those archetypes. Do you guys see a lot of mono blue? It's surprising if at least half of our group isn't trying to go into blue at the beginning. Either way, good work!
Those are well written and I really like the format. The only general addition I can think of is a section on the strengths and weaknesses of the archetype: what decks it can beat easily, what it struggles against.
Nothing to add to the red primer.
In the green primer I didn't see you mention Green Sun's Zenith, which I've found really helps the deck. I'd also distinguish between midrange ramp, which beats your opponent by getting to the midgame value creatures early, and the super-ramp decks which are more about dropping fatties. In terms of splashes, we commonly see this deck with blue: this adds filtering/card draw to mitigate against the all ramp or all fatty draws; counterspells to protect your strategy; and possibly mixing with the similar Tinker-based artifact ramp package. Red is sometimes splashed, as X-spells go well with ramp. Adding white to these decks often results in more midrange token decks, and cards that help your tokens are often also good to boost your mana dudes late game.
Blue felt like a bit of a theory article: I don't think I've ever seen a mono blue deck drafted in my cube! I'd emphasise Control Magic and the like a bit more, as those are the cards that best allow blue to deal with creatures. Inability to deal with permanents is the real weakness of blue decks, and why I wouldn't normally want to draft mono blue, even if my fellow drafters let me.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
These are nice. For suggestions on future subjects, I think articles on more card-specific archetypes--like Wildfire, Armageddon, Balance, Recurring Nightmare etc.--decks would be neat to read about and see what cards you think work well with those and what you personally are looking to do when you commit to those archetypes. Do you guys see a lot of mono blue? It's surprising if at least half of our group isn't trying to go into blue at the beginning. Either way, good work!
I was considering making one primer for "Card-specific archetypes", since they are certainly for the more advanced drafters and you have to see certain things early in order to move into them (this is common between them all). Perhaps I should split them up though, thoughts?
I don't usually see a lot of mono-blue; in many of my drafts, blue is over-drafted. Sometimes though, I'm the only one in the color, and it makes for a super sweet draft for me!
Those are well written and I really like the format. The only general addition I can think of is a section on the strengths and weaknesses of the archetype: what decks it can beat easily, what it struggles against.
I think this could be more easily done once all the primers are written; any help with matchup analysis would be appreciated, as that is, I think, the most time-consuming part of writing these.
In the green primer I didn't see you mention Green Sun's Zenith, which I've found really helps the deck. I'd also distinguish between midrange ramp, which beats your opponent by getting to the midgame value creatures early, and the super-ramp decks which are more about dropping fatties. In terms of splashes, we commonly see this deck with blue: this adds filtering/card draw to mitigate against the all ramp or all fatty draws; counterspells to protect your strategy; and possibly mixing with the similar Tinker-based artifact ramp package. Red is sometimes splashed, as X-spells go well with ramp. Adding white to these decks often results in more midrange token decks, and cards that help your tokens are often also good to boost your mana dudes late game.
Green Sun's Zenith is just one card; and while it is obviously insane for green decks in general, I tried focusing on categories of cards rather than specific cards like that. "Tutors" isn't a large enough category in the green section (Worldly Tutor is the only other one that comes to mind) to warrant its own mention, I think.
The G/U deck you are describing sounds like more than a splash, and will be its own archetype, don't worry .
In the splashing section, I was really trying to focus on gold cards (at least for these mono-color primers), since they are easily spottable and keeping a few in mind makes it easy to identify others like them.
Blue felt like a bit of a theory article: I don't think I've ever seen a mono blue deck drafted in my cube! I'd emphasise Control Magic and the like a bit more, as those are the cards that best allow blue to deal with creatures. Inability to deal with permanents is the real weakness of blue decks, and why I wouldn't normally want to draft mono blue, even if my fellow drafters let me.
Like I said; Blue is often over-drafted in my cube, so you might experience that as well. And I do mention the Control Magic effects, and while they are powerful plays, I have to stand by my placement of them (not putting them in the priorities section), because the Mono-U deck really needs those pieces together otherwise its just a "goodstuff" deck and not an archetype. There are U/X decks that can just draft every Control Magic effect and be fine, but they aren't really Mono-U Control.
Questions/Comments/Suggestions welcomed and encouraged!
8/1/13 - Mono-R Aggro: http://diestoremoval.com/viewtopic.php?p=85502#p85502
8/3/13 - Mono-G Ramp: http://diestoremoval.com/viewtopic.php?p=86386#p86386
8/8/13 - Mono-U Control: http://diestoremoval.com/viewtopic.php?p=87825#p87825
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Nothing to add to the red primer.
In the green primer I didn't see you mention Green Sun's Zenith, which I've found really helps the deck. I'd also distinguish between midrange ramp, which beats your opponent by getting to the midgame value creatures early, and the super-ramp decks which are more about dropping fatties. In terms of splashes, we commonly see this deck with blue: this adds filtering/card draw to mitigate against the all ramp or all fatty draws; counterspells to protect your strategy; and possibly mixing with the similar Tinker-based artifact ramp package. Red is sometimes splashed, as X-spells go well with ramp. Adding white to these decks often results in more midrange token decks, and cards that help your tokens are often also good to boost your mana dudes late game.
Blue felt like a bit of a theory article: I don't think I've ever seen a mono blue deck drafted in my cube! I'd emphasise Control Magic and the like a bit more, as those are the cards that best allow blue to deal with creatures. Inability to deal with permanents is the real weakness of blue decks, and why I wouldn't normally want to draft mono blue, even if my fellow drafters let me.
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"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
I was considering making one primer for "Card-specific archetypes", since they are certainly for the more advanced drafters and you have to see certain things early in order to move into them (this is common between them all). Perhaps I should split them up though, thoughts?
I don't usually see a lot of mono-blue; in many of my drafts, blue is over-drafted. Sometimes though, I'm the only one in the color, and it makes for a super sweet draft for me!
I appreciate hearing that from you. I have no plans on stopping soon!
I think this could be more easily done once all the primers are written; any help with matchup analysis would be appreciated, as that is, I think, the most time-consuming part of writing these.
Green Sun's Zenith is just one card; and while it is obviously insane for green decks in general, I tried focusing on categories of cards rather than specific cards like that. "Tutors" isn't a large enough category in the green section (Worldly Tutor is the only other one that comes to mind) to warrant its own mention, I think.
The G/U deck you are describing sounds like more than a splash, and will be its own archetype, don't worry .
In the splashing section, I was really trying to focus on gold cards (at least for these mono-color primers), since they are easily spottable and keeping a few in mind makes it easy to identify others like them.
Like I said; Blue is often over-drafted in my cube, so you might experience that as well. And I do mention the Control Magic effects, and while they are powerful plays, I have to stand by my placement of them (not putting them in the priorities section), because the Mono-U deck really needs those pieces together otherwise its just a "goodstuff" deck and not an archetype. There are U/X decks that can just draft every Control Magic effect and be fine, but they aren't really Mono-U Control.
Getting there.
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