Cavalcade of Calamity and Build Arounds – One Card a Day

Build arounds are cards that have a whole archetype centered around them. Examples from retail draft are Lightning Rift in Onslaught, Dampen Thought in Champions of Kamigawa, Spider Spawning and Burning Vengeance in Innistrad. They are a space-efficient way of adding more layers (or hidden archetypes, or depth, or whatever you want to call it) to a drafting environment.

Math favors retail limited

Build arounds work better in retail limited than cube because of probability. In retail limited, build arounds are typically in the uncommon slot. Uncommons normally appear at expected rates around 1.0 per 8-player pod (Innistrad was around 1.07, Zendikar Rising was 0.9). The expected number does not tell the whole story, though. There is a ~29% chance that at least two Burning Vengeances will be opened in an 8-person triple Innistrad pod and a ~9% chance that at least three will! This is counterbalanced by the ~34% of pods in which no Burning Vengeance is opened at all.

Common build arounds are intended even more to be used in multiples. Look at the expected distribution of number of Timberpack Wolves opened in a Magic Origins pod:

0 Timberpack Wolf: 8.2%
1 Timberpack Wolf: 21.6%
2 Timberpack Wolf: 27.3%
3 Timberpack Wolf: 22.0%
4 Timberpack Wolf: 12.7%
5 Timberpack Wolf: 5.6%
6 Timberpack Wolf: 1.9%
7 or more Timberpack Wolf: 0.7%

These numbers create variety. In the case of the common Timberwatch Wolf, more than half the time, 2 or fewer are opened, but once in a while, someone will draft an absurd 6 Timberpack Wolf deck. In the case of the uncommon Burning Vengeance, about a third of the time 0 will appear and it’s like it doesn’t exist. Another third of the time, 1 will be opened and probably not played. But then, a third of the time, 2+ will be in the pod, and the deck is there for the taking.

Build arounds in cube

Cubes do not have this binomial distribution mechanism to make build arounds appear in multiples in some drafts. If you have a single copy of a card in your cube, you will never get to pick two of them.

I am using Cube Occasionals in the Elegant Cube as a similar mechanism. Like I said in Braids, Cabal Minion and Stax – One Card a Day, when you see Smokestack, an occasional card (8.4% chance to appear), you can look for Braids, a core card (90% chance to appear), pair them up, and give Stax a try.

Another way of introducing multiple build arounds in cube is breaking singleton or running functionally similar cards (Wildfire / Burning of Xinye). This is effective in supporting the archetype, but does not allow for variety – the deck is rarely not there. Squadroned picks is another similar option that requires changing the draft structure.

Otherwise, the key to good build arounds in a singleton cube is to run build arounds that produce decks that are functional without them.

For example, a Burning Vengeance deck is a spells decks, and could have redundancy in the form of Docent of Perfection and Young Pyromancer, or simply be a control deck as flashback spells are well suited for them. Another example: a Birthing Pod deck is a midrange deck skewed towards enters-the-battlefield and death triggers, and could run Conjurer’s Closet or Blood Artist for redundancy.

Build arounds that don’t require a specific environment like Birthing Pod are very rare. Most requires an environment with a certain mechanic, like Burning Vengeance, which requires lots of flashback, or Knowledge and Power, which requires a high density of scry.

Why I’m running Cavalcade of Calamity

Cavalcade was a build-around in Ravnica Allegiance draft, and also a build-around in constructed – see the 2019 Mono-Red Cavalcade deck that Lee-Shi Tian played in the Mythic Championship V and top-8’ed with.

A Cavalcade deck can be functional without drawing the card itself because it is basically a modified tokens/wide deck. While in Standard, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell acted as redundancy for the deck. In cube, cards like Rally the Peasants and Glorious Anthem can act as redundancy for Cavalcade of Calamity. My actual reason to add Cavalcade is to stretch the tokens archetype from white/green into red. Red already had plenty of token makers; by adding a tokens payoff, it forms the triangle archetype and can be combined with white, green or both.