#deck pic

List: cubecobra.com/c/pink

3 player draft. 4 packs of 15 each. Take 2 cards each pick. Discard the last 3 cards of each pack. 3 Cogwork Librarians each.

This is a case study in draft parameters. On the spot, I decided to go with the quickest, simplest, draft procedure I could think of. It worked, kind of, but ended up (predicably in retrospect) feeling a lot closer to Sealed than I would like.

There's a whole bunch that goes into what experience you get from a draft procedure, but I was going for quick and simple, and parameters. Most importantly, I had a lovely time with my friends, and I'm glad they had me over to hang out, and playing Magic was a small part of that 🩷.

But since I can't shut up, once you've figured out satisficing draft parameters (i.e. you have a procedure that will give players a pool of cards of the desired size), the biggest driver of "draft feel" is the percentage of cards you see that you get to pick.

Some key limited set ups:

Typical 8 players, 3 packs of 15: 360 cards opened, 276 cards seen, 45 cards picked = 16%

8 player roto draft: 360 cards opened, 353-360 cards "seen", 45 cards picked = 13%

Sealed: 90 cards opened, 90 cards seen, 90 cards "picked"= 100%

This draft format: 180 cards opened, 156 cards seen, 51 cards picked = 33%

There is nuance when it comes to hidden, public, and inferable information, pool sizes, the way drafters influence each other, and so on, but I find this number is a great first order approximation of player agency and the expected level of focus in deck building. Where a draft procedure falls on this spectrum trickles down to deck power, focus, the draft experience, and gameplay.

This draft, as a result, felt a lot more like Sealed, as we had to make do a lot more than you normally would. Decks have more hole-fillers (and conspicuous gaps) than you'd find in a typical draft.

This was my 1-1 (3-2) Gruul Field of the Dead deck. Field came online repeatedly, fueled by my suite of check lands, which felt almost free here. Who needs ABUR duals (especially when you've got no fetches)?

I was leaning to forcing Green, cuz I don't play it much, but ML was taking a lot of the pieces so I ended up here. I was able to power through the Mono-White matchup, with Plow Under sealing off both games for me. Pest Infestation for X=2 was repeatedly great.

As we've seen many times, Sublime Archangel can provide the game-defining clock. SH used it in this 1-1 (2-2) Mono-White build in combination with Angel of Invention to quick swing a game where the life totals had been at 28 to 8 or something.

Elspeth continues providing value that isn't super exciting but helps alter game states. I also keep getting higher on both mono-colour lands, and cards that reward commitment to colours, like Figure of Destiny and Spectral Procession, both well-used here.

On the other end of the spectrum, here's one of the grindiest decks I've seen in a long time: ML's 1-1 (2-3) Abzan Tokens. This machine makes big boards. We got cats, wolves, and zombies going all at once. Grave Titan keeps being a menace that feels just this side of fair. The Achilles heel was the sky—faced up against angels and failing to draw End-Raze Forerunners, this deck ran out of gas.

In my match I didn't have anything that could help me break open the board, and it reached the point where decking myself was a possibility, but Parallax Wave provided a merciful finish.

Really interesting was seeing how much this deck was punished for running 3 colours. We see a lot of 3 colour decks, and with the lands I took to fuel Field of the Dead, ML didn't have the strongest fixing suite, which lead to some disappointing plays for Intrepid Adversary and Wolfbriar Elemental. I love 3-colour decks being viable, but I also like the dynamic of some cards being knee-capped in those situations.

8 player draft of Pink Sleeves [cubecobra.com/c/pink] | 3 packs of 15 + one Cogwork Librarian added to each pack 1 | Hosted at Steadfast Brewing Co | organized on the Toronto MtG Cubers Discord

My partner took our kids to see grandparents, so I got 3 cube drafts in over 4 days! First up was Pink Sleeves at Steadfast, the first time in a year and a half it has been drafted by a full pod. I had a great time, and got some good takeaways on the kind of player this cube doesn't work for that will inform some last minute changes before Untap TO in September.

WB Humans, drafted by me [pick order pic]

White felt open in both directions, and black in one direction. Most of my matchups felt like I needed my board wipes to stabilize, but I didn't have a good way to recover. Selfless Spirit would've been great; Recruitment Officer or Sevinne's Reclamation would have helped, but I did have Sun Titan.

I got some comments on my boardstates being awkward for opponents to navigate, and I like that as a dimension to overcome White's shortage of card advantage and the efficiency of removal. Thalia Heretic Cathar, Dauntless Bodyguard, Coppercoat Vanguard, and especially Hallowed Spiritkeeper are examples of what I mean.

