In short: what is intended to be 
Cube focused on small games with ample resource denial and affinity for 2015-2018 designs.
Current list:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/57076062-98a3-4b6b-a7a4-2efafd74c833
I've been lurking in cube spaces for an embarassingly long time (for almost as long as I've known about Magic), but, even more embarassingly, have yet to really commit to finishing a project. Previously I've only knocked together a couple of three-coloured two player "twoberts" from my collection. Furthermore, there are no playgroups that I know of in my area, and when there were, nobody was nearly as interested in cube as I was, if they knew about the format at all.
So I'm intending to break out of that limbo with this project, which has been on my mind for almost two years now. It needed to be playable with two people, but also more, if I ever hope to establish at least a small drafting group. It needed to have strong thematic resonance as a hook. Mechanical identity also needed to be solid.
Having started playing in middle school with Kaladesh, in my initial design I subconsciously gravitated towards mechanical themes of middle 2010s' sets. These aren't very well-liked here, and for good reasons generally: Energy is parasitic and the decks build themselves, Colorless mana adds more confusion than depth, Devoid is devoid of that depth altogether. Nonetheless, I remember the Kaladesh and Amonkhet blocks with fondness despite the ugliness of M15 frame, and that informed two major themes, which also happen to be some of the most popular in cubes: Artifacts and Graveyard.
I had decided early that the cube should exclude one color althogether for a clearer focus and more breathing room. First I tried my hand at Redless low-powered environment which seeked to imitate slow and grindy games of ROE/AVR limited, but lost traction. Maybe I'll return to that when this is completed. It then occured to me that removal of a color necessarily means that new relations between the nodes of a color pie are established. Mark Rosewater once wrote on his Blogatog that if a color were to be removed from the game, it would be green. This delighted me, although it is my second favourite color after black, because I have previously arrived at the conclusion myself. White vs. Black and Blue vs. Red are the most intuitive and deep-rooted rivalries, as is illustrated by Knights and Elementals from Alpha. So then, how would a WUBR color pie look like? I chose to make it so that and were the allied pairs (Red-White is one of the most popular color pairings among the newer preconstructed decks, so I'm not alone in that thinking) and thus had the most mechanical closeness, while and had tension.
I've always held the opinion that the land system does not need "fixing" and is one of the reasons the game got as popular. I love nonbasic and utility lands and want to see them represented in my environment. However, although Magic has made great use of the system over the years, notably with Landfall and (some of) the MDFCs, one aspect of it was quickly discarded and now seems to be shunned even officially -- that is land destruction. I think mana denial strategies like Ponza and Stax are fun to play AND play against, which is why I'm inculding cards like Smallpox and Avalanche Riders.
(Side tangent: Some nine or eight years ago, when playing Commander had at least a semblance of a niche, I remember there being a regular UW Stax deck, and another one that changed the color and types of lands, locking you out of playing your spells with Sea's Claim and Wrath of Marit Lage. And in our highly casual environment these decks were considered cool! One of the innumerable things that have been lost with the popularization of the game.)
Graveyard and Artifact themes, ephemerality of resources and the lack of Green naturally guided my thoughts to a bleak, post-apocalyptic aesthetic of a harsh and uninviting world. This is first and foremost a gameplay-focused project, but aesthetics are very important to me. For now the Cube is named after Jack Vance's cycle of short stories which were one of the primary inspirations for D&D, which in turn was one of the primary inspirations for Magic.
Having only ~180 card means that space is very valuable, and explicit support of all six possible color pairs would take too much of it. Instead, I decided to focus on four adversarial pairs:///. My line of thinking here is that and , being allied pairs (in this color pie) could "support" macroarchetypes of speed- and value-oriented decks respectively on the basis of similarity of their mechanics. This is why I'm trying this structure of no explicit support barring limited manafixing for these pairs.
Another goal was to make mono-colored decks feasible and desirable, and I'm not sure I've achieved it yet. Right now there are colorless cards that can fill spots in your curve and the disincentive to play more than one color because of scarce fixing and its' vulnerability. Hybrid cards would also help greatly, but I don't love the options for the majority of color pairs. I've though about fitting in at least one card per color that rewards you for being only that color, such as Corrupt, Geralf's Messenger or Archmage's Charm, but am afraid of them being at once too parasitic and insufficient. I would love to hear opinions on this point, as that's a design goal I feel I'm not meeting currently.
That leaves the four explicitly supported two-color archetypes:
Madness Aggro
A graveyard focused aggro deck based on an archetype previously popular in, I believe, Pioneer. Discarding Bloodghast and Flamewake Phoenix to Bloodrage Brawler and Heir of Falkenrath and attacking. I also would love for explosive starts with Blazing Rootwalla and Hollow One with Flameblade Adept and Faithless Looting be viable, but I don't think it's quite there yet. Maybe some wheel effects are needed? Would Anger be too cute?
Artifact Combo(?)
I believe this one is the most Riptide-influenced, and also the most confused. I see it as a grindy toolbox deck that uses Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Sevinne's Reclamation and Tameshi, Reality Architect as engines to extract value from trinkets like Aether Spellbomb, Myr Retriever and Chromatic Star and eventually win (?) with card advantage from The Antiquities War or beat down with Lodestone Golem. I believe a "tempo" version of this deck with Glimmer Lens, Toolcraft Exemplar and Nettlecyst should also work. Also there should probably be a good way to sacrifice an artifact in these colors.
Control with "Fair" Storm Win Condition
This idea is from TSP block draft archetype of suspending cards to plan storm-off turns in advance. The list started with some Rebound and Plot cards, but I deemed them too weak. Here the idea is to play as Counterburn with Firebolt, Lava Dart, Censor and the like and cast Temporal Fissure or Elemntal Eruption with Storm count of at least 2, which can reasonably be set up at turn 5. Blue-Red can also be constructed as a Spells Tempo deck with Young Pyromancer, Snapcaster Mage, Gush, Reckless Abandon, Monastery Swiftpear.
Hateful Weenies
This takes inspiration from Legacy D&T archetype and Chris Pikula BW Midrange deck. It ekes out small advantages by sacrificing the likes of Bloodsoaked Champion, Thraben Inspector and Lingering Souls to take advantage of seemingly symmetrical Braids, Cabal Minion and Tithing Blade or just slow opponent down with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and a suite of discard spells. This is the archetype I'm most intrigued about, but I don't think I've explored it enough. Is "fodder" like Doomed Traveler worth a slot? World Queller as a second Braids? Would actual Smokestacks be too powerful? Having played with Doom Foretold, I was a bit underwhelmed. So especially worried about how this one would play. And yeah, Carrot Cake is flavour fail, but also a very tasty card.
(Side tangent: I've been holding fast to my hatred of Universes Beyond, but Triarch Praetorian and Sandbender Scavengers designs seem very intriguing for the archetype, and the aesthetics aren't too jarring. If they really are good, I think I might take the plunge.)
Some of the more concrete concerns at the moment are:
-are controlling strategies undersupported with every color pair having a "fast" deck;
-if I'm running too much removal in relation to the creature count;
-if there's too much redundancy, which would lead to repetitive drafts;
-if the 'mana denial' cards, Cabal Therapy and Meddling Mage are too gimmicky;
-that I'm not thrilled about any Rakdos cards. Kolaghan's Command seems too safe as a guaranteed 2-for-1, Blightning might be too weak, Bloodtithe Harvester might make an impression of Blood and, broadly, artifacts being a theme in Black-Red, Terminal Agony is just removal and not that good. I like Chainer, Nightmare Adept, but isn't it too value-oriented to signpost an aggro madness deck? I'm in two minds about choosing either Fulminator Mage or Stormfist Crusader, but I think for now it will be the Mage, mostly for flavour.
Current list again:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/57076062-98a3-4b6b-a7a4-2efafd74c833
So, before I have the opportunity to draft and play it in a few weeks, I want to make sure that it's at least draftable..? Are there any glaring omissions or preposterous inclusions? I would greatly appreciate any feedback and will return in a month with a draft report and an artistic introduction for the version 1.0.
Cube focused on small games with ample resource denial and affinity for 2015-2018 designs.Current list:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/57076062-98a3-4b6b-a7a4-2efafd74c833
I've been lurking in cube spaces for an embarassingly long time (for almost as long as I've known about Magic), but, even more embarassingly, have yet to really commit to finishing a project. Previously I've only knocked together a couple of three-coloured two player "twoberts" from my collection. Furthermore, there are no playgroups that I know of in my area, and when there were, nobody was nearly as interested in cube as I was, if they knew about the format at all.
So I'm intending to break out of that limbo with this project, which has been on my mind for almost two years now. It needed to be playable with two people, but also more, if I ever hope to establish at least a small drafting group. It needed to have strong thematic resonance as a hook. Mechanical identity also needed to be solid.
Having started playing in middle school with Kaladesh, in my initial design I subconsciously gravitated towards mechanical themes of middle 2010s' sets. These aren't very well-liked here, and for good reasons generally: Energy is parasitic and the decks build themselves, Colorless mana adds more confusion than depth, Devoid is devoid of that depth altogether. Nonetheless, I remember the Kaladesh and Amonkhet blocks with fondness despite the ugliness of M15 frame, and that informed two major themes, which also happen to be some of the most popular in cubes: Artifacts and Graveyard.
I had decided early that the cube should exclude one color althogether for a clearer focus and more breathing room. First I tried my hand at Redless low-powered environment which seeked to imitate slow and grindy games of ROE/AVR limited, but lost traction. Maybe I'll return to that when this is completed. It then occured to me that removal of a color necessarily means that new relations between the nodes of a color pie are established. Mark Rosewater once wrote on his Blogatog that if a color were to be removed from the game, it would be green. This delighted me, although it is my second favourite color after black, because I have previously arrived at the conclusion myself. White vs. Black and Blue vs. Red are the most intuitive and deep-rooted rivalries, as is illustrated by Knights and Elementals from Alpha. So then, how would a WUBR color pie look like? I chose to make it so that
and were the allied pairs (Red-White is one of the most popular color pairings among the newer preconstructed decks, so I'm not alone in that thinking) and thus had the most mechanical closeness, while and had tension.I've always held the opinion that the land system does not need "fixing" and is one of the reasons the game got as popular. I love nonbasic and utility lands and want to see them represented in my environment. However, although Magic has made great use of the system over the years, notably with Landfall and (some of) the MDFCs, one aspect of it was quickly discarded and now seems to be shunned even officially -- that is land destruction. I think mana denial strategies like Ponza and Stax are fun to play AND play against, which is why I'm inculding cards like Smallpox and Avalanche Riders.
(Side tangent: Some nine or eight years ago, when playing Commander had at least a semblance of a niche, I remember there being a regular UW Stax deck, and another one that changed the color and types of lands, locking you out of playing your spells with Sea's Claim and Wrath of Marit Lage. And in our highly casual environment these decks were considered cool! One of the innumerable things that have been lost with the popularization of the game.)
Graveyard and Artifact themes, ephemerality of resources and the lack of Green naturally guided my thoughts to a bleak, post-apocalyptic aesthetic of a harsh and uninviting world. This is first and foremost a gameplay-focused project, but aesthetics are very important to me. For now the Cube is named after Jack Vance's cycle of short stories which were one of the primary inspirations for D&D, which in turn was one of the primary inspirations for Magic.
Having only ~180 card means that space is very valuable, and explicit support of all six possible color pairs would take too much of it. Instead, I decided to focus on four adversarial pairs:
///. My line of thinking here is that and , being allied pairs (in this color pie) could "support" macroarchetypes of speed- and value-oriented decks respectively on the basis of similarity of their mechanics. This is why I'm trying this structure of no explicit support barring limited manafixing for these pairs.Another goal was to make mono-colored decks feasible and desirable, and I'm not sure I've achieved it yet. Right now there are colorless cards that can fill spots in your curve and the disincentive to play more than one color because of scarce fixing and its' vulnerability. Hybrid cards would also help greatly, but I don't love the options for the majority of color pairs. I've though about fitting in at least one card per color that rewards you for being only that color, such as Corrupt, Geralf's Messenger or Archmage's Charm, but am afraid of them being at once too parasitic and insufficient. I would love to hear opinions on this point, as that's a design goal I feel I'm not meeting currently.
That leaves the four explicitly supported two-color archetypes:
Madness AggroA graveyard focused aggro deck based on an archetype previously popular in, I believe, Pioneer. Discarding Bloodghast and Flamewake Phoenix to Bloodrage Brawler and Heir of Falkenrath and attacking. I also would love for explosive starts with Blazing Rootwalla and Hollow One with Flameblade Adept and Faithless Looting be viable, but I don't think it's quite there yet. Maybe some wheel effects are needed? Would Anger be too cute?
Artifact Combo(?)I believe this one is the most Riptide-influenced, and also the most confused. I see it as a grindy toolbox deck that uses Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Sevinne's Reclamation and Tameshi, Reality Architect as engines to extract value from trinkets like Aether Spellbomb, Myr Retriever and Chromatic Star and eventually win (?) with card advantage from The Antiquities War or beat down with Lodestone Golem. I believe a "tempo" version of this deck with Glimmer Lens, Toolcraft Exemplar and Nettlecyst should also work. Also there should probably be a good way to sacrifice an artifact in these colors.
Control with "Fair" Storm Win ConditionThis idea is from TSP block draft archetype of suspending cards to plan storm-off turns in advance. The list started with some Rebound and Plot cards, but I deemed them too weak. Here the idea is to play as Counterburn with Firebolt, Lava Dart, Censor and the like and cast Temporal Fissure or Elemntal Eruption with Storm count of at least 2, which can reasonably be set up at turn 5. Blue-Red can also be constructed as a Spells Tempo deck with Young Pyromancer, Snapcaster Mage, Gush, Reckless Abandon, Monastery Swiftpear.
Hateful WeeniesThis takes inspiration from Legacy D&T archetype and Chris Pikula BW Midrange deck. It ekes out small advantages by sacrificing the likes of Bloodsoaked Champion, Thraben Inspector and Lingering Souls to take advantage of seemingly symmetrical Braids, Cabal Minion and Tithing Blade or just slow opponent down with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and a suite of discard spells. This is the archetype I'm most intrigued about, but I don't think I've explored it enough. Is "fodder" like Doomed Traveler worth a slot? World Queller as a second Braids? Would actual Smokestacks be too powerful? Having played with Doom Foretold, I was a bit underwhelmed. So especially worried about how this one would play. And yeah, Carrot Cake is flavour fail, but also a very tasty card.
(Side tangent: I've been holding fast to my hatred of Universes Beyond, but Triarch Praetorian and Sandbender Scavengers designs seem very intriguing for the archetype, and the aesthetics aren't too jarring. If they really are good, I think I might take the plunge.)
Some of the more concrete concerns at the moment are:
-are controlling strategies undersupported with every color pair having a "fast" deck;
-if I'm running too much removal in relation to the creature count;
-if there's too much redundancy, which would lead to repetitive drafts;
-if the 'mana denial' cards, Cabal Therapy and Meddling Mage are too gimmicky;
-that I'm not thrilled about any Rakdos cards. Kolaghan's Command seems too safe as a guaranteed 2-for-1, Blightning might be too weak, Bloodtithe Harvester might make an impression of Blood and, broadly, artifacts being a theme in Black-Red, Terminal Agony is just removal and not that good. I like Chainer, Nightmare Adept, but isn't it too value-oriented to signpost an aggro madness deck? I'm in two minds about choosing either Fulminator Mage or Stormfist Crusader, but I think for now it will be the Mage, mostly for flavour.
Current list again:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/57076062-98a3-4b6b-a7a4-2efafd74c833
So, before I have the opportunity to draft and play it in a few weeks, I want to make sure that it's at least draftable..? Are there any glaring omissions or preposterous inclusions? I would greatly appreciate any feedback and will return in a month with a draft report and an artistic introduction for the version 1.0.
