Cloned from [The Tabletop Cube](/c/5d6c2b61de02de10673665f7) <<[[!/e6f9792f-7435-49dd-98b4-cc2e9f556338]][[!/5b962f22-4c07-4dae-9275-f9efad6ffdcb]][[!/c26f5f1e-bc1b-4efb-85d0-f62e08ebba1b]][[!/57733946-5a1f-469d-a933-9507bdbf9d74]]>> --- >>> ## Welcome to the Tabletop cube! <<< --- <<[[!/19adde22-e5eb-4815-beb6-c520b3274cc9]][[!/43bf015b-152e-4d67-b773-e75fb2487a32]][[!/2aebe7a8-b982-4be4-83ca-3594e8f606b4]][[!/5d7ef391-60d7-41cd-b3fe-d1ce250e807a]]>> The Tabletop Cube is a powerful draft environment with one central goal: letting drafters play Magic the way that *they* want to play Magic. Of course, no single cube can fully satisfy everyone at once, but this cube is curated toward providing that "Oh man, I sure like this deck!" feeling to as many players as possible. This is achieved by offering not only classic Vintage cube experiences like [[Touch|b12e5430-0e80-47dd-80ac-85728b656a24]] [[Famous|ad7ac9a5-340f-4509-826c-7b9416d47887]] [[Cards|160cf235-6463-4e16-a426-8b5be76b10d2]], [[Cast|d0391889-b3a6-4723-814f-aebec1c2a64f]] [[Broken|7da23b15-dfb8-4267-9b33-d7a4c035c434]] [[Spells|a9738cda-adb1-47fb-9f4c-ecd930228c4d]], and [[Destroy|9591f2ab-e09c-48d5-9c87-d27368e60750]] [[Your|6e2b2e55-21a3-4f71-a14b-d3d1b137d18c]] [[Friendships|65b7275a-5305-42e6-b5c3-8b88568b4e28]], but also by supporting a wider range of synergies like [[Lands Matter|bab161d9-45d7-48b7-af47-21e3dbae4d85]], [[Spells Matter|f1a21287-e244-4960-84fb-c4f6e5c346d9]], and [[Life Matters|67b9dca9-c564-4d90-b8b6-5b3311512e78]]. Most slot-hungry archetypes have been cut (looking at you, storm), while I have leaned into many one- or two-card synergies that have the potential for occasional extreme fun while only taking up <5% of the cube (like [[this|98fb1eaa-2871-491a-a4f5-3e358778ba40]], [[that|96d8b133-6431-4dd8-bb41-60f0e2cb67d6]], or [[the other|86a27d68-3e58-4ade-976d-36381beed451]]). There are NO double-faced cards of any kind, nor Monarch, Dungeons, Initiative, Ring Tempting, etc. Expect 65% of the list to be your "standard vintage list", with 35% personality. NOTE: Do you like the look of this cube's landing page, and want yours to look similar? Check out my [Primer for Cube Primers!](https://cubecobra.com/content/article/602abb5969cb75105e271d4e) --- #### Table of Contents: 1. [Cheat Sheet](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#cheat-sheet) 2. [Cube Environment & "House Rules"](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#recommended-pack-size--house-rules) 3. [History](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#history) 4. [Primer (START HERE if you're relatively new to cube drafting!)](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#buckle-up-buttercup-its-time-for-a-primer) --- #### Cheat Sheet: 🏃💨 Fast Mana: This cube has a TON of mana-producers at varying speeds. [[Sol Ring|2f18e125-ac4a-45d0-8055-98f59c77324e]], [[Crypt|160cf235-6463-4e16-a426-8b5be76b10d2]], [[Vault|5cbc686e-a8ef-40de-b79a-803ef42f8384]], [[Grim Monolith|aac6339a-4c32-4cd5-b3a2-d8f507e2b996]], Moxen [[Diamond|28028830-83ed-45e2-b495-3b9ad9d3e988]], [[Opal|547e3aa5-d88a-4418-ab9d-dd65385f031b]], and [[Chrome|e59f7138-60e0-444e-aaa3-8769072da916]], 10x [[Signets|10d4532d-f948-4eb3-b855-592080e171e5]], [[mana dorks|ab107a7f-cafc-44a7-a58c-4d83acf8f99e]], [[Dark Ritual|a6aacc3e-fe37-4a08-83e6-7ee8c0c0af74]]... the list goes on. 👬 Singleton Breaks: I selectively break singleton while maintaining "art singleton" for the following cards: [[Stoneforge Mystic|eb49805c-8546-463d-b78c-f4ea109851b4]] x2, [[Armageddon|9591f2ab-e09c-48d5-9c87-d27368e60750]] x2, [[Snapcaster Mage|befab3d3-87ce-4b55-a6c9-51db8dd41f71]] x2, [[Gravecrawler|33df275d-bdad-4e4b-9f92-ec2bf98fcba7]] x2, [[Lotus Cobra|da7bc803-04b0-4030-9a69-1c89c6572eb1]] x2, all ten [[Fetchlands|0f7585c8-9e21-4eef-afc1-2852de23db2f]] x2, all ten [[Shocklands|b98b2a35-ec2b-47fe-903d-dd292e469a3c]] x2, [[City of Brass|459042ef-0d5b-480f-9b8a-520e13ae9217]] x2, [[Strip Mine|2b5315a4-6a78-456f-8d5a-fea9d62f3f0e]] x2, and [[Wasteland|6eff6724-202d-4b6b-bac9-88dc1504a0aa]] x2. 🌈 Supported Archetypes: *These are staples of cubes everywhere. SEE THE PRIMER further down this page if you are not familiar with how these classic archetypes function.* - Aggro: [[White Weenies|a3f82012-5c33-47bc-a3c8-56ae2eea1fb9]], [[RDW|5d33a5b7-797b-4079-8d62-edd124c0fb5a]] - Midrange: {u}/x [[Tempo|c2089ec9-0665-448f-bfe9-d181de127814]], {b/r}/{w/b} [[Aristocrats|22e41010-c62b-4940-9f51-f064a397056a]] & [[Stax|4dcdcad5-e4fb-480e-984f-1ac5cdc986b9]], {g}/{c} [[Ramp|6aa5cc65-f8f1-4f6f-8b4e-2fedccbda684]] - Control: It's cube. There are {w}{u}{b}{r} control cards (sorry, {g}). Go wild. - "Combo": [[Kiki|162018eb-5483-4fa2-9c5a-abb639eecf91]]/[[Twin|2f8f22fb-7291-4517-9b15-e98501f2856b]], [[Heliod|e11cf760-da35-41f2-8cf5-a5141103eeb3]]/[[Ballista|33622675-7bb3-4d4c-9bca-5db68d7d166b]], [[Sneak|d07dc95d-82a8-4a58-8ea2-d4513bd7316d]]/[[Show|4b851c17-55ed-4671-b471-dc7b34944432]], {b} [[Reanimate|d0391889-b3a6-4723-814f-aebec1c2a64f]] Some other fun archetypes for those who seek to draft them: - {u} Artifacts (e.g. [[1|ad7ac9a5-340f-4509-826c-7b9416d47887]] [[2|bfacd218-8854-436b-94df-e56256eeae64]] [[3|2050d414-71c7-4c42-a1ff-4c04068ba7f2]] [[4|ab2242c2-7379-4fff-a745-d180685da6db]]), {u/r} Spells-matters (e.g. [[1|e349c204-3a93-4bf7-b79a-5f5f261ea2d3]] [[2|12612d5c-9264-48bb-b5ad-21710c9f080c]] [[3|7172db88-2208-47c4-8226-bc094fd04a9b]] [[4|60e16d94-1166-4050-8554-686e153a7f80]]), {g}/x [[Pod|96d8b133-6431-4dd8-bb41-60f0e2cb67d6]] (toolbox, not combo), "Lands," aka break [[cards|bbde4755-7fd0-42b3-a0fd-80a7d6edd950]] [[like|54cec453-21f1-48a1-a395-9ec172b8f13a]] [[these|2b5315a4-6a78-456f-8d5a-fea9d62f3f0e]] [[guys|0f7585c8-9e21-4eef-afc1-2852de23db2f]] by utilizing [[cards|b6f27909-e5cd-44c0-91c4-21624f692fd9]] [[like|5d7ef391-60d7-41cd-b3fe-d1ce250e807a]] [[these|4a706ecf-3277-40e3-871c-4ba4ead16e20]] [[guys|e62ff2bf-323d-4252-ba7b-27bcdf805093]] --- #### Recommended Pack Size & "House Rules": **Pod Size & Pack Size:** There are two ways that I usually draft this cube: one for "more experienced" pods, and one for "less experienced pods." I absolutely love bringing people into the cube community who may not be as invested in Magic as the average cube player, and as a result of this, I have different methodologies for drafting with different groups. - **The Enfranchised Draft**: 3 packs of 16 cards each (48 cards total). This is how most players are used to drafting, and this is how as-fan ratios for this cube are skewed (for things such as land visibility, archetype signaling, redundant-effect visibility, etc.). I run a ton of non-basics, so I like the extra card per pack to help people not scrape for playables. - **The Outreach Draft**: 5 packs of 9 cards each if drafting in a pod of 6 people (45 cards/person total), or 4 packs of 12 cards each if drafting in a pod of 8 people (48 cards/person). Why, you may ask? Analysis Paralysis. Do you remember your first time drafting a cube? Mine went something like "Pack one looks sick... Wait is that a card worth $100 ohhhhh damn these are all insane... Oh, oh wait, oh no, everyone's already picked a card I'm the only one left, so I guess I just take the card I know is banned in Commander?" By drafting 5 packs of 9 cards each, you give new drafters a much less stressful environment in which to make their first decisions. Yes, you have less information throughout the draft. But that's *fine* when you're trying to get people to make it through their first cube draft. Trust me; it's fun. **House Rules:** - You can look at all of your picks during the draft (unless everyone agrees not to beforehand). Some people need the memory space taken up by those cards, and I find that 99% of drafters are fine with this as long as they know beforehand. - If you draft [[Pod|96d8b133-6431-4dd8-bb41-60f0e2cb67d6]], you can take a picture of your deck before playing and reference it in-game at any time. It actually speeds games up, not slows games down, since you can check for targets while your opponent is thinking. Plus, it eliminates those *real* feels-bad moments where you whiff. It's fine to whiff when you brainfart and [[Tinker|7da23b15-dfb8-4267-9b33-d7a4c035c434]] while you're already holding your only fatty, but for Pod decks it's different. They struggle enough as it is; don't beat a dead horse. ##### Aesthetic Preferences: 🔎 Reminder Text: I try to choose versions of cards that have reminder text for non-evergreen mechanics. I do not stick to this rule 100% of the time, but for example, [[Damn has a sweet old-border printing|23b95b26-0bbf-4fa1-80c1-f621f1a1b947]], but it does not remind you what "Overload" does, so I run [[this version instead|138d9df8-ab9a-4d00-b6cc-320100dbaaaa]]. ~~Rant: ask a random Magic player what "Retrace" does. Yeah. Good thing almost no one ever ults [[W&6|4a706ecf-3277-40e3-871c-4ba4ead16e20]].~~ 🎨 Old-Border Foil Basic Lands: I love old art, I love old borders, and the foils... to die for. ✨ Prerelease Promos are my *jam*—specifically, the ones with the gold date-stamp in the bottom right corner of the art. Over 15% of the cards in my cube have a date stamp. I especially love the historical value of these cards. Many of my favorite cube cards were the banes of multiple formats when they first came out, and I appreciate the temporal links that these dates help to forge. <<[[!/b9bdfa34-f608-40d4-b634-b260ad620f18]][[!/b91248e8-9d00-4d42-a05a-21a009204404]][[!/54cec453-21f1-48a1-a395-9ec172b8f13a]][[!/5bad4456-d5f7-4f9b-91ee-fdae549a1e95]]>> --- #### History: This cube was born in the summer of 2015. My friend group at Whitman College had just finished formulating a "Tabletop Club" the semester prior (shoutout to Jeffrey for getting the ball rolling), and we were looking for more types of games to bring people into the fold. Most of our club activities focused on more traditional board/card/party games, such as 7 Wonders, Dominion, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Dixit, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, etc. I, however, wanted to find a way to bring a fun MTG draft environment to this newly-founded club. Like many college students in their first year on campus, I had initially not brought any of my high school Magic cards with me, assuming that there might not be a community for me to play with. Lo and behold, I was wrong, and soon found many kindred spirits who were itching to play Magic. However, it was hard to get anyone to *actually play* with any regularity because these new friends' backgrounds in Magic were all across the board. Vorthos had two kitchen table decks, Jenny had five Standard decks from two rotations prior, Spike had a single EDH deck that cost more than a month's tuition, etc. etc. So I set out into my first summer break with the goal of making a format that we could all play, *together*, regardless of our individual collections. A cube, if you will. Except I didn't know what a cube was. Queue the rabbit hole. What started as a crappy compilation of my unused "[[EDH staples|57877b1c-e91d-4941-81bd-008dff1272ed]]," [[binder chaff|ee194055-579a-4977-900e-e976259552ab]], and [[over-powered nonsense|fa56d53c-836c-483d-988d-a288d0ad91bb]] (~~Lord, forgive me, for I have sinned~~) has grown over the years into a *slightly* less-crappy draft environment. Now for the real fun: --- ## Buckle Up, Buttercup, It's Time for a **PRIMER** --- So you want to draft a cube ([obligatory](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Djzfs_emGY&ab_channel=breadhenge)). Well, you'd better go into your first cube draft with some idea of what you can actually, ah, *draft*. This primer is oriented toward getting you familiar with the types of decks you are most likely to encounter in this cube and others like it. *Note: If you don't actually know what a "draft" is yet, [read this first](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Booster_Draft#Process). Conversely, if you already know why cards like [[Mother of Runes|0b1a46ab-95cb-4c24-924f-fc2afd4fcac7]], [[Mana Leak|6b123efa-8631-4a07-970d-ff4f980a0522]], and [[Kitesail Freebooter|f62fd592-4910-417d-a500-e7029f3d119f]] are in the same draft environment as [[Jace, the Mind Sculptor|3a1a1910-9587-481c-9e5c-5eb0c3b098c6]], [[Mana Drain|416d2d51-8f29-4e95-b037-e8c32b081e6c]], and [[Liliana of the Veil|7125336c-4c2d-47a0-8caf-b755f4954176]] then you don't really need this primer. Go poke around with some bot drafts and show what you know. If you're interested in making your **own** cube primer, check out my [CubeCobra article on the subject.](https://cubecobra.com/content/article/602abb5969cb75105e271d4e)* Now that the old farts are gone, let's talk shop. To be overly derivative, Cube is about drafting *decks,* not cards. Have you heard of ["BREAD"](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Bread)? Doesn't matter; we're not using it here. Almost every card in the cube looks "good" at face value, so just drafting good cards will not leave you with a deck on-par with the other decks that drafters are building. So how do you draft a **deck**? You look for archetypes. - ar·che·type | \ ˈär-ki-ˌtīp \ NOUN: the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies. (Merriam-Webster) Thank you, Mr. Dictionary. I've learned a smart word but am still draft dumb. - ar·che·type (Magic: the Gathering edition) NOUN: A general game-plan for victory that one emulates by combining cards which further said game-plan, often to synergistic effect. That is to say, an archetype is not just about the words on your cards. ~~It's a way of life~~ It's a way of piloting a deck—a way of building a deck—a way of (you guessed it) *drafting* a deck. Below, I will be outlining not just the types of cards that fall into each of the cube's major archetypes, but also how each of those decks wants to be drafted and played. "I came here for the pretty pictures," you are no doubt saying right now. Well then: ## The Pretty Pictures: 1. [Red Deck Wins & White Weenies](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#-red-deck-wins--white-weenies-) 2. [Aristocrats & Stax](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#-aristocrats--stax-) 3. [Ramp](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#-ramp-) 4. [Cheaty](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#-cheaty-) 5. [Reanimator](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#-reanimator-%EF%B8%8F) 6. [Combo](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#-combo-) 7. ["Midrange"](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#-midrange-) 8. [Control](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/tabletop#-control-) --- <<[[!/b2e2a777-0705-4a37-937d-c6e020ebc0f0]] [[!/435589bb-27c6-4a6d-9d63-394d5092b9d8]] [[!/aaae15dd-11b6-4421-99e9-365c7fe4a5d6]] [[!/1d446b8b-1b09-4fef-8454-95ad272503c0]]>> --- >>> #### 🔥⚡ Red Deck Wins & White Weenies 🏃💨 <<< --- <<[[!/a3f82012-5c33-47bc-a3c8-56ae2eea1fb9]] [[!/e6f9792f-7435-49dd-98b4-cc2e9f556338]] [[!/eb49805c-8546-463d-b78c-f4ea109851b4]] [[!/9591f2ab-e09c-48d5-9c87-d27368e60750]]>> Fun cube fact: you don't actually have to like aggro. It's just nice when the option's there, like that bottle of salad dressing in your fridge that you haven't touched since 2019. Aggro is essentially the same from format to format, since most creatures that can do 2 damage for 1 mana are comparable to one another. It keeps the other degenerate stuff in balance, because if you can die on turn 4 if you don't develop your board then you're *kind of* encouraged to develop your board. "Red Deck Wins" (RDW for short) and White Weenies both run a similar creature-based shell of low-to-the-ground creatures that have [[haste|88993193-c5ce-4334-8965-f10b0510210a]] or [[fun twists|f2bdcfec-d412-442c-91c8-53022c8e316d]] or [[above-rate stats|fdf3f74c-1d3c-423c-8a21-ebf8193c95a0]]. You usually want to aim for [[three-drops|de1b2455-6ddf-4b1c-8be5-2767c7957ccb]] that [[go wide|abcd0e32-2e6b-419b-9e8a-af38f2b48a66]], and your deck will [[taper off|0ec8d800-7f06-44e0-b22d-cdff0a9b153d]] at about [[four mana|8829efa0-498a-43ca-91aa-f9caeeafe298]]. Much of the difference in flavor of RDW and Weenies lies in the two-drop spot. White tends to have more of an emphasis on hatebears (e.g. [[1|308c8834-e06e-452a-b82e-cb2b8fe0c304]] [[2|e6f9792f-7435-49dd-98b4-cc2e9f556338]] [[3|98cbc1c2-b76e-4da3-aa43-00e10b2ce532]]), whereas red tends to be more spells-y (e.g. [[1|e349c204-3a93-4bf7-b79a-5f5f261ea2d3]] [[2|4ed0f828-4675-4bed-a80e-ccabf57156d8]] [[3|ff984a4c-1818-4f8f-a9d7-fce57e77937d]]) **But how do I *draft* RDW or White Weenies?** As it turns out, you can *actually* sit down at the table and tell everyone before the draft starts: "Yo, I'm going ham with aggro tonight." No one will contest it. I promise you. Conversely, if you've taken a few generically good picks in the first pack and think, "Haven't there been a lot of dinky little dudes passing around the table? Yessirree, there have been! Perhaps I should gather them all into one place." Then you start picking them up. Based on the color of weenies you're grabbing, you'll also want to lean into [[burn spells|d5e45005-dd81-4d80-b043-02f719aca929]] if you're in red, and be on the lookout for [[good two-drops|21c950d7-b4f6-4902-8c9a-98f2933f9fa5]] if you're in white. Keep in mind: if you notice that other people are picking up the [[removal spells|4b22f468-d26e-4b9b-8b19-9ff6baf6957e]] in [[your color|09cfe585-8a55-4b27-89e0-dfb6946fe1f3]], don't worry too much, since those cards can go into a wide number of decks. However, if you notice that someone else is taking the central cards to your deck (the [[little guys|9f4df9be-324b-458a-9379-ab4aa437a6d2]]), then you might want to lean into a slightly different variety so as not to get pinched out. For example: **What *spicy* options are there in aggro?** If you eat your vegetables by drafting [[multicolored lands|168ef687-5797-4b45-b75b-393d8117cebd]], then you can splash multicolor! As you may have guessed, [[Boros|0da69523-cece-425a-b08a-fb27fac29374]] aggro works very well as long as you have the mana base to support the colors. Sometimes, though, all a red deck needs to grind out a victory is some delicious [[Rakdos|22e41010-c62b-4940-9f51-f064a397056a]] or [[Gruul|7ef67487-c8e5-49bb-b0f7-e073ff2e31f1]] spice, and your White Weenies deck could use a [[silver bullet|2c2d88dd-813a-4cd5-9a6a-ca6f80564078]] or [[two|e6fa0c99-04d5-4bba-a864-0c8350175e36]] if you can support them. **Good and Bad Matchups:** Aggressive decks fail when they face a deck that can stabilize the board. If you're playing an aggressive deck, you are going to be dropping a lot of fast, cheap threats. If your opponent can reliably clear the board, or gain life, or get out a ton of tokens, then you're in trouble. This means that aggro isn't great against [[cheap boardwipes|564caf57-4ba5-4993-a35e-945699c94eb7]], or [[cheap creatures|62090c97-7e3e-4854-bc44-c4a900133ec5]] that [[slow you down|85cdce78-2c97-4078-88a8-5b82f5867c96]] while potentially also giving your opponent card advantage. Conversely, RDW is **killer** against decks that rely on [[small bodies early|df87b2e4-033c-447f-9b52-b67de3e6fe41]] to succeed, since your access to [[cheap removal|435589bb-27c6-4a6d-9d63-394d5092b9d8]] can keep them from developing a board. Similarly, aggressive decks that flood the board with small threats can overwhelm opponents that rely on [[a few large bombs|cb380a5a-a3f9-42fb-ac5c-f54afa3c1079]], since these bombs may be scary but they usually can't stop the flood on their own. [**Example Deck:** Red Deck Wins.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/61e85798cd7f3f0fefd47640) Vomit your hand onto the battlefield for a quick win, and use cards like [[Sulfuric Vortex|1d446b8b-1b09-4fef-8454-95ad272503c0]] to grind out longer games. [**Example Deck:** *Mostly*-White Weenies.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/620475acefc8bc10263c8464) Sometimes you add a splash of another color. Here's a sprinkle of Black to keep your deck from becoming boring beige oatmeal. NOTE: This deck performed well *despite* being two colors, not *because* it was two colors. Aggro decks reeeally want to be low curve, low land, and mono-colored. Drew Hoyt has a great probabilistic write-up about the inconsistency of two-color aggro, and if you want to go down that rabbit hole, it's a great resource for crafting "competitively consistent" draft decks: https://medium.com/@drewjhoyt/probabilistic-magic-inconsistency-of-two-color-aggro-in-cube-c90690dc9d11 --- <<[[!/9a1960e6-00b5-44c6-9fd1-dca49f58f433]] [[!/66d80dd1-b944-4cb2-8578-b4dbcabbbc1e]] [[!/0281085d-f632-4f44-a30e-a4050d278ff7]] [[!/5587191b-b56a-452d-8a18-1622df83c267]]>> --- >>> #### 🎩💀 Aristocrats & Stax 🚷🔞 <<< --- <<[[!/86a27d68-3e58-4ade-976d-36381beed451]] [[!/4dcdcad5-e4fb-480e-984f-1ac5cdc986b9]] [[!/33df275d-bdad-4e4b-9f92-ec2bf98fcba7]] [[!/a5686e11-86ce-4795-9512-7974a2767c93]]>> Ah, yes, the BDSM decks. Hurt yourself for your own pleasure and for the displeasure of your opponents, unless they're into that stuff, in which case your opponent may just be [[a member of Wizards' R&D department|046331b1-9e49-4c82-bff9-52fc9b14055c]]. Aristocrats is an ancient MtG archetype that found its titular moniker in the [[aristocrats|53399f12-0d62-40bf-a532-1d02b6c2f19e]] of Innistrad block. This archetype turns downsides into upsides by pairing sacrifice "enablers" ([[cards|d3e33835-a293-4a1f-85d5-8ac22360ef35]] that let you [[sacrifice creatures|9a1960e6-00b5-44c6-9fd1-dca49f58f433]]) with sacrifice "payoffs" (cards that [[benefit you|5587191b-b56a-452d-8a18-1622df83c267]] when creatures die) and sacrifice "fodder" (creatures that you [[don't mind losing|6a1c710b-bd67-4174-ab02-6ae98a7575ac]], either because they [[come back from the dead|fb4a63e6-2e00-44ee-b8a2-6f2bba66b457]] or are [[dinky tokens|891a92d7-9ccf-4de1-8286-aa5254f27ba9]]). So Enablers + Fodder + Payoffs = [Profit](https://thumbs.gfycat.com/WarlikeAffectionateAntarcticfurseal-max-14mb.gif). Usually your payoffs are some combination of [[direct damage|22e41010-c62b-4940-9f51-f064a397056a]], [[life-drain effects|5c963d97-c948-45d9-84cc-58e246d35970]], or [[some other value|c74501e7-b14c-484f-91d2-99a014849fec]]. "Stax" is a similar, yet different, flavor of masochism. Named after [[the iconic Urza's Saga artifact|6a37ab2d-094f-431e-878f-93aef0360413]] (which I used to run here but has sadly become a tad too slow), this archetype found a home with the OG [[Braids|4dcdcad5-e4fb-480e-984f-1ac5cdc986b9]], who has recently been joined by the mostly-superior [[Master of Prankles|a5686e11-86ce-4795-9512-7974a2767c93]]. Stax is arguably more of a sub-archetype to Aristocrats because it is hard to pull off on its own. Since [[stax-effects|86a27d68-3e58-4ade-976d-36381beed451]] rely on the same recursive creatures, dinky tokens, and death-triggers as the aristocrats deck, it's much more realistic for Stax to build out of an Aristocrats shell than for it to flourish on its own. **How do I draft it?** If your idea of living the highlife is killing small things, then look for recursive threats early in the draft. These staples are crucial to get any Aristocrat or Stax deck off the ground, yet they don't pigeonhole you into the deck the way that cards like [[Braids|4dcdcad5-e4fb-480e-984f-1ac5cdc986b9]] herself does. Once you have a skeleton of small threats you can start seeking out the fun stuff that will reward you for those creatures dying. I like to start out with versatile picks that could go into a wide number of decks, like [[Ophiomancer|66d80dd1-b944-4cb2-8578-b4dbcabbbc1e]], [[Daretti|260ecd56-a86f-49e7-81e0-919231aa9945]], [[Smol Chandra|c26f5f1e-bc1b-4efb-85d0-f62e08ebba1b]], [[Ally Gideon|05de38ac-84ef-4daa-b311-11c20ad680ee]], or [[Lingering Souls|891a92d7-9ccf-4de1-8286-aa5254f27ba9]]. These cards can all do well in an Aristocrat or Stax deck, but can also develop into really any deck that runs those colors. **Spice:** Throw in some aggro or control to go over or under your opponents as needed. This is where your sideboard will shine, since both Aristocrats and Stax can easily board in [[wraths|c916a119-9eee-440d-90ef-05ab35bf3fbe]] against faster decks and [[direct damage|14d6bfda-c066-4cc0-b317-3d8c7c168546]] against slower decks. **Good and Bad Matchups:** Aristocrat decks are very versatile, since they can block aggro decks with their plentiful small creatures, but also out-value slow opponents with their grindy payoffs. Stax decks do very well against creaturebased decks that can't keep up with the sacrifice effects. However, they can be vulnerable to certain midrange-y cards that spit out tokens, gain life, destroy your stax/sac outlets, or do some ([[1|963f641d-aabe-4432-87c5-d8cddf95d8d5]]) combination ([[2|e6fa0c99-04d5-4bba-a864-0c8350175e36]]) of the ([[3|bf0e94c9-61c4-4cc0-b5ce-db62bc2660ee]]). They also struggle against decks with a lot of [[planeswalkers|05de38ac-84ef-4daa-b311-11c20ad680ee]], especially those that produce tokens. [**Example Deck:** Golgari Stax.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/61e85ef8cd7f3f0fefd4a51f) Nobody expects the Green Stax Inquisition! This specific deck doesn't have [[Inquisition of Kozilek|d47df2c2-437d-4b8e-82cc-1707e3efd5b5]], I'm afraid, but it does have enough ramp and tokens/dorks that you can get started on [[Rankle|a5686e11-86ce-4795-9512-7974a2767c93]] or [[The Abyss|86a27d68-3e58-4ade-976d-36381beed451]] a turn early and reeeeally grind your opponent into dust. [**Example Deck:** Classic Rakdos Aristocrats.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/61f43093927d440fe340aa94) Oh boy is [[Chandra|c26f5f1e-bc1b-4efb-85d0-f62e08ebba1b]] fun in this deck. Don't overlook [[Goblin Bombardment|179e954f-1d90-4ef4-b800-25845cc338e2]] if you haven't played with it much. You do pay 2 mana upfront for no immediate value, but when you're sacrificing tokens every turn and then wipe your whole board for those final few ticks of damage... there's nothing quite like it. --- <<[[!/abd80204-e9ba-483f-9b75-a69712545ba9]] [[!/962717fa-c502-46af-8574-4222e8151679]] [[!/16c19ce8-b295-4043-863b-f781147f9e32]] [[!/5047e271-fbf1-402c-9eb9-0806e5988f76]]>> --- >>> #### 🌳🙋 Ramp 📈🐉 <<< --- <<[[!/90107d10-e2aa-4cb7-a000-039f0c581b47]] [[!/f046212e-9b3e-4605-b1f1-fd1540236d95]] [[!