Hey there, been lurking around these forums for a while and (somewhat) frequenting the proxy threads. I have a few questions about assembling and organizing a cube. I was originally going to make a "normal" powered cube and proxy expensive cards but I think I would eventually like to own all of the actual cards in my cube. I saw some of the tribal cubes here and loved the idea, so I figured I'd go with that but, I have a few questions.
1.) For my cube I figured I would do 6 main tribes being: soldiers, goblins, merfolk, zombies, elves and slivers. Does this sound like it would work well or should I include other "sub-themes/tribes" as well?
2.) I've tried a few different programs for organizing and compiling my cube but none of them seem to do the trick for me. MSE is nice and, having to make each card isn't terrible (already did one cube in it) but it doesn't really offer much that a spreadsheet doesn't. OCTGN has some nice filters that make it very easy to sift through cards and I dont have to click a link to see each card individually, (though it only shows one at a time) I can just scroll through with the arrow keys, but the decklist sidebar is rather disappointing. It only organizes the cards by the order you put them in the deck and to increase the length of the list I have to shrink the card image (I need to be able to see the card images, for whatever reason I just can't look at rules text by itself). What do you use to organize your cubes?
Thanks in advance for your help and sorry for the long 2nd question, I tend to ramble on.
The tricky thing about tribal themes is that they are linear. This means that there might be only one person drafting merfolk at the table, and so that person and only that person wants all the merfolk. That makes the draft fairly non-interactive once people choose their tribes and also means that you are at the mercy of what subset of good tribal cards for your tribe there is in the pool being drafted.
Wizards 'solved' this problem of non-interactive drafts in Lorwyn block by creating crossovers with
a: race/class synergies, so you are have more than one linear theme to maximise in your deck, and
b: changelings, which anyone in that colour can benefit from
The downside with Lorwyn block is that it created overly complex board positions (you had to know what effects all of your opponents 'lords' on the battlefield were generating, as well as predict outcomes shold some lords die unexpectedly). But it's the best way this problem has been solved so far.
Or you can look at Onslaught block, with Timberwatch Elf and Sparksmith banned. That was a good block to draft.
For the organizing, you'll probably have to do it by hand, or at least I did. I just grabbed all the cards sorted them by color and casting cost and typed them one by one into my cube thread. It's really not that bad (takes like three hours) and it helps you to become more familiar with your cube.
The tricky thing about tribal themes is that they are linear. This means that there might be only one person drafting merfolk at the table, and so that person and only that person wants all the merfolk. That makes the draft fairly non-interactive once people choose their tribes and also means that you are at the mercy of what subset of good tribal cards for your tribe there is in the pool being drafted.
Wizards 'solved' this problem of non-interactive drafts in Lorwyn block by creating crossovers with
a: race/class synergies, so you are have more than one linear theme to maximise in your deck, and
b: changelings, which anyone in that colour can benefit from
The downside with Lorwyn block is that it created overly complex board positions (you had to know what effects all of your opponents 'lords' on the battlefield were generating, as well as predict outcomes shold some lords die unexpectedly). But it's the best way this problem has been solved so far.
Or you can look at Onslaught block, with Timberwatch Elf and Sparksmith banned. That was a good block to draft.
I see what you mean by non-interactive and I had thought about that a bit. I think I would have to support 5 races and 5 classes w/out enough in any one tribe to support a deck to make it semi-interactive but, I'm not sure that's something I want to do. I think that maybe a peasant cube might provide a better overall experience for me/my group.
For the organizing, you'll probably have to do it by hand, or at least I did. I just grabbed all the cards sorted them by color and casting cost and typed them one by one into my cube thread. It's really not that bad (takes like three hours) and it helps you to become more familiar with your cube.
I'm having more trouble with the actual building part, and my collection isn't large enough to make my entire cube and I know that I'll have to include some cards I don't own. Sorry, I should have mentioned that in the OP.
