Art by Titus Lunter
Welcome to this Vintage Cube Primer! This guide aims to provide an overview of the intricacies, strategies, and unique elements that define Season 4 of the Vintage Cube.
First, we'll start by giving examples of some of the best cards to consider as first picks in each color. To aid your drafting decisions, I've compiled a list of the top 50 picks in the Vintage Cube.
Understanding the common archetypes in Vintage Cube is crucial for drafting a cohesive deck. Throughout this guide to Season 4 of the Vintage Cube, we'll explore specific archetypes and card interactions.
White Aggro is also known as White Weenie, and the main idea behind White Aggro is to play very cheap and efficient creatures, usually costing 1-3cmc at most, and use some cheap support to pave your way to victory. The good thing about White Aggro is that you have some of the most powerful creatures on the board in the early game, and you can back up these cheap threats with some spot removal like Swords to Plowshares. The deck loves strong interrupts like Mana Tithe, Strip Mine, and Elite Spellbinder to keep your creatures alive and attacking. The biggest thing to watch out for are board sweepers, so be careful not to over-extend. Creature lands like Mishra's Factory and Mutavault will survive speed removal from sorcery. The deck usually play two or three 4+ drops to finish the game, like Parallax Wave and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.
WR Aggro want to run a low curve so one drops are vital. Cards like Goblin Guide and Usher of the Fallen will pressure the opponent from the first turn. Two drops have the most flexible room and while there are many that are stronger than others, Adanto Vanguard, Porcelain Legionnaire and Robber of the Rich are three of the most aggressiv in their respectful colors. Non creature spells are often cheap removal such as Path to Exile and Mana Tithe. The last few damage will do Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning which both can deal with annoying blockers aswell. Similar to White Aggro, White Red Aggro likes to disrupt the opponent with Wasteland and Strip Mine to get a swift win around turn 4 or 5. To end the game, White Red Aggro relays on cards such as Headliner Scarlett and Glorybringer.
Red Green Aggro thrives on aggression and efficient creature-based strategies to quickly overwhelm opponents.The core idea behind Red Green Aggro is to use powerful creatures and planeswalkers early to close the game. Creatures like Mawloc, Goldvein Hydra and Hexdrinker are good in both the early and mid-game. Red removal and spells like Abrade and Burst Lightning help to get damage pushed through. To get card advantage, Red-Green Aggro needs cards like Court of Garenbrig. To win quickly, the most expensive creatures need to have haste to deal damage on the turn they enter the game, prime examples being Questing Beast and Glorybringer
The deck aims to disrupt the opponent's game plan while simultaneously deploying threats that pressure the opponent's life total. It achieves this by efficiently using its mana each turn to maintain control of the game's pace. Cards like Brazen Borrower and Abrade help a ton. Blue Red Tempo decks often feature low-cost creatures with disruptive abilities or spells that can target the opponent's creatures or spells. deck includes counterspells, bounce spells, and other disruptive elements to control the opponent’s actions. Counterspells like Mana Leak and Miscalculation.
The Blue Green Tempo deck blends the disruptive prowess of blue with the efficient threats and ramp capabilities of green to dictate the pace of the game and overwhelm opponents strategically. This archetype focuses on leveraging early-game disruption and efficient creatures to maintain board presence while controlling the flow of the game.
Key to the UG Tempo strategy are creatures Noble Hierarch and The Goose Mother, which provide early pressure and mana acceleration. Noble Hierarch not only ramps your mana but also adds exalted triggers, making your attacks more potent.
Blue's counterspells and card draw are essential for maintaining tempo and ensuring you have the resources to react to your opponent's plays. Spells like Mana Leak, Spell Pierce, and Remand disrupt your opponent’s key spells, buying you time and keeping them off balance.
Creatures with flash and utility, like Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique, further enhance your Control strategy. Snapcaster Mage allows you to reuse critical spells from your graveyard, while Vendilion Clique can disrupt your opponent’s hand and provide a quick clock in the air.
