I'm looking to make a budget (and I mean budget, with the most expensive cards I'd look to put in being fetches and maybe stuff like Huntmaster). I've got a lot of varied cards that fit various archetypes, mostly singletons from my Commander decks, but they aren't crazy powerful, nor are they crazy synergistic. With this level of cards (Jace, Memory Adept and Keranos, God of Storms and Whisperwood Elemental), what would be a good place to find cube lists?
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Generation 15: The first time you see this, add it to your sig, but add 1 to the number. Call it a social experiment.
If you really want low budget, you can just do a full proxy cube. There are a few people on this forum that have proxy cubes and could give you a good idea about how to print up nice looking proxies.
I would look at my cube and Spike Rogue's not because I hold myself to be any kind of expert, but because we have the same basic mission. The ABU duals in my list are proxies. You'll notice I don't have enemy fetches and staples like Snapcaster because I just can't afford them.
That said, my cube needs work, and is undergoing changes as we speak to trim down the size and redefine some archetypes. So I wouldn't straight up copy my list, but you could get some second-tier card ideas.
Also, I think this gives you the opportunity to try out cool archetypes that don't quite make the cut in traditional cubes. You could set up a green (or maybe WG) landfall archetype around Rampaging Baloths, Harrow, Titania, Protector of Argoth, Vinelasher Kudzu, etc.
My cube isn't budget any more, but I do recommend checking out my cube thread from the beginning because I tried out a lot of cheaper cards as my cube went from draft leftovers and bulk rares to the unpowered powerhouse it is now, and I took pretty detailed notes the whole way. In addition to everything else that's been mentioned so far, I also recommend checking out Peasant lists, because they come up with some pretty amazing build-around synergies with just commons and uncommons, which usually cost next to nothing.
But if you have a bunch of cards on hand already, don't feel like you have to buy anything to get your cube started. As long as you can find 360-540 playable cards to draft, just throw something together with what you have, shuffle it up and have fun with it. That's the cheapest way to cube, and you'll be surprised at how much fun a cube can be when it's just made up from odds and ends from your collection.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
But if you have a bunch of cards on hand already, don't feel like you have to buy anything to get your cube started. As long as you can find 360-540 playable cards to draft, just throw something together with what you have, shuffle it up and have fun with it. That's the cheapest way to cube, and you'll be surprised at how much fun a cube can be when it's just made up from odds and ends from your collection.
This is totally true, and as you play with it you'll start to notice things you want to tweak. Maybe green is missing good 4-drops, or your RW aggro deck just needs a little something more to push it over the top into viability, and you can start being very targeted about what you add to the cube to improve your initial pile.
One more thing I wish I'd known about when I first started building my cube is that you can get gold-bordered World Championship Editions of some older cube staples for a fraction of the cost of the tournament legal editions. They're not tournament legal, and the backs are different, so you'll have to use opaque sleeves if they're in your cube, but that's usually a good idea anyway.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/603665-budget-cube-cards-that-cost-less-than-2-usd
for affordable options/replacements for more expensive stuff.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
That said, my cube needs work, and is undergoing changes as we speak to trim down the size and redefine some archetypes. So I wouldn't straight up copy my list, but you could get some second-tier card ideas.
Also, I think this gives you the opportunity to try out cool archetypes that don't quite make the cut in traditional cubes. You could set up a green (or maybe WG) landfall archetype around Rampaging Baloths, Harrow, Titania, Protector of Argoth, Vinelasher Kudzu, etc.
But if you have a bunch of cards on hand already, don't feel like you have to buy anything to get your cube started. As long as you can find 360-540 playable cards to draft, just throw something together with what you have, shuffle it up and have fun with it. That's the cheapest way to cube, and you'll be surprised at how much fun a cube can be when it's just made up from odds and ends from your collection.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
This is totally true, and as you play with it you'll start to notice things you want to tweak. Maybe green is missing good 4-drops, or your RW aggro deck just needs a little something more to push it over the top into viability, and you can start being very targeted about what you add to the cube to improve your initial pile.
Some examples:
Rishadan Port: $94 TCG mid / $2.49 WCE
Survival of the Fittest: $43 TCG mid / $6 WCE
Wasteland: $68 TCG mid / $4 WCE
Prices are from Troll and Toad, the only online retailer I know of that sells WCE cards as singles.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.