Art by Darrell Riche
Introduction
- Type: Eternal Legacy Cube
- Identity: Community Crafted
- Plays: Up to 10
- Speed: Brisk to Battlecruiser
- Variance: As a 450 list with nightly rotation, expect a bit more variance than normal for a cube of this size.
A Brief History
In the early fall when many were looking forward to CubeCon 2023, a few of us in the Mingo cube community were already looking ahead to the holidays. Our community had grown a lot over the previous year, and we wanted to celebrate that with those who made it happen. We pitched a few ideas, and eventually settled on one: a cube built by and for our community.
We considered a lot of the ways we might go about this. Do we impose strict build rules, such as color and/or land distributions? Do we assign specific colors, card types, or mana values? The more we debated it, the more we realized that strict assignments and build rules would inhibit creativity. After all, we wanted our players to be putting in bits of themselves into this cube project. Ultimately we settled on some minor rules and guidelines. We knew it would be a hodge-podge of ingredients - just like a good ol' holiday fruitcake.
If you're interested in a more in-depth look at how Fruitcake Cube came to be, and some thoughts on how it turned, be sure to check out this blog post!
Continuous Development
After each Fruitcake Cube draft:
- Each player may make 1 revision. They may choose to demote any card to or promote any card from the Reserveds List - or they may add a new, unique card to the main list (see Handling New Cards, below).
- For each match win, a player receives an additional demotion/promotion revision.
This model means up to 20 cards in the main may change after each night Fruitcake is drafted - including up to 8 brand new cards to try.
In addition, each time a card is moved the the Reserveds List for any reason, it will receive a Strike, and just like one might expect, three strikes and it's out for good. We don't want people getting cavities from things that are just too sweet, after all.
Guest ChefsThe Mingo cube community is constantly growing, and we are always trying to connect with other players and cube communities. To that end, we have a few special considerations and options for letting Guest Chefs get their hands on the Fruitcake Cube Recipe.
Guest Chefs visiting the Madison area who have the chance to sit down for an evening of Fruitcake Cubing, or who might just want the opportunity to contribute to it, will be asked to bring 8 or 16 unique cards to throw into the mix. Like any other new ingredient, we'll handle it with care (see Handling New Cards below), and make sure everyone gets a taste.
In the case of multiple Guest Chefs, either from a group visit, or the Fruitcake Cube going on a trip, the aim will remain the same: get 8 or 16 or 24 new unique cards from among the new Guest Chefs.
Handling New CardsThe Fruitcake Cube is all about letting players play with the cards they think are fun and exciting, or cool and complex, or maybe just comical. To this end, whenever new ingredients are added to the Cube, players should have the opportunity to see them played.
New additions will primarily come in the form of new regular additions, and Guest Chef additions.
- To add new ingredients to the Fruitcake during a regular play night, players will first create packs as normal for each player. Then, each player will pass their new ingredient to their left, and all players will shuffle the new ingredient into their first pack.
Guest Chef cooks can be handled in much the same way, with their new ingredients being randomly seeded among packs based on the number added (e.g. 8 cards: 1 card each pack 1, 16 cards: 1 card each pack 1 and 2, and so on).
Color Identities
After our initial 'bake', I spent time recording all of our players' ingredients in a the cube list. I encourage everyone to check out the Fruitcake Cube blog to see what everyone brought. In getting a closer look at things, I took note of a few common themes. Some were intentional, some were surprises.
Common to all colors and builds is that game objects are important. Players should plan to draft cards that produce or use these objects in some way. Expect the following from each color below:
White: adds incidental ingredients - like food and clues - and a few ways to use them. White leans into value-based aggression, but also includes several strong control options, including a few board wipes.
Blue: helps you expand your pantry. Card selection, card advantage, and spell recursion are key. Decks that opt to include Blue in the flavor profile always want one thing: more.
Black: wants to extract flavor from everything. Whether using your creatures or game objects - or both - to get ahead, Black decks want to get the most out of their ingredients. Like White, it also includes a few palette cleansers.
Red: wants strong flavors. Creatures are often efficient, or pack a big punch. Spells have classic flavors , and some that might be too hot to handle. Augment your punchy flavors with ones that linger on the palette.
Green: wants inexplicable rise in their bakes. Find ingredients that just keep building flavor - you want a board full of bodies and objects. Finally, top things off with something really punchy.
In combination, some of these colors lean more towards particular strategies than others. Expect to see a the following across common color combinations:
Executive Chefs: Esper players will find themselves leaning towards value-based cards and efficient answers. They might close games out with a big splashy threat.
Aristocrats Connoisseurs: Across the Mardu color range players will find no shortage of ways to consume their own resources for upside. Make sure you can keep up!
Foodies: Jund players all want one thing: more food. There are multiple payoffs all those good eats.
Banquet Hosts: Very similar to Jund, Abzan color schemes want to make food, and some similar - and different - reasons to do it. These players never forget to invite their favorite guests along.
Beyond these common themes and expectations, players should also be on the lookout for powerful multicolored options. There are many powerful gold cards in the list that don't necessary fit into the themes above. So, let's talk about them!
With an abundance of multicolored cards, there is no shortage of strong cards across color shards and wedges. Players should often expect to dabble into one or more of these multi-colored options to round out their recipes. Of course, what's better than this solid gold, but a way to make use of it all?
One player determined this meeting was really more of an email scenario.
There's nothing better than drawing cards and playing spells, and Meeting of the Five does that all itself. If you're not interested in playing several things, there are also several X-cost spells to sink all that mana into.
GatekeepingThey're not strictly multicolored themselves, but the Fruitcake Cube has many lands with the gate sub-type. Often, players will pick these up to bolster their mana bases. Savvy players, though, will keep an eye out for gate payoffs. Of course, it course, it wouldn't be a real party without the guests of honor.
Even beyond the options above, some aspiring chefs might be ambitious enough to go all-in on, well, all the flavors this cube has to offer. It may be tricky to navigate, but there are several high-value payoffs for doing so, even beyond those noted above. Aim for big, punchy flavor; the idea that more is always better; or live your Grinchy desire to show your guests the door.
No matter what sort of cake you are attempting to put together, we made sure everyone would have access to the foundation they need. Included in the staple pantry is a full suite of familiar signets and talismans.
It doesn't stop there, though. Ambitious bakers can assemble a variety of other cards that fix or accelerate their mana - whether they're thinking quick and efficient, or big and bombastic.
Another evening of Fruitcake Cube drafting meant another evening of interesting additions to the cube! This infusion of ingredients featured a few new pieces from the the recently released Murders at Markov Manor, alongside some familiar staples of old. It also featured our first black-border/non-acorn unset piece (which was a splashy addition, to be sure).
We also played around with the means of injecting new cards into the environment. As noted after the last draft, random seeding directly into pools felt a bit unwieldly, so this time we seeded cards randomly into the first pack. A slight deviation from the previously advertised design goal was to build a single pack of 14, seed the new cards into these packs at random, then do more controlled pack exchanges to that each player would get to open a pack they didn't make, with a random new ingredient hidden in there. By and large, it seemed successful - but I'll make note if we try any other methods we enjoy even more!
