Fantasy "Set" Design (Using Existing MTG Cards)

[Chriskool]

Hello everyone! I figure this is the best place to discuss this project, as it isn't exactly a cube, but it puts to use a cube-builder's tool kit (and the community here seems earnest and invested).​

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Based loosely on the set design of Modern and Vintage Masters (color-pair archetypes and modal-archetype card choices), I started building cubes in frantic attempts to recreate the "Masters draft feel". After several marginal cube iterations, there was only one clear way (in my demented mind) to create the experience that I desired: build a fantasy set.​

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I knew the workload to build a fantasy set was beyond reasonable, but the true depth of mind and manual labor didn't make itself apparent until later into the design process. (And by then, I had already reached the point of no return.) Initially, I broke down some of my favorite draft format archetypes (self-mill in ISD; all VMA archetypes, but especially goblins) and then the formats by removal/evasion/creature-to-spell ratios among common and uncommon rarities to set up mathematical guidelines for my set and archetypes. (Much to my surprise, only about 45 percent of common and uncommon cards are creatures; maybe that's why conventional drafts often feel like they have so much dreck.)​

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I knew that I wanted around 300 unique cards, as VMA had a wonderfully varied feel due to the sheer size of the set. The 100-card common quantity seemed fine given my experience with NWO sets in draft, but 60ish uncommons felt like far too few. After paring down my brainstorm list, I had close to 150 uncommons (where VMA had a whopping 80)! With a bit more number crunching, my solution was thus: split the common print run so that much of it (6 cards) was near the ~10.5 percent chance in a booster (standard odds in NWO sets), and then shift a common slot to the uncommons (to give each booster 5! uncommons after also appropriating the 15th slot for uncommons). When the dust cleared, each booster contained 9 commons, 5 uncommons and a rare (some example boosters attached) with the following chances of occur in a booster:​

• Commons: Appx. 1/9 or 1/13
• Uncommons: Appx. 1/22 or 1/30
• Rares: 1/90 (VMA was 1/105)

(The entire "cube" is just over 1,350 cards before basics. I have enough of each rarity level to create 90 boosters- one for each rare, and then store them as packs in team bags so that all pack creation can be done while I'm at home, watching Netflix. )​

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To recreate the set feel, beyond grouping cards by fantasy rarity levels, I looked into developing print runs. (If you don't know much about print runs, I highly recommend this article by Laura Mills: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=6995) Print runs allow for certain cards to appear more frequently paired with other unique cards (i.e., one positioning of Treasure Mage, a 4-card uncommon-slot inclusion, is with Triskelion and Etherium-Horn Sorcerer 2-3 slots away in either direction), as well as creating different chances of a particular rarity of card appearing in a set of packs (as seen above). Lastly, print runs help to balance color distribution within boosters through simple pattern management (using WUBRG for common1 and WBGUR for common2 to guarantee no more than 3 of any particular color of common and at least 1 of each). The print run design has been the most difficult part of this project, and I hope to slowly start tweaking them after 5 or 10 drafts.​

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The List!​

Should you care to peruse the full card lists (w/o print run data), they are available on CubeTutor (rarities changed to represent rarity levels in set).​

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An introduction to the "archetypes" through two commons, two uncommons and then a rare.​

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WU Auramancer:​

UB Zombies:​

BR Sacrifice (loose):​

RG Elementals:​

GW Redzone (loose):​

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WB Humans (loose):​

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BG Self-mill:​

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GU Counters-matter (loose):​

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UR Artificer:​

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RW Spiritcraft:​

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Some Uncommon/Rare Tangents:​

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I really have a yearning to play with many cards that only see casual-level play and/or were a blast (slash pain in the ass... for the opponent) in their appropriate Limited formats while building up the archetypes in a way that they could function as small synergy packages within a different archetype or traditional Limited strategy (of attacking opponents and killing creatures). A high priority was placed on modal cards (which is the idea behind the modal "duals": trilands).​

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Please, Lend Me Your Aid​

As editing isn't going to be a quick process (I want to gather a decent amount of draft and play data before any real changes), I would like to initially focus on potential problem areas and *how* I should collect data. What would you suggest to track data and what points of contention for which should I be on the lookout? But, that being said... I am always open to cool suggestions of cards that I've overlooked Thanks!​

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WARNING: The above is all theorycraft. I have just assembled my first boosters and hope to christen this obsession within the week.​

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Wow, this is impressive, and really turns things on its head.

I brought up the cube tutor lists for your commons and uncommons, as those will be the significant cards. Looking over cube tutor, there are huge limitations on my ability to make any sort of accurate assessment on the format, but I think there are a few key issues to explore (in no particular order):

1. Format Tempo
2. Format speed (when games close on average)
a. Creature P/T ratios
b. Average CMC
3. Rarity Weight
4. Sub-themes
5. Set "flaws"
6. Mechanic density

As always, I think the ars arcanum series on puremtgo has a lot of useful insights on format design. Since Matthew Watkin's set analysis methods were designed for actual sets with print runs, I think it is even more relevent for your cube. The more you can sort of sketch out and get a feel for those areas (or any other areas he mentions in his articles which I've missed) I think you will find you have more control over the final outcome of your format.

Some exerts that might be helpful:

In regards to rariety numbers from his born of the god's analysis.

The core concept behind my articles is that of Rarity Weight. I mentioned it in the introduction to the article, but Born of the Gods has a few very particular peculiarities with regard to rarity. In Born of the Gods, there are 60 commons, 60 uncommons, 35 rares, and 10 mythic rares. The numbers for commons, rares, and mythic rares aren’t any different from normal, but the number of uncommons is strange. For example, Dragon’s Maze had 40 uncommons, Dark Ascension had 44, Mirrodin Besieged had 40, and Worldwake also had 40 uncommons. In other words, Born of the Gods has 50% more uncommons than a typical small set, which means that the uncommons will show up in this set with about 66% of the frequency that you would normally expect. This effect is exacerbated by the fact that there are 60 uncommons in Theros, which is an abnormally small number for a large set.

Now, this may seem perfectly fine, since those numbers are the same. An uncommon in Born of the Gods will show up with about the same frequency as if it had been an uncommon in Theros. However, this has a huge impact because of the number of cards in the other rarities in Theros. That set has 101 commons. This means that there are 40% more commons in Theros than in Born of the Gods, which means that you will see a given common from Theros nearly twice as often as if the pack were a Theros pack. Retraction Helix is going to show up in one Born of the Gods pack almost as often as bothVoyage’s End and Griptide combined would show up in a Theros pack.

This is important. The change in the number of uncommons means that the common cards in Born of the Gods will have an even bigger overall impact on the set than they would normally have. Getting powerful uncommons will still be important, but the variety of them will be wider, which means that they have a smaller overall impact on limited. Understanding the commons in Born of the Gods will be even more important than normal.

Creatures in Limited, their relation to removal, and P/T differences from his m13 primer:

Limited is about creatures, and the first step to understanding any format is to understand the creatures. The quality of every card depends on its relationship to the creatures in the set. For example, a card like Staggershock would be along the lines of a Rare powered card in nearly every limited set ever. But in RoE, it was well balanced at common, since the creatures you needed to kill usually had more than two toughness. Kraken Hatchling was actively good in ZZW, mainly because of the need to block early creatures with 2 or 3 power. One of the reasons why Vampire Nighthawk was such a bomb in that set was because of the huge number of 2 power creatures, which Nighthawk could eat all day long. Glory Seeker was first pickable in Onslaught, simply because nearly everything in the set was a 2/2 for 3, and having Grizzly Bears put you far ahead of the curve....


