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?
Huh. Neat! I didn't know that was a thing.
In my version, each player has their own two libraries. The total must sum to the minimum for the format (40 for cube, usually). You can add basic lands to your deck as normal, and they get randomized with the other land you drafted to go into your land library.
I worry that this change might degenerate into someone just putting 7 or fewer cards into their spell library, which without even including things like moxes and lotuses, would allow them to start with a first turn kill every game if they drafted the right cards. For that reason, I'm thinking the spell library should have a minimum of 20 cards, though I'm not sure if that solves the problem entirely.
Here's the link; kind of like a lazy person's cube. I guess this could be done using a regular cube, if you were somehow up for playing but too unmotivated to even do sealed.
A highly flexible cube with heavy additional/alternate cost themes: Morph, kicker, entwine, flashback, cycling, evoke, traps, buyback, suspend, echo, ninjutsu, transmute, replicate, forecast, unearth, cascade, hybrid mana, phyrexian mana, split cards, pitch spells like Abolish, alternate costs spells like Angelic Favor, free spells like Cho-Arrim Legate, manlands, colorless artifacts/Eldrazi, etc.
I can't remember the name of it, but there was either a thread or a cube list, called something like the "options cube", where they were attempting exactly what you've suggested.
Maybe just establish a minimum size for the spell library. What would probably happen is that fast aggressive decks would be more consistent because they can draw just enough land, then no more. A variation on that could be to allow players to split their deck as they choose into two minimum 20 card libraries. Then they could put all of their land, mana acceleration, and early game cards in one library and the rest of their cards in the second library. I think often times these kinds of format warping rules variations are better chosen after players have chosen their decks so that they can't build to take too much advantage of the rules modification.
Here's the link; kind of like a lazy person's cube. I guess this could be done using a regular cube, if you were somehow up for playing but too unmotivated to even do sealed.
Maybe just establish a minimum size for the spell library. What would probably happen is that fast aggressive decks would be more consistent because they can draw just enough land, then no more. A variation on that could be to allow players to split their deck as they choose into two minimum 20 card libraries. Then they could put all of their land, mana acceleration, and early game cards in one library and the rest of their cards in the second library. I think often times these kinds of format warping rules variations are better chosen after players have chosen their decks so that they can't build to take too much advantage of the rules modification.
Neat idea.
The intent that I had was for all players to know what they were getting into before making their draft picks. And yeah, it means that the aggro decks never run out of steam, but I think that would make for an interesting format to explore.
ooh, I like this thread. My goal is to come up with a "cube of cubes" -- 16, 360 card cubes. At least half of them will be Magic, and I want them to play as differently as possible.
What I've come up with so far:
Magic cubes
1) Hybrid cube. All the cards have a hybrid mana cost/ability. After Gatecrash, still ~60 cards short.
2) Mono-black cube. All the cards can be cast with only black mana. List is WIP.
3) Naya cube. No black or blue mana symbols. List WIP.
4) Rainbow Stairwell cube. No more than one card of any given mana cost. Full cycles only (cards aren't added until all 5 similar costs exist). List completed, acquiring cards.
5) Simple cube. French Vanilla creatures and one sentence spells. Idea phase.
6) Tribal cube. 16 creature types, and spells supporting them. Idea phase.
7) CMC 2 cube. List WIP.
8) Multi cube. ~45 unique cards, 4x 6x 8x or 12x. Acquiring cards.
9) Normal cube. What everyone has. Acquiring cards
Non-magic cubes
1) World of Warcraft
2) Pokemon
3) Magi-Nation
4) Dragonball Z
Still leaves me with 3 more to come up with.
My craziest idea, however, won't be part of the above.
The Hypercube:
Start with one of every magic card (or cut to 9810); This is tier 1. Draft normally (8 players only). 3-0 pool gets added to tier 2, 0-3 pool gets removed completely. The other pools get shuffled back into tier 1. Repeat until tier 1 is less than 360 cards. Repeat with tier 2, adding 3-0 to tier 3 etc.
9810 cards to start end up with a 360 card tier 5. 19890 cards to start end with a 360 card tier 6.
it's a high variance, long term project. But if I can get a dedicated group together it sounds amazing. But I'm crazy, so maybe it's just me =p
I can't remember the name of it, but there was either a thread or a cube list, called something like the "options cube", where they were attempting exactly what you've suggested.
an earlier version of my hybrid cube was basically this, but I don't think I ever posted my list online. If I can find a hard copy I'll post it, but my file was lost to a virus.
