MTG Salvation

http://magic.wizards.com/en/MTGO/articles/archive/magic-online/announcing-you-make-cube-contest-2016-08-23

While I'm assuming they're not going to be interested in just well-tuned, balanced, solid 540 lists as they are wacky / creative ideas, this is still the kind of thing that should be right up this forum's alley.

I passed this along to a friend of mine that runs a good 540 unpowered list. I'll be interested in seeing how this one shakes out. Would any of the online cubes run by wizards/ex-wizards folks like Adam Styborski or Geri Thompson evidence what WotC is looking for in an entry?

I wonder if this contest may be evidencing wizards eventually coming around to the idea of a paper cube product....

I am thinking about what would make a good entry. They don't want something that is too much like the Vintage, Legacy, or Legendary cube, so that rules out the mainstream cubes here. Plus, we tend to evaluate cubes and cube cards from a mostly Spike perspective, whereas the MTGO cubes have a lot of stuff for Timmy/Tammy and Jenny/Johnny. The criteria they will use is based on "fun, originality/creativity, feasibility, and replayability."

Fun
I think having the Timmy/Tammy/Jenny/Johnny (TTJJ) cards is important. There needs to be cool, splashy things. While hitting all my land drops with Crucible + fetch land is a cool interaction to me, it isn't exciting. Other than that, Magic is fun. Cubes are fun.

Originality/Creativity
This is going to be one of the biggest things, I think. There are a lot of theme cubes out there, tribal and graveyard theme seem relatively popular. I'm not sure if one of these options would count as original. Something like The Desert Cube is certainly original and cool, but adding a new mechanism (can't add basic lands after the draft), is likely to be disqualified based on feasibility. My guess is that one of the finalists will be a tribal cube. It's a popular theme, offers stuff for Spike and TTJJ, and the card pool is pretty deep.

Feasibility
This criterion will kill stuff like The Desert Cube and other zany ideas like the split card cube, Conspiracy-esque draft mechanics, "Legacy" cube (as in Risk Legacy-like) and so forth.

Replayability
I think this one is where a lot of theme cubes suffer. If the theme is too present, then you learn the archetypes and just draft those cards. Every draft is basically like drafting monored aggro in a MTGSally cube; just pick the best red card in each pack and ignore everything else. Lorwyn draft suffered from this "drafting on rails" problem too. It's hard to balance replayability, complexity, and power level.

Conclusion
As I said, I think tribal is a good way to go for this. The problem is avoiding the "drafting on rails" trap.

The other idea would be to do a 3-color cube. People love shards/wedges, and drafting 3-color decks would be different from most draft formats. I am also thinking a "color matters" theme would be cool for this. The problem is that this theme is a bit mechanical, and not too exciting as a concept.

A color themes cube could be fun. Mostly multicolor, lots of hybrid mana, lots of devotion cards. Steal cards from Shadowmoor and Theros and Alara.

Artifact cube could be sweet.

Mono blue cube is neat, but I'm not sure you could stretch it to 540.

Innistrad cube is a classic, but you can just draft real Innistrad on MTGO so it loses some appeal.

EDH cube is too similar to legendary cube. A normal finely tuned and well balanced 540 cube is probably out even though I would love to see one on MTGO. Sweet gimmick ideas like Desert Cube can't be programmed in this round sadly. Hmm.

I would love to see someone do a pauper or peasant list; probably not what they're looking for, but they are fun formats that should be on MODO already.

I will submit my tribal cube to the contest.

I guess my sharpie cube wont fly.

A tuned peasant list would be neat, but I don't think people would be jumping out of their seats to draft it. A tribal cube or graveyard cube would probably be popular. I could also see something epic and lore-based like a Phyrexia vs. Eldrazi cube or a Ravnica cube with cards handpicked from all 6 sets.

I recommended the Pro Tour Cube. It's a different experience from a lot of traditional cubes, and it's a no-nonsense, non-subjective design that has a set list of includes.

That's a cool idea, but you should submit your own cube, wtwlf. Your cube is already one of the most popular and widely emulated lists in the world, and it's even already the size WoTC's looking for. I know I'm not the only one who'd love to get the chance to draft and actually play your cube online.

I would love to see a Peasant cube go up!

I would do this, except I don't do MTGO. So. Bleh.

Quote from JohnnyDegenerate »

I would do this, except I don't do MTGO. So. Bleh.

You can redeem the Kaladesh packs for physical cards if you pay the fee.

Mono colored cubes lose their luster fast. Most match ups end up being mirrors to some degree, and if they're not they're often wildly unbalanced for a good reason. Tribal and Multicolored ones would be cool, but multicolored cubes have played awfully close to how the legendary cube did in my experience and that was kinda *****ty so hopefully it won't be something like that.

Thanks for the love, Spike Rogue, but they're looking for an experience that's markedly different from what they have. My cube experience is kinda a hybrid between what their Vintage and Legacy experiences offer, but I'd like to see something totally different.

I'm in the same boat as steve_man. I've also got something reasonably wacky in mind (and have been testing with a few folks), but would always appreciate feedback from regulars!

I honestly think it's unfortunate that a solid build like wtwlf's (or mine or, hell, most of us here on MTGS) likely has no chance of winning. I'd be much more inclined to log into MTGO to draft one of these cubes than I would to draft a weird mono color cube. That type of thing just doesn't really interest me. I hope if a solid powered 540 doesn't win and they go with something completely different, that it ends up being a solid peasant or pauper 540 list. Something like that sound much more enticing to me. I'm thinking of uploading my own lower power list instead of my regular powered list just for this reason. It's at least different from the norm.

A shame they aren't really looking for a Multiplayer Cube. It's not traditional in any sense and can be made to be really wacky while offering loads of replay value. The issues with MP cubes of course is you lose the Aggro type decks and take on a lot more mid range "good stuffs" decks. Some people have issues with this.

Well, I submitted an expanded version of my Artifact Cube. I'm a little worried about Kaladesh having an artifact theme as well, though...

Anyway, at least it was interesting to put together, and I'm curious to see what they pick as the finalists.

A while ago, I started (and eventually abandoned) a multicolor-themed cube. Something like that is probably going to be the winner.

I know someone who has a peasant cube that is ONLY uncommons. Restricting by rarity would be interesting too. Making it all rare (plus mythic) would enable a lot of powerful cards as well as some TTJ cards that I'm sure WOTC would want. The downside is that you'd be missing out on some good burn and removal but if the overall cube is fun and interesting enough, that may not matter overmuch in the end.

I'm working on an update to my Peasant cube that I plan on submitting. It's normally only 390 cards so I need to bump it up a little, but I've got a huge on-deck list that should make that easy enough to do.