Nah, still not. My cube is drafted very sporadicaly, since there is no regular playgroup. A draft comes out whenever I get the time and the people to do it, and I haven't drafted with 8 people a single time. But hopefuly there will be one in a couple weeks, and we'll see how the little auto-tinkerer performs.
General Revisiting "Squadroning"
- Thread starter Aoret
- Start date
Nah, still not. My cube is drafted very sporadicaly, since there is no regular playgroup. A draft comes out whenever I get the time and the people to do it, and I haven't drafted with 8 people a single time. But hopefuly there will be one in a couple weeks, and we'll see how the little auto-tinkerer performs.
Hoping to see if anyone has updates happening here.
I prefer not to squadron multiples of a card together, but I've become a fan of squadroning lands with cards that benefit from them.
It has definitely made the tri-color cards more castable and drafters are more comfortable branching out later in drafts. Still haven't had the chance to see any of the Eldrazi aside from World Breaker in action, though not much of its value is tied up in that recursion ability which is admittedly of fringe use. I'm going to stay on the lookout for any new lands that open up interactions or deckbuilding options for fringier cards, though I expect I'll mostly just be evaluating tri-color cards different whenever we get them. I'd love to have cooler buildarounds and payoffs in Mardu and Esper sometime soon.
These are what I'm currently running:
It has definitely made the tri-color cards more castable and drafters are more comfortable branching out later in drafts. Still haven't had the chance to see any of the Eldrazi aside from World Breaker in action, though not much of its value is tied up in that recursion ability which is admittedly of fringe use. I'm going to stay on the lookout for any new lands that open up interactions or deckbuilding options for fringier cards, though I expect I'll mostly just be evaluating tri-color cards different whenever we get them. I'd love to have cooler buildarounds and payoffs in Mardu and Esper sometime soon.
These are what I'm currently running:
I like the vestige idea, assuming it's paired.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I might make those vestiges AEther Hubs instead, but that might just be me
Bit late to the party, and this is super rough, but maybe this might be helpful? Someone can probably refine the idea, but basically you take this card for free if you take an artifact or a creature. Should probably add in wording that says you reveal both cards. Honestly not sure how to template it. Then replace the card for logistical purposes. I guess near the end of a pack this is going to be pretty bad so there's strong incentive to pick it really early I suppose.
Need Attack / Defense, I assume. Or is it not supposed to be playable?
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I feel like this would be better suited in the basic box, if only to keep the number of cards in a given pack consistent
The wording isn't super clear, but you put a card from your draft pile back into the pack, so the pack exchange is still neutral compared to a traditional pick.
Dear Shamizy
Can I ask how many packages you have total in your cube where you get 1 card + 1 other card? And how big is your cube?
I am, myself, at a critical mass but I still want moreSo how many are enough?
For squadron picks, I'm only doing it with those 9 pairings that I posted above. The only real reason I'm doing it is for easier casting of associated cards that I want to include or, in the case of Hanweir Garrison, to enable fringe interactions. This was mostly borne from seeing tri-color cards just straight up ignored later in drafts because people couldn't or wouldn't contort their manabases to fit their inclusion. I don't want to give people free maindeckable cards as a squadron to push archetypes (like double Pyromancer or something) because that would take away from the overall drafting process imo, but whatever floats your boat. Other people have experimented with that in this thread and they've been pretty successful.
I'm doing this at a 420 sized cube, I don't see why you couldn't do it at any given size. Just make sure that people are well aware of what is and isn't a squadron pick (stickers as identifiers help!) and it should be a smooth process.
I've come to the conclusion that I don't really care for the standard cube rules anymore. If I make something unique that doesn't get experienced often or at all and my group enjoys it, then awesome. I'm current sitting at 15, with 3 being sets (arachnus spinner, meld, and such). In addition to that, I am also going to use "niche packs" (mini pre-made boosters with their own theme, where you pick 3 cards out. Great for using tri-color cards.) to add some interesting building choices.
