The first time this list got too bloated and I lost interest. The idea is to create a list of a seemingly cards to provide an excellent limited format. Limited playability will be stressed, with a focus on fundamentals; attacking, blocking and two for ones. Legacy cube, this aint.
Flashback, Kicker, cycling, and variants of those mechanics will be preferred. So will 'iconic cards.' Commons and uncommons will be prioritized also. I'm designing toward general archtypes. They are as follows.
WU- azorious actually has several separate styles. There is a classic control archtype, using wraths, oblivion ring style effects, and card draw spells like kiss of the amesha. There is also a more tempo, aggro deck making use of white's suite of low to the ground creatures and the aggressively costed equipment.
WB- Life Drain. There is similarly more than one version; you make use of white's tokens and sacrifice effects like Blood Host and Gnawing Zombie, or you can make use of bigger spells and pay life to reanimate creatures like angel of the god pharaoh or Phyrexian Gargantua (with cards like Phyrexian delver). Or else make use of Victimize and go both ways. Alternately, just use Nighthawk and Ajani's pridemate to go on the attack and aggro your opponent out, or else get grindy with drain effects Scholar of Athreos. This is easily the flexible but finicky archtype.
WR- Weenie Aggro. Pretty standard. This is the fun police. You will need to prioritize Gideon and his Resolve, and efficient equipment.
WG- Tokens. I've been having issues making this one sing.
UB- Control. This archtype is a control based around manipulating your draws. You can use cards like futuresight and pair them with cycling and surveil to consistently ensure the cards you draw are useful. You can combine this with cards like Merfolk Looter and Drake Haven to make the most value.
UR- Spell Slinging. The most important cards for you are Slice and Dice and Breath of Darigaaz.
UG Ramp, with a focus on lands.
RB- Spell recursion, half way between reanimation and spell slinging. Youre looking to combine flashback cards with burning vengeance, and play cards like recoup and shreds of sanity..
RG- Stompy Midrange, with a focus on kicker and landfall. Prioritize two drops. Untamed Kavu is the best one for you.
GB- Grindy Graveyard Recursion/ Value. Don't afraid of the self mill, of cycling your fatties, or of trading off early. Krosan Tusker is of special value to you.
The Shards also are playable archtypes! At least I'm still working on it.
Naya: Three archtypes in this shard combine well into a very angry aggro midrange plan. There are no untapped duals in this cube though, so beware going too deep on a third color. If you take the aggressive cards in these colors though, you have a a very good chance of being the fastest deck in the draft.
Jund: Jund can actually be very grindy. Rakdos and gologari both have powerful recursion effects, so combining them means you get a ton of value from your yard. Gruul also brings powerful fatties, so don't be afraid to fill up your yard and go from there. You can also play a quicker jund, relying on Gruul beef and black removal.
Grixis: Grixis is a very spell heavy archtype. It plays similarly to Jund, except it cuts out the creature aspect for spells. It plays a very heavy control game.
Esper: Esper is the least well defined archtype in the cube. In the lore of Alara, Esper was the artifact plane, but here it didn't play out. Right now, esper makes use of come into play triggers, along with reanimation and flickering effects to reuse those effects. It can also be played as a heavy control deck. (as Dmir and Azorious combine well but have overlapping tools).
Bant doesn't draw upon the strengths of its composite guilds. Instead is a cycling deck. If you intend to go into this deck, make sure first pick Astral slide.
There is also a twiddling artifacts theme in artifacts and blue, but there wasnt enough cards to make this deck a full fledged archtype.
Right now, various section have cards that are mislabeled.
Black has four gold cards (Bump in the Night, Strangling Soot, Vigor Mortisand Puppet Conjurer), Green has three (Appeal / Authority, Spring / Mind, Spider Spawning), Red has one (Fires of Undeath), White has two (Scholar of Athreos and Stand / Deliver), and Blue has one(Mystical Teachings)
Below are a list of cards I am considering but have been cut for some reason or another
1x Extract from Darkness
1x Sibsig Host
Bloodwater Entity
1x Hollow One
Makindi Sliderunner
1x Cackling Counterpart
Devouring Light
1x Snare Thopter
Imperiosaur
1x Commit
Weaver of Currents
Lightkeeper of Emeria
1x Beetleback Chief
1x Pouncing Wurm
Hornet Queen
Bloodgift Demon
Ravaging riftwurm
Hooded Brawler
Graveyard shovel
Iron League Steed
1x Makindi Sliderunner
Siege Wurm
Baloth Woodcrasher
Pharika's Mender
Oketra's attendant
Bloodhusk Ritualist
Angler Drake
Raven's crime
Wispweaver Angel
Phyrexian Gargantua
Sunscourge Champion
Enigma Drake
Scholar of Athreos
Grafted Wargear
Chartooth Cougar
Spore Swarm
Golgari Rotwurm
Stoic Champion
Nephalia Smuggler
spark harvest
Umbral Mantle
Blasted Landscape
Pale Rider of Trostad
Roiling Waters
Spirit Cairn
Train of Thought
Sphinx of Magosi
SubPuppet says... #1
this cube is amazing. i relly wanna build this irl now! thank you
June 18, 2018 7:53 a.m.