Volcano Manor (Desert Bar Cube)

[CTide]

So... You want to hear a story, eh? One about treasure hunters? Haha, have I got a story for you! Volcano Manor... This is our home. But make no mistake - this is not a place of peace and love. They say it's a wasteland, that it's dangerous, that only a fool would search for something of value here. Then perhaps I am a fool.



Cube List

Cube has always been purported to be whatever you want it to be; your imagination the only limitation. Many new designers are ecstatic, to have finally found the home for their favorite pet card! It doesn't matter that they don't have a collection, anything goes! Starry-eyed, they put together their first 540 cards, as 360 is far too limiting for all the great ideas that they have. Their cube might look artificially like many other cubes, but their cube is different. No one else feels the same way about RtR, Theros, and Khans that they do. They put their cube together in a spreadsheet, as they don't know other options exist.

As they spend more time with the cube, they end up joining discussion spaces to talk about cube. They want feedback, they want to improve their design, they want to simply share the joy this list brought to them. First things first, they are told to move their cube onto CubeCobra. Nobody wants to look at someone else's spreadsheet. Fair enough. Okay, maybe Wurmcoil Engine shouldn't be here, even though you really like the card. Yeah, they should probably run more lands. Their curve is too high, there were just too many cool 3 and 4 drops to play! As they spend more and more time in these spaces, the cube continues to improve.

The first pod of the cube fires, and they are ecstatic. All of their friends playing their baby, experiencing Magic through their eyes. Everyone has a great time! They ask for feedback afterwards, and the white player said all their removal felt really bad to play. Oblivion Rings were okay 10 years ago, but Leyline Binding just plays so much better. That's fair, and you like the pressure that applies to the mono-color cards from Theros. The Gruul player had an awful time against the Blue-Black Control player, feeling like everything they played just got removed, and there was no way for them to rebuild after a wrath. They really wish they had something that just made some value, even if the creature got removed. We could add Tireless Tracker! It's iconic, creates value immediately, and people get excited when they see it. Sure, it creates a new unique token, but everyone knows what clues do.

They continue in this fashion, receiving feedback, playing drafts, getting more feedback. Each change they make is for the betterment of the cube. People shouldn't struggle to cast spells, let's make fixing even better and reduce the curve more. A new set of spoilers come out, and they're printing cards with UUU in their mana cost again. Time to bring back Master of Waves! Oh, but that has protection from red, and protection has too many words, and feels really bad if you're playing mono red. I guess Master of Waves should just stay on the shelf.

A few years later, they realize that they should update their cube overview, as they haven't looked at it for quite a while. The only cards that are left from their original draft are shocklands. They delete all the paragraphs describing why RtR-Khans was so special to them, and replace it with

"The Dooly Cube is a low curving environment that tests player's decision making with tight, small games full of interaction."

 

[CTide]

Volcano Manor’s seed crystal was a statement made by a good friend of mine about a cube I adore: “[The Dandy Cube] is like a 9 course buffet: You can get everything you’d ever want, and it all tastes amazing. But it can sometimes be too much.”

Chris Taylor is one of the best designers I’ve had the pleasure of talking to, and consistently has some of the best custom cards I have ever seen. He has an intimate understanding of his environment, and has a talent of taking in feedback and actualizing it into actionable cards to address those problems. The Dandy Cube is my favorite cube, and a good chunk of that is getting to talk to Chris about it.

With all that said, I set out to design a cube that is the antithesis of everything Dandy is.

In Dandy, lands are sacred. Fixing is excellent, lands are plentiful, and if you aren’t animating your manland, lands will never die.

The first ten cards I added to this cube were 5 wastelands and 5 fulminator mages.


In Dandy, Archetypes are important, and not to be ignored. They help to bring identity to colors, and help to rein in 5 color, as focused decks with good gameplans often will beat out goodstuff piles.

There are no archetypes in Volcano manor, though themes may emerge.


In Dandy, you always have something to do. Between copious manlands, excellent card advantage engines, and ways to generate resources from the grave, every turn generates a fun and interesting puzzle.

A specific design goal of Volcano Manor is that card advantage must be hard to achieve.


In Dandy, mechanics are king. Many customs have been designed to fill niches needed for gameplay reasons, and wordings on cards have been changed simply to improve player experience.

In the Manor, flavor trumps all. This cube contains a story of colonization, and the resistance of a local populace against invading forces.


In Dandy, board states are often complex, with a variety of tokens, sagas, planeswalkers, and enchantments adding to what ends up being a somewhat messy boardstate that can be a joy to navigate.

In the Manor, removal is excellent, creatures are bad, and there are no tokens or counters to muddy board states. If you are losing, it is often clear to see.

 

[CTide]

I wanted to create scarcity, and a feeling of Magic that I haven’t felt in a long time. Challenge all the adages we have learned over time, and push exactly against the current tide of Magic.

With all that said, I understand why many of these “rules” have been put in place, and so gave myself some guiding stars to follow:

Flavor above all: Volcano manor has a story that I hope can be felt through gameplay, and much of that comes from getting the “feeling” of the cards right. This is vibes based card selection, and while I can’t help but let some of my designer brain slip through, this cube is meant to evoke a feeling.


Basics are (mostly) sacred: In such a volatile environment, it was important to bring some stability to manabases, especially in Black and Red, the “home” colors of the cube. Basic lands (mostly) cannot be destroyed, and with so many land destruction effects in the cube, having reliable mana can be a lifesaver. There are 17 Swamps and 17 Mountains in the cube, providing a strong base to build your mana off of in the central colors. In contrast, there is a single basic land of the three “invasion” colors, as land destruction is a tool the Manor uses to defend itself.


Apply some guardrails for the players: Finding lands, especially basics, should be something you can draft around. A combination of cyclers, landcyclers and land searching effects in green should provide stability to the players that value it. Cards aren’t meant to be traps; while cards like terror are more likely to miss, this is meant as a tradeoff the spell has, the same way infernal grasp struggles against the constant drain on your life total.


As a final note, I would like to give a shoutout to Moxpebble and infinitedelay, who donated much of their time to this project. Their suggestions were invaluable, and messages about random cards they came across that would be perfect for the cube helped maintain my motivation. I never would have finished this without you two.

 

[StrionicAdventurer]

Obsidian Charmaw

Edit: I should have been more detailed in my response, but I suddenly had to leave my computer wanted to shout "Obsidian Charmaw" before vanishing.

I love this cube! What a cool idea. This one and Pulp Nouveau have really got me worked up to build a flavor-forward cube of my own.

 

[LadyMapi]

A few years later, they realize that they should update their cube overview, as they haven't looked at it for quite a while.

This is why I never update any of my cubes - the roughness is the point.

...

I also love the idea you've got going here. I like my games small and my mana unsteady - keeps everyone honest.