Peasant is a defined thing, I don't really understand adding rares permanently but not just making a powered cube.
If it's more than just lands you're talking about, then it's a pretty big step budget-wise from peasant to powered. Not to mention it basically becomes a completely different game. Additionally, starting out as a peasant cube if you want to make a budget "normal cube" isn't a bad idea.
If you're talking about just lands, most people that run painlands seem to do so for the benefit of aggro, since bouncelands kind of suck at that job.
Lots of stuff is really preference, unless your goal is to use the absolute most powerful cards available. I know I have some subpar picks in my cube due to me liking the card(s) (Like most people won't run all 10 signets, or I have the 5 Affinity for (insert basic land) artifact creatures from Mirrodin).
Yeah, I can definitely see that there's room for personality when looking through lists. I'm just worried about my personal preference(and my inexperience with the format) in relation to balance.
Edit: Spent the better part of the day updating and re-organizing my cube thread and Google spreadsheet. Fairly satisfied with how it looks at the moment.
Thanks for the input. I'm updating my cube after basically doing nothing with it for 2 years (blasphemous, I know) and slowly realizing that I have no idea what I'm doing.
On the topic of Guildgates, I only prefer DGM for Golgari and Orzhov.
I'm not suggesting that you run all of them, just letting you know what's there to use.
As far as how your sort your lands goes, most people tend to include cycles (ex. Vivids/Bounce Lands) in their land section along with lands that aren't aligned to a color, while putting cards like Treetop Village in their respective color. I'd sort it however you feel most comfortable having it laid out though.
Amazing Thread. Have some stuff for donation though, I probably won't be able to get anything mailed for a week or so and most cards have some slight wear.
Cube Size: 440
Type of Cube: Peasant+
Average Number of Players: 2-4
Card Selection
Proxies: Yes.
Portal: Yes.
"Un" Cards: Yes.
Banned Cards: Library, Sol Ring, Elephant Hammer, Skullclamp and Soltari dudes w/ protection.
Errata/House rules: Booster Tutor lets you search a 15 card pack from the leftover pool of cards.
You get 3 additional copies of Squadron Hawk when you draft it.
Cube Design
Standard or Multiplayer: Standard
Sideboards?: Yes.
Cards Sorted As Played/As Written: As Played with hybrids counting as half of a card of both of the colors that it's in.
I refer to my cube as "Peasant+" because while it is comprised mostly of C/U there are a few rares.
Savannah Lions - There's a functional reprint of this card at U in the form of Elite Vanguard.
Painlands - Mana fixing for aggro at C/U is pretty poor so, I run these in non-blue color pairs and bouncelands in blue color pairs.
City of Brass - This was printed at U3 in Arabian Nights, technically making it an uncommon.
Serendib Efreet - Same as above expect printed at U2 so slightly less legitimate but still technically an uncommon.
Tendo Ice Bridge - No real justification for this one.
The tricky thing about tribal themes is that they are linear. This means that there might be only one person drafting merfolk at the table, and so that person and only that person wants all the merfolk. That makes the draft fairly non-interactive once people choose their tribes and also means that you are at the mercy of what subset of good tribal cards for your tribe there is in the pool being drafted.
Wizards 'solved' this problem of non-interactive drafts in Lorwyn block by creating crossovers with
a: race/class synergies, so you are have more than one linear theme to maximise in your deck, and
b: changelings, which anyone in that colour can benefit from
The downside with Lorwyn block is that it created overly complex board positions (you had to know what effects all of your opponents 'lords' on the battlefield were generating, as well as predict outcomes shold some lords die unexpectedly). But it's the best way this problem has been solved so far.
Or you can look at Onslaught block, with Timberwatch Elf and Sparksmith banned. That was a good block to draft.
I see what you mean by non-interactive and I had thought about that a bit. I think I would have to support 5 races and 5 classes w/out enough in any one tribe to support a deck to make it semi-interactive but, I'm not sure that's something I want to do. I think that maybe a peasant cube might provide a better overall experience for me/my group.
For the organizing, you'll probably have to do it by hand, or at least I did. I just grabbed all the cards sorted them by color and casting cost and typed them one by one into my cube thread. It's really not that bad (takes like three hours) and it helps you to become more familiar with your cube.
I'm having more trouble with the actual building part, and my collection isn't large enough to make my entire cube and I know that I'll have to include some cards I don't own. Sorry, I should have mentioned that in the OP.
I don't support tribal decks in my cube, even some cards randomly have synergies with cards tat are good on their own, like a Siegegang Commander that sacrifices a dying Chameleon Colossus or a Virdian Shaman benefiting from Imperious Perfect, so I might not be the best person to ask, but Slivers in limited can be really dumb, especially if both players have a bunch of them.
