My intention was to make a cube that drafted more closely to a limited environment. It would have a slightly lower curve overall and wouldn't include some of the super powerful or less interactive cards such as power 9, opposition, upheaval, geas cradle, etc. I know having it feel like a true limited environment is not possible because of the power level of remaining cards, but I wanted to try to work a fair bit of underlying synergy into my cube as well. The main issue I wanted to avoid was forcing drafters into a strategy. I knew it was going to be a multi colored cube with a decent amount of mana fixing. I did a ton of research and my own "mad scientist" chart to work out what each color pair would do in the cube and how each color pair would interact with other color pairs and make up the three colored shards. For example GU is +1/+1 counters,graft,evolve and GW is +1/+1 counters, tokens, and enchantments so that GW+GU could make either bant enchantments/herioc or Bant Tokens. I'm not sure if sharing all of the synergies in the cube is allowed in this thread or if that is supposed to be discussed in a sub forum so I won't go into to much detail about that here. I would love to hear what other cube owners have done with each color pairs possibly in another discussion.
Now to the real topic of discussion. After testing our first draft of the cube, it was evident the mana fixing was important and that their were some glue cards that made many of the decks run more smoothly. My brother and I decided to make a main cube of 504 and a "sideboard" cube of 96 cards. The first draft includes 14 cards per pack (3 rounds) and the second draft includes packs of only 6 cards per pack (2 rounds). The cards in the "sideboard cube" are additional copies of lower powered glue cards (delver, champion of the parish, etc), additional lower powered mana fixing, and some are weaker removal/counter spells. This way you could basically have one last chance to smooth out your deck. You do get to see a greater number of cards in the draft (it's sort of like 18 cards per pack), but with the power level a little lower and the need for synergy I think this is better in the long run. In addition, this remedies the age old question of should you have two copies of some cards in the cube. I was a firm believer in only one copy of each card in the cube before. After a few time playing the cube it actually worked out very well and lead to more interesting and interactive games. I am still working on the final cube list as well as evening out the power of the various archetypes, but wanted to get some feedback from cube experts.
My questions for this topic is:
What do you think of the secondary smaller draft? Are there any problems/issues I haven't thought of (I'm sure there are)
Has anyone else tried anything similar to a secondary cube in their cube?
Is this a cube faux pas?
Because the discussion of synergies in a cube is such a large topic, I will do a separate topic/discussion for help/information about synergy cubes if necessary, but I wanted to do a search function first and really make sure I don't repeat the synergy topic if it has discussed in depth recently. Thanks in advance for any information and answers regarding the secondary cube.
I think the results for you are what matters. My concern would be that the small size of the secondary cube would make it relatively easy to get the right "glue" cards and then drafts would play out more similarly. I want players to have to get a bit creative during the draft, and not be too comfortable. That said, I think there is some tension between creating an interesting draft and having great games. Great games happen, in part, because each person gets to execute their plan. Making it harder to draft makes it more interesting, but also increases the chance of train wreck draft decks that don't lead to good games.
I think the results for you are what matters. My concern would be that the small size of the secondary cube would make it relatively easy to get the right "glue" cards and then drafts would play out more similarly. I want players to have to get a bit creative during the draft, and not be too comfortable. That said, I think there is some tension between creating an interesting draft and having great games. Great games happen, in part, because each person gets to execute their plan. Making it harder to draft makes it more interesting, but also increases the chance of train wreck draft decks that don't lead to good games.
Thank you for your response. Your final statement is exactly the reason we have been trying different things. I would like the games to turn out to be very fun, but also new and exciting. It's a very hard balance to create in a synergy cube.
I am getting closer to my "perfect" list (which will never be perfect) so I have been focusing on the draft more lately. The new Burnfour and Glimpse draft strategies really intrigue me so I am going to implement these types of drafts to see if that helps out. The burnfour and glimpse strategies, on the surface, look very promising. I am willing to try anything to make the draft experience the best it can be. In the end, drafting a cube is fun regardless of the format if the cube is built well and the players are there to have a good time.
For the time being I am going to stop the sideboard cube and give glimpse and burnfour drafting a try for a little while.
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My intention was to make a cube that drafted more closely to a limited environment. It would have a slightly lower curve overall and wouldn't include some of the super powerful or less interactive cards such as power 9, opposition, upheaval, geas cradle, etc. I know having it feel like a true limited environment is not possible because of the power level of remaining cards, but I wanted to try to work a fair bit of underlying synergy into my cube as well. The main issue I wanted to avoid was forcing drafters into a strategy. I knew it was going to be a multi colored cube with a decent amount of mana fixing. I did a ton of research and my own "mad scientist" chart to work out what each color pair would do in the cube and how each color pair would interact with other color pairs and make up the three colored shards. For example GU is +1/+1 counters,graft,evolve and GW is +1/+1 counters, tokens, and enchantments so that GW+GU could make either bant enchantments/herioc or Bant Tokens. I'm not sure if sharing all of the synergies in the cube is allowed in this thread or if that is supposed to be discussed in a sub forum so I won't go into to much detail about that here. I would love to hear what other cube owners have done with each color pairs possibly in another discussion.
Now to the real topic of discussion. After testing our first draft of the cube, it was evident the mana fixing was important and that their were some glue cards that made many of the decks run more smoothly. My brother and I decided to make a main cube of 504 and a "sideboard" cube of 96 cards. The first draft includes 14 cards per pack (3 rounds) and the second draft includes packs of only 6 cards per pack (2 rounds). The cards in the "sideboard cube" are additional copies of lower powered glue cards (delver, champion of the parish, etc), additional lower powered mana fixing, and some are weaker removal/counter spells. This way you could basically have one last chance to smooth out your deck. You do get to see a greater number of cards in the draft (it's sort of like 18 cards per pack), but with the power level a little lower and the need for synergy I think this is better in the long run. In addition, this remedies the age old question of should you have two copies of some cards in the cube. I was a firm believer in only one copy of each card in the cube before. After a few time playing the cube it actually worked out very well and lead to more interesting and interactive games. I am still working on the final cube list as well as evening out the power of the various archetypes, but wanted to get some feedback from cube experts.
My questions for this topic is:
What do you think of the secondary smaller draft? Are there any problems/issues I haven't thought of (I'm sure there are)
Has anyone else tried anything similar to a secondary cube in their cube?
Is this a cube faux pas?
Because the discussion of synergies in a cube is such a large topic, I will do a separate topic/discussion for help/information about synergy cubes if necessary, but I wanted to do a search function first and really make sure I don't repeat the synergy topic if it has discussed in depth recently. Thanks in advance for any information and answers regarding the secondary cube.
Thank you for your response. Your final statement is exactly the reason we have been trying different things. I would like the games to turn out to be very fun, but also new and exciting. It's a very hard balance to create in a synergy cube.
I am getting closer to my "perfect" list (which will never be perfect) so I have been focusing on the draft more lately. The new Burnfour and Glimpse draft strategies really intrigue me so I am going to implement these types of drafts to see if that helps out. The burnfour and glimpse strategies, on the surface, look very promising. I am willing to try anything to make the draft experience the best it can be. In the end, drafting a cube is fun regardless of the format if the cube is built well and the players are there to have a good time.
For the time being I am going to stop the sideboard cube and give glimpse and burnfour drafting a try for a little while.