The Super Awesome Secret Ninja Pirate Cube aka Apex's 12 man Pauper Cube
Shoutout to PurpleD @ [<--- Left Play Designs <---] for this incredible banner.
As both an avid drafter and pauper player, it is only natural that one of these days, I put both concepts together and create a pauper cube. I finally got around to doing this, when I realized that a few of my friends are looking into getting better at drafting, but didn't feel like spending tons of money on product.
Having a pauper cube to draft with somewhat simulates a real draft experience, since all the cards are commons, just like the majority of cards in any real draft. Plus, massive, splashy effects are few and far in-between, and therefore, forces players to draft and construct solid decks, and encourages tight play.
This cube has 540 cards, and is designed for a maximum of 12 players. Though I think my group will muster 6-8 most of the time, which is perfectly fine, since you don't necessarily need to play with every card of the cube, and a little variance can make the games more exciting.
The Breakdown
Cube Size: 540 Breakdown: 70 of each colour, 50 colourless, 15 of each allied coloured pairs, 5 of each enemy coloured pairs, 40 nonbasics Includes "Un" Cards?: yes, but nothing too ridiculous Banned Cards: none Card Grouping Considerations: Hybrids are grouped together with gold cards, and multicolour kickers, triggers and effects are also grouped under gold cards.
The Contents
White
Ahh...white, the staple colour for weenie rushes and pacifism effects (well, in the commons at least). So of course there are very good support for the aggressive strategy in white. But white can also easily be the secondary colour to complement a control or midranged strategy.
The spells of white contains a surprisingly high number of removal. Plus, there are generous number of support spells for aggressive decks like Righteous Charge and Fortify.
Blue, the most hated colour of Magic (according to statistics anyway, which is always 82% right, right?). Well, it's not any less hated in pauper, where you have easy access to cheap, fast fliers like Rishadan Airship and Illusionary Forces, as well as card advantage machines like Mulldrifter (a P1P1 even back in Lorwyn block).
Blue spells are generally controlling in nature, but it is very possible to craft a tempo deck by utilizing the amount of bounce and counterspells, and couple them with some early creatures to steal wins away from other decks. Counterspell is a staple in any deck looking to play it, and there are always great card draws like Deep Analysis to refill your hand when you are low on gas.
When most people think of black, particularly the commons, they quickly conjure up images of Doom Blade and Dark Banishing. However, black is also known for its quick weenie creatures that are above the curve, but comes with some sort of drawback.
The creatures in black are similar to the creatures in white in composition: you have aggressive creatures like Nezumi Cutthroat and Carnophage, as well as very controlling creatures like Twisted Abomination and Gravedigger. Together, they can support many different archetypes.
There are an abundance of removal spells in black, that's for sure. However, to offset the many self damaging drawbacks of black's creatures, I have included many spells that can gain back life, which can mitigate the drawbacks somewhat. Cards like Tendrils of Corruption and Spinning Darkness are perfect for removing opposing threats, and giving you enough breathing room.
The colour of passion and aggression (well, I guess for Magic, just aggression, unless you count the passionate art on Earthbind :tongue:).
Creatures of red are often very aggressive, from hasty attackers to undercosted creatures with large power to toughness ratio. However, there are many pingers that can help not only the aggressive decks in pushing through the last few points of damage, but also control decks for shutting down early aggression from weenie swarms.
There exist quite a large number of direct damage spells in red, as most efficient burn spells has been printed at the commons. I have included a large amount of these, but I think with more testing, I can balance it out a bit more. Right now, these are just some of the more powerful spells in red.
Green has always been the colour to find extra lands, generate extra mana, and provide everyone with tons of fatties, and that is particularly so in the commons.
The creatures of green comprised of several mana fixers, as well as giant attackers that can get the job done in a couple of swings (or, you can roll both of those things together and get Krosan Tusker!).
Green's spells are lackluster compared to its creatures, but that's not to say there aren't some hidden gems like Gaea's Touch (pauper Exploration anyone?) and the aggro crushing Moment's Peace. Of course there are also the traditional mana fixing and pump spells to round out any archetype.
The colourless cards provide decks with easy access to many crucial elements: fixing, acceleration, as well as equipments to enhance creatures. Some great colourless creatures are also thrown in for good measure, and allows decks to pick up and round off their creature count
There aren't many nonbasics, and most of them are manafixers. However, I've included a few extra ones with marginal utility, because having nonbasics is quite useful to any player playing their deck, as well as challenging for deck construction.
The multicolour cards are separated by their colour pairs, and hybrids are grouped with them. There aren't that many gold cards for just the commons, but most gold cards are rather good, including those cards that require another colour as the kicker. I have included these hybrids and kicked cards with the golds, because when unkicked/triggered, they are very underpowered, and I doubt most will draft or play with them in their underpowered state. Many of these cards are self evident, as they are quite strong, and the only cards of their colour combinations.
Upon cursory glance, I'm going to definitely agree that there are too many multicolor cards as 5 per pair is good.
I'll also say that a lot of commons cubes make the mistake of porting over cards that are good in limited environments and this context isn't necessarily true. One of these common mistakes is to have a TON of pingers, which seems to be going on here as well, for example, suboptimal ones like Chainflinger and Thornwind Faeries)- which aren't necessarily even that good against aggro (for example, a start like T1 Jungle Lion, T2 Wretched Anurid, T3 Centaur Courser isn't going to care that much when the control player responds with a T3 Thornwind.)
There's also suboptimal removal spells like Executioner's Capsule, Fire Whip and Fiery Temper, which were high picks in limited but they're quite suboptimal in commons cube (not just because of the better options available since most limited formats have a dearth of removal, but also because one can't make the same assumptions of 'wall o' creatures' like with Fire Whip/Aether Tradewinds.) I'd also cut some of the inefficient mid-range creatures in green, like Ondu Giant and Aura Gnarlid for better aggro creatures like Wild Dogs.
The multicolour part is a conscious decision I made to try and improve green (as weird as that sound). Because I've played with a few PEZ/pauper cube before, and green is always the weakest colour by far. So I'm trying to give green more fixing so it can support different coloured cards, as well as more multicolour cards to take advantage of the extra green fixing. That's why there are stuff like Ondu Giant, extra fixers (like both Reach and Cultivate, etc) and more multicoloured cards. Having 5cGreen as a viable archetype will boost the playability of green, and not always have it act as the secondary colour for something else.
So I'm going to try it out for a bit with the increased multicolour cards. If it doesn't work out, I can always take stuff out, but I want to see this train of thought through first.
But I do agree with some of the stuff mentioned like Aura Gnarlid and etc. I made many ports from limited (as I have been playing tons of limited, and have a good idea about some common draft orders), and imported a bunch of high picks (and there are some hidden gems, like Troubled Healer, that not many people knew about if they didn't play Masque limited).
Anything else you guys find that are not as good in a cube as they are in limited? Or vice versa?
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@wtwlf123: I think you misunderstood me, I'm trying to get more sources to see what I can include or exclude from the cube, and generally, it's good to have a starting point to draw ideas from.
Like Usman mentioned, cards like Thornwind Faerie could very well be terrible in a pauper cube, but great in regular limited, and there must be other cards like that in my list, considering I ported over a bunch of high limited picks. While cards like Tortured Existence are terrible limited picks, but could even serve as the engine for its own archetype, and I'm bound to have missed a couple of those in this list.
@magicmerl: well, at least it has a couple more ninjas than pirates :P.
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@wtwlf123: I think you misunderstood me, I'm trying to get more sources to see what I can include or exclude from the cube, and generally, it's good to have a starting point to draw ideas from.
And I think you're misunderstanding me.
Don't draw your limited knowledge into cube management. They're not the same. If you're looking for a format to grab other good cube cards from, look at the tried and true Pauper Cube lists here. I'd pool information from there to make changes to the cube, not from limited/standard/edh/anyotherformat/etc.
Right, but the thing is, like I mentioned up above, I'm building this cube to help my friends get better at drafting without actually spending too much money on product, not just purely for cube drafting.
Plus, I already have a regular cube, actually, I've built a cube long before there was even this forum on MTGSal (if you check back to the beginning of this subforum, you can see my posts from waaaaay old), so I'm good with cube management. This is a side project for my friends to get them to be better drafters.
I've also checked out most of the pauper cubes on this forum, but most of them aren't this large, which I understand, because you have to reach for a bit with just the common cardpool, but I have to make it this large because there's a very good chance I can get together 12 people to draft semi-regularly. And if you check, most of the regular pauper cube staples are already in there, a few aren't in there are for curve reasons, or those pauper cubes weren't updated, and there are some recent, better cards that came out to take those slots.
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You should build a custom set to make people draft better. In my experience, the formats are so different that cube drafting doesn't help make you better at drafting other sets.
You should build a custom set to make people draft better. In my experience, the formats are so different that cube drafting doesn't help make you better at drafting other sets.
But it does make you better at playing magic in general, which in turn makes you a better drafter...
But it does make you better at playing magic in general, which in turn makes you a better drafter...
But you don't need to build a new cube for that. You can just play the other cube. Or any other format.
See here:
Quote from Apex »
Plus, I already have a regular cube, actually ... This is a side project for my friends to get them to be better drafters.
Drafting cube won't make you worse at drafting regularly, but it's no better of an exercise to draft a Pauper cube than a regular cube, for example.
Simply playing as much Magic as possible is the best exercise for getting better at it. Even cross format stuff like Legacy -> Standard, and Cube -> Limited.
A regular cube is pretty awkward for new drafters to get accustomed to, particularly for the card evaluation. When every single card is so powerful, it skews your evaluation skills, and it's hard to transfer those skills to a real draft.
Like, no one would be caught dead playing with a Hill Giant in a regular cube, but these cards are staples of any limited deck. A pauper cube can sort of mimic that, because you don't have access to splashy effects like Wrath of God, but have constant access to cards like Centaur Courser and other decent commons that you try to aim for in a good limited deck. So players have to prioritize a good creature base, learn how to take card advantage cards high, build a stable manabase without ridiculous amount of fixing, etc.
Also, eventually, I can modify this cube so I can play it Magic Online with this tool (http://www.metacortex.hu/~fable/), that's why I'm keeping it as a cube instead of a custom set. It serves a bunch of different purposes that way.
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I think building a custom draft set would be he best way to go. That way you can control the level of skill-testing cards that go into it. With multiples of certain cards available.
Like, you could include 1 mythic from each color (that's a 1x of each), 3 rares of each color (that there are 2x of each) 5 uncommons (that there are 3 of each) and 10 commons (that there are 4x of each) and do that for each color. Then when that's shuffled up at random, it would make something more similar to actual drafting.
I think that cubing definitely is good for teaching lessons, although they're more general lessons like mana curves and how to effectively use resources, things like that.
Although I'm not 100% on how it'd be, effective-wise, as a limited teaching tool.
A few examples that I can think of:
The first is that in normal limited environments, removal is extremely high pick because of it being removal. Things like bolt and doom blade are, of course, high picks, but even cards like weed strangle and pinpoint avalanche are still high picks in limited environments due to the fact that they are removal (I think death bomb was something printed so r&d would see how people would take it solely because it's removal, even though it wasn't that great. I think.)
Even in common cube, something like weed strangle would be picked pretty low because there are better options, but in regular limited, this lesson doesn't really apply since the lesson for limited is "(just about any) removal is insane, pick it very highly." It's similar to the whole thing with the inclusion of cards in cube because context between environments and cube is somewhat related, but is by no means a perfect measure of a card's cubability. For example, in commons, something like Wickerbough Elder is a high pick because of the many enchantments/artifacts, but in regular limited environments, it's not really as good - similarly with Manic Vandal, who is great in cubes but nowhere near as good in m11 limited due to the dearth of artifacts (I haven't drafted m11 much, but I've only once seen Manic Vandal blow up an artifact when cast - a lot of the time it was mostly a Grey Ogre.) This mis-assignment of context may cause drafters to evaluate cards higher/lower for limited environments because of this (conversely, I've seen cards used/not used in cubes because of a similar mis-assignment of context, like Yawgmoth's Will.)
Another thing is that wizards has lately made cards more for the risk-averse crowd, with a few exceptions like vampire lacerator. Therefore, teaching players that, for example, using cards with drawbacks (like lacerator) may not be as useful, since someone can be incredibly risk-averse in a regular environment and still do pretty well since this usually isn't a factor in most drafts.
The tl;dr is that cubing definitely can help people become better magic players and probably better drafters, but the connection isn't direct. Commons cubes don't use cards like Planeswalkers and the like, so the connection is a bit more direct, but it is still not very direct.
aka Apex's 12 man Pauper Cube
As both an avid drafter and pauper player, it is only natural that one of these days, I put both concepts together and create a pauper cube. I finally got around to doing this, when I realized that a few of my friends are looking into getting better at drafting, but didn't feel like spending tons of money on product.
Having a pauper cube to draft with somewhat simulates a real draft experience, since all the cards are commons, just like the majority of cards in any real draft. Plus, massive, splashy effects are few and far in-between, and therefore, forces players to draft and construct solid decks, and encourages tight play.
This cube has 540 cards, and is designed for a maximum of 12 players. Though I think my group will muster 6-8 most of the time, which is perfectly fine, since you don't necessarily need to play with every card of the cube, and a little variance can make the games more exciting.
The Breakdown
Breakdown: 70 of each colour, 50 colourless, 15 of each allied coloured pairs, 5 of each enemy coloured pairs, 40 nonbasics
Includes "Un" Cards?: yes, but nothing too ridiculous
Banned Cards: none
Card Grouping Considerations: Hybrids are grouped together with gold cards, and multicolour kickers, triggers and effects are also grouped under gold cards.
