![]() ![]() It was causing our casual players to feel resentful as they got beaten into the ground, and our competitive players to feel bored as they carried out the beatings. This can lead to a great disparity in the power level around the table, as was the case with my playgroup. One player may be fine treating the game as a casual endeavour, another may dedicate themselves to learning all the rules and honing their skills at the game, and another may just drop an exorbitant amount of money into the game to have the most powerful deck. But often times, a player may evolve in ways that are different from the other players in their group. Over time, playgroups tend to evolve, and so, too, the players within it. An outline of the shuffling method is a little beyond the scope of this write-up, but if you're curious about it, you can find it in the play guide (found in the Imgur album or Google Drive links), or on the TappedOut page.įor people who are fans of singleton cubes, there’s also an alternative shuffling method you can use to transform the Game Night Cube from a set cube into an experience similar to that of a singleton cube! Why Cube? Why the Game Night Cube?įor the majority of my time as a Magic player, it's been spent around the kitchen table alongside my friends, my playgroup. To further increase authenticity, a special shuffling method, based off of a shuffling method developed by moak0 on Reddit, is used to create packs which are sufficiently randomized while still maintaining a balanced color distribution just like real booster packs. I chose not to include mythic rare cards because I don’t like how they warp gameplay around them.Īs well, like regular booster packs, the cube's packs are seeding to contain 11 commons (the 11th common replacing the basic land normally found in booster packs), 3 uncommons, and 1 rare per pack. There are 3 copies of each common, 2 of each uncommon, and 1 of each rare, for a total of 544 cards. Unlike a regular Singleton cube, the goal with this cube was to faithfully recreate the experience of an authentic booster draft, so its structure is almost the exact same as an actual Magic set, containing 245 unique cards comprised of 112 commons, 80 uncommons, and 53 rares. ![]() More images can be found in the Imgur link at the bottom of the article. I've made these files available for download, and you’ll find links to them, along with links to every other page/article mentioned hereafter, at the bottom of this article.īut first, some pictures of the final product: To really give the cube that board-game-like quality of cohesiveness and polish, all cards in the cube share the same, most up-to-date card templating only, and it includes a custom-made play guide with tips for new players, along with card dividers for the storage box. It’s similar to a core set cube, featuring only evergreen mechanics, an overall lower complexity level, and a few other features which were used to engineer a draft experience more forgiving to new players (more on that later). ![]() The cube features traditional, back-to-basics gameplay. It’s my attempt at solving what is, in my opinion, the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of Magic: its extreme complexity. I envisioned it being the sort of thing you’d pull off your shelf during game nights, and, no matter the skill level of the people you’re playing with, everyone would be able to have a great time. It’s designed to be highly accessible to newer players, but still complex and high-powered enough to be enjoyable to veteran players, all while trying to be as polished as a legitimate, professionally produced board game. So, what’s the Game Night Cube? Well, it’s basically the entire experience of an authentic Magic draft translated into a self-contained, replayable, board-game-like experience. Or hey, you could always just use this article as an instruction manual to build the Game Night Cube for yourself! Whether you’re someone who’s interested in building their first cube, or a hardened cube-making veteran, my hope is that this article will provide some inspiration for your next cube or Magic-related project. ![]() Today, I’ll be talking about my somewhat unconventional custom set cube, the Game Night Cube, the particular design guidelines I followed when creating it, and the benefits of owning a cube like this. Being both of these things, it's probably no surprise when I tell you that I love designing custom Magic game experiences, and, naturally, this makes me a huge fan of Cube, the format where you design your own sets of cards to draft and play with. Hello, Cardsphere! My name is James Paterson, and I am a game designer, and long-time Magic: The Gathering player. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |