Great write up, thanks kingneb. I feel that the the only conspiracies I'll be including are the ones without Hidden Agenda, as the logistics of keeping track of hidden cards can be annoying. However, the rest of your writeup matches up with my expectations of the conspiracies as a whole.
Thanks! Actually the logistics weren't too bad during the draft. When the land came around for example, everyone stopped for 15 seconds while the players picked the colors. As the player who passed Paliano, the High City in pack 1 I was glad/mad to hear the player on my left who drafted Paliano name what I thought was shaping up to be my main color as his choice. I correctly interpreted this information and moved out of his main color and my draft ended better than it could have. Some of the looks exchanged by players while colors were being named were worth the price of admission. I was concerned with the logistics so I went to the store & bought a pack of mini Post-its for $1. These seem like the perfect thing to use during the draft/deckbuilding phase to use with the Conspiracy cards. Before you totally dismiss it just try these cards for two drafts. If you & your group feel the same then don't use the cards anymore. To me the cool & power factor far outweigh the logistical issue (which I acknowledge does exist).
Nice overview. While it is clear why you didn't talk about Secret Summoning (useless in the typical singleton cube), the only other conspiracy that you didn't mention is Sentinel Dispatch. I think it is the fairest of the five non-Hidden Agenda cards, but might still be good enough. That additional blocker can buy controlish decks another crucial turn and it is also an artifact for Tinker and other artifact-related shenanigans.
These are all valid points. I never included Sentinel Dispatch because I view it as a card that will just automatically go to the control player by default. Without trying I think that the control player will on average get it like 13th pick and make their deck better versus aggro for free and without spending a high or even medium pick on it. I'm very pro-aggro so I usually don't run anything that has the potential to hurt just aggro if the card isn't good enough. You make a great point about Tinker decks. This is a sweet enabler for those decks or even could be for Recurring Nightmare decks. Everyone in my group (including myself) undervalued each Conspiracy card until we saw it in action. Maybe this is a card where I need to bite the bullet and just try it to see how it does. If it gets drafted in the middle of the pack I will happy to include it. If it's consistently in the bottom 1/4 of the pack then it's an effect that I don't want in my Cube.
Also, isn't Worldknit going to screw drafts since if someone gets it early they will start taking nonbasic lands from weaker packs just to keep their deck size down? I guess they wouldn't take shocklands or ciptaplands..
I think some people in my group could stand to take mana fixing a little higher so I'm not unhappy with this side effect. In my real-life Cube drafts I often draft two main colors with a light splash of a third color and sometimes one card in a 4th color so I know any land going around late is a great thing for me. I've done a ton of Worldknit drafts on CubeTutor and painlands which are the "worst" fixing lands in my Cube are cards you can easily justify around 5th-6th pick. Decreasing your deck size is nice. The best lands are any land that does something besides tap for land. Maze of Ith and Volrath's Stronghold are the best by a wide margin but Rishadan Port and Ancient Tomb also get much better in Worldknit. Manlands are great but the ones that CIP untapped like Mutavault are the best ones because they don't hurt your tempo. I haven't fully cracked the code yet but I've done enough drafts of it to comment on what works & what isn't as good. I usually to aim for a 60 card deck when drafting Worldknit which means taking Worldknit, 9 lands and 35 spells. Even last pick cards that seem bad in a controlling 60 card deck can do some real work. The trump card in my last Worldknit draft was Curse of Predation. My Creeping Tar Pit & Gideon Jura ended up huge in a game where my opponent had Sphinx of the Steel Wind in play multiple times. Curse enabled me to win a game where my opponent had Sphinx in play for a total of ten turns and gained over 60 life over the course of the game. All of this from a card I didn't want in my deck & came around last pick. I don't think Worldknit will be very good in regular Conspiracy drafting but it is awesome in Cube drafting where every card has high power level and fills a role (even if it's narrow). As an aside, I can't wait to team Worldknit with Cogwork Grinder.
