It's getting to that time of year where I start to get a bunch of PM's about the Card Exchange coming back, so I wanted to make a notice for everyone wondering. (If you don't know what the MTGSalvation annual card exchange is, you can view last year's here, which also has links to the four years previous to that.)
For the past five years, this has been one of the highlights of my holiday season. Going to my mailbox and opening up the packages I received that day, savoring each one like a gourmet truffle, has truly been a pleasure.
However, it is also a major time commitment during one of the busiest seasons. When I started doing this, I was 17, in college, and had the time. Now I have a very busy full time job making Magic cards and so many extra activities on top of that that many days I don't even have the time to open my computer when I get home, let alone orchestrate something like this.
When I resigned from staff it was hard because it was something I loved, but I knew that I no longer had the time to commit to the site to make it work.
Similarly, I know that if I tried to do the exchange again this year I would not have the time to commit to make it flourish in the ways I would want it to. Last year did not go as smoothly as I would have liked, and this year I am many more times busy. My schedule should not be what impinges upon you having a great time.
However! I do believe the card exchange should live on. It's a wonderful, wonderful experience that is one of my favorite things I added to MTGSalvation in the many years I worked here. I've contacted the mods to see if one of them wants to take over, and hopefully one of them will. If one of you users feels like you are enough of a community centerpiece to take it over, talk to the mods about it.
Thanks for five years of awesome memories, and I hope the card exchange has many more great memories to come!
It is strongly recommend that you use Cardtags on MTGSalvation to make discussing of deck lists and the comparison of individual cards easier.
What are cardtags? Cardtags are tags you can put around card names or around complete deck lists and which turn all the card names into links to their card images.
Wow that’s quite beautiful isn’t it? Well, you can make it even better.
You can also add the name of the deck and add names to sections of your deck list. You add the name of the deck by typing:
If you use the [deck]-tag to format your decklist in a box it also gives others the chance to easily playtest your deck. The [deck]-tag automatically converts your deck list to deck files for the three most used playtesting programs and therefore makes it possible for other users to download your deck and test it themselves on their computer or online.
Pressing will let them download your deck for Apprentice. gives your deck in MagicWorkstation format and in Magic Online format.
There are also quick buttons you can use so you dont have to type out each tag. Just press the 'Go Advanced' button in the Quick Reply box and select a card name you would like to tag. If you want to use the [card]-tag, press the button to create a [CARD]-tag around the selected text. If you want to use the [cards]-tag, select a piece of text and press the button. For the [deck]tag, you need to select your complete deck list and press the button.
If you want to make a card link to a specific version of card that has been reprinted many times, you can also do that with the -tag. Normally typing Stone Rain would link you to the newest version of Stone Rain. But if you type the card name followed by a | and the name of the set:
[CARD]Stone Rain|Ice Age[/CARD]
The link will go to the Ice Age version of Stone Rain.
You can also make indirect card links. That means that after typing:
[CARD=Morpling]Superman[/CARD]
The link will still go to Morphling but the link will look completely different:
There are two ways to use mana symbols in your post.
You can use the standard mana codes:
For colored mana:
= = = = =
For colorless mana symbols:
= = =
etc =
Or you can use the [MANA]-tag. The [MANA]-tag works a lot like the other tags we already discussed:
Example:
If you type this:
[MANA]gbruwx122334[/MANA]
The [MANA]tag will turn the letters into colored manasymbols and the numbers (and X's) into colorless manasymbols:
GBRUWx122334
Like the other tags the [MANA]-tag also has a quick button: just press button to quickly [mana]-tag something.
Here ends our tutorial, I hope this short explanation has helped you understand more about the card tags that MTGSalvation uses. If you still have any questions, please feel free to pm the current mod(s).
