You make it sound as if I was asking for advice after already making up my mind.
You are ridiculous.
Ask for advice, reject advice, blame everyone else for not giving advice for your own personal cube list that we haven't played in a group whose players won't play, enjoy or draft the archetype, in an environment that doesn't fit the archetype. Yep, I sure am ridiculous!
I'm ribbing ya of course, but seriously, we're here to help. Give the cards mentioned by myself and others a go - if it doesn't work, no harm done, right? Then and only then will you only know if it's truly unplayable for your group. If it is... that's fine. Every group is different, right?
I think you are really missing what I am saying about my play group, and instead you seem to be assuming I do not understand Magic at all.
My Cube group enjoys drafting decks and playing Midrange slug fests. That is it. That is how it is.
You aren't the first person to feel that way FWIW. Again, I sympathize with you on this because I've been there (and spend time in your position a lot actually). This thread has turned kind of ugly, and it happens here more than it should.
There's more than one way to run an aggressive theme in black if you want to explore other options. It doesn't have to be tormented_hero.dec. Try a more aggressive midrange flavor with recursive creatures (which I bet your group will be attracted to). Gravecrawler, Bloadsoaked Champion, Bloodghast (lot's of flavors you can brew with those as a base). For example, this ties in nicely with pox strategies because you can sacrifice your guys and just get them back (while your opponent may not be able to do that). Bloodghast is BB. Many strong cards have heavy colored mana requirements in black in fact. Don't fight that. Use it as part of the color's identity. Thankfully, you have some strong mono black tools (Gray Merchant is really good BTW, and it's a zombie for gravecrawler). That's the direction I went with black when I purged tormented hero and company and it's been very popular and competitive with my (midrange minded) group. It's also highly flavorful, so this has been a total win win for me.
I think you are really missing what I am saying about my play group, and instead you seem to be assuming I do not understand Magic at all.
My Cube group enjoys drafting decks and playing Midrange slug fests. That is it. That is how it is.
You aren't the first person to feel that way FWIW. Again, I sympathize with you on this because I've been there (and spend time in your position a lot actually). This thread has turned kind of ugly, and it happens here more than it should.
There's more than one way to run an aggressive theme in black if you want to explore other options. It doesn't have to be tormented_hero.dec. Try a more aggressive midrange flavor with recursive creatures (which I bet your group will be attracted to). Gravecrawler, Bloadsoaked Champion, Bloodghast (lot's of flavors you can brew with those as a base). For example, this ties in nicely with pox strategies because you can sacrifice your guys and just get them back (while your opponent may not be able to do that). Bloodghast is BB. Many strong cards have heavy colored mana requirements in black in fact. Don't fight that. Use it as part of the color's identity. Thankfully, you have some strong mono black tools (Gray Merchant is really good BTW, and it's a zombie for gravecrawler). That's the direction I went with black when I purged tormented hero and company and it's been very popular and competitive with my (midrange minded) group. It's also highly flavorful, so this has been a total win win for me.
I ran Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, and Nether Traitor a while back to help support a more aggressive Smokestack deck using Pox and Smallpox. I cut them for some extra reanimation stuff because people were asking for it and were not really liking the early game Stax cards and wanted Signets instead. I have kind of just shied away from Stax since then and did not want to add Signets to really support it. I have contemplated adding more Stax support, but it is likely going to be slower cards like Signets for the players if I do - simply because the creature route was apparently not as fun as Stax decks with walkers.
Funny you bring up Smokestack, I found it a little slow. I still run Braids though because he's awesome. If you go big with this type of deck, you can try Death Cloud too. It's a scalable pox effect, and that flexibility makes it pretty strong in heavy black decks. If you need it to be a 4 mana small pox (as inefficient as that is), it can be that (and sometimes you are cool with paying 4 for that effect). If you want it to sweep the board (and you have enough mana and life), it does that too.
Have you tried Haakon, Stromgald Scourge? He's right at home here. Plays nice with faster flavors of black but also represents a really strong CA engine for grinding out wins (or combo if you also run nameless inversion or crib swap). This is pretty old tech obviously, but I think it can still be relevant in modern cubes.
