How Do You Make A Cube?

I want to make a cube (nothing fancy like Black Lotus, Dual Lands, and old, expensive cards) to play with my GF and her friends at college. They all want to draft, but it is tough to get them all to buy packs, because they need to go off campus rather far to buy cards. Hard to coordinate it all with such little time. I have very few rares, but I can drop some money on rares (again, nothing fancy or to expensive). I don't really have a theme for it, it's not going to be the best of the best or run dollar bin rares (which does sound fun tho) it's pretty much going to just be a spasmodic, scatter brain cube. I won't just be throwing cards together and saying 'Done' I will just grab how many cards I need, go over them and see if they are worthy (not to say I am picking the best of the best, I will just pick what works) to go in.

I already have 1000+ cards pulled aside to look over for my big deck (and still a few more boxes to go through ...) so I may just grab certain stuff from there. What I want to know is how big does a cube need to be? Does it follow the EDH rule of no doubles of non-basic lands? And any etc. info I may need to know.

Thanks for the help.

~Zuty

I few things most cubes have in common:

1. It should be the best of the best cards. That can obviously be scaled in a lot of ways ("power" or not, rares or just uncommons/commons, etc.). But the idea is all the cards should be good, at least in draft, probably beyond. The principle of the cube at the very least (for me) is "imagine you're drafting, but your 15th pick card is a first pick in some formats."

2. Only one of each card chosen.

3. Try to balance the colors as well as the creatures vs spells. Obviously, there are going to be more blue spells than creatures, and more green creatures than spells, but the other colors should balance pretty well.

4. Think fun. Fun cards, fun interactions.

As for size, remember for an 8-man draft, you need 360 cards. You can easily go up or down from that, but that's a minimum (mine's around 520, for the record). Check out my cube, James's cube, and cubes on other sites for ideas of what looks good. James's is all uncommon/common, and it's still really fun to play, so don't think rares are a necessity.

Does that help?

Slyphidine wrote:I few things most cubes have in common:

1. It should be the best of the best cards. That can obviously be scaled in a lot of ways ("power" or not, rares or just uncommons/commons, etc.). But the idea is all the cards should be good, at least in draft, probably beyond. The principle of the cube at the very least (for me) is "imagine you're drafting, but your 15th pick card is a first pick in some formats."

2. Only one of each card chosen.

3. Try to balance the colors as well as the creatures vs spells. Obviously, there are going to be more blue spells than creatures, and more green creatures than spells, but the other colors should balance pretty well.

4. Think fun. Fun cards, fun interactions.

As for size, remember for an 8-man draft, you need 360 cards. You can easily go up or down from that, but that's a minimum (mine's around 520, for the record). Check out my cube, James's cube, and cubes on other sites for ideas of what looks good. James's is all uncommon/common, and it's still really fun to play, so don't think rares are a necessity.

Does that help?

Thanks Dan, that really does help. It looks like your card count includes lands (non-basic), so I am going to have to figure out how big I want this and make it even across the board.

I won't have Sorrow's Path type cards in this, but I also won't have all the usual cards you guys have (like the original dual lands or moxes) in this either. I just can't afford it. I really do not have a theme, but it will have just cards I think are good that I can afford and hopefully this will evolve over time. Only issue I see is getting a hold of some non-basic lands that are good. I might try and look for the Tempest dual lands, they seem to be 1 to 2 bucks and I will toss in the storage lands, guild lands, and whatever else I can get my hands on for a few bucks.

~Zuty

EDIT: Duh, not thinking because it is so late. There are plenty of good non-basic lands I can grab that are uncommon (Coldsnap, TriLands from Alara, Lairs, Panoramas, Invasion Dual Lands, Refugees from Zen, etc...)

Don't forget the Ravnica block bounce lands which are a staple in all cubes.

Painlands (Brushland, Sulfurous Springs, etc.) are at an all time low, so they can be added without too much pain.

And (obviously) don't include basics in the draft. They get added just to build the deck, like in a real draft.

My non-rare lands include bouncelands and vivids (from Lorwyn).

Zuty, there are no rules to a cube, so if you want it to be more of a pauper's cube, then thats fine. My cube contains no rares. Yours could contain some, but be mostly uncommon/common. It will still be fun and competitive. A less rare cube could also be easier on inexperienced players also by being less combo-heavy and more about basic game play.

Good luck.

intrinsic wrote:Zuty, there are no rules to a cube, so if you want it to be more of a pauper's cube, then thats fine. My cube contains no rares. Yours could contain some, but be mostly uncommon/common. It will still be fun and competitive. A less rare cube could also be easier on inexperienced players also by being less combo-heavy and more about basic game play.

Good luck.

Yeah, I don't want this to be a cube where there are tons of combos going around or the best first pick cards in the entire game, I want them to be good, but not so good I am going to be selling an organ to buy it.

I was thinking of doing a pauper cube, uncommons and commons with 5-10 rares per color (and colorless, this does not include lands) and the rares would be good rares but not so good that I am dropping 20+ bucks on a single card. Like Arcanis the Omnipotent, (which looks like he is a few bucks, Magiccards.info may be wrong tho ... But that's how I price cards) Avatar of Discord, and Lotus Bloom (both of those last ones I have multiple pre-release copies of) cards that are good, but not so good that it breaks the bank.

~Zuty

Anyone know a place I can go that has boxes/binders of cards (both old and new) that are cheap? AU has a few of the things I need, but I really can't sit down with the binder and I have to grab the attention of the person working (they usually walk away and start playing Magic or WoW) to switch binders which irritated the one guy when I asked (x_o)

~Zuty

Your best bet for cheap quality is either Q-Mart in Quakertown, or Garden of Earthly Delights in NE Philly.

Though don't spend too much time at the Garden; that's MY place for ripping people off...

Slyphidine wrote:Your best bet for cheap quality is either Q-Mart in Quakertown, or Garden of Earthly Delights in NE Philly.

Though don't spend too much time at the Garden; that's MY place for ripping people off...

I'll have to stop by at both. I used to go to Rices Flea Market and there was a tent of old MTg cards there (Got a pack of Ice Age for a buck and pulled River of the Dead and they had a signed Mox Diamond, IDK for how much tho) Anyone go there or know if that tent is still there? They mostly had OLD stuff, but when Kami was out they had a box of it.

~Zuty

Zuty wrote:

intrinsic wrote:Zuty, there are no rules to a cube, so if you want it to be more of a pauper's cube, then thats fine. My cube contains no rares. Yours could contain some, but be mostly uncommon/common. It will still be fun and competitive. A less rare cube could also be easier on inexperienced players also by being less combo-heavy and more about basic game play.

Good luck.

Yeah, I don't want this to be a cube where there are tons of combos going around or the best first pick cards in the entire game, I want them to be good, but not so good I am going to be selling an organ to buy it.

I was thinking of doing a pauper cube, uncommons and commons with 5-10 rares per color (and colorless, this does not include lands) and the rares would be good rares but not so good that I am dropping 20+ bucks on a single card. Like Arcanis the Omnipotent, (which looks like he is a few bucks, Magiccards.info may be wrong tho ... But that's how I price cards) Avatar of Discord, and Lotus Bloom (both of those last ones I have multiple pre-release copies of) cards that are good, but not so good that it breaks the bank.

~Zuty

There are a ton of great, useful rares that are $5 or less. Take your time, and if you want suggestions Dan or will can give you plenty as we have both spent alot of time researching values of cards in our prospective cubes.
I work closely with a dealer who has access to LOTS of rares, especially when they arent the hottest of hot rares, just staple good cars, and im certain i can get you better pricing than what you typically find online, save for maybe ebay. If you put a list together and post it, ill direct him to your list and see what i can do.

intrinsic wrote:There are a ton of great, useful rares that are $5 or less. Take your time, and if you want suggestions Dan or will can give you plenty as we have both spent alot of time researching values of cards in our prospective cubes.
I work closely with a dealer who has access to LOTS of rares, especially when they arent the hottest of hot rares, just staple good cars, and im certain i can get you better pricing than what you typically find online, save for maybe ebay. If you put a list together and post it, ill direct him to your list and see what i can do.

Thanks. I will have to put together a list of cards I need or am interested in getting and post it here.

~Zuty

Chuck (the dealer in question) is really good about that stuff. As some of it is "bulk junk," I'm sure he would be able to get you what you need.

If you post a list of cards you want, I can definately find them for you pretty cheap, or free. Just post online and keep it up to date, and we will fill your cube out fast.

Looking through all my cards, I think I should start to think about making a cube. I originally made it so me and my ex and her friends could draft from it, but that won't be happening.

I am going to do a crap cube. It's gonna be cheaper cards (like 5 bucks tops for a single card) following poor man's rules of commons and uncommons only, but I will allow a few rares (mostly they will be the dollar bin "Why is this a rare card?" rares) and no mythics.

I'll have to look more into the making of a cube so I can figure out the breakdown of rarity, but it will consist of cheap cards from the newer sets. So I won't be going back to Homelands for any of these cards, I am going to start with Lorwyn up to Zen and once Scars of Mirrodin comes out I will kick out Lor and start going for Mirrodin. So the newest three sets, non mythics, a few rares (the dollar bin ones), and then the rest are commons and uncommons.

So I am going to start the rarity and color break down right now and then start looking over the cards I will need to get.
The break down will be like this:

Set X - R # / U # / B # / G # / W # / Colorless #

Since I am going from Lor to Zen, that means there are 10 sets and with 500 cards that means 50 cards from Lor, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, Eventide, Shards, Conflux, Reborn, Zen, WW, and RotE.
The amount per color will vary.

Sorry for writing this all out, its more of a reference for myself.
Any thoughts on this guys? Should I bother going ahead with it?

~Zuty

I wouldnt limit yourself to x cards per set, too constrictive. I would simply list the best cards available in the sets in question that fit your limits and narrow down those to the top 50 or so per color.

ROE provides an interesting twist that they are technically a new category of colorless spells.

intrinsic wrote:I wouldnt limit yourself to x cards per set, too constrictive. I would simply list the best cards available in the sets in question that fit your limits and narrow down those to the top 50 or so per color.

ROE provides an interesting twist that they are technically a new category of colorless spells.

Both good points.

I could do 5 rares, 15 Uncommons, and 30 Commons for each set. Of course, all of which under 5 bucks. I'll avoid the rare lands since they would fill the 5 rare slots to quickly.

ROE will be an interesting set to add. It's not an entire colorless set, but it has more then any other (non-artifact colorless I mean)

~Zuty