I repeatedly forgot that Liliana's -1 isn't symmetrical, and Braids did not work in this deck.

Naya Sideways, drafted by inferiorphilly [check out Pre-Kaladesh Legacy]

My first match was against this Hardened Scales deck. I stole a game with Mirror Entity letting me attack for 17, and in another game we both flooded out and I spent over half a dozen turns attacking with Thalia's Lieutenant for 1 while holding up interaction, which was a pretty miserable way to finish a match.

Klaykl: "[This was] a very 'fair' strategy, and it seemed like it was missing some sort of value generation to overcome the disruption. My disruption was so efficient that it felt unfair to disrupt."

This looks like a steam-roller, but one reliant on drawing Hardened Scales early and getting a lot of value off of it, or getting out Glorybringer at an opportune time to finish the game while dodging interaction.

Rampaging Ferocidon, Scavenging Ooze, Dryad Militant, and Managorger Hydra all provide some hatred, but I'm not sure how much they came up in games, other than me feeling like I needed to immediately get rid of the Hydra.

The struggle to win by having the biggest creatures is something I have to pay attention to, and have made adjustments in the past, mainly with nerfing Black's stats (removing Rotting Regisaur for example, but also pushing more toward discard with Hypnotic Spectre and Thoughtstalker Warlock) so that Green is indisputably the rate monster.

🏆 RG Burn, drafted by CTide [check out Volcano Manner]

CTide: "I think Plow Under being in this cube made my deck actively worse, and I'm thankful for it."

My second match was against the eventual 3-0. I love seeing burn succeed. Maybe I secretly hate creatures, what with the way I always wanna see non-creatures in a central role. Price of Progress was useless against me 😈

CTide used the Cogwork Librarians to their full potential. We had some good discussion on the way that Cogwork Librarians are much more disruptive with a full table of 8 and such a wide powerband. They make the draft feel casual but they're still skill-testing and exploitable. I think that works better at a table of 4 drafters or even 6.

Esika's Chariot was pointed out in this draft and the following as a power outlier but a healthy one. It's not unstoppable, but it can do cool stuff and ends games quickly if not answered.

CTide is so good at giving feedback. Yes, it's thoughtful and astute, but more notably it's so gentle. I want to know how these powers are used outside of cube feedback, because they're incredible.

2-1 Gx Lands drafted by Scootland [check out the Big Splash]

Scootland: "Icetill is cool"

My last match went up against the lands deck. The freshly proxied Icetill Explorer was great, and we talked a bit about Crop Rotation not having enough utility targets. I think that fits into a broader theme I'll get to later of cards not fulling their "scripting," but it's something I'll keep in mind. Repudiate was cast for good value, and Adult Gold Dragon got accolades for being a big dumb idiot that just plays well here. We had the talk about how Pacifism is not good. And yes, that's true. It's Pacifism. It doesn't do nothing, but it's here because it's Pacifism and it looks nice.

Suggestion that maybe Exploration should be in here, which I can't disagree with. I would just need to proxy it.

I mean this in the most neutral way possible, but cube design is inherently at least a little narcissistic. You're taking a game that already exists and editing it into a form of self-expression that you're inflicting on others. We are so lucky to have Scootland, who despite being a cube designer puts in the work to make sure other people's cubes are getting played. Communities just don't work without people like that.

2-1 BRw Pack Rat drafted by Cashew [check out the Dandy Cube]

The second best deck by tie-breakers notably struggled to find relevant targets for Claim the Firstborn.

Cashew: "In general, what I think you'd want with cards like Threaten that are already niche is additional power, not additional efficiency, since it's already a card you don't want to cast on every board state"

Klaykl suggested Harness by Force as an alternative, which I'm strongly considering.

2-1 UB Living Death Control drafted by klaykl [check out the 10oz Peasant Cube]

Klaykl: "I appreciate that this cube had no fetches. It added a very different texture to an otherwise powerful format. Thanks for help proving that hypothesis"

This deck got some oohs and aahs when laid out. Here are a lot of the hard control cards and they did their job. The second photo is notable sideboard cards. I saw a lot of sideboarding going on all night, which I love to see; I want cards to be contextually better or worse, and for your opponent to matter. Makes my heart grow, in a non-medically precarious way. Coincidentally, I think it's also something the 10oz Peasant Cube does a good job of encouraging.

Klaykl also played community-enabler by volunteering to handle results and pairings, using the still-best-in-class mtgarena.appspot.com. Give it a shot if you haven't, and round of applause to Klaykl.

