Beta Pre-amble I’ve been working on this article for a number of months, and with parenthood pending shortly, I’d rather get it out there now and let the community put on the finishing touches. Most of the article is complete, however there are decklists missing, which I’d much rather get from the active community rather than theorycube them all or trawl threads looking for the perfect fit. All assistance and feedback is appreciated.
Introduction
One of the joys of building your own peasant cube is creating a limited environment that uses some of the greatest commons and uncommons in the history of the game. While it is possible for a cube to just be a collection of individually good cards, a design approach adopted by most cube designers is building their cube to make it possible to draft specific archetypes; a collection of cards that synergise with other so that the sum is better than its parts.
This article is an attempt to document and explore the various archetypes available to us. If you’ve ever thought “could that work in peasant cube?” the goal is to explore it here.
Every cube is (and should be) different. The various rankings or explanations given should always be considered within the context of your own cube. It isn’t the intention to tell cube designers which archetypes are bad and should not be supported. The intention is to give cube designers all the information they need to determine what they will need to do if they want to support an archetype, and what other archetypes it can work well with.
I'd also like to thank squirrely and n00b1n8tr for their feedback and contributions.
Last Set Update: Ixalan (artifact section still needs a major update)
Assumptions
The following assumptions have been made when assessing the archetypes; All Magic sets – It’s assumed we are drawing from all of the available Magic sets. If you have a restriction on which sets you use (e.g. Modern only) it may impact on whether you have access to a critical mass of the right cards for some archetypes. Use your judgment for your environment to determine what adjustments you may need to make, or whether key cards are missing. Gatherer rarities used – Commons or uncommons as defined in Gatherer are used for this article. This includes cards that are common/uncommon in online versions, but have only seen physical print at rare. While it’s unlikely to affect the ability to support most archetypes, it’s worth pointing out. General balance – Generally, this means that each colour is equally represented, and there is no bucking of traditional cube design tenets such as having cards all along the curve. Unbound to a theme – Some cube designers have specific themes in mind when developing their cube. Maybe you choose cards because they help you tell a story, have a favourite artist, or want to recreate Legions with a creature-only cube. This article is likely to have limited use for those cube designers; it is aimed at cube designers who are interested in pushing particular archetypes regardless of theme. Mix of staples plus archetype specific cards – Some cards are just going to be good no matter what deck they are in. While this article is about archetypes, it’s assumed you play a reasonable number of those staples. This allows decks of various archetypes to be able to draw from the same pool of good cards, instead of needing to dedicate too many slots to cards that only apply to specific archetypes. Hybrid, gold and other classifications – Each cube owner may have a different opinion about how they categorise multi-colour cards. This article doesn’t presume a particular approach. Archetype first, power second – This article is all about exploring ‘could that work in peasant cube?’ If it supports the archetype in some fashion, it is probably listed. I guarantee you will see some weak cards here; some you would never consider for your cube. They are listed for the sake of completeness for those that want to go extra deep, or find that hidden gem that makes perfect sense for their specific environment. There may be some caveats about how powerful the cards or the archetype are, but generally I leave it to you and your own cube design methodology to determine what level of power or speed you want your cube to be.
So how are the archetypes presented?
This article is divided into three main sections.
Section 1 : Archetypes
The first is for specific archetypes. For the purpose of this article, an archetype is talking about a deck which is trying to win a certain type of way. Some of them have varying degrees of granularity; some cover a broad spectrum of cards, some are very dedicated decks, while others are subthemes that could fit into a number of other decks.
They are divided into a couple of areas: Description – What the deck does, and how it intends to win or contribute to the game plan. The description may include some sub-types, or how the decks might differ between colours. Cross-pollination – The easiest way to support as many archetypes as possible is to use cards that are useful in multiple archetypes. This section will include other archetypes that it shares cards with, or that might mesh well together when it comes time to build a deck. This is closely related to depth and power; the deeper you go on a particular archetype, the more powerful it will be, but the less likely it will blend into other archetypes.
Section 2:Tribal
The second section is on tribal, as considered in the context of a cube supporting more general archetypes (i.e. not dedicated tribal cubes).
Section 3: Combos
The final section are some specific card combos that exist at peasant. Some might be janky, and some individual cards might make little sense outside the combo, but maybe that is the kind of cube that suits you or your playgroup.
Sample Decks & Caveats
I’ve certainly not tried to support every one of the included archetypes in my cube, and some are just theorycubing as we explore what could happen in peasant cube, as well as what has been tried and tested.
Where possible, each archetype will have 1 to 3 sample decks, to give an example of what a drafted deck would look like. In order of preference, sample decks may be;
• From actual drafts directly from the community, with commentary from the owner on how it came together or how it performed
• Cubetutor drafts, as examples of what could be drafted from the cube
• Theorycube; what a deck might look like if you seeded the right cards. Take these with a pinch of salt, but these might be used for offbeat archetypes which may be possible but haven’t been tried / documented by the community.
The community are encouraged to submit sample decks for inclusion if there are less than 3, or they are higher in the order of preference than existing sample decks.
Sample decks should also include what latest set was added to the cube in question. Over time, sample decks may be updated to a more current representation of the environment.
Description – This deck cares about gaining synergies or interactions between artifacts, which can include two of the higher profile mechanics, affinity and metalcraft. As many of those synergies have different directions, the challenge lies in choosing the right mix of cards that create a synergistic whole. It’s also worth noting that some cards that care about artifacts have analogues that have similar effects without needing you to jump through hoops; there are plenty of cards that do almost the same job as Mirran Mettle for example.
While artifact lands are a key part of these types of decks in the constructed world, it’s more difficult to put them together in a cube environment. Depending on your stance, you may keep artifact lands out of your cube and allow your players to choose a limited number of them when it comes to deck construction. Purists will consider it unfair (and that is a reasonable stance to take), but at the end of the day it us up to each cube owner whether they want to support this archetype and what lengths they will take to make it work.
Artifact Matters is more or less parasitic in nature. You need a critical mass of artifacts to make both affinity and metalcraft, and individual cards like Shrapnel Blast, Trinket Mage, Cranial Plating, work. On top of that, peasant doesn’t have quite the density of playable artifacts that rare cubes have. What this means for cube design is that Artifact Matters – more than most archetypes – is something that doesn’t inherently fall into place like certain other archetypes.
Like other dedicated synergistic archetypes, Artifact Matters can be quite powerful when it comes together. Cranial Plating gives a power boost unlike any other equipment and cards like Thoughtcast, Shrapnel Blast and Court Homunculus are better than their non-archetype equivalents. That said, this increase in power is mitigated somewhat by sometimes having to play slightly worse cards to consistently enable the Artifact Matters cards.
Cross-pollination – Depending on the direction you take this archetype in, it can overlap with different other archetypes. For example, equipment goes well with a Voltron archetype, there are plenty of artifact creatures with +1/+1 counters and you can cross-pollinate with token and sacrifice decks as well. Battle for Zendikar also brings the ‘Colorless Matters’ ability, which obviously benefits from having more artifacts in the cube (refer to that entry for more information).
Description – There are many creatures that come into play with or generate +1/+1 counters, spells that provide counters, or cards that care about or interact with these counters. There are several mechanics that utilise +1/+1 counters in some way, including evolve, graft, outlast, bolster, megamorph, modular, bloodthirst, unleash, scavenge, undying, tribute, monstrosity, devour, renown and support.
If you want to manipulate +1/+1 counters, you are probably looking at a midrange deck that is looking to build an overwhelming board presence. For cards that care about +1/+1 counters, you are primarily looking at green, white and blue. Every colour has access to +1/+1 counters, though black and red don’t interact with them as much. However your inclusion of this archetype might give more weight to cards with counters in those colours, such as unleash cards to support aggro, to add more variety to the potential +1/+1 themed decks you might draft.
Only a few cards that inherently have or could have +1/+1 counters are listed below; there are a few hundred such cards, so you may want to consider which of those would fit in well with your other archetypes. Outside of the inherently good cards, you need cards that actually care about those counters being on things; otherwise you have a ‘good stuffs’ deck with cards that just happen to give/have counters. So let’s focus on those.
Blues gives you Novijen Sages and Helium Squirter, as a way to draw cards and potentially finish the opponent with your ground troops. Beyond that, blue becomes a bit thin with Cloudfin Raptor being the most playable card with +1/+1 counters.
White has Cenn’s Tactician at the cheap end that cares about counters, but the ability to multi-block is not particularly exciting. At the higher end, it brings Patron of the Valiant, further boosting your already boosted creatures. What White does bring is number of decent cards that give +1/+1 counters, including repeatable effects like Echoes of the Kin-Tree.
White/blue doesn’t really give you anything you don’t just get from the two colours individually; you get Ephara’s Enlightment, which is pretty durdly.
The full list of cards below that care about counters usually interact with other cards, but also includes some cards that are greedy and need or want more counters themselves to be effective.
Cross-pollination - +1/+1 counters can come on any number of creatures that are useful in other archetypes, such as unleash creatures in aggro, undying creatures in sacrifice decks. This archetype also has inherent synergy with persist creatures if you can add or redistribute +1/+1 counters to them.
Description – At their basest, blinking or bouncing effects can be used to block and then save a creature, remove an attacker for a turn, or be used in response to removal. This archetype is generally about getting extra advantage out of those effects, usually from enter the battlefield triggers (and sometimes leaves the battlefield triggers).
This decks primary colours are white and blue, with Crystal Shard being the poster child for the deck. Blink effects have the benefit of being cheap and not needing to spend mana to recast the creature; bounce gives you some more flexibility as to what you do with it once it is back in your hand (e.g. where playing something between the bounce and replay is beneficial, or being able to discard for an effect). The archetype also extends to gating creatures; those that bounce another creature when they come into play.
There are a handful of permanents that force bouncing a permanent each upkeep. This can be good because the effect is free, but offers less flexibility in regards to timing, and the abilities aren’t optional.
While the deck will commonly be about abusing ETB creatures, some creatures have blink or bounce as a native ability. These creatures, on top of the others that are coming in and out of play, can get more use out of other permanents that trigger from creatures coming into play.
The deck is often controlling in nature, building up resources before overwhelming the opponent, but can also be used aggressively in the right strategies. Given that all creatures with positive ETB triggers get benefit from being in this deck, it’s not practical to list them all. Your all-star ETB creatures are going to be all-stars here by default. Instead, here is an outline of what different sub-types there are of the deck.
Black gives plenty of opportunity to be very controlling in nature, holding on to blink and bounce effects until the opponent presents a threat that needs to be suppressed. This can be re-using the effects of Nekrataal, Shriekmaw, or Liliana’s Specter, and can extend to getting extra uses out of Raksasha Gravecaller. Evoking a Shriekmaw and activating your Crystal Shard while the evoke trigger is on the stack has a certain inevitability to it.
Blue can get more value, particularly in the card drawing and filtering arena. Mulldrifter is the all-star here.
Green can offer infinite blink recursion with Eternal Witness. With the dual effect of Ghostly Flicker, you can recurse the Ghostly Flicker while also picking up another card. If you are already white for blink effects, Trostani’s Summoner is a value powerhouse when it comes to blink effects.
Cross-pollination – Because there are many great creatures with ETB effects, you don’t have to spend too many slots to have some level of support for this archetype. Specific to the bounce/gating aspect, it has some synergies with an Extort deck by being able to replay creatures and extort your opponent further. The forced bounce spells require a bit more work to build a deck around, so lend themselves less to synergy with other decks.
Description – The aim of this deck is simple. Ignore whatever the opponent is doing and throw direct damage at their face. By design, this necessitates mono-red (unless you count Psionic Blast and a few other oddballs). There are few cards that support the deck specifically, but some of reds card filtering can do some work to smooth the deck. The burn you want is a mix of maximum damage per card as well as efficiency in mana cost.
Burn is a deep field to draw from, but due to the singleton nature of peasant you are going to have to deal with some drop-off in quality. The primary problem with littering your cube with good burn spells is that other decks will want them. You can put 20+ burn spells into your red section, but the likelihood of drafting them all to yourself are slim to none. Packing your cube full of burn is likely to lead to making other red/X decks better, not support this archetype. In a larger cube, you might be able to include enough burn to make a deck, but actually drafting it (or being advisable as a draft strategy to shoot for) are pretty slim.
Cross-pollination – As stated above, (most) burn spells are just generally good. Going all in on supporting this deck is using up lots of slots that aren’t really helping define or adding synergy to other red-based archetypes.
Description - The title is pretty straightforward; a deck that includes cards that care about things being colorless, alongside other playable colorless cards. As of the last update, Oath of the Gatewatch has just been released, and the Battle For Zendikar block is the first to have colorless as a strong theme, and as such is largely untested by the peasant cube community.
You can forget the ingestors and processors; there isn’t enough depth and it’s simply too parasitic to explore. Then there are the cards that require colorless to cast, not just generic mana. The easiest way to think of these cards is as a sixth colour, and in this respect there simply isn’t enough depth. Including enough colorless sources in other 2+ decks is likely a trap. Warping Wail and Spatial Contortion are the best options if you really want to push these.
The other problem is that the colorless noncreature spells (including the colored ones with devoid) are simply not that great, and putting them in the colorless matters deck doesn’t make them much better than other cards you could have been playing instead. You’d rather have Honden of Infinite Rage over Molten Nursery, and Titan’s Presence is just bad removal.
You may get a bit more mileage with devoid creatures with colored mana costs; a few of them are above the curve once you get access to colorless mana, but as stated above getting the colorless mana can be tricky. Red / black can offer an aggro route, while blue / red can offer a more value driven route. A Dimir build is also possible (not listed below). Rough outlines are listed below, with many of the red cards being interchangeable in each list. However, focusing on pure colorless / devoid can’t compete at the same power level as many other archetypes.
On the plus side, Magic is laden with a history of colorless spells; artifacts. The conclusion is that the best way to support colorless matters is for it to simply be an extension of an artifact matters deck. Synergy doesn’t cross back the other way (Chief of the Foundry won’t support any of your devoid creatures), but it’s probably going to be negligible. After all that, it might only be worth playing Tide Drifter and Ruination Guide for their boosting abilities. Normally I’d suggest a mana rock is better than a cost reducer, but the 2/4 body on Herald of Kozilek might be worth it if you want to support the colorless / artifact deck in Izzet and want a clear signal card. Vile Aggregate also scales reasonably well with a few other colorless creatures lying around.
It’s also worth noting that morph or manifest may play well with some of these cards if you have some of these cards in your cube, and may also have some synergies with manlands. Anything that creates Eldrazi Scion or Eldrazi Spawn tokens can also help support it by adding more colorless creatures to your board and creating ways to generate colorless mana. These token makers aren’t listed below unless they fit other criteria; I’ll leave it to you to review these tokens makers as required and pick ones that may have crossover to other archetypes in your cube.
Cross-pollination – As stated above, artifact matters themes usually have a lot of colorless cards, and is the best way to get overlap. If you are pushing Eldrazi Spawn or Scion tokens as part of this theme, token / go wide strategies may want those cards too.
Description – This deck does just what it says on the box. It holds up mana to counter the opponent’s spells. And if they don’t cast anything or you have mana left over, cast instant speed burn and throw it at the opponents dome. At its most pure, this deck is not interested in playing out permanents, and is just counterspells and burn. In reality, that is rarely going to happen and you are going to have some permanents in your deck. Usually it plays control first and then unloads with both permanents and a flurry of burn spells.
There is no list of cards for this deck, just select your favourite counterspells and burn. However, if you want to make drafting this deck possible (or as close to pure as possible), you will need to include enough counterspells across the curve for this deck to draft (including some 2 for 1’s) and preferably mostly instant speed burn, perhaps with a smattering of X spells.
Cross-pollination – With the right collection of cards, this can be quite powerful. However with cards that are generally useful in a lot of decks, the chance of putting them all together is low. The deck may falter and not have counterspells when it needs them, or not draw into the critical mass of burn before the opponent breaks through the counterspell wall.
Description – This deck is purely about gaining incremental value, and getting multiple creatures back from the graveyard, somewhat akin to ‘The Rock’ style of deck. Most of these decks play a lot of ‘good stuff’, but you can dig deeper to maximise the value gains. The deck is happy to trade 1 for 1 on the board in the knowledge that the recursion effects are going to bring value to the late game, whether by true 2 for 1’s, or just an upgrade in card quality.
By virtue of the effects required, this deck is usually black and green. All-stars of this archetype are Eternal Witness, Deadwood Treefolk and Baloth Null. The deck doesn’t rely on it, but played in conjunction they can create an infinite recursion loop, with some other redundancies or protection available to boot.
This deck doesn’t take many cards from this category to be good because the best cards that support this deck are usually already cards that are good in any deck of those colours; they just get better with the right synergies.
Cross-pollination – This archetype is defined by maximising graveyard retrieval without taking extra effort to get stuff in the graveyard, but can still benefit from those elements of the graveyard matters themes. The recursive abilities of the deck also make it tie in nicely with some sacrifice effects.
Description – This is a narrow archetype, but is possible to seed it in your cube. There are only 2 cards that care about cycling that are really worth worrying about; Astral Slide and Lightning Rift. Of course, to include those, you then need to play sufficient cards that actually cycle. We’ll leave it up to you to sort through the cycling cards that suit your cube. Generally you will want to look for cycling versions of cards your other archetypes want to play. You may want to play some unexciting but functional cards like cycling lands.
The deck also really wants some redundancy for its key enchantments or ways to protect them. You have Enlightened Tutor in White, but you would also need to move into green to get Commune With the Gods or Kruphix’s Insight.
This deck relies on getting at least 1 of the key cards online, and even then the impact is not immediately felt. The singleton nature of peasant makes this deck unreliable at best, and is probably not worth pursuing in most cubes unless the quality of the rest of the cube is also reduced.
Cross-pollination – Using Astral Slide almost necessitates using the same sort of creatures that bounce / flicker decks want. Apart from that, this is a linear deck that doesn’t share a lot of its cards specifically with any other archetype. This deck probably wants the enchantment tutoring and retrieval that the ‘enchantment matters’ archetype wants; refer to this archetype for those cards if pursuing this archetype.
Description – The idea of this deck is to hunker down and block everything while taking advantage of specific synergies or abilities of defenders and walls. This is more of a subtheme than a full deck archetype. While there are a couple of potential win conditions within the realm of defenders, you’ll probably need to move outside of them for more win conditions. Vent Sentinel is probably the biggest opportunity. Wakestone Gargoyle can allow you to attack, but that is only useful if you have defenders with power.
The best chance for this deck to stay primarily as the defender deck is to have other non-combat win conditions that can support it; if Vent Sentinel is stumped by removal or a counterspell, you need something else. Red remains the most likely candidate for extra pieces, with Kyren Negotiations being able to tap all of your defenders at the end of your opponents turn to whittle their life total. Using Extort can be another way for the deck to win.
Cross-pollination – If you focus on high toughness defenders, sweeper decks can benefit from their inclusion in your cube. Outside of that, there isn’t much in the way of synergies with other decks.
Description – 5 colour baby! The aim of the deck is to play cards that push having the full spectrum of basic lands or coloured permanents. A problem with this deck in peasant cube is you don’t get some splashy 5 colour rares as incentive. People will draft 4-5 colour decks from time to time by just drafting the best cards in each colour, without a need to really push them there.
The problem with using cards that push domain or 5 colour is three-fold; those cards are usually only good in a deck playing all 5 colours (meaning no other archetypes will want them), they often have analogues that are just as good without imposing restrictions, and you have to have 5 lands of different types in play to maximise them. Particularly for the actual domain cards that count basic lands, using nonbasics to help fix your colours doesn’t help with this goal.
The most powerful card is probably Worldheart Phoenix, giving you some recursion once you hit your colours. Etched Oracle can trigger an Ancestral Recall, but dies in the process unless you have some other ways to give it +1/+1 counters. Fusion Elemental’s stats are good value for 5 mana, but it lacks evasion and there is no guarantee you will be able to cast it earlier than a ‘fair’ turn due to the colour restrictions.
Other cards you may want to consider are converge cards to push people into more colours.
Cross-pollination – Cards that specifically push someone into 5 colour have no synergies with other archetypes. Outside of a few specific cards, this deck also wants ramp cards. To that end, it is recommended that if you want to include this archetype, stick to only a couple of signal cards, and let the already strong cards in each colour and your mana fixing do the rest.
Description – This deck is a control deck that wants to play land on its turn, and then pass the turn. It seeks to play mainly counterspells or other answers to its opponents spells when they are played. It uses the opponents’ end of turn step to cast instant card draw to maintain control, or flash creatures into play that it will be able to protect.
The deck virtually has to be blue for counterspells and instant speed card draw. Green is the most likely secondary colour with creatures with flash that would be playable outside the archetype.
You don’t need to go very far out of your way to support this archetype, you just need to go a bit deeper on the counterspells and include a few more flash creatures.
You need the right mix of counterspells, card draw and flash creatures in your cube, but if you do, you have the capability of drafting quite a powerful deck. However because many of the cards are just generally good, it might not quite come together if you are fighting with other drafters.
Cross-pollination – This deck doesn’t have a lot of specific cross-pollination, simply because many of the cards it wants are generally good and included in a lot of cubes (counterspells and instant draw spells). This deck shares a similar principle to Counter-Burn, and the two can be effectively melded together without any difficulty. Fleetfeather Cockatrice and Havenwood Wurm can both fit into ramp decks.
Description – Enchantment Matters can cover a number of subthemes, but the general path to victory is gaining advantage from using synergies of enchantments or enchantment creatures. Each colour can bring slightly different things to the enchantment matters theme, with green and white offering the most depth.
White has plenty of cards that can tutor for or retrieve enchantments from the graveyard, as well as some good support with good enchantments. If you are looking to go long, Mesa Enchantress could draw you a bunch of cards. You can swap out other removal for enchantment based removal, like Banishing Light. White also has Blessed Spirits, which is solid even if your other enchantments are disrupted. The combo of green and white can give you Sterling Grove, serving to protect enchantment creatures from normal removal, and being able to tutor for what you need.
Forgeborn Oreads offers a decent board control and kill condition with the right support cards in red, but there is little else to draw you into this archetype for that colour.
Black offers Blightcaster as a good board control tool.
Blue doesn’t have a lot of exceptional options, but with a developed board, dropping Archetype of Imagination could be game winning.
It will depend on the exact cards seeded, but anecdotally this deck seems viable but has fragile pieces. Yavimaya Enchantress and Strength From the Fallen could be powerhouses, but if they are your primary ways of winning, a piece of removal could cut your gameplan short. A focus on getting incremental advantage from multiple constellation triggers requires a critical mass of permanents on the board, which could leave you vulnerable to mass removal. You can add some incidental support by looking at enchantments that double as creatures, whether that is actual enchantment creatures, or aura’s with manifest.
Cross-pollination – The enchantment theme can get parasitic very quickly, but there can be some crossover with some other themes if cards are selected carefully. Cards like Yavimaya Enchantress can be an extension of a Voltron archetype. Blink and bounce effects work nicely with constellation creatures.
Description – This is more of a synergy than an archetype, but can add a particular flavour to certain decks. While energy only appears in Kaladesh / Aether Revolt, being from a fairly recent set (at the time of this writing)and the inevitability of power creep means some of the individual cards can still hold their own in a peasant cube, or you can swap out some staple effects for an energy version.
The most obvious deck to support is Gruul aggro / midrange, as most of the abilities promote attacking to get the best effect of the energy. Most of the energy creatures listed below fit into a generic version of a Gruul midrange deck, and if you get multiples you can maximise the synergy.
There isn’t a huge reason to branch out, but you can add blue for a few gold cards that are decent without other energy support (Whirler Virtuoso and Rogue Refiner), and Glimmer of Genius is a fine card draw / filtering spell in its own right.
Cross-pollination – Any cross pollination is really the result of swapping out other cards for energy version of that effect. Servant of the Conduit will go in ramp decks, and Scrapper Champion is a fine enough aggro / midrange card while also supporting pants. A reasonable number of the creatures also use energy to place +1/+1 counters, so if you support +1/+1 counters in your cube you get that cross-synergy as well.
Description – There are a subset of cards that care specifically about equipment, which is more a subtheme than an archetype. For the most part, these cards existed in sets that had a higher prevalence of equipment. Thus, some of them are below the curve without equipment, are often not too far above the curve even if you do have it, or just flatout have better options without having to jump through hoops.
The above notwithstanding, there are a few cards worth considering, as long as you support them with enough pieces of equipment in your cube. The problem is that if they are decent pieces of equipment, other drafters are going to want them anyway. Steelshaper’s Gift can find you the piece of equipment you need, and Weapons Trainer has decent stats for the cost. It’s a shame there aren’t playable white or red pieces of equipment to throw this deck a bone if you really want to support it, narrow as that may be. If you want to go deep and include some of the lower end cards, you will probably need to have a lower powered environment.
Cross-pollination – Equipment can fit into a broader artifact matters theme. While it’s loose, a pants theme that relies on double strikers will be happy to play Steelshaper’s Gift and Weapons Trainer alongside power boosting equipment. Deadeye Quartermaster can find the few vehicles you might have in your cube, giving it a slightly wider range of targets than some of the other options.
Description – This deck can win without ever entering the red zone, but it can certainly play an aggro role. The backbone of the deck are the various extort or drain creatures. A defensive version can be supported by various defensive walls, with some specifically in-theme. The primary colours also have draining creature removal.
Extort isn’t just a win condition because it drains your opponents life, the life gain can also help race against aggro decks if required, and give the deck time to drain those final points. A more aggressive version of the deck can be achieved with support from other aggro creatures plus removal. The deck is much more likely able to afford the life loss from value removal such as Reckless Spite, Ashes to Ashes and Slaughter, or other cards where the deck can aggressively pay life costs to gain other advantages.
Cross-Pollination – A single extort creature can provide value to any deck of the appropriate speed. It has some crossover with sacrifice decks that use the support of Blood Artist and Falkenrath Noble for additional draining. It has some minor synergy with bounce or gating creatures, allowing cards to be replayed for more extort triggers. Something like Whitemane Lion can bounce itself, giving you plenty of extort opportunities at instant speed. ‘Life gain matters’ also benefit from this archetype.
Description – The aim of this deck is to use cards to look at the top of opponent’s deck, and control what they see for the rest of the game. This can be by removing or milling one of them, or sometimes even shuffling their deck to prevent them from getting a bomb you can’t otherwise remove.
By doing this, you should be setting them up to draw mostly lands or non-critical spells for the rest of the game, giving them no gas. Once you’ve set up your soft-lock, you can start playing finishers or other threats to take over the game.
It shares some similarities with milling and may play some of the same cards, but it really is a different beast. The mill decks wants the game to end when the opponent needs to draw from an empty library; fateseal decks want to shut the opponent out of meaningful plays and end the game with traditional damage. Mill decks want to get rid of as many cards from the top of the library with no consideration for what’s next; fateseal is a surgical strike maximising the chances the next card they draw is not threatening.
The soft lock may be difficult to pull off, both because you need to draft the right amount, and then have them early enough in the game to be able to start the lock. The creature pieces are also easy to disrupt. It’s not likely to be consistent on this basis, but you may also wish to consider whether it is likely to be fun when on the receiving end of such a deck. To be consistent, you would have to invest a number of cards that are likely to be useless outside of this archetype.
Cross-pollination – There is little cross pollination with other archetypes. There is some minor crossover will a milling theme. Thoughtpicker Witch specifically synergises with some sacrifice strategies, and some of the cards can help you selectively put creatures into your opponent’s graveyard for reanimation. However most of the cards that give this deck a chance won’t see play anywhere else and you need the critical mass together to make it work.
Description – Named after Fires of Yavimaya, this deck doesn’t need the namesake, just mimic the Fires deck that included it. Primarily, you want to give solid guys or fatties haste, so your opponent never knows what you might top deck that will be swinging in sideways. If you give non-haste creatures haste, you get an extra attack that they weren’t costed for. The original Fires deck included Blastoderm, giving it one more attack before it fades (which you can replicate in peasant cube if you want!).
Ideally, you want to play an efficient creature on curve, give it haste, and swing. As such you aren’t forced to stick to any particular colours for this strategy, but red and green are the primary colours for a couple of reasons. Outside of Lightning Greaves, there are some other haste-enabling equipment, but they cost mana to equip. This means not giving your creatures haste on curve. Red opens up some other haste enablers. Heading from red into green, gives the namesake Fires of Yavimaya. Green also makes sense for the deck, because it’s the colour that gives you the most mana efficient creatures, and if you can give them haste your opponent is less likely to have a profitable blocker on the other side of the board.
As a key feature of the deck is to keep the opponent on their toes and not have a turn to think about how to respond, the deck can be supported by other creatures with haste even when you haven’t drawn your enabler. Another option is to include creatures that you can cast pre-combat that will boost your damage output that turn while still building board presence, like Stonewright and Druid Familiar.
Cross-pollination – This deck is mostly just a specific playstyle of a midrange deck, and most of the pieces can be played in other decks, so it doesn’t cost much to support.