The Heavy Metal Cube: a Machine Red (or R/B + Artifacts only) Winston Stack, with a heavy in-game achievement component. These achievements should be awarded for over the top damage and gratuitous creatures kills (like a 10+ consume spirit against a 1/1), and should all have bellicose, belligerent metal names.
With that said, there have been some changes to the cube that I haven't edited in. Between my personal spreadsheet, my tappedout list, and this one, something's bound to fall through the cracks. I can provide more commentary on how the Modal Cube has been in the six months or so that we've been drafting it, if anyone cares.
EDIT: I'll take that "thank you" as a go-ahead to expand on the Modal Cube. It has certainly been a work in progress, partially because I wasn't playing back in Invasion or Odyssey Block (started in Onslaught, so at least I was close, I guess). Luckily, a lot of cards have been really inexpensive. At some points, we've had to sacrifice a modal card for something that performs. Even if a card provides lots of choice, if it's terrible, it'll just sit in the sideboard (I'm looking at you, Vitality Charm!). We've also been experimenting with cards that are less modal, but drastically alter how the two players interact. Quest for the Gemblades isn't terribly modal, but it causes great tension, especially with allthesynergiesavailable.
Modal Cube mimics the pace of a traditional booster draft more than a traditional cube. I haven't played a peasant cube, so I can't comment on any similarities there. From its creation, most decks have been midrange as we've worked out how to make aggro and control flourish. Control has received some tools needed to get the job done, but any aggro that exists will certainly be slower than the norm. While I typically look for a four-drop to top my curve in traditional cube aggro, I keep an eye out for a couple quality five-drops to end the game for me, like Hoarding Dragon, Battlegrace Angel, or Mycoloth.
Recently, we've realized that spot removal has been too prevalent, especially that which hinders low-cost creatures (such as Feebleness and Patriarch's Desire), so we've tried to move to more interesting substitutions. We haven't had the opportunity to play since these changes, but I'm hoping the reduction of low-toughness-targeting removal will help low converted mana-cost creatures play a greater role.
Musing: a cube where all the basic lands have been replaced with (proxied) ABUR duals ~ enough that they can completely replace the land base for each player's deck.
-Rares and Mythics only
-Cube + Planechase "planes"
-Cube where you eliminate an entire color (and its hybrids/guilds) at random prior to drafting. "Colors" meaning WURBG + artifact (6 total). Sometimes you cut blue entirely. Sometimes you nix green. You could add onto this by removing additional colors from the pie with subsequent drafts -- ending at 2 colors in the final one.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
That which nourishes me, destroys me
10th at SCG: Syracuse (2014), GP:NJ Last-Chance Grinder Winner (2014):: Former Legacy Mod
I mean, hell, we're all on a forum for something that most people would describe as a "children's card game"...do what makes you happy. You are never too old to enjoy yourself.
I have made my cube to support tribal decks including zombies, soldiers and elves. My strangest idea was originally I tried to make the cube support samurai. The problem with samurai is they only come for the Kamigawa Block. I was also trying to make my cube support Spirits. At least they contiue to print creature cards that are spirits. Samurai on the other hand are limited to Kamigawa Block and are mostly white.
I have made my cube to support tribal decks including zombies, soldiers and elves. My strangest idea was originally I tried to make the cube support samurai. The problem with samurai is they only come for the Kamigawa Block. I was also trying to make my cube support Spirits. At least they contiue to print creature cards that are spirits. Samurai on the other hand are limited to Kamigawa Block and are mostly white.
There're probably enough support cards for a small, samurai tribal component:
Their crossover with humans, and all the "select a tribe" boosts like adaptive automaton, probably mean they can be made to work as a reasonable r/w tribe. Not sure what non-interactive samurai are worth adding to a tribal cube ~ samurai of the pale curtain, descendant of kiyomaro etc...
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
The trouble with a graveyard cube is balancing it across the colours. White in particular has very limited graveyard activity.
With a winston stack, grid draft, or some other kind of "open information" format, I think you could eschew perfect color balance and resultant issues around proper signaling. Also, the innistrad block's cycles of allied/enemy flashback costs, and odyssey's propensity for alt cost flashbacks I think means that decks could easily span 3-5 colors, while remaining ostensibly "black" as far as initial casting. You can always do doubletons of key cards, upping the proportion less graveyard-centric colors, like white.
I'd love to see some games between these kind of decks. It would really be a brain burner to constantly remind yourself of your graveyard triggers, and be wary of combat tricks from your opponent. Each player would need to lay our their graveyard the way dredge decks do, so that everything can be fairly scrutinized. Multiplayer would be even more nuts.
