Cubetutor Link: http://cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/6454
Design Goals:
Provide a simple, inviting, fun draft environment for mostly casual players. I rarely have the same group twice, so the cube needs to be approachable to a player drafting it for the first time.
Be a "greatest hits album" for the core sets limited environments. strong archetypes and opens from the sets, with all the trash cut out.
Slightly higher power level than an ordinary core set limited environment. Ordinary card evaluation skill should apply. Attacking and blocking matter.
Include cross-set synergies that did not exist in the original limited environments.
avoid efficient "super bombs" that immediately win games when they drop. Kalonian Hydra, Baneslayer Angel, Titans, or Jace Memory Adept. Players tend to find these "unfair". I don't want rares that obligate you to pick and run them because you'd be stupid not to.
Design Restrictions:
only cards from M10,M11,M12,M13,M14
360 cards.
Duplicate copies of cards are allowed. I make sure packs don't have two of the same card.
Same common-uncommon-rare ratio as real packs. Every pack has 1 rare/mythic, 3 common, 11 common. I construct packs.
Avoid shuffling effects (when possible)
Archetypes/Decks/themes:
Abundant enchantments. Enchantments-matter cards like blightcaster, ajani's chosen, and Thran Golem. 10 equipment cards, including the Ring cycle from M13 which have been consistently popular. Voltron decks are possible but haven't gotten out of control.
Throne of Empires combo: This has consistently created fun at the draft table. Everyone is always excited to see if the combo is there or a piece is stuck in unused packs.
Only a handful of tribal cards. Soldiers is the only one that could create a real tribal deck with 4 lords (captain of the watch, rhox pikemaster, 2x veteran swordsmith) and some war falcons. I tried to prioritize cards that are solid without their friends, but encourage you to get a higher density of them in your deck.
Monocolor: people go mono-color pretty frequently. Typically one player per draft will be mono.
Mill: I wanted to support mill with a minimum package of cards that are useful only in the mill deck. Most of the mill strategy is built up around Jace's Erasure, because it interacts with other cards (unlike tome scour). Jace's erasure+burning inquiry depletes six cards from their deck, and Jace's erasure+jace's archivist can deplete their deck by 6-10 cards per turn.
Discard: Liliana's Caress and Megrim support a deck based around them. Jace's archivist and Burning inquiry support this as well. Multiple ravenous rats and lili's spectre's.
R/B Act of Treason: The steal-and-sacrifice deck. Four copies of act of treason and a few sac outlets. Might need more support. Considering adding more bloodthirst to black to set that as a second theme.
U/R spells matter: supported by one copy of Talrand, Sky summoner and one Young Pyromancer. Players consistently have fun with this deck. I am considering adding some a molten birth and a couple krenko's command to support this archetype.
G/B Hexproof Auras: Mark of the Vampire and Primal Huntbeast dream team. 3x celestial flare keeps this from being unanswerable. tormented soul and blightcaster help too. Has the cute synergy between sengir vampire and prey upon.
U/G flash: Yeva, Nature's Herald supports this with a little help from 2x nephalia seakite and 2x briarpack alpha. Not that developed. Players absolutely love flashing in a sentinel spider.
R/G aggro: Basic red and green face beating. Ramp with arbor elf/verdant haven combo and a couple mana rocks. a few big dudes in both colors.
B/W is just sort of goodstuff.dec right now. There's exalted in both but it's not really a cohesive strategy at the moment. Considering adding a ajani's pridemate to give this some identity (see question below)
U/B is just plain control mostly.
W/G tokens: token production and mass pump. This hasn't been drafted too much, perhaps just due to player preference. Thinking of adding to the green token strategy. Tokens are kept in check by Chandra's Fury and Shrivel, which are strong cards here due to the number of good 1-toughness creatures and tokens.
W/R aggro: Ogre Battledriver followed by captain's call can be really strong. A rush aggro version of this has not yet emerged.
U/W skies: two cheap 2-power 2-drop fliers and warden of evos isle. Also comes out as a straight up control deck sometimes.
Questions:
What planeswalkers could I add? I'm considering M10 Jace Beleren. Keep in mind the no super-bomby-bombs policy.
I'm changing up my removal suite, removing some premium removal to give combat tricks a chance to shine. The people I play with tend to find them more fun. I'm changing to more expensive removal spells like Liturgy of Blood and Chandra's Outrage. Any opinions on the removal are appreicated.
