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TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 11 Apr 2014, 14:36
by Graham
We crack a pack, look at cards you've designed, and Alex tells us about his new way to play Magic.

Here's Alex's list.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 11 Apr 2014, 19:24
by Dominic Appleguard
What does an asterisk mean on the list, I wonder?

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 11 Apr 2014, 21:31
by TheHokeyPokey
The cubelet sounds like a fun thing to solomon draft. First, shuffle all the cards in the packs together and put the top three cards of the stack into three face down piles. In turns, players look at the first card and decides if they want it. If they do, they take it and replace it from the stack. If they don't want it, they put it back and add another card to the pile. Players repeat this process with the second pile, and then is forced to pick the third pile if they don't take the second. If there are multiple cards in a pile, players take the entire pile. In my opinion, it is the best way to do two person drafts.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 11 Apr 2014, 21:56
by ElFuzzy
I thought the Temples were on Theros.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 11 Apr 2014, 22:23
by Utilitarian
Happy you liked my card design ^_^

The Cubelet sounds fun. The "spells as lands" mechanic is really reminiscent of Race for the Galaxy and similar games where the primary resource for playing cards is discarding other cards.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 11 Apr 2014, 23:13
by Xenomania
Hi Guys, Thanks for the eppisode and also for the list will build it and try it out.

I only get a leisure suit larry feeling at the Cubelet Guidelines ;)

Cubelet Guidelines
#1 - Interesting playables
#2 - No lands/artifacts (for now)
#3 - More creatures than spells
#5 - No search effects
#6 - Avoid mechanic redundancy / have single examples of good mechanics
#7 - Budget (ish)

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 12 Apr 2014, 00:13
by tamaness
The way we play mental at my LGS is face-down cards are gold lands, but have no land subtypes. The couple of Mental decks we do play have basic lands in them.

The basic construction of one such mental magic deck is for each color, there's a card with cost
C, 1C, 2C, 3C, 4C, 5C, CC, 1CC, 2CC, 3CC, 4CC; 2 each of artifacts with costs from 1 thru 5; gold cards with cost CD, 1CD, and 2CD for each guild; and 11 of each basic land, for a total of 150 cards.

We also allow suspend cards (for now), but don't allow players to search the library.

I'm planning on building a more unbalanced deck that can also be used for Wizard's Tower (215 cards).

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 12 Apr 2014, 08:31
by Onytay_Organmay
Hey Alex (also Graham, but Alex...),
Thank you SO much for the Cubelet concept. I'll be using it to use my unused Cards in my collection. Plus, I play Standard, when the Card rotate out, my Cubelet will be the only deck I don't have to modify unless I want to. I'll be trying it out soon. I want to learn how to draft it too.
If you see this could you address what your favorite common from RTR block is, I'll put it in my Cubelet.

Cheers from a American-polish Viewer in Germany,
Anthony

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 12 Apr 2014, 08:36
by -N-
I like Alex's format, it gave me some new and fresh ideas for some fun formats. Great episode!

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 12 Apr 2014, 08:50
by susu.exp
I'm happy I got a card in again (and even though I did one within specs this time, again Graham goes for one that didn't quite fit the task - you know you are encouraging me, right?).

Spells as lands doesn't sound that great (there's quite a bit of Rosewater writing arguing against it), so that'd be something I'd change. Apart from that it seems like an interesting format.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 12 Apr 2014, 10:26
by tamaness
playing spells as lands is just part of the format. It adds an interesting dimension to the game, as it's a singleton format. "do I want this spell, or am I better served dropping it as a land?"

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 12 Apr 2014, 11:29
by susu.exp
Sure, but it also means you never flood and never get mana/color screwed. The argument there is that these are not bugs, but features - as I said, there's quite a bit of Rosewater on why the mana system makes magic better, because these things happen and I tend to agree.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 12 Apr 2014, 12:21
by tamaness
I agree with MaRo when it comes to most constructed formats. I wouldn't want to play EDH or Standard that way, but it works fine for Mental (and it seems for Alex's Cubelet), especially when there's an interesting decision point as to what cards get played as land. Do I need to hold up Force of Will, or play it as a land to cast Damnation?

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 13 Apr 2014, 07:07
by Shadowwarl
The card for mana Idea is really good and makes you think hard about setting a card as mana... this was one of the mechanics in the now dead WOW TCG whereby if you were out of normal resource cards you could play any card face down as a resource, it makes you think about the games progressions.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 13 Apr 2014, 09:21
by Xenomania
Alex, in the posted google dock are 101 cards.
There is one blue card to much if as tolled it is 14 cards total for the different collors.
What is the blue card that is not in your Cubelet?

I am building my own Cubeled with yours as base of it.
Will be different as I don't have all the cards on the list from Alex.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 14 Apr 2014, 02:19
by Jenelmo
I really like having Nirvana there as he could give an explanation to somethings like the Metathran and as he had played longer knew more about the old sets

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 14 Apr 2014, 07:10
by -N-
How about scry cards in this format? Instead of fixing your own draws, you screw up the draws of your opponent :P

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 15 Apr 2014, 12:41
by Jonci
Graham was oddly accurate in pointing to the comment button.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 15 Apr 2014, 14:25
by Graham
ElFuzzy wrote:I thought the Temples were on Theros.

Not that one.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 15 Apr 2014, 19:30
by jkefka
Tried out Alex's format at PAX east with a pack of 100 rares we bought for $25 (we have long-term plans for them...) Tremendous fun, great way to burn 20 minutes between meetups with friends.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 17 Apr 2014, 13:04
by Nirvana
Jenelmo wrote:I really like having Nirvana there as he could give an explanation to somethings like the Metathran and as he had played longer knew more about the old sets


Thanks! My favorite stories from the Magic universe came from the period between Tempest block and Invasion block. Probably read those books a few too many times. :)

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 17 Apr 2014, 18:57
by Nullrush
So, I put the Cubelet into tappedout for easier viewing, and like someone pointed out before, there are 101 cards in there, with the extra being in blue (maybe?).

Which one of those is supposed to be taken out, or is it supposed to be played with 101?

The Cubelet on tappedout is here:
THE CUBELET

edit: I guess the link got screwed up at some point D: fixed now. Thanks madAlric!

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 17 Apr 2014, 19:12
by tamaness
Nullrush wrote:So, I put the Cubelet into tappedout for easier viewing, and like someone pointed out before, there are 101 cards in there, with the extra being in blue (maybe?).

Which one of those is supposed to be taken out, or is it supposed to be played with 101?

The Cubelet on tappedout is here:
THE CUBELET


Pretty sure you meant to link here.

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 17 Apr 2014, 21:19
by TovarishGaming
I built a cubelet after watching the show and I absolutely love it! It's perfect for quick games between my girlfriend and I. Thanks for the epic idea!

Re: TTC - The Cubelet

Posted: 01 May 2014, 16:44
by WP&P
I've been thinking about the cubelet spells-as-lands thing and I think the way I am gonna suggest playing it is this: keep a stack of basics on hand, and when you play a spell as a land, you reveal the card, then place a basic of that card's color identity (a' la Commander) into play, and finally put the revealed card on the bottom of the library. By putting it back in the library, you are potentially giving your opponent access to that card, plus it means that you can support multiplayer better from the shared library.

This rule means, however, that you want to use mostly gold cards in the cubelet construction, so that players don't get too color hosed. The color identity of gold cards makes them function like fetch lands. Being tied to a colored basic mana base retains the significance of the color pie, and activated abilities that cost colored mana will properly compete for resources against further colored spells.

Whaddaya think?