Today we are going to take a look at mana fixing and how I addressed it when crafting my cube. While there is quite a bit of color fixing in green and some in other colors as well today we are going to only look only at the non-color specific versions of fixing in my cube. If you wish to view the contents of my cube links are available on the side navigation to the full listings.
Below is a list of the current color fixers in my cube:
Mirage CIPT fetch land cycle
Bad River - swamp/island
Flood Plain - island/plains
Grasslands - plains/forest
Mountain Valley - forest/mountain
Rocky Tar Pit - mountain/swamps
Lorwyn vivid land cycle - 2 time mana fixer
Vivid Meadow
Vivid Crag
Vivid Creek
Vivid Grove
Vivid Marsh
Other Lands
Gemstone Caverns - Luck based but works better in a 40 card deck
Shimmering Grotto - mana fixing at the cost of tapping an extra land
Reflecting Pool - Helps fix issues where you need multiple of one type of mana
City of Brass - Fixing at the cost of life
Artifacts
Lotus Petal - One use fixing and acceleration
Expedition Map - Fetch the land you need
Elsewhere Flask - Fix to one color while removing all others
Prismatic Lens - Shimmering Grotto the artifact
Compared to most cubes, this is very limited color fixing. Many other cubes run as many as 30 mana fixing lands alone. They use the full cycles of rare pain, fetch, shock, and duel lands, etc. While in the future I plan on adding the cycle of 10 pain lands to my cube (once I get the five I am missing that is), one of my design goals of my cube was to make sure that people wouldn't be able to splash color using non-basic lands/artifacts alone. To complete this goal I started out with a small amount of color fixing to err on the side of caution. I plan on building on this foundation as I grow my cube beyond 360 cards however.
The correct amount of fixing for your cube is really a matter of preference of you and your other players. The more fixers you have the easier it is to splash colors for powerful spells and the more powerful the drafted decks will be. Finding a good balance may take a few drafts so feel free to experiment to find the amount that works for you. Keep in mind that most of the cards I have included in my cube are some of the weakest fixers that you can include.
Have any experience creating a mana base for a cube? Let us know what lands/cycles you have used in your cube in the comments.
Showing posts with label Crafting Your Cube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crafting Your Cube. Show all posts
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Crafting Your Cube: Guidelines
There are many things to take into consideration when you are coming up with the list for your cube. Before I started picking out any of my favorite cards to put into my cube list I wanted to have a lay down some guidelines to help me come up with my list.
1) All cards are legal
I knew that I didn't want to limit myself in anyway when constructing my cube. Some people like to create block, pauper, or even standard cubes. As I stated in a previous post, part of the reason why I created a cube was to make the most of my old favorite cards while still playing on an even playing ground with any other people I was playing with. I decided I wanted to take this one step further and not worry about any card banned/restriction statuses. All cards were fair game.
2) No Proxies
Many players proxy powerful cards such as the power nine in order to be able to draft some of the most powerful cards that have ever been printed. Personally I made the decision to only work with cards that I already had. Again, This was largely motivated by the desire to be playing with my favorite cards more so than trying to lower the power of card pool. That being said, I would gladly play those cards and many others if I had them.
Not using proxies also allows me to gradually buy singles in the deck and will allow me to keep growing my cube. Some people might not want to put down the money for more expensive cards and I completely understand that. It is really just an issue of personal preference.
3) Drafted Decks with Constructed Power Level
I was looking for a power level closer to a constructed type 2 deck rather than the usual power level of a drafted deck. This again is really a personal preference. For my first cube I really wanted to make things as powerful as I could while still following guideline #2.
I have also toyed around with the idea of making a cube made up of what I feel the worst cards in the game are. It would certainly be much cheaper than getting some of the cards I plan to acquire in the future, but this did not align itself with my original goals of making my cube so if I plan on ever using bad cards it will be for a separate cube entirely.
So with these guidelines in place I took the plunge and started selecting my cards. The first pick seemed like an easy enough choice to me. It was the first card that ever got me excited about playing blue: Man-O'-War
1) All cards are legal
I knew that I didn't want to limit myself in anyway when constructing my cube. Some people like to create block, pauper, or even standard cubes. As I stated in a previous post, part of the reason why I created a cube was to make the most of my old favorite cards while still playing on an even playing ground with any other people I was playing with. I decided I wanted to take this one step further and not worry about any card banned/restriction statuses. All cards were fair game.
2) No Proxies
Many players proxy powerful cards such as the power nine in order to be able to draft some of the most powerful cards that have ever been printed. Personally I made the decision to only work with cards that I already had. Again, This was largely motivated by the desire to be playing with my favorite cards more so than trying to lower the power of card pool. That being said, I would gladly play those cards and many others if I had them.
Not using proxies also allows me to gradually buy singles in the deck and will allow me to keep growing my cube. Some people might not want to put down the money for more expensive cards and I completely understand that. It is really just an issue of personal preference.
3) Drafted Decks with Constructed Power Level
I was looking for a power level closer to a constructed type 2 deck rather than the usual power level of a drafted deck. This again is really a personal preference. For my first cube I really wanted to make things as powerful as I could while still following guideline #2.
I have also toyed around with the idea of making a cube made up of what I feel the worst cards in the game are. It would certainly be much cheaper than getting some of the cards I plan to acquire in the future, but this did not align itself with my original goals of making my cube so if I plan on ever using bad cards it will be for a separate cube entirely.
So with these guidelines in place I took the plunge and started selecting my cards. The first pick seemed like an easy enough choice to me. It was the first card that ever got me excited about playing blue: Man-O'-War
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