Description – This deck is all about punishing your opponent for attacking you. Attacking you is something your opponent is probably already going to do, but you can always provoke them once your defences are set up.
The key to making this viable is to have sufficient support so that not only is attacking not profitable, but is quite negative. You want to punish them, not just blank their attack.
This type of deck is quite slow, and even if pushed isn’t likely to be in the top tier of decks. Some of the elements alone are weak; Nettling Imp does nothing if he is on the board alone, and Pelakka Wurm laughs at Hissing Miasma. Ramp and big monster decks will trump this type of deck unless it saves removal for what its blockers can’t deal with.
Cross-pollination – If it can’t get the actual punishing cards, this deck will play big defenders that the defender deck wants, or more generic control decks.
Description – You could possibly break this down into multiple sub-types, as there are a lot of mechanics that either deal with the graveyard or benefit in some way from it being full. For this purpose, it’s seen as one broad archetype, and you can tailor your cube to a specific leaning towards certain mechanics. Broadly, the archetype is about balancing 2 things; getting cards into your graveyard that like being there, and playing cards that care about things being in the graveyard.
This archetype is almost exclusively supported in black and green, with blue supplying secondary support. Dredge is a great mechanic to dump cards in your graveyard, but being singleton there are only a limited number you want to play that are good outside of this archetype. Green jumps in to provide search cards like Commune With the Gods that dump things in the graveyard. Gather the Pack puts stuff in the graveyard, and if you’ve already got a couple of spells in the yard also generates card advantage. Cycling and looting effects are other ways of getting more cards into your graveyard, with blue offering some ways to self-mill.
There are plenty of cards that like being in the graveyard. Flashback, retrace, scavenge, and unearth all support the theme.
There are lots of cards or mechanics that like there to be things in the graveyard, but it’s worth noting that not all of these play well together. Delve cards for example will undermine your ability to reach threshold or delirium. These have been separated in the lists below, as you probably don’t want to mix them, or at least be conscious of what decks they are there to support. There are many other effects ranging from token generators (Necrogenesis) to creatures that get bigger the more cards are in the graveyard (Revenant, Psychatog).
You may want to lean more towards cards that like being in your graveyard; dredging Revenant into your graveyard isn’t going to help it. Effects that retrieve cards from the graveyard have more value in this archetype for this reason (though of course, you can end up dumping all of them into your graveyard too). This archetype can be powerful by generating a lot of value over time, but deck building, and the cube that generates it, need to balance all of the elements to be effective.
Cross-pollination – This archetype has synergies with sacrifice decks to populate the graveyard, reanimator for getting things into the graveyard (and this deck will happily use the reanimation spells), and creature recursion decks.
Description – The purpose of an Infect deck is to put down creatures with Infect, play pump spells, and give the opponent 10 poison counters as quickly as possible. The biggest problem with this deck is that it is very parasitic and has issues with power and consistency; you want all of your cards to be playing towards your plan. You don’t want half your creatures getting your opponent down to 8 life and the other half with infect giving them 6 poison counters before your opponent kills you.
For the above reasons, an Infect deck does not seem viable in cube. You simply lack the redundancy of a constructed environment. If you do want to attempt an Infect deck, you want the cheapest Infect creatures, and plenty of cheap pump spells.
Cross-pollination – Infect creatures may be able to do some blocking duties in control decks to dwindle down your opponent’s forces, but apart from that there is little synergy with other decks.
Description – Land destruction is not something every cube owner will want to support, but the option is there. Red is the obvious choice for straight out land destruction, with green a second choice. Both offer cards that give you choice of other card types to destroy, which you may want to explore so you don’t have to force land destruction in particular. Black has a couple of options if you want to push that colour.
Green also gives you several options for turn 1 mana acceleration, so you can start casting your land destruction as early as turn 2 to lock your opponent out of casting spells sooner.
Once you’ve seeded the land destruction, creatures should take care of themselves; any number of midrange creatures will get the job done if your opponent can’t cast anything bigger than a 2 drop.
If you include enough land destruction at the 3 mana slot and have the green mana accelerators, this deck can conquer most control decks easily if you get a couple of land destruction cards in your opening hand, but may struggle against aggro decks with low curves.
Cross-pollination – The best way to include cards that other decks will want is to include the cards that target multiple types of permanents. This can be counter to making the deck powerful, as with few exceptions those cards cost at least 4. Even a small smattering of land destruction can help more generic aggro decks, putting a few threats on the board and then locking the opponent out of their more expensive plays long enough to seal the game away.
Description –For the purpose of this collection of cards, the central theme is using Land Tax to get lands into hand and then use cards that synergise with it. There are a couple of alternative cards, but if you want to support any of them, you are going to include Land Tax. There are a couple of variations, and different combinations will generate different deck opportunities, but all are discussed here.
There is nothing quite like Land Tax, but there are some other cards that can repeatedly get lands into your hand or play. Hermit Druid is your next best effect. After that, there is a drop-off in quality for repeatable effects. Elfhame Sanctuary ensures you get a land every turn, but you need to have another way to draw cards or already have your win condition in play/hand. Gift of Estates is probably the best 1-shot effect. While narrow, Groundskeeper can be another way to get discarded or sacrificed lands back for repeat use.
You don’t really get the ‘turbo’ in Turbo Fog in peasant cube to keep drawing into Fog effects. What you can do instead is use Land Tax and friends to keep fuelling a Constant Mists to shut down your opponent’s attacks, perhaps with a backup of Momentary Peace or another Fog effect for some added redundancy if you want to try and replicate it. You can always complement your land searching effects with traditional card draw to have a better chance of keeping land flowing even without the specific archetype cards. Of course, you still need to be able to win. Evasive creatures is probably the best way to achieve this, but you can also seed Cenn’s Enlistment or Pegasus Stampede as a way to slow build an army.
Moving into red gives you Goblin Trenches, allowing you another way to build up an army, with Land Tax and friends replacing all of your sacrificed lands.
Cross-pollination – Land Tax, Constant Mists and Goblin Trenches are all solid on their own in a variety of control decks. You can make the archetype more powerful by including some of the other cards as well, but push you into cards that few other decks are going to want. Ramp spells that this deck might also want are obviously good in ramp decks. Hermit Druid can assist graveyard matters themes. Other cards are likely to only be wanted by this deck.
Description – Life gain itself is nothing to write home about. The focus here is not on the life gain cards themselves (which are plentiful), but other cards that care about life gain. Once you strip away the rares, you aren’t left with a lot of options. This makes this one of the shallowest pools of cards, and may be more akin to a subtheme as opposed to an archetype. There are likely to be enough staples in cube that have incidental life gain that you don’t need to dedicate a lot of slots with this theme if it fits into what else your cube is doing.
Depending on your choices, you might be able to support a more aggressive build, or a slower build that builds up big threats over time.
Cross-pollination – Outside of working with incidental life gain, they also work with extort / drain decks. However most of these cards are subpar without some of life gain to boost them, so you do have to have enough life gain in your cube to make them matter.
Description – It’s probably obvious this refers to the madness mechanic. It seems simple; combine discard enablers with madness cards, profit. While you can support madness in cube, the following need to happen during a game:
You need to have a discard enabler, whether it is a permanent or a spell (so probably up to half a dozen in the deck to be reliable)
You have to have the mana to cast the madness spell at that exact moment
If the above doesn’t happen, most madness cards are overcosted spells you wouldn’t consider playing if you didn’t have the enablers
To contrast, the same discard enablers usually work just as well to dump various ‘graveyard matters’ cards into your graveyard, where you have far more flexible timing to play them or get them back several turns later.
It doesn’t mean you can’t make madness work; you just need to provide a bit more specific support and know what you want to achieve, and be prepared for some of the madness cards not to get drafted more than some other cards. Historically, aggro madness relies on getting creatures or effects out cheaply to run over the opponent quickly, usually using early drops that have free discard options for power boosts or other one-off effects for the card disadvantage. If you don’t get the discard outlets, you are probably playing a poor aggro deck that is slower than the rest of the cube. If you are sticking to singleton, there probably isn’t enough payoff to make this consistent or competitive unless you are lowering the power of your environment.
The other option is to focus on getting value. This usually involves looters or card filtering effects to turn your madness cards into pseudo-cantrips; getting the effect as well as part of a card draw effect. This plays more like a grindy midrange deck to turn multiple advantages into an overwhelming presence.
You’ll want to try and include discard effects that are free to maximise the effectiveness of your madness cards; it might be difficult to fire off a Thirst For Knowledge and still cast your madness card compared to activating the Merfolk Looter you cast last turn. Some more specific enablers are things like Pour Over the Pages which untaps lands. Undertaker is not exceptional outside of madness, but can work specifically with madness creatures to generate advantage.
Cross-pollination – Discard enablers for madness are just as good or better in decks that care about the graveyard. The madness cards themselves are not as flexible at fitting into other archetypes.
Description – There are two types of mill decks in Magic; aggressive decks that start milling the opponent from as early as turn 1 that completely ignore what the opponent is doing, or control decks that answer everything the opponent has before firing off a few key mill spells.
In peasant cube, the aggro version of the deck just doesn’t cut it. The singleton nature of cube means there simply isn’t the critical mass of spells that have a big enough impact to make a solid deck. Even if you throw in some of the more marginal cards into your cube, it doesn’t mean you will be able to actually draft all of them and appropriate support cards.
Which adds up to supporting a control version if you want to mill. In this fashion, it doesn’t take too many of these cards if you are just adding them to a basic control skeleton that wants to set up roadblocks and prevent the opponent from doing anything. Just be conscious that if you want to support some of these mill cards, make sure you can draft the type of control deck that can make use of them.
If you want a colour, you want blue. Sphinx’s Tutelage may be the best card of the bunch, turning the rest of your card draw or cantrips into mill cards; it even comes with built in triggers as a bonus if you’ve got nothing better to do with your mana. Once you’ve locked down the game, Psychic Spiral can also be a finisher. You can move into Dimir if you want to match this archetype to a colour pair, with Mind Funeral being the best bang for buck as a one-off. But you can also support the theme with just a few artifacts if you want control decks of any colour to be able to play this type of deck. If you take that route it might mean playing Cellar Door which is expensive and slow, but at least gives you the chance to get some occasional blockers.
Cross-pollination – There isn’t a lot of cross-pollination, but you don’t need to provide it a whole lot of specific support if you are just providing a few cards for a control shell. If you play Hedron Crab, it can play into graveyard matters, creature recursion or reanimator decks.
Description – The moniker of ‘miracle grow’ has been bastardised somewhat for this entry. For the purpose of peasant cube, we are looking at aggro control decks that play cheap early creatures that slowly grow over time, and then protect those threats with counterspells and suppressing the opponents threats.
Of course, we don’t have Quirion Dryad at peasant, so we have to look for analogues. Unfortunately, we don’t get many that are terribly effective or sufficient redundancy. You really want them to be cheap, but more expensive options have been listed below for thoroughness.
Green provides a similar effect in the Forced Adaptation, but it takes two cards to get the effect going, is slow, and unless you put it on something hexproof is prone to getting 2 for 1’d by removal. Its best growth cards are the more expensive Algae Gharial and Lumberknot, but their cost puts them outside the intended play style of this deck.
A counterspell and removal heavy black/blue version of the deck can benefit from Wight of Precinct Six. Disowned Ancestor can act as a possible stand-in, but the 2 mana activation can be costly if you need mana open for counterspells to protect it. Sadistic Glee mimics the effect of the Wight, but once again relies on two cards to get you the effect you want.
Chronomaton is perhaps the best of the bunch; prone to artifact removal, but not reliant on other cards to work, and can activate end of turn instead of sorcery speed if you elect to use any Outlast creatures. With all levelling creatures at peasant requiring at least 2 mana to level up, they are not worth considering.
If you want to pursue a Miracle Growth deck, there are enough cards to somewhat mimic the deck; it just won’t be powerful until there are better cheap growth cards at common/uncommon.
Cross-pollination – This isn’t too far from a regular aggro control deck that seeks to put down an early threat and protect it, so many of the cards will work in most control decks.
Description – This deck revolves around the interactions of Underworld Coinsmith and Grim Guardian to drain the opponent with enchantment interactions. While similar to the extort deck, this deck doesn’t need to commit any resources each time it casts something.
One Thousand Lashes and Pillory of the Sleepless already fit the drain theme, and there are any number of staple enchantments and auras. There are also a few sorcery or instant effects that you can replace with enchantment versions, and white has many options for retrieving enchantments from the graveyard.
Cross-pollination – This deck has some overlap with the Extort / Drain deck, and ‘Life Gain Matters’ cards. It does also have some minor overlap with more general enchantment matters themes.
Description – This decks path to victory is to drop multiple permanents (primarily creatures) that can deal direct damage to creatures. With enough of these effects on the board, it can create a soft-lock, where you are able to take out most creatures that your opponent will be able to play. Good companions are creatures with first strike, and a couple of larger finishers. Blue can contribute by being able to counter or bounce what the pingers can’t take care of, or using high toughness creatures to keep them at bay. Including ways to grant your creatures deathtouch can also turn them into killing machines.
The best form of the deck uses all of the cheapest options, but in doing so the deck becomes vulnerable and probably loses to divisible burn and sweepers. It needs a few pingers on the board to get going, so even just some 1 for 1 removal on a few of them can be enough to lose the potential to lock down the game and get overrun by opposing creatures.
Cross-Pollination – This deck is likely to be inconsistent due to some of its vulnerabilities, but if it can maintain board presence it can take over the game. Once you get up to 3 points of repeatable damage on the board, you can shut down a reasonable number of creatures in most cubes. Some of the pingers also work in the Spells Matters deck. You could play Pinger Control without a single spell, but you could also add more pingers to a Spells Matters deck. Red aggro decks will be happy to see things like Fireslinger, and Granite Shard might see play in a red sweeper deck, but the harder you push this deck the more parasitic it becomes.
bacchus2 says - This theoretical deck would be possible in my cube if I threw in a few more of the pingers. A couple on the board can help control small creatures, and there are a number of other synergies. Tandem Lookout can become a draw engine with a pinger, and the burn spells combined with pingers can help take down larger creatures. A Splatter Thug holding down the fort plus pingers can make it hard to attack into. If your pingers are maintaining board control, Murder of Crows is going to help your card quality and support threshold for Shower of Coals. Large creatures hitting the board is probably going to be a problem for this deck, but Repulse can help hold it back if you just need to buy time for your pingers to go to the face, or Ray of Command to just swing in with what you can’t kill. Serrated Arrows can also help take down larger threats.
Description – This deck seeks to lock down the opponent and prevent them from doing anything or tying down their resources and slowing them down significantly. Once a soft lock is in place, the deck can lay down a finisher to get the job done. The deck is almost invariably blue and white, but you can throw the deck a few bones in other colours.
This is another deck that cube owners may choose to avoid for ‘fun’ reasons (or lack thereof). Many of the cards in the archetype may be considered oppressive when paired. Ghostly Prison + Propaganda, Ghostly Prison + Dream Tides, Cumber Stone and Thunderstaff; throw in some of the other cards and some decks can’t respond. A single Ghostly Prison/Propaganda can have a huge impact on aggro/token decks.
Cross-pollination – Many of the cards are playable in more generic tempo / control decks without being full-on prison decks, though most also don’t contribute specifically to other more specific archetypes.
Description – At Peasant, red and black dominate the sweepers. While there aren’t any bombs like Wrath of God, the effects in red and black are good enough at killing multiple creatures. Both colours are also good at spot removal; reds burn can take smaller creatures, while black can usually deal with the larger creatures.
Once you’ve cleared the board, you can lay down a finisher and keep the board clear with spot removal, with Havoc Demon potentially serving both roles. If you are loaded up on sweepers or removal and only a few finishers, your opponent might be holding onto removal waiting for it to hit the board; black can offer some targeted discard to proactively protect it.
With most of the sweepers clearing away all creatures, not just your opponents, you can get savvy with other ways to get creatures on the board. Namely by making them only be creatures on your turn. This can be by way of manlands, artifacts that can animate, or enchantments like Genjus. You can also supplement this with any token generator that can survive the sweepers; your opponent will have to respond by playing more threats, and you can punish them with more sweepers, and then rebuild.
The effectiveness of sweepers at uncommon are often dependent on creature toughness, so throwing in some high toughness creatures can help you survive early assaults; relatively low power won’t matter if you can keep sweeping away opposing creatures anyway.
Cross-pollination – There isn’t much in the way of cross-synergies for this archetype. This type of deck will happily play a number of high toughness defenders from the defender deck to force your opponent to commit creatures to the board and play into your next sweeper. While they are mostly off-colour, permanent token generators that survive the sweepers are also welcome.
Description – Ramp is a pretty broad archetype, with its primary aim to spend early turns investing in mana acceleration, and throwing out powerful threats or mana sinks in the mid-game. Green is the primary colour for this deck, with its many mana accelerating creatures and land search spells. Due to the effectiveness of those land search spells, it isn’t difficult for ramp decks to splash multiple other colours and obtain the best big targets from any of the other colours. Red can also offer a few acceleration options, and can also offer a win condition with an X direct damage spell.
With some relative redundancy with functional reprints or close neighbours, it isn’t uncommon for this type of deck to lay down a turn 1 mana accelerator, into a turn 2 spell to search your library for land and have 5 mana available turn 3. Magical Christmas Land might look like this; turn 1, Forest, Arbor Elf. Turn 2, Forest, Wild Growth on other Forest, tap Forest for 2 mana, untap with Arbor Elf, tap again for total 4 mana, play Worn Powerstone and Elvish Mystic. With another land in hand, you have 9 mana on turn 3.
One challenge of this deck is getting the right mix of mana accelerators and threats. You can empty your hand of mana accelerating spells and have a boatload of mana, but nothing to spend it on. If you keep a hand with too many threats and not enough accelerators, it might take you too long to draw into your accelerants before your opponent overwhelms you. It’s a good idea for this deck to have some form of card draw; Harmonize in green, or splashing into blue for any number of spells, with River Hoopoe being a decent mana sink to keep you alive and draw spells in the mid game.
Description – Reanimation spells can be used ‘fairly’ to bring back creatures you have already cast and have died, but for this purpose we are talking about getting a creature with a high casting cost into the graveyard, and then putting it from the graveyard into play on the cheap long before we could actually hard cast it. There are 3 main cards you need to support this archetype; fatty creatures, ways to get those creatures from your hand or deck into your graveyard, and reanimation cards to get those creatures from the graveyard into play.
When it comes to fatties, peasant is much more limited than regular cubes. This is simply because high impact cards that also protect themselves are hard to come by in peasant. With the exception of Plated Crusher and Scaled Behemoth, you can get big creatures, but they still die to the good 2 mana removal. The stuff that protects itself is often too small. It can make reanimation risky, but can be a blast when it works. Fatties can come from anywhere in the colour spectrum. Creatures that have high impact ETB triggers are among the better reanimation targets, as its effect can’t be undone with a single kill spell (e.g. Trostani’s Summoner). The list below includes some targets at 7+ mana; there are some targets you might want below this, but they should be driven by other archetypes.
The trickiest part is getting your chosen fatty into the graveyard. In black, there is some explicit support in Buried Alive. Ways to discard cards are available in all of the colours. Black offers discard cards that can target any player (i.e. including yourself) and other discard outlets. The cheapest among them are Putrid Imp and Raven’s Crime for the possibility of setting up a second turn reanimation spell. Blue offers plenty of card filtering spells and effects that allow you to draw into your target as well as discard it. Green has several similar options that allow you to dig into your deck for your target and discard what you don’t like; Commune With The Gods and Kruphix’s Insight can dig for something like Animate Dead while also dumping a fatty in the graveyard. Red has a couple of card filtering options, but Bloodrage Brawler is a good card for developing your board while filling your yard; facing down a 4/3 plus some other large creature on turn 3 or 4 is going to be daunting. White is the leanest of the bunch, with few ways outside of spellshapers to discard cards into your yard. Some cards can also cycle themselves into the graveyard, cutting out this middleman.
The final step is getting the creature from the graveyard into play. For this purpose, black has the most number of options when it comes to reanimation spells, and they are also the cheapest. The bigger the gap between getting the creature in play and when you could actually cast it, the bigger the advantage you get. White and green have a handful of reanimation spells if you want to provide some quirky support or push it in those colours, but due to their cost lean more towards general advantage as opposed to getting a creature out much earlier than usual.
Reanimation decks carry a lot of risk due to the lack of targets that can protect themselves from common removal. But with the right build and opening hand, it can be devastating, but inconsistent. Turn 1 Raven’s Crime into turn 2 Animate Dead on Trostani’s Summoner is going to be pretty difficult to come back from. The challenge can lie in putting together sufficient reanimation spells; they are good in almost any black-based midrange or control deck, so other players are also likely to want them.
Cross-pollination – The high cost creatures that you want to reanimate are probably also the same creatures that ramp decks want to get into play early. Dredge and self-mill decks also want to get targets in the graveyard, and some of those cards are effective in reanimator and vice versa. The reanimation spells are also generally good in many midrange and control decks.
Description – Every colour has ways of generating tokens. When pushing tokens as an archetype, you are generally looking for effects with built in advantage, such as creatures that bring tokens with them or can generate tokens every turn, and then using other support for a ‘go wide’ strategy. There are plenty of effects or cards that can boost the stats of all of your creatures that get even better with an array of tokens on the board, like creatures with Battlecry, or Gaea's Anthem.
Token decks can play an aggro role if they primarily include spells that put token directly onto the battlefield, or can play a control role with permanent token generators.
There are many more token creating cards than are listed here, but these are generally the higher profile ones, or those that could have some cross-pollination with other archetypes.
Illness in the Ranks is an explicit hate on this archetype. Red and blacks suite of sweepers (Pyroclasm, Infest) will also wipe out a lot of token strategies, so you may want to monitor their effectiveness against this archetype.
Cross-Pollination – Token decks often have a lot of crossover depending on the choice of token creators. Token creating spells can give the spells matters deck board presence while still triggering their spells matters cards. Plenty of tokens also gives more fuel for sacrifice strategies, and you can support this further with creatures that leave tokens behind when they die; cube owners may identify ‘token sacrifice’ as a supported archetype in a colour pair instead of two separate archetypes. A number of creature cards bring token friends with them, which can have use in blink / bounce strategies. Empty the Warrens has specific synergy with Storm. Many white cards that create tokens are flyers, giving support for Skies decks.
Description - Saboteurs generally refers to creatures that provide you some sort of bonus when they deal damage (often conditional on it being combat damage) to an opponent. For the purpose of this archetype, we are talking about cards that can repeatedly generate card advantage or have a strong impact on the board (The likes of Flamespeaker’s Will and Merfolk Spy are not invited to this party. I’ve also excluded creatures that give themselves +1/+1 counters from the list).
Blue is a common staple colour for this type of deck, with card draw perhaps being the thing most players think of when they think about saboteurs. The challenge is that to offset the repeat advantages they can gain, their stats compared to cost are not usually examples of efficiency; this means they are more likely to trade or just lose in combat.
The trick is to support them by providing them the means to ensure they don’t get blocked, with each color usually able to contribute something depending on how you want to build your cube. Blue can provide straight up unblockability, white can tap down or detain creatures, red has a variety of Falter effects, and black has removal. Green doesn’t provide any obvious support, but you can provide subtle support by changing up any pump spells you have for versions that have trample, like Predator’s Strike. With the right support, the card draw saboteurs can keep drawing you into spells like Undo or Stitched Mangler to keep your saboteurs getting through. It is outside the scope of this article to list cards that can help your saboteurs get through; just find whatever works that suits other elements of your cube.
While it is a less common approach, you can swap around the ways to support it; instead of creatures with saboteur abilities and spells that give them some form of evasion, you can play spells that grant the saboteur abilities and throw them on evasive creatures.
In a few cases, the effect doesn’t have the ‘combat’ condition, so if the creature can deal combat in some other way, you still get the trigger. A good example is Sigil of Sleep on something like Cunning Sparkmage to keep bouncing their best creature without threat of getting into combat.
Cross-pollination – Most of the cards you would look at including are not ‘all-in’ and can seamlessly be played in a number of other decks by just being good cards that get better with additional support. A traditional blue-based control deck will be happy to play a single Jhessian Thief while holding a counterspell wall to protect it or prevent threats from hitting the board. Tandem Lookout is fine in a Skies deck to start that Welkin Tern drawing cards on turn 3, or being paired with Gelectrode in a spells matter deck.
You get an extra reward here for getting saboteurs through, but all of the effects to help your team not be blocked are going to be wanted in other decks also.
Description – Sacrifice decks combine sacrifice effects with cards that like to be sacrificed. They are usually midrange or control decks that gain value over a period of time by maximising these effects. Cards classified as ‘Mulldrifters’ (cards whose majority of impact ends once they’ve hit the battlefield) can also make for good sacrifice targets.
Additional elements are other permanents that trigger when things go to the graveyard, which are good signal cards for the archetype.
With all the creatures hitting your graveyard, ways to get multiple creatures back or recursion are also welcomed. Cards that are generally great in grindy Golgari value decks do great work here; Eternal Witness, Deadwood Treefolk, Death Denied and Victimise are good examples. Reassembling Skeleton is a poster child for the archetype.
Morbid cards also make good friends as they are often easier to trigger.
Decks are primarily black because it has options in most of the different elements; there are lots of options depending on how you want to push the archetype. Red can give you Goblin Bombardment, Hissing Iguanar, and Blazing Hellhound to finish off the opponent after an aggro introduction. Red also has temporary steal effects which get a little better in this deck; it’s a slap in the face to take an opponent’s creature, swing with it, and then sac it for some benefit before you have to give it back.
If your base is black, going white gives you Maw of the Obzedat in a colour full of tokens.
Cross-pollination – The different elements that make this deck work give it plenty of scope, and therefore easy to support some version of this deck without taking much away from your other archetypes. Has great synergy with any token strategies; cube owners may identify ‘token sacrifice’ as a supported archetype in a colour pair instead of two separate archetypes.
Description – The Shrines deck is more a loose synergy based on the cycle of Honden enchantments from Champions of Kamigawa than an archetype. By nature of the cards involved, this deck will generally be a control deck looking to stall the game long enough to find and play the shrines, and then generate an overwhelming advantage by virtue of the combined synergies. Most are average on their own, but sometimes just 2 on the board can become hard for opponents to manage.
You don’t need to include all 5 shrines, but players unfamiliar with your cube will probably expect it once they see their first one. Black is probably the worst, as once your opponents hand is empty it doesn’t really scale like the rest, although it can be ok on its own if it sticks in a control mirror.
Because players will probably be looking to play 4 or 5 of these, your cube needs to support fixing either in your green section or your land section.
If you want to add tutor / graveyard retrieval support, refer to the enchantment matters section.
Because none of the shrines have an impact the turn they hit play, a deck dedicated to playing them needs to be able to survive an aggro assault. The ability to do so will rely on the rest of your cube. It can make a shrine deck difficult to get off the ground, but once it does a win can become inevitable if the opponent doesn’t have enchantment removal. The prevalence of enchantment removal generally in your cube will also impact its viability.
Players might not draft a worthwhile shrine deck if more than 1 player are fighting for them. Similarly, if don’t draft your whole cube each draft, it is probably not worth supporting this archetype as it is less likely to come together.
Cross-pollination - The deck has synergy with enchantment matters themes, so you may want to include the ones in those colours, or only those that support other archetypes you are including in some way. Single shrines might have lower impact than similar effect, but might still have some worth in other decks; Cleansing Fire in life gain matters decks, Infinite Rage in pinger control, and Life’s Web in token decks. If you can survive taking a turn off to cast it, Seeing Winds can provide inevitability in control decks.
Description – The objective of this deck is about as simple as you can get; draft lots of flyers so your opponent can’t block anything you cast. Blue and white are the primary colours for this deck, with black also being an option. Aside from the critical mass of playable fliers, there are also cards that synergise with other flyers. Favorable Winds and Thunderclap Wyvern are the most prominent signal cards for the archetype.
Most builds of this deck are aggro/control in nature by curving out with flying creatures and racing the opponent, possibly putting out blockers on the ground or otherwise answering threats once your evasive creatures are in full swing. If you choose to embrace black for this archetype, you get a couple of discard options to support the aggro/control route. Seraph of Dawn and Vampire Nighthawk are also excellent in a racing situation.
Cross-pollination – Flying creatures are always playable outside of this specific archetype, so you may only need a couple of archetype specific cards. White also has a lot of ways to generate flying tokens, and this deck can share a lot of cards with the token deck.
Description – There is a lot of depth in the spells matte theme, which manifests itself in two main ways; cards that care about instants and sorceries being cast, or cards that care about any noncreature spells being cast. The first is really a subclass of the second, but making the distinction opens up different avenues to explore. For the sake of this archetype, it doesn’t include cards that care about only artifacts or enchantments being cast.
This archetype is dominated by red and blue, with red generally offering aggressive cards while blue gives you control oriented cards. Of course, there is no need to draft just red-blue for this archetype. The best way to provide fringe support in other colours is with buyback spells. Constant Mists with a Guttersnipe on the board can be a slow-rolling death machine; Sprout Swarm with a Young Pyromancer on the board will give you a massive army in no time. Rebound spells also give you two activations for each of your spells matters cards.