2) Is this good enough for you or do you want further analysis of your cube? The list can be exported for Magic Workstation, which has plenty of filters, but you have to save it @ deckstats instead of MWS, because the MWS files destroy the existing sort order of the cards.
I can sort your cube "semiautomatically" by card type and converted manacost, if you provide me with a list that is ordered by color.
I really like that website you posted. Especially that you can separate the list and edit the cards' costs. I also appreciate your offer to sort my cube for me but, there's no reason I should have you spend your time doing something I can do for myself.
Thank you all for your responses. I'm going change to a peasant cube, I think that will provide me with what I want. Time to look at some other cubes and start building. See ya all again when I finish assembling my cube.
Hey there, been lurking around these forums for a while and (somewhat) frequenting the proxy threads. I have a few questions about assembling and organizing a cube. I was originally going to make a "normal" powered cube and proxy expensive cards but I think I would eventually like to own all of the actual cards in my cube. I saw some of the tribal cubes here and loved the idea, so I figured I'd go with that but, I have a few questions.
1.) For my cube I figured I would do 6 main tribes being: soldiers, goblins, merfolk, zombies, elves and slivers. Does this sound like it would work well or should I include other "sub-themes/tribes" as well?
2.) I've tried a few different programs for organizing and compiling my cube but none of them seem to do the trick for me. MSE is nice and, having to make each card isn't terrible (already did one cube in it) but it doesn't really offer much that a spreadsheet doesn't. OCTGN has some nice filters that make it very easy to sift through cards and I dont have to click a link to see each card individually, (though it only shows one at a time) I can just scroll through with the arrow keys, but the decklist sidebar is rather disappointing. It only organizes the cards by the order you put them in the deck and to increase the length of the list I have to shrink the card image (I need to be able to see the card images, for whatever reason I just can't look at rules text by itself). What do you use to organize your cubes?
Thanks in advance for your help and sorry for the long 2nd question, I tend to ramble on.
Every format follows the 4 cards per deck rule, even casual.
Quote from Wizards »
Freeform is a casual Magic Online format that allows all sets and cards. Regular deckbuilding rules are relaxed; decks can contain any number of copies of a card; multiple Vanguard cards may be included. The only restriction is a 40-card minimum deck.
There are no cards banned in Freeform. You can even play the promotional Gleemox card (despite it saying that it's banned)!
If it's more than just lands you're talking about, then it's a pretty big step budget-wise from peasant to powered. Not to mention it basically becomes a completely different game. Additionally, starting out as a peasant cube if you want to make a budget "normal cube" isn't a bad idea.
If you're talking about just lands, most people that run painlands seem to do so for the benefit of aggro, since bouncelands kind of suck at that job.
I think I'd be just as happy having Mask of Memory most of the time and I would agree on Dimir being pretty packed already.
Yeah, I can definitely see that there's room for personality when looking through lists. I'm just worried about my personal preference(and my inexperience with the format) in relation to balance.
Edit: Spent the better part of the day updating and re-organizing my cube thread and Google spreadsheet. Fairly satisfied with how it looks at the moment.
On the topic of Guildgates, I only prefer DGM for Golgari and Orzhov.
Or about running both over Truefire Paladin?
The pants cannot hold that which magic commands.
Zendikar Refuges
Shards Panoramas
Shards Tri-Lands
Mirage Fetches
Lorwyn Vivids
As far as how your sort your lands goes, most people tend to include cycles (ex. Vivids/Bounce Lands) in their land section along with lands that aren't aligned to a color, while putting cards like Treetop Village in their respective color. I'd sort it however you feel most comfortable having it laid out though.
Hope that helps.
To mabberman
Hinder
Fire//Ice GB
To mrmaul558
Skullclamp
Kami of Ancient Law
To tomchaps
Loxodon Warhammer
Dauthi Slayer
Sakura-Tribe Elder
To killem2
Skullclamp
To Simply Lemonade
Loxodon Warhammer
To Arven
Hymn to Tourach Quinton Hoover art
Rolling Thunder
Skeletal Scrying
To Onslaught35
Nezumi Graverobber
Bonesplitter
Electrolyze
Lightning Helix
To meep94324
Loam Lion
Thieving Magpie
Nezumi Graverobber
Bonesplitter
Will update first post with subtractions and post back when everything is sent out.
