This article is a mini-primer on drafting aggressive decks in a cube environment. It's a synthesis of aggro theory from the history of Magic and is intended to give newer players an overview of one of the basic archetypes in Magic.
Magic games consist of three stages of development. In Stage 1 (early game), decks are essentially mana-screwed and and must spend time developing their resources to be able to deploy their cards in hand. In Stage 2 (mid-game), resources are tight, but options are beginning to open up and stronger and more costly cards are coming into the fray. However, decks still have to manage their resources carefully. In Stage 3 (end-game), each player has an abundance of mana (so much so that it's effectively a non-issue) and the most expensive spells are available. Aggro decks dominate in Stage 1, midrange decks dominate in Stage 2, and control decks dominate in Stage 3.
The goal of the aggressive deck is to end the game while both players are in Stage 2, and if at all possible to keep its opponent in Stage 1, where resistance is minimal. It does this in two basic ways. The first is through sheer speed, overwhelming opposition before it has a chance to react. It uses direct damage spells to "trump" the opponent's Stage 2 and 3 plays by ignoring what the opponent is doing on the battlefield. The other way aggro decks approach the game is by playing an efficient creature or two and then disrupting the opponent to keep them in Stage 1 as long as possible. I'll go over both of these styles in this article.
Things to look for while drafting:
Disruption - (Armageddon, Tangle Wire, Winter Orb, Hymn to Tourach, Braids, Cabal Minion, Avalanche Riders, Memory Lapse) In my opinion, this is the most critical category of cards for an aggro deck. The cube has a very high power level in general and decks are capable of some very broken things. If an aggro deck has no way to interact with those decks, it can do only one thing: race. This may or may not be viable, depending on how fast your damage output is, but I like to give my aggro decks a little more resiliency. That's where disruption comes in. Disruption commonly comes in the form of mana or hand denial, but counterspells and removal also count in this category. The best disruption cards (Armageddon, Tangle Wire, Winter Orb, Nether Void, Mind Twist, Ajani Vengeant, Strip Mine, etc) are easily first pick material and are usually the types of cards that make me want to draft aggro.
Cheap creatures - (Isamaru, Hound of Konda, Jackal Pups, Wild Dogs, Fume Spitter, Soltari Priest, Kargan Dragonlord) These will provide the backbone of your army. It's absolutely critical to get a mass of these guys. You want 5-6 one drops and 5-6 two drops to have a good shot at curving out. It might seem foolish to pass Sun Titan for a Steppe Lynx, but if you want an aggressive deck, that's the choice you have to make. Aggro decks require focused drafting to shine, and paying attention to your curve is absolutely essential. If you have five two-drops already, but only one three-drop, it's a good idea to take the Duergar Hedge-Mage over Blood Knight. Creatures with evasion or protection are higher priority than those without, so Kor SKyfisher is more important than Knight of the White Orchid. Creatures that only require one colored mana symbol are generally safer picks than cards that cost two colored mana because they allow you more flexibility in your colors and manabase. (This point is why I'm running both Stormfront Pegasus and Mistral Charger in my cube while both White and Silver Knights sit on the bench.)
Reach - (Elspeth, Knight Errant, Char, Demonfire, Profane Command, Ajani Vengeant, Vengevine) These are cards that finish the job off once you have your opponent softened up. Generally speaking, this is the niche that burn dominates. Haste creatures and planeswalkers are other examples of reach. These are critical because they let you go straight to the face once your opponent has stabilized, completely bypassing all his beefy creatures. It is hard for 1 mana 2/1s and 2 mana 2/2s to punch through a 4/4, so having the ability to ignore the board and deal damage directly to the face is very important for closing games out.
Card Advantage - (Dark Confidant, Skullclamp, Wheel of Fortune) This is not an essential category for aggro, but if you have the chance to pick up broken card draw, do so. Only consider cards that are cheap to cast and produce more cards than the mana they cost, so things like Ancestral Recall and Timetwister are good, Thirst for Knowledge and Harmonize are not (in an aggro shell).