I honestly think black is (has the most potential to be) the most dynamic color in cube. There's just so much you can do with it.
Since you mentioned earlier that you are trying to make blue a more aggressive color, Dimir aggro-tempo decks are really fun to play if you have the support for both. Drop a couple of weenies, preferably evasive, then use countermagic, bounce, black spot removal and discard to disrupt your opponent's board. This deck really needs black one drops to work, though, because you really need a first turn 2-power attackers to have a fast enough clock for it to work.
Check out this blog post (not my blog) for some examples of Dimir tempo deck lists. It's such a fun archetype, and one of my favorite reasons to support black aggro.
I really like that blog. Been following it for awhile now. The author has some interesting ideas and does not appear to follow much of the mainstream cubing community, which I think is great because you get a completely different perspective on a lot of things (sometimes way out in left field).
It is human nature to be influenced by popular opinion, and you tend to see that pattern on the forums (I hate calling it "group think", but that is essentially what it is). To some extent, it stifles experimentation when there is just one popular prevailing theory on how to do certain things. It's just easier to go with the flow versus try something off the beaten path.
Group-Think is certainly one possible cognitive bias, but pro-innovation bias is certainly another. Just being new and different doesn't make something good. Often, there's a reason for many people doing something one way. In any case, going down a mono-black aggro-control route is definitely a viable way to do the colour and in a slower environment, could feasibly play an aggressive role. I would go there for a Geralf's Messenger or Necro, for example.
Group-Think is certainly one possible cognitive bias, but pro-innovation bias is certainly another. Just being new and different doesn't make something good. Often, there's a reason for many people doing something one way. In any case, going down a mono-black aggro-control route is definitely a viable way to do the colour and in a slower environment, could feasibly play an aggressive role. I would go there for a Geralf's Messenger or Necro, for example.
I agree. I'll go so far even to say that the vast majority of "new and different" ideas end up NOT being good actually (I have a graveyard full of one's I've attempted which have been epic fails). But that shouldn't stop us from exploring different ideas, right?
Black themes though I've been pretty lucky with. Pox worked pretty well and pieces of it are still in my cube. Reanimator has always been stellar (and I've only recently pulled a few pieces just to change things up a bit). My group has an aversion to aggro, so straight black aggro never worked here but I know it works because there are a ton of cubes here running it and defending it (and there have been so many cards printed for this in the last few years).
Another version we haven't talked much about in this thread is sacrifice themes. There are a lot of ways to sacrifice things in black and there are a lot of cards that want/need to be sacrificed (Abyssal Persecutor, Dark Confidant just to name two high profile ones). It also ties really nicely into recursive creature decks and pox strategies (already covered), and it bleeds really nicely into red that has a whole host of synergistic mechanics (threaten effects, Purphoros, goblin bombardment, etc).
I initially tried to shy away from supporting aggressive Black creatures in my Cube after hearing how bad Black aggro was but since including it, I have seen some really strong decks emerge, in particular, a B/W aggro deck but I honestly think any B/x aggressive deck is going to be pretty solid with the quality of attacking creatures it has these days. However, if aggro isn't a theatre that is supported in your Cube or drafted by your playgroup then supporting Black aggro isn't worth it. I am a very strong advocate for building for your group and if no one likes aggro or thinks Black aggro is viable or draftable, don't support it.
My opinion of Black aggro is very high though, I won one of my very first Cube drafts of my own Cube with a deck that was basically Mono B splashing maybe two or three White cards (removal) and it wrecked, was a lot of fun to play and required pretty good sequencing to win and had some tense moments like being on 2 life with a Bob in play knowing you have lethal if you just survive the Bob upkeep.
The difference between something new that is good and something new that is bad, is really contingent upon design principals rather than what the card actually is. Going outside of norms in one aspect of a cube but not the majority of others - is going to keep bad card bad instead of setting them up for success by crafting an environment in which they are better than usual.
I do not doubt that black Aggro works. When I said it is unplayable, it is unplayable in my group. 1 drop aggro creatures, and many of the 2 and 3 drops are likely not going to be drafted unfortunately. Interestingly enough, I have no doubt that if I put something more midrange that is also aggressive, someone is going to play it and win with it and they will tell the entire draft group about their awesome story. So while black aggro works for some people, things that don't work for others are going to work for someone, even the "bad" cards.
