Author: mordred

Of all the parts of the cube UR is probably the part that’s changed the most since the earliest builds.

At the beginning there were the ill fated attempts at mono colour tribal themes (I could never make my mind up between merfolk and faeries for blue as I wanted [mtg_card]True-Name Nemesis[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Vendilion Clique[/mtg_card] to both make the cut, red was goblins which lasted longer but ultimately went too). Blue and red have both also had a pretty heavy artifact theme (this was in all the non green colours) at points in the past with cards like [mtg_card]Grand Architect[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Chief Engineer[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Megatog[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Pia and Kiran Nalaar[/mtg_card].

When the cube got its last big review and I decided to focus a lot more on the colour pair archetypes as the basis for the whole thing I was down to a choice of two real options for UR. Keeping and expanding the artifact theme (I might have gone this was had there been some more good thopter token cards in the style of Origins…maybe if we ever go to Kaladesh I might end up revisiting that decision) or going for a prowess style deck.

I settled on prowess as it worked better with a lot of the UR gold cards I liked ([mtg_card]Nivix Cyclops[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Hypersonic Dragon[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Melek, Izzet Paragon[/mtg_card] etc) and a few pet cards like [mtg_card]Talrand, Sky Summoner[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Young Pyromancer[/mtg_card] fitted better. [mtg_card]Jeskai Ascendancy[/mtg_card] in the three colour section, along with [mtg_card]Monastery Mentor[/mtg_card] in white were also a major motivator here as I’d like a jeskai Mentor/Pyromancer/Ascendancy deck to be a thing.

The backbone

Although this is the most spell heavy archetype in the cube (except possibly some builds of UW or Esper control) you are still reliant on creatures to stay alive and sometimes to win the game. The creatures are also the big indicators that this deck is viable in the cube.

[mtg_card]Young Pyromancer[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Talrand, Sky Summoner[/mtg_card] are probably the biggest draws to playing this deck. They turn all the cantrips and burn spells in your deck into board presence. [mtg_card]Monastery Mentor[/mtg_card] also fits into this deck, and it’s very possible to play a Jeskai version of this.

Spell recursion is also a significant component as keeping yourself from running out of gas, given that on average you have quite small creatures and may be quite reliant on prowess triggers. [mtg_card]Snapcaster Mage[/mtg_card] is, well…[mtg_card]Snapcaster Mage[/mtg_card]…enough said. The bombier version of this, in this cube, is [mtg_card]Charmbreaker Devils[/mtg_card]. As long as you can keep your graveyard intact you can keep triggering prowess and keep [mtg_card]Charmbreaker Devils[/mtg_card] big on the attack every turn.

The core of the deck though are the prowess creatures. Most of the good ones printed so far appear in the cube. [mtg_card]Monastery Swiftspear[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Abbot of Keral Keep[/mtg_card], are in red. [mtg_card]Jeskai Elder[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Jeskai Sage[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Jhessian Thief[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Mistfire Adept[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Sage-Eye Avengers[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Pearl-Lake Ancient[/mtg_card] (because you really need prowess on a 7-drop 6/7) are in blue. There is also [mtg_card]Soulblade Djinn[/mtg_card] with super prowess along with the aforementioned [mtg_card]Jeskai Ascendancy[/mtg_card].

The “creatures with prowess” section of the cube is probably going to get upgrades with almost every set from here on, with its new evergreen status. The 1R, 1/3, prowess vampire in Shadows over Innistrad is almost definitely going to make the cut due to being a good crossover card with BR vampires.

Spells

The other half of this deck is the spells (well DUH). You will generally want a few categories of spells.

• Burn
• Bounce and tempo
• Cantrips and card draw

There’s plenty of burn spells in the cube and they are largely interchangeable. [mtg_card]Lightning Bolt[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Incinerate[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Lightning Strike[/mtg_card] aren’t THAT different (yeah, bolt is the best you can get and incinerate has a nice bonus…but strike is still 3 damage on a cheap card). [mtg_card]Mizzium Mortars[/mtg_card] is probably the most desirable just due to flexibility.

Tempo and bounce cards are rather interchangeable, there are a few cheap bounce and tempo spells which you can usually pick up fairly late. [mtg_card]Rush of Ice[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Clutch of Currents[/mtg_card] are recent additions which can give you a bit more board presence as well. The absolute best is [mtg_card]Cyclonic Rift[/mtg_card], but that is first pick good for any blue deck. It’s even worth splashing as the effect is that big.

The cantrip spells fit in here better than any other deck. [mtg_card]Brainstorm[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Ponder[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Preordain[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Serum Visions[/mtg_card] are all good for getting prowess triggers while keeping your hand full, plus they’re good for just digging to your better cards. The fetchlands are also available to combo with [mtg_card]Brainstorm[/mtg_card].

Sample decks

[d title="UR Prowess"]
Creatures
1x Dragonmaster Outcast
1x Monastery Swiftspear
1x Abbot of Keral Keep
1x Augur of Bolas
1x Jeskai Elder
1x Jhessian Thief
1x Markov Blademaster
1x Prophetic Flamespeaker
1x Talrand, Sky Summoner
1x Thunderbreak Regent
1x Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1x Stormbreath Dragon
1x Charmbreaker Devils
1x Inferno Titan

Non-Creature Permanents
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Spells
1x Lightning Bolt
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Incinerate
1x Lightning Strike
1x Searing Spear
1x Scatter to the Winds
1x Dig Through Time
1x Clutch of Currents
1x Treasure Cruise

Land
1x Volcanic Island
8x Island
7x Mountain

Sideboard
1x Battle Hymn
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Black Sun's Zenith
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
1x Coastal Discovery
1x Commune with the Gods
1x Crocanura
1x Deathbringer Regent
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Eternal Witness
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Goblin Bushwhacker
1x Magma Jet
1x Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
1x Pillar of Flame
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Slayers' Stronghold
1x Soldier of the Pantheon
1x Splinterfright
1x Tithe Drinker[/d]

[d title="UR Prowess"]
Creatures
1x Goblin Guide
1x Monastery Swiftspear
1x Abbot of Keral Keep
1x Augur of Bolas
1x Jeskai Sage
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Young Pyromancer
1x Jhessian Thief
1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1x Mindsparker
1x Nivix Cyclops
1x Vendilion Clique

Non-Creature Permanents
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Bident of Thassa
1x Thassa, God of the Sea

Spells
1x Izzet Charm
1x Lightning Strike
1x Electrolyze
1x Volt Charge
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Pillar of Flame
1x Mizzium Mortars
1x Coastal Discovery

Land
1x Scalding Tarn
8x Island
8x Mountain

Sideboard
1x Brainstorm
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Claustrophobia
1x Coordinated Assault
1x Crosis, the Purger
1x Cultivate
1x Faithless Looting
1x Falkenrath Aristocrat
1x Koth of the Hammer
1x Lightning Helix
1x Liliana of the Veil
1x Mortify
1x Nemesis of Mortals
1x Ninja of the Deep Hours
1x Rush of Ice
1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1x Sublime Archangel
1x Sunscorch Regent
1x Sword of Body and Mind
1x Think Twice
1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
[/d]

Next up: Shadows Over Innistrad, cube alterations!

The most aggressive archetype in the cube is red white. Red and white have the most one drop creatures (currently 6 in white and 8 in red), plenty of ways to get a blocker out of the way, temporarily or permanently, along with benefits to attacking with multiple creatures.

You do have the traditional problem of running out of steam if your opponent manages to stabilise but there are a few cards available that get you out of that.

Aggressive Creatures

The core of an aggressive deck are the cheap effective creatures. As mentioned one drops, especially two power one drops are a big deal for the deck with the bulk of your deck being at one, two and three CMC.

[mtg_card]Soldier of the Pantheon[/mtg_card] is a good one to take in a cube as heavily multi coloured as this one. [mtg_card]Firedrinker Satyr[/mtg_card] can be costly but has the benefit of being a one cmc creature that can trade up to take out a larger creature or a big toughness blocker. The life loss may become problematic but there are ways to mitigate that, especially in white such as [mtg_card]Alabaster Mage[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Nearheath Pilgrim[/mtg_card] for lifelink or just giving it first strike with [mtg_card]Archetype of Courage[/mtg_card].

At two mana the Battlecry creatures [mtg_card]Accorder Paladin[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Goblin Wardriver[/mtg_card] should be high picks when throwing your creatures at the opponent every turn. [mtg_card]Firefist Striker[/mtg_card] is another one which benefits a beatdown strategy, keeping your opponents best blocker out of the game. [mtg_card]Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit[/mtg_card] is another beneficial effect in a deck that has a lot of smaller creatures.

[mtg_card]Boros Reckoner[/mtg_card] is another favourite card of mine. In Inn/RtR standard I ran it in a mono red deck with the good one drops, [mtg_card]ash zealot[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Hellrider[/mtg_card] etc. Blocking this guy is never fun. The hasty three drops [mtg_card]Skynight Legionnaire[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Viashino Firstblade[/mtg_card] also attack well on the curve.

