Danny's World of Stuff

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]

 

When I started building the cube I had two big driving forces behind doing it. The first was playing with cards I liked but didn’t really have a use for only really playing commander and limited formats (i do play the odd bit of standard and modern but not as much as I’d like). The single card that most set this off was [mtg_card]Deathrite Shaman[/mtg_card] as I had a set and had not really gotten any use since rotation (I used them a little in Inn-RTR standard Jund). A close second was the pack fresh Force of Will I had opened in an ice age/alliance/cold snap draft we did one night.

The second was that I like cycles of cards and outside of the 5 colour [mtg_card]Progenitus[/mtg_card] commander deck I keep meaning to make you never really get to make use of a whole cycle in something. On top of that no matter how much you like a cycle most of the time there are only one or two playable in a given constructed format. Doing all this gave me a chance to make use of all the big cycles I liked without thought to format competitiveness.

The earliest build of the cube was in fact a lot heavier on cycles but quite a few got removed to make way for more archetype cards and to increase the power level in general.

That original build also had set amounts of different rarities of cards of each colour, a concept rapidly abandoned.

Titans

The first decision I made on the cube and it’s play style was that I wanted it to be big and splashy, more intended for games to go long and be full of commander style shenanigans.

In part I wanted the cube to be approachable to people who only play occasionally or very casually so the archetypes are all fairly direct (see a tribal lord, pick up cards of the same type etc) and some of the traditional cube staples like twin don’t really work for that.

With that in mind some of the first cards I picked to go in were the M11 titans. Anyone who knows the basic rules can read one of the titans and say “that’s powerful, I’ll take that first” and be happy with that pick later on. They’re also popular with experienced players and fit in any deck in the colour.

I also include an honourable mention colourless bonus card in this cycle: Wurmcoil Engine. It maintains the CMC 6, 6/6 mythic with powerful ability stats and it’s something I remember as part of that standard along with the titans (I jammed 4 in damn near every deck I played except bad RDW).

• [mtg_card]Sun Titan[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Frost Titan[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Grave Titan[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Inferno Titan[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Primeval Titan[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Wurmcoil Engine[/mtg_card]

As a fun aside this is also something I’m fond of from a pimp perspective as I have an alt art version of each titan (don’t have the [mtg_card]Wurmcoil Engine[/mtg_card] promo yet). The [mtg_card]Grave Titan[/mtg_card] promo is in fact the card that brought me back into playing magic after many years off. A friend was playing the original Duels of the Planeswalkers on steam and I jumped in out of curiosity and got the ad for the promo real cards…I soon found a new LGS where I picked up way more than I intended to including the Grave Titan promo. I then spent most of the next three years in there until the shop sadly closed.

Star Dragons

Rolling back to the first time I played the game, Kamigawa block, I wanted to include the Star Dragon cycle. These ones haven’t aged as well as the titan cycle but they still pack a reasonable punch.

Kokusho in particular was a favourite of mine back in the day and one of the few things I got back then that was still in any particular way playable when I came back, once we passed the “what the hell is this” phase when I brought out my old decks (they were terrible but we all go through that phase).

• [mtg_card]Yosei, the Morning Star[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Keiga, the Tide Star[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Kokusho, the Evening Star[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Ryusei, the Falling Star[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Jugan, the Rising Star[/mtg_card]

I like to think that [mtg_card]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/mtg_card] is an honorary member of this team.

Khans

When I was building the early versions of the cube I was drafting Khans of Tarkir   multiple times a week so I picked up a liking for 3 colour shenanigans.

There are, at present, almost no face down (morph or manifest) cards in the cube even though I’m a huge tarkir fan as for a while I planned a second cube including every face down or face down matters card ever printed. I had an attack of sanity however and that idea faded into the background. In the near future I shall probably add some in.

The Khans do fit fairly nicely into what these colour groups want to be doing such as Narset sitting between Spellslinging (UR) and Temp (UW).

• [mtg_card]Anafenza, the Foremost[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Narset, Enlightened Master[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Sidisi, Brood Tyrant[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Surrak Dragonclaw[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Zurgo Helmsmasher[/mtg_card]

Guild Leaders

The Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash mythic legendary creatures come from a time I played in a weekly standard league where I actually (unlike a lot here) played quite a lot of this cycle at one time or another, so this is another cycle with some memories for me.

Trostani was my favourite card in my [mtg_card]Conjurer’s Closet[/mtg_card] flicker deck (it was very much like the reanimator deck just replacing [mtg_card]Advent of the Wurm[/mtg_card] with [mtg_card]Armada Wurm[/mtg_card] and the reanimation package with some more ramp and [mtg_card]Conjurer’s Closet[/mtg_card]).

Niv-Mizzet was one of the value engine/win con cards in the UWR midrange deck I used occasionally (and more often loaned out). It was way more creature heavy than many of the decks in those colours at the time (it ran [mtg_card]Snapcaster Mage[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Boros Reckoner[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/mtg_card] and some other value creatures on top of 4 [mtg_card]Bonfire of the Damned[/mtg_card] and 4 [mtg_card]Mizzium Mortars[/mtg_card]…take THAT aggro decks).