Someone mentioned they ran Phyrexian Obliterator... holy hell that card seems rough in Cube, but damn those games are going to be some of the best ones when it does get played.
Easy to overlook for people on high horses though. We have another Cube group here in San Diego that is hardcore about what does and does not belong in cube and they mirror a lot of things people say here all the time and I tend to roll my eyes a fair amount of the time. Probably why it makes me sad to see it happen here as well.
I think I could make Phyrexian Obliterator work in my cube, but it's still $25. So that experiment is going to have to wait. I really want to play that and then follow up with Gray Merchant of Asphodel though.
The author of that blog runs obliterator. He also has a very large amount of fixing in his cube (not sure you can run obliterator without that).
I do not doubt that black Aggro works. When I said it is unplayable, it is unplayable in my group. 1 drop aggro creatures, and many of the 2 and 3 drops are likely not going to be drafted unfortunately.
I find this very weird. If the cards are there in front of you and they are strong, assuming you want to win, why not draft them? Sure I might not like archetype X, but complain about it after the draft. Maybe I am too spiky to comprehend this logic. When you draft, you draft to make the strongest deck. If my opponents are not doing this, then they are messing up the draft. Extreme example, take 7 great drafters and one casual player who only wants to play white, green with elves and Angels, then the people next to him will be advantaged because they will get more power.
What happens if you force aggro and beat their heads in? Do they just grumble or do they accept that aggro is strong (even though they might not like it)? A Pox deck with all the goods is a dangerous animal. It should get feared quite quickly. Sadly it rarely comes together here as you need to draft it early and get a lot of pieces that might be picked up by other archetypes as well.
I do not doubt that black Aggro works. When I said it is unplayable, it is unplayable in my group. 1 drop aggro creatures, and many of the 2 and 3 drops are likely not going to be drafted unfortunately.
I find this very weird. If the cards are there in front of you and they are strong, assuming you want to win, why not draft them? Sure I might not like archetype X, but complain about it after the draft. Maybe I am too spiky to comprehend this logic. When you draft, you draft to make the strongest deck. If my opponents are not doing this, then they are messing up the draft. Extreme example, take 7 great drafters and one casual player who only wants to play white, green with elves and Angels, then the people next to him will be advantaged because they will get more power.
What happens if you force aggro and beat their heads in? Do they just grumble or do they accept that aggro is strong (even though they might not like it)? A Pox deck with all the goods is a dangerous animal. It should get feared quite quickly. Sadly it rarely comes together here as you need to draft it early and get a lot of pieces that might be picked up by other archetypes as well.
Just because they are the best cards does not mean people are going to enjoy drafting them. You cannot force people to draft something they do not like. Our Cube group will start dissipating before they start finding themselves having to draft decks they do not really enjoy playing.
There is a guy that plays in my cube that will force artifacts - every time. It does not even matter if the good ones are taken. It is the deck he comes to Cube to play.
The problem is that the majority of people that come to Cube with me, like drafting those midrange kind of decks. Once in a while someone will go out of their way to draft it just because they are not seeing what they want elsewhere - and they will grumble about it at the table. They end up with an aggro deck that is solid but just so happens to lose against all the people drafting their midrange decks.
Not everyone plays cube to draft the best possible archetype. Lots of people draft Cube just to play crazy cards together and go home with an awesome story. That is the majority of our group.
If they want to be playing competitive drafs, they draft a real set. If they want to construct a competitive deck, they play a real constructed format.
San Diego has a lot of competitive events. Cube tends to be a break from all that noise I guess.
I guess it pays to be thorough when it comes to making statements. When one says something like XXX is unplayable, people will pick holes, and we can't fault them because it's controversial.
If you don't want to play black aggro, don't play it. But if you're interested in making it work, that's cool too, because it can/does work, and it is quite good.
Quote from Kamahl, the Fallen »
The problem is that the majority of people that come to Cube with me, like drafting those midrange kind of decks. Once in a while someone will go out of their way to draft it just because they are not seeing what they want elsewhere - and they will grumble about it at the table. They end up with an aggro deck that is solid but just so happens to lose against all the people drafting their midrange decks.
