A card may be good in one cube, while not so good in another cube. It can be advantageous to have very defined narrow archetypes to make strong decks. It can also be rewarding to have lots of safe consistent cards too. They can also be boring in both senses due to how well they work and how the meta evolves around them.
For example, Innistrad drafts with spider spawning decks. A very narrow strategy that could blow people out if the stars aligned correctly. As Dampen Thoughts was in Kamigawa as well. Sometimes a card can make a deck itself, but you need the support around it to exist.
Can Emperial Armor warrant its own deck? Not in the same sense spider spawning or dampen thoughts did, but if we delve deeper, perhaps it could be a piece to a whole new strategy. Open your minds and think of the possibilities. It may not be for your cube, but because of that you don't have to shut it down completely. Help discuss cards without pure negativity.
Auras have downsides, everyone knows that. I still think auras are playable, though you have to be careful about how they will be used in your cube generally. Just throwing in fencermark enchantments, or whatever that cycle is, won't cut it on its own.
Now how can we go about abusing this card...
Option A. Hexproof gets rid of the 2 for 1 factor, except against very narrow sacrifice cards. (ie. Celestial Flare, Diabolic Edict, Geth's Verdict)
In this type of deck, you can play a few cards then swing for the fences. Cards that help synergize are: Aura Gnarlid, Ethereal Armor, Hexproof Creatures, Auramancer, Borderland Ranger and other similar land searching cards that put lands into your hand.
Option B. UW deck that is drawing cards, can even be tempo.
This could even be a blink style deck, which usually has extra cards in its hand through its various forms of card advantage. Even could be a control deck where you just land a hard to remove threat and land this on top of it. Give whatever creature hexproof via elgaud shieldmate, or use the 2/2 hexproof flier, or just protect it on a seagate oracle with protection spells.
Option C. A white deck with possibly any other color mixed in to protect the deck or a heroic deck.
Now those are all viable options. The card does have a downside and the card also has an upside. Some cubes have less removal that others, some have more. This card would be better in a cube with less removal, or at least less powerful removal.
Also if you make niche archetypes, if a card is going to be a late pick usually, then that is completely fine. I dislike the argument that if a card is too narrow, that it will be a really late pick. Infact that can help build consistent archetypes. For example, I run seller of songbirds. That card is terrible in most decks. Downright bad. Now why on earth would I run that card? Cause the token player can usually count on it wheeling and getting it back. The card is decent in tokens, it isn't the strongest, but it is just fine. Throw down an "All creaters get +2/+2 until EOT" or any equipment, or ghostly flicker loop, and the card becomes playable.
I think empyrial armor is fine. I've thought about putting it in my cube quite a few times and eventually with the right setup it may just make it in. For now I'm going to pass due to mostly the reasons that the others stated, along with me not having the above archetypes, or if I do, not needing them to have this card at the moment.
After you get a starting list you will draft it a few times and get a feel what each color is strong in and develop different archetypes for different color combinations to get synergies and make the decks feel different and the strategies varied from just creatures running into each other.
The borderposts can be played as ramp, though it is quite a bit slower. They are more fragile to artifact destruction so they are worse than guildgates in that degree. They are also worse in the fact that a hand with bounceland borderpost is unkeepable, even guildgate borderpost can be very hard hand to justify keeping.
I have a larger cube but I run 2 sets of guildgates(one foil rtr/gc set, one foil dm set) and a set of bouncelands, among the other color fixing common lands.
As far as other options for affinity, there aren't much because the quality of artifacts and cards that get benefits from them are in low numbers, or are bad when you aren't in that archetype. I am working on a website to go over archetypes and different ways to spruce up the varied options in a cube, and will be making a podcast. I keep putting it off but I should be starting it soon. I just bought a good recording software tonight and I can't wait to use it.
I would just test out with your group what works for you. What I would try doing is making a 60 card deck list with singelton copies and see if you have enough artifacts to spare. If you can make a 60 card singelton deck and have it perform well against say another archetype in your cube with 60 of its available cards, then you may be able to squeeze it in. The reason I say 60 instead of 40 is the fact you won't get everything you want in the draft, and some cards will be taken that you may need.
I actually run something that others may view as controversial, 2 copies of each guildgate due to many of the other lands outside of guildgates and karoos not being that great. Especially when my cube is 450 cards, the lands section were not as dense as I would have liked previously.
Another reason I did it was I had all of the original RTR/GC ones in foil, then when I did the Dragon's maze prereleases I had gotten like 6 of the guildgates in foil with the new artwork. Not having signets in my cube, because greens specialty right now in my cube is ramping.
