The Pauper Cube Begins - Breaking Down Rigid Format Structures

David and I have started working on compiling a list for what started as a Pauper cube and may evolve to include uncommon cards as clear indications of card value. One thing is certain about this new Cube, it will not follow the rigid standards that I've set for the classic Cube, it's an opportunity play with how I design it. It may not even follow a singleton standard because at the end of the day all we want is a good pool of cards to play a limited format with.

Let's disregard design talk and metric goals that we'll try to achieve when we actually get to building it and talk about the vision for a moment. The Classic Cube is currently everything that I hoped and dreamed to achieve when I first started building a Cube in 2009, it has some of the most iconic and powerful cards in all of Magic: the Gathering. An unfortunate byproduct of the Classic Cube is that it is daunting for a casual or even new MTG player to try to tackle and what results is a very small collection of people play with us currently.

What I want is the exact opposite, a Cube that I can pull out with Matt and have him not be put off by the fear of cards he doesn't recognize and mechanics from later sets. I want simple 2/2 creatures for three mana to be the standard in other words. It's fun for my consistent play group to find situations where there's an Adarkar Valkarie, Rorox Bladewing, Ancient Silverback, Malfagor, etc on the board, but new players simply don't know how to calculate their moves in that situation.

If you Cube draft with me enough, you will hear me at one point talk about how I wish there were the same pools of cards available in the earlier sets as there are in the later sets. I've tried my best to support aggro as much as possible without dwindling the size of my cube (currently +700 cards), but the reality is that I wouldn't be able to do that without including some amazing cards from newer sets. And everytime I order cards from newer sets, I cringe as if I'm somehow betraying the sets I grew up playing in middle school. After all, I started the Cube because I wanted to get people playing with those old cards again. Well, the only hard rule I'm going to work from is that all cards will come from the Onslaught block and earlier. This cuts off from Mirodin and beyond.

Just so that my stance is clear, Mirodin and Kamigawa blocks were the two single worst blocks of magic ever created. Mirodin brought affininity decks to standard and extended. Kamigawa was simply the worst art, flavor, and mechanics ever created. These blocks represent a turning point to me where Magic was just not fun. Ironically, the Kamigawa block was when I started getting back into casually playing magic with some high school friends, and thank god I was able to stick with it because that set was god awful.

So the first round of cards have been added to the spreadsheet. I'm hoping that we can have our first pool of playable cards by Christmas of this year so that I can take it home and play with Matt. :)

The Classic Cube: Making Aggro Viable

Since the start of the Cube, tempo and control style decks have dominated for one obvious reason: the most memorable cards in Magic: The Gathering support these categories. Some cards that come to mind as the best cards in the cube include Wrath of God, Balance, Bribery, Sinkhole, Mind . What often gets neglected when you focus on these are the not so interesting one and two drop creatures that make the aggro style decks viable. My current push for the cube is to make the aggro style decks a popular and competitive choice that punishes those people who think that Bribery will always win a game.

Here are some measurements that I'm working on in an upcoming changelist:

• White, green, red, and black will all have C/S ratios greater than 1.6
• Shift the CMC curve for  from 1:1:1:1:1 to 3:2:2:2:1
• Explicitly state and modify the cards to support the following decks styles per color:
• White: aggro, tempo, and control
• Green: aggro and tempo
• Red: aggro
• Black: tempo and control
• Blue: control

Blue is really the only exception to this post. I do not expect that the color will change besides enough additions to the pool to match both the total cards and the approval rating of other colors.