UW Control drafted by todestrieb [check out Formless]

Todestrieb: "Upon reflection I think the main reason I didn’t do well was failing to read the signal that someone else was taking the harder control spells; what I did have and what was left open probably could have led me to a better tempo deck. I don’t think it particularly speaks to blue struggling or anything like that. Shark Typhoon and Mystic Confluence were also very good but you don’t need me to tell you that. I would have liked to have seen a Bind the Monster type effect."

I do not like blue enchantment-based removal (outside of, like, Control Magic). I would be super interested to see what a more tempo-oriented version of this seat would have looked like. I was the one taking the white board wipes, sorry.

4C Dredgeless Dredge drafted by 2Sleepy [impossibly, does not have a cube]

The magical, the legendary "person in a cube discord who does not have a cube." I had a really interesting time talking to 2Sleepy about the draft afterward. He's unfortunately right in my design blindspot.

He hadn't looked at the list before, and I didn't mention in my short spiel that there's no combo present. He opened some packs and saw cards he recognized for Caleb Gannon's Powered Synergy Cube and assumed this was like that. Sorry, but it's not. The cards to complete the combo are never coming around.

After the draft on Monday, CTide asked, "if it's not a combo cube, why are there these combo-adjacent cards?" and the quick answer was that the card in question is not a normal part of the cube (I'll get to that in my next post), but really, combo pieces are super well-aligned with my taste. I don't want capital-C combos, but I want to give tools that require, reward, and most of all encourage some creativity, and those are the kind of spells that combos exploit.

For naïve drafters, that's purely an exercise of, "what the hell do I do with this?" Which then leads them to think creatively, or opt out of engaging with that card for that draft. These friends are always front of mind when I'm making card choices.

For really strong drafters or drafters with a good understanding of the environment, these cards don't cause a ton of problems because they adapt to the context.

The in-between is the problem. 2Sleepy probably knows more than me about what cards "usually" do. What is the expected role of this card or that when it shows up in EDH or constructed or other cubes?

Ages ago, Matt Grenier had a great post that used Tendrils of Agony as its central illustration to differentiate "scripted" versus "improvised" play. Tendrils is a card that plays a part in some heavily scripted sequences, but it's also so fun just finding a way to cast it with the Storm count at, like, 4. That kind of improvised play is what I want to cultivate in my cubes.

Beyond preference though, I didn't play Magic for that long before getting into cube (and it was >90% retail limited) so I don't have a ton of "script knowledge," and I have very little interest in learning it. I think it's a serious weakness of mine, but not one I'm going to address head on.

In most ways I care about, I don't think it matters, but it does leave 2Sleepy disenfranchised when card inclusions are setting up expectations that I'm not going to fulfill. I don't want to do that if I can help it, and artifacts are specifically a problem. The cube either has too few or too many artifacts, including some that hint at play patterns that aren't present. I want to overhaul those ASAP, preferably before Untap T.O. (which you should be going to!!! Only a handful of tickets are left!).

...And then we drafted again.

Thanks y'all for the gift of friendship. Steadfast drafts are such good vibes!

If you're on the /tagged/2508/chrono page, the next post continues below...

cubecobra.com/c/pink | four player draft | 5 packs of 15, trash last 7 from each pack

ML graciously insisted that we have one last draft before I go back to work (even though it's children, not work stopping me from drafting freely). We did not buy a box of Final Fantasy, because that price point is abhorrent. Magic has never been selling better, and Cube has outlived it.

🏆 3-0 (6-2) Boros Parallax Bombardment drafted by SJ

DF: "Playing against your deck was fun and also frustrating."

Hallelujah, a trophy deck that isn't BGx! This deck won by setting up an aggressive board presence and then waiting for a tipping point where Parallax Wave, Goblin Bombardment, or Mirror Entity could end the game. Thalia, Heretic Cathar kept opportunities to attack open, and Arc Lightning is consistently a 2-for-1. Clarion Spirit was really easy to trigger with the low curve, and Hallowed Spiritkeeper put opponents into lose-lose situations.

Notably, multiple times Swords to Plowshares felt especially good for preventing death triggers or graveyard shenanigans, and I was never in a position where my opponent was going to gain much life off the most tempting target.

Parallax Wave is probably a power outlier, but it's been a fun, interesting one that people don't complain about. I think there's a class of cards like Memory Lapse that are very good, but feel like they're keeping the game close ("I just needed one more turn!"), and that's a good space for the vibes at the table.

