I noticed a lot of my opinions of what cards go into my cube come down to personal rules I set. I noticed that these rules had many implications and I thought I would share them. DISCLAIMER: I am in no way, shape, or form telling people that they should do the same as me.
Definition: Strongly Superior
A card is strongly superior when given the choice between two cards, that perform the same function, you will pick one over the other in almost all situations.
1) No card in the cube can be strongly superior to any other card in the cube even across colors. Examples: The inclusion of Lightning Bolt in my cube means that I do not include Lightning Strike. I do not include Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, or Snuff out in my cube because any other removal seems second rate in comparison.
Reason: To make drafting decisions harder. To keep the colors more balanced.
Effect: The overall power level of the cube is lowered.
2) No effective duplicates of any (non-land) card in the cube including color shifts. Examples: The inclusion of Dragon Fodder means I cannot include Krenko's Command. The inclusion of Force Spike means I cannot include Mana Tithe.
Reason: Wanted the cube to be truly singleton.
Effect: Less redundancy. Harder to draft specific decks.
Side Information: My cube is primarily used for 2-person Winchester draft. I have a 360 card cube. I wanted to ensure that whenever we draft 3 packs each, we are each able to make a decent generally 2-color deck.
3) All cards be useful in most decks of those colors. No card requires a specific deck/specific cards to be playable. Examples: No inclusion of tinker. No "Lords" unless they come into play with their own army like Captain of the Watch.
Reason: More dead cards leads to less interesting decking building decisions and a larger chance of needing to go three color. Also with only 1/4 the cube in use at a time there is no guarantee of getting the support cards needed.
Effects: Any "combos" in cube are incidental. There are no real themes (example: tribal). There are no multicolor cards that are not hybrid (A specific two color multicolor card would only be useful one fifth of the time. Given two players are each in two colors, two of the ten guilds are covered hence a 1/5th chance of a card being useful and that is if it is in the procession of the correct player). No build around me cards.
Largest Effect: Without build-around-me cards/themes, cube became creature centric.
4) Proportion of creatures in each color and colorless is fixed (at 34/52).
Reason: I did not want to have a go to color when wanting a creature heavy or spell heavy deck. Specific proportion chosen based on my collection where certain colors would end up running creatures for which other creatures in the cube were strongly superior. Similar situation if the proportion went lower.
Effect: A given draft deck almost always has more then 1/2 creatures. This means that all the non-creature spells that interact with creatures stay live most of the time (equipment, auras, removal, combat tricks, etc.). Also this means that there are often creatures on defense so interaction that way is preserved as well.
5) Colors and Colorless balanced across (effective) mana costs. Average CMC (non-land/non-hybrid) is 3.
10 CMC 1
14 CMC 2
10 CMC 3
8 CMC 4
6 CMC 5
4 CMC 6+
Reason: I did not want to have a go to color early game spells and another for late game. Each color tends to have sweet and weak spots in terms of CMCs I wanted each color to receive equal treatment.
Effect: When drafting each color has something to do at each stage in the game. Also any given deck should have something it can do each turn.
6) Semi-Random 15 card packs are used for drafting. This is the largest cause of specific numbers involved in 4) and 5).
1 Non-basic Land (producing colored mana)
1 Hybrid/Colorless Non-basic (2 of each guild and 4 colorless lands)
1 Card CMC 6+ (4 of each color and colorless)
For each color and colorless
1 Card CMC 1-2
1 Card CMC 3-5
Reason: To ensure each color is equally represented in terms of CMC of cards and number of cards in each draft session (containing 90 cards). To try making each color as "even" as possible each draft session without needing to draft the whole cube.
Effect: In a completely random cube, if one takes out a 90 card subset, there will be colors with more cards and colors with less cards. There will be colors with an even spread across CMCs and colors lacking certain areas of their curve. This means when choosing what color to cut in 2-person draft is more a matter of luck. That luck factor has been reduced.
Are there any personal rules you abide by when building your cube? What are your reasons for them?
Why is there an assumption that if you are not playing a card like Restoration Angel you are playing cards like Pillarfield Ox. There are many many cards that more interesting then the ox but less strong then the angel. Take Celestial Crusader for instance. You cannot argue that this card is "boring" despite not being one the most powerful cards.
Probably for the same reason there is an assumption that using the best cards isn't interesting. I disagree with that completely. Cards being powerful adds a fundamental level of interest/excitement that is lacking in lesser cards. I wouldn't call Crusader "boring", but I definitely don't think it adds the same value to a cube that a more powerful option does, because the more powerful cards have both their value as interesting/exciting cards and their intrinsic value as powerful cards, which makes them better inclusions, IMO.
I think we will have to agree to disagree here. I do not believe a card being more powerful makes a better card for cube or more enjoyable in general. There are a lot of fun cards that cost 1 mana to much to be the strongest. A lot of the "strongest", if cost 1 more mana, would not be considered. If Crusader cost 1 mana less, I think it would stand a good chance of being in those "strongest" cubes. If Restoration Angel cost 1 mana more, people might pass it by. I did not change how interesting the cards are, just how soon they can be played.
First of all thank you for all your responses. They have been most insightful.
To address a few issues.
To those who said "if you like a limited feel just play limited it is only $10". I try to spend no more then $10 whenever any set comes out. There is a very large difference between $120 dollars for 3 months of drafting ($480 a year) and $10 ($40). The build your collection argument assumes that you are using the cards for stuff other then limited. Also there is a 50/50 chance you will like any given limited environment.
Why is there an assumption that if you are not playing a card like Restoration Angel you are playing cards like Pillarfield Ox. There are many many cards that more interesting then the ox but less strong then the angel. Take Celestial Crusader for instance. You cannot argue that this card is "boring" despite not being one the most powerful cards.
I guess my opinions sprang up from the feelings I had when building my cube. While it felt like there were many people telling what cards I could improve, there did not feel like there were any resources on how to balance the cube as a whole. In my first version of my first cube I tired forcing multicolor (without proper support), I tried making it have many themes, and it failed miserably. I just wish there were more comments about how a card could improve the limited environment as a whole versus how a card is "more powerful".
After lurking on the cube forms I have noticed that cubes tend to fall into two main categories.
1) Power Cubes - The best magic cards of all time
2) Restriction Cubes - The best magic cards of all time under certain restrictions (examples: non-power, no rares)
After lurking in the limited forums I noticed a few things
1) People prefer interactive formats
2) People like always having a chance to win, at any stage in the game.
3) People like there to be no dominant color/strategy (unless there are playing for money/rewards and they know the strategy)
4) Like environments that reward skill and devalue luck
From my observations I begin to feel that while cube is a "limited" format it is not for players that like "limited"
1) If you play with the best cards (with/without restrictions) there will always be a dominant color/strategy (generally blue/control).
2) Playing with the best cards can lead to very explosive turns where their opponents can never come back from.
