Tinkerer’s Cube Draft Allied Color Archetype Breakdown

Hopefully everyone is as excited as I am that the Arena Cube is back! The current version is the Tinkerer’s Cube, which despite looking similar to the traditional Arena Cube is actually way less focused on individually powerful cards. Instead, players who prioritize synergies and specific archetype combos will be the ones enjoying the format the most and winning the most.

It is incredibly daunting to dive into a cube when you haven’t played it before, but that’s why you’re here! I’ve been cubing like a madman and am ready to show everything that I learned so that you can crush the competition next time you fire up the Tinkerer’s Cube.

I wanted to thoroughly break down the specific archetypes so that you could understand which are the best and worst. That and I also want to help steer you away from taking filler and unplayable cards just because they seem like they would go well in a particular archetype. I’m gonna start off with the allied color pairs today and tackle the enemy color pairs in my next article, so let’s get the cube fun started and dive on in!

Tinkerer’s Cube Draft Enemy Color Archetype Breakdown

1. Azorius Blink
2. Selesnya Enchantress
3. Dimir Midrange
4. Rakdos Sacrifice
5. Gruul Aggro

Azorius Blink

One of, if not the most in-your-face archetypes of the entire cube. However, don’t feel like you’re being lured into a trap like you were with Azorious in DND: Forgotten Realms limited. In this iteration of the Tinker’s Cube, Azorius blink is heavily supported and has access to some of the best cards in the entire cube. Here are the key cards of the archetype:

• Soulherder
• Restoration Angel
• Ephemerate
• Thraben Inspector
• Momentary Blink
• Charming Prince
• Blade Splicer
• Master Splicer
• Emiel the Blessed
• Restoration Angel
• Angel of Invention
• Teleportation Circle
• Barrin, Tolarian Archmage
• Whirler Rogue
• Mulldrifter
• Shipwreck Dowser
• Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign
• Solemn Simulacrum
• Meteor Golem
• Filigree Familiar

These are the great playables that synergize with all the blink support in the cube. It’s a ton of cards since any creature with a powerful come-into-play effect is going to be fantastic in a blink-based archetype. What pushes Azorius over the edge is that it can make great use of cards that would normally be mediocre, like Meteor Golem. It’s normally pretty middling in a cube as powerful as this one since there are so many game-ending options in the seven drop slot.

However since there are so many constant sources of blink in Azorius, Meteor Golem becomes one of your most powerful win conditions because when it is combined with Soulherder, Emiel the Blessed, Teleportation Circle, or Ephemerate, the game pretty much ends. Azorius also has the added benefit of being able to succeed without having a blink based plan. Azorius Fliers with Curiosity, Staggering Insight, and Curious Obsession has been another great deck for me because of the lack of removal in the cube, which makes it easy to use a flier with a Curiosity to run away with the game.

Cards that look enticing for this archetype but are actually pretty poor are: 

Kor Skyfisher: This isn’t Zendikar limited where a 2/3 Flying for two is the bee’s knees. It’s way too slow and the fact that you can’t play it early where it would shine makes it an overall anemic card.

Basri’s Acolyte: A trend you will see during my reviews is how low I rate the four drops that aren’t the cream of the crop. There’s a glut of available midgame plays in this format, and the ETB and body are just too weak on Basri’s Acolyte to justify using a blink effect on it. There’s also no +1+1 counter synergies in this cube, which makes the effect even more underwhelming. 

Body Double: Sure it looks powerful, but Azorius can’t kill the opponents creaures! That means that you have to hope to have a great creature in the yard when you draw this, which will often mean that it’ll be left rotting in your hand. Blinking it in theory is great but in actuality never works out the way you want it to.

Rescuer Sphinx: Just a big Kor Skyfisher right here. It’s clunky and it not what you want to be doing for four mana in this format.

Illusionist’s Stratagem: If you end up having a deck where every creature has great ETB’s, then I say run this. However that’s not going to happen very often and Illusionists Stratagem suffers from being way too clunky. What makes Ephemerate and Momentary Blink so good is that it’s easy to hold them up, which gives your blink spell the dual purpose of getting more ETB triggers and also protecting your creatures from removal. Too much has to go right for Stratagem to shine.