Imagine sitting down for a booster draft. You've drafted plenty of times before. You know that you can deal with whatever the boosters throw at you. You open up the following pack:
So many options. You can take the safe pick with the Ingot or the Top, because you'll probably find a way to play them regardless of how your deck ends up. Countering spells is always nice though, and free ones mark the start of a great control deck, so maybe you'll head towards blue and take the force. On the other hand, there's a Spiritmonger over in the corner that is telling you that you shouldn't be so afraid of commitment, because he'd be a perfect fit for a BG rock deck. As you think about the pick, you gaze towards the Enduring Ideal and wonder what kind of enchantments could be in this crazy set. But is it fast enough? Hmm, that Liliana Vess might wheel though, she is quite the combo enabler....Too bad this pick isn't relevant. These cards would never appear in the same pack. Back to figuring out if Mulldrifter or Summon the School is the better pick, right?
Welcome to cube draft.
A cube is a large stack of mostly powerful cards selected by their owner from throughout Magic's history. No, really, it's a large stack of cards:
It's like you have your own set you get to play with. Even though the cards already exist, you build in your own power level, synergies, strengths, and so forth to use them in combinations you would never see otherwise. Makeshift Mannequin a Masticore midcombat to crush the attacking force? Check. Playing the sneakiest Ninja ever by casting an end step Ninja of the Deep Hours off of a Teferi? Check. Having someone smugly cast an Armageddon only to turn their glee to horror as you respond with an instant speed Rout? Check. Cube allows odd synergies to exist by mixing all of these cards together in a fresh environment.
The most common practice done with a cube is to booster draft it. Each person drafting grabs 45 random cards out of the cube, and randomly put them into 15 card packs. (Some people do smaller packs, but I prefer the norm of 15.) Cube draft has the unpredictability and adaptability skillset of a normal draft, but the power and synergy basis of constructed. It's like drafting a constructed deck. You can draft aggro, control, and even combo. Consider the booster above. You can't really go wrong with most of those cards as first picks, so you can go down the route you want to.
You can also do pretty much any other draft format with a cube such as, but certainly not limited to, Winston, Rochester, Points, and anything else. In addition, it makes a convenient high-powered stack to play type 4 with in between rounds at an event.
You may be thinking that cube is inaccessible for you, but you don't need all of these old cards to construct a good cube. The great thing about a cube is that you control its power level. If the cards are just from recent Standard formats, the power level will be fine while still being fun by being a conglomeration of cards from recent years.
If you are interesting in building your own cube, go read Tom Lapilles Cube FAQ. Most of what I'd tell you would simply just be restating what he said. In a nutshell, you want each color to have the same amount of cards so that there isn't an imbalance, and each color needs to have a few obvious strategies that play to its usual strengths that it can utilize. There is a little more too it, and I recommend reading that bit on Tom's site for more information.
My cube:
My cube has 720 cards. This is enough to run two eight man drafts at once. The breakdown is 88 cards per color, 100 lands, 90 colorless cards, and 90 multicolored cards with seven per two color combination and 20 that are a mix of split cards and cards that cost three or more colors. Cards that are one color but in practice often play like multicolor cards like Desolation Angel, Court Hussar, Kird Ape, and more take up slots of their colors, not multicolor slots. It became too subjective to decide what went where. People could use cards in odd ways, so maybe somebody will want Desolation Angelunkicked, or Nightscape Familiar just for a Drudge Skeletons. I felt that it would just work out better if cards were collated based on what their actual mana cost was. Zombie Cutthroat and Gathan Raiders are the only exceptions, because anybody can easily play them. I count them as colorless, so they take up artifact slots.
There are some cards that will be in the cube eventually, but are not right now. Cryptic Command, Mogg Fanatic, Swords to Plowshares, some of the Lorwyn multicolor legends, and a few other cards I can't think of right now definitely have a spot in the cube, but I don't like using proxies in casual formats except in rare situations, and I don't own any of those cards yet. The same goes for the original dual lands. I only own three and it'd be very imbalanced to just have three in there, but I don't want to use proxies for them.
My cube is unpowered, and I prefer it that way. Not having them makes games more interactive, lets people play their awesome cards, and feels like a better game of Magic in general. I think that the one Sol Ring is fine because it means that there is a "card above cards" in the cube that you're always looking for and excited to open because it ranks above everything else, a bomb rare of sorts. If you play with power in your cube that's something a lot of people do and I respect that, but I like it to be unpowered.
There is a high land density because I like having a lot of nonbasic lands. They're good for three main reasons: they fix your mana and let you play the cards you want to, you always draft so many playables that lands give you playables without taking away from deck slots (especially when they mimic spells!), and having more lands makes games more skill intensive as you try and figure out when you should be playing certain lands and their abilities. You have to be careful that the packs don't become too full of lands, but otherwise I think more lands is helpful to game play.
Finally, yes, there are a few Unhinged cards in the cube. But, it's because they play well, not because they're goofy. I kept anything annoying or dexterity based out. Turbo Slug is basically just a pact of 3/1 haste and Blast feels like it could of just came out of Time Spiral block. Super Secret Tech is neat because it lets you draft a theme nobody else will care about that works well in the cube. I'm sure somebody will eventually first pick it and draft a foil based deck. There are some others, but the only real ridiculously powerful one is Richard Garfield, but I think its strategic and rewards better players. Plus, combining cube and mental magic in the same game is pretty awesome.
Finally, here are pictures of my cube for a reference on what a cube can look like. If you want to know what a specific card is because it's obscured, please ask. Before anybody asks, the Inkfathom Divers is a Garruk. I lent mine out of the cube because a friend really needed it for an event and I haven't received it back yet.
Lands:
Black:
Green:
Red:
White:
Blue:
Artifacts:
Multicolor:
I would love it if more people got into cube and were interested in building their own. It is a great format to play, and it attracts curious spectators at events in a way I've never seen elsewhere. If you have any questions, I will gladly answer them. This thread is for all things cube related, so you can post your cube, your opinion on cube issues, petition for Shepherd to run a 8 way cube draft, share cube draft stories, ask questions about Cubes, and so on.
1
I am always paying attention.
Glad you're having fun talking about the set so far! I think you guys will enjoy this format.
1
4
It's getting to that time of year where I start to get a bunch of PM's about the Card Exchange coming back, so I wanted to make a notice for everyone wondering. (If you don't know what the MTGSalvation annual card exchange is, you can view last year's here, which also has links to the four years previous to that.)
For the past five years, this has been one of the highlights of my holiday season. Going to my mailbox and opening up the packages I received that day, savoring each one like a gourmet truffle, has truly been a pleasure.
However, it is also a major time commitment during one of the busiest seasons. When I started doing this, I was 17, in college, and had the time. Now I have a very busy full time job making Magic cards and so many extra activities on top of that that many days I don't even have the time to open my computer when I get home, let alone orchestrate something like this.
When I resigned from staff it was hard because it was something I loved, but I knew that I no longer had the time to commit to the site to make it work.
Similarly, I know that if I tried to do the exchange again this year I would not have the time to commit to make it flourish in the ways I would want it to. Last year did not go as smoothly as I would have liked, and this year I am many more times busy. My schedule should not be what impinges upon you having a great time.
However! I do believe the card exchange should live on. It's a wonderful, wonderful experience that is one of my favorite things I added to MTGSalvation in the many years I worked here. I've contacted the mods to see if one of them wants to take over, and hopefully one of them will. If one of you users feels like you are enough of a community centerpiece to take it over, talk to the mods about it.
Thanks for five years of awesome memories, and I hope the card exchange has many more great memories to come!
Gavin
2
It is strongly recommend that you use Cardtags on MTGSalvation to make discussing of deck lists and the comparison of individual cards easier.
What are cardtags? Cardtags are tags you can put around card names or around complete deck lists and which turn all the card names into links to their card images.
Using Cardtags is quite easy and in this tutorial I will explain the ins and outs of the following tags that we use on MTGSalvation: 1) [CARD]-tag2) 3) " target="blank">-tag3) DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards" target="blank">
1x Black Lotus
12 Dancing Scimitar [Because I didn't have the Masticore]
3x Kird Ape - early beater
2 Forests[/cards]
[deck]
3 City of Brass
8 Forest
1 Gemstone Mine
2 Karplusan Forest
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Swamp
2 Underground River
2 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Volrath's Stronghold
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
1 Man-o'-War
2 Nekrataal
1 Orcish Settler
2 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
1 Spirit of the Night
1 Tradewind Rider
1 Thrull Surgeon
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Verdant Force
4 Wall of Blossoms
2 Wall of Roots
2 Firestorm
2 Lobotomy
4 Recurring Nightmare
2 Scroll Rack
4 Survival of the Fittest
Sideboard
4 Boil
2 Dread of Night
3 Emerald Charm
1 Hall of Gemstones
2 Phyrexian Furnace
2 Pyroblast
1 Staunch Defenders
Wow that’s quite beautiful isn’t it? Well, you can make it even better.
