You all have waited patiently, and now here's your big surprise:
A whole BUDGET DRAFT CUBE for 4-8 players! Since this website's price trend calculator does not work still, you cannot easily confirm the price trend of the total cards included in this set. My safe(-ish) bet would be that all these cards combined cost a bit over 100 dollars on the American market (excluding mail prices), and likely somewhat less in Europe. But considering Cubes (and Booster packs nowadays) tend to be on the pricier side, this should be affordable to most friend groups out there playing Magic: The Gathering together. You can all pool in to make it all easier to afford!
HOW TO PLAY CUBE:
If you do not know how to play with cube, but would like to, read all the essential info here!
The cube format is functionally a form of drafting. Its main idea is to have a draft that can be easily repeated over and over, with no worry about who gets the good cards and whatnot. After the game it is easy to collect all the cards together, and put them away to await for the next time of drafting.
If drafting is a new concept to you too, let me enlighten you a little bit about it:
- A draft is a gamemode usually meant for 4-8 players. Its basic idea is to pick cards in turn from a pool of offered options, to craft a deck from. The deck must contain at least 40 cards, with no playset limit.
- Before the draft, share three "hands" of 15 random cards to each player (45 cards total per player), putting them face down in front of them (players may not look at them yet). Usually this is done via Booster packs, but in Cube format, these three 15-card hands are taken randomly from amongst the cards included in the Cube. Better shuffle it well first!
- Then, the drafting phase begins. Each player takes one of the 15-card hands in front of them, looks at it, and secretly chooses a card to pick. When everyone has chosen their card, the players take their chosen cards (without showing other players) and put them aside for their very own pool. Then each of the hands is handed to another player, proceeding in a clockwise order.
- The players pick cards until there is nothing more to pick. Then the players take a new set of 15 cards, and begin again. On the second round, the hands are handed onwards in a counter-clockwise order. Once the third (and the last) round of drafting begins, the players hand their cards once more in a clockwise order once more, just like in the 1st round.
- After all the 15-card hands are divided to each player according to their desires, the deckcrafting shall begin. Each player is given some time to prepare a deck to be used against other players. They all should have 45 cards by now, and they may add ANY NUMBER OF BASIC LAND CARDS OF ANY TYPE to their pool. Using the drafted cards as well as basic lands, they all should make a deck consisting of at least 40 cards.
- After the decks are done, it is time to play! Usually the best way to try out the drafted decks is to set up a tournament of sorts, with the first round of players decided randomly, then setting the winners against winners, and the losers against losers. After a while, you may find out who really had the most skill (and the best luck) while drafting!
- The upside of a Cube is that you may easily put away the cards after drafting, crafting, and playing, so you may repeat it over and over again on a later time. Find out the best strategies and combinations, and be sure to edit the Cube once you and your friends have found out what you like the most!
If you have anything more to ask, be sure to drop by in the comment section below!
COLOR THEMES:
Naturally, players usually should focus on drafting two colors at most during a draft. This means that the synergy between cards should be carefully thought out during its creation. This time, I've done the thinking for you, and below are listed the main themes between each of the two-color combinations. Have fun finding out all the possible synergies!
Themes for each color combination:
- Azorius (White-Blue): Main theme: Flying; Secondary Theme: Artifacts
- Orzhov (White-Black): Main theme: Lifedrain; Secondary Theme: Vampire Tribal
- Boros (White-Red): Main theme: ETB-matters; Secondary Theme: Equipment
- Selesnya (White-Green): Main theme: Auras; Secondary Theme: Tokens
- Dimir (Blue-Black): Main theme: Unblockable; Secondary Theme: Graveyard Matters
- Izzet (Blue-Red): Main theme: Spellslinger; Secondary Theme: Dragons
- Simic (Blue-Green): Main theme: +1/+1 Counters; Secondary Theme: Big Plays
- Rakdos (Black-Red): Main theme: Aggro; Secondary Theme: Discard
- Golgari (Black-Green): Main theme: Sacrifice; Secondary Theme: Elf Tribal
- Gruul (Red-Green): Main theme: Power Matters; Secondary Theme: Fight Club