/24a26df1-8530-412a-932c-f86ec230d12d]] [[!/c34d66f5-e782-425c-9260-e8989a9cf50b]]>> Ramp decks are all about beating mana parity to cast big spells early in the game. Ramp spells are easy to recognize: you have your ubiquitous one-drop [[elves|ab107a7f-cafc-44a7-a58c-4d83acf8f99e]], your [[other creature-based ramp|6aa5cc65-f8f1-4f6f-8b4e-2fedccbda684]], your [[land-based ramp|ee662f0a-f874-464c-8206-d4ff427daf2b]], and your [[artifact ramp|aac6339a-4c32-4cd5-b3a2-d8f507e2b996]]. There are two ways to play ramp decks: all-in hyper ramp, and what I will call "tempo ramp." These two approaches both attempt to answer the same classic problem: that all your impressive mana means nothing to you if you can't *spend it* on something. 1. Hyper ramp is all about high-risk, high-reward plays that can blow out your opponent on turn 3 or 4. Dropping a hand full of mana dorks in the first few turns puts you at a huge risk of [[eating a boardwipe to the face|564caf57-4ba5-4993-a35e-945699c94eb7]], but it also leads to games where your Control opponent can do nothing against a turn 3 [[T-Rex|3bd78731-949c-464a-826a-92f86d784911]] and your Aggro opponent loses one of their two lands to a [[tree|0bb81647-e8ff-492e-a862-1b1ca142efe6]]. 2. "Tempo ramp" is about incremental value, not balls-to-the-walls piles of elves. These decks focus on the 4-drop and 5-drop slot, aiming to get them out just one or two turns ahead of curve. These decks can be *brutal* when you sideboard in some 3-5 cost answers to your opponent's strategy and play them before your opponent can really get off the ground. Ramping out a [[Squirrelmother|3287775f-7bec-4e8f-bb8d-daf5ce92e4a8]] against aggressive decks, or a [[Squirrelfather|08eb31f3-7686-4d6b-a0e4-5d6ece6fba82]] against control, or [[some experimentally dissolved squirrels|6f11029a-b24d-4248-834f-b852b56857f6]] against opponents with spotty removal will just end games. **How do I draft it?** In a draft, look for the cards that ramp you first, not the flashy fatties that you can ramp into. Given the concentration of big boys and girls in the cube (just wait for the next archetype), it's almost guaranteed that you'll be able to pick up a few fatties later in the draft, *especially* in green, since by then you've already pinched the pool of ramp spells. **Spice:** This probably sounds familiar by now, but draft some LANDS and lean into multicolor. Guess what? [[Simic|6f3b4542-bf78-4450-a4e0-bf757445c3c3]] likes ramp. Like, it [[really|24a26df1-8530-412a-932c-f86ec230d12d]] does, especially if you're [[ramping with creatures.|95be2701-af7c-483e-8165-e8bd4b2774ed]] Throw in white and you can [[go wide|72afe4d6-7160-438e-b6bc-b8edc160f36c]] or just [[kill 'em with Old Norny.|78c2bfef-06a5-4c7f-8283-ea3fb673b7a1]] **Good and Bad Matchups:** Ramp decks are vulnerable to early removal. If you can't keep your [[dorks|abd80204-e9ba-483f-9b75-a69712545ba9]] alive, then you're just playing a deck that does nothing until turn 8 when you try to cast [[Big-Ass Pigs|463ec274-0c1a-4a3e-82ce-726f5a679a37]] and it gets [[noped|394d65a0-0792-43d5-ab09-354cf8984428]]. On the flip side, ramp decks are good against other tempo-oriented decks, where your [[2-for-1|39997212-6943-4094-a9f7-cbdfa8938090]] cards gain exponential value. Honestly, just going from a turn 1 elf into a turn 2 [[Rec Sage|c6fba2e4-ea27-4ef0-9b27-bc61a7c6b0ab]] that blows up their [[mana rock|e7e4da73-2faa-4992-8f61-e668ce82ba17]] can be all that a "ramp" deck needs to do to run away with a game. [**Example Deck:** Almost-Mono-Green Ramp.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/6203eaf2efc8bc102639e535) If you manage to pick up a ton of mana dorks in the draft, try mono-{g} with just a splash of something else (here {u}, literally just for [[Hydroid Krasis|24a26df1-8530-412a-932c-f86ec230d12d]] and [[Uro|6f3b4542-bf78-4450-a4e0-bf757445c3c3]]. --- <<[[!/4b851c17-55ed-4671-b471-dc7b34944432]] [[!/d07dc95d-82a8-4a58-8ea2-d4513bd7316d]] [[!/0845f0b0-9413-4ddd-861d-9607636bebc6]] [[!/7da23b15-dfb8-4267-9b33-d7a4c035c434]]>> --- >>> #### 😮😨 Cheaty 😱😒 <<< --- <<[[!/cbfc29b0-a72d-4f91-bc6c-86c79c626be8]] [[!/1be9d9a4-d7ee-4854-abc2-85cabf993ec9]] [[!/43aa7e35-55ee-4e02-a8aa-ea2b267055d1]] [[!/0ccd5597-2d4e-4f3e-94b7-46783486853a]]>> Welcome to the archetype for people who want to cheat but don't want to lose friends by [[actually cheating|d6202ce1-8dbc-4aa5-8d62-5fe4005fa3d9]]. As evidenced by the name, "cheaty" is all about breaking the fundamental rule of magic that spells have mana costs and that mana costs supposedly mean anything? Or something like that, because Cheaty decks skip the middleman of this "mana" you speak of by sneaking [[Spaghetti Monster MK.3|8ecae6b7-423a-4c50-b435-abaaeeb390a3]] into play on turn 3. Some folks will tell you that Cheaty is just the better version of ramp, and they're not *entirely* wrong. Cheaty is the more **efficient** version of ramp. It skips multi-card ramping with single-card effects like [[Tinker|7da23b15-dfb8-4267-9b33-d7a4c035c434]], [[Tailor|4b851c17-55ed-4671-b471-dc7b34944432]], [[Soldier|d07dc95d-82a8-4a58-8ea2-d4513bd7316d]], and [[Spy|6da09e6a-2965-4855-bd41-41b41ba188fb]]. Cheaty is often quite vulnerable to early countermagic, since ramp decks don't lose their mana cache if a fatty is countered, whereas a Cheaty deck may only contain two copies of [[Sneak|d07dc95d-82a8-4a58-8ea2-d4513bd7316d]] & [[Show|4b851c17-55ed-4671-b471-dc7b34944432]] for getting out those game-ending threats. **Teach me to commit mana crimes.** Like with ramp, you want to draft the enablers before the monstrosities. [[Spaghooter Moonster Mk.1|cbfc29b0-a72d-4f91-bc6c-86c79c626be8]] does literally nothing if you can't cheat her into play, so pick your [[Through the Breeches|6da09e6a-2965-4855-bd41-41b41ba188fb]] before your [[Elesh Norns|78c2bfef-06a5-4c7f-8283-ea3fb673b7a1]]. On that note, try to match your bombs with your cheats. Much of [[Norn's power|78c2bfef-06a5-4c7f-8283-ea3fb673b7a1]] comes from her static abilities, making her a great card to [[keep around|4b851c17-55ed-4671-b471-dc7b34944432]], but not to die immediately to [[Through the Breeches' end-of-turn sacrifice effect|6da09e6a-2965-4855-bd41-41b41ba188fb]]. On the flip side, many cards (e.g. [[1|0bb81647-e8ff-492e-a862-1b1ca142efe6]] [[2|494f761a-dbc4-4cfa-a258-e4de46bb825e]] [[3|1ab640f0-72cf-4659-98fd-20d0bb787e40]]) get a lot of immediate value out regardless of whether they survive the turn, so go nuts with [[Sneak Attack|d07dc95d-82a8-4a58-8ea2-d4513bd7316d]]. **Spice:** Throw some fair Magic into your unfair