I've been lucky to cube with my friends once a month for the last two years now. We all started back in Ravnica but life eventually got in the way so it's nice to meet up every month to catch up and have some fun. None of us attend any other Magic related events, I'm an avid board gamer now and cube has been a great way to play Magic casually.
I've been considering depowering some of my removal and I wanted to hear everyone's thoughts. Have you depowered any of your removal? If so which ones did you find too strong; what did you replace them with? Finally, how much removal is everyone running in their cubes?
My update is looking to have around 9, but that's mostly because I want to see if I can support life gain matters and vampires. Other than that.. only (slight) upgrades to cards/effects we already run. Even the best card is still 'just another' Nekrataal we could have done without.
I'm really hoping Oathsworn Vampire works out. If it does, I'll call the set a win, but otherwise it's a big 'meh' from me as well.
I'm curious to see how your update works out Squirrely, would you mind listing what cards you think are necessary to make these two archetypes work?
Welcome Slap. I'm a fellow Peasant+ cuber and I was wondering how Precinct Captain and Oona's Prowler have been working out for you? I've been hesitant to add Precinct Captain and I recently cut Oona's Prowler so I'm curious what you think about them. Also, if anyone wants to have a look at my rares or cube feel free; I just did a big update with AHK and some additional rares so I'd love to hear some feedback.
On another note, how does everyone determine the size of their cube, specifically those who don't follow to traditional 90 card increments (360, 450, 540, etc.) It's becoming very hard to cut cards as new ones are released and I've been contemplating raising the size of my cube to 390 or so. I don't think I want to jump a whole 90 cards because 450 feels like a lot of cards when we typically only have four to six players per draft.
@Squirrley It is indeed a hard question to answer. The thought just randomly popped into my head last night and I quickly realized I don't really know if there's a definite answer to my question and it seems that I'm correct.
@Calibretto Thank you, I'll certainly take a look at your cube for some suggestions.
@Jovian Thanks for those guidelines, they certainly feel like they represent what I'm trying to pull off in my cube and I'll keep them in mind moving forward.
I've recently allowed myself to add some rares to my cube assuming that I find them to be along the same power level as cards that can be found in our cubes and so that they can help expand archetypes that aren't well represented with common and uncommon cards. I know some people don't agree with this approach but I don't see a reason to not run a card that feels like it fits in Peasant, such as Call of the Herd, just because Wizard doesn't want to mess up the drafting format. I'm just looking for some way to determine if a rare I am considering is outside Peasant's power level and I'm not exactly sure how I should be going about that. I'm by no means a Magic expert so I come to you all for some advice. I learned to play during Ravnica and played briefly during college. I actually built my cube because I had recently got into hobby board gaming and it seemed like a great way to keep up with Magic. No one in my group drafts or goes to FNM, we pretty much only play the cube so I'm always looking for some ways to make it more interesting.
Let's take Skinrender for example. It cost 4, gives you a 3/3 and has a great ability to place 3 -1/-1 counters. At what point would this be too strong for our cubes? If it cost 3? What about if it was a 4/4? Similarly, at what point would this become so weak compared to other options that we wouldn't look to play it? Is there some sort of formula that calculates mana cost, power and toughness to determine if it's a card strong enough for Peasant that I should be looking into? Just looking for some advice, thanks for taking the time to read this.
I haven't seen a lot of talk about Winding Constrictor, which I think is quite good (and put reasonably high on my top 10). Decent stats, neat ability, but I realize that my cube/guild section is bigger than most. Anybody else going to run it?
I think I'll definitely add this one. I've been toying with the idea of expanding my cube ten slots for ten more guild cards and if so this is one I would love to add as I'm a big fan of weird build around cards.
I like those ideas. Some of the point values may need some tweaking, the winner getting fewer points than someone that builds a garbage five-color deck seems a little awkward for example, but otherwise I like it. In addition to most interesting deck, you could also do "coolest play of the night" for an extra point.
Hmm, I guess that is a valid point. Like I said earlier I don't want winning to be to really be head and shoulders above everything else. I'm considering bumping down five colored decks to two points and bumping up winning to three. Possibly change the team format to the winning team gains two points each and the player with the best record during that night gains an additional point. Or perhaps just eliminate the five color achievement all together.
Squirrely had also suggested best play of the night but wouldn't only one other person see that play? Ultimately that is why I went with most interesting deck because all the other players will have encountered it.
So this is what I've come up with in the little time I've spent thinking about it since life has been pretty busy.
Two points will be awarded to the winner of the draft each month. If a team format is used, each player will on the winning team will receive two points.
One point will be awarded to all players who attend each month. If a player attends three months in a row they will obtain one bonus point which can be achieved twice during the season. If a player attends six months in a row they will obtain two bonus points which can be achieved once during the season.
One point will be awarded to the player who was voted to have the most interesting or unique deck each draft. If a team format is used, players will vote for a deck from the opposing team and two players, one from each side, will awarded one point. Ties will award one point to all tied players.
Each player will have the opportunity to earn bonus points for drafting color combinations that they have not previously drafted in the season. One, two and three colored decks are worth one point each. Four colored decks are worth two points each. Five colored decks are worth three points.
The last thing I need to decide is how to enforce the points for drafting different guilds, shards and whatnot. I'm thinking of stating a minimum card count for each color with some wiggle room. Hybrids and multi-colored cards can only be assigned to one color and non-basic lands will not count toward these totals.. Here is the breakdown I'm thinking of:
Two colored decks - Eight cards of each color
Three colored decks - Six cards of each color
Four colored decks - Four cards of each color
Five colored decks - Three cards of each color
Suggestions on how this looks along with the rest of the distributions? And if you're curious, the end of the year prize is a custom trophy and a six pack of the players choice...I think.
I'm curious to see how your update works out Squirrely, would you mind listing what cards you think are necessary to make these two archetypes work?
Like BrownDog I've never had a problem with four packs of eleven for four mans.
On another note, how does everyone determine the size of their cube, specifically those who don't follow to traditional 90 card increments (360, 450, 540, etc.) It's becoming very hard to cut cards as new ones are released and I've been contemplating raising the size of my cube to 390 or so. I don't think I want to jump a whole 90 cards because 450 feels like a lot of cards when we typically only have four to six players per draft.
@Calibretto Thank you, I'll certainly take a look at your cube for some suggestions.
@Jovian Thanks for those guidelines, they certainly feel like they represent what I'm trying to pull off in my cube and I'll keep them in mind moving forward.
Let's take Skinrender for example. It cost 4, gives you a 3/3 and has a great ability to place 3 -1/-1 counters. At what point would this be too strong for our cubes? If it cost 3? What about if it was a 4/4? Similarly, at what point would this become so weak compared to other options that we wouldn't look to play it? Is there some sort of formula that calculates mana cost, power and toughness to determine if it's a card strong enough for Peasant that I should be looking into? Just looking for some advice, thanks for taking the time to read this.
It's certainly a better version of Carrion Feeder and that sees play in some peasant cubes.I think I'll definitely add this one. I've been toying with the idea of expanding my cube ten slots for ten more guild cards and if so this is one I would love to add as I'm a big fan of weird build around cards.
Hmm, I guess that is a valid point. Like I said earlier I don't want winning to be to really be head and shoulders above everything else. I'm considering bumping down five colored decks to two points and bumping up winning to three. Possibly change the team format to the winning team gains two points each and the player with the best record during that night gains an additional point. Or perhaps just eliminate the five color achievement all together.
Squirrely had also suggested best play of the night but wouldn't only one other person see that play? Ultimately that is why I went with most interesting deck because all the other players will have encountered it.
- Two points will be awarded to the winner of the draft each month. If a team format is used, each player will on the winning team will receive two points.
- One point will be awarded to all players who attend each month. If a player attends three months in a row they will obtain one bonus point which can be achieved twice during the season. If a player attends six months in a row they will obtain two bonus points which can be achieved once during the season.
- One point will be awarded to the player who was voted to have the most interesting or unique deck each draft. If a team format is used, players will vote for a deck from the opposing team and two players, one from each side, will awarded one point. Ties will award one point to all tied players.
- Each player will have the opportunity to earn bonus points for drafting color combinations that they have not previously drafted in the season. One, two and three colored decks are worth one point each. Four colored decks are worth two points each. Five colored decks are worth three points.
The last thing I need to decide is how to enforce the points for drafting different guilds, shards and whatnot. I'm thinking of stating a minimum card count for each color with some wiggle room. Hybrids and multi-colored cards can only be assigned to one color and non-basic lands will not count toward these totals.. Here is the breakdown I'm thinking of:- Two colored decks - Eight cards of each color
- Three colored decks - Six cards of each color
- Four colored decks - Four cards of each color
- Five colored decks - Three cards of each color
Suggestions on how this looks along with the rest of the distributions? And if you're curious, the end of the year prize is a custom trophy and a six pack of the players choice...I think.