I'm pretty new to cube design, but I'm interested in developing clear and viable archetypes in each of the 10 two-color pairs. It seems challenging in pauper though, and I'm curious about whether others have done anything similar. Here's what I've got so far:
WG: auras (tertiary color is blue)
WU: blink control
WB: grindy/lifegain control
WR: swarm / tokens
UG: tempo control
I'm interested in trying out a BR sacrifice theme, which I think would work out pretty well since black is control-y rather than aggro-y in my cube. A few other things seem maybe borderline, like BG graveyard and UR spells matter. I'm just not sure if they're quite strong enough.
What archetypes have you built into your pauper cube?
I'm pretty new to cube design, but I'm interested in developing clear and viable archetypes in each of the 10 two-color pairs. It seems challenging in pauper though, and I'm curious about whether others have done anything similar. Here's what I've got so far:
WG: auras (tertiary color is blue)
WU: blink control
WB: grindy/lifegain control
WR: swarm / tokens
UG: tempo control
I'm interested in trying out a BR sacrifice theme, which I think would work out pretty well since black is control-y rather than aggro-y in my cube. A few other things seem maybe borderline, like BG graveyard and UR spells matter. I'm just not sure if they're quite strong enough.
What archetypes have you built into your pauper cube?
When running archetypes my suggestion is doing it in three colors or with things that overlap.
A good example of this is the BR sacrifice overlapping with RWG swarm so that any combination of those still gives a decent swarm sac opportunity.
Blink control can be extended to Black since you can actually get some reanimation spells/creatures in there that double as 'blink'.
I have tried GB graveyard, but it needs a lot to work and can alter your cube quite a bit.
For auras you need to be careful to not put in to much hexproof creatures if you are low on removal, and not be too high on removal if you are high on removal.
What is also possible in pauper?
It really depends where you want to be going, I don't see to many aggro archetypes you mention.
Could you maybe point out in what kind of gameplay you are interested? Do you want aggro archetypes or more midrange/controlly stuff?
UG can be Draw Go with flash creatures, counters and combat tricks. It also works relatively well with Auras.
UR spells can be somewhat lacklustering (never had this drafted in my cube, so I wouldn't know), I have seen R be a great main control color.
Other color combinations:
GR: Ramp
GB: can work into graveyard or work with sacrifice as well with cards as Brindle Shoat, Undying creatures etc.
UB: can be hard control, blink/reanimation,
UR: not too sure if not spells matter, can work as hard control in conjunction with Black
That's about it, but feel free to just go with janky ideas. I have seen UW flyers come up once, +1/+1 counters matter,...
I don't like the idea of restricting an archetype to 2 colors, because I want to give the cubers as much freedom as possible and a very archetype specific card shouldn't only be viable in only a single color combination, IMO. My non-basic-Archetypes are:
Auras/Hexproof: WUG
Swarm: WRG
Sacrifice: Bwrg (Only black has archetype specific cards, which can be combined with any other mass producing color for sacrifice fodder)
Basic archetypes are Aggro, Midrange and Control. Tempo is not really an archetype IMO, but rather a characteristic some cards have.
These archetypes are tested and work in a power-oriented environment.
Lifegain is not really a strategy, IMO. It's a helpful anti aggro ability, but against control strategies it doesn't really help to pile up huge amount of life. Apart from Epicure of Blood there is not really much payoff for focusing on drafting cards, that generate life in pauper.
Blink certainly has support, but there are few etb effects that are worth spending a card on. I think it's basically just Mulldrifter and Dinrova Horror that generate card advantage, and Mulldrifter is a single card in 360 every blue player will happily first pick no matter if he has blink effects or not and the Horror is black.
I think the only 2 viable options to support this archetype is by either focusing on the Ghostly Flicker/Disperse-Archaeomanceresque combo combined with lots of etb effects. If you are interested in this you should simply run a lot of Archaeomancer-like cards and maybe Drift of Phantasms to tutor for the keycards and Peregrine Drake for the possibility to generate infinite mana. The thing is, that this archetype doesn't really need any other blink effects apart from that.
Another option is to simply run the blink effects, that are worth running in a vacuum, namely Momentary Blink and my personal favourite 1-card-combo Cavern Harpy, but this doesn't really make an archetype.
