I try to make the best Cube experience possible for my playgroup, but since the curation of any Cube involves making over five dozen decisions even on days where the Cube in question is not being played/actively updated, that means that I have to go with my own preferences/gut decision over what's best. Yes, one could say "what's good for the goose" and the like, but one of the many actively fun and practical elements of engaging with you all here is being able to outsource feedback on some of these many narrow decisions.
One of the most challenging decisions I face with cube is: which version of a card should I use? I have my own heuristics, sure. An old border is typically preferred, as I'm no stickler for consistency and the aesthetic is unmatched. A card's original printing has a special resonance to it that captures the history of a card, contributing to the sense of "Museum of Magic" that many of our Cubes tend to and/or try to emulate. There are now dozens and dozens of card styles, each with their own relative popularity, making the iconic Magic card "look" become more tentative in a more significant way than when sleeves started to obscure the backs of cards in nearly all play situations.
But even with all of those elements considered, the artwork itself is the most fundamental. I think this is true for most of us, even those who keep to a strict aesthetic in one way or another at the expense of optimizing for art.
With Lord of the Rings bringing delightful Middle Earth versions of some of our favorite cards in the Commander reprints, I thought it as good a time as any to start something fun here: a daily poll to see where the Riptide Lab community lands on classic Cube cards! I'll be embedding a poll each day here (probably in the AM UK time). Please argue in the comments, and let me know if you have any ideas for how to improve this!
One of the most challenging decisions I face with cube is: which version of a card should I use? I have my own heuristics, sure. An old border is typically preferred, as I'm no stickler for consistency and the aesthetic is unmatched. A card's original printing has a special resonance to it that captures the history of a card, contributing to the sense of "Museum of Magic" that many of our Cubes tend to and/or try to emulate. There are now dozens and dozens of card styles, each with their own relative popularity, making the iconic Magic card "look" become more tentative in a more significant way than when sleeves started to obscure the backs of cards in nearly all play situations.
But even with all of those elements considered, the artwork itself is the most fundamental. I think this is true for most of us, even those who keep to a strict aesthetic in one way or another at the expense of optimizing for art.
With Lord of the Rings bringing delightful Middle Earth versions of some of our favorite cards in the Commander reprints, I thought it as good a time as any to start something fun here: a daily poll to see where the Riptide Lab community lands on classic Cube cards! I'll be embedding a poll each day here (probably in the AM UK time). Please argue in the comments, and let me know if you have any ideas for how to improve this!
Will read it now
