I figured I'd give the Collectives a try. I've been toying with the idea of throwing in a draw effect of some sort (maybe Underworld Connections or Asylum Visitor) as well, but I will try it without first. How have people been finding Collective Brutality?
Well, I've played with my cube now a few times, and I must say that every time has been a blast! The last time we had a 12-man draft, and I included a draft-matters card as a 16th card in every pack, along with the normal 10 Commons/3 Uncommons/1 Rare or Mythic/1 Transform card in every pack. The Conspiracy cards definately shake up the draft!
50 basic lands of every type was able to support all 12 players (thank god! Did not relish having to double sleeve more on the fly!).
So far the size hasn't been too unwieldy, with everyone helping to sort out their cards after the draft it went quickly. The longest part was creating the packs at the start, although I got a great tip from another player to use some larger baggies to hold the "packs" to keep them sealed and together.
I will be assembling a Ravnica plane cube at sometime, and I will probably run with a 15th card in the pack being either a gate or a shock-land or the Maze's End as well. I will probably still include gates within the common slots as well, to allow for being able to draft a Maze's End deck.
Now I just have to decide on permanent storage solutions for the cube, being that it, and the Ravnica one, will be extra large (it takes up 2 3-row boxes, nearly full.)
It's not really a cube, so to speak, but more of multiple draft formats under one roof. It is the entire Innistrad plane, mainly so that we can draft any version of Innistrad or Shadows formats that we want at the time, or we can do a crazy all in one version or even Limited Sealed. I also have around 200ish extra cards from Core and Supplemental products that are either Innistrad specific or else thematically fit and the "draft matters" cards from Conspiracy 1 and 2. I run with a 3/2/1/1 ratio for all the cards as well because it is a draft format rather than a singleton cube.
So my "Cube-ish" is nearly complete, almost 3000 cards in all (2929 cards, plus an unknown quantity of tokens). I have Perfect-Fitted all the cards, and I am waiting on the Dragon Shields, as they are ordered in, and should be here later this week.
So now I need some suggestions (if anyone has built something of this magnitude...). What can I hold this monstrosity in? Right now I am leaning towards 2 3-Row Boxes, and just decorating the crap out of the exterior, until I figure out a more permanent solution (which I am hoping will be a custom wood box of some style once I build up the funds again).
As well, what have people done to hold the packs of cards for the drafting? My wife is willing to do a sewing project for me if needed, but I'd like to see what people suggest for holding the 15 card draft packs. I figure I will start with 12 of them (for the 4 people that will try out the draft this weekend, barring sleeve delivery), but I need to figure out what "them" is, whether I need to make something, or buy something. I was wondering about using those plastic Ultra Pro containers because they come in various sizes, as long as they will hold the sleeved cards comfortably.
Thanks a lot, both of you! Those both helped immensely. Do you know off-hand if other supplementary products had unique cards? I know about the Portal trilogy, as well as Conspiracy, obviously. But do things like Planechase have unique cards (other than the planes and such), or Archenemy?
Well, now that I'm about 12 cards away from completing my first version of the plane cube (minus Eldritch Moon of course), I cam e back here, and lo and behold a whole lot of helpful responses! Thanks for all this, it has been great reading.
I decided on a 3/2/1/1 ratio so far, and it looks like it "should" work out. I have it all prefect fitted, now just need to buy regular sleeves and get the lands. How many do most people go with for their cube? I will be having 4-8 people drafting at a time, and was wondering if 50 of each basic should be enough.
I will be expecting to cut the chaff from the sets, but as I said, the plan at the beginning is to be able to draft any environment we want (Innistrad only, SOI only, or block draft, or the whole thing!) depending on our moods at the time. That may change after we get more experience drafting, but at least off the start it will give us a variety of options.
For sleeves, I have used MAX Protection for the perfect fit, and they should be fine enough for what I am doing. But for the outer sleeve, how have people found Dragon Shields? I can get the sleeves I need (almost 3000) for about $250 Canadian from my LGS, and was wondering if this is a good enough deal to support them? If I can save $5 or $20 by going online, I would rather support my LGS, but if I can get them (or other higher quality sleeves) from online for radically cheaper, I will go that route.
Right now, the plan is to put a small colored dot on the inner sleeves to aid in sorting quickly and creating packs. How do people do the Dual-Faced cards? Right now, I was going to shuffle them all up and randomly choose 1 per pack to add to it. Should they be different ratios than the 3/2/1?
And Kassow-Rossing, I just saw your post now. I would love to go through the sets sometime to figure out the applicable cards. I think the goal right now is to only use as many cards as would bolster Dark Ascension to Innistrad's size roughly. (40ish Commons, 30 Uncommons, 20 Rares and 4-6 Mythics) as well as to eliminate the reprinted cards from SOI and EMN. I will try and check back here more often, heh.
I was also wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of where I would find what cards from Core sets belong in the Innistrad plane. I know I would like to include cards like Odric, Master Tactician or Avacyn, Guardian Angel and Soul of Innistrad. Those are generally easy to find. But has anyone else done this sort of thing? Or do I just load up the sets in Gatherer and try to pick and choose the Innistrad-flavored cards?
Any help with the above questions or even with the original post would be greatly appreciated.
Hey everyone. I am building a cube for the first time, and reading up on how to do it. I've decided to build an Innistrad plane cube, with Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored, Shadows Over Innistrad and eventually Eldritch Moon. I was also thinking of including various cards from other sets that are one theme (like the Magic Origins Innistrad themed cards, as well as Soul of Innistrad from M15), but that will come after. The goal is to be able to run drafts using cards from any of the sets, or all together eventually. Right now I've been collecting up the Shadows cards, as it is the most recent set.
The reason I am going so big, is to mainly get experience with these draft environments, and then maybe pair down the cards to a more appropriate smaller cube later when I know what it is I am looking for. There are 4 of us that will play with it regularly, with at least 2-3 more that want in more infrequently. I can also round up another to fill out 8 if I need to.
Now my main issue is this:
What are the ratios of rarities I should include for a proper draft environment? I cannot find any write-ups that give an appropriate response to this. I have been gathering 4/2/1/1 right now, but for a draft environment, should that be 5/3/1/1 or 4/3/1/1 or even 2 rares and 1 mythic? Is there any other advice anyone can offer if they have done this before?
As well, I heard there was a way to "randomize" the packs to ensure not getting 3 or 4 of a card in one pack, but I can't find the writeup for it again. Something about putting numbers on the sleeves, and shuffling them together based on number or some such.
I was also toying with doing a Ravnica one later as well, but I figured I'd start with Innistrad due to attainability. Khans is also on the short list. (big ideas, whether I will get to them is another story). Thanks for the help.
Hello,
I was wondering if anyone can point me to a list of cards that have been unique to Commander decks (the "Tempt with..." series for example) as well as cards that have been reprinted from them (ie. Scavenging Ooze). I'm trying to collect them all, and would like to know if I'm missing any.
Short of going through every card in each set and cross referencing them with what is already out there, I can't seem to find a list of these cards.
Rarity also has an influence on this, which is too bad, since the "good bears" end up at higher rarities, driving up the cost of the game.
14 Swamp (261 Full Art)
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Mutavault
1 Dakmor Salvage
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Surgical Extraction
4 Collective Brutality
3 Fatal Push
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Raven's Crime
4 The Rack
4 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Pack Rat
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Pack Rat
2 Sun Droplet
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Fatal Push
2 Dismember
2 Pithing Needle
2 Bile Blight
1 Bitterblossom
1 Shrieking Affliction
I figured I'd give the Collectives a try. I've been toying with the idea of throwing in a draw effect of some sort (maybe Underworld Connections or Asylum Visitor) as well, but I will try it without first. How have people been finding Collective Brutality?
Well, I've played with my cube now a few times, and I must say that every time has been a blast! The last time we had a 12-man draft, and I included a draft-matters card as a 16th card in every pack, along with the normal 10 Commons/3 Uncommons/1 Rare or Mythic/1 Transform card in every pack. The Conspiracy cards definately shake up the draft!
50 basic lands of every type was able to support all 12 players (thank god! Did not relish having to double sleeve more on the fly!).