I attempted (and failed) many times to build a GB zombies deck, but I did get some fun wins sacrificing [mtg_card]Thragtusk[/mtg_card]s to [mtg_card]Jarad, Golgari Lich lord[/mtg_card]. Some early (bad) versions of my vampire tribal deck ran [mtg_card]Rakdos, Lord of Riots[/mtg_card] as a big beater before I got better cards.

[mtg_card]Prime Speaker Zegana[/mtg_card] joined Trostani later on in RTR-Theros in a bant deck I made around [mtg_card]Ajani, Mentor of Heroes[/mtg_card] (and [mtg_card]Armada Wurm[/mtg_card] again). I also played a pretty standard BW midrange during RTR-Theros with [mtg_card]Obzedat, Ghost Council[/mtg_card] (although blood baron was my favourite). Aurelia was in my first commander deck ([mtg_card]Kaalia of the Vast[/mtg_card], I’ve dismantled it since as I grew to find it a little too linear to keep amusing me, eventually I plan to make it into [mtg_card]Zurgo Helmsmasher[/mtg_card]….with Aurelia again).

Lava, Borborygmos and Isperia are the only ones I never really made much use of.

• [mtg_card]Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Isperia, Supreme Judge[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Borborygmos Enraged[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Lazav, Dimir Mastermind[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Rakdos, Lord of Riots[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Prime Speaker Zegana[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Obzedat, Ghost Council[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Aurelia, the Warleader[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord[/mtg_card]

Maze Runners

While I’ve played less with these than their Mythic counterparts I still quite like them and a fair few fit very nicely into their matching archetype (not that I’m that strict on cards having to match archetypes, especially in a big cube like this, plenty of room for just fun cards).

This is also the only cycle I’ve included where one (and possibly soon a second) is subbed out for a different card.

Melek, Varolz, Lavinia, Vorel, Ruric Thar, Tajic and to a lesser extent Teysa all fit into their matching themed deck. Mirko doesn’t really fit either his tribe or the theme but is a viable win condition in a control UR deck as all you need to do is hit a couple of times and you could conceivably in from there by stalling out the game.

Exava is on the chopping block at the moment as her ability just doesn’t work AT ALL with the other cards in these colours, which is a shame as I like her. She’ll probably be swapped with something else soon, possibly (another Innistrad 2 wishlist item here) for a new RB vampire legend to buddy up with Olivia.

This leaves the elephant in the room (or more accurately the turd in the booster pack)…You can probably see this coming a mile away…[mtg_card]Emmara Tandris[/mtg_card]…I just can’t do it. Even though her ability actually fits the GW deck the only way shed get in is if I proxied a “fixed” version perhaps with “Affinity for Token Creatures” or with dramatically toned down cost and stats, maybe a 2GW 2/2 or even push her into a GW 1/1 (dies to everything but none of your other stuff does). But for now I don’t want to really play around with errata so she doesn’t make the cut. Her replacement is a favourite of mine, [mtg_card]Tolsimir Wolfblood[/mtg_card].

• [mtg_card]Tolsimir Wolfblood[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Teysa, Orzhov Scion[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Ruric Thar, the Unbowed[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Melek, Izzet Paragon[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Varolz, the Scar-Striped[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Tajic, Blade of the Legion[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Lavinia of the Tenth[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Vorel of the Hull Clade[/mtg_card]

RTR Guildmages

The Return to Ravnica Guildmages are mostly in as fun multi colour cards but for the most part they do actually fit the themes of the decks they would be in. Duskmantle is the only one that really stands out as not being part of the deck.

• [mtg_card]Korozda Guildmage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]New Prahv Guildmage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Sunhome Guildmage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Nivix Guildmage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Duskmantle Guildmage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Rix Maadi Guildmage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Skarrg Guildmage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Vizkopa Guildmage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Zameck Guildmage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage[/mtg_card]

The Pantheon

All 15 of the gods of theros are in the cube. There’s not a lot to say here except this was a cycle where I liked enough of them individually that I decided to put in the lot. There is a little archetype crossover in the minor gods (Iroas and Pharika spring most to mind but many of them fit tangentially into the decks such as Xenagos in Gruul ramp…doesnt directly ramp you but make everything you cast just that bit better). It’s only really Phenax who stands out as wrong as there are only really her and Mirko-Vosk as enemy mill, but like the maze runner she can be a mill deck win condition in a can.

• [mtg_card]Heliod, God of the Sun[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Thassa, God of the Sea[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Erebos, God of the Dead[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Purphoros, God of the Forge[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Nylea, God of the Hunt[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Athreos, God of Passage[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Ephara, God of the Polis[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Iroas, God of Victory[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Karametra, God of Harvests[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Keranos, God of Storms[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Kruphix, God of Horizons[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Mogis, God of Slaughter[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Pharika, God of Affliction[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Phenax, God of Deception[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Xenagos, God of Revels[/mtg_card]

It saddens me to this day that [mtg_card]Chromanticore[/mtg_card], god of Jank-ass 5 colour decks could be neither Legendary nor a God. Perhaps its for the best though, that double height type line would have been nasty. Maybe he could have been the first landscape orientation non split magic card. Now THERES a proxy.

Weapons of the Gods

This cycle made it in largely due to my irrational love for Whip of Erebos. Seriously I didn’t play a swamp for two years without a pair of these in the 75. And it’s in every black commander deck I play. And the cube.

Spear of Heliod is something I at least experimented with in standard. For a couple of weeks I ran a version of mono blue devotion that splashed white for a pair of [mtg_card]Spear of Heliod[/mtg_card] and a set of [mtg_card]Azorius Charm[/mtg_card]s. The idea was that the Spear would keep my tokens alive when [mtg_card]Master of Waves[/mtg_card] inevitably bit the dust. It was just slightly too clunky to work, as were most “splash a colour for x” versions of “hopelessly devoted to U” (come on wizards, bring back the silly deck names). Bident of course made it into all my versions of the same deck because why wouldn’t it.

Bow and Hammer are among the first cards in these cycles to purely be here for completion, not that either are terrible cards, they just don’t appeal to me that much personally.

• [mtg_card]Spear of Heliod[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Bident of Thassa[/mtg_card] (no not Biden, safari autocorrect, I’m not doing politics tonight)
• [mtg_card]Whip of Erebos[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Hammer of Purphoros[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Bow of Nylea[/mtg_card]

Ascendancies

Another leftover from my massive amount of KTK drafts is my love for the ascendancy cycle. Mechanically I like what they all do but more than that they all, for me at least, define in a single card what each clan is all about. If you showed someone familiar with the game these 5 cards long before KTK was spoiled they could probably work out a lot both mechanically and thematically about the set which I think is quite cool. I’m a big fan of cards which kind of tell a story just through one card in isolation (not necessarily counting flavour text) and I’ve always thought these do well at that (the single best example of single card storytelling is of course…Desert Wooder).

• [mtg_card]Abzan Ascendancy[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Mardu Ascendancy[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Sultai Ascendancy[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Jeskai Ascendancy[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Temur Ascendancy[/mtg_card]

Zeniths

The zenith cycles inclusion comes from the presence of Green Sun’s in FTV 20. I had a pair and had no real use for it as it was banned in modern and I wouldn’t want to run it outside of mono green commander (which I don’t have).

RSZ was also a card I was quite fond of (recurring fireball is never bad). The rest just slotted in nicely. USZ is just a big draw spell, nothing controversial there. BSZ is a great control card and WSZ fitted into the WG tokens deck.

• [mtg_card]White Sun’s Zenith[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Blue Sun’s Zenith[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Red Sun’s Zenith[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/mtg_card]

I considered including an altered [mtg_card]Lightning Shrieker[/mtg_card], bearing the new name I gave it but sadly Dragon Sun’s Zenith wasn’t really good enough to make the cut.

Charms

The 10 guild charms and the 10 shard/wedge charms were all pretty much auto includes. The former in the very first build of the cube and the latter as soon as I decided to have the small set of cards in each 3 colour combination.

Of them all the only one that has any real personal significance is Izzet Charm, both one of my favourite cards and the only card I ever won a full playset of over a month of FNMs (it was also one of my favourite FNM promos so that was a nice month for me).

I think they’re all good to some degree and it’s nice to throw in some cards that give people more options in game, plus modal spells are almost never dead but still give you some of the niche effects of things like situational counter spells and narrow removal without being dead cards without the targets. I considered the dragon lords charms as well but those 15 card guild coloured sections are already chock full with more cards I want to include.

• [mtg_card]Selesnya Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Izzet Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Gruul Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Azorius Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Rakdos Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Dimir Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Simic Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Boros Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Orzhov Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Golgari Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Abzan Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Mardu Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Sultai Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Temur Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Jeskai Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Bant Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Esper Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Grixis Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Jund Charm[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Naya Charm[/mtg_card]

Swords of Chalk and Cheese

For me the swords hold a special place as the only set of cards I missed out on twice. As mentioned earlier when I first started playing the game it was Kamigawa block so I just missed out on the original swords, and as I didn’t spend much on singles then I ended up seeing them as the cool powerful cards I just couldn’t get my hands on.

When I returned to the game it was just before M12 game day so I had once again missed the boat on the new swords. I know I could have just ponied up and bought them but playing standard at the time there was always something else I needed for the league that bumped them down the list. It was only around the release of BFZ that I ever obtained a set and it was specifically to go in here.

• [mtg_card]Sword of War and Peace[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Sword of Body and Mind[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Sword of Light and Shadow[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Sword of Fire and Ice[/mtg_card]

Under Consideration: Tarkir Elder Dragons

Four of the cards in this cycle are almost definite shoe-ins. Dromoka and Silumgar are both rock solid cards despite not overly fitting into the archetypes. Ojutai is a fantastic tempo card/control finisher for UW and Atarka would make a great top end ramp target for the RG deck.

