Much like a cube, Brian Demars’s “Danger Room”, Riley Knight’s most recently introduced “Common Cuboid”, and all of the other Magic: The Gathering casual variants, the Cubelet’s construction and customization is a personal journey. There are thousands and thousands of cards available, and we are narrowing it down to 100 cards.
Knowing the theory behind the design and play style of the Cubelet is important, but here are some specific notes to consider when constructing a cubelet of your own.
It should be more creatures than spells. We are looking to end up with ~60% creatures, ~40% spells. If you have more spells than creatures, either you run out of creatures and no one dies, or you continually shuffle the graveyard into the library and the game takes forever.
For every major threat that you want to introduce, have at least 2 ways (not necessarily cards) to answer the threat. If you want to explore more planeswalkers, you need many ways to answer those planeswalkers. If you want to explore artifacts, then disenchant spells will need to be in the deck as well.
Take mechanics into account, and do not go heavy on one specific mechanic. A good rule of thumb is each card should offer something to the Cubelet. Only after playing can you find cards that do not excite your friends and ones that really excite your friends. Once you find that, you can add/remove more of one type of card.
You do not have to color balance. While it is a decent starting place (Suggested 14 of each mono color and 3 from each guild), Cubelet is about gameplay experience, not necessarily about making sure each color is equally represented.
Have at least 2-3 wrath effects. Board stalls can occur if players are not as experienced with combat and attrition, so having outlets to just empty the board are very important to consider.
Curve and average CMC is important to consider. Too low of a curve, and you play very quickly and too high, games can take a while to develop. Overall, try to have the curve stop at 5 CMC. You can go above 5 CMC, but you will want to limit the number of cards above 5 CMC. Overall, a Cubelet should have an average CMC between 2 and 3. It means you have a balance of early plays and later investments.
Do you want to add any restrictions to your Cubelet construction? If you choose to put restrictions on your Cubelet, special attention will need to be taken into consideration. A pauper Cubelet (commons only) means there are no board wipe effects unless you play with creatures with only 3 toughness or less. A Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable Cubelet means that games are going to take longer because of some of the goofy mechanics. Building a Cubelet with cards from only a specific Set/Block can create a whole new experience with the cards, but limited bombs are exploited even further in Cubelet.
Nothing is banned. If you do not want to play a particular card, do not put it in the Cubelet. This is important to note when we talk about ideas for building a Cubelet.
Knowing the theory behind the design and play style of the Cubelet is important, but here are some specific notes to consider when constructing a cubelet of your own.
It should be more creatures than spells. We are looking to end up with ~60% creatures, ~40% spells. If you have more spells than creatures, either you run out of creatures and no one dies, or you continually shuffle the graveyard into the library and the game takes forever.
For every major threat that you want to introduce, have at least 2 ways (not necessarily cards) to answer the threat. If you want to explore more planeswalkers, you need many ways to answer those planeswalkers. If you want to explore artifacts, then disenchant spells will need to be in the deck as well.
Take mechanics into account, and do not go heavy on one specific mechanic. A good rule of thumb is each card should offer something to the Cubelet. Only after playing can you find cards that do not excite your friends and ones that really excite your friends. Once you find that, you can add/remove more of one type of card.
You do not have to color balance. While it is a decent starting place (Suggested 14 of each mono color and 3 from each guild), Cubelet is about gameplay experience, not necessarily about making sure each color is equally represented.
Have at least 2-3 wrath effects. Board stalls can occur if players are not as experienced with combat and attrition, so having outlets to just empty the board are very important to consider.
Curve and average CMC is important to consider. Too low of a curve, and you play very quickly and too high, games can take a while to develop. Overall, try to have the curve stop at 5 CMC. You can go above 5 CMC, but you will want to limit the number of cards above 5 CMC. Overall, a Cubelet should have an average CMC between 2 and 3. It means you have a balance of early plays and later investments.
Do you want to add any restrictions to your Cubelet construction? If you choose to put restrictions on your Cubelet, special attention will need to be taken into consideration. A pauper Cubelet (commons only) means there are no board wipe effects unless you play with creatures with only 3 toughness or less. A Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable Cubelet means that games are going to take longer because of some of the goofy mechanics. Building a Cubelet with cards from only a specific Set/Block can create a whole new experience with the cards, but limited bombs are exploited even further in Cubelet.
Nothing is banned. If you do not want to play a particular card, do not put it in the Cubelet. This is important to note when we talk about ideas for building a Cubelet.