Introduction
There has been something on my mind for the past few months about several green archetypes in Vintage Cube:
1. Hyper ramp
2. Persist Combo (Or Creature Combos in General)
3. Lands
4. Aristocrats (Or Go Wide Synergy Decks)
There has been an overall problem I felt with green and that is consistency:
- The hyper ramp / fatty cheat decks (decks that play 1-2 Channel/ Eureka but focus more on mana dork ramp) would often draw the wrong half of their deck + could be easily disrupted at the ramp or end game stage of the deck
- The lands/ persist archetypes as often parasitic and don't perform stronger than fair decks often in their best iterations
- Go wide strategies are often too slow for control/ combo strategies and their wins are often against faster aggressive decks.
One proposed solution to this solution is to move towards the Green Unga Bunga Package that moves green to a more midrange/ resilient deck that jumps ahead in curve with a few mana dorks and 4-5 drops similar to some decks in standard.
The part I like about this concept is it addresses some of the consistency problems with green in cube while still fully utilizing green's core advantage - mana dorks.
The addition of planeswalkers work very well work green's dorks - they help to attack on a second axis such that the deck is no longer vulnerable to sweepers and could be played 1-2 turns earlier.
However, the question that is unanswered is What do we do with the hyper ramp cards - especially the top end? Some cube curators would like to keep them both for the fatty cheat archetype and some curators would still like hyper ramp to be somewhat viable.
Here is my proposal - the inclusion of a package of Threat + Disruption/ Ramp as the midrange threats for green that plays well in both Unga Bunga and hyper ramp.
Threat + Disruption / Ramp
First, lets analyze two type of cards I would like us to pay close attention to:
Traditionally, linear archetypes would like to play as few interactive cards {Thoughtseize/ Abrupt Decay etc.) as possible as it dilutes their main engine. However, cards like Grist change this concept as it is a threat (relevant vs Control/ Midrange), interaction (removes delver) and contributes to the main game plan (Gaea's Cradle).
Previously the elves deck would try to race the delver deck/ control decks by going under. But more recently, these decks could afford to play around their sweepers more effective by removing the opponent's most problematic threats using grist and forcing the opponent to prepare to fight on multiple axis.
We can take a look at another example - Omnath, Locus of Creation, Courser of Kruphix, Knight of the Reliquery:
It only plays a much lower 8 mana dorks (away from the more traditional 12) but still ramps to 6 CMC threats (Primeval Titan) as it plays Knight of the Reliquary in its 3 CMC slot to act as a threat but also ramp the turn Primeval Titan comes out.
Similarly, the world championships winning Abzan deck was able to curve into Elsepth without playing cards like Sylvan caryatid by playing Coursers + Nissa in its 3 CMC slot. - https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=10387&f=ST
In all three of these examples, the deck build specifically added creatures that were serviceable midrange creatures but could also act as ramp on turns 4-5 to cast 6 drops.
Omnath for example could be played on turn 4 as a value creature, but could also ramp 4 on the following turn with a land drop. Similarly, Knight of the Reliquary could act as a 5/5 midrange threat, but could be used to sacrifice a tapped forest to ramp for 1 turn.
In both of these cases, the deck builder was able to still ramp/ play into its intended game play without significantly diluting its main engine.
Extending Unga Bunga for hyper ramp:
The key take away from above are:
- Knight of the Reliqury could serve as a Tarmogoyf against aggro/ midrange but also is a Kodama's Reach for hitting the necessary ramp for curving into 6-8 drops
- Cards like Oko, Thief of Crowns could provide the deck with the necessary disruption to allow the deck to play a slightly slower game without needing to be hyperlinear.
Instead of the extreme case of hyper ramp deck of 10 dorks, 2-3 utility creatures, 4-5 midrange threats and 3-4 top end threats, the deck could move towards a more midrange-control shell with a lower count of 6-8 dorks, 2-3 threat + removal, 3-4 threat + ramp, 2 midrange creatures, 2 interaction and 2-3 top end threats.
