the Stickered Cube

[ellogeyen]

the Stickered Cube
180 cards | 2 or 4 players
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I really love the stickers that Unfinity introduces, but am not a fan of the ticket-system accompanying them. I've been brainstorming a way to use these stickers in cube without their current rules baggage, instead allowing stickers to bring permanent change to a cube's cards. I've made a forum post discussing the potential, and eventually decided on the following rules:

The Draft

Each player builds their 40-card deck as normal, except that:

• one drafted sticker must be put on each card with power/toughness.
• double-faced cards will have stickers on each side with power/toughness.
• stickers will remain on the cards in every zone during the entire event.
• stickers may not be re-stickered between matches.

The creature's toughness must be equal to or higher than the ticket value of its sticker. Each card('s side) may only have a single sticker.

+ =
+ =
+ = ​

The winner may put an art sticker and a name sticker on a single stickered card in their deck, making those stickers eternally permanent. All other stickers reset after the draft. The examples above have been eternally stickered this way!

 

[ellogeyen]

Stickering to 180
I've playtested the cube a few times, upped the size to 180 (with 20 sticker sheets) and made it a Jund cube. 3 more creatures have been eternallized in the past two months, bringing the total up to 6.
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This card is the perfect example of the potential of stickers to overpower cards. Some sticker sheets have far more potential than others, and this particular card finalized my decision to remove certain sticker sheets from the rotation.


Double-faced cards are amazing for the environment, as they give you twice the sticker real estate! I've added numerous werewolves, one of which shows his might here (do you even want this to flip?)


With the addition of Black and Green I also added more graveyard shenanigans. Getting stickered creatures back just seems like you get more bang for your buck. This particular good boy can get itself back whenever he dies for the low low price of milling 3 cards.

 

[ellogeyen]

Stickers to Cut
When I started this project, I wanted to add as many stickers to the cube as possible. Balance be damned! Now that I've had a few drafts under my belt, I've realized it's best to bring that number down a little to the stickers I think provide the best gameplay. This post will detail the categories of cuts I've made to the available sticker sheets.​

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Unfinity Mechanisms: These cards were immediately removed due to them referencing irrelevant keywords or mechanics.


Creature Types: I play a lot of underpowered creatures in this cube, which results in playing a lot of old(-bordered) creatures in this cube, which results in the creature types on cards not being up-to-date. To avoid confusion in general, I cut all stickers caring about the creatures' types.


Overpowered: "Indestructible" was immediately on my watchlist, and when I saw the power of "protection from even mana values", I cut both immediately. "Sacrifice this creature: draw two cards" is more subtle, but since I want to add 1mv creatures to this cube, a 1mv: draw two cards (as a baseline!) is just too much.


Restrictions: Some cards restrict my choices too much for my liking. "Infect" speaks for itself, but the [6] stickers might be a little more ambiguous. I just don't want myself to have to add 6-toughness creatures to the cube.


Defensive: Generally, games are more fun when creatures attack. Some stickers sheets advocate defensive play too much, mainly due to the stat lines they provide. I'd like to avoid these.


Underpowered: Most sticker sheets have one sticker that generally isn't worth it. If there are more unplayable(?) stickers than that, the sheet really should be cut.

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That brings the total down from 48 to 32 sticker sheets. I expect to cut a few more as we'll get a better grip which stickers aren't worth it, but that's be a post for another time! With _____ Goblin becoming banned across all formats, I do hope the sheets will drop down in price a little, as my current ones are wearing out a new sheets have tripled in price since I last bought them. Oh well...

 

[ellogeyen]

Playing with 3 Colors
I've been slow-rolling card updates to the cube in order to get a good grasp on the environment. The addition of stickers make it a constantly evolving entity anyways.
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A last thanks to @Onderzeeboot for his contribution to this cube! Rubblebelt Maaka is a nice addition for a cube like this because it fills the slot of a pump spell, while being stickerable. Ironically, it now brings its own pump spell in the form of "Monstrosity 3", with the threat of activation possibly as valuable as the counters themselves. Unfortunately it hasn't hit the battlefield in the two drafts since.


Onedrops are the most difficult part of this cube. I like low mana curves, so I'm always on the lookout for cards that don't scale too well with additional abilities or power. Scythe Tiger is an experimental include that was immediately made permanent by a perceptive friend. Let's hope it doesn't break anything, as I suspect the "Landfall" sticker might currently be the strongest sticker available. If this card proves fine, it paves the way for the inclusion of Rogue Elephant and Plant Elemental as well.


Artifacts are balanced around the fact that they're a little more vulnerable than their non-artifact counterparts. This answerability validates my push for lower mana value artifacts to still be balanced within the environment. Giving one "Hexproof" is therefor a higher powered alteration than might be appearant at first sight. This, in addition to its natural defences agains sorcery-based boardwipes, make the Suit truly Brute.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Bruite Suit, Misunderstood is a perfect name

 

[ellogeyen]

White's Addition
I already have my Jeskai cube, so I wanted to add a color to this cube as an experiment. I think a 4-color 180 card cube is better for 4 players, although I also think it decreases the tension for 2 players. Another advantage is that the pool of cards that fit this cube is quite slim. Adding another color deepens this pool and therefor the amount of fun, playable cards in the cube!​

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2-Drops
The hardest part of this cube is providing the proactive strategies with low mana value threats. Honestly, white didn't really deliver on this front. White, like green, is allowed 2mv 2/2 creatures at a lower density. Hyper-aggressive decks should be improbable without the addition of Black or Red (whose 1- and 2-drops have downsides).

Creatures still kinda have a downside here: Attentive Sunscribe is an artifact, which is easier to remove (both by cards and stickers) than any non-artifact counterpart. Checkpoint Officer has only 1 power, which makes is mostly fit for power/toughness stickers because of it. Stalwart Valkyrie needs a creature in your graveyard to be a 2-drop, but is still totally functional as 4-drop. She might be my favorite in this category


Toughness = Mana Value
In a similar vain, higher costing creatures come from a smaller pool as well. Higher toughness creatures can be stickered by more stickers, so creatures want to have a relative high toughness. However, overpowering those same creatures with stickers has to be avoided. This split in needs is generally fixed in downside mechanics.

I generally strive for aggressive downside mechanics, although white severely lacks these. Militia Rallier is probably the most aggressive version of the numerous defender-variants. Cursed Courtier is in a whole different ballpark, in that it nullifies any power/toughness sticker you could put on it... unless you can get rid of that pesky curse! Befriending the Moths is the time-bomb mechanics: paying now for a creature later, which works really well for this cube in particular.


Removal on a Stick
As stickers are the focus of this cube, creatures should be the focus of this cube as well. I try to put as much removal as possible on creatures because of this. Spring-Loaded Sawblades and Unstable Glyphbridge are awesome recent additions from Lost Caverns of Ixalan that fit this cube like a glove. Banisher Priest is a more generic example of such creatures, although this example only removes creature temporarily.

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I like white for the controlling options it provides, although it lack a little bit of cohesion with the rest of the cube. Ironically, it's the only color that can deal with the high-toughness creatures that I fear (a little). The color needs its time to settle in.

 

[ellogeyen]

Playing with 4 Players
I fired two 4-person drafts with the cube! Clearly the time needed for deck construction is significantly increased due to the stickering of cards, but this was especially obvious when being a little more time-constrained than I was before. However, just these two draft resulted in an additional 5 stickered cards for the cube. Huzah!
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Noble Hierarch has shown us that mana dorks with exalted enable a proactive strategy in two ways. Ulvenwald Jetpack does it in a second way: ramp yourself into a BIG beater that... also makes mana!


Probably the most overpowered card to date. Costing a single mana and not being a creature make it sooo difficult to interact with and sooo effictient. I'll try it out once or twice more, but this card made me decide to actually make a ban list.


The first black card! This card is a clear example on how strong a 1-drop should be able to be. It can only attack from turn 4 onwards and is very forecasted at that.


A third werewolf joins the army of stickered entities. Notice how the front side give you a mana sink to help you flip the werewolf to its canine side during your turn.


The first card that enables the bounce theme I'm trying to add to the cube. A lot of stickers care about leaving the battlefield (as opposed to the creature dying), which leave room for blink synergies!

 

[ellogeyen]

Banning Cards
I have made some mistakes when building this cube, which threaten to linger if I don't remove some of the permanently stickered cards. It's a shame that things have come to this, but I learned some valuable lessons that I'd like to share here. Hopefully these can help you if you decide to build a similar cube to mine.​

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The first card that was obviously too strong was Unstable Stingscourger (a fitting name). 2 mana to bounce a creature, block a creature, AND draw two cards is just too much. The problem here is mainly the sticker though: I've actually mentioned this sticker two posts back for being too strong. Now you know why!


I thought losing a land balanced out the enormous tempo this card brings. I was wrong. Scythe Tiger Parade is the most complained-about card of the bunch, mainly because you just lose to it turn 1. The shroud pushes it over the top, but any one-drop that can reliably attack turn two is a card that might be to strong for this cube. I removed a lot of one-drops from my maybeboard.


Consulate Dread Yogurt is a one-drop, but it can't attack turn two. The problem of this vehicle is that is has 5+ toughness, which enables all stickers in this cube. Its now-permanent sticker is just too good for a one-drop. 5+ toughness should be excluded from cards below 3 mana. They dominate the game too early otherwise. I've removed Lupine Prototype from the cube for the same reason.


It haven't banned Range Nimbus Lightning yet, but I will. Keen eyes might've seen that the maker of this card is the same as the Scythe Tiger Parade. I don't want to ban all cards from someone from the cube (all other bans have alternative cards from the same maker). However, this card is another example of an overpowered sticker that I mentioned a few posts back. Protection from ... is just not a very fun mechanic.

 

[gaytransmulldrifter]

I think banning cards is sort of part of the fun for these kinds of projects. I like to keep all the banned cards in my redacted cube in a box together as a kind of "hall of fame" of broken shit, which are fun to show off to people who are new to the cube. You're inevitably going to get things that are just not fun to play against with these cubes, I think you should think of the bannings as a positive part of the process.

 

[ellogeyen]

I think banning cards is sort of part of the fun for these kinds of projects. I like to keep all the banned cards in my redacted cube in a box together as a kind of "hall of fame" of broken shit, which are fun to show off to people who are new to the cube. You're inevitably going to get things that are just not fun to play against with these cubes, I think you should think of the bannings as a positive part of the process.

I was foolishly assuming I had a perfect system that prevents bans. I hadn't. Honestly, I'm (foolishly) assuming I have a system now that wouldn't need bans.

There's a little more balance possible with the toughness-based system I have, but yes, inevitably things will not be fun to play against. Hopefully those will be less extreme in the future!