[Cube] A_Z's Peasant Cube

[Aggro_zombies]

I wanted to make a commons/uncommons cube with draftable archetypes. Here's my first draft. Feedback is appreciated:

White:

Doomed Traveller
Mother of Runes
Ramosian Sergeant
Sunscape Apprentice
Alabaster Mage
Amrou Scout
Azorius Arrester
Capashen Unicorn
Defiant Falcon
Jotun Grunt
Knight of the Holy Nimbus
Kor Skyfisher
Mycologist
Stormfront Pegasus
Suture Priest
Veteran Armorer
War Priest of Thune
Whipcorder
Amrou Seekers
Attended Knight
Aven Riftwatcher
Burrenton Bombadier
Crusader of Odric
Defiant Vanguard
Emancipation Angel
Fiend Hunter
Flickerwisp
Icatian Crier
Niblis of the Mist
Ramosian Captain
Saltfield Recluse
Seller of Songbirds
Stonecloaker
Venerable Monk
Ballista Squad
Griffin Protector
Meadowboon
Pallid Mycoderm
Phantom General
Ramosian Revivalist
Cloudgoat Ranger
Stormfront Riders

Reconnaissance
Intangible Virtue
Bound in Silence
Oblivion Ring
Faith's Fetters

Path to Exile
Disenchant
Moment of Heroism
Momentary Blink
Otherworldly Journey
Roar of the Kha
Test of Faith
Blinding Beam
Midnight Haunting
Radiant's Judgement

Battle Screech
Captain's Call
Spectral Procession

Blue:

Faerie Imposter
Nephalia Smuggler
Stormscape Apprentice
Arctic Merfolk
Augur of Bolas
Azure Mage
Dream Stalker
Fog Bank
Guardian of Solitude
Hada Spy Patrol
Looter il-Kor
Cloud Spirit
Dream Thief
Drift of Phantoms
Latch Seeker
Man-o'-War
Mistblade Shinobi
Pestermite
Scroll Thief
Stormbound Geist
Wall of Frost
Archaemancer
Keymaster Rogue
Latchkey Faerie
Moon Heron
Nevermaker
Tower Geist
Battleground Geist
Infiltrator il-Kor
Mnemonic Wall
Mulldrifter
Teller of Tales
Aethersnipe
Sire of the Storm

Sensory Deprivation
Escape Routes
Propaganda

Blustersquall
Consuming Vortex
Counterspell
Echoing Truth
Negate
Peer Through Depths
Sever Soul
Stream of Consciousness
Capsize
Forbid
Forbidden Alchemy
Ghostly Flicker
Rewind
Condescend
Repeal

Artful Dodge
Hands of Binding
Compulsive Research
Deep Analysis
Into the Void
Last Thoughts
Petals of Insight
Switcheroo

Black:

Facevaulter
Festering Goblin
Nightscape Apprentice
Plagued Rusalka
Prickly Boggart
Abyssal Gatekeeper
Ashen-Skin Zubera
Blightspeaker
Child of Night
Dunerider Outlaw
Frogtosser Banneret
Golgari Thug
Keeper of the Dead
Nezumi Bonereader
Nezumi Graverobber
Onyx Mage
Oona's Blackguard
Rathi Trapper
Reassembling Skeleton
Auntie's Snitch
Big Game Hunter
Devouring Swarm
Faerie Macabre
Fleshbag Marauder
Giant Scorpion
Liliana's Specter
Mad Auntie
Phyrexian Rager
Stinkweed Imp
Thief of Hope
Vampire Nighthawk
Abyssal Specter
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Gravedigger
Keening Banshee
Marsh Flitter
Stinkdrinker Bandit
Plague Dogs
Shriekmaw
Skyshroud Vampire
Warren Pilferers

Tortured Existence
Animate Dead
Sinister Strength
Malevolent Awakening
Stab Wound

Doom Blade
Rend Flesh
Strangling Soot
Death Denied

Bone Splinters
Raven's Crime
Disturbed Burial
Night's Whisper
Infest
Syphon Life
Waking Nightmare
Morsel Theft
Noggin Whack
Shadow Slice

Red:

Goblin Bushwhacker
Goblin Sledder
Thunderscape Apprentice
Bloodmark Mentor
Crimson Mage
Ember Hauler
Goblin Lookout
Goblin Shortcutter
Goblin Wardriver
Hearth Kami
Mogg Flunkies
Mogg War Marshal
Ogre Sentry
Skinbrand Goblin
Sparksmith
Aether Membrane
Arms Dealer
Chandra's Spitfire
Fire Imp
Flowstone Wall
Ghost-Lit Raider
Goblin Matron
Goblin Warchief
Guttersnipe
Rummaging Goblin
Avalanche Riders
Beetleback Chief
Bladetusk Boar
Flametongue Kavu
Goblin Battle Jester
Goblin Ringleader
Tar Pitcher
Fire Servant
Ingot Chewer
Pardic Dragon
Ripscale Predator

Goblin Warrens
Pyrohemia

Brute Force
Burst Lightning
Lightning Bolt
Weapon Surge
Ancient Grudge
Glacial Ray
Annihilating Fire
Staggershock
Punish the Enemy
Flame Javelin
Street Spasm

Faithless Looting
Firebolt
Krenko's Command
Nightbird's Clutches
Recoup
Act of Treason
Stone Rain
Empty the Warrens
Tectonic Rift
Lava Flow
Fanning the Flames

Green:

Groundskeeper
Hana Kami
Thallid
Thornscape Apprentice
Brindle Shoat
Dripping-Tongue Zubera
Frontier Guide
Jade Mage
Loam Dweller
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Strangleroot Geist
Thallid Shell-Dweller
Thornwield Archer
Transluminant
Wall of Roots
Carven Caryatid
Elder Pine of Jukai
Eternal Witness
Farhaven Elf
Fierce Empath
Ghost-Lit Nourisher
Gnarled Mass
Golgari Brownscale
Kami of the Hunt
Orchard Spirit
Thallid Germinator
Tilling Treefolk
Burr Grafter
Greater Mossdog
Imperiasaur
Kami of the Tended Garden
Masked Admirers
Penumbra Spider
Sporesower Thallid
Acidic Slime
Briarknit Kami
Forked-Branch Garami
Savage Thallid
Sporoloth Ancient
Stingerfling Spider
Moss Kami
Nightsoil Kami
Jungle Weaver
Krosan Tusker
Walker of the Grove

Rancor
Spider Umbra
Moldervine Cloak

Kodama's Might
Vines of Vastwood
Sprout Swarm
Wear Away
Beast Within
Gnaw to the Bone
Reach of Branches

Prey Upon
Travel Preparation
Kodama's Reach
Search for Tomorrow
Overrun

Colorless:

Bonesplitter
Relic of Progenitus
Skullclamp
Azorius Signet
Boros Signet
Dimir Signet
Golgari Signet
Gruul Signet
Izzet Signet
Orzhov Signet
Rakdos Signet
Selesnya Signet
Simic Signet
Vessel of Endless Rest
Icy Manipulator
Signal Pest
Myr Sire
Pilgrim's Eye
Pierce Strider
Ulamog's Crusher

Azorius Guildgate
Boros Guildgate
Dimir Guildgate
Golgari Guildgate
Gruul Guildgate
Izzet Guildgate
Orzhov Guildgate
Rakdos Guildgate
Selesnya Guildgate
Simic Guildgate

Multicolor:

Shambling Shell
Drooling Groodion
Worm Harvest

Murderous Redcap
Terminate
Blightning

Species Gorger
Simic Charm
Temporal Spring

Behemoth Sledge
Selesnya Evangel
Juniper Order Ranger

Skarrgan Skybreaker
Firespout
Frenzied Tilling

Sunhome Guildmage
Boros Charm
Lightning Helix

Mask of Riddles
Recoil
Call of the Nightwing

Gelectrode
Wee Dragonauts
Electrolyze

Agent of Masks
Pillory of the Sleepless
Zealous Persecution

Mistmeadow Witch
Lyev Skynight
Sky Hussar

Current as of 30 June 2013.

[Aggro_zombies]

Archetypes:

White-Blue: Blink – I love me some incremental card advantage decks, so my Cube has a bunch. This is the first one. The idea is to use Flicker/Slide/self-bounce effects to milk creatures with CiP abilities for value. Can splash red for FtK or Riders.

