Top Five: Traps for Cube Designers

Hello again. Today, I have a special article about traps I've seen many Cube designers fall into. I'm no expert and the following discussion is not gospel, but I'd advise you to take a moment to consider your own Cube in light of these traps and determine if they're a problem for you.

Let me first define what I mean by "traps."

A trap is a design choice that detracts from the potential of a drafter’s experience.

As a disclaimer, I run a 375-card unpowered cube, though I have drafted both the MTGO Cube and a peasant cube several times. This list is probably biased towards smaller, unpowered cubes, though I will try to insure its applicability to all forms of Cube.

So here we go, the top five traps that Cube designers can fall into:

#5: Planeswalker Saturation

Let me say this outright: I love planeswalkers. They are powerful, unique, and each one feels like more than a regular card. Already there is a wealth of ‘walkers to choose from when designing a cube. But if they’re so awesome, why on earth would it be wrong to have a lot of them in a cube?

As any kid who overindulged in candy knows, too much of a good thing can spoil the fun. When the planeswalker count of your cube gets too high, that special something about planeswalkers begins to fade. This is a problem in small cubes especially. If you’re drafting and you see all three Elspeths in the first two packs, there’s not as much excitement in getting to pick one. If you pack-one-pick-one Elspeth, Sun’s Champion and get passed a fourth-pick Elspeth Tirel, how excited are you really? Do you look at the card and think, “Wow, here’s a one-of-a-kind ability that I need to pick now before it’s gone!” Probably not, as both Elspeths do similar things. You may pick the Tirel up anyways, but there isn’t any thrill attached to it.

Therein lies the problem with including too many planewalkers. What should be a unique, powerful card ends up as just another card in the pack.

"I want to be special!"

Another potential issue lies in gameplay. When a planeswalker hits the table, an automatic sub-game begins, whether the players know it or not. While these situations are often fun and promote interactive gameplay, having it occur too much can distract from the primary objective of the game: to beat your opponent. I have found that by limiting the number of planeswalkers in my cube and focusing intently on what roles and decks those select ‘walkers fit into, the quality of matches improves.

One caveat that I should add here is that the larger your cube is, the less this rule applies. One of the primary tenants of cube design is redundancy. For example, if you want there to be a white weenie deck, you need to include a lot of tiny aggressive creatures that essentially do the same thing. If you have a large cube, planeswalker saturation isn’t an issue, and you should feel free to add more, since you can be sure not all of them will see play in each draft.

That all said, go forth and add as many planeswalkers as you want. They’re darn fun to use.

Now, let’s look at something that planeswalker cards frequently fall into:

#4: “Auto-Includes”

These are pretty easy to distinguish. Land Tax. Tarmogoyf. Every new planeswalker. People label these cards, consciously or subconsciously, as “auto-includes” for a variety of reasons. The card is new and looks busted. The card is a staple in X formats. The card was a menace during its time in Standard. All of these reasons focus on the card being objectively powerful, instead of contextually relevant.

What do I mean by “contextually relevant?” Well, in a limited format, the power of a card is reliant on the environment around it. For example, there are dozens of spells from Theros block that would be virtually unplayable in Magic 2015 limited, and yet were valued highly within their own limited format. The same principle applies to Cube. There are certain cards that just aren’t as good as people think within the context of Cube without significant design towards those cards.

Do you want to know a secret? Tarmogoyf is terrible in Cube! That’s right, one of the most powerful two-drops in the game is worse than mediocre in Cube. Think about it. In Modern, Legacy, or Vintage, everyone plays fetchlands and there are tons of cheap instants and sorceries flying around during the first two or three turns. Tarmogoyf is powerful because the nature of those formats is to have graveyards fill up early. In a Cube match, how often can you expect a land in the graveyard by turn two? How many instants or sorceries? How many creatures are dead? If you wait until later, you get a good deal. Two mana for a 4/5 on turn five! Only, stop and think about all the other spectacular things you can do on turn five in a Cube match, and then you’ll see the problem.

Tarmogoyf isn’t the only card that suffers from this problem. Deathrite Shaman is also unexceptional. Delver of Secrets is very inconsistent (unless you run multiples). Land Tax is potentially strong, but half of the games its an utterly dead card, and its always a bad topdeck. Living Death and Survival of the Fittest are both potentially devastating cards, but have you really built your cube to support them?

To remedy this, look to see what cards consistently go late in drafts that you think shouldn’t. Try playing the card yourself. If you are disappointed, it might be time to take out those “staples.”

#3: Aggro-killers

I must admit I was guilty of this one for a long, long time. You see, ever since my early days of Magic I have been a dedicated control player. There are few things in the game that make me happier than playing Wrath of God into a board of creatures. Unfortunately, my love for destroying aggro decks made most aggressive strategies in my cube unplayable.

"I eat aggro decks for breakfast!"

If you think about it, you probably know what cards I’m talking about. Faith’s Fetters. Obstinate Baloth. Just ask yourself, “if this card didn’t completely hose aggro, would it still be playable?” Often, the answer is no.

I don’t mean that you should cut all lifegain from your cube immediately. That would be a huge mistake. I still enjoy casting Kitchen Finks and Thragtusk in my cube, but that’s because they’re playable even without the lifegain. Faith’s Fetters, on the other hand, becomes a significantly worse Oblivion Ring.

I ran Timely Reinforcements for the longest time, believing it was just another piece for control decks to pick up, like a sweeper or a counterspell. In reality, it was useless against most decks and a blowout against aggro. Cards like Timely occupy valuable space where other, more applicable cards can be added. Generally cards created for sideboards (Celestial Purge, Tormod’s Crypt) are ignored in Cube design because they’re very narrow and often unplayable (the exception being artifact and enchantment removal). Look at the cards in your cube that incidentally stonewall aggro decks. Are there better options that let aggro decks breathe?

#2: Signets

Think of a world where you can draft signets, then try to imagine any reason to draft green in this world. There really isn’t one, right? Granted, powered cubes already embrace fast artifact mana, so if that’s your groove, go for it. But if you are building an unpowered cube, regardless of size, you should seriously reconsider including these beautiful mana rocks.

See, when red can smash and burn its way to a victory by turn four and blue can counter everything, green needs its own specialty to make it viable next to the other colors. That identity has usually been mana ramp. Green more than any other color can power out big threats earlier than they’re meant to be played, barring the cheat spells like Show and Tell and Reanimate. When signets exist in a format, this entire line of play is no longer exclusive to green. Any color can pick up a signet or two and start playing out their spells a turn earlier. Mark Rosewater frequently trumpets the game design tenant that “restriction breeds creativity.” Signets are the exact opposite of restriction, and therefore, the unique space green occupies cube become lost.

Thankfully, I see very few unpowered cubes using signets still. The same cannot be said for the last card . . .

#1: Sol Ring

The mother of all mana rocks, Sol Ring is by far the most dangerous card to include in a cube.

Public Enemy #1

Imagine the following sequence of plays.

Turn 1

Player 1: Island, Sol Ring, go.

Player 2: Lavaclaw Reaches tapped, go.

Turn 2

Player 1: Island, Venser, Shaper Savant, bounce your land.

Player 2: Lavaclaw Reaches tapped, go.

Turn 3

Player 1: Plains, Venser, the Sojourner, +1 on Venser, Shaper Savant. EoT, bounce your land.

Player 2: Um, scoop?

This legitimately happened, and it wasn’t long after that I took out Sol Ring. You see, it’s simply too powerful in an unpowered environment. For comparison, look at Worn Powerstone. That is a really strong card, with the same effect, only it costs two more AND enters tapped.

There’s just no way Sol Ring can be remotely fair in an unpowered cube. It stands head and shoulders above every other card available. Sol Ring should always be a pack-one-pick-one, regardless of what else is in the pack. When a card is an auto-firsk-pick, no question, it probably doesn’t promote unique, varied gameplay.

Those who defend Sol Ring often use the same argument designers of powered cubes use, which is to say that the occasional blowouts enabled by power are worth the power level disparity created by their inclusion. While this is a legitimate argument, it applies to cubes where nine or more powerful cards are circulated. When Sol Ring is the only “power” available, only one player is going to get it, and everyone else will feel bad about getting punished for not opening it.

If the idea of Cube is to create a draft environment where everyone has a shot at winning with a unique deck, Sol Ring does not help advance this principle.

Well, there you have it. Five things to avoid when designing your own cube. I hope you enjoyed this article and found at least one thing to help in your quest for the perfect cube.

Until next time!

Billy Jacques

@mrbillyjack