Game Winners

Your top end bombs in this kind of deck are a lot lower on the curve than for other decks and you probably want fewer of them unless you go for a midrange build. [mtg_card]Assemble the legion[/mtg_card] will eventually win pretty much any game given enough time. [mtg_card]Aurelia, the Warleader[/mtg_card] usually wins the game the turn she hits the field. The big hasty dragons [mtg_card]Stormbreath Dragon[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/mtg_card] are good at ending a game quickly.

Although it lacks haste my favourite for this slot is probably [mtg_card]Baneslayer Angel[/mtg_card]. It severely discourages attacking with anything less than huge the turn it comes down, has protection from a not insignificant selection of cards and keeps you in the game if the game drags on.

Staying Alive

This cube isn’t particularly big on combat tricks but there are a few good ways to keep your creatures alive through combat. [mtg_card]Ride Down[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Celestial Flare[/mtg_card] both get rid of a blocking creature. [mtg_card]Ride Down[/mtg_card] obviously gives you more choice but in the early game removing the first creature your opponent blocks with is going to be significant. Flare also lets you remove a pesky attacker such as a creature with evasion if the game gets close.

[mtg_card]Pyreheart Wolf[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Iroas, God of Victory[/mtg_card] both give you evasion on all your creatures. Iroas also makes your creatures unkillable in combat so I can see games where I would intentionally not get to sufficient devotion to animate him if i think theres a good chance of a path/swords happening.

[mtg_card]Legion’s Initiative[/mtg_card] is yet another of my cards I liked but never really found a use for (beginning to think the ideal format for me is “janky-ass casual 60 card constructed, a format which sadly was brutally murdered by commander). Wrath protection is pretty relevant in this cube between traditional wraths, red damage based sweepers, [mtg_card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Deathbringer Regent[/mtg_card] etc there are a LOT of times you can hold a card up in the opponents hand by keeping Initiative on the table and two mana up. Re-triggering all of your enter the battlefield abilities is also relevant (re targeting a [mtg_card]Banisher Priest[/mtg_card] or getting an extra card off of [mtg_card]Abbot of Keral Keep[/mtg_card] are all on the plausible end of the scale…Extra attack steps with Aurelia are closer to magical christmas land, but it’s a nice place to visit)

A Sample Deck

This sample came out pretty much as you would expect. A pile of assorted cheap creatures, a couple of burn spells and a couple of top end cards (the top end being 4 or 5 in this case).

[d title="WR Aggro Tempo/Counters"]
Creatures
1 Dryad Militant
1 Firedrinker Satyr
1 Goblin Guide
1 Mother of Runes
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Elite Inquisitor
1 Firefist Striker
1 Knight of Glory
1 Seeker of the Way
1 Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
1 Banisher Priest
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Fiendslayer Paladin
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Eidolon of Countless Battles

Non-Creature Permanents
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Spells
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Brimstone Volley

Land
9 Plains
7 Mountain

Sideboard
1 Archangel of Tithes
1 Archetype of Aggression
1 Bloodfray Giant
1 Bonesplitter
1 Celestial Flare
1 Chandra's Outrage
1 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
1 Gavony Township
1 Gideon Jura
1 Gideon's Lawkeeper
1 Goblin Chieftain
1 Halimar Tidecaller
1 Hellrider
1 Honor's Reward
1 Inferno Titan
1 Mulch
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Scorchwalker
1 Skaab Goliath
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 War Priest of Thune[/d]

When I first built the cube I was perhaps overly concerned with aggro strategies being too dominant. As it stands they are viable but not at too many per table which is about where I wanted it.

Of all the archetypes in the cube UG +1/+1 counters is probably the one most dependant on one of it’s colours (green) and it’s multicolour section. Blue provides some good cards but not a huge amount of them. Luckily the odds are good that you will get these as they are rather low picks for other decks.

I actually incorrectly believed that this deck had won the cubes first real outing (possibly due to it absolutely steamrolling me repeatedly with  [mtg_card]Gyre Sage[/mtg_card] > [mtg_card]Fathom Mage[/mtg_card] > [mtg_card]Lorescale Coatl[/mtg_card] > [mtg_card]Prime Speaker Zegana[/mtg_card]. I have since been informed that it came in in second place getting beaten in the finals by a deck I have sadly forgotten.

If you get the right cards this one, as you can imagine from the above, can turn into an almost unstoppable engine of grindy card advantage. Granted it can fall completely on it’s arse as well, perhaps more than anything but the tribal decks but that’s the gamble.

I would also say that it’s also probably the least “all-in” deck in the cube usually playing a tempo strategy with some late game inevitability.

+1/+1 Counters

There are plenty of sources of counters throughout the cube, the most common being evolve from RTR block. Most of the good evolve creatures are in, especially the ones with any kind of interesting effect (most notably [mtg_card]Simic Manipulator[/mtg_card]’s mind control ability, [mtg_card]Gyre Sage[/mtg_card]’s ramp and [mtg_card]Fathom Mage[/mtg_card]’s card draw). There isn’t really a huge deal to be said about the evolve ability.

There are a small number of monstrous creatures from Theros, most relevantly [mtg_card]Fleetfeather Cockatrice[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Arbor Colossus[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Polukranos, World-Eater[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Hydra Broodmother[/mtg_card].

There are also creatures with incidental counter abilities such as [mtg_card]Undergrowth Champion[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Lorescale Coatl[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Prime Speaker Zegana[/mtg_card]. If all things go well in this deck you should accumulate plenty of counters during the normal course of events without actually having to put too much effort in. The ultimate version of this is [mtg_card]Master Biomancer[/mtg_card].

This leads of course into why you should bother going out of your way to pick up plenty of +1/+1 counter generators during the draft…

Going Overboard

The payoff cards for +1/+1 counters are a little limited in the current build and something I’m looking to improve but you do get a few good ones.

[mtg_card]Avatar of the Resolute[/mtg_card] scales through the game as you play more evolve and monstrous creatures and get’s silly if you have a [mtg_card]Master Biomancer[/mtg_card] out.

[mtg_card]Renegade Krasis[/mtg_card] is another entry on my ever expanding list of cards which I wished had worked in standard….or anything for that matter. In theory he should be pretty good here so long as you have plenty of creatures with counters and can keep up the flow of guys (combos nicely with [mtg_card]Fathom Mage[/mtg_card]).

There’s also [mtg_card]Vorel of the Hull clade[/mtg_card] who can take any creature with a reasonable number of counters on it and turn it into a potentially game ending threat. Like [mtg_card]Renegade Krasis[/mtg_card] he also combos with [mtg_card]Fathom Mage[/mtg_card] to get you burning through your deck.

A Sample Deck

Illustrating my point above this deck came out as a fairly normal UG midrange deck with plenty of draw and a counters theme (sticking Vorel does seem pretty good here, especially with a counterspell up).

[d title="UG Tempo/Counters"]
Creatures
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Avatar of the Resolute
1 Gyre Sage
1 Shambleshark
1 Elder of Laurels
1 Elusive Krasis
1 Jhessian Thief
1 Lorescale Coatl
1 Simic Fluxmage
1 Tandem Lookout
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vorel of the Hull Clade
1 Aetherling
1 Hydra Broodmaster

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Bident of Thassa
1 Kruphix, God of Horizons
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Karn Liberated

Spells
1 Counterspell
1 Mana Leak
1 Dissipate
1 Dig Through Time
1 Treasure Cruise

Land
8 Island
9 Forest

Sideboard
1 Archangel of Tithes
1 Bitterblossom
1 Brainstorm
1 Coastal Discovery
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Graverobber Spider
1 Jade Mage
1 Jeskai Sage
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Korozda Monitor
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Nylea's Emissary
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Rush of Ice
1 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1 Silent-Blade Oni
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Thassa's Emissary
1 Tithe Drinker
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
[/d]

In the next big round of changes this archetype will get a bit of refinement, hopefully with some new releases as it needs some more cards to make it clear that this is actually a thing to draft.

PS: This is Daghatar, FEAR HIM, FEAR HIM.

The token deck in this cube tends to play quite differently each time. In the example decks below it’s happened to come out as a chunky midrange deck in one and an almost mono white in another. In person the last time I played it it started the draft looking like a modern Abzan deck and picked up the most valuable token makers (particularly spirits) as the draft went on (with plenty of soldiers going to the Boros player).

It’s also one of the simplest archetypes to get into as you don’t need a particular signal that the archetype exists (such as a tribal lord for vampires or zombies) nor do you need any particular combination of cards to come out with a deck which is at the minimum viable.