...There are a few important things to note about this data. The first thing is casting cost. An average converted mana cost of 3.146 is actually very low. AVR, for example, had an average converted mana cost of 3.43, which meant that it was short on two drops. By looking at the chart, we see that M13 has a large number of 2, 3, and 4 drops. It is important to know that formats are often defined by what is hard to obtain; AVR had a shortage of 2 drops, which contributed to it being a fast format, because a deck that got a lot of 2 drops could simply outrace all the other decks. In M13, however, it should not be hard for every deck to get a decent curve of early game creatures. Instead, we see a low number of 5 and 6 drops. It may be difficult to get the kind of cards that you need to close out the late game.

Another thing is that we see numbers for power and toughness spike sooner than Casting Cost. This is actually normal; it means that there are a number of creatures with a casting cost of 3 or 4 that have one or two power. But there are two important things to get from that spike. First, it is typical for a format to have around 40 two and three drops. However, most sets will have around 40 cards per draft with one power and between 60 and 70 cards per draft at two power. That means that this set has a higher than average number of one power creatures and a lower than average number of two power creatures.
The third important point to note about this chart is the location of the inflection point, or the point where power and toughness drop below Casting Cost. For Magic 2013, this is at three, but for most sets the inflection point is around 2.5. This is because Magic 2013 has a low number of efficient creatures for 3 or less mana, but that the creatures tend to become more efficient than average as you go up the curve.

The last thing is the difference between power and toughness. When we look at the M12 chart, we see that power spikes at two, while toughness spikes at one. We then see toughness tend to lag behind power. This is because M12 has P/T Differential that is very close to zero, which contributes to making it a very fast format. There are a lot of cheap creatures with higher power than toughness; these types of creatures tend to like to attack more often, since they will usually trade at worst. In M13, however, we see that the numbers for power and toughness are almost dead even when they spike, and then power falls below toughness until we get to five. This means that there are a lot of creatures in have more power than toughness, which means that they will be defensive more often, which makes it hard for creatures to get through in the early game.

All of these factors tend to point towards M13 being a relatively slow set.

The way tempo, a high density of certain mechanics, rariety manipulation, and CMC can dictate a format from his KTK spoiler analysis:

One of the things that I’ll come back to over and over again over the course of this article is the common cycle of multicolor morph cards. In many ways, these are the most defining cards in the set (with the exception of the common dual lands). Those cards are Abomination of Gudul, Abzan Guide, Efreet Weaponmaster, Ponyback Brigade, and Snowhorn Rider. Each of these creatures has morph, they all have a 5 mana unmorph cost that includes all three of the clan colors, and they each cost six mana to play face up using all three of the clan colors. Also, they are all very powerful. For their face up cost, they all seem like fairly powerful common cards. But for each of them the unmorph cost represents a creature that is far more powerful than we would normally expect from a common. For example, Abzan Guide unmorphs for 5 mana and becomes a 4/4 lifelinker. A 5 mana 4/4 lifelinker is the kind of card that would be powerful if it was printed at uncommon, and would not be that surprising to see at rare. Instead, you get that effect when you unmorph the card. These cards are very powerful, they push you into drafting three color decks more than just about any card, and they all have morph. If you take a close look at these graphs, you will see what a pressure each of these cards puts on the format.

For the first graph, we can clearly see that morph is going to have a huge impact on the game. If we just played all the cards as facedown morphs, their basic value, the format has an incredible amount of cards at three mana. This is a fantastic representation of what the early game will look like. Nearly half the creatures in the set cost three mana, and nearly every game of Khans of Tarkir is going to feature morphs from each player on turn 3. This has a few major implications for the format. First, I very much recommend players to play 18 lands in this format. Since so many people are going to be playing 2/2s for 3 on turn 3, it will be a very mana intensive format. You just cannot afford to miss that third land drop, because the tempo cost and morph initiative is just tremendous.

In the second chart, we see what the set looks like if you don’t unmorph your cards. This is a good model of the late game; creatures with 4, 5, and 6 mana costs dominate this chart. There are a lot of things to do in this format once you hit five and six mana, even at common. Again, this strongly supports the idea of playing 18 lands, because there are both a lot of things to do at 3 mana, and a lot of things to do with your mana late in the game. The clan multicolor morphs at common are a great example of this; they are powerful creatures, and when you can just start paying six mana to play them face up, they are still going to have a big impact on the game.

In the third chart, we see a huge spike at five mana. In fact, 51.4% of the morphs in the set have an unmorph cost of 5 mana. That is a very important statistic. A little more than half the morphs in the set only unmorph for 5 mana. One of the things that WotC has been very clear about is that no morphs can unmorph to eat other 2/2s for less than five mana. However, since 51.4% of the morphs have a 5 cmc cost to turn face up, you can go in knowing that most morphs are going to eat something once you get to five mana. In many ways, we have 4 dominant CMC slots in the format. Obviously 3 is important because of morph, 2 is important because it lets you get initiative on the game, but five is critical because it is when you can start flipping morphs for card advantage, and six is when you can start playing the clan morphs face up.....

In the first model, we see that the power and toughness for creatures at 2 and 3 mana are incredibly close together, as a result of morph. It’s not hard to figure out what this means. In the early turns of Khans of Tarkir, you are going to see 2/2s facing each other. I know I’ve said this a lot, but it’s important to understand this because it is the most important and defining feature of Khans of Tarkir limited. For example, Highland Game would be a mediocre card in most limited formats. You would rarely cut it from your deck, but you certainly wouldn’t be excited. However, in Khans of Tarkir, this card is actually very strong. In a format with this many morph creatures, you get a great benefit from having morph initiative. If you can start attacking into your opponent’s morphs with open mana sooner, you are at a huge advantage. Highland Game effectively lets you do this a full turn sooner. If you are on the play, this advantage will be tremendously difficult to overcome, and it might get in for a full 8 damage before your opponent can deal with it without spending a more expensive card. If you’re on the draw, Highland Game actually lets you get ahead in the race, rather than being merely stuck behind, and if it goes on defense, it’s often going to hold off several morphs all by itself, since players are going to be hesitant to trade three mana and a powerful late game card for a 2 mana 2/1.

One other recurring theme from his analysis is that what a format lacks oftentimes defines it (this isn't actually a bad thing). It might be worthwhile giving some thought to the cards you're including, whether there is any deficiency in existance that the player will have to fill, and whether that is something you want in your format. For example, a lack of quality card draw could push people into exploring graveyard interactions as a way to gain late game card advantage. An abundance of card advantage sources might deter people away from exploring graveyard interactions.

From his dark ascension analysis (discussing Innistrad):

The third key to the format was the lack of quality removal. While there were more removal spells in the set than an average set, they had difficult restrictions, and they were spread out over all the colors. It was difficult for any deck to have answers to everything played by another deck. This meant that you often needed to focus more on picking up the best threats and synergy, instead of just picking all the best removal spells.

As always I feel its good to have a theme and sub theme for each color pairing. It adds more depth to the format and can help balance out weaker color pairings. I know not everybody does that though.

Anyways, I hope that helps somewhat and isn't redundent. I know its a lot of text, and hopefully bolding the key parts will help. I know his articles can be a bit intimidating, and the fact they are focused on certain limited formats makes them somewhat inaccessible, but I don't know of anyone else that does a better job dissecting what makes limited formats tick. Hopefully their are some broad concepts there that might be helpful to your current (unique) project.

 

[Eric Chan]

God damn, this looks amazing. What I'm both impressed and daunted by is your pursuit of print runs. I've seen rarity distributed cubes, and put together an M13 set cube myself, but I haven't seen anyone go to the lengths of trying to simulate print runs before. I genuinely hope that this is worth the extra time, effort, and sweat involved.

I wish I could help with your data collection and analysis, but I'm the furthest thing from a data scientist. At the very least, I'd probably track the deck archetypes and their win/loss records after each event, were I in your shoes. But this kind of data can be flawed, because it doesn't take people's natural biases, nor their playskill, into account. I'd also try to have each of your drafters give you feedback on which card most overperformed and most underperformed for them, as well as cards that they were impressed by on the other side of the table. This isn't nearly as scientific, but I find it useful in getting a collective assessment on cards that you may not be sure about.