Cubes where all cards have the same casting cost. 1 has been done. (Mental Missstep is a house ) but higher ones could be interesting, especially if you find cards that refer to them.
Someone posted This combo cube a while back. I don't remember who. I wanted to make a combo cube but ultimately I couldn't come up with a way to do it that wasn't essentially solitaire. The ultimate problem is that the combo vs combo matchup isn't particularly interactive, and therefore isn't particularly interesting.
I use to play a format called "7 or more" with several friends a long time ago. Your spells must be CMC 7 or greater and it was fun for a while. Big cards were morph creatures and man lands (which kinda ruined the fun). But I thought about building a cube with 7 or more CMC to relive that experience.
I'm planning on making a zombie cube at some point. It will be VERY black heavy. Only zombies though, the other colors will be support colors. basically the idea is everyone is playing Bxx, BRx, BGx, BUx or something like that. That is the most interesting idea that I have been working on. first though, I need to finish my Big Box Pauper Cube... only about 2500 more commons to go...
I'm planning on making a zombie cube at some point. It will be VERY black heavy. Only zombies though, the other colors will be support colors. basically the idea is everyone is playing Bxx, BRx, BGx, BUx or something like that. That is the most interesting idea that I have been working on. first though, I need to finish my Big Box Pauper Cube... only about 2500 more commons to go...
I was thinking of doing something similar and calling it the Torment Cube, but I already maintain two cubes so it probably won't happen. I'm not a big fan of colour hate unless it's icing on an already good card (Chameleon Colossus), but I think this would be an interesting environment for such hosers to thrive.
EDIT: can't forget charms.
Huh. Neat! I didn't know that was a thing.
In my version, each player has their own two libraries. The total must sum to the minimum for the format (40 for cube, usually). You can add basic lands to your deck as normal, and they get randomized with the other land you drafted to go into your land library.
I worry that this change might degenerate into someone just putting 7 or fewer cards into their spell library, which without even including things like moxes and lotuses, would allow them to start with a first turn kill every game if they drafted the right cards. For that reason, I'm thinking the spell library should have a minimum of 20 cards, though I'm not sure if that solves the problem entirely.
Here's the link; kind of like a lazy person's cube. I guess this could be done using a regular cube, if you were somehow up for playing but too unmotivated to even do sealed.
I can't remember the name of it, but there was either a thread or a cube list, called something like the "options cube", where they were attempting exactly what you've suggested.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Thanks for this!
Neat idea.
The intent that I had was for all players to know what they were getting into before making their draft picks. And yeah, it means that the aggro decks never run out of steam, but I think that would make for an interesting format to explore.
What I've come up with so far:
Magic cubes
1) Hybrid cube. All the cards have a hybrid mana cost/ability. After Gatecrash, still ~60 cards short.
2) Mono-black cube. All the cards can be cast with only black mana. List is WIP.
3) Naya cube. No black or blue mana symbols. List WIP.
4) Rainbow Stairwell cube. No more than one card of any given mana cost. Full cycles only (cards aren't added until all 5 similar costs exist). List completed, acquiring cards.
5) Simple cube. French Vanilla creatures and one sentence spells. Idea phase.
6) Tribal cube. 16 creature types, and spells supporting them. Idea phase.
7) CMC 2 cube. List WIP.
8) Multi cube. ~45 unique cards, 4x 6x 8x or 12x. Acquiring cards.
9) Normal cube. What everyone has. Acquiring cards
Non-magic cubes
1) World of Warcraft
2) Pokemon
3) Magi-Nation
4) Dragonball Z
Still leaves me with 3 more to come up with.
My craziest idea, however, won't be part of the above.
The Hypercube:
Start with one of every magic card (or cut to 9810); This is tier 1. Draft normally (8 players only). 3-0 pool gets added to tier 2, 0-3 pool gets removed completely. The other pools get shuffled back into tier 1. Repeat until tier 1 is less than 360 cards. Repeat with tier 2, adding 3-0 to tier 3 etc.
9810 cards to start end up with a 360 card tier 5. 19890 cards to start end with a 360 card tier 6.
it's a high variance, long term project. But if I can get a dedicated group together it sounds amazing. But I'm crazy, so maybe it's just me =p
an earlier version of my hybrid cube was basically this, but I don't think I ever posted my list online. If I can find a hard copy I'll post it, but my file was lost to a virus.
The Modal Cube
I thought of another idea: low fantasy cube. Creatures can only be humans or real life animals.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Hey! That one's mine!
With that said, there have been some changes to the cube that I haven't edited in. Between my personal spreadsheet, my tappedout list, and this one, something's bound to fall through the cracks. I can provide more commentary on how the Modal Cube has been in the six months or so that we've been drafting it, if anyone cares.
