...a brewer looks at a card and silently, to himself, utters a languid and defeated "damn... it's not Cubemo material."
Other times, it's an entire archetype.
One day, as the brewer stands idly, the irreversible parade of time marching past him, he notices amongst its progression a lone bannerman. An unsuspecting member in its number, yet a clear delineation between what once was and what will follow thereafter. Something changes - a syzygy forms in his mind, and the gears begin to turn once more. Holy fuck, the brewer thinks, there are finally enough.
Frantically, he logs back into Cube Cobra Dot Com, and at an astounding 97WPM he begins to enter every card name he can think of off the top of his head. They have been waiting for him. The dam is breaking, the current flowing once more. He looks up from what he is sure has been hours of data entry to see...
57 cards.
"No... this can't be... I was so sure." He cannot stomach this brutal truth. It seems to defy the laws of physics. There were definitely enough cards in his head, where did they all go? He opens his other cube lists and remembers...
"The God-damned Maybeboard."
Hitting 230 cards, he remembers lands exist.
The list is over 300 when he remembers old decklists from bygone Standard rotations are available on various tournament-results-posting sites.
Closing in on 450, he switches to Visual Spoiler view and gives the card pool an ocular pat-down. "It's happening." With trepidation, he selects a final four-hundred and fiftieth card.
He performs the first true test draft.
His deck...is utter dogshit.
A single tear forms in his eye.
This is not regret, however. This was the goal all along. He has arrived, and the tear is merely a tribute to the journey. In his mind, he turns back to admire the road he has traveled. It is empty, save for his footsteps. Now he waits, as the others are sure to follow.
He turns forward once more, admiring his creation. With the same silent whisper, though now full of hope and pride, he utters "It's like a Cubemo... but it's chill."
How Does This Bitch Work?Regular draft, 45 card packs, 3 packs, saltpepperketchup, poop, toasted. 40 card decks, minimum.
There are "fetchlands" but they all suck ass: five ash barrens, five evolving wilds, five terramorphic expanse, and one of each of the Capenna ETB sac/fetchers.
Nearly every dual land enters tapped. This format is slow to get going, but definitely snowballs once the resources are online.
Several cards have Sharpie Errata to remove mechanics that I have deemed to be "Ass," marked in the List tab by their orange background. You will know which parts of the cards have been removed. Because they are ass.
Other than that, pick some ingredients and start cooking. This is an environment that is much more interested in synergy than goodstuff. Take it from me, I just tried Jund goodstuff this past weekend and got absolutely bodied.
Ok, So What Are the Archetypes Then?Calm down. But also, great question.
ThanksYou're welcome. Here's what I would consider to be "available":
Creature Tokens
Discard
Delirium
Heroic
Counters
Aristocrats
Humans
Esper Evasive Bodies
Generic Stuff
All the Rest
This shit ate my lunch last time we drafted. Might be a little too good, or maybe I am the one who is ass. No, it is the tokens who are wrong.
There are a few colors harboring cards with efficient bodies-to-mana ratios. Mainly /
, for sure, but there are a few. Overwhelming the board quickly is going to help you pressure your opponent through their one-for-one removal and race them to the finish before they draw or cast their board wipe. This seems to be helping to make up for the difficulties of establishing early game aggressive threats on time due to tap lands. Interesting!
"Finally! A Cubemo with a discard theme!" I know, I'm excited too.
There are plenty of incidentally synergies with discard effects in Magic as is, why not dedicate a huge chunk of a cube to it?
This is mainly in /
/
(listed in descending order of synergy density, IMO). You're gonna want the copies of Ash Barrens more than the rest of the table, so keep an eye out for those. You may also be interested in a few of the pieces from the following deck as payoffs, so beware the overlap!
It's garbage day, brother.
Time to take out the trash.
Fill up your yard with as many cards/card types as you can, then profit. There are some removal spells in these colors (/
/
) with extra card types, extra effects from the yard, etc. Same goes for the threats. There's not a ton of graveyard hate, either, so if you get to set this whole contraption up, your opponent may have a hard time stopping you. That said, this is slower to get going than some of the other decks, so keep that in mind as well!
You're the motherfucking Chosen One.
This will be a balancing act of creatures that care about being targeted/things that can target them.
Luckily, unless someone else is trying to draft this deck at the same time as you, no one will really be fighting you on either of those. The key here will be sending clear signals to stay out of your lane, then praying for the heart of the cards to treat you well.
You may fight with the Counters deck, but you will be more centered in /
, I think, while they care more about
/
. Stake your claim in the white overlaps early if you can.
Manipulating the dice feels so good. We all know it.
Another deck with its toes in the /
pool, but with a little bit of something in the other colors as well.
There is overlap with the Heroic shell for sure, but leaning into counters synergies may give you some more turn-to-turn power than the explosive bursts of building a single threat up in one turn.
Look out for proliferation, threats with evasion, or ways to double or move counters around. They won't be as obvious as Hardened Scales in this list ;)
AristocratsIt's what I love to do with /
/
, sorry.
If you've drafted my other cubes (or any aristocrats theme ever), you know what to do.
If you haven't, look out for bodies that make more bodies, sacrifice outlets, and drain-on-death effects. You should be in business from there, cousin.
HumansI suppose this is sort of in here?
It wasn't prioritized in putting the list together, but there are a couple of Human lords and a lot of good Human creatures.
This is spread all across the color pie, though a lot of the payoffs are in . Just play the good humans and protect them from your opponents!
Raffine players from New Capenna standard, rejoice (without the actual Raffine, lol)!
There are plenty of solid threats in /
/
that have disruptive ETBs or provide consistent card advantage. Combine them with the decent reactive spells these colors also offer, and you should be able to control the game while also building your board out.
There are a few decks from Son of Cubemo that I didn't want to just do again here, so instead I shifted some of the more midrangey colors around this time. Instead of Jund midrange and Izzet spellslingers and Esper control, I think I am incentivizing an Izzet control list, an Abzan midrange list, and a Simic Flash matters list.
The /
list is pushing for the late game grind via stuff like:
Hoping to pick off early threats, start the game over on its own terms, and beat down with a big threat or two.
The /
/
list is the real shit. This is why we build a Chillmo, people:
Solid threats, efficient and flexible interaction, and Good Game Design. Just pick the cool shit and you will at least have fun resolving your spells.
The /
list is really trying for the shit that was too slow for Son of Cubemo:
Draw, go, my friend. Look for interaction, instant-speed threats, and reliable card filtering to pick between the two.
All the RestThere are a bunch of cards left over after separating these other decks out that could slot into any of them really. What is a cube but 30% signals and 70% filler, after all? I don't believe there are any infinite combos besides the Soultrader/Gravecrawler (and there are 3 Gravecrawlers, hehe).
Overall, if you aren't chilling, you aren't playing Chillmo. Let me know how it goes for you :)