To all involved,
I am a cube aficionado. If I had to choose a single format to play for the rest of my days, I would happily draft a cube. Now when they first announced that there would be a new cube, I was excited. Not often do we get an opportunity to play a new format, but getting to play with an all legendary cube seems like a grand experience. However, once the full list was posted, and after drafting it many, many times, I have come to the conclusion that there is a lot that can be improved upon.
I would like to preface my criticism with some highlights about the cube. Have I enjoyed drafting it? Yes. This cube does have some situations that lead to very exciting moments. As a streamer, it makes for dramatic action. The opportunities for huge, swingy plays make for entertaining gameplay and that sort of effect is normally only obtainable in formats like Commander. I enjoy my degenerate moments in all formats, and I have greatly enjoyed being able to continue this trend in this cube. Pyromancer's Goggles a Cruel Ultimatum? Fantastic. Time Warp and Panoptic Mirror? Don't mind if I do. Netting infinite mana with Basalt Monolith and Rings of Brighthearth? Awesome. These are my favorite types of moments when I play, and this cube provides so many options to satisfy my need for big effects.
Now, while I have seen a lot of complaints on the nature and value of Cube packs, this is nothing that I have real issue with. Much like other cubes, I solely queue in Single Elimination events, and as such focus primarily on winning at least the first round so that I can cube again. I see these packs as icing on the cake, and appreciate that this little bonus gets thrown our way. My issue is rather with the decisions of the cube contents and how the games play out.
I think that it was a great idea to try out a new cube. I love that MTGO has been experimenting with all of these different formats. This cube, due to its unique nature does toss some traditional drafting strategy out the window and really forces you to think carefully about the nature of the creatures and spells. It is always great to be offered a new format, especially when the current set for drafting gets a little stale.
Now that we have hit on some of the highlights, let us discuss some of the problems of the cube. First off, the mana is too good. Between Fetch Lands, Dual Lands, Battle Lands, Shock Lands, Check Lands, Bounce Lands, Scry Lands, Tri-lands, Slow Fetch Lands, Filter Lands, and Storage Lands we have the opportunity to cast any spells we wish. However, that does not even include the artifacts! We have the signets (in addition to many other mana rocks). Now, I feel that signets in a cube warp it immensely. It allows for every deck to have access to a sort of Rampant Growth. In fact, the signets have only appeared in a MTGO cube once before: in the Holiday (Powered) Cube! Now the philosophy of wanting every player to cast their spells is a good one to tackle, it is possible to go over the top on this idea. The prominent decks in the upper echelon are those that reward greed, taking high power spells and allowing the fixing to solve any issues they may have.
This leads nicely into my next point: the top tier of cards are just too powerful and leads to imbalanced gameplay. This cube is very poorly balanced. In well-tuned cubes, I would argue that there are many different directions a player can go given a specific Pack 1-Pick 1. Imagine having to choose from Sulfuric Vortex, Tendrils of Agony, Compulsive Research, and Rofellos. Depending on what direction you want to draft, you can justify any of these picks. However, for this cube there are certain cards that are just leagues above others. The most heinous offender is Maelstrom Wanderer. Other cards that I include in this top tier: Cruel Ultimatum, Time Warp, Captain Sisay, Sigarda, Host of Herons, and Mystic Confluence. (Mana-doubling effects, Sorin's Vengeance and Fact or Fiction are very close as well, but these are not objectively better than the rest). These cards are just above the curve for other effects in the cube and I take any of them regardless of my prior picks. Now this normally is not a terrible issue, but it compounds with the fact of always having a perfect manabase that you can (and I have) drafted decks that play Sigarda on turn 5 and Cruel Ultimatum on turn 7. Now, I would argue that we all say that drafting mana-greedy decks can be incredibly sweet, and on stream can be very entertaining, but because of the next problem it becomes strictly better to just play the top cards regardless of synergy.
There exists one (and exactly one) defined aggressive strategy in the cube that is powerful. If you want to win fast, you are basically required to draft Black/Red. Period. While the green decks do have very efficiently costed creatures, the curve for them (essentially) starts on turn 4. With such a narrow set of possible aggressive archetypes, it becomes strictly optimal (if you want to maximize your chances of winning in terms of a game theoretic problem) in my eyes to never draft it and force someone else to tackle it. You need to have a gameplan for the matchup, but it is really easy to prepare for. However, this means that there are far fewer decks that actually punish a greedy/slow manabase and again rewards you for drafting a slow control deck.
In addition to having a well defined top tier of cards, there also exist certain cards that are unplayable, or even traps! I would argue that Vorel of the Hull Clade is a card that basically no deck actually wants. I understand that you wanted to include the full set of flip planeswalkers from Magic Origins, but Liliana, Heretical Healer actually has a mode that does nothing! Other cards I feel are traps because they are incredibly difficult to build around simply due to the contents of the cube: Dark Depths, Doubling Season, and Marath, Will of the Wild.
My last major gripe is the lack of meaningful interactive cards in this format. Since everyone has access to giant haymaker creatures, being able to deal with an opposing threat becomes all the more crucial. This is the major reason why a card like Mystic Confluence (which is still powerful in its own right) is absolutely absurd. A good counterspell (of which almost none exist in the cube) combined with the tempo of bouncing a relevant threat (also very few good cards with this effect exist in the cube) is a combination very few decks can reasonably come back from. Sigarda is one of the better creatures in the format, since there are so few good sweepers that can deal with her. She takes the swaths of removal spells and renders most useless. Note that I am not saying there is no removal in the format, there is plenty. Just the lack of powerful interactive cards.
Given the nature of this cube, I believe that it is one that can be solved perfectly, i.e. there exists an optimal drafting strategy given the card pool. This, I think undermines the format. One of the best parts of a well balanced cube is the opportunity to draft a wide variety of different archetypes. However, since there exist a subset of spells that are strictly better than others, it becomes less about focusing on drafting synergistic interactions and more about pure power. With a reliable manabase, it allows you to play as many of the top tier spells as you get. This leads me to believe that there is only one real way to draft if you want to win: draft 3+ color powerful spells. I hypothesize that over the long run this will maximize the expected return you get in terms of value (Play Points). While I have a limited data set to analyze (only my drafts and those of streamers I have watched), this hypothesis is supported by a decent amount of evidence. (However, like all statistical models, I have seen only a very small subset of possible matches, and could be wrong. I am only human.)
Given the nature of this discussion, it should be in your best interest to reevaluate some of the methods that you develop future sets. By no means do I want to discourage this sort of experimentation in the future, but it is important to use the lessons we can observe to guide future designs.
Regards,
Lucas B
