Cube Thoughts

For better or worse the bulk of the cube has been fleshed out. I never quite realised how dificult it would be to put together a “super-set” of magic cards. I will have to play with the cube a few times to get a feel of what works best but at this stage I am pretty happy with my first attempt.

When you sit down and design a cube you are in effect taking the role of a designer – playing God if you will.  You get to decide what cards go into your cube, what architypes will be represented, and how the cube will feel as it is played. I know this insight is not new – but without this concept being front and center your cube will only be a stack of cards.

With that in mind, I have come up with the following objectives

• I want my cube to feel like you are playing sealed deck.
• Each color will have a few bombs but not too many that the cube becomes all bombs
• The cube must have a number of architypes available to the drafters
• All colours must be playable.
• Alternate win conditions must exist

Having played a few games with the cube, certain things come to mind.

• The blades are sub par in this environment
• Care must be taken with the ratio of 2 or 3 coloured mana costs on cards
• You can not feature all architypes in the cube

The last point is best shown by the comparison of allies v’s exalted. Exalted cards are useful even when they are in decks alone. Allies on the otherhand are very limited unless a deck commits to them more heavily. Perhaps there is scope for a 3 colour ally architype instead – obviously this needs more investigation.