The various options can lead to many different types of decks, even switching speeds depending on the opening draw and how the game is unfolding. Turn 2 Young Pyromancer, Turn 3 Guttersnipe followed by a flurry of burn/removal can quickly end games. Or an early Augur of Bolas followed by a Quiet Contemplation could gum up the board until you draw into a critical mass of spells matter cards that will cripple your opponent each time you cast a spell.
There are some other cards that can support the theme, like cards that copy spells. Copied spells don’t trigger most of the spells matter cards (depending on whether they are cast or played), but something like Izzet Guildmage, get more value simply as a result of more spells being in the deck.
Cross-pollination - Some cards retrieve instants or sorceries from the graveyard, giving you some overlap with graveyard matters themes. Those graveyard themes can also put flashback cards into your graveyard, giving your spells matters permanents some fuel. The deck just wants good instants or sorceries, so wherever they exist in any other archetypes, they are likely to support this archetype also. Blends nicely into Pinger Control. Has good synergy with token generating spells, as it gives the deck board presence while also triggering its spells matter cards.
Description – Storm is a combo deck named after the mechanic. The idea is to plan for a ‘critical turn’ where you play as many spells as you can, finishing with a Storm spell. Commonly this is Empty the Warrens as the finisher. It doesn’t have to be lethal, just more than the opponent can deal with.
It probably takes a bit more skill than most decks to both draft the deck and to plan out your first few turns to aim towards that big turn. A rebounding Staggershock, into a Gataxian Probe, into Snap, into Seething Song, into Empty the Warrens on turn 4 is going to be hard to contend with.
Cross-pollination – The deck likes to play a lot of spells, so there is a fair amount of overlap with the spells matters archetype. Comboing out with a Guttersnipe on the board may just end the game. Many of the spells here are also happy to be in that deck, and a hybrid deck will work just as well.
Description – Essentially, this deck tries to make the biggest baddest creature by throwing a bunch of auras or equipment at it to make it difficult to defeat in combat. So ‘Voltron’ because you are putting a whole bunch of cards together to make an unstoppable threat (like the robot from the cartoon), ‘pants’ because you are making the creature wear stuff, and hexproof because this is a key ability for creatures in the deck.
A common issue with auras is that it is easy to be on the receiving end of a 2 for 1. One of the primary ways of avoiding this is to put them on creatures with hexproof. You can still be on the receiving end of a 2 for 1 from combat damage, but the majority of auras or equipment you put on your creatures also makes that difficult. While hexproof is preferred, there are some other options that have other upside that can make the risk of the 2 for 1 worth taking; mainly unblockable or shadow creatures, or double strikers. The deck is usually aggro in nature, dropping down cheap creatures and building a creature to a size not possible if you just played creatures on curve, forcing awkward combat decisions for your opponent.
Green and white is a common colour combination for this archetype, with both colours providing solid pants for creatures to wear, with some all-stars in multi-colour with Behemoth Sledge and Armadillo Cloak. White also has the double strikers for the deck. Blue gives you a few unblockable creatures, though its auras don’t offer a lot for this archetype. Blue gives you a few choice creatures with horsemanship that can also be useful in the archetype (not listed here).
It’s worth noting that you want your auras to be increasing the power of your Voltron creation, but you want to pay attention to the toughness too. If you focus more on double strikers or unblockable creatures this can be less of an issue, but for your hexproof creatures, you don’t want them to be wearing a handful of power boosting auras and still die if you run it into a 2-drop. Preferably, you want your auras to do something in addition to power or toughness; if you can’t play Akroma at peasant, why not build one?
Preface about Tribal
For the purpose of this article, it is assumed you are NOT building an all-tribal cube. You won’t find something like Slivers listed here, because there will be zero synergy with other archetypes and no other decks will want those cards. When considering tribal support in a regular peasant cube, it is assumed this will be secondary to already established archetypes in your cube. You will probably find you’ve already got a bunch of cards for some tribes without even realising it. In those cases, it might be worth throwing them a lord or support card or two. It gives people another subtheme to draft around without diluting the other themes of your cube.
The below includes lists of creatures that you might consider playing in that tribe, and you may consider swapping out creatures for cards that serve the same function that align with a tribe. Generally, you should only do this if you aren’t sacrificing any power of the original card, or the power shift is marginal.
As most creatures have both a race and a class, they may fit more than one tribe that can be supported, opening up some cross-pollination across tribes. Drogskol Captain boosts spirits, but is also a soldier that can benefit from Daru Warchief for example. You probably shouldn’t force these interactions, but if doing so doesn’t undermine anything else you are trying to achieve, why not?
Cards are broken down into the following categories (if they apply) for all tribes; Already Playable Lords/Support – Cards that are already good in their own right even if you don’t include other tribe cards in your cube. Sometimes this might be all you need. E.g. Imperious Perfect. Playable Creatures – Stuff you might already be playing that fits the tribe. Cards in brackets are other stuff you might be playing that is almost identical but not in the tribe and you could make a swap. Other Lords/Support– Cards that aren’t good in their own right, but can be ‘draft around’ cards if you have enough other cards of that tribe already in your cube. Marginal Creatures – Stuff that might just be not good enough to make it into your cube, but might be worth considering if you have some support.
It probably bears pointing out that even if there are several lords or support listed that might look good, you probably only want one or two. An honourable mention also goes to Clone, which can copy the best creature on the battlefield, and occasionally that might be a tribal lord. Shapeshifters aren’t really worth investigating; they are all a bit lackluster if they are not being boosted, and +1/+1 doesn’t turn any of them into powerhouses.
Description – In the original Zendikar block, all of the Allies were parasitic and only good in a deck completely full of Allies, such that none of them were worth including in cube (except maybe Kazandu Blademaster). Battle For Zendikar included the rally mechanic, letting your allies boost the rest of your team, while also including a number of creatures that don’t care about allies, but are just decent creatures that have ally as a creature type. For the purpose of the list below, ‘lord’ includes any ally who gets better when there are more allies around, even if they may not be very good (like most of the cohort creatures).
You may be able to get allies to blend into a +1/+1 counter theme due to a number of them getting +1/+1 counters when they come into play, even without any other allies. There are also a few allies that support the life gain matters theme for some loose cross-pollination. There a few spells that create Ally tokens to trigger your allies, with Allied Reinforcements the most playable of those outside of Ally support.
Description – Clerics is an unassuming tribe, but you probably have a few floating around in your cube, nearly all in white. None of the support cards are especially exciting, with Starlit Sanctum probably the best of the bunch. If you have a few Clerics in your deck, splashing a little black to turn them into life loss machines might be worthwhile. Cabal Archon requires a bit of depth to your Clerics, but could be a decent finisher, and can always sac himself.
Description – Elves already gets Imperious Perfect as a power booster for Elves while being good as a token generator, and there are plenty of other Elves that are playable. Most of the other tribal cards scale based on the number of Elves in play, so their use is limited. They work very well alongside Imperious Perfect, but if you only draft a couple of mana dorks, something like Timberwatch Elf isn’t going to make the cut if it turns up in the last pack. Consider how frequently drafters will want them before inclusion.
Priest of Titania is not efficient when played alone but not terrible. With 1 other Elf it becomes good, and ramp decks will be happy to have them work together.
Description – Goblins are perhaps the premier tribe of Magic. There are a lot of cards that care about goblins, which has led to many different Constructed decks that play up those synergies. However, in peasant cube the aim is to ensure we don’t include cards that force a particular deck with cards that are useless outside of it. A constructed deck built around Goblin Lackey can be explosive; in peasant cube it is probably going to be a vanilla 1/1 more often than not.
Due to the parasitic nature of Goblins, not all possible Lord/Support cards are listed; only permanents or spells that still do something if you don’t have any other goblins.
Given that most of the playable goblins are in red, it’s a shame Mad Auntie is black; if it was red it would probably be the pick of the bunch. Goblin General is probably your next best anthem effect, though terrible on its own as a 2/2 attacker for 3 mana. Sparksmith is probably the best creature that cares about goblins, because it is good enough on its own and can become a powerhouse if you have more goblins. Goblin Taskmaster might be another consideration; it isn’t setting any records for efficiency, but gets a little better once other goblins join the fray.
Description – Humans is the most prolific tribe in Magic. As such, you’ll find mostly staples listed in the playable section, with marginal cards excluded from this listing. There are plenty of other Humans that are also playable.
At peasant, very few of the cards that care about humans are worth considering. Innistrad brings equipment that cares if it was equipped to a human, but you’d rather just have better equipment.
Most of the other options just have better alternatives that care about everything, not just Humans. Village Cannibals may as well just be Scavenging Drake for example. If you want to give humans any support, Hamlet Captain is probably your best option, Courageous Outrider doesn't have a bad fail case, and Kessig Malcontents is a runner up. Hamlet Captain on its own is just a bear, but the anthem effect may be worth it. Kessig’s baseline is not great, but has good potential upside. Before their inclusion, check your cube and make sure you have enough humans available in at least that colour, and it would slot into at least one deck that you are supporting that includes that colour.
It's probably also worth noting that a lot of older cards have errata for creature types, so you may want to consider which version of cards you are playing and what their current errata is. Cards listed below are as per errata.
Description – The extent of most cube owners attempts to support Kithkin is swapping out Gideon’s Lawkeeper for Goldmeadow Harrier so Cloudgoat Ranger has another Kithkin to rely on. You might want to swap in Knight of Meadowgrain for another 2-drop if it doesn’t affect any of your other archetypes. Wizened Cenn can work alongside Cenn’s Enlistment, but it’s too narrow to recommend given the lack of other playable kithkin.
Description – There isn’t a lot of support for snakes. You can throw Sachi out the window, as she doesn’t do enough for her cost. On his own, Sosuke is below par for his cost though not terrible. As a single casting, Sosuke’s Summons is likewise subpar.
It’s more likely that Sosuke would make the cut on the basis of his ability to support Warriors, and that any benefit he gives to snakes is just a happy coincidence.
Description – Cenn’s Tactician is ok in a vacuum, allowing it to pump itself as needed. Of the other lords, Daru Warchief is likely to be the best choice to signal that drafters should pay attention to creature types if they take this card. Veteran Weaponsmith is probably next in line. It’s worth noting that when it comes to Veteran Armorsmith, you may as well be playing the easier to cast Veteran Armorer and pump all your creatures, not just soldiers.
Description – A lot of cards that care about spirits trigger from either spirit spells being played, or arcane spells from the Kamigawa block. Due to their prevalence and that those benefits are often incremental, only noteworthy effects are included here. Unfortunately, those triggers only happen when you cast a spirit spell; putting tokens into play or flickering a spirit isn’t going to get you those triggers.
Cards with soulshift are also costed for an environment full of cards you can get back, and are not efficient in a peasant cube environment.
Of the options available, the most promising is Drogskol Captain. In a vacuum there are more efficient creatures, but a 2/2 flyer for 3 mana is ‘fair’. Alongside some of the token producers which many cubes include, it can produce a formidable air assault, and potentially augment a ‘Skies’ archetype if you have it.
Description – On its own, Blood-Chin Rager is a good aggressive card that gives itself a mild form of evasion. There are a decent number of other playable warriors, mainly in red, white and black, and most of those also play into the aggressive nature that Blood-Chin Rager wants (they are Warriors, after all).
Chief of the Edge and Chief of the Scale have at least ok stats when they stand alone, but can be an option if you want to go deeper on supporting this tribe. As they are gold cards, if you include them it is a clear signal your players should be able to draft a decent Warrior subtheme in black and white, so make sure you have enough Warriors in those colours across the curve. Luckily most of those cards already support an aggro approach, so they work towards the same goal.
Description – Zombies are prevalent in most peasant cubes. There are a few cards that may be worth throwing in to support the tribe. Undead Warchief is the bluntest instrument, with the 2 power bonus being very attractive; paired with Curse of Shallow Graves is going to cause a world of hurt to your opponent. Lord of the Accursed is another similar option. There are only a few playable zombies in blue, which makes Diregraf Captain a harder sell. His base abilities are passable, so you might be willing to include him if you are willing to spread into blue without much other support. Zombie Master is less appealing, but does make your zombies much harder to kill. For something less subtle, Noxious Ghoul can work as a skill testing card, given it can take out your own non-zombie creatures. Being able to impact your opponent’s team when you cast any future zombies is upside, but the stats are bad if you aren’t taking advantage of the triggered ability.
Description – With the release of Shadows over Innistrad, pushing Vampires as a tribe becomes possible, but still requires the right cube set up to consider some of the lords for a few reasons. First, none of the lords or support cards are really playable in a vacuum. Second, most of the already playable vampires are in black, with very few in red. Third, the best support cards are red.
It doesn’t mean you can’t support vampire tribal, but you may need to make some conscious decisions to include more marginal vampires in red. The likely candidates for lords are Rakish Heir and Stromkirk Captain, offering the biggest payoffs.
Tribes Not Worth Supporting
The following tribes are not currently considered viable to spend effort supporting in the context of a standard cube.
Slivers – They all work well together, but you are either all in or not. The deck is too parasitic for inclusion in a regular peasant cube looking for cross-synergies. Faeries – There isn’t the critical mass of playable Faeries to worry about, and the cards that care about Faeries (e.g. Faerie Noble) are too weak to consider. Shaman – Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro and Bosk Banneret are the only notables here, and don’t do enough to warrant inclusion. Merfolk – Merfolk is almost an all or nothing deal. Many of the abilities that care about merfolk need to exist altogether to get the critical mass to make them work for you. Possible exception is Summon the School, but you still need to find the critical mass of just playable merfolk to make it work. Cats – Nothing to see here folks. Minotaurs – There are a number of playable minotaurs, but there is neither the critical mass, nor sufficiently good tribal cards to matter. Rebels – There aren’t enough good rebels to find with the rebels that tutor. Knights – No lords at Peasant. Dwarves – Only 2 cards that care about Dwarves at peasant, and very few playable Dwarves. Rogues – There are some playable Rogues scattered in cubes, but only marginal support that is not worth pursuing.
Consider this a bonus section; this is not about full on combo decks, but a collection of 2-3 cards that have significant synergy such that they either win immediately, provide the caster a massive board advantage that will be extremely difficult for the opponent to overcome, or provide a close to unbreakable lock if you are already in front.
It isn’t suggested to go out of your way to push these combos, but if you have parts of the combo already in your cube, or they will be playable outside of the specific combo, then they might be worth investigating.
Familiar’s Ruse + Eternal Witness – Eternal Witness is already a staple. As a baseline, Familiar’s Ruse has a reasonable drawback as a counterspell, but you can bounce Eternal Witness, replay it to get back Familiar’s Ruse, repeat. It can be disrupted, but without an answer you will quickly overwhelm your opponent, Familiar’s Ruse can still be ok in a bounce deck without Witness. Adding Aether Vial helps make this soft lock more efficient.
Presence of Gond + Midnight Guard – Enchant Midnight Guard with Presence of Gond. Tap Midnight Guard to put an Elf onto the battlefield, his untap ability will trigger, repeat for infinite Elves. Can be disrupted with removal while you are waiting for the untap trigger to resolve or a board sweeper, but without an answer, you win the next turn. Probably the biggest issue with the combo is that neither piece is particularly good on its own.
Mind Crank + Duskmantle Guildmage – With both of these on the board, it costs 3 mana to get the combo going if you have another damage source, or 7 mana if you rely on just the two combo cards. Once the first ability of the Guildmage is activated, damage dealt or life loss to the opponent will trigger the Mindcrank; when it resolves, it will trigger the Guildmages ability, repeat until opponent is either decked or reaches 0. This combo suffers from the Mindcrank generally being useless outside of this combo, and the Guildmage is a pretty inefficient form of life loss on its own.
Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek – It isn’t an infinite combo, but being able to pay 1 mana for a 1/1 flying creature while gaining life is probably going to be hard for an opponent to break through.
Spitemare + Fire Covenant - As long as you have more life than your opponent, this is an instant win (barring your opponent burning you for the last few points before the Spitemare trigger resolves). Mogg Maniac does the same, but there is little sense in playing a poor version when Spitemare is available.
Devoted Druid + Quillspike - It can be disrupted while triggers are on the stack, but you get an infinitely large creature. It forces blocking or they die, and you can kill anything it runs into (or runs into it should you be on defense). Add some trample or evasion and you are laughing. Quillspike on its own isn't very good, though it does some good work with persist creatures.
Juniper Order Ranger + Persist creature - The two cards on their own are a grindy recursion engine while also building a large Ranger. If you add a sacrifice outlet, preferably free, then things can get silly. With a Goblin Bombardment on the board Murderous Redcap becomes an instant kill, and Kitchen Finks becomes an infinite life total plus an infinitely large Ranger.
Cytoplast Root-Kin + Ashnod's Altar + Undying Creature - Sacrifice undying creature to Ashnod's Altar, it comes back with a +1/+1 counter. Use the 2 mana to move the counter on to the Cytoplast. Repeat for infinitely large Root-Kin.
Eternal Witness + Ghostly Flicker - On their own, these two are more synergy than combo, allowing you to flicker out Eternal Witness and then get Ghostly Flicker back with its trigger. But if you combine with Peregrine Drake, it also creates infinite mana (which may let you repeatedly flicker other value creatures).
Become Immense + Temur Battle Rage - It's not so much a combo as excellent synergy together. If you've taken several points of your opponents life total already, casting these on even small creatures can potentially be lethal.
There are sure to be a few errors, so feel free to let me know. Of course if any archetypes appear to be missing, let me know. Some of the entries may require a little more attention; if something doesn't appear to be explained well enough, feel free to submit some recommended edits.
Also, submit decklists! Preferably with a paragraph explaining what the deck does and how it all comes together.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again: this is an absolutely ridiculously thorough and useful project. It's been so much fun to read.
This formatting helps a lot though, it adds a level of easy browsing the word document hadn't :). I missed a couple of cards in some sections. I'll edit them in my post.
Squirrely, I've added most of those, do you want add a paragraph about each as well? I could, but they are your decks and it would be my interpretation.
I didn't add UB Tempo, UW Control, or White Weenie as I didn't have those as archetypes. The initial intention was to include the generic theaters, but it didn't work out. If we want to add them, I feel like they'd have to be listed as colour pairs and would add a lot of extra 'archetypes'. I'll leave it to the community to sound off on whether this might provide value.
Edit: Not really a lord just a support card I guess.
For the 'already playable' I went with stuff you would play with zero other support. Blood-Chin Rager is a good example that fits this criteria. I don't think I'd play Bramblewood Paragon with zero warrior support, but maybe it could make it into some cubes as a +1/+1 card anyway. It's probably worth considering for cubes that have a little bit of warrior support and a few +1/+1 creatures / effects.
For Land Destruction - Goblin Settlers
For 'Lands Matter' - Sunstone
For Pingers - Mask of Memory, Curiosity
For Sacrifice/Tokens - Life//Death, Cauldron Haze
@Effervesce
I didn't add the last combo as you then need a fifth card to take advantage of the infinite mana. Mask of Memory is only combat damage, so I didn't add that to the Pinger entry.
Thanks guitarspider! I do have that in the Orzhov enchantment deck, though maybe they should be grouped with the more general enchantment matters themes.
I'm just starting to update with the last couple of sets. Just reworked the colorless matters entry, and added Allies to the tribal section. Most of the rest is just adding a few cards to the list, but I also need to rework the artifact section.
I also think it might be worth adding a saboteurs section.
I missed that you had it in the Orzhov section, but I do think Grim Guardian is the kind of card that would probably be "niche" in Evaluate Everything, so yeah, makes sense to list it. Even in the other enchantment decks it buys you a bit of time to get going if you need it.
I've spent the last week updating some of these entries to add relevant cards from Shadows Over Innistrad. I added the following archetypes:
Madness - I'm not sold on it being great, but it is possible to support.
Vampire Tribal - Same as above; there might be enough playable vampires that you might be willing to throw it a lord.
Saboteurs - You can include some of these cards without calling it an archetype, but you can push it a little harder if you want.
The entry I still haven't really figured out or am happy with yet is 'artifact matters'. There are lots of cards that care about artifacts, but I haven't poured over them to actually provide any guidance on how you might actually support it in cube. Some of the repeat investigate cards are perhaps among the better enablers, but there isn't much else in green. I'll keep thinking.
I should probably say this is no longer 'beta'. The intention was to have deck lists for each of the archetypes, but I just don't have time to go searching for them. If anyone wants to suggest any from their cubes and post them here, I'd be happy to add them.
I'll go through and add these soon. I'll add a basic description based on my interpretation of the decklist, unless you want to do that yourselves. i.e. What the synergies are and how you are hoping to win etc.
I’ve been working on this article for a number of months, and with parenthood pending shortly, I’d rather get it out there now and let the community put on the finishing touches. Most of the article is complete, however there are decklists missing, which I’d much rather get from the active community rather than theorycube them all or trawl threads looking for the perfect fit. All assistance and feedback is appreciated.
Introduction
One of the joys of building your own peasant cube is creating a limited environment that uses some of the greatest commons and uncommons in the history of the game. While it is possible for a cube to just be a collection of individually good cards, a design approach adopted by most cube designers is building their cube to make it possible to draft specific archetypes; a collection of cards that synergise with other so that the sum is better than its parts.
This article is an attempt to document and explore the various archetypes available to us. If you’ve ever thought “could that work in peasant cube?” the goal is to explore it here.
Every cube is (and should be) different. The various rankings or explanations given should always be considered within the context of your own cube. It isn’t the intention to tell cube designers which archetypes are bad and should not be supported. The intention is to give cube designers all the information they need to determine what they will need to do if they want to support an archetype, and what other archetypes it can work well with.
I'd also like to thank squirrely and n00b1n8tr for their feedback and contributions.
Last Set Update: Ixalan (artifact section still needs a major update)
Assumptions
The following assumptions have been made when assessing the archetypes;
All Magic sets – It’s assumed we are drawing from all of the available Magic sets. If you have a restriction on which sets you use (e.g. Modern only) it may impact on whether you have access to a critical mass of the right cards for some archetypes. Use your judgment for your environment to determine what adjustments you may need to make, or whether key cards are missing.
Gatherer rarities used – Commons or uncommons as defined in Gatherer are used for this article. This includes cards that are common/uncommon in online versions, but have only seen physical print at rare. While it’s unlikely to affect the ability to support most archetypes, it’s worth pointing out.
General balance – Generally, this means that each colour is equally represented, and there is no bucking of traditional cube design tenets such as having cards all along the curve.
Unbound to a theme – Some cube designers have specific themes in mind when developing their cube. Maybe you choose cards because they help you tell a story, have a favourite artist, or want to recreate Legions with a creature-only cube. This article is likely to have limited use for those cube designers; it is aimed at cube designers who are interested in pushing particular archetypes regardless of theme.
Mix of staples plus archetype specific cards – Some cards are just going to be good no matter what deck they are in. While this article is about archetypes, it’s assumed you play a reasonable number of those staples. This allows decks of various archetypes to be able to draw from the same pool of good cards, instead of needing to dedicate too many slots to cards that only apply to specific archetypes.
Hybrid, gold and other classifications – Each cube owner may have a different opinion about how they categorise multi-colour cards. This article doesn’t presume a particular approach.
Archetype first, power second – This article is all about exploring ‘could that work in peasant cube?’ If it supports the archetype in some fashion, it is probably listed. I guarantee you will see some weak cards here; some you would never consider for your cube. They are listed for the sake of completeness for those that want to go extra deep, or find that hidden gem that makes perfect sense for their specific environment. There may be some caveats about how powerful the cards or the archetype are, but generally I leave it to you and your own cube design methodology to determine what level of power or speed you want your cube to be.
So how are the archetypes presented?
This article is divided into three main sections.
Section 1 : Archetypes
The first is for specific archetypes. For the purpose of this article, an archetype is talking about a deck which is trying to win a certain type of way. Some of them have varying degrees of granularity; some cover a broad spectrum of cards, some are very dedicated decks, while others are subthemes that could fit into a number of other decks.
They are divided into a couple of areas:
Description – What the deck does, and how it intends to win or contribute to the game plan. The description may include some sub-types, or how the decks might differ between colours.
Cross-pollination – The easiest way to support as many archetypes as possible is to use cards that are useful in multiple archetypes. This section will include other archetypes that it shares cards with, or that might mesh well together when it comes time to build a deck. This is closely related to depth and power; the deeper you go on a particular archetype, the more powerful it will be, but the less likely it will blend into other archetypes.
Section 2:Tribal
The second section is on tribal, as considered in the context of a cube supporting more general archetypes (i.e. not dedicated tribal cubes).
Section 3: Combos
The final section are some specific card combos that exist at peasant. Some might be janky, and some individual cards might make little sense outside the combo, but maybe that is the kind of cube that suits you or your playgroup.
Sample Decks & Caveats
I’ve certainly not tried to support every one of the included archetypes in my cube, and some are just theorycubing as we explore what could happen in peasant cube, as well as what has been tried and tested.
Where possible, each archetype will have 1 to 3 sample decks, to give an example of what a drafted deck would look like. In order of preference, sample decks may be;
• From actual drafts directly from the community, with commentary from the owner on how it came together or how it performed
• Cubetutor drafts, as examples of what could be drafted from the cube
• Theorycube; what a deck might look like if you seeded the right cards. Take these with a pinch of salt, but these might be used for offbeat archetypes which may be possible but haven’t been tried / documented by the community.
The community are encouraged to submit sample decks for inclusion if there are less than 3, or they are higher in the order of preference than existing sample decks.
Sample decks should also include what latest set was added to the cube in question. Over time, sample decks may be updated to a more current representation of the environment.
While artifact lands are a key part of these types of decks in the constructed world, it’s more difficult to put them together in a cube environment. Depending on your stance, you may keep artifact lands out of your cube and allow your players to choose a limited number of them when it comes to deck construction. Purists will consider it unfair (and that is a reasonable stance to take), but at the end of the day it us up to each cube owner whether they want to support this archetype and what lengths they will take to make it work.
Artifact Matters is more or less parasitic in nature. You need a critical mass of artifacts to make both affinity and metalcraft, and individual cards like Shrapnel Blast, Trinket Mage, Cranial Plating, work. On top of that, peasant doesn’t have quite the density of playable artifacts that rare cubes have. What this means for cube design is that Artifact Matters – more than most archetypes – is something that doesn’t inherently fall into place like certain other archetypes.
Like other dedicated synergistic archetypes, Artifact Matters can be quite powerful when it comes together. Cranial Plating gives a power boost unlike any other equipment and cards like Thoughtcast, Shrapnel Blast and Court Homunculus are better than their non-archetype equivalents. That said, this increase in power is mitigated somewhat by sometimes having to play slightly worse cards to consistently enable the Artifact Matters cards.
Cross-pollination – Depending on the direction you take this archetype in, it can overlap with different other archetypes. For example, equipment goes well with a Voltron archetype, there are plenty of artifact creatures with +1/+1 counters and you can cross-pollinate with token and sacrifice decks as well. Battle for Zendikar also brings the ‘Colorless Matters’ ability, which obviously benefits from having more artifacts in the cube (refer to that entry for more information).
0 Buried Ruin
1 Argivian Find
1 Salvage Scout
2 Leonin Squire
2 Mine Excavation
2 Myr Retriever
3 Skeleton Shard
3 Treasure Hunter
4 Argivian Restoration
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Frantic Salvage
4 Sanctum Gargoyle
5 Razor Hippogriff
Artifact Tutors
1 Enlightened Tutor
3 Fabricate
3 Tinker
3 Treasure Mage
3 Trinket Mage
Already Playable Artifacts
1 Aether Vial
1 Bonesplitter
1 Chromatic Star
1 Leonin Scimitar
1 Sai of the Shinobi
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Trusty Machete
1 Wayfarer’s Bauble
2 Isochron Scepter
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Mask of Memory
2 Shrine of Burning Rage
2 Shrine of Loyal Legions
3 Behemoth Sledge
3 Crystal Shard
3 Grafted Wargear
3 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Worn Powerstone
4 Serrated Arrows
2 Baleful Strix
2 Epochrasite
2 Perilous Myr
2 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Tidehollow Strix
3 Cathodian
3 Palladium Myr
3 Phyrexian Warbeast
3 Porcelain Legionnaire
3 Shardless Agent
4 Galvanic Juggernaut
4 Juggernaut
4 Pierce Strider
4 Su-Chi
6 Darksteel Sentinel
Cares About Artifacts
1 Court Homunculus
1 Vedalken Certarch
2 Atog
2 Carapace Forger
2 Cranial Plating
2 Embersmith
2 Etherium Sculptor
2 Flamewright
2 Lifesmith
2 Myrsmith
2 Painsmith
2 Puppet Conjurer
2 Renowned Weaponsmith
2 Riddlesmith
2 Sage of Lat-Nam
2 Shrapnel Blast
2 Thopter Foundry
2 Throne of Geth
3 Artificer’s Epiphany
3 Conversion Chamber
3 Esperzoa
3 Golem Foundry
3 Lumengrid Sentinel
3 Thirst For Knowledge
4 Blade-Tribe Berserkers
4 Chrome Steed
4 Filigree Sages
4 Frogmite
4 Ghlama’s Warden
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Sludge Strider
4 Synod Centurion
5 Thopter Squadron
5 Thoughtcast
6 Kuldotha Flamefiend
7 Myr Enforcer
1 Surge Node
2 Coretapper
2 Energy Chamber
2 Power Conduit
4 Vedalken Infuser
Enablers
1 All Mana rocks
Narrow Enablers
0 Ancient Den
0 Darksteel Citadel
0 Great Furnace
0 Lotus Petal
0 Mishra’s Factory
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Tree of Tales
0 Vault of Whispers
0 Zuran Orb
1 Executioner’s Capsule
1 Mana Cylix
1 Voltaic Key
If you want to manipulate +1/+1 counters, you are probably looking at a midrange deck that is looking to build an overwhelming board presence. For cards that care about +1/+1 counters, you are primarily looking at green, white and blue. Every colour has access to +1/+1 counters, though black and red don’t interact with them as much. However your inclusion of this archetype might give more weight to cards with counters in those colours, such as unleash cards to support aggro, to add more variety to the potential +1/+1 themed decks you might draft.