UW: pretty much not filled with a clear archetype in both of my cubes. Blink never really worked for me, you either lack the blink when you need it or there is nothing with payoff on the board.
UB: hardcontrol with massremoval in black and utility and carddraw/manipulation from blue. can also support some madness stuff.
UR: spells matters. risky, but rewarding archetype, it pretty much need at least one hexproof guy to get the final blows though
UG: aggrocontrol/tempo. Efficient green beaters and bounce/cheap counter from blue. It can also support hexproof/auras.
RW: straight forward aggro. can support swarm quite well, especially if you also run online only commons
RB: removal.dec or some kind of aggro. It also has the option to run sac enabler in black and threaten effects in red for some really nasty plays.
RG: aggro.
GW: no real archetype here again. Some sort of midrange aggrostuff. Could probably support swarm as well.
GB: Aggrocontrol. Green beater and black removal basically. Depending on your overall build it also allows for gy shenenigans with dredge and Tortured Existence or can support the sac archetype.
WB: Aggrocontrol again, has nice guildcards that help dragging out the game against pure aggro.
When it comes to the identity of the colors Id say:
W: Efficient 1 and 2 drops, can support swarm. Can also work well on its own since it covers all angles on its own. (lifegain, removal, beaters, enchantmenthate)
U: pretty much a utility color. Supports other colors with controlcards, tempocards, card and drawmanipulation. Supports Hexproof/Aura
B: Pretty versatile. Can support sac, black aggro, black control, gy stuff, recursion, hardremoval. Choices have to be made.
R: Pretty much straight forward aggro with efficient 2-drops, tons of burn. Can also support swarm and sac quite well and is even able to support UR or BR control.
G: Can support sac, gyn swarm, hexproof, aggro or ramp. Its probably the color with the most options, but none is really "broken"
I tried to do the "one archetype in each color pair" for a while, and quickly found that it encouraged me to run cards that I didn't really like and that nobody played in order to support them. It also really limited the discovery aspect of my Cube. The problem with Pauper "archetypes" is that the modern archetype model is built on signpost uncommons that basically scream, "THESE TWO COLORS DO THING X," and we don't really get many of those types of cards at Common. It's also built on the idea that each pair reflects a different aspect of what a set is "about," and that's hard to really pin down for a bigger-picture set like Cube unless you are specifically building for a theme.
I am much more interested in synergy among strong cards that makes you realize how different pieces of the game work together in interesting ways. For instance, Extort is a powerful mechanic, and is basically my WB "Archetype" because I want almost every card with the mechanic in my Cube (poor, poor Syndicate Enforcer). All of those cards are pretty decent on their own, though- Tithe Drinker is probably the closest to a proper archetype card. Once you pick up a couple of Extort creatures, though, other things start to seem a lot more appealing, particularly low-cost spells and/or cards that are inexpensive to use. This means flashback cards that are already decent on their own, like Prismatic Strands, get a LOT better since they have a 4+ life swing attached to them. It also means that you might look more closely at stuff like Gitaxian Probe. These sorts of cards can also be helpful for spells matter cards. This is also why my Cube runs a little long on Dash creatures- WB, RW, or BR Extort-Dash isn't exactly a deck, but it can be a surprisingly spicy piece of synergy for your players to discover.
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I would say maybe 1/3 of those (Maybe Bogle, maybe Rally, Cyclops, Dragonauts, Shell, Salvage) really give the level of direction that I'm talking about. The rest point in the vague direction of a strategy, but there's nothing as explicit as, say, Rona in Dominaria draft (UB cares about long games with Historic permanents). What exactly an archetype card is can be an open question worth defining if you're pursuing this further, though. How do you signal to newer players what they're supposed to be doing? Will they pick up on your hints, or are they too subtle?
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One thing I have been trying to look at, but haven't had too much time to complete is a taxing style blue.
With cards like Soul Barrier (it says succesfully cast, but oracle says cast so you can counter it as well.) Slow Motion and the cards that say target opponent pas 1 mana for ... or sacrifices a permanent. Can't remember the name, the creature one and the sorcery that does this for each creature.
back in the day, one of my first deck was taxing blue with psychic venom, erosion and icy manipulator
it was pretty bad though. usually youre opponent is able to cast something at one point that beats you to death faster than your taxing effects. even later with propaganda it wouldnt work very well. you can try it for the lulz, but with only one ofs i wouldnt expect anything from it.