Removal - (Path to Exile, Nekrataal, Flametongue Kavu, Control Magic) Once again, burn largely dominates this category (since it works as both removal and reach), but it's always handy to have one or two cards that can take out larger creatures. Try to stay away from cards that give your opponent life.
Equipment - (Bonesplitter, Umezawa's Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice, Grafted Wargear) Aggro decks want 2-3 equipment per deck, and they want the equipment that provide power boosts. Equipment helps out tremendously in the reach department, making your 2/2 hit like a 4/x or better.
Curve:
The mana curve is what aggro decks are all about. It's creatures are largely interchangeable, so it doesn't matter which ones you have, as long as your curve is appropriate. The aggro deck wants to have 5-6 one drops, 5-6 two drops, 3-5 three drops, and 1-3 four drops. Very rarely will you go above 4 mana for a creature, unless it's something like Baneslayer Angel or Siege-Gang Commander which will dominate a game on its own. For spells, the cheaper, the better. I like to have one X-spell like Fireball in my deck to finish opponents off. Again, it doesn't matter what your creatures are, what matters is the slot they fill on the curve. For a green and white aggro deck, Pouncing Jaguar and Isamaru, Hound of Konda are effectively interchangeable.
Drafting and building the deck:
A good idea when drafting is to pick flexible cards early, like Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile, so that you can see what cards are coming to you and alter your draft accordingly. If you're getting passed quality cheap creatures like Isamaru, Goblin Guide, or Hypnotic Specter early, it's a signal that aggro is likely open and you're free to move in. Alternatively, you could open one of the busted mana denial or equipment cards like Ravages of War, Tangle Wire, or Umezawa's Jitte, and go all in on aggro from the get-go. You want to be on the look-out for cards that combine two or more of the above categories into one card. Examples of these include Hypnotic Specter (evasive, disruptive), Keldon Marauders (cheap, reach), Soltari Champion (evasive, reach), Blazing Specter (evasive, disruptive), Skinrender (creature, removal), and Avalanche Riders (disruptive, reach). Mana-fixers are generally low picks because these decks are usually mono-colored or two-colored, with one of the colors being dominant. Duals, shocks, fetches, and manlands are key, but signets, bouncelands, or the green (non-elf) ramp cards are wasted picks and wasted slots. As far as quantity of lands is concerned, 15-16 is the base number.
Strengths:
A well-built aggro deck has a favorable control matchup. Mana-denial based aggro decks absolutely destroy slow decks and deck with weak manabases. Never underestimate the power of a well-timed Molten Rain. Another strength of the deck is that it's built to minimize your own variance and maximize your opponent's variance. Your deck is built to do the exact same thing every game and can operate on 3 or less mana. Your opponent's deck, on the other hand, probably isn't as focused on Stage 1 as you are and if they stumble at all (mana flood, mana screw, mulligans, bad curve), you can kill them before the recover.
Weaknesses:
Generally, aggro decks are soft to mid-range decks that play removal and 3-5 mana creatures like Obstinate Baloth and Kitchen Finks. You have to be on the ball disrupting the mid-range deck if you're playing aggro, or they'll start dropping their bigger creatures and completely outclass you in combat. If they're not within burn range when this happens, you've generally lost. This can be minimized by prioritizing evasive creatures and reach while drafting and building the deck.
With some modifications, the principles outlined in this article can work for aggressive decks of all color combinations. Think of it as a spectrum between speed and disruption. Heavy red decks will fall towards the speed side of the spectrum, while decks utilizing blue will fall more towards the disruption side. White, green, and black fall somewhere in the middle. All color combinations can make viable aggro decks as long as you draft with a disciplined mind and a clear goal for your deck. Practice these principles and may you enjoy attacking for two.
Magic games consist of three stages of development.
where are the stages in terms of land drops? like where does stage 1 end, where does stage 2 end (approximately)?
