Backstory
After designing a few cubelets and micro cubes, I had a burning question pop up that I couldn't ignore.
What if your commander deck could also be a playable micro cube?
I have had this project on the back-burner for some time. Recently in the Reddit community there have been a deluge of micro environments, so I saw an opportunity to sit down and finish it. Not bad timing anyway, because I'm secretly trying to convert my LGS away from commander and more into draft.
The List
https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/Atraxa_EDH_MicroCube
Design Challenges
First thing I knew sitting down is that no commander player will believe it's 'not that Atraxa', so I had to aim for bracket 3 (formally power level 7). I also have the dichotomy of both formats tugging at the project, with commander being a battlecruiser format and cube typically much faster. There were things that needed to work independently from the commander, because as a cube you won't have one. As such, no commander staples like Command Tower orArcane Signet could be played with.
Likewise, I'm not a dumb man, so no Sol Ring!
Because it's going to have to fit in a commander deck box, that also means by definition it has to be a desert cube. I've started with my commander-staple 38 lands, though I may have to increase to make the draft a bit more playable.
How to Play
My plan for this environment is 2-4 players, Housman drafted. If the card pool is too restrictive for that, I'll fall back on Grid drafting.
Deck size 15, no milling out. No other rules changes.
For no, I'm going to leave Atraxa draftable. It might be too strong since it synergizes with the whole deck, but if you want to draft and play it you have to really prioritize fixing.
Design Ideas
Going into this as a cube first, I had a few ideas playing around in my head. Modular, poison, experience counters, energy, planeswalkers. At one point, there were over 400 cards in the project! So I've made heavy cuts, trying to keep a bit of each of the themes represented. As such, I believe that the draft is much less on-rails, but I hope that there's enough support regardless.
Some of the cards aren't the 'best-in-slot' for a reason, as most will need to fill multiple rolls. Cards like Doubling Season would be great for commander, but Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion does an alright impression on a decent body.
Game Changers
Because this is also a fully functional Commander deck, at bracket 3 I get three. I think I've chosen the best 3 to be used in the multi-format play.
In cube, these are much worse than in commander. So if you think that there's something that would better benefit both the cube and the deck I'd love to hear it.
Speaking of which, if you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! I'll be drafting this within the coming weeks, and will try to post a draft report the same day.
After designing a few cubelets and micro cubes, I had a burning question pop up that I couldn't ignore.
What if your commander deck could also be a playable micro cube?
I have had this project on the back-burner for some time. Recently in the Reddit community there have been a deluge of micro environments, so I saw an opportunity to sit down and finish it. Not bad timing anyway, because I'm secretly trying to convert my LGS away from commander and more into draft.
The List
https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/Atraxa_EDH_MicroCube
Design Challenges
First thing I knew sitting down is that no commander player will believe it's 'not that Atraxa', so I had to aim for bracket 3 (formally power level 7). I also have the dichotomy of both formats tugging at the project, with commander being a battlecruiser format and cube typically much faster. There were things that needed to work independently from the commander, because as a cube you won't have one. As such, no commander staples like Command Tower orArcane Signet could be played with.
Likewise, I'm not a dumb man, so no Sol Ring!
Because it's going to have to fit in a commander deck box, that also means by definition it has to be a desert cube. I've started with my commander-staple 38 lands, though I may have to increase to make the draft a bit more playable.
How to Play
My plan for this environment is 2-4 players, Housman drafted. If the card pool is too restrictive for that, I'll fall back on Grid drafting.
Deck size 15, no milling out. No other rules changes.
For no, I'm going to leave Atraxa draftable. It might be too strong since it synergizes with the whole deck, but if you want to draft and play it you have to really prioritize fixing.
Design Ideas
Going into this as a cube first, I had a few ideas playing around in my head. Modular, poison, experience counters, energy, planeswalkers. At one point, there were over 400 cards in the project! So I've made heavy cuts, trying to keep a bit of each of the themes represented. As such, I believe that the draft is much less on-rails, but I hope that there's enough support regardless.
Some of the cards aren't the 'best-in-slot' for a reason, as most will need to fill multiple rolls. Cards like Doubling Season would be great for commander, but Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion does an alright impression on a decent body.
Game Changers
Because this is also a fully functional Commander deck, at bracket 3 I get three. I think I've chosen the best 3 to be used in the multi-format play.
In cube, these are much worse than in commander. So if you think that there's something that would better benefit both the cube and the deck I'd love to hear it.
Speaking of which, if you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! I'll be drafting this within the coming weeks, and will try to post a draft report the same day.