@way
new players are usually completely lost the first time they draft any cube. they usually end up with some midrange pile, offcurve and with cards from different archetypes. with some experience of the format the archetypes become a little more obvious and certain keycards usually hint on included combos. like peregrine drake usually hints to flickercombo (part of the reason i was turned down from salts cube), but sure our archetypes are way less sophisticated than limited ones.
I don't even think I'd say our archetypes are less sophisticated than limited ones. Maybe they are, but I think it's less sophisticated and just a lot more subtle. I like that subtlety, personally, which is why I'm not wild about Pauper archetypes in general. The worst set I've ever drafted was Battle for Zendikar, while (one of) the best was Rise of the Eldrazi. I think a great example of the difference between the two is the card Shared Discovery. The card is unremarkable in ROE, because it's not really in an Eldrazi Spawn friendly color. However, every so often you drafted the deck that wanted it, and that was immensely satisfying. Shared Discovery could not exist in BFZ, where each color pair had a clearly defined archetype with very little mechanical overlap (particularly in Green, which is why it was so famously awful there). I would expect Pauper Cube cards to be better than Shared Discovery was in ROE, but that's much closer to the experience that I would look for when discussing a "Pauper archetype."
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UW - Skies
UB - Control
UR - Spells Matter
UG - Ramp
GW - Tokens/Anthems
GR - Big Aggro
GB - Midrange "Rock" Grind
BR - Aggro w/ premium removal
BW - "1 Drop" Aggro (Similar to M25 draft if anyone played that)
WR - Aggro w/ burn
All the colors can support other decks though, so if your GW tokens deck doesn't come together and you don't get the anthems you can still pivot to a decent GW aggro/midrange deck with bigger creatures and ramp or you could make a BR grindy deck for example with sweepers/removal and higher cmc threats. Once you get into 3 colors there's a lot more combinations where midrange or control make sense.
If I were to break down specific color combinations I really like the fact, that I can't predict what exactly the deck is going to look like:
UW: UW Skies (Aggro/Control) or Control or Auras
UB: Hard control most of the time
BR: Aggro or Control or Sacrifice/Swarm
RG: Aggro or Midrange or Swarm
GW: Aggro or Midrange or Auras or Swarm
BW: Aggro or Control or Sacrifice/Swarm
BG: Aggro or Midrange or Sacrifice/Swarm
UG: Aggro or Midrange or tempo-control or Auras
UR: Aggro or Control or Aggro/Control
WR: Aggro or Control or Swarm
I really like to support unusual basic archetypes for different colors. It doesn't really hurt red or white aggro decks to run some cards, that are specifically meant for control strategies and blue aggro with more fliers is something, that is always lingering in the back of my mind. I still have some kind of sweet spot for the Welkin Terns and Warden of Evos Isle as one of the rare payoff cards at common rarity, that rewards you for dedicating your deck towards a focused archetype.
I don't really have a theme for UB, which makes this color combination quite predictable, but I'm not really sure if there is anything spicy I could offer in these colors, that makes people maybe not want to draft pure control in these colors. The problem is, that blue doesn't have a lot that can pair well with the sacrifice archetype in black. I've seen a pretty sweet Esper brew with Sacrifice, Disturbed Burial and Mulldrifter, by one of my favourite drafters, who always prefers synergy > raw power and thus creates the weirdest brews, which often work surprisingly well.