You can also add the name of the deck and add names to sections of your deck list. You add the name of the deck by typing:
4) Downloading Decks
If you use the [deck]-tag to format your decklist in a box it also gives others the chance to easily playtest your deck. The [deck]-tag automatically converts your deck list to deck files for the three most used playtesting programs and therefore makes it possible for other users to download your deck and test it themselves on their computer or online.
Pressing
5) Quick Buttons
There are also quick buttons you can use so you dont have to type out each tag. Just press the 'Go Advanced' button in the Quick Reply box and select a card name you would like to tag. If you want to use the [card]-tag, press the
6) Other Cardtag Options
If you want to make a card link to a specific version of card that has been reprinted many times, you can also do that with the -tag. Normally typing Stone Rain would link you to the newest version of Stone Rain. But if you type the card name followed by a | and the name of the set:
The link will go to the Ice Age version of Stone Rain.
You can also make indirect card links. That means that after typing:
The link will still go to Morphling but the link will look completely different:
This also works in combination with the option to link to specific versions of cards. Putting the following in you post:
Links to the special Oxidize art you want, but also shows the text you requested:
7) [MANA]-tag
There are two ways to use mana symbols in your post.
You can use the standard mana codes:
For colored mana:
For colorless mana symbols:
etc
Or you can use the [MANA]-tag. The [MANA]-tag works a lot like the other tags we already discussed:
Example:
If you type this:
The [MANA]tag will turn the letters into colored manasymbols and the numbers (and X's) into colorless manasymbols:
Like the other tags the [MANA]-tag also has a quick button: just press
Here ends our tutorial, I hope this short explanation has helped you understand more about the card tags that MTGSalvation uses. If you still have any questions, please feel free to pm the current mod(s).
2
The Cube
Imagine sitting down for a booster draft. You've drafted plenty of times before. You know that you can deal with whatever the boosters throw at you. You open up the following pack:
So many options. You can take the safe pick with the Ingot or the Top, because you'll probably find a way to play them regardless of how your deck ends up. Countering spells is always nice though, and free ones mark the start of a great control deck, so maybe you'll head towards blue and take the force. On the other hand, there's a Spiritmonger over in the corner that is telling you that you shouldn't be so afraid of commitment, because he'd be a perfect fit for a BG rock deck. As you think about the pick, you gaze towards the Enduring Ideal and wonder what kind of enchantments could be in this crazy set. But is it fast enough? Hmm, that Liliana Vess might wheel though, she is quite the combo enabler....Too bad this pick isn't relevant. These cards would never appear in the same pack. Back to figuring out if Mulldrifter or Summon the School is the better pick, right?
Welcome to cube draft.
A cube is a large stack of mostly powerful cards selected by their owner from throughout Magic's history. No, really, it's a large stack of cards:
It's like you have your own set you get to play with. Even though the cards already exist, you build in your own power level, synergies, strengths, and so forth to use them in combinations you would never see otherwise. Makeshift Mannequin a Masticore midcombat to crush the attacking force? Check. Playing the sneakiest Ninja ever by casting an end step Ninja of the Deep Hours off of a Teferi? Check. Having someone smugly cast an Armageddon only to turn their glee to horror as you respond with an instant speed Rout? Check. Cube allows odd synergies to exist by mixing all of these cards together in a fresh environment.
The most common practice done with a cube is to booster draft it. Each person drafting grabs 45 random cards out of the cube, and randomly put them into 15 card packs. (Some people do smaller packs, but I prefer the norm of 15.) Cube draft has the unpredictability and adaptability skillset of a normal draft, but the power and synergy basis of constructed. It's like drafting a constructed deck. You can draft aggro, control, and even combo. Consider the booster above. You can't really go wrong with most of those cards as first picks, so you can go down the route you want to.
You can also do pretty much any other draft format with a cube such as, but certainly not limited to, Winston, Rochester, Points, and anything else. In addition, it makes a convenient high-powered stack to play type 4 with in between rounds at an event.
You may be thinking that cube is inaccessible for you, but you don't need all of these old cards to construct a good cube. The great thing about a cube is that you control its power level. If the cards are just from recent Standard formats, the power level will be fine while still being fun by being a conglomeration of cards from recent years.
If you are interesting in building your own cube, go read Tom Lapilles Cube FAQ. Most of what I'd tell you would simply just be restating what he said. In a nutshell, you want each color to have the same amount of cards so that there isn't an imbalance, and each color needs to have a few obvious strategies that play to its usual strengths that it can utilize. There is a little more too it, and I recommend reading that bit on Tom's site for more information.
My cube:
My cube has 720 cards. This is enough to run two eight man drafts at once. The breakdown is 88 cards per color, 100 lands, 90 colorless cards, and 90 multicolored cards with seven per two color combination and 20 that are a mix of split cards and cards that cost three or more colors. Cards that are one color but in practice often play like multicolor cards like Desolation Angel, Court Hussar, Kird Ape, and more take up slots of their colors, not multicolor slots. It became too subjective to decide what went where. People could use cards in odd ways, so maybe somebody will want Desolation Angelunkicked, or Nightscape Familiar just for a Drudge Skeletons. I felt that it would just work out better if cards were collated based on what their actual mana cost was. Zombie Cutthroat and Gathan Raiders are the only exceptions, because anybody can easily play them. I count them as colorless, so they take up artifact slots.
There are some cards that will be in the cube eventually, but are not right now. Cryptic Command, Mogg Fanatic, Swords to Plowshares, some of the Lorwyn multicolor legends, and a few other cards I can't think of right now definitely have a spot in the cube, but I don't like using proxies in casual formats except in rare situations, and I don't own any of those cards yet. The same goes for the original dual lands. I only own three and it'd be very imbalanced to just have three in there, but I don't want to use proxies for them.
My cube is unpowered, and I prefer it that way. Not having them makes games more interactive, lets people play their awesome cards, and feels like a better game of Magic in general. I think that the one Sol Ring is fine because it means that there is a "card above cards" in the cube that you're always looking for and excited to open because it ranks above everything else, a bomb rare of sorts. If you play with power in your cube that's something a lot of people do and I respect that, but I like it to be unpowered.
There is a high land density because I like having a lot of nonbasic lands. They're good for three main reasons: they fix your mana and let you play the cards you want to, you always draft so many playables that lands give you playables without taking away from deck slots (especially when they mimic spells!), and having more lands makes games more skill intensive as you try and figure out when you should be playing certain lands and their abilities. You have to be careful that the packs don't become too full of lands, but otherwise I think more lands is helpful to game play.
Finally, yes, there are a few Unhinged cards in the cube. But, it's because they play well, not because they're goofy. I kept anything annoying or dexterity based out. Turbo Slug is basically just a pact of 3/1 haste and Blast feels like it could of just came out of Time Spiral block. Super Secret Tech is neat because it lets you draft a theme nobody else will care about that works well in the cube. I'm sure somebody will eventually first pick it and draft a foil based deck. There are some others, but the only real ridiculously powerful one is Richard Garfield, but I think its strategic and rewards better players. Plus, combining cube and mental magic in the same game is pretty awesome.
Finally, here are pictures of my cube for a reference on what a cube can look like. If you want to know what a specific card is because it's obscured, please ask. Before anybody asks, the Inkfathom Divers is a Garruk. I lent mine out of the cube because a friend really needed it for an event and I haven't received it back yet.
Lands:
Black:
Green:
Red:
White:
Blue:
Artifacts:
Multicolor:
I would love it if more people got into cube and were interested in building their own. It is a great format to play, and it attracts curious spectators at events in a way I've never seen elsewhere. If you have any questions, I will gladly answer them. This thread is for all things cube related, so you can post your cube, your opinion on cube issues, petition for Shepherd to run a 8 way cube draft, share cube draft stories, ask questions about Cubes, and so on.
Have fun Cubing!