Hi, I'm new to this forum.
I've never made a cube before, but I had an interesting idea and I'm posting it here in this thread to get some juices flowing.
About a month ago I had the idea of creating a cube where every player has an Opalescence emblem.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=15142
In other words, throughout the draft,
"Eachother non-Aura enchantment is a creature in addition to its other types and has base power and toughness each equal to its converted mana cost."
In games in this cube, (non creature, non Aura) enchantments are noncreature spells on the stack, and noncreature cards everywhere but on the battlefield, but they are creatures when on the battlefield, and enter the battlefield as creatures.
This could turn a lot of effects that would never even make it onto a kitchen table into quasi-playable Limited cards.
I've been playing Magic (badly) for close to 20 years at this point, and there are a lot of old cards kicking around in my head. Even I am not bad enough to have played with some of these pieces of cardboard, and at lot of them aren't even good enough for Type 4. Maybe with a power and toughness slapped on this is different.
Of course, the power level would probably have to be lower than a powered cube in order for the gimmick to be interesting, since the very best cards in Magic are by and large not enchantments. It may be boring but I want combat steps to matter in this cube, even if they're not the only thing.
Before you say it, these are cards I think would be totally degenerate:
Humility. No. Not because of rules headaches, but gameplay headaches.
Replenish: This is more powerful than I'd be looking for and it would go in almost every deck.
Parallax Wave: No. Parallax Tide probably not either. Parallax Nexus, maybe.
Standstill: This would be Kami of Ancestral Recall more or less, so I'd say it's a no given my desired power level.
Back to Nature: No.
Tranquil Grove: No.
Enchanted Evening: No (for one thing it makes all lands into 0/0 enchantment creatures). Also, Patrician's Scorn is probably too insane.
Sweepers:
I think some enchantment sweepers would be interesting, but more Fracturing Gust and less Tranquility.
Also, although it would be funny to have a cube where Root Greevil is nearly a first pick, I'd like to keep the sweepers symmetrical.
Nova Cleric could be OK. I could also see Serenity being interesting, but not fundamentally unfair.
One interesting thing about this cube is that every color can interact with these cards. Enchantment removal in white and green is now creature removal too. Creature removal in red and black is now enchantment removal too. Blue's probably still alright.
I do worry about white being too interactive though.
Possible themes could come out of the way normal situations are turned on their head here.
Actual creature cards will be much rarer in this cube than in most. Oath of Druids, Survival of the Fittest, Defense of the Heart, and Abundance come to mind.
Living Death is pretty interesting. I think it could be tuned to be interactive. Recurring Nightmare maybe too. It's a little less polarized as a utility Trained Armodon but probably still allows interesting lines of play.
World enchantments: It'd probably be worth including these on a card by card basis. As it turns out, most of them strike me as being worth a playtest at least.
Chaosphere in particular brings me to my next point:
Flying (and evasion) would be really really good.
Enchantments, unsurprisingly, are not usually printed with creature combat abilities.
Levitation is probably too good if it's playable at all.
Giving Moat flying and attacking with it sounds hilarious but I think it would probably be too good for the cube either way.
Cumulative upkeep: A lot of old enchantments have this, so something to interact with it could be good.
Mystic Remora in particular got me thinking it was worth the effort.
A few other random hits:
Afiya Grove is a 5/5 for 1G.
The Leylines are nice of course.
Dictate of Heliod now comes with a 7/7 for 5.
Caverns of Despair seems fun.
Trygon Predator is insane, but Azorius First-Wing isn't half bad either.
Etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
I've never made a cube before, but I had an interesting idea and I'm posting it here in this thread to get some juices flowing.
About a month ago I had the idea of creating a cube where every player has an Opalescence emblem.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=15142
In other words, throughout the draft,
"Each
In games in this cube, (non creature, non Aura) enchantments are noncreature spells on the stack, and noncreature cards everywhere but on the battlefield, but they are creatures when on the battlefield, and enter the battlefield as creatures.
This could turn a lot of effects that would never even make it onto a kitchen table into quasi-playable Limited cards.
I've been playing Magic (badly) for close to 20 years at this point, and there are a lot of old cards kicking around in my head. Even I am not bad enough to have played with some of these pieces of cardboard, and at lot of them aren't even good enough for Type 4. Maybe with a power and toughness slapped on this is different.
Of course, the power level would probably have to be lower than a powered cube in order for the gimmick to be interesting, since the very best cards in Magic are by and large not enchantments. It may be boring but I want combat steps to matter in this cube, even if they're not the only thing.
Before you say it, these are cards I think would be totally degenerate:
Humility. No. Not because of rules headaches, but gameplay headaches.
Replenish: This is more powerful than I'd be looking for and it would go in almost every deck.
Parallax Wave: No. Parallax Tide probably not either. Parallax Nexus, maybe.
Standstill: This would be Kami of Ancestral Recall more or less, so I'd say it's a no given my desired power level.
Back to Nature: No.
Tranquil Grove: No.
Enchanted Evening: No (for one thing it makes all lands into 0/0 enchantment creatures). Also, Patrician's Scorn is probably too insane.
Sweepers:
I think some enchantment sweepers would be interesting, but more Fracturing Gust and less Tranquility.
Also, although it would be funny to have a cube where Root Greevil is nearly a first pick, I'd like to keep the sweepers symmetrical.
Nova Cleric could be OK. I could also see Serenity being interesting, but not fundamentally unfair.
One interesting thing about this cube is that every color can interact with these cards. Enchantment removal in white and green is now creature removal too. Creature removal in red and black is now enchantment removal too. Blue's probably still alright.
I do worry about white being too interactive though.
Possible themes could come out of the way normal situations are turned on their head here.
Actual creature cards will be much rarer in this cube than in most. Oath of Druids, Survival of the Fittest, Defense of the Heart, and Abundance come to mind.
Living Death is pretty interesting. I think it could be tuned to be interactive. Recurring Nightmare maybe too. It's a little less polarized as a utility Trained Armodon but probably still allows interesting lines of play.
World enchantments: It'd probably be worth including these on a card by card basis. As it turns out, most of them strike me as being worth a playtest at least.
Chaosphere in particular brings me to my next point:
Flying (and evasion) would be really really good.
Enchantments, unsurprisingly, are not usually printed with creature combat abilities.
Levitation is probably too good if it's playable at all.
Giving Moat flying and attacking with it sounds hilarious but I think it would probably be too good for the cube either way.
Cumulative upkeep: A lot of old enchantments have this, so something to interact with it could be good.
Mystic Remora in particular got me thinking it was worth the effort.
A few other random hits:
Afiya Grove is a 5/5 for 1G.
The Leylines are nice of course.
Dictate of Heliod now comes with a 7/7 for 5.
Caverns of Despair seems fun.
Trygon Predator is insane, but Azorius First-Wing isn't half bad either.
Etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
)
