General Store Owned Cube

[schof]

Hello,

I am new to the RiptideLab. I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on the subject of designing a store-owned cube. I have build two Cubes of my own(full Ravnica and Urza's block party) so I recently propositioned to build a cube for the shop. I have some basic ideas but I'd like to hear your thoughts on:

-cube type
-cube value
-powered/unpowered

and anything else you think might be relevant. Basically, if you were starting this project what might worry you or things you might keep in mind.

Thanks for the help,
-Bryan

 

[Jason Waddell]

Hi Bryan! Welcome to the site!

As far as a store-owned cube goes, I don't see any compelling reason for it to be one type of cube or another. Are you building this exclusively from cards from your local store's inventory?

What I would be most concerned about when talking to a store owner is security. I have never had any cards stolen, but I do know that it is a problem in the cube world. Another concern is perhaps the audience. Are there going to be really experienced players using this, or more of a mix? Lastly, I don't know the details of your situation, but I would try to think of things from the store owners' perspective. What do they stand to gain/lose from the existence of such a cube?

 

[Dom Harvey]

For security reasons, a C/Ube would probably be best (or you could just proxy the Cube, which is what a guy's doing here for a local store). I imagine a store-owned Cube is pitched at people who don't Cube often or who don't have their own Cubes, so sticking to a simple, conventional design might be the way to go.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Though really, if the cube is proxied, do anything you want.
the only stipulation I'd add on to the regular common uncommon cube is allow rare manafixing lands.

 

[schof]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I had thought a little about security, since the store wouldn't want to exclude people but it cant guarantee their trustworthiness.

As for the shops goal, it would be for a few things:
1) Make a small revenue, they are thinking to ask a 5 dollar buy in, sanction the tournaments and provide prize support.
2) Encourage players without lots of money to draft, since it would be less expensive than the normal draft.
3) Encourage the format to build the community.
4) Diversify the events at the store.

The impetus from this was my fault. After I started bringing my cubes, sometimes the FNM constructed or FNM draft tournaments wont run because people are more interested in cubing. After seeing so much interest in my cubes, they asked if this would be doable.

I like the idea of the cube being mostly C/Ube, but I would like it to be powered for the sake of fun. It's possible we could proxy out the expensive stuff. The store has money to invest in it and currently the community is EXTREMELY honest here. Thanks for the suggestions and anything else you can think of.

-Bryan

 

[Jason Waddell]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I had thought a little about security, since the store wouldn't want to exclude people but it cant guarantee their trustworthiness.

As for the shops goal, it would be for a few things:
1) Make a small revenue, they are thinking to ask a 5 dollar buy in, sanction the tournaments and provide prize support.
2) Encourage players without lots of money to draft, since it would be less expensive than the normal draft.
3) Encourage the format to build the community.
4) Diversify the events at the store.

The impetus from this was my fault. After I started bringing my cubes, sometimes the FNM constructed or FNM draft tournaments wont run because people are more interested in cubing. After seeing so much interest in my cubes, they asked if this would be doable.

I like the idea of the cube being mostly C/Ube, but I would like it to be powered for the sake of fun. It's possible we could proxy out the expensive stuff. The store has money to invest in it and currently the community is EXTREMELY honest here. Thanks for the suggestions and anything else you can think of.

-Bryan

So, my solution to this is to cube on nights when there aren't other Magic events going on at the store. When I host a draft I'm actually bringing in traffic, and said traffic buys lots of drinks when they're there. This way I don't feel like I'm taking away from the store's business. Of course, this isn't a viable scheduling solution to everyone, but I recommend it as a good way to support your FLGS. It's through the FLGS that I even found the players I cube with, and I otherwise would not really have a venue for the drafts.

 

[schof]

Along the lines of security and expensive cards played by people you don't necessarily know, any suggestions for how you could set up a check-out system to insure the cards that people are playing with. Maybe after the draft people record what they take on a sheet and then check the cards back in after the draft?

Any thoughts on a system like this? Still thinking to stay away from power because of the value, but I'd like to include fetches because... fetches are cool.

 

[Dom Harvey]

have people spread their picks on a table and take a picture on a smartphone? it's what a lot of people do to record trades

 

[Kranny]

My local shop made a carbon copy of my list with proxies and ran events / loaned it out regularly. It was good for a few months, but ultimately died down when the owner couldn't keep up with it. If you were using real cards, you could probably get away with a Pauper/Peasant list and not feel bad if a deck walks off.