Mad Prophet had an interesting comment in another thread how we take for granted the basic lands box but not a basic spells box. This made me think of Netrunner cube drafts, where each player starts with a pack of baseline cards that fit a few roles but are almost always replaced by better picks. So there is some prior art here. I think agot cubes have a similar thing with plots. And Dominion/deck builders, an adjacent genre of games, definitely do something similar.
I think about this when I look at the more generic cubes elsewhere that have a dozen variants of jackal pup/Savannah lions. Or a dozen more or less similar blue utility spells, red burn, etc. Cubes that try to support a tribe or linear mechanic and thus put a bunch of anonymous goblins or whatnot in to get a reasonable asfan but also a more boring one.
I wonder if there are some areas of cube that could be trimmed back if there was some sort of concept analogous to a basic lands box. Thus leading to denser, spicier draft packs. It seems like it would be a lot of work to get a 1.0 design drafted, since I haven’t seen much iteration on this idea.
I think about this when I look at the more generic cubes elsewhere that have a dozen variants of jackal pup/Savannah lions. Or a dozen more or less similar blue utility spells, red burn, etc. Cubes that try to support a tribe or linear mechanic and thus put a bunch of anonymous goblins or whatnot in to get a reasonable asfan but also a more boring one.
I wonder if there are some areas of cube that could be trimmed back if there was some sort of concept analogous to a basic lands box. Thus leading to denser, spicier draft packs. It seems like it would be a lot of work to get a 1.0 design drafted, since I haven’t seen much iteration on this idea.