There are also some 3-color combinations, that come up quite often:
Grixis: Control
Bant: Auras
Naya: Swarm or aggro or midrange
Mardu: Control (I'm pretty much the only one who drafts this, but I really like non-blue control decks)
the problem with black based control is thats its needs a lot of cards to work. it took me quite some time until hardcontrol was a thing in my cube. just adding pestilence and crypt rates doesnt make the archetype working, because while it can turn the board against wheenie only strategies T4 green curves out with 5/5s and you dont want to wipe the board for 5 because you are usually dead by then. so to open up black or ub to something else sacrifices to control have to me made. If you want to turn the colorwheel around you can make UB aggro a thing, with a lot of "decent" one and twodrops and turn red into a control supporting color
The important cards to have a shot against aggro decks is really cheap removal. So Disfigure, Dead Weight and Tragic Slip are key. This is the reason why red control decks are so good against aggro decks. Arc Lightning and Rock Slide are real aggro killers, backed up by some of the 1 mana burn spells. Also Fireslinger not only kills every X/1, but also works as a Sulfuric Vapors.
the cheap removal is good, because it can also work in aggro strategies, but its usually not enough. you usually also want some lifegain, cardadvantage and "reliable" blockers. trading 1:1 on cards might still lose you the tempogame. also depending how aggro is build, even toughness based removal doesnt do much because they run pumpeffects. thats why i prefer pumpspells over burn in aggro for example. (and dont like x/1s)
Interesting, so it sounds like you all prefer more general themes for pauper cubes instead of highly-developed archetypes. I guess that makes sense. For instance, I've decided I'd like to make my black more controlly than aggro so that informs what types of black cards I run. I also love the idea of themes being in 3 colors rather than 2, to really open up deckbuilding options for players. I've been so focused on RW being for tokens that I've actually excluded good green cards that create multiple creates. *reaches for his Sprout Swarm and friends*
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When the cold, steel shackles bite into my wrists, I know I am home.
the problem with too specialized archetypes is that drafting becomes too railroading then. in my earlier versions of my cube i basically included preconstructed decks which pretty much assembled themselves during the draft after you got youve been into it in the first packs. this is fun for only so long, though. the upside it helps unexperienced drafters because they have it much easier then, but after a while you know all the decks and it becomes boring. while my cube still has certain "decks" its much more open now. pretty much also because we got tons of prints for the missing spots. red, black and blue has gotten playable 5+ creatures pretty recently for example.
I'm pretty new to cube design, but I'm interested in developing clear and viable archetypes in each of the 10 two-color pairs. It seems challenging in pauper though, and I'm curious about whether others have done anything similar. Here's what I've got so far:
WG: auras (tertiary color is blue)
WU: blink control
WB: grindy/lifegain control
WR: swarm / tokens
UG: tempo control
I'm interested in trying out a BR sacrifice theme, which I think would work out pretty well since black is control-y rather than aggro-y in my cube. A few other things seem maybe borderline, like BG graveyard and UR spells matter. I'm just not sure if they're quite strong enough.
What archetypes have you built into your pauper cube?
For Auras, look at the Bestow creatures.
I have Goblins and Splice Onto Arcane as archetypes in my cube.
I could see this as a Gx archetype, but the question remains if this amount of payoff is already enough to test this archetype. Also WAR isn't fully spoiled yet, so there might be more on the way.
Edit:
After seeing how good Heroic performed in UMA, I was wondering if it couldn't also be viable in cube. There are some solid enablers available in pauper:
+1/+1 counter support is nice to see. What are your thoughts on the other new proliferaters as well, Courage in Crisis and Kiora's Dambreaker? I'm iffy about Courge but etb proliferate on a pretty decent body for a blue 6-drop seems solid. We also have Titanic Brawl as a small payoff, one that's good enough on its own at least.
There's also a fair amount of more decent creatures with incidental counters that could help support it between mechanics like unleash, undying, fabricate, etc... there's a bunch, many of which are good already.
I have been considering a spiritcragt theme in rb ove the current goblin one - what has been your success/failure with your arcane theme?
It's been okay. Most of the playable Pauper legal ones are in my cube plus some of the less playable ones, so even if they never get spliced at worst you just paid 3 mana for a Doom Blade or 1 mana for Mutagenic Growth.
Although it hasn'e been drafted yet, the only combo deck in my cube that's possible would utilize Spiraling Embers and a Sweep card or PowerDraw spell like Gush to burn for a lot.
I really like Arcane, it adds an extra layer to the draft.
Despite my fetish for stupid *****, I haven't crammed all of the playable COK Block spirits into my cube. There are too many cards I want to play yet I must stay at 420 cards for the memes. I'm sure it could be done reasonably well if you supported it enough.
