Magic Overload!

While I haven't been posting updates due to my new work schedule not leaving me with a lot of spare time while in front of a computer, that doesn't mean stuff hasn't been happening.

The multiplayer cube I built is in full swing and we played a hilarious 8 player game with it. http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/8529

Someone died to Hidetsugu's second rite and the game was won with a miracled Thunderous Wrath being copied twice to deal 15 damage during the winners upkeep.

Suwon drafts are now at 1:00 pm and have been regularly filling up thanks to a lot of Korean players joining.

Rolling Dice Hongdae had a massive sale with boosters from W1,000.
I bought a box of Korean dark Ascension for W36,000 and a box of English Khans for W72,000.
I personally loved drafting triple Khans so I plan to keep this box in my MTG vault for drafting later down the line.

Kindle shop is reopening in a new location.

And we had a Modern masters draft last Sunday in Suwon.

The fate reforged re release had 21 foreigners in attendance and an all English flight. It was really unexpected and the store plans to have even more English kits for the forthcoming Dragons of Tarkir prerelease. 

Multi Cubing

Dalmuti's has a regular cube built and maintained by local legend Dan Leonard. It has nearly everything you would expect from a non powered cube and he has and still does put a huge amount of time, energy and resources into building and maintaining it.

Rather than try and replicate what he was doing I have built a multi player cube for those times when we have just a handful of players. The regular cube uses cards from throughout the history of Magic and features more mechanics than I can count. Every card is a singleton so it can be a very overwhelming but exciting experience for newer players.

With that in mind I have put a second restraint on my cube and that is to try and keep it simple. More in line with what a core set draft would be like. The amount of mechanics used will be limited (especially at common and uncommon) and the singleton rule is also broken at the common/uncommon level so that people don't have to read every card each time.

Those restraints risk making the cube a little dry. At the Rare/Mythic level I am prepared to be a lot looser. I have grouped the commons and uncommons together (pool A) and the rares/mythics/draft matters cards together (pool B). If I put more cards from pool B in a pack, the draft is probably more fun for veteran players but more daunting for newer players. Getting that ratio just right is probably something I will get wrong, but I plan to start with 3 cards from pool B and 12 from pool A in a pack.

The two times we have drafted so far the packs have been set up to replicate the retail conspiracy experience. We had fun both times, with the last match featuring a player dying from his Gamekeeper trigger revealing Phage the Untouchable.

That is not a combo kids.



Conspiracy does feel underpowered compared to Khans of Tarkir though so it is time to take the training wheels off and start adding and subtracting cards. 
The subtracting is pretty easy to start off with. There are a lot of cards that aren't drafted often, others that are traps for new players and some that don't bring a lot to the table but are fairly complex.

The adding cards is where it gets tough. I plan on adding a morph theme despite the mechanics complexity. Players should be familiar with it thanks to drafting and playing Khans of Tarkir and there are morph cards in all five colours. That one mechanic does a lot of work and seems a good replacement for the Morbid cards in Conspiracy which haven't really been pulling their weight.

I want to have cards that encourage players to be proactive so the games don't stall out for too long but also want everyone to feel like they got to play. I think Dethrone and Parlay are good mechanics for promoting that but am not sure how well morph will play into that until I see it in action.

The list so far is (http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/8529) and is now subject to change.

Back from Down Under

Back from my January hiatus I showed up to Dalmuti's Born of the Gods pre release. A lot of people are down on the set but I think they are forgetting that this is what small sets are like.
They can't hit all the bases and with temples, gods and a couple of white cards I think it is stronger than a lot of past small sets.

Dalmuti now has a cube which is drafted regularly. You can check it out at http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/6673 if you are interested.
Dan is very keen to improve it and has been putting a lot of work into it so it is getting stronger every week.

After playing it the fire to finish my own cube was reignited and I settled on a format. Going to try and make the cube as powerful as possible while trying for a nostalgia kick.
I added a lot of cards from my first set (Revised/3rd Edition) which might turn some off with their white borders but make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Building the Cube - Step 1

I have taken the first step in building a cube for unlimited drafting.

My collection is dominated by Theros thanks to the weekly drafts so it may start of as just a Theros cube which would be pretty dull since that would just be like a regular draft but without the chance of opening cool cards to keep.

I am a few rares/mythics of a full set though and really want to use my Thoughtseizes elsewhere and I am not sure how comfortable I would just letting random people use my cube if it has cards in it that are expensive and important to me. A Theros cube without the big money cards ... boring!

There is an excellent series on Brainstorm Brewery about building a cube for under $200 (it's too small for 8 players though) which might be my go to guide. There are some really interesting and powerful cards in that cube but nothing over a few dollars. Cards like Balance and Control Magic are really cheap and ridiculous.

My other idea is to perhaps aim for a modern masters based cube. That was the most cube like set I have played and largely doable over time. If I had my old pre Korea collection (since sold) I probably could have built that already. If they confirmed Modern masters 2 was coming and there would be a decent amount of stock then I would be all over it.

I will see how far I can get with the cards I own and a bit of trading but an order to Card Kingdom may be on the cards when i get back from Australia and have my job situation settled.