I've mentioned before in a few other places a member of my playgroup's desire to see combo exist in a cube that isn't a dedicated combo cube. I have two ideas for this, but was hoping to pull in some ideas from the hive mind.
The first idea is to create a proxy very similar to split cards like Fire//Ice. The combos in the cube to consist only of two card combos. The proxy would have both card faces showing on the card. After the draft, the player who drafted the proxy would turn in the proxy card and one other card that shares a color and type with either of the two cards on the proxy. For example, if a drafter grabbed the Splinter Twin/Deceiver Exarch combo card, they would need to turn in either a blue creature or a red enchantment along with the combo card to receive both pieces of the combo. The turn in policy increases the draft skill necessary to grab these combo cards so that a player isn't getting free cards and making their draft picks matter less.
The second idea is to create a generic Combo Piece proxy that if drafted can be turned in for any one part of the combos supported in the cube's token box. This would allow the support of larger combos if the person thinks they can pull it off. The only downside I see to this is if you only draft one Combo Piece card, it was a wasted card, or if only one shows up in the draft it is a wasted card slot. This generally pulls me toward the first idea.
What do you guys think of these two methods? If you have any other ideas please share them as well.
I really don't like either option. If it doesn't work in a regular draft, and the card doesn't pull it's own weight, I don't want to see it in the cube. Trading in card vouchers for combo pieces doesn't isn't something that interests me at all.
Unfortunately that eliminates the opportunity to draft traditional combo in the cube semi-consistently unless it's a combo cube. I'd like to find a way to support it without hurting the rest of the cube or changing it completely.
We actually played Time Vault / Voltaic Key at 450 and 540. It was awesome at 540 and not that great at 450. We randomly made it work at 540 by someone first or second picking one of the pieces then hoping the other one would wheel to them. Both cards actually aren't terrible on their own and have uses.
The best deck in the history of our cubing playgroups actually happened with the 450. It included the following:
Time Vault
Voltaic Key
Wheel of Fortune
Timetwister
Mox Sapphire
Mox Ruby
Mox Jet
Memory Jar
Tinker
Tezzeret, the Seeker
Yeah, he won on turn 3 or 4 every game, 3-0 (6-0'd) the draft then played a bunch of games afterwards. It was a pretty legendary deck. He opened two moxes and the Time Vault, for those of you wondering.
I had a similar idea when I came up with the two combo ideas. I called it a constructed cube. It would be an entire cube designed around popular decks from all eras of magic. You do exactly like you said. Have one card represent a package. Fun idea but it would be a nightmare to balance.
We ran Time Vault and Voltaic Key for a long time, and it was fine as is. Usually the cards would be a dead card in draft, but enough playables isn't exactly a problem in Cube. We ultimately cut them because Panoptic Mirror and Time Walks (Time Warp, Temporal Manipulation, and obv. Time Walk) were actually a better combo usually since Mirror wasn't dead w/o it's mating piece, while still able to combo later when drawn (and time walks are never bad).
You could also try Rotisserie draft, at least the first and last player always (except for the first pick) get to chose two cards uninterrupted. Those picks could easily be (2 piece) combo picks if the players choose to. Brave players could also just pick the Vault early and hope that even though hatepicking is a problem in this format the Key wheels because nobody wants to be the poor fellow who actually has to waste their pick on hating... but that's more unlikely
This sounds like the best idea by far. You could seed any number of two-card combos, even quirky ones where neither card would normally see the light of day. The power level would be self-balancing, in that some players might choose to use up an early pick taking one half of a combo, while other observant players could put a halt to that by wasting their pick hate drafting the latter half.
The rotisserie idea is definitely something I can try with my group to see if that is enough to satisfy the combo cravings. It does sound like the simplest solution. I'm going to try my first idea as well to see if it works well enough in a normal draft environment.
Another idea (one that I want to toy with myself, once my knock out most of my wishlist and the staples I'm missing) is that rather than focus on specific 2-3 card combos, put more engine or combo-ish cards in the cube that may not go with specific cards to form a combo, but can do broken things in the right situation.
My thinking being that if you just shove it all in blender, then SOME broken stuff is bound to happen. It already happens without it (almost every time I draft I come across an interaction I hadn't considered or planned in my cube), but this is just trying to jump-start the process. It's likely that a lot of cards like this that you try out won't last, but some are just too fun that you're willing to tolerate a low main-deck percentage just because of their potential.
