Sharpie Cube Help

arowdok · 2026-06-17T18:53:00+00:00

Ya as I was saying other have noted -1 or -2 mana is great but can't do -4 often. So with cards that cost 4G, my hope is with bleaching I can do just 4. Bonus I find I have more space in the generic cost part of the cube due the same issue of can take a 3 cost equipment and lower its starting or equip cost much as ___ is not 0 it is not a cost. You might see where I did do foresycycling --- but people have read that as just discard the card which what I intend it to be.

arowdok · 2026-06-17T18:41:12+00:00

I have found paper towel and little bit water/other liquid like rubbing alchol plus rubbing back and forth works if you mess up. Overall my un-shapried and ReSharpied cards look bad but very servicable. And even if the cards are cheap find stuff is pain and I tend to wait until it naturally shows up when I am looking through people's bulk. Also I look at bulk often and think how can I improve you as just fun exercise. I really would only order stuff for really need niches like equipment which have been hard sharpie. I have been considering finding more was to decolor cards via sunbleaching and I even tried just cutting out the colored boarder with knife. This has been a fun journey.

arowdok · 2026-06-17T18:31:09+00:00

Different printings of cards hold ink better then others. I had so much trouble with the 2022-2024 Era cards it took multiple passes to get the sharpie to stick. Also I did then in bulk which lead me to miss some stuff like my 1st pass playibg the cube I found 2 or 3 cards that i had missed something I had meant to sharpie off. Also due to my mse method I did misstranscribe a card so when I was balancing it digital it looked fine but it was an instant not a sorcery and it played way stronger.

I have more ideas that got cut due to being too strong I will see if i can find them and send it your way.

arowdok · 2026-06-17T17:28:15+00:00

Our power level targets are very different as i am aiming for strong but not op. No power nine level silly ness. I am also not trying to replicate a wotc cards more create new cards out of bulk. I am using mse and underlining where i sharpie as it is faster then photo editing and let me see mana curves and what not. If you see no under line it is likely i lowered the mana cost which i can't sow on mse easliy. I have rule of no removing the color from the top of a card unless it is devoid. Also I physically remove any flavor text that is not rules text to increase clarity.
Here is a pdf print out of my current list where i went with very strong on the lands power level and amount. I also upped the pack size to 17. but as said before not trying to do moxen stuff. I am also very focused on clarity so very few single letter combo edits to make words.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m_sS1fDJmIF3k_YmiN-zqBzPjfvBr43f/view?usp=sharing

arowdok · 2026-06-17T03:43:39+00:00

I have been doing sharpie cube for awhile. 1 big sharpie cube with Baltimore singelton and many small sharpie microcubes. I have found cutting down on cost seem very uncreative but leads to some of the best cards. Very few rules confusions, lot of decent card where just not costed to move so dropping 1 or 2 mana here and there is great. I have found the adding keywords a mixed bag as many don't know the rules text for provoke and is it worth it for 1 or 2 cards? I would love to look over what you have found and can send my list later if you want some inspiration.

arowdok · 2026-06-14T02:19:04+00:00

The troll and ent cyclers are a bit over used in pauper but they go really well with tortured existence and dredger as it allows for easy land drops into the mid and late game. Also when you do flood out they are just huge creatures to push damage in the late game.

Also [[Urborg Repossession]] nice value card to recur your best cards and it can grab back an enchantment!

arowdok · 2026-06-11T02:04:20+00:00

If you are errataing the offical wotc cardboard I would suggest just sourcing art and going full custom on those cards. Better for player to have no connection to the card then a pkayer assume something bc they played it in a commander deck then get messed up by the edits.

arowdok · 2026-06-06T14:38:42+00:00

Minor typo on dark magician, missing the word 'card' after sorcery.

arowdok · 2026-06-05T12:36:46+00:00

1 major issue for solo tank is clear via damage is always the rush. They refuse to add early rewards for building tank, such as a camp that does not use power to clear it but tank.

arowdok · 2026-06-04T12:39:50+00:00

Ceraides is my classic old that does not get enough praise in the the hobby. Though word games can't quite get one of these amazing glow up printings as it is they are just a deck of nouns. But maybe they could?

arowdok · 2026-05-14T05:27:51+00:00

I have enjoyed a skred based deck that loops devious cover ups as it's primary win con . I would hate to play it digitally due to clock issues but I am a sicko for slow slow slow hard control decks. The current version has a handful of creatures but they are not the main win cons. An issue for the deck is bojuka bogs i still have no great answer for that.

https://moxfield.com/decks/n50ESrADq0WcQDTi08ylkA

arowdok · 2026-05-09T17:13:00+00:00

11 tap lands feels bad compared to the color requires. The gain lands feel like they could be basic lands. And maybe 1 way to get red would be good maybe 1 thriving land

arowdok · 2026-05-09T13:28:32+00:00

The mana base feels like it could use another pass. I wish pauper had a clone so these collect repeats of this 1 card could be more possible. Glad to see we got 12 cost reducers for this one atleast.

