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I'm having a lot of fun going through my older cards and making a cube. I've uploaded my current cube here: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/11492 The problem I'm facing isn't balance (it works so far, and I don't think the balance is TOO far out, with the exception of needing more blue stuff). My problem is VOLUME. I only have 289 cards in here, and I want to keep with my theme of my "best cards" that Magic has to offer. That being said, I haven't bought new cards since Alara. Should I just go to the local cardshop and ask for what they'd recommend for the "next" 70 best cards? (That I can get my hands on)?
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Jun 1, 2014 22:53
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BaronVanAwesome posted:I'm having a lot of fun going through my older cards and making a cube. You should click HERE and open the spoiler for the most common cards in 360 card cubes. The problem you are facing is most definitely balance and volume. Colors and guilds aren't harmonious with each other and there's an incredible land imbalance. If you've really got all of those cards legitimately you can probably swing trading or buying enough cards to round out to a 360 card powered cube.
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Jun 1, 2014 23:25
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not sure anyone saw this last year, but my Cube Vault came in on Friday and psyched to start using it. Here it is with ~390 single single sleeved cards 
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Jun 2, 2014 03:20
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Null1fy posted:You should click HERE and open the spoiler for the most common cards in 360 card cubes. The problem you are facing is most definitely balance and volume. Colors and guilds aren't harmonious with each other and there's an incredible land imbalance. If you've really got all of those cards legitimately you can probably swing trading or buying enough cards to round out to a 360 card powered cube. THANK YOU for that common card list - I'd never have found something like that. All the power in my cube is proxied, but everything else are cards I own. I don't mind using promo cards or gold-bordered cards though if they're easier to get. I'll print that list out and price some up for next weekend. Thanks for the help!
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Jun 2, 2014 04:25
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BaronVanAwesome posted:THANK YOU for that common card list - I'd never have found something like that. Of course. I can't take credit for it - it's really the development of hundreds of people who have cubed over the years to develop the most balanced choices in each color. I wouldn't take every card as canon however, I've learned through trial and error if you try to deviate too far from the list you will notice a disparity in drafts (you'll wish you had the card on the list instead of what you've replaced it with most often).
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Jun 2, 2014 05:50
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Lurchington posted:not sure anyone saw this last year, but my Cube Vault came in on Friday and psyched to start using it. drat that is sexy. Know where I can get one of my own? Their website doesn't seem to have an order form.
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Jun 2, 2014 22:19
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KasaiAisu posted:drat that is sexy. Know where I can get one of my own? Their website doesn't seem to have an order form. as far as I know they only made enough to cover kickstarter backers (which closed ~9 months ago)
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Jun 4, 2014 01:11
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Okay, so I need some help with my first ever original cube. I've taken lists before and modified them to my liking, but this is my first one I've done from scratch. It's the artifact cube. Link to the cube here, the site is being a bit glitchy right now due to server problems (Xenic Poltergeist is there twice for some reason) but it should be mostly good. My main problem is that I want certain archetypes that my friends have been liking to show up and to trim off a good chunk of fat. I'm hoping to drop the card count down from 520 to around 360-400. A few things to note:
That said, I'm kind of scratching my head. I think all of the colors could use some trimming, but I also want to drop artifacts down until I get a 50% colored 50% colorless ratio. Basically, I'm lost, any advice?
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Jun 4, 2014 22:56
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Ramos posted:That said, I'm kind of scratching my head. I think all of the colors could use some trimming, but I also want to drop artifacts down until I get a 50% colored 50% colorless ratio. Basically, I'm lost, any advice? Hey friend, I really like your cube. It seems bitchin` fun and I might steal it. Anyway, maybe I can help you out. Do you have a card list or an idea of cards that typically do not get played? If you do I would definitely look at pulling those first and foremost. I think something that may help is to try and push away from the artifacts just a tad. I understand this cube is themed around it and, of course, you shouldn't gut artifacts. But maybe open up a `purity` archetype which is out from under artifacts. It could be a sub-theme. Right now it seems to go mostly well with Green. Kill Switch is a cool card that is an artifact which would fit this theme and I'm not sure why you don't have it (unless you thought it was OP as gently caress, because it is in this cube). Getting away from adding sub archetypes and stuff like that -- I would try to get rid of artifacts which simply don't do much. An example is Anvilwrought Raptor. It is a nice card for drafting and an easy pick. But does this card really fit among the likes of Mindless Automaton or Walking Archive? The same could be said for Synod Centurion (just a plain jane 4 for 4/4) and Rusted Sentinel. They aren't really exciting cards and are likely not to add much to gameplay. Hope this helps.
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Jun 5, 2014 14:42
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It did a lot actually, I went through and slimmed it down by over ninety cards. I also stuck in Kill Switch and a few other things. I don't know if Kill Switch is still fair yet, but having done some test drafts on it, things are showing up a lot more how I was hoping. With some more testing with friends, I'm sure I can get it to a point where it'll be fantastic.
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Jun 6, 2014 06:03
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Ramos posted:It did a lot actually, I went through and slimmed it down by over ninety cards. I also stuck in Kill Switch and a few other things. I don't know if Kill Switch is still fair yet, but having done some test drafts on it, things are showing up a lot more how I was hoping. With some more testing with friends, I'm sure I can get it to a point where it'll be fantastic. I've looked at your list, and while something odd seems to be going on (it's mostly doubles right now, but I assume it's down to actually ~450ish), it seems to be a tighter list. The previous post gave a lot of good advice, and I'd just like to add to it, a bit. -Don't just consider your bottom end of 'weak' when making cuts. Consider which cards are very narrow in the decks they go in, because of either prohibitively color-intensive CMC (multicolored, or double/triple monocolored.) I'm not sure how strong your fixing is in practice, and how strong you want it to be- you've got few lands, but a lot of mana rocks. Those rocks are vulnerable to all the artifact hate you have floating around, though, so it's possible multi-colored fixing is rough, and that the color-intensive cards are very hard to play. -Consider top end power level as well as bottom. I don't know your format, but it's possible that some of the artifacts matter dragons may be a bit much. I don't know your environment, but keep your eye out for cards that are oppressive due to overall format balance. You've got a really neat theme going on, and I hope this works out well for you! I have been much happier with my own list since I cut down to the 360 range, as I felt it let me hone in more tightly on the set of effects I wanted. I hope you find similar positives from the slimmed down list you have.
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Jun 6, 2014 17:02
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That should be the working cube at present. I just thought bulk upload would overwrite what I had previously. Anyway, another nice part of the slimming down is that the cards left get tested more. I don't even think any of the dragons got a chance to be played yet, so we'll see about that.
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Jun 6, 2014 19:06
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LaTex Fetish posted:I think something that may help is to try and push away from the artifacts just a tad. I understand this cube is themed around it and, of course, you shouldn't gut artifacts. But maybe open up a `purity` archetype which is out from under artifacts. It could be a sub-theme. Right now it seems to go mostly well with Green. Kill Switch is a cool card that is an artifact which would fit this theme and I'm not sure why you don't have it (unless you thought it was OP as gently caress, because it is in this cube). I agree with this. The cube is silly awesome, but I feel like some more colored cards would help with color identity. Also, Nature's Claim and the like being way undercosted nonland Vindicates in the current super-artifact-heavy cube might see everyone splashing red and green. Both Mirrodin block limited formats had archetypes where you could dodge all of the artifact removal by playing as many colored creatures as possible, and having something like that in this cube could be good for variety and replayability.
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Jun 6, 2014 19:48
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Finally 'happy' with the state of my peasant cube. A few things want testing, but none of the colors feel really weak any more, and the painlands are doing their job supporting aggro (and they're the only thing I'm lying about in terms of rarity, everything else has been printed at uncommon). I tried to keep things simple but I ultimately came to the inclusion that I like the mechanics of flip cards enough, and they're well enough described that I just stuck with them: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/2874 I've found figuring out the level of redundancy you want in a cube can be rough. I'm trying to put enough 'bomb' uncommons in the list they're not oppressive, but that the cube still has the feel of a normal, core-set style draft. It's hard to keep power level flat enough, and be sure to support a range of archetypes. All in all this has been a moderately affordable project, and I've gotten to at least draft it with a few friends  .At this point, I'm just trying to get a group together. I've got a couple friends that enjoy drafting it 1v1 with me, but I've yet to get a chill cube party together. Given that it's just cube and just commons/uncommons, I suspect this could be a good beer and pretzels magic experience, but I've not found a way to get that rolling. What're your experiences getting cube parties rolling?
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Jun 7, 2014 23:13
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I did a draft of your cube just for fun, going Golgari after picking Nemesis of Mortals first. I ran into a bit of a problem: you've got a lot of sweet graveyard-matters cards like Nemesis of Mortals, Worm Harvest, Spider Spawning, and Animate Dead but I'm not seeing any enablers at all. Even if you don't go for Mulch-style effects, something like Wild Mongrel to let me pitch some stuff from my hand would be nice.
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Jun 8, 2014 01:02
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Lord Of Texas posted:I agree with this. The cube is silly awesome, but I feel like some more colored cards would help with color identity. This, pretty much. Check out the red green hate deck I drafted in the decks section.
