So now it's time to use that collection for something beyond regularly crushing commander night - it's time to cuuuube!
I've had some thoughts about how to do this.
A lot of commander cubes seem to focus around fairly goodstuff lists, and the most popular commander cards, but I want to go in a somewhat different direction. One of the things I like about both commander and draft is being able to go deep on synergies, and when it comes together in draft it is oh-so-sweet. I want to enable synergy-heavy decks in a few ways:
-Give every color pair an explicit synergy
-Of the commander options available for each color pair, make the majority key into that synergy
-For 3-color commanders, make the majority key into a synergy from one of their color pairs
-Draft commanders first, so that players can start drafting towards those synergies ASAP
-Dedicate the majority of cards in the cube towards those synergies
The synergies I've chosen, based on the popularity of the archetype, number of commanders available to synergize with the archetype, and efficacy of drafting towards that archetype are:
- blink
- mill
- sacrifice
- land ramp
- tokens
- lifegain
- dredge
- counters (+1/+1 primarily)
- artifacts
- combat
So far the commanders chosen to represent the archetypes (first the 2-color, then the 3-color) are:
blink - Brago, King Eternal, Ephara, God of the Polis, Rasputin Dreamweaver, Aminatou, the Fateshifter, Pramikon, Sky Rampart, Roon of the Hidden Realm
mill - Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Phenax, God of Deception, Wrexial, the Risen Deep, Nekusar, the Mindrazer, The Mimeoplasm, Varina, Lich Queen (technically off-theme but best I could find)
sac - Judith, the Scourge Diva, Garna, the Bloodflame, Greven, Predator Captain, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, Marchesa, the Black Rose
land ramp - Grand Warlord Radha, Nikya of the old Ways, Omnath, Locus of Rage, Hazezon Tamar, Maelstrom Wanderer, Lord Windgrace
tokens - Rhys the Redeemed, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, Trostani Discordant, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Ghave, Guru of Spores, Ghired, Conclave Exile
lifegain - Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Vona, Butcher of Magan, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Licia, Sanguine Tribune, Doran, the Siege Tower (no good alternatives)
dredge - Varolz, the Scar-Striped, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Izoni, Thousand-Eyed, Adun Oakenshield, Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Muldrotha, the Gravetide
counters - Vorel of the Hull Clade, Ezuri, Claw of Progress, Prime Speaker Zegana, Jenara, Asura of War, Volrath, the Shapestealer, Animar, Soul of Elements
artifacts - Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, Saheeli, the Gifted, Mairsil, the Pretender, Yasova Dragonclaw (big stretch but she is synergistic with equipment kinda), Elsha of the Infinite (also a stretch)
combat - Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice, Adriana, Captain of the Guard, Aurelia, the Warleader, Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest, Zurgo Helmsmasher
My priorities for these commanders are (1) motivating synergy with the chosen archetypes or at least being a good home for them, (2) being good enough that people will actually want to play them, and (3) not being hugely annoying to play against (this may be more relevant later on down the line, but right now I'm mostly using it to exclude commanders like Anafenza, the Foremost who can create unfun situations for grave-based decks. Grave hate in the deck is fine, in the CZ gets a bit boring/frustrating).
Beyond synergies, I also plan to sprinkle in some more generically useful commanders in case synergies fail to come together. For these I'm mostly looking for popular commanders that people enjoy playing, although in the future it'll probably be a good place to tune the cube to color-balance if certain colors aren't popular enough (cough boros cough). I'm also using some of these to enable synergies that might not be covered elsewhere but don't require specific cards to be effective - Baron von Count, for example, motivates certain picks but doesn't require throwing in specific tribal cards or anything like that, so it opens the door for interesting, off-the-wall decks without sacrificing cards in the cube. The ones I'm looking at for those are:
- Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Dragonlord Ojutai
- Lazav, the Multifarious, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
- Baron von Count, Rakdos, Lord of Riots
- Ulrich of the Krallenhorde, Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
- Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist, Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
- Athreos, God of Passage, Triad of Fates
- Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord (you try finding a non-dredge BG commander that doesn't suck), Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
- Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
- Nin, the Pain Artist, Niv-Mizzet, Parun
- Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
- Sen Triplets, Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign
- Gwendlyn Di Corci, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
- Kresh, the Bloodbraided, Vaevictus Asmadi, the Dire
- Samut, Voice of Dissent, Rienne, Angel of Rebirth
- Phelddagrif, Rafiq of the Many
- Teneb, the Harvester, Kethis, the Hidden Hand
- Yarok, the Desecrated, Damia, Sage of Stone
- Riku of Two Reflections, Intet, the Dreamer
- Kykar, Wind's Fury, Zedruu, the Greathearted
- Mathas, Fiend Seeker, Queen Marchesa
- Niv-Mizzet Reborn, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Morophon, the Boundless
Actual Cube!
White/Blue
Blue/Black
Red/Black
Red/Green
Green/White
White/Black
Black/Green
Green/Blue
Blue/Red
Planning to draft a commander pack of 5(?) from those commanders, followed by 5x 15-card packs. Decks will be 60 cards including the commander. There will be mono-colored legends in packs (which could theoretically be commanders though they won't be explicitly supported), but no multicolor ones. Ballpark I'm thinking 1000 cards to ensure variety. It'll probably be classic, 40-life, 4-player commander, but I might experiment with 30 as a way to empower boros and depower sultai.
I'm currently on vacation (aren't I always?) so I don't have my cards to start actually building with, but this is what I'm thinking right now. I don't want to try to create the entire cube without having my cards in hand, since I find it a lot easier to build with physical cards instead of deck building apps.
Balance-wise it'll be even color distribution, with roughly 3/5 of the cards of each color being dedicated to synergies (some will overlap of course). I'm hoping to get around 6-7% of the total cube dedicated to each synergy, so that each pack will have an average of one card per synergy. That should hopefully mean that, if you aren't getting cut, you could end up with a mostly-synergy deck, or at least a solid 50% synergy.
Any thoughts on the premise? Synergies you'd pick instead of the ones I've chosen? Commanders you think I should include/avoid? Any feedback would be great - once I get home I'll only have a couple days to put this together before we start drafting it, so input at this stage would be a big time-saver once I sit down to build.