So in a singleton cube, how many cards are necessary to support a theme? like say, WB spirits or GU graft from MM15. I'm finding it hard to cut cards because they serve a more general purpose or are necessary for other themes (for example, i want to keep Wavecrash Triton and Nimbus Naiad for WU Heroic but I also need space for Helium Squirter and Steady Progress)
It depends, on a lot of stuff. Size of the cube, number of players, percent drafted in each event, number of cards you need in each deck (which changes from theme to theme) and several other factors (like what percentage of the support cards are stolen by decks other than the themed deck).
I hate to say "playtest it until it works" ...but it's so group-dependent that it's really the only way to balance it right.
I'm finding that I'm having similar issues with trying to support specific archetypes. It's possibly playgroup dependent and maybe our guys would rather draft a generic UB control deck instead of UB Artifact Value. Both decks have their merits, after all. With that said, even with my current support, I find it hard to even pick up the necessary cards on CubeTutor to build this newly supported archetype. I've even thought more than once about including the Signets - at least the UB and UR ones - to try to help it along.
I would very much like for my cube to play out similarly to a MM or RtR draft format. I want each color and color pair have at least one deck that can come together with several archetype specific cards and several basic multi-archetype cards (Bolt, Counterspell, etc). It's unfortunate that wtwlf is mostly right on this, especially for groups like mine that really only get together about once a month. There's not really an equation. It's very much a "season to taste" kind of thing. If you want to support Artifact.dec, you have to throw in the basic shell and draft it a few times. If it's not coming together, you need to throw in a few more cards to support it and draft some more.
In my experience I have been trying to make a +1/+1 counter theme to work, but the issue is simply that the enablers does nothing by themselves (Throne of Geth!) or tbe resulting synergy is not powerful enough. (sac an artifact... Just to put a +1/+1 counter?)
For now I am temporarily resigned to playtesting and not following a recipe.
But then again, I have an idea... What if we use RTR, GTC. MM or ORI as a templete for 10 archtypes? We can count the cards that matches the archtypes per rarity (we can ignore rares). And that could be a basis. Once I have time I might do this
EDIT:
I did a preliminary study. For a very narrow mechanic like proliferate mechanic to work in SOM, I calculated the number of commons, uncommons and rares with any kind of counter (charge, +1/+1, poison). Then ratioed it with the total number of C/U/R/M and then with the rarity distribution per pack.
The result:
Commons: 17 / 101 commons * 10 commons per pack = 1.68 cards that uses counters
Uncommons: 13 / 60 uncommons * 3 uncommons per pack = 0.65 cards that uses counters
Rares: 6 / 53 rares * 7/8 rares per pack = 0.1 cards that uses counters
Mythics: 3 / 15 mythics * 1/8 mythics per pack = .025 cards that uses counters
The total number of cards results to 2.45 cards per pack! Now that is a lot!
So therefore in a 360 cube, assume you draft 14 card packs, that should amount to 2.45/14*360 = 63 cards!
In my cube, there are only 32 cards that has counters, so I guess anything with proliferate will be much less useful.
enchanting Witchstalker with Raised by Wolves
I hate to say "playtest it until it works" ...but it's so group-dependent that it's really the only way to balance it right.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
I would very much like for my cube to play out similarly to a MM or RtR draft format. I want each color and color pair have at least one deck that can come together with several archetype specific cards and several basic multi-archetype cards (Bolt, Counterspell, etc). It's unfortunate that wtwlf is mostly right on this, especially for groups like mine that really only get together about once a month. There's not really an equation. It's very much a "season to taste" kind of thing. If you want to support Artifact.dec, you have to throw in the basic shell and draft it a few times. If it's not coming together, you need to throw in a few more cards to support it and draft some more.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
Follow me. I tweet.
In my experience I have been trying to make a +1/+1 counter theme to work, but the issue is simply that the enablers does nothing by themselves (Throne of Geth!) or tbe resulting synergy is not powerful enough. (sac an artifact... Just to put a +1/+1 counter?)
For now I am temporarily resigned to playtesting and not following a recipe.
But then again, I have an idea... What if we use RTR, GTC. MM or ORI as a templete for 10 archtypes? We can count the cards that matches the archtypes per rarity (we can ignore rares). And that could be a basis. Once I have time I might do this
EDIT:
I did a preliminary study. For a very narrow mechanic like proliferate mechanic to work in SOM, I calculated the number of commons, uncommons and rares with any kind of counter (charge, +1/+1, poison). Then ratioed it with the total number of C/U/R/M and then with the rarity distribution per pack.
The result:
Commons: 17 / 101 commons * 10 commons per pack = 1.68 cards that uses counters
Uncommons: 13 / 60 uncommons * 3 uncommons per pack = 0.65 cards that uses counters
Rares: 6 / 53 rares * 7/8 rares per pack = 0.1 cards that uses counters
Mythics: 3 / 15 mythics * 1/8 mythics per pack = .025 cards that uses counters
The total number of cards results to 2.45 cards per pack! Now that is a lot!
So therefore in a 360 cube, assume you draft 14 card packs, that should amount to 2.45/14*360 = 63 cards!
In my cube, there are only 32 cards that has counters, so I guess anything with proliferate will be much less useful.