I'm removing pentavus for consistent underperformance. I'm considering adding Temple Bell or howling mine (for mill and control), Druidic Satchel or Trading Post (general funsies with minor support for a lot of things) or Adaptive Automaton (aggro and tribes) for a new rare artifact. What rare artifact do you think would be a good fit for this environment?
I'd like to add a green non-creature spell (i'm pulling Garruk's horde). Suggestions?
Does blue have enough creatures? Cube overall is 53% creatures.
Is there enough aggro support? Should I add some phantasmal bears or more jackal familiars? The 4x Garruk's Companion aggro deck has made a good showing, as has mono-red thanks to stormblood berserker.
I had a lifegain subtheme with angelic accord in a previous iteration before but I took it out. I'm considering putting in a couple copies of ajani's pridemate and some more incidental lifegain like sorin's thirst and bloodhunter bat. Also considering pulling mesa enchantress (who has been totally unused) for a path of bravery, which would support the pridemate deck and as an anthem effect would help out the token strategy. Would this give white/black some identity?
Is there enough enchantment removal (3x Naturalize and 3x Solemn Offering)? Enough artifact removal (3x Naturalize, 3x solemn offering and 2x Manic Vandal)? I was thinking of adding a Turn To Slag since there's a fair ammount of equipment and maybe taking out a solemn offering.
Mindshatter is basically just a placeholder. Any recommendation on a black rare non-creature?
Considering adding Griffin rider. Thoughts?
lifelink mirror matches are just miserable and unfun, and are occurring too often. What cuts should I make to reduce this happening?
I have the Roc Eggs in there to support sacrifice based decks, but it has been sitting in the sideboard. Should I just pull it? On the other side, people have been loving dragon egg.
I'm considering swapping Condemn for Righteousness. It's very similar (1 drop white "removal" that requires the opponent to attack) but could make silly shenanigans with Fling. Thoughts?
How can I encourage more cross-color synergy? People draft mono-color pretty frequently. I've shied away from the basic-lands-matter cards like quag sickness, seismic strike, etc for this reason Do you think they have a place here?
Design Goals:
Provide a simple, inviting, fun draft environment for mostly casual players. I rarely have the same group twice, so the cube needs to be approachable to a player drafting it for the first time.
Be a "greatest hits album" for the core sets limited environments. strong archetypes and opens from the sets, with all the trash cut out.
Slightly higher power level than an ordinary core set limited environment. Ordinary card evaluation skill should apply. Attacking and blocking matter.
Include cross-set synergies that did not exist in the original limited environments.
avoid efficient "super bombs" that immediately win games when they drop. Kalonian Hydra, Baneslayer Angel, Titans, or Jace Memory Adept. Players tend to find these "unfair". I don't want rares that obligate you to pick and run them because you'd be stupid not to.
Design Restrictions:
only cards from M10,M11,M12,M13,M14
360 cards.
Duplicate copies of cards are allowed. I make sure packs don't have two of the same card.
Same common-uncommon-rare ratio as real packs. Every pack has 1 rare/mythic, 3 common, 11 common. I construct packs.
Avoid shuffling effects (when possible)
Archetypes/Decks/themes:
Abundant enchantments. Enchantments-matter cards like blightcaster, ajani's chosen, and Thran Golem. 10 equipment cards, including the Ring cycle from M13 which have been consistently popular. Voltron decks are possible but haven't gotten out of control.
Throne of Empires combo: This has consistently created fun at the draft table. Everyone is always excited to see if the combo is there or a piece is stuck in unused packs.
Only a handful of tribal cards. Soldiers is the only one that could create a real tribal deck with 4 lords (captain of the watch, rhox pikemaster, 2x veteran swordsmith) and some war falcons. I tried to prioritize cards that are solid without their friends, but encourage you to get a higher density of them in your deck.
Monocolor: people go mono-color pretty frequently. Typically one player per draft will be mono.
Mill: I wanted to support mill with a minimum package of cards that are useful only in the mill deck. Most of the mill strategy is built up around Jace's Erasure, because it interacts with other cards (unlike tome scour). Jace's erasure+burning inquiry depletes six cards from their deck, and Jace's erasure+jace's archivist can deplete their deck by 6-10 cards per turn.
