Art by Jason A. EngleNote: Please use the 13x4 draft format during Playtest. Decks are still built as normal.
Cube Goals
This cube is primarily played between myself and my partner. As such, I design entirely to our preferences (no combos, minimizing board locks, retaining some pet cards like Serra the Benevolent). However, we like to Rochester draft, and in non-COVID times I sometimes cube with a group, meaning a 360+ cube size with recognizable cards is a must.
No budget restrictions, as I'm willing to proxy cards. No thematic, format, or border restrictions either. But I do have a cap on about 500 cards that will fit in my cube box, so there's a soft upper limit on the cube size.
Since I play with so few people, it's important that those players want to come back for more. Therefore, I seek to maximize player agency above any other metric. That leads to a few odd decisions:
- I've long had a cube which supports aggro/control/midrange, and I recognized that there's inherent agency loss in the polarity between these rock-paper-scissors matchups. My current list is an attempt to decrease that polarity.
- Recognizing that the 16th dual land is better than the 25th playable, I've chosen to go deep on mana fixing. I make room for this by eliminating parasitic aggro & control cards.
- Good gold cards tend to have more modes, better rates, and more cool, so I run more of these than usual. Since all this cube's decks are shades of midrange, I don't mind their tendency to be 3+ colors.
- The cards which maximize agency tend to be more powerful, so I do not cap the power band of this cube explicitly. However, I am not beholden to running the strongest possible cards at any price -- I will cut any card if it enables a higher-agency card to shine.
- I find combos, griefer cards like Mind Twist or Chalice of the Void, and extreme power outliers like the Moxen to harshly limit the opponent's agency, so I avoid cards like this.
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, with the winner changing from turn to turn and even from spell to spell. 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.
I write long-form blog updates and muse about game design on the Riptide Lab forum. Check out https://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/mordors-cube-the-ship-of-theseus.3180 for more.