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Post by amechra on Jul 23, 2018 4:51:08 GMT
Hello all! You know, a lot of sets have pretty standard draft archetypes - you've got your aggro, your tokens, your control, etc, etc. But what if you want something a little different? This is a thread where we just throw out ideas for off-beat archetypes - be they simple or outlandish. Hopefully, someone will get something out of this. Some ideas to start: 1)   Rule the Skies! The idea here is really simple - the Blue half gives you a lot of stuff that grants flying, and the Green gives you stuff that hates on your opponent's flyers. Some big fatty's giving you lip? Toss it in the sky and make it Plummet. Stuff like that. I can see a lot of Archers. 2) Tribal TokensBasically, have an archetype focus on churning out a specific kind of token and buffing it. Picture some necromancers who produce and buff Zombie tokens with no nontoken Zombies in sight, or a group of devout knights that create Angel tokens with Soulbond-style effects. Pretty simple to spindle up and stick other places - this has shown up in "canon" magic as everything from Splicers + Golems to Investigate (if you want a weird example). 3) Keyword TribalFlying and Defender are the usual beneficiaries of this one, but why not open it up to other keywords? Seriously, just pick a keyword and iterate on it. Just... don't pick Double Strike, all right? |
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Zuty
3/3 Beast
Return to Ravnica 2 Hype!
Posts: 162
Favorite Card: Serra Angel
Favorite Set: Future Sight
Color Alignment: White, Blue, Red, Green, Colorless
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Post by Zuty on Jul 25, 2018 6:48:12 GMT
4) Legendary Support Seen both in Dominaria and Kamigawa, I believe this is something that could work. Cards that care about a target being legendary or creatures that are boosted for fighting alongside a legend.
5) Level Up Rise of the Eldrazi has so far remained as my all time favorite set to draft. And on a few occasions, I managed to get plenty copies of Time of Heroes and Venerated Teacher to quicken the leveling process for my heroes in training.
6) Non Spell Win Con Leechridden Swamp, Geier Reach Sanitarium, Hellion Crucible, and all the man lands in between. You don't bother yourself with pesky spells that can be cancelled, instead you rely on a big deck of lands. |
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Post by Gorgon on Jul 25, 2018 8:23:16 GMT
7)   ReanimatorThis is a fun one. You combine white reanimation tricks like Karmic Guide or Breath of Life with red discard-draw, like Wheel of Fate or Cathartic Reunion. Add some fatties to the mix, and you've got yourself a fun and unusual deck to play with. 8) Library FilteringOne of the most satisfying deck to play with, and the most excruciating to play against. Combine cards that look at the top of the opponent's library with Millstones. Mechanics like fateseal come in handy. You can also combine it with counterspells to use if you let them draw something and cards that downright exile cards from opponents' libraries like Nightmare Incursion or Sadistic Sacrament. |
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Post by amechra on Jul 28, 2018 8:09:21 GMT
9) Chaff Tribal
A similar idea to the token tribal idea, except that the "token" is instead a Relentless Rats or Nissa's Chosen kind of creature. The main challenge here is balancing the number of "fuel" creatures in your deck with the more powerful enablers. 10) Cares About Basics Hey, remember Valakut? The idea here is that one particular color loves dumping a particular kind of basic land onto the field. It would actually be kind of interesting to see an archetype with this theme that cared about "off-color" basics (Wastes are, of course, OK). 11) Hurt Me More! Pick something you don't normally want to have happen (discarding cards, sacrificing permanents, losing life, etc), and turn it into an upside. I could see a  archetype focused around turning lost life into card advantage and then returning the favor. 12) Temporary ExileYou get a ton of effects that let you cast stuff from exile (Madness, Rebound, etc), and then you have stuff that cares about you having things in exile as well as players casting things from exile. Let's see them Path or O-Ring your stuff now! |
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Zuty
3/3 Beast
Return to Ravnica 2 Hype!
Posts: 162
Favorite Card: Serra Angel
Favorite Set: Future Sight
Color Alignment: White, Blue, Red, Green, Colorless
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Post by Zuty on Jul 30, 2018 2:34:31 GMT
13) A Tale of Two Hands/Decks. Tired of having only one hand of cards or one library to thumb through? Fret not! For with cards like Uba Mask or Parallel Thoughts that dream can now be a reality. Why, even cards like Act on Impulse can help expand your horizons. And if you ever feel like playing the the fun stuff your opponents have, just have a look at Nightveil Specter and Kheru Mind-Eater. |
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Post by sleepyjackdaw on Aug 28, 2018 13:33:28 GMT
14) TOPDECK MATTERS: I'm trying to piece together a nice "reveal the top/scry" theme (you can probably to this in too). Cards like Reclaim and Llanowar Empath show that this ability is NWO possible, I think? Red cards in this vein typically care about CMC, but so do a lot of the blue and green ones. Land/nonland or creature distinction is useful. Scry/mill/clash style effects which are necessary here are good smoothers that reward small actions anyway.
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Post by amechra on Jun 11, 2019 20:31:59 GMT
A few that I've been messing with: 15)  Hugeness Hate: So, White gets a bunch of cards that hate on big fatties... but what if your opponent only runs tiny utility creatures? Easy - pile +1/+1 counters on them until they're big enough! This is the archetype Generous Patron and Orzhov Advokist were designed for. 16)  Discard/Mill: Remember those "mill until you hit a land" cards back in RtR? Know how Green has a bunch of ways to fetch lands out of someone else's deck? You can probably see where this is going. You prefer a little bit of discard? Why not reprint something like Tempting Wurm to take advantage of their shrunken hand? |
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Post by amechra on Jun 22, 2019 3:08:38 GMT
17) Coward Anti-Tribal
Inspired by, well, literally all of the cards that reference Cowards, this strategy would be geared around giving creatures the Coward type and tribal effects that hurt Cowards. Or, if you're feeling frisky, might help Cowards - I can see a "non-Coward creatures attack each turn if able" effect, for example.
18) Man-[Blanks]
Pick a permanent type - your strategy is based off of turning those things into creatures. Think Battle for Zendikar's "build your own land creatures" stuff, but applied to artifacts or whatever. Enchantments might be interesting - some kind of reverse Bestow?
To all the new people reading this: toss in your two cents!
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Machochocolate
0/0 Germ
How do i upgrade from a germ token?
Posts: 17 
Formerly Known As: lazyblackguy
Favorite Card: Crackling Perimeter
Favorite Set: Theros
Color Alignment: Blue, Black, Green
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Post by Machochocolate on Jul 15, 2019 22:59:05 GMT
2) Tribal TokensBasically, have an archetype focus on churning out a specific kind of token and buffing it. Picture some necromancers who produce and buff Zombie tokens with no nontoken Zombies in sight, or a group of devout knights that create Angel tokens with Soulbond-style effects. Pretty simple to spindle up and stick other places - this has shown up in "canon" magic as everything from Splicers + Golems to Investigate (if you want a weird example). I really tried to make this work in a custom set of mine designed for cubing. I went with knights that either produced or somehow enhanced 1/1 soldier tokens whether that be through anthem effects, or granting them temporary keyword abilities when the knight attacked. I was never quite satisfied with it, feeling i had done a poor job, and so i eventually scrapped it. |
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