On the subject of archetypes and synergies in cubes

[Matt Grenier]

Jason, 

I just read your article on CFB and thought I'd toss my current list up for a cube that's along the lines of what you're talking about. Countless hours spent on magiccards.info finding some of this jank, but it's silly and fun.

The basic archetypes are:

Jund Sacrifice

Naya Growadude (Power matters, fight, spikeshot, etc)

Bant Auras

Esper Artifact Aggro

Boros Token/Trumpet Blast

There are small five color and defender themes as well.

It's a bit hard to parse out in list form, but if you're interested.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-cube-drafts/rise-of-the-rise/

[Jason Waddell]

Do you hate Grixis????

Thanks for posting, I'll take a look. 

EDIT: Okay, took a look. You weren't lying when you said "jank". I forgot how overwhelming drafting can be when you have to read half the cards. Curious, do you have any sample winning draft decklists? Recently I've found sample decks to be a really good way of absorbing the spirit of a list. 

[FlowerSunRain]

This cube is genius.  Obviously, its hard to judge if the ratios are good just by looking at it, but the basic idea is really strong.  There is a lot of good overlap.  The synergies seem good, but there is also some decent brute force.  I don't see any card that stands out as problematic.

There doesn't seem to be any motivation to draft red/blue.

I would play this cube twice on a Saturday and feel good about how I spent my day.

[Matt Grenier]

Blue's difficult to do things with that aren't directly drawing cards and countering spells. Any thoughts on what would be a good Grix theme would be appreciated.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 12:13:45 PM UTC-5, Jason Waddell wrote:

Do you hate Grixis????

Thanks for posting, I'll take a look. 

EDIT: Okay, took a look. You weren't lying when you said "jank". I forgot how overwhelming drafting can be when you have to read half the cards. Curious, do you have any sample winning draft decklists? Recently I've found sample decks to be a really good way of absorbing the spirit of a list. 

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 6:58:02 PM UTC+2, Matt Grenier wrote:

[Jason Waddell]

I don't know if this helps, but I played around in some Alara inspired space in one of my many unfinished projects: 
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=442086&highlight=alara

Perhaps there's some tech/ideas in there that are applicable to your cube. 

[tomc...@gmail.com]

I just did a draft on tappedout, and went for the artifact deck. I was surprised to see Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas in there. He seems really, really strong in the archetype--perhaps unfairly so given the other cards I was seeing. Have you found him overpowered in drafts?

In practice, do people slot neatly into the archtypes you've set up, or do folks draft hybrids that do unexpected things?

Is the fixing sufficient? I took every piece of fixing I could find (yay signets!), and still felt a bit scared.

Very fun draft, though.

[Matt Grenier]

The fixing is intentionally poor, as is the removal. We actually took out bounce lands after the last draft. Tezzeret hasn't been an issue. The cards that we took out due to power level were the Bringers, Burn at the Stake, and Mirrorweave. Mirrorweave basically did everything, and while it resulted in both a suspended Covetous Dragon and persisted Covetous Dragon, it was just too much. 

I've not got *that* many drafts together with it. Generally, me and the other cube designer know what's up and everyone else is kind of blind-sided when they open the packs. Hopefully we can get it going more soon.

Also, concerning the artifact deck: 

You haven't lived until you've played Oona's Blackguard on a field of Arcbound guys.

[Matt Grenier]

Also, outside of artifacts and auras, the themes are actually fairly generically creature based and you can brew quite a bit. 

I'll throw up some rough deck lists in a bit. I don't have anything completed, but can remember a little.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 1:57:00 PM UTC-5, tomc...@gmail.com wrote:

[Matt Grenier]

Here's a list that's similar to what I won with the other week

Goblin Bombardment

Goblin Sharpshooter

Havengul Vampire

Burn at the Stake

Furystoke Giant

Dragon Fodder

Stronghold Assassin

Krenko, Mob Boss

Falkenrath Exterminator

Tezzeret's Gambit

Goblin Razerunners

Goblin Sledder

Greater Gargadon

Hissing Iguanar

Stromkirk Noble

Tragic Slip

Trumpet Blast

Path of Anger's Flame

Goblin Assault

Furnace Celebration

Galvanic Arc

Empty the Warrens

Burn at the Stake made this deck basically unbeatable, so we took it out. Otherwise, it was pretty fun to play.