Design Guidelines

This blog lags behind the actual designing of my cube a bit, so that I can fumble around for a while and figure some things out before writing about it.  Otherwise, you'd be seeing a lot of "Uh, maybe I should blahblah?" posts.  I also started a thread on the MTGSalvation forums to discuss this cube a bit.  I think I want to lay the foundation and ideas behind card selection in this cube a little more concretely at this point.

There's a cube in my area that many of my friends down at the local LGS all enjoy drafting.  It's powered, I'm guessing around 600 cards, and it's loads of fun.  But we've been drafting it for over a year (possibly more, but that's the length of time I've been going to that store), and after a while players of reasonable skill start to "solve" the set that they're drafting limited.  When I decided to build my cube, I wanted to push off that date as long as possible.

When I design a split card, my goal was for it to pretty much fall into one of two categories:

1. Both halves are of comparable power level, so  that one half wasn't the one that got drafted for/played 100% of the time.  So I'd avoid the "Sol Ring vs.Phyrexian Colossus" types of non-decisions.
2. Each half of the card have a synergy with potential interactions with the rest of the board and with the other half of the card. (Something like Lightning Bolt paired with Chandra's Phoenix.  You cast the bolt, then use the Phoenix half when it's in the graveyard to bring it back to your hand.)
3. And after some preliminary set design, I decided on a potential third guideline: when possible, each half of the card be good to play at different stages of the game.

Doing number 1 and 3 is taking quite a bit of work.  Doing #2 consistently and well will be what separates this cube  from being "whee, fun!" to "Neo in the Matrix saying 'Whoah'".  In addition to this, there were a few basic design rules for any cube that a designer needs to set for themselves when they set out to build a cube.  I think I'll make that my next post... now!

Cube size and an epiphany.

So when I set out to make my cube, I have to decide:  how large?  how powerful?  how balanced?  And the underlying question beneath all of it is: how fun?  If the card combinations or theme result in fun games, people will want to play it, if not, you'll be home alone.  The size of the cube is fairly key, as you need to have a minimum amount of cards to support a certain amount of players drafting.  Most successful first time cube builders start small, usually in the 360 card (minimum for an 8 player draft) or 450 card (minimum for a 10 player draft) range.  Typically, the larger a cube gets, the more iffy, borderline, or bad cards get included.  If you want your cube to have iffy cards, then you're free to build as you like.  I decided that I wanted my cube to have as few undesirable cards as possible, without being game-breakingly overpowered.  I wanted the first pick in the first pack of a draft of my cube to present some tough choices.  When you crack a pack in a regular pack and see one great card, one good card, and a bunch of fodder, your choices are easy.  If someone was to crack a pack of my cube, I wanted them to see 10 great cards, 3 good archetype supporting cards, and 2 situational cards that might be great parts of a combo.

I spent a lot of time studying a lot of successful cube lists.  I spent a lot of time reading Tom LaPille's archives, Adam Prosak's writing, and especially Usman Jami.  I studied what kinds of balance they designed into their cubes, balance between colors, card types, converted mana cost, and took note of the cards that seemed to keep appearing consistently across cubes that I knew to be of good quality.

I would really recommend anyone undertaking a cube project to spend a good amount of time planning their cube, and doing research.  Researching Magic theory and design can be very difficult and frustrating.  Always consider your sources.  Anyone can login to MTGSalvation and throw up a list that's completely untested and consists of whatever popped into their head at the time.  If you have attended Friday Night Magic anytime in the last 5 years, you may have realized there's a really wide spectrum of player skill and card evaluation ability out there.  Getting a feel for how well an author understands the game and cards behind it will save you a lot of time in the long run. 

It was also in doing this research for the size and prospective cards for my cube that I discovered a unique cube concept that I decided to make my own: the split card cube.  Split cards are cards with two card faces. A split card is literally has two separate cards on a single card.  Several of them appeared in the Dissention and Time Spiral sets.  A classic example of a split card is Fire/Ice:

So Usman Jami created a cube where all of the cards were split cards.  One half would be something like Mirran Crusader and the other could be... Wrath of God.  I thought this could make for some really interesting card interactions.  Your hand size is essentially doubled, and drafting a balance of cards becomes even more key.  Other strategies take on interesting dimensions, like graveyard recursion.  If you cast a spell on one half of a card and it's in your graveyard, cards that interact both with spells and permanents in your graveyard will have twice as many targets.

Deciding on a split card cube does present a unique set of challenges as well. The effective card pool for the cube basically doubles in size.  I decided on a 450 card cube, sufficient for 10 people to draft it.  Going with a split card cube means that I needed to select 900 cards!  Still, I thought the idea of the split cube presented a unique enough experience that would make people want to draft it more.  We'll see if I've bitten off more than I can chew.

What's a cube?

I realize that not all Magic players may be familiar with what a cube is.  So I thought I'd take the chance to explain this obsession bordering on madness that weird old players call cubing.

A cube is a player designed set of cards, every card in it chosen by the creators of that individual cube. The cards are typically sleeved and organized into "packs" that are then typically drafted from.  Ever sat in a draft, cracked open the pack, and had a big mess of 'meh' staring back at you?  This rarely happens in a cube.  Packs containing the best and nastiest Magic cards are typically chosen.  Cubes are usually defined by their size, which effects how many people can draft the cube at the same time, and the power level or theme of the cards in the cube.  Do you want a cube of all power 9 and cards that have been banned from competitive play?  You can do it.  Do you want to draft a mono black set of only vampire and vampire related cards?  You can do that too.

Cubists put a lot of time and effort into designing and maintaining their cubes.  Some people put careful attention into the balance of their cubes, some people cram in any card they like.  You are only limited by your knowledge and ability to build, and by the cards you can put in it.  Since I like to make high quality full art proxies (for entertainment purposes only), card availability was a non issue.

The background or: the David Copperfield stuff.

I played Magic a little bit when I was in college.  I enjoyed the depth of strategy and complexity of the game, but the nature of a collectible card game didn't cooperate very well with being a broke college student.  Fast forward 15 years and I'm a decrepit thirtysomething wanting a hobby.  Magic is fairly popular in my area, and I decided to check out a tournament or two, and in a short time I was hooked.  For me, magic has been a fun outlet for learning, creation, and artistic output.  I enjoy the competitive aspect of the game, but I also enjoy the aesthetic elements of card design and art.  I also enjoy playing for fun.  This has resulted in kind of an odd duality in me as a magic player.  I want to play well and win when I'm trying to compete, but I don't like people who show up to EDH night sporting a hyper competitive win at all costs deck.

Enjoying standard evolved into a love of EDH, which provided a handy outlet for fun and creative proxy creation.  I had a place to show off some of the skills I'd gained doing card renders and reproductions of other awesome alter art I've been exposed to.

A player in my area has a cube. It's been the fuel for several wacky Saturdays at my local gaming store.  It's a powered cube, and chock full of older powerful cards that most newer players like me are pretty unfamiliar with.  It's been an education drafting that cube.  Eventually I started to get the itch that building several EDH decks couldn't scratch.  I wanted more.  I decided that building a cube for others to enjoy would be a terrific way to promote "fun" magic in my area, while hopefully building up some skills in the process.  I realized once I was a ways into this process it might be a good idea to document it, both to keep myself organized and to have a convenient place to follow along with my foolishness.