My bant ramp flicker deck is midrangey hard to deal with answers. I wouldn't really call it control though.
UW flicker is a midrange controlish build in my cube if you get the cards and can stall.
WB control is very strong in my cube as that is where most of the removal is, as is the extort to round out a very strong deck. Add in blue if you don't find the good black draw spells and you have a solid deck as well.
Black green rock style tortured existence style deck could be considered control with the right cards.
White and green can fit strongly into control decks, just depends on how your cube is set up.
I am glad the double guildgates work for other people as well.
I limit removal spells to where they are not super abundant. Black has nice removal, making it a very playable color as most cubes just don't have black doing much.
White removal is mostly enchantments, so sorcery speed and blink, bounce, or disenchant type effects can remove them.
In most cubes lightning bolt, searing spear, brimstone volley, deal with more creatures than blacks removal quicker, and can go to the dome. It gave red too much reach in my cube actually making the aggro decks very strong, or when control decks got ahold of them very hard to aggro in colors other than red.
Red still has reach with threaten effects, even better when playing rakdos with sac outlets as removal. My red is more tempo based and blue red is really solid as well. (jilt, manowar, crossway vampire, goblin shortcutter, etc.)
Asp is good, I don't run tangle hulk but may consider tossing it in the artifact section as I slimmed it down a month or two ago. I wouldn't consider it close to walker of the grove though. I have a big bant ramp blink style deck in my cube, along with maul splicer that is strong. And with adding angelic renewal soon, the evoke cost value goes through the roof. Angelic renewal has other great synergies like turn 2 renewal turn 3 evoke mulldrifter, get a 2/2 flier and draw 4 cards play. There are so many ETB's that angelic renewal will be in my cube soon.
The green nymph is great, I think it could see play but not an auto include. I don't have an aura theme in there but could easily adjust for that as the block continues to unfold and we get more cards. I think it is solid, I'm just not sure what I would take out for it, and I have plenty of other cards wanting to see the light of day in cube as well.
I actually prefer the reach over trample, because there are other cards like fangreen 4/4 that tramples for 3GG, though it is only a 4/4 but still, I'd rather have a 4/5 reach over a vanilla 5/5. I love the 3/3 reach I have in there now. May have to take that one out for it, or maybe something in another slot. I recently cut the 5/5 for 6 that gives you 5 life when artifacts die, though at that time I had a huge artifact theme in the cube. Though it was cute more than anything else and diluted the rest of the colors from making strong mono color decks possible.
Anyways I think I will fit the asp in somewhere. Hopefully there is another big green common in the theros block.
I think Read the Bones is an auto include. I wouldn't take out sign in blood or deaths duet for it, because I'm still running syphon life. I haven't gotten a great deal of testing in on it, but it can be counter productive in an extort style deck, though can help. I just think it is too situational and won't pan out because it doesn't affect the board at all.
Omenspeaker is a decent card. No merfolk looter or thought courier. I don't think it makes the cut. I don't really like too many things that have huge buts or shut off aggro too much. I do have sea gate oracle and I don't think this replaces it by a long shot.
Gray Merchant would depend on the cube and will take testing. My black has aggro but it is more of aggro support, but most of the removal in my cube is in black and white so it is also a very good control color as well. We will have to see if this will pan out but it is unlikely.
The asp looks great and I will probably include it as well. I've started to go deeper on the ramping recently and it may be basking rootwalla's and wild mongrel's days to leave the cube, as the madness theme has declined heavily over time. I would have to do a small overhaul to put that deck back in its place again. I will actually try to go force a couple wild mongrel decks on cube tutor, and perhaps with my rl cube soon if I see those cards pop up, to see if there is enough support for the archetype still.
Here is a mono red where I was cutting so many cards. I had so many 1 drops it was crazy. I was almost tempted to go to 15 lands. http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/24136
I may have needed to change out a land for another card like mogg war marshal but the deck is pretty solid. I run more one drops in my cube then most cubes.
Aggro is supposed to beat control. Shouldn't change that one bit, otherwise I think it is just poor design.
In the pillars of magic, Aggro comes out too fast for people to deal with. Midrange should actually be able to stop aggro with value creatures that are slightly bigger and slightly slower, and play the role that a normal control deck would in that situation.
Midrange will probably be slow enough that a true control deck should be able to take it over most of the time.
Disrupting a pillar just makes the whole thing a mess.