White:
Arrest x1 Scars x1 Mirrodin x1 MM
Disenchant MM
Pacifism x5 8th/9th
Kami of Ancient Law x3
Akrasan Squire
Blue:
Thirst for Knowledge
Remove Soul x5 8th/9th
Calcite Snapper x4
Thought Courier 9th
Compulsive Research
Frantic Search
Willbender x2
Repeal x5
Mana Leak x8 8th/9th
Black:
Terror Mirrodin
Chainer's Edict
Innocent Blood
Smother x2 WWK
Hymn to Tourach FE Scott Kirschner art
Red:
Flametongue Kavu Planeshift
Stone Rain x5 CHK
Hearth Kami x6
Green:
Viridian Shaman 8th
Llanowar Elves 9th
Arbor Elf x2
Sakura-Tribe Elder x2
Kodama's Reach x2
Artifact:
Bonesplitter x1
Selesnya Signet x2
Orzhov Signet x2
Dimir Signet x2
Izzet Signet x2
Gruul Signet x2
Multi-colored:
Lightning Helix x2 Planechase
Land:
Boros Garrison x7 4 Rav 3 Planechase
Gruul Turf x5
Dimir Aqueduct x5
Selesnya Sanctuary
Gold Bordered:
Urza's Rage x2
Fire//Ice x2
Counterspell x4
Duress x3
Pyroclasm
Also, if you're looking for any other Champions/Betrayers common/uncommon there's a good chance I have it.
Type of Cube: Peasant+
Average Number of Players: 2-4
Card Selection
Proxies: Yes.
Portal: Yes.
"Un" Cards: Yes.
Banned Cards: Library, Sol Ring, Elephant Hammer, Skullclamp and Soltari dudes w/ protection.
Errata/House rules: Booster Tutor lets you search a 15 card pack from the leftover pool of cards.
You get 3 additional copies of Squadron Hawk when you draft it.
Cube Design
Standard or Multiplayer: Standard
Sideboards?: Yes.
Cards Sorted As Played/As Written: As Played with hybrids counting as half of a card of both of the colors that it's in.
I refer to my cube as "Peasant+" because while it is comprised mostly of C/U there are a few rares.
Savannah Lions - There's a functional reprint of this card at U in the form of Elite Vanguard.
Painlands - Mana fixing for aggro at C/U is pretty poor so, I run these in non-blue color pairs and bouncelands in blue color pairs.
City of Brass - This was printed at U3 in Arabian Nights, technically making it an uncommon.
Serendib Efreet - Same as above expect printed at U2 so slightly less legitimate but still technically an uncommon.
Tendo Ice Bridge - No real justification for this one.
Visual Spoiler
06/25/13
Cut most of green aggro.
Pushing blue aggro/tempo and Golgari graveyard stuff.
05/04/13
Huge Update and Reorganization
03/22/14
Born of the Gods update
Misc changes
I see what you mean by non-interactive and I had thought about that a bit. I think I would have to support 5 races and 5 classes w/out enough in any one tribe to support a deck to make it semi-interactive but, I'm not sure that's something I want to do. I think that maybe a peasant cube might provide a better overall experience for me/my group.
I'm having more trouble with the actual building part, and my collection isn't large enough to make my entire cube and I know that I'll have to include some cards I don't own. Sorry, I should have mentioned that in the OP.
Aye, I noticed some cross-tribe soldiers and a fair amount of Merfolk Soldiers in particular.
I really like that website you posted. Especially that you can separate the list and edit the cards' costs. I also appreciate your offer to sort my cube for me but, there's no reason I should have you spend your time doing something I can do for myself.
Thank you all for your responses. I'm going change to a peasant cube, I think that will provide me with what I want. Time to look at some other cubes and start building. See ya all again when I finish assembling my cube.
1.) For my cube I figured I would do 6 main tribes being: soldiers, goblins, merfolk, zombies, elves and slivers. Does this sound like it would work well or should I include other "sub-themes/tribes" as well?
2.) I've tried a few different programs for organizing and compiling my cube but none of them seem to do the trick for me. MSE is nice and, having to make each card isn't terrible (already did one cube in it) but it doesn't really offer much that a spreadsheet doesn't. OCTGN has some nice filters that make it very easy to sift through cards and I dont have to click a link to see each card individually, (though it only shows one at a time) I can just scroll through with the arrow keys, but the decklist sidebar is rather disappointing. It only organizes the cards by the order you put them in the deck and to increase the length of the list I have to shrink the card image (I need to be able to see the card images, for whatever reason I just can't look at rules text by itself). What do you use to organize your cubes?
Thanks in advance for your help and sorry for the long 2nd question, I tend to ramble on.
Standardize + Peer Pressure
Pemmin's Aura + Bloom Tender
Staff of Domination + Any multi-mana producer
Bloodbond March + Buried Alive (Add Kokusho for extra zing)
Privileged Position + Privileged Position
Rakka Mar + Intruder Alarm (Need a BoP or Paradise Mantle as well.)
Bringer of the White Dawn + Mindslaver
Chandra Ablaze + Painter's Servant
Conspiracy + Seahunter
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Resources.aspx?x=magic/rules/freeform
That being said, if I did play freeform I'd probably play something like this.