Let's Build a Cube!

Hello! I had a fun idea for a forum game. We're going to be building a 360 card cube together. How this works is one person is going to suggest 6 cards for the cube, one of each color and a gold/colorless card, and then the next person is going to add 6 cards as well. The catch is that the cards need to work together in some way, shape, or form. The "power band" should also stay fairly consistent. For example, let's say one person adds these 6 cards:



The next person could add cards like this:


Then a third person could add the following:

These cards are related to the previous entries, aren't too far away in power level (although there is a fair amount of variation), and work to establish themes and archetypes to the cube.

They should NOT, however, add cards like this:

These cards don't fit the theme (at least directly), and they vary in power. Thoughtcast should not be in the same cube as Black Lotus.

Rules
To start, Post 6 cards at once. One card of each color, and a Gold/Colorless card.
Keep a consistent power band throughout the submissions
Try to keep gold cards evenly distributed amongst colors. We don't need 15 Rakdos cards!
Don't double post, although posting after the person who posted after you is fine.
Removal does Not need to be related to the themes, provided the cube needs it.
If you would like add a little note discussing why you chose to add the cards you did. You don't need to talk much, one or two sentences should suffice.

Thread goals
The idea here is to work on examining synergies between cards and power level. We're looking at how cards work together and form synergies. Technically this does fly against Decks not Cards design ideology, since we are just examining individual cards. That said, we're looking at adding cards with synergy to form decks. The goal of this thread is not to create the best cube ever or anything, but to critically examine synergies between cards in the process of creating cubes and cube archetypes.

For example, let's say someone wants to add an artifact deck to our cube. We might already have an aristocrats theme in W/B, so that person could add cards like Ruthless Knave and Marionette Master to the cube. From there, we can get Dire Fleet Hoarders, maybe an Unlicensed Disintegration if we want to add red to the deck. Hopefully you're getting the idea.

Cube Link
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/112628

I'll start us off:


Card comments:
-Seeker of the Way is a fairly versatile white 2-drop that can fit into a variety of decks.
-Chart a Course similarly goes into a number of different decks and is fairly open-ended.
-Mardu Strike Leader can support tokens, warriors, maybe we could even support a dash deck.
-Hazoret the Fervent Red aggro? Red Discard? Red Control? Who knows!
-Runic Armasaur #JusticeforRunicArmasaur
-Masticore is a value engine that can also serve as a build around depending on what other cards we add.

Good luck!

-TrainmasterGT
 
Seems fun!

My contributions:



Cast Out is great removal that also supports cycling and enchantment themes.
Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is my favorite cube card from Dominaria. This plus Chart a Course gives blue some avenues into off-beat aggressive strategies.
Vicious Offering is elegant removal that offers synergistic upside.
Lighting Axe: See above.
Vessel of Nascency is a great utility card that supports most of what green likes to do.
Contagion Clasp is in because proliferate is a fun mechanic that can work equally well as a cubewide theme or one-off.
 

Dom Harvey

Contributor
Not to pour water on the fire but we've tried a few of these games before and they tend to peter out before completion. It's also quite hard to get everyone to work within the constraints and balance quickly goes out the window; think of how hard it is to balance your own Cube when you have a holistic vision of what you want it to look like, can change any amount of cards at any time, and have complete creative control!
 

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
Not to pour water on the fire but we've tried a few of these games before and they tend to peter out before completion. It's also quite hard to get everyone to work within the constraints and balance quickly goes out the window; think of how hard it is to balance your own Cube when you have a holistic vision of what you want it to look like, can change any amount of cards at any time, and have complete creative control!
I'll have to agree with Dom on this one. I was the one who was in control of the third 'riptide community makes a cube'.

The other two were done by Bumbeh. The First and the Second.

It took quite a while for my cube to hit the finishing line. It may have been a decent time since the last one for people, or possibly a decent influx of people for another one of these to hit it off. Also, with the hive mind that is in this forum, the same cards keep getting suggested and it usually ends up the same way.

That is enough being a downer, and I am happy to see forum activity, so I will help contribute:




I saw in the first couple there were some interesting cards that said 'discard a card', so I decided to bleed that possible theme into every colour. Probably not the best idea, but all of these cards are decent enough on their own or a fancy 'build around me'.
 
Seems fun!

My contributions:

Cast Out is great removal that also supports cycling and enchantment themes.
Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is my favorite cube card from Dominaria. This plus Chart a Course gives blue some avenues into off-beat aggressive strategies.
Vicious Offering is elegant removal that offers synergistic upside.
Lighting Axe: See above.
Vessel of Nascency is a great utility card that supports most of what green likes to do.
Contagion Clasp is in because proliferate is a fun mechanic that can work equally well as a cubewide theme or one-off.


Good picks! Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive also has some nice synergy with the Mardu Strike Leader tokens. If it pushes us into a 1-power/toughness matters theme, it also makes Contagion Clasp way better.

Not to pour water on the fire but we've tried a few of these games before and they tend to peter out before completion. It's also quite hard to get everyone to work within the constraints and balance quickly goes out the window; think of how hard it is to balance your own Cube when you have a holistic vision of what you want it to look like, can change any amount of cards at any time, and have complete creative control!

