Late to the party here, but I just built a commander cube maybe 2 months ago and your video gave me some ideas to improve mine. Good video Also you knocked me out of top 8 contention once in a tcg player event. I didn't remember who you were til halfway through the video.
Thanks Sam! I'm gonna do a big overhaul on my commander cube, looking forward to your next vid Would be great if you could do a Dominaria Remastered draft guide soon as well!
Hey! Also late to the party, but I just wanted to add that I've seen Commander Drafts where they allow to partner any 2 commanders as long as both are monocolored. This is also another way to encourage monocolor commander picking (although that may still lead to dual color decks instead of monocolor with a splash, I don't know if that's alright by you) Also it sounds that your Cube doesn't need it, but for people who you mention tend to ask if you draft your Commanders separately, there's also the option to allow to pick up to 2 copies of Prismatic Piper or Faceless One after the draft if someone ends up with no card they want to play as their commander
I'm building a commander cube for me and my friends, and I wanted to know if these ratios are right or should I add more cards. All 5 mono colors form 5 stacks of 70 per color 90 multicolor commanders pile 70 lands 70 colorless cards 70 duo color cards that are not commanders. 7 from each pair. And for making draft packs I'd do 3 from the commander pile 2 from each of the other 7 categories 1 random card from any pile. I see a lot of cubes run more cards and I was wondering if there was a reason for that other then "I just want all the fun things"
This is certainly a neat way to play especially for folks that enjoy the draft portion. I heartily agree with most of your card pool considerations and curating what is in there to what makes the play experience thats enjoyable for the table. One thing that Commander loses in this transition is some of the element of self-expression. Also, some folks can get a bit overwhelmed by the number of options in draft formats and get paralysis if they can't make those kinds of decisions beforehand. As someone who has spent a lot of time with this Cube, do you have any thoughts on any dangers or opportunities that might come if a playgroup were to use it as a cardpool for making constructed decks instead of the draft format you've been playing it as?
I did not understand how to create the actual packs that people will be drafting? Do you just take 20 random cards and say thats a pack and repeat for as many packs you need? In that case all of them could include no legendary creatures. Or do you handpick every card to form a pack of 20 cards with an even distribution of colors and with atleast 2 possible commanders and so on? That also sounds a bit wierd to me. So i dont understand how this part works. Could you explain please. Would love to suggest this to my playgroup :)
There are tried & recommended ways to separate cards into packs. I don't know for this instance of Cube Commander, but I'm aware that Cube packs usually require separating the cards into piles of certain categories (usually rarity) and then picking a set amount from each pile to make up a pack
hey sam, love the video and your philosophy behind assembling the cube (optimizing for fun, speed, fairness, and power level). this is exactly what im looking for in getting a commander cube going. few questions - how do you decide which cards go in each 20 card pack? by rarity? do you pay attention to the colors, mana values, and card types available in each pack? also, do you see decking out as more of a feature or a bug? does it happen frequently in your experience? i dont find decking out to be a fun way of losing the game and if it happened frequently, then players would be kind of forced to draft cards that refill their library. so i was wondering if you agree that having players draft 80 card decks would solve that problem. also, can u explain the intention behind this being a 800 card cube? why not 360 or 450 (im new to cube, esp commander cube), looking forward to your reply!
I can answer a few of those questions. Size of cube: 360 cards is exactly enough for eight people to draft 3×15 cards. It is just too small for the purposes of commander. The larger the cube, the more people can draft it and the more variation you will have between drafts
Deciding what goes in each pack: usually that is not something you do in cube. With commander cube, you might need to, but with enough possible commanders you just don't have to
Enjoyed the video. I have done commander drafts with a few cubes now, both 4x15 and 3x20. Have preferred 3x20 1 pick at a time but interested in 2/pick, good points on signals/speed. Update your cube cobra overview?
If you want to get more players to draft more mono colored decks in the future the thing that worked best for me was making color fixing worse. Both cutting dual lands makes it so where playing multicolored decks has a negative aspect comparable to the decreased amount of cards available for mono-colored drafters compared to multicolored which leads to lower individual card quality for them in most circumstances. When you cut some dual lands it enables you to add more mono-colored cards to the cube increasing the amount of cards available to the mono-colored drafters. Giving everyone a command tower might also lead to players tending towards decks with more colors when they have that security despite it having a minor impact being 1 in 60 cards with no way to tutor it. I know most people prefer cubes having better mana as a way to prevent people from mana screw, but in my experience when people are on average drafting fewer colors this problem solves itself because there is less competition and need for dual lands and you can get them later in the packs. Also if you include a large number of hybrid cards and allow them to be played how they were intended, where a player in only one of the colors can still play them despite normal commander color identity rules it gives a greater number of cards available in any given color. Hopefully this enables more decks to be drafted and competitive in your cube. I loved the video and am looking forward to the next. I always love this kind of deep analysis videos and there isn’t much available for cube which is a shame.
I've been pretty happy with the splash 6 cards solution, it's a special rule like the hybrid rule, but I think it also makes the mono color commanders more interesting.
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Late to the party here, but I just built a commander cube maybe 2 months ago and your video gave me some ideas to improve mine. Good video
Also you knocked me out of top 8 contention once in a tcg player event. I didn't remember who you were til halfway through the video.
I really enjoy when Sam talks Commander and feel he adds a ton to the community. I’m looking forward to the follow up videos!
