Wizard's Cube - Two Player Duel Cube

Cube ID
Art by Livia PrimaArt by Livia Prima

116 Card Cube

165 followers
Designed by AshachorRSSQR Code

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Owned
$336
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$269

Wizard's Cube

This is a two-player cube that's designed to be drafted while you play. The gameplay is reminiscent of the Wizard's Tower format, but designed for two players with cube in mind. It takes about 30-45 minutes to play a game. Lowering the overhead of normal two-player cubes.

The actual cards in the cube can be swapped out and redesigned however you wish. The land and card selection has been tailored to fit my tastes, but the main attraction to this cube is the drafting system.

Setup and Play

To start playing set aside all the lands. Randomly determine who goes first.

Shuffle the cube and deal seven cards to each player. Each player selects four cards to be their opening hand. Shuffle the remaining cards together and put them on the bottom of the cube.

Set the cube nearby, where both players have access. This will be the shared library for the game. Flip over three cards, this is the draw queue. Players may draw cards from the draw queue, rather than the top of the library. As soon as a player draws a card from the queue it is replaced the top card of the library. (If you cast Faithless Looting you draw, replace, draw, replace).

If you really don't like any of the cards in the queue you can reset the queue just before you draw by paying 1, you can only do this once for each individual card you draw. (If you cast Faithless Looting you could reset the queue, draw a card from the queue, then reset the queue again before the second draw).

Lands are drafted during the game as well. Once, on each of your turns, any time you could cast a sorcery, you may take a land from the land zone and put it into play. If a land card would go to any zone except the battlefield it goes back to the land zone, this means you can't have lands in hand, graveyard, exile, or library.

You're ready to go. First player takes their turn and the games run like normal.

Note: The Uncharted Havens don't enter the battlefield tapped.

Lands

I tried a number of different combinations of lands, but ultimately striking the right balance of fixing and colored pips in the cube proved too difficult. @Grimble had the idea of forcing players into a shard or wedge using special rules and Reflecting Pools in their cube (linked below).

I wanted to minimize the complexity of the format's rules, so I am using modified Uncharted Havens with the "Enters the battlefield tapped" line removed. This forces the players into wedge or shard without requiring the special rules about picking lands. I also added the Reflecting Pool text to the Uncharted Havens so that you can cast Seasoned Pyromancer on turn 3.

Variations

Grimble's Duel Cube

https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/3g28u
I highly recommend the @Grimble's version of this cube. It uses the Planar die to reset the queue and as a catch-up mechanic.

Comprehensive Rules

These are the full rules for how I run the games. If I've missed something or accidentally broken something let me know.

1 - The draw queue is a shared public zone that contains 3 cards. These cards are taken from the top of the library at the beginning of the game. If a card would leave the draw queue it is immediately replaced with a card from the top of the library.

2a - If a player would draw a card, that player may draw a card from the draw queue.
Example: The card Divination says "Draw two cards". If a player resolving Divination takes the first card from the draw queue it is replaced and the player make take the newly flipped card as their second card.

2b - If a player would draw a card, they may pay 1, if they do, place the draw queue on the bottom of the library in a random order and place cards from the top of the library in the draw queue until it has been refilled, then that player draws a card as usual (taking from the queue or the library). A player may only do this once per draw.
Example: The card Divination says "Draw two cards". A player resolving Divination may reset the queue before the first card, reset the queue before the second card, or both.

2c - If a player attempts to draw a card from a library or draw queue with no cards in it, the game is declared a draw.

3 - When a player draws a card they become the owner of that card. If a card without an owner would be put into an owned zone, that zone's owner becomes the owner of that card.
There are probably cases that this ownership rule doesn't cover. If you encounter any use your best judgement for who the "owner" of the card may be. Feel free to send any such cases to me so that I can expand this rule properly.

4 - If an effect causes more than one player to interact with the library, players sequence the actions in turn order.
Example: the card Returned Reveler has an ability which reads "When Returned Reveler dies, each player mills three cards.". When this ability resolves the active player will mill three cards, then the next player in turn order will mill three, this continues until all players have resolved the effect

5a - The lands in this cube begin in a shared zone called the land zone.

5b - Once a turn, during a main phase when the stack is empty a player may put a land from the land zone into play under their control.

5c - If a land would go to any zone except the battlefield it goes to the land zone instead.

6 - The library is a shared zone.