Unstable is out, and I want to build an Un-Cube that is largely Unstable with a little Unhinged and Unglued thrown in for extra wackiness. The problem is figuring out the correct ratios to support the main themes of Host/Augment and Contraptions while still providing room for other strategies/chaos.
I know this set may not interest some players, but I need help with the parasitic nature of host/augment and assembling contraptions. I imagine people have worked with similarly parasitic mechanics like Splice onto Arcane, etc.
Also, this will not be a singleton cube, nor will all cards be equally weighted - some may only appear once while others get 3-4 copies.
Host/Augment
- There are 19 Host creatures of varying quality and cost. These can be used as straight-up ETB creatures.
- There are 13 Augment cards that turn the Host's ETB into a repeatable triggered or activated ability. Unfortunately, this is the parasitic side - they are completely dead cards unless you have an unaugmented Host on the battlefield. Obviously, you need a high enough ratio of Host to Augment to make sure your hand doesn't get clogged with useless stuff.
- For the sake of variety, I will include at least one of each card, but some will also get extra copies.
Contraptions
- Unstable packs each have two contraptions, which I plan to replicate in cube drafts. There are 45 unique contraptions, though not all are worth running even for variety (Mandatory Friendship Shackles is a strictly worse Jamming Device, and Lackey Recycler is a strictly worse Refibrillator).
- Contraptions are not shuffled into your deck and instead form their own separate deck. You can only use them when a card from your regular deck instructs you to assemble a contraption, which means you need a significant number of those cards to ensure hitting them during the game.
- Cards that assemble contraptions also come in varying qualities and costs - some will get more copies than others.
As of now, I am planning to make a 300 card cube - 260 cards plus 40 contraptions. This makes 20x 15-card boosters, supporting six players with two extra boosters for Booster Tutor and Summon the Pack. Considering Unstable boosters use two slots for the basic land and token, I'll actually be giving my players an extra six cards each for deck-building.
So, how many of each type should I add? Anyone know the ratios used in the actual set? How many Host cards, how many Augment, and how many Contraption-assemblers should I put in a 300 card cube? How many should be (on average) in each pack? Once I figure out the basic numbers, I'll decide how many of each card to include. Also, there are other support cards (Clever Combo, Dr. Julius Jumblemorph, Steamflogger Boss, etc.), but those come later.
My big piece of advice is don't limit yourself to a card count for a cube like this. In order to balance things correctly, and due to rarity distribution mattering, you're not going to easily do this by trying to adhere to an arbitrary card count.
In a 300 cube (assuming you draft 15 card packs), this translates to:
40 contraptions
40 assemblers (you will really need to break singleton as there are only 33 assemblers)
45 Hosts (same here, there are only 21 unique hosts - most are common)
24 Augment cards (ditto. 19 unique augment cards only)
Here are the formulas for reference:
Contraptions Assemble Augment Host Total Per Pack
C 15 10 4 16 75 8
U 15 11 12 2 75 3
R/M 25 8 2 2 107 1
R 10 4 1 1 46
M 5 0 0 0 15
C 2 1.333333333 0.533333333 2.133333333
U 0.55 0.6 0.1
R/M 0.097560976 0.024390244 0.024390244
2 1.980894309 1.157723577 2.257723577
My big piece of advice is don't limit yourself to a card count for a cube like this. In order to balance things correctly, and due to rarity distribution mattering, you're not going to easily do this by trying to adhere to an arbitrary card count.
I don't care so much about rarity distribution as mechanical distribution. And I don't ever see more than 6 people drafting this cube (I'll pull out my peasant cube if we get more), so maintaining the right size card pool for consistent distribution feels right to me.
In a 300 cube (assuming you draft 15 card packs), this translates to:
40 contraptions
40 assemblers (you will really need to break singleton as there are only 33 assemblers)
45 Hosts (same here, there are only 21 unique hosts - most are common)
24 Augment cards (ditto. 19 unique augment cards only)
Thank you! This is perfect. I've been tinkering with numbers and building a tentative cube on cubetutor to test what felt right, but that only lets me build the deck, not play it to verify. This will be a great starting point.
It's been really weird working with parasitic mechanics like this. My only other cube experience is building a peasant cube, and that's more goodstuff within basic archetypes. Having large groups of cards that are literally useless without another specific card type/mechanic is a new experience for me.
I know this set may not interest some players, but I need help with the parasitic nature of host/augment and assembling contraptions. I imagine people have worked with similarly parasitic mechanics like Splice onto Arcane, etc.
Also, this will not be a singleton cube, nor will all cards be equally weighted - some may only appear once while others get 3-4 copies.
Host/Augment
- There are 19 Host creatures of varying quality and cost. These can be used as straight-up ETB creatures.
- There are 13 Augment cards that turn the Host's ETB into a repeatable triggered or activated ability. Unfortunately, this is the parasitic side - they are completely dead cards unless you have an unaugmented Host on the battlefield. Obviously, you need a high enough ratio of Host to Augment to make sure your hand doesn't get clogged with useless stuff.
- For the sake of variety, I will include at least one of each card, but some will also get extra copies.
Contraptions
- Unstable packs each have two contraptions, which I plan to replicate in cube drafts. There are 45 unique contraptions, though not all are worth running even for variety (Mandatory Friendship Shackles is a strictly worse Jamming Device, and Lackey Recycler is a strictly worse Refibrillator).
- Contraptions are not shuffled into your deck and instead form their own separate deck. You can only use them when a card from your regular deck instructs you to assemble a contraption, which means you need a significant number of those cards to ensure hitting them during the game.
- Cards that assemble contraptions also come in varying qualities and costs - some will get more copies than others.
Only one card supports both themes: Crafty Octopus.
As of now, I am planning to make a 300 card cube - 260 cards plus 40 contraptions. This makes 20x 15-card boosters, supporting six players with two extra boosters for Booster Tutor and Summon the Pack. Considering Unstable boosters use two slots for the basic land and token, I'll actually be giving my players an extra six cards each for deck-building.
So, how many of each type should I add? Anyone know the ratios used in the actual set? How many Host cards, how many Augment, and how many Contraption-assemblers should I put in a 300 card cube? How many should be (on average) in each pack? Once I figure out the basic numbers, I'll decide how many of each card to include. Also, there are other support cards (Clever Combo, Dr. Julius Jumblemorph, Steamflogger Boss, etc.), but those come later.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
Contraptions = 2
Assemblers = 1.98 (basically 2)
Hosts = 2.26
Augment = 1.16
In a 300 cube (assuming you draft 15 card packs), this translates to:
40 contraptions
40 assemblers (you will really need to break singleton as there are only 33 assemblers)
45 Hosts (same here, there are only 21 unique hosts - most are common)
24 Augment cards (ditto. 19 unique augment cards only)
Here are the formulas for reference:
Contraptions Assemble Augment Host Total Per Pack
C 15 10 4 16 75 8
U 15 11 12 2 75 3
R/M 25 8 2 2 107 1
R 10 4 1 1 46
M 5 0 0 0 15
C 2 1.333333333 0.533333333 2.133333333
U 0.55 0.6 0.1
R/M 0.097560976 0.024390244 0.024390244
2 1.980894309 1.157723577 2.257723577
Thank you! This is perfect. I've been tinkering with numbers and building a tentative cube on cubetutor to test what felt right, but that only lets me build the deck, not play it to verify. This will be a great starting point.
It's been really weird working with parasitic mechanics like this. My only other cube experience is building a peasant cube, and that's more goodstuff within basic archetypes. Having large groups of cards that are literally useless without another specific card type/mechanic is a new experience for me.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter