I have referenced my Pauper Cube in many of my previous articles, but I have never actually posted the list on the blog. That changes today. I will discuss Cube and it's history. I am going to talk about Cube, C/Ube, and Pauper Cube; the differences that interested me, where I got my start with Pauper Cube, and what my goals were/are for my own draft set. Let's begin.
Wherefore Cube?
When most people explain the concept of Cube to a new player, they do so by saying something like this: "It is a collection of cards that you draft from, just like regular limited, but it is made up of the best cards of all time!"
When the first Cube was built, that was probably true. Throughout the early years of community development, all cubes were very similar. There were only so many cards that were 'Cube worthy' and it was easier to make decisions about what to cut. There were only six categories of cards really: the five colors and colorless. For a long time Cubes were almost unanimously 360 cards, 60 of each color and 60 Artifacts/Lands. Hence the name: Cube, an object with six equal sides. Cubes rigidly followed the singleton rule. This configuration worked out perfectly so that an entire eight man draft pod could put together 45 cards in their pool and the entire set would get played.
As time went on and the game continued to grow Cubes grew along with it. There were now so many good cards that you couldn't always cram everything in and still have room to personalize. Cube designers started to experiment with the characteristics: size, composition, mana curve, themes, balance. Discrete archetypes grew out of this: Mono Red Aggro, Mono Black, Reanimator, Blue White control, 'The Enemy': mid-range value decks of varying color compositions, e.g. Junk. It was possible for cubers to design with these specific archetypes in mind so you could see consistency every time you played.
Divergence
Nowadays, Cube looks very different. Now the answer to the question of what Cube is has changed as well. A Cube is a player-designed, community grown card set for Limited Phantom play. That is a broad and nebulous definition, but at least it is wholly accurate. It is no longer appropriate to talk about Cube as "the best cards ever". That, simply put, is too narrow an interpretation and limits the potential of the environment you are trying to create.
I have seen a Plants vs. Zombies Cube. A Human vs. Zombies Cube. A Tribal Cube. An everything but Blue Cube. A Zoo Cube, which was awesome. Who do you think wins in the battle of cats, lizards, hounds, apes, birds, and fish? There is a Cube for every kind of player AT LEAST!
So when you decide to make a Cube, you are deciding on what restrictions you want to place on this new format. There really aren't any rules except that it should be internally consistent. It is like a comic book universe of Magic cards. You decide the characters and the setting and the story just plays itself out in every game.
An important step for me was deciding on what FORMAT I wanted my Cube to be played in. I love draft, so I primarily designed it with eight-man booster draft in mind. This is more or less the most common approach, but you can tailor any set to play differently in a given format, so keep that in mind. I knew I wanted to do somethings differently with my own Cube, but it took some digging to generate ideas.
(Magic the) Gathering Information
I began by reading. The Cube community has always been a strong, underground society. Back in the day there was no MTGO Cube for new people to look at so the only way to learn about Cube was to go and play somebody else's. I took much of my inspiration from Adam Styborsky's Pauper Cube, which is linked HERE! And also Eric Klug's Common/Uncommon Cube, seen HERE! I already had a friend with more a standard Cube so I knew from the outset that I wanted to do something different. Messing around the rarity restrictions seemed like a natural place for me to take it because I have such a deep love for the Pauper constructed format.
I wanted to create a draft environment that showcased the surprising power and incredible depth that Pauper has to offer. I wanted to show people that you can do very broken things, just like in regular cubes, but also show people some unique cards from Magic's past that would normally never get into a Cube.
With those overarching principles in place I starting building...but I have run out of time to talk about it this week. I won't leave you hanging, here is the list as it stands now: Grandpa's Pauper Cube. Next week I will go deeper into the design choices and my personal philosophy on Cube and after that I will talk about the updates I made for Khans of Tarkir. Till then Zoners.
-GG
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