I was a player and cube noob who back in the day my first cube created was HEAVY on multi-color cards for a few reasons. But generally, they were just cooler, in that the effects of spells were stronger or allowed more options on them etc... My initial cube was much slower in color combination (5 color control was totally a thing) but just converted mana cost was higher overall due to included so many 2 and 3+ color cards.
Over time I gave in and revamped my cubes with better understanding but still never got my MULTI section as low as many of the typical cubes tend to have. There is still a part of me that doesn't want to let go.
But putting aside my own bias, I am trying to think objectively here for a moment and get a feel for if I'm just crazy or if my hypothesis and rationale make any sense at all.
I am wondering if it wouldn't be "better" (this is subjective and I dont' think i have a way to quantitatively support this), to have a LARGER guild section than what is currently constituted by many cubers.
My thinking on this matter came up in that newer sets are incorporating more ARTIFACTS and so there must be more ways to deal with them, right? that is only a natural conclusion. I was in a multiplayer game this past Monday and a 4 player game had almost 10 artifacts out on the board at a particular time... I had 1 or 2 ways in my deck to deal and another person had 1 or 2 ways to deal, other than that the rest could go "unchecked".
Now I must confess to a couple proviso's in that I play a lower power style of cube, not wanting to a) spend lots of money on cards (budget-y) and b)like the feel of peasant's more limited construct but had enough of wanting more archetype enabling/support type cards that could break out of the ever narrowing cube updating prison that is "peasant". and C) I don't like cards that completely spike the power level to an unhealthy or un-fun (my and playgroups subjectivity) state. Secondly my cube has been geared more to multiplayer, as we find it more inclusive and fun so there are cards I have that aren't normally considered in regular cubes that play strictly 1v1.
Getting back on track, artfiacts - Yes! the decks did not have enough to handle the number of artifacts on the board (some were creatures so kill spells do handle them for the most part) but generally the amount of removal vs cards on board was severely lacking. Now I don't want to have a cube that overcompensates and bum rushes cards in for the sake of 1 anecdotal experience.
But I did go through the gatherer recently to see if there are any cards that I could possibly acquire that would be good to help combat the recent additions of artifacts into the cube. I quickly found a few cards that are awesome, and work in multiplayer but after listing them below do you notice a theme?
Artifact Mutation
Destructive Revelry
Hull Breach
Decimate
These 4 are all very cool, pretty powerful cards that would work in my cube and having in a deck would not make me sad. I am looking for cards that are not "overcosted" as then it is even less appealing to have narrow cards in a cube let alone picked for a deck. I am looking for cards that might have multiple uses or "bonuses" to the card. getting additional 1/1 tokens or gaining life, or killing an artifact and/or enchantment are all acceptable to me (so long as the price of the card does not become prohibitive)
So what is the problem? They are all in the Red/Green guild............................... To most that is a death sentence as Guild slots are typically seen as "sacred" and with the notion that there are so few of them available to the cube creator that they would NEVER ever waste a spot with putting 1 or (gasp!) 2+ of these cards into the cube. And in Red/Green, an aggro color...... the mere thought is sacrosanct and borderline criminal!!!
NOOOOWWW, I'm coming back full circle to my original hypothesis, in that "What is the issue, if we/i/community" look at increasing the number of cards in a guild section? Not in the manner of 7 here and 4 there, obviously keeping everything even for color balance sake and like that, but if the % of multi-color cards was allowed to creep up to allow for room of these additions and not feel like you have to play inferior versions in the individual color sections.... Obviously I have the Disenchantand Naturalize, but aside from those what cards in the single color sections can do as good a job or better than them? what cards in the single colors are better than the 4 red/green cards listed above? If the answer is NONE, because they are the best then you have to look at if it is worth putting a WORSE card in the single color section to save a slot for your MULTI section. But all I am proposing and really wondering out loud is being able to add more MULTI cards which allow us to possibly fill the extra slots with once niche cards for sets of cards that are becoming bigger needs to have answers for what is the problem to adding additional guild slots?
the additional guild slots don't HAVE to be for "niche" cards or anything, but saying they CAN be used that way, as if you had more R/G aggro guys than GG or something like that for 2 reasons.... 1) they would be easier to cast in a R/G deck and 2)Multi-color cards are typically "stronger"
[Edit]
This is another reason why i continually keep giving Putrefyand Mortify a look and say, how are these not in my cube. A) I don't want too much point and click kill spells, they are linear and boring and B) The Guild slots maaaannnnn!!!!
[Edit]
Anyway, sorry for the long drawn out post to get to the seemingly anti-climactic question/conclusion/proposal, but would love to hear any responses on the matter and thoughts as to whether something like that is viable and/or if it is confirmed I am just a multi-color loving lunatic.......
Over time I gave in and revamped my cubes with better understanding but still never got my MULTI section as low as many of the typical cubes tend to have. There is still a part of me that doesn't want to let go.
But putting aside my own bias, I am trying to think objectively here for a moment and get a feel for if I'm just crazy or if my hypothesis and rationale make any sense at all.
I am wondering if it wouldn't be "better" (this is subjective and I dont' think i have a way to quantitatively support this), to have a LARGER guild section than what is currently constituted by many cubers.
My thinking on this matter came up in that newer sets are incorporating more ARTIFACTS and so there must be more ways to deal with them, right? that is only a natural conclusion. I was in a multiplayer game this past Monday and a 4 player game had almost 10 artifacts out on the board at a particular time... I had 1 or 2 ways in my deck to deal and another person had 1 or 2 ways to deal, other than that the rest could go "unchecked".
Now I must confess to a couple proviso's in that I play a lower power style of cube, not wanting to a) spend lots of money on cards (budget-y) and b)like the feel of peasant's more limited construct but had enough of wanting more archetype enabling/support type cards that could break out of the ever narrowing cube updating prison that is "peasant". and C) I don't like cards that completely spike the power level to an unhealthy or un-fun (my and playgroups subjectivity) state. Secondly my cube has been geared more to multiplayer, as we find it more inclusive and fun so there are cards I have that aren't normally considered in regular cubes that play strictly 1v1.
Getting back on track, artfiacts - Yes! the decks did not have enough to handle the number of artifacts on the board (some were creatures so kill spells do handle them for the most part) but generally the amount of removal vs cards on board was severely lacking. Now I don't want to have a cube that overcompensates and bum rushes cards in for the sake of 1 anecdotal experience.
But I did go through the gatherer recently to see if there are any cards that I could possibly acquire that would be good to help combat the recent additions of artifacts into the cube. I quickly found a few cards that are awesome, and work in multiplayer but after listing them below do you notice a theme?
Artifact Mutation
Destructive Revelry
Hull Breach
Decimate
These 4 are all very cool, pretty powerful cards that would work in my cube and having in a deck would not make me sad. I am looking for cards that are not "overcosted" as then it is even less appealing to have narrow cards in a cube let alone picked for a deck. I am looking for cards that might have multiple uses or "bonuses" to the card. getting additional 1/1 tokens or gaining life, or killing an artifact and/or enchantment are all acceptable to me (so long as the price of the card does not become prohibitive)
So what is the problem? They are all in the Red/Green guild............................... To most that is a death sentence as Guild slots are typically seen as "sacred" and with the notion that there are so few of them available to the cube creator that they would NEVER ever waste a spot with putting 1 or (gasp!) 2+ of these cards into the cube. And in Red/Green, an aggro color...... the mere thought is sacrosanct and borderline criminal!!!
NOOOOWWW, I'm coming back full circle to my original hypothesis, in that "What is the issue, if we/i/community" look at increasing the number of cards in a guild section? Not in the manner of 7 here and 4 there, obviously keeping everything even for color balance sake and like that, but if the % of multi-color cards was allowed to creep up to allow for room of these additions and not feel like you have to play inferior versions in the individual color sections.... Obviously I have the Disenchantand Naturalize, but aside from those what cards in the single color sections can do as good a job or better than them? what cards in the single colors are better than the 4 red/green cards listed above? If the answer is NONE, because they are the best then you have to look at if it is worth putting a WORSE card in the single color section to save a slot for your MULTI section. But all I am proposing and really wondering out loud is being able to add more MULTI cards which allow us to possibly fill the extra slots with once niche cards for sets of cards that are becoming bigger needs to have answers for what is the problem to adding additional guild slots?
the additional guild slots don't HAVE to be for "niche" cards or anything, but saying they CAN be used that way, as if you had more R/G aggro guys than GG or something like that for 2 reasons.... 1) they would be easier to cast in a R/G deck and 2)Multi-color cards are typically "stronger"
[Edit]
This is another reason why i continually keep giving Putrefyand Mortify a look and say, how are these not in my cube. A) I don't want too much point and click kill spells, they are linear and boring and B) The Guild slots maaaannnnn!!!!
[Edit]
Anyway, sorry for the long drawn out post to get to the seemingly anti-climactic question/conclusion/proposal, but would love to hear any responses on the matter and thoughts as to whether something like that is viable and/or if it is confirmed I am just a multi-color loving lunatic.......
or 