I'm currently running a 720 unpowered cube that my group drafts once or twice a week. It's been great and I just finished renovating it a bunch. While renovating it, I can't help to think that certain cards would be so great if only they were a little better, or come up with ideas for cards that would add a LOT to the environment with effects that might never be printed. I also run a Type 4 cube with a couple of custom cards so I started wondering about augmenting the cube by fitting in a few carefully made cards to fill in some gaps. I've seen some articles discussing entirely/mostly custom cubes but I really don't like the idea of starting from scratch and undertaking that much work. Its also just not something I care to own right now.
What I want to know is how people feel about custom cards in cube? Regardless of how my group feels, I need an idea of how any random group would probably feel. I'm going to be traveling enough and bringing this to enough events for this to be crucial. How would you react to seeing an unpowered cube with a couple of custom cards being used? Would you be more or less willing to draft it?
I'm actually kind of intrigued by the idea of being able to build an even more perfect drafting environment than the card pool is enabling but I wonder if its even a good idea.
I'v run about 15 custom cards in my 360 cube, and the response has been much better than expected. If a custom card is too good in the cube environment, people are uneasy, but generally a card can even be a little too good to print, and people are ok with it. Just because a card would be broken in legacy doesn't mean it's too good for cube, or even good enough. That said, I try to keep all my custom cards within printable power level if possible.
Also, I only print cards that fill holes, support archetypes, etc. Not cards that are unique or powerful enough to create archetypes of their own.
Im fighting every instinct I have in order to not make custom cards... heh.
I know once I make one, quarter the cube will be custom. Open pandoras box.
The biggest downside is explaining the cube to people who don't frequently cube with it. Or if you overestimate your ability to design cards and actually make the environment worse.
It works for some groups, but the people I play with would despise it, and be completely disinterested in drafting the cube if it was mixed with fake cards.
I like the idea of 100% custom or 0% custom. A mix would turn me away too.
I don't really like the idea of a fully custom cube. Cube's tend to be full of complicated cards, much more so than normal draft environments. Some of this is mitigated by the fact that many of the cards will already be well know to most drafters. A fully custom cube would either have a very steep learning curve, or have to lower its complexity level a lot.
If I made a custom cube, I would at least reprint certain sets of lands like fetches and duals and would at least reprint a good number of simple cards like Farseek or Doom Blade that happen to fit perfectly anyway. I feel like ~50 cards are going to end up reprinted if you let it happen naturally. Maybe that is something I could end up doing. I feel like it would still effectively be a custom cube at that point, just less jarring and complicated.
For my current cube, the question is whether its worth it to put ~15 custom cards in a normal cube like Suicufnoc did to help it out. I guess the answer is no if it would be too easy for number of custom cards to grow and/or other groups will be generally opposed to the idea. Maybe its better to let the card pool restrict my options and retain the cube's portability.
When I was at 450 I ran a custom set of enemy man-lands which i found on these forums, they were pretty good and it didn't bother people. To each their own though.
I've gotten enough flak from my playgroup over non-tournament legal cards like Conspiracy cards, World Championship editions, and Un- cards that I can't imagine homemade cards going over well. Introducing your cube to a bunch of strangers, I'd stick to WOTC printed cards at the very least.
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For my current cube, the question is whether its worth it to put ~15 custom cards in a normal cube like Suicufnoc did to help it out. I guess the answer is no if it would be too easy for number of custom cards to grow and/or other groups will be generally opposed to the idea. Maybe its better to let the card pool restrict my options and retain the cube's portability.
I think the slippery slope argument of "once I add some, I will feel like its ok to add more" is pretty silly. If you run 15 custom cards, and want to run more, you run more. I you don't want to, you don't. I think my cube's complexity level is high enough, and I don't see any more holes to fill right now, so I'm not adding any more custom cards right now.
Also, as hinted at in other responses, throwing in some un-cards or conspiracy cards is a good way to guage your groups respone to custom cards. I did that first. I highly suggest Blast From the Past to anyone who doesn't already run it. And then throw in a Cogwork Librarian, its lot's of fun.
For my current cube, the question is whether its worth it to put ~15 custom cards in a normal cube like Suicufnoc did to help it out. I guess the answer is no if it would be too easy for number of custom cards to grow and/or other groups will be generally opposed to the idea. Maybe its better to let the card pool restrict my options and retain the cube's portability.
I think the slippery slope argument of "once I add some, I will feel like its ok to add more" is pretty silly. If you run 15 custom cards, and want to run more, you run more. I you don't want to, you don't.
It's not an argument. It's awareness of your own psychology. I agree it's silly, but it's a common psychology. There are drives in me (and I assume others) to change cards for reasons other than optimal play experience. It's a compulsion for me to constantly **** with my cube and customize it (for myself), and I have to limit this urge for my playgroup.
Once you give into a compulsion, it DOES snowball and becomes harder to resist.
I agree most people won't have this problem, but some (me for sure) would.
You can't get addicted to heroin if you never try it in the first place haha.
The prize for our yearly cubeiversery tournament (involving as many players as we've had all year) is a custom Magic card to go in the cube. They have to work with me to balance the card, but it is a great way to get people invested in the Cube. I wouldn't want a ton in the cube, but this worked well and was easily accepted by my playgroup (they thought it was awesome).
Sure, but if your reason for adding custom cards in the first place is to get closer to the optimal play experience, it's probably still for the better.
That said, I thing the urge to constantly customize the cube is a good thing. There really is no optimal cube. Any environment will get stale eventually. A constantly changing environment helps to stop that from happening. If your reason for making changes is really to fun maximization, rather than power maximization, then there are a lot of possible environments that will be balanced and play great. I'd personally rather play a variety of them rather than just one.
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What I want to know is how people feel about custom cards in cube? Regardless of how my group feels, I need an idea of how any random group would probably feel. I'm going to be traveling enough and bringing this to enough events for this to be crucial. How would you react to seeing an unpowered cube with a couple of custom cards being used? Would you be more or less willing to draft it?
I'm actually kind of intrigued by the idea of being able to build an even more perfect drafting environment than the card pool is enabling but I wonder if its even a good idea.
Also, I only print cards that fill holes, support archetypes, etc. Not cards that are unique or powerful enough to create archetypes of their own.
I know once I make one, quarter the cube will be custom. Open pandoras box.
The biggest downside is explaining the cube to people who don't frequently cube with it. Or if you overestimate your ability to design cards and actually make the environment worse.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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I like the idea of 100% custom or 0% custom. A mix would turn me away too.
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For my current cube, the question is whether its worth it to put ~15 custom cards in a normal cube like Suicufnoc did to help it out. I guess the answer is no if it would be too easy for number of custom cards to grow and/or other groups will be generally opposed to the idea. Maybe its better to let the card pool restrict my options and retain the cube's portability.
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I think the slippery slope argument of "once I add some, I will feel like its ok to add more" is pretty silly. If you run 15 custom cards, and want to run more, you run more. I you don't want to, you don't. I think my cube's complexity level is high enough, and I don't see any more holes to fill right now, so I'm not adding any more custom cards right now.
Also, as hinted at in other responses, throwing in some un-cards or conspiracy cards is a good way to guage your groups respone to custom cards. I did that first. I highly suggest Blast From the Past to anyone who doesn't already run it. And then throw in a Cogwork Librarian, its lot's of fun.
It's not an argument. It's awareness of your own psychology. I agree it's silly, but it's a common psychology. There are drives in me (and I assume others) to change cards for reasons other than optimal play experience. It's a compulsion for me to constantly **** with my cube and customize it (for myself), and I have to limit this urge for my playgroup.
Once you give into a compulsion, it DOES snowball and becomes harder to resist.
I agree most people won't have this problem, but some (me for sure) would.
You can't get addicted to heroin if you never try it in the first place haha.
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
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That said, I thing the urge to constantly customize the cube is a good thing. There really is no optimal cube. Any environment will get stale eventually. A constantly changing environment helps to stop that from happening. If your reason for making changes is really to fun maximization, rather than power maximization, then there are a lot of possible environments that will be balanced and play great. I'd personally rather play a variety of them rather than just one.