Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I now officially have a second cube!
Link
Visual spoiler
Table view
Draft
Quick Stats:
360 cards
Unpowered
"Peasant"
Legacy style (permanent upgrades change the cards)
Custom Cards
Cube: Legacy
Inspired by a post on the CubeCobra Discord channel by omnizchech (you can view their cube here), I designed a cube that's made to be changed. In a nutshell, it started out as a Peasant cube, but cards get permanently upgraded through "Mod" cards. There's three ways to get these Mod cards.
As I said, Mods are permanent, and a single card may be modded up to two times. That means one player can upgrade a card in one draft, and then another player can mod the same card a second time in another draft. Or a player could use both of their mods on the same card and just make it a lot stronger in one fell swoop!
Mod cards have a few distinguishing features that let players know what cards that Mod can apply to, and what it does.
As we can see, the CHAAARGE! Mod card can be applied to red or white creatures, and gives the creature in question the battle cry ability. The Furious and Fast Mod card is similar, but can be applied only to red or green creatures instead, and it adds the text "When CARDNAME attacks, the next spell you cast this turn costs 
less to cast" to that card. Conversely, the Bend Time Mod card can only be applied to instant and sorcery cards, but it doesn't care about the color of the card you want to mod. This mod card has a different effect, depending on whether you are modding an instant or a sorcery card.
Note that a card that changes the cost of a card, changes all costs, so a card with flashback, for example, has both its casting cost and its flashback cost changed! Reducing costs is very good with activated abilities as well.
Proxying modded Cards
To visually distinguish modded cards, I print proxies (between sessions) with a few subtle changes.
Of course it takes a bit of work to actually make these, so during the draft we just use paper slips. I plan on buying a pile of post-it notes so we can use the sticky part to better place the modded text next time.
Quest cards
During the draft, there are a number of Quest cards in the middle of the table. Each of these cards has an objective, a challenge for the players. Play is halted for all players as soon as one of the players meets the objective, at which point the quest reward is announced. Once completed, the quest is done and removed from the table, it can't be completed again. Let's look at two examples that were completed in the second draft.
In conclusion
Running a cube like this is an absolute blast. I got two drafts in before I created this thread, and it was exactly the right amount of whack. Some ridiculous cards got created, and even though you can't predict what mods will be available, it still feel like you're in charge because you get to choose what card the boost gets applied to (well, usually). It takes a lot of time to build a Legacy Cube, but I can highly recommend it!
Link
Visual spoiler
Table view
Draft
Quick Stats:
360 cards
Unpowered
"Peasant"
Legacy style (permanent upgrades change the cards)
Custom Cards
Cube: Legacy
Inspired by a post on the CubeCobra Discord channel by omnizchech (you can view their cube here), I designed a cube that's made to be changed. In a nutshell, it started out as a Peasant cube, but cards get permanently upgraded through "Mod" cards. There's three ways to get these Mod cards.
- After the draft portion, there's an additional snake draft where each player picks up two Mod cards (meaning the players pick cards in pick order, then pick a second card in reversed order, i.e. 8th and 9th pick are made by the same player, as are 1st and 16th pick). I put a number of Mod cards in this draft equal to the number of players +2, so the last pick still has a choice.
- During the draft, there are "Quest" cards in the middle of the table, with an objective. When a Quest objective is met by any player, play is halted, and the reward is revealed, which might involve additional Mod cards.
- When a player wins the draft, they get the special "Victor's Spoils" Mod card, which allows them to rename a card in their card pool. In future drafts, this card will cost less to cast for that player, and the card will cost more to cast when playing against that player. It will have its normal cost in games where that player is not involved.
As I said, Mods are permanent, and a single card may be modded up to two times. That means one player can upgrade a card in one draft, and then another player can mod the same card a second time in another draft. Or a player could use both of their mods on the same card and just make it a lot stronger in one fell swoop!
Mod cards have a few distinguishing features that let players know what cards that Mod can apply to, and what it does.
- Border color: Some mods can only apply to cards of a certain color. This is indicated by the colors in the border of the Mod card.
- Type line: The type line dictates what card types the Mod applies to. (There's a corner rule that uses the Basic supertype of Mod cards, in case the last pick can't apply the remaining mods to any their cards.)
- Rules text: The main part of the Mod card, that describes what a card does. The important part of the card changes is put between square brackets.
- Additional rules: Some mods will stipulate additional limitations, or give an example to clarify. These are put in italics below the main rules text.
less to cast" to that card. Conversely, the Bend Time Mod card can only be applied to instant and sorcery cards, but it doesn't care about the color of the card you want to mod. This mod card has a different effect, depending on whether you are modding an instant or a sorcery card.Note that a card that changes the cost of a card, changes all costs, so a card with flashback, for example, has both its casting cost and its flashback cost changed! Reducing costs is very good with activated abilities as well.
Proxying modded Cards
To visually distinguish modded cards, I print proxies (between sessions) with a few subtle changes.
- There are one (if modded once) or two (if modded twice) stars in front of the name.
- The rarity is ugpraded to rare (if modded once) or mythic (if modded twice).
- The art is flipped horizontally.
Quest cards
During the draft, there are a number of Quest cards in the middle of the table. Each of these cards has an objective, a challenge for the players. Play is halted for all players as soon as one of the players meets the objective, at which point the quest reward is announced. Once completed, the quest is done and removed from the table, it can't be completed again. Let's look at two examples that were completed in the second draft.
First, a simple one. The Free Real Estate quest got completed after two matches were already finished, and the second game in the other match was just done as well, which led to nice cost reductions on a lot of cheap cards. Let's just say that Leaf Gilder is a pretty good Llanowar Elves Anyway, this quest shows that you can do a simple reward with (near) immediate impact without too much fuss.
Of course, it's also fun to sometimes cause a lot of fuss on purpose in the middle of a game. Meet Go for Gold, which led to some very good cards (as well as some really questionable ones).
This pack was filled with 10 cards that granted made a card multicolor by adding a hybrid mana to the casting cost and adding color-appropriate keyword and a permanent +1/+1 bonus. I persuaded the player just before me in pick order to leave Death Touch alone, securing a very nice two drop for my {b/w} aggro deck indeed
The Scab-Clan Giant (that already was 5/5 thanks to another mod) got the {b/w} Lifelink mod, which was preeeeetty nasty as well
Anyway, this quest shows that you can do a simple reward with (near) immediate impact without too much fuss. Of course, it's also fun to sometimes cause a lot of fuss on purpose in the middle of a game. Meet Go for Gold, which led to some very good cards (as well as some really questionable ones
). This pack was filled with 10 cards that granted made a card multicolor by adding a hybrid mana to the casting cost and adding color-appropriate keyword and a permanent +1/+1 bonus. I persuaded the player just before me in pick order to leave Death Touch alone, securing a very nice two drop for my {b/w} aggro deck indeed
The Scab-Clan Giant (that already was 5/5 thanks to another mod) got the {b/w} Lifelink mod, which was preeeeetty nasty as well
Running a cube like this is an absolute blast. I got two drafts in before I created this thread, and it was exactly the right amount of whack. Some ridiculous cards got created, and even though you can't predict what mods will be available, it still feel like you're in charge because you get to choose what card the boost gets applied to (well, usually). It takes a lot of time to build a Legacy Cube, but I can highly recommend it!