Planeswalkers like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Oko, Thief of Crowns add another layer of control and value. Jace, the Mind Sculptor offers unparalleled card selection and control options, while Oko, Thief of Crowns can neutralize threats and generate food tokens for additional utility.
Brazen Borrower offers both a disruptive bounce spell and an evasive threat, fitting perfectly into the tempo game plan.
The Blue Black Artifacts Aggro-Control leveraging artifact synergies to control the board while applying relentless pressure. Aggressive artifacts like Patchwork Automaton and Scrapheap Scrounger ensure a fast start, with the Automaton growing stronger with each artifact played and the Scrounger providing resilience and recurring pressure. Nettlecyst further amplifies their power, making every artifact you control contribute to their lethality. Supporting these threats, Phyrexian Metamorph offers flexibility, copying the best artifact or creature on the battlefield, while Dark Confidant ensures a steady stream of cards to keep the pressure on. To finish just play a Kappa Cannoneer and swing for the win.
The White Black Aggro-Control deck combines the aggressive elements of white with and disruptive of black to create a versatile and powerful strategy. The deck utilizes early-game disruption through cards like Thoughtseize and Tidehollow Sculler, stripping opponents of their key spells and gaining valuable information about their hand. Aggressive creatures such as Thalia, Guardian of Thraben apply pressure while disrupting opponents’ game plans. Thalia's ability to tax noncreature spells slows down control and combo decks, giving you more time to develop your board. Cards like Palace Jailer and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar provide board control and card advantage.
The core of Blue White Control is drawing cards, countering spells, and removing pesky creatures. Blue White Control combines the spell control offered by blue with the board control offered by white. Together, the combination offers answers both on the stack and on the battlefield.
Blue White Control aims to maintain a stable board state while building up resources and card advantage. Early on, value creatures like Dust Animus and Snapcaster Mage provide defense and utility, allowing you to keep the board under control and bait opponents into overextending.
With blue’s extensive counterspell suite, such as Force of Will, Mana Drain, and Counterspell, you can handle threats on the stack, stopping key spells before they hit the battlefield. Meanwhile, white’s board wipes like Wrath of God, Sunfall or Damn clear the board of multiple threats, giving you time to stabilize and take control.
Card draw and selection are crucial components of this deck, with cards like Preordain, Fact or Fiction, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor providing you with the resources needed to maintain control and find the answers you need. Planeswalkers like Jace also offer additional utility and win conditions, generating value and controlling the board in multiple ways.
Once the board is under your control, evasive threats like Celestial Colonnade and Mulldrifter can finish the game quickly. Celestial Colonnade, a manland, can dodge sorcery-speed removal and provide a powerful, hard-to-remove attacker.
The core of Blue White Blink is leveraging the power of entering-the-battlefield effects to generate card advantage, disrupt opponents, and maintain board control. This archetype combines blue's ability to manipulate and draw cards with white's strong suite of ETB creatures and blink effects, creating a synergy that continuously maximizes the value of your creatures.
Blue White Blink focuses on creatures with powerful ETB abilities, such as Mulldrifter and Wall of Omens, which provide card draw and early defense. These creatures set up the foundation for a steady stream of value as you repeatedly trigger their abilities through various blink effects.
Key to the strategy are cards like Flickerwisp, Ephemerate, and Restoration Angel, which allow you to "blink" or exile and return creatures to the battlefield, thereby reactivating their ETB effects. Flickerwisp can also disrupt opponents by temporarily removing their permanents, while Restoration Angel provides a surprise blocker and a way to protect your creatures.
The deck also benefits from blue’s suite of counterspells and draw spells, such as Mana Leak and Fact or Fiction, to maintain card advantage and keep opponents in check. White’s removal spells like Swords to Plowshares ensure that problematic creatures are dealt with efficiently.
Central to this strategy are keypieces like Karn, Scion of Urza, Urza, Lord High Artificer and Tezzeret the Seeker. Karn provides card advantage and can create massive Construct tokens that grow stronger with each artifact you control. Tezzeret, on the other hand, can search your library for crucial artifacts or transform artifacts into formidable threats, offering both utility and finishing power.
