General CBS

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I like the idea of some variance in which cards get duplicates. I'm reminded of this post on Japahn's blog regarding duplicates of build-around cards.

https://desolatelighthouse.wordpres...of-calamity-and-build-arounds-one-card-a-day/
I have a feeling this blog post assumes a 360 cube (with no duplicates) as the standard, the way it talks about a lack of odds in a cube. I did some calculations (picking probabilities for a draw without replacement) for my 450 cube. If I include two copies of a card, there's ~64% chance that both show up, ~32% that one shows up, and ~4% that none show up. This is useful info for supporting other archetypes actually, e.g. the mentioned Braids, Cabal Minion and Smokestack that I run, which obviously have the same odds, because it's also two specific cards.

If you instead run 3 (identical of similar) cards that support the same archetype in a similar way, there's less than 1% of none showing up, almost 9.5% of only one, 38.5% of two pieces, and just over 51% of all three pieces showing up. Pretty fun math! (Courtesy of https://www.dcode.fr/picking-probabilities :))
 
I have a feeling this blog post assumes a 360 cube (with no duplicates) as the standard, the way it talks about a lack of odds in a cube. I did some calculations (picking probabilities for a draw without replacement) for my 450 cube. If I include two copies of a card, there's ~64% chance that both show up, ~32% that one shows up, and ~4% that none show up.
I really like the concept of a core cube with occasionals and putting carefully chosen duplicates into the occasionals. That would change the odds, and provide some levers to customize the odds.
But why duplicate or even triplicate cards at random from your cube? Even set cubes have the sense only to repeat commons and uncommons. You could end up in a draft with an oppressively large number of mass removal cards or counterspells, leading to overpowered control decks. Or conversely you might be providing too much support for aggro with a plethora of cheap creatures and burn. Of course much of the time it will all balance out, in which case why bother?
I think it can be managed to create an interesting level of variability within an acceptable range. I like the idea of sometimes having a little extra burn, wrath, counterspell, ETB, fatties, ramp, etc. The drafters can feel that out in the draft to see what the best deck is instead of assuming that it's all the same as usual.

Now, one could debate whether it's best to have duplicates of spells or different spells with similar roles, because the latter would signal to the drafters that something extra is available in an archetype. Some cards don't have that option since there's no real substitute. But even if it's extra copies, I think it's really cool if there might be a second copy of a card like Blood Artist or maybe a glue card like Tireless Tracker, or some extra high quality removal, or a second Goblin Guide.
 
The real solution is having a gauntlet of 10 different Cubes and every time drafting a different one, depending on the mood :marofl:

I am joking, but I really wish this was true. It would be very fun, maybe if each friend in the playgroup had their own Cube. Sadly I don't even have a group of regular people drafting Cube with me, but that's mostly due to living abroad and having my Magic cards and Magic friends at home
 
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