3) Better cards shortens game time. When games can end turns 1-3, the die roll and the opening hand play a very large roll in the game. These two things are by their nature luck dependent. (I am not saying formats, like legacy, are just luck. Constructed formats build redundancy into their decks to reduce/eliminate the effects of luck. Redundancy, by construction, is hard to come by in cube).
My initial interest in cube came from a love of magic and limited drafting in particular but a hatred of spending money to draft. I notice however that whenever a person shows people their cube on this forum people tend to respond by telling the submitter that they should substitute cards A,B,C for cards X,Y,Z because cards X,Y,Z are stronger cards (and generally more expensive) generally because a large number of cubes of these types (some percent is generally given here) contain those cards.
So what I am asking is the following:
1) Why are the "strongest" cards better (for the cube as a whole and the limited experience)?
2) Why should I replace cards when a "better" card comes out if my cube is currently balanced, or more accurately, if it might unbalance my cube toward that color/strategy?
3) Why is there such a strong belief that all cubes of a certain type should contain the same cards?
The reason I am bringing this up is the following:
I was talking to two people who clearly liked playing magic (and drafting) but gave up on magic because it was too expensive. I suggested to them the idea of cube drafting. One asked about cubing drafting; the other said it is when you draft with the most expensive strongest cards of all time. Cost to much to bother with he said. He further elaborated how he disliked the environment for reasons similar to what I listed above. It had never occurred to him that he could customize a cube that was just like regular drafting to fit his preferences. These people have switched to playing and buying board games and sold off their collections. Some of those "board games" are deck building card games.
1) Rules now work in all formats.
2) Less and Simpler rules.
Below are the revised rules.
Abundance Magic Base Rules
------------------
Rule 0: For 40 Card Deck format players have a 17 card land deck and a 23-card non-land deck. For a 60 Card Deck format: Players have a 24 card land deck and a 36-card non-land deck.
Rule 1: Whenever a player would draw card(s), that play player chooses card(s) one at a time from either library.
Rule 2: Whenever a player would look/reveal the top z cards of a library, he/she may look/reveal the top x cards from the land library and the top z cards from the non-land library where x + y = z. This is done one at a time.
2a) If an effect instructs to look/reveal from a library until a condition is met, the player must choose such that the condition is met as quickly as possible.
Rule 3: Whenever an effect would require a player to put card(s) from the top of his/her library into his/her graveyard, that player chooses cards one at a time from either library.
Abundance Magic Suggested Rules
-------------------
Rule 4: Whenever a land would come into play tapped, that lands controller may pay two life to have it come into play untapped instead.
a) This ability cannot be countered.
b) No effect may prevent this loss of life.
Rule 5: A player may pay three and exile a card in thier hand face down to draw a card. This ability can be used only anytime that player could use a sorcery.
a) This ability cannot be countered.
b) Cards exiled this way cannot be removed from exile.
After play-testing two-person Winchester draft (which is my cube's primary use) several things became apparent:
1) Playables were deemed more important then land in draft. It was found if one preferenced land during draft they always ended up with a worse deck. As such the only lands that end up in a deck are lands that by chance match the final decks colors.
2) Drafting/Cutting color(s) and sticking with them often seemed a better strategy then evaluating the cards as they are put on the table
3) When in the deck building proportion often the amount of playables in colors alone determined the deck. There were never many cuts.
4) Cards never had decks built around them. For Cards like Guttersnipe there was never a large enough card pool (unlike 8-person draft) to force a deck that was primarily instants and sorceries to take advantage of the effect.
Clearly 1) and 2) are because of 3) and 4) made the situation in 3) worse. If I want the deck building, and drafting, experience to be more interesting I need to increase the number of playable cards in the players final pool. I decided to do this three ways:
i) Cut the land collection. I decided to preference lands that either produce more then two colors or provide temporary mana acceleration (Ravnica Bounce Lands with my rule that you can pay 2 life for any land to come into play untapped)
ii) Add a hybrid section. I added 2 hybrid cards per guild. None of these cards receive additional benefit from being in both colors. Then I added a small subtheme for the remaining 4 cards (just to add a little flavor).
iii) Remove all narrow cards that only work "optimal" in just one deck type or are side-board cards only.
So I broke down and purchased cards (nothing expensive) and filled to address the above.
The first post is now updated. The change log is in the second slide.
White
Deftblade Elite -> Caravan Escort
Smite -> Swords to Plowshare
Lone Missionary -> Knight of Meadowgrain
Temple Acolyte -> Veteran Armorer
Seal of Cleansing -> Imposing Sovereign
Mentor of the Meek -> Prismatic Strands
Dawnglare Invoker -> Archetype of Courage
Guardian of the Guildpact -> Serra's Embrace
Archon of Redemption -> Avacyn, Guardian Angel
Angel of Salvation -> Captain of the Watch
Blue
Enclave Cryptologist -> Faerie Conclave
Serum Visions -> Brainstorm
wall of Tears -> Augury Owl
Trinket Mage -> Traveler's Cloak
Warden of Evos Isle -> Frost Lynx
Riftwing Cloudskate -> Master of Predicaments
Stolen Identity -> Quicksilver Gargantuan
Black
Black Cat -> Blood Scrivener
Vault Skirge -> Postmortem Lunge
Howling Banshee -> Disciple of Bolas
Snuff Out -> Whip of Erebos
Chainer, Dementia Master -> Indulgent Tormenter
Red
Seal of Fire -> Reckless Abandon
Firebolt -> Flameslash
Kird Ape -> Ghitu Encampment
Goblin Skycutter -> Borderland Marauder
Fling -> Generator Servant
Nightbird's Clutches -> Reverberate
Markov Blademaster -> Lust for War
Flamewave Invoker -> Act of Treason
Guttersnipe -> Pyrewild Shaman
Hellfire Mongrel -> Archetype of Aggression
Oxida Scrapmelter -> Archwing Dragon
Stone Giant -> Chain Reaction
Cleaver Riot -> Burn at the Stake
Blasphemous Act -> Moltensteel Dragon
Green
Wild Nacatl -> Treetop Village
Naturalize -> Fists of the Ironwood
Gift of the Gargantuan -> Bow of Nylea
Slaughterhorn -> Reclaimation Sage
Mold Shambler -> Triumph of the Hordes
Moldgraf Monstrosity -> Elderscale Wurm
The following Cube was created under the rules of Abundance Magic, named after the magic card Abundance. This cube is primarily used for 2 person Winchester or Sealed drafts.
The goals of Abundance magic are
1) To decrease dead draws
2) Eliminate Mana Flood
3) Eliminate Mana Screw
4) Make it easier to draw out of color screw
5) Make it easier to curve out.
6) Keep the game play as similar to standard magic as possible with the above.
The basic idea is as follows:
1) You have a land and non-land deck
2) Whenever you draw a card, you may draw from either deck
1) Each player has two decks. A 17 card land deck and a 23 card non-land deck where the total number of cards is 40. Land cards can be in the non-land deck if you have a lack of playable cards but not the other way around.
2) Whenever a player would draw (or look at or mill) cards from a library, they must draw as equally as possible from the two libraries.
Examples:
i) Draw 1 means draw a card from either the land or non-land library
ii) Mill 2 means mill 1 card from the land deck and 1 card from the non-land deck.
iii) Look at the top five cards means Look at three cards from the land deck and two cards from the non-land deck or look at two cards from the land deck and three cards from the non-land deck.
3) If a card is put back into/onto a library, it must be put back into its appropriate library.
Opening Hands and Mulligens
Opening Hand:
1) You draw cards one a time from either library. You can look at them as you draw.
Mulligan:
1) You must reveal your hand to mulligan
2) In order to mulligan your hand must contain at least 2 land and 2 non-land cards
3) You can only mulligan if you have no colorless cards in your hand and all colored parts of the mana costs of your cards cannot be cast with the lands in your hand
i) 2 Islands, 5 Red Cards - Can Mulligan
ii) 1 Swamp, 1 Mountain, 5 BB cards - Can Mulligan
iii) 1 Swamp, 1 Mountain, 3 BB cards and 2 RR cards - Can Mulligan, however might not want to
Additional Cube Design Details/Restrictions related only to my obsessive personality.
0) There are no multi-color cards or planeswalkers in this cube.
1) For each color and colorless the amount of cards are each CMC are fixed (Average Cube CMC (not including lands) is about 2.95-3.05). There are
10 Cards at 1 CMC
14 Cards at 2 CMC
10 Cards at 3 CMC
8 Cards at 4 CMC
6 Cards at 5 CMC
4 Cards at 6+ CMC
i) Alternate Costs of cards are ignored.
ii) If a card has X in the cost X is treated as 1. Example Condescend is treated has having a CMC of 2.
iii) Cards with hybrid costs are costed on how they will normally be cast in cube. Spectral Procession is treated as having a cost of 2WW.
2) The reason for 1) is that packs for limited play are made semi-random. In each 15 Card pack there are
1 Card of each color and colorless with CMC 1 or 2
1 Card of each color and colorless with CMC 3 or 4 or 5
1 Card with CMC 6 or more
2 Non-basic Land Cards
3) Each Color and Colorless has a creature proportion of 34/52 ~ 65%.
i) If a non-creature spell primarily puts creatures into play it is counted as a creature. Raise the Alarm, Miraculous Recovery, and Mortarpod are counted as creatures but Profane Command is not.
ii) If a non-creature artifact can act as a creature, it is counted. Ensouled Scimitar.
Rules that affect how certain cards are used in this cube.
1) whenever a land comes into play tapped, you may pay 2 life to have it come into play untapped - Recommended for all Abundance Cubes
2) Whenever a player would gain a poison counter, they lose 2 Life instead. No effect may prevent this lose of life.
This cube is a work in progress. So far it has played very well. No color has been used more than any other. My primary concern with this cube is balance between the colors and fun game play; The purpose is not playing with the strongest cards of each color.
My questions:
Are there any cards that you would never play in limited?
Are there any cards that appear too powerful to be balanced?
Curious about card inclusions? exclusions?
Curious how the optional rules have worked out?
Other comments?
I personally thought the color screw was a non-issue (I never have had that problem), but I have a friend that managed just that 6 times in a row yesterday. The revised mulligan rules are to help avoid this specifically.
As I tend to do 2-person limited formats (namely Winchester or Sealed), there is not the equivalent of picking a 10th pick land for your deck as in standard 4/8 person draft. That being the case, the lands that end up in our decks tend to be the ones we lucked out to get.
My cube is made up of a very casual magic collection. Think of it as the opposite of a power cube, the main goal was to keep the colors as balanced as possible.
1) the proportion of creature to non-creature is a fixed proportion across each color (slightly less for colorless working on this)
2) the colors and colorless have the same number of cards at each CMC (except some variation with 6+)
For each color and colorless
10 Cards at CMC 1
14 Cards at CMC 2
10 Cards at CMC 3
8 Cards at CMC 4
6 Cards at CMC 5
4 Cards at CMC 6+
3) Before drafting I assemble "semi-random" 15 card packs. I choose my card proportions based on this. I do this to keep the colors "even" each draft.
For each color and colorless 1 card with CMC 1 or 2 (6 cards)
For each color and colorless 1 card with CMC 3 or 4 or 5 (6 cards)
1 card with CMC 6+ (1 Card)
2 Non-basic Lands (2 Cards)
9WWW
Spirit of Protection
Creature - Spirit
Flying
If another creature you control is destroyed, you may destroy another target creature be destroyed instead.
10/10
"Even after death, always searching for her sister, the only one she failed to save."
9BBB
Spirit of Vengeance
Creature - Spirit
Flying
3: Target player gains control of Spirit of Vengeance. Any player may play this ability.
If you do not control Spirit of Protection, at the end of your turn, destroy all other creatures you control.
If you control Spirit of Protection, at the end of your turn, destroy all creatures you do not control.
15/15
"Always missing her sister, she ensures no one is lonely, by leaving no survivors."
Victory's Shadow
6UUURRR
Creature - Illusion
Haste
Victory's Shadow cannot be blocked.
When Victory's Shadow becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Victory's Shadow.
24/1
"We shall see if victory is just an illusion"
4WWUUBBRRGG
Imprisoned God
Creature - God
Defender
Haste
Protection from Everything
Indestructable
If Goblin God Keeper is in play (controlled by anyone), Imprisoned God Gets +24/+0 and loses Defender.
0/24
"Here goblin, goblin, goblin."
9RR
Goblin God Keeper
Haste
11/11
"It doesn't matter how big he is. Who thought it was a good idea to let the goblin keep the keys?!"
After reading comments from stickered above (thanks again) and from the Magic 2.0 thread additional play-testing has occurred.
The first entry has been cleaned up:
First the essential rules are addressed (far less then before)
1) Land and Non-Land Decks
2) How card drawing has changed
Then suggested methods for dealing with Starting Hands and Mulligans are addressed
These are highly modified from before and allow more variability
Then other suggested rules are given - only one left here
All other information before is kept, but in its own section, and I admit not really essential.
Specific Comments about play-testing:
1) Mana Flood and Screw are completely eliminated. Cheers!
2) Color Screw, while reduced, still exists. The suggested mulligan rules are to help further reduce color screw while providing as little additional benefit in non color screwed situations.
3) I had originally thought that a player would always follow this pattern: Draw Non-Land cards when you have land cards in hand, draw land cards when you do not have land cards in hand, then draw non-land cards when you have reached 6-7 lands. I was pleasantly surprised that this is not the case.
There were plenty of times I drew land with land in hand to help me get the specific mana combination I wanted for the next turn
There were a multiple of times when I played out my hand by turn 4/5 and drew non-land cards to increase my actions
There were also plenty of times where I kept drawing lands even when I reached my "maximum" to keep up combat tricks, for counter-spells, card abilities, etc.
4) Most importantly, even with these rule changes, the game play still feels like traditional magic, just with a little less luck involved.
If there is any interest in the cube that I am using I will add it.
Not sure on the cost and power/toughness balance, but I think the ability interacts well.
7UB
Faerie Egotist
Creature - Faerie
Flying
When Faerie Egotist enters the battlefield destroy each other creature with the same CMC as Faerie Egotist.
If another creature with CMC equal to Faerie Egotist would enter the battlefield, destroy that creature.
7/7
"I am unique, and I will stay that way"
Lazy Sovereign
Creature - Human Adviser 8WB
First Strike, Deathtouch
When Lazy Sovereign enters the battlefield exile all creatures with CMC less than Lazy Sovereign
8/8
"The easiest way to rule? Execute all your potential subjects subjects."
Does this mean that Enemy of the guildpact finally has a use? I have always enjoyed Guardian of the Guildpact in my mono-colored cube. While I tend to dislike protection cards, I feel it is fine when they hate everything equally.
Most of my rules are more personal guidelines to keep the play as similar as possible to normal magic. For example: I noticed that I started refusing to use any land that came into play tapped when I could just draw my way out of early game color screw and still be able to always play on a curve. If I was playing a green red deck and my starting hand contained 2 mountains, I draw land cards every opportunity till I draw a forest, then draw non-land cards until I need another land, if I do not need to draw lands to fix colors, top decking a non-basic that comes into play tapped, really feels like a let down.
On the issue of Retrace and Landfall. It is not that I think they need to be banned, but the ability to always draw a land makes a few of the top cards far more powerful. It just a made a few of my collection's cards (note I have a small collection) no longer fun. For Rampaging Baloths and Call the Skybreaker they tended to always win the game on their own and make it so drawing and playing a land were always the optimum decision. Compare this to landfall cards like Grazing Gladehart, which is never enough reason to draw and play a land just for the effect.
The land pile face up was to help draw from the correct pile more then anything else. When I started play-testing this format I had both piles face down and I often drew from the land when I wanted a non-land and visa versa. I found the easiest way to always draw the correct card was just to have them "look different".
The banning of brainstorm is not for power reasons but because of how it allows the nonland cards to be put into the land deck and visa versa. For instance I am perfectly fine with ponder (which is in my cube) and my only objection to not including Ancestral Recall (besides not owning it and feeling scared using a card that expensive) would be because I do not like including cards that are unequivocally better then any other card with that type of effect. For similar reason I refuse to use Swords to Plowshares.
Definition: Strongly Superior
A card is strongly superior when given the choice between two cards, that perform the same function, you will pick one over the other in almost all situations.
1) No card in the cube can be strongly superior to any other card in the cube even across colors. Examples: The inclusion of Lightning Bolt in my cube means that I do not include Lightning Strike. I do not include Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, or Snuff out in my cube because any other removal seems second rate in comparison.
Reason: To make drafting decisions harder. To keep the colors more balanced.
Effect: The overall power level of the cube is lowered.
2) No effective duplicates of any (non-land) card in the cube including color shifts. Examples: The inclusion of Dragon Fodder means I cannot include Krenko's Command. The inclusion of Force Spike means I cannot include Mana Tithe.
Reason: Wanted the cube to be truly singleton.
Effect: Less redundancy. Harder to draft specific decks.
Side Information: My cube is primarily used for 2-person Winchester draft. I have a 360 card cube. I wanted to ensure that whenever we draft 3 packs each, we are each able to make a decent generally 2-color deck.
3) All cards be useful in most decks of those colors. No card requires a specific deck/specific cards to be playable. Examples: No inclusion of tinker. No "Lords" unless they come into play with their own army like Captain of the Watch.
Reason: More dead cards leads to less interesting decking building decisions and a larger chance of needing to go three color. Also with only 1/4 the cube in use at a time there is no guarantee of getting the support cards needed.
Effects: Any "combos" in cube are incidental. There are no real themes (example: tribal). There are no multicolor cards that are not hybrid (A specific two color multicolor card would only be useful one fifth of the time. Given two players are each in two colors, two of the ten guilds are covered hence a 1/5th chance of a card being useful and that is if it is in the procession of the correct player). No build around me cards.
Largest Effect: Without build-around-me cards/themes, cube became creature centric.
4) Proportion of creatures in each color and colorless is fixed (at 34/52).
Reason: I did not want to have a go to color when wanting a creature heavy or spell heavy deck. Specific proportion chosen based on my collection where certain colors would end up running creatures for which other creatures in the cube were strongly superior. Similar situation if the proportion went lower.
Effect: A given draft deck almost always has more then 1/2 creatures. This means that all the non-creature spells that interact with creatures stay live most of the time (equipment, auras, removal, combat tricks, etc.). Also this means that there are often creatures on defense so interaction that way is preserved as well.
5) Colors and Colorless balanced across (effective) mana costs. Average CMC (non-land/non-hybrid) is 3.
10 CMC 1
14 CMC 2
10 CMC 3
8 CMC 4
6 CMC 5
4 CMC 6+
Reason: I did not want to have a go to color early game spells and another for late game. Each color tends to have sweet and weak spots in terms of CMCs I wanted each color to receive equal treatment.
Effect: When drafting each color has something to do at each stage in the game. Also any given deck should have something it can do each turn.
6) Semi-Random 15 card packs are used for drafting. This is the largest cause of specific numbers involved in 4) and 5).
1 Non-basic Land (producing colored mana)
1 Hybrid/Colorless Non-basic (2 of each guild and 4 colorless lands)
1 Card CMC 6+ (4 of each color and colorless)
For each color and colorless
1 Card CMC 1-2
1 Card CMC 3-5
Reason: To ensure each color is equally represented in terms of CMC of cards and number of cards in each draft session (containing 90 cards). To try making each color as "even" as possible each draft session without needing to draft the whole cube.
Effect: In a completely random cube, if one takes out a 90 card subset, there will be colors with more cards and colors with less cards. There will be colors with an even spread across CMCs and colors lacking certain areas of their curve. This means when choosing what color to cut in 2-person draft is more a matter of luck. That luck factor has been reduced.
Are there any personal rules you abide by when building your cube? What are your reasons for them?
I think we will have to agree to disagree here. I do not believe a card being more powerful makes a better card for cube or more enjoyable in general. There are a lot of fun cards that cost 1 mana to much to be the strongest. A lot of the "strongest", if cost 1 more mana, would not be considered. If Crusader cost 1 mana less, I think it would stand a good chance of being in those "strongest" cubes. If Restoration Angel cost 1 mana more, people might pass it by. I did not change how interesting the cards are, just how soon they can be played.
To address a few issues.
