_Note that this is very much a thought experiement and hasn't been playtested._ --- A cube where you can only with with alternate conditions. Players begin with an emblem: > You don’t lose the game for having 0 or less life. So you're not going to get there the old fashioned way. --- ## Cube Rules Two cards [[Biovisionary]] and [[Hedron Alignment]] are drafted in packages. If you pick one, add **three** (the one drafted and two additional) to your pool. Note there are also multiples of these in the draft. ### A Note from our Rules Lawyer While players don't lose the game for running out of life, life totals still matter. Effects can care about both players life totals so they still need to be kept track of. A player's life total can drop below zero. Players can't pay costs with life they don't have. Phyrexian mana and other life costs can't be paid when your life total is zero or less. --- ## Design Notes The goal is to create an environment where players can only with with alternate conditions and to include as many alternate win conditions as possible. The cube follow 'traditional' structure: 360 cards intended to be drafted in 3 packs of 16 in a pod of 8 people. Within that stipulation, the aim is to create as much deck diversity and interactive gameplay as possible. Alternate win conditions present major challenges to creating a functional draft, decks, and interactive gameplay. Alt-wins are the most extreme build arounds. You're not going to win the game for doing nothing after all. In a typical environment effects operate on similar axes. Each can interact with many others. On the other hand [[Felidar Sovereign]], [[Laboratory Maniac]], and [[Coalition Victory]] each require vastly different context to support which is difficult to fit in a limited card pool. Alt-wins tend to be unique. This isn't a problem in constructed where you can include multiple copies of a payoff. In a (mostly) singleton, drafted environment we don't have redundancy for the payoffs or necessarily the enablers. It's difficult to build a deck around a single card that could be countered or not drawn. Alt-wins are, more or less by definition, all or nothing. This can create swingy, non-interactive gameplay where a player wins suddenly all at once, or effectively loses if an opponent has a response. It could degenerate to gameplay closer to two games of solitaire racing. Alt-wins, for good reason, tend to be expensive or time consuming. Gameplay is likely to be slow. Many alt-wins can be easily interacted with, but require very different kinds of interaction since they appear on spells, creatures, artifacts, lands, and planeswalkers. Having such diverse threats may lead to a rock-paper-scissors of interaction type gameplay. In this environment, creatures and combat take on a very different role. Since creatures may not be part of the strategy of many decks at all this may create strange gameplay experiences where creatures are narrow cards needed to block lethal creatures or attack planeswalkers. ### Solving These Issues The problems of win-cons needing specific support and having little redundancy is less severe than expected and can be mitigated by angling support cards to enable multiple strategies. For example, cards that generate many artifact creature tokens can enable a 'many creatures', 'many artifacts', or, paired with [[Souls Attendent]] or similar an enabler for 'big life'. As noted in archetypes below, there is some redundancy in most strategies. The problem of un-interactive play is mitigated by a few steps. The list has plenty of interaction for most strategies, including counter spells and removal. This is balanced with recursion and ways to re-buy threats so interaction doesn't immediately end the game either. The goal is to make optimal strategies rely on a balance of interaction and a few redundant win conditions that can be supported together. The list features quite a few two or three card infinite combos. Many of these combos don't win the game on their own with the modified rules but can turn on al-wins. Small packages of cards that can generate infinite mana, life, or other resources that can be converted into a win are a way to fit more support for win conditions than we could by making, for example, a full suite of life-gain related cards to fill a deck. Thematically, they fit the all-or-nothing feel as well. ### Details While the goal is to create as 'normal' looking a cube as possible within the stipulations, a few concessions are made. Singleton is broken in a few cases for win-cons and supporting cards. [[Hedron Alignment]] and [[Biovisionary]] both require multiple to work. The concession has been made not just to include multiples in the draft, but to give drafters 3 copies for each one in their pool. Including enough to make them viable in the main list would take up a ton of space, but it should still feel like something that takes some work. Players still need to draft at least two (to get a total of six) to have any hope of winning with them, but three or more gives you pretty reasonable number. [[Harmless Offering]] takes enough specific support, including cards that otherwise don't work in your deck, I think it's worth breaking singleton for. I feel like this doesn't harm the feeling of singleton much since the supporting cards remain unique. I like that it gives red at least some kind of identity here. There's some redundancy in [[Donate]] (which I feel obligateed to include at least one copy of), and [[Zedruu the Greathearted]]. No attempt has been made to balance the colors. The constraints of