I recently looked at Shefet Monitor, and thought it may be worth squadroning if we get a decent desert in the next set. Currently, 1 damage to a player is not good enough imo.
Got in a few cube sessions last weekend (writeup incoming this weekend!) and I'm thinking about squadroning a few of the build around cards in my cube, namely:
I haven't yet added the Haven to my list, but I feel like with the number of incidental looting effects we've got nowadays in addition to the cycling lands featured in my ULD that there is a critical mass to get it working. I do think that a drafter will need at least two of that kind of payoff effect to really design a deck around it, just for consistency's sake. As for CoCo and Pod, I've seen them come together on occasion, but there is a real problem if the 2nd copy does not end up showing up within the draft pool (My cube being 420). For instance, we played a 6 man draft last weekend and ended up seeing 270/420 throughout the process. We probably wouldn't have these issues in a typical 8 man, but not seeing archetypal payoffs or support really does tend to veer drafters towards assembling goodstuff decks as a baseline rather than try to exploit synergies and maximize archetypal builds. Any successes with these?
Oh and I mentioned earlier in this thread that I'm not a fan of squadroning creatures, but I'm very tempted to break that rule with this guy:
I feel like a Grixis Artifacts archetype is within reach within my environment, but I'm missing the critical mass of playable artifact exchange effects. Mono-R Daretti and Welder get there, but there just isn't a comparable effect out there that would fit my power level. If WoTC would print me one more playable version of this effect I'd cube it in a heartbeat (also waiting on those Battlelands), but I might make do with this in the meantime.
I haven't yet added the Haven to my list, but I feel like with the number of incidental looting effects we've got nowadays in addition to the cycling lands featured in my ULD that there is a critical mass to get it working. I do think that a drafter will need at least two of that kind of payoff effect to really design a deck around it, just for consistency's sake. As for CoCo and Pod, I've seen them come together on occasion, but there is a real problem if the 2nd copy does not end up showing up within the draft pool (My cube being 420). For instance, we played a 6 man draft last weekend and ended up seeing 270/420 throughout the process. We probably wouldn't have these issues in a typical 8 man, but not seeing archetypal payoffs or support really does tend to veer drafters towards assembling goodstuff decks as a baseline rather than try to exploit synergies and maximize archetypal builds. Any successes with these?
Oh and I mentioned earlier in this thread that I'm not a fan of squadroning creatures, but I'm very tempted to break that rule with this guy:
I feel like a Grixis Artifacts archetype is within reach within my environment, but I'm missing the critical mass of playable artifact exchange effects. Mono-R Daretti and Welder get there, but there just isn't a comparable effect out there that would fit my power level. If WoTC would print me one more playable version of this effect I'd cube it in a heartbeat (also waiting on those Battlelands), but I might make do with this in the meantime.
I'd say Tinker is very good on it's own in most cubes, but please do try it and let us know the results.
Edit: looked over your cube. Multiple Tinker wouldn't hurt.
Edit: looked over your cube. Multiple Tinker wouldn't hurt.
These could be really good:
Less powerful option:
Post is a little too durdly and slow while Trash isn't really an effect that I'd want to spend a whole card on (which is why I like Welder and Daretti).
I think Tinker is probably fine in my environment, but then again I have Artifact Lands available in my ULD and I'm worried about the degeneracy that would probably arise from cheating out something huge that early. The closest parallel would be reanimator decks in my cube that do consistently cheat out big things ahead of schedule, but that also requires more set-up with looting and discard than just being able to straight tutor something from your deck to the field in one shot. These are my best cheat targets:
Not too many tbh, I guess I'll give it a shot.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Tinker into Battlesphere is backbreaking on turn 3. It made me cut Battlesphere from my cube, when really Tinker was the problem. I've since realized the myr ball is actually a fun card to play with, and a fair card to play against, if it isn't cheated out on turn 3. At least that is my experience with the two cards. I've also played a cube with a lot higher power level where Tinker was balanced out by other degenerate things, so there's that.