Caleb Gannon's Powered Synergy Cube

Last updated: 7.29.22

---

Table of Contents

1. Quick Summary
2. Quick Tips
3. House Rules
4. Examples of Archetypes
5. Caleb's Original Primer
6. Custom Card Swaps

---

1. Quick summary

• Power: a "powered" vintage environment—the power 9 etc.—but no cards that can win the game on their own (e.g. Oko, Thief of Crowns)
• Fast Mana: lots of mana acceleration: Sol Ring, Mana vault, Gaea's Cradle, etc., rituals (e.g. Pyretic Ritual, Dark ritual)
• Mana Fixing: singleton is broken to ensure flexibility in the mana base, with 80 non-utility lands (3 of each fetchland, 2 of each legacy dual land, 2 of each shock land, 1 of each tri-color land)

This is a fork of Caleb Gannon's Powered Synergy Cube, primarily for documenting the the cube as I have printed in paper. As a result, there will likely be differences in the future between this physical version and updated versions of Caleb's cube in the link above.

This cube does have the option of using some of Caleb's custom cards (denoted by the pink highlighting on this site). Depending on the draft, these may be replaced by their "real" counterparts.

---

2. Quick Tips

• Your mana curve will be extremely low—you must act on your first/second turns or you will likely lose due to tempo loss
• It's very easy to combo off—there are tons of 3-card combos and synergies, but few 2-card combos
• Don't overvalue multi-color lands—about 15% of this cube is mana fixing, so wheeling lands is fine. At the same, the first few turns of this cube are crucial, so don't neglect fixing to ensure that you can play your threats early either!
• Most creatures in this cube have 2 or less toughness—effects that deal damage or reduce toughness are equivalent to hard removal in many cases
• Interaction is very important—and cheap! Due to how strong synergies are, drafting removal/counterspells is necessary to be ale to advance your own gameplan. Don't neglect it!
• There are relatively fewer cards in this cube—due to high synergy with artifacts, there are many more colorless cards that can be treated as if they were
• There are few Wrath-style effects—with only Damn, Fiery Confluence, and The Meathook Massacre, it's generally safe to go wide
• Draft effects over colors—a lot of support for these archetypes can be found over multiple colors, but don't fret if you aren't drafting all of the colors that support the archetype!
• Don't draft based on rarity—cards with mythic (orange) set symbols are for tracking custom cards, and are not associated with power or synergistic value. As such, packs are not seeded for rarity of cards' original printings
• The best number for Ineffable Blessing is 2—most creatures' names in this cube are 2 words

---

3. House Rules

• All basic lands are treated as snow lands (for Icehide Golem and Arcum's Astrolabe)
• Players with winning records may sign a basic land
• Optional: each player starts with a copy of Cogwork Librarian in their draft pool to facilitate pick flexiblity
• Optional: Caleb's custom cards may be implemented in the draft (see Custom Card Swaps).

---

4. Examples of Archetypes

Note: Most archetypes synergize well with spells from several other colors—those listed here are not limited to the color of their header. Example: a Ninjas deck would benefit to branch out to different colors for their effects. For instance, Flicker effects can synergize well with the ETBs of Ninjas enablers, and Spells can improve your tempo to get control the board or close out a game.

Artifacts

This large archetype spans across playstyles of aggro, combo (graveyard recursion), and control.

• Example Enablers: Krark-Clan Ironworks, Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, Scrap Trawler, Tolarian Academy
• Example Support: Tinker, Goblin Welder, Goblin Engineer, Oni-Cult Anvil, Losheel, Clockwork Scholar
• Example Payoffs: Walking Ballista, Nettlecyst, Sword of the Meek, Disciple of the Vault, Arcbound Ravager, Michiko's Reign of Truth

Ninjas

Play disruptive and/or evasive creatures, then swap them for powerful effects from ninjitsu abilities!

• Example Enablers: Spellstutter Sprite, Changeling Outcast, Kaito Shizuki, Vendilion Clique
• Example Payoffs: Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Ingenious Infiltrator

Storm

Cast many spells during a single turn (build Storm count) to finish with a strong payoff!

• Example Enablers: High Tide, Yawgmoth's Will, Dark Ritual, Underworld Breach, Past in Flames, Brainstorm
• Example Payoffs: Tendrils of Agony, Brain Freeze, Bonus Round, Increasing Vengeance, Finale of Promise (many of the best storm payoffs provide duplication effects)

Spells

Similar to storm, this archetype seeks to play cheap spells (~ 1 mana). Unlike storm, this is a tempo-based strategy that attempts to get ahead early instead of win in a single explosive combo turn.

• Example Enablers: Dreadhorde Arcanist, Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, Krark, the Thumbless
• Example Payoffs: Thing in the Ice, Young Pyromancer, Lightning Bolt, Magmatic Channeler

Second Sunrise Combo

Permanents go to the graveyard, then return to the battlefield for extreme value or to go infinite!