TL;DR I have a serious problem in that I feel it's my mission to ensure everyone at least tests these Conspiracy cards. Some of the greatest moments in the history of my Cube have happened in the last month since they were added and I want to make sure that other people have the same opportunity to experience the awesomeness of Conspiracy cards in their Cube before they dismiss them
Nice overview. While it is clear why you didn't talk about Secret Summoning (useless in the typical singleton cube), the only other conspiracy that you didn't mention is Sentinel Dispatch. I think it is the fairest of the five non-Hidden Agenda cards, but might still be good enough. That additional blocker can buy controlish decks another crucial turn and it is also an artifact for Tinker and other artifact-related shenanigans.
These are all valid points. I never included Sentinel Dispatch because I view it as a card that will just automatically go to the control player by default. Without trying I think that the control player will on average get it like 13th pick and make their deck better versus aggro for free and without spending a high or even medium pick on it. I'm very pro-aggro so I usually don't run anything that has the potential to hurt just aggro if the card isn't good enough. You make a great point about Tinker decks. This is a sweet enabler for those decks or even could be for Recurring Nightmare decks. Everyone in my group (including myself) undervalued each Conspiracy card until we saw it in action. Maybe this is a card where I need to bite the bullet and just try it to see how it does. If it gets drafted in the middle of the pack I will happy to include it. If it's consistently in the bottom 1/4 of the pack then it's an effect that I don't want in my Cube.
I am a little worried myself about this being mostly an anti-aggro card. However, if it automatically goes to the control player depends on the size of your cube drafts. We usually draft with 6 people, so while the card will probably go to a control player, there will be multiple players who draft a slower deck, so each one of them has to evaluate if he wants to pick it or risk it going to another drafter. Even if it is a later pick for some drafters that is completely uninteresting for half the table, there have to be decisions about picking the card or not. Heck, since the card is basically free during deck construction and play, even an aggro deck might take it late out of an otherwise empty booster, since the additional creature can help in racing situations against other aggro decks.
This is all theorycrafting, but I will certainly give this card a try. I actually like that it isn't as universally good as Backup Plan or Advantageous Proclamation and only goes into specific decks. Not being a clear first pick and not fitting into every deck makes for some interesting decisions during a draft.
One strange interaction that people haven't mentioned about the conspiracies that name a creature, such as Muzzio's Preparations, is that they can name "Illusion" because Illusion is a card name. This allows these cards to affect Meloku the Clouded Mirror's tokens, enabling you to simulate the misprinted Spanish Meloku that makes 2/2s!
One strange interaction that people haven't mentioned about the conspiracies that name a creature, such as Muzzio's Preparations, is that they can name "Illusion" because Illusion is a card name. This allows these cards to affect Meloku the Clouded Mirror's tokens, enabling you to simulate the misprinted Spanish Meloku that makes 2/2s!
You must name a Magic card. Notably, you can't name a token (except in the unusual case that a token's name matches the name of a card, such as Illusion).
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I'm really confused. Everyone keeps saying Paliano, the High City will always produce "at least two colors."
Why do you say that? It will always be able to produce three colors. If I draft it, the player to my right chooses a color--their choices are WUBRG; he picks Red. I choose another color--my choices are WUBG; I pick Blue. The player to my left chooses another color--their choices are WBG; they pick Green.
Because the card says each consecutive player chooses another color, they have to pick a different one from the ones already chosen. The land will always produce three colors.
I'm really looking forward to try the draft altering cards in our cube, but I don't like the Conspiracies very much. The problem with them is that they bring zero decisions to the game play or to deck-building. The beauty of drafting for me is that it is a game in three acts: drafting, deck-builing and playing, all with difficult decisions to be made. With the Conspiracies you only have to decide when to pick them (and which card to name with the Hidden Agendas), then you always play them, and (randomly) get the rewards with zero skill involved.
We're probably still going to try them at least once in an extra section to spice things up.
I like them because they add way more deckbuilding decisions. In a deck full of powerful instants and sorceries like cube, unless you have a giant standout, what do you put Double Strike on? I've had decks where I've put it on a card other than Ancestral Recall (I actually normally put it on something other than Ancestral, but I've put it on Ancestral too). Unexpected Potential is probably the most interesting conspiracy in this regard - you usually have a ton of choices to put it on unless you scoop up something completely different than what your deck is doing for the entire purpose of Unexpected Potential-ing it, but then there is definitely a lot of strategy involved in drafting differently than you normally would because of the card.