The thing is however that it would annoy me greatly to have the 4 cards without the fifth to complete the cycle and Kolaghan has an issue. Although it’s base stats and first ability are fine something severely bugs me about the concept of having a card in the cube where a significant chunk of the text is non functional. I may buckle under anyway and include it but it will be with a slight persistent sense of irritation.

(Commence Ramble: I did hear maro discussing this on his podcast and while I do understand his point that Legendary Creatures are not solely for commander I sort of feel that one member of a cycle of mythic legends which are obviously going to be desirable commanders isn’t necessarily the place for that logic. I would probably feel better about that ability if it were some random standalone guy or a creature which was obviously pushed to fill a role in standard or modern but to me Kologhan sticks out as out of place among the cycle).

• [mtg_card]Dragonlord Dromoka[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Dragonlord Ojutai[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Dragonlord Kolaghan[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Dragonlord Silumgar[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Dragonlord Atarka[/mtg_card]

Under Consideration: Manlands

The original plan for the cube was for ten two colour archetypes, five mono colour tribal sub themes and a multicolour artifact deck. Over time Iv’e cut back the mono colour tribal elements (as I go through each archetype they shall probably gradually fall back out of the cube…Zombies have become a full two colour deck, elves have been purged as a theme, I could never decide between merfolk and faeries for blue and that leaves goblins in red and soldiers in white and they shall probably become a supported sub theme of the RW aggro/battalion deck) to the point they effectively no longer exist. The artifact deck is rapidly fizzling out as in my tests I just can’t make it a viable thing without screwing up the actual proper archetypes.

There is an alternative option I’m considering which is making artifacts the UR mechanic but this would most likely be a lot of shoehorning to allow me to keep a couple of pet cards in ([mtg_card]Pia and Kiran Nalaar[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Atog[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Megatog[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Whirler Rogue[/mtg_card] etc).

Another concern is that the current mana fixing setup of Duals, Shocks, Fetches and Trilands doesn’t seem to appear quite enough for a heavy multicolour cube of this size.

This all leads me to the conclusion that I shall likely strip the artifact theme out and reduce it to just “some good artifacts that go anywhere” and use some of those slots to add an extra cycle of lands. I considered filters or temples but in light of the completion of the dual colour manland cycle I shall likely include these.

• [mtg_card]Celestial Colonnade[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Creeping Tar Pit[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Lavaclaw Reaches[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Raging Ravine[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Stirring Wildwood[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Shambling Vent[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Wandering Fumarole[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Hissing Quagmire[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Needle Spires[/mtg_card]
• [mtg_card]Lumbering Falls[/mtg_card]

Broken Cycles

Although I clearly like to include whole cycles, perhaps to slightly to high a degree, there are a few isolated cards that came out of cycles.

The most prominent is [mtg_card]Cryptic Command[/mtg_card]. That card in particular is one I like due to it’s inclusion in my modern UW [mtg_card]Geist of Saint Traft[/mtg_card] deck but the others were from the time I was out of the game and don’t have any particular resonance with me.

[mtg_card]Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Sheoldred, Whispering One[/mtg_card] are both in but the remaining praetors haven’t really made the cut. I was considering [mtg_card]Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger[/mtg_card] until I remembered that the card I was actually thinking of was [mtg_card]Omnath, Locus of Mana[/mtg_card].

 

Along with some of the cards from the previous WB section, WU will be a mix of control and tempo in this cube.

Card Advantage and Selection

Every control deck needs a way to avoid running out of gas, whether it’s card draw spells, 2 for 1’s or recurring effects in some way. You also want to have ways to filter your deck to get to the answers you need for what your opponents have done (control in this cube is pretty reactionary as there aren’t the resources to lock an opponent out of the game, this is a deliberate choice on my part as this is intended to be playable be the much less experienced). Blue is, obviously, the best colour for this, probably followed by black (and Esper control is a perfectly viable deck in this cube too).

[mtg_card]Ponder[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Preordain [/mtg_card]and [mtg_card]Serum Visions[/mtg_card] are all traditional cheap card selection options. Slightly higher up the curve are [mtg_card]Anticipate[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Impulse[/mtg_card]. There’s also [mtg_card]Thassa, God of the Sea[/mtg_card] for constant scrying, plus her second ability could be helpful in a more tempo focused build (getting your [mtg_card]Jhessian Thief[/mtg_card] style creatures through).

For multiple card draw there’s [mtg_card]Divination[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Coastal Discovery[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Ugin’s Insight[/mtg_card] and a few others. There’s also [mtg_card]Bident of Thassa[/mtg_card] for the more creature heavy decks. [mtg_card]Treasure Cruise[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Dig Through Time[/mtg_card] round out the top end. I don’t think it will be particularly difficult to fill up the graveyard enough to cast them at a reasonable time.

White doesn’t have a lot in the way of card draw in this, [mtg_card]Mentor of the Meek[/mtg_card] does NOT fit this deck will if at all (he’s more for WR or WG). White’s card advantage comes more from the boardwipes or from generating multiple bodies off of a single card.

There are also a few creatures with selection and draw bolted on, such as [mtg_card]Augur of Bolas[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Omenspeaker[/mtg_card]. [mtg_card]Snapcaster Mage[/mtg_card] also counts in a way as card advantage, letting you get back some spell or other.

There is [mtg_card]Brainstorm[/mtg_card] (and [mtg_card]Sensei’s Divining Top[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Jace the Mind Sculptor[/mtg_card]) but if you want to make the best of it you’ll need to prioritise fetchlands as there are only a few ways to shuffle away dead cards.

Tempo

There are plenty of options in here to make a tempo deck in UW.

The classic tempo plays are bounce and tap effects, disrupting your enemy until you can either grind them out, assemble some form of game winning combo or land some unanswerable bomb ([mtg_card]Geist of Saint Traft[/mtg_card] springs to mind, a card I love but haven’t yet steeled myself on putting in the cube…I can see some bad games coming from “here’s my unanswerable threat, come at me bro”). There are plenty of both in here. [mtg_card]Feeling of dread[/mtg_card] is one of my favourite of these, and there’s a few others plus [mtg_card]sleep[/mtg_card], the king of “and now I’m swinging with everything” tap spells. Bounce has an assortment too, most notably [mtg_card]cyclonic rift[/mtg_card], the all star of the last time the cube was played in person (a UG counters deck with a crap ton of draw leading into a massive rift induced kerb stomp).

A tempo deck also wants to get the most out of its creatures and there are plenty in U/W with beneficial effects for this kind of deck such as [mtg_card]Jhessian Thief[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Aether Adept[/mtg_card] at the lower end. There is also [mtg_card]Venser the Sojourner[/mtg_card] who works well with many of the value creatures in these colours (bonus points for locking an aggro deck out with [mtg_card]Lavinia of the Tenth[/mtg_card] and Venser).

There is also a little sub theme of awaken with [mtg_card]Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper[/mtg_card] and a small assortment of awaken spells. I’m also considering throwing in the 10 mainlands so that would be a little extra edge (there is also [mtg_card]Ruinous Path[/mtg_card] in black).

Control

Differing from tempo there’s hard control. Most decks will be a mix of the two but you could build quite a hard “counters, removal, board wipes and win cons” style control deck and I think it would work. I do feel like this would be the time you would be leaning most into Esper for blacks removal (and possibly cards like [mtg_card]Phyrexian Arena[/mtg_card]).

In a creature heavy format board wipes are absolutely essential and theres no shortage in here. [mtg_card]Wrath of God[/mtg_card] is the classic and pretty reliably gets rid of everything. There’s also [mtg_card]Planar Outburst[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Martial Coup[/mtg_card] in white, both of which come with built in win conditions and the aforementioned [mtg_card]cyclonic rift[/mtg_card] in blue ([mtg_card]upheaval[/mtg_card] is a card I’ve left out as I’m leaning away from screwing that much with lands for now…maybe in the next round of changes. The power level might be allowed to increase as cards are released to improve the potentially weaker archetypes like zombies and vampires).

While there aren’t a huge variety of counter spells I’ve opted for the ones I think are the better ones. [mtg_card]Counterspell[/mtg_card], the pair [mtg_card]Negate[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Essence Scatter[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Dissipate[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Dissolve[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Scatter to the winds[/mtg_card] along with a few others. There is also [mtg_card]Force of Will[/mtg_card]. I admit that’s slightly out of place but It’s one of the more valuable cards I have and I have nowhere else it would really fit (opened last year in a paper draft, all nice and pack fresh).

Point removal isn’t the strength of this pair outside of [mtg_card]Swords to Plowshares[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Path to Exile[/mtg_card]…but they are pretty much the best point removal.

An example deck

This time I got a midrangey deck with some counterspells, card selection and chunky midrange creatures, backed up by an assortment of wrath effects.

The deck also dips into black for [mtg_card]Merciless Eviction[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Sphinx of the Steel Wind[/mtg_card] at the top end (I threw in [mtg_card]Tithe Drinker[/mtg_card] too, but that’s only because I like it, not because it was a good idea).

[d title="WB Taxman"]
Creatures
1 Containment Priest
1 Tithe Drinker
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Heliod's Emissary
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Soulblade Djinn
1 Sun Titan
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Gideon Jura
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Spells
1 Preordain
1 Serum Visions
1 Anticipate
1 Dissipate
1 Scatter to the Winds
1 Planar Outburst
1 Ugin's Insight
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Martial Coup

Land
1 Maze of Ith
1 Underground Sea
6 Plains
7 Island
2 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Abzan Ascendancy
1 Ainok Bond-Kin
1 Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Force of Will
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Megatog
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Murderous Cut
1 Norn's Annex
1 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Steam Augury
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Tower Gargoyle
1 Tragic Slip
1 Vorel of the Hull Clade
1 Zhur-Taa Druid
[/d]

The complete list

Fun fact, the entire non creature contents of blue fits in here. Blue just loves control and tempo…it’s just to what degree does any card care.

[d title="BG Cube Subtheme (Graveyard/Morbid) - December 2015"]
White
1 Gideon's Lawkeeper
1 Azorius Arrester
1 Seeker of the Way
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Nyx-Fleece Ram
1 Banisher Priest
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Crusader of Odric
1 Field Marshal
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Flickerwisp
1 Gideon's Avenger
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Archangel of Tithes
1 Knight of Obligation
1 Restoration Angel
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

1 Gideon Jura
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Celestial Flare
1 Feeling of Dread
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Rebuke
1 Lingering Souls
1 Spectral Procession
1 Wrath of God
1 Planar Outburst
1 Martial Coup
1 Pacifism
1 Oblivion Ring

Blue
1 Augur of Bolas
1 Jeskai Elder
1 Omenspeaker
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tidebinder Mage
1 Aether Adept
1 Jhessian Thief
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Tandem Lookout
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Lhassa, God of the Sea
1 Master of Waves
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Thassa's Emissary
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Prognostic Sphinx
1 Frost Titan
1 Pearl Lake Ancient

1 Jace the Mind Sculptor
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

1 Brainstorm
1 Vapor Snag
1 Anticipate
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Echoing Truth
1 Essence Scatter
1 Impulse
1 Mana Leak
1 Negate
1 Remand
1 Think Twice
1 Turn to Frog
1 Crippling Chill
1 Dissipate
1 Dissolve
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Scatter to the Winds
1 Aetherize
1 Cryptic Command
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Force of Will
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Dig Through Time
1 Distortion Strike
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Serum Visions
1 Silent Departure
1 Divination
1 Coastal Discovery
1 Sleep
1 Ugin's Insight
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Claustrophobia
1 Mind Control
1 Bident of Thassa

Azorius
1 Judge's Familiar
1 New Praha Guildmage
1 Azorius Charm
1 Lyev Skyknight
1 Roil Spout
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Skymark Roc
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Lavinia of the Tenth
1 Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
1 Venser the Sojourner
1 Sphinx's Revelation
[/d]

The recently spoiled [mtg_card]Reflector Mage[/mtg_card] is going into this as soon as hes on cubetutor, hes just lovely. Throw in [mtg_card]Venser, the Sojourner[/mtg_card] and your opponents best thing is never coming back down.

Completing the four black colour pairs is Orzhov. The basic concept of this deck is to put together a large bulk of cards which in various ways hinder your opponents. Effects include making your opponents pay more to attack or block, making them pay more to cast spells, anything with the extort keyword and effects which, in general, are just a bloody nuisance.

There are also a few exalted cards in these colours too to make combat less predictable for your opponent.

I’ve pulled ideas on what to include from decks like pillowfort, hatebears, death and taxes etc.

Disruption and removal

This deck doesn’t have the advantages of some of the other colour combinations in terms of card synergy (the tribal decks), grinding advantage (graveyard decks) or just silly hugeness (ramp) but what this pair does have is some of the best disruption in the cube.  Both colours have some of the strongest single target removal (I actually cut back on whites targeted removal while doing this as it was a little too good, I’ve kept Path and Swords as a “best in class” kinda thing).

Black also gives you plenty of options for hand disruption, the latest addition being Hymn to Tourach which now I’m increasing the cubes power level should be fine. I considered Cabal Therapy but outside of a constructed format the first cast is basically luck based which I wanted to avoid.

Also as is a theme in this deck you get many extra copies of the same effects bolted onto creatures, such as Fiend Hunter and Banisher Priest for removal and Tidehollow Sculler and Sin Collector for hand disruption.

Taxes and interference

Another section of this archetype is permanent which disrupt the general course of play for your opponent. I’m aiming for a variation on the sort of cards you would see in a WB hatebears/pillowfort type of thing.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Vryn Wingmare punish your opponent for playing non creature spells. Ghostly Prison, Norn’s Annex and Archangel of Tithes all make attacking difficult for your opponent and are particularly punishing for any deck that wants to go wide, such as a GW tokens deck.

There are also a few cards to reduce the effectiveness of your opponents cards. Blind Obedience, Hushwing Gryff, Containment Priest, Aegis of the Gods, Spirit of the Labyrinth and Eidolon of Rhetoric all nerf or outright prevent something on your opponents side from functioning (the effects are largely symmetrical, but as is often the case in magic the person controlling an apparently symmetrical effect usually gets a disproportionate benefit from it).

Winning the game

All this is well and good but you do need to eventually be able to win the game. You could just throw in a Baneslayer Angel or a Grave Titan but there are some slightly more subtle ways available.

Exalted is the first way this deck has to win. Sublime Archangel turns just about any creature you can protect into a huge threat, plus there are a few extra sources of exalted triggers dotted throughout white and black including my personal favourite exalted creatures Knight of Glory and Knight of Infamy. Speaking of…

Protection is something I tried to keep to a minimum in building this cube and most of it is in this deck. The aforementioned knights, Soldier of the Pantheon and a few others have protection (there’s a little outside of black white but its either at the high end or fairly niche…except for Stormbreath Dragon which is basically trinket text unless you have a StP in hand and True Name Nemesis…because True Name Nemesis). You also get Mother of Runes, a card which just makes everything difficult for the other guy, basically blanking one removal spell or combat interaction per turn.