• Example Enablers: Second Sunrise, Brought Back, Faith's Reward, Eternal Witness
• Example Payoffs: Fetchlands, Black Lotus, Greater Gargadon, Phyrexian Altar, Goblin Bombardment, Dualcaster Mage

Persist Combo

Creatures with persist can come back, triggering powerful creature-based payoffs!

• Example Enablers: Kitchen Finks, Vizier of Remedies, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
• Example Payoffs: Goblin Bombardment, Blood Artist, Altar of Dementia

Blink/Flicker

Trigger strong ETB effects multiple times for ridiculous value!

• Example Enablers: Ephemerate, Soulherder
• Example Payoffs: Solitude, Masked Vandal, Vendilion Clique

Enduring Renewal

Use Enduring Renewal to generate infinite casts/ETBs.

• Example Enablers: Hangarback Walker, Walking Ballista
• Example Payoffs: Cauldron Familiar, Phyrexian Altar, Disciple of the Vault

Intruder Alarm/Jeskai Ascendancy

Use either of these engines to repeatedly / creatures.

• Example Enablers: Intruder Alarm, Jeskai Ascendancy, Junk Diver, Emry, Lurker of the Loch
• Example Payoffs: Fatestitcher, Earthcraft, , Birds of Paradise, Sai, Master Thopterist

Lands

Leverage your mana base by getting lots of lands onto the field. Using land-based effects, gain lots of value to generate tokens, shut off opponents' lands, and more!

• Example Enablers: Fetchlands, Life form the Loam, Living Twister, Exploration, Fastbond, Crucible of Worlds, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• Example Payoffs: Field of the Dead, Titiana, Priest of Argoth, Strip Mine, Slogurk, the Overslime, The Gitrog Monster, Molten Vortex, Grove of the Burnwillows + Punishing Fire

Glimpse Combo

Cast many creatures in a turn to refill your hand. If you get great synergy, you may even be able to draw your entire deck in a single turn! This archetype is more slanted toward combo than value.

• Example Enablers: Aluren, Wirewood Symbiote, Kor Skyfisher, Whitemane Lion, Earthcraft, Intruder Alarm, Ineffable Blessing
• Example Payoffs: Glimpse of Nature, Rite of Harmony, Beck, Elvish Visionary, Brain Freeze, Thassa's Oracle, Paradoxical Outcome

Elves

Pump out lots of elves to generate mana and take advantage of tribal synergy. End the game fast with buff effects and a plethora of creatures!

• Example Enablers: Gaea's Cradle, Llanowar Elves, Birchlore Rangers
• Example Payoffs: Craterhoof Behemoth, Allosaurus Shepard, Elvish Warmaster, Mirror Entity, Elvish Archdruid

Madness/Discard

Gain advantage off of what would normally be disadvantageous! This strategy has a lot of overlap with graveyard-based archetypes/effects.

• Example Enablers: Lion's Eye Diamond, Anje's Ravager, Survial of the Fittest, Bazaar of Baghdad, Putrid Imp, Squee, Goblin Nabob, Master of Death
• Example Payoffs: Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, Survival of the Fittest, Basking Rootwalla, Blazing Rootwalla, Vengevine, Anger, Rielle the Everwise, Conspiracy Theorist, Containment Construct, Echo of Eons

Sacrifice

By sending your own permanents to the graveyard, you can trigger effects to gain value and close out the game.

• Example Enablers: Fetchlands, Greater Gargadon, Goblin Bombardment, Goblin Welder, Voldaren Bloodcaster, Chandra, Acoltye of Flame, Scrap Trawler, Carrion Feeder ,Pitless Plunderer
• Example Payoffs: Mayhem Devil, Juri, Master of the Revue, Oni-Cult Anvil, Disciple of the Vault, Altar of Dementia, Fecundity, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

Zombies

The foremost black archetype. utilize zombie creatures to do typical black stuff. Lots of overlap with discard, sacrifice, and dredge gameplans.

• Example Enablers: Cryptbreaker, Headless Rider, Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• Example Payoffs: Gravecrawler, Skullclamp, Phyrexian Altar, Undead Augur, Bridge from Below, Scourge of Nel Toth, Liliana's Standard Bearer

More detailed explanations of archetypes by Caleb:

• A general overview of the cube
• White archetypes
• Blue archetypes
• Black archetypes
• Red archetypes
• Green archetypes

---

5. Caleb's Original Primer

This is a vintage cube designed with the intention of maximizing fun, interaction and value. The goal is to have highly synergistic and flexible options to allow the player to chase after a variety of exciting decks, while ensuring that most of the "value engines" are easy to interact with so that no matter the matchup it feels like both players have a chance.

I have some in-depth articles about this cube which you can find on my blog. You can find the overview, which has links to descriptions of the specific archetypes here.

While there are a few two card combos, the major focus was on creating value engines and 3+ card combos. This means aligning cards that play very well together but don't necessarily win, which I find more fun and lead to more interactive games as well as great comeback stories (staring down an opponent with The Gitrog Monster and Molten Vortex in play with Life From the Loam in their graveyard certainly isn't a great position to be in, but it is possible to beat and a lot more interesting/fun than a reanimated Iona, Shield of Emeria. At least to me :).

To facilitate that, I have removed a lot of the includes that you might expect in a vintage cube. Most of these are planeswalkers (Oko, Thief of Crowns, Teferi, Time Raveler, Ashiok, Nightmare Muse) which were obviously good, but didn't lead to fun or interactive gameplay to me. I also needed to create an incentive for the players to actually draft these synergies, so I have also removed a lot of the cards that are just independently capable of winning a game on their own. I make the distinction here between powerful enablers and win conditions; Black Lotus is an incredibly powerful enabler but it cannot win the game on its own. Oko, Thief of Crowns is the opposite, you could win an entire game just by casting a single Oko, Thief of Crowns. I want players to have to craft their own engines to take them to victory rather than relying on casting as many broken cards as possible.

Some notes: There are quite a few cards in this cube that have different roles than you might expect out of a traditional vintage cube. Tinker is probably the most different. There are no "Oops I win" things to fetch up, its rather a really efficient tutor to find synergy pieces like Krak-Clan Ironworks, Aetherflux Resevoir, Sword of the Meek or Lotus Bloom. It can also grab things like Golos, Tired Pilgrim or Birthing Pod :) Think of it how you would Crop Rotation, instead of Natural order.

Many of the archetypes are obvious, but I'll explain some of the more exotic builds here.

Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward: These cards are a lot better than they might seem. There are quite a few cheap artifacts floating around (Chromatic Star/Chromatic Sphere/Lotus Bloom/Black Lotus etc.), as well as cards like Squandered Resources, Sylvan Safekeeper and Zuran Orb to destroy your own lands as needed. You can even use Greater Gargadon or Thopter Foundry as sac outlets if you really want to go deep. You can also loop Second Sunrise by playing Dualcaster Mage, Eternal Witness, or Ardent Elementalist. An easy card to start off a combo with is Tinker, which can do something like sacrifice a Mox, find a Lotus Bloom and start the combo loops. There are plenty more ways you can make these cards work, I'm just excited to see what creative combos you come up with.

With all the cheap artifacts, Glissa, the Traitor is an easy inclusion. One of my pet cards and criminally underrated, Glissa, the Traitor can really go deep with the likes of Walking Ballista, Executioner's Capsule, Ratchet Bomb, Engineered Explosives while also being really fun if you're lucky enough to have a Black Lotus.

Also, white is now the supporting color for artifact aggro. I love cards like Arcbound Ravager and Cranial Plating, so being able to draft a deck with them in it is really fun for me! Plus this replaced the standard mono white aggro that was criminally under-drafted in the standard vintage cube. Look for Mishra's Workshop or Tolarian Academy to really power up this deck! It also slots really nicely into the next archetype...

Krark-Clan Ironworks. This card is an incredibly strong engine when paired with cards like Myr Retriever, Junk Diver and Scrap Trawler. You can sacrifice them in order to generate infinite mana and if you have any other artifacts lying around probably draw your whole deck, do infinite damage with Walking Ballista or even mill your opponent out with a Codex Shredder.

Green: It's not ramp?! I was tired of drafting and seeing green be so one note, so green is now a combo-tastic color! With cards like Aluren, Earthcraft, Intruder Alarm, Fastbond, Glimpse of Nature, and Fecundity there are so many ways to "storm off" in green. Casting Glimpse of Nature with an Aluren in play is a really exciting experience, especially once you hit a Shrieking Drake or Whitemane Lion. Elves are a natural supporting archetype for this. You can draft glimpse elves, beatdown elves or anything in between! (Paradoxical Outcome + Aetherflux Reservoir elves, Phyrexian Altar + Fecundity elves, even Second Sunrise + Blood Artist & Carrion Feeder elves, there are a ton of options).

There's even more though, green and white are the main supporting colors for all the persist combo loops. Combine a card to undo the persist like Melira, Sylvok Outcast with Safehold Elite and Altar of Dementia and you can remove your opponent's whole library!

There are SO MANY MORE combos here than I've mentioned. The whole goal of this cube is to promote creativity in drafting and deckbuilding. If you discover or draft any combos that are particularly sweet, I'd love to hear about them!

---

6. Custom Card Swaps

Note 1: cards on this list are denoted with a mythic (orange) set symbol; custom cards can be identified by an orange feather symbol and Caleb Gannon's signature used as a watermark in the textbox
Note 2: either version of each card should be played, but including both copies (e.g. Orb of Riches and Dockside Extortionist) will unbalance the cube