Worldknit makes one person have a really weird/odd draft once in a while, which is sweet and some players really love a change (me included). It's also nice to just do some math then jam some mountains in your deck and shuffle up.
They also add more gameplay decisions. Sure, they make cards much stronger but that's part of the reason to play cube, imo, extremely powerful effects. A 1GG Natural Order, and being able to play around that once you know about it, is awesome.
I love how they spice the drafts up. Our playgroup really loves the conspiracies.
Yeah, we like them too. Even something like Brago's Favor is bland on paper, but it makes for cool deckbuilding decisions. Need a three drop? My Graveborn Muse and Hellrider are now doing just that. Or make that Thundermaw Hellkite a true 2RR aggro card! Double Stroke is awesome with ramp effects (or a Miracled Bonfire of the Damned!). There is much skill involved in determining which effect will suit you best for a given game, too.
Yeah, I also think that the hidden agendas are more interesting than the other conspiracies. I especilly dislike the idea of playing with or against Power Play or Backup Plan - they twist the meta-rules of the game in a way that feels unfair (even in a powered cube).
I'm not sure yet how to evaluate them, but if they turn out as strong as I imagine, I would pick extremely high. A pity that they were not included in the power rankings - I'd be curious how you'd rate them in comparison to other colorless cards.
Thinking about it some more, I dislike them probably much for the same reason other people dislike powered cubes. A Mox gets slam picked over almost everything and goes in every deck, then creates a hugh advantage when you have it on your starting hand. So do Power Play or Backup Plan, except you don't even need them on your starting hand.
However, we currently have a powered cube and I don't mind it, so maybe the conspiracies will be fine as well. I enjoyed unpowered a tiny bit more, because there were less games that were over before they had begun, but you can always just shuffle your decks for a new game so it's no big deal.
played with the conspiracies for the first time last night. rather than including them in the packs, we randomly distributed one conspiracy card to each person before the draft began. my group liked the idea, and said it gave them some direction in deck building without forcing them into certain archetypes. a couple of observations that stood out:
Did anyone do any extended testing with Lurking Automaton? Is there a threshold (in terms of P/T) where it becomes playable, and if so, do players let it table until it gets there? Was it powerful or interesting?
Automaton is a challenging card. I feel like anything 7 power and over is decent for it but the trouble is drafting it to its fullest potential. People get scared of it getting too high and take it earlier than they should. Then since the power is so low they don't play it. So far I want to say the average is power 8+ once every four to five drafts and then it gets played.
Thanks! Actually the logistics weren't too bad during the draft. When the land came around for example, everyone stopped for 15 seconds while the players picked the colors. As the player who passed Paliano, the High City in pack 1 I was glad/mad to hear the player on my left who drafted Paliano name what I thought was shaping up to be my main color as his choice. I correctly interpreted this information and moved out of his main color and my draft ended better than it could have. Some of the looks exchanged by players while colors were being named were worth the price of admission. I was concerned with the logistics so I went to the store & bought a pack of mini Post-its for $1. These seem like the perfect thing to use during the draft/deckbuilding phase to use with the Conspiracy cards. Before you totally dismiss it just try these cards for two drafts. If you & your group feel the same then don't use the cards anymore. To me the cool & power factor far outweigh the logistical issue (which I acknowledge does exist).
These are all valid points. I never included Sentinel Dispatch because I view it as a card that will just automatically go to the control player by default. Without trying I think that the control player will on average get it like 13th pick and make their deck better versus aggro for free and without spending a high or even medium pick on it. I'm very pro-aggro so I usually don't run anything that has the potential to hurt just aggro if the card isn't good enough. You make a great point about Tinker decks. This is a sweet enabler for those decks or even could be for Recurring Nightmare decks. Everyone in my group (including myself) undervalued each Conspiracy card until we saw it in action. Maybe this is a card where I need to bite the bullet and just try it to see how it does. If it gets drafted in the middle of the pack I will happy to include it. If it's consistently in the bottom 1/4 of the pack then it's an effect that I don't want in my Cube.
I think some people in my group could stand to take mana fixing a little higher so I'm not unhappy with this side effect. In my real-life Cube drafts I often draft two main colors with a light splash of a third color and sometimes one card in a 4th color so I know any land going around late is a great thing for me. I've done a ton of Worldknit drafts on CubeTutor and painlands which are the "worst" fixing lands in my Cube are cards you can easily justify around 5th-6th pick. Decreasing your deck size is nice. The best lands are any land that does something besides tap for land. Maze of Ith and Volrath's Stronghold are the best by a wide margin but Rishadan Port and Ancient Tomb also get much better in Worldknit. Manlands are great but the ones that CIP untapped like Mutavault are the best ones because they don't hurt your tempo. I haven't fully cracked the code yet but I've done enough drafts of it to comment on what works & what isn't as good. I usually to aim for a 60 card deck when drafting Worldknit which means taking Worldknit, 9 lands and 35 spells. Even last pick cards that seem bad in a controlling 60 card deck can do some real work. The trump card in my last Worldknit draft was Curse of Predation. My Creeping Tar Pit & Gideon Jura ended up huge in a game where my opponent had Sphinx of the Steel Wind in play multiple times. Curse enabled me to win a game where my opponent had Sphinx in play for a total of ten turns and gained over 60 life over the course of the game. All of this from a card I didn't want in my deck & came around last pick. I don't think Worldknit will be very good in regular Conspiracy drafting but it is awesome in Cube drafting where every card has high power level and fills a role (even if it's narrow). As an aside, I can't wait to team Worldknit with Cogwork Grinder.
TL;DR I have a serious problem in that I feel it's my mission to ensure everyone at least tests these Conspiracy cards. Some of the greatest moments in the history of my Cube have happened in the last month since they were added and I want to make sure that other people have the same opportunity to experience the awesomeness of Conspiracy cards in their Cube before they dismiss them
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The more I think about it, the more nice little synergies I see: Tinker, Recurring Nightmare (thanks for pointing this out), Goblin Bombardment, Mortarpod, Greater Gargadon, Braids, Cabal Minion, Smokestack, Shadowborn Demon...
This is all theorycrafting, but I will certainly give this card a try. I actually like that it isn't as universally good as Backup Plan or Advantageous Proclamation and only goes into specific decks. Not being a clear first pick and not fitting into every deck makes for some interesting decisions during a draft.
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Why do you say that? It will always be able to produce three colors. If I draft it, the player to my right chooses a color--their choices are WUBRG; he picks Red. I choose another color--my choices are WUBG; I pick Blue. The player to my left chooses another color--their choices are WBG; they pick Green.
Because the card says each consecutive player chooses another color, they have to pick a different one from the ones already chosen. The land will always produce three colors.
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Exactly this.
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I don't think so, and the WotC release notes seem to imply that Illusion is the only exception in the game, but here's what should be a complete list of all the tokens available in MTG: http://www.trollandtoad.com/Magic:-The-Gathering/1214-1041p1n200.html
Hopefully you can prove me wrong!
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We're probably still going to try them at least once in an extra section to spice things up.
Worldknit makes one person have a really weird/odd draft once in a while, which is sweet and some players really love a change (me included). It's also nice to just do some math then jam some mountains in your deck and shuffle up.
They also add more gameplay decisions. Sure, they make cards much stronger but that's part of the reason to play cube, imo, extremely powerful effects. A 1GG Natural Order, and being able to play around that once you know about it, is awesome.
I love how they spice the drafts up. Our playgroup really loves the conspiracies.
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On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I'm not sure yet how to evaluate them, but if they turn out as strong as I imagine, I would pick extremely high. A pity that they were not included in the power rankings - I'd be curious how you'd rate them in comparison to other colorless cards.
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However, we currently have a powered cube and I don't mind it, so maybe the conspiracies will be fine as well. I enjoyed unpowered a tiny bit more, because there were less games that were over before they had begun, but you can always just shuffle your decks for a new game so it's no big deal.
i played against a Double Stroke'd Praetor's Grasp; the first game it got Sol Ring and Karn Liberated, the second game it got Crucible of Worlds and Strip Mine.
the most winning deck was a tight 35-card red deck wins list thanks to Advantageous Proclamation.
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