MTG Salvation

What I have learned from my recent Magic experience is that I like Limited, specifically drafting, a lot more than constructed. Sometimes, I like to play with others, such as the kids in my boy scout troop, and I probably will do this more as I go off to college.

I want to create a cube that recreates a specific draft environment (I want to do BFZ/OGW since that's what I have/will be getting a lot of through drafts), and I'm trying to figure out the way to do this. I have some ideas for the general format, which I will post here, but if you have any suggestions I'd love to see them. I know this is something that people do sometimes, but since it's the less popular than other cube types I have a hard time finding articles or threads about it.

My current idea for the cube goes like this: 360 cards, separated into groupings roughy based on what you get when you open a real booster pack.

24 "Rares": These will be big, iconic cards from the set (Planeswalkers, Eldrazi titans, etc.) as well as cards that have large power and you can build a deck around, but are still good on their own (like Emeria Shepard). I will not worry too much about making this be perfectly balanced colorwise, but I'll try to be close.

72 "Uncommons": These will be split up between the colors and colorless the best I can, with 10 or 20 being devoted to 1-2 cards per color combination. these cards are usually powerful, archetype defining, and/or flashy. They will come from uncommons and some of the less flashy or huge rares (like, for a random possible example, Barrage Tyrant). I'll try my best to keep it color balanced.

240 "Commons": Commons, uncommons, and maybe a few rares that will be recurring cards that support deck archetypes. All of these, unlike the above cards, come are not one-offs. Many come with 4 copies, some with 3 and some with 2. I will choose them based around how they can fit certain archetypes, be fun to draft, balance colors, and make certain strategies playable. For example, if I want ingest to be a viable archetype, I'd probably put 4 copies of a lot of ingesters. I'll try to be perfectly color balanced.

24 Non-basic lands: These would provide mana-fixing and utility. I'm considering adding the 5 man-lands in here.

I'm not too big on specifics since Oath hasn't had its cards revealed yet.

Each card type would be put in a different sleeve color so I could make packs that fit the 1:3:10:1 ratio of real packs.

Any thoughts? Better ways? Are there too few cards for this to work? I've never made a cube before, so I'm not entirely sure how to go about this.

http://mtgmirror.com/#/

We've had a sealed sim, now we have a draft sim.

You guys do know that rares aren't there for the sole purpose of being good, right?

...You guys do know that some sets are supposed to be weaker in power level than others, right?

Anyways, a lot of their decisions seemed geared towards making limited fun more than serving constructed. I don't think it's a problem that rares aren't game winning bombs, considering how not having game winning bombs is something that makes constructed more balanced. Besides, it's more the job of rares to be complex and flavorful than straight up powerful.

So I notice that they seem to be trying to provide UG converge as a draftable archetype in BFZ, but we have yet to see much mana fixing for all 5 colors, even though it's something we seem to be expected to have access to. We have 1 1/2 5 card cycles of rare dual lands, and that's about it. Are there uncommon/common lands yet unannounced? Are there 2 mana mana dorks that provide various colors? Basic land searching? There's got to be enough for it to at least be viable in limited, so there's got to be a lot we don't see.

So according to this thread (and I only skimmed it), a summary:

Limited will suck.
Constructed already sucks.
This block will suck.
NEXT block will suck.
The next FOUR blocks will suck.
Theros sucked.
Magic has ALWAYS sucked.
Zendikar is ruined.
The Eldrazi have been ruined.
Magic is already ruined.

And the reasons are:

Casuals
Spikes
Expeditions
MaRo
MaRo's T-shirts/Jew-ness/Tumblr
Design
Development
Hasbro
Doom Blade/Counterspell/Path to Exile
and, last but not least,
Exchange rates

You know what? I've played competitive Magic for years, and I'm a judge, and I can't wait to play/run tourneys with some of these cards. Because they're new and neat-looking and this is a fun game.