So long as this is the case, no aggro decks will be good for you. Aggro works for playgroups where players are trying to win by drafting the best deck, not for groups that force midrange because that's what they've grown to expect from cube. When players draft to win in midrange slugfest environments, they draft control. And win. Repeatedly. So aggro is an answer to an otherwise "solved" format, but it only works if your players were actively trying to solve it to begin with. The more casual your playgroup is, the less important aggro will be, because you don't have sharks forcing blue-based control decks and winning every draft that you need consistent answers for.
Another thing is that you have to believe in what you are drafting, otherwise you will make the wrong decision during drafting and constructing. Everybody has card or archetypes they don't 'feel' and this preconception makes it easy to prove the card, archetype sucks.
So if midrange lovers draft aggro, they might not be able to pick that lousy one drop over that awesome 5 drop. While aggro thrives on having a ton of one drops. If you don't believe in aggro and try to force it, you most likely end up with a slightly more aggressive midrange deck.
Same goes for reanimation, control or other archetypes. You need to believe in cards even after you draft them. Otherwise you probably will not put them in your final 40, even though you drafted them.
Black aggro needs disruption (Hymn, Sinkhole,...) and if you don't like land destruction or discard, it might not be your archetype. It can easily become underpowered and dumb if you don't play to its strengths.
Just because they are the best cards does not mean people are going to enjoy drafting them. You cannot force people to draft something they do not like. Our Cube group will start dissipating before they start finding themselves having to draft decks they do not really enjoy playing.
There is a guy that plays in my cube that will force artifacts - every time. It does not even matter if the good ones are taken. It is the deck he comes to Cube to play.
The problem is that the majority of people that come to Cube with me, like drafting those midrange kind of decks. Once in a while someone will go out of their way to draft it just because they are not seeing what they want elsewhere - and they will grumble about it at the table. They end up with an aggro deck that is solid but just so happens to lose against all the people drafting their midrange decks.
Not everyone plays cube to draft the best possible archetype. Lots of people draft Cube just to play crazy cards together and go home with an awesome story. That is the majority of our group.
If they want to be playing competitive drafs, they draft a real set. If they want to construct a competitive deck, they play a real constructed format.
San Diego has a lot of competitive events. Cube tends to be a break from all that noise I guess.
Yup. I hear all this. I have a guy that will draft Bloodbraid Elf every time he sees it regardless of what his pile of cards looks like. The different kinds of decks I've seen him force with that card...
Sounds like you have a Timmy type group. They want sexy effects. So if you want to bring aggressive decks in and get them to draft them, you need them to be sexy. My Timmy group likes tribal. Which works perfect in black because zombies fit nicely with several themes in black (I'm also running goblins in red FWIW). Another card you might try is Oversold Cemetery. It encourage you to play a lot of creatures, but it's got a lot of late game power and Timmy likes it.
Aggressive midrange is really fun but it will feel underpowered if you run all the most powerful top end cards. Aggressive midrange falls over and dies to things like Wurmcoil Engine for example. If you haven't already, I really recommend you purge some of those cards which are just super powerful on their own and require zero deck building to get maximum value from. My 2 cents. Building a midrange cube requires certain sacrifices IMO.
Just because they are the best cards does not mean people are going to enjoy drafting them. You cannot force people to draft something they do not like. Our Cube group will start dissipating before they start finding themselves having to draft decks they do not really enjoy playing.
There is a guy that plays in my cube that will force artifacts - every time. It does not even matter if the good ones are taken. It is the deck he comes to Cube to play.
The problem is that the majority of people that come to Cube with me, like drafting those midrange kind of decks. Once in a while someone will go out of their way to draft it just because they are not seeing what they want elsewhere - and they will grumble about it at the table. They end up with an aggro deck that is solid but just so happens to lose against all the people drafting their midrange decks.
Not everyone plays cube to draft the best possible archetype. Lots of people draft Cube just to play crazy cards together and go home with an awesome story. That is the majority of our group.
If they want to be playing competitive drafs, they draft a real set. If they want to construct a competitive deck, they play a real constructed format.
