What I have learned from my recent Magic experience is that I like Limited, specifically drafting, a lot more than constructed. Sometimes, I like to play with others, such as the kids in my boy scout troop, and I probably will do this more as I go off to college.
I want to create a cube that recreates a specific draft environment (I want to do BFZ/OGW since that's what I have/will be getting a lot of through drafts), and I'm trying to figure out the way to do this. I have some ideas for the general format, which I will post here, but if you have any suggestions I'd love to see them. I know this is something that people do sometimes, but since it's the less popular than other cube types I have a hard time finding articles or threads about it.
My current idea for the cube goes like this: 360 cards, separated into groupings roughy based on what you get when you open a real booster pack.
24 "Rares": These will be big, iconic cards from the set (Planeswalkers, Eldrazi titans, etc.) as well as cards that have large power and you can build a deck around, but are still good on their own (like Emeria Shepard). I will not worry too much about making this be perfectly balanced colorwise, but I'll try to be close.
72 "Uncommons": These will be split up between the colors and colorless the best I can, with 10 or 20 being devoted to 1-2 cards per color combination. these cards are usually powerful, archetype defining, and/or flashy. They will come from uncommons and some of the less flashy or huge rares (like, for a random possible example, Barrage Tyrant). I'll try my best to keep it color balanced.
240 "Commons": Commons, uncommons, and maybe a few rares that will be recurring cards that support deck archetypes. All of these, unlike the above cards, come are not one-offs. Many come with 4 copies, some with 3 and some with 2. I will choose them based around how they can fit certain archetypes, be fun to draft, balance colors, and make certain strategies playable. For example, if I want ingest to be a viable archetype, I'd probably put 4 copies of a lot of ingesters. I'll try to be perfectly color balanced.
24 Non-basic lands: These would provide mana-fixing and utility. I'm considering adding the 5 man-lands in here.
I'm not too big on specifics since Oath hasn't had its cards revealed yet.
Each card type would be put in a different sleeve color so I could make packs that fit the 1:3:10:1 ratio of real packs.
Any thoughts? Better ways? Are there too few cards for this to work? I've never made a cube before, so I'm not entirely sure how to go about this.
This is a cool idea. I am working on something similar, but I will make something out of KTK. I will make a thread on that development soon (EDIT: It is here).
Some comments/suggestions/questions:
While the different coloured sleeves are a good way to keep track of your (custom) rarities, it also makes it obvious when a player picks the rare from a pack. (And are you planning to re-sleeve or double sleeve everything prior to playing?)
From your comment on 24 non-basic lands, I guess you are planning to put one non-basic in each pack, in the basic slot as it were?
I think I would consider having more than 24 rares. This would make the drafts more varied, since you could never know if a given rare would be opened. It would also be closer to a real draft in that way. It would also mean that the most bombiest bombs aren't always around, which I believe would be a good thing.
Personally, I would prefer if the commons all showed up in the cube at the same number. It would be much easier for everyone if you could just explain that "each common shows up as x-ofs in the cube". If your drafters are dedicated enough to spend time reading your cube-list and preparing this would be less of an issue, but as a drafter I would hate to learn after the fact that one of the commons that fit really nicely in my plan for my deck was only a 1-of.
I would keep an eye on the mana-fixing. This is much more important in a set like KTK with a heavy multi-colour theme (so I have spent some time thinking about it) but I still think it is worth having in mind. My approach is to try and have the same as-fan of fixing in my final cube list as close as possible to that of an actual KTK booster.
A final consideration if you are lacking for cards is to have a look at original Zendikar-block to see if anything from there might improve certain archetypes (allies or landfall for example).
Maybe I'll put some indication on the front of the sleeves. Are there any sleeves with identical backs but different fronts? Some sort of indicator for rarity? Maybe I'll just put a different colored sharpie mark in the corner. Oh, and yeah, the lands work how you said.
I'm not sure I want to go above 360 cards. I'm probably not going to be playing with 8 people very often, but if I do I can always just expand the cube to a larger size in increments of 15.
I think I have an idea for commons. Since there aren't enough uncommon slots to have too many of the fun multicolored cards, I have an idea for including them in the common set. Each color has 10 commons, all 4-ofs. Then, each color combo has 1, each a 2-of. Then colorless gets 5-ofs.
If we have this and 10 multicolored uncommons, that would be 30 multicolored cards in an 8 man draft. Is that too much? Maybe we should just have 20 in the uncommons. I'm not sure.
For fixing I was going to include 1 of each tap land and 4 terramorphic expanse in the lands, plus maybe the 5 enemy man-lands, and then maybe 4 pilgrim's eye. It is tricky since fixing is a core part of a certain archetype, so how much non-colored fixing should be around is not something I'm sure about.
I have an Innistrad block cube, and so I can share some thoughts about what works well for it. You can see it here, but there are some data entry errors.
First, I initially made the cube using commons and uncommons only. That let me focus on supporting the archetypes I wanted for draft and kept the initial cost down. I wanted each color pair to have a playable deck, but keep the overall size of the cube down so that each uncommon would almost certainly show up in an 8 man draft. I wanted to keep the feel of 3xINN, but use cards from DKA and AVR to boost up some of the weaker or less synergistic pairs (particularly BW and RW).
24 "Rares": These will be big, iconic cards from the set (Planeswalkers, Eldrazi titans, etc.) as well as cards that have large power and you can build a deck around, but are still good on their own (like Emeria Shepard). I will not worry too much about making this be perfectly balanced colorwise, but I'll try to be close.
I think a lot of the rares in sets aren't super fun in limited, particularly planeswalkers. While they are interesting in constructed and more powerful cubes, in regular limited, I think they often feel OP. I would personally only include cards that are fun in limited.
72 "Uncommons": These will be split up between the colors and colorless the best I can, with 10 or 20 being devoted to 1-2 cards per color combination. these cards are usually powerful, archetype defining, and/or flashy. They will come from uncommons and some of the less flashy or huge rares (like, for a random possible example, Barrage Tyrant). I'll try my best to keep it color balanced.
Barrage Tyrant is pretty good in regular limited and the kind of card that I think is a "good" limited rare. It rewards a certain deck, creates new play situations, but isn't so powerful in every game.
240 "Commons": Commons, uncommons, and maybe a few rares that will be recurring cards that support deck archetypes. All of these, unlike the above cards, come are not one-offs. Many come with 4 copies, some with 3 and some with 2. I will choose them based around how they can fit certain archetypes, be fun to draft, balance colors, and make certain strategies playable. For example, if I want ingest to be a viable archetype, I'd probably put 4 copies of a lot of ingesters. I'll try to be perfectly color balanced.
For simplicity's sake, I think it's best to observe the printed rarities in your distributions. So the same number of each rare, uncommon, and common. I used 1-2-3 because I wanted uncommons showing up with greater frequency and the cube was small enough that it felt too repetitive. When Shadows of Innistrad comes out, I might revisit this, like reducing commons to 2x as well or bumping some uncommons to 3x. But basically, I think it's helpful for players new to your cube to be able to trust the printed rarities as a guide for the distribution in your cube.
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I want to create a cube that recreates a specific draft environment (I want to do BFZ/OGW since that's what I have/will be getting a lot of through drafts), and I'm trying to figure out the way to do this. I have some ideas for the general format, which I will post here, but if you have any suggestions I'd love to see them. I know this is something that people do sometimes, but since it's the less popular than other cube types I have a hard time finding articles or threads about it.
My current idea for the cube goes like this: 360 cards, separated into groupings roughy based on what you get when you open a real booster pack.
24 "Rares": These will be big, iconic cards from the set (Planeswalkers, Eldrazi titans, etc.) as well as cards that have large power and you can build a deck around, but are still good on their own (like Emeria Shepard). I will not worry too much about making this be perfectly balanced colorwise, but I'll try to be close.
72 "Uncommons": These will be split up between the colors and colorless the best I can, with 10 or 20 being devoted to 1-2 cards per color combination. these cards are usually powerful, archetype defining, and/or flashy. They will come from uncommons and some of the less flashy or huge rares (like, for a random possible example, Barrage Tyrant). I'll try my best to keep it color balanced.
240 "Commons": Commons, uncommons, and maybe a few rares that will be recurring cards that support deck archetypes. All of these, unlike the above cards, come are not one-offs. Many come with 4 copies, some with 3 and some with 2. I will choose them based around how they can fit certain archetypes, be fun to draft, balance colors, and make certain strategies playable. For example, if I want ingest to be a viable archetype, I'd probably put 4 copies of a lot of ingesters. I'll try to be perfectly color balanced.
24 Non-basic lands: These would provide mana-fixing and utility. I'm considering adding the 5 man-lands in here.
I'm not too big on specifics since Oath hasn't had its cards revealed yet.
Each card type would be put in a different sleeve color so I could make packs that fit the 1:3:10:1 ratio of real packs.
Any thoughts? Better ways? Are there too few cards for this to work? I've never made a cube before, so I'm not entirely sure how to go about this.
Some comments/suggestions/questions:
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
I'm not sure I want to go above 360 cards. I'm probably not going to be playing with 8 people very often, but if I do I can always just expand the cube to a larger size in increments of 15.
I think I have an idea for commons. Since there aren't enough uncommon slots to have too many of the fun multicolored cards, I have an idea for including them in the common set. Each color has 10 commons, all 4-ofs. Then, each color combo has 1, each a 2-of. Then colorless gets 5-ofs.
If we have this and 10 multicolored uncommons, that would be 30 multicolored cards in an 8 man draft. Is that too much? Maybe we should just have 20 in the uncommons. I'm not sure.
For fixing I was going to include 1 of each tap land and 4 terramorphic expanse in the lands, plus maybe the 5 enemy man-lands, and then maybe 4 pilgrim's eye. It is tricky since fixing is a core part of a certain archetype, so how much non-colored fixing should be around is not something I'm sure about.
First, I initially made the cube using commons and uncommons only. That let me focus on supporting the archetypes I wanted for draft and kept the initial cost down. I wanted each color pair to have a playable deck, but keep the overall size of the cube down so that each uncommon would almost certainly show up in an 8 man draft. I wanted to keep the feel of 3xINN, but use cards from DKA and AVR to boost up some of the weaker or less synergistic pairs (particularly BW and RW).
I think a lot of the rares in sets aren't super fun in limited, particularly planeswalkers. While they are interesting in constructed and more powerful cubes, in regular limited, I think they often feel OP. I would personally only include cards that are fun in limited.
Barrage Tyrant is pretty good in regular limited and the kind of card that I think is a "good" limited rare. It rewards a certain deck, creates new play situations, but isn't so powerful in every game.
For simplicity's sake, I think it's best to observe the printed rarities in your distributions. So the same number of each rare, uncommon, and common. I used 1-2-3 because I wanted uncommons showing up with greater frequency and the cube was small enough that it felt too repetitive. When Shadows of Innistrad comes out, I might revisit this, like reducing commons to 2x as well or bumping some uncommons to 3x. But basically, I think it's helpful for players new to your cube to be able to trust the printed rarities as a guide for the distribution in your cube.