Art by Daniel Ljunggren
Jim's Mardu TwobertA Twobert is a limited draft environment that is meant to be drafted with a small number of people, usually just two to four players. Each player will receive four packs of twelve cards to draft as normal. Unlike a traditional cube, each card in this cube is either White, Black, Red, or some combination of the those colors. These are Magic's most aggressive colors so this cube focus on aggression above all else, however there are many draft archetypes and synergies that can be found in this cube.
• Singleton: No more than one copy of any card will be found within this list. are very deep colors and there are plenty of redundancies found within the themes of this twobert so, unlike the Temur Twobert, there was no need for duplicates.
• Efficient Damage and Removal Spells: has access to some of Magic's most efficient damage and removal spells. Since the overall theme of the cube is aggression, many of the spells come with a cost of paying life. Cards like Ulcerate and Infernal Grasp are premium removal in this environment but come with a cost, watch your life total.
• A painful Mana Base: The fixing mana fixing in this cube is adequate for two to four players drafting decks, however you will quickly discover that nearly every nonbasic land and mana producing artifact in this cube comes with a steep price. Painlands like Sulfurous Springs, Fetchlands like Marsh Flats, and Shocklands like Sacred Foundry will require you to think carefully about how far you are willing to go to run more than one color in your deck. City of Brass and Mana Confluence provide all of the colors available in this cube but can punish you severely if you are too reliant on their mana. Ancient Tomb and Mana Crypt can put you turns ahead of your opponent in terms of available mana but the damage they can cause is not always worth it in the end.
• Tribal Synergies: Despite the reduced size of this cube, you will find many Tribal synergies and payoffs within it. You can be rewarded with a very synergistic deck with a little careful drafting. Knights, Warriors, and Vampires are heavily supported tribal archetypes and often overlap with each other and other themes found within this cube.
• Venture into the Dungeon: There are several cards that allow you to Venture into the Dungeon. Racing through dungeons can have great rewards and impact game states significantly; most creatures that Venture into the Dungeon will trigger on attack, so you are rewarded for just doing what this cube wants to do.
• A Noticeably Low Mana Curve: You might expect for a cube that focuses on aggression to have a lower than average mana value compared to a typical cube and you'd also be very correct. In fact, ninety percent of the cards in this cube have a mana value of three or less. Resource management is crucial in this cube because card advantage is scarce. You will have to prioritize deploying threats at the most opportune moment; it is not always best to simply dump your hand in the early game just because you can.
Equipment
- Find powerful weapons and give them to your creatures to wreck your enemies. Equipment like the legendary Embercleave and Sword of Vengeance will put even them most humble of tokens on par with just about anything your opponent is likely to muster against you.
Warriors- Ruthless Warriors like to attack in numbers and will do anything to finish an opponent. You will be surprised at just how many great creatures also just so happen to be warriors. Cards like Winota, Joiner of Forces and Laelia, the Blade Reforged are ineresting creatures to draft a deck around.
Venture into the Dungeon- Attack often to quickly reap rewards from looting ancient crypts and dungeons. Utilize cards like Dungeon Map and Planar Ally to try to enter as many rooms each turn as you can. Isshin, Two Heavens as One can double the number of rooms you enter each turn. The incremental advantages offered by the dungeons will add up through the course of the game to put you further ahead than your opponent.
Knights- Recruit noble heroes in the epic quest to vanquish your opponents. Card like Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale and Tournament Grounds can also be used bridge the gap between knight synergies and equipment synergies.
Vampires- The Vampires will reward you for attacking aggressively and serve you even in death by leaving behind tokens and counters.
An Army in a Can- Draft as many of these must answer threats as you can and then drown your opponent under the tide of tokens they will generate for you. Look for Ancient Tomb or Mana Crypt to mobilize your army in a can ahead of curve to devastating effect.