MTG Salvation

I'm trying to do some archetypes for my powered Pauper cube. It's a classic Tier 1 Cube that runs all the efficient cards, removal and bombs from throughout Magic's common history, but following the online printings rather than the paper ones, since my playgroup also plays Constructed Pauper and the sanctioned events use the online rarities and banlist, so I've decided to do the same to avoid confusion when something is played in one format and not in the other.

That said, I've figured that I could make some of the color pairs support an archetype, because a lot of the cards that support or reward them are already Staple or Cubable material in a normal powered cube. Take for example RW Tokens:


Those are cards that are in almost every cube out there (except the Online only cards and perhaps Flurry of Horns, Tactician & Captain and Outcast & Knight since there are cubes that only run one of either), and there are more fringe ones like Raise the Alarm, Dauntless Cathar, Icatian Crier and Mardu Hordechief that can also see plays.

I've also got UB figured out as "Graveyard control", with Flashback cards like Deep Analysis, Think Twice, Chainer's Edict, Crippling Fatigue, Morgue Theft and Mystical Teachings, coupled with Delve cards and things like Merfolk Looter and Thought Courier to further push the advantage.

RG is "Zoo", and sports cheap, medium sized beats like Kird Ape, Keldon Marauders, Garruk's Companion, Horned Kavu, Imperiosaur and Voldaren Duelist, helped out by burn spells and pump spells alike.

UW will probably be Skies, since Warden of Evos Isle just got downgraded and UW typically wants to amass flyers and play the tempo game anyways, and WB will probably be suicide aggro, with aggressive Shadow and Flying guys from both Black and White.



I've got to figure the rest of the color pair though. UR is easy as it will probably be Spells matter and shares a bit of cards with both Tokens and Flashback control, on top of having it's own payoffs. I'll try to turn GW into Enchantment matters since we got some support in EMA and I already play some staple Enchantment things in those colors like the Enchantment tutors and powerful standalone enchantments like Rancor or Armadillo Cloak. UG, GB and RB is where I need the most help though, as I don't know how to make them feel different enough, yet competitive without cutting staples of the cube in favor of more borderline chaff.

UG is tempo in my cube with cheap big creatures and blue bounce/counter
GB is control with black mass removal and green fatties.
RB is low curve aggro with a lot of burn

Since I dont run online commons, tokens isnt a tier1 archetype for me. besides it needs way too much space to fit it in. and you have to run a lot of "not tier1 outside of this archetype"-cards to make it work. So the metabalance is completely different to yours. Al is probably the only one who runs the cube youre looking for.

My tier2 cube runs the token archetype but also in green, so GB an RB can be a nice sacrifice themed archetype. Green/Red tokens and red steal effects

yeah i agree. it makes archetypes more flexible and interesting when they´re possible across many colors. otherwise youll have almost identical decks each draft after the cube is "solved"

I'll probably have some cards overlapping between archetypes and cross-synergies between colors. For example, while UB is the Graveyard control color combo, Red has some Flashback / Retrace spells as well like Firebolt, Lava Dart and Flame Jab, with Strangling Soot also benefitting from Flashback. Red also has looters like Rummaging Goblin and Faithless Looting

Similarly, UW will probably be a Blink archetype with cards like Kor Skyfisher, Ghostly Flicker, Momentary Blink, Whitemane Lion and Deputy of Acquitals. Black can mesh well in this since it also has valuable targets to blink and, while it lacks blink of it's own, it has Graveyard recursion.

Bant Auras looks good, but what cubable Auras does Blue offer?

Also Jund will be sacrifice for sure, with RB being the main colors so it can also pair well with W for tokens and sac, and GB can pair well with UB for graveyard shenanigans.

What are some staple / cubable sac outlets besides Carrion Feeder, Nantuko Husk and Vulturous Aven? And some staple / cubable that are good at dying cards besides the Red token generators, Perilous Myr, Butcher Ghoul and Driver of the Dead?

BW has the "Bleed" ideology. Between the Blind Hunter and Extort guys there is incremental manipulation of life totals. Count the Lifelink, of the 'Life for Cards' guys and their is a loose synergy.

GR, imo, has soo many options you just kinda fill it with Good Stuff and let them cherry pick from other archetypes. Or, there was a small "Beasts" triggering in older oddball cards.

GW also has a subtle "Humans matter" smattering of cards too

EDIT: In my sig, look at Article #1. While a bit dated, the information is still relevant. I feel it is a good examination of each guilds's identity options as well as strengths