[Cube] Designing Draft Archetypes for Commander Cube

[Raketenudo]

Hey all,

inspired by Commander Legends, I started my second try to design a Cube meant to draft 60 card Commander Decks.

I took some basic principles from CL and my last (failed) attempt and came up with some basic principles for this cube:
- The Cube will revolve around 2-Color Archetypes, 1 for each pair.
- Each Archetype will have 2 Multicolor Commanders
- Each single color will feature multiple monocolored Commanders, wich all will gain Partner with other monocolored Commanders. There should be at least one monocolor Commander per supported color of an archetype
- The Cube will feature 1 Commander per Color-Triplet. Those should be outside of the 2-Color Archetypes

Now, I at first setteled for the following:
Orzhov   Lifegain
Azorius   Flying
Boros   Equip/Aura
Selesnya   Token
Dimir   Mill
Rakdos   Sacrifice
Golgari   Graveyard
Izzet      Spellslinger
Simic   +1/+1 Counter

However, after playing around with it for some, i got doubts that this will work. Mainly because Golgari and Dimir have very little difference, and Mill as a Wincon is rather problematic (very little use if you splash the mechanic).

So now I'm looking to shift around some Archetypes to exclude especially Mill and have just 1 Graveyard based Archetype. I would love some input on how to switch things around and especially what Archetypes to further include.

Cheers, Raketenudo

[Raketenudo]

Oh, and you can take a look at the current List of included Commanders here:

https://deckstats.net/decks/135548/2185595-commander


Maybe some more on possible Archetypes:

- Artifacts is included with a Monocolor Commander per Color, as i want the Archetypes to actually revolve around the Color and not rely on picking up cards outside their color (colorless Artifacts). Exception here is Boros Equip wich will however play a lot with red and white colored equipments
- I would like to pass on tribal archetypes.
- I tried Blink in UW and WB, but it kinda failed around white, as there seem to be no viable mono white Blink Commanders.

As mentioned, having a meaningful distinction between archetypes is rather important to me.

[jlutzxinc]

I think you have a great idea here, and I hope others will take interest as well.

Dimir can be "unblockable matters" (Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Etrata, the Silencer etc.), or Hand Control (although I can't name any bicolor Commanders for that).

You could also keep Mill and change Golgari to Lifegain (like in Strixhaven), and Orzhov to Exile, or "Regrowth" (Ravos, Soultender, Athreos, God of Passage etc.)

[Raketenudo]

Hey jlutzxinc, thanks for the reply and suggestion.

Hand control is something I already discarded, as discard is seen unfavorably in our playgroup.
Unblockable matters is a good idea, ill look a little bit more into it. As I don't mind to "errata2 some cards, i could also imagine to have UB go full Ninjutsu and just errata some ninjutsu commanders to have Commander Ninjutsu, although I might include Commander Tax there for balancing reasons.

Doing a bigger switch around like you suggested with Golgari-Lifegain / Orzhov-Exile is also a consideration. As it stads right now i could replace any colors theme and do some switching around and still have a working theme combination, as many themes have support in multiple pairs (eg. +1/+1-counters, token, ramp, lifegain)

Here is a list of my so far "must have" themes:

• Flying
• Lifegain
• 1/+1
• Token
• Ramp
• Spell Matters
• Equip
• Sacrifice
• Graveyard

And here are some other themes I'm also considering right now:

• Blink
• Politics
• Unblockable/Ninjusu
• Power Matters

[/list]

[Raketenudo]

As I'm a little bored right now, ill do a write up of the underlying design philosophy.

My main inspiration comes from Brandon Sanderon's Cube as seen on Gameknights and Commander Legends.
I want to achieve a cube that supports many different Archetypes and makes it easy to include nice synergy in your deck.

But first, how to draft.
The cube is designed to be drafted in 4 rounds of 16-card packs, with 2 picks per pack. to support up to 8 players, the cube will consist of 512 cards (16x4x8).
This makes it easy to design the cube, as my central question for card choices is, how many cards of this do I want to see, on average, per pack.
Commanders - 2 Cards
Single Colors - 2 Cards (10 Total)
Artifact - 2 Cards
Multicolor - 1 Card
Land - 1 Card


So I've chosen to base the cube around 2-color Archetypes. Each Archetype will be represented by 2 different commanders of that archetypes color identity, as well as a combination of mono colored commanders.
Each monocolor will feature 1 Commander corresponding to each Archetype that color is included in, 1 "open" commander and 1 artifact commander - 6 in total per color.
To facilitate interesting Play and Decks, each monocolor Commandr gains Partner with other monocolored Commanders.
To better define and bring out the Archetypes, each 2-color-combination will get 2 Commanders directly supporting the Archetype.
Then there are 10 3-color-Commanders, 1 for each shard and wedge, that will not support those archetypes but are rather meant to bring out creativity while drafting.
Last but not least there are 4 commanders in WBURG, which are basically just there for fun (like Sisay as Head of "Commander Tribal").

As there is only a very limited ammount of multicolor non-commander-cards, each will be a direct payoff to the archetype it supports, and no "general goodstuff multicolor".

In monocolors, I take great care to make sure most cards support multiple archetypes (like a flying lifelink reature, or a sacrifice outlet that produces tokens...) to ensure having enough synergy aviable in all colors. Also there will be more Payoffs for the supported archetypes.

Lands are 100% fixing and kept at a low powerlevel (evolving wilds).

Artifacts contain mostly fixing, equipment, utility and artifact tribal payoffs.

More Design Philosophies:

• Ramp is kept to a minimum - except green, as its a vital part of green's identity. You want ramp? play green.
• There needs to be a good ammount of interactive cards - about 2 in each pack, or 64 in the whole cube, to enable the game to balance itself, if someone gets a god draft or I make a mistake while building the cube and get in way unbalanced.
• Usual color identities will be kept in tact. White gets AOE and Exile, Green Ramp and noncreature removal, Red Random effects and damage, Blue Carddraw and counters and Black creature removal.
• Artifacts will be supported along all colors, but will most likely end up as one of the least viable archetypes - will need to be playtested and improved.
• Each Archetype is supposed to feel meaningful distinct from other archetypes. Altough there are 2-color commanders "meant" for each other, it needs to be possible to create a good deck using more-or-less random assembled commanders
• As in my mind it is very important (or at least very feel good) to open up some commanders in your first pack of the draft, and mybe even some power, you get a "mulligan" on your first pack, if yu don't like it or it has bad/too little commanders. The first one is free, and from then on you can take mulligans only if the pack contains no commander at all (but still only on the first pack)
• Some Cards might contain "Sticker" (a mechanic i borrowed from Brandon Sanderson) to give some additional rules to a card. For Example, Sanctum of all is included with a Sticker that says "Can be your Commander. After the draft, efore deckbuilding, choose one: remove Sanctum of all from your card pool OR remove half of the cards you drafted (chosen randomly) from your cardpool and add all 10 different shrines.
• Power level and mana curve is something to be watched closely. My first cube contained mostly "OP" cards, wich often came at high mana costs. With this one I'll try to tone it down a little - Mana curve should average around 3 to 3.5, and most cards should average around uncommen to rare.