I think it would be very cool to have a Peasant cube at least among the finalists. I think it will be a steep challenge to actually win the vote, but just to be in the spotlight as a finalist would be cool.
I didn't see any specifications that it should be a singleton cube in the announcement. Perhaps breaking singleton for a few cards could be a way to make a more streamlined cube at 540? Or perhaps it is a bad idea, since so many people automatically associate Cube with a singleton format. There is also the issue of people knowing/not knowing what cards are singleton and which are not. Perhaps a 270 cube with two of each card....naaah..probably not?
WOTC staff have confirmed that having multiples of a card is okay. So having multiples of a land, or Squadron Hawk, should be fine. Stretching a 360 into "540" with duplicates would work in theory too, but clunky.
I don't think 540 is absolutely terrible but yeah it's not ideal. You can't get away with the more niche themes. You can also push themes that have a ton of support and are super general, like UW Skies and UR Spells.
It's also weird trying to strike a new balance for 540. It involves brand new playtesting time that we don't have. To pad Red, for example, I tossed in a lot more burn spells, but then the question is did I overdo it and will multiple people be too incentivized to splash Red for the burn? Will it makes creature strategies too weak? Hard to say without testing.
I don't see any issue with cube having multiples of cards, particularly if it is the best way to support a theme or archetype. My assumption though is that the majority see cube as doing big flashy or broken things, and that is harder to do at peasant.
I've never built 540, but in response to Delandel's comment, it might force you to drop some of your best spells and narrow the power band to make a balanced environment.
I like that idea bacchus, but that would probably necessitate even more playtesting to get right?
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How would we best proceed? The deadline is 15th september..a couple of options could be:
-A small group of 2-3 people create a first draft (perhaps based on some guidlines the group as a whole sets down). The rest of the group then set to work on the draft.
-We decide on themes/decks and then split the work on different parts of the cube. So we could for example either go by the "one deck for each two colour combo", or "one theme for each three-colour combo", and then groups/individuals are assigned a task like "find 20 cards in RWG that supports the +1/+1-counter theme".
-We decide on themes or decks, but then split on colour. So the example tasks as described above would be: Find 80 white cards with equal support for all the decks/archetypes that we have decided white needs to support.
----
I'd also suggest that we have a "project leader" for this, since we are working on a deadline. Someone who can harass people to finish their tasks on time, and if necessary re-relegate tasks to someone with more time on their hands. 3 weeks only gives us something like "a little under a week to decide overarching structure/themes, a little over one week to complete the first iteration of the cube, and one week to balance out/perfect/iterate/develop".
I will have a somewhat hectic period on work this fall, so I cannot volunteer. But I urge that we get someone in place as soon as possible so that the process can start.
In all honesty, I bet you it would be easier if we all just submitted some form of a 540 peasant list, perhaps based on our 'own' lists. This would increase our chances of getting into the top 4, and it would be way less hectic. I have a feeling that organizing this and agreeing is going to be a horrendous task.
I'd agree with this, and I'd particularly recommend that anyone here who already has a 540 list that they've built and tuned over the years submit their list, because it'd be hard for any of us to beat that level of playtesting with a brand new list.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
You would need to know this to submit a cube, right? Or is it somehow simple enough to know off the top of your head? I thought it was fairly arbitrary what cards had made it to MTGO
-Every Standard-legal set after Mirage
-A bunch of online-only "Masters" sets
-NOT Commander or Conspiracy cards, unless also added in a Masters list.
So off the top of my head, there's no Curse of Predation or Curse of Shallow Graves. No Custodi Squire. Planechase WAS added as some point, so there's "online" uncommon versions of Strix and Shardless Agent.
Old stuff like Demonic Tutor and even Hypnotic Specter don't have "silver symbol" versions online, so I'd say skip them from this project.
Most Commander and Conspiracy cards are available online. They were either distributed through the online store or as special booster pack rewards for cube events. Special "draft" cards from Conspiracy are not available online, however. Curse of Predation is in, for example, but not Custodi Squire.
I'll submit my own thing. There are certain philosophies that I am adamant about (no random shutdown cards like Ghostly Prison, Protection from X, etc.) which may pose problems with collaborating. I'm happy to provide feedback on other submissions though and feel free to send feedback on my own list as well. I'll be hammering out the final submission over the next week.
I don't think multiple submissions would hurt but I caution against slapping just anything together and submitting it. I don't know how familiar the people reviewing the lists are, so it may hurt our cause if a poor peasant cube list is chosen and people have bad experiences with it -- if for some odd reason the peasant cube is the winner. I think we have a shot at being chosen as a finalist but I can't see it being chosen as the winner -- peasant isn't as flashy or simple to understand at a glance as some other cube ideas. I assume people are going to choose "Kitten Cube" or something.