I don't enjoy uninteractive bull***** Magic, I only enjoy grindy Midrange Pauper mirrors that are won by gaining incremental advantage over your opponent. So Splice Onto Arcane us right up my alley. I guess Soulshift would be next in line for stupid, dusty, obscure parasitic meme abilities but I'd have to cut too many cards for it. I'd love to play in a cube with a COK Block Spirits archetype, though!
As far as my actual experience with Arcane in drafts of my cube, I've won some games because of it, and lost some because I leaned too heavily into say, Boros Arcane when everyone else was also in those colors so while I had a nice Arcane package I didn't have an actual deck for it to support, haha. I really like it, when you're splicing spells it really feels like valuetown.
if you want to go into the archetype i guess almost every creature you include in the cube has to come with some kind of counters and then you also want every card that has proliferate. in my book its an all in or leave it archetype, because if you end with like only 3 creature that use counters the synergy effects are pretty low.
There are Magic Christmas Land scenarios that validate the opportunity. However that is likely a 3C+ and snagging over 50% of the top picks. I am coming from the CoK block era where if you did not commit heavy and early, you would not have the payout stuff like Affinity or broader archetypes had.
The Soulshift mechanic is solid. The downside is it is usually stapled to worse bodies than things like Humans-Valued cards had.CoK was not really k no own as one of the more favored draft formats
Soulshift only has 16 bodies, and only maybe 3-4 Arcane worth crowing over
WG: auras (tertiary color is blue)
WU: blink control
WB: grindy/lifegain control
WR: swarm / tokens
UG: tempo control
I'm interested in trying out a BR sacrifice theme, which I think would work out pretty well since black is control-y rather than aggro-y in my cube. A few other things seem maybe borderline, like BG graveyard and UR spells matter. I'm just not sure if they're quite strong enough.
What archetypes have you built into your pauper cube?
When the cold, steel shackles bite into my wrists, I know I am home.
When running archetypes my suggestion is doing it in three colors or with things that overlap.
A good example of this is the BR sacrifice overlapping with RWG swarm so that any combination of those still gives a decent swarm sac opportunity.
Blink control can be extended to Black since you can actually get some reanimation spells/creatures in there that double as 'blink'.
I have tried GB graveyard, but it needs a lot to work and can alter your cube quite a bit.
For auras you need to be careful to not put in to much hexproof creatures if you are low on removal, and not be too high on removal if you are high on removal.
What is also possible in pauper?
It really depends where you want to be going, I don't see to many aggro archetypes you mention.
Could you maybe point out in what kind of gameplay you are interested? Do you want aggro archetypes or more midrange/controlly stuff?
UG can be Draw Go with flash creatures, counters and combat tricks. It also works relatively well with Auras.
UR spells can be somewhat lacklustering (never had this drafted in my cube, so I wouldn't know), I have seen R be a great main control color.
Other color combinations:
GR: Ramp
GB: can work into graveyard or work with sacrifice as well with cards as Brindle Shoat, Undying creatures etc.
UB: can be hard control, blink/reanimation,
UR: not too sure if not spells matter, can work as hard control in conjunction with Black
That's about it, but feel free to just go with janky ideas. I have seen UW flyers come up once, +1/+1 counters matter,...
Brainz Archetypes/Synergies Thread [WIP]
Auras/Hexproof: WUG
Swarm: WRG
Sacrifice: Bwrg (Only black has archetype specific cards, which can be combined with any other mass producing color for sacrifice fodder)
Basic archetypes are Aggro, Midrange and Control. Tempo is not really an archetype IMO, but rather a characteristic some cards have.
These archetypes are tested and work in a power-oriented environment.
Lifegain is not really a strategy, IMO. It's a helpful anti aggro ability, but against control strategies it doesn't really help to pile up huge amount of life. Apart from Epicure of Blood there is not really much payoff for focusing on drafting cards, that generate life in pauper.
Blink certainly has support, but there are few etb effects that are worth spending a card on. I think it's basically just Mulldrifter and Dinrova Horror that generate card advantage, and Mulldrifter is a single card in 360 every blue player will happily first pick no matter if he has blink effects or not and the Horror is black.