It sounds like you're well into the physical assembling of your cube at this point - let us know how your first draft goes, and how the archetypes pan out!

 

[Chriskool]

Draft 1:

I sat out to watch a 6-player event. Disparity in drafting (and deck-building) skills really showed through: half of the decks were underpowered/messes (two due to Planeswalker tunnel vision and the last due to thematic tunnel vision). The Jund mess seems as though it could've easily been RGb elementals/selfmill and been a better deck with its drafted pool. (Note, a few of these decks might be 1-3 cards off from the played list due to sideboarding in the last round).

The mono-black and the UW tempo/auramancer decks both sported 3-0 records (on the same team). The UW deck played a tough match against the UB tempo deck to earn its last win, though. Of the 20 games that were played, 4.5 felt like blowouts (I guess at least one player felt a game played out competitively when another didn't...).

Complaints: Shriekmaw doesn't kill enough (I loved this one). Spire Golem sucks (when I draw my secondary lands instead of Islands). Call to the Grave too powerful (deck only had bounce or SB Presence of Gond to interact with it). Attrition possibly too powerful (may have been just black deck way above average deck in synergy quality). Want more mana fixing (three-color deck comment).

Simic Guildmage, Tortured Existence, Sewer Shambler, Glamer Spinners, Vines of Vastwood and Wavecrash Triton all had their praises sung.

Game lengths recorded (in turns): 6,11,9,6,10,15,6,10,10,8,5,9,10,8,6,17,10

1-2 Jund Mess

Creatures (14) 1 Leafcrown Dryad 2 Satyr Wayfinder 1 Generator Servant 1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped 1 Nantuko Vigilante 1 Jeering Instigator 1 Splinterfright 1 Rockslide Elemental 1 Eidolon of Blossoms 1 Kulrath Knight 2 Shriekmaw 1 Nemesis of Mortals Noncreatures (10) 1 Vines of Vastwood 1 Animate Dead 1 Pit Fight 1 Shrine of Burning Rage 1 Domri Rade 1 Call of the Herd 2 Rend Flesh 1 Primal Command 1 Spider Spawning Nonbasics (3) 1 Jungle Shrine 1 Sandsteppe Citadel 1 Frontier Bivouac

Sideboard (18) 1 Blistering Firecat 1 Torrent of Stone 1 Skyfire Kirin 1 Feldon of the Third Path 1 Smokebraider 1 Final Fortune 1 Faithless Looting 1 Spider Umbra 1 Bramblecrush 1 Wear Away 1 Living Totem 1 Urborg Justice 1 Pit Fight 1 Searing Meditation 1 Balefire Liege 1 Spined Thopter 2 Panic Spellbomb

My suggested build:

0-3 Esper Mess

Creatures (18) 1 Diregraf Ghoul 1 Withered Wretch 1 Phyrexian Revoker 1 Porcelain Legionnaire 1 Mardu Skullhunter 1 Cabal Interrogator 1 Phantom Nomad 2 Phyrexian Ghoul 1 Diregraf Captain 1 Stinkweed Imp 1 Basilica Guards 1 Heliod's Pilgrim 1 Timely Hordemate 1 Pith Driller 1 Sadistic Hypnotist 1 Havengul Lich 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Noncreatures (5) 1 Bonds of Faith 1 Oubliette 1 Griffin Guide 1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad 1 Call to the Grave Nonbasics (3) 1 Opulent Palace 1 Nomad Outpost 1 Mystic Monastery

Sideboard (19) 3 Etherium-Horn Sorcerer 1 Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient 1 Galvanic Blast 1 Urza's Blueprints 1 Waxmane Baku 1 Candles' Glow 1 Survival Cache 2 Path of Anger's Flame 1 Ingot Chewer 1 Shrine of Burning Rage 1 Dualcaster Mage 1 Kami of Fire's Roar 1 Evershrike 1 Freewind Equenaut 1 Keening Apparition 1 Cabal Interrogator

1-2 UB tempo

Creatures (11) 1 Pain Seer 1 Meletis Astronomer 1 Flitterstep Eidolon 1 Bloodcrazed Hoplite 1 Spiteful Returned 1 Tandem Lookout 1 Treasure Mage 2 Wavecrash Triton 1 Kheru Spellsnatcher 1 Whitewater Naiads Noncreatures (12) 1 Sigil of Sleep 1 Ordeal of Thassa 1 Think Twice 1 Bile Blight 1 Syncopate 1 Agoraphobia 3 Consuming Vortex 1 Oubliette 1 Thirst for Knowledge 1 Gift of Orzhova

Sideboard (20) 1 Shrine of Piercing Vision 2 Flitterstep Eidolon 1 Courier's Capsule 1 Faerie Mechanist 1 Screeching Skaab 1 Presence of Gond 1 Greater Stone Spirit 2 Frostling 1 Everflame Eidolon 1 Panic Spellbomb 1 Faithless Looting 1 Glacial Ray 1 Kami of Fire's Roar 1 Spark Trooper 1 Suspension Field 1 Last Rites 2 Blackmail

3-0 B Zombies Graveyard

Creatures (19) 2 Diregraf Ghoul 1 Pain Seer 2 Mardu Skullhunter 1 Reassembling Skeleton 1 Porcelain Legionnaire 1 Phyrexian Ghoul 1 Stinkweed Imp 2 Sewer Shambler 2 Ghoulraiser 2 Murderous Redcap 1 Falkenrath Noble 1 Thundering Tanadon 1 Pith Driller 1 Corpse Connoisseur Noncreatures (5) 1 Blackmail 1 Tortured Existence 1 Hero's Downfall 1 Rend Flesh 1 Attrition

Sideboard (21) 1 Rakshasa's Secret 1 Thundering Tanadon 1 Call of the Herd 3 Moment's Peace 2 Wreath of Geists 2 Young Wolf 1 Living Totem 1 Commune with the Gods 1 Searing Meditation 1 Spark Trooper 2 Survival Cache 1 Flamekin Spitfire 1 Lavamancer's Skill 1 Slagstorm 1 Blind with Anger 1 Torrent of Stone (0)

3-0 UW tempo/auramancer

Creatures (14) 1 Cloudfin Raptor 1 Hopeful Eidolon 1 Hero of Iroas 2 Akroan Skyguard 1 Porcelain Legionnaire 1 Voidmage Prodigy 1 Freewind Equenaut 1 Wavecrash Triton 1 Master of Pearls 2 Mulldrifter 1 Glamer Spinners 1 Exalted Angel Noncreatures (10) 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Blessed Breath 1 Otherworldly Journey 1 Suspension Field 1 Chosen by Heliod 1 Bonds of Faith 1 Griffin Guide 1 Crib Swap 1 Gift of Orhova 1 Angelic Destiny

Sideboard (21) 1 Keening Apparition 1 Jeweled Spirit 1 Tallowisp 1 Phantom Nomad 1 Candles' Glow 1 Basilica Guards 2 Thraben Heretic 1 Blessed Breath 1 Coalition Honor Guard 1 Tethered Griffin 1 Terashi's Grasp 1 Nevinyrral's Disk 1 Scrapskin Drake 1 Chief Engineer 1 Simic Guildmage 1 Greater Stone Spirit 1 Scorched Rusalka 1 Frostling 1 Covetous Dragon 1 Scorchwalker (0)

1-2 UG counters-matter

Creatures (14) 1 Void Stalker 1 Simic Guildmage 1 Leafcrown Elder 2 Simic Fluxmage 1 Gilder Bairn 2 Spike Feeder 1 Kitchen Finks 3 Living Totem 1 Thundering Tanadon 1 Skullmulcher Noncreatures (9) 2 Vines of Vastwood 1 Ordeal of Thassa 2 Courier's Capsule 2 Into the Roil 1 Kodama's Reach 1 Curse of Predation

