The hits keep coming in Summer 2016 for Magic: the Gathering. After Eternal Masters in June and Eldritch Moon in July, Wizards of the Coast once again ups the ante with Conspiracy: Take the Crown. For those unfamiliar with the original Conspiracy set, it's a set designed specifically for multiplayer drafting, and has some very unique ways of affecting the draft. Primary among these were the namesake card type, conspiracies. Things like Worldknit and Advantageous Proclamation can drastically change the course of a draft, while hidden agendas like Double Stroke and Muzzio's Preparations encourage drafters to collect multiple copies of specific cards that might otherwise not catch their attention. Conspiracy also introduced a line of constructs with draft-affecting abilities, like Cogwork Librarian, Agent of Acquisitions, and Deal Broker. Conspiracy: Take the Crown brings back both of these types of cards, but adds a new twist: colored effects. In addition, it introduces a number of exciting new cards that are playable in Legacy, and has some exciting reprints as well.
Hi all, I figured I could share some of the stuff I learned from doing a bunch of drafts with my team in preparation for Pro Tour Dragon's Maze, as well as the drafts in the event itself, as the process certainly changed my thoughts on the format quite a bit. It's an incredibly complex format that it took me a while to wrap my head around, but I think I have a reasonable overview of it now.
What would look good in a core set? With the focus on Limited, maybe an injection of solid, flavorful, and color-defining commons! (With a couple rares thrown in for spice)
Building a cube is just slapping together 360 cards, right? So very wrong - it's an art and a science, and Mark's got a lot of good nuggets on how to build a stellar cube!
Whenever I travel for a Grand Prix, there is a little voice in the back of my head. "Is it worth it? How much time is this game going to suck up?" Sure, winning a large tournament would be great, but the odds of top eighting a 500+ person event are slight.
This article focuses more on helping cube designers with the basic tenets and avoiding common pitfalls when designing their cube. I'll be discussing not only the oft-neglected theoretical aspect of designing and balancing a cube as well as discussing common pitfalls in cube design and how to alleviate them.
If you have been paying attention to the Magical world recently, you have surely noticed the emergence of a draft format called the Cube. Originally started in Canada, this format has taken the rest of the Magic world by storm and is fast becoming the non-tournament format extraordinaire. I am writing this article to introduce you to the methods I used to create my cube, which has given my friends and me countless hours of enjoyment.
We know Day of Judgment will see Standard play while it's legal, but will it (and should it) see play in your cube? That's what we're here to discuss today: mass removal, Wrath of God style. You can't build a cube without it, but which ones should you use to build it? And how many Wraths are too many?
One of my favorite column types are Bill Simmons' running diaries. Typically, he'll watch an event (anything from an actual game to an awards show), and basically timestamp his thoughts and reactions. Let's apply that to a Cube draft.
Lands. They frustrate us on the occasions we draw too few, too many, or the wrong kinds. We windmill slam them into play when we finally draw the one we've needed to play our bomb. We have a bloody ton of them lying about from old tournament packs, booster packs, and drafts. But how often do we really think about them?