Thank you for this intro! I am looking forward to building my own Commander Cube in the future and can't wait for your follow up videos.
Wow awesome video. Perfect timing too! I'm finishing sleeving up a commander cube based on your cube. Can't wait to try it out.
Awesome, hope you have a great time with it!
very nice vid, i'm brewing a cube right now and your playtest experience is great to hear.
Thanks Sam! I'm gonna do a big overhaul on my commander cube, looking forward to your next vid
Would be great if you could do a Dominaria Remastered draft guide soon as well!
Yeah, I'll be covering DMR when it's out, and the next one's coming soon
Hey! Also late to the party, but I just wanted to add that I've seen Commander Drafts where they allow to partner any 2 commanders as long as both are monocolored. This is also another way to encourage monocolor commander picking (although that may still lead to dual color decks instead of monocolor with a splash, I don't know if that's alright by you)
Also it sounds that your Cube doesn't need it, but for people who you mention tend to ask if you draft your Commanders separately, there's also the option to allow to pick up to 2 copies of Prismatic Piper or Faceless One after the draft if someone ends up with no card they want to play as their commander
I'm building a commander cube for me and my friends, and I wanted to know if these ratios are right or should I add more cards.
All 5 mono colors form 5 stacks of 70 per color
90 multicolor commanders pile
70 lands
70 colorless cards
70 duo color cards that are not commanders. 7 from each pair.
And for making draft packs I'd do
3 from the commander pile
2 from each of the other 7 categories
1 random card from any pile.
I see a lot of cubes run more cards and I was wondering if there was a reason for that other then "I just want all the fun things"
This is certainly a neat way to play especially for folks that enjoy the draft portion. I heartily agree with most of your card pool considerations and curating what is in there to what makes the play experience thats enjoyable for the table.
One thing that Commander loses in this transition is some of the element of self-expression. Also, some folks can get a bit overwhelmed by the number of options in draft formats and get paralysis if they can't make those kinds of decisions beforehand.
As someone who has spent a lot of time with this Cube, do you have any thoughts on any dangers or opportunities that might come if a playgroup were to use it as a cardpool for making constructed decks instead of the draft format you've been playing it as?
I did not understand how to create the actual packs that people will be drafting? Do you just take 20 random cards and say thats a pack and repeat for as many packs you need?
In that case all of them could include no legendary creatures. Or do you handpick every card to form a pack of 20 cards with an even distribution of colors and with atleast 2 possible commanders and so on?
That also sounds a bit wierd to me.
So i dont understand how this part works. Could you explain please. Would love to suggest this to my playgroup :)
There are tried & recommended ways to separate cards into packs. I don't know for this instance of Cube Commander, but I'm aware that Cube packs usually require separating the cards into piles of certain categories (usually rarity) and then picking a set amount from each pile to make up a pack
hey sam, love the video and your philosophy behind assembling the cube (optimizing for fun, speed, fairness, and power level). this is exactly what im looking for in getting a commander cube going.
few questions - how do you decide which cards go in each 20 card pack? by rarity? do you pay attention to the colors, mana values, and card types available in each pack?
also, do you see decking out as more of a feature or a bug? does it happen frequently in your experience? i dont find decking out to be a fun way of losing the game and if it happened frequently, then players would be kind of forced to draft cards that refill their library. so i was wondering if you agree that having players draft 80 card decks would solve that problem.
also, can u explain the intention behind this being a 800 card cube? why not 360 or 450 (im new to cube, esp commander cube), looking forward to your reply!
I can answer a few of those questions.
Size of cube: 360 cards is exactly enough for eight people to draft 3×15 cards. It is just too small for the purposes of commander. The larger the cube, the more people can draft it and the more variation you will have between drafts
Deciding what goes in each pack: usually that is not something you do in cube. With commander cube, you might need to, but with enough possible commanders you just don't have to
Sounds like a fun format.
It's great!
Enjoyed the video. I have done commander drafts with a few cubes now, both 4x15 and 3x20. Have preferred 3x20 1 pick at a time but interested in 2/pick, good points on signals/speed. Update your cube cobra overview?
If you want to get more players to draft more mono colored decks in the future the thing that worked best for me was making color fixing worse. Both cutting dual lands makes it so where playing multicolored decks has a negative aspect comparable to the decreased amount of cards available for mono-colored drafters compared to multicolored which leads to lower individual card quality for them in most circumstances. When you cut some dual lands it enables you to add more mono-colored cards to the cube increasing the amount of cards available to the mono-colored drafters.
Giving everyone a command tower might also lead to players tending towards decks with more colors when they have that security despite it having a minor impact being 1 in 60 cards with no way to tutor it.
I know most people prefer cubes having better mana as a way to prevent people from mana screw, but in my experience when people are on average drafting fewer colors this problem solves itself because there is less competition and need for dual lands and you can get them later in the packs.
Also if you include a large number of hybrid cards and allow them to be played how they were intended, where a player in only one of the colors can still play them despite normal commander color identity rules it gives a greater number of cards available in any given color.
Hopefully this enables more decks to be drafted and competitive in your cube. I loved the video and am looking forward to the next. I always love this kind of deep analysis videos and there isn’t much available for cube which is a shame.
I've been pretty happy with the splash 6 cards solution, it's a special rule like the hybrid rule, but I think it also makes the mono color commanders more interesting.
Give mono color legends the partner keyword.