Key creatures in this deck include Digsite Engineer, which generates additional artifact creatures whenever you cast an artifact spell, quickly building a formidable army. This creature-based approach is complemented by the raw power of cards like Balance, which can reset the board state, removing excess creatures, lands, and cards from your opponent’s hand, while leaving pure Artifacts on the battlefield.
To support this artifact-centric strategy, the deck utilizes efficient artifact-based mana acceleration and fixing, such as Mox Opal and Azorius Signet. Blue provides card draw and counterspells to maintain control and ensure you have a steady flow of resources. Spells like Thirst for Discovery and Fact or Fiction keep your hand full, while Mana Leak and Spell Pierce disrupt your opponent’s plans.
White adds essential removal and board control elements, with spells like Swords to Plowshares and Wrath of God to handle problematic creatures and clear the board when necessary. Artifact creatures like Stonecoil Serpent, Walking Ballista and Emry, Lurker of the Loch offer scalable threats that can adapt to the game’s progression, providing both offense and defense.
The 4/5 Color Control deck, often referred to as "4/5 Color Goodstuff," leverages the best spells and abilities across all colors to create a powerful and versatile strategy capable of answering any threat and dominating the game. This deck focuses on controlling the board, generating card advantage, and utilizing the most potent finishers from all five colors.
Central to this strategy is a robust and flexible mana base, featuring a combination of dual lands, fetch lands, and mana-fixing artifacts. These cards ensure you can consistently access the colors you need to cast your powerful spells.
Key cards that define this archetype include sweepers like Toxic Deluge, which can clear the board of threats and allow you to stabilize. Single-target removal spells such as Swords to Plowshares, Vindicate, and Lightning Bolt handle problematic creatures and permanents with precision.
To support this multi-color approach, creatures like Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch provide early mana fixing and ramp, enabling you to cast your diverse suite of spells more easily. Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, General Ferrous Rokiric and Omnath, Locus of Creation not only provide card advantage and life gain but also add powerful bodies to your board.
The 4/5 Color Control deck excels in its ability to adapt to any situation, utilizing the best spells and abilities from all five colors to maintain control and outlast opponents.
Using Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion adds a unique twist to yourdeck, emphasizing the power of recursion and low-cost spells. Lurrus provides constant access to a powerful engine, allowing you to reuse small creatures and permanent spells, creating a relentless and resilient game plan.
The key to building a successful Lurrus deck lies in selecting permanents and creatures that maximize his recursion ability. Since Lurrus restricts your deck to only having permanents with converted mana cost 2 or less, you'll focus on low-cost, high-value permanents that can dominate the game through repeated use.
Creatures like Baleful Strix and Dark Confidant are excellent inclusions. Baleful Strix provides card draw and serves as a potent blocker with deathtouch, while Dark Confidant keeps your hand full of threats and answers. Both of these creatures gain extra value when you can recur them with Lurrus.
For disruption and removal, spells like Swords to Plowshares, Fatal Push, and Thoughtseize are ideal. These low-cost spells allow you to control the board and disrupt your opponent’s plans efficiently. Mishra's Bauble also fit well, offering card draw and reusable removal that can be brought back with Lurrus.
The good thing about Lurrus is the fact, that Instant and Sorceries are allowed to have a high cmc, which means that cards like Mystic Confluence and Fiery Confluence can still be in your Lurrus deck.
The Birthing Pod deck focuses on leveraging the powerful synergies and value offered by ETB creatures. This deck aims to create a chain of creatures that incrementally increase in power and utility, ultimately overwhelming the opponent with a board full of impactful creatures.
Central to this strategy is Birthing Pod, an artifact that allows you to sacrifice a creature to search your library for a creature with a converted mana cost exactly one higher, putting it directly onto the battlefield. This ability enables you to turn your lower-cost creatures into progressively more powerful threats and utility creatures.
Key to the deck are creatures that provide immediate value when they enter the battlefield, starting with low-cost creatures like Voice of Resurgence. Voice of Resurgence provides a resilient body that can generate a powerful Elemental token when it dies.
Recruiter of the Guard is a crucial piece in the Birthing Pod chain, allowing you to search your library for specific creatures with toughness 2 or less when it enters the battlefield. This can fetch key utility creatures or the next link in your Birthing Pod chain.
Utility creatures like Reclamation Sage and Knight of Autumn offer versatile removal options, dealing with problematic artifacts and enchantments or gain some life. Bigger threats like Thragtusk provide substantial value, gaining you life and leaving behind a 3/3 token This makes them excellent
Creatures like Fyndhorn Elves and Avacyn's Pilgrim provide early mana ramp and fixing, enabling you to cast your spells and activate Birthing Pod more easily. Green Sun's Zenith offers additional ways to tutor for key creatures and continue the Pod chain. To have more Pods in the deck use Tutors like Demonic Tutor or Enlightened Tutor to find your Birthing Pod.
The Storm deck aims to cast a flurry of spells in a single turn, culminating in a game-winning Storm spell. The key to this deck is building up a high spell count and then casting a Storm finisher like Tendrils of Agony or Brain Freeze, which copies itself for each spell cast that turn.
The core enablers of the Storm strategy are fast mana sources and ritual spells. Cards like Black Lotus and Lion's Eye Diamond provide massive mana boosts for free, enabling you to cast multiple spells in a single turn. Other zero-cost artifacts such as Lotus Petal, chrome mox, also contribute to the mana acceleration needed to fuel your Storm turns.
Card draw and filtering are critical for maintaining the flow of spells and finding key combo pieces. Cantrips such as Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain help dig through your deck, increasing your spell count and setting up your big turn. Draw-seven effects like Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, and Memory Jarl can refill your hand, allowing you to cast more spells and keep the Storm count climbing. Tutors are essential for assembling your combo. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Imperial Seal allow you to find critical combo pieces or mana sources, ensuring you have the necessary components for your Storm turn. The primary win conditions for Storm decks are the Storm spells themselves. Tendrils of Agony is the main finisher, draining your opponent's life equal to your Storm count and often leading to an immediate victory. Aetherflux Reservoir is another finisher, dealing lethal damage by gaining above 50 life.
Support spells and interactions play a significant role in the deck's functionality. Yawgmoth's Will is a powerful recursion spell that allows you to cast spells from your graveyard, effectively doubling your spell count and mana availability. Underworld Breach serves a similar role.
This archetype leverages a combination of discard outlets, graveyard enablers, and reanimation spells to create an explosive and often overwhelming board presence.
The core enablers of the Reanimate strategy are discard and graveyard enablers that allow you to put powerful creatures into your graveyard. Cards like Faithless Looting, Entomb, and Thoughtseize are essential for this purpose. Faithless Looting not only digs through your deck but also lets you discard key creatures directly to the graveyard. Entomb is particularly powerful, as it tutors any creature directly into your graveyard, setting up for an immediate reanimation. Thoughtseize can serve a dual purpose, disrupting your opponent’s hand while also potentially discarding a creature from your own hand.
Once you have a powerful creature in your graveyard, reanimation spells bring it back onto the battlefield. Reanimate is the most efficient of these spells, allowing you to return any creature to the battlefield at the cost of life equal to its converted mana cost. Exhume is another early-game reanimation spell that can bring back a creature for each player, making it important to ensure your graveyard is better stocked than your opponent's. Animate Dead and death//life are additional cards that reanimate creatures.
Powerful creatures are the heart of the Reanimate deck, and the Vintage Cube offers some of the best targets. Archon of Cruelty, Griselbrand and Etali, Primal Conqueror are the the top reanimator targets. Collective Brutality offers versatility by discarding cards, removing threats, and disrupting your opponent’s hand.
This strategy leverages powerful discard outlets and instant-speed reanimation spells to surprise opponents with devastating threats. Key cards in this deck include Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Shallow Grave, and Goryo's Vengeance.