The aggro deck wants to have 5-6 one drops, 5-6 two drops, 3-5 three drops, and 1-3 four drops.
you're talking about creatures here, right? what about the spells? how many spells of each cc should you have? also, how do 2 power one drops compare to 1/1s? if you have 6 one drops but they're all of the fume spitter, mogg fanatic, and grim lavamancer persuasion, is that significantly less valuable than maximizing pure aggressive one drops like isamaru? how many of your one drops need to be power oriented? i've found that lacking stuff like jackal pup or elite vanguard can be a problem for my aggressive decks, even if i have a good number of early plays.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
This is a great article.. I personally only move into aggro with a great piece of mana denial like Tangle Wire or Armageddon. The haste/burn deck you describe is possibly the best deck that can be drafted in cube, but suffers from being quite linear (a bit like drafting infect in SSS, you are dependent on the cards you are passed much more than in other archetypes).
you're talking about creatures here, right? what about the spells? how many spells of each cc should you have? also, how do 2 power one drops compare to 1/1s? if you have 6 one drops but they're all of the fume spitter, mogg fanatic, and grim lavamancer persuasion, is that significantly less valuable than maximizing pure aggressive one drops like isamaru? how many of your one drops need to be power oriented? i've found that lacking stuff like jackal pup or elite vanguard can be a problem for my aggressive decks, even if i have a good number of early plays.
anyway, thanks for the article!
The curve of the spells are not so important (although you can't run 10 three mana burn spells, as that's a terrible curve) but I would be generally ok with anything <5 mana.
excellent article! i have a few questions, though.
Thank you. It's just something I wrote up to help my friends out, but I'm glad you liked it, too. I'll try to answer your questions.
where are the stages in terms of land drops? like where does stage 1 end, where does stage 2 end (approximately)?
This varies by deck. With something like Zoo (which is almost exclusively 1 and 2 drops), three lands could be enough to operate comfortably. A U/B control deck, on the other hand, could need five or six lands to be firmly established in stage 2. It's hugely dependent on the deck in question. There's a much more in-depth discussion of the stages in The Breakdown of Theory article I linked to.
you're talking about creatures here, right? what about the spells? how many spells of each cc should you have? also, how do 2 power one drops compare to 1/1s? if you have 6 one drops but they're all of the fume spitter, mogg fanatic, and grim lavamancer persuasion, is that significantly less valuable than maximizing pure aggressive one drops like isamaru? how many of your one drops need to be power oriented? i've found that lacking stuff like jackal pup or elite vanguard can be a problem for my aggressive decks, even if i have a good number of early plays.
Yes, I'm talking about creatures there. The 1 power guys aren't terrible in aggro, but you'll have to recognize that your deck needs to be more disruptive to compensate for your lack of speed. Luckily, the 1 mana 1/1s offer a lot of utility in the cube, so this is a natural result of drafting the creatures. Grim Lavamancer is repeated burn, Mother of Runes is a PITA to get rid of, Mogg Fanatic and Bog Fanatic kill random creatures, Gorilla Shaman blows up Moxen, etc. I wouldn't want a deck with all 1/1s, but 1/3 to 1/2 (rough estimate) of your one-drops can be 1/1s without severely impacting your deck. You'll have to compensate by drafting more disruption, more reach, equipment, or fatter dudes at the top end of the curve (Blastoderm, Phantom Centaur, and Hero of Oxid Ridge as opposed to running just Avalanche Riders and Goblin Ruinblaster).
