Ok, @Arceus8523 and @shadow123 I've read all of this... you two are both definitely right about where the cube is going wrong and what kind of changes we need to make to set it back on the right course. Thanks Arceus for the really detailed analysis, and you've basically arrived at similar conclusions as I just did while playtesting the current cards, so I think we're definitely on the same page.
Here's what I want the draft archetypes to be overall the draft archetypes kind of ended up being when I playtested them (but I think we might want to rework some of them potentially, for the reasons you described earlier):
Bant: Counters Naya: Humans Jund: Sacrifice Grixis: "Chaos" (I keep calling it "chaos" in my mind, but I mean basically a combination of polymorph, randomness, and removal - i.e. cards like chaos warp, spark double, duplicant, Bolas's citadel, Agent of Treachery, and Omnicscience are the epitome of this... obviously we don't want stuff to be that strong, but it should emulate that wacky control-meets-combo kind of feel if possible) Esper: Nightmares tribal (this is central to the storyline)
Also, I want people to be able to blend the archetypes so that it's not always one color combo with one type of mechanic. Originally, I thought this meant having more hybrid mana, but now I realize it actually means having more monocolored generic/simple cards that ever-so-slightly bend, but not break, the color pie.
@Arceus8523 I'm going to dm you my original notes on my iPhone, which will tell you the cycles I've got left to finish (I've planned out all the companions for example)
I'm still gonna need to work with Arceus to do major rebalancing though, so things might change a lot depending on how much we radically redesign things vs just smooth them out...
Alright, here's my suggestions that immediately come to mind - Change Grixis from "chaos" to cycling/card draw. Cycling played a key role in OG Ikoria, and I see no reason not to continue to support it here, this time in the same color combination Amonkhet block did. This also gives Grixis a more pinpointed focus than just "chaotic effects." - Shift the multicolor focus from "any multicolor" to specifically enemy colors. When dealing with shards and plotting out the two color combinations that make up each three color combo, as shown here.
WRG WR WG RG WUG WU WG UG WUB WU WB UB UBR UB UR BR BRG BR BG RG
you'll see that each of the three-color shard combinations as two ally pairings and one enemy pairing. Because of this, every three-color shard combination's ally color combinations is shared with another of the three-color combinations, but its enemy combination is unique to itself. Therefore, I think that each of the three-color combinations should be "focused" by its enemy color combination, leaving us with
WRG Humans, focused WR WUG Counters, focused UG WUB Nightmares, focused WB UBR Cycling, focused UR BRG Sacrifice, focused BG
And, as you can see, the focuses automatically frame and fit into the existing archetypes, no modification needed. Inversely, the ally colors will each need to bridge between two archetypes:
Therefore, I think it benefits us to base the subthemes of the cube in these ally colors. What these subthemes are is up to you, so long as they make sense in both archetypes they need to bridge.
@Ral1000 Looks great! Just one thing: can you change the name to Apex of something other than "Life", since my colorshifted Naya Nethroi uses "Apex of Life" also?
Maybe something like "Apex of Essence" or "Apex of Vitality" will do.
If anyone is wondering what's going on with the cube, me and Arceus are working it out, and they're remaking most of the cards like the ones you see above. I'll post here when the cube is finished, which shouldn't be too long now!
@LordTachanka123 Unfortunately, I'm not in need of any more cards... in fact, I might even not be using all the ones I had originally planned to use that other people made for this cube, which means I owe each person who's cards I planned to use a sincere apology. Some cards will still be used, but as me and Arceus have been changing the themes and archetypes, many of the cards I was planning to use now don't fit as well.
I will still be using the one I remade that you designed originally ("Ferocious Kill/Ferocious Attack"), but I may or may not use "Time's Toll", I'm not sure yet.
Anything you made however will still have your name on the designer tag, and I will still be publishing this cube when it's finished right here on this thread in pdf format for everyone to download for themselves.
Is there anything I could do to help with this at the moment? Are there any specific designs you need or cards that I could help review (or anything else)?
Comments
Here's what I want the draft archetypes to be overall the draft archetypes kind of ended up being when I playtested them (but I think we might want to rework some of them potentially, for the reasons you described earlier):
Bant: Counters
Naya: Humans
Jund: Sacrifice
Grixis: "Chaos" (I keep calling it "chaos" in my mind, but I mean basically a combination of polymorph, randomness, and removal - i.e. cards like chaos warp, spark double, duplicant, Bolas's citadel, Agent of Treachery, and Omnicscience are the epitome of this... obviously we don't want stuff to be that strong, but it should emulate that wacky control-meets-combo kind of feel if possible)
Esper: Nightmares tribal (this is central to the storyline)
Also, I want people to be able to blend the archetypes so that it's not always one color combo with one type of mechanic. Originally, I thought this meant having more hybrid mana, but now I realize it actually means having more monocolored generic/simple cards that ever-so-slightly bend, but not break, the color pie.
I'm still gonna need to work with Arceus to do major rebalancing though, so things might change a lot depending on how much we radically redesign things vs just smooth them out...
- Change Grixis from "chaos" to cycling/card draw. Cycling played a key role in OG Ikoria, and I see no reason not to continue to support it here, this time in the same color combination Amonkhet block did. This also gives Grixis a more pinpointed focus than just "chaotic effects."
- Shift the multicolor focus from "any multicolor" to specifically enemy colors. When dealing with shards and plotting out the two color combinations that make up each three color combo, as shown here.
WRG
WR
WG
RG
WUG
WU
WG
UG
WUB
WU
WB
UB
UBR
UB
UR
BR
BRG
BR
BG
RG
you'll see that each of the three-color shard combinations as two ally pairings and one enemy pairing. Because of this, every three-color shard combination's ally color combinations is shared with another of the three-color combinations, but its enemy combination is unique to itself. Therefore, I think that each of the three-color combinations should be "focused" by its enemy color combination, leaving us with
WRG Humans, focused WR
WUG Counters, focused UG
WUB Nightmares, focused WB
UBR Cycling, focused UR
BRG Sacrifice, focused BG
And, as you can see, the focuses automatically frame and fit into the existing archetypes, no modification needed. Inversely, the ally colors will each need to bridge between two archetypes:
WUB <-> WU <-> WUG
WUG <-> WG <-> WRG
WUB <-> UB <-> UBR
UBR <-> BR <-> BRG
WRG <-> RG <-> BRG
Therefore, I think it benefits us to base the subthemes of the cube in these ally colors. What these subthemes are is up to you, so long as they make sense in both archetypes they need to bridge.
Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help at any point!
Maybe something like "Apex of Essence" or "Apex of Vitality" will do.
I will still be using the one I remade that you designed originally ("Ferocious Kill/Ferocious Attack"), but I may or may not use "Time's Toll", I'm not sure yet.
Sorry again about this...
@Ral1000 As you can see above, I think we decided not to use them (sincere apologies again), but I do appreciate the effort and support.
That's completely fine- They were fun to make anyway! Welcome back!
http://www.planesculptors.net/set/shards-of-ikoria/version-11/destoroyah-carnage-perfected
It was made in a different editor to get the proper Godzilla frame, and that editor doesn't let you change set symbols