Cube. There's no arms-racing pay-to-win metagame BS that you see in constructed formats; victory at the draft table is determined by luck and skill alone. And after the initial cost outlay for building your cube, maintaining and updating it costs way less than regular FNM booster drafting.
Cube drafting looks poised to become the next big casual format. Wizards capitalized on EDH by releasing their line of Commander decks; I figure it's only a matter of time before somebody gets the bright idea to package and sell pre-constructed cubes to further popularize and cash in on the other major grassroots MTG craze.
Let's be realistic here: we're probably not going to see a fresh print run of all the cards from any version of the high-powered MTGO Cube anytime soon. But many local game stores have boxes upon boxes of common, uncommon, and bargain-rare cards available for building low-cost cubes. I think these could be great for newer/younger players who are looking for a cheap way to hone their drafting and deckbuilding fundamentals, nostalgic players who would enjoy playing with cards from older Limited formats, and casual gaming groups who want a self-contained boxed set that provides a level playing field and high replay value for the whole table.
Methinks an enterprising game store could build affordable cubes from their collections of used cards. These would be packaged and sold in a manner similar to the Deckbuilder's Toolkits that WotC markets to new players, with a comparable card-power level, but balanced for Limited instead of Constructed play. Each cube would contain 360 hand-picked singleton cards along with 150 basic lands, and would include a how-to guide that explained the rules for a variety of Limited formats (booster draft, sealed deck, Winston, etc) along with basic draft strategy and deck-construction tips for the benefit of new players. The cost would probably be somewhere between that of a Deckbuilder's Toolkit and a Commander deck but would provide enough cards for repeatable 8-man drafts.
These cubes could even have unique mechanical themes which aren't fully explored in "regular" cubes that just focus on jamming a pile of powerful cards into a box. A few possible themes include:
Here's a few that I'd love to see: Goblin Legionnaire for its utility, Crypt Rats for a board-wipe on legs, Dandân for an aggressive unblockable clock, and for the whiff factor... El-Hajjâj.
OK, so maybe not a guildmage. But I think the Orzhov Guildmage should still give you an idea of the sort of strategies that a multiplayer-centric deck wants to take into consideration. Rakdos aggro is fine for one-on-one matches, but if you just focus on beating face as quickly as possible with 3 or more players at the table you're not going to able to kill everyone before somebody stabilizes and starts dropping fatty-boom-booms on the table. Midrange and control decks typically fare better in multiplayer situations because the games are slower, which allows your to build up your board position and card advantage before eventually striking from a position of strength.
Cards with 'each player' clauses like Orzhov Guildmage, Pestilence, Blood Tithe, Liliana's Specter, and Innocent Blood get much stronger in multiplayer games because they can create far greater life and card advantages than they could during a normal duel. Same goes for the extort mechanic from Gatecrash. So if I was going to jump into multiplayer anytime soon, the Orzhov guild is where I'd want to be.
Pauper is fun. Pauper CUBE is pagan god-tier. It plays out like a booster draft but with lower-yield bombs, grittier card-advantage fights between control decks, and blistering fast aggro.
How do you guys define "pauper EDH" as a format? What are the deck-building restrictions? I just saw one thread where the OP was using Rix Maadi Guildmage as the general. Is pauper EDH just a 100 singleton format with any old uncommon creature as your general?
So you like guildmages? Try the classic Orzhov Guildmage or wait to see what abilities the new B/W Gatecrash guildmage will have. Then build a deck around walling yourself off and using the extort mechanic to lifedrain all of your opponents simultaneously.
Gonna say "yes" on this one. I'm more of a pauper/peasant guy myself, but I know plenty of people who would love these cards for their EDH decks and powered cubes.
Favorite Fatties: Pauper Edition
Because we don't need no stinking chase rares!
Krosan Tusker -- One of the few fatties I don't mind seeing in my opening hand, because that cycling ability helps me cast other fatties later on. And if I topdeck him during the late game that's fine too.
Twisted Abomination -- Lets me find land early on like the Tusker, and black has the most ways to get him back out of the 'yard for the endgame. Once it hits the board that regeneration ability makes him damnably hard to kill. It's just the complete pauper fatty package.
Ulamog's Crusher -- 8/8 for 8 mana? And he makes my opponent sacrifice two permanents every time he swings? And he's COMMON? Why yes I will play this in any ramp/control deck I draft. Who cares about that drawback? You WANT to swing with this guy all the time anyway; even if he dies on the first swing you're scoring at least a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 in the card advantage race. If he lives long enough to swing twice it's nearly always game over.
I think I'd rather have a good new R/W hybrid than a gold card. I really want to push for a hybrid section in my cube, and the best Boros hybrids currently available are Boros Recruit, Double Cleave, Duergar Assailant, and Fire at Will. Ugh.
