Creating a Khans Cube
Limited forum
Posted on March 16, 2016, 6:22 p.m. by Arvail
I've got lots of Khans block cards lying around and my group likes the block quite a bit. I've been thinking of putting together my second cube.
How would you guys go about building a khans block cube? How do you think shifting from clans to dragons should be factored into it? Is there a clash in flavor here? How much emphasis would you place on keeping it centered on one or the other.
Thanks. .gif tax:
Frankly, I don't think that keeping any separation between the khans and dragons cards is worth making. There might be a slight flavor loss by mixing them randomly, but separating them doubles the amount of work you need to put into resetting your cube and will probably discourage you from playing the cube in the first place.
But I can see a way...with a catch.
Select 20-30 cards from each set you think will be great in limited and catch the flavor you are going for. Buy them in foil and offer them as seeds for the booster packs. Players pick which set they want to seed their booster pack with a random foil from. Breakdown? Flick out the foils as you separate the lands out, then separate the foils into a stack for each set.
The catch? I can totally see you wanting to seed boosters with cards like Narset Transcendent, who is $20+ in foil. This is a money is no object option. It sounds like it should work to me, but I can't personally afford to try it out to see if it works.
Being someone who likes to keep things cheap and simple, I would go through the card list of the tarkir block and pick 360 cards based on three guidelines.
- No vanilla creatures.
- No card over $5 (Unless it's already in my collection).
- Nothing I personally don't want to play with.
Mix them all together, playtest, and let your feedback guide the alterations.
March 16, 2016 8:25 p.m.
That sounds reasonable, but it might be too much of a hassle. I believe gameplay ought to be valued over flavor anyways.
March 16, 2016 9:20 p.m.
Build 2 180 card cubes - one with cards from Khans and Fate (khans mechanics only), one with cards from Dragons and Fate (Dragons mechanics only). Make sure to sleeve them in different colors.
Make boosters of 7 cards from each cube and unite them to make a normal booster. return the unused cards to the box.
Here you have options:
1/ Players are to choose Khans or Dragons. They may only draft cards from that card pool. Then you play in team Dragon vs team Khans.
2/ Players are to choose Khans or Dragons. Players can draft from either pool. Play best of 3 rounds, but instead of a third game, the player with the most cards from their team wins the third game automatically.
3/ Players are to choose Khans or Dragons. Players can draft from either pool. After the draft is done, give all your cards to your round 1 opponent and that becomes his/her deck (also known as backdrafting).
4/ Players are to choose Khans or Dragons. Separate in 2 4-player pods, with 2 Dragons and 2 khans in each. Draft Khans pool in one pod and Dragons pool in the other pod. Dragon players in Pod Khans give what they drafted to the players on the opposite team in the Pod Dragons and vice versa.
5/ Sleeving basics in the team colors will also spice up the draft. If you have 2 colors of sleeves for basics, as well as draft cards, you will get a mixture of colors. Players will know what theme the top card of the deck has.
March 17, 2016 6:51 a.m.
I would split it into 3 color/2 color clans, and you must choose a clan, and run with it. Sorta like the Dragons prerelease. Then, get a pot of non related cards, and work off that. Then a pot of ally lands. Boom! Awesome cube draft night!
March 17, 2016 7:30 a.m.
GoldenDemon says... #7
Personally, I would either build a Khans cube or a Dragons cube. I would not attempt to combine them. You might include some flavorful or mechanically helpful Khans cards in a Dragons cube, or vice-versa, but I would not attempt to integrate the two on a large scale, especially if you're interested in trying to replicate the actual Limited experience.
Jay says... #2
well, you could potentially separate it if you want to keep the flavor. Have dragons-specific cards only appear in the third pack, or something of the like. Wait to mix them in until you have the others done. Or keep a separate pool altogether for that pack. Dunno. Or just fuck it and have both together.
March 16, 2016 6:32 p.m.