I think you're missing the point of the project. This is just an exercise in card evaluation and examination. Even if we never complete the cube, there is still value in analyzing cards under a closer lense. As I said:

The idea here is to work on examining synergies between cards and power level. We're looking at how cards work together and form synergies. Technically this does fly against Decks notCards design ideology, since we are just examining individual cards. That said, we're looking at adding cards with synergy to form decks. The goal of this thread is not to create the best cube ever or anything, but to critically examine synergies between cards in the process of creating cubes and cube archetypes.

Alright, on to the next post.

I'll have to agree with Dom on this one. I was the one who was in control of the third 'riptide community makes a cube'.

The other two were done by Bumbeh. The First and the Second.

It took quite a while for my cube to hit the finishing line. It may have been a decent time since the last one for people, or possibly a decent influx of people for another one of these to hit it off. Also, with the hive mind that is in this forum, the same cards keep getting suggested and it usually ends up the same way.

See above.

That is enough being a downer, and I am happy to see forum activity, so I will help contribute:




I saw in the first couple there were some interesting cards that said 'discard a card', so I decided to bleed that possible theme into every colour. Probably not the best idea, but all of these cards are decent enough on their own or a fancy 'build around me'.

I really like your picks! Spirit Cairn is actually almost a card I added to my cube! Daring Saboteur, Fell Specter, and Ravenous Bloodseeker also work with our buddy Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive. Quite cool!

I'll add another batch of cards.



First gold card!

-Midnight Haunting works with Seeker of the Way and our Saboteur theme. It also lets us support tokens and is a good trick.
-Drake Haven. If we're going all in on discard, this card seems like a must.
-Raiders' Wake add some redundancy for Fell Specter. I also like how it works with our Saboteurs and Fliers.
-Bloodrage Brawler is a card my playgroup loves in my cube. It is very aggressive but also cares about discard.
-Silverglade Pathfinder might be too good because it is repeatable Rampant Growth on a stick. That said, it is perfectly on theme ramp.
-Pride of the Clouds. Let me explain with this one. We have a lot of cards that care about evasion, and fliers have built-in evasion. We also already had a bunch of fliers, and I just added 2 more cards that make multiple fliers. If we want to add a token strategy, cards like Lingering Souls, Doomed Traveler, and Spectral Procession are going to be must-adds. I think Pride of the Clouds is going to have more than enough support when the cube is done, and it is an interesting build-around that isn't terrible by itself.
 

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member



Decided to give the spirit makers some love with a lord. Topplegeist is a spirit and enjoys all this discard we have going around. Avacyn's Judgment is just another good card for the madness deck. Not sure what we want to do with green, maybe we want to go self mill and thus the scrounger helps make a 'baron' type deck, which the Timepiece also slots into.
 


With all the reprogrammers, opponent-discard punishers, and GY synergy we obviously need a wheel theme! And we'll throw a potential mill win-con on top of it. Finally, some more cool spirit stuff and a reward for green baron, tying into the inkling of white token-making.
 
How deep do we want to go on spirits? Is Drogskol Captain something we should consider?

5 more:


Explanation of cards:
Selfless Spirit- Works with spirits and sacs itself if we want to do Aristocrats.
Patient Rebuilding- Good Wincon, works with Sphinx's Tutelage.
Haunted Dead- Discard enabler and bleeds Spirits into black.
Bedlam Reveler- Works with a Wheel Theme, but also can support spells.
Life from the Loam- Seems good with Discard outlets and Worm Harvest.
Borborygmos Enraged- A R/G Fatty that could also be a wincon/archetype enabler.

That Runic Armasaur is starting to look really good!
 
Thought I'd limit myself this time to suggesting cards that are not, and have never been, in my cube, just to keep things fresh:



Cogworker's Puzzleknot leaves open the door for white to get an artifact subtheme. We also have one white delirium card already, so having an artifact that can get itself in the yard helps support that theme if it sticks.
Skyscribing is one I'm really going out on a limb with. It combos with Sphinx's Tutelage in a mill deck, and prevents forecast from becoming an orphan mechanic in the cube.
Snuff Out: Can't forget the bread and butter removal spells. If I were going to add another black removal spell to my cube, this would be the one, as it has a little bit of play to it.
Bolt of Keranos: See above.
Loaming Shaman: Someone said "baron" above! This is a card I'm super interested in fitting into my cube.
Azra Oddsmaker: We seem to have a pretty clear Madness/discard theme going on in BR, so this card seems like a perfect signpost gold card.
 
Updated the list (not including my adds today)!!


Twilight Drover- Spirits and Tokens Matter.
Mindshrieker- Supports our Mini-mill theme in blue and is a relevant creature type.
Grisly Spectacle- Premium removal that mills.
Hammer of Purphoros- Solid red card, makes tokens, helps get lands in the GY for decks that care about that.
Saproling Migration- Green lacks a fair amount of direction right now, save for the graveyard theme present in every color. This card is a fairly open-ended tokens enabler which plays well with some of our other green cards. I think bleeding tokens into green and making that our G/W archetype is probably a good idea. Thoughts?
Trading Post- This card is just fun, and it works well with almost everything our cube is doing.
 
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