Mimic Vat lets you make copies of creatures that die -- and not just your own, either! Make sure you populate those Vat tokens too. (You ARE running populate effects in G/W, aren't you?)
Doubling Season has already been mentioned, but don't forget Parallel Lives. It sounds like you're more interested in copying tokens than counters anyway.
Minor news from the Gatecrash spoiler page: they're reprinting Skyknight Legionnaire from the first Ravnica set. I don't like the new art so much but hey, it's still the second-best Boros common out there (for now, anyway). Here's hoping they reprint the best one --Goblin Legionnaire -- while they're at it.
Opponent moves to combat phase. I explicitly declare each phase, mentioning each player's priorities. After blocks are declared, opponent activates Wolf Run, sinking all mana. I cast the removal, targeting the creature.
Now here's the question: I've stumbled upon this case many times. Etiquette-wise, do you think announcing each phase is tricking them into activating Wolf Run? Thing is, my opponent have probably already decided if he/she would activate KWR long before, but if they had a little bit of doubt I'm "pressuring" them into decide if they activate it or not.
Why in Yawgmoth's name are you so guilt-ridden about playing the game correctly? I dare say that your etiquette is BETTER than that of most casual players: by clearly pointing out the passing of priority and the transition between phases, there is no confusion later on over the order in which effects were played. I wish MORE players would spell out their turns as clearly. I try to do this myself with the less-experienced players I game with to help them learn how to play correctly.
Let's be realistic here: we're probably not going to see a fresh print run of all the cards from any version of the high-powered MTGO Cube anytime soon. But many local game stores have boxes upon boxes of common, uncommon, and bargain-rare cards available for building low-cost cubes. I think these could be great for newer/younger players who are looking for a cheap way to hone their drafting and deckbuilding fundamentals, nostalgic players who would enjoy playing with cards from older Limited formats, and casual gaming groups who want a self-contained boxed set that provides a level playing field and high replay value for the whole table.
Methinks an enterprising game store could build affordable cubes from their collections of used cards. These would be packaged and sold in a manner similar to the Deckbuilder's Toolkits that WotC markets to new players, with a comparable card-power level, but balanced for Limited instead of Constructed play. Each cube would contain 360 hand-picked singleton cards along with 150 basic lands, and would include a how-to guide that explained the rules for a variety of Limited formats (booster draft, sealed deck, Winston, etc) along with basic draft strategy and deck-construction tips for the benefit of new players. The cost would probably be somewhere between that of a Deckbuilder's Toolkit and a Commander deck but would provide enough cards for repeatable 8-man drafts.
These cubes could even have unique mechanical themes which aren't fully explored in "regular" cubes that just focus on jamming a pile of powerful cards into a box. A few possible themes include:
So would you buy such a cube from your LGS? Why or why not? And what would you propose as an acceptable range for the price?
And yes, this is shameless market research.
Cards with 'each player' clauses like Orzhov Guildmage, Pestilence, Blood Tithe, Liliana's Specter, and Innocent Blood get much stronger in multiplayer games because they can create far greater life and card advantages than they could during a normal duel. Same goes for the extort mechanic from Gatecrash. So if I was going to jump into multiplayer anytime soon, the Orzhov guild is where I'd want to be.
That's just my $0.02 though.
Because we don't need no stinking chase rares!
Krosan Tusker -- One of the few fatties I don't mind seeing in my opening hand, because that cycling ability helps me cast other fatties later on. And if I topdeck him during the late game that's fine too.
Twisted Abomination -- Lets me find land early on like the Tusker, and black has the most ways to get him back out of the 'yard for the endgame. Once it hits the board that regeneration ability makes him damnably hard to kill. It's just the complete pauper fatty package.
Ulamog's Crusher -- 8/8 for 8 mana? And he makes my opponent sacrifice two permanents every time he swings? And he's COMMON? Why yes I will play this in any ramp/control deck I draft. Who cares about that drawback? You WANT to swing with this guy all the time anyway; even if he dies on the first swing you're scoring at least a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 in the card advantage race. If he lives long enough to swing twice it's nearly always game over.
Doubling Season has already been mentioned, but don't forget Parallel Lives. It sounds like you're more interested in copying tokens than counters anyway.
Why in Yawgmoth's name are you so guilt-ridden about playing the game correctly? I dare say that your etiquette is BETTER than that of most casual players: by clearly pointing out the passing of priority and the transition between phases, there is no confusion later on over the order in which effects were played. I wish MORE players would spell out their turns as clearly. I try to do this myself with the less-experienced players I game with to help them learn how to play correctly.