Thanks for taking a look! Right now I'm looking for any tips and feedback on the cube people might have. This is my first attempt, and I've tried to balance things out but I'm still learning.
Ravnica has long been a favorite set of my playgroups to draft, and initially we attempted to create a standard singleton cube themed around the two blocks (Ravnica and Return to Ravnica) but it was decided that the cube was weak and inconsistent, and not much fun to draft. This is my own attempt at a cube type draft format, but instead of singletons using multiples. There will be 4 of each common, 2 of each uncommon, and 1 of each rare. Packs will be standard 15 card packs of 1 rare 3 uncommons and 10 commons with the land slot taken up by a karoo or guildgate. Astute readers will notice that I included 3 copies of Feldon's Cane, the only none Ravnica card. This is because in the past, mill was so strong that people just folded to it. I'll keep the cane out initially, but will add that or elixer of immortality of mill is dominating the cube, along with adjusting the number of mill cards.
Number of cards: 601
Commons: 232 (30 per color, 5 per guild, cluestones, karoos, guildgates + transguild prominade and riot gear)
Uncommons: 233 (20 per color, 10 per guild, keyrunes, double cards, civic sabre, feldon's cane and guild lands)
Mythic/Rares: 126 (10 per color, 7 per guild, double cards, guild artifact cycle, sword of the paruns)
Looks neat. What informed your decision to include/not include certain cards? Personal experience? Draft statistics?
Is your cube up on cubetutor?
-D
It is on cube tutor, though not in it's current form, I'll have to update it and post a link. I also don't know how to include multiples or state that certain cards are included in every pack (gate or karoo) so I don't know if a digital draft would work. I haven't played with it much but I should.
As to what informed my card decisions, first was price. Certain iconic, powerful cards like doubling season, bob, and sphinx's revelation were left out simply because they cost more than I wanted to be spending (interestingly, this is why I have cluestones instead of signets, some signets are over $1.50 while cluestones are $.10. Go figure). Second was my personal experience drafting both sets. I've done this quite a bit, so I know that some cards are key to certain archetypes, like Fists of Ironwood or Delirum Skeins. Next was the curve I wanted each guild to have. I wanted Boros and Gruul to be able to curve out fast and get beats in fast, but Dimir and Azorius should be slower and more control oriented. I'll have to adjust certain cards to make sure that the guilds feel right after I've drafted it more than once. Last but certainly not least was making sure I didn't have too many of a certain card type. Traitorous Instinct and Act of Treason fill exactly the same space, one needs to go. Sundering growth or naturalize? Vandleblast or Shattering Spree? Which Niv-Mizzet to use? All of those things needed to be taken into consideration. Flavor was also a consideration. Wind Drake is a great limited card, but it's kinda boring. Instead, I used Freewind Equenaut. It's basically the same card, but it fits into the enchantment archetype better. It's given me a lot of respect for magic devs who do this from scratch for a set, because it's very easy to end up with a terribly unbalanced limited format. I think right now things are still off, but with more playtesting I'll know for sure.
[quote from="Dolono »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-lists/752591-601-budget-ravnica-blocks-multiples-triumphforks?comment=2"]It is on cube tutor, though not in it's current form, I'll have to update it and post a link. I also don't know how to include multiples or state that certain cards are included in every pack (gate or karoo) so I don't know if a digital draft would work. I haven't played with it much but I should.
On the txt document you use to perform a bulk upload, just set cards you want to appear in multiples each on a separate line. For example:
on a text document will load 4 copies of it to your cube tutor list. You might have to reformat/resubmit the bulk upload, but that should do the trick.
As for programming packs to contain certain cards, I don't think that is something you can do on the site. As long as your fixing is about ~10% of the total cube contents, then you should still be able to get a good feel for your cube via the site.
Thanks for the tips on uploading to the cube! I'll do that this afternoon.
I actually had to nerf the fixing after a couple of playtests. It was TOO good. Everyone was playing 4 or 5 color "goodstuff" decks instead of going with a guild theme since they could easily pick up cluestones, karoo's or guildgates, and keyrunes to boot and end up with super mana fixed decks that just wanted to drop lots of juice multicolored guild cards. There was a good mixup between midrange, control, and aggro, though control ended up taking the lead by a decent margin. I'll post an updated list soon, but I took out guildgates, took out keyrunes, removed some common and uncommon cards to make decks more consistent. I also swapped in cards like Rakdos cackler to buff aggro a bit.
I think mostly tri, with a small number of quad-colored decks is probably the sweet spot as far as folks final decks are concerned. Most positive reviews of the old ravnica drafts that I've read about appreciated some pretty wild-colored decks, and powerful signet-fueled combinations.
Conversely, lots of negative reviews I read about gatecrash and DGM/GTC/RTR drafts said that players were too forced into a guild, and that fixing was super shaky by packs 2-3 to pick up a 3rd color. I think if your drafters are forced into playing guilds, there will be zillions of dead and unworkable cards circling the table. In a recent update to my own ranvica cube, I took a chainsaw to all of the mana=xxyy guild leaders, and other cards that were just uncastable outside of a super dedicated guild deck. Those kinds of cards tabled way too often in my drafts and cubetutor excursions.
That's certainly something to think about. I am trying to force a guild theme at the moment, so I may need to back off that and put the keyrunes back in. If I ever want to make fixing better, I can easily shuffle in all the guildgates into the packs and just make the Karoo's one of in each back, so that people end up with many more mana fixing cards.
Ravnica has long been a favorite set of my playgroups to draft, and initially we attempted to create a standard singleton cube themed around the two blocks (Ravnica and Return to Ravnica) but it was decided that the cube was weak and inconsistent, and not much fun to draft. This is my own attempt at a cube type draft format, but instead of singletons using multiples. There will be 4 of each common, 2 of each uncommon, and 1 of each rare. Packs will be standard 15 card packs of 1 rare 3 uncommons and 10 commons with the land slot taken up by a karoo or guildgate. Astute readers will notice that I included 3 copies of Feldon's Cane, the only none Ravnica card. This is because in the past, mill was so strong that people just folded to it. I'll keep the cane out initially, but will add that or elixer of immortality of mill is dominating the cube, along with adjusting the number of mill cards.
Number of cards: 601
Commons: 232 (30 per color, 5 per guild, cluestones, karoos, guildgates + transguild prominade and riot gear)
Uncommons: 233 (20 per color, 10 per guild, keyrunes, double cards, civic sabre, feldon's cane and guild lands)
Mythic/Rares: 126 (10 per color, 7 per guild, double cards, guild artifact cycle, sword of the paruns)
Soldier Primer
Sig by ol MISAKA lo
My Trades
Is your cube up on cubetutor?
-D
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
It is on cube tutor, though not in it's current form, I'll have to update it and post a link. I also don't know how to include multiples or state that certain cards are included in every pack (gate or karoo) so I don't know if a digital draft would work. I haven't played with it much but I should.
As to what informed my card decisions, first was price. Certain iconic, powerful cards like doubling season, bob, and sphinx's revelation were left out simply because they cost more than I wanted to be spending (interestingly, this is why I have cluestones instead of signets, some signets are over $1.50 while cluestones are $.10. Go figure). Second was my personal experience drafting both sets. I've done this quite a bit, so I know that some cards are key to certain archetypes, like Fists of Ironwood or Delirum Skeins. Next was the curve I wanted each guild to have. I wanted Boros and Gruul to be able to curve out fast and get beats in fast, but Dimir and Azorius should be slower and more control oriented. I'll have to adjust certain cards to make sure that the guilds feel right after I've drafted it more than once. Last but certainly not least was making sure I didn't have too many of a certain card type. Traitorous Instinct and Act of Treason fill exactly the same space, one needs to go. Sundering growth or naturalize? Vandleblast or Shattering Spree? Which Niv-Mizzet to use? All of those things needed to be taken into consideration. Flavor was also a consideration. Wind Drake is a great limited card, but it's kinda boring. Instead, I used Freewind Equenaut. It's basically the same card, but it fits into the enchantment archetype better. It's given me a lot of respect for magic devs who do this from scratch for a set, because it's very easy to end up with a terribly unbalanced limited format. I think right now things are still off, but with more playtesting I'll know for sure.
Soldier Primer
Sig by ol MISAKA lo
My Trades
On the txt document you use to perform a bulk upload, just set cards you want to appear in multiples each on a separate line. For example:
azourius guildgate
azourius guildgate
azourius guildgate
azourius guildgate
on a text document will load 4 copies of it to your cube tutor list. You might have to reformat/resubmit the bulk upload, but that should do the trick.
As for programming packs to contain certain cards, I don't think that is something you can do on the site. As long as your fixing is about ~10% of the total cube contents, then you should still be able to get a good feel for your cube via the site.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
I actually had to nerf the fixing after a couple of playtests. It was TOO good. Everyone was playing 4 or 5 color "goodstuff" decks instead of going with a guild theme since they could easily pick up cluestones, karoo's or guildgates, and keyrunes to boot and end up with super mana fixed decks that just wanted to drop lots of juice multicolored guild cards. There was a good mixup between midrange, control, and aggro, though control ended up taking the lead by a decent margin. I'll post an updated list soon, but I took out guildgates, took out keyrunes, removed some common and uncommon cards to make decks more consistent. I also swapped in cards like Rakdos cackler to buff aggro a bit.
Soldier Primer
Sig by ol MISAKA lo
My Trades
Conversely, lots of negative reviews I read about gatecrash and DGM/GTC/RTR drafts said that players were too forced into a guild, and that fixing was super shaky by packs 2-3 to pick up a 3rd color. I think if your drafters are forced into playing guilds, there will be zillions of dead and unworkable cards circling the table. In a recent update to my own ranvica cube, I took a chainsaw to all of the mana=xxyy guild leaders, and other cards that were just uncastable outside of a super dedicated guild deck. Those kinds of cards tabled way too often in my drafts and cubetutor excursions.
/2 cents
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Soldier Primer
Sig by ol MISAKA lo
My Trades