So, I have a fairly small cube of 360 cards. And I am really pleased with most of the color archetypes; however, blue and green just don’t seem to fit well together.
Any suggestions for archetypes that really compliment the favorite cards of a Simic mage?
If you look at the list, you will see that 315 dollar cards are well out of my budget. Earlier I had the idea of emphasizing Energy counters. I would only put energy counter spells in blue and green, and the cards would have to be good enough to stand on their own in other decks. For example, Servant of the Conduit, Longtusk Cub, Attune with Aether, and Glimmer of Genius are all probably playable in this cube and okay on their own, but they would be better with each other. I could even run Rogue Refinerand maybe Aethersquall Ancient as a win condition. He can still use his ability in a non-energy counter deck, but would obviously be better supported if mixed with other energy cards.
Lastly, I could run Multiform Wonderas an alternate win condition. He brings some energy when he comes into play, so again, he would not be useless in another deck, but much stronger with green or blue.
It's definitely worth playing all 4 of the other cards here and none should set you back an exorbitant amount unless you're looking for the rarest and pimpest versions around.
I love the archetype and I ended up cutting Eureka. Tinker for cards like sphinx of teh steel wind, gearhulks, and and big mana rocks like gilded is great. Natural order into Simic Sky swallower. Green also gives you the ramp to cast the fatties when you don't get the combo. Upheaval also falls into that ramp shell.
It doesn't have a specific theme, but the combination is one of the best 2-color goodstuff.dec pairs in the cube. Green gives you ramp and monsters, and blue gives you all the card advantage needed to never run out of gas. My advice to fledgling cube players is to draft GU midrange, because I think it has a simple and fundamental advantage over other fair decks.
How would oath work with a card like hooded hydra? Would the hydra die, or would the caster have the option to cast it face down?
Oath puts the creature straight onto the battlefield without giving you a chance to cast it, so the Hydra would enter as a 0/0 and die immediately due to state-based effects.
In any case, I'd recommend you look at replacing Hydra with a card like Hornet Queen or Avenger of Zendikar (both are around $5 so cheap to pick up, high impact, and fill a similar role as big green token makers).
EDIT: I personally haven't played with Flash in cube so can't comment too much on it. Seems like it would be interesting as a backup "combo" card alongside some of the big ETB monsters!
I have toyed with flash and if you are rocking worldspine wurm, hornet queen the big persist guy you are doing it right. Natural Order is the best card by far, Oath is only Ok, it has killed a lot of players.
But wtwlf123 is right. I end up with plenty of goodstuff decks. Cards like song of dryads and imprisoned in the moon make solid removal. True Name Nemesis, Kiora, or other 4-5 drop can be a win con when it is ramped into and back by a couple counters and bounce. The deck splashes great with the green fixing and the blue draw smoothing so a couple white or black removal cards often slide in as well.
Any suggestions for archetypes that really compliment the favorite cards of a Simic mage?
My cube list is here:
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcurve/116070
If you look at the list, you will see that 315 dollar cards are well out of my budget. Earlier I had the idea of emphasizing Energy counters. I would only put energy counter spells in blue and green, and the cards would have to be good enough to stand on their own in other decks. For example, Servant of the Conduit, Longtusk Cub, Attune with Aether, and Glimmer of Genius are all probably playable in this cube and okay on their own, but they would be better with each other. I could even run Rogue Refinerand maybe Aethersquall Ancient as a win condition. He can still use his ability in a non-energy counter deck, but would obviously be better supported if mixed with other energy cards.
Lastly, I could run Multiform Wonderas an alternate win condition. He brings some energy when he comes into play, so again, he would not be useless in another deck, but much stronger with green or blue.
What do you think about this?
Just to point out, Eureka is the only highly expensive card mentioned in that post.
Oath of Druids: $1.50 at TCGPlayer
Show and Tell: $13.00 at TCGPlayer
Tinker: $2.50 at TCGPlayer
Channel: $.50 at TCGPlayer
It's definitely worth playing all 4 of the other cards here and none should set you back an exorbitant amount unless you're looking for the rarest and pimpest versions around.
EDIT: Another archetype staple is Natural Order: $13.00 at TCGPlayer
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How would oath work with a card like hooded hydra? Would the hydra die, or would the caster have the option to cast it face down?
Oath puts the creature straight onto the battlefield without giving you a chance to cast it, so the Hydra would enter as a 0/0 and die immediately due to state-based effects.
In any case, I'd recommend you look at replacing Hydra with a card like Hornet Queen or Avenger of Zendikar (both are around $5 so cheap to pick up, high impact, and fill a similar role as big green token makers).
EDIT: I personally haven't played with Flash in cube so can't comment too much on it. Seems like it would be interesting as a backup "combo" card alongside some of the big ETB monsters!
But wtwlf123 is right. I end up with plenty of goodstuff decks. Cards like song of dryads and imprisoned in the moon make solid removal. True Name Nemesis, Kiora, or other 4-5 drop can be a win con when it is ramped into and back by a couple counters and bounce. The deck splashes great with the green fixing and the blue draw smoothing so a couple white or black removal cards often slide in as well.