San Diego has a lot of competitive events. Cube tends to be a break from all that noise I guess.
Yup. I hear all this. I have a guy that will draft Bloodbraid Elf every time he sees it regardless of what his pile of cards looks like. The different kinds of decks I've seen him force with that card...
Sounds like you have a Timmy type group. They want sexy effects. So if you want to bring aggressive decks in and get them to draft them, you need them to be sexy. My Timmy group likes tribal. Which works perfect in black because zombies fit nicely with several themes in black (I'm also running goblins in red FWIW). Another card you might try is Oversold Cemetery. It encourage you to play a lot of creatures, but it's got a lot of late game power and Timmy likes it.
Aggressive midrange is really fun but it will feel underpowered if you run all the most powerful top end cards. Aggressive midrange falls over and dies to things like Wurmcoil Engine for example. If you haven't already, I really recommend you purge some of those cards which are just super powerful on their own and require zero deck building to get maximum value from. My 2 cents. Building a midrange cube requires certain sacrifices IMO.
Yeah. It is kind of crazy. We have people pass power on the regular for pet cards or those off the wall synergistic interactions.
I am silently working on adding more aggressive black cards for midrange strategy just because I want people to keep their midrange decks that they like and I want my cube format to be more aggressive as a whole. I would rather try that and see cards not make it than try and force aggro and see the player base want to pack it up after round 1 of pairings and then not come back the next week... because they won't hesitate to go to the beach or bar instead.
I have been contemplating simply depowering the cube as well. Making people have to work much harder for that Grave Titan or other top end card. That is a good suggestion, thanks.
I started playing with Nether Void again a few weeks ago. It really is such a great card in aggro. Highly recommended and I have no idea why I was convinced to even take it out in the first place.
I started playing with Nether Void again a few weeks ago. It really is such a great card in aggro. Highly recommended and I have no idea why I was convinced to even take it out in the first place.
Nether Void is a functional Armageddon (in that you play it when ahead on board), in nearly all cases, and a massive tempo/resource loss for the opponent in the WCS. I have an extremely high opinion of that card!
For some reason, Nether Void felt way more awkward than Armageddon. It was way harder to win with an aggro deck after casting Void than after blowing up all lands. I cut it a while ago.
In my experience, it has been answered a couple of times by an opponent paying 4G (and a turn's play) for a Naturalize (usually losing after anyway due to the tempo loss), but most other outs are unaffordable and usually result in a scoop. Even with the very low curve and CMC in my cube. Been in my cube for years, and I consider it a staple.
You are ridiculous.
Infraction for flaming. Please don't make personal attack on other user.
-Luffy
Ask for advice, reject advice, blame everyone else for not giving advice for your own personal cube list that we haven't played in a group whose players won't play, enjoy or draft the archetype, in an environment that doesn't fit the archetype. Yep, I sure am ridiculous!
I'm ribbing ya of course, but seriously, we're here to help. Give the cards mentioned by myself and others a go - if it doesn't work, no harm done, right? Then and only then will you only know if it's truly unplayable for your group. If it is... that's fine. Every group is different, right?
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
You aren't the first person to feel that way FWIW. Again, I sympathize with you on this because I've been there (and spend time in your position a lot actually). This thread has turned kind of ugly, and it happens here more than it should.
There's more than one way to run an aggressive theme in black if you want to explore other options. It doesn't have to be tormented_hero.dec. Try a more aggressive midrange flavor with recursive creatures (which I bet your group will be attracted to). Gravecrawler, Bloadsoaked Champion, Bloodghast (lot's of flavors you can brew with those as a base). For example, this ties in nicely with pox strategies because you can sacrifice your guys and just get them back (while your opponent may not be able to do that). Bloodghast is BB. Many strong cards have heavy colored mana requirements in black in fact. Don't fight that. Use it as part of the color's identity. Thankfully, you have some strong mono black tools (Gray Merchant is really good BTW, and it's a zombie for gravecrawler). That's the direction I went with black when I purged tormented hero and company and it's been very popular and competitive with my (midrange minded) group. It's also highly flavorful, so this has been a total win win for me.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
I ran Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, and Nether Traitor a while back to help support a more aggressive Smokestack deck using Pox and Smallpox. I cut them for some extra reanimation stuff because people were asking for it and were not really liking the early game Stax cards and wanted Signets instead. I have kind of just shied away from Stax since then and did not want to add Signets to really support it. I have contemplated adding more Stax support, but it is likely going to be slower cards like Signets for the players if I do - simply because the creature route was apparently not as fun as Stax decks with walkers.
I actually just cut Pox about 2 weeks ago.
Have you tried Haakon, Stromgald Scourge? He's right at home here. Plays nice with faster flavors of black but also represents a really strong CA engine for grinding out wins (or combo if you also run nameless inversion or crib swap). This is pretty old tech obviously, but I think it can still be relevant in modern cubes.
I honestly think black is (has the most potential to be) the most dynamic color in cube. There's just so much you can do with it.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
Check out this blog post (not my blog) for some examples of Dimir tempo deck lists. It's such a fun archetype, and one of my favorite reasons to support black aggro.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
Zetsu's Cube on CubeTutor.com
Zetsu's Ebay MTG Online Store
Zetsu's Poker Draft Method
It is human nature to be influenced by popular opinion, and you tend to see that pattern on the forums (I hate calling it "group think", but that is essentially what it is). To some extent, it stifles experimentation when there is just one popular prevailing theory on how to do certain things. It's just easier to go with the flow versus try something off the beaten path.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I agree. I'll go so far even to say that the vast majority of "new and different" ideas end up NOT being good actually (I have a graveyard full of one's I've attempted which have been epic fails). But that shouldn't stop us from exploring different ideas, right?
Black themes though I've been pretty lucky with. Pox worked pretty well and pieces of it are still in my cube. Reanimator has always been stellar (and I've only recently pulled a few pieces just to change things up a bit). My group has an aversion to aggro, so straight black aggro never worked here but I know it works because there are a ton of cubes here running it and defending it (and there have been so many cards printed for this in the last few years).
Another version we haven't talked much about in this thread is sacrifice themes. There are a lot of ways to sacrifice things in black and there are a lot of cards that want/need to be sacrificed (Abyssal Persecutor, Dark Confidant just to name two high profile ones). It also ties really nicely into recursive creature decks and pox strategies (already covered), and it bleeds really nicely into red that has a whole host of synergistic mechanics (threaten effects, Purphoros, goblin bombardment, etc).
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
My opinion of Black aggro is very high though, I won one of my very first Cube drafts of my own Cube with a deck that was basically Mono B splashing maybe two or three White cards (removal) and it wrecked, was a lot of fun to play and required pretty good sequencing to win and had some tense moments like being on 2 life with a Bob in play knowing you have lethal if you just survive the Bob upkeep.
Modern: Jund
I do not doubt that black Aggro works. When I said it is unplayable, it is unplayable in my group. 1 drop aggro creatures, and many of the 2 and 3 drops are likely not going to be drafted unfortunately. Interestingly enough, I have no doubt that if I put something more midrange that is also aggressive, someone is going to play it and win with it and they will tell the entire draft group about their awesome story. So while black aggro works for some people, things that don't work for others are going to work for someone, even the "bad" cards.
Someone mentioned they ran Phyrexian Obliterator... holy hell that card seems rough in Cube, but damn those games are going to be some of the best ones when it does get played.
Easy to overlook for people on high horses though. We have another Cube group here in San Diego that is hardcore about what does and does not belong in cube and they mirror a lot of things people say here all the time and I tend to roll my eyes a fair amount of the time. Probably why it makes me sad to see it happen here as well.
The author of that blog runs obliterator. He also has a very large amount of fixing in his cube (not sure you can run obliterator without that).
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
I find this very weird. If the cards are there in front of you and they are strong, assuming you want to win, why not draft them? Sure I might not like archetype X, but complain about it after the draft. Maybe I am too spiky to comprehend this logic. When you draft, you draft to make the strongest deck. If my opponents are not doing this, then they are messing up the draft. Extreme example, take 7 great drafters and one casual player who only wants to play white, green with elves and Angels, then the people next to him will be advantaged because they will get more power.
