General Common/Uncommon Playsets

BennyD

BennyD

So, I'm keeping my cube construction budget low for now (over the last couple years, I sold off my pimped out Modern cube), and I have stockpiled a bunch of Common/Uncommon playsets that I'd like to use to make multiple cubes.

What are some ideas for how to maximize my use of these playsets?

Some idea I had were:
  • Draft Sims - These would be fairly easy to put together, but would lack the novel card interactions you get in a mixed-block cube.
  • Overlapping Standard-Legal Cubes - So, ZEN-NPH cube; SOM-AVR cube, etc. This has promise, but it will be tougher to find common themes between the blocks without repeating a theme between cubes (e.g. using Battle Cry to anchor the Boros decks in both ZEN-NPH and SOM-AVR).
  • Carve out unique mechanical space for each of 2-3 cubes - This would utilize the entire range of cards to find anchors and fill in holes, which may lead to more interesting play. But as new sets rolled out, I'd have to divvy out the new cards so that they didn't start to feel samey.
Any other ideas out there or directions to go with one of my existing ideas?
 
Ryan

Ryan

I think Modern Masters and ISD are where I would look to if I was looking to build a budget friendly cube that stilled had excellent interactions. For example in my peasant cube I've had great success implementing a graveyard deck that isn't too secular or "poisonous"
 
BennyD

BennyD

My main problem with Modern Masters was that the archetypes felt too forced. There weren't a lot of cards that overlapped between them. ISD is a personal favorite, but I'd prefer to move away from preexisting draft environments.

One of my initial ideas used ZEN-NPH and seeded the following archetypes:

WU - Levelers
UB - -1/-1 counters
BR - Sacrifice shenanigans
RG - Eldrazi Spawn
GW - Auras
WB - Life gain
UR - Instants and Sorceries
BG - ...nothing yet...
RW - Equipment
GU - Landfall
Multi - Golems
Artifact - Myr

But the list started looking too much like Modern Masters, with each archetype essentially coming from a single block.
 
Ryan

Ryan

What I'm saying is you should take various successful archetypes from across these formats and try and see what overlap. Like Spider Spawning style decks work well with sacrifice themes as well as reanimator on top of being its own strategy while not being a bad card on its own. You can have a spells matter archetype Delver of Secrets,Young Pyromancer, etc. etc. which means flashback spells feed that archetype as well as a graveyard archetype. My spells matter, control, and GY deck are all gonna play Deep Analaysis for example.
 
S

Sorrynametaken

I put together a an Innistrad draft set with 2x commons and 1x uncommons. It was quite playable with 2 player grid drafts. I made it so each grid had 6 commons and 3 uncommons. I think upping the count on certain archetype enablers(3x Armored Skaab instead of 2?)might improve it, but I haven't gotten around to that.
 
Ryan

Ryan

Another example would be Gush works excellent for spells matter and puts lands back in hand for the retrace spells which are good for spells matter or GY strategy.
 
CML

CML

Contributor
BennyD said:
My main problem with Modern Masters was that the archetypes felt too forced. There weren't a lot of cards that overlapped between them. ISD is a personal favorite, but I'd prefer to move away from preexisting draft environments.

One of my initial ideas used ZEN-NPH and seeded the following archetypes:

WU - Levelers
UB - -1/-1 counters
BR - Sacrifice shenanigans
RG - Eldrazi Spawn
GW - Auras
WB - Life gain
UR - Instants and Sorceries
BG - ...nothing yet...
RW - Equipment
GU - Landfall
Multi - Golems
Artifact - Myr

But the list started looking too much like Modern Masters, with each archetype essentially coming from a single block.
Click to expand...


Yeah, that sounds about right for those sets. My advice is to look for stuff that overlaps multiple archetypes, i.e. RW/GU could share Adventuring Gear or WB/GW could share Hopeful Eidolon. But then that commits you to a lower-power-level format, which comes with its own restrictions.

If it were easy, we wouldn't be here, right?
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I am wondering, beyond novelty, if there's any particular draw to the "overlapping blocks" approach. For example, I think Rise of the Eldrazi and Theros would make pretty cool pairings, and am sure there are others as well.
 
BennyD

BennyD

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It's very helpful.

Jason Waddell said:
I am wondering, beyond novelty, if there's any particular draw to the "overlapping blocks" approach. For example, I think Rise of the Eldrazi and Theros would make pretty cool pairings, and am sure there are others as well.
Click to expand...

My reasoning was:
  • WotC consciously builds cross-block synergy into its sets now, so there would be a fair amount of complementary mechanics.
  • It would "freeze" the cube in time, so I could focus on getting it where I wanted it, without the pull to add cards from new sets as they came out.
  • Doesn't run into the problem of finding that a handful of cards are wanted in multiple cubes, and then needing to go out and buy additional copies (beyond the playset I already have).
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
BennyD said:
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It's very helpful.



My reasoning was:
  • WotC consciously builds cross-block synergy into its sets now, so there would be a fair amount of complementary mechanics.
  • It would "freeze" the cube in time, so I could focus on getting it where I wanted it, without the pull to add cards from new sets as they came out.
  • Doesn't run into the problem of finding that a handful of cards are wanted in multiple cubes, and then needing to go out and buy additional copies (beyond the playset I already have).
Click to expand...
Do you consider using the core set that connects the two?
 
CML

CML

Contributor
Jason Waddell said:
I am wondering, beyond novelty, if there's any particular draw to the "overlapping blocks" approach. For example, I think Rise of the Eldrazi and Theros would make pretty cool pairings, and am sure there are others as well.
Click to expand...


some months ago we compiled this list

mirage-champions-zendikar ("good art")
onslaught-lorwyn-innistrad ("tribal")
future sight - ice age - legends ("tldr")
7th - 8th - 9th ("fuck")
artifact draft: antiquities - mirrodin - scars
orientalist draft: arabian nights - saviors of kamigawa - portal three kingdoms
no removal draft: fallen empires - legions - avacyn restored
clogged board draft: [any 3 sets printed before 2003]
bad set draft: prophecy - saviors - conflux
removal draft: invasion - odyssey - new phyrexia
reinstate the draft: time spiral - legions - invasion
Underwhelming middle set draft: Conflux - Guildpact - Dark Ascension
weird enchantment draft: tempest - stronghold - exodus
high mana cost draft: scourge - rise - lorwyn
WUBRG draft: scourge - conflux - apocalypse
Cleric draft: Onslaught - Scourge - Gatecrash
"ruined the fucking format" draft: conflux - future sight - urza's destiny
banned in standard draft: urza's saga - mirrodin - worldwake
unhappy ending draft: rise - new phyrexia - avr
Sets that didn't sell well draft: Eventide - M13 - Alara Reborn
weird creature type cycle draft: Mercadian Masques - Fifth Dawn - New Phyrexia
jobsworth draft: Legions - Morningtide - Zendikar
fading and vanishing draft: Nemesis - Planar Chaos - Future Sight
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
I love how many 'formats' Conflux is featured in. Hey buddy, have I got a mediocre pile of domain cards for you!
 
James Stevenson

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
CML said:
some months ago we compiled this list

mirage-champions-zendikar ("good art")
onslaught-lorwyn-innistrad ("tribal")
...
Click to expand...

Amazing post. "Reinstate the draft" made me laugh. I have a short attention span but I read this whole post! Wow!
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
CML said:
some months ago we compiled this list

mirage-champions-zendikar ("good art")
onslaught-lorwyn-innistrad ("tribal")
future sight - ice age - legends ("tldr")
7th - 8th - 9th ("fuck")
artifact draft: antiquities - mirrodin - scars
orientalist draft: arabian nights - saviors of kamigawa - portal three kingdoms
no removal draft: fallen empires - legions - avacyn restored
clogged board draft: [any 3 sets printed before 2003]
bad set draft: prophecy - saviors - conflux
removal draft: invasion - odyssey - new phyrexia
reinstate the draft: time spiral - legions - invasion
Underwhelming middle set draft: Conflux - Guildpact - Dark Ascension
weird enchantment draft: tempest - stronghold - exodus
high mana cost draft: scourge - rise - lorwyn
WUBRG draft: scourge - conflux - apocalypse
Cleric draft: Onslaught - Scourge - Gatecrash
"ruined the fucking format" draft: conflux - future sight - urza's destiny
banned in standard draft: urza's saga - mirrodin - worldwake
unhappy ending draft: rise - new phyrexia - avr
Sets that didn't sell well draft: Eventide - M13 - Alara Reborn
weird creature type cycle draft: Mercadian Masques - Fifth Dawn - New Phyrexia
jobsworth draft: Legions - Morningtide - Zendikar
fading and vanishing draft: Nemesis - Planar Chaos - Future Sight
Click to expand...

Fun fact: drafting these on drafts.in is super easy.
 
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