CML
Contributor
So the microsealed thread is delightful and everything, but I wanted to make a thread focusing specifically on drafting with 4-6 people.
When you draft with 4-6 and not 8-10, if you use the typical 3 packs of 15 parameters, the following things tend to happen:
-There's more of a bias towards 'general-purpose' cards, since a 'theme' like Birthing Pod or Reanimator may just not be represented, or may be missing one half of its cards, or whatever.
-This tends to make the decks lighter on synergy and therefore reliant on more fixing, but then the fixing is in high demand and it might be in the wrong colors.
-This can be difficult to discern as the actual drafting process is, at the very least, crisper and more elegant, as the signals don't overtax the memory and things just go a lot faster with fewer people. But then the decks are kinda meh and the games often unmemorable.
So what to do! Remember that I got into this whole Cube thing when I realized it was fun to draft strong manabases. My suggestions:
-60-card decks, this at least gives more of the Cube a chance to get drafted. This has the side effect of decks that are less synergistic, sometimes, but other times the extra space means you can jam more interactions in and it works out OK.
-4 packs of 11, or, if for 60's, 6 packs of 10. We've written about this pack size in a few other threads but the gist of it, for me, is that it hits that sweet spot where everyone can read signals and make a plan, and the packs aren't too big or too small that things become predictable or dried-up, respectively.
-6 utility lands per person
The main thought I have is that improving the manabases with a couple extra undrafted fetches or shocks would be ideal, but, I have no idea how to implement this.
Cube's just a lot better with a large group, isn't it?
When you draft with 4-6 and not 8-10, if you use the typical 3 packs of 15 parameters, the following things tend to happen:
-There's more of a bias towards 'general-purpose' cards, since a 'theme' like Birthing Pod or Reanimator may just not be represented, or may be missing one half of its cards, or whatever.
-This tends to make the decks lighter on synergy and therefore reliant on more fixing, but then the fixing is in high demand and it might be in the wrong colors.
-This can be difficult to discern as the actual drafting process is, at the very least, crisper and more elegant, as the signals don't overtax the memory and things just go a lot faster with fewer people. But then the decks are kinda meh and the games often unmemorable.
So what to do! Remember that I got into this whole Cube thing when I realized it was fun to draft strong manabases. My suggestions:
-60-card decks, this at least gives more of the Cube a chance to get drafted. This has the side effect of decks that are less synergistic, sometimes, but other times the extra space means you can jam more interactions in and it works out OK.
-4 packs of 11, or, if for 60's, 6 packs of 10. We've written about this pack size in a few other threads but the gist of it, for me, is that it hits that sweet spot where everyone can read signals and make a plan, and the packs aren't too big or too small that things become predictable or dried-up, respectively.
-6 utility lands per person
The main thought I have is that improving the manabases with a couple extra undrafted fetches or shocks would be ideal, but, I have no idea how to implement this.
Cube's just a lot better with a large group, isn't it?