What happens if you force aggro and beat their heads in? Do they just grumble or do they accept that aggro is strong (even though they might not like it)? A Pox deck with all the goods is a dangerous animal. It should get feared quite quickly. Sadly it rarely comes together here as you need to draft it early and get a lot of pieces that might be picked up by other archetypes as well.
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
Just because they are the best cards does not mean people are going to enjoy drafting them. You cannot force people to draft something they do not like. Our Cube group will start dissipating before they start finding themselves having to draft decks they do not really enjoy playing.
There is a guy that plays in my cube that will force artifacts - every time. It does not even matter if the good ones are taken. It is the deck he comes to Cube to play.
The problem is that the majority of people that come to Cube with me, like drafting those midrange kind of decks. Once in a while someone will go out of their way to draft it just because they are not seeing what they want elsewhere - and they will grumble about it at the table. They end up with an aggro deck that is solid but just so happens to lose against all the people drafting their midrange decks.
Not everyone plays cube to draft the best possible archetype. Lots of people draft Cube just to play crazy cards together and go home with an awesome story. That is the majority of our group.
If they want to be playing competitive drafs, they draft a real set. If they want to construct a competitive deck, they play a real constructed format.
San Diego has a lot of competitive events. Cube tends to be a break from all that noise I guess.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
So long as this is the case, no aggro decks will be good for you. Aggro works for playgroups where players are trying to win by drafting the best deck, not for groups that force midrange because that's what they've grown to expect from cube. When players draft to win in midrange slugfest environments, they draft control. And win. Repeatedly. So aggro is an answer to an otherwise "solved" format, but it only works if your players were actively trying to solve it to begin with. The more casual your playgroup is, the less important aggro will be, because you don't have sharks forcing blue-based control decks and winning every draft that you need consistent answers for.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
So if midrange lovers draft aggro, they might not be able to pick that lousy one drop over that awesome 5 drop. While aggro thrives on having a ton of one drops. If you don't believe in aggro and try to force it, you most likely end up with a slightly more aggressive midrange deck.
Same goes for reanimation, control or other archetypes. You need to believe in cards even after you draft them. Otherwise you probably will not put them in your final 40, even though you drafted them.
Black aggro needs disruption (Hymn, Sinkhole,...) and if you don't like land destruction or discard, it might not be your archetype. It can easily become underpowered and dumb if you don't play to its strengths.
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
Yup. I hear all this. I have a guy that will draft Bloodbraid Elf every time he sees it regardless of what his pile of cards looks like. The different kinds of decks I've seen him force with that card...
Sounds like you have a Timmy type group. They want sexy effects. So if you want to bring aggressive decks in and get them to draft them, you need them to be sexy. My Timmy group likes tribal. Which works perfect in black because zombies fit nicely with several themes in black (I'm also running goblins in red FWIW). Another card you might try is Oversold Cemetery. It encourage you to play a lot of creatures, but it's got a lot of late game power and Timmy likes it.
Aggressive midrange is really fun but it will feel underpowered if you run all the most powerful top end cards. Aggressive midrange falls over and dies to things like Wurmcoil Engine for example. If you haven't already, I really recommend you purge some of those cards which are just super powerful on their own and require zero deck building to get maximum value from. My 2 cents. Building a midrange cube requires certain sacrifices IMO.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
Yeah. It is kind of crazy. We have people pass power on the regular for pet cards or those off the wall synergistic interactions.
I am silently working on adding more aggressive black cards for midrange strategy just because I want people to keep their midrange decks that they like and I want my cube format to be more aggressive as a whole. I would rather try that and see cards not make it than try and force aggro and see the player base want to pack it up after round 1 of pairings and then not come back the next week... because they won't hesitate to go to the beach or bar instead.
I have been contemplating simply depowering the cube as well. Making people have to work much harder for that Grave Titan or other top end card. That is a good suggestion, thanks.
Power works both ways. Being able to drop two 1-drops on the first turn, or getting your 3 and 4-drops a turn earlier is big game.
Nether Void is a functional Armageddon (in that you play it when ahead on board), in nearly all cases, and a massive tempo/resource loss for the opponent in the WCS. I have an extremely high opinion of that card!
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms: