Every Sunday 3 other friends and I get together and play cube. My cube started out as a 720 unpowered cube, but soon enough it became apparent that this number was too unwieldy. As of today the cube is 450 powered. I feel that between the four of us this number is still too much. However, my problem is that I feel like 450 is the smallest I can have without loosing cards that I have fun playing with, or watching others play with.
Please help me either reach my goal of 360 powered or tell me to stop worrying and love my 450 cube.
My cube list will not be posted because if I do pair down I want to do so by going over each card one by one reality tv contest style.
Cutting those last 90 cards can be pretty painful.
It generally means:
-10 duals, because you can go down a cycle of duals
-10 gold cards, because you go down a set of guild cards
-20 other lands and artifacts
-10 from each color, which probably forces you to cut support cards for niche archetypes like U Devotion, Wildfire, Fires of Yavimaya, Pox/Stax, Reanimator, etc.
The two most active players on the Cube Forum (eidolon and wtwlf) run 450 cubes, so there's definitely not an impetus to cut to 360.
Pros:
You'll have exactly as many cards as you need to do a draft for 8 people (or a sealed for 4)
You'll always see every card in your Cube in each draft, meaning people can build archetypal decks with the knowledge that they WILL have the ability to see certain cards in the pool
Overall deck power will be higher, because you'll probably be cutting the weaker cards
Cons:
You won't have the cards to support a 10-man draft or 5-man sealed
You'll always see every card in your Cube each draft, meaning that there's less variance
There will be fewer niche/archetype decks
You have to cut pet cards
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Ouch, those cuts that you list have me re-assessing my decision. Especially the archetypes I will be losing. The initial size cut I made from 720 to 450 felt hard the first time I did it. However, I do not miss any of the cards I cut nor do my friends.
Ouch, those cuts that you list have me re-assessing my decision. Especially the archetypes I will be losing. The initial size cut I made from 720 to 450 felt hard the first time I did it. However, I do not miss any of the cards I cut nor do my friends.
I mean, it's possible to keep some of the niche archetype support, but it means you lose cards in other areas. It's impossible for me to say definitively what you will need to cut (besides a set of duals and a set of gold cards) without seeing your list.
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With only 4 people, going to down to 360 seems like a fine call. When I was still using my unpowered cube, that was our group size and 360 was perfect for us. It's a tight list, but the overall deck quality was exactly where we wanted it. The most significant pro to having a smaller list is that the difference between your strongest cards and your weakest cards is smaller than in larger lists. Larger lists can mitigate this by replacing the weaker cards with archetype support cards that may not be as generally strong as the rest of your list, but are powerful contenders when in the right deck. This is the most significant con I found having a small play group (note: it's not so much the size of the list as it is the size of the playgroup simply due to the portion of the cube you see in a draft). The number of niche archetypes you can support is also smaller. Think 0-1 in each color. For example, I had a hard time running the Pox prison package for very long in my list because I also wanted to support reanimator/recurring nightmare/gy utility archetype. With only one player strong in black, out of 4 at the draft, he may be forced into pox prison because those are the available cards, when he originally was going for a basic dimir control deck. That wasn't what I wanted out of my cube. This had me cutting my niche archetypes down a bit to allow more flexibility in draft. The good news, is that you can regularly swap out which archetypes you support at any given draft. Kiki-Jiki combo can be in one draft, and Wildfire in the next. Blink in one, and tokens in the next. Having a smaller cube makes it more likely you will see these come together as well.
Thank you all for your input and your suggestions. After work I plan on pretending like I never had a cube and starting fresh in my goal to create a 360 cube. Then looking at what I had to cut and seeing if I will indeed miss any of the cards that have been removed.
My apprehension stems from losing pet cards like kiki-jiki which are fun to play with but have no place in a smaller cube.
After I have a chance to futz around tonight I will post my cubetutor cube list.
If you've got the time and want to put in the effort I'd really like to see you import your 450 card cube into CubeTutor and then show the 90 card cuts, there. I'd be interested to see what gets the ax and what stays. I feel like I'd be getting rid of family members going down to 360, personally. Haha
it definitely felt like getting rid of family when I made the cuts, but, I made the hard choices and went from a 450 Powered cube to a 360 powered cube.
Before anything else know that my play group plays free for all multiplayer so some cube staples were not in my 450 cube. No single target, land destruction, or hand disruption. No red haste creatures that die at the end of the turn they come into play.
Here is my cubetutor cube list with all of the cuts: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/3787. This is by no means permanent. I might go back, or if I keep this new size and list, I might cut cards to put back others.
The choices I have to still make, or made were:
Getting rid of all of the disenchantment spells because I had replacements in Orings, and unexpectedly absent
Do I remove functional reprints of cards to free up space for more unique effects? Or do I keep the functional reprints to make sure the cube runs more smoothly?
How many aggro cards do I need now that I have dropped down in size?
Let me know what you think and your opinions on cards I should definitely fit back in, or that I should cut.
I also run with a group of 4 people and my cube started at 540, then 450 and now 370. I found the last 80 cuts pretty hard. There is a list in my thread of all the cuts I made at each step. My cube is also powered. Hopefully this will help you a little.
Edit.. I just read further and saw that you already made the cuts. Oh well, maybe it could help anyway
Every Sunday 3 other friends and I get together and play cube. My cube started out as a 720 unpowered cube, but soon enough it became apparent that this number was too unwieldy. As of today the cube is 450 powered. I feel that between the four of us this number is still too much. However, my problem is that I feel like 450 is the smallest I can have without loosing cards that I have fun playing with, or watching others play with.
Please help me either reach my goal of 360 powered or tell me to stop worrying and love my 450 cube.
My cube list will not be posted because if I do pair down I want to do so by going over each card one by one reality tv contest style.
It generally means:
-10 duals, because you can go down a cycle of duals
-10 gold cards, because you go down a set of guild cards
-20 other lands and artifacts
-10 from each color, which probably forces you to cut support cards for niche archetypes like U Devotion, Wildfire, Fires of Yavimaya, Pox/Stax, Reanimator, etc.
The two most active players on the Cube Forum (eidolon and wtwlf) run 450 cubes, so there's definitely not an impetus to cut to 360.
Pros:
You'll have exactly as many cards as you need to do a draft for 8 people (or a sealed for 4)
You'll always see every card in your Cube in each draft, meaning people can build archetypal decks with the knowledge that they WILL have the ability to see certain cards in the pool
Overall deck power will be higher, because you'll probably be cutting the weaker cards
Cons:
You won't have the cards to support a 10-man draft or 5-man sealed
You'll always see every card in your Cube each draft, meaning that there's less variance
There will be fewer niche/archetype decks
You have to cut pet cards
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I mean, it's possible to keep some of the niche archetype support, but it means you lose cards in other areas. It's impossible for me to say definitively what you will need to cut (besides a set of duals and a set of gold cards) without seeing your list.
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
360 Unpowered Cube | Cubetutor
My apprehension stems from losing pet cards like kiki-jiki which are fun to play with but have no place in a smaller cube.
After I have a chance to futz around tonight I will post my cubetutor cube list.
Thanks again for your time and suggestions.
My 540 Powered CubeTutor Page
Before anything else know that my play group plays free for all multiplayer so some cube staples were not in my 450 cube. No single target, land destruction, or hand disruption. No red haste creatures that die at the end of the turn they come into play.
Here is my cubetutor cube list with all of the cuts: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/3787. This is by no means permanent. I might go back, or if I keep this new size and list, I might cut cards to put back others.
The choices I have to still make, or made were:
Getting rid of all of the disenchantment spells because I had replacements in Orings, and unexpectedly absent
Do I remove functional reprints of cards to free up space for more unique effects? Or do I keep the functional reprints to make sure the cube runs more smoothly?
How many aggro cards do I need now that I have dropped down in size?
Let me know what you think and your opinions on cards I should definitely fit back in, or that I should cut.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/card-and-archetype-discussion/193777-the-multiplayer-edh-cube-thread
360 Unpowered Cube | Cubetutor
Edit.. I just read further and saw that you already made the cuts. Oh well, maybe it could help anyway
Draft it on Cube Tutor