Drafting Aggro in Cube: Cheap Threats, Reach, and Discipline

Welcome to Level 3. Level 2 gave you the tools: signals, pick orders, mana, and play. Now you put them to work on specific decks, starting with the fastest.

Aggro has a reputation in Cube. In some Cubes it is the best deck at the table. In others it is a trap that leaves you with a pile of small creatures facing bigger ones. The difference is mostly in how you draft it.

Why aggro works in Cube

Cube decks are full of powerful expensive cards. That is aggro’s opening. A control deck that keeps a hand of strong five-drops can lose before it casts them. An aggro deck turns the opponent’s power into a liability by ending the game first.

It also has a practical edge. Many drafters prize big flashy cards and let cheap creatures go late, so the aggro drafter can often collect its core cards in the middle and late picks.

What the deck needs

A working aggro deck usually looks like this:

• About 16 lands. The mana lesson showed that 16 lands still give you three lands by turn three about 80% of the time, and aggro rarely needs a fourth.
• 14 to 17 creatures, most of them costing one or two mana.
• A curve that stops early. Few cards above three mana, and those few should win the game when cast.
• Cheap removal to clear the way for attackers.
• Reach: spells that deal damage directly, creatures with haste, or evasion such as flying. Reach finishes games when the ground is blocked.

Two-drops are your premium picks

A one-drop starts your clock. A two-drop keeps it going and is the play you most need on curve. In most Cubes, good two-mana attackers are also less plentiful than you would like, so they go early once the lane is open.

For an aggro drafter, the strong two-drop often beats the strong four-drop. The four-drop may be the better card, but you can cut four-drops. You cannot replace a missing turn two.

What makes a good aggro card

When you judge a card for aggro, ask:

• Does it deal damage early? A creature with 2 power on turn one or two deals that every turn it lives.
• Does it stay relevant? Cheap creatures that grow, have evasion, or give value when they enter keep mattering after turn four.
• Does it help finish? A burn spell that can hit a player, or a card that pumps your team, turns a nearly won game into a won one.

Avoid creatures that only block well. They are in the wrong deck.

Equipment and pump

Many Cubes include equipment that makes any creature a threat, and cards that boost your whole team. These are strong in aggro because they turn your many small creatures into fewer, larger problems for your opponent. Take one or two. Too many and you have an army of equipment with nothing to carry it.

Which colors

Which colors support aggro depends on the Cube. In many Cubes, white and red have the most cheap creatures and burn, and aggressive decks form around them. But check yours. The three speeds lesson and our guide to reading a Cube list show how to count a Cube’s cheap creatures before you draft.

Reading the lane

Aggro is a lane that rewards commitment, because its pieces only make sense together. That makes reading the table important:

• Moving in: cheap creatures in one color arriving at picks five through nine are a strong sign the lane is open.
• Leaving: if you have only three or four cheap creatures at the end of pack one, and they are not flowing, pivot. A half-built aggro deck is weaker than a midrange deck built from the same picks.

Two aggro drafters next to each other often both end up with weak decks. If your right neighbor is clearly taking the same cards in pack one, consider moving.

Playing it

Aggro decks win by pressure. Two habits matter most:

• Count the damage. Know how many turns you need to win and how many your opponent needs to stabilize.
• Do not overextend into a sweeper. If the opponent’s deck may have a spell that destroys every creature, hold one or two back when you are already ahead.