There’s also Pontiff of Blight to win without even attacking, Bitterblossom to gradually overwhelm your opponents with flyers (bitterblossom + pontiff + just about anything = fun).

Off-Colour/Crossover cards

This deck doesn’t have a great deal of synergy with other colours but there are some deficiencies which are helped by pulling cards from other colours. Green works particularly well as both the Selesnya (WG) and Abzan (WBG) sections have some big chunky creatures (such as Siege Rhino) and some good hate effects (such as Dryad Militant and Voice of Resurgence).

This may change as I’m thinking of heavily reworking the artifact deck (currently spread across all non green colours) into either UR or entirely replacing it with eldrazi.

An example deck

Realising I should really have been doing this with the other archetypes as I go (hmm….TO THE EDIT BUTTON…when I can be arsed), here’s an example deck.

This one came out a little low on spells but, the cards that come up are the cards that come up.

[d title="WB Taxman"]
Creatures
1 Mother of Runes
1 Thrull Parasite
1 Alabaster Mage
1 Aven Squire
1 Basilica Screecher
1 Child of Night
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Banisher Priest
1 Drana's Emissary
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Hushwing Gryff
1 Sin Collector
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Divinity of Pride
1 Treasury Thrull
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Blind Obedience
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Thran Dynamo

Spells
1 Smallpox
1 Wrath of God

Land
9 Plains
8 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Blood Seeker
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Eternal Witness
1 Farseek
1 Goblin Guide
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Hellhole Flailer
1 Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Read the Bones
1 Servant of Nefarox
1 Siege Rhino
1 Sign in Blood
1 Spectral Procession
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Tandem Lookout
1 Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
1 Unburial Rites
1 White Sun's Zenith
1 Windswept Heath
[/d]

The complete list

[d title="BG Cube Subtheme (Graveyard/Morbid) - December 2015"]
White
1 Mother of Runes
1 Soldier of the Pantheon
1 Aven Squire
1 Containment Priest
1 Elite Inquisitor
1 Knight of Glory
1 Suture Priest
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Aegis of the Gods
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Banisher Priest
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Hushwing Gryff
1 Vryn Wingmare
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Archangel of Tithes
1 Knight of Obligation
1 Sublime Archangel

1 Blind Obedience
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Norn's Annex

Black
1 Thrull Parasite
1 Basilica Screecher
1 Blood Seeker
1 Knight of Infamy
1 Servant of Nefarox
1 Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
1 Pontiff of Blight

1 Despise
1 Duress
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Smallpox

Orzhov
1 Tithe Drinker
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Drana's Emissary
1 Sin Collector
1 Treasury Thrull
[/d]

On looking at all this I think the raw power level on some of the cards in this section is higher than most of the BG/BR/UB section but the cards in this section will be more fought over for generic good stuff decks, whereas the tribal or graveyard cards will be easier to pick up a larger number of the cards for.

Completing the Sultai/graveyard/zombies/sacrifice wedge of the cube is the Golgari graveyard section.

There will be some sacrifice effects, discard and self mill to fill up the graveyard and a variety of effects that make this desirable. Specifically the main pay off is “Creature cards in graveyards matter” in keeping with the old Innistrad [mtg_card]Spider Spawning[/mtg_card] draft deck, although there will be other benefits too. Sacrifice effects, death triggers and undying all play into this theme as well.

This section, if you look to the full list at the bottom of the post, is quite a bit longer than some of the others. This is largely because of the number of cards from Zombies/Vampires and just general goodstuff cards that play well into this archetype. [mtg_card]Murderous Cut[/mtg_card]  or [mtg_card]Whip of Erebos[/mtg_card] are happy in any black deck, it just happens to have an even bigger edge in this deck. This also leads to the conclusion that the person going all in on the graveyard deck won’t have a ridiculously good card pool as many of these will be shared with the other black or green decks.

The All-In Cards

As mentioned before a lot of the relevant cards in this colour pair are just “good cards” which happen to fit into the deck, either through being improved by a full graveyard or just being generally good. There are of course a few cards which just don’t work if you’re not in “the graveyard deck”.

Spider Spawning (sad note: the spider spawning deck was always overdrafted back in the day of Innistrad draft where I used to play so I never actually pulled it off successfully) and Boneyard Wurm both do precisely jack if you have no creature cards in your graveyard. Splinterfright and Nemesis of Mortals are both at least viable in another deck but in both cases they would be overshadowed by most of the other options available.

Corpseweft, Deathreap Ritual and Deadbridge Chant all stand out as cards that work a lot better when the graveyard is being filled, or in the case of Deadbridge Chant when you can selectively pull stuff OUT of the graveyard (Deadbridge Chant plus Scavenging Ooze/Deathrite Shaman/some delve cards makes “random” a lot less iffy).

