Basically a format where the only effective decks are "gimmick" draft decks.
There was a "gimmick cube" thread going on over in the limited forums a few weeks ago. I hope the OP eventually posts their creation here.
I own a 1r/2u/4c draft sim for Rise, INN block, all of old Rav, and RtR+, all sleeved up the same. I keep the sims' information collected in a spreadsheet, and have been planning on playing around with some custom limited configurations for a while now. The gimmick cube interests me as a way to toss together some of the nuttier, 2nd string archetypes that wizards injects into limited. AVR's loner archetypes, for instance, was one of my absolute favs, despite being from a reviled environment.
I've wanted to build a battlecruiser cube where almost everything deals with buyback, kicker, level up, proliferate, and other slower mechanics. Removal and green ramp would need to be toned down to keep things somewhat balanced, but I think it could be fun!
I'm in the process of building a bulk rare cube. Most cards are those overcosted rares that are too slow to see normal play, but there are a few bomb cards (Balance, Yawgmoth's Bargain). Thankfully it's really cheap to build.
What about an Alara Reborn cube? All multicolor/hybrid!
Like so many other ideas, it'd be a little low on the power scale I suspect >_>
I have a friend with an all multicolor/hybrid cube. It is very skill intensive to draft and tons of fun to play. I learned the hard way that mana fixing is a top priority!
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Does the Walker choose the Path, or the Path the Walker?
EDH/Commander
Olivia Voldaren
Sigarda, Host of Herons
Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
Jhoira of the Ghitu
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Rosheen Meanderer
Ghost Council of Orzhova
Vela the Night-Clad
I have a friend with an all multicolor/hybrid cube. It is very skill intensive to draft and tons of fun to play. I learned the hard way that mana fixing is a top priority!
I remember doing IPA drafts and a very popular strategy was drafting fixing first and then drafting good cards in the second and third pack. I feel like next time I'm doing a cube draft I just want to go for 5 colour Zoo, picking up fixing early and then just taking cards like Serendib Efreet, Lightning Bolt, and Wretched Anurid.
A humans vs the undead themed cube. Where everything is either a zombie (or anti-survivor type card) or a human survivor/inquisitor/hunter etc.
Seems like this could also work well when combined with that edh-variant horde. There was a thread a bit ago where folks were discussing mixing this sub-format with cube. Presumably a "survivor" themed cube vs a canned token horde could work nicely as a "Zombies!"-esq stand alone.
Cube where every art has to feature an attractive woman.
Cube where every card has to start with the letter R.
Cube where each card has to have a reference to pop culture. (for instance you get your coldsnap "jump" knights altered to be the mario bros)
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That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
A slow cube. No mana fixing or acceleration, no instants. A "flipped" mana curve: instead of the bulk of the distribution at 2-3-4 CMC, put it at 5-6-7. Like the way we used to construct decks in the early days, except heavy on good cards instead of shiny ones.
A cube where all the spells have drawbacks. Necro, Jackal Pup, Arcane Denial, and so on. Heavy on orcs, blue sea creatures, efreets, witches; echo, suspend, morph, cumulative upkeep. I think it would be interesting to have a draft filled with tough decisions about what kills you the least.
A cube that dissuades combat. Reach and archers everywhere, walls, pingers, Flagbearers, and loads of tap abilities. Strong support for mill, loss of life, and shots to the dome.
A cube where all the spells have drawbacks. Necro, Jackal Pup, Arcane Denial, and so on. Heavy on orcs, blue sea creatures, efreets, witches; echo, suspend, morph, cumulative upkeep. I think it would be interesting to have a draft filled with tough decisions about what kills you the least.
This would be interesting. I don't think Morph is a drawback, at all, but the rest of the idea seems sweet.
Here's an odd one: a cube in which each color has art of a certain artistic style.
Example: Green is all Rebecca Guay, Drew Tucker, Terese Nielsen and such.
One artist per color probably couldn't be done right? Even at 360?
I also think the "graveyard matters" cube has a lot of potential. Are there enough enablers for self-mill strategies like in Innistrad limited to work in at least a small cube?
Here's an odd one: a cube in which each color has art of a certain artistic style.
Example: Green is all Rebecca Guay, Drew Tucker, Terese Nielsen and such.
One artist per color probably couldn't be done right? Even at 360?
Probably harder to do than you would think. Most artists haven't done 50-60 card arts. Not to mention 50-60 cards in the same color.
Over the weekend, my friend's and I discussed "The Delver Cube". It's all spells and everyone starts with a Delver of Secrets as their "commander"...
That's really neat. You have to think about whether you want to draft spells that care about the opponent's delver, or just try to win by going to the dome first. I'd love to see this list.
Instead of playing a land for turn, you may exile a card from hand and put a basic from outside the game into play tapped. You are not allowed to add basics to your deck, but cards that could search up a basic (fetches, ramp) may instead get basics from outside the game. Non-basics are still important because they can come into play untapped and provide multiple colors of mana. There also is zero deck construction, you shuffle up your draft pool and play.
Instead of playing a land for turn, you may exile a card from hand and put a basic from outside the game into play tapped. You are not allowed to add basics to your deck, but cards that could search up a basic (fetches, ramp) may instead get basics from outside the game. Non-basics are still important because they can come into play untapped and provide multiple colors of mana. There also is zero deck construction, you shuffle up your draft pool and play.
Or, you can play a card from your hand face-down and it is a basic land that could produce one of the colours in the card. So, like, you have a Terminate, you can play it as either a mountain or a swamp. Non-basics are still good, as you say, because they can produce multiple colours.
So with artifacts, when they are played as lands, I'm thinking they can only tap to produce colourless?
In any case, I have another variant of similar to this I'd like to see. Each player gets two libraries: one for land, one for spells. Whenever an effect refers to a library, the controller of the effect chooses which library is affected. When you draw (including your opening hand), you can pick a combination of which of your libraries you want to draw from, but you have to decide how many of which before you start drawing. So you have to say "I want to start with 2 lands and 5 spells" when you draw your first hand before you start drawing.
In any case, I have another variant of similar to this I'd like to see. Each player gets two libraries: one for land, one for spells. Whenever an effect refers to a library, the controller of the effect chooses which library is affected. When you draw (including your opening hand), you can pick a combination of which of your libraries you want to draw from, but you have to decide how many of which before you start drawing. So you have to say "I want to start with 2 lands and 5 spells" when you draw your first hand before you start drawing.
Is this the same thing as that "stack" variant they featured on wizard's "serious fun" a while back? In your version, is the land library random?
There was a "gimmick cube" thread going on over in the limited forums a few weeks ago. I hope the OP eventually posts their creation here.
I own a 1r/2u/4c draft sim for Rise, INN block, all of old Rav, and RtR+, all sleeved up the same. I keep the sims' information collected in a spreadsheet, and have been planning on playing around with some custom limited configurations for a while now. The gimmick cube interests me as a way to toss together some of the nuttier, 2nd string archetypes that wizards injects into limited. AVR's loner archetypes, for instance, was one of my absolute favs, despite being from a reviled environment.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
This sounds like a lot of fun to me! Don't forget mill!
Joy of Cubing Podcast
My 600 Card Unpowered Cube
My Combo Cube
My list is here.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
I have a friend with an all multicolor/hybrid cube. It is very skill intensive to draft and tons of fun to play. I learned the hard way that mana fixing is a top priority!
Standard
Modern
Living End Combo
Legacy
T.E.S.
TezzAffinity
Combo Elves
Belcher
Forgemaster Combo
High Tide
Solidarity
Merfolk
Burn
Goblins
UnLEDed Dredge
EDH/Commander
Olivia Voldaren
Sigarda, Host of Herons
Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
Jhoira of the Ghitu
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Rosheen Meanderer
Ghost Council of Orzhova
Vela the Night-Clad
I remember doing IPA drafts and a very popular strategy was drafting fixing first and then drafting good cards in the second and third pack. I feel like next time I'm doing a cube draft I just want to go for 5 colour Zoo, picking up fixing early and then just taking cards like Serendib Efreet, Lightning Bolt, and Wretched Anurid.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Seems like this could also work well when combined with that edh-variant horde. There was a thread a bit ago where folks were discussing mixing this sub-format with cube. Presumably a "survivor" themed cube vs a canned token horde could work nicely as a "Zombies!"-esq stand alone.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Cube where every card has to start with the letter R.
Cube where each card has to have a reference to pop culture. (for instance you get your coldsnap "jump" knights altered to be the mario bros)
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
So Pro I have an alpha Volcanic Island
The Great Cube Map!
My Powered Cube
Draft it here!
also dredge, also hellbent.
Sounds like a good time!
In fact an Odyssey block + Innistrad block cube might work out.
A cube where all the spells have drawbacks. Necro, Jackal Pup, Arcane Denial, and so on. Heavy on orcs, blue sea creatures, efreets, witches; echo, suspend, morph, cumulative upkeep. I think it would be interesting to have a draft filled with tough decisions about what kills you the least.
A cube that dissuades combat. Reach and archers everywhere, walls, pingers, Flagbearers, and loads of tap abilities. Strong support for mill, loss of life, and shots to the dome.
This would be interesting. I don't think Morph is a drawback, at all, but the rest of the idea seems sweet.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
Example: Green is all Rebecca Guay, Drew Tucker, Terese Nielsen and such.
One artist per color probably couldn't be done right? Even at 360?
I also think the "graveyard matters" cube has a lot of potential. Are there enough enablers for self-mill strategies like in Innistrad limited to work in at least a small cube?
Worst cards Cube!
Put in the worst cards in a cube and draft to build the worst deck. You swap decks after drafting and then try to win as normal.
Probably harder to do than you would think. Most artists haven't done 50-60 card arts. Not to mention 50-60 cards in the same color.
So you want me to draft as poorly as humanly possible and build the worst deck from my pool? I think that is how I normally draft to begin with.
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
That's really neat. You have to think about whether you want to draft spells that care about the opponent's delver, or just try to win by going to the dome first. I'd love to see this list.
Instead of playing a land for turn, you may exile a card from hand and put a basic from outside the game into play tapped. You are not allowed to add basics to your deck, but cards that could search up a basic (fetches, ramp) may instead get basics from outside the game. Non-basics are still important because they can come into play untapped and provide multiple colors of mana. There also is zero deck construction, you shuffle up your draft pool and play.
"I'm the Best!"
Toad, Mario Kart 64
Or, you can play a card from your hand face-down and it is a basic land that could produce one of the colours in the card. So, like, you have a Terminate, you can play it as either a mountain or a swamp. Non-basics are still good, as you say, because they can produce multiple colours.
So with artifacts, when they are played as lands, I'm thinking they can only tap to produce colourless?
In any case, I have another variant of similar to this I'd like to see. Each player gets two libraries: one for land, one for spells. Whenever an effect refers to a library, the controller of the effect chooses which library is affected. When you draw (including your opening hand), you can pick a combination of which of your libraries you want to draw from, but you have to decide how many of which before you start drawing. So you have to say "I want to start with 2 lands and 5 spells" when you draw your first hand before you start drawing.
Is this the same thing as that "stack" variant they featured on wizard's "serious fun" a while back? In your version, is the land library random?
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."