What approach do you guys have for aggro support for each of the five colors? Or, rather -- do you want all five as viable aggro colors in your cube?
RRR is pretty much always supported. A handful of powerful 1's (Jackal Pup et al) and 2's (Gore-House Chainwalker), great burn (duh), and couple of strong 4's as curve-toppers.
BBB or WWW are, from what I've seen, tied for second most-popular aggro colors. White has the Pegasus Bros and token support... black has more 2-power 1-drops and a ton of creature removal, backed up by creatures that trade off your own life total for above-the-curve power (Fledgling Djinn or Necrogen Scudder).
I somewhat recently switched a bunch of cards to allow UUU aggro-ish -- not just plowing through people with Phantasmal Bear and stuff, but using evasion and bounce to push thru damage and stay ahead on cards with Tandem Lookout.
That leaves GGG. I like mana dorks accelerating you into ahead-of-time 3's (Wolfir Avenger), 4's (Blastoderm), and higher. What I'm NOT playing is 1's and 2's that actually want to attack (though the 2-power deathtouch 2's are close, and we just got a solid new one in Heir of the Wilds).
So... am I missing out by not cubing Jungle Lion and Strangleroot Geist? And the Boa Bros? Doesn't seem like I even need a HUGE overhaul... just a little less ramp, and a few more good low-cost creatures in green. Rancor is already there. Curse of Predation is already there. The 3's and 4's still work without a mana dork (though you certainly still would play Elves in a River Boa deck).
I run only one card (and have another up for "ok fine" status that hoses a predetermined color: Phantom centaur. So what this means is that I am not running the boas or the WW soltari. Aggro in my cube chugs along just fine, especially in grixis pairs.
Black based aggro is almost certainly the best.
It has all the 1 mana grizzly bears you could ask for (better than white and red by a mile), sick evasive guys (better than white at attacking, especially thanks to dauthi marauder and disruptive cards like liliana's specter.) and strong aggro endgame cards like slaughter and mogis' marauder.
Red's guys have an extra point of power here and there but lack consistent evasion. The only upside red brings to the table is in the instants and sorceries. White's removal is worse than black's and red's, the creatures usually deal less damage straight up than red and get in less effectively than black. If anything it is Black > Red > White, and it's not particularly close in my opinion. All white really has over the others are a few randomly unreal cards like spectral procession and mother of runes.
However, I've been billing blue as the third best aggro color. It's missing a suite of 1 drops which keeps it out of contention for the 2nd best, but nonstop tempo plays (Man-o-war, frost lynx, Daze, snap, mist raven, riftwing cloudskate) and brutal evasive beaters (serendib efreet, latch seeker, infiltrator il kor, errant ephemeronIllusory angel) really put it over the top. Singing bell strike is the pacifism it's been waiting for and I'm pretty sure that card is nearly a staple. Tandem lookout is one of the strongest cards in the deck, and there are a lot of random mediocre pieces that can do a lot of work, like curiosity, aqueous form, or sleep. No deck invalidates blockers as much as izzet aggro.
Green has the two enchantments you listed and... whoo boy it's pretty much done after that. Blastoderm of course, mana elves, phantom centaur... but after that it's only able to try to overpower your opponent. I just put in jungle lion (it's basically on par with jackal pup) and rogue elephant to try and back up the already present cards like druid's familiar, so I'll let you know how that rolls.
No removal, no evasion, very little by the way of keeping guys safe from removal... green is better suited to midrange value strategies rather than pure aggro unless the pieces align.
I agree with Leelue's assessment for the most part...mostly disagreeing with his representation of White.
White weenie is really strong in my cube and a really robust color for aggro. It has anthems in Accorder Paladin, Pianna, Nomad Captain, Celestial Crusader, etc which works well with all of the token cards. It has access to the most versatile removal in the cube which is really important in my cube. It has efficient evasion, and a dash of tempo cards like Banisher Priest, Kor Hookmaster, and the long cut Blinding Beam. It really takes advantage of equipment more than most colors, and Steelshaper's Gift has been an important piece for that.
White aggro is about a turn or two slower than red and black aggro, but makes up for it in resilience......Mother of Runes, Harm's Way, the soltari duders if you run them, Shelter, Lashknife Barrier are all a real headache to deal with.
It's like the swiss army knife of aggro. It's also the most viable mono-color aggro deck in my cube, because of the density of support and it's lack of obvious weaknesses.
I choose to leave blue and green as support for aggro at best. The thought of supporting aggro in all colors has never really interest me.
I agree with most of what inscho said ha. I never owned a steelshaper's gift before but he's correct in that it is the best color with equipment. Why? Most tokens, goot amount of First strike and flying and shadow. I did forget about the surprisingly effective banisher priest as well, and blinding beam can put on a clinic. And then of course there is the card that was a staple for a long time that nobody had heard about until "recently", Lashknife barrier.
I still think the power rests in a select few cards and that the overall power level of white aggro without those is pretty average though.
I leave white and green as my aggro support colors, with grixis as the main events. I think that for my cube every color combination that can reasonably do something should be allowed to do something (I don't want someone to push hard with selesnya aggro and end up with a garb deck) so I don't really plan on cutting the good aggro support. But I can't remember the last time elite vanguard was really good, mostly because white aggro is so sparingly drafted for me outside of a deck that takes advantage of evasion. That resilience he mentioned is quite real and part of why selesnya and boros have such good matchups against most aggro decks for me in my cube.
RRR is pretty much always supported. A handful of powerful 1's (Jackal Pup et al) and 2's (Gore-House Chainwalker), great burn (duh), and couple of strong 4's as curve-toppers.
BBB or WWW are, from what I've seen, tied for second most-popular aggro colors. White has the Pegasus Bros and token support... black has more 2-power 1-drops and a ton of creature removal, backed up by creatures that trade off your own life total for above-the-curve power (Fledgling Djinn or Necrogen Scudder).
I somewhat recently switched a bunch of cards to allow UUU aggro-ish -- not just plowing through people with Phantasmal Bear and stuff, but using evasion and bounce to push thru damage and stay ahead on cards with Tandem Lookout.
That leaves GGG. I like mana dorks accelerating you into ahead-of-time 3's (Wolfir Avenger), 4's (Blastoderm), and higher. What I'm NOT playing is 1's and 2's that actually want to attack (though the 2-power deathtouch 2's are close, and we just got a solid new one in Heir of the Wilds).
So... am I missing out by not cubing Jungle Lion and Strangleroot Geist? And the Boa Bros? Doesn't seem like I even need a HUGE overhaul... just a little less ramp, and a few more good low-cost creatures in green. Rancor is already there. Curse of Predation is already there. The 3's and 4's still work without a mana dork (though you certainly still would play Elves in a River Boa deck).
Thoughts?
Black based aggro is almost certainly the best.
It has all the 1 mana grizzly bears you could ask for (better than white and red by a mile), sick evasive guys (better than white at attacking, especially thanks to dauthi marauder and disruptive cards like liliana's specter.) and strong aggro endgame cards like slaughter and mogis' marauder.
Red's guys have an extra point of power here and there but lack consistent evasion. The only upside red brings to the table is in the instants and sorceries. White's removal is worse than black's and red's, the creatures usually deal less damage straight up than red and get in less effectively than black. If anything it is Black > Red > White, and it's not particularly close in my opinion. All white really has over the others are a few randomly unreal cards like spectral procession and mother of runes.
However, I've been billing blue as the third best aggro color. It's missing a suite of 1 drops which keeps it out of contention for the 2nd best, but nonstop tempo plays (Man-o-war, frost lynx, Daze, snap, mist raven, riftwing cloudskate) and brutal evasive beaters (serendib efreet, latch seeker, infiltrator il kor, errant ephemeron Illusory angel) really put it over the top. Singing bell strike is the pacifism it's been waiting for and I'm pretty sure that card is nearly a staple. Tandem lookout is one of the strongest cards in the deck, and there are a lot of random mediocre pieces that can do a lot of work, like curiosity, aqueous form, or sleep. No deck invalidates blockers as much as izzet aggro.
Green has the two enchantments you listed and... whoo boy it's pretty much done after that. Blastoderm of course, mana elves, phantom centaur... but after that it's only able to try to overpower your opponent. I just put in jungle lion (it's basically on par with jackal pup) and rogue elephant to try and back up the already present cards like druid's familiar, so I'll let you know how that rolls.
No removal, no evasion, very little by the way of keeping guys safe from removal... green is better suited to midrange value strategies rather than pure aggro unless the pieces align.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
White weenie is really strong in my cube and a really robust color for aggro. It has anthems in Accorder Paladin, Pianna, Nomad Captain, Celestial Crusader, etc which works well with all of the token cards. It has access to the most versatile removal in the cube which is really important in my cube. It has efficient evasion, and a dash of tempo cards like Banisher Priest, Kor Hookmaster, and the long cut Blinding Beam. It really takes advantage of equipment more than most colors, and Steelshaper's Gift has been an important piece for that.
White aggro is about a turn or two slower than red and black aggro, but makes up for it in resilience......Mother of Runes, Harm's Way, the soltari duders if you run them, Shelter, Lashknife Barrier are all a real headache to deal with.
It's like the swiss army knife of aggro. It's also the most viable mono-color aggro deck in my cube, because of the density of support and it's lack of obvious weaknesses.
I choose to leave blue and green as support for aggro at best. The thought of supporting aggro in all colors has never really interest me.
I still think the power rests in a select few cards and that the overall power level of white aggro without those is pretty average though.
I leave white and green as my aggro support colors, with grixis as the main events. I think that for my cube every color combination that can reasonably do something should be allowed to do something (I don't want someone to push hard with selesnya aggro and end up with a garb deck) so I don't really plan on cutting the good aggro support. But I can't remember the last time elite vanguard was really good, mostly because white aggro is so sparingly drafted for me outside of a deck that takes advantage of evasion. That resilience he mentioned is quite real and part of why selesnya and boros have such good matchups against most aggro decks for me in my cube.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article