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Jun 8, 2014 01:33
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The Lord of Hats posted:I did a draft of your cube just for fun, going Golgari after picking Nemesis of Mortals first. I ran into a bit of a problem: you've got a lot of sweet graveyard-matters cards like Nemesis of Mortals, Worm Harvest, Spider Spawning, and Animate Dead but I'm not seeing any enablers at all. Even if you don't go for Mulch-style effects, something like Wild Mongrel to let me pitch some stuff from my hand would be nice. I'll give that a look. I've been eyeing Mulch for a while now but I'm just not sure what to cut, I probably will just try to find the most mediocre green card advantage spell (or maybe viridian shaman, I probably have too much artifact hate redundancy as it is). I've been thinking of giving Grisly Salvage one of the Golgari spots but it just doesn't feel like the card does enough. I've got looters in, but they're primarily in U, with Faithless in red bringing up the rear. Raven's Crime was meant as a way to also help Worm Harvest, and I don't have a Wild Mongrel yet, but I'll keep an eye out for one. Any other enablers that you think are strong enough to make the cut?
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Jun 8, 2014 03:10
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I'd put in Nyx Weaver for Worm Harvest. The Weaver is both an enabler and a beneficiary of getting stuff in your graveyard. Worm Harvest is only good in Magic Christmasland scenarios really.
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Jun 8, 2014 05:49
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I finally got around to importing my Ravnica Blocks Cube into cubetutor - http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/12988 It started from a 360 list that I found over on MTGS, immediately cut Pack Rat, and went on to make a few more changes. The largest change is that I've taken the cube up to 375, doubling up on each Shockland and adding a mono-colored card from each color. The extra shocks can help a few more drafters to get their hands on fixing, although I have had one draft where a 5 Color Good Stuff deck really did run wild. I've had the cube together in paper for a few months now, and have drafted it a bunch, including a lot more Winchester Drafting than I ever thought. Notably, it doesn't work really well in Winchester, but anytime you can draft with open information things can get interesting. Most people who have drafted it have a good time, and it hits a nostalgia spot for older players who remember Ravnica. Newer players are familiar with the guilds from RTR Block, and almost everyone is surprised at how powerful the combination of the two blocks can be. My favorite moment from the last draft was casting Progenitor Mimic, naming Plaxcaster Frogling, creating an endless tide of frogs that overwhelmed my opponent.  The cards that get hated on the most are probably; Ghost Council of Orzhova (much worse without damage on the stack), Wild Beastmaster, Whispering Madness, Executioner's Swing, and Ulasht, the Hate Seed, off the top of my head. The other common comments are that removal is too heavily based in Black, and that Obzedat, Ghost Council is too broken for the format. I'd love some ideas on how to improve the cube, but I am very attached to keeping it only cards printed in either Block.
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Jun 8, 2014 06:39
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whydirt posted:I'd put in Nyx Weaver for Worm Harvest. The Weaver is both an enabler and a beneficiary of getting stuff in your graveyard. Worm Harvest is only good in Magic Christmasland scenarios really. I'm trying to balance hybrid slots, which is why it's there. I see your point, though. Balancing non-allied hybrid guilds is frustrating, and why they've got one slot as opposed to two. I might just put in noxious hatchling; you're right that worm harvest seems to be mostly bad sprout swarm. Nyx Weaver is awesome but it'd take up an actual Golgari slot and not the hybrid slot (maybe over putrid leach?) As far as Ravnica goes, my memories of GTC draft were everyone favoring Orzhov because it had the best removal by far, unless it got run over by Boros, and RTR giving Rakdos by far the best removal. Simic, a guild I love, was always hard up for removal, and had to rely pretty heavily on bounce and tricks - you might want to consider adding Giant Growth for its defensive applications, and Burst of Strength is possibly worth trying as well. In U I'm not completely sure what I'd add but I do know that I found the 4-mana counterspells pretty close to unplayable.
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Jun 8, 2014 12:43
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I'm not a huge fan of forcing a cycle of hybrids across all guilds. Honestly there's just not a great option for Golgari.
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Jun 8, 2014 16:18
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Okay, in focusing my artifact cube, it's now doing more of what I want, but as I found out yesterday, it also keels over because I stuck too much artifact murdering in green and red. Also, there are a variety of other problems that show up too, like ramp not really feeling like it has a place, which is perfectly understandable. I was wondering if anyone knows any resources for popular cards used in cubes, so I can start looking at other things for red and green to do and lighten up on the removal.
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Jun 8, 2014 17:37
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Ramos posted:I was wondering if anyone knows any resources for popular cards used in cubes, so I can start looking at other things for red and green to do and lighten up on the removal. http://cubetutor.com/cubeindex has a set of "average cubes" for a bunch of different sizes and rarity restrictions
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Jun 8, 2014 18:01
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Ramos posted:Okay, in focusing my artifact cube, it's now doing more of what I want, but as I found out yesterday, it also keels over because I stuck too much artifact murdering in green and red. Also, there are a variety of other problems that show up too, like ramp not really feeling like it has a place, which is perfectly understandable. As far as things for R and G to do, it seems like you've already got a really strong artifact sacrifice theme in R. I'd say you just need things to support that, like Tumble Magnet/etc, which eventually become sacrifice fodder. Beyond that, you could look at pingers, or some of the more interesting classic burn - it isn't necessarily incredibly unique, but it's strong, and a way to replace some of the spells you'd be subbing out. For G, you've got minor token and ramp subthemes that you could expand. You've got some solid ramp targets, and repeatable token producers are typically solid mana sinks. G spells are hard, and I've found putting in the 'fight' cards to give G some access to removal, and the best of pump spells is one of the places to find decent effects. Finally, overrun and similar effects exist, if you want to give G some spell-based finishers that can turn your Myr into a kill condition.
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Jun 8, 2014 20:50
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KaoliniteMilkshake posted:I'm trying to balance hybrid slots, which is why it's there. I see your point, though. Balancing non-allied hybrid guilds is frustrating, and why they've got one slot as opposed to two. I might just put in noxious hatchling; you're right that worm harvest seems to be mostly bad sprout swarm. Nyx Weaver is awesome but it'd take up an actual Golgari slot and not the hybrid slot (maybe over putrid leach?) I don't balance my guilds because some archetypes need gold cards more than others. I think Gruul and Selesnya both have 6 cards in my cube, where Dimir has 2 and Simic has 1. A naya deck needs to go fast and you need aggressive gold cards to do that, where slower decks might not want to trade that consistency for speed. I do balance my main colours though, 52 for each, because I don't want to shaft a colour.
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Jun 9, 2014 17:23
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MaRo wrote an article on limited environment creation here, which seems pretty applicable to Cube. I thought you guys might at least find it interesting.
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Jun 9, 2014 18:30
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I hope you guys can help. I've been completely out of Cubing/paying attention to MtG since BNG was about to be released due to school. Turns out we're gonna be cubing tomorrow. What are some staples from the last 8 months or so, possibly including spoilers for future sets, that I need to be looking at for inclusion off the tops of your heads? e: 540 Power Cube love you all weekly font fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 20:19
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Brimaz and Athreos are both pretty good. Mana Confluence also if City of Brass isn't enough. Maybe Prophetic Flamespeaker is good enough? He's in my 360 unpowered list but I haven't played with him enough yet.
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Jun 14, 2014 09:06
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At the other end of the spectrum, there's Reckless Reveler, if you ever felt your red artifact hate wasn't up to snuff, and you needed another Torch Fiend. My list is on the other end of the spectrum, but in the powered cubes I've played/seen played, artifact hate was pretty strong. I've only had play with his functional equivalent, but Torch Fiend's been fine. There's also Gnarled Scarhide, if you're supporting black aggro. He's another 2-power black 1-drop, with some upside if you draw him later/while flooding, as he has bestow, albiet with the marginal downside of 'can't block'. Again, a role-player, but if you're pushing that archetype he seems solid. I've only had the most basic of playtest experience with the card, but he was also perfectly acceptable at his job.
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Jun 14, 2014 12:48
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weekly font posted:I hope you guys can help. I've been completely out of Cubing/paying attention to MtG since BNG was about to be released due to school. Turns out we're gonna be cubing tomorrow. What are some staples from the last 8 months or so, possibly including spoilers for future sets, that I need to be looking at for inclusion off the tops of your heads? http://cubetutor.com/topcards Pick a set, lists the cards most commonly included from each set.
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Jun 14, 2014 13:34
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So I am now driven to the task to build an all-foil cube made up of alot of the stuff a friend and I have picked up over the past couple years. Because of these restrictions makes this cube a bit harder to do because of costs, especially with stuff like mana fixing lands. This is what I've got so far. http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/13649 Obviously right now some colors and combinations are underpowered and some (mostly black now) are fairly powerful, so I need to fill in the gaps with more budget friendly stuff, like cheaper colorless card draw, and core set non-flashly stuff (Pacifism, Negate, Smelt, Plummet, etc.) You would also be amazed how much the dragon-in-every-set foil can be pretty cheap, too. But really good removal or land-fixing is a bit out of price range. I can pick up a set of the Alra Obelisks and Panoramas, though. Going to be buying a bunch of stuff soon to fill this out. Can you see any place I am particularly weak?
