Space Cube inaugural flight

My friend Tom came by yesterday with his Space Cube. If you haven't heard of it, check this link out:

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=274362

Tom was one of the people who worked on it, and only those people are able to get access to the source files for it. As a birthday present, someone had it printed for him, and we got to play a few games of it last night.

And it was (obviously) awesome.

The flavor is is dead-on and the artwork is gorgeous. The cards are high quality prints also. As a long-time Magic player, and cube enthusiast myself, I knew what all the cards did, but it was fun taking that two or three moments to translate it in my head. When I picked up Blightframe, I had to reread it a few times before realizing it was Batterskull.

We got to Winston last night, but I'd love to play a full-on draft of it at some point. Tom is mostly available on weekday evenings (weekends, he is usually otherwise engaged with his family most of the time). Is anyone available on a weeknight evening next week (maybe Wed or Thu, 9/21-22)? This is really cool, and there are only a handful of them in existence.

"Tactical Nuke"... awesome. Count me in, just let me know the where and whens.

i'd rather play Magic than Magic reskinned. it's cool and all, but kind of a waste of time.

MidniteEffort wrote:i'd rather play Magic than Magic reskinned. it's cool and all, but kind of a waste of time.

Are you saying that playing it is a waste of time, or creating it is a waste of time? If the former, then it's no more a waste of time than actual Magic. If the latter, you're off the hook, as someone already created it for you.

I'd rather play Magic, and Magic reskinned. If someone reprinted an entire cube with alternate art, I would find that really cool. This is the same thing, but with alternate flavor to boot.

Slyphidine wrote:

MidniteEffort wrote:i'd rather play Magic than Magic reskinned. it's cool and all, but kind of a waste of time.

Are you saying that playing it is a waste of time, or creating it is a waste of time? If the former, then it's no more a waste of time than actual Magic. If the latter, you're off the hook, as someone already created it for you.

I'd rather play Magic, and Magic reskinned. If someone reprinted an entire cube with alternate art, I would find that really cool. This is the same thing, but with alternate flavor to boot.

creating it, in my meaningless opinion, was a waste of time. you're right, someone already made it, and is in risk of lawsuit. more power to them. i'm just saying i wouldn't go out of my way to play this cube, which i obviously would have to do because they have effectively disallowed printing or using it. flavor is not enough for me. i someone walked up to me and said, "hey i got this Space cube, wanna draft?", i'd say yes but otherwise it's just a different Cube. in addition, i'd have to read through and figure out what the Magic equivalent of each card and transposed ability name is, which is just another small headache that is also a waste of time. i could learn three new games in that amount of time.

maybe it would have been far better (and possibly more profitable) if these guys just created a new game. but i'm not them, and i've no room to judge.

this reminds me of when i first learned about Type 15. i first kinda poo-pooed it, then i played it. i found my initial opinion to be proved wrong, and now i really enjoy it. now, i am poo-pooing this, but i already know that it will be absolutely functionally identical to Magic, so playing it cannot change my opinion on it. Type 15 is a different animal. Cube is Cube, no matter how you paint it.

i'm feeling very jaded and negative today. i apologize and i'll reel it in.

Im into the idea, but its headache inducing to be honest. I have a terrible memory, i blame my years raving.

Hey, this is Tom, the guy with the Space Cube. I just moved to Philly this month from California, and am a cubing addict--Anthony introduced me to Dan on the MTGSalvation forums, and I've been able to Winston a couple of times with him already.

I would be the first to admit that the entire Space Cube endeavor has been a massive waste of time. I had a huge chunk of downtime at my last job, wanted to work on my Photoshop skills, and hey, it beats Farmville.

My current "real" cube is a very budget cube that has grown by a few trades, a lot of donations, and a bunch of gold-bordered World Championship cards. I love it dearly, but frankly wanted to try a crazy, fully-powered cube that didn't consist of ugly stickered proxies. The actual cube behind the Space Cube is a very balanced powered cube that plays extremely well, and the new art looks great, IMHO.

I was worried that playing the thing would be a headache of constant translation, too. I've only done one night's drafting with it so far, but it really wasn't as bad as I had feared. I'd never played with a good third of the cards in any form, so my confusion was as much from figuring out what stuff like Sylvan Library did as any space translation. (I did go 0-4, though. Hmm...)

Anyway, I'd love to get a draft going, of any sort of cube. I have Winstoned a ton, but only have ever had 4 or more people to do a real draft once.

Cheers

Welcome Tom!

tomchaps wrote:(I did go 0-4, though. Hmm...)

You got mana screwed a few times too, while I got insane explosive starts that were only once hindered by a key Bane of the Living... or whatever it's called in space language.

welcome to the screwiest weather in the States! we got a shit ton of rain last month, and a lot of heat the month before. prepare for snow in the next couple weeks.

first off, did you drive here in a taco truck? because God knows we need them here.

secondly, if you are in the Plymouth Meeting area on Tuesdays at 6, come draft.

Nah, no taco truck. I rode here on that earthquake last month.

6 might be tough for me--I have kids, and my wife just gets home around then. If I show up a half-hour late, could I still make it?

Is there an easy to read key that explains the abilities and how they translate to existing magic verbage? If i didnt have that, i'll just have to bring Excedrin.

There is a handy reference sheet, but I rarely had to use it (I used it mostly to stay in flavor: "I'll assault you.")

Let's do a test:

Monolith of Frost
0
Device
Tap: Add U to your psi cache.

Necromutant
GB
Unit - Mutant Megaleech
Pay 2 control: Necromutant gets +2/+2 until the end of the cycle. Initiate this protocol only once each cycle.
2/2

Akon, the Last Untouchable
2GG
Distinguished Unit: Thranx
Akon, the Last Untouchable can't be disrupted.
Impenetrable (this unit can't be the target of orders or protocols your opponents command)
1G: Shield Akon, the Last Untouchable.
4/4

Really not that crazy. Maybe I'm used to knowing what they all do already.

IM 2 FOR 3

But even if you're 2 for 3, is there great doubt about what all three of these cards do?