So if you make a control deck that can beat aggro, it certainly is fast enough to beat midrange, which means it beats everything, other than other control decks which depends on the matchup.
Then people will stop drafting aggro if it can't beat midrange and can't beat control. Aggro will become less viable. There would be no reason to draft anything but control at that point.
You need a mix, that is how magic works. Now sometimes control can be aggro, sometimes aggro can beat midrange, etc. Depends on the deck and the draw, but the averages should be tilted towards aggro beating control, midrange beating aggro, and control beating midrange.
Yes that is correct. land fixing in pauper is very weak, and I had collected almost all the guildgates in foil and gatecrash, then at the Dragon's maze prerelease, I went to two of them, and I pulled four of the guildgates in foil. The other ones were cheap and I was missing the golgari RTR guildgate in foil, and still am, so I bought the dragon's maze ones.
It has helped fixing quite a bit, and hasn't made control decks in my cube overpowered, infact aggro still wins most of the time. I tell people ahead of time when they draft my cube about the special things in my cube and how it plays.
Compared to a rare cube, pauper cube has a very low amount of playable lands, and I don't play things like oasis, though thought about it before, but definitely not desert because it hurts against aggro too much.
Sounds really interesting, let me know how it plays when you are done with it. I think there may not be enough playable artifacts though which is the sad thing. I had 60 artifacts in my cube for a while, but they weren't that strong and watered down some other strategies so I cut them back to a manageable number. Anyways good luck and hope things work out with it.
For example, Innistrad drafts with spider spawning decks. A very narrow strategy that could blow people out if the stars aligned correctly. As Dampen Thoughts was in Kamigawa as well. Sometimes a card can make a deck itself, but you need the support around it to exist.
Can Emperial Armor warrant its own deck? Not in the same sense spider spawning or dampen thoughts did, but if we delve deeper, perhaps it could be a piece to a whole new strategy. Open your minds and think of the possibilities. It may not be for your cube, but because of that you don't have to shut it down completely. Help discuss cards without pure negativity.
Auras have downsides, everyone knows that. I still think auras are playable, though you have to be careful about how they will be used in your cube generally. Just throwing in fencermark enchantments, or whatever that cycle is, won't cut it on its own.
Now how can we go about abusing this card...
Option A. Hexproof gets rid of the 2 for 1 factor, except against very narrow sacrifice cards. (ie. Celestial Flare, Diabolic Edict, Geth's Verdict)
In this type of deck, you can play a few cards then swing for the fences. Cards that help synergize are: Aura Gnarlid, Ethereal Armor, Hexproof Creatures, Auramancer, Borderland Ranger and other similar land searching cards that put lands into your hand.
Option B. UW deck that is drawing cards, can even be tempo.
This could even be a blink style deck, which usually has extra cards in its hand through its various forms of card advantage. Even could be a control deck where you just land a hard to remove threat and land this on top of it. Give whatever creature hexproof via elgaud shieldmate, or use the 2/2 hexproof flier, or just protect it on a seagate oracle with protection spells.
Option C. A white deck with possibly any other color mixed in to protect the deck or a heroic deck.
Now those are all viable options. The card does have a downside and the card also has an upside. Some cubes have less removal that others, some have more. This card would be better in a cube with less removal, or at least less powerful removal.
Also if you make niche archetypes, if a card is going to be a late pick usually, then that is completely fine. I dislike the argument that if a card is too narrow, that it will be a really late pick. Infact that can help build consistent archetypes. For example, I run seller of songbirds. That card is terrible in most decks. Downright bad. Now why on earth would I run that card? Cause the token player can usually count on it wheeling and getting it back. The card is decent in tokens, it isn't the strongest, but it is just fine. Throw down an "All creaters get +2/+2 until EOT" or any equipment, or ghostly flicker loop, and the card becomes playable.
I think empyrial armor is fine. I've thought about putting it in my cube quite a few times and eventually with the right setup it may just make it in. For now I'm going to pass due to mostly the reasons that the others stated, along with me not having the above archetypes, or if I do, not needing them to have this card at the moment.
I have a larger cube but I run 2 sets of guildgates(one foil rtr/gc set, one foil dm set) and a set of bouncelands, among the other color fixing common lands.
As far as other options for affinity, there aren't much because the quality of artifacts and cards that get benefits from them are in low numbers, or are bad when you aren't in that archetype. I am working on a website to go over archetypes and different ways to spruce up the varied options in a cube, and will be making a podcast. I keep putting it off but I should be starting it soon. I just bought a good recording software tonight and I can't wait to use it.
