Design Goal: Take everything great about Pauper Cube's skill-testing format, then shore up some of the shortcomings of the commons-only card pool to (hopefully) create a super fun limited environment.
Draft Structure: 2 packs of 23 cards each for each player
Cube Structure: 368 cards; 184-card "core" + four 46-card "expansions"
Mostly singleton, with a few multiples Core group Expansion 1 (graveyard) Expansion 2 (enchantments) Expansion 3 (tokens, sacrifice) Expansion 4 (surreal memoir, ghostly flicker, warriors)
With four or fewer players, the cube is played with only the Core. For each player above four, shuffle one of the expansions into the Core. The purpose of this is so that some of the narrower cards and their respective support cards only show up together, or not at all. This mitigates some of the risk of trying to draft one of the more esoteric strategies.
FAQ
Q: Why are you doing this as opposed to, like, peasant or something... or just pauper.
A: The power level and feel of pauper cube is really, really great. The creatures are small, the games are close, there aren't really bombs that can win a game singlehandedly, there aren't a lot of easy 2-for-1s, most sources of card advantage are modest, etc. This is, of course, personal preference, but even peasant cubes have a much higher power level and lots of bomby cards that I dislike. Instead, I'm trying to preserve the power level and defining characteristics of pauper cube, but also fix what I perceive as some of its problems. In pauper cube, aggro decks frustratingly lack usable turn 1 plays, and the fact that all the mana-fixing lands ETB tapped favors slower decks. Also, there are some decks/archetypes that are close to viable in pauper cube but lack payoff cards; the graveyard deck is a good example of this. So, those are the main things to be gained by forsaking the Pauper restriction: A more consistent early game for aggro, and more support for decks built around cute synergies (more on this later.)
Q: This cube just exists because you wanted to put harvester troll in your pauper cube
A: That's not a question but yes
Q: So the cards are in different color sleeves?
A: Yes, all the "Core" cards are in black sleeves, and each of the expansions is its own color (white, blue, red, green.) Most of the basic lands are in black sleeves, with a few basic lands sleeved in the expansions' colors. Here's a really awful picture of everything!. The purpose of the different colors is simply to make it easy to sort out the expansions between drafts, instead of it being an insanity-inducing nightmare.
Q: Uhhhh... doesn't using different sleeve colors cause a bunch of problems?
A: As long as everyone is cool and doesn't intentionally abuse the system, it's actually fine. As long as you include a few basics with the same sleeves as cards you drafted, and don't use basics sleeved in other colors, your deck ends up pretty ambiguous. Sometimes, this system does allow you to make an educated guess about whether a given card (the top of your deck, maybe) is land or nonland. But for the most part, as long as you demonstrate good sportsmanship, it works fine.
Q: So what is the point of the expansions and the sleeves and everything
A: It helps create a draft environment where some interesting decks can succeed. Aggressive decks and controlling decks are supported in every color, but beyond that, there are some specific strategies included in this cube based on cute synergies. They are mainly: Enchantments in WGB Sacrifice in UBRG Tokens in WR Ghostly flicker in U (with W or B) Graveyard in GU Surreal memoir in R
These themes are pretty easy to pick up and understand, while changing the value of cards in a draft and potentially helping you end up with a deck you think is cool and fun to play.
Q: Is this cube good
A: People seem to like it I guess ¯\_(OwO)_/¯
Q: What is the point of this thread
A: To hear what people on the internet think about this cube, and to make this cube better!
Thanks for reading, I will hopefully update this sometimes. Cheers
I recorded some drafts from July and August and put them up on tappedout: here, here and here.
At some point between those drafts I changed the cube and draft structure. It's now 2 packs of 23 cards per player. To make this change, I reduced the size of the cube base by 8 cards (to 184) and the size of each expansion by 2 cards (to 46.)
Now I can finally post how excited I was when Eldritch Moon came out with some cute sacrifice stuff in blue like wretched gryff and vexing scuttler, allowing me to expand that deck into a fourth color. Finally, gurmag drowner breaks into the cube. I'm even dipping into white sacrifice with extricator of sin and pious evangel which have some good overlap with tokens.
Right now I'm debating on whether I want to make room for Monarch cards like thorn of the black rose or not.
(There's also a thriving rhino already in the cube but green doesn't really have anything else relevant to energy right now)
Pros:
-Gives UR conttrol/spells/surreal memoir a way to answer big creatures, + increased instant count for surreal memoir
-Potential cuteness with the 2 copies of volt charge already in the cube
-Makes the 1 glimmer of genius already in the cube look less dumb
-Hopefully some drafters will think messing with energy is cool or interesting?
Cons:
-Decreased Warrior count (chainwalker/whatever gets cut for grubs)
-Increased chance of Boas being really annoying (cutting incinerate)
-aether theorist may actually be a lot worse than omenspeaker for decks that don't care about harnessed lightning
-Would have to somehow make space for the second theorist and second glimmer
-Some drafters will probably think energy is stupid?
Formerly Pauper Cube on Cubetutor
Design Goal: Take everything great about Pauper Cube's skill-testing format, then shore up some of the shortcomings of the commons-only card pool to (hopefully) create a super fun limited environment.
Draft Structure: 2 packs of 23 cards each for each player
Cube Structure: 368 cards; 184-card "core" + four 46-card "expansions"
Mostly singleton, with a few multiples
Core group
Expansion 1 (graveyard)
Expansion 2 (enchantments)
Expansion 3 (tokens, sacrifice)
Expansion 4 (surreal memoir, ghostly flicker, warriors)
With four or fewer players, the cube is played with only the Core. For each player above four, shuffle one of the expansions into the Core. The purpose of this is so that some of the narrower cards and their respective support cards only show up together, or not at all. This mitigates some of the risk of trying to draft one of the more esoteric strategies.
FAQ
Q: Why are you doing this as opposed to, like, peasant or something... or just pauper.
A: The power level and feel of pauper cube is really, really great. The creatures are small, the games are close, there aren't really bombs that can win a game singlehandedly, there aren't a lot of easy 2-for-1s, most sources of card advantage are modest, etc. This is, of course, personal preference, but even peasant cubes have a much higher power level and lots of bomby cards that I dislike. Instead, I'm trying to preserve the power level and defining characteristics of pauper cube, but also fix what I perceive as some of its problems. In pauper cube, aggro decks frustratingly lack usable turn 1 plays, and the fact that all the mana-fixing lands ETB tapped favors slower decks. Also, there are some decks/archetypes that are close to viable in pauper cube but lack payoff cards; the graveyard deck is a good example of this. So, those are the main things to be gained by forsaking the Pauper restriction: A more consistent early game for aggro, and more support for decks built around cute synergies (more on this later.)
Q: This cube just exists because you wanted to put harvester troll in your pauper cube
A: That's not a question but yes
Q: So the cards are in different color sleeves?
A: Yes, all the "Core" cards are in black sleeves, and each of the expansions is its own color (white, blue, red, green.) Most of the basic lands are in black sleeves, with a few basic lands sleeved in the expansions' colors. Here's a really awful picture of everything!. The purpose of the different colors is simply to make it easy to sort out the expansions between drafts, instead of it being an insanity-inducing nightmare.
Q: Uhhhh... doesn't using different sleeve colors cause a bunch of problems?
A: As long as everyone is cool and doesn't intentionally abuse the system, it's actually fine. As long as you include a few basics with the same sleeves as cards you drafted, and don't use basics sleeved in other colors, your deck ends up pretty ambiguous. Sometimes, this system does allow you to make an educated guess about whether a given card (the top of your deck, maybe) is land or nonland. But for the most part, as long as you demonstrate good sportsmanship, it works fine.
Q: So what is the point of the expansions and the sleeves and everything
A: It helps create a draft environment where some interesting decks can succeed. Aggressive decks and controlling decks are supported in every color, but beyond that, there are some specific strategies included in this cube based on cute synergies. They are mainly:
Enchantments in WGB
Sacrifice in UBRG
Tokens in WR
Ghostly flicker in U (with W or B)
Graveyard in GU
Surreal memoir in R
These themes are pretty easy to pick up and understand, while changing the value of cards in a draft and potentially helping you end up with a deck you think is cool and fun to play.
Q: Is this cube good
A: People seem to like it I guess ¯\_(OwO)_/¯
Q: What is the point of this thread
A: To hear what people on the internet think about this cube, and to make this cube better!
Thanks for reading, I will hopefully update this sometimes. Cheers
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Click here and check out my Formerly Pauper Cube.
check out my EDH and Pauper EDH decks here
I recorded some drafts from July and August and put them up on tappedout: here, here and here.
At some point between those drafts I changed the cube and draft structure. It's now 2 packs of 23 cards per player. To make this change, I reduced the size of the cube base by 8 cards (to 184) and the size of each expansion by 2 cards (to 46.)
Now I can finally post how excited I was when Eldritch Moon came out with some cute sacrifice stuff in blue like wretched gryff and vexing scuttler, allowing me to expand that deck into a fourth color. Finally, gurmag drowner breaks into the cube. I'm even dipping into white sacrifice with extricator of sin and pious evangel which have some good overlap with tokens.
Right now I'm debating on whether I want to make room for Monarch cards like thorn of the black rose or not.
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Click here and check out my Formerly Pauper Cube.
check out my EDH and Pauper EDH decks here
it would be something like
3 harnessed lightning in place of all the existing 2 cmc burn (3 copies because this is the main 'payoff' card [which is why this idea is probably dumb])
2 aether theorist in place of omenspeaker and something else
2 thriving grubs in place of one of the gore-house chainwalkers and something else
A second glimmer of genius in place of something else
Possibly one or more aether meltdown
Possibly one or more aether hub(s) but probably not
(There's also a thriving rhino already in the cube but green doesn't really have anything else relevant to energy right now)
Pros:
-Gives UR conttrol/spells/surreal memoir a way to answer big creatures, + increased instant count for surreal memoir
-Potential cuteness with the 2 copies of volt charge already in the cube
-Makes the 1 glimmer of genius already in the cube look less dumb
-Hopefully some drafters will think messing with energy is cool or interesting?
Cons:
-Decreased Warrior count (chainwalker/whatever gets cut for grubs)
-Increased chance of Boas being really annoying (cutting incinerate)
-aether theorist may actually be a lot worse than omenspeaker for decks that don't care about harnessed lightning
-Would have to somehow make space for the second theorist and second glimmer
-Some drafters will probably think energy is stupid?
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Click here and check out my Formerly Pauper Cube.
check out my EDH and Pauper EDH decks here
Tandem lookout is one that I've suspected is too strong for this cube, yet MM3 has it at common, so I'll keep him around for now.
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Click here and check out my Formerly Pauper Cube.
check out my EDH and Pauper EDH decks here