2-1 (5-3) A Really Jund Deck drafted by DF

DF: "I enjoyed the Azra and Copter card draw silliness."

Playing against your deck was fun and also frustrating.

Bet on Smuggler's Copter with Azra Oddsmaker. It's a good bet!

In my games I felt like I absolutely had to answer Managorger Hydra immediately, and my loss was to Embercleave on a pumped up Electrostatic Infantry. Pest Infestation also seemed high-impact.

WUb Artifact Herder drafted by DR

DF: "DR pulled off a Living Death in our first game that completely shifted the course of the game and got him a win. Was very cool."

This is the most Artifact-y deck anyone has drafted in quite a while and it didn't end up with the best result. In my match it just didn't get going fast enough, except when I got stuck on two lands. There was a fun interaction with Scrap Trawler dying at the same time as another artifact creature which was fun (although there was some friction with figuring out exactly how it resolved), and it made me feel good about adding Myr Retriever on a whim the other day to add more artifact recursion nonsense.

UBw Snapcaster Restoration drafted by ML

ML: "Snapcaster Mage was my MVP, got a couple of Disfigures in with that, could have been even nastier with some flickering but never really got it to pop off. Amazing card though, I'd love to get better at drafting blue."

I love all the cantrips here, and Disfigure and Fatal Push were great at trading up in value. Mindwhisker with Threshold held me up for a minute; unfortunately for ML I was able to pump my way past it. Good reviews for Snapcaster Mage here, and lamentations that Soulherder didn't find its way into this pool.

Stray Thoughts

I tried uploading deck pics with the Snapdrafter app to CubeCobra. It worked, it was pretty low friction. It's here. I don't know if I get any value from this information. I'll probably keep trying it.

Special thanks to my mom for being in town, which lets me leave the house without children outnumbering my partner.

cubecobra.com/c/pink | 6 player draft | 4 packs of 15, burn the last 4 | Cogwork Librarian added to each pack 1

SH was back in town! So we ordered pizza and folks brought over an absurd excess of candy and soda. DR and I watched the Leafs game out of the corner of our eyes while I wore my infant in the BabyBjörn [not a sponsor], and we had the slowest draft, only getting through two rounds, but getting to spend lots of time with friends.

We tried putting Cogwork Librarians in the first pack instead of everyone starting with them. I liked that, but didn't feel strongly about it and no one commented on it at the time.

🏆 Golgari Living Life // Death drafted by DR 2-0 (4-2)

DR: "Life // Death won a couple games, both with and without Garruk. I think Field of the Dead procced one single time. I should have splashed blue, the deck would have been incredible with a little more card draw. Oh and Pest Infestation is busted."

I had the misfortune of choosing to allowing Life to resolve while holding up counter-magic... Only to have DR activate Garruk's ultimate, ending the game. In my match Living Death was decent although not game-ending and Accursed Marauder had some value.

Esper Intangible Lurrus drafted by SJ

I was super excited to have this deck come together. Token Control with Lurrus (P1P1) companioned isn't something I specifically designed into the cube, and no one has drafted it before.

In this shell Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls felt busted, and most of my games involved holding up a lot of interaction and then having an explosive turn where I was triple spelling, or casting Secure the Wastes for X>5 on my opponent's turn.

The downside of this deck is I often went down a lot of life early, and I had to be cautious about spending life on Thoughtseize, Prismatic Vista, or shock lands. This deck probably would have failed without two board wipes, and it probably wouldn't have been able to afford Toxic Deluge. On the other hand, Dark Confidant felt free.

Curious Obsession plus Shoreline Looter felt gross, as did casting Phantasmal Image repeatedly with Lurrus. I actually had to discard to hand size a couple times which never happens.

This deck was such a treat to discover, and I hope others find it too.

Rakdos Sacrificial Dance drafted by DF

DF: "The highlight of my night was using Captivating Crew to take over Ghalta and then equip him with Embercleave to do 24 damage."

Captivating Crew creates a story just by doing what it does.

Boros Intrepid Dragons drafted by SH

My match with this deck was really tight, and probably came down to SH not drawing his burn. It's so easy to get value out of Arc Lightning, even if it's just taking out one creature and dealing some damage to face.

Simic Elf Krasis drafted by CC

CC: "I started drafting blue white flicker but just drafted blue. Later on I realized I wasn't getting enough white, so I tried to get some green for my blue. i got some but not much. Most of my blue was based on etb so wasn't great without the flicker."