This allows the ramp deck to be more resilient against aggressive/ control strategies by presenting more threats/ blockers while retaining the possibility to ramp into 6-8 drops and occasionally Eldrazi.
Similarly, the reduction of mana dorks/ top end threats reduces the variance with the draws and also improves the deck's resilience against disruption.
On the other hand, cards like Knight of the Reliqury, Xenagos, the Reveler and Courser of Kruphix are still excellent creatures for the Unga Bunga shell - the main reason is they function very well with green's acceleration regardless of the shell they are played in.
Cutting weak enablers:
However, the main benefit is the green archetypes would need less mana dorks to function and I was able to cut my weaker 2 CMC/ 3 CMC ramp (Sakura Tribe-Elder/ Cultivate) as ramp decks no longer needed 8-10 sources of pure ramp and could function with a lower count of 4-6.
Case Study with Oko, Thief of Crowns:
Oko, Thief of Crowns is a powerhouse in constructed. In Blue-Green ramp decks, Oko does a few things:
- With Mana dorks, Oko can come down as early as turn 2 - a nightmare for almost any opponent to deal with
- Provides "Haste" threats for threatening the opponent's planeswalkers
- Provides a serviceable removal for problematic artifacts/ fatty cheat targets.
- Provides a roadblock for early aggression.
The previous iteration of hyper ramp decks (at its most extreme case) would often ramp from turns 1-3 and play a finisher on turn 4. This was very easy for the opponent to prepared for by removing their disruption with Bolt, sweeping/ countering their finishers. Similarly, combo decks/ wildfire decks could mostly ignore the ramp deck and proceed with their game plan.
With cards like Oko, the opponent needed to have answers as early as turns 2-3 thus stressing their mana and their ability to play too many high end card advantage engines. It also provides a reasonable disruptive game plan against combo decks.
For example, with cards like Oko/ Scavenging Ooze in my mainboard to disrupt reanimator or Oko + Reclaimation Sage to disrupt Wildfire/ Storm, its reasonable to play 1-2 counter magic in the ramp deck's mainboard to provide a more comprehensive plan to winning against these decks without having to rely on turbo ramp.
Its arguable that the disruption and time Oko provided could be seen as both a serviceable ramp spell (bought time for additional land drops) and a serviceable Cavern of Souls/ SpellSkite (The opponent was spread thin on answers.
Improving creature combos:
Some Persist combo decks will often ramp into Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Sun Titan and therefore I will skip reiterating over the benefits of Threat + ramp.
Going forward with Oko, Thief of Crowns/ Grist, Grist, the Hunger Tide, I would like to focus on a case study with Legacy Elves and my Legacy Affinity Deck (prior to Oko Ban) - I will be extending on my thoughts above.
Traditionally the Elves/ Affinity deck played very little mainboard disruption and was primarily hyper focused on playing their combo. (I will be using both examples simultaneously for players that may have more experience with modern - legacy vice versa)
The main game plan was play to the board as quickly as possible and try to win before the opponent's Monastery Mentor / Murktide Regent are online.
The problem with this approach is the deck became too predictable and could be easily blown out by a sweeper, it was specifiable to draws via variance and it was very easy for the opponent to answer as it only interacted on a single axis.
With a card like Grist in the Elves mainboard (It could be tutored into via Green Sun's Zenith), the elves deck had a mainboard answer to the opponent's threats without diluting its main game plan as Grist provided creature tokens.
This also forced the opponent to diversify their answers as a single sweeper is likely not enough against the elves deck - In fact this has been a very big problem for the opponent when I was playing my Legacy Affinity. The opponent needed to have answers to my Steel Overseer/ Arcbound Ravager/ Master of Etherium beat down game plan while having answers for Oko, Thief of Crowns. The sweepers/ removal/ plague engineers performed well against the creatures, but were not effective against Oko.
