Mordor's Cube (Classic)

Cube ID
Art by Terese NielsenArt by Terese Nielsen

384 Card Unpowered Legacy+ Cube

37 followers
Designed by landofMordorRSSQR Code

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Owned
$990
Buy
$2,528

Drafts like John Locke (tabula rasa), games like Thomas Hobbes (nasty, brutish, and short).

Cube Goals

1 This cube is primarily played between myself and my partner. As such, I design entirely to our preferences (no combos, healthy aggro and control, minimizing board locks). However, we like to "schizochester" draft, and in non-COVID times I will sometimes cube with a group, meaning a 360+ cube size with English-language cards is a must.

2 No budget restrictions, as I'm willing to proxy cards. No thematic, format, or border restrictions either.

3 This cube is meant to maximize power without being unbalanced. As such, a card like Oko is acceptable, as long as it is counterbalanced with plentiful removal and aggression. It might appear that there are wide power disparities between Oko and a card like Heart Warden, but each perform different roles in this cube. A card like Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer is about average for this environment, with Oko as a maximum and Wolfir Avenger as a minimum.

4 My ideal gameplay looks like a tight, neck-and-neck game where all players get to grow their skill. Every match should feel winnable for both players. Therefore, I try to avoid lines of play which are "griefer", or zero-sum fun, and I maximize opportunities for players to exercise agency. Due to this rich environment of meaningful choices, I emphasize a high-tempo and high-speed environment where every decision counts but games don't take so long that they fatigue my players.

Like my main cube (c/131313), I wanted to be able to draft 3x16 and am therefore increasing the overall cube size. Also from this point, I will be updating this cube less frequently (likely once per year or less). This is an experiment in making infrequent updates, as well as a means to stretch my budget. I'll test cards in my main cube, and cards that make the cut will graduate to this environment (I'll archive them for future use, should I choose to revert to this cube shell).