Only a few cards that inherently have or could have +1/+1 counters are listed below; there are a few hundred such cards, so you may want to consider which of those would fit in well with your other archetypes. Outside of the inherently good cards, you need cards that actually care about those counters being on things; otherwise you have a ‘good stuffs’ deck with cards that just happen to give/have counters. So let’s focus on those.
Blues gives you Novijen Sages and Helium Squirter, as a way to draw cards and potentially finish the opponent with your ground troops. Beyond that, blue becomes a bit thin with Cloudfin Raptor being the most playable card with +1/+1 counters.
Green has Cytoplast to pump the rest of your +1/+1 team. Aquastrand Spider or Longshot Squad can help with air defense. Bramblewood Paragon may be more suited to a Warrior tribal theme, but giving a monstrous Nemesis of Mortals trample can be a game ender. Inspiring Call is an obvious signal card; situational but with the potential to be silly. Green already has the powerhouse Curse of Predation, Experiment One and a few monstrous creatures.
White has Cenn’s Tactician at the cheap end that cares about counters, but the ability to multi-block is not particularly exciting. At the higher end, it brings Patron of the Valiant, further boosting your already boosted creatures. What White does bring is number of decent cards that give +1/+1 counters, including repeatable effects like Echoes of the Kin-Tree.
If you centre in green/blue, Bred for the Hunt is a clear signal card, but is perhaps too narrow compared to something like Coastal Piracy. It gives you access to Lorescale Coatl, Elusive Krasis, Fleetfeather Cockatrice, Plaxcaster Frogling, and Novijen, Heart of Progress.
Green/white has Chronicler of Heroes, plus Enduring Scalelord that care about +1/+1 counters. Juniper Order Ranger is a solid +1/+1 vending machine that also works very well with Enduring Scalelord. Reap What is Sown is also a reasonable instant-speed combat trick that is on-synergy.
White/blue doesn’t really give you anything you don’t just get from the two colours individually; you get Ephara’s Enlightment, which is pretty durdly.
The full list of cards below that care about counters usually interact with other cards, but also includes some cards that are greedy and need or want more counters themselves to be effective.
Cross-pollination - +1/+1 counters can come on any number of creatures that are useful in other archetypes, such as unleash creatures in aggro, undying creatures in sacrifice decks. This archetype also has inherent synergy with persist creatures if you can add or redistribute +1/+1 counters to them.
1 Chronomaton
1 Cloudfin Raptor
2 Epochrasite
3 Curse of Predation
3 Dreg Mangler
3 Lorescale Coatl
3 Strangleroot Geist
4 Karstoderm
4 Phantom Centaur
4 Relief Captain
5 Fleetfeather Cockatrice
5 Juniper Order Ranger
6 Gravetiller Wurm
Cares about +1/+1 counters
1 Cenn’s Tactician
2 Aquastrand Spider
2 Baloth Pup
2 Bramblewood Paragon
3 Abzan Falconer
3 Bred For The Hunt
3 Chronicler of Heroes
3 Give // Take
3 Inspiring Call
3 Plaxcaster Frogling
3 Shapers of Nature
3 Tuskguard Captain
4 Crowned Ceratok
4 Daru Stinger
4 Longshot Squad
5 Battlefront Krushok
5 Helium Squirter
5 Nissa'sw Judgement
5 Steppe Glider
6 Arcbound Fiend
6 Enduring Scalelord
6 Novijen Sages
7 Cytospawn Shambler
0 Novijen, Heart of Progress
1 Daily Regimen
1 Hunger of the Howlpack
2 Ancestral Vengeance
2 Armory of Iroas
2 Earthen Arms
2 Echoes of the Kin-Tree
2 Elven Rite
2 Energy Chamber (artfiacts only)
2 Eternal Thirst
2 Golgari Guildmage
2 Grave Strength
2 Lead By Example
2 Obsessive Skinner
2 Otherworldy Journey
2 Quest for the Gemblades
2 Phalanx Leader
2 Travel Preparations
3 Common Bond
3 Dragon Blood
3 Emcee
3 Ephara’s Enlightenment
3 Feast on the Fallen
3 Reap What is Sown
3 Shoulder to Shoulder
3 Joraga Auxillary
3 Ulvenwald Bear
3 Wall of Resurgence
4 Abzan Skycaptain
4 Cytoplast Root-Kin
4 Meadowboon
4 Unity of Purpose
5 Aven Tactician
5 Blessings of Nature
5 Elite Scaleguard
5 Fierce Invocation
5 Incremental Growth
6 Bellowing Aegisaur
6 Gleam of Battle
This decks primary colours are white and blue, with Crystal Shard being the poster child for the deck. Blink effects have the benefit of being cheap and not needing to spend mana to recast the creature; bounce gives you some more flexibility as to what you do with it once it is back in your hand (e.g. where playing something between the bounce and replay is beneficial, or being able to discard for an effect). The archetype also extends to gating creatures; those that bounce another creature when they come into play.
There are a handful of permanents that force bouncing a permanent each upkeep. This can be good because the effect is free, but offers less flexibility in regards to timing, and the abilities aren’t optional.
While the deck will commonly be about abusing ETB creatures, some creatures have blink or bounce as a native ability. These creatures, on top of the others that are coming in and out of play, can get more use out of other permanents that trigger from creatures coming into play.
The deck is often controlling in nature, building up resources before overwhelming the opponent, but can also be used aggressively in the right strategies. Given that all creatures with positive ETB triggers get benefit from being in this deck, it’s not practical to list them all. Your all-star ETB creatures are going to be all-stars here by default. Instead, here is an outline of what different sub-types there are of the deck.
Black gives plenty of opportunity to be very controlling in nature, holding on to blink and bounce effects until the opponent presents a threat that needs to be suppressed. This can be re-using the effects of Nekrataal, Shriekmaw, or Liliana’s Specter, and can extend to getting extra uses out of Raksasha Gravecaller. Evoking a Shriekmaw and activating your Crystal Shard while the evoke trigger is on the stack has a certain inevitability to it.
Blue can get more value, particularly in the card drawing and filtering arena. Mulldrifter is the all-star here.
Green can offer infinite blink recursion with Eternal Witness. With the dual effect of Ghostly Flicker, you can recurse the Ghostly Flicker while also picking up another card. If you are already white for blink effects, Trostani’s Summoner is a value powerhouse when it comes to blink effects.
Cross-pollination – Because there are many great creatures with ETB effects, you don’t have to spend too many slots to have some level of support for this archetype. Specific to the bounce/gating aspect, it has some synergies with an Extort deck by being able to replay creatures and extort your opponent further. The forced bounce spells require a bit more work to build a deck around, so lend themselves less to synergy with other decks.
1 Cloudshift
1 Mark of Eviction
2 Liberate
2 Long Road Home
2 Momentary Blink
2 Otherworldly Journey
2 Peel From Reality
2 Turn to Mist
3 Acrobatic Maneuver
3 Crystal Shard
3 Deadeye Harpooner
3 Displace
3 Flickerwisp
3 Ghostly Flicker
3 Vizier of Deferment
4 Felidar Guardian
4 Glimmerpoint Stag
4 Illusionist’s Stratagem
4 Mistmeadow Witch
4 Temur Sabertooth
4 Vanish Into Memory
4 Voidwalk
6 Wispweaver Angel
2 Arctic Merfolk
2 Dreamstalker
2 Kor Skyfisher
2 Quickling
2 Whitemane Lion
3 Emancipation Angel
3 Invasive Species
3 Stonecloaker
4 Ancestral Statue
4 Keymaster Rogue
4 Storm Sculptor
4 Sawtooth Loon
6 Ambush Krotiq
Forced Bounce
1 Trusted Adviser (blue)
3 Skull Collector (black)
4 Eiganjo Free-Riders (white)
4 Roaring Primadox
4 Stampeding Serow (green)
4 Stampeding Wildebeests (green)
5 Cache Raiders
5 Species Gorger
6 Oni of Wild Places (red)
2 Darting Merfolk
3 Lantern Spirit
Triggers from ETB / LTB
2 Genesis Chamber
2 Impact Tremors
2 Ninth Bridge Patrol
3 Ambuscade Shaman
3 Primal Forcemage (with haste or flash gating creatures)
4 Bronzebeak Moa
4 Goldnight Commander
4 Herd Gnarr
4 Orc Sureshot
4 Saltskitter (as additional support for this section)
5 Juniper Order Ranger
5 Raksasha Gravecaller
Burn is a deep field to draw from, but due to the singleton nature of peasant you are going to have to deal with some drop-off in quality. The primary problem with littering your cube with good burn spells is that other decks will want them. You can put 20+ burn spells into your red section, but the likelihood of drafting them all to yourself are slim to none. Packing your cube full of burn is likely to lead to making other red/X decks better, not support this archetype. In a larger cube, you might be able to include enough burn to make a deck, but actually drafting it (or being advisable as a draft strategy to shoot for) are pretty slim.
Cross-pollination – As stated above, (most) burn spells are just generally good. Going all in on supporting this deck is using up lots of slots that aren’t really helping define or adding synergy to other red-based archetypes.
You can forget the ingestors and processors; there isn’t enough depth and it’s simply too parasitic to explore. Then there are the cards that require colorless to cast, not just generic mana. The easiest way to think of these cards is as a sixth colour, and in this respect there simply isn’t enough depth. Including enough colorless sources in other 2+ decks is likely a trap. Warping Wail and Spatial Contortion are the best options if you really want to push these.
The other problem is that the colorless noncreature spells (including the colored ones with devoid) are simply not that great, and putting them in the colorless matters deck doesn’t make them much better than other cards you could have been playing instead. You’d rather have Honden of Infinite Rage over Molten Nursery, and Titan’s Presence is just bad removal.
You may get a bit more mileage with devoid creatures with colored mana costs; a few of them are above the curve once you get access to colorless mana, but as stated above getting the colorless mana can be tricky. Red / black can offer an aggro route, while blue / red can offer a more value driven route. A Dimir build is also possible (not listed below). Rough outlines are listed below, with many of the red cards being interchangeable in each list. However, focusing on pure colorless / devoid can’t compete at the same power level as many other archetypes.
On the plus side, Magic is laden with a history of colorless spells; artifacts. The conclusion is that the best way to support colorless matters is for it to simply be an extension of an artifact matters deck. Synergy doesn’t cross back the other way (Chief of the Foundry won’t support any of your devoid creatures), but it’s probably going to be negligible. After all that, it might only be worth playing Tide Drifter and Ruination Guide for their boosting abilities. Normally I’d suggest a mana rock is better than a cost reducer, but the 2/4 body on Herald of Kozilek might be worth it if you want to support the colorless / artifact deck in Izzet and want a clear signal card. Vile Aggregate also scales reasonably well with a few other colorless creatures lying around.
It’s also worth noting that morph or manifest may play well with some of these cards if you have some of these cards in your cube, and may also have some synergies with manlands. Anything that creates Eldrazi Scion or Eldrazi Spawn tokens can also help support it by adding more colorless creatures to your board and creating ways to generate colorless mana. These token makers aren’t listed below unless they fit other criteria; I’ll leave it to you to review these tokens makers as required and pick ones that may have crossover to other archetypes in your cube.
Cross-pollination – As stated above, artifact matters themes usually have a lot of colorless cards, and is the best way to get overlap. If you are pushing Eldrazi Spawn or Scion tokens as part of this theme, token / go wide strategies may want those cards too.
1 Reaver Drone
2 Forerunner of Onslaught
2 Immobilizer Eldrazi
2 Sky Scourger
2 Slaughter Drone
3 Dominator Drone
3 Eldrazi Agressor
3 Essence Depleter
3 Flayer Drone
3 Kozilek’s Shrieker
3 Nettle Drone
3 Swarm Surge
3 Vile Aggregate
4 Skitterskin
1 Prophet of Distortion
2 Kozilek’s Sentinel
2 Tide Drifter
3 Cultivator Drone
3 Eldrazi Skyspawner
3 Herald of Kozilek
3 Ruination Guide
Other devoid / colorless / support cards
0 Crumbling Vestige
0 Eldrazi Temple
0 Spawning Bed
0 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
1 Ancient Stirrings
2 Spatial Contortion
2 Stalking Drone
2 Warping Wail
3 Call the Scions
3 Catacomb Sifter
3 Ersatz Gnomes
3 Ghostfire
3 Mindmelter
3 Molten Nursery
3 Titan’s Presence
4 Adverse Conditions
4 Gravity Negator
4 Havoc Sower
5 Walker of the Wastes
6 Brood Monitor
6 Kozilek’s Pathfinder
7 Birthing Hulk
There is no list of cards for this deck, just select your favourite counterspells and burn. However, if you want to make drafting this deck possible (or as close to pure as possible), you will need to include enough counterspells across the curve for this deck to draft (including some 2 for 1’s) and preferably mostly instant speed burn, perhaps with a smattering of X spells.
Cross-pollination – With the right collection of cards, this can be quite powerful. However with cards that are generally useful in a lot of decks, the chance of putting them all together is low. The deck may falter and not have counterspells when it needs them, or not draw into the critical mass of burn before the opponent breaks through the counterspell wall.
By virtue of the effects required, this deck is usually black and green. All-stars of this archetype are Eternal Witness, Deadwood Treefolk and Baloth Null. The deck doesn’t rely on it, but played in conjunction they can create an infinite recursion loop, with some other redundancies or protection available to boot.
There are a few cards in other colours that can fit the bill; white has Remember the Fallen and Custodi Squire.
This deck doesn’t take many cards from this category to be good because the best cards that support this deck are usually already cards that are good in any deck of those colours; they just get better with the right synergies.
Cross-pollination – This archetype is defined by maximising graveyard retrieval without taking extra effort to get stuff in the graveyard, but can still benefit from those elements of the graveyard matters themes. The recursive abilities of the deck also make it tie in nicely with some sacrifice effects.
2 Pit Keeper
3 Cadaver Imp
3 Dutiful Attendant
3 Eternal Witness
4 Desecrator Hag
4 Gravedigger
4 Woodland Sleuth
4 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
5 Custodi Squire
5 Pharika’s Mender
5 Warren Pilferer’s
5 Woebearer
6 Baloth Null
6 Deadwood Treefolk
6 Swift Warkite
9 Sibsig Muckdraggers
Other Recursion
0 Haunted Fengraf
1 Disentomb
1 Ghoulcaller’s Chant
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Restless Dreams
1 Tortured Existence
2 Death Denied
2 Font of Return
2 Grim Discovery
2 Grim Harvest
2 Macabre Waltz
2 Morgue Theft
2 Nature’s Spiral
2 No Rest for The Wicked
2 Regrowth
2 Revive
2 Revive The Fallen
2 Soulless Revival
2 Stitch Together
2 Treasure Find
2 Wildwood Rebirth
3 Down // Dirty
3 Haunted Crossroads
3 Malevolent Awakening
3 Morbid Plunder
3 Reaping the Graves
3 Recollect
3 Recover
3 Remember the Fallen
3 Reviving Melody
3 Wander in Death
4 Diabolic Servitude
4 Midnight Recovery
4 Sudden Reclamation
5 Restock
5 Unmake the Graves
5 Urborg Uprising
6 Grave Exchange
The deck also really wants some redundancy for its key enchantments or ways to protect them. You have Enlightened Tutor in White, but you would also need to move into green to get Commune With the Gods or Kruphix’s Insight.
This deck relies on getting at least 1 of the key cards online, and even then the impact is not immediately felt. The singleton nature of peasant makes this deck unreliable at best, and is probably not worth pursuing in most cubes unless the quality of the rest of the cube is also reduced.
Cross-pollination – Using Astral Slide almost necessitates using the same sort of creatures that bounce / flicker decks want. Apart from that, this is a linear deck that doesn’t share a lot of its cards specifically with any other archetype. This deck probably wants the enchantment tutoring and retrieval that the ‘enchantment matters’ archetype wants; refer to this archetype for those cards if pursuing this archetype.
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Lightning Rift
3 Astral Slide
The best chance for this deck to stay primarily as the defender deck is to have other non-combat win conditions that can support it; if Vent Sentinel is stumped by removal or a counterspell, you need something else. Red remains the most likely candidate for extra pieces, with Kyren Negotiations being able to tap all of your defenders at the end of your opponents turn to whittle their life total. Using Extort can be another way for the deck to win.
Cross-pollination – If you focus on high toughness defenders, sweeper decks can benefit from their inclusion in your cube. Outside of that, there isn’t much in the way of synergies with other decks.
1 Perimeter Captain
2 Overgrown Battlement
2 Stalwart Shield-Bearers
2 Wall of Mulch
3 Axebane Guardian
4 Vent Sentinel
4 Wakestone Gargoyle
Playable Defenders /Walls - Green
1 Tinder Wall
2 Thallid-Shell Dweller
2 Vine Trellis
2 Wall of Blossoms
2 Wall of Roots
3 Carven Caryatid
3 Grave Bramble
3 Wall of Ice
Playable Defenders /Walls - White
1 Wall of Hope
2 Angelic Wall
2 Wall of Essence
2 Wall of Omens
2 Wall of Resistance
3 Basilica Guard
3 Guardian Zendikon
4 Wall of Swords
2 Aetherflame Wall
2 Wall of Razors
3 Aether Membrane
3 Wall of Heat
3 Wall of Stone
Playable Defenders/Walls - Black
2 Wall of Souls
3 Hired Torturer
3 Wall of Shadows
Playable Defenders/Walls – Blue
2 Fog Bank
2 Vertigo Spawn
2 Wall of Tears
3 Guard Gomazoa
3 Hover Barrier
3 Psychic Membrane
3 Wall of Frost
5 Mnemonic Wall
2 Wall of Tanglecord
Multicolor Defender / Walls
2 Flamewright
3 Plumeveil
3 Souls of the Faultless
3 Trestle Troll
3 Wall of Denial
Supplementary Win Conditions
2 Razortip Whip
2 Shrine of Burning Rage
3 Granite Shard
3 Honden of Infinite Rage
4 Kyren Negotiations
The problem with using cards that push domain or 5 colour is three-fold; those cards are usually only good in a deck playing all 5 colours (meaning no other archetypes will want them), they often have analogues that are just as good without imposing restrictions, and you have to have 5 lands of different types in play to maximise them. Particularly for the actual domain cards that count basic lands, using nonbasics to help fix your colours doesn’t help with this goal.
The most powerful card is probably Worldheart Phoenix, giving you some recursion once you hit your colours. Etched Oracle can trigger an Ancestral Recall, but dies in the process unless you have some other ways to give it +1/+1 counters. Fusion Elemental’s stats are good value for 5 mana, but it lacks evasion and there is no guarantee you will be able to cast it earlier than a ‘fair’ turn due to the colour restrictions.
Other cards you may want to consider are converge cards to push people into more colours.
Cross-pollination – Cards that specifically push someone into 5 colour have no synergies with other archetypes. Outside of a few specific cards, this deck also wants ramp cards. To that end, it is recommended that if you want to include this archetype, stick to only a couple of signal cards, and let the already strong cards in each colour and your mana fixing do the rest.
2 Skyrider Elf
2 Tribal Flames
4 Etched Oracle
4 Worldheart Phoenix
5 Fusion Elemental
5 Ordered Migration
6 Tromp the Domains
The deck virtually has to be blue for counterspells and instant speed card draw. Green is the most likely secondary colour with creatures with flash that would be playable outside the archetype.
You don’t need to go very far out of your way to support this archetype, you just need to go a bit deeper on the counterspells and include a few more flash creatures.
You need the right mix of counterspells, card draw and flash creatures in your cube, but if you do, you have the capability of drafting quite a powerful deck. However because many of the cards are just generally good, it might not quite come together if you are fighting with other drafters.
Cross-pollination – This deck doesn’t have a lot of specific cross-pollination, simply because many of the cards it wants are generally good and included in a lot of cubes (counterspells and instant draw spells). This deck shares a similar principle to Counter-Burn, and the two can be effectively melded together without any difficulty. Fleetfeather Cockatrice and Havenwood Wurm can both fit into ramp decks.
2 Ambush Viper
2 Shambleshark
3 Bounding Krasis
3 Cloaked Siren
3 Pestermite
3 Wolfir Avenger
4 Aven Reedstalker
4 Briarhorn
4 Horizon Chimera
5 Beast Attack
5 Fleetfeather Cockatrice
5 Illusory Ambusher
5 Snapping Sailback
5 Wind Strider
6 Darksteel Sentinel
6 Great Oak Guardian
7 Havenwood Wurm
2 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Standstill
In green, cards like Yavimaya Enchantress and Strength from the Fallen can be strong with enough support. Dowsing Shaman can be a recursion tool for the deck.
White has plenty of cards that can tutor for or retrieve enchantments from the graveyard, as well as some good support with good enchantments. If you are looking to go long, Mesa Enchantress could draw you a bunch of cards. You can swap out other removal for enchantment based removal, like Banishing Light. White also has Blessed Spirits, which is solid even if your other enchantments are disrupted. The combo of green and white can give you Sterling Grove, serving to protect enchantment creatures from normal removal, and being able to tutor for what you need.
Forgeborn Oreads offers a decent board control and kill condition with the right support cards in red, but there is little else to draw you into this archetype for that colour.
Black offers Blightcaster as a good board control tool.
Blue doesn’t have a lot of exceptional options, but with a developed board, dropping Archetype of Imagination could be game winning.
It will depend on the exact cards seeded, but anecdotally this deck seems viable but has fragile pieces. Yavimaya Enchantress and Strength From the Fallen could be powerhouses, but if they are your primary ways of winning, a piece of removal could cut your gameplan short. A focus on getting incremental advantage from multiple constellation triggers requires a critical mass of permanents on the board, which could leave you vulnerable to mass removal. You can add some incidental support by looking at enchantments that double as creatures, whether that is actual enchantment creatures, or aura’s with manifest.
Cross-pollination – The enchantment theme can get parasitic very quickly, but there can be some crossover with some other themes if cards are selected carefully. Cards like Yavimaya Enchantress can be an extension of a Voltron archetype. Blink and bounce effects work nicely with constellation creatures.
3 Mesa Enchantress
Grows with enchantments
1 Ethereal Armor
2 Dreampod Druid
2 Gatherer of Graces
3 Ancestral Mask
3 Aura Gnarlid
3 Blessed Spirits
3 Blood-Cursed Knight
3 Yavimaya Enchantress
5 Bramble Elemental
Tutors
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Open the Armory
2 Tallowsip (requires spirit support)
3 Auramancer
3 Benefaction of Rhonas
3 Heliod’s Pilgrim
3 Kruphix’s Insight
4 Lost Auramancers
5 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
6 Auratouched Mage
7 Boonweaver Giant
Spells as enchantments
1 Seal of Fire
1 Seal of Removal
1 Vessel of Nascency
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Seal of Primordium
2 Vessel of Ephemera
2 Vessel of Malignity
2 Vessel of Paramnesia
2 Vessel of Volatility
3 Seal of Doom
Graveyard Retrieval
1 Argivian Find
1 Rofeloss’s Gift
2 Mine Excavation
2 Restoration Specialist
3 Crystal Chimes
3 Monk Idealist
3 Reviving Melody
5 Griffin Dreamfinder
5 Pharika’s Mender
3 Skull of Orm
4 Dowsing Shaman
Constellation Cards/ Cares about Enchantments
2 Strength of the Fallen
3 Harvestguard Alseids
3 Oakheart Dryads
4 Agent of Erebos
4 Blightcaster
4 Forgeborn Oreads
5 Dreadbringer Lampads
5 Sphere of Safety
5 Thassa’s Devourer
5 Whitewater Naiads
6 Goldenhide Ox
6 Humbler of Mortals
6 Thoughtrender Lamia
Commonly played Enchantments
1 Rancor
1 Utopia Sprawl
2 Animate Dead
2 Curse of Chains
2 Goblin Bombardment
2 Journey to Nowhere
2 Madcap Skills
2 Narcolepsy
2 Pacifism
2 Temporal Isolation
3 Armadillo Cloak
3 Arrest
3 Banishing Light
3 Cage of Hands
3 Curse of Predation
3 Curse of Shallow Graves
3 Elephant Guide
3 Griffin Guide
3 Moldervine Cloak
3 Necromancy
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Pillory of the Sleepless
3 Unflinching Courage
4 Control Magic
4 Diabolic Servitude
4 Faith’s Fetters
4 Pestilence
5 Centaur Glade
6 Enslave
1 Flickering Ward
1 Shimmering Wings
2 Conviction
2 Gossamer Chains
2 Sun Clasp
3 Broken Fall
3 Molting Skin
3 Riptide Chimera
3 Shackles
Other enchantment creatures
1 Gnarled Scarhide
2 Flitterstep Eidolon
3 Archetype of Courage
3 Cloudform
3 Lightform
3 Nimbus Naiad
3 Nyx Weaver
4 Erebos’s Emissary
4 Heliod’s Emissary
4 Rageform
6 Archetype of Imagination
Support
2 Sterling Grove
3 Thaumatog
The most obvious deck to support is Gruul aggro / midrange, as most of the abilities promote attacking to get the best effect of the energy. Most of the energy creatures listed below fit into a generic version of a Gruul midrange deck, and if you get multiples you can maximise the synergy.
There isn’t a huge reason to branch out, but you can add blue for a few gold cards that are decent without other energy support (Whirler Virtuoso and Rogue Refiner), and Glimmer of Genius is a fine card draw / filtering spell in its own right.
Cross-pollination – Any cross pollination is really the result of swapping out other cards for energy version of that effect. Servant of the Conduit will go in ramp decks, and Scrapper Champion is a fine enough aggro / midrange card while also supporting pants. A reasonable number of the creatures also use energy to place +1/+1 counters, so if you support +1/+1 counters in your cube you get that cross-synergy as well.
0 Aether Hub
Green
1 Attune With Aether
2 Highspire Infusion
2 Longtusk Cub
2 Servant of the Conduit
3 Aetherstream Leopard
3 Thriving Rhino
2 Aether Chaser
2 Harnessed Lightning
2 Thriving Grubs
4 Maulfist Doorbuster
4 Scrapper Champion
Blue
2 Aether Meltdown
2 Aether Theorist
4 Glimmer of Genius
2 Aether Poisoner
2 Thriving Rats
Multi-colour
2 Voltaic Brawler
3 Rogue Refiner
3 Whirler Virtuoso
Going Deep
3 Fabrication Module
The above notwithstanding, there are a few cards worth considering, as long as you support them with enough pieces of equipment in your cube. The problem is that if they are decent pieces of equipment, other drafters are going to want them anyway. Steelshaper’s Gift can find you the piece of equipment you need, and Weapons Trainer has decent stats for the cost. It’s a shame there aren’t playable white or red pieces of equipment to throw this deck a bone if you really want to support it, narrow as that may be. If you want to go deep and include some of the lower end cards, you will probably need to have a lower powered environment.
Cross-pollination – Equipment can fit into a broader artifact matters theme. While it’s loose, a pants theme that relies on double strikers will be happy to play Steelshaper’s Gift and Weapons Trainer alongside power boosting equipment. Deadeye Quartermaster can find the few vehicles you might have in your cube, giving it a slightly wider range of targets than some of the other options.
1 Steelshaper’s Gift
1 Strength of Arms
2 Open the Armory
2 Weapons Trainer
3 Ironclad Slayer
4 Deadeye Quartermaster
Low End / Narrow Cards
1 Auriok Glaivemaster
1 Goblin Gaveleer
1 Golem-Skin Gauntlets
1 Kitesail Apprentice
1 Kor Duelist
1 Quest for the Holy Relic
1 Stoneforge Acolyte
2 Kor Outfitter
2 Leonin Den-Guard
2 Sunspear Shikari
3 Brass Squire
3 Kazuul’s Toll Collector
3 Militant Inquisitor
3 Myr Adapter
3 Skyhunter Cub
3 Training Drone
4 Avacynian Missionaries
4 Taj-Nar Swordsmith
6 Auriok Survivors
7 Kemba’s Legion
Extort isn’t just a win condition because it drains your opponents life, the life gain can also help race against aggro decks if required, and give the deck time to drain those final points. A more aggressive version of the deck can be achieved with support from other aggro creatures plus removal. The deck is much more likely able to afford the life loss from value removal such as Reckless Spite, Ashes to Ashes and Slaughter, or other cards where the deck can aggressively pay life costs to gain other advantages.