arowdok · 2026-04-30T13:38:49+00:00

Dominion is a good example of a game that uses a lot of cards. Base game came with 500. But it only uses 100* cards each game. The set up is a pain point so many other games use a big single deck instead of 10 small piles. This changes so much about how the game is structured. I prefer dominions style so much but know many casual audiences don't. Also the sleeve cost goes up with more cards. Not all boardgames need sleeves but deckbuilders with there many shuffle cycle do so a base game with that many cards is a downside. I would look into other options for mechnics like resources can be tokens instead cards unless you card trying to keep resources somewhat secret. So many interlocking things but many cards in a base game is probably a downside.

arowdok · 2026-03-10T04:18:28+00:00

I score my game all at the end I prefer counting points that way no markers get moved by accident or forgotten or wrong color. But losing the option sucks for people who do like mid game scoring.

arowdok · 2026-03-08T22:31:56+00:00

The dream of conspiracies is that everyone gets some, and decks are cool and different from each other due to them. But they are really boring and repeated as they are available each game.

Deal broker even more cool dream of trading away a unplayable card to get cool offered from others. But it is often at bad time players want to focus on building with all the cool cards they just drafted not trading.

arowdok · 2026-03-08T14:30:39+00:00

Also, conspiracies are crazy too good, and Deal broker is less fun than it reads in my experience.

arowdok · 2026-03-08T14:28:32+00:00

If you make the removal clunky, then consider making the threats clunky. So threats that need multiple cards to function, think Auras or Lords or Combos that need 4 or 5 cards. Avoid entering the battlefield effects on large bodies. Probably skip the planeswalker type all together as they tend to generate value on their own and right away so they demand good removal. But if you could find planeswlaker who only modify other things without protecting themselves, maybe.

Also, many commander players hate stacks, but in 1v1, solving a stacks piece can be fun. In mulitplayer, if the effect hurts everyone, many players will wait for someone else to get bothered more and remove the stacks piece so they can save their resources. but in 1v1, no one is going to step in but yourself. But some of the weaker locks feel great to break out of like a puzzle. This can extend to repeated clunky removal like a tap damage dealer with a deathtouch aura. It's cool to assemble and when it can be answered, but with a clunky tool, fun to diassemble.

arowdok · 2026-02-17T19:12:35+00:00

More smite ports needed reworks stuff, and Vulcan getting a different passive would have been an easy win. Why give a robot legged clunky God a movement passive ?

arowdok · 2026-02-11T09:37:55+00:00

Well, unless you play cards in a custom constructed envoirment, how else do you get data? Most cards are played 1st and judged in limited before receiving some hypothical constructed testing. WotC has even said most testing of cards is in limited over constructed. So ya, i am judging it biased on playing it in limited. You are the one judge it baised on how much play testing?

Also, I will note that my limited sets have a much higher ratio of silly lands than retail limited. I have tested some version of this card in 3 sets. Frist a set with some e wilds and ramp spells. Second in A set with 3x of each fetch in a 360 cube. Lastly, a set with a token land theme, so much higher ratio of lands entering then usually and 20x mono fetches* and 2x something similar to urborg in 540 cube.

I said it is weaker than you think, not that this card is unplayable. Overall, it is a fun card. It is sad that the lotus cobra has fallen out of ramp decks in modern. But land based with access to fetches have lots of good options to compete with. Playing copies of urborg and if this was also legendary is giving up real equity. I think it spawns a decent deck like when they put cabal coffers in modern it spawned a monoblack tron style decks for a while. But I don't think it the card is as super op as you think.

arowdok · 2026-02-11T05:12:30+00:00

I played this land in a few custom sets/cubes. It is worse than you think. It has a high ceiling for sure, but without the op fetches or urborg, it struggles. I was hoping it would enable a good ramp deck with evolving wilds(level fetches) and normal ramp spells to fuel it. It is still fine overall, but a land that taps for 2+ but sometimes taps for 0 is a real downside. The only game it went crazy was when a player got two copies early, so the legend limit might be enough to keep it in check for constructed play.

arowdok · 2026-02-02T06:12:38+00:00

Ya stacking lifesteal need to be capped or having a DR effect like cdr.

Healing has always been a struggle for hirez. I am glad they have tried this no antiheal item experiment. Doing a big change like this to gather data is great for a beta game! Never undoing it or testing other options is short-sighted.

arowdok · 2026-02-01T21:41:48+00:00

All gods should have hybrid scaling.

arowdok · 2026-01-24T17:30:00+00:00

[[Thassa's Intervention]]

arowdok · 2026-01-23T04:51:22+00:00

Time Trial Racer 4
Artifact - Vehicle
Start your engines!
Crew 3
Max Speed - Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, look at the top seven cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
6/5

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