I've mentioned before in a few other places a member of my playgroup's desire to see combo exist in a cube that isn't a dedicated combo cube. I have two ideas for this, but was hoping to pull in some ideas from the hive mind.
The first idea is to create a proxy very similar to split cards like Fire//Ice. The combos in the cube to consist only of two card combos. The proxy would have both card faces showing on the card. After the draft, the player who drafted the proxy would turn in the proxy card and one other card that shares a color and type with either of the two cards on the proxy. For example, if a drafter grabbed the Splinter Twin/Deceiver Exarch combo card, they would need to turn in either a blue creature or a red enchantment along with the combo card to receive both pieces of the combo. The turn in policy increases the draft skill necessary to grab these combo cards so that a player isn't getting free cards and making their draft picks matter less.
The second idea is to create a generic Combo Piece proxy that if drafted can be turned in for any one part of the combos supported in the cube's token box. This would allow the support of larger combos if the person thinks they can pull it off. The only downside I see to this is if you only draft one Combo Piece card, it was a wasted card, or if only one shows up in the draft it is a wasted card slot. This generally pulls me toward the first idea.
What do you guys think of these two methods? If you have any other ideas please share them as well.
Image leeching replaced.
—Lanxal
360 Unpowered Cube | Cubetutor
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
360 Unpowered Cube | Cubetutor
The best deck in the history of our cubing playgroups actually happened with the 450. It included the following:
Time Vault
Voltaic Key
Wheel of Fortune
Timetwister
Mox Sapphire
Mox Ruby
Mox Jet
Memory Jar
Tinker
Tezzeret, the Seeker
Yeah, he won on turn 3 or 4 every game, 3-0 (6-0'd) the draft then played a bunch of games afterwards. It was a pretty legendary deck. He opened two moxes and the Time Vault, for those of you wondering.
Blimpy's Aggro-Focused Cube (powered 360)
I'm always open to suggestions on how to improve my cube. Take a look and ask a question, or give a constructive critique whenever you can.
360 Unpowered Cube | Cubetutor
:drooling:
Unpowered 540 Cube
About Me
360 Unpowered Cube | Cubetutor
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=385729
Isochron Scepter is a good card in it's own right, and if you want you can put a Orim's Chant or Counterspell on it. (If you put in Orim's chant, you might want to consider Staying Power)
Life from the Loam + Strip Mine is very good, and it still is a decent card by itself
If your cube is a bit slower
Earthcraft is an interesting engine, and wins with Squirrel Nest
Trade List
This sounds like the best idea by far. You could seed any number of two-card combos, even quirky ones where neither card would normally see the light of day. The power level would be self-balancing, in that some players might choose to use up an early pick taking one half of a combo, while other observant players could put a halt to that by wasting their pick hate drafting the latter half.
360 Unpowered Cube | Cubetutor
Cards like...Academy Rector, Future Sight, Mind's Desire, Buried Alive, Ill-Gotten Gains, Living Death, Goblin Welder, Sneak Attack, Defense of the Heart, Fastbond, Life from the Loam, Natural Order, Oath of Druids (admittedly too narrow), Pattern of Rebirth, Mirari's Wake, Isochron Scepter, Lion's Eye Diamond, Memory Jar, Sundial of the Infinite, Trinisphere, Gaea's Cradle, Tolarian Academy, and others come to mind.
Along with extra fast-mana that you might not ordinarily run (Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, etc and extra tutors (Grim Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Intuition, etc).
You could run wishes that could not only grab cards from your sideboard, but also the undrafted portion of the cube.
You could also try jam-packing every ritual, Helm of Awakening, and then the three best storm kill-conditions in Brain Freeze, Tendrils of Agony, and Empty the Warrens--but I found close to no success with this.
My thinking being that if you just shove it all in blender, then SOME broken stuff is bound to happen. It already happens without it (almost every time I draft I come across an interaction I hadn't considered or planned in my cube), but this is just trying to jump-start the process. It's likely that a lot of cards like this that you try out won't last, but some are just too fun that you're willing to tolerate a low main-deck percentage just because of their potential.
And, like others have said, try and brainstorm some combos with cards that aren't awful on their own. Isochron Scepter + Orim's Chant is a hit here. Once I get a Mirari's Wake, I'm going to find room for Palinchron--which also goes well with Recurring Nightmare. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and an untapper was also mentioned. Even Time Vault isn't bad in a stax/prison deck without Voltaic Key.
You're also going to want anti-combo cards like Gaddock Teeg, graveyard hate, versatile removal at instant speed, good counters, etc.
Hope this helps!
My cube thread!