Token Makers

In the earliest version of the cube there was a tribal sub-theme to each colour. In white it was soldiers. That never really amounted to anything but the bulk of the soldier cards stayed in as they’re mostly good and play well with Selesnya and Boros.

There are two soldier lords in white, [mtg_card]Field Marshal[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Captain of the Watch[/mtg_card]. Mass first strike from [mtg_card]Field Marshal[/mtg_card] gives you a defensive buff until you can sufficiently swarm the opponent on the attack (there’s often a period in the mid game where 1/1’s can’t profitably get through the enemies blockers).

[mtg_card]Precinct Captain[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Brimaz, King of Oreskos[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Hero of Bladehold[/mtg_card] all churn out soldier tokens on the attack to pump up your body count.

[mtg_card]Martial Coup[/mtg_card] is one of the best cards you can have in a limited deck as a board wipe which doesn’t leave you a turn behind in reestablishing board presence is massive (speaking as someone who was [mtg_card]Duneblast[/mtg_card]ed on average twice a week for the whole time triple-khans was the draft format….blegh). It’s a high pick for any white deck but gets some bonuses in the token deck from [mtg_card]Intangible Virtue[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Doubling Season[/mtg_card] and if you’re lucky [mtg_card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Gideon Jura[/mtg_card].

Spirits don’t really have any specific tribal support in the cube but are a big part of the token deck. Those little 1/1 flyers can easily grind out an opponent as long as you can defend yourself on the ground.

The big three spirit token spells are all in here ([mtg_card]Midnight Haunting[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Lingering Souls[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Spectral Procession[/mtg_card]) along with [mtg_card]Geist-Honored Monk[/mtg_card]. Anecdotally I have a peculiar soft spot for [mtg_card]Midnight Haunting[/mtg_card] as back during it’s time in standard I won a copy of FTV: Realms in a standard tournament after winning the final due to running a full set of hauntings in my Esper tokens standard deck. It turns out flashing in [mtg_card]Midnight Haunting[/mtg_card] to block a swinging-for-lethal [mtg_card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/mtg_card] after it’s attack trigger resolves is pretty good when everyones forgotten theres an instant speed version of [mtg_card]Lingering Souls[/mtg_card] knocking around.

There are also plenty of “misc” token maker around, including most of greens token makers. There are a couple of saproling makers ([mtg_card]Jade Mage[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Mycoloth[/mtg_card]), beasts ([mtg_card]Garruk, Primal Hunter[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Thragtusk[/mtg_card]), Eldrazi Scions ([mtg_card]From Beyond[/mtg_card]…go on, splash Ulamog…ok more realistically [mtg_card]Breaker of Armies[/mtg_card] could be very reasonably included) and other minor ones.

Lastly in colourless there is [mtg_card]Orochi Hatchery[/mtg_card]. That one might be slightly more suited to the ramp decks but isnt a bad late game card to churn out a handful of tokens every turn where you don’t need to cast something (and it’s always nice to have something to maintain the bluff/mystery of whether thats removal/a wrath in your hand).

Unrelated aside: [mtg_card]Armada Wurm[/mtg_card] looks like a giant penis. A giant armoured penis. Many jokes were made about this. That is all.

Going Wide

Although every colour in the cube has tokens to some degree green-white has the ways to really take advantage of that. At the top of the list is [mtg_card]Doubling Season[/mtg_card] which is probably my favourite “does nothing on it’s own” limited card (the first time I ever got to play with one was in a modern masters draft where I was full on in the GW Thallid deck splashing black a tiny bit for….actually I can’t for the life of me remember now. But I was already in a good version of the deck with plenty of the better thallids including [mtg_card]Sporoloth Ancient[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Sporesower Thallid[/mtg_card]. Games effectively boiled down to durdle…durdle…durdle…dude I’m out of dice again can I borrow some extras.

Theres also a couple of populate cards, [mtg_card]Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice[/mtg_card] (the star and ultimate removal magnet of my [mtg_card]Conjuror’s Closet[/mtg_card] standard flicker deck) and [mtg_card]Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage[/mtg_card] (THE mythic uncommon).

One of the big benefit’s of running a lot of token maker cards is that you gain an oversized effect from anything you run which impacts all creatures you control.

The most obvious card here is [mtg_card]Intangible Virtue[/mtg_card] which is hard to remove, effectively doubles the power level of anything which makes tokens and gives you the ability to swing all out every turn without ever letting your defences down. [mtg_card]Spear of Heliod[/mtg_card] isn’t just for the token deck, as any heavy white deck will probably want it, but it is disproportionately good here and has the benefit of pumping your cards like Precinct Captain as well. [mtg_card]Tolsimir Wolfblood[/mtg_card] is a favourite card of mine which I missed during the years I was out of the game and never got to play with before drafting him in one of our cube nights.

Some of our planeswalkers also work particularly well in a token deck (well again any deck, but the effects are SO MUCH better here). [mtg_card]Nissa, Voice of Zendikar[/mtg_card] pumps all your creatures every few rounds and [mtg_card]Garruk, Primal Hunter[/mtg_card] draws silly numbers of cards while spawning some of the larger tokens in the cube. [mtg_card]Ajani, Mentor of Heroes[/mtg_card] is also good here, throwing counters around liberally or digging for your [mtg_card]Hero of Bladehold[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/mtg_card]. Off colour there is Sorin, Lord of Innistrad giving you a choice between lifelink tokens (and again in a slower deck lifelink is a valuable way to stay alive) or creating unremovable emblems.

There are any cards with battalion or pseudo battalion effects (there is quite a bit of crossover here into the Boros deck). [mtg_card]Odric, Master Tactician[/mtg_card], when you can trigger him, varies in power from “all my creatures are unblockable” to a one sided boardwipe if the numbers stack up right.

A Sample Deck

My first attempt at using the draft sim to get a token deck ended up with this, which while theoretically a token deck, is very much the opposite of what I imagined effectively being a ramp deck with various big X cost token makers and planeswalkers for value.

[d title="WGb Tokens Ramp"]
Creatures
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Flickerwisp
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Siege Rhino
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Karn Liberated
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Hangarback Walker

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Sol Ring
1 Orochi Hatchery
1 From Beyond
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Spells
1 Path to Exile
1 Hero's Downfall
1 White Sun's Zenith
1 Rampant Growth
1 Cultivate
1 Martial Coup

Land
1 Gavony Township
5 Plains
4 Swamp
7 Forest

Sideboard
1 Blind Obedience
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Clutch of Currents
1 Containment Priest
1 Deathbringer Regent
1 Hooting Mandrills
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Impulse
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Mycoloth
1 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
1 Surrak Dragonclaw
1 Titanic Growth
1 Tundra
1 Unburial Rites
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
1 Viscera Seer
1 Witchstalker

[/d]

Then I had another crack and got an almost mono white deck splashing black and green (you could play it as straight black white but [mtg_card]mycoloth[/mtg_card] is basically a token deck on one card).

[d title="Wbg Tokens"]
Creatures
1 Doomed Traveler
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Fiendslayer Paladin
1 Archangel of Tithes
1 Sublime Archangel
1 Mycoloth
1 Sunscorch Regent
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Rancor
1 Bitterblossom
1 Intangible Virtue
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Orochi Hatchery

Spells
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Raise the Alarm
1 White Sun's Zenith
1 Lingering Souls
1 Spectral Procession
1 Martial Coup

Land
1 Savannah
8 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Forest

Sideboard
1 Alabaster Mage
1 Containment Priest
1 Drana's Emissary
1 Ghoulraiser
1 Gideon's Avenger
1 Goblin Chieftain
1 Ichor Wellspring
1 Inferno Titan
1 Knight of Obligation
1 Nightveil Specter
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Primeval Titan
1 Rampant Growth
1 Seeker of the Way
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Skyknight Legionnaire
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Unflinching Courage
1 Yasova Dragonclaw
[/d]

Definitely a hint this deck likes to spread into black ([mtg_card]Lingering Souls[/mtg_card] flashback is a big part, [mtg_card]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/mtg_card] is also a major player in that). You can also spread into red for [mtg_card]Assemble the Legion[/mtg_card] and some of the mass creature effects. [mtg_card]Young Pyromancer[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Monastery Mentor[/mtg_card] plus the spell based token makers such as [mtg_card]Hordeling Outburst[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Midnight Haunting[/mtg_card] is also pretty nice.

I think this might also be the deck that most wants [mtg_card]Loxodon Warhammer[/mtg_card]…however if I’m in the draft it’s one of very few cards I never EVER pass so you’d better open it.

When I played a variation on this in one of our previous drafts I found myself in abzan, running [mtg_card]Abzan Ascendancy[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Mortify[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Putrefy[/mtg_card] which was nice (there is very little main deckable artifact and enchantment removal in the cube and having some cards like these can bag some unexpected wins, as it did for me that night vs a red white deck running both Soldier lords and [mtg_card]Assemble the Legion[/mtg_card].

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]