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Heymaker

Heymaker

Holy Skeletor, those look nice! That lotus artwork is quite fine indeed, and just really cool artwork all around there. If you're not afraid of arts and crafts, I've enjoyed making my own little inserts: (first attempt at image link, *crosses fingers, "dear god, those dimensions", hides it in spoiler tag*)
1516389283974_CubeTutorProfilePic.jpg

One fun thing I've learned from my group... they go bonkers over getting their favorite 'lotto' numbers on the packs. Come to think of it, this is basically a draft ritual -- dog-piling into the booster pack pile to make sure you get the "correct" pack artwork. I may need to include some artwork variety methinks.

Curiously, what are others doing for assembling their 'packs'?(Let me know when I've achieved my off-topic achievement) I've seen everything from "grab 45 cards from the box and make 3 piles of 15" to velour bags.
 
Velrun

Velrun

I fold origami paper to match booster packs in white paper with our cube logo on the front. They are pretty nice but do not last for more than a few tournaments. Then I’ll have to fold new ones.

I really want to find a long-term solution but I use double-cards which is basically the size of Planes/Schemes/Oversized so normal booster packs won’t do.
 
James Stevenson

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
Velrun said:
I fold origami paper to match booster packs in white paper with our cube logo on the front. They are pretty nice but do not last for more than a few tournaments. Then I’ll have to fold new ones.
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This sounds neat. Post pics?
 
Rasmus Källqvist

Rasmus Källqvist

Onderzeeboot said:
I ask my drafters to help shuffle at the start of a cube session, we make enough piles of 15 for the number of drafters, then everybody grabs 3 piles from all over the table.
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I do the same, I've even codified a procedure where my drafters lay out three rows of five cards to make minimize the risk of a miscount :D
 
shamizy

shamizy

For making packs, I've been following this method for about a year and a half now and it's given me the best results:

1) Divide everything in your cube by color (WUBRG) with gold/colorless/landscards together in a sixth pile.
2) Take roughly 20% of each color and shuffle it into the gold/colorless/lands pile.
3) Distribute the mixed pile evenly into each colored pile, then shuffle those piles thoroughly.
4) You should now be left with 5 mixed piles each leaning towards a majority of a specific color.
5) Take three cards from each of your five piles to make your 15 card packs, repeat until you have 24 packs for a full pod.
 
shamizy

shamizy

I used to do that and just shuffle up, but sometimes you'd end up with really warped packs that had like something wonky like 9 red cards or 6 white and 7 green cards.

This process has pretty much eliminated that possibility. Sure, RNG could lead to 4-5 of a color in a pack, but nothing super warped anymore. Since I already re-sort the cube down into piles of WUBRG/Gold/Colorless/Land anyway at the end of a draft session, it's not much of a hassle.
 
Golvin

Golvin

Because I record data on what ended up in side boards, draft records, and the like, I developed the habit of making packs at the end of a draft. It also lets me fire without delay. Although, my players have weirdly never complained about not seperating lands out of their decks.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Just put all the cube cards in the middle of the table face down and then make packs by picking one per pack from the random piles. You'll never get half-build decks in your packs that way.
 
Tzenmoroth

Tzenmoroth

shamizy said:
For making packs, I've been following this method for about a year and a half now and it's given me the best results:

1) Divide everything in your cube by color (WUBRG) with gold/colorless/landscards together in a sixth pile.
2) Take roughly 20% of each color and shuffle it into the gold/colorless/lands pile.
3) Distribute the mixed pile evenly into each colored pile, then shuffle those piles thoroughly.
4) You should now be left with 5 mixed piles each leaning towards a majority of a specific color.
5) Take three cards from each of your five piles to make your 15 card packs, repeat until you have 24 packs for a full pod.
Click to expand...

I did this! But I had problems doing this because after about 80 cards, I find it very difficult to effectively randomize a pile. I have 540 cards so like 75 each of mono colors, 80 land, 40 colorless, 45 multicolor so I've been trying to shuffle each section separately and build packs from there. I tried making piles of 45 cards with like 6 of each color, 6 lands, 3 muti, 3 colorless, 3 from the leftovers, then shuffle those into 3 packs. Then I tried making it a little more even by just giving each pack one of each color and a land first then building 27 card roughly balanced pile to shuffle into the packs. I'm trying really hard to get balanced-ish packs built quickly without doing anything that isn't feasible like shuffling a huge pile.
 
Tzenmoroth

Tzenmoroth

shamizy said:
Have you guys seen the Kickstarter for Cubeamajigs? Reusable packs to store the cube packs you create for easy distribution. I backed it earlier today, picking up the 125 set keeping one and gifting a set to each of my friends who have built a cube. Already reached their initial goal within the first day, I'm feeling the Lotus print for the packs.
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HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE

No more drafts ruined by somebody accidentally grabbing an "unopened" pack.
 
shamizy

shamizy

Tzenmoroth said:
I did this! But I had problems doing this because after about 80 cards, I find it very difficult to effectively randomize a pile. I have 540 cards so like 75 each of mono colors, 80 land, 40 colorless, 45 multicolor so I've been trying to shuffle each section separately and build packs from there. I tried making piles of 45 cards with like 6 of each color, 6 lands, 3 muti, 3 colorless, 3 from the leftovers, then shuffle those into 3 packs. Then I tried making it a little more even by just giving each pack one of each color and a land first then building 27 card roughly balanced pile to shuffle into the packs. I'm trying really hard to get balanced-ish packs built quickly without doing anything that isn't feasible like shuffling a huge pile.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, it can definitely get a bit unwieldy at times solo. Unless I pre-shuffle and have everything ready for the cube session, I usually have 4 of my drafters help me shuffle up and create packs. It's not too bad once you've seeded the 20% into the 6th pile of gold/colorless/lands. I then just really shuffle that one up then distribute it across the WUBRG piles before handing one each to a different drafter to shuffle up. It's way easier to just hand one of the fives piles to someone after effective randomization, have them shuffle it up (basically an EDH deck), then have each person pass 3 cards to the next guy to build the packs. I guess I've just done this enough times now that it's become muscle memory to coast through it.
 
Velrun

Velrun

Brawl news
1. The format stays Standard.
2. The ban-list will function with both 1v1 Brawl or multiplayer Brawl.
3. Starting life total for Standard Brawl is now 20.
4. Future sets will be designed with Brawl in mind.
5. Rule change: If you have a colorless commander, you can play any one type of basic land in your deck.
6. From now on Brawl will not share the Standard ban list. Only the card pool.
7. The following cards have been unbanned:
Aetherworks Marvel, Felidar Guardian, Attune with Aether, Rogue Refiner, Rampaging Ferocidon and Ramunap Ruins.
8. The following cards have been banned:
Baral, Chief of Compliance and Sorcerous Spyclass

That means the ban list looks like this:
Baral, Chief of Compliance, Smuggler's Copter and Sorcerous Spyclass.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/future-brawl-2018-05-10
 
Velrun

Velrun

James Stevenson said:
This sounds neat. Post pics?
Click to expand...

This is how they looked before we switched to 2 cards/pick.

Booster Packs Picture.jpg

You can find instructions as to how to fold them here:
http://www.origami-instructions.com/easy-origami-envelope.html

However I would 100 % prefer to support the kickstarter. They just look professional, neat and like they are much more durable.



CaptnIrony said:
What? Your cube is oversized? Customs?
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No customs. The drafting part of the cube is oversized :) Each pick (the action you use to take a card from a booster pack) often gives you more than one card. The booster packs contain 13 double-cards each and the players draft like normal except they get large packages instead of 1 card at a time. When drafting one of thole large packages the player will most of the time get a regular Basic land + 1 regular MtG card. Sometimes the player will get a starter package of a theme or strategy like Drake Haven and Desert of the Mindful in the same pick. This is the reason why we have 13 packages in each booster pack and not 15. In our tournaments the Basic Land Box has been disabled which means the players cannot add Basic lands to their draft pool for free. The players can only get Basic lands by drafting them. All the token-producing cards also have their respective tokens attached. It took some craftmanship to make the booster packs look right and for the packages to feel good. I had some home-made poster cards printed and spend 100 hours on putting it all together.

I do not have a picture of the packages which is a little unfortunate. I can get one soon. My cube is safely stored at a self-storage facility. I will send you a picture soon :)
 
Velrun

Velrun

LOL yeah meant ‘Brace yourself’

No dudes and dudettes, praise yourself. Without us, the fans and the consumer, there would be no ongoing Magic: the Gathering! :p
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I like her rule "The power level of a card shouldn't be based on the colors of the opponent's permanents or the land types they have." Hey @Aston, did you read this? Shriekmaw is right out! :p
 
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