COMMANDER CUBE
Introduction:
First and foremost, welcome to my commander cube! I compiled this cube from some of my favorite cards in magic’s long history, and chose my favorite format to base it in, commander! It has an emphasis on legendary creatures and all the power they bring to the format, with a few of my own twists thrown in. Due to the nature of these twists, I’ve decided to draw up a description on what these changes are, the philosophies behind the design choices, and some special card types that I’ve introduced to my cube for an extra layer of fun.
Design Philosophy:
First, this cube is focused on making a draftable commander experience. Many similar cubes require participants to first draft a pack made up of only legendaries, both planeswalkers and creatures, forcing them to pick commanders before the rest of the draft. I instead wanted there to be potential commanders mixed in throughout the entire drafting process so that players could evolve their decks, and potentially consider different commanders throughout the draft. I made the cube to be heavily focused on legendaries, offering a bevy of choices, without feeling locked into a choice at the beginning of the draft, making the draft more fluid.
This cube is designed around the traditional commander rule of singleton, so there will only be one copy of each card contained within the drafting pool. But I have chosen to make nonbasic lands the exception to the rule for this cube in order to make this a better drafting experience. There are two main reasons for this: 1) So that no single player covets or hogs most, if not all, of the nonbasic lands during the drafting process. And 2) to enable every player the ability to draft nonbasic land cards within their chosen commander’s color identity, even if multiple players chose to use the same color combinations. But besides a majority of the nonbasic lands, the rest of the cube is singleton.
With the creative help of my brother, I also created a group of draftable cards based around the famous Marvel Universe Infinity Stones, that help with creating a commander deck out of such a limited card pool. Like some of the cards from the conspiracy sets, they add an extra twist on how we experience the deck building and drafting process. But, they aren’t traditional magic cards in that you don’t play them, you either utilize them during the drafting process or put them into the command zone with your chosen commander once drafting and deck building is complete. They aren’t permanents, and other cards can’t interact with them during game play.
And finally, I chose these cards carefully and thoughtfully, making sure to keep the balance of power between the five colors of magic in check, while trying to keep each of the color’s identities and flavor intact, and attempting to ensure that no one color was too overpowered or broken. To do this, i had to make a few other design choices. The main design choice i made was to not include as much ramp, or powerful ramp, as you might expect from a traditional cube or commander deck. Instead of taking the chance that everyone will be able to draft enough ramp spells or mana rocks to make their deck function, I decided it would be best for everyone to receive four specific cards for deck building: Command Tower, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Commander’s Sphere. These are all commander format staples that provide everyone with the same sources of ramp and color fixing to ensure that everyone can play their decks with confidence. This isn’t to say there won’t be other mana rocks or ramp spells in the cube, so expect to see those while drafting. The primary reason was that I wanted to provide a relatively even power level for all players during gameplay. This just helps everyone start from the same spot. So you can build them into your deck or not, the choice is yours. This choice gives every player a chance to play their deck at a relatively even pace, and ensures that their hard work and meticulous crafting doesn’t go to waste.
Drafting & Gameplay Rules:
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Everyone receives a single copy of Command Tower, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Commander’s Sphere before drafting begins to help during deck building.
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In order to get through the drafting portion quickly, and help get to deck building and gameplay, players will draft 2 cards at a time.
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You will be drafting a 60 card deck, including your commander, using three packs of 20 cards. You will want between 24 and 27 lands, including any nonbasic lands you draft. (The number of lands is suggested for an optimized gameplay experience, but not a requirement.)
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We will be using modified brawl rules, meaning any planeswalker can be your commander, but cannot be partnered with another creature or planeswalker unless otherwise stated on the card.
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Hybrid mana cards count as an “or” when played in your deck. (So a card that has a g/w hybrid mana cost, and no activated abilities, can be treated as either a green card or a white card.) As your commander, hybrid mana cards are treated as “and” cards. (So a g/w hybrid legendary, as your commander, would have both colors in their color identity.)