To those who said "if you like a limited feel just play limited it is only $10". I try to spend no more then $10 whenever any set comes out. There is a very large difference between $120 dollars for 3 months of drafting ($480 a year) and $10 ($40). The build your collection argument assumes that you are using the cards for stuff other then limited. Also there is a 50/50 chance you will like any given limited environment.
Why is there an assumption that if you are not playing a card like Restoration Angel you are playing cards like Pillarfield Ox. There are many many cards that more interesting then the ox but less strong then the angel. Take Celestial Crusader for instance. You cannot argue that this card is "boring" despite not being one the most powerful cards.
I guess my opinions sprang up from the feelings I had when building my cube. While it felt like there were many people telling what cards I could improve, there did not feel like there were any resources on how to balance the cube as a whole. In my first version of my first cube I tired forcing multicolor (without proper support), I tried making it have many themes, and it failed miserably. I just wish there were more comments about how a card could improve the limited environment as a whole versus how a card is "more powerful".
1) Power Cubes - The best magic cards of all time
2) Restriction Cubes - The best magic cards of all time under certain restrictions (examples: non-power, no rares)
After lurking in the limited forums I noticed a few things
1) People prefer interactive formats
2) People like always having a chance to win, at any stage in the game.
3) People like there to be no dominant color/strategy (unless there are playing for money/rewards and they know the strategy)
4) Like environments that reward skill and devalue luck
From my observations I begin to feel that while cube is a "limited" format it is not for players that like "limited"
1) If you play with the best cards (with/without restrictions) there will always be a dominant color/strategy (generally blue/control).
2) Playing with the best cards can lead to very explosive turns where their opponents can never come back from.
3) Better cards shortens game time. When games can end turns 1-3, the die roll and the opening hand play a very large roll in the game. These two things are by their nature luck dependent. (I am not saying formats, like legacy, are just luck. Constructed formats build redundancy into their decks to reduce/eliminate the effects of luck. Redundancy, by construction, is hard to come by in cube).
My initial interest in cube came from a love of magic and limited drafting in particular but a hatred of spending money to draft. I notice however that whenever a person shows people their cube on this forum people tend to respond by telling the submitter that they should substitute cards A,B,C for cards X,Y,Z because cards X,Y,Z are stronger cards (and generally more expensive) generally because a large number of cubes of these types (some percent is generally given here) contain those cards.
So what I am asking is the following:
1) Why are the "strongest" cards better (for the cube as a whole and the limited experience)?
2) Why should I replace cards when a "better" card comes out if my cube is currently balanced, or more accurately, if it might unbalance my cube toward that color/strategy?
3) Why is there such a strong belief that all cubes of a certain type should contain the same cards?
The reason I am bringing this up is the following:
I was talking to two people who clearly liked playing magic (and drafting) but gave up on magic because it was too expensive. I suggested to them the idea of cube drafting. One asked about cubing drafting; the other said it is when you draft with the most expensive strongest cards of all time. Cost to much to bother with he said. He further elaborated how he disliked the environment for reasons similar to what I listed above. It had never occurred to him that he could customize a cube that was just like regular drafting to fit his preferences. These people have switched to playing and buying board games and sold off their collections. Some of those "board games" are deck building card games.
1) Rules now work in all formats.
2) Less and Simpler rules.
Below are the revised rules.
Abundance Magic Base Rules
------------------
Rule 0: For 40 Card Deck format players have a 17 card land deck and a 23-card non-land deck. For a 60 Card Deck format: Players have a 24 card land deck and a 36-card non-land deck.
Rule 1: Whenever a player would draw card(s), that play player chooses card(s) one at a time from either library.
Rule 2: Whenever a player would look/reveal the top z cards of a library, he/she may look/reveal the top x cards from the land library and the top z cards from the non-land library where x + y = z. This is done one at a time.
2a) If an effect instructs to look/reveal from a library until a condition is met, the player must choose such that the condition is met as quickly as possible.
Rule 3: Whenever an effect would require a player to put card(s) from the top of his/her library into his/her graveyard, that player chooses cards one at a time from either library.
Abundance Magic Suggested Rules
-------------------
Rule 4: Whenever a land would come into play tapped, that lands controller may pay two life to have it come into play untapped instead.
a) This ability cannot be countered.
b) No effect may prevent this loss of life.
Rule 5: A player may pay three and exile a card in thier hand face down to draw a card. This ability can be used only anytime that player could use a sorcery.
a) This ability cannot be countered.
b) Cards exiled this way cannot be removed from exile.
After play-testing two-person Winchester draft (which is my cube's primary use) several things became apparent:
1) Playables were deemed more important then land in draft. It was found if one preferenced land during draft they always ended up with a worse deck. As such the only lands that end up in a deck are lands that by chance match the final decks colors.
2) Drafting/Cutting color(s) and sticking with them often seemed a better strategy then evaluating the cards as they are put on the table
3) When in the deck building proportion often the amount of playables in colors alone determined the deck. There were never many cuts.
4) Cards never had decks built around them. For Cards like Guttersnipe there was never a large enough card pool (unlike 8-person draft) to force a deck that was primarily instants and sorceries to take advantage of the effect.
Clearly 1) and 2) are because of 3) and 4) made the situation in 3) worse. If I want the deck building, and drafting, experience to be more interesting I need to increase the number of playable cards in the players final pool. I decided to do this three ways:
i) Cut the land collection. I decided to preference lands that either produce more then two colors or provide temporary mana acceleration (Ravnica Bounce Lands with my rule that you can pay 2 life for any land to come into play untapped)
ii) Add a hybrid section. I added 2 hybrid cards per guild. None of these cards receive additional benefit from being in both colors. Then I added a small subtheme for the remaining 4 cards (just to add a little flavor).
iii) Remove all narrow cards that only work "optimal" in just one deck type or are side-board cards only.
So I broke down and purchased cards (nothing expensive) and filled to address the above.
The first post is now updated. The change log is in the second slide.
Some are paired to keep the proportion of creatures and the number of cards at CMC fixed.
Out -> In
----------
Plated Seastrider -> Halimer Wavewatch
Sage of Epityr -> Serum Visions
Tidings -> Riftwing Cloudskate
Lignify (Was listed Jade Mage) -> Respite
Reckles Abandom -> Kird Ape
Soulbright Flamekin -> Fling
Charmbreaker Devils -> Conquering Manticore
Essence Scatter -> Waterfront Bouncer
Sprite Noble -> Compulsive Research
Unsummon -> Drifter il-Dal
Wall of Frost -> Repulse
Blood Lust -> Magma Jet
Removed Land Cards
------------------
Forbidding Watchtower
Spawning Pool
Dragonskull Summit
Drowned Catacomb
Glacial Fortress
Rootbound Crag
Sunpetal Grove
Azorius Guildgate
Boros Guildgate
Dimir Guildgate
Golgari Guildgate
Gruul Guildgate
Izzet Guildgate
Orzhov Guildgate
Rakdos Guildgate
Selesnya Guildgate
Simic Guildgate
Gargoyle Castle
Tectonic Edge
Winding Canyons
Man-Lands Changing Sections
----------------------
Mishra's Factory (Land -> Colorless)
Faerie Conclave (Land -> Blue)
Ghitu Encampment (Land -> Red)
Treetop Village (Land -> Green)
Multi-color Section (New)
-------------------
W/U
Judge's Familiar
Curse of Chains
U/B
Oona's Gatewarden
Inkfathom Infiltrator
B/R
Rakdos Cackler
Murderous Redcap
R/G
Pit Fight
Wild Cantor
G/W
Dryad Militant
Safehold Elite
W/B
Cauldron Haze
Mourning Thrull
B/G
Slitherhead
Hag Hedge-Mage
G/U
Slippery Boogle
Snakeform
U/R
Nivmagus Elemental
Frostburn Weird
R/W
Double Cleave
Spitemare
Naya vs Dimir (sub-theme)
Glen Elendra Liege
Firespout
Selesnya Guildmage
Wild Nacatl (Moved From Green)
Other Card Changes
--------------------
Colorless
Chronomaton -> Inkmoth Nexus
Steel Wall -> Mishra's Factory
Plague Myr -> Epochrasite
Vorrac Battlehorns -> Sigil of Distiction
Piston Sledge -> Fireshrieker
Crumbling Colossus -> Stuffy Doll
White
Deftblade Elite -> Caravan Escort
Smite -> Swords to Plowshare
Lone Missionary -> Knight of Meadowgrain
Temple Acolyte -> Veteran Armorer
Seal of Cleansing -> Imposing Sovereign
Mentor of the Meek -> Prismatic Strands
Dawnglare Invoker -> Archetype of Courage
Guardian of the Guildpact -> Serra's Embrace
Archon of Redemption -> Avacyn, Guardian Angel
Angel of Salvation -> Captain of the Watch
Blue
Enclave Cryptologist -> Faerie Conclave
Serum Visions -> Brainstorm
wall of Tears -> Augury Owl
Trinket Mage -> Traveler's Cloak
Warden of Evos Isle -> Frost Lynx
Riftwing Cloudskate -> Master of Predicaments
Stolen Identity -> Quicksilver Gargantuan
Black
Black Cat -> Blood Scrivener
Vault Skirge -> Postmortem Lunge
Howling Banshee -> Disciple of Bolas
Snuff Out -> Whip of Erebos
Chainer, Dementia Master -> Indulgent Tormenter
Red
Seal of Fire -> Reckless Abandon
Firebolt -> Flameslash
Kird Ape -> Ghitu Encampment
Goblin Skycutter -> Borderland Marauder
Fling -> Generator Servant
Nightbird's Clutches -> Reverberate
Markov Blademaster -> Lust for War
Flamewave Invoker -> Act of Treason
Guttersnipe -> Pyrewild Shaman
Hellfire Mongrel -> Archetype of Aggression
Oxida Scrapmelter -> Archwing Dragon
Stone Giant -> Chain Reaction
Cleaver Riot -> Burn at the Stake
Blasphemous Act -> Moltensteel Dragon
Green
Wild Nacatl -> Treetop Village
Naturalize -> Fists of the Ironwood
Gift of the Gargantuan -> Bow of Nylea
Slaughterhorn -> Reclaimation Sage
Mold Shambler -> Triumph of the Hordes
Moldgraf Monstrosity -> Elderscale Wurm
Land
Shimmering Grotto -> Terramorphic Expanse
The goals of Abundance magic are
1) To decrease dead draws
2) Eliminate Mana Flood
3) Eliminate Mana Screw
4) Make it easier to draw out of color screw
5) Make it easier to curve out.
6) Keep the game play as similar to standard magic as possible with the above.
1) You have a land and non-land deck
2) Whenever you draw a card, you may draw from either deck
1) Each player has two decks. A 17 card land deck and a 23 card non-land deck where the total number of cards is 40. Land cards can be in the non-land deck if you have a lack of playable cards but not the other way around.
2) Whenever a player would draw (or look at or mill) cards from a library, they must draw as equally as possible from the two libraries.
Examples:
i) Draw 1 means draw a card from either the land or non-land library
ii) Mill 2 means mill 1 card from the land deck and 1 card from the non-land deck.
iii) Look at the top five cards means Look at three cards from the land deck and two cards from the non-land deck or look at two cards from the land deck and three cards from the non-land deck.
3) If a card is put back into/onto a library, it must be put back into its appropriate library.
Opening Hand:
1) You draw cards one a time from either library. You can look at them as you draw.
Mulligan:
1) You must reveal your hand to mulligan
2) In order to mulligan your hand must contain at least 2 land and 2 non-land cards
3) You can only mulligan if you have no colorless cards in your hand and all colored parts of the mana costs of your cards cannot be cast with the lands in your hand
i) 2 Islands, 5 Red Cards - Can Mulligan
ii) 1 Swamp, 1 Mountain, 5 BB cards - Can Mulligan
iii) 1 Swamp, 1 Mountain, 3 BB cards and 2 RR cards - Can Mulligan, however might not want to
0) There are no multi-color cards or planeswalkers in this cube.
1) For each color and colorless the amount of cards are each CMC are fixed (Average Cube CMC (not including lands) is about 2.95-3.05). There are
10 Cards at 1 CMC
14 Cards at 2 CMC
10 Cards at 3 CMC
8 Cards at 4 CMC
6 Cards at 5 CMC
4 Cards at 6+ CMC
i) Alternate Costs of cards are ignored.
ii) If a card has X in the cost X is treated as 1. Example Condescend is treated has having a CMC of 2.
iii) Cards with hybrid costs are costed on how they will normally be cast in cube. Spectral Procession is treated as having a cost of 2WW.
2) The reason for 1) is that packs for limited play are made semi-random. In each 15 Card pack there are
1 Card of each color and colorless with CMC 1 or 2
1 Card of each color and colorless with CMC 3 or 4 or 5
1 Card with CMC 6 or more
2 Non-basic Land Cards
3) Each Color and Colorless has a creature proportion of 34/52 ~ 65%.
i) If a non-creature spell primarily puts creatures into play it is counted as a creature. Raise the Alarm, Miraculous Recovery, and Mortarpod are counted as creatures but Profane Command is not.
ii) If a non-creature artifact can act as a creature, it is counted. Ensouled Scimitar.
1) whenever a land comes into play tapped, you may pay 2 life to have it come into play untapped - Recommended for all Abundance Cubes
2) Whenever a player would gain a poison counter, they lose 2 Life instead. No effect may prevent this lose of life.