Sidisi Big Folk drafted by GL

GL: "Hypnotic Specter did some good work for me. I did get Hogaak out but it didn't win me anything"

CC: "Copying Hogaak [with Phyrexian Metamorph] was fun. I had to blow mana on Managorger Hydra."

GL: "Yeah, I think [Hydra and Splinterfright] both threatened DF a bit."

DF: "The game you beat me your Managorger was like an 8/8 or something. Got big so fast."

GL: "Oh yeah, I remember that, two dice!"

Glad to hear that no one has been complaining about Hypnotic Specter so far. I'm probably close to take it off my mental watch list. Hogaak, Managorger Hydra, and Ghalta are also cards that create a story just by functioning. I love that.

Stray Thoughts

A Golgari deck having the best record at the table when two out of six drafters were taking those cards might be concerning. Golgari has had a few good showings lately, but it's also a really heavily drafted colour pair, so it's hard to get too worried about it. Something to notice though.

All the matches went to three games, which might be encouraging (it makes matches feel close), but was probably just a fluke.

We took fucking forever to play, but I think that was just the mood people were in. I don't think it had much to do with the design. My games were especially long, but it's hard to tell how much of that was "I am holding a baby"-related. They still felt like they were progressing and engaging, it wasn't like they just stalled out.

List: cubecobra.com/c/pink

4 drafters (one of them a pre-schooler); 5 packs of 15, discard the last 7 from each pack

🏆 Busy Izzet Mage 2-0 (4-1), drafted by me

How to Keep an Izzet Mage Busy made 20 tokens or do. It was great. Faithless Looting was also huge for me, getting to the cards I needed, as were DRC, Ponder, and Shoreline Looter. Threshold was effortless. Sprite Dragon won a game as a lone threat. Izzet izn't a trap.

Goblins❤️💛Humans 1-1 (3-2), drafted by CC.

Goblin Rabblemaster kicked my ass. Coppercoat Vanguard is a really nice to play against: a complication, but not insurmountable value or anything. Inspiring Paladin was also good, although CC didn't realize it during deck-building. I'm curious if that's a personal blindspot, or if others might underrate it too.

Gx Field of the Dead, drafted by DF

Repudiate actually got some value, that's nice to see. Mindwhisker may have been the MVP. There was a heartbreaking turn cycle where DF was ready to cast Ghalta, only for CC to cast Captivating Crew, which he couldn't answer.

Pre-schooler Draft Pool

list: Pink Sleeves | 5 player draft @ Steadfast Brewing Co | 4 packs of 15, burn the last 4 from each pack. everyone started with a Cogwork Librarian | organized on the Toronto MtG Cubers discord

This was my first time drafting at Steadfast, and it was super, super fun. Great vibes from everyone and delicious beers. I've never had a bad experience drafting with strangers / people from online, but the energy was great and I had a fantastic time.

On top of that, Tales from the Mana Crypt's own Eric wrote up an amazing draft report!

🏆 3-0 (6-0) Golgari Elves drafted by Zach

The highlight of my night may have been misplaying my last turn in game 2 against Zach (I should have selected Fiery Confluence modes differently and then cast Pyroclasm), and then Zach showing me the absurd amount of shit he was set up for if the game went any longer, avenue after avenue after avenue to lock down the game.

As told by Zach:

"An elf wheeled from my p1p1, I identified green was open and moved in using my Cogwork Librarian to secure my first 2 green cards and ended up being the only green drafter."

"I built around casting one of my 1 mana elf on turn 1 (4x 1 mana elf, 10 untapped green sources, 15 lands) and I leaned into the golgari theme trying to play with my graveyard with Hogaak and Living Death. Even though I never ended up casting either of those cards, they would have been really good in almost all of my games!"

I mulliganed aggressively to start every game with a t1 elf and it paid off. Vengevine was a beater."

2-1 Jeskai Tempo, drafted by Eric

[Eric's Draft Report]

This was the one deck I didn't get to play against, but Eric wrote a great report!

2-1 Esper Boomer Control, drafted by Gray

I love a good small game deck. Zyym was an all-star, and I was impressed that Far//Away did things.

I got to cross my fingers and cast Massacre Wurm into open mana and have it resolve (to be answered immediately, but it still resolved damn it!).

Rakdos... stuff, drafted by SJ

I didn't feel like I ever had a great start with this deck and it wasn't aggressive enough and didn't come together as a real sacrifice deck. There was a lot of sideboarding, which I loved. Bloodghast being ~counter-proof felt reassuring, and I got some nice hellbent upticks with Liliana. Grafted Wargear may have been my MVP.

Azorius Blink, drafted by GL