Discard: Liliana's Caress and Megrim support a deck based around them. Jace's archivist and Burning inquiry support this as well. Multiple ravenous rats and lili's spectre's.
R/B Act of Treason: The steal-and-sacrifice deck. Four copies of act of treason and a few sac outlets. Might need more support. Considering adding more bloodthirst to black to set that as a second theme.
U/R spells matter: supported by one copy of Talrand, Sky summoner and one Young Pyromancer. Players consistently have fun with this deck. I am considering adding some a molten birth and a couple krenko's command to support this archetype.
G/B Hexproof Auras: Mark of the Vampire and Primal Huntbeast dream team. 3x celestial flare keeps this from being unanswerable. tormented soul and blightcaster help too. Has the cute synergy between sengir vampire and prey upon.
U/G flash: Yeva, Nature's Herald supports this with a little help from 2x nephalia seakite and 2x briarpack alpha. Not that developed. Players absolutely love flashing in a sentinel spider.
R/G aggro: Basic red and green face beating. Ramp with arbor elf/verdant haven combo and a couple mana rocks. a few big dudes in both colors.
B/W is just sort of goodstuff.dec right now. There's exalted in both but it's not really a cohesive strategy at the moment. Considering adding a ajani's pridemate to give this some identity (see question below)
U/B is just plain control mostly.
W/G tokens: token production and mass pump. This hasn't been drafted too much, perhaps just due to player preference. Thinking of adding to the green token strategy. Tokens are kept in check by Chandra's Fury and Shrivel, which are strong cards here due to the number of good 1-toughness creatures and tokens.
W/R aggro: Ogre Battledriver followed by captain's call can be really strong. A rush aggro version of this has not yet emerged.
U/W skies: two cheap 2-power 2-drop fliers and warden of evos isle. Also comes out as a straight up control deck sometimes.
Questions:
What planeswalkers could I add? I'm considering M10 Jace Beleren. Keep in mind the no super-bomby-bombs policy.
I'm changing up my removal suite, removing some premium removal to give combat tricks a chance to shine. The people I play with tend to find them more fun. I'm changing to more expensive removal spells like Liturgy of Blood and Chandra's Outrage. Any opinions on the removal are appreicated.
I'm removing pentavus for consistent underperformance. I'm considering adding Temple Bell or howling mine (for mill and control), Druidic Satchel or Trading Post (general funsies with minor support for a lot of things) or Adaptive Automaton (aggro and tribes) for a new rare artifact. What rare artifact do you think would be a good fit for this environment?
I'd like to add a green non-creature spell (i'm pulling Garruk's horde). Suggestions?
Does blue have enough creatures? Cube overall is 53% creatures.
Is there enough aggro support? Should I add some phantasmal bears or more jackal familiars? The 4x Garruk's Companion aggro deck has made a good showing, as has mono-red thanks to stormblood berserker.
I had a lifegain subtheme with angelic accord in a previous iteration before but I took it out. I'm considering putting in a couple copies of ajani's pridemate and some more incidental lifegain like sorin's thirst and bloodhunter bat. Also considering pulling mesa enchantress (who has been totally unused) for a path of bravery, which would support the pridemate deck and as an anthem effect would help out the token strategy. Would this give white/black some identity?
Is there enough enchantment removal (3x Naturalize and 3x Solemn Offering)? Enough artifact removal (3x Naturalize, 3x solemn offering and 2x Manic Vandal)? I was thinking of adding a Turn To Slag since there's a fair ammount of equipment and maybe taking out a solemn offering.
Mindshatter is basically just a placeholder. Any recommendation on a black rare non-creature?
Considering adding Griffin rider. Thoughts?
lifelink mirror matches are just miserable and unfun, and are occurring too often. What cuts should I make to reduce this happening?
I have the Roc Eggs in there to support sacrifice based decks, but it has been sitting in the sideboard. Should I just pull it? On the other side, people have been loving dragon egg.
I'm considering swapping Condemn for Righteousness. It's very similar (1 drop white "removal" that requires the opponent to attack) but could make silly shenanigans with Fling. Thoughts?
How can I encourage more cross-color synergy? People draft mono-color pretty frequently. I've shied away from the basic-lands-matter cards like quag sickness, seismic strike, etc for this reason Do you think they have a place here?