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If you choose to use a colorless commander, you can play unlimited copies of any two types of basic lands, and are able to use any cards associated with those type of basic land’s color identity. (i.e. if you choose forests, you can use green cards in your deck.)
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Friendly mulligan rules. Meaning, your first draw is to 7 cards, first mulligan is to 7 cards (your free mulligan). Each time you choose to take a mulligan after your free mulligan, it will have an effect on your opening hand. Once your have a satisfactory hand, you choose a number of cards equal to the number of mulligans taken from your opening hand, and put them on the bottom of your library in a random order.
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Starting turn rotation player draws a card.
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Players start with 40 life.
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Poison Counter total is still 10, and then you’re out of the game.
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Commander damage is still 21 Damage from a single commander, and then you’re out of the game.
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Obviously, you have a commander. Your commander, or commanders, start in the command zone. Commander tax is 2 mana. If you have two commanders, track tax separately.
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Cards with the “Partner with” ability automatically include the second partner in the same sleeve, and you draft both cards at the same time.
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Some cards have a “pink circle” sticker on the sleeve. These cards come with a bonus card, an infinity stone, and you draft both cards together at once.
The Infinity Stones:
“Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots... the infinity stones”
-The Collector, MCU-
The Infinity Stones and Gauntlet are powerful types of cards that my brother and I designed to help facilitate a fun and exciting draft experience. All of them have an important effect for the drafting experience and deck building process, but aren’t relevant to actual play. Generally, the infinity stones and gauntlet open up deck building options. They can be the key to drafting a powerful, consistent deck. Much like the quote above describes, there are 6 types of stones, plus the gauntlet, each with an effect that tie into its theme. In most cases, you can only use one of each type of stone, but are encouraged to draft multiple type if you can. Different stones have different rarity. Commons are stones that are have a minimalist effect or a one time effect, so if you pass on one, you might see it again. Uncommons are stones with semi-powerful effects, and are a bit harder to come by. Rares or Mythics are just that, rare, and have powerful effects that can sometimes change the course of the draft or deck building. The types of infinity objects are:
The Power Stone- Drafting this card lets you add a designated color to your commander’s color identity.
The Soul Stone- When drafting a specific tribal based legendary, this card will be included in the sleeve. (The sleeve will be marked with a “pink circle” sticker.) When the drafting process is complete, and deck building process begins, pick and make note of up to five creature cards you drafted, and add the specified creature subtype to those creature cards. This ability is only useable if you designate the legendary as your commander.
The Time Stone- Drafting this card lets you reverse the drafting order at any point in the draft.
The Space Stone- To help incentivize drafting this stone, each one comes with a Will of the Planeswalkers spell in the sleeve, and the sleeve is marked with a “blue circle” sticker. Once the draft is complete, any players may reveal this stone. If three or more players do so, the Planechase deck is used during gameplay, and each player gains access to a planar die, along with a couple of Planechase mana rocks.
The Mind Stone- During the beginning of each draft round, if a player opens one of these stones in their first pack for the round, they add another pack to the draft round, and get first picks in this new pack.
The Reality Stone- Drafting this card adds the partner ability to any one or two single color or dual color commanders of your choice. (Not useable with planeswalkers.)
The Infinity Gauntlet- Drafting this card enables you to, after the drafting process is complete, pick 5 cards out of the remainder of the undrafted cube, and add them to your card pool.
Finally, we decided to add one last twist to the cube. If a player collects five or more different “Infinity Objects” while drafting, before the game begins, they may choose to take on the role of “Thanos” as the Archenemy. In which case, the game is played three versus one, (the one being the Archenemy). The Archenemy also start the game with 80 life instead of 40, and they gain access to the 20 card preassembled Archenemy Scheme deck to use during the game. The rest of the rules for Archenemy still apply, and everyone still plays with a designated commander or commanders, which start in the command zone. In the words of Thanos, “Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe. But this… does put a smile on my face.”
That’s all there is! I hope you enjoy your drafting and gameplay experience! This cube will be changing and evolving over time, so any and all feedback is welcome!