Last updated 7/24/14
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Brass Man
1 Bonesplitter
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Leonin Scimitar
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Signal Pest
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Trusty Machete
CMC = 2
1 Bladed Pinions
1 Epochrasite
1 Hovermyr
1 Ichorclaw Myr
1 Mask of Memory
1 Mortarpod
1 Myr Sire
1 Necropede
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Perilous Myr
1 Runed Servitor
1 Sigil of Distinction
1 Spincrusher
1 Vulshok Morningstar
1 Cathodion
1 Ensouled Scimitar
1 Fireshrieker
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Loxodon warhammer
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Serrated Biskelion
1 Tumble magnet
1 Vulshok Battlegear
1 Yotian Soldier
CMC = 4
1 Bonehoard
1 Galvanic Juggernaut
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Juggernaut
1 Peace Strider
1 Pierce Strider
1 Skinwing
1 Golem Artisan
1 Manor Gargoyle
1 Myr Turbine
1 Precursor Golem
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Stuffy Doll
CMC = 6+
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Thopter Assembly
1 Caravan Escort
1 Doomed Traveler
1 Elite Vanguard
1 Emerge Unscathed
1 Gideon's Lawkeeper
1 Harm's Way
1 Loyal Sentry
1 Oust
1 Steppe Lynx
1 Swords to Plowshare
CMC = 2
1 Dawn Charm
1 Elite Inquisitor
1 Gallantry
1 Imposing Soveriegn
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
1 Pacifism
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Reprisal
1 Shelter
1 Stormfront Pegasus
1 Temporal Isolation
1 Veteran Armorer
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Crib Swap
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Griffin Guide
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Porcelain Legionaire
1 Prismatic Strands
CMC = 4
1 Divine Reckoning
1 Galepowder Mage
1 Goldnight Commander
1 Guardian seraph
1 Marshal's Anthem
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Serra's Embrace
1 Spectral Procession
1 Archon of Justice
1 Avacyn, Guardian Angel
1 Celestial Archon
1 Geist-Honored Monk
1 Miraculous Recovery
1 Serra Angel
CMC = 6+
1 Angelic Arbiter
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Vengeful Archon
1 Brainstorm
1 Cloudfin Raptor
1 Drifter il-Dal
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Force Spike
1 Gigadrowse
1 Phantasmal Bear
1 Ponder
1 Pongify
1 Unstable Mutation
CMC = 2
1 Augury Owl
1 Boomerang
1 Cloudskate
1 Condescend
1 Counterspell
1 Early Frost
1 Gossamer Phantasm
1 Halimer Wavewatch
1 Invisible Stalker
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Spiketail Hatchling
1 Surveilling Sprite
1 Waterfront Bouncer
1 Welkin Tern
1 Compulsive Research
1 Exclude
1 Frost Lynx
1 Man-o'-war
1 Pestermite
1 Repulse
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Spiketail Drakeling
1 Spined Thopter
1 Traveler's Cloak
CMC = 4
1 Ætherize
1 Argent sphinx
1 Control Magic
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Living Tsunami
1 Sleep
1 Talrand's Invocation
1 Devastation Tide
1 Djinn of Wishes
1 Master of Predicaments
1 Mulldrifter
1 Murder of Crows
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
CMC = 6+
1 Quicksilver Gargantuan
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 stormtide Leviathan
1 Disentomb
1 Duress
1 Festering Newt
1 Funeral Charm
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Ostracize
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Vampire's Bite
1 Vendetta
CMC = 2
1 Blood Scivener
1 Bloodthrone Vampire
1 Dauthi Horror
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Doom Blade
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Postmortem Lunge
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Shrivel
1 Skirsdag High Priest
1 Ultimate Price
1 Victim of Night
1 Bloodhusk Ritualist
1 Cadaver Imp
1 Crypt Rats
1 Dauthi Marauder
1 Hypnotic specter
1 Nirkana Cutthroat
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Profane Command
1 Seal of Doom
1 Vampire Nighthawk
CMC = 4
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Howling Banshee
1 Mirri the Cursed
1 Moan of the Unhallowed
1 Necrotic Ooze
1 Sangromancer
1 Skinrender
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Indulgent Tormentor
1 Ogre Slumlord
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Sengir Vampire
1 Shriekmaw
CMC = 6+
1 Carnifex Demon
1 Dread
1 Life's Finale
1 Necropolis Regent
1 Burst Lightning
1 Flame Slash
1 Forked Bolt
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Goblin Arsonist
1 Goblin Bushwhacker
1 Goblin Cohort
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Reckless Abandom
1 Reckless Charge
CMC = 2
1 Arc Trail
1 Borderland Marauder
1 Crimson Mage
1 Generator Servant
1 Goblin Wardriver
1 Gore-House Chainwalker
1 Incinerate
1 Keldon Marauders
1 Lightning Mauler
1 Magma Jet
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Plated Geopede
1 Pyroclasm
1 Reverberate
1 Act of Treason
1 Archetype of Aggression
1 Arc Lightning
1 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Grinning Ignus
1 Hell's Thunder
1 Inner-Flame Acolyte
1 Lust for War
1 Pyrewild Shaman
1 Staggershock
CMC = 4
1 Archwing Dragon
1 Bloodfray Giant
1 Chain Reaction
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Goblin Razerunners
1 Hellrider
1 Hound of Griselbrand
1 Traitorous Instinct
1 Burn at the Stake
1 Caldera Hellion
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Wrecking Ogre
1 Zealous Conscripts
CMC = 6+
1 Conquering Manticore
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Molten Primordial
1 Moltensteel Dragon
1 Basking Rootwalla
1 Commune with Nature
1 Essence Warden
1 Giant Growth
1 Rancor
1 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
1 Treetop Village
1 Tukatongue thallid
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Virulent Sliver
CMC = 2
1 Ambush Viper
1 Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
1 Deadly Recluse
1 Earthbrawn
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Fists of Ironwood
1 Mire Boa
1 Nest Invader
1 Plummet
1 Respite
1 River Boa
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Utopia Vow
1 Awakener Druid
1 Boar Umbra
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Lead the Stampede
1 Moldervine Cloak
1 Needle Storm
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Wildsize
1 Yavimaya Dryad
CMC = 4
1 Briarhorn
1 Cudgel Troll
1 Deadbridge Goliath
1 Harmonize
1 Might of Oaks
1 Triumph of the Hordes
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
1 Acidic Slime
1 Ant Queen
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
1 Mycoloth
1 Overrun
1 Silklash Spider
CMC = 6+
1 Elderscale Wurm
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Skarrg Goliath
1 Judge's Familiar
1 Curse of Chains
U/B
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Inkfathom Infiltator
B/R
1 Rackdos Cackler
1 Murderous Redcap
R/G
1 Pit Fight
1 Wild Cantor
1 Dryad Militant
1 Safehold Elite
W/B
1 Cauldron Haze
1 Mourning Thrull
B/G
1 Slitherhead
1 Hag Hedge-Mage
G/U
1 Slippery Bogle
1 Snakeform
1 Nivmagus Elemental
1 Frostburn Weird
R/W
1 Double Cleave
1 Spitemare
Naya vs Dimir (subtheme)
1 Glen Elendra Liege
1 Firespout
1 Selesnya Guildmage
1 Wild Nacatl
Ravnica Bouncelands
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Boros Garrison
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Gruul Turf
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Savage Lands
1 Seaside Citadel
Vivids
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Vivid Meadow
1 City of Brass
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Mirrodin's Core
1 Terramorphic Expanse
This cube is a work in progress. So far it has played very well. No color has been used more than any other. My primary concern with this cube is balance between the colors and fun game play; The purpose is not playing with the strongest cards of each color.
