<<[[!Tempered Steel]][[!Dream Halls]][[!Ill-Gotten Gains]][[!Goblin Welder]]>> --- >>> # THE B-TEAM <<< --- <<[[!Exploration]][[!Territorial Kavu]][[!Arcbound Ravager]][[!Thespian's Stage]]>> This cube is a variation of a classic Legacy cube, with a focus on archetypes and synergies over individually powerful cards (though there are still plenty of those as well). One of the design principles is using cards familiar from other cube environments (such as Vintage Cube) in new ways. So instead of searching out [[Griselbrand]] with [[Entomb]], you are looking for [[Life from the Loam]] for your lands deck, or [[Cruel Ultimatum]] to cast via [[Mizzix's Mastery]]. While this Cube does use some of the most effective interactive spells from Magic's history, such as [[Swords to Plowshares]], [[Lightning Bolt]] and [[Thoughtseize]], certain colors change how they normally do things. For example, blue gets no unconditional counterspells. Instead of [[Mana Drain]] and [[Force of Will]], you have [[Spell Pierce]], [[Memory Lapse]] and [[Force of Negation]] that fit well into the blue Delver archetype. In the same way, green does not have the usual selection of mana elves, instead leaning on effects that let you play multiple lands in order to accelerate. The same is also true for powerful archetypes available in typical Vintage Cubes. While the Storm archetype exists in both, here it is a black and red archetype, based more around ritual effects like [[Rain of Filth]] and [[Desperate Ritual]], rather than individually powerful cards such as [[Underworld Breach]]. Lands is a prominent archetype in The B-Team, and as such lands are plentiful. ~19% of the cards in the pool are lands, and each player will get an average of 8-9 non-basic lands. Each fetch land appears twice, and original duals, shock duals and triomes appear once each. In addition, there is an assortment of other lands that both help you cast spells as well as generate other kinds of value. The B-Team is a 360 card Cube which means all cards are used in a typical 8-player draft, so there is no risk that the combo piece you are missing never gets opened (only that another person picks it). There is an uneven split of cards over colors. For example white only has 33 mono-colored cards compared to 40-44 for the other colors, but white decks mostly have a lot of artifacts that other decks might not be looking for. ## Archetypes ### Storm ({B} & {R}) <<[[!Dark Ritual]][[!Ill-Gotten Gains]][[!Grapeshot]][[!Seething Song]]>> Storm is primarily a black & red archetype. While blue offers no Draw 7 effects, it does offer some interesting splashes. The focus for Storm is to use ritual effects to cast a big haymaker like [[Yawgmoth's Bargain]] or [[Ill-Gotten Gains]] combined with [[Tendrils of Agony]]. ### Bargain Big Spells ({U} & {R}) <<[[!Dream Halls]][[!Aminatou's Augury]][[!Mizzix's Mastery]][[!Magma Opus]]>> Enablers like [[Dream Halls]], [[Mizzix's Mastery]] and [[Reenact the Crime]] help you cast [[Aminatou's Augury]], [[Cruel Ultimatum]] and [[Magma Opus]] on the cheap. [[Mystical Tutor]] helps you find missing pieces, while [[Faithless Looting]] and [[Frantic Search]] help you get cards in the graveyard for [[Mizzix's Mastery]], [[Reenact the Crime]] and [[Wildfire Devils]]. You can even use [[Tinker]] to find [[Wondrous Crucible]] and set up powerful free spells in the future. The delve spells [[Treasure Cruise]] and [[Dig Through Time]] help manage graveyard size. ### Artifact Recursion ({R} & {W}) <<[[!Goblin Welder]][[!Trash for Treasure]][[!Triplicate Titan]][[!Tangle Wire]]>> This archetype can be approached in two different ways. The first one is to cheat expensive artifacts like [[Triplicate Titan]] and [[Portal to Phyrexia]] into play with [[Goblin Welder]] and [[Trash for Treasure]]. The second is to go for more of a prison and value approach, looping [[Tangle Wire]] and [[Ichor Wellspring]] with additional enablers such as [[Goblin Engineer]]. [[Ruin Grinder]], [[Chaos Defiler]] and [[Phyrexian Dragon Engine]] reward you with powerful triggers for repeatedly killing them and getting them back into play. While this archetype is primarily red, white also offers role-players like [[Enlightened Tutor]] and [[Oswald Fiddlebender]] for finding key pieces. Black allows you to throw cards directly into your graveyard with [[Entomb]] and [[Unmarked Grave]], allowing [[Daretti, Scrap Savant]] to immediately do its thing. ### Delver ({U} & {R}) <<[[!Delver of Secrets]][[!Dragon's Rage Channeler]][[!Daze]][[!Flame of Anor]]>> The primary disruptive archetype, UR Delver gives you both cheap threats and interactive spells. Start the pressure with [[Delver of Secrets]] or [[Dragon's Rage Channeler]], build up your spell synergies with [[Young Pyromancer]] and [[Sprite Dragon]], and disrupt your opponent's mana with [[Wasteland]] and [[Magus of the Moon]]. Blue offers conditional counterspells for all situation, such as [[Stern Scolding]], [[Mana Leak]] and [[Daze]] while red offers many efficient removal spells. There is a minor wizard theme, with [[Grim Lavamancer]], [[Dreadhorde Arcanist]] and [[Snapcaster Mage]] enabling [[Flame of Anor]]. ### Lands ({G}) <<[[!Fastbond]][[!Life from the Loam]][[!Wasteland]][[!Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle]]>> An archetype present in Vintage Cube, Lands does much of the same here. [[Fastbond]], [[Exploration]] and [[Oracle of Mul Daya]] let you play multiple lands per turn, while [[Crucible of Worlds]], [[Ramunap Excavator]] and [[Life from the Loam]] help you recur lands. [[Crop Rotation]], [[Park Map]], and [[Realms Uncharted]] help you find key lands. With all your pieces in place, there are a number of combos you can assemble: - [[Thespian's Stage]] and [[Dark Depths]] let you create a very large monster. - [[Scapeshift]], [[Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle]] and [[Dryad of the Ilysian Grove]] let you kill your opponent even if you have 0x [[Mountain]] in your deck. - [[Wasteland]] and [[Strip Mine]] combine with the recursion effects to destroy your opponent's chances of playing spells, while those same recursion spells allow [[Zuran Orb]] to gain infinite life. - [[Titania, Protector of Argoth]] combines with effects that let you sacrifice your lands repeatedly, such as [[Zuran Orb]], [[Sylvan Safekeeper]] and [[Rain of Filth]], to create a huge army. ### Artifact Aggro ({W}, {B}, {R}) <<[[!Sanwell, Avenger Ace]][[!Skorpekh Lord]][[!Breya's Apprentice]][[!Arcbound Ravager]]>> Each color offers something for the artifact decks, but the primary colors for artifact aggro decks are white, black and red. This archetype manifests in multiple different ways: - Pure aggressive with efficient creatures like [[Porcelain Legionnaire]], [[Skorpekh Lord]], [[Blade of the Oni]] and [[Traxos, Scourge of Kroog]]. - +1/+1 counter synergies with [[Arcbound Ravager]], [[Steel Overseer]], [[The Ozolith]] and [[Walking Ballista]]. - Aggressively slanted [[Fain, the Broker]] and [[Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter]] sacrificing cards like [[Hangarback Walker]] and [[Chromatic Star]]. Green offers cheap support creatures in [[Teething Wurmlet]] and [[Sarinth Steelseeker]], while blue offers more in the term of long game with [[Cryptic Coat]], [[Emry, Lurker of the Loch]] and [[Forensic Gadgeteer]]. ### Recursion ({B} & {G}) <<[[!Stitcher's Supplier]][[!Scourge of Nel Toth]][[!Golgari Grave-troll]][[!Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis]]>> The Recursion deck is primarily green and black, while other colors offer interesting splashes such as [[Frantic Search]], [[Treasure Cruise]] and [[Faithless Looting]]. The core of this strategy is using [[Stitcher's Supplier]] and [[Satyr Wayfinder]] to fill your graveyard, utilizing [[Survival of the Fittest]] to find your missing pieces, then getting back heavy hitters like [[Vengevine]], [[Scourge of Nel Toth]] and [[Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis]]. Alternatively [[Insidious Roots]] in combination with Unearth cards like [[Royal Warden]] allows you to create an army of tokens. There is even some combo finish potential with [[Altar of Dementia]]. ### Other archetypes There are a bunch of other "mini" archetypes that don't have as many cards dedicated to them, but still offer unique play experiences. #### KCI <<[[!Krark-clan Ironworks]][[!Scrap Trawler]][[!Disciple of the Vault]][[!Grinding Station]]>> The combination of [[Krark-clan Ironworks]] and [[Scrap Trawler]] allow you to both generate mana and a lot of triggers from artifacts entering and leaving the battlefield. Combine with [[Disciple of the Vault]] to kill your opponent. #### Two-card combos <<[[!Painter's Servant]][[!Grindstone]][[!Thopter Foundry]][[!Sword of the Meek]]>> [[Painter's Servant]]/[[Grindstone]] and [[Thopter Foundry]]/[[Sword of the Meek]] are artifact-focused two-card combos that slot easily into the [[Goblin Welder]] recursion decks, as well as blue artifact decks with [[Emry, Lurker of the Loch]]. [[Oswald Fiddlebender]], [[Enlightened Tutor]], [[Tinker]], [[Profane Tutor]], [[Gamble]] and [[Urza's Saga]] can help you look for the missing pieces of your combo. [[Entomb]] and [[Unmarked Grave]] even find [[Sword of the Meek]]. #### Infinite Mana <<[[!Basalt Monolith]][[!Grim Monolith]][[!Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy]][[!Zirda, the Dawnwaker]]>> [[Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy]] and [[Forensic Gadgeteer]] create infinite mana with [[Basalt Monolith]], while [[Zirda, the Dawnwaker]] works with both [[Basalt Monolith]] and [[Grim Monolith]]. Dump your mana into [[Walking Ballista]] to kill your opponent. #### Domain <<[[!Leyline Binding]][[!Territorial Kavu]][[!Scion of Draco]][[!Golos, Tireless Pilgrim]]>> Not really a full archetype in itself, but the domain mechanic offers an interesting angle especially for green decks wanting to go a bit faster. Fetches and triomes allow you to easily have four or even five land types in play as early as turn two. #### Flash <<[[!Triplicate Titan]][[!Flash]][[!Academy Rector]][[!Omniscience]]>> The B-Team forgot to recruit [[Worldspine Wurm]] or [[Atraxa, Grand Unifier]], but [[Flash]] allows you to make three tokens with [[Triplicate Titan]], and cheat expensive enchantments like [[Omniscience]] and [[Yawgmoth's Bargain]] into play with [[Academy Rector]].