The exact list varies a bit from person to person, but it is generally something like this:
ABU Moxen
Black Lotus
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Library of Alexandria
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Mana Drain
Note that most of these cards provide what I like to call "super fast mana". They violate the game's intended resource progression system.
If a cube contains most or all of these cards, it is considered to be "powered". If it contains none of them, it is considered to be "unpowered". If it contains a few of them, it is probably closer to unpowered, but it is also unbalanced.
And Sol Ring has no business whatsoever in an unpowered cube.
I'd really like a list of cards which have "no business" in an unpowered cube.
The list varies from person to person, but it should start with 8 of the power 9, Library of Alexandria and Sol Ring. Then some other fast mana falls in close behind that group of 10 (Mana Crypt, maybe Vault too) and some folks ban Mind Twist and Mana Drain too. Mostly it's up for debate from group to group, but leaving in Sol Ring or Library when you're banning the P9 seems like a mistake if your objective with unpowering the cube is controlling powerlevel.
Search this forum for the other threads covering this topic. It's been beaten into the ground a million times.
I appreciate the advice. I think if you are unpowered then that it is likely that you should avoid specifically sol ring, mana crypt and mana vault, not just zero mana ramp rocks. It is a bit off topic, but land that produce more than a single mana should probably be limited as well.
It's also important to note that there's a difference between "unpowered" and "budget". Unpowered cubes tend to be by design, with a common goal usually to lower the powerlevel a bit. And those are the cases where Ring/Library and most of the P9 prove to be problematic. Budget is different, and often, those cube managers want to run more powerful cards, but are handcuffed by monetary constraints. Sol Ring is cheap and absurdly powerful, so it may very well fit the design metrics of various budget cubes.
We ran a full-powered cube for most of its history. Through a very significant amount of experimentation, the following 'fast mana' was banned, resulting in what I have termed 'semi-powered'. That's not to say it wouldn't come back, or that we don't enjoy it, but that we wanted less explosive opens for a time.
ABU Moxen
Black Lotus
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Mana Crypt
These all make more mana than their base cost and can do so immediately. The astute among you might note that we play Grim Monolith, which also falls foul. However, Monolith really gives a turn window in which to answer it since on T2, CCC is not particularly helpful for most game states. It doesn't ramp repeatedly off the bat and from T1 like Sol Ring, the other card that usually gives some kind of window. The additional up-front cost also brings more permanent removal into play for the other player than does Sol Ring's 1 cost. It's extremely good but certainly more fair than the other cards listed. Dark Ritual is fine as a single-shot boost of BB for a card.
There are of course other broken cards that are still very high picks with that fast mana removed. Notably, Library of Alexandria gets even better. We kept it for some time until it was clear that is really had no business existing in a world without the fast mana to temper it. Mana Drain doesn't get better per se, but is definitely watchlist material for the huge mana boost out of nowhere that it can provide. Aside from this, things are reasonably honest despite the presence of Ancestral Recall, Mind Twist, etc. Mind Twist is reined in significantly by the loss of powered mana. The closest thing to a problem card is probably Umezawa's Jitte, in fact. It gets online fast, but I prefer to look to add answers - Jitte still needs to stick around itself, have 4 invested to cast/equip it, and actually have a creature to swing on. Plenty of opportunities to answer it. But man, it's a ridiculous bomb.
As mentioned, I have no problem with fast mana cubes and chances are that in the future, colourless (or all the) fast mana may reappear (if we get more Eldrazi colourless support, it could be tempting...). But we found this balance to allow for use of broken cards, whereas the fast mana makes every subsequent card in your deck broken. It's a good happy medium.
I've found Grim Monolith to kind of be the 'peak' of what an unpowered cube could allow--it's undoubtedly powerful and provides an insane amount of ramp, but T3 means that some number of decks should be able to at least have an answer in their 40 for whatever is dropped. It's definitely absolutely borderline because of how fast you go from 2->6 mana, but if they answer whatever it is then you gain back some of that tempo by answering their 6 drop and monolith. (With the monolith it's at minimum a tempo hit.)
Amusingly, Timetwister is a totally reasonable unpowered inclusion despite being a piece of the P9. Cool tool for the Thassa-y blue aggressive decks to refill hand size (as well as in Storm, though I'd strongly advise against that archetype in general for unpowered).
I'd really like a list of cards which have "no business" in an unpowered cube.
ABU Moxen
Black Lotus
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Library of Alexandria
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Mana Drain
Note that most of these cards provide what I like to call "super fast mana". They violate the game's intended resource progression system.
If a cube contains most or all of these cards, it is considered to be "powered". If it contains none of them, it is considered to be "unpowered". If it contains a few of them, it is probably closer to unpowered, but it is also unbalanced.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
The list varies from person to person, but it should start with 8 of the power 9, Library of Alexandria and Sol Ring. Then some other fast mana falls in close behind that group of 10 (Mana Crypt, maybe Vault too) and some folks ban Mind Twist and Mana Drain too. Mostly it's up for debate from group to group, but leaving in Sol Ring or Library when you're banning the P9 seems like a mistake if your objective with unpowering the cube is controlling powerlevel.
Search this forum for the other threads covering this topic. It's been beaten into the ground a million times.
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 appreciate the advice. I think if you are unpowered then that it is likely that you should avoid specifically sol ring, mana crypt and mana vault, not just zero mana ramp rocks. It is a bit off topic, but land that produce more than a single mana should probably be limited as well.
Cheers, and happy cubing!
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!
ABU Moxen
Black Lotus
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Mana Crypt
These all make more mana than their base cost and can do so immediately. The astute among you might note that we play Grim Monolith, which also falls foul. However, Monolith really gives a turn window in which to answer it since on T2, CCC is not particularly helpful for most game states. It doesn't ramp repeatedly off the bat and from T1 like Sol Ring, the other card that usually gives some kind of window. The additional up-front cost also brings more permanent removal into play for the other player than does Sol Ring's 1 cost. It's extremely good but certainly more fair than the other cards listed. Dark Ritual is fine as a single-shot boost of BB for a card.
There are of course other broken cards that are still very high picks with that fast mana removed. Notably, Library of Alexandria gets even better. We kept it for some time until it was clear that is really had no business existing in a world without the fast mana to temper it. Mana Drain doesn't get better per se, but is definitely watchlist material for the huge mana boost out of nowhere that it can provide. Aside from this, things are reasonably honest despite the presence of Ancestral Recall, Mind Twist, etc. Mind Twist is reined in significantly by the loss of powered mana. The closest thing to a problem card is probably Umezawa's Jitte, in fact. It gets online fast, but I prefer to look to add answers - Jitte still needs to stick around itself, have 4 invested to cast/equip it, and actually have a creature to swing on. Plenty of opportunities to answer it. But man, it's a ridiculous bomb.
As mentioned, I have no problem with fast mana cubes and chances are that in the future, colourless (or all the) fast mana may reappear (if we get more Eldrazi colourless support, it could be tempting...). But we found this balance to allow for use of broken cards, whereas the fast mana makes every subsequent card in your deck broken. It's a good happy medium.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
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On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms: