The whole point of having a cube and acquiring and building it yourself. I first started my own right around 3 years ago and with all the continuous building have just recently gotten to the 50% mark for foils etc to pimp it out. It's one of those things that knowing what it took to accomplish that feat is a joy in of itself. Would it be cool to completely pimp it out in one shot, sure, but then you loose your drive to care much about it until a new set is released. Honestly one of the best parts about having a cube is the continuous drive to keep acquiring that next piece.
I have an EDH Cube and can't really see anything in a premade Cube that I would want, but I would absolutely buy one if they printed it - fake or real cards. The biggest problem I have with mine is that I can't really take it out to the local shop because of loss prevention issues. Because of that it gets played less than I would like.
It's not like it would be a real cube in the puritan sense, but it would be playable and I wouldn't worry about my set of duals or $100+ cards getting boosted.
The whole point of having a cube for me is acquiring and building it yourself.
FTFY
Certainly there is some level of satisfaction in building your own (that's true for most things you do yourself) but I think it's clear there is a non trivial amount of players who just enjoy drafting cubes because of the singleton nature and powerful interactions that just don't exist under normal set drafts. If they printed a MTGO cube product with gold borders I would snap buy that (as long as the price was affordable for a casual product).
Edit: Galspanic also raises a good point which is card value. Having a pre-made cube product would mean you could pull it out and play at your LGS with less worry about losing cards to thieves, especially if they are gold bordered and not tournament legal.
I could see a Cube Starter Kit, something a-kin to the Commander precons being something that could be marketable.
Obviously EVERY cube is unique; but I am sure there are cards one could consider "staples" for cubes.
The trick with a product like this is, how popular would it actually be? It isn't like EDH in that some people make 5, 10 or even 20 EDH decks so even veteran EDH players could be marketed into Commander Precon Decks. I would venture a guess most people do not own more than 1 cube? So the product is going to be geared towards people who currently do not own a Cube. You also need to set the MSRP at a price that isn't going to shy away people from purchasing it. I certainly wouldn't be paying $300 for lands and sleeves (if that is all the SCG kit contained?). That is a pretty steep price for a non-foil precon product.
If they printed the product, and it was a reasonable price, I would buy it.
However, I can't imagine that Wizards would every actually print the cube that people want.
I can't see them- even in gold borders and specialty backs printing ALL of the power, ALL of the duals, ALL of the fetchlands, and the cards that people would actually want this printed for.
I have a 720 card powered cube (with portal and un-cards), and it would not make me feel bad at all to see such a product, as like many people have said... it'd be nice to have something that I shove in a bag and take to EVERY event I go to and not have to worry about it disappearing.
Several grand going missing compared to a couple hundred going missing is a HUGE difference.
Theft is on the rise, and running a cube draft frequently puts a sign above your head saying "I'm carrying at least a few grand in cards".
I think the biggest nail in the coffin really that a cube is one of those things that not everyone is going to buy, and within a playgroup, not every player is going to want or need to have their own cube. I do realize that there would be cross-format interest because if it was the product people wanted, you've have a lot of EDH players buying one to gut for it's landbase, people gutting it for it's duals, etc.
In fact, Magic the Gathering: The Cube really seems like just about the perfect box product for Hasbro to be able to sell to the mass market. It doesn't need to be updated frequently but can be updated enough to put another iteration on the shelves every few years. It gives mass market players just about the most impressive representation of what the game is.
Unfortunately, it also seems like a great way to really decrease interest in booster-based product. You can't continue to make cards that really shine in relation to the cube... an absolutely AMAZING set (like RTR, for instance) is lucky if it can have 20 cards crack the list.
It really is the sort of thing where there's such a delicate line to walk- you either make a product that really interests noone, or you undercut your mainline product. It's pretty much why I don't see such a product ever getting made, unless Wizards decides to give up the booster pack based distribution method.
(If Magic went "living card game" like Fantasy Flight Games model, you'd see this product out within a year)
What WOULD be cool for building a pauper cube would be a better way to place mass orders on SCG. If they offered a new interface to make assembling an order for 200+ individual cards simpler, I'd be all over that. But then again they probably already do and I'm just a simpleton when it comes to using the internets.
If you just send a list to Ben from SCG, he'll be able to get the cards together for you.
I think a starter kit, such as a cube skeleton with format staples, is a great idea and as someone who just recently built my first cube, I would still be interested. However I dont think Wizards would launch it cold turkey.
A premade cube whether it was Modern legal with reprints, or gold bordered Legacy/Vintage seems a likley product for Wizards to test the waters with. They already racknowledge the format online so its on their radar. Now if they did make a precon cube in any form and it was successful, I would bet we would get a new one every other year, and then we would see the potential for a starter kit featuring maybe 200 staple cards, some form of sleeves, lands and a box. I say this because I think wizards would be leery of selling something incomplete without a known market demand.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Your deck STILL needs more than 20 lands!