I would just test out with your group what works for you. What I would try doing is making a 60 card deck list with singelton copies and see if you have enough artifacts to spare. If you can make a 60 card singelton deck and have it perform well against say another archetype in your cube with 60 of its available cards, then you may be able to squeeze it in. The reason I say 60 instead of 40 is the fact you won't get everything you want in the draft, and some cards will be taken that you may need.
Another reason I did it was I had all of the original RTR/GC ones in foil, then when I did the Dragon's maze prereleases I had gotten like 6 of the guildgates in foil with the new artwork. Not having signets in my cube, because greens specialty right now in my cube is ramping.
UW flicker is a midrange controlish build in my cube if you get the cards and can stall.
WB control is very strong in my cube as that is where most of the removal is, as is the extort to round out a very strong deck. Add in blue if you don't find the good black draw spells and you have a solid deck as well.
Black green rock style tortured existence style deck could be considered control with the right cards.
White and green can fit strongly into control decks, just depends on how your cube is set up.
I limit removal spells to where they are not super abundant. Black has nice removal, making it a very playable color as most cubes just don't have black doing much.
White removal is mostly enchantments, so sorcery speed and blink, bounce, or disenchant type effects can remove them.
In most cubes lightning bolt, searing spear, brimstone volley, deal with more creatures than blacks removal quicker, and can go to the dome. It gave red too much reach in my cube actually making the aggro decks very strong, or when control decks got ahold of them very hard to aggro in colors other than red.
Red still has reach with threaten effects, even better when playing rakdos with sac outlets as removal. My red is more tempo based and blue red is really solid as well. (jilt, manowar, crossway vampire, goblin shortcutter, etc.)
The green nymph is great, I think it could see play but not an auto include. I don't have an aura theme in there but could easily adjust for that as the block continues to unfold and we get more cards. I think it is solid, I'm just not sure what I would take out for it, and I have plenty of other cards wanting to see the light of day in cube as well.
Anyways I think I will fit the asp in somewhere. Hopefully there is another big green common in the theros block.
Omenspeaker is a decent card. No merfolk looter or thought courier. I don't think it makes the cut. I don't really like too many things that have huge buts or shut off aggro too much. I do have sea gate oracle and I don't think this replaces it by a long shot.
Gray Merchant would depend on the cube and will take testing. My black has aggro but it is more of aggro support, but most of the removal in my cube is in black and white so it is also a very good control color as well. We will have to see if this will pan out but it is unlikely.
The asp looks great and I will probably include it as well. I've started to go deeper on the ramping recently and it may be basking rootwalla's and wild mongrel's days to leave the cube, as the madness theme has declined heavily over time. I would have to do a small overhaul to put that deck back in its place again. I will actually try to go force a couple wild mongrel decks on cube tutor, and perhaps with my rl cube soon if I see those cards pop up, to see if there is enough support for the archetype still.
Thanks!
Here is an odd grixis delver list. Wish I had gotten a shield mate or another win condition or two.
http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/24025
Here is a mono red where I was cutting so many cards. I had so many 1 drops it was crazy. I was almost tempted to go to 15 lands.
http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/24136
I may have needed to change out a land for another card like mogg war marshal but the deck is pretty solid. I run more one drops in my cube then most cubes.
In the pillars of magic, Aggro comes out too fast for people to deal with. Midrange should actually be able to stop aggro with value creatures that are slightly bigger and slightly slower, and play the role that a normal control deck would in that situation.
Midrange will probably be slow enough that a true control deck should be able to take it over most of the time.
Disrupting a pillar just makes the whole thing a mess.
So if you make a control deck that can beat aggro, it certainly is fast enough to beat midrange, which means it beats everything, other than other control decks which depends on the matchup.
Then people will stop drafting aggro if it can't beat midrange and can't beat control. Aggro will become less viable. There would be no reason to draft anything but control at that point.
You need a mix, that is how magic works. Now sometimes control can be aggro, sometimes aggro can beat midrange, etc. Depends on the deck and the draw, but the averages should be tilted towards aggro beating control, midrange beating aggro, and control beating midrange.
It has helped fixing quite a bit, and hasn't made control decks in my cube overpowered, infact aggro still wins most of the time. I tell people ahead of time when they draft my cube about the special things in my cube and how it plays.
Compared to a rare cube, pauper cube has a very low amount of playable lands, and I don't play things like oasis, though thought about it before, but definitely not desert because it hurts against aggro too much.