As far as spell curve goes, it's not imperative that you follow established guidelines. You want your removal to be 1-2 mana (unless it's Vindicate or Oblivion Ring) because you can remove a blocker and still cast a creature early. I tend to run a little heavy on 3s and 4s in aggro because I like having a bunch of Stone Rains and planeswalkers in my deck. Honestly, I find the hardest part of building/drafting aggro is trimming the four-slot. Having to choose between something like FTK, Molten-Tail Masticore, Hero of Bladehold, Armageddon, Elspeth 1.0, Ajani Vengeant, Murderous Redcap, and Avalanche Riders is a pretty common scenario for me (and you can't run them all in the same aggro deck or your curve is going to be terrible). The key to a mana curve is maximizing your mana every turn. This is why nonbasics and manlands are so important: they give you something to do when you flood.
anyway, thanks for the article!
You're welcome!
I personally only move into aggro with a great piece of mana denial like Tangle Wire or Armageddon. The haste/burn deck you describe is possibly the best deck that can be drafted in cube, but suffers from being quite linear (a bit like drafting infect in SSS, you are dependent on the cards you are passed much more than in other archetypes).
I know what you mean about it being linear. I've drafted beastly mono-red decks only to run smack dab into G/W lifegain.dec in the first round before. It's a very awkward situation. Still, there's nothing more satisfying for crushing blue mages than swinging with Goblin Guide on turn 1.
This is a great premier, and I suggest players who are unfamiliar with how do make aggro work in the cube read this article thoroughly. A great resource (should be added to the cube resource thread!).
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
This is a great premier, and I suggest players who are unfamiliar with how do make aggro work in the cube read this article thoroughly. A great resource (should be added to the cube resource thread!).
Thanks! I originally wrote the article to help my friends out with basic Magic theory, so I'm glad that it can be of help to others. How would I go about getting it added to the cube resource thread?
The 3 phases theory was originally put forward by Flores here.
I have this article linked at the end of mine in the section labelled "for advanced study", but thanks for mentioning it. Are there any other articles that have been written about the subject that are as fundamental as the three I listed? I'd like to add more links if possible.
This is very interesting. I think the main problem I have had is drafting too many 4 and five drops.
I know exactly what you mean here. This problem has increased quite drastically over the last few years with all the planeswalkers being printed at 4 mana, plus all the good mana disruption also being at 4 mana. That's why I think aggro decks require the most disciplined drafting. In order to achieve maximum consistency, you have to be on the ball about the mana curve or the deck turns into a train wreck.
Great article! This will really help out my players a lot, as many of us struggle to build finely-tuned decks each draft (instead of yet more midrange beats). When are the follow-up articles coming? (Control?)
I think it should be noted that the form your mana curve takes in aggro will depend heavily on the critical turn of a particular cube. In my cube (powered, average CMC = 2.82, discounting lands), the critical turn is just about 3. Back when my cube was unpowered, critical turn was 4-4.5 or so. An aggro deck in my current cube must have a much leaner mana curve to get by than one in the old version.
Actually, if people are interested, I was considering writing a piece about critical turn as it pertains to cube design.
I think it should be noted that the form your mana curve takes in aggro will depend heavily on the critical turn of a particular cube. In my cube (powered, average CMC = 2.82, discounting lands), the critical turn is just about 3. Back when my cube was unpowered, critical turn was 4-4.5 or so. An aggro deck in my current cube must have a much leaner mana curve to get by than one in the old version.
Actually, if people are interested, I was considering writing a piece about critical turn as it pertains to cube design.
Power absolutely makes a difference in the aggro decks curve, but I wanted to keep it general to have applications for all cubes. I've found that power generally speeds up midrange and control decks more than aggro. Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, and to a lesser extent Sol Ring and off-color Moxen aren't as useful to aggro decks as they are to others. I've found this tends to skew the aggro decks more towards disruption than pure speed to compensate, because there's not a lot an aggro deck can do to race turn 2 Tinker or the like.
If you wanted to write up an article discussing this more in depth, that'd be awesome. I'd throw a link to it in the "for further study" section in the OP.
Aggro decks require focused drafting to shine, and paying attention to your curve is absolutely essential. If you have five two-drops already, but only one three-drop, it's a good idea to take the Duergar Hedge-Mage over Blood Knight.
