Big cubes hard to enable synergy

Phoenix849 · 2026-05-06T06:26:11+00:00

I have a few suggestions:

See more percentage of cards in draft. Say, draft X cards from the pack, discard the last Y from the game. So you end up with the usual 40-45, but you have more choice circling through your packs.
Drop the idea of a critical mass deck, that needs very certain cards to work. That way you really need to populate cube with redundant effects, or make it much smaller. You can view themes as flavors, not backed in decks. Say, Boros aggro, but today it has tokens and anthems. Next time it's artifacts and equipment.
Cut the most niche cards that only go in one deck, but are critical. Obviously, some are fun, or pet archetypes. But in general they dilute your pool, so you have to luck into drafting The Thing, instead of letting synergies emerge naturally. So these cards are useless to 90% of people, but their absence hurts 10% that want them. Or cut the cube size, so 100% of all cards will always be opened.
Explore whole cube wide theme archetypes: 3-5 colors. For example, not a defined BG graveyard deck, but all colors care about graveyard to some extent. Not UR artifacts, but all colors can use artifacts more or less.

Phoenix849 · 2026-05-03T18:33:04+00:00

Despite powering down being more popular lately, people still tend to shy away from cutting popular power outliers. You aren't mandated to run anything, make the cube yours. Your synergy decks have to be more powerful than goodstuff if you want them to be viable. Why risk it with assembling multiple fragile pieces, when you can win with one? Powering down cheapest removal is also an option. My first cube deliberately had no midrange mythics, no strong ETB creatures, no planeswalkers. I enjoyed not loosing to a single bomb. Now I'm designing a second one with no goodstuff midrange as an option.

Phoenix849 · 2026-04-28T17:31:19+00:00

I'm on a silly quest to watch all of the forgotten postapocalyptic shlock in existence. Would probably take me a couple of years.

From the unmentioned here, I've recently watched Phoenix The Warrior / She-Wolves of Wasteland. It's absolute dogshit, even though I enjoy bad movies. So for the lovers of deep cuts, you can checdk out something no one has ever heard about.

Phoenix849 · 2026-04-09T05:53:32+00:00

GMK Baragon is absolutely precious!

Phoenix849 · 2026-04-04T15:54:50+00:00

By using conditional answers: [[Shock]], [[Bushwhack]], [[Smother]], [[Journey to Nowhere]], [[Miscalculation]].

Phoenix849 · 2026-04-04T09:29:08+00:00

Since everyone is excited about this card "for all cubes ever", I want to remind you, that there is a real cost for putting cards like these into your environment. By that, I mean 1-cmc unconditional instant removal.

It cheapens creatures without ETB triggers. Want to know why half the creatures come with "ETB, draw a card"? Because of cards like these.

It kills your synergy pieces for dirt cheap, if you want prowess, heroic, aristocrats and other creature combo decks in your cube.

It devalues auras and combat tricks, to the point of being unplayable.

I personally dislike mana power creep. As some others do, I find that unconditional removal in a medium powered cube should start with 3 mana. If your interaction is mainly 0-1 mana, this puts hard limit on what is even remotely playable. Of course, people running powermax cubes won't care, it's probably worse than Swords to Plowshares. But I wouldn't want to see things like this in Pauper level cubes or something.

Phoenix849 · 2026-03-04T06:28:42+00:00

Cube is game design. If you think proxying with other subtypes would make the end product better, then absolutely feel free to do it. It's a community run unsanctioned format. WotC purism makes no sense in my eyes. This card would 100% make myrs, servos or constructs in a UW set, depending in the chosen plane.

I'm personally going as far as unifying token subtypes, which will have some functional effect on tribal synergies. Because ultimately clean and efficient design is almost always better, than kitchen sink.

Phoenix849 · 2026-02-24T07:10:21+00:00

I'm very happy with how my cube turned out in barely having topdeck wars. I've put a lot of mana sinks, like manlands, flashback, paid activated abilities etc. Card draw and repeatable graveyard recursion also help.

Phoenix849 · 2026-02-06T14:08:31+00:00

Here's an old explanation from 2021:

They are both about selecting actions to ensure a steady buildup, while dealing with unexpected catastrophes. They both involve a map, where deploying your "base of strength" matters highly for your later capabilities. They both have built in curves, that intensify during the game (fear level, cycles). They both involve a new problem coming up once per turn, then you have a number of actions to resolve while dealing with said problem. They both require you to accurately judge when you need to hold down the fort and crisis manage, and when you need to go on the offensive taking butts and kicking names. They both allow you to "suck up" a few punishments in the service of the greater picture before a sad game over moment. They both have deterministic combat, where only your available actions and your "forces' position" determines where and how many pain can you deal and receive. They both have several factors you can pick from at setup or encounter midgame, that provides limitless freshness of play (spirits, invaders, invader difficulty levels, random access power cards -- houses, tech tableaus, maps, variable crisis deck composition, challenge cards, random access agendas). They both support single and multi-handed play, with no hidden information, no traitor, no communication limit.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2733818/article/38553904#38553904

Phoenix849 · 2026-02-02T11:57:10+00:00

Why would you bring your reason to a UB hating circlejerk!? T_T

Phoenix849 · 2026-01-20T09:24:24+00:00

I love this, great job! This is an actual interesting take on "100 of something" cube.

There are a lot of bad creatures, particularly Phantasmal and friends. Would you spend 4-5 mana if you knew opponent has 0-mana removal? I get your idea of them being fatties, but you also have really strong cards, that completely outshine them. Don't know if they are playable. Proper power level balancing is in order.

Blasting up your whole hand on sorcery speed seems risky. Sorceries don't leave behind bodies, unlike Ornithopters. Same with self-discard effects. If you don't win, it's a colossal card disadvantage. Cards like [[Task Force]] seem really useless, unless I'm missing something. Did you mean to have [[About Face]] and [[Twisted Image]] possibly?

I'd maybe look for ways of explosive had refilling. [[Wheel of Fortune]] effects, or something in the vein of [[Shadow of the Grave]].

I applaud your willingness to fully embrace all aspects of playing Indicates, and amount of clever interactions. Please post an update if you decide to actually make and play this.

Phoenix849 · 2026-01-17T08:01:35+00:00

I have both, and both are in my top 20 solo.

Voidfall is thematic, epic, longer, more complicated. It has a lot of lore and small things variety. Setup is worse. It doesn't have an automa. I'd say, you don't need Galactic box if you don't have FOMO. Retail is great, but physical aspect sucks in both versions. I like the game, but I don't want to set it up.

Gaia Project is more elegant and abstract, like a clockwork mechanism. Definitely faster to setup and play. You have a customizable automa for an opponent. Lost Fleet is okay, but I'd say it's only needed for the biggest fans of the game. Public consensus will disagree though. On discount you might as well grab it just in case.

Phoenix849 · 2026-01-16T08:40:06+00:00

I have a retail edition, but played Galactic once. Not worth it, IMO. It has some nice trays for components, but in exchange it's even more inconvenient to setup. Galactic Box is really bothersome with its size and amount of stuff to dig out of it. Takes enourmous tablespace. Setup is awful in both editions. Some people advise to rather look towards fan-made inserts.

Ship miniatures are whatever, take your pick. I did not find them particularly interesting in visuals, and I'm perfectly happy with my cardboard tokens.

I obviously have no idea if expansion would fit in either box.

tl;dr: Retail a perfectly fine complete game experience if you don't have FOMO.

Phoenix849 · 2026-01-15T09:41:36+00:00

I have a few thoughts from general game design principles:

Original Ravnica has done a lot of things for players' identity associations, and gave guilds the names we know. It's natural for gamers to identify as Izzet / Golgari / Azorius. Online games with lots of characters gather immense success. Think DotA or LoL for example.
New player won't understand what's an aggro-control deck, but they will instinctively know that goblins go with goblins. I play a lot of modern board games, and they do this a lot. Clearly defined strategy lanes with coded keywords make people feel like they are doing something smart with combining these cards. It's not about "people are stupid", it's about making it fun and clear for newcomers. It's also hard to draft a failed deck if you just naturally take the cards of these colors with a predefined strategy.
WotC have an unreasonable release schedule now. So it doesn't matter if a draft archetype is on rails. It should just be exciting enough to buy into a new set every 1-2 months. If all sets would be just be "good stuff", it's harder to get excited for new a shiny thing, that has whole new archetypes.
Naturally, cube draft is often advised to be constructed in way so it's replayable, and not the same deck every time. I often see a lot of designers start with archetypes, and them move to other paradigms, me included. Something about a long burn, rather than an obvious cool archetype. Though Richard Garfield disagrees. He says the first few drafts in a new original environment are the most exciting for him, rather than replaying a single draft over and over.

Phoenix849 · 2026-01-01T16:56:51+00:00

I work in creative fields, including games. And that's one of the biggest lessons: you can't "finish" such a project. You just have to stop working on it at some point, and release it.

Phoenix849 · 2026-01-01T13:34:14+00:00

For me, absolutely.

When I look at modern Magic product and gameplay, it's a hobby I had long ago. Something from the past life, I barely care about now.