FLGS : Out of commision
Access to MTGO: Unavailable
Developing a EDH playgroup and loving every minute of it!
In my experience, the cube owner/designer always seems to have the edge when playing with it. They may not have intended to acquire this advantage, but it's largely built in once they memorize every single card/deck/synergy an opponent can or cannot have. This all depends on the individual and how they handle the advantage, of course. But being able to buy a core, unaltered cube starting point (or complete cube or whatever) would mitigate that.
It's widely known that [EDH] is very broken. Building a superdeck is quite easy. So what defines you as a player is [...] how you show restraint and creativity while still remaining a competitive player and a good sport.
the only problem with urza is that he is an oldwalker, so its abilities would be like:
+3: remove up to ten target permanents from the play
-2: win the game
-8: kick your opponents in the face, then win the game
starting loyalty: 100
I already own my cube, but if an official thing came out that was a replica of a MTGO cube (in paper), I'd totally buy it. It could have gold borders and even a special card-back reminiscent of world champ decks. However, I'd ONLY buy the thing if it contained all the goodies. I'm talking the equivalent of power, duals, fetches, planeswalkers, everything. It would be better than proxies while allowing the full "it's an actual card" experience. And I'd pay $$$ for it ($100-300 range). If it was a glorified commander pre-con, no. If it was a 'common only' cube, no. It would have to have all the bells and whistles. To be fair, I'd be comfortable with it being non-tournament-legal cards.
The whole point of having a cube and acquiring and building it yourself. I first started my own right around 3 years ago and with all the continuous building have just recently gotten to the 50% mark for foils etc to pimp it out. It's one of those things that knowing what it took to accomplish that feat is a joy in of itself. Would it be cool to completely pimp it out in one shot, sure, but then you loose your drive to care much about it until a new set is released. Honestly one of the best parts about having a cube is the continuous drive to keep acquiring that next piece.
I hate people like you. Your basically saying "people that dont have time or know where to start with their cube shouldn't be able to cube because it makes my cube less special". I don't care how pimped your cube is, or how you went about acquiring your cards for it. Even if everyone buys up a premade cube, there's almost 0% chance that it stays the same list for everyone. Sure you like the building process, some of us just want to cube without that massive hurdle of obtaining piles of cards over however long it takes to find all the cards you need.
I hate people like you. Your basically saying "people that dont have time or know where to start with their cube shouldn't be able to cube because it makes my cube less special". I don't care how pimped your cube is, or how you went about acquiring your cards for it. Even if everyone buys up a premade cube, there's almost 0% chance that it stays the same list for everyone. Sure you like the building process, some of us just want to cube without that massive hurdle of obtaining piles of cards over however long it takes to find all the cards you need.
I don't know. Even now because of the effects of the "Hive Mind", there is significant amount of overlap in the design of many cubes.
I may be wrongheaded in my thinking, but I'd expect if you just handed players a premade 360 card powered cube, the effects of the hive mind would be even greater as you're giving these to people with no emotional investment to it. I'd expect you'd see a lot of math, less heart.
The community would see a whole lot more noise-to-signal, as such a product would place a lot of people into the dedicated cube forums that might be grear players- but great players can be absolutely horrid designers, but backed and emboldened by a flood of same-minded players- the discourse shifts.
Hell, even the MTGO cube gave a glimpse into that.
Now imagine a product that does a similar thing on a far larger scale.
I'd actually even worry about the splash damage it would have on a lot of EDH groups- making lots of these cards far more available would lead to a lot of players making easy changes by putting these obviously more powerful cards in, possibly significantly reducing deck diversity- which is a shame... Having ingenuity smothered by pure power makes the format as a whole less interesting.
I'd actually even worry about the splash damage it would have on a lot of EDH groups- making lots of these cards far more available would lead to a lot of players making easy changes by putting these obviously more powerful cards in, possibly significantly reducing deck diversity- which is a shame... Having ingenuity smothered by pure power makes the format as a whole less interesting.
Sorry if I don't care about any effects had on commander, I dont find the format fun and don't think one format should hold the format I want to play back. I would buy a pre-built gold border cube, change some cards, and enjoy it. Like suggested, it would be a gold bordered cube, so if you dont want them in your edh games, ban them out, simple as that.
It's not like it would be a real cube in the puritan sense, but it would be playable and I wouldn't worry about my set of duals or $100+ cards getting boosted.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
FTFY
Certainly there is some level of satisfaction in building your own (that's true for most things you do yourself) but I think it's clear there is a non trivial amount of players who just enjoy drafting cubes because of the singleton nature and powerful interactions that just don't exist under normal set drafts. If they printed a MTGO cube product with gold borders I would snap buy that (as long as the price was affordable for a casual product).
Edit: Galspanic also raises a good point which is card value. Having a pre-made cube product would mean you could pull it out and play at your LGS with less worry about losing cards to thieves, especially if they are gold bordered and not tournament legal.
