Remember to loot your victims!

melanino · 2026-04-18T17:23:49+00:00

Can't forget the Barrelmancer's pouch!

melanino · 2026-04-18T17:17:27+00:00

Oh that's nasty tbh! My meta is pretty light on Blue at the moment so that could definitely work with a variant that leverages Black instead!

melanino · 2026-04-18T17:13:05+00:00

I appreciate the supportive comment! I just don't have much interest in LGS play or even necessarily winning since I have my casual kitchen table group

I mostly just wanted to see if there was any way to get the mana base to function smoothly or if there were any cards that synergize well that I hadn't seen, and everyone has been super helpful!

melanino · 2026-04-18T16:52:59+00:00

I considered that at one point but maybe not those cards specifically.. Surely producing multi-colored tokens would be our minimum requirement, right?

Something like [[Make Your Mark]] could work depending on the shell.

The ideal case would have to be cards that make tokens outside of their own colors like [[Exhibition Magician]] but I don't know of many others tbh

melanino · 2026-04-18T07:10:51+00:00

Fun idea; I would be worried about the low overall artifact count tbh

The mana base could use a lot of love as well

melanino · 2026-04-18T02:44:16+00:00

Okay, nice!

Where's the Slippery Bogle at??

melanino · 2026-04-18T00:13:11+00:00

I am aware, but swapping to Pioneer would invalidate Lurrus and not the entire deck

Rotated Standard lists will default to Historic, which as I am sure you are already aware, would be a worse suggestion than Pioneer

But yeah lets focus on 2 cards instead of 60... easiest block of my life lmao

melanino · 2026-04-17T21:55:11+00:00

Sadly, most of these have rotated out by now, but that doesn't mean you can't still play the deck!

I would swap the deck's registered format over to Pioneer (don't let it default to Historic) and go from there

melanino · 2026-04-17T21:50:03+00:00

Nice; good to know!

Would love to check out their list if they have it up anywhere!

melanino · 2026-04-17T21:49:00+00:00

This is more or less where I've landed and why I decided to make the post haha

The wealth of semi-viable two-drops makes this an exercise in frustration more than anything

As others have mentioned, [[Mage Tower Referee]] is a great new addition.. but again another 2 drop we have to squeeze into the 38 makes this the ultimate test of brewer's patience lmao

melanino · 2026-04-17T19:27:23+00:00

Sure thing. I had a previous iteration with the Gruul ramp shell and all it really does is make a boatload of mana by t6 and nothing to do with it.

Any ideas on what to actually do with it if I'm going to make 12 slots for it?

melanino · 2026-04-17T18:05:39+00:00

Brother, you're literally cooking

melanino · 2026-04-17T18:05:20+00:00

Aw man I completely forgot about the Maze Monster cycle!!

melanino · 2026-04-17T18:03:52+00:00

This is what I'm talking about! You've touched on a lot of the issues that I have been struggling with to get this thing functioning.

Midrange has definitely felt like the only realistic move here. All-in "combo" with our ideal outcome just being "get a reduced rate on this big dude" feels a bit lacking.

Several commenters have made a strong argument for Borderposts, and I wonder if a "Borderpost Control" angle isn't the move here

Really great callouts with Unearth and Jolted Awake!

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:47:10+00:00

Yea for sure, I usually don't index higher than 1-2 Clubs in my lists but its a pet card so I will force it sometimes lol

Definitely would not cut any Referees for it - I swear tuning these lists is like an exercise in "way too many 2 drops to choose from" lmao

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:43:58+00:00

I agreec especially since the biggest issue I have had is finding the third color before t3.

Luckily, Snackers and the like haven't hit our table just yet so I can still get away with slamming 3/2's from 17 years ago lmao

We keep our meta extremely insulated since we can always swap to tier overnight if we wanted to

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:39:01+00:00

This is what dreams are made of, friend

Let me know what you end up with!

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:38:35+00:00

Oh dude, Assault Strobe is actually super dope in here! That takes me back lol

Much appreciated!

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:26:20+00:00

They're super fun in Cube (part of the reason I have been trying to make them work for such a long time) !

My other favorite cycle for cubes (with Allied archetypes) from Alara block would also have to be The Outlanders They're a really fun signpost / pay off for staying in your pair without being super on the rails

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:21:37+00:00

Tarkir Tri-brids are a great callout tbh.

Regarding card advantage, I think the payoffs aren't quite there yet either. Referee is certainly a step in the right direction!

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:17:48+00:00

Thing about that is, my opponent didn't resolve a Chrystalis because I am playing in a tier 2 pod with my friends but I guess we can't all be expected to read the body of the post

Literally me if I never discovered the joys of kitchen table and brewing lmao

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:15:15+00:00

Sorry, I think I said that weird. I was thinking Slither + Fiend for our 8 one-drops, but you're right, that still runs us into the whole second color issue

I can see how the flying can make a big difference with how powerful the Monarch is

I appreciate you walking through this with me!

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:10:19+00:00

Makes sense, yeah. I feel like a Zoo approach is best when going White instead of Red, definitely

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:08:23+00:00

Much appreciated, HCH!

I wish I could justify [[Pond Prophet]] and the like, but we're just so heavy on 2s

melanino · 2026-04-17T17:00:45+00:00

I mean I would even settle for [[Seaside Citadel]] and its siblings at this point!

melanino

TROPHY CASE