I still don't understand why wizards is playing it so conservatively with the weird foil treatments on their cards. The Force of Will tcg had really neat, elaborate "etched" foils years before wizards started dipping their toes into alt foil styles. There are probably production considerations, and I guess I could understand wizards being phobic about producing a stinker foil cycle (not that they haven't released some questionable frame styles over the years). Just puzzles me why they're so late to the game on interesting, creative foil treatments.
Arguments about 60 card casual vs commander precons aside, I'm pretty dismayed they're doing another round of 4 decks right after strixhaven's 5. Assuming they're $40 again, this will be a massive strain on the wallet trying to keeping up with 3 constructed sets (strix, MH2, ARF), plus an annual commander release (C21), plus another annual commander-sized release.
I wish they'd stick a bit closer to the release + 2 $20 commander deck model. Those commander decks, IMO, have been exceptional products in terms of value and deck quality. Zendikar and Kaldheim's were really well designed.
Thanks for the great write up! It's certainly an interesting, flavorful set but I'm frankly glad it doesn't have too much going on for it, cube-wise. I'm still trying to catch my breath from 2019-2020!
I have been working on a "board game/box set" of Pauper/Peasant Commander decks since Dominaria.
First Thalisse and now Araumi give great build-around commanders at uncommon for color pairs that only had weak options before. Love it!
I used to maintain a pauper edh cube years ago. I might have to dust off that idea again after this set drops. There are some fantastic new legends at uncommon, and the mono colored partner mechanic would really help smooth out some issues in the draft department.
The black, red, and green mythic flip lands all appeal to me, but I don't think any of them are must includes. I may swap them in as I pick them up incidentally from pack cracking or trades.
Thanks for the reply and interesting cube proposals. I agree completely on the opportunities for flavor and lore "wins" with this format. With some thought and care crafting packs, I'm sure some great stories could be built off the back of magic variants like planechase; really "boardgame-afying" magic. For instance, theme packs depicting the old walkers, weatherlight crew, phyrexians, and other side factions + planechase for a "weatherlight saga jumpstart cube" would be an amazing achievement in set building!
Based on the proposal you've written above, you'd be dispensing with all the rarity distributions in normal jumpstart packs, and going straight to high powered archetypes in each?
I'd be interested personally, but I think the traffic on this site has died down to the point where there might not be enough interaction for the effort. I think you'd probably get a higher volume of feedback posting on one of the reddit cube forums.
Thanks for the response! I could definitely envision your two dual decks scaled down to this format and plenty of your other ideas fleshed out. I see from your inclusion of turbo fog and nic fit that you were also thinking about how to do legacy/modern archetype and combo package themes. These could actually lead to some very interesting decks, as plenty of competitive constructed decks over the years have just been grafting one successful archetype on top of another, leading to a new deck; thopter sword + dark depths is the one that first came to mind for me.
I love that there's really no limit to the specificity of themes, including completely arbitrary artist packages or even people/objects featured in the artwork (I remember there was an old edh deck thread of "women looking to the left").
After working on a few samples, I think the main design constraint is really ramp and color fixing, and having to make sure that there aren't too many nonbos lurking in potential pairings. The windstorm I included in the Surrak deck would most likely be a dead card if the player also landed up with wizard's above the clouds or pegasus themes.
A long time ago, when I was busy building up my collection of draft sims, I was extremely interested in the concept of set-specific, minor archetypes, such as Avacyn Restored's "loner." These were the kinds of archetypes that were way too insular or under-powered to ever make their way into a standard cube environment, but were still interesting and flavorful. With the advent of Jumpstart it seems like there are some great opportunities to craft unique and interesting "themes" for use in an ultra fast and casual cube variant.
I'm creating the following thread as a space to post Jumpstart cubes, decklists (themes), and even just lists of theme ideas folks have thought up for this format.
Below are a few sample themes I cooked up in my spare time. Warning, they are DUMB, but the format has definitely got my juices flowing for concepts that would be difficult to pull off in cube, or even in EDH. So far, I've been conforming to most of WotC's design principles for the jumpstart product: low-ish power level (1-3 rares max), theme trumps optimal card choices (mix of commons and uncommons), 8/5/7 creature/spell/land split, budget friendly, and with some effort made to help themes "mix" together. Like regular cube, I'm sure sky's the limit on how crazy you could make themes, unshackled by cost, rarity, or card availability constraints ("Mox Theme").
Now that the set's been spoiled, and we know the composition of packs, just curious if Jumpstart has gotten anyone thinking about variants or implications for the cube format? I can see a lot of ways for a casual or budget cube designer to run with this:
1. Remove duplicate themes from a box, keep the deck lists, sleeve up the remainder, and run this as a draft sim. Perhaps collecting additional themes that weren't present in the first box.
2. Refine, add to, and tune certain themes, so they're either more powerful or just function more smoothly.
3. Create entirely new themes.
4. Work on adding more "glue" cards to the packs, so there's more synergy between each random pack pairing.
5. Since most sets will have a featured tribe, character, and/or mechanic, add new packs to the "cube" with each release.
In the interest of not having to sleeve so many lands, I could see making packs of between 13 and 15 cards (depending on the # of non basics included), and allowing players to pick their basics out of the land station the cube owner provides.
I'd be interested in hearing what other folks have been thinking!
I wish they'd stick a bit closer to the release + 2 $20 commander deck model. Those commander decks, IMO, have been exceptional products in terms of value and deck quality. Zendikar and Kaldheim's were really well designed.
I used to maintain a pauper edh cube years ago. I might have to dust off that idea again after this set drops. There are some fantastic new legends at uncommon, and the mono colored partner mechanic would really help smooth out some issues in the draft department.
Include:
Lithoform Engine - cut deathrender
Moraug, Fury of Akoum - cut savage beating
Maybes/Lower Priority:
Luminarch Aspirant
Thieving Skydiver
Glasspool Mimic
Bala Ged Recovery
Skyclave Relic
Skyclave Shade
Nullpriest of Oblivion
ancient greenwarden
The black, red, and green mythic flip lands all appeal to me, but I don't think any of them are must includes. I may swap them in as I pick them up incidentally from pack cracking or trades.
Based on the proposal you've written above, you'd be dispensing with all the rarity distributions in normal jumpstart packs, and going straight to high powered archetypes in each?
(split name to sidestep unnecessary censor)
I love that there's really no limit to the specificity of themes, including completely arbitrary artist packages or even people/objects featured in the artwork (I remember there was an old edh deck thread of "women looking to the left").
After working on a few samples, I think the main design constraint is really ramp and color fixing, and having to make sure that there aren't too many nonbos lurking in potential pairings. The windstorm I included in the Surrak deck would most likely be a dead card if the player also landed up with wizard's above the clouds or pegasus themes.
I'm creating the following thread as a space to post Jumpstart cubes, decklists (themes), and even just lists of theme ideas folks have thought up for this format.
Below are a few sample themes I cooked up in my spare time. Warning, they are DUMB, but the format has definitely got my juices flowing for concepts that would be difficult to pull off in cube, or even in EDH. So far, I've been conforming to most of WotC's design principles for the jumpstart product: low-ish power level (1-3 rares max), theme trumps optimal card choices (mix of commons and uncommons), 8/5/7 creature/spell/land split, budget friendly, and with some effort made to help themes "mix" together. Like regular cube, I'm sure sky's the limit on how crazy you could make themes, unshackled by cost, rarity, or card availability constraints ("Mox Theme").
Surrak Punch!
1 Ainok Survivalist
1 Alpine Grizzly
1 Conifer Strider
1 Den Protector
1 Manglehorn
1 Surrak, the Hunt Caller
1 Temur Sabertooth
1 Whisperer of the Wilds
1 Epic Confrontation
1 Savage Punch
1 Seek the Horizon
1 Windstorm
1 Moss Diamond
1 Thriving Grove
6 Forest
Nightmares
1 Banehound
1 Faceless Butcher
1 Hunted Nightmare
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Nightmare
1 Paragon of Open Graves
1 Plague Mare
1 Wormfang Drake
1 Aspect of Lamprey
1 Asphyxiate
1 Breathstealer's Crypt
1 Terror
1 Drake-Skull Cameo
1 Thriving Isle
4 Swamp
2 Island
Loners
1 Bloodflow Connoisseur
1 Demonlord of Ashmouth
1 Invisible Stalker
1 Lone Revenant
1 Marrow Bats
1 Skeletal Changeling
1 Undead Executioner
1 Bone Splinters
1 Deadly Wanderings
1 Demonic Rising
1 Homicidal Seclusion
1 Undying Evil
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Thriving Moor
5 Swamp
1 Island
Dakkon Blackblade
1 Dakkon Blackblade
1 Danitha Capashen, Paragon
1 Kor Duelist
1 Kor Outfitter
1 Renowned Weaponsmith
1 Taj-Nar Swordsmith
1 Weaponcraft Enthusiast
1 Blackblade Reforged
1 Brawler's Plate
1 Mine Excavation
1 Open the Armory
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Traveler's Amulet
1 Buried Ruin
1 Thriving Heath
2 Plains
2 Island
1 Swamp
Rebecca Guay
1 Asmira, Holy Avenger
1 Auramancer
1 Barbtooth Wurm
1 Elvish Piper
1 Lynx
1 Norwood Riders
1 Serra Angel
1 Wood Elves
1 Yavimaya Dryad
1 Moment's Peace
1 Path to Exile
1 Planeswalker's Favor
1 Words of Worship
Lands
1 Thriving Grove
1 Thriving Heath
3 Forest
2 Plains
1. Remove duplicate themes from a box, keep the deck lists, sleeve up the remainder, and run this as a draft sim. Perhaps collecting additional themes that weren't present in the first box.
2. Refine, add to, and tune certain themes, so they're either more powerful or just function more smoothly.
3. Create entirely new themes.
4. Work on adding more "glue" cards to the packs, so there's more synergy between each random pack pairing.
5. Since most sets will have a featured tribe, character, and/or mechanic, add new packs to the "cube" with each release.
In the interest of not having to sleeve so many lands, I could see making packs of between 13 and 15 cards (depending on the # of non basics included), and allowing players to pick their basics out of the land station the cube owner provides.
I'd be interested in hearing what other folks have been thinking!
Thanks!
PS. Stupid proof of concept:
Nightmares
1 Hunted Nightmare
1 Faceless Butcher
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Plague Mare
1 Banehound
1 Wormfang Drake
1 Paragon of Open Graves
1 Terror
1 Asphyxiate
1 Hideous End
1 Aspect of Lamprey
1 Breathstealer's Crypt
1 Drake-Skull Cameo
Other
1 Salt Marsh
1 Thriving Isle
4 Swamp
1 Island
Radha, Heart of Keld
Mangara, the Diplomat
Basri's Lieutenant (test)
See the Truth
Teferi's Ageless Insight (test)
Barrin, Tolarian Archmage
Liliana's Standard Bearer (test)
Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge (test)
Mazemind Tome (test)
Do you think that standard bearer could be a good replacement for disciple of bolas? Not sure if folks are even running that gal anymore...