I just entered it into xmage and 3s were by far the greatest number in the cube. But that didn't seem too bad to me. 3 is such a critical mana cost that having an excess of 3 drops didn't seem too ridiculous.
But tonight we was helping one of our group do a draft, talking her through her picks as we made our own, and a comment was made that there seemed to be a lot of 3 drops so now I'm feeling paranoid about it I guess. So, do I run too many three drops? I know it's a difficult question to answer since each color is doing different things so you can't say that each color should have exactly X 1 drops, X 2 drops, etc.
If anyone could take a look, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.
I have had to spend a lot of time trimming 3s from my 720 because at a high level there are way more 3-drops than 2-drops that make you think "that card looks great in Cube," so it's easy to accidentally overstock 3s. Multicolored 3-drops also drive up the numbers because there are so many options at that slot. I have 163 2s and 130 3s; you have 144 2s and 151 3s. One reason for our discrepancy at 2 is that you support fewer mana rocks, but you also go deeper on including many fringe 3s - the Sin Prodders, Solemn Recruits, Merciless Executioners, etc. Note that your actual curve is different than your Cube Cobra count because of cards like Pull from Tomorrow and Black Sun's Zenith labeled as 2s. I would change the casting cost to something closer to what cards are cast for to get a more realistic idea of curve (you can do this in Cube Cobra). This goes the other way too - Dismember is more of a 1 than 3, and while Force of Will is showing as 5 and Pact of Negation showing as 0, only Pact requires 5 mana sources every time you cast it (unless you win that turn), whereas Force is more commonly cast with no mana ever spent.
I think that average card value becomes more even if your bell curve peaks at 2 rather than 3 because of how decks are constructed as well as the differences in types of 2 drops that different decks want. 3-drops tend to overlap more across archetypes in my opinion. If I drafted your Cube I would expect to fill the 3-spot in my curve with late picks, and I would pick 2s very, very highly for the control/slower decks.
So overall, yes, I agree with the sentiment that your Cube could use a curve adjustment. But I also think a larger issue with low mana rock 720s is that control decks have to view a 2 mana rock as a bomb early pick in order to build a deck that operates as smoothly as well-supported, low curve aggro. You would still have this issue even if you trimmed 3s for 2-cost aggro creatures.
Thank you so much for your reply! I 100% agree that I need to adjust the X spells to more approriate mana costs. I did that in cubetutor but I just put the cube cobra list together and haven't done all of the formatting for it. But it's on the list:)
I thought I was running a good amount of mana rocks! You really think I should be running more?
I'm surprised that you think 2 should have more of a presence than threes! I thought there should be a few more threes. Not arguing, I asked for advise and you're giving it and I appreciate it. I'm just surprised. I would have thought you would want a couple more threes than twos.
I'm hoping to get another response or two but I will definitely consider your suggestions and see about trimming a few threes for two and maybe see if I can find room for a few more mana rocks!
The cube in question.
I just entered it into xmage and 3s were by far the greatest number in the cube. But that didn't seem too bad to me. 3 is such a critical mana cost that having an excess of 3 drops didn't seem too ridiculous.
But tonight we was helping one of our group do a draft, talking her through her picks as we made our own, and a comment was made that there seemed to be a lot of 3 drops so now I'm feeling paranoid about it I guess. So, do I run too many three drops? I know it's a difficult question to answer since each color is doing different things so you can't say that each color should have exactly X 1 drops, X 2 drops, etc.
If anyone could take a look, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.
I think that average card value becomes more even if your bell curve peaks at 2 rather than 3 because of how decks are constructed as well as the differences in types of 2 drops that different decks want. 3-drops tend to overlap more across archetypes in my opinion. If I drafted your Cube I would expect to fill the 3-spot in my curve with late picks, and I would pick 2s very, very highly for the control/slower decks.
So overall, yes, I agree with the sentiment that your Cube could use a curve adjustment. But I also think a larger issue with low mana rock 720s is that control decks have to view a 2 mana rock as a bomb early pick in order to build a deck that operates as smoothly as well-supported, low curve aggro. You would still have this issue even if you trimmed 3s for 2-cost aggro creatures.
I thought I was running a good amount of mana rocks! You really think I should be running more?
I'm surprised that you think 2 should have more of a presence than threes! I thought there should be a few more threes. Not arguing, I asked for advise and you're giving it and I appreciate it. I'm just surprised. I would have thought you would want a couple more threes than twos.
I'm hoping to get another response or two but I will definitely consider your suggestions and see about trimming a few threes for two and maybe see if I can find room for a few more mana rocks!
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022