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1. Introduction
2. Strategies
3. Card Distribution

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Introduction

Highly interested in the curation aspect of cubes, it was at the end of 2019 that I decided to build one myself. I wanted to spend (much/too much) time choosing cards and thinking about an infinite number of little synergies, while at the same time creating a game environment that could serve as an introduction to the draft format for friends and newer players.

Despite the changes that the cube undergoes as a result of the constant release of new cards, my intention remains the same: to create an accessible gaming environment, both in price and complexity.

Goals:

• Designing a simple, yet profound game environment - for beginners and experienced players alike.
• Allow players to draft decks with the necessary support.
• Leave a little room for surprise and variance by building the cube around 500 cards rather than 360.

Restrictions:

• Only Common or Uncommon cards. I find Uncommon cards to be MTG's most beautiful game pieces: simple, effective and powerful. Unlike rares and mythics, peasant cards often have fewer words, resulting in a quicker understanding of the cards. This doesn't mean that the games are any less complex or deep. On the contrary, I think this allows players to use fewer mental resources understanding text and mechanics, and gives them the chance to focus more on board state, triggers and interactions. Less text, more plays.
• Following the same reasoning, no double-sided cards (no werewolves, no flipping-sagas, no craft-artifacts, no battles, etc.). In my opinion, these cards tend to complicate the draft and the games, without adding any gameplay elements that other cards couldn't offer.
• Reduce unique mechanics as much as possible and favor cards with simple, understandable designs. I love many of the new mechanics that come out set after set, but I don't want players to have to reread every time how unique mechanics like Blitz, Role-Token, Venture into the Dungeon or Incubate work.

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Strategies

While this cube does not have clearly defined archetypes, here are some strategies that can be drafted:

For a more detailed explanation of the strategies, have a look at https://peasantrycube.wordpress.com/

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Card Distribution

Optimal Card Distribution for 360-cards Cube (8 players)

50 random per Color (13.88 % per Color)
45 random Lands (12.5%)
40 random Multicolored OR 4 random per Guild (11.11%)
25 random Colorless (06.94%)

72% of the 500 cards cube is drafted when playing with 360 cards.

Building the Packs: Full-Randomized Method A

Shuffle the 360 random cards together and constitute 24 packs of 15 cards.

Building the Packs: Semi-Randomized Method B

Shuffle each pile of 50 color cards and remove 2 cards from each pile. Each color pile now consists of 48 cards.

Take the 2 cards removed from each pile (10 in total) and shuffle them with the multicolored (40), colorless (25) and land (45) cards to make a random pile of 120 cards.

Now, to build the packs: take 2 random cards from each color pack, and add 5 random cards from the 120 card pack to form a 15 card pack. Repeat 24 times.