The core enablers of the Instant Reanimator strategy are discard outlets and tutors that allow you to put powerful creatures into your graveyard. Faithless Looting is an excellent card for this purpose, as it digs through your deck and lets you discard key creatures. Entomb is especially powerful, as it tutors any creature directly into your graveyard, setting up an immediate reanimation. Thoughtseize and Collective Brutality can disrupt your opponent's hand while also discarding your own creatures.
Once you have a powerful creature in your graveyard, instant-speed reanimation spells bring it back onto the battlefield for a surprise attack. Shallow Grave reanimates the top creature card in your graveyard, giving it haste and exiling it at the end of the turn. Goryo's Vengeance is similar, reanimating a legendary creature and giving it haste before exiling it at the end of the turn. These spells allow for explosive plays, often catching opponents off guard and dealing massive damage out of nowhere.
The sequencing is important here. First, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn hits your graveyard via Entomb, for example. Then, the shuffle trigger from Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is on the stack. Now, you cast either Goryo's Vengeance or Shallow Grave to reanimate it before it gets shuffled into your library. You can then swing for a devastating 15 damage and annihilator 6.
The Combo Lands deck aims to create a massive 20/20 flying indestructible Marit Lage token as quickly as possible. The primary goal of this deck is to assemble the combo of Dark Depths and either Thespian's Stage Vampire Hexmage or Mirage Mirror to create a Marit Lage token.
The core enabler of the Combo Lands strategy is the interaction between Dark Depths and Thespian's Stage. Dark Depths enters the battlefield with ten ice counters and can only create the Marit Lage token when it has no counters. Thespian's Stage can copy any land, and when it becomes a copy of Dark Depths, it does so without the ice counters, immediately triggering the creation of the 20/20 indestructible Marit Lage token.
Supporting this combo are various land tutors and utility spells that help assemble and protect the combo pieces. Crop Rotation and Elvish Reclaimer are key cards that allows you to sacrifice a land to search your library for any land card and put it onto the battlefield, making it an excellent way to find either Dark Depths or Thespian's Stage at the end of the opponents turn and use the combo to win in your next turn with a single attack. Expedition Map serves a similar purpose, tutoring any land from your library to your hand. Utility lands play a significant role in the Combo Lands deck, offering both support and redundancy.
The Red Artifacts Swap deck focuses on putting powerful artifacts into your graveyard and then cheating them onto the battlefield. The core enabler of the Red Artifacts Swap strategy is Goblin Welder, a one-mana creature that lets you swap an artifact on the battlefield with an artifact in your graveyard. This ability is crucial for turning inexpensive artifacts or artifact tokens into game-winning threats. Trash for Treasure is another key spell, enabling you to sacrifice an artifact to reanimate a powerful artifact from your graveyard, providing a similar swap effect. To facilitate these swaps, the deck includes various ways to get artifacts into your graveyard. Faithless Looting is an excellent card for this purpose, as it not only digs through your deck but also allows you to discard key artifacts. Entomb is another powerful enabler, tutoring any artifact directly into your graveyard for later reanimation. The payoff artifacts in this deck are some of the most powerful in Vintage Cube. Portal to Phyrexia is a particularly devastating reanimation target, forcing your opponent to sacrifice three creatures when it enters the battlefield and reanimating an artifact from any graveyard each upkeep. Triplicate Titan is another excellent target, providing a massive 9/9 flying, vigilance, and trample body that splits into three tokens when it dies. Other high-impact artifacts like Sundering Titan and Wurmcoil Engine provide immediate board control and resilience.
Supporting these core elements are various artifact support spells and creatures. Goblin Engineer provides additional tutoring and can set up artifact swaps similar to Goblin Welder. Emry, Lurker of the Loch can recur artifacts from your graveyard, providing additional value and redundancy.
The core enabler of the Mono Green Combo strategy is the ability to generate a large amount of mana quickly. Cards like Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, and Fyndhorn Elves provide early mana acceleration by tapping for additional mana on turn one. Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary is particularly powerful, as it taps for green mana equal to the number of forests you control, often generating an immense mana advantage. To capitalize on this mana acceleration, the deck includes various creatures and spells that either generate additional value or help establish a wide board state, like Nissa, Who Shakes the World. The payoff for all this ramp and board development comes in the form of massive, game-ending creatures. Craterhoof Behemoth is the premier finisher, giving all your creatures a huge power and toughness boost along with trample, often leading to an instant win. End-Raze Forerunners provides a similar effect, giving your creatures +2/+2, vigilance, and trample, allowing for a devastating alpha strike Deranged Hermit are also excellent at creating a large number of bodies to benefit from these overrun effects. To support these key pieces, the deck includes various card draw and tutor effects to ensure consistency. Green Sun's Zenith and Natural Order can tutor key creatures directly onto the battlefield. The mana base for a Mono Green Combo deck is straightforward, focusing on a high number of forests to maximize the effectiveness of your mana dorks and Rofellos. Including utility lands like Gaea's Cradle can provide an additional mana boost, especially when you have a wide board state. Once you have a sufficient number of creatures and mana, you can cast your game-ending threats like Craterhoof Behemoth or End-Raze Forerunners to deliver a decisive blow. Early turns focus on playing mana dorks and ramp spells, while mid-game is about developing your board and drawing cards to find your finishers.
In conclusion, the Mono Green Combo deck excels at generating a massive board presence and finishing the game with powerful overrun effects.
The Splinter Twin deck is a classic combo archetype that aims to create an infinite number of creature tokens and win the game on the spot. This strategy revolves around the interaction between Splinter Twin or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and creatures with untap abilities. The deck's goal is to play a control game and in the lategame win with the combo.
The core combo pieces of the Splinter Twin strategy are Splinter Twin and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, paired with creatures that can untap themselves. The primary creatures used in this combo are Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch. When Splinter Twin is enchanted on one of these creatures, or when Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker targets one of them, it creates a token copy of the creature, which then untaps the original, allowing you to repeat the process infinitely. This generates an infinite number of hasty tokens, ready to attack and win the game immediately.
Supporting the core combo are various card draw and filtering spells that help you find your combo pieces. Preordain, Ponder, and Brainstorm provide excellent card selection and draw power. Gitaxian Probe provides valuable information about your opponent's hand while drawing you a card, aiding in the setup of your combo turn. The deck also includes counterspells and removal to protect your combo and control the game until you are ready to go off. Force of Will and Mana Leak are key counterspells that help you disrupt your opponent’s plays and protect your combo pieces. Lightning Bolt and Ghostfire Sliceprovide efficient removal to deal with early threats and clear the way for your combo. Utility creatures and spells add redundancy and flexibility to the deck. Imperial Recruiter and Recruiter of the Guard can tutor for your key combo creatures, ensuring you can assemble the combo even if you don't draw all the pieces naturally.
Key cards in this deck include Lotus Cobra, Oracle of Mul Daya and Strip Mine.
The core of the Landfall deck is built around creatures and spells that benefit from lands entering the battlefield. Lotus Cobra is a standout performer, generating extra mana with each landfall trigger and enabling explosive plays. Tireless Provisioner creates a horde of tokens with each subsequent landfall. Oracle of Mul Daya provides additional land drops from the top of your library, ensuring a steady stream of landfall triggers. To maximize landfall triggers, the deck includes several ways to play multiple lands each turn. Exploration allow for additional land drops, while Crucible of Worlds lets you replay lands from your graveyard, including fetch lands for repeated triggers. Courser of Kruphix provides life gain and card advantage by letting you play lands from the top of your library. Card draw and filtering are crucial to keep the lands flowing and find your key pieces. Sylvan Library and Tireless Tracker offer powerful card advantage engines. The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride combines land drops with card draw, drawing a card whenever a land goes to your graveyard, which synergizes well with fetch lands and Crucible of Worlds.
Sakura-Tribe Elder is another excellent ramp card that can sacrifice itself to fetch a land, triggering landfall and ramping simultaneously. This Decks plays more like a Control or value deck, but has the possibility to lock opponents out of the game with Strip Mine and Wrenn and Six or win a swift Combo win with Dark Depths and Thespian's Stage.