EDIT: I'll take that "thank you" as a go-ahead to expand on the Modal Cube. It has certainly been a work in progress, partially because I wasn't playing back in Invasion or Odyssey Block (started in Onslaught, so at least I was close, I guess). Luckily, a lot of cards have been really inexpensive. At some points, we've had to sacrifice a modal card for something that performs. Even if a card provides lots of choice, if it's terrible, it'll just sit in the sideboard (I'm looking at you, Vitality Charm!). We've also been experimenting with cards that are less modal, but drastically alter how the two players interact. Quest for the Gemblades isn't terribly modal, but it causes great tension, especially with all the synergies available.
Modal Cube mimics the pace of a traditional booster draft more than a traditional cube. I haven't played a peasant cube, so I can't comment on any similarities there. From its creation, most decks have been midrange as we've worked out how to make aggro and control flourish. Control has received some tools needed to get the job done, but any aggro that exists will certainly be slower than the norm. While I typically look for a four-drop to top my curve in traditional cube aggro, I keep an eye out for a couple quality five-drops to end the game for me, like Hoarding Dragon, Battlegrace Angel, or Mycoloth.
Recently, we've realized that spot removal has been too prevalent, especially that which hinders low-cost creatures (such as Feebleness and Patriarch's Desire), so we've tried to move to more interesting substitutions. We haven't had the opportunity to play since these changes, but I'm hoping the reduction of low-toughness-targeting removal will help low converted mana-cost creatures play a greater role.
The Modal Cube is also on Cube Tutor!
GWEDH Asmira's WrathGW
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
-Cube + Planechase "planes"
-Cube where you eliminate an entire color (and its hybrids/guilds) at random prior to drafting. "Colors" meaning WURBG + artifact (6 total). Sometimes you cut blue entirely. Sometimes you nix green. You could add onto this by removing additional colors from the pie with subsequent drafts -- ending at 2 colors in the final one.
10th at SCG: Syracuse (2014), GP:NJ Last-Chance Grinder Winner (2014):: Former Legacy Mod
There're probably enough support cards for a small, samurai tribal component:
Godo, Bandit Warlord, Iizuka the Ruthless, Indebted Samurai, Isao, Enlightened Bushi, Kentaro, the Smiling Cat, Konda's Hatamoto, Nagao, Bound by Honor, Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho, Sensei Golden-Tail, Takeno, Samurai General
This has been brought up so many times now that someone has to have done this. Is there already a cube in the lists section that has this as a theme?
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
My 380 Beginners’ Cube on Cube Tutor
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
With a winston stack, grid draft, or some other kind of "open information" format, I think you could eschew perfect color balance and resultant issues around proper signaling. Also, the innistrad block's cycles of allied/enemy flashback costs, and odyssey's propensity for alt cost flashbacks I think means that decks could easily span 3-5 colors, while remaining ostensibly "black" as far as initial casting. You can always do doubletons of key cards, upping the proportion less graveyard-centric colors, like white.
I'd love to see some games between these kind of decks. It would really be a brain burner to constantly remind yourself of your graveyard triggers, and be wary of combat tricks from your opponent. Each player would need to lay our their graveyard the way dredge decks do, so that everything can be fairly scrutinized. Multiplayer would be even more nuts.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
So then cut white.
Maybe a 222-card, doubleton, 2CMC cube.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
I built a 180 card Artifacts matter cube but couldn't ever get my Fiancee to draft it, so I eventually scrapped it.
My MTGSalvation Cube Page (not always up to date, but sweet pics of my alters)
My MTGSalvation Cube Page (not always up to date, but sweet pics of my alters)
WWUGeist of Saint TraftUWW
UUBBLazav, Dimir MastermindBBUU
BRMalfegorRB
RGThromok the InsatiableGR
GGWWTrostani, Selesnya's VoiceWWGG
WBTeysa, Orzhov ScionBW
BGGGlissa, the TraitorGGB
GGUUPrime Speaker ZeganaUUGG
URJhoira of the GhituRU
RRWWAurelia, the WarleaderWWRR
UBRJeleva, Nephalias ScourgeRBU
I was thinking of doing something similar and calling it the Torment Cube, but I already maintain two cubes so it probably won't happen. I'm not a big fan of colour hate unless it's icing on an already good card (Chameleon Colossus), but I think this would be an interesting environment for such hosers to thrive.
The Modal Cube is also on Cube Tutor!
GWEDH Asmira's WrathGW
My MTGSalvation Cube Page (not always up to date, but sweet pics of my alters)