Traditionally, the Oko decks struggled against combo or unfair decks, but the Affinity half of the Affinity deck was fast enough to race (or attempt to race) the combo decks.
One of the key points I've noticed is these creature combo decks are excellent shells for planeswalkers in general:
- The creature decks provides both acceleration + blockers for protecting planeswalkers
- The planeswalkers provide disruption and threats on a different axis thus making answering a purely creature deck more difficult
- The creature half is often better at answering unfair strategies through aggression/ combo and the planeswalker half is better at playing against the fair decks.
The deck presents a Twin threat of Planeswalkers + Threat as well as a built in turn 4-5 combo that could race unfair decks.
The combination of planeswalkers presents a third benefit - it reduces the number of enablers required for an archetype. For example, my aristocrats payoff is:
The addition of planeswalkers reduces the expected number of aristocrats necessary for the deck to function - I never felt I needed 2nd tier Blood Artists to make the archetype work. I've had similar successes with the Persist Archetype.
Lands Archetype:
I believe the Lands Archetype is a trap - Its something ALOT of cube curators have attempted and failed. The problem is primarily its payoff isn't really there.
There also aren't enough redundancy for Fastbond or Strip Mine, thus making it difficult.
However, during my many iterations for the lands archetype, I learn that the payoffs - Life from the Loam/ Mox Diamond/ Ramunap Excavator, Crucible of Worlds, Wreen and Six etc. are at their best for helping to hit land drops (card advantage) + enable 3-4c splashes.
There were many cases where I've drafted a 4c Omnath deck and I found its main advantages is that it was able to play 4 colors and occasionally get a 3 for 1 from a Life from the Loam rather than actual lands synergies.
I would argue this archetype would be viable if more cards like Wreen and Six are printed, but as of right now, I do not believe we have the redundancy or the incentive to more into this archetype.
Final Thoughts:
One of the key action items (for myself) would be to evaluate a lot of potentially 2nd tier cards that may be able to fit into the threat + disruption/ tempo + removal categories.
explicitly for these reasons to help improve the curve of ramp decks and they performed their role elegantly.
Similarly, I would argue the number of planeswalkers should increase to help improve green decks - Green's main advantage is its main dorks and I feel planeswalkers are the best at taking advantage of this.
The addition of these cards allowed me to remove the majority of my 2nd tier, 2 CMC mana dorks, thus significantly smoothing out my curve/ power level for my green section.
I'm personally interested in 2-3 more cards in these categories for both threat + disruption/ threat + ramp to help smooth out the green archetypes.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic and any suggestions/ recommendations.
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
I’ve enjoyed reading your thoughts, thanks for posting!
Thanks so much!
I was absolutely impressed by how elegantly Oko, Thief of Crowns/ Grist, the Hunger Tide played in creature combo decks as it utilized their acceleration, able to utilize dorks for sacrifice/ protecting walkers, removing opponent's threats, and playing around sweepers.
My main motivation for writing this article was I was browsing through the modern decklists and I found 2 two very interesting decklists:
- Primeval Titan deck that played 8 dorks + 4 Knights (instead of the traditional 12 sources of acceleration). The Knight serviced as both acceleration and threat.
- 4C Omnath decks playing Emarkul the Promised end in the sideboard and using Omnath to ramp
This is on top of the impact of Ragavan/ Deathrite in their respective decks as it frequently allowed aggressive decks to curve into 4 drops, despite playing a much lower land count at the same time not reducing their threat density.
I have added a few more of these threat + removal/ ramp cards (I will be testing them out in the coming months):
So far, they have played very elegantly in my cube and these decks are lot more interactive.
I've also noticed that there are a lot of random discard outlets printed recently and we have a surplus of discard effects. I've done some work on some fair graveyard decks with Victimize/ Vengevine etc. and they weren't very strong.