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Jun 22, 2014 03:12
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GoutPatrol posted:Can you see any place I am particularly weak?
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Jun 22, 2014 03:33
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Mikujin posted:Battlewise Hoplite seems like a totally lost card considering that you only have two things that can easily target him (that aren't removal). Heroic creatures are generally super weak in cube unless you really support the archetype. Noted. Added a handful more blue and white instants. I was planning more Heroic to be in Red/Green, so you could do Bant/UWR aggro decks.
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Jun 22, 2014 04:44
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GoutPatrol posted:Noted. Added a handful more blue and white instants. I was planning more Heroic to be in Red/Green, so you could do Bant/UWR aggro decks. Fixing available is definitely not good enough to support a strong 3 color archetype. Heroic is usually easier to remove than to add, since you really need a bunch of valuable heroic guys and strong enablers to make it worthwhile.
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Jun 22, 2014 05:14
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So I recently fell out of love with M:TG on account of being unable to strike a balance between creating crappy kitchen table decks with my friends (fun) and buying singles to create an FNM winning deck (soul destroying). After some thinking, I have decided the mix of these two things that would probably make me happiest is Cube. As Magic 2015 is right around the corner, and I will be giving Wizards all my money at PAX Aus, I thought a 2015 Cube might be fun. However, I understand that your standard Cube is 360 cards and M15 is going to be 269 cards, which would mean that I would have to own essentially all of M15 in order to meet the base viable cube amount.. I guess my question is: what advice would the thread have for someone who is thinking of creating their first cube for some kitchen table players who have no real pre-M14 knowledge or deck building skill?
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Jul 6, 2014 14:16
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You could do an all core set cube, which would be limited to containing cards that are in M10-M15. Most of those cards are easier for newer players to understand, and all the templating and formatting would be uniform. Plus, it would give you a big enough pool to create a 360 card cube from without having to include too much junky stuff. And upkeep would be easier, because you only need to do one update each year.
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Jul 6, 2014 14:28
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Serdain posted:So I recently fell out of love with M:TG on account of being unable to strike a balance between creating crappy kitchen table decks with my friends (fun) and buying singles to create an FNM winning deck (soul destroying). Go to cubetutor.com and look at lists. If you want to make a cube with that narrow a card pool, you need to break the 1 of rule. You want to do something like 4x common 2x uncommon 1x rare/mythic ? Basically you need more copies of the commons than the uncommons. If you have cards, I would suggest not sticking to just m15. Think of the kinds of decks you and your buddies like. Then build the cube around that. So if someone drafts white weenies, or UG madness, or red burn, or gb graveyard strategies. Or build in goblin tribal, elf tribal, whatever you guys like.
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Jul 6, 2014 14:29
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Remember that cubes are living things. Don't be shackled to the notion that you have to get your cube design "right" the first time. Get a prototype up and running, play it with your friends, see what is fun/isn't fun, then make changes for the next cube night. Also, you don't seem like you have this mindset, but too many Cube owners seem to be beholden to the notion that Cube *must* be a set of cards that you build like a constructed deck, in that power level is the only concern. Your cube should be internally balanced (against itself), but it does not need to be externally balanced against the whole of Magic. If you find the Soul 6-drop cycle more fun and interesting than the Titans, for example, don't let someone persuade you to put in the Titans just because they are more powerful.
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Jul 6, 2014 15:31
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Lord Of Texas posted:Remember that cubes are living things. Don't be shackled to the notion that you have to get your cube design "right" the first time. Get a prototype up and running, play it with your friends, see what is fun/isn't fun, then make changes for the next cube night. Right cube doesn't have to emulate constructed, but even limited environments are designed by Wizards saying "ok what does the RW deck do?
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Jul 6, 2014 15:37
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jassi007 posted:Right cube doesn't have to emulate constructed, but even limited environments are designed by Wizards saying "ok what does the RW deck do? Yes, when I say "don't treat your cube like a constructed deck" I mean "don't think that the only way to build a good cube is to optimize based on power level, like you would a constructed deck." A cube only has to be internally balanced - you don't play it against other cubes like a constructed deck, yet it seems like 90% of cube owners will only include a given card if it is the most powerful option for its slot. There *are* good techniques from competitive Magic which can help with cube design, e.g. knowing how to build a mana curve and knowing how much fixing you need to support a certain level of multicolor decks.
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Jul 6, 2014 18:19
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