Blue-Black: Rogues – Really more like UB Evasion With Tribal Themes. Rogues and a light smattering of Ninjas and evasive guys, plus discard for card advantage. Might need to be pushed.

Black-Red: Goblins – Was originally BR Vampires, but I liked how Goblins played in Modern Masters and this tribe gives me more to work with anyway. Swarm aggro with a light sacrificial theme and some recursion. May be too pushed.

Red-Green: Dinosaurs – Was originally RG Land Destruction, morphed into this over time. Large finishers and light LD give it a great late game, and it can buttress its early game either with Goblins or token makers.

Green-White: Tokens – Thallids provide the bulk of the green tokens, while the white ones are a smattering of different types. Can finish with Overrun or Intangible Virtue plus flying tokens. Might need a little more support.

White-Black: Rebels – Card advantage-focused aggro. Definitely needs help finishing games, but there’s not much to work with in these rarities as far as creatures are concerned. One option is to do the “all white creatures are Rebels” errata, but I’d prefer to avoid that if possible. Some help would be appreciated.

Black-Green: Dredge – This one’s interesting since it was Reanimator for a little while and has since changed to this deck because I love the Dredge mechanic. It can dip into some Spiritcraft themes (more on that in a moment) to leverage Soulshift but mostly just grinds out long games with big green guys and recursion. Need to test this one.

Green-Blue: Spiritcraft – This color combination had no identity for a while since green and blue don’t have a ton of overlap other than, “Play creatures! Get cards!” I tried blending the two Simic iterations but the various +1/+1 counter mono-color cards just ended up in other decks and this theme wasn’t particularly draftable. While trying to tie Dredge more closely into the Cube design I hit upon Soulshift and decided to run with it. GU gets Spirits (bleeds into Dredge) and Arcane (bleeds into UR) and relies on triggering Spiritcraft effects with decent bodies. Need to test this one.

Blue-Red: Spells – Comes up rarely since most of its cards are good in other decks in these colors, but it can happen. The defensive red and blue cards support a slower play style. You can finish with Fanning the Flames or lock down the board with Capsize until you can stick a Pardic Dragon or Ulamog’s Crusher. Gelectrode is fun as all hell. Hard to pull off but that’s probably okay.

Red-White: …Swarm Aggro? – This color combination has no identity right now. I was thinking of taking a page out of Modern Masters’s playbook and making it Giants, but without multiple Blind Spot Giants or Stinkdrinker Daredevils the deck is mostly 3/3s for four. As it stands, you can mix Goblins and Rebels to make a very fast aggro deck, but that mostly only happens if those two decks are somewhat open. Not sure if this color combination needs to be a thing, but I would like it to have at least a little bit of its own identity.

Notes:

• This cube is 360 cards: 30 colorless (artifact, land), 30 multicolor (three of each combination), and 60 of each color. There are no repeats of cards. I want to keep the cube at this size so that every card is opened to give the most support to each archetype.
• This version is still in the early testing stages. I’ll freely acknowledge that some of these decks aren’t balanced right now, but I’m not sure how much time I’ll have in the next couple of months to test them. Any suggestions are appreciated.
• White may need the most work of any single color. WU could probably use more guys to profitably blink, WB needs a way to properly end games, RW is just…whatever RW is, and GW may need more playables.
• The Guildgates are an experiment in mana fixing right now. I could see cutting them for +5 mana-fixing artifacts, +5 monocolor lands (Dakmor Salvage is an easy addition here), but I want to see if this is fine first. Modern Masters used a combination of Vivid lands, the Alara basic landcyclers, and some green ramp to fix multicolor decks, but I’m not sure I want to follow in its footsteps closely on this one. I don’t really want Five Color Greed to be something draftable super often, though I do want people to be able to splash lightly for a third color if they want. Help would be appreciated from those with experience in this area.

[Aggro_zombies]

There's been a bunch of updates - the current list is here, and I'll edit the OP later. The biggest news is the increase in the number of colorless slots and the replacement of the Guildgates with real lands. There's also a number of tweaks to various other components of the Cube but - for now - no major overhauls.