I don't support tribal decks in my cube, even some cards randomly have synergies with cards tat are good on their own, like a Siegegang Commander that sacrifices a dying Chameleon Colossus or a Virdian Shaman benefiting from Imperious Perfect, so I might not be the best person to ask, but Slivers in limited can be really dumb, especially if both players have a bunch of them.
2) Is this good enough for you or do you want further analysis of your cube? The list can be exported for Magic Workstation, which has plenty of filters, but you have to save it @ deckstats instead of MWS, because the MWS files destroy the existing sort order of the cards.
I can sort your cube "semiautomatically" by card type and converted manacost, if you provide me with a list that is ordered by color.
I really like that website you posted. Especially that you can separate the list and edit the cards' costs. I also appreciate your offer to sort my cube for me but, there's no reason I should have you spend your time doing something I can do for myself.
Thank you all for your responses. I'm going change to a peasant cube, I think that will provide me with what I want. Time to look at some other cubes and start building. See ya all again when I finish assembling my cube.
1.) For my cube I figured I would do 6 main tribes being: soldiers, goblins, merfolk, zombies, elves and slivers. Does this sound like it would work well or should I include other "sub-themes/tribes" as well?
2.) I've tried a few different programs for organizing and compiling my cube but none of them seem to do the trick for me. MSE is nice and, having to make each card isn't terrible (already did one cube in it) but it doesn't really offer much that a spreadsheet doesn't. OCTGN has some nice filters that make it very easy to sift through cards and I dont have to click a link to see each card individually, (though it only shows one at a time) I can just scroll through with the arrow keys, but the decklist sidebar is rather disappointing. It only organizes the cards by the order you put them in the deck and to increase the length of the list I have to shrink the card image (I need to be able to see the card images, for whatever reason I just can't look at rules text by itself). What do you use to organize your cubes?
Thanks in advance for your help and sorry for the long 2nd question, I tend to ramble on.
Peasant+ Cube
The tricky thing about tribal themes is that they are linear. This means that there might be only one person drafting merfolk at the table, and so that person and only that person wants all the merfolk. That makes the draft fairly non-interactive once people choose their tribes and also means that you are at the mercy of what subset of good tribal cards for your tribe there is in the pool being drafted.
Wizards 'solved' this problem of non-interactive drafts in Lorwyn block by creating crossovers with
a: race/class synergies, so you are have more than one linear theme to maximise in your deck, and
b: changelings, which anyone in that colour can benefit from
The downside with Lorwyn block is that it created overly complex board positions (you had to know what effects all of your opponents 'lords' on the battlefield were generating, as well as predict outcomes shold some lords die unexpectedly). But it's the best way this problem has been solved so far.
Or you can look at Onslaught block, with Timberwatch Elf and Sparksmith banned. That was a good block to draft.
I see what you mean by non-interactive and I had thought about that a bit. I think I would have to support 5 races and 5 classes w/out enough in any one tribe to support a deck to make it semi-interactive but, I'm not sure that's something I want to do. I think that maybe a peasant cube might provide a better overall experience for me/my group.
I'm having more trouble with the actual building part, and my collection isn't large enough to make my entire cube and I know that I'll have to include some cards I don't own. Sorry, I should have mentioned that in the OP.
Aye, I noticed some cross-tribe soldiers and a fair amount of Merfolk Soldiers in particular.
I really like that website you posted. Especially that you can separate the list and edit the cards' costs. I also appreciate your offer to sort my cube for me but, there's no reason I should have you spend your time doing something I can do for myself.
Thank you all for your responses. I'm going change to a peasant cube, I think that will provide me with what I want. Time to look at some other cubes and start building. See ya all again when I finish assembling my cube.
Peasant+ Cube
elementals
wizards
clerics
warriors
beasts
most of those are in 3 or 4 different colors
and I don't see anything wrong with including some overlapping on the main themes like black goblins.
also, after a couple more sets there may be enough vampires...
Cube list thread
Cubetutor