I've recently realized that discard outlets - Seasoned Pyromancer, Liliana of the Veil, Wild Mongrel, Prismari Command, Rankle, Master of Pranks etc. do not need a graveyard/ madness/ reanimator deck in order to be effective - They are effective at helping to discard the less convenient half of the curve, thus breaking their symmetry.
Liliana of the Veil's strength in modern is often she can discard the excess lands/ removal spells against combo/ control decks etc.
I will be doing some more work with my list, adding 2-3 discard outlets and trying out some cards like Elsepth Escape's Death/ Nullpriest of Oblivion to smooth out decks with curves from 1-6 CMC.
So far, I've been very excited about these changes.
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
There has been something on my mind for the past few months about several green archetypes in Vintage Cube:
1. Hyper ramp
2. Persist Combo (Or Creature Combos in General)
3. Lands
4. Aristocrats (Or Go Wide Synergy Decks)
There has been an overall problem I felt with green and that is consistency:
- The hyper ramp / fatty cheat decks (decks that play 1-2 Channel/ Eureka but focus more on mana dork ramp) would often draw the wrong half of their deck + could be easily disrupted at the ramp or end game stage of the deck
- The lands/ persist archetypes as often parasitic and don't perform stronger than fair decks often in their best iterations
- Go wide strategies are often too slow for control/ combo strategies and their wins are often against faster aggressive decks.
One proposed solution to this solution is to move towards the Green Unga Bunga Package that moves green to a more midrange/ resilient deck that jumps ahead in curve with a few mana dorks and 4-5 drops similar to some decks in standard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-DrxYm-9WM
The part I like about this concept is it addresses some of the consistency problems with green in cube while still fully utilizing green's core advantage - mana dorks.
The addition of planeswalkers work very well work green's dorks - they help to attack on a second axis such that the deck is no longer vulnerable to sweepers and could be played 1-2 turns earlier.
However, the question that is unanswered is What do we do with the hyper ramp cards - especially the top end? Some cube curators would like to keep them both for the fatty cheat archetype and some curators would still like hyper ramp to be somewhat viable.
Here is my proposal - the inclusion of a package of Threat + Disruption/ Ramp as the midrange threats for green that plays well in both Unga Bunga and hyper ramp.
Threat + Disruption / Ramp
First, lets analyze two type of cards I would like us to pay close attention to:
1. Threat with Disruption:
- Garruk Relentless
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Grist, the Hunger Tide
- Vraska, Golgari Queen
- Reclamation Sage
- Liliana of the Veil
- Gideon Jura
- Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
2. Threat that ramps:
(Directly Adds mana)
- Knight of the Reliquary
- Garruk Wildspeaker
- Deathrite Shaman
- Nissa, Who Shakes the World
- Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
- Klothys, God of Destiny
- Omnath, Locus of Creation
- Xenagos, the Reveler
(Fetches additional lands)
- Courser of Kruphix
- Nissa, Vastwood Seer
- Wreen and Six
3. Does all three:
- Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Lets analyze Grist, the Hunger Tide:
If we take a look at the most recent elves list - http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=34089&d=459272&f=LE
One thing you'll notice is the list has moved away from Nettle Sentinel, which was primarily used to go all-in with Heritage Druid and Glimpse of Nature to a slightly slower midrange deck with Elvish Reclaimer, Allosaurus Shepherd and Collector Ouphe.
One of the reason is the addition of Grist, the Hunger Tide.
Traditionally, linear archetypes would like to play as few interactive cards {Thoughtseize/ Abrupt Decay etc.) as possible as it dilutes their main engine. However, cards like Grist change this concept as it is a threat (relevant vs Control/ Midrange), interaction (removes delver) and contributes to the main game plan (Gaea's Cradle).
Previously the elves deck would try to race the delver deck/ control decks by going under. But more recently, these decks could afford to play around their sweepers more effective by removing the opponent's most problematic threats using grist and forcing the opponent to prepare to fight on multiple axis.
We can take a look at another example - Omnath, Locus of Creation, Courser of Kruphix, Knight of the Reliquery:
If you take a look at this decklist - http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=34067&d=459117&f=MO
You'll notice that there are Eladamri's Call in the main - the deck can afford to play those as it is often fetching Solitude. But it also has Yorion, Sky Nomad and Emrakul, the Promised End in its sideboard for slower games.
This deck is able to accomplish this as cards like Wrenn and Six and especially Omnath, Locus of Creation can play the dual role of threat + ramp.
Similarly with this valakut deck - http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=31701&d=445228&f=MO
It only plays a much lower 8 mana dorks (away from the more traditional 12) but still ramps to 6 CMC threats (Primeval Titan) as it plays Knight of the Reliquary in its 3 CMC slot to act as a threat but also ramp the turn Primeval Titan comes out.
Similarly, the world championships winning Abzan deck was able to curve into Elsepth without playing cards like Sylvan caryatid by playing Coursers + Nissa in its 3 CMC slot. - https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=10387&f=ST
In all three of these examples, the deck build specifically added creatures that were serviceable midrange creatures but could also act as ramp on turns 4-5 to cast 6 drops.
Omnath for example could be played on turn 4 as a value creature, but could also ramp 4 on the following turn with a land drop. Similarly, Knight of the Reliquary could act as a 5/5 midrange threat, but could be used to sacrifice a tapped forest to ramp for 1 turn.
In both of these cases, the deck builder was able to still ramp/ play into its intended game play without significantly diluting its main engine.
Extending Unga Bunga for hyper ramp:
The key take away from above are:
- Knight of the Reliqury could serve as a Tarmogoyf against aggro/ midrange but also is a Kodama's Reach for hitting the necessary ramp for curving into 6-8 drops
- Cards like Oko, Thief of Crowns could provide the deck with the necessary disruption to allow the deck to play a slightly slower game without needing to be hyperlinear.
Instead of the extreme case of hyper ramp deck of 10 dorks, 2-3 utility creatures, 4-5 midrange threats and 3-4 top end threats, the deck could move towards a more midrange-control shell with a lower count of 6-8 dorks, 2-3 threat + removal, 3-4 threat + ramp, 2 midrange creatures, 2 interaction and 2-3 top end threats.
This allows the ramp deck to be more resilient against aggressive/ control strategies by presenting more threats/ blockers while retaining the possibility to ramp into 6-8 drops and occasionally Eldrazi.
Similarly, the reduction of mana dorks/ top end threats reduces the variance with the draws and also improves the deck's resilience against disruption.
On the other hand, cards like Knight of the Reliqury, Xenagos, the Reveler and Courser of Kruphix are still excellent creatures for the Unga Bunga shell - the main reason is they function very well with green's acceleration regardless of the shell they are played in.
Cutting weak enablers:
However, the main benefit is the green archetypes would need less mana dorks to function and I was able to cut my weaker 2 CMC/ 3 CMC ramp (Sakura Tribe-Elder/ Cultivate) as ramp decks no longer needed 8-10 sources of pure ramp and could function with a lower count of 4-6.
Case Study with Oko, Thief of Crowns:
Oko, Thief of Crowns is a powerhouse in constructed. In Blue-Green ramp decks, Oko does a few things:
- With Mana dorks, Oko can come down as early as turn 2 - a nightmare for almost any opponent to deal with
- Provides "Haste" threats for threatening the opponent's planeswalkers
- Provides a serviceable removal for problematic artifacts/ fatty cheat targets.
- Provides a roadblock for early aggression.
The previous iteration of hyper ramp decks (at its most extreme case) would often ramp from turns 1-3 and play a finisher on turn 4. This was very easy for the opponent to prepared for by removing their disruption with Bolt, sweeping/ countering their finishers. Similarly, combo decks/ wildfire decks could mostly ignore the ramp deck and proceed with their game plan.
With cards like Oko, the opponent needed to have answers as early as turns 2-3 thus stressing their mana and their ability to play too many high end card advantage engines. It also provides a reasonable disruptive game plan against combo decks.
For example, with cards like Oko/ Scavenging Ooze in my mainboard to disrupt reanimator or Oko + Reclaimation Sage to disrupt Wildfire/ Storm, its reasonable to play 1-2 counter magic in the ramp deck's mainboard to provide a more comprehensive plan to winning against these decks without having to rely on turbo ramp.
Its arguable that the disruption and time Oko provided could be seen as both a serviceable ramp spell (bought time for additional land drops) and a serviceable Cavern of Souls/ SpellSkite (The opponent was spread thin on answers.
Improving creature combos:
Some Persist combo decks will often ramp into Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Sun Titan and therefore I will skip reiterating over the benefits of Threat + ramp.
Going forward with Oko, Thief of Crowns/ Grist, Grist, the Hunger Tide, I would like to focus on a case study with Legacy Elves and my Legacy Affinity Deck (prior to Oko Ban) - I will be extending on my thoughts above.
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=34089&d=459272&f=LE
Traditionally the Elves/ Affinity deck played very little mainboard disruption and was primarily hyper focused on playing their combo. (I will be using both examples simultaneously for players that may have more experience with modern - legacy vice versa)
The reason is cards like Swords of Plowshares / Galvanic Blast / Thoughtseize diluted the deck's main plan and weakened their main engine - Cranial Plating / Gaea's Cradle etc.
The main game plan was play to the board as quickly as possible and try to win before the opponent's Monastery Mentor / Murktide Regent are online.
The problem with this approach is the deck became too predictable and could be easily blown out by a sweeper, it was specifiable to draws via variance and it was very easy for the opponent to answer as it only interacted on a single axis.
With a card like Grist in the Elves mainboard (It could be tutored into via Green Sun's Zenith), the elves deck had a mainboard answer to the opponent's threats without diluting its main game plan as Grist provided creature tokens.
This also forced the opponent to diversify their answers as a single sweeper is likely not enough against the elves deck - In fact this has been a very big problem for the opponent when I was playing my Legacy Affinity. The opponent needed to have answers to my Steel Overseer/ Arcbound Ravager/ Master of Etherium beat down game plan while having answers for Oko, Thief of Crowns. The sweepers/ removal/ plague engineers performed well against the creatures, but were not effective against Oko.
Traditionally, the Oko decks struggled against combo or unfair decks, but the Affinity half of the Affinity deck was fast enough to race (or attempt to race) the combo decks.
One of the key points I've noticed is these creature combo decks are excellent shells for planeswalkers in general:
- The creature decks provides both acceleration + blockers for protecting planeswalkers
- The planeswalkers provide disruption and threats on a different axis thus making answering a purely creature deck more difficult
- The creature half is often better at answering unfair strategies through aggression/ combo and the planeswalker half is better at playing against the fair decks.
If we analyze two Grist decks from Modern:
Yawgmoth Combo:
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=34100&d=459329&f=MO
Grist Sacrifice:
https://decks.tcgplayer.com/magic/modern/meryn/jund-sacrifice-company/1389458?utm_source=merynmtg&utm_medium=merynmtg&utm_term=&utm_content=magic&utm_campaign=affiliate
The deck presents a Twin threat of Planeswalkers + Threat as well as a built in turn 4-5 combo that could race unfair decks.
The combination of planeswalkers presents a third benefit - it reduces the number of enablers required for an archetype. For example, my aristocrats payoff is:
- Blood Artist
- Zulaport Cutthroat
- Carrion Feeder
- BloodThrone Vampire
- Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
- Goblin Bombardment
- Spiteful Prankster
- Purphoros, God of the Forge
- Greater Gargadon
- Judith, the Scourge Diva
- Skullclamp
The addition of planeswalkers reduces the expected number of aristocrats necessary for the deck to function - I never felt I needed 2nd tier Blood Artists to make the archetype work. I've had similar successes with the Persist Archetype.
Lands Archetype:
I believe the Lands Archetype is a trap - Its something ALOT of cube curators have attempted and failed. The problem is primarily its payoff isn't really there.
There also aren't enough redundancy for Fastbond or Strip Mine, thus making it difficult.
However, during my many iterations for the lands archetype, I learn that the payoffs - Life from the Loam/ Mox Diamond/ Ramunap Excavator, Crucible of Worlds, Wreen and Six etc. are at their best for helping to hit land drops (card advantage) + enable 3-4c splashes.
There were many cases where I've drafted a 4c Omnath deck and I found its main advantages is that it was able to play 4 colors and occasionally get a 3 for 1 from a Life from the Loam rather than actual lands synergies.
I would argue this archetype would be viable if more cards like Wreen and Six are printed, but as of right now, I do not believe we have the redundancy or the incentive to more into this archetype.
Final Thoughts:
One of the key action items (for myself) would be to evaluate a lot of potentially 2nd tier cards that may be able to fit into the threat + disruption/ tempo + removal categories.
I've recently added:
- Klothys, God of Destiny
- Deathrite Shaman
- Knight of the Reliquary
explicitly for these reasons to help improve the curve of ramp decks and they performed their role elegantly.
Similarly, I would argue the number of planeswalkers should increase to help improve green decks - Green's main advantage is its main dorks and I feel planeswalkers are the best at taking advantage of this.
The addition of these cards allowed me to remove the majority of my 2nd tier, 2 CMC mana dorks, thus significantly smoothing out my curve/ power level for my green section.
I'm personally interested in 2-3 more cards in these categories for both threat + disruption/ threat + ramp to help smooth out the green archetypes.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic and any suggestions/ recommendations.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
Thanks so much!
I was absolutely impressed by how elegantly Oko, Thief of Crowns/ Grist, the Hunger Tide played in creature combo decks as it utilized their acceleration, able to utilize dorks for sacrifice/ protecting walkers, removing opponent's threats, and playing around sweepers.
My main motivation for writing this article was I was browsing through the modern decklists and I found 2 two very interesting decklists:
- Primeval Titan deck that played 8 dorks + 4 Knights (instead of the traditional 12 sources of acceleration). The Knight serviced as both acceleration and threat.
- 4C Omnath decks playing Emarkul the Promised end in the sideboard and using Omnath to ramp
This is on top of the impact of Ragavan/ Deathrite in their respective decks as it frequently allowed aggressive decks to curve into 4 drops, despite playing a much lower land count at the same time not reducing their threat density.
I have added a few more of these threat + removal/ ramp cards (I will be testing them out in the coming months):
- Knight of the Reliquary
- Klothys, God of Destiny
- Nissa, Vastwood Seer
- Omnath, Locus of Creation
- Xenagos, the Reveler
So far, they have played very elegantly in my cube and these decks are lot more interactive.
I've also noticed that there are a lot of random discard outlets printed recently and we have a surplus of discard effects. I've done some work on some fair graveyard decks with Victimize/ Vengevine etc. and they weren't very strong.
I've recently realized that discard outlets - Seasoned Pyromancer, Liliana of the Veil, Wild Mongrel, Prismari Command, Rankle, Master of Pranks etc. do not need a graveyard/ madness/ reanimator deck in order to be effective - They are effective at helping to discard the less convenient half of the curve, thus breaking their symmetry.
Liliana of the Veil's strength in modern is often she can discard the excess lands/ removal spells against combo/ control decks etc.
I will be doing some more work with my list, adding 2-3 discard outlets and trying out some cards like Elsepth Escape's Death/ Nullpriest of Oblivion to smooth out decks with curves from 1-6 CMC.
So far, I've been very excited about these changes.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i