this cube are narrow enough something has to break. Because of inevitably slow gameplay and need for varied interaction, I expect most decks to play most colors making this less important. Because win conditions still promote specific and diverse strategies this doesn't present the same risk of '5 color stuff' being an issue. Fixing lands are tilted slightly in the direction of the color balance with more touching blue and green and fewer in red. --- ## The Win Conditions The win conditions themselves fall into a few distinct gameplans, with much more redundancy and overlap than I had expected. This bodes well for making them play in a singleton environment. There's also a reasonable quantity of them. With around 42 strict alt-win cards alone, it's reasonable for players to have a few options to win the game. ### Big Life One of the most iconic alt-wins is a clean reversal of the game. Rather than winning by reducing your opponent's life total to zero, advance your own to an unreasonable level. The archetype is clean, clearly supported by cards that gain you life. With four payoff cards, this seems pretty reasonable to pull off. <<[[!Felidar Sovereign]][[!Angel of Destiny]][[!Celestial Convergence]][[!Test of Endurance]]>> A few cards win you the game at a very specific life total, rather than above a high threshold. While fairly different, building a deck to gain a ton of life can also be turned to gain life more precisely. Combined with a way to pay life it can be another alternate alternate win con. <<[[!Near-Death Experience]]>> ### Phage The iconic [[Phage|Phage the Untouchable]], a handful of Vraskas have "player death touch". These cards don't require explicit support, but play well with removal to get rid of blockers, ways to grant evasion, and, since they're mostly very expensive, plenty of ramp. Normal magic stuff. <<[[!Phage the Untouchable]][[!Etrata, the Silencer]][[!Vraska, Golgari Queen]][[!Vraska the Unseen]]>> <<[[!Vraska, Scheming Gorgon]][[!Vorpal Sword]]>> Since many are expensive and/or planeswalkers and they are relatively self contained but mesh well with the ramp and proliferate strategies. ### Proliferate A class of cards ask you to do some particular thing _a lot_. That something is often tracked with counters, opening up an opportunity to abuse proliferate and related mechanics. Proliferate is enabled by cards like [[Vorel of the Hull Clade]] and combos that repeatedly trigger creature ETBs. These options also pair well with ramp or outlast strategies where it's not impossible to have enough time or mana. <<[[!Darksteel Reactor]][[!Mayael's Aria]][[!Helix Pinnacle]][[!Simic Ascendancy]]>> <<[[!Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God]][[!Strixhaven Stadium]]>> [[Strixhaven Stadium]] also turns your creatures back into threats so it can be played as a proliferate target or with one of the many strategies that benefit from getting a lot of creatures in play. ### Big ramp <<[[!Door to Nothingness]]>> It does what it says on the tin. I expect the format to be slow and ramp to be part of enough strategies that [[Door to Nothingness]] may just be an easy include in most decks. ### Complete the Set One of the more interesting win-cons are two cards that require multiples. <<[[!Biovisionary]][[!Hedron Alignment]]>> The custom rules for these cards let us get many copies in a deck. [[Biovisionary]] is pretty obvious plan and has some interesting redundancy from [[Progenitor Mimic]], [[Tamiyo, Collector of Tales]], and [[Mirrorweave]]. [[Hedron Alignment]] is a much bigger ask since it needs very specific support. Fortunately this support isn't entirely parasitic, overlapping with self mill and some cards, including [[Scavenging Ooze]] which can also be used proactively to counter graveyard recycling. It may be one of the most dubious, parastic archetypes, but it'll all be worth it when someone Force's their second [[Hedron Alignment]] exiling their third. [[Psychatog]] makes the plan look almost reasonable. ### Bingo <<[[!Happily Ever After]][[!Coalition Victory]]>> Another of the more parasitic options are the ask you to assemble many different things. With individual support from 5 color creatures these may boil down to two card combos, but don't necessarily take up a lot of space in a deck alongside other plans. ### Self Mill <<[[!Jace, Wielder of Mysteries]][[!Thassa's Oracle]][[!Laboratory Maniac]]>> Self mill barely feels like an alternate win condition these days! With three ways to win I expect self-mill to be a potent strategy. There's some support outside of the win conditions themselves in flexible mill and combos that can be used to mill either player. ### Straight up Mill Although possibly not quite in the spirit of the design, one alt-win condition is built into the rules of the game. Removing this end-game too would introduce too much risk of stalemate, instead it's tempered by the risks of milling your opponent and plenty of ways to recycle the graveyard. Mill opens up the opportunity for control decks. Cards that actively mill can target either player as much as possible to support both mill strategies. ### Artifacts <<[[!Hellkite Tyrant]][[!Mirrodin Besieged]][[!Revel in Riches]]>> [[Hellkite Tyrant]] has a lot of text, but I think you know which bit's relevant. The list has plenty of artifacts, and especially ways to repeatedly generate artifact creature tokens so creature and artifact strategies can overlap. With a high artifact count, the steal ability may not be irrelevant either. [[Revel in Riches]] gives you the same win condition, but also may generate