Card/Deck Other applications for Lore Seeker

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blacksmithy

So, this card Lore Seeker is one that my playgroup has always loved, since we went in on a box of Conspiracy to draft. I've always played it as adding another 15 Cube cards to the draft when picked, but reading these forums—as well as the new CubeTutor sideboard feature—gave me an idea.
(Sidebar: My Cube runs a fair number of cards that are generally eschewed here as "GRBS," such as Channel and Balance. My group generally enjoys them, but I've noticed lately there have been nights where one guy seems to luck out and get all or most of the GRBS, then proceeds to steamroll everyone else.)
So, my idea was to put 2 cards from each color, plus 5 artifacts, into the Cube Sideboard as what I call a "Pandora's Box." When a player drafts Lore Seeker, they can choose the normal option of 15 random Cube cards, or they can open Pandora's Box, which contains:
Balance
Land Tax
Tolarian Academy
True-Name Nemesis
Recurring Nightmare
Hymn to Tourach
Sneak Attack
Form of the Dragon
Survival of the Fittest
Channel
Sol Ring
Skullclamp
Umezawa's Jitte
Wurmcoil Engine
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

My hope is that this allows the cube to switch between the "power-max" dynamic that my Timmy drafters are okay with and the more Riptide-y "flat power" dynamic that I think will be a refreshing change of pace on Cube night. Obviously, it also makes Lore Seeker completely unpassable whether you plan to open the Box or not, but *meh*

Has anyone else come up with cool seeded packs or other ways to use Lore Seeker?
 
safra

safra

when we've had it in we've played it as either an extra 'pack' of Cube cards or a prize booster if I had any. I'd also suggest from personal experience with a slightly different thing that you find some way to mark the face of the sleeves of your Pandora's Box cards so it's easy to pull them out again at the end of the night. My lands have a little dollar store gold star on them in the corner, for example.
 
Aoret

Aoret

Developer
Seems fine, I'm not into the idea at all personally, but if your playgroup will enjoy having that splashy effect and the feeling of being the one lucky enough to crack the lore seeker, then that's cool I guess :)

There's no denying that it's exciting, I just have the typical riptide view of preferring more back and forth games over booster pack thrill. To each their own!
 
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blacksmithy

I haven't tried this idea yet, so it's getting its first test run hopefully next week when my group can draft again.
Right now my idea is to put all the GRBS cards into the Pandora pack so that:
1. Drafts where Lore Seeker doesn't appear play much more like a Riptide cube and
2. When Lore Seeker does show up, everyone gets at least 2 picks from the Pandora pack, so it's (more or less) an even playing field... Unless of course the drafter who pulls Lore Seeker decides to get a regular pack instead of "opening the box," then things stay happy and Riptidey.

...At least, that's how I hope it plays out. I will report ASAP.

P.S. I may not have made this clear in my original post, but "Pandora's Box" is a seeded booster pack containing all 15 of the aforementioned GRBS cards. So when you draft Lore Seeker, you can pull a regular pack or THAT pack, and it joins the draft as any other Lore Seeker pack would.
 
ahadabans

ahadabans

Wow. That's sort of a cool idea. From a meta design standpoint, I am vehemently against GRBS cards now. Games just play so much better without them. But part of me remembers the original intent behind cube (play the best cards ever) and something like this could give us the option.

Let us know how that plays. I love the idea though. Very clever.
 
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blacksmithy

Thanks for the input y'all!

I was trying to think of a way to flatline my power level more without straight-up cutting the redonk cards that pretty much everyone loves. (For example, my wife's favorite cube moment ever was when she Sneak Attack'd Emrakul in a Worldknit deck ftw—like, how does that even happen—and most of my drafters share her sensibilities.)
Plus, I was looking for ways to fit all these dang ORI cards into the cube without going up in size... and then I woke up one morning and read that Cubetutor allowed sideboards. It was a straight-up lightbulb "DING!" moment in my head.
Gosh I hope my drafters don't mutiny me lol. I know one in particular will fight the change hard if I explain it to him... But I think he'll come around after he opens Pandora's Box for the first time. It's gonna be like National Treasure up in here—I'll be snapping up Lore Seeker to keep the box closed, he'll be snapping it up to crack it open, everyone will be doing Nick Cage impressions... I forget where I was going with this.
 
safra

safra

blacksmithy said:
Thanks for the input y'all!

I was trying to think of a way to flatline my power level more without straight-up cutting the redonk cards that pretty much everyone loves. (For example, my wife's favorite cube moment ever was when she Sneak Attack'd Emrakul in a Worldknit deck ftw—like, how does that even happen—and most of my drafters share her sensibilities.)
Plus, I was looking for ways to fit all these dang ORI cards into the cube without going up in size... and then I woke up one morning and read that Cubetutor allowed sideboards. It was a straight-up lightbulb "DING!" moment in my head.
Gosh I hope my drafters don't mutiny me lol. I know one in particular will fight the change hard if I explain it to him... But I think he'll come around after he opens Pandora's Box for the first time. It's gonna be like National Treasure up in here—I'll be snapping up Lore Seeker to keep the box closed, he'll be snapping it up to crack it open, everyone will be doing Nick Cage impressions... I forget where I was going with this.
Click to expand...

it's actually Nic Cage(PBUH), just imagine he's stuck in a posh rave and he's telling you there's no k
 
B

blacksmithy

Hmm... Maybe I could make a pack full of utility lands, or a pack full of super-narrow enablers/buildarounds/payoffs... Yeah, there's some possibilities here.
 
B

blacksmithy

I'm still trying to get the group together and test the idea. We all have jobs so it's, uh, hard. Hope to let y'all know how it works soon!
In the meantime I've been making Cube pre-constructed decks and smashing them against each other with my wife and cousin. My RB recursive aggro pre-con is fun but loses REALLY hard to the RG Wildfire pre-con. Also it's a good way to give people some ideas for archetype-based drafting.
 
Alphez

Alphez

blacksmithy said:
I'm still trying to get the group together and test the idea. We all have jobs so it's, uh, hard. Hope to let y'all know how it works soon!
In the meantime I've been making Cube pre-constructed decks and smashing them against each other with my wife and cousin. My RB recursive aggro pre-con is fun but loses REALLY hard to the RG Wildfire pre-con. Also it's a good way to give people some ideas for archetype-based drafting.
Click to expand...


Any news on this? It seems like a brilliant way to spice things up!
 
japahn

japahn

I've tried that before, but those decks felt artificial and since they relied on very specific interactions, weren't really valuable for balancing purposes. They reminded me why I hated casual constructed - too many 10/90 and 90/10 matchups.
 
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blacksmithy

The lore seeker extra packs have been well received!
The precons were scrapped in favor of co-op "cube hordes," which deserves its own thread if i could be arsed to make it.
 
Alphez

Alphez

I was thinking about using the same principle, but offering the following seeded packs:

- shards pack (2 spells + 1 land per shard)
- wedges pack (2 spells + 1 land per wedge)

with the option of drafting a normal pack instead, if wanted.
I don't know if this could be nice or not. It would introduce some variety without unbalancing power levels. It would also allow me to pack some good tricolour cards without diluting the main cube with a bunch of 15th-pick cards.
I like that under this system a player gets to reshape how the others draft (to a certain degree - you can also just ignore the multicolour cards).
Thoughts?
 
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