How does it work: it's an EDH cube. Draft 60 cards, build decks with 60 cards plus commanders / conspiracies. Color identity applies except for cards "wished" from the sideboard during a game. 25 life. Monocolored bounce lands are house ruled to take back any land just like the two-colored ones do. Cards that reference others of the same name come as playsets (e.g. Legion Conquistador). I use gift cards represented by Wastes that can be redeemed for a set of snow basics, or two artifact lands, or a tricolor land.
I'm happy with the general power level of the cube after cutting a lot of chaff, some board wipes, and some unfun cards (Westvale Abbey, especially). Most decks drafted are tricolor.
What I noticed is that green gets used about 30% more than each of the other colors. So I'm wondering if there is something wrong with my green section or my multicolor section. The pairings that get drafted most are Naya, Jund, Abzan, and Mardu.
Maybe it also has to do with the archetypes that are not equally well worked out for all combinations.
I have WU Flyers, RG Aggro (somewhat like Fires without the specific card being included), WG +1/+1 (and Tokens to a lesser extent), and RW Tokens.
The folliwing ones I'm less certain of: The grixis domain has a spellslinger and theft theme. UG has somewhat of a card draw theme. And WB has a solid lifegain theme, also this is not that extensive of an archetype.
I would be grateful if someone could check for obvious problems in my list that make it so green gets drafted so much. Thanks in advance!
It's not really a surprise - green is generally considered the best color in Commander. You have a lot of 5+ cmc bombs, and people want to ramp to them. Additionally, when playing 3-5 color decks, being able to fix your colors is best done with green.
I did a playtest draft of your cube, and I ended up with a Sultai Tasigur deck. I was drawn to the green and black (no surprise, Orzhov and Golgari are my favorite color combos), but I didn't really care for the blue offerings. I just settled on it because Tasigur was one of the few 3+ commander options the computer gave me. This may be a fluke of the computer's selections, though, because when I look through your blue cards, I see plenty I like.
A few questions:
- Do you know your drafters' preferred colors? Like, do they have a predilection toward green even before they draft?
- Do you draft separate commander packs, or are the legends mixed in?
- If mixed in, do you draft 3 packs of 20 or 4 packs of 15?
- And have you found Griselbrand to be oppressive at all or fine in a limited environment? There's a reason he's banned in Commander, but I could see the problems being mitigated when he's not in the commander slot and you have a draft deck rather than constructed. I absolutely grabbed him, though, because he's a powerhouse.
I also thought about the ramp and color fixing. However, I do have lots of Mana rocks and not that many green ramp spells. I could remove those altogether. In midrange land, green has other nice things to offer and with the suite of Mana rocks available the fixing / ramp is plentiful and equally accessible for all. But I have to think about this.
Concerning your draft experience, I'm pretty sure that unmoderated packs of 15 are not well suited, but see my explanation below.
Concerning your questions:
1) I know of some people's preferences. One person says that white is so bad and that they are always lucky when drafting green. And one player says they will never draft blue. That may have something do with it.
2) Back in summer when we could play in person I had one pack of multicolor (including commanders), then three packs of monocolor / colorless. Referring in both cases to color identity cause that's what's relevant. Packs did have 20 cards then but I changed it since because cutting so many cards from a deck is really hard. There's not really a lot of chaff, after all. Currently we draft online with 2*30 cards and three picks per pack. That's so we can check before starting that each pack has some commanders available.
3) Griselbrand hasn't been in for that long and I haven't seen him in play. He has some similarities to Westvale Abbey which I cut for being oppressive. I do think, however, that 1) Griselbrand is easier to get rid of and 2) has a higher cost for putting him in the deck (Westvale Abbey is one land that's colorless, in casualland that is nothing). Also, it's probably less problematic in the 99, there's almost no combos you can do, there's not really a lot of ways to cheat his price, and with 25 starting life you can draw less cards.
I also thought about the ramp and color fixing. However, I do have lots of Mana rocks and not that many green ramp spells. I could remove those altogether. In midrange land, green has other nice things to offer and with the suite of Mana rocks available the fixing / ramp is plentiful and equally accessible for all. But I have to think about this.
I mean, Green is sort of defined by the ability to ramp, so I'm not sure I'd take it away. Plus, I think you only have about a dozen green ramp cards, so it isn't over-represented. But it is a mind-set that a lot of players will come to the table with.
1) I know of some people's preferences. One person says that white is so bad and that they are always lucky when drafting green. And one player says they will never draft blue. That may have something do with it.