If you hate everything about this set because reasons, then you can play Modern where archetypes have already been established and new cards coming out don't matter. Me and thousands of others are going to play with new cards because we like making new decks for new Standards and Eldrazi are friggin' neato. And yeah, my Grixis 'drazi deck wouldn't beat, say, MUD from a couple years ago or UB Zombies before that or Caw Blade before that or Erhnamgeddon before that ad infinitum. But I can't wait to play it.

Maybe when a game stops being fun for you, it's time to stop playing, chums. Just a thought.

If you ever get 4 of these in the yard and have march from the tomb, you get to drain your opponent for 16. Living the dream.

You may have misread Murkstrider; it bounces a creature on the battlefield, not the graveyard.

Quote from flyingtiger »

Quote from Canadian Guy of Wrath »

Quote from Barook »

Quote from ThyLordQ »

And finally, the biggest thing that I've been seeing, especially from MaRo's most recent tumblr posts is that, the placement of BFZ on their new block chart caused problems.
They went from three sets to two, and that caused a lot of condensing, and that caused space issues. When you design more than you have room for, problems happen.

If you condense 3 sets into 2, shouldn't there be more good cards instead of less? Born from the Gods suffered because they put all the good stuff into Journey into Nyx.

The set is bad and they know it's bad, that's why they put those ugly, half-baked Expedition lands in last minute to have a seller which the masses are going to gobble up anyway, regardless of quality.

No because a set only has room for so many good cards

Because according to so many on here anything good in Limited only is not actually good

OK, then why even design for constructed formats at all? Why even have a Standard when Block exists? Why even allow Modern and EDH to be sanctioned at FNM? So much of the game already revolves around Limited...even Modern Masters, which are REPRINT sets, have to be draftable. I understand that not 100% of any given set can be good in Limited and constructed, but for BFZ that percentage has got to be in the low single digits.

Considering this kind of reaction is common when a set releases I will reserve judgement

It's certainly possible that due to the switch to the 2 set blocks BFZ block might suffer for it but we don't know yet

And so much of the game revolves around Limited because it's the main driver of sales of packs (and it's awesome)

Quote from SilvosRogueElemental »

I think MaRo has lost his touch. So many asinine changes and a shift to 'Magic: Gathering Casuals' is making for boring sets. I had high hopes for BFZ because the original Zendikar block was so fun and interesting. All things considered, I'd say BFZ is the most boring set in a very long time. And that's saying something, considering how boring BNG was.

And how in the hell did MaRo decide 1-drop mana dorks are too powerful for Magic? That's completely idiotic.

He didn't.
Development did.

Quote from clan_iraq »

I'm a little mystified this thread was derailed by people harping on about some totally tangential deck draw bad logic instead of the punisher mechanic as usual. Aren't we supposed to have 10 pages of people flaming each other and browbeat being linked about 50 times?

The real question is if it is okay to let the person draw if you first mill the top three cards of his library.

I'm working on a longer post, but yes, I would not go 'all in combo' as you can see Twin cannot function that way, nor would I go all in creatures, as you then will start being unable to defend your combo.

I like the idea of a a transformational sideboard, either starting as a GW creature rush with the combo taking up as little space as possible, or having the combo be the main focus, defending and setting it up like Twin.

Really though, I think with this combo Bant can play all 3, as either Combo, Aggro, or Midrange.

Why so much hate? This is the rise of the uncommon I hoped for since they widened the number of uncommons. They are now the constructed backbone of the set, not the rares. This will reduce the price of building standard while expeditions keep pack prices high so wizards/secondaries/hoarders get what they want.

I'm actually really excited for this set. Looks like a really good limited format and we'll see a few new standard archetypes pop up.

Also modern allies might be fun to build and will be good enough for the FNM level of play.

I think the problem with this set is that it was hyped way more than it should have. It is not going to be one of the best sets ever made, but it is definitely above the average set. Its also a bit painful coming into this right after Tarkir, since the Tarkir block was a masterpiece.

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