Cross-Pollination – A single extort creature can provide value to any deck of the appropriate speed. It has some crossover with sacrifice decks that use the support of Blood Artist and Falkenrath Noble for additional draining. It has some minor synergy with bounce or gating creatures, allowing cards to be replayed for more extort triggers. Something like Whitemane Lion can bounce itself, giving you plenty of extort opportunities at instant speed. ‘Life gain matters’ also benefit from this archetype.
1 Thrull Parasite
2 Basilica Screecher
2 Syndic of Tithes
2 Tithe Drinker
3 Kingpin’s Pet
4 Syndicate Enforcer
Defensive Extort Creatures
3 Basilica Guards
4 Knight of Obligation
5 Vizkopa Confessor
Other Life Loss/Drain Effects
2 Blood Artist
2 Circle of Affliction
2 Gnawing Zombie
2 Vizkopa Guildmage
3 Drana’s Emissary
3 Scholar of Athreos
3 Syphon Life
4 Accursed Witch
4 Blind Hunter
4 Bloodhunter Bat
4 Falkenrath Noble
4 One Thousand Lashes
4 Tendrils of Agony
4 Torment of Scarabs
5 Agent of Masks
5 Campaign of Vengeance
5 Grey Merchant of Asphodel
0 Orzhova, the Church of Deals
1 Sinister Possession
2 Dying Wish
2 Exsanguinate
2 Qarsi Sadist
3 Brush With Death
3 Essence Harvest
3 Last Caress
3 Pious Disciple
3 Urborg Syphon-Mage
4 Curse of Wizardry
4 Debt to the Debtless
5 Exotic Disease
5 Rhystic Syphon
5 Soul Feast
6 Essence Feed
3 Hissing Miasma
3 Souls of the Faultless
3 Wall of Limbs
4 Blood Reckoning
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Thrull Parasite
2 Blood Artist
2 Kor Skyfisher
2 Nezumi Cutthroat
2 Syndic of Tithes
2 Reassembling Skeleton
2 Whitemane Lion
3 Drana’s Emissary
3 Kor Hookmaster
3 Kor Sanctifiers
3 Liliana’s Specter
3 Stinkweed Imp
4 Seraph of Dawn
5 Belfry Spirit
5 Grey Merchant of Asphodel
5 Shriekmaw
2 Doom Blade
2 Mind Stone
2 Pacifism
3 Pillory of the Sleepless
3 Spectral Procession
6 Enslave
Lands
1 Arcane Sanctum
8 Swamps
8 Plains
By doing this, you should be setting them up to draw mostly lands or non-critical spells for the rest of the game, giving them no gas. Once you’ve set up your soft-lock, you can start playing finishers or other threats to take over the game.
It shares some similarities with milling and may play some of the same cards, but it really is a different beast. The mill decks wants the game to end when the opponent needs to draw from an empty library; fateseal decks want to shut the opponent out of meaningful plays and end the game with traditional damage. Mill decks want to get rid of as many cards from the top of the library with no consideration for what’s next; fateseal is a surgical strike maximising the chances the next card they draw is not threatening.
The soft lock may be difficult to pull off, both because you need to draft the right amount, and then have them early enough in the game to be able to start the lock. The creature pieces are also easy to disrupt. It’s not likely to be consistent on this basis, but you may also wish to consider whether it is likely to be fun when on the receiving end of such a deck. To be consistent, you would have to invest a number of cards that are likely to be useless outside of this archetype.
Cross-pollination – There is little cross pollination with other archetypes. There is some minor crossover will a milling theme. Thoughtpicker Witch specifically synergises with some sacrifice strategies, and some of the cards can help you selectively put creatures into your opponent’s graveyard for reanimation. However most of the cards that give this deck a chance won’t see play anywhere else and you need the critical mass together to make it work.
0 Mishra’s Bauble
0 Moonring Island
1 Dakra Mystic
1 Lantern of Insight
1 Orcish Spy (mediocre)
1 Rootwater Mystic (mediocre)
1 Thoughtpicker Witch
2 Dimir Charm
2 Lurking Informant
2 Wu Spy
3 Dewdrop Spy
4 Architects of Will
5 Spin Into Myth
0 Duskmantle, House of Shadows
1 Codex Shredder
1 Ghoulcaller’s Bell
Other Support
0 Buried Ruin
1 Oust
3 Trinket Mage
Ideally, you want to play an efficient creature on curve, give it haste, and swing. As such you aren’t forced to stick to any particular colours for this strategy, but red and green are the primary colours for a couple of reasons. Outside of Lightning Greaves, there are some other haste-enabling equipment, but they cost mana to equip. This means not giving your creatures haste on curve. Red opens up some other haste enablers. Heading from red into green, gives the namesake Fires of Yavimaya. Green also makes sense for the deck, because it’s the colour that gives you the most mana efficient creatures, and if you can give them haste your opponent is less likely to have a profitable blocker on the other side of the board.
As a key feature of the deck is to keep the opponent on their toes and not have a turn to think about how to respond, the deck can be supported by other creatures with haste even when you haven’t drawn your enabler. Another option is to include creatures that you can cast pre-combat that will boost your damage output that turn while still building board presence, like Stonewright and Druid Familiar.
Cross-pollination – This deck is mostly just a specific playstyle of a midrange deck, and most of the pieces can be played in other decks, so it doesn’t cost much to support.
1 Bloodlust Inciter
2 Generator Servant
2 Lightning Mauler
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Fires of Yavimaya
Secondary Enablers
1 Mark of Fury
1 Racecourse Fury
2 Emblem of the Warmind
2 Ring of Valkas
3 Chariot of Victory
Red Haste Creatures
1 Goblin Bushwacker
1 Lightning Berserker
1 Monastery Swiftspear
2 Mudbrawler Cohort
3 Minotaur Skullcleaver
4 Lava Hounds
5 Charging Monstrosaur
6 Cyclops of Eternal Fury
6 Markov Warlord
6 Maze Rusher
6 Oni of Wild Places
6 Oxxida Golem
6 Tenement Crasher
6 Volcanic Dragon
7 Ashen Monstrosity
7 Minotaur Aggressor
2 Strangleroot Geist
Black
3 Ambuscade Shaman
Creature Boosters – Red
1 Stonewright
4 Tormenter Exarch
Creature Boosters – Green
3 Trusted Forcemage
3 Yeva’s Forcemage
4 Briarhorn
4 Briarback Alpha (Briarhorn redundancy)
4 Druid’s Familiar
Multicolour
2 Flinthoof Boar
2 Rakdos Shred-Freak
2 Rip-Clan Crasher
2 Spike Jester
3 Boogart Ram-Gang
3 Dreg-Mangler
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Viashino Firstblade
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Bronzebeak Moa
6 Bull Cerodon
3 Primal Forcemage
1x Arbor Elf
1x Frenzied Goblin
1x Fyndhorn Elves
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
1x Darkthicket Wolf
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Undercity Troll
1x Wall of Roots
1x Acolyte of the Inferno
1x Civic Wayfinder
1x Wolfir Avenger
1x Blastoderm
1x Bloodfray Giant
1x Goblin Heelcutter
1x Penumbra Spider
1x Phantom Centaur
1x Seismic Elemental
1x Loxodon Warhammer
Instant
1x Giant Growth
1x Stoke the Flames
Sorcery
1x Firebolt
Enchantment
1x Curse of Predation
1x Fires of Yavimaya
Land
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Kazandu Refuge
6x Mountain
8x Forest
1x Akoum Refuge
1x Avalanche Riders
1x Blessings of Nature
1x Cathodion
1x Expedition Envoy
1x Faithless Looting
1x Genju of the Cedars
1x Gnaw to the Bone
1x Keldon Champion
1x Lone Missionary
1x Mask of Memory
1x Nezumi Cutthroat
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Sejiri Refuge
1x Sterling Grove
1x Stonewright
1x Vivid Grove
1x Wall of Tanglecord
1x Wash Out
The key to making this viable is to have sufficient support so that not only is attacking not profitable, but is quite negative. You want to punish them, not just blank their attack.
This type of deck is quite slow, and even if pushed isn’t likely to be in the top tier of decks. Some of the elements alone are weak; Nettling Imp does nothing if he is on the board alone, and Pelakka Wurm laughs at Hissing Miasma. Ramp and big monster decks will trump this type of deck unless it saves removal for what its blockers can’t deal with.
Cross-pollination – If it can’t get the actual punishing cards, this deck will play big defenders that the defender deck wants, or more generic control decks.
2 Jeering Homunculus
2 Shipwreck Singer
3 Courtly Provocateur
3 Heckling Fiends
3 Lust For War
3 Netting Imp
4 Bullwhip
4 Norritt
4 Trove of Temptation
5 Coveted Peacock
3 Briar Patch
3 Caltrops
3 Hissing Miasma
4 Barbed Foilage
4 Blood Reckoning
Annoying Blockers
1 Wall of Hope
2 Wall of Essence
2 Wall of Souls
2 Wall of Tears
3 Aether Membrane
3 Souls of the Faultless
4 Saber Ants
4 Spitemare
5 Gorgon Recluse
5 Infernal Medusa
5 Thicket Basilisk
4 Ballista Squad
4 Heavy Ballista
5 Durkwood Tracker
This archetype is almost exclusively supported in black and green, with blue supplying secondary support. Dredge is a great mechanic to dump cards in your graveyard, but being singleton there are only a limited number you want to play that are good outside of this archetype. Green jumps in to provide search cards like Commune With the Gods that dump things in the graveyard. Gather the Pack puts stuff in the graveyard, and if you’ve already got a couple of spells in the yard also generates card advantage. Cycling and looting effects are other ways of getting more cards into your graveyard, with blue offering some ways to self-mill.
There are plenty of cards that like being in the graveyard. Flashback, retrace, scavenge, and unearth all support the theme.
There are lots of cards or mechanics that like there to be things in the graveyard, but it’s worth noting that not all of these play well together. Delve cards for example will undermine your ability to reach threshold or delirium. These have been separated in the lists below, as you probably don’t want to mix them, or at least be conscious of what decks they are there to support. There are many other effects ranging from token generators (Necrogenesis) to creatures that get bigger the more cards are in the graveyard (Revenant, Psychatog).
You may want to lean more towards cards that like being in your graveyard; dredging Revenant into your graveyard isn’t going to help it. Effects that retrieve cards from the graveyard have more value in this archetype for this reason (though of course, you can end up dumping all of them into your graveyard too). This archetype can be powerful by generating a lot of value over time, but deck building, and the cube that generates it, need to balance all of the elements to be effective.
Cross-pollination – This archetype has synergies with sacrifice decks to populate the graveyard, reanimator for getting things into the graveyard (and this deck will happily use the reanimation spells), and creature recursion decks.
1 Crop Sigil
1 Mental Note
1 Vessel of Nascency
2 Commune With The Gods
2 Corpse Churn (also likes a full graveyard)
2 Drown in Filth
2 Gather the Pack
2 Grapple With The Past
2 Grave Strength (also likes a full graveyard)
2 Grisly Salvage
2 Hermit Druid
2 Mulch
2 Satyr Wayfinder
2 Screeching Skaab
2 Song of Blood
2 Strategic Planning
2 Sultai Skullkeeper
2 Tracker’s Instincts
2 Wood Sage
3 Buried Alive
3 Crawling Sensation
3 Crow of Dark Tidings
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Glimpse the Future
3 Grizzled Angler
3 Harrow
3 Kruphix’s Insight
3 Necromancer’s Assistant
3 Nyx Weaver
3 Rakshasa’s Secret
3 Scout the Borders
4 Bitter Revelation
4 Dreadwaters
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Forsaken Drifters
4 Gamekeeper (a bit weak)
4 Returned Centaur
4 Rot Farm Skeleton
4 Sudden Reclamation
5 Coerced Confession
5 Corpse Connoiseur
5 Saprazzan Breaker
Graveyard Fillers – Dredge
0 Dakmor Salvage
1 Darkblast
2 Golgari Thug
3 Golgari Brownscale
3 Moldervine Cloak
3 Shambing Shell
3 Stinkweed Imp
4 Greater Mossdog
Graveyard Dwellers - Flashback
1 Dream Twist
1 Faithless Looting
2 Chainer’s Edict
2 Moment’s Peace
3 Crippling Fatigue
3 Gnaw to The Bone
3 Lingering Souls
4 Deep Analysis
4 Dread Return
5 Beast Attack
5 Grizzly Fate
5 Spider Spawning
5 Unburial Rites
7 Roar of the Wurm
0 Cabal Pit
0 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Putrid Imp
2 Stitch Together
2 Werebear
4 Centaur Chieftain
5 Metamorphic Wurm
5 Treacherous Vampire
Benefits From Big Graveyards – Delve
5 Murderous Cut
6 Become Immense
6 Hooting Mandrills
6 Set Adrift
6 Sultai Scavenger
6 Tasigur’s Cruelty
7 Gurmag Angler
8 Shambling Attendant
8 Treasure Cruise
9 Sibsig Muckdraggers
10 Dead Drop
Benefits from Big Graveyard - Delirium
1 Topplegeist
2 Moldgraf Scavenger
2 Obsessive Skinner
3 Autumnal Gloom
3 Kindly Stranger
3 Tooth Collector
Benefits From Big Graveyard – Other
0 Mortuary Mire
0 Svogthos, The Restless Tomb
1 Graf Harvest
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Tortured Existence
2 Boneyard Wurm
2 Death Denied
2 Grim Discovery
2 Macabre Waltz
2 Necrogenesis
2 Nezumi Graverobber
2 Nostalgic Dreams
2 Regrowth
2 Revive the Fallen
3 Death’s Duet
3 Eternal Witness
3 Gravepurge
3 Haunted Crossroads
3 Liliana's Elite
3 Malevolent Awakening
3 Necratog
3 Psychatog
4 Corpse Augur
4 Descrator Hag
4 Graverobber Spider
4 Null Caller
4 Painbringer
4 Seed Guardian
4 Strands of Night
4 Undergrowth Scavenger
4 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
5 Pharika’s Mender
5 Restock
5 Revenant
6 Deadwood Treefolk
6 Grim Flowering
6 Morbid Bloom
6 Swiftwing Warkite
1 Raven’s Crime
5 Savage Conception
5 Worm Harvest
Graveyard Dwellers – Unearth
2 Dregscape Zombie
2 Hellspark Elemental
3 Vithian Stinger
4 Fatestitcher
4 Viscera Dragger
5 Corpse Connoisseur
5 Scourge Devil
6 Grixis Slavedriver
Other Graveyard Dwellers
1 Gryff's Boon
1 Sanitarium Skeleton
2 Ghoulcaller's Apprentice
2 Grim Harvest
2 Reassembling Skeleton
2 Resize
3 Dreg Mangler
3 Marang River Prowler
4 Anger
4 Brawn
4 Dauntless Cathar
4 Haunted Dead
4 Masked Admirers
4 Nearheath Chaplain
4 Rot Farm Skeleton
4 Sluiceway Scorpion
4 Stitchwing Skaab
4 Wonder
5 Advanced Stitchwing
5 Ghoulsteed
5 Reach of Branches
5 Veilborn Ghoul
Other Utility
2 Constant Mists
2 Krosan Reclamation
2 Memory’s Journey
For the above reasons, an Infect deck does not seem viable in cube. You simply lack the redundancy of a constructed environment. If you do want to attempt an Infect deck, you want the cheapest Infect creatures, and plenty of cheap pump spells.
Cross-pollination – Infect creatures may be able to do some blocking duties in control decks to dwindle down your opponent’s forces, but apart from that there is little synergy with other decks.
Green also gives you several options for turn 1 mana acceleration, so you can start casting your land destruction as early as turn 2 to lock your opponent out of casting spells sooner.
Once you’ve seeded the land destruction, creatures should take care of themselves; any number of midrange creatures will get the job done if your opponent can’t cast anything bigger than a 2 drop.
If you include enough land destruction at the 3 mana slot and have the green mana accelerators, this deck can conquer most control decks easily if you get a couple of land destruction cards in your opening hand, but may struggle against aggro decks with low curves.
Cross-pollination – The best way to include cards that other decks will want is to include the cards that target multiple types of permanents. This can be counter to making the deck powerful, as with few exceptions those cards cost at least 4. Even a small smattering of land destruction can help more generic aggro decks, putting a few threats on the board and then locking the opponent out of their more expensive plays long enough to seal the game away.
0 Strip Mine
1 Raze
2 Orcish Settlers
2 Sinkhole
3 Army Ants
3 Ice Storm
3 Icequake
3 Molten Rain
3 Rain of Tears
3 Stone Rain
3 Thermokast
3 Winter’s Grasp
4 Avalanche Riders
4 Melt Terrain
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4 Poison the Well
4 Reap and Sow
4 Rolling Terrain
4 Rolling Spoil
4 Seismic Spike
4 Stream of Acid
4 Touch and Go
5 Frenzied Tilling
5 Ogre Arsonist
5 Ravaging Horde
3 Pillage
4 Aftershock
4 Befoul
4 Brambelcrush
4 Creeping Mold
4 Mold Shambler
4 Wreak Havoc
4 Wrecking Ball
5 Acidic Slime
5 Fissure
5 Fumarole
5 Nessian Demolok
6 Brutalizer Exarch
1 Black Vise
2 Liliana’s Caress
There is nothing quite like Land Tax, but there are some other cards that can repeatedly get lands into your hand or play. Hermit Druid is your next best effect. After that, there is a drop-off in quality for repeatable effects. Elfhame Sanctuary ensures you get a land every turn, but you need to have another way to draw cards or already have your win condition in play/hand. Gift of Estates is probably the best 1-shot effect. While narrow, Groundskeeper can be another way to get discarded or sacrificed lands back for repeat use.
You don’t really get the ‘turbo’ in Turbo Fog in peasant cube to keep drawing into Fog effects. What you can do instead is use Land Tax and friends to keep fuelling a Constant Mists to shut down your opponent’s attacks, perhaps with a backup of Momentary Peace or another Fog effect for some added redundancy if you want to try and replicate it. You can always complement your land searching effects with traditional card draw to have a better chance of keeping land flowing even without the specific archetype cards. Of course, you still need to be able to win. Evasive creatures is probably the best way to achieve this, but you can also seed Cenn’s Enlistment or Pegasus Stampede as a way to slow build an army.
Moving into red gives you Goblin Trenches, allowing you another way to build up an army, with Land Tax and friends replacing all of your sacrificed lands.
Cross-pollination – Land Tax, Constant Mists and Goblin Trenches are all solid on their own in a variety of control decks. You can make the archetype more powerful by including some of the other cards as well, but push you into cards that few other decks are going to want. Ramp spells that this deck might also want are obviously good in ramp decks. Hermit Druid can assist graveyard matters themes. Other cards are likely to only be wanted by this deck.
1 Groundskeeper
1 Land Tax
2 Elfhame Sactuary (need onboard win-con)
2 Frontier Guide
2 Hermit Druid
Other Land Draw
0 Myriad Landscape
1 Veteran Explorer
2 Armillary Sphere
2 Gift of Estates
2 Rites of Spring
3 Burnished Hart
3 Cultivate
3 Far Wanderings
3 Kodama’s Reach
3 Sprouting Vines
3 Yavimaya Elder
4 Seek The Horizon
4 Shard Convergence
0 Zuran Orb
2 Constant Mists
2 Pegasus Stampede
2 Soldevi Sage
3 Goblin Trenches
3 Lightning Storm
3 Sunstone
3 Syphon Life
4 Cenn’s Enlistment
5 Zendikar’s Roil
1 Dakra Mystic
5 Honden of Seeing Winds
Depending on your choices, you might be able to support a more aggressive build, or a slower build that builds up big threats over time.
Cross-pollination – Outside of working with incidental life gain, they also work with extort / drain decks. However most of these cards are subpar without some of life gain to boost them, so you do have to have enough life gain in your cube to make them matter.
2 Ajani’s Pridemate
2 Lone Rider
2 Serene Steward
2 Vizkopa Guildmage
3 Malakir Familiar
3 Nirkana Assassin
3 Wall of Limbs
4 Angelic Accord
4 Bloodbond Vampire
4 Cliffhaven Vampire
4 Sunbond
5 Kalastria Nightwatch
2 Knight of Meadowgrain
2 Lone Missionary
2 Nyx-Fleece Ram
2 Suture Priest
3 Armadillo Cloak
3 Behemoth Sledge
3 Centaur Healer
3 Drana's Emmisary
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Timely Reinforcements
3 Unflinching Courage
3 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Call to the Feast
4 Faith’s Fetters
4 Seraph of Dawn
6 Feudkiller’s Verdict
7 Pelakka Wurm
Other Support
3 Survival Cache
To contrast, the same discard enablers usually work just as well to dump various ‘graveyard matters’ cards into your graveyard, where you have far more flexible timing to play them or get them back several turns later.
It doesn’t mean you can’t make madness work; you just need to provide a bit more specific support and know what you want to achieve, and be prepared for some of the madness cards not to get drafted more than some other cards. Historically, aggro madness relies on getting creatures or effects out cheaply to run over the opponent quickly, usually using early drops that have free discard options for power boosts or other one-off effects for the card disadvantage. If you don’t get the discard outlets, you are probably playing a poor aggro deck that is slower than the rest of the cube. If you are sticking to singleton, there probably isn’t enough payoff to make this consistent or competitive unless you are lowering the power of your environment.
The other option is to focus on getting value. This usually involves looters or card filtering effects to turn your madness cards into pseudo-cantrips; getting the effect as well as part of a card draw effect. This plays more like a grindy midrange deck to turn multiple advantages into an overwhelming presence.
You’ll want to try and include discard effects that are free to maximise the effectiveness of your madness cards; it might be difficult to fire off a Thirst For Knowledge and still cast your madness card compared to activating the Merfolk Looter you cast last turn. Some more specific enablers are things like Pour Over the Pages which untaps lands. Undertaker is not exceptional outside of madness, but can work specifically with madness creatures to generate advantage.
Cross-pollination – Discard enablers for madness are just as good or better in decks that care about the graveyard. The madness cards themselves are not as flexible at fitting into other archetypes.
1 Basking Rootwalla
5 Arrogant Wurm
Madness – Black
1 Call to the Netherworld
3 Big Game Hunter
3 Ichor Slick
4 Biting Rain
4 Gisa’s Bidding
4 Grave Scrabbler
4 Nightshade Assassin
5 Gorgon Recluse
Madness – Red
2 Abandon Reason
3 Bloodmad Vampire
3 Fiery Temper
3 Violent Eruption
5 Incorrigible Youths
5 Reckless Wurm
4 Chilling Grasp
Commonly played self-discard effects
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Faithless Looting
1 Insolent Noenate
1 Raven’s Crime
1 Tortured Existence
2 Heir of Falkenrath
2 Looter il-Kor
2 Macabre Waltz
2 Merfolk Looter
2 Mask of Memory
2 Thought Courier
2 Tormenting Voice
3 Frantic Search
3 Psychatog
3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Undertaker
2 Wild Mongrel
5 Pour Over the Pages
In peasant cube, the aggro version of the deck just doesn’t cut it. The singleton nature of cube means there simply isn’t the critical mass of spells that have a big enough impact to make a solid deck. Even if you throw in some of the more marginal cards into your cube, it doesn’t mean you will be able to actually draft all of them and appropriate support cards.
Which adds up to supporting a control version if you want to mill. In this fashion, it doesn’t take too many of these cards if you are just adding them to a basic control skeleton that wants to set up roadblocks and prevent the opponent from doing anything. Just be conscious that if you want to support some of these mill cards, make sure you can draft the type of control deck that can make use of them.
If you want a colour, you want blue. Sphinx’s Tutelage may be the best card of the bunch, turning the rest of your card draw or cantrips into mill cards; it even comes with built in triggers as a bonus if you’ve got nothing better to do with your mana. Once you’ve locked down the game, Psychic Spiral can also be a finisher. You can move into Dimir if you want to match this archetype to a colour pair, with Mind Funeral being the best bang for buck as a one-off. But you can also support the theme with just a few artifacts if you want control decks of any colour to be able to play this type of deck. If you take that route it might mean playing Cellar Door which is expensive and slow, but at least gives you the chance to get some occasional blockers.
Cross-pollination – There isn’t a lot of cross-pollination, but you don’t need to provide it a whole lot of specific support if you are just providing a few cards for a control shell. If you play Hedron Crab, it can play into graveyard matters, creature recursion or reanimator decks.
1 Hedron Crab
2 Manic Scribe
3 Curse of the Bloody Tome
3 Seer of the Last Tomorrows
3 Sphinx’s Tutelage
5 Psychic Spiral
2 Psychic Drain (keeps you alive)
3 Mind Funeral
1 Codex Shredder
2 Cellar Door
2 Millstone
Of course, we don’t have Quirion Dryad at peasant, so we have to look for analogues. Unfortunately, we don’t get many that are terribly effective or sufficient redundancy. You really want them to be cheap, but more expensive options have been listed below for thoroughness.
Green provides a similar effect in the Forced Adaptation, but it takes two cards to get the effect going, is slow, and unless you put it on something hexproof is prone to getting 2 for 1’d by removal. Its best growth cards are the more expensive Algae Gharial and Lumberknot, but their cost puts them outside the intended play style of this deck.
A counterspell and removal heavy black/blue version of the deck can benefit from Wight of Precinct Six. Disowned Ancestor can act as a possible stand-in, but the 2 mana activation can be costly if you need mana open for counterspells to protect it. Sadistic Glee mimics the effect of the Wight, but once again relies on two cards to get you the effect you want.
Chronomaton is perhaps the best of the bunch; prone to artifact removal, but not reliant on other cards to work, and can activate end of turn instead of sorcery speed if you elect to use any Outlast creatures. With all levelling creatures at peasant requiring at least 2 mana to level up, they are not worth considering.
If you want to pursue a Miracle Growth deck, there are enough cards to somewhat mimic the deck; it just won’t be powerful until there are better cheap growth cards at common/uncommon.
Cross-pollination – This isn’t too far from a regular aggro control deck that seeks to put down an early threat and protect it, so many of the cards will work in most control decks.
1 Cenn’s Tactician
1 Chronomaton
1 Disowned Ancestor
1 Forced Adaptation
1 Predatory Hunger
1 Sadistic Glee
2 Wight of Precinct Six
3 Abzan Falconer
3 Tuskguard Captain
3 Rockslide Elemental
4 Algae Gharial
4 Lumberknot
One Thousand Lashes and Pillory of the Sleepless already fit the drain theme, and there are any number of staple enchantments and auras. There are also a few sorcery or instant effects that you can replace with enchantment versions, and white has many options for retrieving enchantments from the graveyard.
Cross-pollination – This deck has some overlap with the Extort / Drain deck, and ‘Life Gain Matters’ cards. It does also have some minor overlap with more general enchantment matters themes.
2 Underworld Coinsmith
3 Grim Guardian
3 Pillory of the Sleepless
4 One Thousand Lashes
Enchantments as spells
2 Seal of Cleansing
3 Seal of Doom
3 Necromancy
Enchantment Retrieval / Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Argivian Find
2 Mine Excavation
3 Auramancer
3 Heliod’s Pilgrim
3 Monk Idealist
3 Odunus River Trawler
4 Lost Auramancers
4 Lotus-Eye Mystics
5 Custodi Squire
5 Griffin Dreamfinder
5 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
6 Auratouched Mage
7 Boonweaver Giant
2 Baleful Eidolon
2 Spiteful Returned
4 Heliod’s Emissary
6 Thoughtrender Lamia
Support
1 Etherial Armor
1 Remove Enchantments (narrow support)
3 Blood-Cursed Knight
3 Lightform
4 Blightcaster
4 Sage’s Reverie
5 Sphere of Safety
The best form of the deck uses all of the cheapest options, but in doing so the deck becomes vulnerable and probably loses to divisible burn and sweepers. It needs a few pingers on the board to get going, so even just some 1 for 1 removal on a few of them can be enough to lose the potential to lock down the game and get overrun by opposing creatures.
Cross-Pollination – This deck is likely to be inconsistent due to some of its vulnerabilities, but if it can maintain board presence it can take over the game. Once you get up to 3 points of repeatable damage on the board, you can shut down a reasonable number of creatures in most cubes. Some of the pingers also work in the Spells Matters deck. You could play Pinger Control without a single spell, but you could also add more pingers to a Spells Matters deck. Red aggro decks will be happy to see things like Fireslinger, and Granite Shard might see play in a red sweeper deck, but the harder you push this deck the more parasitic it becomes.
2 Fireslinger
2 Razorfin Hunter
3 Brimstone Mage
3 Cunning Sparkmage
3 Gelectrode
3 Goblin Artillery
3 Granite Shard
3 Honden of Infinite Rage
3 Orcish Artillery
3 Orcish Cannoneers
3 Prodigal Pyromancer
3 Prodigal Sorcerer
3 Rootwater Hunter
3 Suq’Ata Firewalker
3 Thornwind Faeries
3 Vithian Stinger
3 Vulshok Sorcerer
3 Zuran Spellcaster
4 Fallen Ferromancer
4 Fledgling Mawcor
4 Frostwielder
4 Goblin Cannon
4 Stinging Barrier
4 Viashino Fangtail
4 Anaba Shaman
4 Barbed Field
4 Chainflinger
4 Reveka, Wizard Savant
Other Support
1 Curiosity
1 Gorgon's Head
2 Gorgon's Flail
2 Nightshade Peddler
2 Onyx Mage
3 Vedalken Anatomist
6 Archetype of Finality
2 Fireslinger
3 Cunning Sparkmage
3 Vithian Stinger
3 Gelectrode
3 Goblin Artillery
Other Creatures
2 Fog Bank
2 Halimar Wavewatch
2 Omenspeaker
2 Wall of Tears
3 Frost Lynx
3 Splatter Thug
3 Stormbound Geist
3 Tandem Lookout
4 Beetleback Chief
4 Phantom Monster
5 Murder of Crows
2 Coldsteel Heart
3 Electrolyze
3 Flames of the Firebrand
3 Repulse
4 Ray of Command
4 Serrated Arrows
5 Shower of Coals
Land
1 Mystic Monastery
9 Island
7 Mountain
bacchus2 says - This theoretical deck would be possible in my cube if I threw in a few more of the pingers. A couple on the board can help control small creatures, and there are a number of other synergies. Tandem Lookout can become a draw engine with a pinger, and the burn spells combined with pingers can help take down larger creatures. A Splatter Thug holding down the fort plus pingers can make it hard to attack into. If your pingers are maintaining board control, Murder of Crows is going to help your card quality and support threshold for Shower of Coals. Large creatures hitting the board is probably going to be a problem for this deck, but Repulse can help hold it back if you just need to buy time for your pingers to go to the face, or Ray of Command to just swing in with what you can’t kill. Serrated Arrows can also help take down larger threats.
This is another deck that cube owners may choose to avoid for ‘fun’ reasons (or lack thereof). Many of the cards in the archetype may be considered oppressive when paired. Ghostly Prison + Propaganda, Ghostly Prison + Dream Tides, Cumber Stone and Thunderstaff; throw in some of the other cards and some decks can’t respond. A single Ghostly Prison/Propaganda can have a huge impact on aggro/token decks.
Cross-pollination – Many of the cards are playable in more generic tempo / control decks without being full-on prison decks, though most also don’t contribute specifically to other more specific archetypes.
0 Maze of Ith
1 Flood
1 Gideon’s Lawkeeper
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Oppressive Rays
1 Thassa’s Ire
2 Azorius Guildmage
2 Dauntless River Marshal
2 Sun Droplet
2 Trip Noose
3 Fade Away
3 Ghostly Prison
3 Minister of Impediments
3 Prison Term
3 Propaganda
3 Rhystic Deluge
3 Slow Motion
3 Story Circle
3 Thunderstaff
3 War Tax
4 Cumber Stone
4 Dream Tides
4 Icy Manipulator
4 Merfolk Seastalkers
5 Debtor’s Pulpit
5 Palliation Accord
5 Sphere of Safety
6 Sentinel of the Eternal Watch
5 Haunter of Nightveil
Once you’ve cleared the board, you can lay down a finisher and keep the board clear with spot removal, with Havoc Demon potentially serving both roles. If you are loaded up on sweepers or removal and only a few finishers, your opponent might be holding onto removal waiting for it to hit the board; black can offer some targeted discard to proactively protect it.
With most of the sweepers clearing away all creatures, not just your opponents, you can get savvy with other ways to get creatures on the board. Namely by making them only be creatures on your turn. This can be by way of manlands, artifacts that can animate, or enchantments like Genjus. You can also supplement this with any token generator that can survive the sweepers; your opponent will have to respond by playing more threats, and you can punish them with more sweepers, and then rebuild.
The effectiveness of sweepers at uncommon are often dependent on creature toughness, so throwing in some high toughness creatures can help you survive early assaults; relatively low power won’t matter if you can keep sweeping away opposing creatures anyway.
Cross-pollination – There isn’t much in the way of cross-synergies for this archetype. This type of deck will happily play a number of high toughness defenders from the defender deck to force your opponent to commit creatures to the board and play into your next sweeper. While they are mostly off-colour, permanent token generators that survive the sweepers are also welcome.
2 Dry Spell
2 Festercreep
2 Nausea
2 Shrivel
2 Sickening Dreams
3 Crypt Rats
3 Death’s Head Buzzard
3 Drown in Sorrow
3 Flaying Tendrils
3 Gangrenous Zombies
3 Infected Verim
3 Infest (Drown in Sorrow redundancy)
3 Noxious Field
3 Plague Spitter
4 Barter in Blood
4 Biting Rain
4 Evincar’s Justice
4 Eyeblight Massacre
4 Hideous Laughter (only instant speed)
4 Pestilence
5 Dakmor Plague
5 Famine
5 Festering Evil
5 Plague Dogs
5 Screams of the Damned
7 Havoc Demon
Red Sweepers
1 Tremor
2 Breath of Darigaaz
2 Pyroclasm
2 Rough // Tumble
2 Scouring Sands
2 Volcanic Spray
2 Whipflare
3 Fiery Connonade
3 Fire Ants
3 Firespout
3 Kindle the Carnage
3 Meteor Blast
3 Rolling Temblor
3 Steam Blast
4 Bloodfire Kavu
4 Pyrohemia
4 Sulfurous Blast
5 Shower of Coals
5 Wildfire Cerberus (finisher + sweeper)
6 Shockmaw Dragon (finisher + sweeper)
6 Slice and Dice
7 Flame Wave
5 Rakshasa Gravecaller
5 Rotting Mastodon
5 Valakut Fireboar
Multicolour
3 Fire Covenant
3 Spontaneous Combustion
Manlands
0 Dread Statutory
0 Ghitu Encampment
0 Mishra’s Factory
0 Urza’s Factory
Animating Artifacts
2 Darksteel Brute
2 Guardian Idol
3 Chimeric Idol
3 Chimeric Sphere
3 Kolaghan Monument
3 Phyrexian Totem
3 Rakdos Keyrune
4 Jade Statue
Other Support or Synergies
1 Genju of the Spires
2 Cellar Door
2 Nightscape Familiar (regen + cheaper red spells)
2 Reassembling Skeleton
2 Shrine of Loyal Legions
3 Wirefly Hive
4 Spitemare
4 Rite of the Raging Storm
6 Twisted Abomination (regenerate through sweepers)
Off-colour support
0 Faerie Conclave
0 Treetop Village
0 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Genju of the Cedars
1 Hurricane
2 Golgari Charm
2 Necrogenesis
2 Savage Twister
2 Simoon
3 Goblin Trenches
3 Squirrel Nest
4 First Response
4 Skywise Teachings
5 Death Frenzy
5 Honden of Life’s Web
5 Leafdrake Roost
With some relative redundancy with functional reprints or close neighbours, it isn’t uncommon for this type of deck to lay down a turn 1 mana accelerator, into a turn 2 spell to search your library for land and have 5 mana available turn 3. Magical Christmas Land might look like this; turn 1, Forest, Arbor Elf. Turn 2, Forest, Wild Growth on other Forest, tap Forest for 2 mana, untap with Arbor Elf, tap again for total 4 mana, play Worn Powerstone and Elvish Mystic. With another land in hand, you have 9 mana on turn 3.
One challenge of this deck is getting the right mix of mana accelerators and threats. You can empty your hand of mana accelerating spells and have a boatload of mana, but nothing to spend it on. If you keep a hand with too many threats and not enough accelerators, it might take you too long to draw into your accelerants before your opponent overwhelms you. It’s a good idea for this deck to have some form of card draw; Harmonize in green, or splashing into blue for any number of spells, with River Hoopoe being a decent mana sink to keep you alive and draw spells in the mid game.
1 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
1 Arbor Elf
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Wild Growth
Other Accelerants
1 Greenseeker
1 Tinder Wall
2 Khalni Heart Expedition
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
Two mana accelerators
2 Devoted Druid
2 Druid of the Anima
2 Edge of Autumn
2 Explore
2 Fertile Ground
2 Gaea’s Touch
2 Gemhide Sliver
2 Golden Hind
2 Harvester Druid
2 Heart Warden
2 Kiora's Follower
2 Leaf Gilder
2 Manaweft Sliver
2 Orochi Sustainer
2 Overgrown Battlement
2 Priest of Titania
2 Quirion Elves
2 Quirion Explorer
2 Rampant Growth
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Servant of the Conduit
2 Summer Bloom
2 Sylvan Ranger
2 Sylvok Explorer
2 Ulvenwald Captive
2 Urborg Elf
2 Vine Trellis
2 Voyaging Satyr
2 Wall of Plants
2 Werebear
2 Whisperer of the Wilds
2 Wirewood Elf
3 Borderland Ranger
3 Civic Wayfinder
3 Cultivate
3 Farhaven Elf
3 Growth Spasm
3 Harrow
3 Kodama’s Reach
3 Krosan’s Tusker (cycled)
3 Search for Tomorrow
3 Yavimaya Elder
4 Explosive Vegetation
4 Oasis Ritualist
5 Urban Evolution
Artifacts
0 Everflowing Chalice
2 Azorius Signet (and friends)
2 Coldsteel Heart
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Guardian Idol
2 Mind Stone
2 Prismatic Lens
2 Talisman of Dominance (and friends)
3 Basalt Monolith
3 Palladium Myr
3 Unstable Obelisk
3 Worn Powerstone
4 Thran Dynamo
Big Creatures/Spells
4 Domesticated Hydra
5 Fleetfeather Cockatrice
5 Grizzly Fate
6 Deathless Behemoth
6 Dinrova Horror
6 Enlisted Wurm
6 Great Oak Guardian
6 Jetting Glasskite
6 Nessian Asp
6 Phyrexian Gargantuan
6 Scaled Behemoth
6 Skysnare Spider
7 Bane of Bala Ged
7 Pelakka Wurm
7 Plated Crusher
7 Roar of the Wurm
7 Sifter Wurm
7 Trostani’s Summoner
8 Breaker of Armies
8 Eldrazi Devastator
8 Ulmaog’s Crusher
8 Walker of the Grove
9 Artisan of Kozilek
2 River Hoopoe
2 Sprout Swarm
5 Centaur Glade
1x Fyndhorn Elves
1x Wall of Blossoms
1x Wall of Roots
1x Werebear
1x Eldrazi Skyspawner
1x Trygon Predator
1x Deathless Behemoth
1x Eldrazi Devastator
Artifact Creature
1x Galvanic Juggernaut
Artifact
1x Sphere of the Suns
1x Worn Powerstone
1x Serrated Arrows
Instant
1x Repulse
1x Careful Consideration
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Sleight of Hand
1x Channel
1x Edge of Autumn
1x Regrowth
1x Compulsive Research
1x Talrand's Invocation
1x Aether Mutation
1x Roar of the Wurm
Land
1x Desert
1x Opulent Palace
7x Island
8x Forest
1x Arcane Denial
1x Blazing Hellhound
1x Chimeric Idol
1x Darkthicket Wolf
1x Dismiss
1x Elixir of Immortality
1x Gnarled Scarhide
1x Gush
1x Jeskai Elder
1x Kazandu Refuge
1x Memory Lapse
1x Mnemonic Wall
1x Phyrexian War Beast
1x Sickening Dreams
1x Sunlance
1x Thieving Magpie
1x Vaporkin
1x Vivid Meadow
1x Wall of Tanglecord
1x Wind-Scarred Crag
When it comes to fatties, peasant is much more limited than regular cubes. This is simply because high impact cards that also protect themselves are hard to come by in peasant. With the exception of Plated Crusher and Scaled Behemoth, you can get big creatures, but they still die to the good 2 mana removal. The stuff that protects itself is often too small. It can make reanimation risky, but can be a blast when it works. Fatties can come from anywhere in the colour spectrum. Creatures that have high impact ETB triggers are among the better reanimation targets, as its effect can’t be undone with a single kill spell (e.g. Trostani’s Summoner). The list below includes some targets at 7+ mana; there are some targets you might want below this, but they should be driven by other archetypes.
The trickiest part is getting your chosen fatty into the graveyard. In black, there is some explicit support in Buried Alive. Ways to discard cards are available in all of the colours. Black offers discard cards that can target any player (i.e. including yourself) and other discard outlets. The cheapest among them are Putrid Imp and Raven’s Crime for the possibility of setting up a second turn reanimation spell. Blue offers plenty of card filtering spells and effects that allow you to draw into your target as well as discard it. Green has several similar options that allow you to dig into your deck for your target and discard what you don’t like; Commune With The Gods and Kruphix’s Insight can dig for something like Animate Dead while also dumping a fatty in the graveyard. Red has a couple of card filtering options, but Bloodrage Brawler is a good card for developing your board while filling your yard; facing down a 4/3 plus some other large creature on turn 3 or 4 is going to be daunting. White is the leanest of the bunch, with few ways outside of spellshapers to discard cards into your yard. Some cards can also cycle themselves into the graveyard, cutting out this middleman.
The final step is getting the creature from the graveyard into play. For this purpose, black has the most number of options when it comes to reanimation spells, and they are also the cheapest. The bigger the gap between getting the creature in play and when you could actually cast it, the bigger the advantage you get. White and green have a handful of reanimation spells if you want to provide some quirky support or push it in those colours, but due to their cost lean more towards general advantage as opposed to getting a creature out much earlier than usual.
Reanimation decks carry a lot of risk due to the lack of targets that can protect themselves from common removal. But with the right build and opening hand, it can be devastating, but inconsistent. Turn 1 Raven’s Crime into turn 2 Animate Dead on Trostani’s Summoner is going to be pretty difficult to come back from. The challenge can lie in putting together sufficient reanimation spells; they are good in almost any black-based midrange or control deck, so other players are also likely to want them.
Cross-pollination – The high cost creatures that you want to reanimate are probably also the same creatures that ramp decks want to get into play early. Dredge and self-mill decks also want to get targets in the graveyard, and some of those cards are effective in reanimator and vice versa. The reanimation spells are also generally good in many midrange and control decks.
1 Reanimate
2 Animate Dead
2 Dance of the Dead
2 Exhume
2 Life // Death
3 Necromancy
4 Diabolic Servitude
4 Zombify
5 Necromantic Summons
5 Unburial Rites
Other Colour Reanimation
3 Reincarnation
4 Breath of Life
4 False Defeat
4 Resurrection
5 Hymn of Rebirth
5 Miraculous Recovery
6 Grave Upheaval
Possible Reanimation Targets
5 Advanced Stitchwing (self-reanimate)
6 Scaled Behemoth
7 Archangel
7 Bane of Bala Ged
7 Krosan’s Tusker
7 Pelakka Wurm
7 Penumbra Wurm
7 Phyrexian Ingester
7 Plated Crusher
7 Seraph of the Suns
7 Trostani’s Summoner
8 Breaker of Armies
8 Eldrazi Devastator
8 Symbiotic Wurm
8 Ulamog’s Crusher
8 Walker of the Grove
11 Pathrazer of Ulamog
1 Blackmail
1 Despise
1 Funeral Charm
1 Ostracize
1 Pain // Suffering
1 Putrid Imp
1 Raven’s Crime
1 Skull Fracture
2 Miasmic Mummy
2 Sickening Dreams
2 Smallpox
2 Zombie Infestation
3 Buried Alive
3 Sibsig Icebreakers
Blue Discard
1 Careful Study
1 Aether Tide
1 Dakra Mystic
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Piracy Charm
2 Compulsion
2 Ideas Unbound
2 Merfolk Looter
2 Rites of Refusal
2 Strategic Planning
2 Taigam’s Scheming
2 Thought Courier
2 Waterfront Bouncer
3 Catalog
3 Compulsive Research
3 Flux
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Frantic Search
3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Borderland Ecplorer
2 Commune With The Gods
2 Mulch
2 Noose Constrictor
2 Rites of Spring
2 Satyr Wayfinder
2 Seek The Wilds
2 Tracker’s Instinct
3 Kruphix’s Insight
3 Scout the Borders
Red Discard
1 Faithless Looting
2 Bloodrage Brawler
2 Cathartic Reunion
2 Tormenting Voice
White Discard
2 Hypochondria
Other Discard
0 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Grisly Salvage
3 Psychatog
1x Enclave Cryptologist
1x Waterfront Bouncer
1x Eldrazi Skyspawner
1x Psychatog
1x Mnemonic Wall
1x Jetting Glasskite
1x Pelakka Wurm
1x Plated Crusher
Artifact Creature
1x Wall of Tanglecord
Instant
1x Snuff Out
1x Remand
1x Snap
1x Think Twice
1x Forbidden Alchemy
1x Frantic Search
1x Careful Study
1x Preordain
1x Serum Visions
1x Exhume
1x Compulsive Research
1x Unburial Rites
Enchantment
1x Animate Dead
1x Necromancy
Land
1x Cephalid Coliseum
1x Faerie Conclave
1x Jwar Isle Refuge
1x Stalking Stones
7x Island
6x Swamp
1x Barter in Blood
1x Butcher Ghoul
1x Carrier Thrall
1x Catacomb Sifter
1x Contagion
1x Elixir of Immortality
1x Fledgling Djinn
1x Gods Willing
1x Gush
1x Mutagenic Growth
1x Pestilence
1x Quickling
1x Roil's Retribution
1x Shadows of the Past
1x Stupor
1x Twisted Abomination
1x Unearth
1x Victimize
1x Fyndhorn Elves
1x Wall of Roots
1x Wild Mongrel
1x Anger
1x Pharika's Mender
1x Seismic Elemental
1x Shriekmaw
1x Bane of Bala Ged
1x Pelakka Wurm
Instant
1x Snuff Out
1x Darkblast
1x Grisly Salvage
1x Moment's Peace
Sorcery
1x Reanimate
1x Arc Trail
1x Commune with the Gods
1x Exhume
1x Tormenting Voice
1x Buried Alive
1x Unburial Rites
1x Roar of the Wurm
1x Dance of the Dead
1x Fires of Yavimaya
Land
1x Akoum Refuge
1x Mirrodin's Core
1x Nomad Outpost
1x Vivid Grove
1x Vivid Marsh
5x Swamp
2x Mountain
5x Forest
1x Acidic Soil
1x Aether Mutation
1x Azorius Charm
1x Catacomb Sifter
1x Desert
1x Frenzied Goblin
1x Frontier Bivouac
1x Graypelt Refuge
1x Harmonize
1x Intimidator Initiate
1x Murderous Cut
1x Reckless Charge
1x Shadows of the Past
1x Unearth
1x Victimize
1x Vivid Creek
1x Werebear
Tokens are in all colours, but White gets explicit support with Intangible Virtue, Phantom General, and Azorius card Aven Wing Guide, as well as having a number of great token generators.
Token decks can play an aggro role if they primarily include spells that put token directly onto the battlefield, or can play a control role with permanent token generators.
There are many more token creating cards than are listed here, but these are generally the higher profile ones, or those that could have some cross-pollination with other archetypes.
Illness in the Ranks is an explicit hate on this archetype. Red and blacks suite of sweepers (Pyroclasm, Infest) will also wipe out a lot of token strategies, so you may want to monitor their effectiveness against this archetype.
Cross-Pollination – Token decks often have a lot of crossover depending on the choice of token creators. Token creating spells can give the spells matters deck board presence while still triggering their spells matters cards. Plenty of tokens also gives more fuel for sacrifice strategies, and you can support this further with creatures that leave tokens behind when they die; cube owners may identify ‘token sacrifice’ as a supported archetype in a colour pair instead of two separate archetypes. A number of creature cards bring token friends with them, which can have use in blink / bounce strategies. Empty the Warrens has specific synergy with Storm. Many white cards that create tokens are flyers, giving support for Skies decks.
2 Intangible Virtue
4 Aven Wing Guide
4 Phantom General
Permanent Token Generators
0 Urza’s Factory
2 Call the Bloodline
2 Jade Mage
2 Korozda Guildmage
2 Krenko’s Command
2 Necrogenesis
2 Rakdos Guildmage
2 Selesnya Guildmage (serves both roles)
2 Shrine of Loyal Legions
2 Sprout Swarm
2 Steward of Solidarity
2 Sunhome Guildmage
2 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
2 Young Pyromancer (spells matter)
3 Crawling Sensation
3 Curse of Shallow Graves
3 Goblin Assault
3 Goblin Trenches
3 Goblinslide
3 Golgari Germination
3 Imperious Perfect
3 Squirrel Nest
3 Ulvenwald Mysteries
3 Wayfaring Temple
4 First Response
4 Null Caller
4 Skywise Teachings
4 Whirler Maker
5 Centaur Glade
5 Honden of Life’s Web
5 Leafdrake Roost
5 Rite of the Raging Storm
5 Stormfront Riders (bounce specific)
6 Nacatl War-Pride
Token Spells
0 Spawning Bed
1 Life // Death
2 Call of the Conclave
2 Dragon Fodder
2 Gather the Townsfolk
2 Raise the Alarm
2 Selesnya Charm
2 Supply // Demand
2 Vessel of Ephemera
3 Hordeling Outburst
3 Lingering Souls
3 Midnight Haunting
3 Timely Reinforcements
4 Battle Screech
4 Call to the Feast
4 Cenn’s Enlistment (also a generator)
4 Dance With Devils
4 Empty the Warrens (Storm)
4 Gisa's Bidding
4 Moan of the Unhallowed
4 Predator’s Howl
4 Talrand’s Invocation
5 Aether Mutation
5 Beast Attack
5 Bestial Menace
5 Grizzly Fate
5 Migratory Route
5 Reach of Branches
5 Savage Conception (also a generator)
5 Spider Spawning
5 Worm Harvest (also a generator)
6 Feudkiller’s Verdict
6 Rise of the Tides
6 Spectral Procession
6 Stir the Sands
6 Triplicate Spirits
7 Howl of the Night Pack
7 Roar of the Wurm
1 Flayer Husk
1 Sarcomancy
2 Mogg War Marshal
2 Nest Invader
3 Attended Knight
3 Catacomb Sifter
3 Eldrazi Skyspawner
3 Extricator of Sin
3 Glint-Sleeve Artisan
3 Wakedancer
3 Weaponcraft Enthusiast
4 Beetleback Chief
4 Drunua Corpse Trawler
4 Enlightened Maniac
4 Eyeless Watcher
4 Haunted Dead
4 Pack Guardian
4 Penumbra Spider
4 Visionary Augmenter
5 Belfry Spirit
5 Cloudgoat Ranger
6 Brood Monitor
7 Maul Splicer
7 Trostani’s Summoner
Leave a Friend
1 Blisterpod
1 Doomed Traveler
2 Brindle Shoat
2 Carrier Thrall
2 Ghoulcaller's Apprentice
3 Dauntless Cathar
3 Desperate Sentry
3 Elephant Guide
3 Griffin Guide
4 Mausoleum Guard
4 Nearheath Chaplain
6 Symbiotic Beast
8 Symbiotic Wurm
8 Walker of the Grove
Power Boosters
1 Goblin Bushwacker
2 Haze of Rage
2 Zealous Persecution
3 Army of Allah
3 Curse of Predation
3 Desperate Charge
3 Fortify
3 Gaea's Anthem
3 Inner-Flame Igniter
3 Path of Anger’s Flame
3 Pianna, Nomad Captain
3 Rally the Peasants
3 Righteous Charge
3 Soltari Champion
3 Thunderstaff
4 Akroan Phalanx
4 Ampryn Tactician
4 Goldnight Commander
4 Great Teacher’s Decree
4 Inspired Charge
4 Kabira Vindicator
4 Raider’s Spoils
4 Rush of Battle
4 War Flare
5 Jelenn Sphinx
5 Maw of the Obzedat
5 Overrun
5 Hit // Run
5 Resolute Blademaster
5 Swell of Courage
1 Quest for the Gravelord
2 Dreampod Druid (enchantment matters synergy)
2 Druid’s Deliverance
2 Sundering Growth
Description - Saboteurs generally refers to creatures that provide you some sort of bonus when they deal damage (often conditional on it being combat damage) to an opponent. For the purpose of this archetype, we are talking about cards that can repeatedly generate card advantage or have a strong impact on the board (The likes of Flamespeaker’s Will and Merfolk Spy are not invited to this party. I’ve also excluded creatures that give themselves +1/+1 counters from the list).
Blue is a common staple colour for this type of deck, with card draw perhaps being the thing most players think of when they think about saboteurs. The challenge is that to offset the repeat advantages they can gain, their stats compared to cost are not usually examples of efficiency; this means they are more likely to trade or just lose in combat.
The trick is to support them by providing them the means to ensure they don’t get blocked, with each color usually able to contribute something depending on how you want to build your cube. Blue can provide straight up unblockability, white can tap down or detain creatures, red has a variety of Falter effects, and black has removal. Green doesn’t provide any obvious support, but you can provide subtle support by changing up any pump spells you have for versions that have trample, like Predator’s Strike. With the right support, the card draw saboteurs can keep drawing you into spells like Undo or Stitched Mangler to keep your saboteurs getting through. It is outside the scope of this article to list cards that can help your saboteurs get through; just find whatever works that suits other elements of your cube.
While it is a less common approach, you can swap around the ways to support it; instead of creatures with saboteur abilities and spells that give them some form of evasion, you can play spells that grant the saboteur abilities and throw them on evasive creatures.
In a few cases, the effect doesn’t have the ‘combat’ condition, so if the creature can deal combat in some other way, you still get the trigger. A good example is Sigil of Sleep on something like Cunning Sparkmage to keep bouncing their best creature without threat of getting into combat.
Cross-pollination – Most of the cards you would look at including are not ‘all-in’ and can seamlessly be played in a number of other decks by just being good cards that get better with additional support. A traditional blue-based control deck will be happy to play a single Jhessian Thief while holding a counterspell wall to protect it or prevent threats from hitting the board. Tandem Lookout is fine in a Skies deck to start that Welkin Tern drawing cards on turn 3, or being paired with Gelectrode in a spells matter deck.
You get an extra reward here for getting saboteurs through, but all of the effects to help your team not be blocked are going to be wanted in other decks also.
3 Jhessian Thief
3 Lambholt Elder // Silverpelt Wolf
3 Neurok Commando
3 Stealer of Secrets
3 Tandem Lookout (non-combat)
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Lu Xun, Scholar General (non-combat)
4 Shoreline Salvager
4 Thassa’s Emissary
4 Thieving Magpie (non-combat)
5 Broodbirth Viper
Saboteur Creatures - Other
3 Avenging Druid (non-combat)
3 Hunting Cheetah (non-combat)
3 Hypnotic Specter
3 Mistblade Shinobi
3 Skirk Commando
4 Abyssal Specter
4 Blazing Specter
4 Blizzard Specter
4 Cabal Executioner
4 Centaur Rootcaster
4 Wei Night Raiders
5 Banshee of Dread Choir
5 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
5 Snapping Thragg
5 Throat Slitter
5 Woebearer
6 Rakdos Ringleader
1 Curiosity (non-combat)
1 One With Nature
1 Sigil of Sleep (non-combat)
1 Warrior’s Lesson
2 Hands of Binding
2 Mask of Memory
2 Mask of Riddles
2 Ongoing Investigation
2 Open Into Wonder
2 Rogue’s Gloves
2 Sleeper’s Robe
2 Specter’s Shroud
3 Arm With Aether
3 Ophidian Eye
3 Snake Umbra (non-combat)
4 Call of the Nightwing
4 Coastal Piracy
4 Helm of the Ghastlord
4 Last Thoughts
4 Mental Vapors
4 Midnight Recovery
5 Larceny
6 Pollenbright Wings
Additional elements are other permanents that trigger when things go to the graveyard, which are good signal cards for the archetype.
With all the creatures hitting your graveyard, ways to get multiple creatures back or recursion are also welcomed. Cards that are generally great in grindy Golgari value decks do great work here; Eternal Witness, Deadwood Treefolk, Death Denied and Victimise are good examples. Reassembling Skeleton is a poster child for the archetype.
Morbid cards also make good friends as they are often easier to trigger.
Decks are primarily black because it has options in most of the different elements; there are lots of options depending on how you want to push the archetype. Red can give you Goblin Bombardment, Hissing Iguanar, and Blazing Hellhound to finish off the opponent after an aggro introduction. Red also has temporary steal effects which get a little better in this deck; it’s a slap in the face to take an opponent’s creature, swing with it, and then sac it for some benefit before you have to give it back.
If your base is black, going white gives you Maw of the Obzedat in a colour full of tokens.
Cross-pollination – The different elements that make this deck work give it plenty of scope, and therefore easy to support some version of this deck without taking much away from your other archetypes. Has great synergy with any token strategies; cube owners may identify ‘token sacrifice’ as a supported archetype in a colour pair instead of two separate archetypes.
0 Diamond Valley
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Plagued Rusalka
1 Sidisi’s Faithful
1 Thoughtpicker Witch
1 Vampiric Rites
1 Viscera Seer
2 Bloodthrone Vampire
2 Bubbling Cauldron
2 Carnage Altar
2 Culling Dais
2 Fling
2 Disciple of Griselbrand
2 Gnawing Zombie
2 Goblin Bombardment
2 Hidden Stockpile
2 Makeshift Munitions
2 Qarsi Sadist
3 Angelic Purge
3 Blasting Station
3 Bloodflow Connoisseur
3 Bound by Moonsilver
3 Malevolent Awakening
3 Mind Slash
3 Nantuko Husk
3 Phyrexian Ghoul
3 Silumgar Sorcerer
3 Undercity Informer
3 Vampire Aristocrat
3 Voracious Null
4 Blazing Hellhound
5 Fallen Angel
5 Maw of the Obzedat
5 Rakshasa Gravecaller
7 Wretched Gryff
8 Abundant Maw
8 Laswheed Lurker
9 Drownyard Behemoth
0 Claws of Gix
1 Barrage of Expendables (if Goblin Bombardment redundancy required)
1 Bone Splinters
1 Drowned Rusalka
1 Scorched Rusalka
2 Spawning Pit
3 Gutless Ghoul
3 Phyrexian Broodlings
3 Ragamuffyn
4 Fodder Cannon
4 Skull Catapult
5 Blood Rites
5 Rescue From the Underworld
5 Silumgar Butcher
Good Sacrificial Lambs
4 Blind Hunter
5 Belfry Spirit
Other Support
1 Mortician Beetle
1 Quest for the Gravelord
1 Skullclamp
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
2 Blood Artist
2 Cauldron Haze
2 Ninth Bridge Patrol
2 Rot Shambler
2 Shadows of the Past
2 Zulaport Cutthroat (Blood Artist redundancy)
3 Bloodbriar
3 Bonepicker
3 Catacomb Sifter
3 Golgari Germination
3 Hissing Iguanar
3 Pawn of Ulamog
3 Rockslide Elemental
2 Murder Investigation
4 Deathreap Ritual
4 Diabolic Servitude
4 Falkenrath Noble
4 Field of Souls
4 Havengul Vampire
4 Scavenger Drake
5 Gristle Grinner
5 Murder of Crows
6 Rage Thrower
6 Ruthless Deathfang
4 Diabolic Servitude
1x Carrion Feeder
1x Scorched Rusalka
1x Stonewright
1x Blood Artist
1x Butcher Ghoul
1x Thrill-Kill Assassin
1x Cunning Sparkmage
1x Thopter Engineer
1x Beetleback Chief
1x Blazing Hellhound
Artifact Creature
1x Epochrasite
1x Galvanic Juggernaut
Artifact
1x Prismatic Lens
1x Disfigure
1x Undying Evil
Sorcery
1x Duress
1x Firebolt
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Tormenting Voice
1x Hordeling Outburst
1x Threaten
Enchantment
1x Vampiric Rites
1x Goblin Bombardment
Land
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Vivid Marsh
7x Swamp
8x Mountain
1x Bellowing Saddlebrute
1x Careful Study
1x Contagion
1x Dakmor Plague
1x Dryad Militant
1x Ghastly Demise
1x Gush
1x Journey to Nowhere
1x Lightning Mauler
1x Liliana's Specter
1x Manic Vandal
1x Moment's Peace
1x Pharika's Mender
1x Pillage
1x Reckless Charge
1x Talrand's Invocation
1x Tandem Lookout
1x Thieving Magpie
1x Vivid Meadow
1x Wind-Scarred Crag
1x Carrion Feeder
1x Ainok Survivalist
1x Blood Artist
1x Butcher Ghoul
1x Jade Mage
1x Satyr Wayfinder
1x Trophy Hunter
1x Phantom Centaur
1x Maw of the Obzedat
1x Trostani's Summoner
Artifact Creature
1x Epochrasite
1x Myr Sire
Artifact
1x Bubbling Cauldron
1x Mortarpod
Instant
1x Undying Evil
1x Predator's Howl
1x Victimize
1x Harmonize
1x Moan of the Unhallowed
Enchantment
1x Quest for the Gravelord
1x Curse of Predation
1x Lashknife Barrier
1x Squirrel Nest
Land
1x Nomad Outpost
1x Pendelhaven
1x Treetop Village
1x Vivid Grove
1x Vivid Marsh
3x Plains
5x Swamp
4x Forest
1x Acidic Soil
1x Aether Mutation
1x Battle Screech
1x Bloodfray Giant
1x Cenn's Tactician
1x Chimeric Idol
1x Disenchant
1x Elite Scaleguard
1x Flickerwisp
1x Galvanic Juggernaut
1x Intangible Virtue
1x Kor Hookmaster
1x Mystic Monastery
1x Pianna, Nomad Captain
1x Radiant, Archangel
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Test of Faith
You don’t need to include all 5 shrines, but players unfamiliar with your cube will probably expect it once they see their first one. Black is probably the worst, as once your opponents hand is empty it doesn’t really scale like the rest, although it can be ok on its own if it sticks in a control mirror.
Because players will probably be looking to play 4 or 5 of these, your cube needs to support fixing either in your green section or your land section.
If you want to add tutor / graveyard retrieval support, refer to the enchantment matters section.
Because none of the shrines have an impact the turn they hit play, a deck dedicated to playing them needs to be able to survive an aggro assault. The ability to do so will rely on the rest of your cube. It can make a shrine deck difficult to get off the ground, but once it does a win can become inevitable if the opponent doesn’t have enchantment removal. The prevalence of enchantment removal generally in your cube will also impact its viability.
Players might not draft a worthwhile shrine deck if more than 1 player are fighting for them. Similarly, if don’t draft your whole cube each draft, it is probably not worth supporting this archetype as it is less likely to come together.
Cross-pollination - The deck has synergy with enchantment matters themes, so you may want to include the ones in those colours, or only those that support other archetypes you are including in some way. Single shrines might have lower impact than similar effect, but might still have some worth in other decks; Cleansing Fire in life gain matters decks, Infinite Rage in pinger control, and Life’s Web in token decks. If you can survive taking a turn off to cast it, Seeing Winds can provide inevitability in control decks.
3 Honden of Infinite Rage
4 Honden of Cleansing Fire
4 Honden of Night’s Reach
5 Honden of Life’s Web
5 Honden of Seeing Winds
Most builds of this deck are aggro/control in nature by curving out with flying creatures and racing the opponent, possibly putting out blockers on the ground or otherwise answering threats once your evasive creatures are in full swing. If you choose to embrace black for this archetype, you get a couple of discard options to support the aggro/control route. Seraph of Dawn and Vampire Nighthawk are also excellent in a racing situation.
Cross-pollination – Flying creatures are always playable outside of this specific archetype, so you may only need a couple of archetype specific cards. White also has a lot of ways to generate flying tokens, and this deck can share a lot of cards with the token deck.
2 Favorable Winds
2 Soulcatcher
3 Sprite Noble
3 Warden of Evos Isle
4 Serra Aviary
4 Thunderclap Wyvern
5 Radiant, Archangel
Staple Flying Creatures – Blue
1 Cloudfin Raptor
1 Wingcrafter
2 Quickling
2 Vaporkin
2 Welkin Tern
3 Cloud Spirit
3 Pestermite
3 Rishadan Airship
3 Serendib Efreet
3 Skywinder Drake
3 Stormbound Geist
4 Mist Raven
4 Talrand’s Invocation
4 Thieving Magpie
5 Mulldrifter
5 Murder of Crows
6 Jetting Glasskite
Other Playable Flying Creatures – Blue
1 Flying Men
1 Zephyr Sprite
2 Cloudskate
3 Aerial Guide
3 Cheatyface
3 Illusionary Servant
3 Illusory Angel
3 Sea Drake
3 Silumgar Sorcerer
3 Spiketail Drakeling
3 Spined Thopter
3 Stitched Drake
4 Faerie Swarm (maybe)
4 Shimmering Glasskite
4 Voyager Drake
5 Peregrine Drake
5 Prescient Chimera
5 Riftwing Cloudskate
2 Mistral Charger
2 Kor Skyfisher
3 Aerial Responder
3 Lingering Souls
4 Seraph of Dawn
5 Cloudgoat Ranger (kinda)
5 Custodi Squire
5 Ornitharch
5 Serra Angel
6 Spectral Procession
6 Triplicate Spirits
Other Playable Flying Creatures – White
1 Aven Skirmisher
1 Kitesail Scout
1 Lantern Kami
1 Suntail Hawk
2 Leonin Skyhunter
2 Stormfront Pegasus
3 Aven Riftwatcher
3 Cloudchaser Kestrel
3 Emancipation Angel
3 Flickerwisp
3 Geist of the Moors
3 Midnight Haunting
3 Stonecloaker
4 Battle Screech
4 Celestial Crusader
4 Imperial Aerosaur
4 Voice of All
7 Archangel
Staple Flying Creatures – Black
2 Fledgling Djinn
2 Vampire interloper
3 Hypnotic Specter
3 Liliana’s Specter
3 Vampire Nighthawk
Other Playable Flying Creatures – Black
2 Basilica Screecher
2 Foul Imp
2 Skulking Ghost
2 Vault Skirge
3 Daggerclaw Imp
3 Ebon Drake
3 Foul Spirit
3 Necrogen Scudder
4 Keening Banshee
4 Vulturous Aven
4 Fallen Angel
5 Sengir Vampire
6 Noxious Dragon
1 Judge’s Familiar
2 Baleful Strix
2 Nimbus Swimmer
2 Tidehollow Strix
3 Arctic Aven
3 Kingpin’s Pet
3 Lyev Skyknight
3 Parasitic Strix
3 Skrieking Grotesque
4 Ascended Lawmage
4 Blind Hunter
4 Moroii
4 Skymark Roc
5 Jelenn Sphinx
5 Migratory Route
5 Sky Hussar
This archetype is dominated by red and blue, with red generally offering aggressive cards while blue gives you control oriented cards. Of course, there is no need to draft just red-blue for this archetype. The best way to provide fringe support in other colours is with buyback spells. Constant Mists with a Guttersnipe on the board can be a slow-rolling death machine; Sprout Swarm with a Young Pyromancer on the board will give you a massive army in no time. Rebound spells also give you two activations for each of your spells matters cards.
The various options can lead to many different types of decks, even switching speeds depending on the opening draw and how the game is unfolding. Turn 2 Young Pyromancer, Turn 3 Guttersnipe followed by a flurry of burn/removal can quickly end games. Or an early Augur of Bolas followed by a Quiet Contemplation could gum up the board until you draw into a critical mass of spells matter cards that will cripple your opponent each time you cast a spell.
There are some other cards that can support the theme, like cards that copy spells. Copied spells don’t trigger most of the spells matter cards (depending on whether they are cast or played), but something like Izzet Guildmage, get more value simply as a result of more spells being in the deck.
Cross-pollination - Some cards retrieve instants or sorceries from the graveyard, giving you some overlap with graveyard matters themes. Those graveyard themes can also put flashback cards into your graveyard, giving your spells matters permanents some fuel. The deck just wants good instants or sorceries, so wherever they exist in any other archetypes, they are likely to support this archetype also. Blends nicely into Pinger Control. Has good synergy with token generating spells, as it gives the deck board presence while also triggering its spells matter cards.
1 Spite of Mogis
2 Kiln Fiend
2 Recoup
2 Thermo-Alchemist
2 Young Pyromancer
3 Guttersnipe
3 Weaver of Lightning
4 Bloodfire Enforcers
4 Pyre Hound
4 Surreal Memoir
4 Warfire Javelineer
5 Anarchist
5 Fire Servant
Blue – Cares about instants/sorceries
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Augur of Bolas
2 Curious Homunculus
2 Merchant Scroll
2 Peer Through Depths
3 Call to Mind
3 Déjà vu
3 Eyes of the Watcher
3 Ingenious Skaab
3 Pieces of the Puzzle
3 Trail of Evidence
3 Uncovered Clues
4 Aberrant Researcher
4 Archaeomancer
4 Pull From The Deep
5 Mnemonic Wall
5 Prescient Chimera
5 Scrivener
6 Rise From the Tides
8 Vexing Scuttler
1 Blistercoil Weird
3 Bloodwater Entity
3 Enigma Drake
3 Gelectrode
3 Nivix Cyclops
3 Spellheart Chimera
3 Wee Dragonauts
4 Fluxcharger
4 Mercurial Geists
4 Mystic Retrieval
4 Mystical Teachings
5 Blaze Commando
5 Izzet Chronarch
6 Nucklavee
White – Cares About Noncreature
2 Jeskai Student
2 Seeker of the Way
4 Lotus-Eye Mystics
4 Student of Ojutai
5 Strongarm Monk
Blue – Cares About Noncreature
2 Elusive Spellfist
2 Umara Entangler
3 Quiet Contemplation
4 Mistfire Adept
4 Skywise Teachings
6 Riverwheel Aerialists
Red – Cares About Noncreature
1 Monastery Swiftspear
2 Sanguinary Mage
3 Goblinslide
2 Stormchaser Mage
6 Cunning Breezedancer
Buyback cards (buyback cost)
2 Constant Mists
2 Pegasus Stampede
3 Forbid
3 Mystic Speculation
4 Haze of Rage
4 Slaughter
5 Fanning the Flames
5 Sprout Swarm
6 Capsize
6 Whispers of the Muse
Rebound
1 Distortion Strike
1 Emerge Unscathed
3 Ojutai’s Breath
3 Staggershock
4 Great Teacher’s Decree
4 Sight Beyond Sight
Other Enablers/Support
2 Goblin Electromancer
2 Izzet Guildmage
2 Nivix Guildmage
3 Geistblast
1x Delver of Secrets
1x Enclave Cryptologist
1x Jeskai Elder
1x Vaporkin
1x Werebear
1x Young Pyromancer
1x Bounding Krasis
1x Frost Lynx
1x Guttersnipe
1x Trygon Predator
1x Flametongue Kavu
Instant
1x Arcane Denial
1x Mana Leak
1x Miscalculation
1x Think Twice
1x Psionic Blast
1x Prophetic Bolt
1x Chain Lightning
1x Gitaxian Probe
1x Ponder
1x Preordain
1x Serum Visions
Enchantment
1x Persuasion
Land
1x Gemstone Mine
1x Jungle Shrine
1x Mystic Monastery
1x Thornwood Falls
7x Island
3x Mountain
3x Forest
1x Cloudfin Raptor
1x Deep Analysis
1x Dismiss
1x Dryad Militant
1x Experiment One
1x Ghitu Encampment
1x Graypelt Refuge
1x Hellspark Elemental
1x Kor Sanctifiers
1x Mogis's Marauder
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Predator's Howl
1x Quickling
1x Regrowth
1x Stupor
1x Tandem Lookout
1x Tattermunge Maniac
1x Wonder
It probably takes a bit more skill than most decks to both draft the deck and to plan out your first few turns to aim towards that big turn. A rebounding Staggershock, into a Gataxian Probe, into Snap, into Seething Song, into Empty the Warrens on turn 4 is going to be hard to contend with.
Cross-pollination – The deck likes to play a lot of spells, so there is a fair amount of overlap with the spells matters archetype. Comboing out with a Guttersnipe on the board may just end the game. Many of the spells here are also happy to be in that deck, and a hybrid deck will work just as well.
2 Grapsehot
4 Empty the Warren
“Free” spells
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Gutshot
1 Mutagenic Growth
1 Noxious Revival
2 Burning-Tree Emissary
2 Cloud of Faeries
2 Snap
3 Frantic Search
3 Priest of Urabrask
5 Gush
5 Peregrine Drake
1 Rite of Flame
2 Desparate Ritual
2 Manamorphose
2 Pyretic Ritual
3 Seething Song
4 Inner Fire
Cheap Filters/Cantrips
0 Urza’s Bauble
1 Faithless Looting
1 Ponder
1 Preordrain
1 Serum Visions
2 Impulse
1 Flame Jab
2 Generator Servant
2 Sprout Swarm
3 Staggershock
A common issue with auras is that it is easy to be on the receiving end of a 2 for 1. One of the primary ways of avoiding this is to put them on creatures with hexproof. You can still be on the receiving end of a 2 for 1 from combat damage, but the majority of auras or equipment you put on your creatures also makes that difficult. While hexproof is preferred, there are some other options that have other upside that can make the risk of the 2 for 1 worth taking; mainly unblockable or shadow creatures, or double strikers. The deck is usually aggro in nature, dropping down cheap creatures and building a creature to a size not possible if you just played creatures on curve, forcing awkward combat decisions for your opponent.
Green and white is a common colour combination for this archetype, with both colours providing solid pants for creatures to wear, with some all-stars in multi-colour with Behemoth Sledge and Armadillo Cloak. White also has the double strikers for the deck. Blue gives you a few unblockable creatures, though its auras don’t offer a lot for this archetype. Blue gives you a few choice creatures with horsemanship that can also be useful in the archetype (not listed here).
It’s worth noting that you want your auras to be increasing the power of your Voltron creation, but you want to pay attention to the toughness too. If you focus more on double strikers or unblockable creatures this can be less of an issue, but for your hexproof creatures, you don’t want them to be wearing a handful of power boosting auras and still die if you run it into a 2-drop. Preferably, you want your auras to do something in addition to power or toughness; if you can’t play Akroma at peasant, why not build one?
Cross-pollination – Has some direct synergies with enchantment matters theme. Many individual card choices can have some specific synergies; Sylvok Lifestaff in sacrifice decks; Wreath of Geists, Exoskeletal Armor & Moldervine Cloak in graveyard matters decks; Blanchwood Armor in green ramp decks.
1 Gladecover Scout
2 Basaara Tower Archer
2 Silhana Ledgewalker
3 Sacred Wolf
4 Conifer Strider
4 Lumberknot
4 Primal Huntbeast
5 Rubbleback Rhino
Creatures with hexproof – blue
2 Invisible Stalker
4 Aven Fleetwing
4 Elguad Shieldmate
5 Whirlwind Adept
6 Belltoll Dragon
6 Benthic Giant
Unblockable creatures
1 Gudul Lurker
2 Elusive Spellfist
2 Infathom Infiltrator
2 Invisible Stalker
2 Jessian Infiltrator
3 Deathcult Rogue
3 Elusive Krasis
3 Latch Seeker
3 Marang River Prowler
3 Metathran Elite
3 Noggle Bandit
3 Phantom Warrior
4 Soulsworn Spirit
Power boosting equipment
0 Bone Saw
1 Adventurer’s Gear
1 Avacyn’s Collar
1 Bonesplitter
1 Civil Saber
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Leonin Scimitar
1 O-Naginata
1 Sai of the Shinobi
1 Shuko
1 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Trusty Machete
2 Hero’s Blade
2 No-Dachi
2 Tormentor’s Trident
2 Vulshok Morningstar
3 Behemoth Sledge
3 Grafted Wargear
3 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Vulshok Battlegear
1 Rancor
1 Wreath of Geists (graveyard matters synergy)
2 Exoskeletal Armor
3 Ancestral Mask
3 Blanchwood Armor
3 Boar Umbra
3 Elephant Guide
3 Moldervine Cloak
3 Vow of Wildness
4 Gaea’s Embrace
Power boosting auras – White
1 Glaring Aegis
2 Blessing
3 Empyrial Armor
3 Griffin Guide
3 Vow of Duty
4 Armored Ascension
4 Divine Transformation
4 Glacial Plating (with snow support)
4 Grasp of the Heiromancer
4 Holy Mantle
4 Sage’s Reverie
4 Serra’s Embrace
Power boosting auras – Blue
2 Spectral Flight
4 Auramancer’s Gaze
Doublestrikers
2 Fencing Ace
3 Aven Sunstriker
3 Ghostblade Eidolon
4 Marisi’s Twinclaws
3 Forbidden Lore
3 Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
Multicolour Support - Creatures
1 Slippery Bogle
4 Ascended Lawmage
Multicolour Support – Other
2 Favor of the Overbeing
3 Armadillo Cloak
3 Shield of the Oversoul
3 Sigil of the Nayan Gods
3 Steel of the Godhead
3 Unflinching Courage
For the purpose of this article, it is assumed you are NOT building an all-tribal cube. You won’t find something like Slivers listed here, because there will be zero synergy with other archetypes and no other decks will want those cards. When considering tribal support in a regular peasant cube, it is assumed this will be secondary to already established archetypes in your cube. You will probably find you’ve already got a bunch of cards for some tribes without even realising it. In those cases, it might be worth throwing them a lord or support card or two. It gives people another subtheme to draft around without diluting the other themes of your cube.
The below includes lists of creatures that you might consider playing in that tribe, and you may consider swapping out creatures for cards that serve the same function that align with a tribe. Generally, you should only do this if you aren’t sacrificing any power of the original card, or the power shift is marginal.
As most creatures have both a race and a class, they may fit more than one tribe that can be supported, opening up some cross-pollination across tribes. Drogskol Captain boosts spirits, but is also a soldier that can benefit from Daru Warchief for example. You probably shouldn’t force these interactions, but if doing so doesn’t undermine anything else you are trying to achieve, why not?
Cards are broken down into the following categories (if they apply) for all tribes;
Already Playable Lords/Support – Cards that are already good in their own right even if you don’t include other tribe cards in your cube. Sometimes this might be all you need. E.g. Imperious Perfect.
Playable Creatures – Stuff you might already be playing that fits the tribe. Cards in brackets are other stuff you might be playing that is almost identical but not in the tribe and you could make a swap.
Other Lords/Support– Cards that aren’t good in their own right, but can be ‘draft around’ cards if you have enough other cards of that tribe already in your cube.
Marginal Creatures – Stuff that might just be not good enough to make it into your cube, but might be worth considering if you have some support.
It probably bears pointing out that even if there are several lords or support listed that might look good, you probably only want one or two. An honourable mention also goes to Clone, which can copy the best creature on the battlefield, and occasionally that might be a tribal lord. Shapeshifters aren’t really worth investigating; they are all a bit lackluster if they are not being boosted, and +1/+1 doesn’t turn any of them into powerhouses.
You may be able to get allies to blend into a +1/+1 counter theme due to a number of them getting +1/+1 counters when they come into play, even without any other allies. There are also a few allies that support the life gain matters theme for some loose cross-pollination. There a few spells that create Ally tokens to trigger your allies, with Allied Reinforcements the most playable of those outside of Ally support.
2 Kazandu Blademaster
2 Zada’s Commando
3 Firemantle Mage
5 Resolute Blademaster
Playable Allies
1 Expedition Envoy
2 Skyrider Elf
2 Umara Entangler
2 Weapons Trainer
2 Zulaport Cutthroat
3 Drana’s Emmisary
4 Relief Captain
Other Lords/Support
1 Hada Freeblade
1 Stoneforge Acolyte
2 Akoum Battleslinger
2 Bokuja Brigand
2 Halimar Excavator
2 Highland Berserker
2 Kalastria Healer
2 Kor Bladewhirl
2 Ondu Cleric
2 Ondu War Cleric
2 Oran-Rief Survivalist
2 Akoum Flameseeker
3 Makindi Patrol
3 Tajuru Archer
3 Umara Raptor
4 Graypelt Hunter
4 Grovetender Druids
4 Joraga bard
4 Nimana Sell-Sword
4 Ondu Champion
4 Spawnbinder Mage
4 Tuktuk Scrapper
4 Zulaport Chainmage
5 Hagra Diabolist
5 Kor Entanglers
5 Malakir Soothsayer
5 Seacape Aerialist
5 Tajuru Warcaller
5 Tuktuk Grunts
6 Murasa Pyromancer
6 Tajujru Beastmaster
2 Coralhelm Guide
2 Serene Steward
3 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Bloodbond Vampire
4 Cliffhaven Vampire
4 Goblin Freerunner
5 Shatterskull Recruit
Ally Token Generators
4 Allied Reinforcements
4 Join the Ranks
4 Retreat to Emeria
4 Unified Front
0 None
Playable Clerics
1 Mother of Runes
2 Arashin Cleric
2 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Suture Priest
2 Syndic of Tithes
2 Temple Acolyte
2 War Priest of Thune
3 Banisher Priest
3 Drana’s Emissary
3 Fiend Hunter
3 Kor Sanctifiers
4 Goldnight Commander
5 Custodi Squire
0 Starlit Sanctum
2 Battlefield Medic
2 Daru Spiritualist
3 Cabal Archon
3 Edgewalker
3 Whipgrass Entangler
4 Akroma’s Devoted
4 Doubtless One
4 Profane Prayers
4 Vile Deacon
5 Daunting Defender
6 Shieldmage Elder
1 Anointer of Champions
1 Qarsi High Priest
2 Beloved Chaplain
2 Disciple of Griselbrand
2 Leonin Relic-Warder
2 Serene Steward
2 Underworld Coinsmith
3 Heliod’s Pilgrim
3 Monk Idealist
3 Priest of Gix
3 Priest of Urabrask
Priest of Titania is not efficient when played alone but not terrible. With 1 other Elf it becomes good, and ramp decks will be happy to have them work together.
If you are interested in black, you can go deep with options like Thornbow Archer, Shaman of the Pack, and Gnarlroot Trapper. You can even provide it some sweeper support with Eyeblight Massacre.
3 Imperious Perfect
Playable Elves
1 Arbor Elf
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Sunblade Elf
1 Twinblade Slasher
2 Devoted Druid
2 Korozda Guildmage
2 Selesnya Guildmage
2 Thornweald Archer (Ambush Viper)
2 Zameck Guildmage
3 Civic Wayfinder (Borderland Ranger)
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
3 Wood Elves
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Masked Admirers
7 Trostani’s Summoner
2 Dwynen’s Elite
2 Elvish Vanguard
2 Priest of Titania
2 Wellwisher
3 Elvish Branchbender
3 Jagged-Scar Archers
3 Shaman of the Pack
3 Timberwatch Elf
4 Elvish Promenade
4 Lys Alana Huntmaster
Marginal
1 Gladecover Scout
1 Gnarlroot Trapper
1 Nettle Sentinel
2 Golgari Guildmage
3 Primal Forcemage
3 Yeva’s Forcemage
4 Drove of Elves
Due to the parasitic nature of Goblins, not all possible Lord/Support cards are listed; only permanents or spells that still do something if you don’t have any other goblins.
Given that most of the playable goblins are in red, it’s a shame Mad Auntie is black; if it was red it would probably be the pick of the bunch. Goblin General is probably your next best anthem effect, though terrible on its own as a 2/2 attacker for 3 mana. Sparksmith is probably the best creature that cares about goblins, because it is good enough on its own and can become a powerhouse if you have more goblins. Goblin Taskmaster might be another consideration; it isn’t setting any records for efficiency, but gets a little better once other goblins join the fray.
0 None
Playable Goblins
1 Foundry Street Denzien
1 Frenzied Goblin
1 Goblin Arsonist
1 Goblin Bushwacker
1 Shambling Goblin
1 Tattermunge Maniac
2 Dragon Fodder
2 Krenko’s Command
2 Goblin Electromancer
2 Goblin Shortcutter
2 Goblin Wardriver
2 Mogg War Marshal
2 Stingscourger
3 Boggar Ram-Gang
3 Goblin Trenches
3 Guttersnipe
3 Hordeling Outburst
3 Hungry Spriggan
3 Spikeshot Goblin
4 Beetleback Chief
4 Goblin Heelcutter
4 Murderous Redcap
0 Goblin Burrows
1 Facevaulter
1 Goblin Chirurgeon
1 Goblin Lackey
1 Goblin Sledder
1 Goblin Soothsayer
1 Goblin Taskmaster
1 Mogg Raider
1 Skirk Prospector
2 Earthblighter
2 Frogtosser Banneret
2 Goblin Lookout
2 Goblin Recruiter
2 Goblin Turncoat
2 Skirk Drill Sergeant
2 Sparksmith
3 Arms Dealer
3 Auntie’s Snitch
3 Boggart Harbinger
3 Goblin General
3 Goblin Matron
3 Goblin Warchief
3 Mad Auntie
4 Caterwauling Boggart
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Marsh Flitter
4 Reckless One
5 Warren Pilferers
1 Goblin Fireslinger
1 Goblin Patrol
2 Mardu Scout
4 Horde of Boggarts
At peasant, very few of the cards that care about humans are worth considering. Innistrad brings equipment that cares if it was equipped to a human, but you’d rather just have better equipment.
Most of the other options just have better alternatives that care about everything, not just Humans. Village Cannibals may as well just be Scavenging Drake for example. If you want to give humans any support, Hamlet Captain is probably your best option, Courageous Outrider doesn't have a bad fail case, and Kessig Malcontents is a runner up. Hamlet Captain on its own is just a bear, but the anthem effect may be worth it. Kessig’s baseline is not great, but has good potential upside. Before their inclusion, check your cube and make sure you have enough humans available in at least that colour, and it would slot into at least one deck that you are supporting that includes that colour.
