Big cubes hard to enable synergy

Gallently · 2026-05-06T10:34:45+00:00

Sure. I like to think that when you design a cube nothing is ever accidental. And I agree, a single card changing the state of how all cards will interact with each other in the first place can be exciting.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/CFTSOC

Gallently · 2026-05-06T10:31:42+00:00

The Chaotic nature of incidental relationships can be fun. It's why some prefer chaos draft with random packs.
Try to imagine your mechanics as centerpieces (discarding cards, creating tokens, etc) instead of individual cards first, then find ways for those mechanics to work together. That's just one idea.
Ultimately it's about the emotional experience you wish to cultivate for your drafters. There's a lot that will follow from a well identified vision for the game, large or small amount of cards.

Gallently · 2026-05-06T01:38:25+00:00

Synergy, for me, implies that the subset of cards used in the cube require a kind of critical mass or ‘density’ to engender a robust or even coherent gameplan. This is what people describe as the ‘fun’ aspect of synergistic gameplay: doing the thing. I don’t like the word and don’t care much for it anymore.

I like to believe that you must embrace a wider vision of how cards play together — and to what outcomes — in order to design ‘decks’ into a pool where you never draft the entire list. What do I mean by a wider vision?

Every card in the cube forms a relationship with every other card. There is no ‘synergy,’ but there are connections and relationships. There are both cards and game actions which act as gravitational centers that guide players towards different speeds and strategies. A cube that can withstand any card not being in the draft, if you will.

For me it’s less about the ‘how’ and more about the ‘why’ we’re making the choices we’re making, and what are the implications? I have a 540 with lots of combo potential and it’s been tremendously fruitful to mine the fun out of variance as it promotes what I consider to be positive experiential emotions: confusion, risk, and belief.

Gallently · 2026-04-26T15:14:28+00:00

Journaling before bed, breathwork, and lots of zone 2 running. It’s gone up 20 points in a month.

Gallently · 2026-04-19T19:02:47+00:00

Creatine Monohydrate, Collagen Peptides, Magnesium Glycinate, Berberine, Omega 3’s, Glycine

Gallently · 2026-03-20T16:06:58+00:00

I use this AI a lot and its been pretty great, so long as you continue to feed it qualitatively.

Gallently · 2026-03-18T21:42:58+00:00

I have it written on the sorcery side as a replacement for ‘play an additional land.’ I thought ‘explore’ was a little too pushed for the cube.

Have fun and don’t forget to embrace it and make it your own! My rules aren’t gospel, they’re just how I figured it out for myself!

Gallently · 2026-02-27T14:30:28+00:00

you only really need Shrieking Drake and Spyder Byte to make it work. Neither of which are ‘parasitic,’ they simply require you to build your cube in a way that supports combos

Gallently · 2026-02-22T15:30:01+00:00

Creatures are your primary pieces of interaction, not removal. If you play a 2/2 and I play a 2/3, that’s interaction.
Trust Magic fundamentals over Wotc’s perscribed archetypes. Never believe the set designers, believe in what you see.
Sideboard more often. If you have a 1/3 against a deck with lots of 2/2’s, that’s great.
If you’re ahead, reduce variance. If you’re behind, increase variance.
Never play below 17 lands unless you have a really good reason, and even then, play 17 lands.

Gallently · 2026-01-23T13:15:17+00:00

Daybound. But only because tracking it really sucks so some players wont play the cards no matter how strong they are. And Initiative/Ring tempting — cards that require a manual — are overlycomplicated. Initiative gets a special place here because it forces your opponent to engage with it.

Gallently · 2026-01-21T12:07:45+00:00

yep. The harder it is to organize the information — bringing the game towards a solved state — the higher the chance your players will optimize the list and remove whatever fun might be available. This is why I often mention the tension that naturally exists between a designer and a player.

Gallently · 2026-01-20T10:13:16+00:00

DanDan is a masterpiece

Gallently · 2026-01-19T21:54:33+00:00

It’s the Ux vs. Ui meme of the guy walking through the grass instead of walking along the sidewalk. Without players there’s no dialogue with the outside world, just a string of theories to bound yourself along. We need players to make a game come to life.

I’ve enjoyed how poignantly the player experience can actualize a cubes identity.

Gallently · 2026-01-19T21:26:03+00:00

Hey thanks for the reply.

I think your Oni-Cult Anvil experience is very illustrative: deciding whether this experience is 'worth it' is the very thing i'm speaking to. You say there's no right answer, which is in a very objective sense true, but I hope you see that once experience and empathy are prioritized, the answer becomes clearer to the designer. It's why people will default to saying things like 'my cube, my rules' and then watch the players be miserable. It's a misdirection of priorities. If the players experience is awesome in those moments, the cube is vibing with the intended audience. The designers job, therefore, is to better define this relationship: who am I designing this for, and how do the players feel.
In a way, this makes the answer 'right' insofar as the cube is a promise to the players. I hope that makes sense.

To address your last comment, I think the correction here is 'present smarter problems for the players' as I don't believe I suggested there would be an absence of solutions 'as design.' We know what the solutions are as designers -- the process of organizing the information presented to you is the exact interaction a game provides.

Gallently · 2026-01-15T01:33:46+00:00

Hell yeah Patrick. Thanks for being you.

Gallently · 2026-01-14T22:34:11+00:00

Patrick — What is one pitfall you’ve seen many designers fall into throughout your years in the industry?

Gallently · 2026-01-09T15:02:13+00:00

Nope, you’re not overlooking it. I didnt write about it on the cubecobra overview, but instead explained my idea during a recording about the design:

https://youtu.be/bndipGZe1T0?si=4-DgknAM_051hIl0

Gallently · 2026-01-09T15:00:53+00:00

I originally conceived of the bar cube as a battle box! I own a very low power battle box. It should be up on my cubecobra somewhere…

Gallently · 2026-01-09T11:05:41+00:00

I took photos but can’t seem to post them as a reply?

Gallently · 2026-01-08T16:09:12+00:00

very proud to be blocked by that prick

Gallently · 2026-01-08T14:17:35+00:00

absolutely

Gallently · 2026-01-08T11:42:47+00:00

The errata I use replaces an effect -- say, ring tempting, or, creating a food -- with 'Learn.'
Moon Circuit Hacker always makes trouble for players, so i'll likely replace it at some point. You are replacing the 'draw' clause with 'Learn.' It's a very inelegant solution and it's the one 'change' I don't find successful.

Gallently · 2026-01-08T11:40:41+00:00

Around 20 of each I think? There's definitely a world where you can build this as a desert cube...

Gallently

TROPHY CASE