I think the only 2 viable options to support this archetype is by either focusing on the Ghostly Flicker/Disperse-Archaeomanceresque combo combined with lots of etb effects. If you are interested in this you should simply run a lot of Archaeomancer-like cards and maybe Drift of Phantasms to tutor for the keycards and Peregrine Drake for the possibility to generate infinite mana. The thing is, that this archetype doesn't really need any other blink effects apart from that.
Another option is to simply run the blink effects, that are worth running in a vacuum, namely Momentary Blink and my personal favourite 1-card-combo Cavern Harpy, but this doesn't really make an archetype.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
UB: hardcontrol with massremoval in black and utility and carddraw/manipulation from blue. can also support some madness stuff.
UR: spells matters. risky, but rewarding archetype, it pretty much need at least one hexproof guy to get the final blows though
UG: aggrocontrol/tempo. Efficient green beaters and bounce/cheap counter from blue. It can also support hexproof/auras.
RW: straight forward aggro. can support swarm quite well, especially if you also run online only commons
RB: removal.dec or some kind of aggro. It also has the option to run sac enabler in black and threaten effects in red for some really nasty plays.
RG: aggro.
GW: no real archetype here again. Some sort of midrange aggrostuff. Could probably support swarm as well.
GB: Aggrocontrol. Green beater and black removal basically. Depending on your overall build it also allows for gy shenenigans with dredge and Tortured Existence or can support the sac archetype.
WB: Aggrocontrol again, has nice guildcards that help dragging out the game against pure aggro.
When it comes to the identity of the colors Id say:
W: Efficient 1 and 2 drops, can support swarm. Can also work well on its own since it covers all angles on its own. (lifegain, removal, beaters, enchantmenthate)
U: pretty much a utility color. Supports other colors with controlcards, tempocards, card and drawmanipulation. Supports Hexproof/Aura
B: Pretty versatile. Can support sac, black aggro, black control, gy stuff, recursion, hardremoval. Choices have to be made.
R: Pretty much straight forward aggro with efficient 2-drops, tons of burn. Can also support swarm and sac quite well and is even able to support UR or BR control.
G: Can support sac, gyn swarm, hexproof, aggro or ramp. Its probably the color with the most options, but none is really "broken"
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
I am much more interested in synergy among strong cards that makes you realize how different pieces of the game work together in interesting ways. For instance, Extort is a powerful mechanic, and is basically my WB "Archetype" because I want almost every card with the mechanic in my Cube (poor, poor Syndicate Enforcer). All of those cards are pretty decent on their own, though- Tithe Drinker is probably the closest to a proper archetype card. Once you pick up a couple of Extort creatures, though, other things start to seem a lot more appealing, particularly low-cost spells and/or cards that are inexpensive to use. This means flashback cards that are already decent on their own, like Prismatic Strands, get a LOT better since they have a 4+ life swing attached to them. It also means that you might look more closely at stuff like Gitaxian Probe. These sorts of cards can also be helpful for spells matter cards. This is also why my Cube runs a little long on Dash creatures- WB, RW, or BR Extort-Dash isn't exactly a deck, but it can be a surprisingly spicy piece of synergy for your players to discover.
Commanders:
Toshiro Umezawa
Rona, Disciple of Gix (Pauper)
Consult the Necrosages Probe UB control
Spike Jester Terminate aggro/removal
Colossal Might Frenzied Arynx RG beatz
Slippery Bogle Shambleshark hexproof/aura /tempo
Nivix Cyclops Wee Dragonauts spells matters
Viashino Firstblade Rally the Peasants aggro/swarm
Shambling Shell Grisly Salvage gy shenenigans
orzhovs extorts aggrocontrol
Qasali Pridemage Centaur Healer midrange aggro
leaves us basically with UW the only guild with not clear set focus and no gold cards
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Commanders:
Toshiro Umezawa
Rona, Disciple of Gix (Pauper)
With cards like Soul Barrier (it says succesfully cast, but oracle says cast so you can counter it as well.) Slow Motion and the cards that say target opponent pas 1 mana for ... or sacrifices a permanent. Can't remember the name, the creature one and the sorcery that does this for each creature.
