General The Cube Contest

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I know I'm gonna add 90 cards to mine and give it a try. C'mon. We think about cubes more often and more laterally here than anywhere else on the internet. If a Riptide cube doesn't win, I'm gonna be deeply disappointed.

The Desert Cube isn't a Riptide cube and has some great flavor. Also, Riptide sensibilities aren't necessarily what the average cuber would expect, or even want, from cubing.
 
I'd be very pleasantly surprised to see a cube with a moderate power level be selected. For most MTG players cube is where you go to do broken stuff - fast mana and game-warping cards are a big part of the appeal of the format.
 
It's very likely that a non-powermax cube will be selected. I think things like Eldrazi Domain are the best shot.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I'd be very pleasantly surprised to see a cube with a moderate power level be selected. For most MTG players cube is where you go to do broken stuff - fast mana and game-warping cards are a big part of the appeal of the format.

Well, they did state that it shouldn't be something already in their arsenal, i.e. power cube is very much represented by the MtGO Vintage Cube, so it's extremely unlikely that a power cube will win. I agree with japahn that Eldrazi Domain is actually a theme that might do well. Rise of the Eldrazi as a draft format was quite brilliant and loads of fun.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I could try bloating up Eldrazi Domain, the problem is it relies on a lot of overlapping "theme cards". Maybe worth looking at Scion tokens? I liked it being mono-spawn for simplicity.

Also I kind of don't want to enter it into the contest, but that's another issue.
 

Laz

Developer
Cube must be 540 cards, will be played on mtgo.


So, maybe an odd question, but what is it like designing at 540? I have only ever built cubes as large as they need to be, so I have a pair of 360s and a 264 card 6-player cube (I am working on a second one of these, feedback required soon... maybe).
 
Community project would be really sweet. 540 is huge though. It works against some of the more narrow build arounds. I feel like that size is really asking for a good stuff cube unfortunately.

So if we did do this, it would have to have broadly sweeping synergies I'm thinking.

Where's Grillo? Could Penny Pincher be expanded to 540? That cube is like the poster child for lower powered rare cubing, which would be truly awesome to see highlighted in this way.
 
Community project would be really sweet. 540 is huge though. It works against some of the more narrow build arounds. I feel like that size is really asking for a good stuff cube unfortunately.

So if we did do this, it would have to have broadly sweeping synergies I'm thinking.

Where's Grillo? Could Penny Pincher be expanded to 540? That cube is like the poster child for lower powered rare cubing, which would be truly awesome to see highlighted in this way.
Yeah, I really want to vote for the Penny Pincher cube, but I'm not sure what makes it great would survive the transition to 540.
 
Penny Pincher might benefit from MTGOization... some of the combo elements could return to the population and not be guaranteed in each draft. MTGO players love trying to sssemble combos.
 
Yeah, I really want to vote for the Penny Pincher cube, but I'm not sure what makes it great would survive the transition to 540.


I'm thinking about a design that uses the land-untap themes from the Penny Pincher cube, ups the power level a little, and runs 30 karoos/540 (equiv to 20 in a 360 list, p>0.95 of 16+ karoos per draft pod) plus other goodies (signets?).

Familiar combo, recursive aggro, hatebears, other stuff to do with mass mana generation, a land theme, tap/untap (maybe LRW merfolk shenanigans for the tribal fiends), maybe splicer/golem midrange, some creature-based combo, lots of theatre versatility. It feels possible, although raising the power level means you need to do some sketching. I don't think Tolarian Academy untap shenanigans can exist with karoo stuff, although maybe it could? It'd be neat to have people re-evaluate some power all-stars without their dense support network/
 

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Community project would be really sweet. 540 is huge though. It works against some of the more narrow build arounds. I feel like that size is really asking for a good stuff cube unfortunately.

So if we did do this, it would have to have broadly sweeping synergies I'm thinking.

Where's Grillo? Could Penny Pincher be expanded to 540? That cube is like the poster child for lower powered rare cubing, which would be truly awesome to see highlighted in this way.


Bias driven liking spree, and thank you for the shout out.

To make a long story short...I had no immediate idea how to kick it up to 540, which is why I didn't post. I've never designed a cube for 540, and have no instinct for what densities are appropriate.

If this were 360 I would make a couple of swaps (niv-mizzet and firemane angel are objectively too strong i.m.o), and just hit submit.

The first immediate problems that jump to mind is that the splicer package gets completely buried, which is kind of heartbreaking. Like Chris suggested though, this does provide more raw space for other things, and I've often thought about making a simple graveyard and combo iteration of it. Bouncelands really are perfect for fueling low power graveyard interactions, and you could really ratchet up the combo elements as well if you wished.
 
So, maybe an odd question, but what is it like designing at 540? I have only ever built cubes as large as they need to be, so I have a pair of 360s and a 264 card 6-player cube (I am working on a second one of these, feedback required soon... maybe).

I'm also interested in their collation process and have asked the mtgo wotc contact. I think mtgo cubes use print runs within subpopulations (which opens up a TON of design space).
 
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