Magic! In an ironic, yet classic, twist, many Magic decks that fold to counterspells actually do quite well when they run a few counterspells themselves. Tit for tat. Or, you can double down on degeneracy with the next archetype, Reanimator, and get some helpful redundancy in by bringing back any bombs that end up in the 'yard. **Good and Bad Matchups:** As mentioned multiple times already, Cheaty decks don't like it when your opponent tries to call you out for cheating. If your card gets [[bounced|85cdce78-2c97-4078-88a8-5b82f5867c96]] to your hand, you need a way to replay it. Then there is the fail-case of your opponent [[stealing your fatty|8de3fdae-cc2c-4a14-b15b-4fe1a983dfbf]], which is why I mentioned that your Cheaty deck may want to run a few counterspells itself. Cheaty decks do great against most deck that wants to play fairly, however. Cards that give haste like Through the Breach and Sneak Attack get around board wipes, and cards that let you keep your Eldrazi in play will steamroll any dinky midrange decks. [**Example Deck:** Sneak & Show.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/6203ef5befc8bc102639f096) This deck filters through your library for the cards you need untill you can assemble a build-your-own-Eldrazi kit. --- <<[[!/bee3dad4-88d8-424c-b3f8-d089b6891fb8]] [[!/84d885c0-5271-4ba0-8d63-fa3f72693399]] [[!/c74501e7-b14c-484f-91d2-99a014849fec]] [[!/1ab640f0-72cf-4659-98fd-20d0bb787e40]]>> --- >>> #### ⚫🚮 Reanimator ⚫♻️ <<< --- <<[[!/5c7bb22c-55b0-43e1-b52c-8bb4e75daaf6]] [[!/7125336c-4c2d-47a0-8caf-b755f4954176]] [[!/b429172f-2182-49dd-b6f6-e5e09493628d]] [[!/5fa6d385-6b8e-45ad-83dc-b477799c05a5]]>> **Fun Fact:** AC/DC actually wrote "Back in Black" as a tribute to the Reanimator archetype in Magic: the Gathering. I've been livin' like a star 'cause it's gettin' me high Forget the hearse, 'cause I never die I got nine lives, cat's eyes Using every one of them and runnin' wild But enough fake history. Reanimator is one of my favorite archetypes because it turns your graveyard into a morbid playground. Who doesn't like having two [[hands|5c7bb22c-55b0-43e1-b52c-8bb4e75daaf6]]? Reanimator is all about getting creatures into your graveyard who don't stay there long. Some cards let you [[discard for free|9675b8ea-47f9-440e-9535-de879da53f76]], while any number of [[reanimation effects|54aca743-cdc7-4e98-a91c-035591cd09f2]] let you resurrect the spooky creatures that you just binned. You can go for a fast, cheeky win by quickly reanimating a [[Grislebrand|1ab640f0-72cf-4659-98fd-20d0bb787e40]] or a [[Titan|5fa6d385-6b8e-45ad-83dc-b477799c05a5]], OR you can go more for a grindy Jund-style deck with using [[repeatable discard|7125336c-4c2d-47a0-8caf-b755f4954176]], [[late-game threats|d3df8f6d-2661-4a5a-98f5-03873170c3e7]], and small creatures in the early game that just [[keep|c74501e7-b14c-484f-91d2-99a014849fec]] coming [[back|43bf015b-152e-4d67-b773-e75fb2487a32]]. Don't think that Reanimator has to be mono-black! Despite my AC/DC reference, Reanimator works great with {u} and {r} cards as well. Both colors have [[discard|98291778-2ec2-47e2-ac99-5f8cfbb3cf24]] [[effects|b429172f-2182-49dd-b6f6-e5e09493628d]], ways to get your reanimation spells [[back from the 'yard|9e5b279e-4670-4a1e-87d0-3cab7e4f9e58]], and amazing [[reanimation|cb380a5a-a3f9-42fb-ac5c-f54afa3c1079]] [[targets|b7f6b20c-9871-433c-8557-44493447e914]]. Plus, as mentioned in the previous section, you can get double value out of your bombs if you cheat them into play FIRST and THEN reanimate them. **How do I draft Reanimator?** Drafting a Reanimator deck is similar to drafting its close cousin, Cheaty, and its slightly more distant cousins, Ramp and Aristocrats. If you're going for the boom-or-bust style deck, you have to grab those [[Reanimates|d0391889-b3a6-4723-814f-aebec1c2a64f]] and [[Exhumes|a88b23ce-ce19-47da-b9f2-055a4d6bdc79]] and [[Entombs|5c7bb22c-55b0-43e1-b52c-8bb4e75daaf6]] early on. If you're going more for a grindy recursive deck, you instead need to focus early on the cards that can bounce back and forth between your graveyard and the battlefield (e.g. [[1|fb4a63e6-2e00-44ee-b8a2-6f2bba66b457]] [[2|fc325778-8987-40c5-a01f-264740525df0]] [[3|9b6a6d00-3e00-4827-8420-13343ac3d0fd]]). You can pick up fatties later in the draft, because they don't even need to be on-color half the time. **Spice:** Rakdos reanimate decks are historically viable, but my spicy tech that ~~(actually only very occasionally)~~ **always wins games** is a more tempo-oriented Dimir deck that incidentally gains recursive value from cards like [[Living Death|c74501e7-b14c-484f-91d2-99a014849fec]] or [[this version of Liliana|d5e2a410-fca6-4d3d-9b6b-519a968e5e86]]. Adding {u} also gives you access to a [[bunch|a048d5fc-bf79-4ef8-bf56-7e4752ee507f]] of [[annoying|8e196e5d-7e53-4f87-9528-1bdcaec6fec9]] little [[goobers|62090c97-7e3e-4854-bc44-c4a900133ec5]] that [[disrupt your opponent|c2089ec9-0665-448f-bfe9-d181de127814]] while still [[hitting pretty hard|d141d5bb-6437-4353-bec9-63d59f5d8207]]. The card manipulation with blue can be bonkers, and it also gives you access to one of my [[favorite cube cards of all time|4779f967-17b3-4184-a829-31f19db3a75d]]. **Good and Bad Matchups:** Reanimate decks *hate* white, because [[dear|30233158-01b4-4f14-b7d2-d0377273f6c3]] [[God|8bd501ae-5814-4336-a45b-2b88cb85d29e]] [[why|95be5b75-5cef-45e2-8a51-1418e302f13b]] [[does|49577949-b721-40e1-9190-643c5e01b2b5]] [[it|09cfe585-8a55-4b27-89e0-dfb6946fe1f3]] [[exile|b2f73f5d-1aad-48c2-9e74-5f7bdd87900f]] [[everything|fab2d8a9-ab4c-4225-a570-22636293c17d]]. That being said, Reanimate decks are otherwise some of the most resilient and versatile decks out there, because it doesn't really matter if your spells countered or your creatures destroyed, since they'll probably come back for seconds eventually. [**Example Deck:** Golgari Reanimator.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/6203f170efc8bc102639f6da) This deck is super fun because, unlike the classic {u/b} and {u/r} versions of Reanimator (which this cube also supports), this one can just yell "Get 'er done!" and ramp out a 6-drop on turn 4 instead of fiddling with reanimation spells. --- <<[[!/162018eb-5483-4fa2-9c5a-abb639eecf91]] [[!/f252ae53-443c-4a27-b8f0-639a9a2b8598]] [[!/2f8f22fb-7291-4517-9b15-e98501f2856b]] [[!/e11cf760-da35-41f2-8cf5-a5141103eeb3]]>> --- >>> #### 💣🚀 Combo 🎲🎰 <<< --- <<[[!/b9c5761b-52f8-4f43-abfb-8d2366500f8f]] [[!/c2ad8639-e586-47f4-baca-2a1af5aa281b]] [[!/fc027b11-1ecc-430d-a862-586a14bb23c3]] [[!/33622675-7bb3-4d4c-9bca-5db68d7d166b]]>> Combo is hard. I don't mean that it's hard to understand. Sure, if you have [[Wiki Tiki|162018eb-5483-4fa2-9c5a-abb639eecf91]] out and resolve a [[Pestermite|f252ae53-443c-4a27-b8f0-639a9a2b8598]], you probably win the game on the spot. But combo is hard to *do correctly*, both in drafting it and building a deck around it. Hell, it's hardest to handle when you're trying to build a **cube** with combo elements, and I do not even remotely pretend that my cube is a perfectly balanced environment for combo. Half of the time, it's busted as hell. Half of the time, it fizzles completely. The third half of the time, only half of the combo ever shows up in the draft packs ~~and the fourth half of the time you accidentally combo off without thinking that you had a combo in your deck haha whoops hello there [[infinite self-targeted ETB triggers|e8dc67a0-05d9-463e-9794-30a7e951c240]] before that got errata'd~~. Point is, all you really need for a combo is two-ish cards that go infinite off of one another, like [[Heliod|e11cf760-da35-41f2-8cf5-a5141103eeb3]] & [[Walking Ballista|329a8738-3e17-403a-857a-0ba529ce8cd1]] (give the Ballista lifelink with Heliod and ping infinitely). Ideally, you'd have some redundant effects, and sprinkle in a few tutors, whether they be the [[off-color|881e5922-b464-4a1a-b074-664bd6c0a7f6]] but [[perfect-find|f9ab4647-e025-4a63-b2c1-a90541ab17d1]] tutors, or any number of the more specific finders ("[[One|0c9ebec9-3474-4062-9607-2e2a72f78299]], [[Two|004a0178-b523-473f-8410-480e6aaec242]], [[Three|c685e4c3-eb7b-4b9e-9676-395d69d80974]], [Ah-Ah-Ah!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AXPnH0C9UA&ab_channel=mrmagoo312)") Then you choose whether you want to run a control shell that stabilizes until you combo off, or a threat-heavy deck that draws out removal preemptively, or a sideboard-focused toolbox deck that switches things around to best protect your combo from each matchup's different threats. Pick your poison. **How do I draft it?** I'll say it again: Combo is hard. There is no single "correct" way to draft combo, because like combo games themselves, a combo draft is likely to boom or bust. If you overly focus on grabbing the combo cards early, you'll miss out on the highly-contested mana-fixing and tutors that smooth things out. Then there's the chance that you take half of a combo but the other half never shows up. Worst of all, maybe you saw two halves of a combo, but after the packs wheel once and you grab that first card you notice that ~~the cards are being drafted from *inside the house*~~ someone else at the table has *stolen* the other half of the combo! Now you're in hot water. The "correct" way to draft combo, in my very biased mind, is to just go for it if the cards tickle your fancy and you see them early in pack one. Do you want to *guarantee* that you'll be able to "spike" the draft, draft the hard way, and come out with a polished deck? Congratulations! *You're probably not the sort of drafter who is looking to go into combo.* If you **are** the rare breed that likes drafting combo but doesn't like risky drafts (note: combo decks in Constructed formats are entirely different beasts), then that means you've already got some inkling of a game-plan brewing for how you want to draft, whether that be all-out combo or more reserved picking and choosing. **Spice:** You want the spice for a cube's combos? Literally just ask the cube's designer and watch in horror as they ramble for two hours. Oh what's that? You want to know about the combos in MY cube? Well... all I'll say here is that there is a card called [[Emry|8e196e5d-7e53-4f87-9528-1bdcaec6fec9]] in this cube, and there is a card called [[Mindslaver|98fb1eaa-2871-491a-a4f5-3e358778ba40]] in here as well. **Good and Bad Matchups:** Combos are fragile to targeted disruption. Most notably, they are extremely vulnerable to early hand disruption (e.g. [[1|65b7275a-5305-42e6-b5c3-8b88568b4e28]] [[2|d47df2c2-437d-4b8e-82cc-1707e3efd5b5]] [[3|a7da9157-fdb6-477f-a605-5ee325410fda]]) and [[free|9a879b60-4381-447d-8a5a-8e0b6a1d49ca]] [[counterspells|d03bff25-0d5e-4dcf-8d75-6df846afea3b]]. What's that you say? You remember that Cheaty decks work well when they preemptively run similar cards? You're **right**, Bobby, they do. Feel free to draft some of these cards yourself, whether to use them defensively or to keep others from using them against you. Combo decks destroy decks that think they're safe behind a [[wall of tokens|96f1d11a-084d-4de7-9ed4-33158113520c]] or because they just Tinkered out a [[game-ending threat|b95c1f54-c605-451e-abc4-87cf0f2c5c39]] last turn. None of that matters if you can hit them out of nowhere with an infinite number of [[American Black-Friday shoppers|fc027b11-1ecc-430d-a862-586a14bb23c3]] on the hunt for cheap socks at Fred Meyer. [**Example Deck:** Pile-o'-Combo.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/6203f53defc8bc102639fb8d) This deck looks like a mess, and it kind of is, but it still plays much smoother than it looks. It uses a ton of library-digging and tutor effects to find combo pieces, and since the deck has 3 different 2-card combos, you don't have to wait too long before one of them comes together. --- <<[[!/85cdce78-2c97-4078-88a8-5b82f5867c96]] [[!/b54d6a9c-0587-471d-acfd-01e56f6866bc]] [[!/9c036156-0410-4e51-80a4-45b4f0a815e4]] [[!/0f6c1b83-ac63-4666-b853-66a8bf14ad14]]>> --- >>> #### 😐❓ "Midrange" 😴💤 <<< --- <<[[!/45f924be-03f1-4295-8bdc-a249003ed84d]] [[!/ff8086cd-b868-4f4e-823e-2635ad7ebc07]] [[!/95be5b75-5cef-45e2-8a51-1418e302f13b]] [[!/cedfc5b7-9242-4680-b284-debc8b5a9bc7]]>> "What's that you say? You like playing *fair* magic? In a *cube*?" Midrange can sometimes get a bad rap in the cube community. In many cubes, midrange decks fold to the hyper-fast and hyper-slow archetypes like RDW and Boardwipe Tribal. In others, midrange is "too good" because there aren't enough well-defined archetypes and everyone just plays goodstuff piles. My cube started as a "goodstuff pile"-type of cube, and has shifted toward the defined archetype end of the spectrum now, but that does not mean that midrange is dead. To bash on midrange is to overly-simplify the matter, and to skirt around this issue I will now proceed to simplify the matter even further: To find a midrange deck, look at the multicolor section of the cube. Boom. Guild-colored cards that cost between 3 and 5 mana abound. Where do most of these cards fit? Some kind of midrange deck. This is actually an issue that many cube designers have with multicolor slots in cubes. They tend to be... *generically good* cards, sure, but they sometimes fail to fit into the sleek, archetypal gameplans that most cube curators seek to curate. Often they fit the B, R, and E of ["BREAD"](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Bread), which, as I already said, we often throw out in cube drafts. Still, I like a lot of these midrange-y cards, and I enjoy the games they play in, so they remain in my cube for now. Are they always great picks? No. Should you sometimes draft generically good cards anyways? Sure, if you want to. Midrange is as midrange does. If you want to draft a deck that just curves out and makes value plays, go for it. You might not end up with the most competitive deck, but I've found that these decks can be remarkably fun to draft and play from time to time. **Spice:** Midrange *is* the spice. Sprinkle it liberally. **Good and Bad Matchups:** Midrange is good in the the aggro matchups where it can stabilize, and bad in the ones where it can't. Midrange is good in the control matchups where it can out-value your opponent, and bad in the ones where it can't. Midrange is a myth, my dudes, or at least in the sense that it's not really an *archetype.* It is much harder to accurately classify into good-and-bad matchups as a result. It teaches you how to sideboard effectively, though, since you'll have to lean faster or slower depending on who you're up against. [**Example Deck:** The ~~Sultai Value~~ "Two-Basic-Land Special" Deck.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/6203f829efc8bc10263a084e) Draft your lands, pick all the best cards, take your opponents on a one-way trip to Value Town, make people cry, break friendships, have a grand old time. [**Oh and why not have another Example Deck:** GRUUL TURF.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/6203faf1efc8bc10263a1029) This one is more of a case study in drafting. Sometimes you start off the night by drafting half of a ramp deck or a Red Aggro deck, then see that the other lane is open and pick up pieces, then decide in pack 2 that you really want to do something in between. --- <<[[!/1c687a4e-a3f9-4d2d-9931-bf60e97f4095]] [[!/95be2701-af7c-483e-8165-e8bd4b2774ed]] [[!/c916a119-9eee-440d-90ef-05ab35bf3fbe]] [[!/72d50972-4549-40cd-9c33-4b341333803f]]>> --- >>> #### 🙅🚔 Control 🕝⏩ <<< --- <<[[!/8bd501ae-5814-4336-a45b-2b88cb85d29e]] [[!/57733946-5a1f-469d-a933-9507bdbf9d74]] [[!/02551196-ecea-472f-9547-3c9658d0489e]] [[!/d4ded88d-2688-4f5e-a8b2-16216cf9c792]]>> The best way to play Magic is to keep others from playing. Forget taking your ball and going home (conceding). Instead, take ***their*** ball and go home (playing control). You probably don't actually need a primer on control. Do you know what a board wipe is? Cool. Have you [[countered someone's spell|5a501252-e722-4ebf-bcf7-f53a42745fa7]] and/or had [[one of your own spells|cc3fcd26-c088-4335-9a35-0e11019e3d5b]] countered? Cool. You know the drill. (Editor's Note: neither of those specific cards is in this cube) **How do I draft Control, though?** I'm only going to tell you three things here: 1. [[Draft.|0f7585c8-9e21-4eef-afc1-2852de23db2f]] 2. [[Your.|f6929259-2903-4f6f-9b06-42048fd55c6a]] 3. [[Lands.|c303a627-cce3-4045-81f8-fe7427e0a941]] The *whole point* of a control deck is that you keep your opponent down until you use [[some|edc9c9e0-19b0-49ac-8f91-c9cb536285ce]] [[weird|20c4aae1-7665-4df7-bd51-a1d95bf8a17d]] [[card|d3df8f6d-2661-4a5a-98f5-03873170c3e7]] to close out the game. Since you KNOW that you're going to be facing a faster deck than you, you absolutely cannot afford to get color-screwed. Just look at [[these|6ba873f7-a7a4-44aa-84a6-44501424dc7a]] three [[classic|394d65a0-0792-43d5-ab09-354cf8984428]] control [[cards|02551196-ecea-472f-9547-3c9658d0489e]]. What do you notice? Double pips. ~~(pips are {w} these {u} little {b} dudes)~~ Since you won't be doing quite as much in the first few turns of the game, you're fine with a few lands coming down tapped, but you're not fine with being short a color for that boardwipe that you need to cast on turn 4 before you die. **Spice:** Honestly? Red control. It works, but it's easy to sleep on. People tend to overlook red in favor of Esper ({w}{u}{b}) control variants, and you'd be surprised how open {r}/x control can be in a draft. **Good and Bad Matchups:** Control, like Midrange, is not really an archetype so much as it is a blanket term. If you drafted a boardwipe-heavy control deck, you'll struggle against combo decks and reanimate decks. If you drafted a counterspell-heavy control deck, you'll struggle against RDW and White Weenies. Conversely, counterspells are great against combo decks and boardwiped are great against aggressive decks. [**Example Deck:** Dimir Control.](https://cubecobra.com/cube/deck/6203fdb3efc8bc10263a1ef2) There is only so much fun to be had by two players in a game of Magic, and you intend to have all of it. --- And that's all for now, folks. To copy and paste a chunk from earlier, if you have survived this primer then you may want to peruse the following fun archetypes/sub-themes. - {u} Artifacts (e.g. [[1|ad7ac9a5-340f-4509-826c-7b9416d47887]] [[2|bfacd218-8854-436b-94df-e56256eeae64]] [[3|2050d414-71c7-4c42-a1ff-4c04068ba7f2]] [[4|ab2242c2-7379-4fff-a745-d180685da6db]]), {u/r} Spells-matters (e.g. [[1|e349c204-3a93-4bf7-b79a-5f5f261ea2d3]] [[2|12612d5c-9264-48bb-b5ad-21710c9f080c]] [[3|7172db88-2208-47c4-8226-bc094fd04a9b]] [[4|60e16d94-1166-4050-8554-686e153a7f80]]), {g}/x [[Pod|96d8b133-6431-4dd8-bb41-60f0e2cb67d6]] (toolbox, not combo), "Lands," aka break [[cards|bbde4755-7fd0-42b3-a0fd-80a7d6edd950]] [[like|54cec453-21f1-48a1-a395-9ec172b8f13a]] [[these|2b5315a4-6a78-456f-8d5a-fea9d62f3f0e]] [[guys|0f7585c8-9e21-4eef-afc1-2852de23db2f]] by utilizing [[cards|b6f27909-e5cd-44c0-91c4-21624f692fd9]] [[like|5d7ef391-60d7-41cd-b3fe-d1ce250e807a]] [[these|4a706ecf-3277-40e3-871c-4ba4ead16e20]] [[guys|e62ff2bf-323d-4252-ba7b-27bcdf805093]] Go look at the cube list and see what you can see. Go take it for a drive with a bot draft. If you know me personally, wait until COVID is over and then *please for the love of God I am dying to draft in paper again.* If you want to read more about my design philosophy, you can [check out this CubeCobra article.](https://cubecobra.com/content/article/605ac800a356c81072ba1efe) "Gold-Bordered cards are wonderful things," —Maramas --- --- --- << [[!/c28e8a73-1a20-4979-bda4-73da39f73e2a]][[!/e21a6aab-9e6d-4e29-bfe7-b92084a320b5]][[!/aac6339a-4c32-4cd5-b3a2-d8f507e2b996]][[!/c74501e7-b14c-484f-91d2-99a014849fec]] >>