The Standalone Cards

Sheoldred, Whispering One is a great top end in both this deck and…well…any deck that can get to that mana cost (a rampy green deck could conceivably get this out early enough to be a major pain). Outside of green the cube didnt really have much if anything over the CMC 6 level in its early iterations. Having got some play in ive reached the conclusion that I can push that up a bit across all the colours due to its midrange silliness level.

Whip of Erebos and Birthing Pod are both grindy value engines that fit into any deck in the colours (although pod requires a bit more set up). If you happen to get both so much the better.

The exploit cards in black all fill your graveyard while giving you some form of value, while also playing very nicely if you end up in the 3 colour zombie/graveyard deck.  Given that Gurmag Angler made it into modern and just what Tasigur does everywhere he goes I don’t think any explanation is really needed here.

The Filler Cards

I haven’t worked out yet just how good Tarmogoyf will be in this cube. Outside of the full on graveyard deck I don’t really have a handle on how quickly the different types will get into the graveyard. There aren’t a huge number of enchantments and they won’t be dying that much, and there aren’t that many lands that will end up in the graveyard (I might improve the land section in the near future with wasteland, strip mine and some other higher power goodies). My intuition says he belongs mostly in the BG deck….I may be wildly and hilariously wrong on that though.

There are plenty of other less dramatic cards that play with the graveyard and theres not much to be gained by writing about them, and theyre also pretty interchangeable.

Honorouble mention for failing to make the cut goes to Grisly Salvage…It really SHOULD be in here, but im trying to stick strictly to the numbers in each colour section and I really like what’s currently in the Golgari section. Without breaking a cycle (charms, RTR guildmages, guild leaders, maze runners) or taking out Deathrite Shaman (the card that prompted me to actually make the cube in the first place) the only one that really fits to go is Dreg Mangler…He may not last much longer.

Crossover With Other Archetypes

As ive mentioned before (and I shant bother retreading here) there is a lot of crossover between this deck and the UB zombie archetype, and to a lesser degree with the BR vampire deck.

Evolutionary Leap is most intended here, but works pretty well in any creature heavy green deck. Blanking your opponents removal spells is always nice but if you can get any repeatable reanimation or token generation then this becomes a source of gradual card advantage too, especially in something like GW tokens.

The Off-Colour Bleed Cards

Unburial Rites might as well be a WB card. You would definitely want at least a small white splash just to flash it back. Timely Hordemate (assuming it survives the next round of cuts) fits relatively well if you have some aggressive creatures (might let you recur a small value creature like a Sakur-Tribe Elder). The token makers in white give you some fodder creatures for the sac effects but the best one for this deck is clearly Lingering Souls, as you can at least get some use if you mill it.

Other colours also have a couple of nice graveyard fillers, Forbidden Alchemy in blue and Faithless Looting in red. Both also have flashback which is a bonus in this deck.

The bloodrush creatures in RG also are a good way to up your creatures in the graveyard count. Pyrewild Shaman in particular is good as you can recur him for multiple triggers off of cards such as Blood Artist.

The Sultai selection also has some good options. Sultai Ascendancy improves your draws and fills the graveyard. Sultai Soothsayer gives you a good defensive body, card selection and also fills the graveyard. Lastly Sidisi, Brood Tyrant once again fills the graveyard and also gets you blockers and combos with anything else you have that mills you.

The complete list

[d title="BG Cube Subtheme (Graveyard/Morbid) - December 2015"]
Black
1 Gravecrawler
1 Viscera Seer
1 Blood Artist
1 Sultai Emissary
1 Blood Bairn
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Geralf's Messenger
1 Nantuko Husk
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Erebos's Emissary
1 Anowon, the Ruin Sage
1 Rakshasa Gravecaller
1 Shadowborn Demon
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Silumgar Butcher
1 Mikeaus, the Unhallowed
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One

1 Liliana of the Veil

1 Tragic Slip
1 Murderous Cut
1 Barter in Blood
1 Unburial Rites

1 Corpseweft
1 Whip of Erebos

Green
1 Boneyard Wurm
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Eternal Witness
1 Splinterfright
1 Graverobber Spider
1 Lumberknot
1 Thragtusk
1 Vorapede
1 Hooting Mandrills
1 Nemesis of Mortals

1 Commune with the Gods
1 Mulch
1 Spider Spawning

1 Evolutionary Leap

1 Birthing Pod
1 Bow of Nylea

White
1 Timely Hordemate
1 Lingering Souls

Blue
1 Forbidden Alchemy

Red
1 Faithless Looting
Golgari
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Korozda Guildmage
1 Lotleth Troll
1 Dreg Mangler
1 Nyx Weaver
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 Reaper of the Wilds
1 Deathreap Ritual
1 Golgari Rotwurm
1 Deadbridge Chant

Sultai
1 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
1 Sultai Soothsayer
1 Sultai Ascendancy
[/d]

While I make changes to the cube I do a lot of sim drafts just to see if enough of a given archetype appears that it’s even a thing. This one so far has definitely come across as less “all-in” than the previous vampire and zombie ones. It comes across a little more like a grindy midrange deck. This doesn’t strike me as a bad thing but I do plan to come back and review this section post SoI.