Absolutely. My friends give me a hard time sometimes when we're drafting because I like to try and keep my deck sorted by mana cost as I'm drafting. I find that it makes choices much easier. It also makes deck building much easier because I'm basically just building as I go. For me, it helps me make my deck as tight as possible if I make the decisions as the draft progresses.
This article is a mini-primer on drafting aggressive decks in a cube environment. It's a synthesis of aggro theory from the history of Magic and is intended to give newer players an overview of one of the basic archetypes in Magic.
Magic games consist of three stages of development. In Stage 1 (early game), decks are essentially mana-screwed and and must spend time developing their resources to be able to deploy their cards in hand. In Stage 2 (mid-game), resources are tight, but options are beginning to open up and stronger and more costly cards are coming into the fray. However, decks still have to manage their resources carefully. In Stage 3 (end-game), each player has an abundance of mana (so much so that it's effectively a non-issue) and the most expensive spells are available. Aggro decks dominate in Stage 1, midrange decks dominate in Stage 2, and control decks dominate in Stage 3.
The goal of the aggressive deck is to end the game while both players are in Stage 2, and if at all possible to keep its opponent in Stage 1, where resistance is minimal. It does this in two basic ways. The first is through sheer speed, overwhelming opposition before it has a chance to react. It uses direct damage spells to "trump" the opponent's Stage 2 and 3 plays by ignoring what the opponent is doing on the battlefield. The other way aggro decks approach the game is by playing an efficient creature or two and then disrupting the opponent to keep them in Stage 1 as long as possible. I'll go over both of these styles in this article.
Things to look for while drafting:
Curve:
The mana curve is what aggro decks are all about. It's creatures are largely interchangeable, so it doesn't matter which ones you have, as long as your curve is appropriate. The aggro deck wants to have 5-6 one drops, 5-6 two drops, 3-5 three drops, and 1-3 four drops. Very rarely will you go above 4 mana for a creature, unless it's something like Baneslayer Angel or Siege-Gang Commander which will dominate a game on its own. For spells, the cheaper, the better. I like to have one X-spell like Fireball in my deck to finish opponents off. Again, it doesn't matter what your creatures are, what matters is the slot they fill on the curve. For a green and white aggro deck, Pouncing Jaguar and Isamaru, Hound of Konda are effectively interchangeable.
Drafting and building the deck:
A good idea when drafting is to pick flexible cards early, like Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile, so that you can see what cards are coming to you and alter your draft accordingly. If you're getting passed quality cheap creatures like Isamaru, Goblin Guide, or Hypnotic Specter early, it's a signal that aggro is likely open and you're free to move in. Alternatively, you could open one of the busted mana denial or equipment cards like Ravages of War, Tangle Wire, or Umezawa's Jitte, and go all in on aggro from the get-go. You want to be on the look-out for cards that combine two or more of the above categories into one card. Examples of these include Hypnotic Specter (evasive, disruptive), Keldon Marauders (cheap, reach), Soltari Champion (evasive, reach), Blazing Specter (evasive, disruptive), Skinrender (creature, removal), and Avalanche Riders (disruptive, reach). Mana-fixers are generally low picks because these decks are usually mono-colored or two-colored, with one of the colors being dominant. Duals, shocks, fetches, and manlands are key, but signets, bouncelands, or the green (non-elf) ramp cards are wasted picks and wasted slots. As far as quantity of lands is concerned, 15-16 is the base number.
Strengths:
A well-built aggro deck has a favorable control matchup. Mana-denial based aggro decks absolutely destroy slow decks and deck with weak manabases. Never underestimate the power of a well-timed Molten Rain. Another strength of the deck is that it's built to minimize your own variance and maximize your opponent's variance. Your deck is built to do the exact same thing every game and can operate on 3 or less mana. Your opponent's deck, on the other hand, probably isn't as focused on Stage 1 as you are and if they stumble at all (mana flood, mana screw, mulligans, bad curve), you can kill them before the recover.