So far the size hasn't been too unwieldy, with everyone helping to sort out their cards after the draft it went quickly. The longest part was creating the packs at the start, although I got a great tip from another player to use some larger baggies to hold the "packs" to keep them sealed and together.
I will be assembling a Ravnica plane cube at sometime, and I will probably run with a 15th card in the pack being either a gate or a shock-land or the Maze's End as well. I will probably still include gates within the common slots as well, to allow for being able to draft a Maze's End deck.
Now I just have to decide on permanent storage solutions for the cube, being that it, and the Ravnica one, will be extra large (it takes up 2 3-row boxes, nearly full.)
So now I need some suggestions (if anyone has built something of this magnitude...). What can I hold this monstrosity in? Right now I am leaning towards 2 3-Row Boxes, and just decorating the crap out of the exterior, until I figure out a more permanent solution (which I am hoping will be a custom wood box of some style once I build up the funds again).
As well, what have people done to hold the packs of cards for the drafting? My wife is willing to do a sewing project for me if needed, but I'd like to see what people suggest for holding the 15 card draft packs. I figure I will start with 12 of them (for the 4 people that will try out the draft this weekend, barring sleeve delivery), but I need to figure out what "them" is, whether I need to make something, or buy something. I was wondering about using those plastic Ultra Pro containers because they come in various sizes, as long as they will hold the sleeved cards comfortably.
I decided on a 3/2/1/1 ratio so far, and it looks like it "should" work out. I have it all prefect fitted, now just need to buy regular sleeves and get the lands. How many do most people go with for their cube? I will be having 4-8 people drafting at a time, and was wondering if 50 of each basic should be enough.
I will be expecting to cut the chaff from the sets, but as I said, the plan at the beginning is to be able to draft any environment we want (Innistrad only, SOI only, or block draft, or the whole thing!) depending on our moods at the time. That may change after we get more experience drafting, but at least off the start it will give us a variety of options.
For sleeves, I have used MAX Protection for the perfect fit, and they should be fine enough for what I am doing. But for the outer sleeve, how have people found Dragon Shields? I can get the sleeves I need (almost 3000) for about $250 Canadian from my LGS, and was wondering if this is a good enough deal to support them? If I can save $5 or $20 by going online, I would rather support my LGS, but if I can get them (or other higher quality sleeves) from online for radically cheaper, I will go that route.
Right now, the plan is to put a small colored dot on the inner sleeves to aid in sorting quickly and creating packs. How do people do the Dual-Faced cards? Right now, I was going to shuffle them all up and randomly choose 1 per pack to add to it. Should they be different ratios than the 3/2/1?
And Kassow-Rossing, I just saw your post now.
Any help with the above questions or even with the original post would be greatly appreciated.
The reason I am going so big, is to mainly get experience with these draft environments, and then maybe pair down the cards to a more appropriate smaller cube later when I know what it is I am looking for. There are 4 of us that will play with it regularly, with at least 2-3 more that want in more infrequently. I can also round up another to fill out 8 if I need to.
Now my main issue is this:
What are the ratios of rarities I should include for a proper draft environment? I cannot find any write-ups that give an appropriate response to this. I have been gathering 4/2/1/1 right now, but for a draft environment, should that be 5/3/1/1 or 4/3/1/1 or even 2 rares and 1 mythic? Is there any other advice anyone can offer if they have done this before?
As well, I heard there was a way to "randomize" the packs to ensure not getting 3 or 4 of a card in one pack, but I can't find the writeup for it again. Something about putting numbers on the sleeves, and shuffling them together based on number or some such.
I was also toying with doing a Ravnica one later as well, but I figured I'd start with Innistrad due to attainability. Khans is also on the short list.
I was wondering if anyone can point me to a list of cards that have been unique to Commander decks (the "Tempt with..." series for example) as well as cards that have been reprinted from them (ie. Scavenging Ooze). I'm trying to collect them all, and would like to know if I'm missing any.
Short of going through every card in each set and cross referencing them with what is already out there, I can't seem to find a list of these cards.
If anyone can help me out, that would be great!