The Contents
Ahh...white, the staple colour for weenie rushes and pacifism effects (well, in the commons at least). So of course there are very good support for the aggressive strategy in white. But white can also easily be the secondary colour to complement a control or midranged strategy.
The creatures of white includes fast aggressive ones like Steppe Lynx and Benalish Calvary, as well as very resilient and controlling ones like Guardian of the Guildpact and Heavy Ballista, which makes for a very well rounded creature base.
1 Benevolent Bodyguard
1 Deftblade Elite
1 Akrasan Squire
1 Icatian Javelineers
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Steppe Lynx
cmc 2
1 Benalish Cavalry
1 Stormfront Pegasus
1 Kami of Ancient Law
1 Whitemane Lion
1 Kor Skyfisher
1 Aven Squire
1 Knight of Cliffhaven
1 Lone Missionary
1 Veteran Armorer
1 Blade of the Sixth Pride
1 Phantom Nomad
1 Order of Leitbur
1 Soltari Visionary
1 Dawnglare Invoker
1 Apex Hawks
1 Troubled Healer
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Burrenton Bombardier
1 Kor Hookmaster
1 Kabuto Moth
1 Ballynock Cohort
1 Kitsune Blademaster
1 Zealous Inquisitor
1 Aven Riftwatcher
cmc 4
1 Aven Liberator
1 Moorish Cavalry
1 Guardian of the Guildpact
1 Knight of Sursi
1 Ballynock Trapper
1 Heavy Ballista
1 Shade of Trokair
1 Coalition Honor Guard
1 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Plover Knights
1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
1 Castle Raptors
cmc 6
1 Noble Templar
cmc 7
1 Ivory Giant
The spells of white contains a surprisingly high number of removal. Plus, there are generous number of support spells for aggressive decks like Righteous Charge and Fortify.
1 Mana Tithe
1 Hyena Umbra
1 Sunlance
cmc 2
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Shelter
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Pacifism
1 Temporal Isolation
1 Carom
1 Righteous Charge
1 Empyrial Armor
1 Marshaling Cry
1 Prismatic Strands
1 Fortify
1 Blinding Beam
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Arrest
1 Safe Passage
1 Kor Chant
1 Recumbent Bliss
1 Cage of Hands
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Cenn's Enlistment
1 Breath of Life
1 False Defeat
cmc 5
1 Gleam of Resistance
Blue, the most hated colour of Magic (according to statistics anyway, which is always 82% right, right?). Well, it's not any less hated in pauper, where you have easy access to cheap, fast fliers like Rishadan Airship and Illusionary Forces, as well as card advantage machines like Mulldrifter (a P1P1 even back in Lorwyn block).
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Stonybrook Angler
1 Carnivorous Death-Parrot
1 Waterfront Bouncer
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Halimar Wavewatch
1 Fathom Seer
cmc 3
1 AEther Adept
1 Thornwind Faeries
1 Calcite Snapper
1 Shaper Parasite
1 Spiketail Drakeling
1 Scroll Thief
1 Trinket Mage
1 Echo Tracer
1 Man-o'-War
1 Rishadan Airship
1 Pestermite
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Ghost Ship
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Shimmering Glasskite
1 Illusionary Forces
1 Sentinels of Glen Elendra
cmc 5
1 Tidewater Minion
1 Infiltrator il-Kor
1 Mulldrifter
1 Mnemonic Wall
cmc 6
1 Shoreline Ranger
1 AEthersnipe
1 Errant Ephemeron
Blue spells are generally controlling in nature, but it is very possible to craft a tempo deck by utilizing the amount of bounce and counterspells, and couple them with some early creatures to steal wins away from other decks. Counterspell is a staple in any deck looking to play it, and there are always great card draws like Deep Analysis to refill your hand when you are low on gas.
1 Force Spike
1 Flood
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Repeal
1 Condescend
cmc 2
1 Remove Soul
1 Miscalculation
1 Daze
1 Think Twice
1 Mana Leak
1 Train of Thought
1 Impulse
1 Courier's Capsule
1 Narcolepsy
1 Into the Roil
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Withdraw
1 Counterspell
1 Deprive
1 Undo
1 Mental Discipline
1 Capsize
1 Frantic Search
1 Repulse
1 Exclude
1 Compulsive Research
1 Rushing River
1 AEther Tradewinds
1 Oona's Grace
cmc 4
1 Rewind
1 Foresee
1 Ray of Command
1 Deep Analysis
1 Choking Tethers
1 Gush
1 Mysteries of the Deep
1 Rush of Knowledge
When most people think of black, particularly the commons, they quickly conjure up images of Doom Blade and Dark Banishing. However, black is also known for its quick weenie creatures that are above the curve, but comes with some sort of drawback.
