I was considering some alternative formats, and thought Emperor might be interesting. While you could draft, the people I'm likely to play with haven't really drafted before, so sealed seems more appropriate as an introduction (I personally don't know that much about signalling, let alone in a team format).
My cube is 360; I'm thinking 165 cards per team of 3 so there are 30 cards leftover; this way you won't know for certain whether the cards that aren't in your pool are definitely in the opponents pool of cards. I just ran three random pulls on cubetutor at 165, and the lowest of any colour was 23 cards. Seems like enough depth to contribute for one colour in a dual colour deck.
I'd assume the gold cards and fixing will probably guide the deck colour choices, and seems like you'd give your generals aggro cards and the emperor the disruption/control cards, but I think there would still be a level of skill in the deck building when you take into account the overall team synergy as well as individual decks.
Has anyone given this a shot before? Do the above numbers sound about right? Any thoughts on cards you would consider swapping in or out in this type of setting?
Well, I have experience with EDH Emperor and it is a majorly bad format. My best guess is that Sealed will be even worse off unless the Cube is specifically intended for multiplayer games.
I have no idea what emperor is.
But I am happy that you considered leaving a few cards out on purpose. Good man for that.
It's a team format, 3 per team. One person per team is the emperor, the other two sit either side as the lieutenants. There are some rules about range, and deploying your creatures to your teammate. Here is an article which explains it a bit more if you are interested.
Well, I have experience with EDH Emperor and it is a majorly bad format. My best guess is that Sealed will be even worse off unless the Cube is specifically intended for multiplayer games.
Can you elaborate on what made it bad for you? I have played the format before and recall having a blast, but it has probably been 10 years. I'm not too familiar with Elder Dragon Highlander, but I assume you mean preconstructed decks. Was it that everyone brought their own decks and they didn't have synergy? I think you could avoid that with sealed with smart deck building. Happy to learn from your feedback.
Oh, yeah... Sorry, I was in a bit of a hurry when I typed that.
We were indeed playing with our self-constructed decks which are intended for multiplayer use. I suppose I may have been hasty on my assessment of Sealed Emperor but in the case of EDH Emperor, the main problems were:
1. The increased speed bump in getting to the opposing emperor due to increased life totals.
2. Anyone going infinite would always win the whole game then and there.
3. Due to (1), either Emperor could succeed in (2) undisturbed. (Albeit sometimes they would have to eliminate their own lieutenant first in order to reach the opposing Lieutenant and Emperor.)
4. Vast differences in being a good Emperor (also relates to (3)): some decks would be almost completely useless, only lending their creatures, while others could affect the board much better.
As I said, I believe that the Cube itself should probably be geared towards multiplayer usage for this to work properly. Most of the problems above are EDH-specific but I could conjure a few conjectures concerning Sealed Emperor (or Limited Emperor in general). My main concern are specific strategies such as aggro and the support they require. For example, the Emperor hardly benefits from a pool of such cards, and Sealed in general tends towards longer games. EDH is similar in this regard, and Emperor multiplied the problem because there were always 1,5 (or even 2) players with appropriate removal. Thus, the games were even more grinding and did not support aggressive strategies well.
This is mere speculation, however, and feel free to prove me wrong. If I were to suggest a few potential improvements, they would be:
1. Designing the Cube for this exact purpose: While it might feel like begging the question, there should probably be less support for 'smash you in the face' -lightning aggro. Likewise, cards which affect each opponent/ally give the Emperors more things to do.
2. Draft instead of Sealed: This way, the players will be able to construct their decks with a purpose in mind. It also streamlines the games somewhat, lessening the burden of drawn-out slugfests. This might seem ironic, considering my other advice, but I believe that a balance may be sought between them.
While these two pieces of advice may be combined, they also highlight very different situations. For example, (1) is more important if one is up for Sealed since it increases the relevance of the Emperor on average because they will have a better selection and a better chance of pulling cards which will useful for them. However, I just read your description of the team pools a bit better, and probably this will also lessen the burden. However, some thought should probably be given to otherwise questionable cards such as Skull Rend. Your system might, however, eliminate the need for (2), though both should probably be tested just in case.
I'm not sure how frequently I will get to try this format, so I expect the first time will just be with the cube as-is, and then re-evaluate. I think there might be some merit with one of the lieutenants going full aggro with some emperor support with removal or other control cards to break one of the flanks as quickly as possible. But I could well be wrong. That said, the black suicide aggro cards currently in cube may not be a perfect fit even it does work.
I think the danger with draft is that it might be possible to get better individual decks, but I suspect at the cost of synergy between them. I'm sure a long time I read an article on drafting for emperor on the mothership, but I haven't been able to find it. Sealed avoids that because you can discuss strategy with your teammates as you build, which is one of the exciting aspects for me.
On the assumption that it seems worth pursuing after the first attempt, perhaps I might have some stand-in cards and a replacement list. i.e. take out the cards in my cube that don't really work and replace with cards that will shine in the format.
My cube is 360; I'm thinking 165 cards per team of 3 so there are 30 cards leftover; this way you won't know for certain whether the cards that aren't in your pool are definitely in the opponents pool of cards. I just ran three random pulls on cubetutor at 165, and the lowest of any colour was 23 cards. Seems like enough depth to contribute for one colour in a dual colour deck.
I'd assume the gold cards and fixing will probably guide the deck colour choices, and seems like you'd give your generals aggro cards and the emperor the disruption/control cards, but I think there would still be a level of skill in the deck building when you take into account the overall team synergy as well as individual decks.
Has anyone given this a shot before? Do the above numbers sound about right? Any thoughts on cards you would consider swapping in or out in this type of setting?
But I am happy that you considered leaving a few cards out on purpose. Good man for that.
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
Can you elaborate on what made it bad for you? I have played the format before and recall having a blast, but it has probably been 10 years. I'm not too familiar with Elder Dragon Highlander, but I assume you mean preconstructed decks. Was it that everyone brought their own decks and they didn't have synergy? I think you could avoid that with sealed with smart deck building. Happy to learn from your feedback.
We were indeed playing with our self-constructed decks which are intended for multiplayer use. I suppose I may have been hasty on my assessment of Sealed Emperor but in the case of EDH Emperor, the main problems were:
1. The increased speed bump in getting to the opposing emperor due to increased life totals.
2. Anyone going infinite would always win the whole game then and there.
3. Due to (1), either Emperor could succeed in (2) undisturbed. (Albeit sometimes they would have to eliminate their own lieutenant first in order to reach the opposing Lieutenant and Emperor.)
4. Vast differences in being a good Emperor (also relates to (3)): some decks would be almost completely useless, only lending their creatures, while others could affect the board much better.
As I said, I believe that the Cube itself should probably be geared towards multiplayer usage for this to work properly. Most of the problems above are EDH-specific but I could conjure a few conjectures concerning Sealed Emperor (or Limited Emperor in general). My main concern are specific strategies such as aggro and the support they require. For example, the Emperor hardly benefits from a pool of such cards, and Sealed in general tends towards longer games. EDH is similar in this regard, and Emperor multiplied the problem because there were always 1,5 (or even 2) players with appropriate removal. Thus, the games were even more grinding and did not support aggressive strategies well.
This is mere speculation, however, and feel free to prove me wrong. If I were to suggest a few potential improvements, they would be:
1. Designing the Cube for this exact purpose: While it might feel like begging the question, there should probably be less support for 'smash you in the face' -lightning aggro. Likewise, cards which affect each opponent/ally give the Emperors more things to do.
2. Draft instead of Sealed: This way, the players will be able to construct their decks with a purpose in mind. It also streamlines the games somewhat, lessening the burden of drawn-out slugfests. This might seem ironic, considering my other advice, but I believe that a balance may be sought between them.
While these two pieces of advice may be combined, they also highlight very different situations. For example, (1) is more important if one is up for Sealed since it increases the relevance of the Emperor on average because they will have a better selection and a better chance of pulling cards which will useful for them. However, I just read your description of the team pools a bit better, and probably this will also lessen the burden. However, some thought should probably be given to otherwise questionable cards such as Skull Rend. Your system might, however, eliminate the need for (2), though both should probably be tested just in case.
I think the danger with draft is that it might be possible to get better individual decks, but I suspect at the cost of synergy between them. I'm sure a long time I read an article on drafting for emperor on the mothership, but I haven't been able to find it. Sealed avoids that because you can discuss strategy with your teammates as you build, which is one of the exciting aspects for me.
On the assumption that it seems worth pursuing after the first attempt, perhaps I might have some stand-in cards and a replacement list. i.e. take out the cards in my cube that don't really work and replace with cards that will shine in the format.
Thanks for your feedback.