General Current Cube Obstacles

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Phone

I was curious what people's current problems to be solved are in your individual cubes. For me I'm currently looking at these things:

1. How do I manage the excitement of the custom cards I'm using with the need to introduce new players to my play group.
2. How much protection should White have? I was at a point of having Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes, Skrelv, Defector Mite for protection; Selfless Spirit to give indestructible; and then Guardian Scalelord to bring things back. This meant that cards like Paralax Wave and Skyclave Apparition felt super strong because there was SO much protection. It was almost impossible to interact with Mono-White some times.
3. How much artifact ramp do I need to have to support cards like [[Upheaval]], [[Wildfire]], and [[Burning of Xinje]]? I've added the "train lines" (Edit:from MSE Modern - CyberChronometer) which act like mini-signets. But I'm not sure it's enough.
4. Am I doing enough to make things readable and draftable for my players? Will they be tripped up the addition of the "+" format I've used to indicate upgraded cards?

Not really looking for specific advice for these. I mostly wanted to hear what other people's main obstacles are right now. Kind of in a format-agnostic way, works the same for pauper cubes, theme cubes, or vintage cubes, etc.

Not sure if this type of thread is active currently. Feel free to let me know if it is already and I can post there.

TRAIN LINES

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P

Phone

blacksmithy said:
my cube problem is how to find time and people to draft the darn thing

those trains are pretty
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Yeah, I feel that for sure. Part of my worry is that I made my cube too complex. So I have a number of people who have played buy few return customers.
 
Erik Twice

Erik Twice

Phone said:
I was curious what people's current problems to be solved are in your individual cubes. For me I'm currently looking at these things:

1. How do I manage the excitement of the custom cards I'm using with the need to introduce new players to my play group.
Click to expand...
I think the larger issue for newer players is the overall complexity of the cube, the difficulty of cube drafting itself and how many "traps" they can fall into.

2. How much protection should White have? I was at a point of having Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes, Skrelv, Defector Mite for protection; Selfless Spirit to give indestructible; and then Guardian Scalelord to bring things back. This meant that cards like Paralax Wave and Skyclave Apparition felt super strong because there was SO much protection. It was almost impossible to interact with Mono-White some times.
Click to expand...
Just some. I run Mother of Runes and Dauntless Bodyguard and have run a third in the past. If you overload it, you end up with quite unfun situations. It's not an affect that really builds decks, either, so there's no need to overdo it. Remember you need to shoot Mom twice to kill her!
3. How much artifact ramp do I need to have to support cards like [[Upheaval]], [[Wildfire]], and [[Burning of Xinje]]? I've added the "train lines" (Edit:from MSE Modern - CyberChronometer) which act like mini-signets. But I'm not sure it's enough.
Click to expand...
What are you are looking here is to stick a big advantage on the board when the game is reset. Personally, if I'm relying on artifact mana, I want to have a big mana rock like Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo or Worn Powerstone on the table. I need something to recover faster than my opponent.

Note that Upheaval works with mana dorks (Ramp with elves, float mana and then bring back the elves), while Wildfire works with Crucible of Worlds and Life of the Loam.
 
Brad

Brad

My issue has been the constant releases. I wasn't happy with my old list. The new list kept getting delayed by all these new ideas in new sets.

I finally pulled the trigger and did an MPC order this weekend. $170 and it'll be here in 2 weeks.

I'll probably update once per 6 months or so. I ordered an excess of cards so that I can test it down to the appropriate size. I ordered 557 cards and want to be at ~450. I'll do similar in the future by ordering more cards than I intend to use. Gives some flexibility and things to tweak in the meantime.



Why aren't those trains vehicles??
 
P

Phone

Erik Twice said:
I think the larger issue for newer players is the overall complexity of the cube, the difficulty of cube drafting itself and how many "traps" they can fall into.


Just some. I run Mother of Runes and Dauntless Bodyguard and have run a third in the past. If you overload it, you end up with quite unfun situations. It's not an affect that really builds decks, either, so there's no need to overdo it. Remember you need to shoot Mom twice to kill her!

What are you are looking here is to stick a big advantage on the board when the game is reset. Personally, if I'm relying on artifact mana, I want to have a big mana rock like Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo or Worn Powerstone on the table. I need something to recover faster than my opponent.

Note that Upheaval works with mana dorks (Ramp with elves, float mana and then bring back the elves), while Wildfire works with Crucible of Worlds and Life of the Loam.
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This is a really good point. I've been trying to avoid traps for sure. I'll have to comb back through the list and look for traps. I can definitely get caught up in the Johnny mindset of adding a lot of synergy cards that don't quite get there.

Yeah, I've cut back a bit. I think I may cut back further or try and focus on one trick for white: either protection etc. or bringing back small stuff.

True! I have both mana dorks and mana artifacts. Recently advised to add Thran Dynamo for sure. So I'll take a look at that too!

Thanks for the advice!
 
P

Phone

Brad said:
My issue has been the constant releases. I wasn't happy with my old list. The new list kept getting delayed by all these new ideas in new sets.

I finally pulled the trigger and did an MPC order this weekend. $170 and it'll be here in 2 weeks.

I'll probably update once per 6 months or so. I ordered an excess of cards so that I can test it down to the appropriate size. I ordered 557 cards and want to be at ~450. I'll do similar in the future by ordering more cards than I intend to use. Gives some flexibility and things to tweak in the meantime.



Why aren't those trains vehicles??
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat. Looking at setting specific timings for making cube updates. I think I like 3-4 months. Maybe keeping a "test" cube in digital to manage what that future future league of the cube looks like and one that reflects the paper cube.

Congrats on pulling the trigger! I like the idea of getting extra cards to playtest. I've been only testing digitally.
 
Zoss

Zoss

Scheduling is a hassle and there's always a ton to do.

Unrelated, but my biggest cube problem right now is resisting the urge to reshuffling ~20% of my cube to other cards that I like a lot. I don't think it would change too much about how it plays (at least I think most of the modules I'm adding wouldn't change it that much!), but it's also not necessary and I'm trying to resist the urge to fidget with things when I'm just looking for something to do.
 
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shamizy

shamizy

Mostly an indifference to Magic the last few months. I still loving playing the game, but I just can't be anywhere near as engaged with so much coming out all the time. At some point it just became bloated beyond recognition. I'll glance through the list for a new set and take some mental notes of what I might want to pick up down the line, but unlike a year or two back I'm not super excited to actually acquire and play with them.

For cube itself, it's probably just the fact that it's hard to get a whole 6-8 man pod assembled. I've continued to live in the same city for the last 10 years and am now 7 years since I graduated from university. Back then we had a pod of people 10-11 deep that were into Magic so getting a group together was no issue. Roughly half that number still live here locally, but it's become much more difficult to get our schedules aligned for a dedicated cube session between work, other hobbies, commitments and interests.
 
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Phone

blacksmithy said:
my friend, once you start making your own cards, youll never want to crack a Hasbruh pack again
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Bro, it's been like that for a while, haha. I had someone ask me "Don't you want them to keep printing cards?!" And I honestly said no. Like it literally doesn't matter to me. Half the time spoiler season is "Oh, that's such a cool idea. I'll go make a custom card that's a riff on that."
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Phone said:
Bro, it's been like that for a while, haha. I had someone ask me "Don't you want them to keep printing cards?!" And I honestly said no. Like it literally doesn't matter to me. Half the time spoiler season is "Oh, that's such a cool idea. I'll go make a custom card that's a riff on that."
Click to expand...
Wotc as a consistent source of "things to think about" is more valuable than I sometimes give it credit for, even if I don't buy cards
 
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