[QUOTE=TakeABow;/comments/4303246]It is kind of an urban legend that adding more gold promotes more multi-color decks. Having larger multicolored sections actually makes it harder to build any deck (except 5-color).
First, thanks, I had never really thought through the math of adding in more gold cards.
My conclusion is:
More gold does lower the available cards to each single color or color combination as demonstrated by your math. You are correct that 5-color is the only grouping that does not suffer a decrease in the number of cards. However, in my experience, most players are not inclined to play 5-color due to fixing issues and therefore will fight to play less. Additionally, in your example, while playing 2 color in the high-multi cube is harder than in your cube (158 available cards v. 174) it is still significantly easier than playing single color in your cube (158 v. 115.) Therefore, while there is a slight decline in playability, I don't think it destroys the ability to build a deck of a specified type (besides maybe mono-color, but that was kind of the point...)
I actually started with a lower gold card count. Since increasing I have noticed several changes:
1) people must decide on a strat earlier in the draft to be successful.
2) mana-fixing is more valuable, and thus successful drafters will take it higher.
3) Many people will find a gold card or two the like early, and build their deck around that.
Effect 1 I have not made up my mind about, on the one hand, it favors experienced drafters who focus early. On the other hand, it favors newb drafters by lowering the number of choices and taking some of the subtlety out of deck building. I have not decided which way this goes and whether I like it.
Effect 2 I like a lot. I found that before I upped the gold count fixing was kind of an afterthought and you would only take late or if a card fell right into your color scheme. With fewer options, fixing becomes exponentially more valuable, and therefore figuring out where to draft them adds a whole new level of complexity.
Effect 3: I like this one also. There are a lot of cool gold cards, particularly creatures. I think one of my favorite deck concepts was one of my friend's who built his entire deck around getting out Thraximundar out on turn 2.
10-12 cards of each colorpair, not counting the lands?!? OMG, the gold hurts my eyes. I'd focus on cutting the other colorsections down to 6 instead of increasing this one.
Besides the brightness issue, I actually like the high-gold count. One of the sub-themes of my cube is multi-color deck building. Hence the high number of golds.
I have a high power level cube that is currently sitting at 683 cards. I have about 10-12 of each gold 2-color combination but only have 6 black/red cards.
What do you think are the 10 strongest black/red cards out there for cube?
First, thanks, I had never really thought through the math of adding in more gold cards.
My conclusion is:
More gold does lower the available cards to each single color or color combination as demonstrated by your math. You are correct that 5-color is the only grouping that does not suffer a decrease in the number of cards. However, in my experience, most players are not inclined to play 5-color due to fixing issues and therefore will fight to play less. Additionally, in your example, while playing 2 color in the high-multi cube is harder than in your cube (158 available cards v. 174) it is still significantly easier than playing single color in your cube (158 v. 115.) Therefore, while there is a slight decline in playability, I don't think it destroys the ability to build a deck of a specified type (besides maybe mono-color, but that was kind of the point...)
I actually started with a lower gold card count. Since increasing I have noticed several changes:
1) people must decide on a strat earlier in the draft to be successful.
2) mana-fixing is more valuable, and thus successful drafters will take it higher.
3) Many people will find a gold card or two the like early, and build their deck around that.
Effect 1 I have not made up my mind about, on the one hand, it favors experienced drafters who focus early. On the other hand, it favors newb drafters by lowering the number of choices and taking some of the subtlety out of deck building. I have not decided which way this goes and whether I like it.
Effect 2 I like a lot. I found that before I upped the gold count fixing was kind of an afterthought and you would only take late or if a card fell right into your color scheme. With fewer options, fixing becomes exponentially more valuable, and therefore figuring out where to draft them adds a whole new level of complexity.
Effect 3: I like this one also. There are a lot of cool gold cards, particularly creatures. I think one of my favorite deck concepts was one of my friend's who built his entire deck around getting out Thraximundar out on turn 2.
Besides the brightness issue, I actually like the high-gold count. One of the sub-themes of my cube is multi-color deck building. Hence the high number of golds.
This is my first thread.
I have a high power level cube that is currently sitting at 683 cards. I have about 10-12 of each gold 2-color combination but only have 6 black/red cards.
What do you think are the 10 strongest black/red cards out there for cube?
Current cards in cube are:
Bituminous Blast
Blightning
Murderous Redcap
Sarkhan the Mad
Terminate
Wrecking Ball
Thanks!