It's probably also worth noting that a lot of older cards have errata for creature types, so you may want to consider which version of cards you are playing and what their current errata is. Cards listed below are as per errata.
[cards=Human Cards]Already Playable Lords/Support
0 None
Playable Humans
1 Boros Elite
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Doomed Traveler
1 Dragon Hunter
1 Elite Vanguard
1 Experiment One
1 Gideon’s Lawkeeper
1 Mardu Woe-Reaper
1 Monastery Swiftspear
1 Mother of Runes
1 Stonewright
1 Tormented Hero
1 Wingcrafter
2 Accorder Paladin
2 Azorius Arrester
2 Borderland Marauder
2 Burning-Tree Emissary
2 Daring Skyjek
2 Keldon Marauders
2 Omenspeaker
2 Seeker of the Way
2 Syndic of Tithes
2 Young Pyromancer
3 Aether Adept
3 Banisher Priest
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fiend Hunter
3 Master of Diversion
3 Pianna, Nomad Captain
3 Sea Gate Oracle
3 Splatter Thug
4 Keldon Champion
4 Nekrataal
Other Lords/Support
2 Cavalry Pegasus
2 Hamlet Captain
2 Skirsdag Flayer
3 Devout Chaplain
3 Elder Cathar
3 Kessig Malcontents
3 Rot Ringleader
3 Village Cannibals
4 Courageous Outrider
4 Vigilante Justice[/cards]
5 Cloudgoat Ranger
Playable Kithkin
1 Cenn’s Tactician
1 Goldmeadow Harrier (Gideon’s Lawkeeper)
2 Knight of Meadowgrain
2 Mistmeadow Witch (bounce / blink)
4 Cenn’s Enlistment
2 Ballyrush Banneret
3 Kithkin Mourncaller
3 Wizened Cenn
Marginal Kithkin
3 Ballynock Cohort
4 Kinsbaile Balloonist
4 Kitkin Rabble
It’s more likely that Sosuke would make the cut on the basis of his ability to support Warriors, and that any benefit he gives to snakes is just a happy coincidence.
0 None
Playable Snakes
1 Wasteland Viper
2 Ambush Viper
2 Mire Boa
2 River Boa
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Lorescale Coatl
4 Ukud Cobra
5 Nessian Asp
6 Nemesis of Mortals
3 Sosuke’s Summons
4 Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
4 Sosuke, Son of Seshiro
Marginal Snakes
2 Coiling Oracle
4 Voracious Cobra
1 Cenn’s Tactician
Playable Soldiers
1 Boros Elite
1 Doomed Traveler
1 Dryad Militant
1 Elite Vanguard
1 Gideon’s Lawkeeper
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Icatian Javelineers
1 Veteran Explorer
2 Azorius Arrester
2 Dauthi Slayer
2 Firefist Striker
2 Kor Skyfisher
2 Loyal Cathar
2 Raise the Alarm
2 Soltari Trooper
2 Sunhome Guildmage
3 Aven Riftwatcher
3 Goblin Trenches
3 Kor Hookmaster
3 Porcelain Legionnaire
3 Soltari Champion
3 Timely Reinforcements
4 Cenn’s Enlistment
5 Cloudgoat Ranger
0 Daru Encampment
2 Ballyrush Banneret
2 Catapult Squad
2 Icatian Lieutenant
2 Veteran Armorsmith
3 Pearlspear Courier
3 Veteran Swordsmith
4 Aysen Crusader (errata)
4 Daru Warchief
4 Enlistment Officer
4 Rhox Pikemaster
Marginal Soldiers
1 Favored Hoplite
2 Ajani’s Pridemate
2 Fencing Ace (pants archetype)
2 Veteran Armorer
3 Archetype of Courage
3 Basilica Guards (extort)
3 Even the Odds
3 Viashino Firstblade
3 Yotian Soldier
4 Auriok Salvagers (artifact matters)
4 Heavy Ballista
Cards with soulshift are also costed for an environment full of cards you can get back, and are not efficient in a peasant cube environment.
Of the options available, the most promising is Drogskol Captain. In a vacuum there are more efficient creatures, but a 2/2 flyer for 3 mana is ‘fair’. Alongside some of the token producers which many cubes include, it can produce a formidable air assault, and potentially augment a ‘Skies’ archetype if you have it.
0 None
Playable Spirits
1 Doomed Traveler
1 Plagued Rusalka
2 Strangleroot Geist
3 Carven Caryatid
3 Cloud Spirit
3 Latch Seeker
3 Lingering Souls
3 Midnight Haunting
3 Stormbound Geist
4 Keening Banshee
5 Custodi Squire
6 Howlgeist
6 Jetting Glasskite
6 Spectral Procession
6 Triplicate Spirits
3 Drogskol Captain
3 Nebelgast Herald
3 Thief of Hope
5 Battelground Geist
5 Gallows Warden
5 Hikari, Twilight Guardian
5 Teller of Tales
Marginal Spirits
1 Drowned Ancestor
1 Drowned Rusalka
1 Lantern Kami
1 Scorched Rusalka
2 Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch
2 Skulking Ghost
3 Fettergeist
3 Geist of the Moors
3 Niblis of the Mist
3 Sky Spirit
3 Souls of the Faultless
3 Thunder Spirit
4 Flickering Spirit
4 Mausoleum Guard
5 Belfry Spirit
5 Haunter of Nightveil
5 Revenant (graveyard matters)
6 Phantom Wurm
Chief of the Edge and Chief of the Scale have at least ok stats when they stand alone, but can be an option if you want to go deeper on supporting this tribe. As they are gold cards, if you include them it is a clear signal your players should be able to draft a decent Warrior subtheme in black and white, so make sure you have enough Warriors in those colours across the curve. Luckily most of those cards already support an aggro approach, so they work towards the same goal.
1 Mardu Woe-Reaper
2 Blood-Chin Rager
Playable Warriors
1 Dragon Hunter
1 Foundry Street Denizen
1 Goblin Bushwacker
1 Sunblade Elf
1 Tattermunge Maniac
1 Tormented Hero
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Wild Nacatl
2 Borderland Marauder
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Goblin Wardriver
2 Gore-House Chainwalker
2 Keldon Marauders
2 Mardu Skullhunter
2 Mogg War Marshal
2 Nezumi Cutthroat
2 Reassmebling Skeleton
2 Seeker of the Way
2 Stingscourger
3 Ashenmoor Gouger
3 Blood Ogre
3 Boggart Ram-Gang
3 Civic Wayfinder (Borderland Ranger)
3 Fanatic of Xenagos
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Hungry Spriggan
3 Imperious Perfect (also makes Warrior tokens)
3 Ogre Marauder
3 Qal Sisma Behemoth
3 Splatter Thug
3 Wolfir Avenger
4 Beetleback Chief
4 Viscera Dragger
5 Cloudgoat Ranger
6 Markov Warlord
2 Bramblewood Paragon
2 Brighthearth Banneret
2 Chief of the Edge
2 Chief of the Scale
2 Herald of Dromoka
4 Aysen Crusader (errata)
4 Raiders’ Spoils
4 Sosuke, Son of Seshiro
7 Boldwyr Intimidator
Marginal
1 Aven Skirmisher (Lantern Kami, Suntail Hawk)
1 Disowned Ancestor
1 Goblin Fireslinger
1 Nettle Sentinel
1 Twinblade Slasher
2 Battle Brawler
2 Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
2 Erg Raiders
2 Golgari Thug
2 Heir of the Wilds
2 Kolaghan Aspirant
2 Kruin Striker
3 Mardu Hordechief
3 Phantom Warrior
4 Bellowing Saddlebrute
4 Timely Hordemate
6 Nacatl War-Pride
0 None
Playable Zombies
1 Carnophage
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Shambling Goblin
2 Blind Creeper
2 Putrid Leech
2 Spiteful Returned
2 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Wight of Precinct Six
2 Wretched Anurid
3 Curse of Shallow Graves
3 Dead Reveler
3 Dreg Mangler
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Stitched Drake
4 Skinrender
4 Viscera Dragger
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
6 Twisted Abomination
7 Gurmag Angler
2 Binding Mummy
2 Mummy Paramount
2 Shepherd of Rot
2 Wayward Servant
3 Diregraf Captain
3 In Oketra's Name
3 Lord of the Accursed
3 Unconventional Tactics
3 Unraveling Mummy
3 Zombie Master
4 Accursed Horde
4 Deathmark Prelate
4 Soulless One
4 Undead Warchief
4 Zombie Trailblazer
5 Noxious Ghoul
5 Rakshasa Gravecaller
6 Gempalm Polluter
1 Putrid Imp
2 Gnawing Zombie
2 Rakdos Guildmage
3 Grim Guardian (Orzhov enchantments)
3 Sedaxris Alchemist
3 Shambling Shell (graveyard matters)
3 Wakedancer
4 Abattoir Ghoul
4 Gravedigger
4 Moan of the Unhallowed
5 Corpse Connoisseur
5 Silmungar Butcher
6 Grixis Slavedriver
6 Maalfeld Twins
6 Skaab Goliath
6 Stir the Sands
It doesn’t mean you can’t support vampire tribal, but you may need to make some conscious decisions to include more marginal vampires in red. The likely candidates for lords are Rakish Heir and Stromkirk Captain, offering the biggest payoffs.
0 None
Already Playable Vampires
1 Insolent Neonate
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Viscera Seer
2 Blood Artist
2 Carrier Thrall
2 Child of Night
2 Heir of Falkenrath
2 Olivia’s Bloodsworn
2 Vampire Hexmage
2 Vampire Interloper
3 Bloodbairn (Nantuko Husk swap)
3 Drana’s Emissary
3 Vampire Aristocrat (Nantuko Husk swap)
3 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Falkenrath Noble
4 Null Caller
1 Indulgent Aristocrat
2 Feast of Blood
2 Urge to Feed
2 Vampiric Fury
3 Chosen of Markov
3 Rakish Heir
3 Stensia Masquerade
3 Stromkirk Captain
4 Stromkirk Mentor
Marginal Vampires
1 Guul Draz Vampire
1 Shadow Alley Denizen
2 Blood Seeker
2 Bloodcrazed Neonate
2 Bloodthrone Vampire
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Falkenrath Exterminator
2 Tithe Drinker
3 Arrogant Bloodlord
3 Bloodmad Vampire
3 Crossway Vampire
3 Erdwal Ripper
3 Markov Patrician
3 Nirkana Cutthroat
3 Pawn of Ulamog
4 Bloodbond Vampire
4 Cliffhaven Vampire
4 Havengul Vampire
4 Moroii
4 Voldaren Duelist
5 Incorrigible Youths
5 Sengir Vampire
6 Markov Warlord
The following tribes are not currently considered viable to spend effort supporting in the context of a standard cube.
Slivers – They all work well together, but you are either all in or not. The deck is too parasitic for inclusion in a regular peasant cube looking for cross-synergies.
Faeries – There isn’t the critical mass of playable Faeries to worry about, and the cards that care about Faeries (e.g. Faerie Noble) are too weak to consider.
Shaman – Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro and Bosk Banneret are the only notables here, and don’t do enough to warrant inclusion.
Merfolk – Merfolk is almost an all or nothing deal. Many of the abilities that care about merfolk need to exist altogether to get the critical mass to make them work for you. Possible exception is Summon the School, but you still need to find the critical mass of just playable merfolk to make it work.
Cats – Nothing to see here folks.
Minotaurs – There are a number of playable minotaurs, but there is neither the critical mass, nor sufficiently good tribal cards to matter.
Rebels – There aren’t enough good rebels to find with the rebels that tutor.
Knights – No lords at Peasant.
Dwarves – Only 2 cards that care about Dwarves at peasant, and very few playable Dwarves.
Rogues – There are some playable Rogues scattered in cubes, but only marginal support that is not worth pursuing.
Consider this a bonus section; this is not about full on combo decks, but a collection of 2-3 cards that have significant synergy such that they either win immediately, provide the caster a massive board advantage that will be extremely difficult for the opponent to overcome, or provide a close to unbreakable lock if you are already in front.
It isn’t suggested to go out of your way to push these combos, but if you have parts of the combo already in your cube, or they will be playable outside of the specific combo, then they might be worth investigating.
Familiar’s Ruse + Eternal Witness – Eternal Witness is already a staple. As a baseline, Familiar’s Ruse has a reasonable drawback as a counterspell, but you can bounce Eternal Witness, replay it to get back Familiar’s Ruse, repeat. It can be disrupted, but without an answer you will quickly overwhelm your opponent, Familiar’s Ruse can still be ok in a bounce deck without Witness. Adding Aether Vial helps make this soft lock more efficient.
Presence of Gond + Midnight Guard – Enchant Midnight Guard with Presence of Gond. Tap Midnight Guard to put an Elf onto the battlefield, his untap ability will trigger, repeat for infinite Elves. Can be disrupted with removal while you are waiting for the untap trigger to resolve or a board sweeper, but without an answer, you win the next turn. Probably the biggest issue with the combo is that neither piece is particularly good on its own.
Mind Crank + Duskmantle Guildmage – With both of these on the board, it costs 3 mana to get the combo going if you have another damage source, or 7 mana if you rely on just the two combo cards. Once the first ability of the Guildmage is activated, damage dealt or life loss to the opponent will trigger the Mindcrank; when it resolves, it will trigger the Guildmages ability, repeat until opponent is either decked or reaches 0. This combo suffers from the Mindcrank generally being useless outside of this combo, and the Guildmage is a pretty inefficient form of life loss on its own.
Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek – It isn’t an infinite combo, but being able to pay 1 mana for a 1/1 flying creature while gaining life is probably going to be hard for an opponent to break through.
Spitemare + Fire Covenant - As long as you have more life than your opponent, this is an instant win (barring your opponent burning you for the last few points before the Spitemare trigger resolves). Mogg Maniac does the same, but there is little sense in playing a poor version when Spitemare is available.
Devoted Druid + Quillspike - It can be disrupted while triggers are on the stack, but you get an infinitely large creature. It forces blocking or they die, and you can kill anything it runs into (or runs into it should you be on defense). Add some trample or evasion and you are laughing. Quillspike on its own isn't very good, though it does some good work with persist creatures.
Juniper Order Ranger + Persist creature - The two cards on their own are a grindy recursion engine while also building a large Ranger. If you add a sacrifice outlet, preferably free, then things can get silly. With a Goblin Bombardment on the board Murderous Redcap becomes an instant kill, and Kitchen Finks becomes an infinite life total plus an infinitely large Ranger.
Leonin Relic-Warder + Animate Dead / Dance of the Dead - You need a third piece, but this creates infinite 'enter the battlefield' or 'dies' triggers. Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble or Hissing Iguanar are the most prominent and will get you an instant kill.
Cytoplast Root-Kin + Ashnod's Altar + Undying Creature - Sacrifice undying creature to Ashnod's Altar, it comes back with a +1/+1 counter. Use the 2 mana to move the counter on to the Cytoplast. Repeat for infinitely large Root-Kin.
Eternal Witness + Ghostly Flicker - On their own, these two are more synergy than combo, allowing you to flicker out Eternal Witness and then get Ghostly Flicker back with its trigger. But if you combine with Peregrine Drake, it also creates infinite mana (which may let you repeatedly flicker other value creatures).
Become Immense + Temur Battle Rage - It's not so much a combo as excellent synergy together. If you've taken several points of your opponents life total already, casting these on even small creatures can potentially be lethal.
There are sure to be a few errors, so feel free to let me know. Of course if any archetypes appear to be missing, let me know. Some of the entries may require a little more attention; if something doesn't appear to be explained well enough, feel free to submit some recommended edits.
Also, submit decklists! Preferably with a paragraph explaining what the deck does and how it all comes together.
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
Squirrely, I've added most of those, do you want add a paragraph about each as well? I could, but they are your decks and it would be my interpretation.
I didn't add UB Tempo, UW Control, or White Weenie as I didn't have those as archetypes. The initial intention was to include the generic theaters, but it didn't work out. If we want to add them, I feel like they'd have to be listed as colour pairs and would add a lot of extra 'archetypes'. I'll leave it to the community to sound off on whether this might provide value.
For the 'already playable' I went with stuff you would play with zero other support. Blood-Chin Rager is a good example that fits this criteria. I don't think I'd play Bramblewood Paragon with zero warrior support, but maybe it could make it into some cubes as a +1/+1 card anyway. It's probably worth considering for cubes that have a little bit of warrior support and a few +1/+1 creatures / effects.
Added!
Some more cards for specific archetypes:
+1/+1 Counters: Travel Preparations
Creature Recursion: Haunted Crossroads
Forced Attacks: Lust for War
Life Gain Matters: Survival Cache
Orzhov Enchantments: Blood-Cursed Knight
Pingers: Gorgon's Head and Gorgon Flail
Ramp: Voyaging Satyr and Kiora's Follower
Sacrifice: Golgari Germination and Deathreap Ritual, Gurmag Drowner
My Type 4 stack (Cube Tutor link)
If you're including Longshot Squad in your list of cards that care about +1/+1 counters, you probably also want Abzan Falconer and Tuskguard Captain. You may also want Ulvenwald Bear in the Distributes/Provides +1/+1 counters category. I'm not sure if Strangleroot Geist also belongs on the list somewhere.
CubeTutor: www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/72
Thread: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=512410
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Leonion Relic-Warder + Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead - Infinite EtB/Death triggers.
Ashnod's Altar + Cytoplast Rootkin + Undying Creature of your choice - one big Rootkin.
Eternal Witness + Ghostly Flicker + Peregrine Drake - Infinite mana.
Victimize + Archaeomancer + Eternal Witness + Composite Golem - Infinite mana. (A long shot!)
Edit:
For Land Destruction - Goblin Settlers
For 'Lands Matter' - Sunstone
For Pingers - Mask of Memory, Curiosity
For Sacrifice/Tokens - Life//Death, Cauldron Haze
@Effervesce
I didn't add the last combo as you then need a fifth card to take advantage of the infinite mana. Mask of Memory is only combat damage, so I didn't add that to the Pinger entry.
Grim Guardian should also be in the enchantment matters theme list. It fits really well into a control-ish BW deck with cards like Blightcaster, Underworld Coinsmith, Pillory of the Sleepless and the white enchantment removal.
I'm just starting to update with the last couple of sets. Just reworked the colorless matters entry, and added Allies to the tribal section. Most of the rest is just adding a few cards to the list, but I also need to rework the artifact section.
I also think it might be worth adding a saboteurs section.
Madness - I'm not sold on it being great, but it is possible to support.
Vampire Tribal - Same as above; there might be enough playable vampires that you might be willing to throw it a lord.
Saboteurs - You can include some of these cards without calling it an archetype, but you can push it a little harder if you want.
The entry I still haven't really figured out or am happy with yet is 'artifact matters'. There are lots of cards that care about artifacts, but I haven't poured over them to actually provide any guidance on how you might actually support it in cube. Some of the repeat investigate cards are perhaps among the better enablers, but there isn't much else in green. I'll keep thinking.
I should probably say this is no longer 'beta'. The intention was to have deck lists for each of the archetypes, but I just don't have time to go searching for them. If anyone wants to suggest any from their cubes and post them here, I'd be happy to add them.
Here's a couple of decklists from my cube for the archetypes I support:
1x Cenn's Tactician
1x Goblin Glory Chaser
1x Gore-House Chainwalker
1x Nyx-Fleece Ram
1x Stormblood Berserker
1x Wall of Omens
1x War-Name Aspirant
1x Abzan Falconer
1x Acolyte of the Inferno
1x Pyreheart Wolf
1x Abzan Battle Priest
1x Bloodfray Giant
1x War Oracle
1x Elite Scaleguard
1x Bonesplitter
1x Contagion Clasp
Instant
1x Feat of Resistance
1x Otherworldly Journey
1x Test of Faith
Sorcery
1x Firebolt
1x Shoulder to Shoulder
1x Tezzeret's Gambit
1x Oblivion Ring
Land
9x Plains
8x Mountain
1x Experiment One
1x Cloistered Youth
1x Consul's Lieutenant
1x Jade Mage
1x Leafcrown Dryad
1x Strangleroot Geist
1x Undercity Troll
1x Abzan Falconer
1x Crocanura
1x Trophy Hunter
1x Abzan Battle Priest
1x Blastoderm
1x Cytoplast Root-Kin
1x Temur Sabertooth
1x Elite Scaleguard
1x Nessian Asp
1x Deadwood Treefolk
1x Feat of Resistance
1x Otherworldly Journey
Sorcery
1x Tezzeret's Gambit
Enchantment
1x Temporal Isolation
1x Banishing Light
1x Curse of Predation
Land
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Temple Garden
1x Treetop Village
1x Vivid Grove
8x Plains
5x Forest
1x Errant Ephemeron
1x Looter il-Kor
1x Psychatog
1x Twisted Abomination
1x Pelakka Wurm
1x Trostani's Summoner
1x Ulamog's Crusher
Artifact Creature
1x Epochrasite
Instant
1x Go for the Throat
1x Ultimate Price
1x Frantic Search
1x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Condescend
1x Mirror Match
1x Ponder
1x Preordain
1x Exhume
1x Compulsive Research
1x Victimize
1x Deep Analysis
1x Treasure Cruise
Enchantment
1x Dance of the Dead
1x Necromancy
1x Crumbling Necropolis
1x Faerie Conclave
7x Island
8x Swamp
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Hypnotic Specter
1x Phyrexian Rager
1x Beetleback Chief
1x Corpse Augur
1x Twisted Abomination
1x Gurmag Angler
Artifact
1x Elixir of Immortality
1x Go for the Throat
1x Searing Blaze
1x Fire Covenant
1x Staggershock
1x Snuff Out
1x Stoke the Flames
Sorcery
1x Faithless Looting
1x Flame Slash
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Pyroclasm
1x Read the Bones
1x Barter in Blood
1x Slice and Dice
1x Diabolic Servitude
1x Rite of the Raging Storm
Land
1x Nomad Outpost
7x Swamp
9x Mountain
1x Carrion Feeder
1x Mother of Runes
1x Nyx-Fleece Ram
1x Raise the Alarm
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Wight of Precinct Six
1x Nantuko Husk
1x Falkenrath Noble
1x Marsh Flitter
1x Vulturous Aven
1x Cloudgoat Ranger
1x Maw of the Obzedat
1x Sentinel of the Eternal Watch
1x Epochrasite
Artifact
1x Elixir of Immortality
Instant
1x Murderous Cut
Sorcery
1x Sunlance
1x Lingering Souls
1x Barter in Blood
Enchantment
1x Quest for the Gravelord
1x Vampiric Rites
1x Intangible Virtue
1x Temporal Isolation
1x Godless Shrine
1x Nomad Outpost
1x Vivid Marsh
6x Plains
8x Swamp
1x Cloudfin Raptor
1x Goldmeadow Harrier
1x Kor Skyfisher
1x Mistral Charger
1x Nyx-Fleece Ram
1x Omenspeaker
1x Raise the Alarm
1x Vaporkin
1x Welkin Tern
1x Eldrazi Skyspawner
1x Illusory Angel
1x Spectral Procession
1x Talrand's Invocation
1x Thunderclap Wyvern
1x Radiant, Archangel
1x Spined Thopter
Instant
1x Path to Exile
1x Miscalculation
1x Remand
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Gush
Enchantment
1x Temporal Isolation
1x Banishing Light
Land
1x Faerie Conclave
1x Mystic Monastery
1x Seaside Citadel
9x Plains
5x Island
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
1x Accorder Paladin
1x Nest Invader
1x Attended Knight
1x Imperious Perfect
1x Pianna, Nomad Captain
1x Seed Guardian
1x Ornitharch
1x Trostani's Summoner
Artifact
1x Boros Signet
1x Selesnya Signet
1x Vulshok Morningstar
1x Behemoth Sledge
1x Condemn
1x Harm's Way
1x Path to Exile
1x Boros Charm
1x Raise the Alarm
1x Sundering Growth
Sorcery
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Spectral Procession
Enchantment
1x Goblin Bombardment
1x Intangible Virtue
Land
1x Boros Garrison
1x Gruul Turf
1x Jungle Shrine
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Spawning Bed
1x Vivid Grove
1x Wind-Scarred Crag
1x Double Stroke
Land
5x Plains
2x Mountain
4x Forest
1x Dragon Hunter
1x Dryad Militant
1x Steppe Lynx
1x Nest Invader
1x Emancipation Angel
1x Imperious Perfect
1x Pianna, Nomad Captain
1x Cloudgoat Ranger
1x Ornitharch
1x Enlisted Wurm
1x Great Oak Guardian
1x Krosan Tusker
Artifact
1x Shrine of Loyal Legions
1x Vulshok Morningstar
1x Grafted Wargear
Instant
1x Sundering Growth
Sorcery
1x Life // Death
1x Spectral Procession
1x Overrun
1x Triplicate Spirits
1x Curse of Predation
1x Elephant Guide
1x Faith's Fetters
Land
1x Blossoming Sands
1x Foundry of the Consuls
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Spawning Bed
[DECK=5 Color Ramp from CubeTutor.com]
Creature
1x Wall of Blossoms
1x Bloodbraid Elf
1x Clone
1x Fleetfeather Cockatrice
1x Nessian Asp
1x Baloth Null
1x Great Oak Guardian
1x Jetting Glasskite
1x Pelakka Wurm
1x Trostani's Summoner
Artifact
1x Boros Signet
1x Orzhov Signet
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Selesnya Signet
1x Simic Signet
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Burst Lightning
1x Jilt
1x Zealous Persecution
1x Electrolyze
1x Fire Covenant
1x Mortify
Sorcery
1x Arc Lightning
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Slice and Dice
Land
1x Jungle Hollow
1x Opulent Palace
1x Rugged Highlands
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Simic Growth Chamber
1x Plains
1x Island
1x Swamp
2x Mountain
5x Forest
1x Arbor Elf
1x Elvish Mystic
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Ambush Viper
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Thornweald Archer
1x Wall of Blossoms
1x Wall of Roots
1x Abzan Beastmaster
1x Catacomb Sifter
1x Imperious Perfect
1x Vampire Nighthawk
1x Phantom Centaur
1x Shriekmaw
1x Baloth Null
1x Great Oak Guardian
1x Skysnare Spider
1x Plated Crusher
1x Loxodon Warhammer
Instant
1x Tragic Slip
1x Putrefy
Sorcery
1x Arc Trail
1x Flames of the Firebrand
1x Kodama's Reach
Land
1x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Savage Lands
4x Swamp
1x Mountain
9x Forest
Double Stroke names Stupor, Unexpected Potential names Phyrexian Gargantua
1x Arbor Elf
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Nest Invader
1x Wall of Blossoms
1x Wall of Roots
1x Wickerbough Elder
1x Nessian Asp
1x Phyrexian Gargantua
1x Skysnare Spider
1x Ulamog's Crusher
1x Artisan of Kozilek
1x Golgari Signet
1x Gruul Signet
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Selesnya Signet
1x Loxodon Warhammer
1x Thran Dynamo
Instant
1x Ultimate Price
Sorcery
1x Duress
1x Life // Death
1x Epic Confrontation
1x Cultivate
1x Stupor
1x Overrun
1x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Jungle Hollow
1x Treetop Village
Conspiracy
1x Double Stroke
1x Unexpected Potential
Land
5x Swamp
8x Forest
1x Merfolk Looter
1x Nezumi Graverobber
1x Clone
1x Vaultbreaker
1x Shriekmaw
1x Phyrexian Gargantua
1x Pelakka Wurm
1x Artisan of Kozilek
Artifact
1x Rakdos Signet
Instant
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Jilt
1x Terminate
1x Electrolyze
1x Frantic Search
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Duress
1x Reanimate
1x Breath of Darigaaz
1x Exhume
1x Tormenting Voice
Enchantment
1x Animate Dead
1x Dance of the Dead
1x Diabolic Servitude
Land
1x Arcane Sanctum
1x Bloodfell Caves
1x Dimir Aqueduct
1x Ghitu Encampment
1x Izzet Boilerworks
1x Rakdos Carnarium
4x Island
5x Swamp
2x Mountain
1x Inkfathom Infiltrator
1x Omenspeaker
1x Welkin Tern
1x Eldrazi Skyspawner
1x Illusory Angel
1x Pestermite
1x Silumgar Sorcerer
1x Tandem Lookout
1x Clone
1x Mist Raven
1x Thieving Magpie
1x Whirler Rogue
1x Mulldrifter
1x Spined Thopter
Artifact
1x Crystal Shard
Instant
1x Force Spike
1x Vapor Snag
1x Arcane Denial
1x Impulse
1x Into the Roil
1x Frantic Search
1x Opportunity
1x Ponder
Land
17x Island
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I'll go through and add these soon. I'll add a basic description based on my interpretation of the decklist, unless you want to do that yourselves. i.e. What the synergies are and how you are hoping to win etc.