Brainz Archetypes/Synergies Thread [WIP]
it was pretty bad though. usually youre opponent is able to cast something at one point that beats you to death faster than your taxing effects. even later with propaganda it wouldnt work very well. you can try it for the lulz, but with only one ofs i wouldnt expect anything from it.
@way
new players are usually completely lost the first time they draft any cube. they usually end up with some midrange pile, offcurve and with cards from different archetypes. with some experience of the format the archetypes become a little more obvious and certain keycards usually hint on included combos. like peregrine drake usually hints to flickercombo (part of the reason i was turned down from salts cube), but sure our archetypes are way less sophisticated than limited ones.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Commanders:
Toshiro Umezawa
Rona, Disciple of Gix (Pauper)
UW - Skies
UB - Control
UR - Spells Matter
UG - Ramp
GW - Tokens/Anthems
GR - Big Aggro
GB - Midrange "Rock" Grind
BR - Aggro w/ premium removal
BW - "1 Drop" Aggro (Similar to M25 draft if anyone played that)
WR - Aggro w/ burn
All the colors can support other decks though, so if your GW tokens deck doesn't come together and you don't get the anthems you can still pivot to a decent GW aggro/midrange deck with bigger creatures and ramp or you could make a BR grindy deck for example with sweepers/removal and higher cmc threats. Once you get into 3 colors there's a lot more combinations where midrange or control make sense.
UW: UW Skies (Aggro/Control) or Control or Auras
UB: Hard control most of the time
BR: Aggro or Control or Sacrifice/Swarm
RG: Aggro or Midrange or Swarm
GW: Aggro or Midrange or Auras or Swarm
BW: Aggro or Control or Sacrifice/Swarm
BG: Aggro or Midrange or Sacrifice/Swarm
UG: Aggro or Midrange or tempo-control or Auras
UR: Aggro or Control or Aggro/Control
WR: Aggro or Control or Swarm
I really like to support unusual basic archetypes for different colors. It doesn't really hurt red or white aggro decks to run some cards, that are specifically meant for control strategies and blue aggro with more fliers is something, that is always lingering in the back of my mind. I still have some kind of sweet spot for the Welkin Terns and Warden of Evos Isle as one of the rare payoff cards at common rarity, that rewards you for dedicating your deck towards a focused archetype.
I don't really have a theme for UB, which makes this color combination quite predictable, but I'm not really sure if there is anything spicy I could offer in these colors, that makes people maybe not want to draft pure control in these colors. The problem is, that blue doesn't have a lot that can pair well with the sacrifice archetype in black. I've seen a pretty sweet Esper brew with Sacrifice, Disturbed Burial and Mulldrifter, by one of my favourite drafters, who always prefers synergy > raw power and thus creates the weirdest brews, which often work surprisingly well.
There are also some 3-color combinations, that come up quite often:
Grixis: Control
Bant: Auras
Naya: Swarm or aggro or midrange
Mardu: Control (I'm pretty much the only one who drafts this, but I really like non-blue control decks)
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
When the cold, steel shackles bite into my wrists, I know I am home.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
For Auras, look at the Bestow creatures.
I have Goblins and Splice Onto Arcane as archetypes in my cube.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
I have been considering a spiritcragt theme in rb ove the current goblin one - what has been your success/failure with your arcane theme?
Pollenbright Druid
Bloom Hulk
Fertilid
Festerhide Boar
Ivy Lane Denizen
Jade Guardian
Kujar Seedsculptor
Natural Unity
Phantom Tiger
Scrounging Bandar
Spike Colony
Sporeback Troll
Thriving Rhino
Baloth Gorger
Crowned Ceratok
Rampaging Rendhorn
Wickerbough Elder
Blue:
Thrummingbird
Helium Squirter
Aven Surveyor
Red:
Volt Charge
Spellgorger Weird
Thriving Grubs
White:
Ainok Bond-Kin
Phantom Nomad
Supply-Line Cranes
Icatian Javelineers
Black:
Cartouche of Ambition
Grim Affliction
Fume Spitter
Pith Driller
Selesnya:
Travel Preparations
Common Bond
Gruul:
Frenzied Arynx
Colorless:
Opaline Bracers
Serrated Arrows
Tumble Magnet
There is also the crossover synergy with Heroic:
Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Setessan Oathsworn
White:
Wingsteed Rider
Akroan Skyguard
Blue:
War-Wing Siren
And also the sacrifice archetype:
Bloodbriar
Hunger of the Howlpack
Ulvenwald Bear
Lifecraft Cavalry
White:
Unruly Mob
Ninth Bridge Patrol
Rising Populace
Black:
Undercity Scavenger
Gavony Unhallowed
Mortician Beetle
Carrion Feeder
The current problem isn't the availability of archetype related cards, but payoffs. The payoffs right now are:
Green:
Pollenbright Druid
Bloom Hulk
Sporeback Troll
Crowned Ceratok
Blue:
Thrummingbird
Helium Squirter
Red:
Volt Charge
White:
Ainok Bond-Kin
Black:
Grim Affliction
I could see this as a Gx archetype, but the question remains if this amount of payoff is already enough to test this archetype. Also WAR isn't fully spoiled yet, so there might be more on the way.
Edit:
After seeing how good Heroic performed in UMA, I was wondering if it couldn't also be viable in cube. There are some solid enablers available in pauper:
Band Together
Combo Attack
Symbiosis
Ranger's Guile
Giant Growth
Groundswell
Mutagenic Growth
Prey's Vengeance
Sylvan Might
Vines of Vastwood
Prey Upon
Epic Confrontation
Savage Punch
White:
Tandem Tactics
Blinding Beam
Repel the Darkness
Expose Evil
Ajani's Presence
Stave Off
Apostle's Blessing
Emerge Unscathed
Gods Willing
Shelter
Cho-Manno's Blessing
Feat of Resistance
Guided Strike
Embolden
Blue:
Dive Down
Mizzium Skin
Slip Through Space
Selesnya:
Travel Preparations
Common Bond
Thrill of the Hunt
Azorius:
Feeling of Dread
And of course all the positive auras, which I don't want to name here.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
There's also a fair amount of more decent creatures with incidental counters that could help support it between mechanics like unleash, undying, fabricate, etc... there's a bunch, many of which are good already.
It's a work in progress
It's been okay. Most of the playable Pauper legal ones are in my cube plus some of the less playable ones, so even if they never get spliced at worst you just paid 3 mana for a Doom Blade or 1 mana for Mutagenic Growth.
Although it hasn'e been drafted yet, the only combo deck in my cube that's possible would utilize Spiraling Embers and a Sweep card or PowerDraw spell like Gush to burn for a lot.
I really like Arcane, it adds an extra layer to the draft.
Despite my fetish for stupid *****, I haven't crammed all of the playable COK Block spirits into my cube. There are too many cards I want to play yet I must stay at 420 cards for the memes. I'm sure it could be done reasonably well if you supported it enough.
I don't enjoy uninteractive bull***** Magic, I only enjoy grindy Midrange Pauper mirrors that are won by gaining incremental advantage over your opponent. So Splice Onto Arcane us right up my alley. I guess Soulshift would be next in line for stupid, dusty, obscure parasitic meme abilities but I'd have to cut too many cards for it. I'd love to play in a cube with a COK Block Spirits archetype, though!
As far as my actual experience with Arcane in drafts of my cube, I've won some games because of it, and lost some because I leaned too heavily into say, Boros Arcane when everyone else was also in those colors so while I had a nice Arcane package I didn't have an actual deck for it to support, haha. I really like it, when you're splicing spells it really feels like valuetown.
Ignoring what Magic players say isn't the answer, it's listening to what they have to say and doing the exact opposite that's correct.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
There are Magic Christmas Land scenarios that validate the opportunity. However that is likely a 3C+ and snagging over 50% of the top picks. I am coming from the CoK block era where if you did not commit heavy and early, you would not have the payout stuff like Affinity or broader archetypes had.
The Soulshift mechanic is solid. The downside is it is usually stapled to worse bodies than things like Humans-Valued cards had.CoK was not really k no own as one of the more favored draft formats
Soulshift only has 16 bodies, and only maybe 3-4 Arcane worth crowing over
Loose Change Pauper Cube-cast
Pauper Cube Article #1
Pauper Cube Article #2
Personal Enjoyment Cube