https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/5lifemicrocube
I've been working on this for a bit, it's up to v 1.5 or so, and finally feel like it's in a place ready to post. Each player drafts 20 cards, builds an exactly 15 card deck (adding basics) and plays a game where they start on 5 life each. You don't lose from drawing from an empty deck, you just...don't have anything left. It's supposed to be hard to deal damage and you'll have to string together several cards or recycle a card a couple times in order to actually win, but there's no lifegain so the game will always head in one direction.
The first draft of the list had several 1 mana spells that dealt 1 damage which I thought would be fine, they'll be high picks, they'll be spread out among everyone. In practice one person took them all and was killing everyone else on turn 3 while they tried to set up looping Icatian Javelineer or whatever. I've now cut almost everything that deals 1 damage for less than three mana, with Bile Urchin and Magmakin Artillerist under intense scrutiny.
As I've said in the primer, I wasn't sure if this would really be a fun environment, but so far it's gone over pretty well. There's been some great situations - I've won by Animate Walling my Jungle Barrier, Twisted Imageing it and removing my opponent's single blocker for the one-shot; I've lost to an unstoppable Tomb Trawler that kept growing off a levelled Builder's Talent and looped Conjurer's Bauble; I've survived a Thumbscrews with 2 life left by repeatedly Junktrollering a Bandages.
It certainly can be a bit unbalanced and some decks really do struggle to win but it creates bizarre situations with cards you won't see anywhere else - never before have I stared down a Barbed Wire in terror or had to cut Plated Pegasus from a list for being brokenly good.
Any and all suggestions or feedback are welcome! It can be hard to find cards that are bad enough to go in as they are naturally languishing in obscurity and I know there are some Homelands superfans around here frothing at the bit to recommend Winter Sky.
I've been working on this for a bit, it's up to v 1.5 or so, and finally feel like it's in a place ready to post. Each player drafts 20 cards, builds an exactly 15 card deck (adding basics) and plays a game where they start on 5 life each. You don't lose from drawing from an empty deck, you just...don't have anything left. It's supposed to be hard to deal damage and you'll have to string together several cards or recycle a card a couple times in order to actually win, but there's no lifegain so the game will always head in one direction.
The first draft of the list had several 1 mana spells that dealt 1 damage which I thought would be fine, they'll be high picks, they'll be spread out among everyone. In practice one person took them all and was killing everyone else on turn 3 while they tried to set up looping Icatian Javelineer or whatever. I've now cut almost everything that deals 1 damage for less than three mana, with Bile Urchin and Magmakin Artillerist under intense scrutiny.
As I've said in the primer, I wasn't sure if this would really be a fun environment, but so far it's gone over pretty well. There's been some great situations - I've won by Animate Walling my Jungle Barrier, Twisted Imageing it and removing my opponent's single blocker for the one-shot; I've lost to an unstoppable Tomb Trawler that kept growing off a levelled Builder's Talent and looped Conjurer's Bauble; I've survived a Thumbscrews with 2 life left by repeatedly Junktrollering a Bandages.
It certainly can be a bit unbalanced and some decks really do struggle to win but it creates bizarre situations with cards you won't see anywhere else - never before have I stared down a Barbed Wire in terror or had to cut Plated Pegasus from a list for being brokenly good.
Any and all suggestions or feedback are welcome! It can be hard to find cards that are bad enough to go in as they are naturally languishing in obscurity and I know there are some Homelands superfans around here frothing at the bit to recommend Winter Sky.
