I have been reading through this thread and pondering fresh cube ideas. I was leaning towards a core set cube, but then came up with an idea for a "Battle Cruiser Magic" cube, which led to picking some mechanics which then led to Theros (mostly the set, dipping to BNG and JOU) and Rise of the Eldrazi only cube, where I ended up with the idea of "Gods vs Eldrazi" cube. I am starting on it on my other monitor as I post. I think there should be good synergy and will feel pretty balanced. Totem Armor, Bestow, Level Up, Monstrosity, Eldrazi, Devotion and possibly Heroic. Also I have been having a blast with non-singleton cubes (I know it is blasphemy to some, it was to me too before I tried it), so I am going to plan on that. Ideas and inspirations encouraged! Thanks!
I hate to necro this but while searching for stuff I found this thread. I've had so many strange cube ideas, a full snow cube, ravnica and mirrodin cube (using both of their respective blocks), colorless cube, and a core set cube which I genuinely wanted to make and then finally did!
A cube block made out of 3 different cubes. Similar to a block (e.g. Theros, Born & Journey), you draft three cubes (each with a certain theme) in order. One booster per cube.
Alternatively, players may chose which boosters to pick first of all (there could be a planeswalker cube booster, an aggro booster or whatsoever).
I love this idea. You and I actually had this same idea independently, and then I discovered that you posted this here and it made me wonder if I read it and then later had the idea as if it were my own. In any case, the first cube will be 540 and the two small set cubes will be 360. I'll get back to everyone in a year or so when I have it sorted out how to distribute cards and themes.
Here's an odd one: a cube in which each color has art of a certain artistic style.
Example: Green is all Rebecca Guay, Drew Tucker, Terese Nielsen and such.
One artist per color probably couldn't be done right? Even at 360?
My favorite artist is Matt Cavotta (2nd is Guay) and Cavotta has 175 total cards (Not counting 2 flip card's flipped sides and a mountain) but I still plan on collecting all his cards and maybe we'll try out a cube with them. It supports 3, almost 4, people lol. An artist cube seems fun and I'm all about unique cubes.
A cube block made out of 3 different cubes. Similar to a block (e.g. Theros, Born & Journey), you draft three cubes (each with a certain theme) in order. One booster per cube.
Alternatively, players may chose which boosters to pick first of all (there could be a planeswalker cube booster, an aggro booster or whatsoever).
I love this idea. You and I actually had this same idea independently, and then I discovered that you posted this here and it made me wonder if I read it and then later had the idea as if it were my own. In any case, the first cube will be 540 and the two small set cubes will be 360. I'll get back to everyone in a year or so when I have it sorted out how to distribute cards and themes.
Me and my buddies were talking about a Morph Cube yesterday aka a cube that supports morph more, has a few more morph creatures and some hate/synergies for morph. I then came across a user on here that made one but its being worked on for Khans. After Khans and everything I may come back and try my hand at one.
How about a "Construct Your Creature" cube that consists of Vanilla/French Vanilla Creatures, Auras and Bestow Creatures, and Equipment? You start out with a bunch of basic creatures and build them up!
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I'm currently working on a small set called From the Catacombs.
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Me and my buddies were talking about a Morph Cube yesterday aka a cube that supports morph more, has a few more morph creatures and some hate/synergies for morph. I then came across a user on here that made one but its being worked on for Khans. After Khans and everything I may come back and try my hand at one.
If you google it, NinjaBob had/has a morph cube. If you subscribe to the cube subreddit, it should be on the sidebar as well.
Me and my buddies were talking about a Morph Cube yesterday aka a cube that supports morph more, has a few more morph creatures and some hate/synergies for morph. I then came across a user on here that made one but its being worked on for Khans. After Khans and everything I may come back and try my hand at one.
If you google it, NinjaBob had/has a morph cube. If you subscribe to the cube subreddit, it should be on the sidebar as well.
Yes I did find it a while back, am subbed and awaiting the new creation after Khans
I was thinking about making a cube that is entirely centered around graveyard shenanigans, but red and white seem to have much fewer cards that interact with the graveyard, so I had the idea of making it sultai colored
Red and white can be used as the foil colors to the BUG graveyard decks, and they also have plenty of creatures that reanimator decks would love to get their hands on. A graveyard cube might skew black, but I wouldn't exclude red and white were I to build one.
White has plenty of excellent graveyard matters cards like Sanctum Gargoyle, Miraculous Recovery, Sun Titan, Karmic Guide, Auramancer/Treasure Hunter, Angel of Serenity, and Reveillark. Not to mention that it's the premiere color for graveyard hate with cards like Rest in Peace and Angel of Finality. There are plenty of red enablers for graveyard based strategies, particularly, sac outlets like Greater Gargodon and Goblin Bombardment, and discard outlets like Firestorm and looters like Academy Raider or Rummaging Goblin. Red is also chock full of creatures and spells that return themselves from the yard, like Squee, Shard Phoenix, Pyrewild Shaman and Hammer of Bogardan. Not to mention that there are plenty of Flashback spells in both colors. For more ideas for white and red spells that could contribute to this cube, check here and here.
I hope you post your cube list when it's finished, it sounds really interesting!
No One has posted for a while here, but 1 Idea we have tried with, is draft you opponents deck, then before the match, you switch card pools and build the best deck you can with what your opponent drafted. The Idea being that you want to pick the worst cards, but if you have a strong cube, your last draft choices can be a killer. Do you take Grave Titan or Balance?
Well, it's probably not the strangest kind of cube you will hear about, but I'm determined to build, someday, a nostalgia-cube with cards coming only from the expansions I learnt Magic with, id est 4th edition/Ice Age/Alliances/Fallen/Chronicles (Homelands ? Well, maybe not... :)).
Shivan Dragon & royal assasin ruling the place, Icy manipulator freezing everyone, Ernham Djinn back ! I can't wait to build it
Size would be defined depending on the numbers of potential players, but a 400/500 cards cube seems possible.
i know i'm replying to a 4-year old post but i just can't resist responding when i saw your post because i just spent the entire night last sunday working on this nostalgia-cube with cards only from the expansions i first started learning with which are exactly the expansions you mentioned(seems like we both started playing at around the same time eh?)
I am working on a cube idea that my friends and I have wanted to do for AGES, but couldn't get a good enough card pool to do so.
Were trying to build a cube designed around Unglued, Unhinged, Conspiracy and Take the Crown cards, specifically the ones that you can only use (at least fully to their potential) in drafting. So you will have most conspiracy cards that deal with drafting and such, actual conspiracies, and filled with funny unglued and unhinged cards. I will also be including the MTG Holiday promos (I only have a Stocking Tiger atm but I am trying my best to find people with the promos so I don't have to flat out buy them)
The cube seems difficult to balance but I think that is half the fun, being an unbalanced wacky cube. We are still debating certain things though, like whether to include conspiracies just in packs like normal cards or 1 per pack. We also debated adding some consistency by bending the rules and including cards that we have from the World Championship decks, since "technically" you can't play with them which makes them fun for the cube, but we aren't sure which power levels for those cards we should add and which ones we shouldn't.
Its a work in progress, but it seems like it'll pay off for the shenanigans alone that'll come along with it.
Its a work in progress, but it seems like it'll pay off for the shenanigans alone that'll come along with it.
It might be worth your while to check out the Mtg Reddit cube forums, and see if folks have come up with any interesting ideas for crazy conspiracy cubes over there. Take the Crown in particular seems to have awakened a lot of folks to the fun and potential of cube, and there are some real feeding frenzies of activity on reddit, as people start consolidating their recently acquired draft matters cards and figuring out the configuration that's right for their group.
I think, unfortunately, refining and balancing a conspiracy-centric cube is going to have to be an personal, trial by error situation, and very few generalities will likely be available online. The variance and power level of the conspiracies alone will preclude the ability of people to come to objective agreement on what to include/not include. Add unglued and unhinged cards on top of that.... jesus....
To anyone interested in wacky theme cubes, I have several below.
Even my Main Cube could be considered crazy, since it's 1550+ cards. The rest all exist on Cubetutor, not paper, but assembling one or two of the better ones in paper form is a goal on my mind. So here are some wacky cube ideas, fleshed out and balanced as well as I could.
The Creatureless Cube (715): Pretty straightforward. Win with creature tokens, burn, mill, or alt-win-cons.
The Wastes Cube (615): One of the stranger ones. In this cube, you have to draft all colored lands that you wish to play. You have as many wastes as you like, but basics must be drafted. As such, colors are a luxury only played when you need them.
Jester's Cube I (550): A Jester's Cube as I call it is generated randomly with some guidance. This one has extensive preening. Jester's Cube II (360): This one is very raw and random. Jester's Cube III (500): This one is most tightly controlled, and has cards generated with specific color, curve, and rarities to maintain balance. It's non-singleton.
The Mythic Cube (405): Is built out of cards with a mythic rare symbol. This one was the greatest challenge to balance, since the pool is so limited.
Mighty Morphers (470): A morph cube. I see this was recently discussed. There are several different directions you could go, though.
Assemble The Machine (375): A non-singleton cube built around cards that specifically care about each other.
So those are the ones I have worked on, but there are loads of other great ideas on this thread, and I'd like to hear more. There are literally infinite formats to be created, after all.
Some random ideas would be:
A 5-color tribal cube, where only 5-color tribes like Slivers and Allies are included.
A format full of the most powerful spells in Magic, but weak creatures that you are forced to win with. Show and Tell for Leviathan.
A mono-color cube, where you're only allowed to have one type of basic land in your deck (hybrid and colorless cards would be common to improve the meta).
A fast cube built for a quick drafting experience. Probably something like two packs of 20 cards would be the draft, and 30 card decks would be built. All cards in the pool would be chosen for their speed, and all-out gameplay.
An expert level cube built from cards chosen not necessarily for their power level, but for the skill they take to play with, and the number of options they create. Complicate everything.
A Planeswalker EDH-style cube, where you have a mini-draft of planeswalkers first. You then do the normal draft and build your deck, but the planeswalkers are kept aside in a planeswalker deck of at least five walkers. You draw from your planeswalker deck on your first turn, and any time your walker dies. You can't have more than one planeswalker in play for any reason.
Uninhabited plane cube:
No humanoid creature types
No 'class' creature types
No clearly sapient (wise and problem solving and such) creatures
Artifacts may not appear on any card art in such a way that they appear constructed/artificial, but some 'naturally formed' artifacts may be allowed, (examples: Wurm's Tooth, Meteorite, not sure if enough of these exist)
No buildings may be part of artifacts or lands or whatnot
Spells should generally involve natural things happening, or being replicated by magic, natural weather phenomena, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc.
This would represent planeswalkers visiting plane(s) which have no sapient life, not even simple tribes, and have never had such, they are places purely of animals and beasts and simpler magical creatures and such. A more primal, wild place, with no politics to it or people to discover your secrets, and not even gods and spirits are clever enough to fight your grasping at power... your only potential rivals... fellow planeswalkers!
You are learning from the wild places on random planes and claiming beastial creatures as summons and learning to replicate natural phenomena for your spells.
Perhaps optionally, white and black could be excluded as colors from the cube, or just have reduced presence, since they tend to represent more civilized concepts, and may be harder to represent without intelligent life in a balanced cube, making it a purely RUG/Temur cube.
Some cards may want their art re-touched if you are sprucing things up with modified cards to hide away any humanoids or buildings or constructed things on the cards.
These are cubes inspired by the Alara cube - some block based cubes:
Mycosynth Lattice Cube - an environment where the Mycosynth Lattice ability is always in effect. Artifact destruction is powerful and there is no need to balance colors!!!
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor cube: Lorwyn cards have Shadormoor block cards as the back face. Planar die can cause the Aurora and flips all cards in play, hand and library. (May have to hide cards in hand and library for logistics purposes).
Milling cube - there is no life: all damage is converted to mill. (Like Szadek or Undead Alchemist). Decks can only be exactly 40. (Banned: the likes of Gaea's Blessing). This will naturally be a graveyard centered cube as well.
+1/+1 counters cube - A creature combat centric cube built on growing creatures. May be limited to Simic or at most Bant colors.
A cube that is all the cards that have rotated out of your cube recently. Drew this inspiration from my brother who has all the stuff he's taken out in a binder.
I recently finished building my Planeshifted-Cube. It is just a regular unpowered cube, but with each color colorshifted to be one of its enemy colors, making sure to keep all relevant creature types consistent of course. So white became red, red became blue, blue became green, green became black, and black became white. All the dragons became sphinxes, all the goblins became wizards, all the demons are angels, etc. etc.. My favorite card to design was green Thing in the Ice, Thing in the Amber, which turned from a reference to the movie "The Thing" into a reference to "Jurassic Park" (It also returns all non-lizards, which is pretty rad).
In any case, while it doesn't do anything mechanically interesting, it is pretty fun to figure out what a green counter spell looks like... the answer is generally bees.
Transform, Flip, Aftermath, Morph, Megamorph, Manifest, Transmute Exploit Cube. Must include Camouflage, Ixidrid, and Illusionary Mask.
Iconic Cube where the only creatures are white Angels, blue Shapeshifters, black Demons, red Dragons, and green Wurms
Elemental Cube in which every creature is an Elemental and as many noncreature cards as possible have elemental flavor - earth, air/wind, fire, water, light,dark.
Exile Cube with Suspend, Ingest, Processors, and other cards that deal with the exile zone.
Counting Cube using cards that "count" something, such as cards in hand, lands you control, Sunburst/Converge, etc. - keying off of "each", "number", "amount", and the like.
So I have an idea for a cube that I wanted to run by some people:
I have a copy of every Standard event deck that has been made (yep all 26 of them). I was thinking about throwing them all together into a cube and seeing how that would go. Maybe just picking my favorite 10 or so and throwing them together to make a 360 cube.
I hate to necro this but while searching for stuff I found this thread. I've had so many strange cube ideas, a full snow cube, ravnica and mirrodin cube (using both of their respective blocks), colorless cube, and a core set cube which I genuinely wanted to make and then finally did!
My 360 Pauper Cube
CubeTutor
My 360 Core Set Cube
CubeTutor
My 360 Pauper Cube
CubeTutor
My 360 Core Set Cube
CubeTutor
I love this idea. You and I actually had this same idea independently, and then I discovered that you posted this here and it made me wonder if I read it and then later had the idea as if it were my own. In any case, the first cube will be 540 and the two small set cubes will be 360. I'll get back to everyone in a year or so when I have it sorted out how to distribute cards and themes.
My favorite artist is Matt Cavotta (2nd is Guay) and Cavotta has 175 total cards (Not counting 2 flip card's flipped sides and a mountain) but I still plan on collecting all his cards and maybe we'll try out a cube with them. It supports 3, almost 4, people lol. An artist cube seems fun and I'm all about unique cubes.
My 360 Pauper Cube
CubeTutor
My 360 Core Set Cube
CubeTutor
My 360 Pauper Cube
CubeTutor
My 360 Core Set Cube
CubeTutor
Check out my new blog about artificial intelligence. Thanks!
If you google it, NinjaBob had/has a morph cube. If you subscribe to the cube subreddit, it should be on the sidebar as well.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyYes I did find it a while back, am subbed and awaiting the new creation after Khans
My 360 Pauper Cube
CubeTutor
My 360 Core Set Cube
CubeTutor
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Draft my counters themed cube!
I hope you post your cube list when it's finished, it sounds really interesting!
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
i know i'm replying to a 4-year old post but i just can't resist responding when i saw your post because i just spent the entire night last sunday working on this nostalgia-cube with cards only from the expansions i first started learning with which are exactly the expansions you mentioned(seems like we both started playing at around the same time eh?)
i also can't help but notice that i also used all those cards that you mentioned, he he he..
i also used Soldevi Golem, autumn willow, baron sengir, order of the ebon hand, icequake, Sengir Autocrat, breeding pit, narwhal, black carriage, ihsan's shade, eron the relentless, spectral bears, clockwork swarm, ivory gargoyle, spiny starfish, thought lash, balduvian dead, krovikan plague, pyrokinesis, etc..
—Seal inscription
Were trying to build a cube designed around Unglued, Unhinged, Conspiracy and Take the Crown cards, specifically the ones that you can only use (at least fully to their potential) in drafting. So you will have most conspiracy cards that deal with drafting and such, actual conspiracies, and filled with funny unglued and unhinged cards. I will also be including the MTG Holiday promos (I only have a Stocking Tiger atm but I am trying my best to find people with the promos so I don't have to flat out buy them)
The cube seems difficult to balance but I think that is half the fun, being an unbalanced wacky cube. We are still debating certain things though, like whether to include conspiracies just in packs like normal cards or 1 per pack. We also debated adding some consistency by bending the rules and including cards that we have from the World Championship decks, since "technically" you can't play with them which makes them fun for the cube, but we aren't sure which power levels for those cards we should add and which ones we shouldn't.
Its a work in progress, but it seems like it'll pay off for the shenanigans alone that'll come along with it.
It might be worth your while to check out the Mtg Reddit cube forums, and see if folks have come up with any interesting ideas for crazy conspiracy cubes over there. Take the Crown in particular seems to have awakened a lot of folks to the fun and potential of cube, and there are some real feeding frenzies of activity on reddit, as people start consolidating their recently acquired draft matters cards and figuring out the configuration that's right for their group.
I think, unfortunately, refining and balancing a conspiracy-centric cube is going to have to be an personal, trial by error situation, and very few generalities will likely be available online. The variance and power level of the conspiracies alone will preclude the ability of people to come to objective agreement on what to include/not include. Add unglued and unhinged cards on top of that.... jesus....
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
The Creatureless Cube (715): Pretty straightforward. Win with creature tokens, burn, mill, or alt-win-cons.
The Wastes Cube (615): One of the stranger ones. In this cube, you have to draft all colored lands that you wish to play. You have as many wastes as you like, but basics must be drafted. As such, colors are a luxury only played when you need them.
Jester's Cube I (550): A Jester's Cube as I call it is generated randomly with some guidance. This one has extensive preening.
Jester's Cube II (360): This one is very raw and random.
Jester's Cube III (500): This one is most tightly controlled, and has cards generated with specific color, curve, and rarities to maintain balance. It's non-singleton.
Dark Nights, Fallen Alliances (575): From all the early non-core sets.
Chromatic Cube: Black (750): All cards are black or colorless.
The Mythic Cube (405): Is built out of cards with a mythic rare symbol. This one was the greatest challenge to balance, since the pool is so limited.
Mighty Morphers (470): A morph cube. I see this was recently discussed. There are several different directions you could go, though.
Assemble The Machine (375): A non-singleton cube built around cards that specifically care about each other.
So those are the ones I have worked on, but there are loads of other great ideas on this thread, and I'd like to hear more. There are literally infinite formats to be created, after all.
Some random ideas would be:
A 5-color tribal cube, where only 5-color tribes like Slivers and Allies are included.
A format full of the most powerful spells in Magic, but weak creatures that you are forced to win with. Show and Tell for Leviathan.
A mono-color cube, where you're only allowed to have one type of basic land in your deck (hybrid and colorless cards would be common to improve the meta).
A fast cube built for a quick drafting experience. Probably something like two packs of 20 cards would be the draft, and 30 card decks would be built. All cards in the pool would be chosen for their speed, and all-out gameplay.
An expert level cube built from cards chosen not necessarily for their power level, but for the skill they take to play with, and the number of options they create. Complicate everything.
A Planeswalker EDH-style cube, where you have a mini-draft of planeswalkers first. You then do the normal draft and build your deck, but the planeswalkers are kept aside in a planeswalker deck of at least five walkers. You draw from your planeswalker deck on your first turn, and any time your walker dies. You can't have more than one planeswalker in play for any reason.
Other wacky ideas? I like wacky ideas.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
No humanoid creature types
No 'class' creature types
No clearly sapient (wise and problem solving and such) creatures
Artifacts may not appear on any card art in such a way that they appear constructed/artificial, but some 'naturally formed' artifacts may be allowed, (examples: Wurm's Tooth, Meteorite, not sure if enough of these exist)
No buildings may be part of artifacts or lands or whatnot
Spells should generally involve natural things happening, or being replicated by magic, natural weather phenomena, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc.
This would represent planeswalkers visiting plane(s) which have no sapient life, not even simple tribes, and have never had such, they are places purely of animals and beasts and simpler magical creatures and such. A more primal, wild place, with no politics to it or people to discover your secrets, and not even gods and spirits are clever enough to fight your grasping at power... your only potential rivals... fellow planeswalkers!
You are learning from the wild places on random planes and claiming beastial creatures as summons and learning to replicate natural phenomena for your spells.
Perhaps optionally, white and black could be excluded as colors from the cube, or just have reduced presence, since they tend to represent more civilized concepts, and may be harder to represent without intelligent life in a balanced cube, making it a purely RUG/Temur cube.
Some cards may want their art re-touched if you are sprucing things up with modified cards to hide away any humanoids or buildings or constructed things on the cards.
Mycosynth Lattice Cube - an environment where the Mycosynth Lattice ability is always in effect. Artifact destruction is powerful and there is no need to balance colors!!!
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor cube: Lorwyn cards have Shadormoor block cards as the back face. Planar die can cause the Aurora and flips all cards in play, hand and library. (May have to hide cards in hand and library for logistics purposes).
Milling cube - there is no life: all damage is converted to mill. (Like Szadek or Undead Alchemist). Decks can only be exactly 40. (Banned: the likes of Gaea's Blessing). This will naturally be a graveyard centered cube as well.
+1/+1 counters cube - A creature combat centric cube built on growing creatures. May be limited to Simic or at most Bant colors.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
In any case, while it doesn't do anything mechanically interesting, it is pretty fun to figure out what a green counter spell looks like... the answer is generally bees.
Iconic Cube where the only creatures are white Angels, blue Shapeshifters, black Demons, red Dragons, and green Wurms
Elemental Cube in which every creature is an Elemental and as many noncreature cards as possible have elemental flavor - earth, air/wind, fire, water, light,dark.
Exile Cube with Suspend, Ingest, Processors, and other cards that deal with the exile zone.
Counting Cube using cards that "count" something, such as cards in hand, lands you control, Sunburst/Converge, etc. - keying off of "each", "number", "amount", and the like.
I have a copy of every Standard event deck that has been made (yep all 26 of them). I was thinking about throwing them all together into a cube and seeing how that would go. Maybe just picking my favorite 10 or so and throwing them together to make a 360 cube.
Any thoughts?
Pioneer: Spirits
EDH: Ur-Dragon + Lord Windgrace + Arixmethes + Atla Palani + Kalamax