However, one thing I'm considering is replacing the Rebels archetype with a Bleeder archetype. There are two main problems with the Rebels deck right now: the first is that its curve tops out at four and most of its evasive options are 2/x creatures for three, which means the deck has a lot of problems finishing games unless it picks up some non-Rebel finishers. The second - and perhaps larger - problem is that the Rebels are split between Guys That Search For Rebels and Creatures With The Rebel Subtype That Are Totally Reasonable In Most White And/Or Black Decks, which means that even if WB is open, people may still be taking all of your good Rebels. The result is that WB decks are rarely dedicated Rebels decks and more often WB Goodstuff decks with a couple of random Rebels thrown in.

One potential fix is to just suck it up and toss in a bunch of mediocre Rebels and Changelings to give the deck a critical mass of creatures that people will pass or wheel to you, but that still doesn't solve the first issue of the deck just running out of steam if its 2/x attack squad stalls. It also means that a lot of space in white and black ends up being dedicated to cards that no one particularly wants, which is not really something I want to do when most of my moves have been to integrate adjacent archetypes with each other as much as possible.

That leaves the other potential fix, which is taking out the mediocre Rebels and Rebel searchers and replacing them with a different theme. A Bleeder control deck is possible in these colors given what I'm already running: a number of life gain cards, removal, and ways to abuse and reuse CiP abilities in white. Right now, I'm considering pulling additions from the following cards:

Auramancer
Ajani's Pridemate
Basilica Guards
Knight of Obligation
Porcelain Legionnaire
Renewed Faith
Pacifism
Syndic of Tithes
Temple Acolyte

Basilica Screecher
Bloodhunter Bat
Hissing Miasma
Sign in Blood
Syndicate Enforcer
Thrull Parasite

Orzhov Guildmage
Souls of the Faultless
Vizkopa Confessor

Whitemane Lion
Otherworldly Journey
Grim Harvest

Ghost-Lit Stalker
Kami of False Hope
Revered Dead
Voiceless Spirit
Belfry Spirit

Not all of these are for the WB deck - Porcelain Legionnaire is for the RW deck, which has coalesced into Blitz Aggro - but most of them are there to enable a long-game control deck built around death of a thousand cuts (not the card).

I'll do a bit more testing, but right now Rebels is probably getting the axe.

[Aggro_zombies]

The list has stabilized somewhat. I need to test it more, but I'm finishing my Masters and moving around and job hunting right now so it's really low on my list of priorities for the foreseeable future.

I tried changing WB to a bleeder deck along the lines of the previous post, but that just did not go well. It turns out that replacing archetype-specific cards with a bunch of cards that are good in basically every deck in one of that archetype's colors makes that archetype extremely difficult to draft even when it's ostensibly open. Whoda thunk it? So we're back to Rebels for the time being. WotC, please print more Rebels!

The following cards are currently on my watch list:

Abyssal Gatekeeper
Aether Membrane
Animate Dead
Arctic Merfolk
Capashen Unicorn
Chandra's Spitfire
Empty the Warrens
Fire Servant
Goblin Battle Jester
Lava Flow
Morsel Theft
Niblis of the Mist
Noggin Whack
Pyrohemia
Scroll Thief
Ulamog's Crusher
Weapon Surge

I'm more-or-less happy where green is right now, although red might need some help. The UR Spells deck is gradually turning into a Grixis control deck, which makes some of the red inclusions like Fire Servant or Chandra's Spitfire much more questionable. Goblins is pretty good, though I need to test more to figure out exactly how good. Rogues could use some more work, though many of the best options for that deck are multicolored.

As for each of the archetypes:

WU Blink: Solid. White might need a few more CiP dudes.
UB Rogues: A little creature-light. The noncreature support is great, though.
BR Goblins: Need to test.
RG Dinosaurs: Might need more support. The Dinosaurs are there, but the ramp and LD aren't yet.
GW Tokens: Seems about right.
WB Rebels: Need to test.
BG Dredge: Need to test.
GU Spirits: The high end of the curve is great, but the low end needs some more work.
UR Spells: Mostly Grixis now.
RW Aggro: Seems about right.

