Size: 360
Type: Pauper- all cards common at one point
Proxies: No
Un: Yes
ME: No
Functional Reprints: No
Size: 360
Nice round number, easier to control archetypes and test specific cards, at least until I have more experience with this sort of thing.
Type: Pauper- all cards common at one point, If it was printed in any paper expansion as a common, if only once, then it is fair game for the cube.
Proxies: No most quality proxies would cost more than the cards they represent. The only things I'm really missing are chain lightning and sinkhole, and I don't even think I would put sinkhole in unless I supported it with more land destruction.
Un: Yes
Only Frazzled Editor, so far, but I'm not excluding them prima facie.
Maters Edition: No
Nothing I know of in it excites me much, and also since the list is on paper, and It might be more likely that a ME card would be costly should I come to need it, so in the interest of being cheep i've decided to limit myself to paper/only commons
Functional Reprints: No
What's one of the restrictions of cube building? Only one of each card in the cube.
What basis do they use for functional reprints? Flavor, mechanical? They are really inconsistent. This is just cheating. If I really though the cube would be better with 2 Llanowar Elves then I could add Fyndhorn Elves, but if the cube would be better with 2 wild mongrel then I'm SOL? That just seems stupid to me. This also lets me have more variety in the cube, which I am a fan of.
e.g. Merfolk looter reprinted as a non-folk in Fifth Dawn, Goldmeadow Harrier reprinted as a non-kithkin, Kodama's Reach reprinted as non-arcane.
Archetypes Supported:
I haven't been at this long enough to know how to do this, but I'd like to support the most archetypes if I could, but if this means curtailing the power level, then I might have to find a good balance. For you who have been at this for a while LMK what's worked for you, how much support does each archetype need, etc.
Right now I'm explicitly not supporting blue aggro, I'd prefer to support blue/x tempo, which I think suits the color's strengths better. Recently they've been printing some acceptable 1-drops for blue, so I might give it a try soon.
Cards banned for power/fun reasons: No
Power is really not much of an issue for pauper, but in theory I'd want all the good cards to get played, If one strategy got too dominent, I'd probably allocate slots that support that strategy to slots that support other strategies rather than ban the flashy cards.
Land destruction is only un-fun when you keep a land light hand against someone who has it, or your decks curve starts at 3. Counterspells are un-fun when you play your best cards into them one a turn. I summary, being a bad player makes these cards un-fun, try not to be a bad player.
logistically I may want to stray away from gotcha! cards, because explaining a complicated board state to your opponent without triggering a Number Crunch seems like it would slow the draft down a lot.
Balance: Each color has the same number, each multicolor pair has the same amount. The creature to spell balance is not strictly kept, as colors like blue and green want more spells and more creatures, respectively. Also the average cmc is not consistent in each color because some colors are better when top heavy and other better quick.
Curve: each card's cost is where I would put it on my curve when deck building, so morphs i want to play face down cost 3, spells I want to buyback have their buyback cost included, x spells are in there own league, and I consider sprout swarm to be an x spell because it can cost between 0 and 5 mana, and ideally I'd cast it as many times a turn as I can.
Color: Some cards have multiple possible color classifications, I consider a mono colored card with off-color kicker, or activated ability multicolored if I would only normally put it in the multicolored deck. Cards that can be cast without colored mana: Phybrid, Gathan Raiders colorless if I would want to play them in a deck that couldn't cast it for colored mana, and colored if I only want them in that color's deck. Hybrid are in their guild sections, even if I would play them in decks with only one of their colors, Unless it proves to be a problem then I won't worry too much about balancing hybrid amongst multicolor. All my shard cards are playable in two-color decks, but I may cut them entirely, cause some are just better than others.
the cube's spreadsheet is uploaded, but here's all the info anyway.
here are some pictures for those of you who are visual learners, but be warned the quality isn't very good, and cube changes will not be reflected in the pics each time the list changes
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It was a cold april morning and dew was frozen to the ground like tiny beads of glass, I was interneting like I am sometimes inclined to do, when I googled mtg cube. The resulting search yielded an unexpected event that would change the course of the rest of my day. Near the top of the page was a sexy blue hyperlink, illuminated by the warm glow of my monitor: so-and-so's Pauper Cube List.
A quick scan of the list surprised me. I owned upwards of 90% of the cards, and they were all in a dual VCR/DVD player box under my bed. Posthaste I procured the box and began assembling the necessary cards. Wild Mongrel, obv. Lightning Bolt, duh. Pestilence, wait that's a common? Aeolipile, wtf is that?
Never having built a cube before I set out to copy the list verbatim, this dogma would suffice for now, but I knew that I'd want to make improvements, or as people less certain of themselves like to say, changes. Missing a few cards, mostly from before I started playing, and after I stopped buying product, I had to make substitutions, but I was a few dollars away from procuring all the cards I needed, and a few more dollars away from the critical mass of sleevage I needed.
The list, wanting for much improvement, needed to change. It was then that my old pal google pointed me in the right direction. This time I was directed to the pauper cube evaluation here on MTGSalvation. I read the entirety of the thread, probably threefold, and came up with a base list for the cube, which is more or less its current state. It was much ameliorated, but there would need to be adjustment to accommodate myself and my play group.
nothing yet
Red has too many four drops and its curve is too high, I'm gonna fix this.
Also I think there are too many fireball variants, I'd like to make one of them a chain lighting
M12 and Innistrad have quality green removal, so I'd like to fix the creature to spell ratio in green.
Innistrad has some very nice blue creatures, maybe I could shore up that deficit too
Right now I have 4 of each multicolored card, not including fixing, I'd like to someday go to 5 of each multicolored including signets and/or karoos, which will push karoos out of aggro colors, etc. this will add flexibility and let me put more cards in each colored section.
comments and criticism welcome.
Innistrad and m12 not added as of yet.
Yes there is a limit to post sizes. Mods have special witchcraft that can put in posts by you wherever in a thread, so it's not a huge deal if you don't have enough room for posts.
I'm gonna wait till I get a few drafts under my belt with the current list before changing anything up. Make sure I know what I'm doing before taking out cards. Here's a Tentative outline of my proposed changes, but I won't know for sure till I test.
I definitely missed a few. I probably won't add Forbidden Alchemy, because UB is probably the tightest multicolor section, and I think the other options are better, that being said FA is probably better than the informant. I remember informant being really good in rav block draft, but I think he's worse in pauper cube for the same reason FA is worse than in Innistrad: the power level of the cards is closer together. I think informant is really good in control mirrors and not anywhere else, and I'd like some niche cards in there. Also I think without as many graveyard shenanigans Impulse seems better than FA, and I feel bad about having worse cards in multicolor, though I may be underestimating the flashback and the graveyard. I feel like I should be running soul manipulation in that slot anyway.
I really like the idea of Zombie Cutthroat, as he can be cast for colorless, is black and therefore dodges doomblades and blocks fear intimidate guys, he's a zombie and thus dodges victim of the night, 4 toughness, long story short he's really hard to kill.
Edit:I made this for my cube, because I don't consider 7ed pimp enough, but I liked the art better than the original
Also this
Also we got our first draft in at the store. Yayy!
I drafted an awkward BW aggro deck, that was a little light on the low drops, placed 2nd
The winner drafted 5color goodstuff
Type: Pauper- all cards common at one point
Proxies: No
Un: Yes
ME: No
Functional Reprints: No
Size: 360
Nice round number, easier to control archetypes and test specific cards, at least until I have more experience with this sort of thing.
Type: Pauper- all cards common at one point, If it was printed in any paper expansion as a common, if only once, then it is fair game for the cube.
Proxies: No most quality proxies would cost more than the cards they represent. The only things I'm really missing are chain lightning and sinkhole, and I don't even think I would put sinkhole in unless I supported it with more land destruction.
Un: Yes
Only Frazzled Editor, so far, but I'm not excluding them prima facie.
Maters Edition: No
Nothing I know of in it excites me much, and also since the list is on paper, and It might be more likely that a ME card would be costly should I come to need it, so in the interest of being cheep i've decided to limit myself to paper/only commons
Functional Reprints: No
What's one of the restrictions of cube building? Only one of each card in the cube.
What basis do they use for functional reprints? Flavor, mechanical? They are really inconsistent. This is just cheating. If I really though the cube would be better with 2 Llanowar Elves then I could add Fyndhorn Elves, but if the cube would be better with 2 wild mongrel then I'm SOL? That just seems stupid to me. This also lets me have more variety in the cube, which I am a fan of.
e.g. Merfolk looter reprinted as a non-folk in Fifth Dawn, Goldmeadow Harrier reprinted as a non-kithkin, Kodama's Reach reprinted as non-arcane.
Archetypes Supported:
I haven't been at this long enough to know how to do this, but I'd like to support the most archetypes if I could, but if this means curtailing the power level, then I might have to find a good balance. For you who have been at this for a while LMK what's worked for you, how much support does each archetype need, etc.
Right now I'm explicitly not supporting blue aggro, I'd prefer to support blue/x tempo, which I think suits the color's strengths better. Recently they've been printing some acceptable 1-drops for blue, so I might give it a try soon.
Cards banned for power/fun reasons: No
Power is really not much of an issue for pauper, but in theory I'd want all the good cards to get played, If one strategy got too dominent, I'd probably allocate slots that support that strategy to slots that support other strategies rather than ban the flashy cards.
Land destruction is only un-fun when you keep a land light hand against someone who has it, or your decks curve starts at 3. Counterspells are un-fun when you play your best cards into them one a turn. I summary, being a bad player makes these cards un-fun, try not to be a bad player.
logistically I may want to stray away from gotcha! cards, because explaining a complicated board state to your opponent without triggering a Number Crunch seems like it would slow the draft down a lot.
Balance: Each color has the same number, each multicolor pair has the same amount. The creature to spell balance is not strictly kept, as colors like blue and green want more spells and more creatures, respectively. Also the average cmc is not consistent in each color because some colors are better when top heavy and other better quick.
Curve: each card's cost is where I would put it on my curve when deck building, so morphs i want to play face down cost 3, spells I want to buyback have their buyback cost included, x spells are in there own league, and I consider sprout swarm to be an x spell because it can cost between 0 and 5 mana, and ideally I'd cast it as many times a turn as I can.
Color: Some cards have multiple possible color classifications, I consider a mono colored card with off-color kicker, or activated ability multicolored if I would only normally put it in the multicolored deck. Cards that can be cast without colored mana: Phybrid, Gathan Raiders colorless if I would want to play them in a deck that couldn't cast it for colored mana, and colored if I only want them in that color's deck. Hybrid are in their guild sections, even if I would play them in decks with only one of their colors, Unless it proves to be a problem then I won't worry too much about balancing hybrid amongst multicolor. All my shard cards are playable in two-color decks, but I may cut them entirely, cause some are just better than others.
cc 1
cc 2
cc 3
cc 4
cc 5
cc 6
Avg cost 2.84
cc 1
cc 2
cc 3
cc 4
cc 1
cc 2
cc 3
cc 4
cc 5
cc 6
Avg cost 3.30
cc 0-1
cc 2
cc 3
cc 4
cc 6
cc x
cc 1
cc 2
cc 3
cc 4
cc 5
cc 6
Avg cost 2.86
cc 1
cc 2
cc 3
cc 4
cc 5
cc x
cc 1
cc 2
cc 3
cc 4
cc 5
cc 6
cc 7
Avg cost 3.03
cc 1
cc 2
cc 3
cc 4
cc 5
cc 6
cc x
cc 1
cc 2
cc 3
cc 4
cc 5
cc 6
cc 7
cc x
Avg cost 3.03
cc 1
cc 2
cc 3
here are some pictures for those of you who are visual learners, but be warned the quality isn't very good, and cube changes will not be reflected in the pics each time the list changes
It was a cold april morning and dew was frozen to the ground like tiny beads of glass, I was interneting like I am sometimes inclined to do, when I googled mtg cube. The resulting search yielded an unexpected event that would change the course of the rest of my day. Near the top of the page was a sexy blue hyperlink, illuminated by the warm glow of my monitor: so-and-so's Pauper Cube List.
A quick scan of the list surprised me. I owned upwards of 90% of the cards, and they were all in a dual VCR/DVD player box under my bed. Posthaste I procured the box and began assembling the necessary cards. Wild Mongrel, obv. Lightning Bolt, duh. Pestilence, wait that's a common? Aeolipile, wtf is that?
Never having built a cube before I set out to copy the list verbatim, this dogma would suffice for now, but I knew that I'd want to make improvements, or as people less certain of themselves like to say, changes. Missing a few cards, mostly from before I started playing, and after I stopped buying product, I had to make substitutions, but I was a few dollars away from procuring all the cards I needed, and a few more dollars away from the critical mass of sleevage I needed.
The list, wanting for much improvement, needed to change. It was then that my old pal google pointed me in the right direction. This time I was directed to the pauper cube evaluation here on MTGSalvation. I read the entirety of the thread, probably threefold, and came up with a base list for the cube, which is more or less its current state. It was much ameliorated, but there would need to be adjustment to accommodate myself and my play group.
nothing yet
Red has too many four drops and its curve is too high, I'm gonna fix this.
Also I think there are too many fireball variants, I'd like to make one of them a chain lighting
M12 and Innistrad have quality green removal, so I'd like to fix the creature to spell ratio in green.
Innistrad has some very nice blue creatures, maybe I could shore up that deficit too
Right now I have 4 of each multicolored card, not including fixing, I'd like to someday go to 5 of each multicolored including signets and/or karoos, which will push karoos out of aggro colors, etc. this will add flexibility and let me put more cards in each colored section.
Innistrad and m12 not added as of yet.
My Cubes:Pauper|Archetype
My Deviant Art
My Cubes:Pauper|Archetype
My Deviant Art
My Cubes:Pauper|Archetype
My Deviant Art
When are you adding your Innistrad additions? There are a ton of good pauper cards. Lurking Informant -> Forbidden Alchemy.
I'm gonna wait till I get a few drafts under my belt with the current list before changing anything up. Make sure I know what I'm doing before taking out cards. Here's a Tentative outline of my proposed changes, but I won't know for sure till I test.
In Out
festerhide boar > wildheart invoker
Ayacyn's pilgrim > Arbor Elf
Ambush viper > evolution charm
arachnus web > spider umbra
Prey upon > cituanal Woodreaders?
Crossway Vampire >?
Blood Ogre > vulsholk replica
Gorehorn Minotaurs > Raging minotaur
Pitchburn Devils > Crusher Zendicon
Brimstone Volley > Lash out?
Vampire interloper > Augur of skulls
Dead Weight >?
Victim of the night >diabolic edict
Makeshift Mauler > Sentinels of Glen Elandra
Stitched Drake > Windrider Eel
Claustrophobia > Rushing River
Spire Monitor > Helium Squirter? Helium squirter will be better now that I'm adding 2 bloodthirst guys and a morbid guy in
Bonds of Faith > Judge Unworthy
Thraban Sentury > Veteran Armorer
Blazing Torch > Pilgrim's eye?
Travel Preparations > Guardian of Vitu Ghazi?
I definitely missed a few. I probably won't add Forbidden Alchemy, because UB is probably the tightest multicolor section, and I think the other options are better, that being said FA is probably better than the informant. I remember informant being really good in rav block draft, but I think he's worse in pauper cube for the same reason FA is worse than in Innistrad: the power level of the cards is closer together. I think informant is really good in control mirrors and not anywhere else, and I'd like some niche cards in there. Also I think without as many graveyard shenanigans Impulse seems better than FA, and I feel bad about having worse cards in multicolor, though I may be underestimating the flashback and the graveyard. I feel like I should be running soul manipulation in that slot anyway.
I really like the idea of Zombie Cutthroat, as he can be cast for colorless, is black and therefore dodges doomblades and blocks
fearintimidate guys, he's a zombie and thus dodges victim of the night, 4 toughness, long story short he's really hard to kill.Edit:I made this for my cube, because I don't consider 7ed pimp enough, but I liked the art better than the original
Also we got our first draft in at the store. Yayy!
I drafted an awkward BW aggro deck, that was a little light on the low drops, placed 2nd
The winner drafted 5color goodstuff
My Cubes:Pauper|Archetype
My Deviant Art