Cube Overview

This is a 360 card cube focused around strong synergistic gameplay rather than just playing the most powerful cards. The goal is to have cards that can fit into multiple archetypes simultaneously by being compatible with several different play patterns. This cube is a work in progress.

Archetype Breakdown

Flying creatures form the backbone of this deck. Can be played aggressively with low cost flyers with equipment or midrange/control with higher cost token generators and recursion.

Draft Tips: Pick creatures with Flying or that affect creatures you control with Flying. Removal or tap-down effects like Winds of Rebuke and You're Confronted by Robbers will help clear away flying blockers that would get in your way.

Draft and play ninjas and evasive threats! Using Ninjutsu abilities will allow you to repeatedly trigger player damage or enter the battlefield abilities on your ninjas and hard to block creatures.

Draft Tips: Pick ninjas and evasive creatures (flying in blue and menace, deathtouch or unblockable in black) to trigger Ninjitsu. If you are able to pick up Satoru Umezawa, you can lean towards a more controlling deck that cheats out large reanimation targets like Phyrexian Triniform or Vilis, Broker of Blood.

Hit 'em quick, hit 'em hard. This archetype prioritizes creatures that aren't easy to block or are annoying to spend resources on killing. This deck is the epitome of "math is for blockers". Just swing in and make your opponents worry about taking 2 damage every turn or losing their best threat to a deathtouching attacker.

Draft Tips: Pick creatures with keywords that make blocking hard like deathtouch or menace, recursive creatures, or anything with a death trigger. A red-leaning deck will take advantage of prowess or equipment synergies with Heartfire Immolator and Fireblade Charger whereas a black-leaning deck will emphasize bringing creatures back from the graveyard like Order of Midnight and Tenacious Underdog.

Boring but effective. There are no frills here, just play efficient creatures and let your opponents suffer under the pressure of your mid-curve beaters.

Draft Tips: Pick up some early curve threats but your focus should be on 3-5 MV creatures that are just plain good. Synergy is for losers, just look for things that have a high power, trample or haste, and a good attack or damage trigger. Also look for things that bring extra bodies like Siege-Gang Commander or things that give you extra value for playing creatures like Bramble Sovereign.

Time to break out the tokens! This archetype wins by flooding the battlefield with tokens of all types and going so wide that your opponent can't possibly remove or block all of your creatures.

Draft Tips: Pick token generators and anything that benefits all of your creatures very highly. Look for anthems like Angel of Invention or pseudo-anthems like Harmonious Archon to buff up the whole team. Read cards closely as some effects like buffing a Champion of Lambholt or getting recursion from Requiem Angel don't specify non-token creatures.

Gaining life is the name of the game. Use lifelink and other incidental lifegain to trigger payoffs every turn and grind your way to victory.

Draft Tips: Pick highly creatures both creatures with lifelink and those with incremental lifegain triggers like Ayara, First of Locthwain to keep you in the game long enough to setup the payoffs like Speaker of the Heavens and Bolas's Citadel. Food synergies are also prominent in white and black, make sure to pick some up especially if you have cards that care about gaining at least 3 life!

This is the most classic of Izzet archetypes, stock up plenty of non-creature spells and creatures that care about them to accrue passive value as you draw cards or remove your opponent's threats.

Draft Tips: Focus your picks heavily on creatures and other permanents that trigger off instants/sorceries being cast. Getting at least a half dozen of effects like Shark Typhoon and Smoldering Egg are crucial to making the deck come together. Pick removal and card draw secondarily to power your payoffs as they are less flashy and more likely to be present late in the pack.

This archetype is all about the grindy long-game. Use aggressive and midrange threats to make your opponent expend removal or block unprofitably. Then use cheap reanimation effects in black and Regrowth effects in green to bring back your creatures again and again!

Draft Tips: Pick highly creatures that bring themselves back from the graveyard like Dogged Detective or others like Body Launderer. Fill out your curve by grabbing spells and abilities like Blood for Bones to bring back creatures that can't self-reanimate. Use effects like Satyr Wayfinder and Stitcher's Supplier to mill you own cards and use your graveyard like a second hand!

Suit 'em up and let 'em go! This archetype cares about small creatures putting on armor and grabbing swords to enhance their abilities.

Draft Tips: Highly pick quality equipment, especially colorless equipment that can be easily poached by the WU flyers or BR aggro decks and their evasive creatures. Secondly, go after cards that provide equipment and a body like Barbed Spike or creatures that are themselves equipment like Rabbit Battery. Finally, look for creatures that already have good keywords to make blocking hard like flying (Healer's Hawk), menace (Goldhound), and trample (Devilish Valet).

This archetype is all about playing a midrange/control game and accruing value over time. Hold up mana for instants or activated abilities and wait for the opportune time to strike with your overwhelming forces.

Draft Tips: The word "whenever" is your key to victory. Pick a theme in an adjoining color combo and look for cards that do X or give you resources when X happens. Play a token heavy deck with food, wolves, and squirrels. Try a +1/+1 counter synergy and go wide or tall.

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Bant - Counters: Falco Spara, Pactweaver Esper - Blink: Aminatou, the Fateshifter Grixis - Discard/Planeswalkers: Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God Jund - Reanimator: Slimefoot and Squee Naya - Go Wide: Jetmir, Nexus of Revels Mardu - Aristocrats: Butcher of the Horde Temur - Blitz: Kalamax, the Stormsire Abzan - Food: Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant Jeskai - Artifacts: Elsha of the Infinite Sultai - Self-Mill: Muldrotha, the Gravetide