I don't have the capacity to contribute much, but I might provide ad-hoc assistance.
I wonder if you could do a cube where you take a random card and put say 10 copies in as a central part of your cube. Random card generator on gatherer gives me... Glasses of Urza... maybe not. 10 Thran Turbines plus a crapton of expensive activated abilities would be funny.
I've been comparing my cube with some other cubes from people around here and I noticed that there are a few cards that nobody (or almost nobody) runs while I am quite happy with them in my cube. This made me curious about opinions on the following cards and why people exclude them from their cube:
I think it would be very cool to have a Peasant cube at least among the finalists. I think it will be a steep challenge to actually win the vote, but just to be in the spotlight as a finalist would be cool.
I didn't see any specifications that it should be a singleton cube in the announcement. Perhaps breaking singleton for a few cards could be a way to make a more streamlined cube at 540? Or perhaps it is a bad idea, since so many people automatically associate Cube with a singleton format. There is also the issue of people knowing/not knowing what cards are singleton and which are not. Perhaps a 270 cube with two of each card....naaah..probably not?
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Hey neat, I do the same! Which part of Jersey City? I'm by Grove St Station.
Cubetutor link - 380 Peasant Cube
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
I don't think 540 is absolutely terrible but yeah it's not ideal. You can't get away with the more niche themes. You can also push themes that have a ton of support and are super general, like UW Skies and UR Spells.
It's also weird trying to strike a new balance for 540. It involves brand new playtesting time that we don't have. To pad Red, for example, I tossed in a lot more burn spells, but then the question is did I overdo it and will multiple people be too incentivized to splash Red for the burn? Will it makes creature strategies too weak? Hard to say without testing.
UBRThraximundar, Tribal ZombiesUBR
WURZedruu's Great TradesWUR
I'm closer to the Newport station. I play a lot of Commander at Aether Games or the Uncommons, typically.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
I've never built 540, but in response to Delandel's comment, it might force you to drop some of your best spells and narrow the power band to make a balanced environment.
---
How would we best proceed? The deadline is 15th september..a couple of options could be:
-A small group of 2-3 people create a first draft (perhaps based on some guidlines the group as a whole sets down). The rest of the group then set to work on the draft.
-We decide on themes/decks and then split the work on different parts of the cube. So we could for example either go by the "one deck for each two colour combo", or "one theme for each three-colour combo", and then groups/individuals are assigned a task like "find 20 cards in RWG that supports the +1/+1-counter theme".
-We decide on themes or decks, but then split on colour. So the example tasks as described above would be: Find 80 white cards with equal support for all the decks/archetypes that we have decided white needs to support.
----
I'd also suggest that we have a "project leader" for this, since we are working on a deadline. Someone who can harass people to finish their tasks on time, and if necessary re-relegate tasks to someone with more time on their hands. 3 weeks only gives us something like "a little under a week to decide overarching structure/themes, a little over one week to complete the first iteration of the cube, and one week to balance out/perfect/iterate/develop".
I will have a somewhat hectic period on work this fall, so I cannot volunteer. But I urge that we get someone in place as soon as possible so that the process can start.
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
My Peasant Cube thread !!! (380 cards)
Draft my Peasant Cube on Cube Cobra !!!
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
My Peasant Cube thread !!! (380 cards)
Draft my Peasant Cube on Cube Cobra !!!
Like, their cube cardpool or the cards available on mtgo?
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
You would need to know this to submit a cube, right? Or is it somehow simple enough to know off the top of your head? I thought it was fairly arbitrary what cards had made it to MTGO
-Every Standard-legal set after Mirage
-A bunch of online-only "Masters" sets
-NOT Commander or Conspiracy cards, unless also added in a Masters list.
So off the top of my head, there's no Curse of Predation or Curse of Shallow Graves. No Custodi Squire. Planechase WAS added as some point, so there's "online" uncommon versions of Strix and Shardless Agent.
Old stuff like Demonic Tutor and even Hypnotic Specter don't have "silver symbol" versions online, so I'd say skip them from this project.
I'll submit my own thing. There are certain philosophies that I am adamant about (no random shutdown cards like Ghostly Prison, Protection from X, etc.) which may pose problems with collaborating. I'm happy to provide feedback on other submissions though and feel free to send feedback on my own list as well. I'll be hammering out the final submission over the next week.
UBRThraximundar, Tribal ZombiesUBR
WURZedruu's Great TradesWUR
UBRThraximundar, Tribal ZombiesUBR
WURZedruu's Great TradesWUR
I wonder if you could do a cube where you take a random card and put say 10 copies in as a central part of your cube. Random card generator on gatherer gives me... Glasses of Urza... maybe not. 10 Thran Turbines plus a crapton of expensive activated abilities would be funny.
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
My C/Ube on Cube Cobra