Sideboard (21) 1 Nemesis of Mortals 1 Splinterfright 2 Satyr Wayfinder 1 Commune with the Gods 1 Presence of Gond 1 Chosen by Heliod 1 Dawnbringer Charioteers 1 Jeweled Spirit 1 Platinum Angel 1 Screeching Skaab 2 Thirst for Knowledge 2 Scorchwalker 1 Generator Servant 1 Everflame Eidolon 1 Panic Spellbomb 1 Bogardan Firefiend 1 Hematite Golem 1 Torrent of Stone

My observations (of this draft and the one after):

• Green might have too many narrow commons (i.e., Wear Away, Bramblecrush, Skullmulcher, Spider Umbra, Wreath of Geists).
• Format rewards players that have a strong drafting skill set AND have been exposed to many different formats/cards (as expected); there will be a learning curve to surmount for many locals as they draft this.
• Kulrath Knight's effect is perhaps too powerful to be a common (albeit a rare common); I should consider adding a green common effect that can outright kill the knight.
• Some rares are just a beating (and I cannot tell if it's due to bad opposing decks or the quality of the card): Attrition, Control Magic, Bident of Thassa, Spike Weaver and Exalted Angel all crushed some dreams this Friday. (The Angel and Weaver were also dealt with a few times; oh, the frailty of being a creature!)
• No player with a walker did particularly well (Ajani, Mentor of Heroes & Jace, Architect of Thought in next draft), despite resolving them a few times. (Games with resolved walkers ended in a loss for that player every time I saw it.)

 

[Chriskool]

Draft 2

This 6-player pod featured only one unseasoned player (WG).

I participated in it, and stupidly forgot to hand out my comment sheets (which I am sure enthused the two players that were drafting for a second time). I've included some general observations in the above post.

My draft: I p1p1'd Bident of Thassa and flirted with the notion of drafting UR Artificer, but artifacts did not table: my draft daddy (to the right p1 and p3) also decided that UR artifacts was the way to go. After pack 1, I had a decent blue tempo base, with a Lavamancer's Skill and 2 wizards. In pack two, I decided to try to table some Thrummingbirds, Cloudfin Raptors and bestow creatures (to take advantage of Flaring Flame-Kin) while taking bounce, a Kulrath Knight and 2/1s. The only cards that tabled were elementals. Pack 3, I took a Control Magic first and then flirted with some control-minded cards, hoping to pick up auras yet not finding any.

My 3-0 UR Tempo

Creatures (16) 1 Chronomaton 1 Scorched Rusalka 1 Cloudfin Raptor 1 Flitterstep Eidolon 2 Void Stalker 1 Phyrexian Revoker 1 Porcelain Legionnaire 1 Spined Thopter 1 Jeering Instigator 1 Incandescent Soulstoke 1 Kheru Soulsnatcher 2 Glamer Spinners 1 Kulrath Knight 1 Spitebellows Noncreatures (7) 1 Echoing Truth 1 Shrine of Burning Vengeance 1 Consuming Vortex 1 Undying Rage 1 Goblin Assault 1 Bident of Thassa 1 Control Magic

Sideboard (22) 1 Rockslide Elemental 1 Greater Stone Spirit 1 Lavamancer's Skill 1 Scorchwalker 1 Blind with Anger 1 Flamekin Spitfire 1 Smokebraider 3 Flaring Flame-Kin 1 Pit Fight 1 Unstable Obelisk 1 Triskelion 1 Trading Post 1 Courier's Capsule 2 Agoraphobia 1 Thrummingbird 1 Hollowhenge Spirit 2 Coalition Honor Guard 1 Prismatic Strands

Only my match against GB selfmill was relatively close. I cast Control Magic 4 times and Bident twice. 6-1 record in games.

The rest of the decks to the best of my knowledge:

1-2 White Human Auramancer

Creatures (17) 2 Champion of the Parish 2 Hopeful Eidolon 1 Phantom Nomad 2 Akroan Skyguard 1 Thraben Heretic 1 Spined Thopter 2 Heliod's Pilgrim 1 Freewind Equenaut 1 Fiend Hunter 1 Master of Pearls 1 Glamer Spinners 1 Archangel of Thune 1 Reveillark Noncreatures (7) 1 Ethereal Armor 3 Chosen by Heliod 1 Bonds of Faith 1 Gift of Orzhova 1 Crib Swap

Sideboard (17) 1 Tethered Griffin 1 Candles' Glow 1 Cloudfin Raptor 1 Tandem Lookout 1 Agoraphobia 1 Flitterstep Eidolon 2 Eel Umbra 1 Panic Spellbomb 1 Blind with Anger 2 Undying Rage 1 Bramblecrush 1 Spider Umbra 1 Curse of Predation 1 Bile Blight 1 Bitter Revelation (0)

3-0 Bu Zombie Pod

Creatures (16) 2 Carrion Feeder 1 Screeching Skaab 1 Spiteful Returned 1 Cabal Interrogator 1 Phyrexian Ghoul 2 Stinkweed Imp 1 Sewer Shambler 2 Fatestitcher 1 Braids, Cabal Minion 1 Falkenrath Noble 1 Corpse Connoisseur 1 Phyrexian Delver 1 Sadistic Hypnotist Noncreatures (6) 1 Tortured Existence 1 Bile Blight 1 Hero's Downfall 1 Birthing Pod 1 Icy Manipulator 1 Moan of the Unhallowed Nonbasics (2) 1 Arcane Sanctum 1 Crumbling Necropolis

Sideboard (24) 3 Rakshasa's Secret 1 Mardu Skullhunter 1 Blackmail 1 Sadistic Hypnotist 1 Bloodcrazed Hoplite 1 Skirsdag Flayer 1 Gift of Orzhova 1 Mystical Teachings 1 Flitterstep Eidolon 1 Thrummingbird 1 Everflame Eidolon 1 Blind with Anger 1 Flaring Flame-Kin 1 Ingot Chewer 1 Magmaw 1 Tuskguard Captain 1 Spike Feeder 1 Proteus Machine 1 Urza's Blueprints 1 Horde of Notions 1 Juniper Order Ranger 1 Rubblehulk

1-2 GB Selfmill (46 cards)

Creatures (16) 2 Satyr Wayfinder 1 Kavu Titan 1 Fauna Shaman 1 Stinkweed Imp 1 Gilder Bairn 1 Renegade Krasis 2 Spike Feeder 1 Spike Weaver 1 Pith Driller 1 Cytoplast Root-Kin 1 Nemesis of Mortals 1 Cloudthresher 1 Grave Sifter 1 Necropolis Fiend Noncreatures (10) 1 Animate Dead 1 Moment's Peace 2 Grim Harvest 2 Commune with the Gods 1 Urborg Justice 1 Oubliette 1 Kodama's Reach 1 Strength of Tajuru

Sideboard (19) 1 Jarad's Orders 1 Spider Umbra 1 Skullmulcher 1 Wear Away 1 Grim Harvest 1 Rakshasa's Secret 1 Blackmail 1 Withered Wretch 1 Smokebraider 1 Greater Stone Spirit 1 Kami of Fire's Roar 2 Bogardan Firefiend 1 Frostling 1 Bonds of Faith 1 Waxmane Baku 1 Basilica Guards 1 Thraben Heretic 1 Evershrike (0)

0-3 Gw mess

Creatures (14) 2 Leafcrown Dryad 1 Werebear 1 Fauna Shaman 1 Renegade Krasis 2 Slaughterhorn 1 Eidolon of Blossoms 1 Briarhorn 1 Living Totem 1 Plaguemaw Beast 1 Bramble Elemental 1 Kessig Cagebreakers 1 Grave Sifter Noncreatures (8) 1 Vines of Vastwood 1 Spider Umbra 1 Setessan Tactics 1 Suspension Field 3 Crib Swap 1 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes Nonbasics (2) 1 Sandsteppe Citadel 1 Jungle Shrine

Sideboard (17) 1 Phantom Nomad 1 Timely Hordemate 1 Hollowhenge Spirit 1 Dawnbringer Charioteers 1 Eidolon of Countless Battles 1 Waxmane Baku 1 Prismatic Strands 1 Wear Away 1 Plaguemaw Beast 1 Syncopate 1 Path of Anger's Flame 1 Blind with Anger 1 Scorchwalker 2 Generator Servant 1 Searing Meditation 1 Nomad Outpost

1-2 UR Artificier

Creatures (14) 1 Chronomaton 1 Spined Thopter 1 Chief Engineer 1 Phyrexian Revoker 1 Esperzoa 2 Scrapskin Drake 1 Faerie Mechanist 2 Ember Swallower 1 Thundering Tanadon 1 Mulldrifter 1 Covetous Dragon 1 Memnarch Noncreatures (9) 1 Galvanic Blast 1 Counterspell 1 Into the Roil 1 Glacial Ray 1 Courier's Capsule 1 Contagion Clasp 1 Shrine of Piercing Vision 1 Unstable Obelisk 1 Jace, Architect of Thought Nonbasics (1) 1 Mystic Monastery

Sideboard (21) 1 Counterspell 2 Syncopate 1 Cloudfin Raptor 1 Thrummingbird 1 Stroke of Genius 2 Bogardan Firefiend 1 Rockslide Elemental 1 Ingot Chewer 1 Kami of Fire's Roar 1 Goblin Assault 1 Hateflayer 1 Recumbent Bliss 1 Suspension Field 1 Seaside Citadel 3 Bloodcrazed Hoplite 1 Bramblecrush 1 Kodama's Reach (0)

Final thoughts:

• Gw Mess could've been a bit more powerful with more white cards.
• I played against Grave Sifter twice, and that card seems so fun!
• Monowhite player probably should've splashed the Curse of Predation. He commented that games were hard to close; i.e., he was at 48, oppo was at 2, and then he lost over 8 or so more turns.
• Zombie Pod player was giggling so much over the course of his games, but he left while I was in my last match, so I couldn't get direct feedback.
• Selfmill player played 46 cards: lolol, JWay!
• Grim Harvest was the centerpiece of a discussion as to what "raise dead" effect would be synergistic with selfmilling w/o being totally overpowered at common. Perhaps, I should consider adding Morgue Theft if Harvest proves oppressive. Other suggestions are welcomed.
• Gilder Bairn led to some pretty ridiculous Spikes in a few games and seemed like a fine common.

Quote of the draft: "Why are you attacking with that (Chronomaton); don't you know what it does?!"

Cheers and thanks for taking interest!

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

This came out really great, and the decks look very fun. The GB pod deck is brilliant.

I wouldn't be too quick to make changes at this point, everyone is still settling into the draft, and I am sure there are all sorts of cool interactions and things for people to adjust too. Seemingly dead cards that will prove their worth ect. ect.

I do think that attrition will probably end up being oppressive: the reward for breaking it is that your opponent dosen't get to play magic. Spire golem might actually be bad outside of a mono U deck, if no one has a need for a 4-5 mana 2/4 flyer. I was also wondering what you have in mind with final fortune. Looks spicy.

I run morgue theft because of flashback synergy, and because I want their to be a bit of a tempo hit for being able to recur a key creature. One of the big advantages of grim harvest is that its both tempo friendly and a source of card advantage.

The poor performance of the planeswalkers is interesting. Is it because of the amount of evasive creatures/enchantments you run? Or is the format slower and the tempo advantage they generate not that impactful?

 

[Eric Chan]

Very interesting write-ups, Chris! The data collection you're currently doing sounds taxing, but I'm glad you're doing it.

Out of curiosity, do you provide any hand-holds for your newer players? It sounds like, without passing knowledge of the draft formats of the last decade or so, they might have trouble latching onto one of the available synergies in your cube, since going "good stuff" with generically good value cards probably isn't a strong option. One of the posters on /r/mtgcube who runs a limited-feel cube has pictures on the side of his cube box, which illustrate what the archetypes are and some of the build-arounds that people should seek out. It seems like the faster you bring the neophytes up to the same skill level as the veterans, the more fun everyone will have, and sometimes spelling things out in big bold letters isn't the worst way to go about it.

 

[Chriskool]

Grillo: I *think* that the walker decks couldn't deal well w/ the tempo-driven decks. They often couldn't set up board states to protect their walker (or played them prematurely). When I played v the UR Jace, AoT deck, he was on the packpedal the whole game. I attacked through Jace's +1 and had lethal next turn w/ Scorched Rusalka. Stronghold Assassin will probably replace Attrition. I am also considering downgrading Control Magic to Persuasion or Dream Leash. Lots of "rare" cards are on watch for being degenerative or boring, but I don't plan on making any switches for at least 5-10 more drafts. I also have a small list of rarity tweaks and a plan to fix green commons should my worry list prove right through the cards staying in SBs 100 percent.

Eric: I printed off an archetype list on my box lid, but I haven't written anything beyond it (although, I want to do so) to aid drafters.

Maybe a twin-page synergy guide would additionally help players. I know that Searing Meditation may have seen play if one player knew about its existence in pack 1 (and I discovered that Ageless Entity cares about life gain in addition to being an elemental...).

 

[Eric Chan]

Even if you just print your initial post on this thread - with its helpful pictures of cards that you expect to be build-arounds - I think that would go a long way towards evening the playing field. Speaking personally, as someone who returned to the game in 2008 but is otherwise hazy on draft formats older than that, I wouldn't know what the heck to do if I saw " Spiritcraft". But showing me a picture of Tallowisp and two arcane spells would at least get the gears turning.

 

[Chriskool]

I'm working on a set of simple images (with maybe a few sentences beyond headers as text) to aid drafters; thanks for the feedback! (Spiritcraft is definitely esoteric, and I would love to figure out what GW does well as a color pair...) My question now: what level of information should I attempt to convey? (Brief glimpse into archetypes and build-arounds? Add card combos? Show off-color support for color-pair synergies?)

I've also been playing a match or two of sealed on Magic Online versus a friend with the attached 6 pools (in case anyone would like to download and try building one) and a slightly updated list than my paper version: http://www.cubetutor.com/visualspoiler/21444 (all rarity levels changed to reflect rarity in set when filtering). My opponent has mostly been trying to have fun and not power max (beyond his initial feelings about a pool), but I (on the other hand) have been busy making several builds to find interesting/powerful decks:

I've found the format has a few infinite combos. Presence of Gond + Midnight Guard being the easiest to assemble (with Presence at uncommon-1 and Guard at common-2). (It has the relatively nominal cost of playing both of the cards in a deck, though.) There are also some more amusing combos like Triskelion + bestowed Hopeful Eidolon + Archangel of Thune or Juniper Order Ranger + persist (Kitchen Finks, etc.) + sacrifice outlet (Carrion Feeder, etc.).

How do you feel about infinite combos in limited? (The last one that I remember is Quillspike + Devoted Druid in SSE.) I am okay with them if they are very infrequent (as anything with Archangel of Thune should be), take several vulnerable card types (mostly creatures) and a lot of mana, or don't win immediately and can be answered in the opponent's main phase. Should all of the combos be spelled out in my intro graphics (so that players can prepare for them as needed if an oppo represents them)?

Lastly, Kulrath Knight, despite having a on-theme interactions and being a lowly 3/3 for 5, needs to go. The anti-counters ability is so oppressive that it plus reanimation proved too hard for several decks to beat. I'm going to try Rakdos Guildmage as the common Rakdos hybrid.