Selesnya Enchantress

From one of my favorite archetypes to one of my least favorite. Enchantress is rarely open, and most of the great cards for the archetype are heavily sought after by other players. Archon of Sun’s grace, Cast out, Faith’s Fetters, Wolfwillow Haven, Sparring Regime, etc are all in high demand, so don’t expect to get these key pieces late. Here are the cards you’ll need to make this deck work:

• Sparring Regime
• Archon of Sun’s Grace
• Cast Out
• Faith’s Fetters
• Cathars’ Crusade
• Wolfwillow Haven
• Setessan Champion
• Mantle of the Wolf
• Sythis, Harvest’s Hand
• Calix, Destiny’s Hand
• Battle for Bretagard

I often prioritize Cathars’ Crusade pretty highly in this archetype since it has lots of incidental cards that make lots of creatures, like Archon of Sun’s Grace, Omen of the Sun, Battle for Bretagard, and Mantle of the Wolf. What’s made this archetype fall short for me is the lack of removal, the lack of synergistic early plays, and no catch up mechanisms like board wipes. It is really fun when you get it together though, but just make sure that you’re avoiding these stinkers:

Trial of Strength: Enchantment does not always equal playable in this archetype. A three mana 4/2 is atrocious, and even if you have a couple Cartouche I’m still not convinced. There’s also a ton of bounce in this format, which makes tokens way worse.

Colossification: This card was never playable and it especially isn’t in this format.

Cleric Class: Way too slow and way too mediocre of an effect. The only time I would play this is if I had Archon of Sun’s Grace, Setessan Champion, and Sythis. Otherwise let someone else fall for the trap.

Novice Knight: Potential board card against really quick aggro decks, but don’t get fooled into thinking that there are enough playable auras to make this work.

Dimir Midrange

Dimir is all over the place in Tinker’s Cube. There’s reanimator, artifact matters, saboteur, and control support in it, which makes me lean towards drafting midrange when I’m Dimir. That pretty much means that I just take a bunch of good blue and black cards and hope for the best! Here are some of those cards:

• Hard Evidence
• Blink of an Eye
• Think Twice
• Compulsive Research
• Hornswoggle
• Neutralize
• Murmuring Mystic
• Whirler Rogue
• Mulldrifter
• Shipwreck Dowser
• The Mirari Conjecture
• Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign
• Scholar of the Lost Trove
• Waker of Waves
• Multiple Choice
• Stolen by the Fae
• Finale of Revelation
• Sedgemoor Witch
• Davriel, Soul Broker
• Yahenni’s Expertise
• The Haunt of Hightower
• Silumgar’s Command
• Mazemind Tome
• Treasure Map
• Solemn Simulacrum

Drafting Dimir is the closest to drafting a traditional limited set since you’re pretty much ignoring card synergies and instead are focusing almost entirely on individual card power level. I like counter spells a good deal in this format since most of the back breaking cards are at least four mana. That means that you’re able to get tempo out of your counter spells since most of them cost three. Also, I will continue to shout this from the rooftops until people listen; Whirler Rogue is PHENOMENAL in every deck. Sure it’s especially great with random blink effects, but the rate alone makes it near impossible to answer efficiently. I keep getting it like last pick and the disrespect towards my whirler buddy over here needs to stop! On the other hand, these should be the cards that should go 15th pick:

Beyeen Veil: The only spell land that is unplayable in my opinion. The effect is so bad and that means that most of the time this will just be a strictly worse island.

Countervailing Winds: This card isn’t unplayable, but it’s significantly worse from its three mana counterparts. Not being able to cast your counter early is beyond awful and will often lead to you being forced to cycle this trash Convolute.

Flood of Tears: I have no clue how you could even come close to getting this to work. Upheaval this is not, and it’s way to expensive and situational for my tastes.

Rakdos Sacrifice

Unlike traditional limited formats, this version of Rakdos sacrifice is based entirely around Mayhem Devil and Blood Artist effects instead of Act of Treason. This archetype has the best removal, planeswalkers, and access to some of the best creatures in the entire cube, which all combine to make Rakdos one of the best archetypes. The objective is to peck in early with some aggressive creatures and then ping and drain the opponent to death with the huge board of creatures and treasures that you’ll eventually amass. Since there is so little cheap removal and board wipes in Tinker’s Cube, it’s difficult to disrupt the engines that Rakdos is trying to set up. Here’s the key cards:

• Gutterbones
• Spark Harvest
• Blood Artist
• Scrapheap Scrounger
• Skullport Merchant
• Falkenrath Noble
• Davriel, Soul Broker
• Kels, Fight Fixer
• Rankle, Master of Pranks
• Lolth, Spider Queen
• Witch of the Moors
• Harvester of Souls
• Mask of Immolation
• Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
• Seasoned Pyromancer
• Havoc Jester
• Siege-Gang Commander
• Mayhem Devil
• Orcus, Prince of Undeath

A lot of these cards are fantastic on their own, but also just happen to synergize with the sacrifice and creature-dying payoffs. A card that really has impressed me so far is Kels, Fight Fixer, who I had never heard of prior to drafting it. Dominating combat by being Indestructible and triggering off ANY time that you sacrifice a creature makes her a key source of card advantage for Rakdos. It’s incredibly important to keep in mind that you need a critical mass of cheap creatures like Gutterbones, Scrapheap Scrounger, and even Sanitarium Skeleton to fuel your sacrifice payoffs, otherwise the deck just won’t work. Definitely keep these following cards out of your Rakdos decks though:

Dragon’s Rage Channeler: It’s difficult to have Delirium early and the only non-creature spells in your Rakdos decks should be powerful removal and planeswalkers. Busted in Modern, but very underwhelming in Tinker’s Cube.

Witch’s Cauldron: Way too expensive to activate and it does literally nothing on its own. There are plenty of ways to sacrifice creatures for value, so I would always prioritize cheap creatures over effects like this.

Parasitic Implant: I know that it’s kind of removal and also triggers Mayhem Devil and Blood Artist while giving you more sacarfice fodder, but this card is just so expensive and underpowered. I need my removal to kill a creature when I cast it, not on my next turn. 

Gruul Aggro

The easiest and most simple archetype in the entire cube, and you can only go so wrong by playing with a bunch of efficient aggressive creatures. The only time you shouldn’t just draft traditional Gruul Aggro is if you have Sarkhan’s Unsealing and more expensive heavy hitters like Star of Extinction and Pelakka Wurm, in which case you could lean more into multicolored ramp. However. most of the time your Gruul decks will be aggressive, and these are the cards you’ll need to make your deck shine:

• Grim Lavamancer
• Battle Cry Goblin
• Earthshaker Khenra
• Magda, Brazen Outlaw
• Rimrock Knight
• Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• Pia Nalaar
• Seasoned Pyromancer
• Krenko, Mob Boss
• Sarkhan’s Unsealing
• Brash Taunter
• Ox of Agonas
• Siege-Gang Commander
• Terror of Mount Velus
• Volcanic Salvo
• Pelt Collector
• Nessian Hornbeetle
• Prosperous Innkeeper
• Reclamation Sage
• Tireless Provisioner
• Esika’s Chariot
• Gnarled Professor
• Mantle of the Wolf
• Neyith of the Dire Hunt
• Timeless Witness
• Verdant Embrace
• Return of the Wildspeaker
• Primal Might
• Voracious Hydra
• Samut, the Tested
• Zilortha, Strength Incarnate

There’s lot of great Gruul playables since most red and green creatures in the cube meet the criteria of being an above-rate beater. Something to keep in mind in Gruul is that just because a creature isn’t aggressive does not mean that you aren’t interested in it. For example, Timeless Witness is pretty slow but it’s still a pushed source of card advantage, so you definitely take it highly. Prosperous Innkeeper might only be a 1/1, but it ramps you to your disgustingly powerful four drops like Esika’s Chariot while also ensuring that you never lose the damage race. Just make sure that you’re keeping these trap cards out of your traditional Gruul decks:

Irresistible Prey: You just don’t need these super situational effects in your cube decks. I know that it cycles, but it also opens you up to being blown out with removal while not really offering an effect that’s worth the risk. 

Intrepid Outlander: It’s not that Intrepid Outlander is awful or anything, but venturing into the dungeon just is not a powerful effect when there are so few other venturing cards. I’d much prefer playing the other two drops that are available, but if you’re desperate for an early play, feel free to jam this. Just don’t waste a pick taking it early.

Fierce Witchstalker: Don’t get fooled into playing a card just because it was great in its respective format! Most cards in this cube are significantly more powerful than the cards in a traditional limited set, which leads to a 4/4 Trample being outclassed almost immediately.

That about does it for the each allied color pair in Tinker’s Cube! Look out for my enemy colored breakdown in the next few days and best of luck crushing your Tinker’s Cube drafts!

Thanks for reading!