Draft 3 packs of 18 cards each.

There are presently a total of 55 packs (was 54 packs through March 2023) to fit into a Podamajig (Squirrelwatch Cover Artwork) and another Podamajig that holds the basic lands.

PLEASE ALSO REVIEW FOR REFERENCE
"Stan’s Multiplayer Tribal Cube Vanguard Hero's Path Solo Co-op Accessories"
Cube ID: 358ly

Draft Notes to keep in mind:

1. Multiplayer Matters: This cube is designed for Multiplayer play. Ideally, 2 four player gameplay pods per every 8 player draft pod. It can support up to 16 players max i.e. two draft pods of 8 players each.

2. Lore Seekers: There are 7 Lore Seekers available during draft. Which means that in paper play, your draft pod will likely receive an extra pack for your pod to draft from. This could mean an additional 2-21 cards to add to your total draft pool to design a deck from depending upon how many Lore Seekers get opened. Where you are seated in relation to a lore seeker pack being opened could mean the difference between an extra 2-3 cards per lore seeker pack you receive. (The extra packs can and generally will alter your final list.)

3. Vanguard Persona's: Oversized Vanguard cards are available for the play experience. These may change card considerations as you draft. Vanguards would be distributed at least 2 per player. Each player will choose one for use before the draft begins. The unused Vanguard cards are set aside and not used for that game. Optional.

4. Hero's Path Cards: They are considered on the Battlefield when the game starts and will affect gameplay. Either mix these into draft packs or treat them similar to Vanguards. There are a total of 21 "hero cards." Set the godslayer artifact/equipment aside. Of the remaining hero cards I recommend at least having 2 playsets handy for 16 players of the remaining 16 hero cards. A max of 3 hero cards per player including godslayer artifacts. Using these are optional. See Godslayer info further down.

5. Godslayer Artifacts: The glue to a near endless array of possible gameplay variations. They are to be distributed to each player at random prior to the draft. Players can choose a customized ability token to attach to the equipment for their draft experience prior to and during draft/deck building. I have a playset of each available hero equipment for a 16 player cube to be shuffled and one passed out to each player in the draft pod(s). Please scroll further down to see all of the current customized ability tokens being used today.

6. Conspiracies: Conspiracy cards drafted will be in play at the start of the game either hidden (or not). In some cases, conspiracy cards require multiples of other cards drafted for better effectiveness. As such you deliberately will want to draft duplicate cards that will further benefit from a conspiracy naming them. This contributes to the variance and can make for some unique play experiences.

7. Variance: The high card count makes this cube unpredictable and allows for not all packs to be drafted (If playing less than 16 players). It also allows for variety in each play experience. In this sense it is a bit like a mystery booster draft given the high number of cards available. At a max of 16 players, a total of 55 packs are drafted (48 packs, 3 per player, and 7 lore seeker bonus packs).

Please Note: This is an updated copy of what was my cube on cube tutor #107550.

Goal of this cube:
This cube is designed to celebrate synergistic creature tribal decks, multiplayer matters sets (Commander & Battlebond), draft matters sets (Conspiracy & Conspiracy: Take the Crown), as well as alternate play experiences from “Oversized” magic variations (Hero's path, Vanguard, Planechase, or Explorers of Ixalan Tiles). Players who enjoy those formats and lots of mechanic interactions will enjoy this cube.

Expect Complexity:
Overall, this cube is designed with a multiplayer limited draft environment focus. This environment style was first experienced for me with the set Conspiracy. The volume of mechanics on the included card choices is substantially larger than a traditional set. While complex, it allows for many avenues of deck construction and replay ability. Many cards are included in multiples and some of these cards were from pre-constructed Commander decks where most of the time only one card is played or contained in a deck.

Godslayer Cards Customization:
Commander tax rules apply. Mana Value of zero. If they get destroyed then move them to the command zone to be recast with the commander tax rules (pay an additional 2 generic mana for each time you have cast it from the command zone). Optional, but HIGHLY recommended to including these in some capacity.

Customized Ability Tokens:
The 8 customized ability tokens to enhance the equipment used for your Godslayer cards. Players choose one of the abilities from 1-7 to enhance their Godslayer. Ability 8 is available to adjust the power of the abilities to even out player skill levels. There are prior abilities that were made that could theoretically still be used that support the venture mechanic. That mechanic was removed from cards that were in the cube:

Primary Godslayer Abilities:

1. Whenever equipped creature attacks, create a Treasure token, a Clue token, a Food token, or a Blood Token.

2. Equipped Creature has “at the beginning of your end step, if a creature you controlled dealt combat damage this turn, take the initiative.”

3. Whenever equipped creature attacks, Parley. For each nonland card revealed this way it deals 1 damage to any target. Then each player draws a card.

4. Whenever equipped creature attacks, scry X. Where X equals the number of creatures in your party.

5. Whenever equipped creature attacks, support X. Where X equals the number of creatures in your party.

6. Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, goad up to one target creature each defending player controls.

7. Equipped creature gets “as long as you are the monarch, creatures you control have melee and ward 1.”

8. This ability Triggers only once each turn.

Past Abilities (could still be used, but removed the venture mechanic from cards in the cube):

1. Whenever equipped creature attacks, venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.)

2. Whenever equipped creature is dealt damage, venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.)

3. Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage, venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.)

4. Equipped creature has "Whenever you sacrifice a Blood token, Clue token, or Food token, venture into the dungeon.

A fun new option of "Bounty" Cards from Commander: Outlaws of Thunder Junction are highly encouraged. Put all 12 of the available "Bounty" cards into the fray or 6 per 4 player pod.

Tournament & Match Setup:
My preference in the structure of the draft environment is using the conspiracy tournament style.

Games are played in four player pods (2 pods for 8 players or 4 pods for 16 players). These are a free for all against each other. Either without teams or allow for teams for a two-headed giant game. Very customizable to the playgroup.

Establishing Packs:
When drafting use 3 packs of 18 cards each. The same is true for bonus packs.

Why 990 Cards?:
To allow for ample mana fixing + conspiracy cards.

The cube size was originally inspired as if I were to make a Multiplayer “block” back when they made 3 set “blocks.” It isn’t quite the same as a card pool from a 3 set limited block draft environment, but it was part of the goal to have at least 3 Sets worth of cards to choose from. I compared it to Conspiracy 1 (210 cards), Conspiracy 2 (222 cards) , and Battlebond (280 cards). These three sets were the genesis for the cube. Battlebond has only a minor influence at the moment, but was a major influence toward this cubes creation. In total this 3 set "block" would amount to 712 cards which I rose to 720 and eventually over time increased to 972. Now to 990. This decision further made sense as we return to planes and expand the card pool for a more complete experience of those blocks. In this sense it has morphed closer to what the Mystery Booster Draft experience became with a focus on multiplayer magic. As such, as more sets are released I am strongly considering adding another pack of 18 cards. The purpose of the pack would balance out the tricolor cards to have at least 2 cards per shard/wedge. Also, included would be a Lore Seeker plus 5 prototype mechanic artifacts along with the Cityscape Leveler. Further 5 color support would be added such as Maelstrom Archangel and 2x Two-Headed Hellkite.

Lore Seekers:
Currently there are 7, but there were only 6 for a long while. After hundreds of drafts in the past few years I feel it is important for this format to have multiple options at the tricolor card slot. I experimented with this for Esper and Grixis with the Urza & Mishra subthemes that were bonuses for those colors and I am finding myself wishing the same could be done for the other tricolors. My real hope is that we get more conspiracy card types. If we do, this additional pack will provide space down the road to help accommodate them.

No Commander Pre-con Foils:
This cube is designed to use only cards that are NON-FOIL. Each card is double sleeved with perfect fit and dragon shield black matte sleeves.

No 8th Edition, Old, or alternate border card frames:
Similar to the above, I keep all cards limited to a “modern black-border” card frame. This reduces draft complexity. Sometimes players are not familiar with textless or alternate art versions that are not as well known. This has caused a lot of confusion in other cube experiences. I have seen players both experienced and new have trouble interpreting what the card is and how the card should play that has resulted in unfortunate gameplay experiences. In an effort to streamline the play experience, I have focused this cube’s card inclusions to be “modern card frames with black borders.” There is of course room for a couple exceptions such as NON-FOIL EXTENDED art frames.

Inexplicably not all commander product face cards (or sub/alternate commanders) are available in the NON-extended art, modern era, NON-FOIL frame. Which feels odd as the most basic version of a card feels like it should be available. However, due to this lack of availability and gameplay needs, an exception is being granted for these inexplicably hard to find corner case cards. I’m looking directly at you Firkraag, Cunning Instigator and Nalia de’Arnise. Should they become available, cards will be updated accordingly to try to fit the overarching design aesthetics for simplicity sake. The goal is the most plain versions of all cards to give all players a fair chance to recognize and visually understand what the card represents with little confusion on variations.

Card Exceptions:
Aside from Conspiracy card types, there is one silver bordered card, Sword of Dungeons & Dragons. It was included as both Rogues and Clerics are featured as tribes. I am hoping for a “Sword of Warriors and Wizards” one day to have protection from other classes in the cube.

Determining Multiple vs Single Cards:
In general, for the purpose of balance and the limited draft experience, many creature cards of mana value: 1, 2, and 3 (who are not draft matters, nor legendary, nor Rare, nor Mythic) will have three copies, then rares would have two copies and mythics/legendary each have 1. 4 & 5 mana value creature cards usually have two copies of each, unless they are mythic or legendary. After this anything 6 mana or more will only have one copy. There are exceptions to this rule as it pertains to draft impact cards. Those can come in up to 4 (or more) copies such as: Lore Seeker (7) and Cogwork Librarian now 2 (Down from 4).

Non-creature spells follow a similar structure. Non-creature cards of mana value one (that are not legendary, nor Rare, nor Mythic) will have three copies, then rares would have two copies and mythics/legendary have one. Non-creature spells with mana value 2 & 3 usually have two copies of each, unless they are wrath effects like cyclonic rift or mizzium mortars, mythic, or legendary. After this, anything 4 to 6+ mana will only have one copy. I am considering increasing the count of undaunted cards to 2 of each though.

Games really start at turn 3:
There are few creatures with a mana value of one in this cube. This is deliberate as in multiplayer I am designing it for everyone to have a built-in 2-3 turn setup before any major combat starts. This emulates the Conspiracy draft experience I had as well as a casual commander environment. One mana creatures in general, but specifically ones that tap to produce mana, are excluded from the cube. In their place are many conspiracy mechanics such as Brago’s favor & secrets of paradise to help “build your own” mana producers for 1 cmc. Vanguards also can impact this.

How Many Basic Lands?
75 of each non-waste basic land are available for deck construction. Each of the unique "Guild Kit” basic lands and the planeswalker basic lands from M21. Each land gets 15 copies.

I hope you find this cube helpful and fun. It continues to be a great experience. I am open to feedback and ways to improve the game play.