My questions:
Are there any cards that you would never play in limited?
Are there any cards that appear too powerful to be balanced?
Curious about card inclusions? exclusions?
Curious how the optional rules have worked out?
Other comments?
As I tend to do 2-person limited formats (namely Winchester or Sealed), there is not the equivalent of picking a 10th pick land for your deck as in standard 4/8 person draft. That being the case, the lands that end up in our decks tend to be the ones we lucked out to get.
My cube is made up of a very casual magic collection. Think of it as the opposite of a power cube, the main goal was to keep the colors as balanced as possible.
Cube Details (not card specific):
0) 360 Cards (for 4 2-person drafts or 2 6 pack sealeds)
1) the proportion of creature to non-creature is a fixed proportion across each color (slightly less for colorless working on this)
2) the colors and colorless have the same number of cards at each CMC (except some variation with 6+)
For each color and colorless
10 Cards at CMC 1
14 Cards at CMC 2
10 Cards at CMC 3
8 Cards at CMC 4
6 Cards at CMC 5
4 Cards at CMC 6+
3) Before drafting I assemble "semi-random" 15 card packs. I choose my card proportions based on this. I do this to keep the colors "even" each draft.
For each color and colorless 1 card with CMC 1 or 2 (6 cards)
For each color and colorless 1 card with CMC 3 or 4 or 5 (6 cards)
1 card with CMC 6+ (1 Card)
2 Non-basic Lands (2 Cards)
Spirit of Protection
Creature - Spirit
Flying
If another creature you control is destroyed, you may destroy another target creature be destroyed instead.
10/10
"Even after death, always searching for her sister, the only one she failed to save."
9BBB
Spirit of Vengeance
Creature - Spirit
Flying
3: Target player gains control of Spirit of Vengeance. Any player may play this ability.
If you do not control Spirit of Protection, at the end of your turn, destroy all other creatures you control.
If you control Spirit of Protection, at the end of your turn, destroy all creatures you do not control.
15/15
"Always missing her sister, she ensures no one is lonely, by leaving no survivors."
6UUURRR
Creature - Illusion
Haste
Victory's Shadow cannot be blocked.
When Victory's Shadow becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Victory's Shadow.
24/1
"We shall see if victory is just an illusion"
4WWUUBBRRGG
Imprisoned God
Creature - God
Defender
Haste
Protection from Everything
Indestructable
If Goblin God Keeper is in play (controlled by anyone), Imprisoned God Gets +24/+0 and loses Defender.
0/24
"Here goblin, goblin, goblin."
9RR
Goblin God Keeper
Haste
11/11
"It doesn't matter how big he is. Who thought it was a good idea to let the goblin keep the keys?!"
The first entry has been cleaned up:
First the essential rules are addressed (far less then before)
1) Land and Non-Land Decks
2) How card drawing has changed
Then suggested methods for dealing with Starting Hands and Mulligans are addressed
These are highly modified from before and allow more variability
Then other suggested rules are given - only one left here
All other information before is kept, but in its own section, and I admit not really essential.
Specific Comments about play-testing:
1) Mana Flood and Screw are completely eliminated. Cheers!
2) Color Screw, while reduced, still exists. The suggested mulligan rules are to help further reduce color screw while providing as little additional benefit in non color screwed situations.
3) I had originally thought that a player would always follow this pattern: Draw Non-Land cards when you have land cards in hand, draw land cards when you do not have land cards in hand, then draw non-land cards when you have reached 6-7 lands. I was pleasantly surprised that this is not the case.
There were plenty of times I drew land with land in hand to help me get the specific mana combination I wanted for the next turn
There were a multiple of times when I played out my hand by turn 4/5 and drew non-land cards to increase my actions
There were also plenty of times where I kept drawing lands even when I reached my "maximum" to keep up combat tricks, for counter-spells, card abilities, etc.
4) Most importantly, even with these rule changes, the game play still feels like traditional magic, just with a little less luck involved.
If there is any interest in the cube that I am using I will add it.
7UB
Faerie Egotist
Creature - Faerie
Flying
When Faerie Egotist enters the battlefield destroy each other creature with the same CMC as Faerie Egotist.
If another creature with CMC equal to Faerie Egotist would enter the battlefield, destroy that creature.
7/7
"I am unique, and I will stay that way"
Lazy Sovereign
Creature - Human Adviser
8WB
First Strike, Deathtouch
When Lazy Sovereign enters the battlefield exile all creatures with CMC less than Lazy Sovereign
8/8
"The easiest way to rule? Execute all your potential subjects subjects."
I had never heard of Commie Box MTG before. Think I might experiment with it.
I do most of my playing with just one other person in Winchester Draft (see link) (alternative to Winston Draft) format. I never considered that it needs to be simple to sell it to others. Thank you.
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/143
Most of my rules are more personal guidelines to keep the play as similar as possible to normal magic. For example: I noticed that I started refusing to use any land that came into play tapped when I could just draw my way out of early game color screw and still be able to always play on a curve. If I was playing a green red deck and my starting hand contained 2 mountains, I draw land cards every opportunity till I draw a forest, then draw non-land cards until I need another land, if I do not need to draw lands to fix colors, top decking a non-basic that comes into play tapped, really feels like a let down.
On the issue of Retrace and Landfall. It is not that I think they need to be banned, but the ability to always draw a land makes a few of the top cards far more powerful. It just a made a few of my collection's cards (note I have a small collection) no longer fun. For Rampaging Baloths and Call the Skybreaker they tended to always win the game on their own and make it so drawing and playing a land were always the optimum decision. Compare this to landfall cards like Grazing Gladehart, which is never enough reason to draw and play a land just for the effect.
The land pile face up was to help draw from the correct pile more then anything else. When I started play-testing this format I had both piles face down and I often drew from the land when I wanted a non-land and visa versa. I found the easiest way to always draw the correct card was just to have them "look different".
The banning of brainstorm is not for power reasons but because of how it allows the nonland cards to be put into the land deck and visa versa. For instance I am perfectly fine with ponder (which is in my cube) and my only objection to not including Ancestral Recall (besides not owning it and feeling scared using a card that expensive) would be because I do not like including cards that are unequivocally better then any other card with that type of effect. For similar reason I refuse to use Swords to Plowshares.