Weaknesses:
Generally, aggro decks are soft to mid-range decks that play removal and 3-5 mana creatures like Obstinate Baloth and Kitchen Finks. You have to be on the ball disrupting the mid-range deck if you're playing aggro, or they'll start dropping their bigger creatures and completely outclass you in combat. If they're not within burn range when this happens, you've generally lost. This can be minimized by prioritizing evasive creatures and reach while drafting and building the deck.
1 Steppe Lynx
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Jackal Pups
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Soltari Priest
1 Soltari Trooper
1 Mistral Charger
1 Keldon Marauders
1 Ronom Unicorn
1 Pianna, Nomad Captain
1 Ghitu Slinger
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Bonesplitter
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Lightning Helix
1 Char
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Pillage
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Armageddon
1 Plateau
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
6 Plains
4 Mountains
1 Jackal Pups
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Spikeshot Elder
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Hellspark Elemental
1 Keldon Marauders
1 Ember Hauler
1 Hearth Kami
1 Hell's Thunder
1 Manic Vandal
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Chain Lightning
1 Firebolt
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Incinerate
1 Fireblast
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Rishadan Port
1 Mutavault
12 Mountain
With some modifications, the principles outlined in this article can work for aggressive decks of all color combinations. Think of it as a spectrum between speed and disruption. Heavy red decks will fall towards the speed side of the spectrum, while decks utilizing blue will fall more towards the disruption side. White, green, and black fall somewhere in the middle. All color combinations can make viable aggro decks as long as you draft with a disciplined mind and a clear goal for your deck. Practice these principles and may you enjoy attacking for two.
Articles to be used for more advanced study:
Who's the Beatdown?
The Philosophy of Fire
The Breakdown of Theory
Teneb, the Harvester: Let there be life!
Drafting Aggro in the Cube: A Primer for Beginners
where are the stages in terms of land drops? like where does stage 1 end, where does stage 2 end (approximately)?
you're talking about creatures here, right? what about the spells? how many spells of each cc should you have? also, how do 2 power one drops compare to 1/1s? if you have 6 one drops but they're all of the fume spitter, mogg fanatic, and grim lavamancer persuasion, is that significantly less valuable than maximizing pure aggressive one drops like isamaru? how many of your one drops need to be power oriented? i've found that lacking stuff like jackal pup or elite vanguard can be a problem for my aggressive decks, even if i have a good number of early plays.
anyway, thanks for the article!
This wasn't addressed to me, but, I would place them as
phase 1 = 0-2 land,
phase 2 = 3-4 land, and
phase 3 = 5+ land
Mana denial that keeps your opponent below 3 is effectively keeping them in phase 1, where hopefully, they won't be able to operate very efficiently.
The curve of the spells are not so important (although you can't run 10 three mana burn spells, as that's a terrible curve) but I would be generally ok with anything <5 mana.
Thank you. It's just something I wrote up to help my friends out, but I'm glad you liked it, too. I'll try to answer your questions.
This varies by deck. With something like Zoo (which is almost exclusively 1 and 2 drops), three lands could be enough to operate comfortably. A U/B control deck, on the other hand, could need five or six lands to be firmly established in stage 2. It's hugely dependent on the deck in question. There's a much more in-depth discussion of the stages in The Breakdown of Theory article I linked to.
Yes, I'm talking about creatures there. The 1 power guys aren't terrible in aggro, but you'll have to recognize that your deck needs to be more disruptive to compensate for your lack of speed. Luckily, the 1 mana 1/1s offer a lot of utility in the cube, so this is a natural result of drafting the creatures. Grim Lavamancer is repeated burn, Mother of Runes is a PITA to get rid of, Mogg Fanatic and Bog Fanatic kill random creatures, Gorilla Shaman blows up Moxen, etc. I wouldn't want a deck with all 1/1s, but 1/3 to 1/2 (rough estimate) of your one-drops can be 1/1s without severely impacting your deck. You'll have to compensate by drafting more disruption, more reach, equipment, or fatter dudes at the top end of the curve (Blastoderm, Phantom Centaur, and Hero of Oxid Ridge as opposed to running just Avalanche Riders and Goblin Ruinblaster).
As far as spell curve goes, it's not imperative that you follow established guidelines. You want your removal to be 1-2 mana (unless it's Vindicate or Oblivion Ring) because you can remove a blocker and still cast a creature early. I tend to run a little heavy on 3s and 4s in aggro because I like having a bunch of Stone Rains and planeswalkers in my deck. Honestly, I find the hardest part of building/drafting aggro is trimming the four-slot. Having to choose between something like FTK, Molten-Tail Masticore, Hero of Bladehold, Armageddon, Elspeth 1.0, Ajani Vengeant, Murderous Redcap, and Avalanche Riders is a pretty common scenario for me (and you can't run them all in the same aggro deck or your curve is going to be terrible). The key to a mana curve is maximizing your mana every turn. This is why nonbasics and manlands are so important: they give you something to do when you flood.
You're welcome!
I know what you mean about it being linear. I've drafted beastly mono-red decks only to run smack dab into G/W lifegain.dec in the first round before. It's a very awkward situation. Still, there's nothing more satisfying for crushing blue mages than swinging with Goblin Guide on turn 1.
Teneb, the Harvester: Let there be life!
Drafting Aggro in the Cube: A Primer for Beginners
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!
The 3 phases theory was originally put forward by Flores here.
My 380 Beginners’ Cube on Cube Tutor
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
I found it extremely useful.
Thanks! I originally wrote the article to help my friends out with basic Magic theory, so I'm glad that it can be of help to others. How would I go about getting it added to the cube resource thread?
I have this article linked at the end of mine in the section labelled "for advanced study", but thanks for mentioning it. Are there any other articles that have been written about the subject that are as fundamental as the three I listed? I'd like to add more links if possible.
I know exactly what you mean here. This problem has increased quite drastically over the last few years with all the planeswalkers being printed at 4 mana, plus all the good mana disruption also being at 4 mana. That's why I think aggro decks require the most disciplined drafting. In order to achieve maximum consistency, you have to be on the ball about the mana curve or the deck turns into a train wreck.
Teneb, the Harvester: Let there be life!
Drafting Aggro in the Cube: A Primer for Beginners
Actually, if people are interested, I was considering writing a piece about critical turn as it pertains to cube design.
[Remixes] - [The Brutal Cube - 360 Powered] - [My Cube Article] - ['Print-This' Wishlist]
Power absolutely makes a difference in the aggro decks curve, but I wanted to keep it general to have applications for all cubes. I've found that power generally speeds up midrange and control decks more than aggro. Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, and to a lesser extent Sol Ring and off-color Moxen aren't as useful to aggro decks as they are to others. I've found this tends to skew the aggro decks more towards disruption than pure speed to compensate, because there's not a lot an aggro deck can do to race turn 2 Tinker or the like.
If you wanted to write up an article discussing this more in depth, that'd be awesome. I'd throw a link to it in the "for further study" section in the OP.
Teneb, the Harvester: Let there be life!
Drafting Aggro in the Cube: A Primer for Beginners
Nether Void is basically black Armageddon, and I think you will see fantastic results from it if you can find room.
[Remixes] - [The Brutal Cube - 360 Powered] - [My Cube Article] - ['Print-This' Wishlist]
Teneb, the Harvester: Let there be life!
Drafting Aggro in the Cube: A Primer for Beginners
Absolutely. My friends give me a hard time sometimes when we're drafting because I like to try and keep my deck sorted by mana cost as I'm drafting. I find that it makes choices much easier. It also makes deck building much easier because I'm basically just building as I go. For me, it helps me make my deck as tight as possible if I make the decisions as the draft progresses.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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