This will be a cube where each player starts at 5 life.
Necessarily, this means that variance will be an even stronger influence on games, so step one is to kill the variance as much as possible.
Ways to accomplish this:
No 1 and 2 drops that can attack. Possibly no 3 drops that can attack, or very few.
No burn to the face, except maybe things that deal 1.
An overabundance of 1 and 2 drops that block well or otherwise only play defense.
Prioritizing card filtering.
Creatures that can attack would have much lower power than usual.
Effects that tend to exacerbate variance should be pulled back if not pulled out entirely. Sinkhole, Hymn to tourach, etc.
Recognize that lifegain is suddenly much more useful than before.
Obviously the power level will be... different. But I'm all about playing magic with a new set of puzzle pieces.
Not necessarily a cube for lowlifes, but a cube balanced around a starting life total of 1.
How could this work?
Well, I figured there shouldn't be any creatures that can attack with a cmc less than 3. In their place, I see a lot of cards like wall of omens and resolute watchdogs. Token generation and lifegain would be at a premium, even if the tokens have no power (sengir autocrat) and even if the lifegain does nothing else (angel's mercy OP?!).
Burn that can go to the face may just be totally banned.
So could this actually function? Should I look at other life totals between 1 and 5 for leeway, or does that betray the feeling too much?
I am not sure, my first thought is no. As whoever goes first needs only a creature to play on turn 3 and a removal spell for turn 4.
Mana screw would end the game immediately.
Red cannot have any burn that could hit a player
Black cannot play any pay life effects or any effects that make players lose life.
I think the games could end very quickly I’m unfun ways.
However, the easiest thing to do is to build two highlander style decks, for this format and see how they play against each other before you sink too much time, energy, etc. into a cube.
I am not sure, my first thought is no. As whoever goes first needs only a creature to play on turn 3 and a removal spell for turn 4.
So what I would need to do is really overdo it on early game defensive plays. But to account for variance, it's very possible that I shouldn't be including attackers until cmc 4 or even 5. Or something like a 4 mana enchantment that generates tokens.
I think the games could end very quickly In unfun ways.
Mana screw would be a reason to up the cmc for attackers to move up from 3. But even if I really hit a sweetspot by magic, you're probably right about it being too easy to lose with no interaction.
//
So switching it to a 5 life starting total is probably more interesting. I still would keep to a constraint of having no attackers below 3 or 4 cmc, but if one token slips by it's not immediate game over. Furthermore, I could include a wider breadth of cards like blade juggler or spark jolt, which would make for more interesting choices.
I should also include a lot of scrying/cycling cards just to smooth out variance even more.
Definitely start at 5. All decks are the same archetype at 1 life: Control. Also, for creatures, make them SUPER small, focusing entirely on abilities. This cube idea just doesn't seem like the games are different enough though: They mostly end with "I kill your blocker(s) and 1-shot you GG" or "burn you in the face"
Cards that burn you in the face would definitely not be allowed.
As for "kill your blocker, 1 shot you GG", I could eliminate this issue by raising the starting life total to 5 and to more or less disallow 3+ power creatures. That shouldn't have been an everyday issue anyway though with enough walls and 0 power creatures that come down before the attackers though.
Starting at 5 helps. I do think I think you will want will have a problem with many of the decks, regardless of color feeling the same. As there is not enough time for other strategies.
Aristocrats would be too busted.
Ramp is no good, there is nothing to ramp into.
Counter spells are super strong, especially in the early game.
Land destruction would end games.
Control would be really strong in this format.
No creatures stronger than 2 power, and very few of those.
- Essentially, two unblocked 1/1 creatures is the equivalent of two unblocked 5/5s.
- Creatures can only be 1/1 because a 1/3 creature requires 3 blockers to kill it, because there can't be 3/3 creatures.
- A 2/2 is essentially a 10/10.
Removal is crazy important, and should be drafted above all else.
Haste is a deal breaker too.
I think the cube is very limited.
There is a format, the name escapes me, where four players all share a deck of cards (around 200). There are no lands in the deck, instead each player has a stack of basics, or two color tap lands. Each turn they draw from the deck, and play one land randomly from their stack.
I feel like this idea is better suited for that format. Anyone remember what that is called?
I can see a lot of interaction happening in the realm of pingers that hit creatures only, defenders with interesting utility, lifelink, token producers (with an upper limit of 1/1 and those only if resources are expended each token). I would severely limit "good" evasion - deathtouch is cool but flying is too good and unblockable is egregious. Menace on single creatures is okay but effects that grant it to everything is horrible. Old style cards that render them unblockable/only-blocked-by defenders is neato.
I really think it could be fun, but unless you have a group that already wants this I think it will be a hard sell. As for archetypes I think supporting engines that bypass a clogged board is good (I would call it combo, but really just synergies), aggro will be viable, but I think it will be based in creating more threats than control can handle and as such will feel like midrange. Control probably wants removal and combat tricks more than counters, since making combat miserable for your opponent is going to be gold.
1) Ramp is no good, there is nothing to ramp into.
2) Counter spells are super strong, especially in the early game.
3) Control would be really strong in this format.
4) No creatures stronger than 2 power, and very few of those.
5) Creatures can only be 1/1 because a 1/3 creature requires 3 blockers to kill it, because there can't be 3/3 creatures.
6) A 2/2 is essentially a 10/10.
7) Haste is a deal breaker too.
1) You could still have ramp targets, it's just that your idea of something to ramp into needs to change. Rather than ramping into primeval titan or craterhoof, you'd ramp into acidic slime or symbiotic beast.
2) Im not sure if that's true, but if it is I'm not sure how that's a problem. Creatures suddenly are of paramount importance, and having counterspells to mitigate that seems fine.
3) These things can always be balanced out. And if anything, the definition of what a control deck is and what an aggro deck is probably need to be adjusted.
4) "No creatures stronger than 2" isnt necessary, they just need to be up in the higher mana costs. Thinking about it since my last post, I dont believe that a 3/1 vanilla for 4 is anywhere near good card even in this format, and with guideposts like that I'm sure there's room for more front heavy cards.
5) I dont need to kill the 1/3, blocking it is fine. Besides, there are 2+ power creatures with defender.
6) Not to be pedantic, but a 2/2 is an 8/8. Even then, thats only unblocked and with any amount of lifegain these scaling comparisons go out the window.
7) Why? Similar to my guidepost from before, I dont foresee a 1 power, 3 cmc haste creature to be any sort of problem.
There are tens of thousands of magic cards. There is likely to be a pool of candidates big enough to satisfy the needs of the format. It helps that all of a sudden 0/x tokens and lifegain are very useful, as are normally bad cards that simply jump a creature.
I really think it could be fun, but unless you have a group that already wants this I think it will be a hard sell.
I already have a peasant cube, a combo cube with multiple copies of everything, a bad cards cube, a cube of entirely custom cards, and a black/white-only cube. This sort of thing is very on brand for me.
You should have Squire be the only creature in the cube with CMC < 3, so it can arguably be the most threatening creature in the cube (assuming the 1 life starting total). That would be amusing.
It's ideas like that that remind me why you have the reputation that you do.
I tried to fit squire into my bad cards cube. But as anyone who has ever tried to make one would know, putting boring cards into a bad cube leads to an uninteresting experience.* Squire was effectively too bad for the bad cube.
But it being uniquely good is another thing entirely.
*(I've since learned that bad cards cubes work best when they are filled with interesting narrow cards and bad-but-weird cards like ovinomancer or giant oyster.)
Huh... Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded is all of a sudden right at the very top-end of acceptable power level, possibly even OP. Choice of Damnations is probably too powerful to be acceptable. Goldenglow Moth is an awesome early-game play. Hat Stand is a game-warpingly powerful card, and forms something akin to the Exarch/Pestermite half of the Twin combo with Force of Savagery. Dimir Charm and the like kill half the format. Char-Rumbler is a super powerful play.
"It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes... Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
This will be a cube where each player starts at 5 life.
Necessarily, this means that variance will be an even stronger influence on games, so step one is to kill the variance as much as possible.
Ways to accomplish this:
Obviously the power level will be... different. But I'm all about playing magic with a new set of puzzle pieces.
How could this work?
Well, I figured there shouldn't be any creatures that can attack with a cmc less than 3. In their place, I see a lot of cards like wall of omens and resolute watchdogs. Token generation and lifegain would be at a premium, even if the tokens have no power (sengir autocrat) and even if the lifegain does nothing else (angel's mercy OP?!).
Burn that can go to the face may just be totally banned.
So could this actually function? Should I look at other life totals between 1 and 5 for leeway, or does that betray the feeling too much?
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
Mana screw would end the game immediately.
Red cannot have any burn that could hit a player
Black cannot play any pay life effects or any effects that make players lose life.
I think the games could end very quickly I’m unfun ways.
However, the easiest thing to do is to build two highlander style decks, for this format and see how they play against each other before you sink too much time, energy, etc. into a cube.
So what I would need to do is really overdo it on early game defensive plays. But to account for variance, it's very possible that I shouldn't be including attackers until cmc 4 or even 5. Or something like a 4 mana enchantment that generates tokens.
Mana screw would be a reason to up the cmc for attackers to move up from 3. But even if I really hit a sweetspot by magic, you're probably right about it being too easy to lose with no interaction.
//
So switching it to a 5 life starting total is probably more interesting. I still would keep to a constraint of having no attackers below 3 or 4 cmc, but if one token slips by it's not immediate game over. Furthermore, I could include a wider breadth of cards like blade juggler or spark jolt, which would make for more interesting choices.
I should also include a lot of scrying/cycling cards just to smooth out variance even more.
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
Deal with it.
As for "kill your blocker, 1 shot you GG", I could eliminate this issue by raising the starting life total to 5 and to more or less disallow 3+ power creatures. That shouldn't have been an everyday issue anyway though with enough walls and 0 power creatures that come down before the attackers though.
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
Aristocrats would be too busted.
Ramp is no good, there is nothing to ramp into.
Counter spells are super strong, especially in the early game.
Land destruction would end games.
Control would be really strong in this format.
No creatures stronger than 2 power, and very few of those.
- Essentially, two unblocked 1/1 creatures is the equivalent of two unblocked 5/5s.
- Creatures can only be 1/1 because a 1/3 creature requires 3 blockers to kill it, because there can't be 3/3 creatures.
- A 2/2 is essentially a 10/10.
Removal is crazy important, and should be drafted above all else.
Haste is a deal breaker too.
I think the cube is very limited.
There is a format, the name escapes me, where four players all share a deck of cards (around 200). There are no lands in the deck, instead each player has a stack of basics, or two color tap lands. Each turn they draw from the deck, and play one land randomly from their stack.
I feel like this idea is better suited for that format. Anyone remember what that is called?
I really think it could be fun, but unless you have a group that already wants this I think it will be a hard sell. As for archetypes I think supporting engines that bypass a clogged board is good (I would call it combo, but really just synergies), aggro will be viable, but I think it will be based in creating more threats than control can handle and as such will feel like midrange. Control probably wants removal and combat tricks more than counters, since making combat miserable for your opponent is going to be gold.
Just my stream of consciousness ideas.
1) You could still have ramp targets, it's just that your idea of something to ramp into needs to change. Rather than ramping into primeval titan or craterhoof, you'd ramp into acidic slime or symbiotic beast.
2) Im not sure if that's true, but if it is I'm not sure how that's a problem. Creatures suddenly are of paramount importance, and having counterspells to mitigate that seems fine.
3) These things can always be balanced out. And if anything, the definition of what a control deck is and what an aggro deck is probably need to be adjusted.
4) "No creatures stronger than 2" isnt necessary, they just need to be up in the higher mana costs. Thinking about it since my last post, I dont believe that a 3/1 vanilla for 4 is anywhere near good card even in this format, and with guideposts like that I'm sure there's room for more front heavy cards.
5) I dont need to kill the 1/3, blocking it is fine. Besides, there are 2+ power creatures with defender.
6) Not to be pedantic, but a 2/2 is an 8/8. Even then, thats only unblocked and with any amount of lifegain these scaling comparisons go out the window.
7) Why? Similar to my guidepost from before, I dont foresee a 1 power, 3 cmc haste creature to be any sort of problem.
There are tens of thousands of magic cards. There is likely to be a pool of candidates big enough to satisfy the needs of the format. It helps that all of a sudden 0/x tokens and lifegain are very useful, as are normally bad cards that simply jump a creature.
I already have a peasant cube, a combo cube with multiple copies of everything, a bad cards cube, a cube of entirely custom cards, and a black/white-only cube. This sort of thing is very on brand for me.
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
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
I tried to fit squire into my bad cards cube. But as anyone who has ever tried to make one would know, putting boring cards into a bad cube leads to an uninteresting experience.* Squire was effectively too bad for the bad cube.
But it being uniquely good is another thing entirely.
*(I've since learned that bad cards cubes work best when they are filled with interesting narrow cards and bad-but-weird cards like ovinomancer or giant oyster.)
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'm seeing many cards from Kamigawa in your future.
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
Yup, which is precisely how I ended up with so much spiritcraft in my bad cards cube.
Speaking of tibalt, I can probably check all of the planeswalker deck planeswalkers again.
Oooh and chandra nalaar's +1 is suddenly an aggro finisher.
Daddy likes....
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