Obviously EVERY cube is unique; but I am sure there are cards one could consider "staples" for cubes.
The trick with a product like this is, how popular would it actually be? It isn't like EDH in that some people make 5, 10 or even 20 EDH decks so even veteran EDH players could be marketed into Commander Precon Decks. I would venture a guess most people do not own more than 1 cube? So the product is going to be geared towards people who currently do not own a Cube. You also need to set the MSRP at a price that isn't going to shy away people from purchasing it. I certainly wouldn't be paying $300 for lands and sleeves (if that is all the SCG kit contained?). That is a pretty steep price for a non-foil precon product.
WBG Karador GBW
R Daretti R
RG Omnath GR
WRG Modern Burn GRW
WB Modern Tokens BW
DCI Rules Advisor as of 5/18/2015
However, I can't imagine that Wizards would every actually print the cube that people want.
I can't see them- even in gold borders and specialty backs printing ALL of the power, ALL of the duals, ALL of the fetchlands, and the cards that people would actually want this printed for.
I have a 720 card powered cube (with portal and un-cards), and it would not make me feel bad at all to see such a product, as like many people have said... it'd be nice to have something that I shove in a bag and take to EVERY event I go to and not have to worry about it disappearing.
Several grand going missing compared to a couple hundred going missing is a HUGE difference.
Theft is on the rise, and running a cube draft frequently puts a sign above your head saying "I'm carrying at least a few grand in cards".
I think the biggest nail in the coffin really that a cube is one of those things that not everyone is going to buy, and within a playgroup, not every player is going to want or need to have their own cube. I do realize that there would be cross-format interest because if it was the product people wanted, you've have a lot of EDH players buying one to gut for it's landbase, people gutting it for it's duals, etc.
In fact, Magic the Gathering: The Cube really seems like just about the perfect box product for Hasbro to be able to sell to the mass market. It doesn't need to be updated frequently but can be updated enough to put another iteration on the shelves every few years. It gives mass market players just about the most impressive representation of what the game is.
Unfortunately, it also seems like a great way to really decrease interest in booster-based product. You can't continue to make cards that really shine in relation to the cube... an absolutely AMAZING set (like RTR, for instance) is lucky if it can have 20 cards crack the list.
It really is the sort of thing where there's such a delicate line to walk- you either make a product that really interests noone, or you undercut your mainline product. It's pretty much why I don't see such a product ever getting made, unless Wizards decides to give up the booster pack based distribution method.
(If Magic went "living card game" like Fantasy Flight Games model, you'd see this product out within a year)
If you just send a list to Ben from SCG, he'll be able to get the cards together for you.
Juju Alters - Altered MTG Cards
A premade cube whether it was Modern legal with reprints, or gold bordered Legacy/Vintage seems a likley product for Wizards to test the waters with. They already racknowledge the format online so its on their radar. Now if they did make a precon cube in any form and it was successful, I would bet we would get a new one every other year, and then we would see the potential for a starter kit featuring maybe 200 staple cards, some form of sleeves, lands and a box. I say this because I think wizards would be leery of selling something incomplete without a known market demand.
FLGS : Out of commision
Access to MTGO: Unavailable
Developing a EDH playgroup and loving every minute of it!
Full power gold border cube would be awesome.
I hate people like you. Your basically saying "people that dont have time or know where to start with their cube shouldn't be able to cube because it makes my cube less special". I don't care how pimped your cube is, or how you went about acquiring your cards for it. Even if everyone buys up a premade cube, there's almost 0% chance that it stays the same list for everyone. Sure you like the building process, some of us just want to cube without that massive hurdle of obtaining piles of cards over however long it takes to find all the cards you need.
I don't know. Even now because of the effects of the "Hive Mind", there is significant amount of overlap in the design of many cubes.
I may be wrongheaded in my thinking, but I'd expect if you just handed players a premade 360 card powered cube, the effects of the hive mind would be even greater as you're giving these to people with no emotional investment to it. I'd expect you'd see a lot of math, less heart.
The community would see a whole lot more noise-to-signal, as such a product would place a lot of people into the dedicated cube forums that might be grear players- but great players can be absolutely horrid designers, but backed and emboldened by a flood of same-minded players- the discourse shifts.
Hell, even the MTGO cube gave a glimpse into that.
Now imagine a product that does a similar thing on a far larger scale.
I'd actually even worry about the splash damage it would have on a lot of EDH groups- making lots of these cards far more available would lead to a lot of players making easy changes by putting these obviously more powerful cards in, possibly significantly reducing deck diversity- which is a shame... Having ingenuity smothered by pure power makes the format as a whole less interesting.
Sorry if I don't care about any effects had on commander, I dont find the format fun and don't think one format should hold the format I want to play back. I would buy a pre-built gold border cube, change some cards, and enjoy it. Like suggested, it would be a gold bordered cube, so if you dont want them in your edh games, ban them out, simple as that.