2) Back in summer when we could play in person I had one pack of multicolor (including commanders), then three packs of monocolor / colorless. Referring in both cases to color identity cause that's what's relevant. Packs did have 20 cards then but I changed it since because cutting so many cards from a deck is really hard. There's not really a lot of chaff, after all. Currently we draft online with 2*30 cards and three picks per pack. That's so we can check before starting that each pack has some commanders available.
Starting with multi-color sounds good. It will help reduce dead picks when they actually know what color they are going.
3) Griselbrand hasn't been in for that long and I haven't seen him in play. He has some similarities to Westvale Abbey which I cut for being oppressive. I do think, however, that 1) Griselbrand is easier to get rid of and 2) has a higher cost for putting him in the deck (Westvale Abbey is one land that's colorless, in casualland that is nothing). Also, it's probably less problematic in the 99, there's almost no combos you can do, there's not really a lot of ways to cheat his price, and with 25 starting life you can draw less cards.
I missed the 25 life the first time. That definitely helps mitigate Griselbrand's power. Still good, just not completely broken.
How does it work: it's an EDH cube. Draft 60 cards, build decks with 60 cards plus commanders / conspiracies. Color identity applies except for cards "wished" from the sideboard during a game. 25 life. Monocolored bounce lands are house ruled to take back any land just like the two-colored ones do. Cards that reference others of the same name come as playsets (e.g. Legion Conquistador). I use gift cards represented by Wastes that can be redeemed for a set of snow basics, or two artifact lands, or a tricolor land.
I'm happy with the general power level of the cube after cutting a lot of chaff, some board wipes, and some unfun cards (Westvale Abbey, especially). Most decks drafted are tricolor.
What I noticed is that green gets used about 30% more than each of the other colors. So I'm wondering if there is something wrong with my green section or my multicolor section. The pairings that get drafted most are Naya, Jund, Abzan, and Mardu.
Maybe it also has to do with the archetypes that are not equally well worked out for all combinations.
I have WU Flyers, RG Aggro (somewhat like Fires without the specific card being included), WG +1/+1 (and Tokens to a lesser extent), and RW Tokens.
The folliwing ones I'm less certain of: The grixis domain has a spellslinger and theft theme. UG has somewhat of a card draw theme. And WB has a solid lifegain theme, also this is not that extensive of an archetype.
I would be grateful if someone could check for obvious problems in my list that make it so green gets drafted so much. Thanks in advance!
I did a playtest draft of your cube, and I ended up with a Sultai Tasigur deck. I was drawn to the green and black (no surprise, Orzhov and Golgari are my favorite color combos), but I didn't really care for the blue offerings. I just settled on it because Tasigur was one of the few 3+ commander options the computer gave me. This may be a fluke of the computer's selections, though, because when I look through your blue cards, I see plenty I like.
A few questions:
- Do you know your drafters' preferred colors? Like, do they have a predilection toward green even before they draft?
- Do you draft separate commander packs, or are the legends mixed in?
- If mixed in, do you draft 3 packs of 20 or 4 packs of 15?
- And have you found Griselbrand to be oppressive at all or fine in a limited environment? There's a reason he's banned in Commander, but I could see the problems being mitigated when he's not in the commander slot and you have a draft deck rather than constructed. I absolutely grabbed him, though, because he's a powerhouse.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
I also thought about the ramp and color fixing. However, I do have lots of Mana rocks and not that many green ramp spells. I could remove those altogether. In midrange land, green has other nice things to offer and with the suite of Mana rocks available the fixing / ramp is plentiful and equally accessible for all. But I have to think about this.
Concerning your draft experience, I'm pretty sure that unmoderated packs of 15 are not well suited, but see my explanation below.
Concerning your questions:
1) I know of some people's preferences. One person says that white is so bad and that they are always lucky when drafting green. And one player says they will never draft blue. That may have something do with it.
2) Back in summer when we could play in person I had one pack of multicolor (including commanders), then three packs of monocolor / colorless. Referring in both cases to color identity cause that's what's relevant. Packs did have 20 cards then but I changed it since because cutting so many cards from a deck is really hard. There's not really a lot of chaff, after all. Currently we draft online with 2*30 cards and three picks per pack. That's so we can check before starting that each pack has some commanders available.
3) Griselbrand hasn't been in for that long and I haven't seen him in play. He has some similarities to Westvale Abbey which I cut for being oppressive. I do think, however, that 1) Griselbrand is easier to get rid of and 2) has a higher cost for putting him in the deck (Westvale Abbey is one land that's colorless, in casualland that is nothing). Also, it's probably less problematic in the 99, there's almost no combos you can do, there's not really a lot of ways to cheat his price, and with 25 starting life you can draw less cards.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter