Hey Riptide team,
I'm experimenting with ideas for a 2-player cube. One thought was to give each player an emblem akin to Sovereign's Realm: once per turn, the player can exile a card from their hand to play a basic land from outside the game. (No other funny business like a reduced starting hand size or basic lands tapping for any color mana.) This would let players play with a range of colors, so that the drafting wouldn't devolve into each person picking 2 colors and scooping them all up without competition. It also has the upside of eliminating mana screw/flood from the game, one of the worst aspects of Magic. The actual drafting mechanic would probably be Solomon or something similar.
I'd appreciate any theorycrafting about how to engineer such a cube. My big question is how the rule would alter the balance between control, midrange, and aggro. Would normal control cards be too powerful since the control player would never miss a land drop? Or would aggro be too powerful since it could draw nothing but gas after playing a few lands? Other theoretical musings are that cards with double mana symbols in the casting cost also become costlier to play, since using one means you're having to play a second land of that type instead of opening up another color. And narrower situational cards become more playable, since they can be chucked for a land if their prerequisites aren't met.
I'd appreciate any input!
Thanks,
K
I'm experimenting with ideas for a 2-player cube. One thought was to give each player an emblem akin to Sovereign's Realm: once per turn, the player can exile a card from their hand to play a basic land from outside the game. (No other funny business like a reduced starting hand size or basic lands tapping for any color mana.) This would let players play with a range of colors, so that the drafting wouldn't devolve into each person picking 2 colors and scooping them all up without competition. It also has the upside of eliminating mana screw/flood from the game, one of the worst aspects of Magic. The actual drafting mechanic would probably be Solomon or something similar.
I'd appreciate any theorycrafting about how to engineer such a cube. My big question is how the rule would alter the balance between control, midrange, and aggro. Would normal control cards be too powerful since the control player would never miss a land drop? Or would aggro be too powerful since it could draw nothing but gas after playing a few lands? Other theoretical musings are that cards with double mana symbols in the casting cost also become costlier to play, since using one means you're having to play a second land of that type instead of opening up another color. And narrower situational cards become more playable, since they can be chucked for a land if their prerequisites aren't met.
I'd appreciate any input!
Thanks,
K