enough treasure before your opponent draws removal to offer some redundancy. [[Mirrodin Besieged]] is a dubious win condition, but fortunately it's modality makes it a reasonable enabler as well. ### Outlast A class of win-cons are largely or entirely self contained and don't require specific support outside of letting them do their thing. <<[[!Azor's Elocutors]][[!Mechanized Production]][[!Approach of the Second Sun]][[!Maze's End]]>> Protect your [[Azor's Elocutors]] or [[Mechanized Production]] and wait for victory, or try to resolve [[Approach of the Second Sun]]. All of these can be accelerated in different ways, whether that's proliferate, artifacts, or self mill. Maze's End _technically_ needs a lot of support, but, with many gates in the cube, you only need to prioritize them slightly, making it a clean, mostly inevitable win condition that fits alongside any others. Is it worth completely warping the mana base and breaking singleton to support a single card in this cube? Absolutely. That's what we're here for. I expect the format to be plenty slow such that slow lands don't have a huge impact, although it does add some challenge to 'bingo' cards. <<[[!Triskaidekaphobia]]>> [[Triskaidekaphobia]] is a bit difficult to categories, but is ultimately fairly self contained and, like a number of other strategies, benefits from having creatures to interact with your opponent's life total. ### Hand Shaping <<[[!Atemsis, All-Seeing]][[!Triskaidekaphile]]>> Atemsis doesn't fit neatly into another category and is technically a creature that wins the game by attacking. I'm not sure how feasible it is as a win condition, but also generates value and helps you set up other wins. Two win conditions hinge on shaping your hand a particular way, erring on the side of drawing _a lot_ of cards. Both cards seem fairly suspect as win conditions, but both happen to generate additional value on their own, making them much more defensible includes. [[Atemsis, All-Seeing]] also has interesting overlap with Phage cards. ### Creatures Finally, a reason to play creatures. <<[[!Epic Struggle]]>> While there's no redundancy for [[Epic Struggle]], it overlaps nicely with some of the other archetypes including life-gain and artifacts which are trying to go wide with repeatable token makers. ### Hive Mind [[Hive Mind]] doesn't say 'win the game', but it's text is weird enough to get you there with a little help. The fail case is rough, but there's some redundancy in a full cycle of 'pacts' to enable a win. The environment is most likely going to be very slow and grindy, so it may be a real risk that your opponent can pay the tax. <<[[!Hive Mind]][[!Pact of Negation]]>> ## Donate <<[[!Donate]][[!Harmless Offering]]>> [[Donate]] similarly doesn't say win the game, but opens a new opportunity to force you opponent into losing the game. From there it's still going to take some work. Fortunately from that point most of the donatable targets let you turn creatures back into a win condition which lets you focus on putting together a go-wide creature strategy. <<[[!Demonic Pact]][[!Immortal Coil]][[!Nine Lives]][[!Transcendence]]>> ## Basically Splinter Twin <<[[!Liliana's Contract]][[!Barren Glory]][[!Chance Encounter]]>> A few other options are difficult to categorize, but are essentially just two card combos. There are a few options for turning any run of the mill creatures you have lying around into demons to win with [[Liliana's Contract]], [[Barren Glory]] is not for the faint of heart but is not impossible to assemble. You can even put some of the tools intended to be [[Donate]]d to good use. [[Chance Encounter]] is something of a trap, but the combo is there. ### Infect Infect is another strategy which feels baked into Magic enough to feel a little out of place here, but here it is. Getting there with [[Plague Stinger]] may be a challenge, but overlaps with control and proliferate strategies. <<[[!Fynn, the Fangbearer]][[!Viridian Corrupter]][[!Plague Stinger]]>> [[Tainted Strike]] and [[Triumph of the Hordes]] are another option, letting you turn a tall or wide board into a victory. <<[[!Tainted Strike]][[!Triumph of the Hordes]]>> Almost it's own combo, but even here [[Tinker]] [[Blightsteel Colossus]] is a solid option. I would not be surprised if the format is slow enough to just hard cast the colossus as well. ### Honorable Mention While they ultimately need to win with another strategy or by milling the opponent, a few other combos effectively win the game by locking your opponent out of taking actions. <<[[!Mindslaver]][[!Academy Ruins]][[!Karn, the Great Creator]][[!Mycosynth Lattice]]>> ## Excluded Almost every alt-win card in the game is included and has at least some chance to be functional. Two take too much specific support to be reasonable. They happen to be some of the most iconic. <<[[!Battle of Wits]][[!Mortal Combat]]>> [[Battle of Wits]] is unfortunately just not reasonable. There's no redundancy, and adding tutors would proportionally over-power other strategies so not improve its viability. A draft package like with [[Hedron Alignment]] is possible, but doesn't feel as much in the spirit of the card. There are also logistical concerns if one player needs twice as many basic lands as the rest of the table combined. And playing a deck of mostly basics doesn't sound particularly fun anyway, even for this context. [[Mortal combat]] is similarly challenging. In an environment with so little focus on creatures, just getting 20 creatures in your deck is going to be a challenge, let alone getting them in your graveyard.