To Synergy and Beyond
(480 Card Cube)
Blog Posts (20+)
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Purtagio posted to To Synergy and Beyond -
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Bigger Packs + Cogwork Librarian

Decided to try out even bigger packs inspired by Caleb Gannon Powered Synergy Cube and go from 16 to 18 cards per pack and adding a Cogwork Librarian to each starting pool. I found we have very similar wishes for our environments, just with a very different card pool.
The changes hopefully allow for way more streamlined decks. More wheels and cogwork reduce the impact of sub optimal packs, where very crucial cards fall together. Bigger packs let you see more cards to fiddle together synergies. I suspect deck building gets even harder now, due to the bigger pools, that could incorporate more semi-functional loops.
Mana might get more relaxed as well, although I guess I still must make room for a third round of shocks or fast lands.

Since the playgroup is rather large, but I can't guarantee 8 players 9 and 10 are also accommodated. For tournaments with 8 players I prefer 10% of the pool missing so there is no guarantee to open any particular card
8x3x18 = 432 (89% drafted)
9x3x18 = 486 (100% drafted)
10x3x16 = 480 (99% drafted)

Most notable cuts:

Several aristocrats had to go. The deck was too well supported for a long time and played to typical without the need to really go out of the way to find a combo. From the previous updates there are numerous ways to profit and win from etb/ltb loops, just now I actually cut the aristocrats.

New loops:
  • Enduring Renewal + anything that is free (through reduction) or generates it's own worth of mana. Might be too easy, but lets see, still needs minimally 3 pieces
  • Forsaken Miner/Reassembling Skeleton/Cult Conscript + (1)b from death/sac. Don't expect this to go infinite often but often per per turn cycle should be strong enough. Puts more focus on loops over go wide for aristocrat style decks
  • two of: Myr Retriever/Junk Diver/Workshop Assistant + cost reduction + mana generation. as above Don't expect this to go infinite often but often per per turn cycle should be strong enough

For an event I cloned and created a modified version, which is now the de facto version. Now these changes are represented in this list.

Version I took it from: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/ArtisansDream

Old version before for reference: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tosynergyandbeyond-v5

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Finally the long work on an artifact and storm version is done.

Short summary:

With some time I will write a few more details.

Set Card count to 432 - lowest number to support 9 person draft with 16 cards per pack. Also is exactly: 9 Dafters, 4 Packs, 12 cards

Gone:
  • Reanimator
  • Fatty Ramp
  • Selfmill

It was a slow process, but the fatties don't fit any more the rest of the cube. It was only synergistic with self-mill, which was also rather parasitic and with ramp, which also doesn't fit the more explosive strategies: In peasant the targets don't win that fast, which makes going fully into a combo way more appealing if most opponents are also unfair.

New Storm:
  • without the typical red rituals
  • "creature storm" with mana neutral creatures into a token making storm spell
  • "untap" storm bringing finishers to the existing (almost-) loops, that cast spells again and again
Artifacts Elves
  • not really a tribal deck in itself, but a type of explosive go wide creature strategy
  • Uses mana sinks, Overrun effects or generates mana for combos
  • which can generate a lot of mana
Previous version

v4 can be found here

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Pre cleaning for some bigger Update

Soon artifact (combo) and Storm will enter the cube, so this is a bit of a preparation for that.

Lands

A recent draft with lower fixing prompted me to add a bit more. Realistically most decks want 3 colors regularly, so 2 lands a pack + a bit should be the minimum. u and g get double typed dual fixing and u, r and w-b get the artifact bridges. The missing ones from the cycles would inflate the number of lands without adding much to the archetypes, decreasing the likelihood of the relevant ones to be in the pool.

IN:
White

Removing some cards, that don't provide anything to a combo, are power outliers in either direction, or just low. While being a solid and interesting token producer on himself Abdel importantly also combos on two axes: 1. white flicker creatures 2. the black reanimation auras/enchantments

OUT:
IN:
Blue

Rise from the Tides I have in so many cubes, this one fits it worse. Also all the coming artifact stuff needs space, but doesn't interact well with it. Sad to let micromancer go without ever playing her, but 4 is a lot of mana and there is no integral piece it can get. Cheap interaction to answer game winning plays or protect own win are essential, so here are a few. Wormfang Drake: welcome old friend! After years it comes back again. Before it was too narrow and looped with only a very few pieces, but now there are plenty of loops playable and it can even be a decent beater in the air. The Loops are same to Lagrella, the Magpie and Abdel: 1. white or blue flicker creatures or 2. with black cmc-3 reanimators.

OUT:
In:
Black

Raven's Crime is more of a grind card or a way to discard for reanimator, but ultimately combo reanimator is not supported and it lost it's merit.

OUT:
Red

Two new one drops. It's getting fast. Both should work ok-ish in aggro on their own, but are quite open-ended. Scamp just needs an equipment or a reasonably sized pump spell to create large life swings, which perfectly fits the aggro combo deck. Even the wording fits wellto the other power matters stuff to guide drafters. Maybe there even emerges a full non-combo power matters package in rb. Fuseling is rather questionable on it's on as a 1/1 Trample. But: it is a simple wincon for any deathtrigger loop. Also seeing artifacts is put it over the edge for me though, since I already know there will be an Atog, Treasure and affinity package comming.

IN:

Ghitu Encampment is a bit odd, since the creature untap stuff is rather bant, but the copy guildmages could pull it into all non-black decks. Artifact animation has probably a better spot right now. I could see this coming back. Breath of Darigaaz this was always a bit strange to me and I never saw it played. Maybe one of the other cubes will make it shine one day. Goblin Wizardry always seems too clunky. Counter burn or tempo spells decks could get some help from it, but I don't like to support them with such expensive cards.

OUT:
Green

Obsessive Skinner is actually quite parasitic, since it wants a counter AND graveyard deck. In any case it is slow and that's not what we are here for. Also: Further pushing curve down and reducing value magic. The answers are getting more general. While killing things on etb is more value, I really like the recent trend to use self sacing creatures, because you can just deploy them to board. Otherwise it is mostly a sidebaord card. Please wizards: 1-2 more in each color

IN:
OUT:
Multicolor

Cormela, Glamour Thief was almost out, but with a Storm (package) brewing, I give her another shot. Lagrella, the Magpie is a strong tempo and controll card, but importantly next to it has similar combo potential as Abdel above: 1. white or blue flicker creatures or 2. with black cmc-3 reanimators. Demonmail Hauberk was never good due to the inefficiency, but not even the power matters, death-stuff can keep it in right now. I wish there were more colorless sac enabler without requiring mana, but this is not it. Lim-Dûl's Vault is the closest I will let a straight up un-specialized tutor touch the cube for now. Games should be exiting and new each time. ub having few usefull good cards, made me try this - and a bit some in the playgoup nagging about old fancy cards with history.

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