 

[Eric Chan]

I think simply showing three key cards per strategy, and then another four to six supporting cards for that theme, is enough to communicate the idea and get people's gears turning. Leave enough to the imagination so that drafters can connect the dots themselves, but shine the light on the path you want them to take.

Two card infinite combos don't interest me at all, as a cube designer. Why ruin a perfectly good, interactive, back-and-forth game by giving people the possibility of an "oops I win" draw step? Three card infinite combos are borderline, but are easier to stomach if at least one of the combos pieces is fairly narrow and not a good card on its own.

 

[Chriskool]

Thanks for all of the ideas and input. After christening drafts, sealeds and flyby edits, this fantasy set is in the fine-tuning stage! (CubeTutor updated w/ rarity sublevels as tags.) (I think I will update the first post soon, too.)

I have also drafted (of another sort) "tip" cards with which to face the booster packs (and hide the contents of the cards within). Primarily, the cards introduce each color pair, but there is some additional info. This is the information that I will include on 13 different cards (with more "oracle update" cards than any other):


Graveyard: Players receive benefits for getting cards from their deck and hand into the graveyard. 7 commons & 3 uncommons enable these grisly synergies to unearth themselves. (Inspiration: Innistrad & Golgari Guild) (Black-Green) (Marquee Cards: Satyr Wayfinder; Bitter Revelation; Splinterfright; Grim Harvest; Jarad’s Orders)

Sacrifice: Sacrificing creatures has released demonic strengths throughout the history of magic. 1 common & 6 uncommons make offerings to the underworld in hopes of sinister payoff. (Inspiration: Innistrad & Magic 20XX) (Black-Red) (Marquee Cards: Fleshbag Marauder; Rockslide Elemental; Moan of the Unhallowed; Magmaw; Sarkhan the Mad)

Counter Power: Primarily focused on +1/+1 counters, creatures grow and gain bonuses as they interact with one another and spells. 14 commons & 13 uncommons allow creatures to +1/+1 and plus their fun. (Inspirations: Khans of Tarkir, Simic Guild) (Green-Blue) (Marquee Cards: Spike Feeder; Cloudfin Raptor; Chisei, Heart of Oceans; Gilder Bairn; Increasing Savagery)

Auramancer: Enchantments have strengthened creatures since the dawn of spells and magical beasts. 8 commons & 6 uncommons prosper when auras are among the arsenal enhancing allies on the battlefield. (Inspiration: Theros Block, Rise of the Eldrazi) (White-Blue) (Marquee Cards: Hopeful Eidolon; Auramancer’s Guise; Kor Spiritdancer; Nomad Mythmaker; Persuasion)

Artificer: More than a few inventors and beasts are beholden to their magical, mechanical creations. 1 common & 7 uncommons care about the nature of artifice in a world of mages and planeswalkers. (Inspiration: Mirrodin Blocks, Esper Shard) (Blue-Red) (Marquee Cards: Faerie Mechanist; Hematite Golem; Treasure Mage; Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient; Wand of the Elements)

Humans (Tribal): Possibly, the must innumerable species of the multiverse, humans wage war for and against a myriad of entities. 7 commons & 16 uncommons contribute to the overpopulation of most planes. (Inspiration: Innistrad Block) (White-Black) (Marquee Cards: Bonds of Faith; Mardu Skullhunter; Champion of the Parish; Sadistic Hypnotist; Xathrid Necromancer)

Spirits (Tribal): Spiritual manifestations of creatures gather to defend or destroy in the name of their controller. The kami war continues with 9 commons & 8 uncommons (as well as numerous arcane spells). (Inspiration: Kamigawa Block) (Red-White) (Marquee Cards: Tallowisp; Yuki-Onna; Angel of Flight Alabaster; Skyfire Kirin; Balefire Liege)

Zombies (Tribal): The undead ever shamble in legion to aid death-aspect commanders in their unholy campaigns. 5 commons & 6 uncommons have risen from entombment to send others to the state. (Inspiration: Innistrad Block, Onslaught Block) (Blue-Black) (Marquee Cards: Ghoulraiser; Sidisi’s Pet; Diregraf Captain; Fatestitcher; Call to the Grave)

Elementals (Tribal): Flamekin villagers go big or go home in their support of off-color tribeskin. 9 commons & 13 uncommons dwell in the bonfire huts of these fiery people. (Inspiration: Lorwyn Block) (Red-Green) (Marquee Cards: Smokebraider; Living Totem; Flamekin Harbinger; Splinterfright; Ashling the Pilgrim)

Lifeboom: A focus on vitality pays dividends in the colors of growth and order. 11 commons & 8 uncommons will ensure that a player has the life. (Inspiration: Magic 2014, Ravnica: City of Guilds) (Green-White) (Marquee Cards: Honor’s Reward; Ageless Entity; Angelic Accord; Shamanic Revelation)

Tangents:
· Arcane (Inspiration: Kamigawa Block) (All Colors)
· Wizards (Tribal) (Inspiration: Onslaught Block) (Blue-Red)
· Enchantress (Inspiration: Journey Into Nyx) (Green-White)
· Lifeleech (Inspiration: Orzhov Guild) (White-Black)
· Searing Meditation (Inspiration: Boros Guild) (Red-White)
· Mystical Teachings (Inspiration: Wafo-Tapa) (Blue-Black)
· Flicker ETB (Inspiration: Time Spiral, Avacyn Restored) (White-Blue)
· Five-Color Midrange (Inspiration: Invasion Block) (All Colors)

Creature-Type Updates:
· Braids, Cabal Minion – HUMAN Minion
· Triskelion – CONSTRUCT
· Krovikan Horror – Horror SPIRIT
· Thopter Squadron – THOPTER
· Coalition Honor Guard – HUMAN Flagbearer
· Werebear – HUMAN Bear Druid

Many cards have been “rarity shifted” to occupy a different slot in a booster. Commons and Uncommons have print runs that pair synergistic and conflicting cards more frequently than they would occur naturally (in addition to aiming to balance card colors).
· Pack Rarity Collation: 1 Rare, 5 (1+4) Uncommons, 9 (3+6) Commons
· Odds of a Particular Card: Rares 1/90, Uncommons 1/30 or 1/22, Commons 1/14.5 or 1/9

 

[Modin]

So my cousin and I got inspired by your posts and are now trying to build our own fantasy set. Something I have not fully understood yet is how you created the actual boosters.
As far as I unterstand it, having printruns just means that you kinda sort the c1 commons for example in a certain way.(?) To create a booster, Do you just pick a random spot in the printrun and take the next 4-6 card and add them to the booster?
I would be helped greatly if you could elaborate how you.handle this process.

 

[Chriskool]

Sweet! I actually am trying this two ways at the moment. I will type up both (in separate posts, though) with how I decided to structure rarities and then how I construct packs (as they are related).

Way #1 (ROESOM set in other post)
This set was made with the notion that I won't have "real" print runs (which take a few hours of sorting) but rather almost-print-runs. There are 4 classes of rarity: 2 common (which I denote with c1/c2), 1 uncommon, 1 rare. In any given booster, these break down to 6 c1, 5 c2, 3 u, 1 r (similar to a conventional MTG booster). The unique card composition is similar to a normal MTG set as well, which 100 commons (60 c1, 40 c2), 60 uncommons and 60 rares. I figured that I would want to be able to make 48 boosters at a time (for two 8-player OR two 6-p+ one 4-p draft before packs had to be created again), which results in some unused cards. To create 48 packs with the aforementioned structure, there must be 5 of each c1, 6 of c2, 3 of u and 1 of r. (The formula for "Total" is "B(row#)*B6". The formula for "Of Each" is "D(row#) / C(row#)".) Feel free to tweak any of these numbers to increase or decrease your total card pool and set structure!



One of the themes in this set is artifacts, which I believe makes this next part more intuitive. I sort the cards into 15 shuffled piles, associated with their rarity level. The idea behind this is twofold: to prevent duplication of cards in boosters AND to somewhat equally distribute colors in packs.

• Five of the piles are the "c2" rarity (solely distinguished by colors), and each of these piles is 48 cards (8 unique cards). With this particular set, there are some artifacts in this section, but they have color identities and are easily attributed to their respective piles.
• Six of the piles are the "c1" rarity (distinguished by colors with an additional pile of colorless), and each of these piles is 50 cards (10 unique cards). With this particular set, there are so many artifacts that if all of them were included in the colorless pile, it would be much larger that the colored piles. Since we want equal odds of any particular card being in a pack at a given rarity level, artifacts with clear color identities were added to their appropriate colored piles and then a unique equipment was also added to the colored piles. I use a cheat sheet to remember which cards that aren't a single color go in which piles.
• Three of the piles are the "u" rarity (which are actually six piles, created similarly to the six "c1" piles then combined into three piles), and each of these piles is 60 cards (20 unique cards).
• The last pile is simple all of the "r" rarity level.
• In the "u" and "c1" rarity levels, there are some multicolored cards/lands, and they are assigned to a single color (for the purpose of sorting into the piles) consistently along their color combinations among both rarity levels (i.e., Boros is considered white for sorting into piles).

That's the hard part! Then shuffle each pile to your heart's desire, take one from each and you get a 15-card pack. I like to use a card in another color sleeve as a facer so that no card need be turned upside down, but eventually, I will get "custom" art and/or explore making more booster-like packaging. (Currently, I use UltraPro team bags to hold packs.)

After you memorize the rarity, it only takes an hour or so to make the 48 packs (with a large space to lay them out). Start with rares and work backwards to mimic the "real-life" pack opening experience.

 

[Chris Taylor]

After you memorize the rarity, it only takes an hour or so to make the 48 packs (with a large space to lay them out). Start with rares and work backwards to mimic the "real-life" pack opening experience.

fucking hell mate I don't know how you do it!

 

[Chriskool]

Way #2, this set

Please note that I need to rewrite the OP for this post, as I have learned a lot (and my mind was very muddled by the scope of this project when I first posted).

This particular set is much more complicated than the prior set (and cannot be packed so easily) for several reasons:

• It is 315 unique cards, among 5 rarity levels (c1,c2,u1,u2,r) used to make 90 packs.
• The power level of cards is higher, which some of them having potential to create unfun game states when played early and unanswered.
• The set is built with the idea of synergy existed among all color pairs (and that synergy being found outside of the "traditional" color pair but still including one of the colors in many instances).

With the above and after reading the Laura Mills article, I knew I wanted to create pack-based metagames. For example:

• A common like Akroan Skyguard would have a moderately high chance of an aura, bestow creature or combat trick in every pack.
• Treasure Mage should have at least a coin-flip chance of having a 6CMC artifact in its pack (and the same type of pairings for other, more narrow cards).
• Cards that abuse the graveyard quite often are paired with Scavenging Ooze, Phyrexian Furnace, Stonecloaker, etc.
• Big flyers or oppressive utility creatures are often paired with removal that kills them.
• Enchantments and artifacts are often paired with means to destroy them.
• "C1" Arcane spells are often in clumps of 2-3.

This might seem forced, but I want the tools in most drafts for interaction between all players. A big part of my updating process since the OP has been to removal cards that are too hard to interact with (like Angelic Destiny, Tortured Existence and Attrition) as well as infinite combos that punished opponents for playing the game (tapping out) with a game loss from a relatively safe state. The idea behind a lot of the print run construction is giving decks the possibility of having outs against the fun, proactive cards.

It's hard to type too much about this in a "quick" message response, and I mean to articulate it (eventually, maybe for an article series), but the most important part of print run creation seems to be patterning shortcuts.

The foremost pattern should be the color sequence. Print runs should always aim of giving a pack the best chance at equitable color distribution, which becomes especially important among rarity levels that have less than 5 slots in a booster. To help this, I used WUBRG order for c1 (5 slots), WBGUR order for c1 (3 slots, with every "4 1/2"th card having a wildcard inserted... to be "explained" shortly), and WGRBU order for u1 (4 slots, with a very ambitious wildcard slot insertion). The concept behind this is that if a pack has WUBRGW for its six c1 cards, and starts at W for both other rarity slots in their print runs, the other colors in the pack will not be so clumped. (Under the above pattern, this heavy white pack, without wildcards, would have a color breakdown of WUBRGW(c1), WBG(c2) and WGRB(u1): 4W, 1U, 3B, 2R, 3G. If only the traditional color sequence was used, this pack would have a color breakdown of WUBRGW(c1), WUB(c2), WUBR(u1): 4W, 3U, 3B, 2R, 1G. While this is comparable, the results are much more exciting with a wildcard or if one of the slots doesn't start on a white card.)

After the basic color sequences have been determined, a pattern for dealing with "wildcards" (lands, colorless, multicolored) is needed to figure out a logical shortcut for pack creation.

For the sake of brevity, I will only look at the c2 rarity slot to further discuss how I make print runs.

Wildcards are every 4th and then 5th card on the print run. There are also color rules for these wildcards (when they aren't colorless), since there are 5 unique hybrid cards in this section: a wildcard cannot share a color with either card it falls between. Here is how the guilds can be inserted:



With the full c2-print-run color pattern finalized, the size of the run has to be determined. Since this set calls for 6 copies of each of the 45 unique "c2" cards to make 90 packs, I went with a print run of 90 cards (each card appears twice).

With the size of the run determined, the actual order of all 90 cards can be decided. Since this particular slot is only 3 cards, it is not important to care about sequential duplicates in any particular color (as a card will always have 5-6 cards before that color slot is seen again on the print run, making no risk of two copies appearing in one pack). I took the 90 cards and laid them out on a table in the correct color pattern sequence and then started swapping cards to create the metagames described below. When all was said and done, I got the following 90-card print run:



To actually make the 90 packs, it's a pain in the ass, and takes about 4 hours. (I'll take pictures after I update with DTK and draft my current packs.) It involves sorting all cards by color/rarity, alphabetizing those piles, then sorting spreadsheets and making piles of each color, and then assembling the print run from those piles! After that's done, it's just 90 piles with the correct number of each rarity (and using a random number generator to pick a starting number). But it might be worth it when all is said and done and the packs feel "real":

 

[Chriskool]

fucking hell mate I don't know how you do it!

I watch netflix or streams while making packs. As far as memorization... I just forget "important" things to make space for this

 

[spicewitch]

wat

 

[Modin]

Holy guacamole! Thanks for that insane answer. I will try to digest it some time soon. :O

EDIT: Luckily we seem to be needing the 2nd approach as we want to implement heroic-like themes as faeries and equipments. This is gonna take a while

 

[Modin]

There are still some things I don't understand. For example:

With the full c2-print-run color pattern finalized, the size of the run has to be determined. Since this set calls for 6 copies of each of the 45 unique "c2" cards to make 90 packs, I went with a print run of 90 cards (each card appears twice).

How did you get to that number? Is it that because you have 90 packs cointaining 3 c2-cards so that you will be able to "run" through the print run 3 times, and will 2 of each of the c2-card in one run which makes 3*2=6?

 

[Chriskool]

There are still some things I don't understand. For example:



How did you get to that number? Is it that because you have 90 packs cointaining 3 c2-cards so that you will be able to "run" through the print run 3 times, and will 2 of each of the c2-card in one run which makes 3*2=6?

Yes, exactly! This 90-pack behemoth (pack rarity division of 6-3-4-1-1 (c1-c2-u1-u2-r)) required:

• c1, 60 unique cards, 9 of each (540 total)
• c2, 45 unique cards, 6 of each (270 total)
• u1, 120 unique cards, 4 of each (480 total). Additional note: One of the neatest things about VMA on MTGO was the diversity of experience created by the sheer size of it. That is why this number is so high.
• u2, 30 unique cards, 3 of each (90 total). Additional note: I included 11 nonbasic lands (all but Terramorphic Expanse) in this slot, so that a nonbasic occurs in about 1/3rd of packs. These lands are trilands so that three two-color decks can use them as two-color duals.
• r, 90 unique cards, 1 of each! go hog wild and have 90 sweet cards

It required 3 cases of KMC sleeves to put this together.

 

[Modin]

We decided to do about 60 rares (read: boosters) as we will hardly have more people playing than 8 and it appears to be easier to aquire the lowered amount of cards. I guess it's gonna take a while for us to assess how to best sort the printruns and how many of each card we'll need. Your posts do help me greatly, so thanks again!

 

[Chriskool]

Overall, the last draft felt pretty good, but it did showcase a few weaknesses in card inclusion that I hope to address in my next update. No deck was completely unplayable, with my RW deck and my teammate's UB decks by far the best decks. (I wish we would've played to see how the matchup unfolded.)

After seeing several cards end up bummered time and time again, I am going to finally swap 'em out. Also, the white removal needs shaken up (Crib Swap is much too powerful at common) and a few of the tribal themes need minor tweaks. Arcane (despite doing pretty decently in my RW deck) is going to get a slight boost. And lastly, some cards meant to answer non-creature permanents are going to get a facelift. (Spoiler: Yuki-Onna and Nikko-Onna are B-squad at best.)

Teams were:

Bant Auramancer, Borzhov Control and Jund Selfmill

versus

Golgari "Stuff", Dimir Control and Boros Arcane/Pants Aggro

Barely Bant Auramancer

This player has put more thought into this project than any other, offering many suggestions to improve the set. I am unsure of his final record, but I think it was 1-2. We played something like 7 games, with him only winning once (and him mostly having weird mana draws, possibly due to incorrect manabase).

Borzhov Control

Was red-white-black and 0-3'd, but rebuilt after and played some test games as black-white-splash-red to better effect. Not a great limited player and second time drafting.

Jund Selfmill

Player took trilands and Kodama's Reach highly (hoping to be arcane-based), but settled into BG selfmill by mid pack 2. 1-2 record (losing to UB control and RW aggro). first time drafting this set, but experienced in traditional limited.

Golgari Chaingun / Graveyard

Unsure of draft experience, but this player went 1-2, only beating the pre-edit Borzhov deck. It was his first time, but he assembled some cool synergies (Krov Horror+deathtouch, Shade's Form and then killing opponent's creatures).

Dimir Control

This player had drafted an earlier iteration a few times and has a lot of competitive experience. His sideboard had a few anti-aggro cards, and he regularly went up to 18 land on the play. Jace came to him as a gift in pack 3.

Boros Arcane Pants

I first-picked a Young Pyromancer that was ultimately starting on the sidelines (after taking a lot of enchantments. Tallowisp and Spiritdancer (along with some red removal) cemented my in red-white aggro during pack one. Warmind Infantry, Blind with Anger, Molten Rebirth and Aeolipile made appearances from the sideboard. Went 3-0, only losing a game to the Jund selfmill trading effectively and then assembling Grim Harvest inevitability. Breaths shined, saving creatures (from removal or combat) and pushing through final damage. Playing Skill was a mistake.

 

[Chriskool]

March/DTK Update!

The tribes (Elementals, Zombies, Humans and Spirits) got a bit of a face-list in this update; I have noticed that the tribes had cards that were almost never played and swapped 'em out for cards that sit better on the curve or are active inclusions. Also, say good bye to the Wizards subtheme (that barely ever mattered). I hope for tribal to never reach the point where almost ever creature is the same type, but I do want to see 2-3 more picks that could easily make a maindeck.

Enchantment, graveyard and artifact answers were added/upgraded to move them up in pick order during drafting.

I also added a few more arcane spells so that players can supplement a control or aggressive strategy with an arcane subtheme more reliably.

Lone Missionary -> Keening Apparition (c1)
Crib Swap -> Exile (c1)
Nikko-Onna -> Sandsteppe Outcast (c1)
Suspension Field -> Faith's Fetters (c2)
Honor's Reward -> Ethereal Haze (c2)
Faith's Fetters -> Crib Swap (u1)
Pariah -> Ghostly Prison (r)

White's main update was shifting around removal so that Crib Swap became less frequent and more frequent removal gained life to replace cards being removed and support green-white (while being more awkward than Swap).

Eel Umbra -> Mystic Veil (c1)
Wavecrash Triton -> Triton Fortune Hunter (c1)
Auramancers Guise -> Thassa's Emissary (c2)
Voidmage Prodigy -> Stratus Dancer (u2)

Aiming to make white-blue enchants a bit more exciting with increased card draw; so far, red-white and green-x have been the only aura/enchantment decks to do well. With so much removal circumventing the protection granted by Eel Umbra (and throughly punishing players that had the stones to include it), Mystic Veil feels like a more power-appropriate version of Alexi's Cloak. Photogenic-Pose Kai will be missed, but I am excited to get another +1/+1 counter card in the mix!

Thrull Parasite -> Plagued Rusalka (c2)
Undying Evil -> Crypt Creeper (c1)
Disciple of Bolas -> Xathrid Necromancer (u1)
Xathrid Necromancer -> Insidious Dreams (r)

I'm sad to see Undying Evil go, but black really needed a common 2CMC zombie (and with the addition of more graveyard hate, I feel okay leaving in the slow-as-molasses Grim Harvest). The thrull was underwhelming, and sacrifice has felt very neutered since the large frequency decrease in February, so I'm going to try a mana-activated Rusalka (that's also a spirit!!!) as additional support. X Necro is getting a freq boost to give humans a bit more non-toxic allure (but ultimately might be too powerful- will keep an eye out on it).

Panic Spellbomb -> Lava Spike (c1)
Yuki-Onna -> Torch Fiend (c1)
Lavamancer's Skill -> Fire Whip (u1)
Incandescent Soulstoke -> Taurean Mauler (u1)
Ion Storm -> Outpost Siege (r)

Panic Spellbomb has never seen play, and Young Pyromaster wanted a few more spells to make it attractive in aggressive decks, so the faceburn addition felt pretty natural. I am hoping that the changeling's interplay with tribal and +1/+1 counters makes it a fun addition. Lastly, Ion Storm felt like a bummer to even me; happy to add a card that should feel great in many archetypes in its stead.

Werebear -> Loaming Shaman (c1)
Spider Umbra -> Fertile Ground (c1)
Nantuko Vigilante -> Ainok Survivalist (c2)

Fertile Groundreplacing Werebear was the most painful update this round, but I think it'll be okay as (1) keeping it would've made green have too many 2cmcs and (2) Fertile opens up a (potentially) sweet, durdle-based, 3-5cg archetype that has almost come together in a few drafts. Loaming Shaman might seem like another notch agaisnt self-mill, but I have noticed black-green decks mill themselves to death! I hope to see it used both with and against the strategy.

Lux Cannon -> Thawing Glaciers (r)
Jinxed Idol -> Helm of Possession (r)

Cannon should've got the axe when I removed proliferate. Idol has gone 15th a few times, so I figured trying another sacrificial altar was due.

Diregraf Captain -> Mystical Teachings (u1)
Mystical Teachings -> Havengul Lich (u2)
Havengul Lich -> Grimgrin, Corpse-Born (r)

Removal of Captain (now Champion of the Parish, Smokebraider, Adaptive Automaton, Call to the Grave and Obelisk of Urd are the only cards that really want tribal density), then frequency shifting. Teachings supports weird arcane decks.