[FTW]

WB Rebels:

This is a bit niche, but you can run

Outrider en-Kor
Task Force
Worthy Cause


and play Clerics combo in cube as part of a rebels engine! There's of course room for Daru Spiritualist, Nomads en-Kor etc for redundancy!

Where are Thermal Glider and Nightwind Glider? Protection + evasion seem to be powerhouses in peasant magic, typically. Crimson Acolyte + Obsidian Acolyte also seem amazing.

[Aggro_zombies]

Thermal Glider is in there, but Nightwing isn't because I wanted the WB deck to able to target all its own guys with black effects. It's not as relevant now since the only two cards that do that are Shade's Form and Onyx Mage, but I don't know that I particularly want two 2/1 Flying Pro: Color dudes in right now.

The life combo is actually on my shortlist of things to put in if it turns out that Rebels needs more help during the paper drafting stages. I'm still trying to assemble a full group of people who have the same availability and drafting experience, but with GP Oakland around the corner most of my friends want to test M14 Sealed/Draft.

Going with Clerics over Rebels as the W/B archetype was actually not something I had considered. The Acolytes seem like they would shut down R/x and B/x aggro decks a little harder than I would like, but a dedicated cleric deck would give me many more cards to work with than a Rebel deck right now. That said, most of those cards wouldn't overlap well with some of the adjacent archetypes: for example, many of the small Rebels are fine includes in RW Aggro, especially the two Kithkin and Aven Riftsweeper. The defensive stats on the Clerics are much better in the WU Blink deck, though, and I don't think that deck needs much more help - at least not in that way. Neither archetype particularly overlaps with GW, so that doesn't matter much. Something worth considering if the Rebels deck falls through.

Thanks for the input.

EDIT: Actually, doing a Gatherer search for clerics reveals that there's quite a few decent aggro clerics on the low end of the curve:

Icatian Priest
Ajan's Sunstriker
Inquisitor Exarch
Order of Leitbur
Soltari Priest
Soltari Monk
Syndic of Tithes
Servant of Nefarox
Soltari Visionary

Interesting.

[Aggro_zombies]

Updates (somewhat overdue)!

I briefly tried the WB Clerics deck and it was functional if unexciting. The high toughness and damage prevention dudes, coupled with black's removal, made for a very grindy deck. The bigger problem was that it was more of an accidental deck than a deck you set out to draft: there weren't enough good cleric cards to attract you into the strategy, although you could end up there if you started out in another deck and then got cut. UG and UB are currently suffering from similar problems, by the way.

So I decided to make two big changes: allow doubles of certain cards and expand the size of the cube. That had a couple advantages: it meant I wasn't using every card in every draft, creating variety; I could give archetypes extra copies of key cards, improving them; I could flesh out Rebels a bit more by doubling up on the good Rebels without having to pack in the chaff ones to reach critical mass. It also allowed me to cut out some of the iffy cards I had to use to provide redundancy.

I'm generally happy with where the Cube is now, but there are a few lingering issues:

1) UB is still underpowered. The lack of good common/uncommon monocolored rogues forced me to morph the deck into a general UB evasion deck, but it's still kind of anemic.

2) UG needs some help. Like the clerics deck, it's lacking in clear first and second picks that draw you into the archetype. I think that's because the Spirits are generally underpowered, but I'm struggling to come up with an alternate UG deck that isn't "+1/+1 counters matter". That deck is certainly fine, but it really lacks a cohesive identity since basically all of its cards are good in any other green or blue deck.

3) Do I have too many creatures? Perusing other Peasant cubes on cubetutor leads me to believe I'm running an exceptionally high number of creatures. On the one hand, that's fine because many of my archetypes are creature-centric: BG Dredge, BR Goblins, WR Aggro, WU Blink...all of these decks want a big pile of creatures. However, when building decks after practice drafts I often find myself with 17+ creatures, squeezing out spells for most decks - the only notable exceptions are some B/x decks and UR. I tend to naturally draft creature-heavy decks in real draft formats, but that seems high even to me. What are other people's thoughts on this? I have a list of non-creature spells I could add if I need to shave the number of dudes.

EDIT: Come to think of it, RG is also lacking in first picks. RG is the Ramp/Dinosaurs deck.