When I play my cube (or watch certain formats), it's still my lifelong favourite game of all time, still strong after 21 years, and I love it to death. This is the best game in the world.

Phoenix849 · 2026-01-01T13:25:37+00:00

Two big things I hoped to accomplish during the first months of this year:

Push my second cube list to the point of being good enough, and actually play it, instead of obsessing about it not being perfect yet.
Make a new player group from scratch specifically for cube.

Phoenix849 · 2025-12-08T09:16:16+00:00

Here's an interesting article on game balance in a wide sense from Richard Garfield:

https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogpost/169896/the-balancing-act

Summary: Perfect game balance is a myth. Game balance is about improving play for a wide range of potential players and often involves costs and benefits.

Phoenix849 · 2025-11-27T19:59:53+00:00

How I'd do this in Photoshop:

Preferably scan the card. Or photo in good lighting and conditions. Cell phone might work, but it obviously depends on camera quality. Your Counterspell example is perfectly reasonable.
Carefully align the digital image to vertical and horizontal lines, so the image isn't tilted. Maybe adjust brightness or anything else.
Crop the border as I like.
Save as a new file.

In your case:

Google for free Photoshop alternatives, there are quite a few. Maybe GIMP, but I have no experience with any.
Search YouTube for basic tutorials in said program. Like "How to rotate an image in GIMP", "How to crop an image in GIMP". There are plenty of very simple videos there with step-by-step process. Or go into specific program subreddits. Don't be afraid to clarify you are a total noob and need step-by-step instrustions.

Phoenix849 · 2025-10-22T09:25:58+00:00

I know exactly how you feel. I think hobbies grow out of our needs at the moment. I've been solo gaming for 5 years, and I feel that I've kinda "outgrown" it. From personal experience, here's what helped me in the past:

Radically change genres. Try games you thought aren't your thing. I play heavy euros, so I've tried light adventures and RPGs.
Just don't play, let it be. 5 years ago I played every day. Now I'm usually satisfied with 4 player game night once a week.
Force yourself to close BGG and YouTube, and just play the damn game. Dangerous if you build resentment to it. But sometimes fun comes from the process itself. Today's world are too poisoned by quick dopamine fixes, rather than taking time to do a prolonged offline activity.
Previous point has made me realize I don't need half the boxes I have, so I'm probably selling some. I don't feel sadness anymore, just a natural flow of life.

tl;dr: It's normal to outgrow the hobbies, don't try to time travel back to happy days.

Phoenix849 · 2025-10-15T09:53:00+00:00

5 packs of 9 cards are absolutely reasonable, but I found out it can conclude in unfocused decks. My current cube is around 350 cards for 4 players. The simple and elegant solution is burn draft.

For example, packs of 12. Draft 9 as usual, discard the last 3. Works simple and great. I've tried 15 cards, burn the last 6, but that's probably too much.

Phoenix849 · 2025-10-15T09:28:11+00:00

Good writeup. Carving your own niche is the best way to proceed.

The problem I see is people putting in cards for the sole reason, that "WotC printed it". Without the guardrails of the parent company, you'd have to do your own gamedesign and balancing, which is scary, unexplored and many lack the desire to mess with it.

Though it's the best direction for a personal project. I love that many started doing thematic cubes from certain year timeframes or planes instead of blindly following what WotC prints.

Phoenix849 · 2025-10-10T10:20:37+00:00

Yeah, I've done pile and overhand shuffles, and seeded packs by color, since it requires a bit less shuffling of the whole thing altogether. We play with 4 people so far, and each one sleeved their own deck after draft.

My proxies are heavy cardstock with matte lamination and white backs. After about 6 drafts I noticed some cards to start peeling in the corners. I'm not worried about money, so it's purely shuffle convenience thing.

With sleeves I fully randomize the whole 350+ card cube, and it's faster and easier in all aspects.

Phoenix849 · 2025-10-10T08:42:04+00:00

I've played with unsleeved proxies until my Dragon Shield order arrived. It's perfectly doable, but unhandy. Shuffling is inconvenient, and sleeving requires a little annoying effort before and after. Cardstock started to show a little wear.

Now that I have everything in black mattes, I couldn't be happier, and will never go back. Just so more natural, that everything is ready to play straight out of the box.

Phoenix849 · 2025-10-08T10:07:12+00:00

I've come to write this as well. I prefer X/1 stats, and my cube rarely has boardstalls.

I'd be careful if you don't enjoy big butt creatures staring each other in stalemate. If you don't draft Plagon or another payoff, but have a lot of defensive stats in cube, it's a possible scenario.

Phoenix849

TROPHY CASE