I played Cube Saga a few times with my wife, and it was fun. We stopped because it was really a lot about deckbuilding and she doesn't really enjoy that part.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...Ot_u984NheV9FYDWg/edit#heading=h.70v9j92eq7v8
Cube Saga (prototype v0.6)
In Cube Saga, we play as two duelists, following their rivalry from humble beginnings to fame and glory in epic duels held in Spring Festivals, battling to establish who was the greatest of their time.
Cube Saga is a way to play cube in two people in which each player starts with a weak sealed pool and improves it through the course of the saga. It can be broken down into multiple sessions.
Materials
A cube with 306+ cards in the core module and 204+ cards in the occasionals module. Much more than 204 cards in occasionals are recommended for variety.
Alternatively, a regular cube with 510+ cards can be used.
Structure
The game lasts up to 7 “years” divided into four seasons. It starts in year 1, and ends at some point from year 4 to year 7.
Each year takes about 60 to 90 minutes to play.
Saga Setup
Each player starts with a sealed pool of 41 cards: 21 from core and 20 from occasionals. Each player is assigned a random primary color, and both may be assigned the same color. Each player’s starting pool consists of:
- 12 cards from their primary color (6 core, 6 occasionals)
- 6 of each other color (3 core, 3 occasionals)
- 5 artifacts (3 core, 2 occasionals)
For cubes without modules, ignore the core/occasional split.
Take the numbers of cards from the cube’s core and occasional modules indicated in Appendix A: Number of Cards Used as “Core Pool starting total” and “Occasional Pool starting total”. Shuffle each pile separately, and place each face down, forming the Core Pool and the Occasional Pool.
For cubes without modules, form a single General Pool with size equal to the size the Core Pool would be plus the size the Occasional pool would be. Whenever instructed to draw from the Core Pool or the Occasional Pool, draw from the General Pool instead.
Reserve space for a face-up pile called “Private Collections” that starts empty,
Shuffle the Theme Deck and place it face down.
Choose randomly the starting player. That player starts with 12 gold. The other player starts with 15 gold.
Playing Out a Year
Each “year” consists of a market phase, a skirmish phase, another market phase, and a duel phase.
1. Theme of the Year
In years 1 and 6, the Spring Festival has no theme, so skip this step in those years.
In years 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7, draw a card from the Theme Deck (or roll from the table in Appendix C). This is the theme of the Spring Festival this year.
If the theme is a Stipulation, it applies to the Duel in the Spring Festival only, not the Fall Skirmish. Fulfilling it grants you a reward and/or avoids a penalty for all games of the Duel.
If the theme is an Effect, its static effect applies to all games both in the Fall Skirmish and the Spring Duel.
2. Fall Skirmish
a. Deck building
Players build, rebuild or modify their decks, using as many basic lands as they want, keeping a minimum of 40 cards. The cards they own not in their decks are considered their sideboard.
b. Skirmish
This is a single, best-of-1 MtG game. The starting player chooses whether to play or draw.
At the end of the game, do not immediately shuffle the cards. The “Proof of Concept” step cares about what cards are in the players’ libraries at the end of the game.
c. Spoils
The winner of the skirmish gains 6 gold as a prize.
The starting player doesn’t change.
d. Proof of Concept
Skip in year 1.
Each player may choose up to 4 cards in any zone except their libraries and sell each one for 6, 5, 4 and 3 gold, in this order (if only 1 card is sold, the player gets 6 gold; if 4 cards are sold, they get 18 gold).
First, the starting player chooses all cards to sell, then the other player does so.
e. Fresh Ideas
Both players get a booster with 7 cards from the Occasionals Pool.
3. Winter Market
In the Winter Market, players go to the marketplace and have the opportunity to buy cards on display.
Draw a number of cards from the Core Pool depending on the year.
- Years 1 and 2: 12 cards
- Years 3 and 4: 18 cards
- Years 5, 6 and 7: 24 cards
These cards are offered for sale to the players this season. Place them in a [2 row] x [6 to 12 column] grid. The two cards in the first column are priced at 1 gold each, the ones in the second column at 2 gold, and so on, until the cards in the last column are priced at 6, 9 or 12 gold, depending on the year. These are the “cards on offer”.
Players take turns, starting, naturally, with the starting player. In their turn, the player takes one of the following actions:
- Buy a “card on offer”. Pay the card’s price in gold to the market and place it into your sideboard.
- Pass and do nothing.
When both players pass in sequence, the Trading Day ends. "Cards on offer" that were not purchased and "trending cards" that were sold are moved to the Private Collections. Record the gold totals.
4. Spring Festival
a. Deck building
Same as Fall Skirmish: build a 40-card deck.
If this year’s Spring Festival has a Theme, announce whether you are following it and apply the rewards or penalties.
b. Duel
This is a best-of-3 match of MtG games. The starting player chooses whether to play or draw in the first game. There is no sideboarding between games.
At the end of the last game, do not immediately shuffle the cards. The “Trending Cards” step cares about what cards are in the players’ libraries at the end of the game.
c. Glory!
The winner of the duel gains 12 gold and 1 Victory Point (VP). The first player to get 4 VPs wins the saga, which may happen as soon as year 4.
The loser of the duel gains 9 gold and becomes the starting player.
d. Trending Cards
Shuffle each player’s cards that are in any zone except the library and reveal 4 cards (skipping basic lands) for each player. In order, each card is valued at: 7, 8, 9 and 10 gold for the loser of the battle and 9, 10, 11 and 12 gold for the winner. These are “trending cards”, and the market is willing to pay that much for those cards.
- The loser of the duel may force the winner to sell one of the winner’s “trending cards”.
- The loser of the duel may sell any number of their “trending cards”.
- The winner of the duel may sell any number of their remaining “trending cards”.
Move the sold cards to the Private Collections pile.
e. Learning from Mistakes
A 15-card booster with 13 cards from the Core Pool and 2 from the Occasional Pool is presented to the loser. The loser picks 3 cards, then hands it to the winner. The winner picks 1 card. The remaining cards are moved to Private Collections.
5. Summer Fair
In the Summer Fair, the same steps as the Winter Market will be followed, except that half the cards are drawn from the Occasional Pool (forming the top row) and half from the Core Pool (forming the bottom row).
Corner Cases
If cards would be drawn from the Occasional or Core Pool when it is empty, instead shuffle the Private Collections pile, place half of it on the bottom of the empty Pool, and then draw the cards.
If something would be done by both players, the starting player does it first unless specified.
Appendixes
Appendix A: Number of Cards Used
Player Pools starting total: 2 * (21 core + 20 occasionals) = 42 core + 40 occasionals
Fall Skirmishes: 7 * (7 occasionals + 7 occasionals) = 98 occasionals
Winter Markets: 2 * 12 core + 2 * 18 core + 3 * 24 core = 132 core
Spring Festivals: 6 * (13 core + 2 occasionals) = 78 core + 12 occasionals
Summer Fairs: 2 * (6 core + 6 occasionals) + 2 * (9 core + 9 occasional) + 2 * (12 core + 12 occasionals) = 54 core + 54 occasionals
Core Pool starting total: 264 core cards
Occasional Pool starting total: 164 occasional cards
Grand total of cards used: 306 core cards, 204 occasional cards
Appendix B: Tracking and “saving” the Game
Store:
- The Core Pool, the Occasional Pool, and Private Collections.
- Both player’s decks and sideboards.
Note down:
- Year, phase and step
- Starting player
- Victory points
- Gold totals
Appendix C: Theme Deck
To simulate a 60-card Theme deck, roll a d6 and a d10. Multiply the result of the d6 by 10 and add the result of the d10 (considering a 10 as a 10, not a 0) to get a number from 11 to 70:
(11-16) Year of New Beginnings: (Stipulation) Do not include in your deck any cards of your primary starting color. Penalty: Starting hand -1, life -4.
(17-22) Year of the Rainbow: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at least 4 cards of each of 3 colors. Reward: Starting hand +1, life +2.
(23-28) Year of Acceptance: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at least 6 cards of a color of which you played at most 3 cards of last duel. Reward: Penalty: Starting hand -1, life -4.
(29-31) Year of Craftsmanship: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at least 5 artifacts. Penalty: Starting hand -1, life -4.
(32-34) Year of Enchantment: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at least 5 enchantments. Reward: Starting hand +1, life +4.
(35-37) Year of Sparsity: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at most 10 creatures. Penalty: Starting hand -1.
(38-40) Year of the Rabbit: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at most 5 noncreature spells. Penalty: Starting hand -1.
(41-43) Year of Skill: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at least 8 nonland cards with activated abilities that are not mana abilities. Reward: Starting hand +1.
(44-46) Year of the Commander: (Effect) Players may use a legendary creature as their commander. You may include in your deck up to 7 cards that are not a subset of the commander’s color identity.
(47-49) Year of the Monkey: (Stipulation) Do not include in your deck any cards with converted mana cost greater than 3. Penalty: life -4.
(50-52) Year of Possibility: (Stipulation) Play a deck with at least 10 cards more than the minimum deck size. Penalty: Starting hand -1, life -4.
(53-55) Year of the Dragon: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at least 5 cards with converted mana cost 6 or more. Reward: Starting hand +1, life +4.
(56-58) Year of the Rat: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at least 2 combat tricks or cards with morph. Combat tricks are defined as instants, spells with flash, or cards with activated abilities that can be activated from the hand that grant to at least one creature either: 1. keyword abilities; 2. positive power; 3. positive toughness; 4. X/+Y counters; 5. negative power but not negative toughness; 6. damage prevention. Reward: Starting hand +1. For each card above 2, life +1.
(59) Year of the Family: (Stipulation) Include in your deck at least 7 creatures or cards that create tokens of the same creature type. Reward: Starting hand +1.
(60) Year of Centrism: (Stipulation) Do not include in your deck any cards with more than one of the same mana symbol. Penalty: Starting hand -1.
(61) Year of the Ox: (Effect) Creatures assign combat damage equal to their toughness rather than their power.
(62) Year of the Dead: (Effect) At the beginning of the first upkeep, each player mills 5 cards.
(63) Year of Courage: (Effect) Creatures lose and cannot gain flying, shadow, fear, intimidate or any other abilities that state they “cannot be blocked”.
(64) Year of the Pig: (Effect) Players cannot cast spells until their third turn.
(65) Year of Awkwardness: (Stipulation) Do not include in your deck any cards of converted mana cost 3. Penalty: Starting hand -1, life -4.
(66) Year of Homogeneity: (Effect) Lands have “
: Add one mana of any color.”
(67) Year of Frenzy: (Effect) Players get life -4.
(68) Year of Calm: (Effect) Players get life +4.
(69) Year of Solomon: (Effect) When this is revealed as the Theme, draw 5 cards from the Core Pool. The opponent splits those cards into two piles and you choose one of them with x cards. After the duel, add those cards to your sideboard. At the beginning of your first upkeep, put those cards in your hand. Starting hand -x.
(70) Year of Recycling: (Effect) All cards have “Cycling 2”.
