Right now I'm building a tight 360 card cube. I chose the number for it's versatility. It divides out perfectly into an 8-person draft, but can adapt to smaller numbers. Since it's rare that I can gather more than three other people for a game night, I'm building it with 4-person sealed multiplayer in mind as well. It's been fun, and you can see my progress here!
Right now, I'm making the cube friendly toward two-color pairs by including an iconic synergy for each. Here's what I have so far:
Pretty standard so far, but three of my combos are giving me trouble. The irony does not escape me, as I consider myself a Naya mage, but I'm having trouble finding a unifying theme for Gruul or Boros. Gruul isn't as hard, and right now I'm tinkering around with including a ramp/destruction theme, since both have great mana accel and decent removal. Boros, on the other hand, I am pretty well lost. I think a first/double strike theme is the most flavorful and appropriate, but I worry it won't shine as much as the other archetypes.
Secondly, I'm trying to find card combos for each color combo. They don't have to include both of the colors (for example, Orzhov already has the Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood loop), but I want each combo to have a two-piece blockbuster combo that they can fish for.
Landfall/Lands matter is a natural fit for Gruul and "creatures matter"/go wide is a natural theme for Boros (battalion, battlecry, Rabble-Rouser, etc.)
Here's where the colours fall into archetypes in my cube.
WU Azorius - Control, and UW tempo/aggro (Reflector Mage, Spell Queller and Geist help here) UB Dimir - Control, good stuff/artifact.dec BR Rakdos - Reanimator (enablers like the discard two drops, Olivia 2.0, and scaling sweepers) RG Gruul - Midrange or Gr ramp with burn (Sarkhan, BBE) or GW Selesnya - Tokens or midrange WB Orzhov - Aggro all the way, tokens or control also possible. UR Izzet - Counterburn or 'Big Red'-style control. The odd tempo deck or artifact deck (Daretti, Welder, Tezz) BG Golgari - Midrange RW Boros - Aggro GU Simic - Midrange (aka: drop big creature and protect it), or Edric and creature rush with goodstuff.
WUB Esper: Artifacts or control UBR Grixis: Reanimator or artifacts BRG Jund: Midrange RGW Naya: Tokens with Purphoros etc GWU Bant: Goodstuff midrange, or Weight Advantage WBR Mardu: Aggro aggro aggro URW Jeskai: Spells Matter/tempo BGU Sultai: Weight advantage deck, control or midrange GWB Abzan: Rock or aggro GUR Temur: Cheaty deck - Sneak/Show/Selvala
Right now, I'm making the cube friendly toward two-color pairs by including an iconic synergy for each. Here's what I have so far:
WU Azorius - Evasion (flying, shadow, unblockable, etc)
UB Dimir - Card Advantage (draw and discard effects)
BR Rakdos - Aggro (goblins and vampires oh my!)
RG Gruul - ???
GW Selesnya - Tokens (saprolings, soldiers, etc)
WB Orzhov - Life Manipulation (gain life, drain life, etc)
UR Izzet - Tempo/Prowess
BG Golgari - Graveyard?
RW Boros - ???
GU Simic - +1/+1 Counters
Pretty standard so far, but three of my combos are giving me trouble. The irony does not escape me, as I consider myself a Naya mage, but I'm having trouble finding a unifying theme for Gruul or Boros. Gruul isn't as hard, and right now I'm tinkering around with including a ramp/destruction theme, since both have great mana accel and decent removal. Boros, on the other hand, I am pretty well lost. I think a first/double strike theme is the most flavorful and appropriate, but I worry it won't shine as much as the other archetypes.
Secondly, I'm trying to find card combos for each color combo. They don't have to include both of the colors (for example, Orzhov already has the Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood loop), but I want each combo to have a two-piece blockbuster combo that they can fish for.
So, any thoughts?
Mook's Cube!
Mook's Frontier Atarka Red Primer!
For more of my projects and brews, check out Clutch City Cardboard on Facebook, or at our domain.
WU Azorius - Control, and UW tempo/aggro (Reflector Mage, Spell Queller and Geist help here)
UB Dimir - Control, good stuff/artifact.dec
BR Rakdos - Reanimator (enablers like the discard two drops, Olivia 2.0, and scaling sweepers)
RG Gruul - Midrange or Gr ramp with burn (Sarkhan, BBE) or
GW Selesnya - Tokens or midrange
WB Orzhov - Aggro all the way, tokens or control also possible.
UR Izzet - Counterburn or 'Big Red'-style control. The odd tempo deck or artifact deck (Daretti, Welder, Tezz)
BG Golgari - Midrange
RW Boros - Aggro
GU Simic - Midrange (aka: drop big creature and protect it), or Edric and creature rush with goodstuff.
WUB Esper: Artifacts or control
UBR Grixis: Reanimator or artifacts
BRG Jund: Midrange
RGW Naya: Tokens with Purphoros etc
GWU Bant: Goodstuff midrange, or Weight Advantage
WBR Mardu: Aggro aggro aggro
URW Jeskai: Spells Matter/tempo
BGU Sultai: Weight advantage deck, control or midrange
GWB Abzan: Rock or aggro
GUR Temur: Cheaty deck - Sneak/Show/Selvala
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms: