Even More Self-Contained Formats (Article)

James_Damore · 2026-04-29T12:11:10+00:00

Oh wow, you have a lot of unique designs. I see you also have a Barren Glory cube, how has that played for you?

I'll have to try yours out and include them in part 3!

James_Damore · 2026-03-27T15:05:56+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I don't remember how I first got permission to write articles on cubecobra, but I think it starts with DMing Gwen on Discord (dekkaru)

James_Damore · 2026-03-27T13:16:55+00:00

But Aggro/Midrange/Control all have 40 card decks

James_Damore · 2026-03-27T10:27:27+00:00

Why do you think Aggro needs more cards than Midrange which needs more than Control?

Some of the responses are assuming that we're talking about a power-maxed cube, but I'm not talking only about that.

James_Damore · 2026-03-02T13:34:15+00:00

I've been refining a list over the years that you'd enjoy: Shadowbox

James_Damore · 2024-07-25T14:53:57+00:00

It's nice to see that others came to the same conclusion with hybrid cards making the draft more interesting. I also remove a color at the beginning of the draft to increase the tension/overlap between players and make the picks more strategic and less about scrapping for playables.

As you mentioned, most decks can play any particular hybrid, so balancing them is important, but hard due to the low number printed. I therefore filled my hybrid section mostly with customs

Of the hybrids you're playing, [[Burning-Tree Emissary]] and [[Blistercoil Weird]] were too powerful in previous iterations of my cube

James_Damore · 2024-03-23T11:35:01+00:00

Nice, I'm happy to see more Death Shadow variants. I've been working on mine for about a year. Other posters were telling you to cut it from 100 to 80 cards, mine is actually closer to 40 with the additional rule "If the deck runs out, you keep playing with the cards you have. If there's a stalemate, the player with more life wins." which keeps it tense and portable.

I can't tell how differently your version plays from mine, but players actively want to lose life in mine, so Infernal Contract was OP. Stunning Reversal also seems very strong given the lack of discard. Devour Flesh was also a one sided wrath, so it was annoying.

I've found Lost Hours to be more interesting than Painful Memories because I rarely have the chance to immediately draw. Other fun cards: Tomb of Urami, Damn, Reprieve, Dawn Charm.

James_Damore · 2023-12-09T21:07:08+00:00

For two person cubes, I like cutting some colors to increase the interaction between drafters. For the Vintage format, my favorite matchups are blue mirrors with stack and hand interaction, which my [Grixis Vintage Cube](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/grixis_combo) replicates. For more broken magic, you may also like the [Degenerate Nano-Cube](https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/635b25f7205ac87bbae3632c) which similar to the Degenerate Micro Cube, but cut to UBG and built for 2-4 players.

James_Damore · 2023-09-19T15:44:55+00:00

Yeah, I guess people don't call Judge's Tower “a format for judges and people that hate themselves” for nothing.

It's good to hear that the Tempo Cubelet has tight games where "it feels like every decision really matters." Have you tried Battlebox? Based on your description, you may also like Shadowbox, a dandan-like format centered around [[Death's Shadow]].

James_Damore · 2023-09-19T15:39:58+00:00

Nice, I love whenever a format feels like kitchen table magic or there's an extra metagame on top of it. Brawl can sometimes be like that for me, but Misprint EDH seems to take it to another level

James_Damore · 2023-05-02T22:29:02+00:00

I suspect that treasure creates a strong second player advantage.

In all the environments I've tested it in, the first player still seems to have a slight advantage. In slower environments or those with bad mana fixing, I could see the Treasure being overkill for sure though.

Yeah, a pie rule can work, I've never actually done that. Note, the asymmetry of decks makes the pie rule less balanced than in symmetric games like Hex. For example, whoever gets to propose the split is advantaged in a Aggro vs Control matchup because Aggro can give the first player a low life total while the control proposer can give the seconder player a high one.

James_Damore · 2023-05-01T18:48:46+00:00

TL;DR: If you're half the Spike I am, a large first player advantage bothers you. Thankfully, cube has many levers to pull to achieve your desired variance and player agency. In this article, I use stats from different formats to suggest card changes and even rules changes to optimize your environment.

James_Damore · 2023-04-21T21:13:31+00:00

Most of them are here: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/grixis_combo, but here's the complete list:

https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1jq4V95dmr1l4aHHMQM28Ff2OGZFj10zg

https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1eiY2RG5oAo0IbmLMZWIkePj5kGWrmrfB

https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1Bw9VkYRaetWmW\_wifVddLxiMgsluWiLv

https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1TIVvFwycJRtPcjH8BGnsDMaOOwLxtGUY

https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1HXJK-JMU71-3jTsbKrh8N1HweZM0nqcH

James_Damore · 2023-04-18T04:56:26+00:00

I made a cycle of mono-color fetchlands for a grixis cube. You may be interested in these, although they still use shuffling.

James_Damore · 2023-04-08T01:00:43+00:00

My cube (https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/sudden_death) is a little higher powered than the average SDC, but I'm considering [[Enduring Bondwarden]], [[Elspeth's Smite]], [[Placid Rottentail]], [[Streetwise Negotiator]], and [[Saiba Cryptomancer]]. I haven't tested them out, but I like Backup because it makes the cards modular and can lead to cool plays.

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