The creatures in black are similar to the creatures in white in composition: you have aggressive creatures like Nezumi Cutthroat and Carnophage, as well as very controlling creatures like Twisted Abomination and Gravedigger. Together, they can support many different archetypes.
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Guul Draz Vampire
1 Carnophage
1 Vampire Lacerator
cmc 2
1 Wretched Anurid
1 Skinthinner
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Fledgling Djinn
1 Augur of Skulls
1 Festercreep
1 Undertaker
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Rathi Trapper
1 Nezumi Cutthroat
1 Child of Night
1 Skittering Skirge
1 Dauthi Slayer
1 Order of the Ebon Hand
1 Liliana's Specter
1 Cadaver Imp
1 Chittering Rats
1 Gutless Ghoul
1 Dauthi Marauder
1 Crypt Rats
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Phyrexian Rager
cmc 4
1 Faceless Butcher
1 Heartstabber Mosquito
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Gravedigger
1 Viscera Dragger
1 Zombie Cutthroat
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Warren Pilferers
cmc 6
1 Twisted Abomination
There are an abundance of removal spells in black, that's for sure. However, to offset the many self damaging drawbacks of black's creatures, I have included many spells that can gain back life, which can mitigate the drawbacks somewhat. Cards like Tendrils of Corruption and Spinning Darkness are perfect for removing opposing threats, and giving you enough breathing room.
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Vendetta
1 Duress
1 Disfigure
1 Tortured Existence
1 Unearth
1 Innocent Blood
cmc 2
1 Grim Discovery
1 Cruel Edict
1 Disturbed Burial
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Doom Blade
1 Grim Harvest
1 Exhume
1 Wrench Mind
1 Sign in Blood
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Consume Spirit
1 Drain Life
1 Death Denied
1 Shattered Crypt
1 Shade's Form
1 Hideous End
1 Ashes to Ashes
1 Seal of Doom
1 Ichor Slick
1 Dirge of Dread
cmc 4
1 Evincar's Justice
1 Pestilence
1 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Snuff Out
cmc 5
1 Essence Drain
1 Spinning Darkness
1 Corrupt
The colour of passion and aggression (well, I guess for Magic, just aggression, unless you count the passionate art on Earthbind :tongue:).
Creatures of red are often very aggressive, from hasty attackers to undercosted creatures with large power to toughness ratio. However, there are many pingers that can help not only the aggressive decks in pushing through the last few points of damage, but also control decks for shutting down early aggression from weenie swarms.
1 Goblin Bushwhacker
1 Goblin Patrol
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Martyr of Ashes
cmc 2
1 Mudbrawler Cohort
1 Sparksmith
1 Skirk Marauder
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Keldon Marauders
1 Stingscourger
1 Mogg Flunkies
1 Hearth Kami
1 Plated Geopede
1 Fireslinger
1 Inner-Flame Acolyte
1 Vulshok Sorcerer
1 Ruinous Minotaur
1 Torch Slinger
1 Ghitu Slinger
1 Keldon Vandals
1 Spikeshot Goblin
1 Fault Riders
1 Manic Vandal
1 Ronin Houndmaster
1 Hissing Iguanar
cmc 4
1 Raging Minotaur
1 Chainflinger
1 Rukh Egg
1 Bladetusk Boar
1 Gathan Raiders
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Keldon Halberdier
1 Anarchist
1 Sokenzan Spellblade
1 Gerrard's Irregulars
cmc 6
1 Chartooth Cougar
There exist quite a large number of direct damage spells in red, as most efficient burn spells has been printed at the commons. I have included a large amount of these, but I think with more testing, I can balance it out a bit more. Right now, these are just some of the more powerful spells in red.
1 Burst Lightning
1 Firebolt
1 Seal of Fire
1 Chain Lightning
1 Flame Slash
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Fireball
1 Disintegrate
1 Kaervek's Torch
cmc 2
1 Fire Whip
1 Lash Out
1 Incinerate
1 Searing Blaze
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Fiery Temper
1 Staggershock
1 Puncture Blast
1 Rhystic Lightning
1 Act of Treason
1 Rift Bolt
1 Arc Lightning
1 Resounding Thunder
1 Crusher Zendikon
1 Galvanic Arc
1 Goblin War Drums
1 Aftershock
1 Chandra's Outrage
1 Swirling Sandstorm
1 Lightning Blast
1 Magma Burst
1 Solar Blast
cmc 5
1 Fissure
1 Pyrotechnics
cmc 6
1 Fireblast
Green has always been the colour to find extra lands, generate extra mana, and provide everyone with tons of fatties, and that is particularly so in the commons.
The creatures of green comprised of several mana fixers, as well as giant attackers that can get the job done in a couple of swings (or, you can roll both of those things together and get Krosan Tusker!).
1 Jungle Lion
1 Pouncing Jaguar
1 Rogue Elephant
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Arbor Elf
1 Basking Rootwalla
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Wild Nacatl
cmc 2
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Silhana Ledgewalker
1 Werebear
1 Wall of Roots
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Mire Boa
1 Shinen of Life's Roar
1 Nest Invader
1 River Boa
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Golgari Brownscale
1 Hungry Spriggan
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Simian Grunts
1 Oran-Rief Recluse
1 Aura Gnarlid
1 Grazing Gladehart
1 Citanul Woodreaders
1 Phantom Tiger
1 Penumbra Bobcat
1 Nantuko Shaman
cmc 4
1 Blastoderm
1 Wild Leotau
1 Penumbra Spider
1 Wildheart Invoker
1 Mold Shambler
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Ondu Giant
1 Kozilek's Predator
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Giant Dustwasp
1 Greater Basilisk
1 Aerie Ouphes
cmc 6
1 Durkwood Baloth
cmc 7
1 Siege Wurm
1 Krosan Tusker
Green's spells are lackluster compared to its creatures, but that's not to say there aren't some hidden gems like Gaea's Touch (pauper Exploration anyone?) and the aggro crushing Moment's Peace. Of course there are also the traditional mana fixing and pump spells to round out any archetype.
1 Giant Growth
1 Rancor
1 Groundswell
1 Vines of Vastwood
cmc 2
1 Predator's Strike
1 Rampant Growth
1 Lignify
1 Edge of Autumn
1 Fists of Ironwood
1 Sprout Swarm
1 Moment's Peace
1 Fertile Ground
1 Gaea's Touch
1 Utopia Vow
1 Gift of the Gargantuan
1 Harrow
1 Cultivate
1 Presence of Gond
1 Savage Silhouette
1 Gilt-Leaf Ambush
1 Snake Umbra
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Invigorate
1 Wildsize
1 Elven Cache
The colourless cards provide decks with easy access to many crucial elements: fixing, acceleration, as well as equipments to enhance creatures. Some great colourless creatures are also thrown in for good measure, and allows decks to pick up and round off their creature count
1 Scuttlemutt
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Soldier Replica
1 Phyrexian War Beast
1 Yotian Soldier
1 Skyreach Manta
1 Dross Golem
cmc 6
1 Razor Golem
1 Spire Golem
1 Ulamog's Crusher
1 Tormod's Crypt
cmc 1
1 Viridian Longbow
1 Leonin Scimitar
1 Adventuring Gear
1 Leonin Bola
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Bonesplitter
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Relic of Progenitus
cmc 2
1 Golgari Signet
1 Vulshok Gauntlets
1 Simic Signet
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Dimir Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Azorius Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Kitesail
1 Izzet Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Gruul Signet
1 Vulshok Morningstar
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Boros Signet
1 Cranial Plating
1 Prophetic Prism
1 Darksteel Pendant
1 Neurok Stealthsuit
1 Veinfire Borderpost
1 Wildfield Borderpost
1 Firewild Borderpost
1 Mistvein Borderpost
1 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Moonglove Extract
1 Darksteel Ingot
cmc 4
1 Opaline Bracers
1 Serrated Arrows
There aren't many nonbasics, and most of them are manafixers. However, I've included a few extra ones with marginal utility, because having nonbasics is quite useful to any player playing their deck, as well as challenging for deck construction.
1 Bant Panorama
1 Naya Panorama
1 Esper Panorama
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Desert
1 Rupture Spire
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Gruul Turf
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Remote Farm
1 Sandstone Needle
1 Saprazzan Skerry
1 Peat Bog
1 Hickory Woodlot
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Boros Garrison
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Khalni Garden
1 Quicksand
1 Halimar Depths
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Teetering Peaks
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Remote Isle
1 Polluted Mire
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Slippery Karst
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Barren Moor
1 Tranquil Thicket
:symwg::symrw::symub::symbg::symbr: Multicolour :symgu::symrg::symur::symwb::symwu:
The multicolour cards are separated by their colour pairs, and hybrids are grouped with them. There aren't that many gold cards for just the commons, but most gold cards are rather good, including those cards that require another colour as the kicker. I have included these hybrids and kicked cards with the golds, because when unkicked/triggered, they are very underpowered, and I doubt most will draft or play with them in their underpowered state. Many of these cards are self evident, as they are quite strong, and the only cards of their colour combinations.
1 Deft Duelist
1 Vedalken Outlander
1 Silver Drake
1 Minister of Impediments
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Soulsworn Jury
1 Esper Cormorants
1 Turn to Mist
1 Curse of Chains
1 Momentary Blink
1 Plumes of Peace
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Stormcaller's Boon
1 AEthertow
UB
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Tidehollow Strix
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Dimir Infiltrator
1 Architects of Will
1 Etherium Abomination
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Agony Warp
1 Malicious Advice
1 Consult the Necrosages
1 Recoil
1 Soul Manipulation
1 Probe
1 Mystical Teachings
UG
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Assault Zeppelid
1 Temporal Spring
1 Snakeform
1 Shielding Plax
1 Steamcore Weird
1 Wee Dragonauts
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Jilt
1 Quicksilver Dagger
RG
1 Kird Ape
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Rip-Clan Crasher
1 Horned Kavu
1 Scab-Clan Mauler
1 Tattermunge Duo
1 Rhox Brute
1 Gorger Wurm
1 Deadshot Minotaur
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Granger Guildmage
1 Colossal Might
1 Hull Breach
1 Branching Bolt
1 Giantbaiting
RB
1 Shadow Guildmage
1 Gobhobbler Rats
1 Goblin Outlander
1 Rakdos Ickspitter
1 Lava Zombie
1 Kathari Bomber
1 Singe-Mind Ogre
1 Monstrous Carabid
1 Terminate
1 Blightning
1 Strangling Soot
1 Wrecking Ball
1 Agonizing Demise
1 Traitor's Roar
1 Soul Burn
1 Cerodon Yearling
1 Goblin Legionnaire
1 Skyknight Legionnaire
1 Squee's Embrace
1 Fire at Will
GW
1 Safehold Elite
1 Selesnya Evangel
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Steward of Valeron
1 Llanowar Knight
1 Centaur Safeguard
1 Pale Recluse
1 Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi
1 Leonin Armorguard
1 Barkshell Blessing
1 Thrill of the Hunt
1 Sigil Blessing
1 Armadillo Cloak
1 Shield of the Oversoul
1 Captured Sunlight
GB
1 Putrid Leech
1 Shambling Shell
1 Rendclaw Trow
1 Desecrator Hag
1 Consume Strength
BW
1 Shrieking Grotesque
1 Blind Hunter
1 Castigate
1 Unmake
1 Pillory of the Sleepless
2. Probably will add more un-cards, like Mesa Chicken or Knight of the Hokey Pokey, which are fun cards that are not too overpowered.
3. Swapping some cards here and there, for curve/archetype reasons. But this will happen over time, and I will note them in the changelog.
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Reserved for the Changelog.
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I'll also say that a lot of commons cubes make the mistake of porting over cards that are good in limited environments and this context isn't necessarily true. One of these common mistakes is to have a TON of pingers, which seems to be going on here as well, for example, suboptimal ones like Chainflinger and Thornwind Faeries)- which aren't necessarily even that good against aggro (for example, a start like T1 Jungle Lion, T2 Wretched Anurid, T3 Centaur Courser isn't going to care that much when the control player responds with a T3 Thornwind.)
There's also suboptimal removal spells like Executioner's Capsule, Fire Whip and Fiery Temper, which were high picks in limited but they're quite suboptimal in commons cube (not just because of the better options available since most limited formats have a dearth of removal, but also because one can't make the same assumptions of 'wall o' creatures' like with Fire Whip/Aether Tradewinds.) I'd also cut some of the inefficient mid-range creatures in green, like Ondu Giant and Aura Gnarlid for better aggro creatures like Wild Dogs.
Aside from that, pretty solid.
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So I'm going to try it out for a bit with the increased multicolour cards. If it doesn't work out, I can always take stuff out, but I want to see this train of thought through first.
But I do agree with some of the stuff mentioned like Aura Gnarlid and etc. I made many ports from limited (as I have been playing tons of limited, and have a good idea about some common draft orders), and imported a bunch of high picks (and there are some hidden gems, like Troubled Healer, that not many people knew about if they didn't play Masque limited).
Anything else you guys find that are not as good in a cube as they are in limited? Or vice versa?
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Don't compare the two.
It doesn't matter about limited. All that matters is how well they do in the cube.
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Like Usman mentioned, cards like Thornwind Faerie could very well be terrible in a pauper cube, but great in regular limited, and there must be other cards like that in my list, considering I ported over a bunch of high limited picks. While cards like Tortured Existence are terrible limited picks, but could even serve as the engine for its own archetype, and I'm bound to have missed a couple of those in this list.
@magicmerl: well, at least it has a couple more ninjas than pirates :P.
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And I think you're misunderstanding me.
Don't draw your limited knowledge into cube management. They're not the same. If you're looking for a format to grab other good cube cards from, look at the tried and true Pauper Cube lists here. I'd pool information from there to make changes to the cube, not from limited/standard/edh/anyotherformat/etc.
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Plus, I already have a regular cube, actually, I've built a cube long before there was even this forum on MTGSal (if you check back to the beginning of this subforum, you can see my posts from waaaaay old), so I'm good with cube management. This is a side project for my friends to get them to be better drafters.
I've also checked out most of the pauper cubes on this forum, but most of them aren't this large, which I understand, because you have to reach for a bit with just the common cardpool, but I have to make it this large because there's a very good chance I can get together 12 people to draft semi-regularly. And if you check, most of the regular pauper cube staples are already in there, a few aren't in there are for curve reasons, or those pauper cubes weren't updated, and there are some recent, better cards that came out to take those slots.
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You should build a custom set to make people draft better. In my experience, the formats are so different that cube drafting doesn't help make you better at drafting other sets.
Nice OP by the way. Well done!
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But it does make you better at playing magic in general, which in turn makes you a better drafter...
But you don't need to build a new cube for that. You can just play the other cube. Or any other format.
See here:
Drafting cube won't make you worse at drafting regularly, but it's no better of an exercise to draft a Pauper cube than a regular cube, for example.
Simply playing as much Magic as possible is the best exercise for getting better at it. Even cross format stuff like Legacy -> Standard, and Cube -> Limited.
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Like, no one would be caught dead playing with a Hill Giant in a regular cube, but these cards are staples of any limited deck. A pauper cube can sort of mimic that, because you don't have access to splashy effects like Wrath of God, but have constant access to cards like Centaur Courser and other decent commons that you try to aim for in a good limited deck. So players have to prioritize a good creature base, learn how to take card advantage cards high, build a stable manabase without ridiculous amount of fixing, etc.
Also, eventually, I can modify this cube so I can play it Magic Online with this tool (http://www.metacortex.hu/~fable/), that's why I'm keeping it as a cube instead of a custom set. It serves a bunch of different purposes that way.
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Like, you could include 1 mythic from each color (that's a 1x of each), 3 rares of each color (that there are 2x of each) 5 uncommons (that there are 3 of each) and 10 commons (that there are 4x of each) and do that for each color. Then when that's shuffled up at random, it would make something more similar to actual drafting.
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Although I'm not 100% on how it'd be, effective-wise, as a limited teaching tool.
A few examples that I can think of:
The first is that in normal limited environments, removal is extremely high pick because of it being removal. Things like bolt and doom blade are, of course, high picks, but even cards like weed strangle and pinpoint avalanche are still high picks in limited environments due to the fact that they are removal (I think death bomb was something printed so r&d would see how people would take it solely because it's removal, even though it wasn't that great. I think.)
Even in common cube, something like weed strangle would be picked pretty low because there are better options, but in regular limited, this lesson doesn't really apply since the lesson for limited is "(just about any) removal is insane, pick it very highly." It's similar to the whole thing with the inclusion of cards in cube because context between environments and cube is somewhat related, but is by no means a perfect measure of a card's cubability. For example, in commons, something like Wickerbough Elder is a high pick because of the many enchantments/artifacts, but in regular limited environments, it's not really as good - similarly with Manic Vandal, who is great in cubes but nowhere near as good in m11 limited due to the dearth of artifacts (I haven't drafted m11 much, but I've only once seen Manic Vandal blow up an artifact when cast - a lot of the time it was mostly a Grey Ogre.) This mis-assignment of context may cause drafters to evaluate cards higher/lower for limited environments because of this (conversely, I've seen cards used/not used in cubes because of a similar mis-assignment of context, like Yawgmoth's Will.)
Another thing is that wizards has lately made cards more for the risk-averse crowd, with a few exceptions like vampire lacerator. Therefore, teaching players that, for example, using cards with drawbacks (like lacerator) may not be as useful, since someone can be incredibly risk-averse in a regular environment and still do pretty well since this usually isn't a factor in most drafts.
The tl;dr is that cubing definitely can help people become better magic players and probably better drafters, but the connection isn't direct. Commons cubes don't use cards like Planeswalkers and the like, so the connection is a bit more direct, but it is still not very direct.
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