Cube Archetype – RG Ramp

Green in the cube in the oldest versions was a bit of a mess. There were plenty of good cards but the attempt at an elf tribal sub theme caused it some problems.

I’m experimenting with the red green archetype deck being the big ramp deck of the cube. Green will provide the bulk of the ramp itself, with red providing a couple of one shot rituals plus a couple of creatures with mana effects.

The payoff for the ramp will be both some big bombs in the red green section, colourless bombs and reds high end and X spells.

Ramp

Green has a number of spells to search up basic lands or dig into your deck for them as is normal. There are also a couple of rituals in red. [mtg_card]Geosurge[/mtg_card] jumps you up by quite a bit and [mtg_card]Battle Hymn[/mtg_card], depending on your deck, could easily be 6+ mana.

Green has a reasonable assortment of ramp creatures, a few elves and [mtg_card]Birds of Paradise[/mtg_card] at one cmc, various creatures that search up a land such as [mtg_card]Sakura-Tribe Elder[/mtg_card] and a couple of larger mana dorks that do any colour for creatures only.

Red has [mtg_card]Generator Servant[/mtg_card] (I’m perhaps unduly fond of the idea of this being the last step in a turn 5 or 6 Ulamog or Kozilek with haste. A little silly perhaps but it would be cool) and [mtg_card]Grinning Ignus[/mtg_card].

Pay Off

Big spells are one of the ways to top out a ramp deck and in this cube these take the form of a selection of X spells. There i[mtg_card]s Crater’s Claws[/mtg_card] in red and [mtg_card]Clan Defiance[/mtg_card] in Gruul. In addition to these there is the full “X Sun’s Zenith” cycles. Red obviously can serve as removal or go to the dome. Green is a little more utilitarian (the worst case scenario is fetching up more ramp creatures and that’s not bad). The ramp deck has the easiest time splashing off colour cards and the rest of the cycle are all possibilities here.

[mtg_card]Titanic Ultimatum[/mtg_card] in Naya colours is another good option. Who doesn’t love killing their opponent with the worlds buffest [mtg_card]llanowar elves[/mtg_card].

Ramping out a great big fatty is the other traditional ramp win condition. There are a couple of strong ones in Gruul. [mtg_card]Borborygmos Enraged[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Omnath, Locus of Rage[/mtg_card] both have the additional benefit of providing value from any additional lands you may draw into or turn a late game [mtg_card]Cultivate[/mtg_card] into something less frustrating.

In mono green there is also [mtg_card]Giant Adephage[/mtg_card] (for fun) and [mtg_card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/mtg_card] (for the massive game winning swing).

Support and Mana Smoothing

On top of mana ramp, with the way games go in this cube, you will want some ways to keep yourselves alive and [mtg_card]Courser of Kruphix[/mtg_card] does a good job of this while smoothing out your draws or getting you lands out a little earlier. It also combos with [mtg_card]Mina and Denn, Wildborn[/mtg_card] to improve your draws by quite a bit.

There are some creatures available which in some way draw a land on casting such as [mtg_card]Solemn Simulacrum[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Sakura-Tribe Elder[/mtg_card] which can be used to keep you in the game until you can get out a bomb as well.

Colourless

While you will be competing with other decks for these the colourless ramp cards  are a strong pick for this deck. [mtg_card]Sol Ring[/mtg_card] is the best, and arguably a little too powerful for the cube. [mtg_card]Fractured Powerstone[/mtg_card] is notable as it’ll be a much higher pick when I finally finish the full set of planechase planes and do a big multiplayer draft planechase event of some kind.

There’s also [mtg_card]Thran Dynamo[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Gilded Lotus[/mtg_card] to help power out the top end stuff.

[mtg_card]Chromatic Lantern[/mtg_card] is there too but it is more a tool for a heavily multicoloured deck or for the guy who got a P1P1 [mtg_card]Progenitus[/mtg_card].

The earliest version of the cube contained a multicolour artifact subtheme. The idea was you drafted a heavily colourless affinity/modular type of deck and splashed cards from a couple of colours depending on how your deck went (perhaps [mtg_card]Pia and Kiran Nalaar[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Megatog[/mtg_card] from red for example). This never really worked however so in the newest builds I have removed it entirely.

The colourless slots have been replaced in part with some of the better Eldrazi. I’ve avoided the Annihilator Eldrazi as that effect isnt one I’m hugely fond of, plus I prefer the newer versions of the Eldrazi titans.

As an aside I intend to make [mtg_card]Wastes[/mtg_card] available in the land box (I might throw in a couple of other colourless mana cards on top of Kozilek) but with a limit such as 4 per person.

A Sample Deck

[d title="RG Ramp"]
Creatures
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Gyre Sage
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Zhur-Taa Druid
1 Mindsparker
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
1 Thragtusk
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Void Winnower
1 Wurmcoil Engine

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Sol Ring
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Xenagos, the Reveler

Spells
1 Farseek
1 Rampant Growth
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Crater's Claws
1 Clan Defiance

Land
8 Mountain
10 Forest

Sideboard
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Breaker of Armies
1 Coastal Discovery
1 Crocanura
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Doubling Season
1 Geosurge
1 Giant Adephage
1 Honor's Reward
1 Hydra Broodmaster
1 Jade Mage
1 Jeskai Sage
1 Martial Coup
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Rancor
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
1 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Skarrg Guildmage
1 Think Twice
1 Titanic Ultimatum

[/d]