Commander Legends and the Command Cube Experience

[WolfWhoWanders]

So now that Commander Legends is out and folks may or may not have had some experience with it, has anybody given the Commander Cube any further consideration? How many cards would you use? Would you want to represent or change any of the ways the different colors/guilds/shards/wedges are represented? What reserved list/higher value not reprinted cards would you consider for it? What other cards are you just excited to have in there too? Strategies? I've never tried to build a commander cube, but with the release of this set I am feeling more and more inclined to do so. What are some of your guys' experiences running them? Ways to smooth out/balance the experience? How much time does it take? Is it worth a nights time? For some reason this set gives me the hope that commander cubing can become more of a thing and a way to have some fun and balanced game sessions.

[DirkGently]

I built a commander cube a few years ago, which was...kinda fun...but it had some issues, and most of the issues I had with it have been solved by commander legends. It's probably been the wotc product I have the most enthusiasm for since...idk, maybe ever? Khans limited perhaps? It's really put a kink in my boycott since the walking dead fiasco.

I think partners are absolutely crucial to making the limited experience work. Otherwise you end up in situations where you can see colors are clearly open but can't actually move in because there's too great of a risk that you'll never see a commander that fits your current color plus this new one - let alone if you're trying to put together synergies. Partners fix that, plus there are a ton of fun combinations.

I think it's fine to have a few tri-color legends in there too, but I'd avoid making them a focus. Partners seem like the way to keep commander limited feeling like limited.

I'm making a set cube for commander legends...there's maybe a couple cards that I'd consider cutting from the set if I was designing it 100% for limited (is anyone really going to play Triumphant Reckoning?) but for the most part I think it's a REALLY well designed limited set. Just about every card has a clear synergy, if not multiple. I do tend to prefer my limited on the lower-powered spectrum, though, I'm not a huge cube person. So I'm not planning to stick in a bunch of OP commander cards from outside the set, though I could see that being fun for some people. Though honestly the set is really tight as it is, I think it might be tricky to find good replacements that fit into the same synergies as the existing set.

My recipe is 6x commons, 3x uncommons, 1x rare+mythic. That gives approximately the right ratios, except ofc that rares are equal to mythics. But to fix that, I'd need to get twice as many commons, uncommons, and rares, which is kind of ridiculous. I guess the simpler fix (if anyone cared) would be to separate out the mythics, and only shuffle in half of them - but I don't think I'll bother.

[WolfWhoWanders]

@DirkGently
I think the partners are pretty crucial to the balancing out of the whole cube/limited experience. They really do solve so many different things as far as the drafting a commander deck experience goes (or so it seems to me at the moment). I was kinda leaning towards a "set cube" type thing myself, maybe changing a few things out. I think I'd prefer to keep it somewhat lower powered myself, but find a way to include some fun old, somewhat "powerful" cards. What I like about most of the tri color legends is they do pretty well at not focusing but being interesting nonetheless. The Jeskai one seems perhaps lackluster but I have no actual experience to say so in a limited environment. Balance is more important to me than power, but having some power could be fun...if it balanced. Thanks for your input.

[WolfWhoWanders]

@DirkGently
Having drafted the set, do some of the set archetypes need a little more fine tuning or down tuning? Assuming you were making a set based cube

[DirkGently]

I've drafted it...6 times I think? So I don't have a SUPER deep understanding of the format. I can't say any archetype seemed particularly OP in my limited experience though. Equipment might be a little thin on the ground since there's only 3 commons, and one sucks and another is likely to get poached by pirate decks, so if I was picking a weakest one it'd probably be that. Haven't seen anyone actually try to draft it, though.

[Wallycaine]

I've drafted it...6 times I think? So I don't have a SUPER deep understanding of the format. I can't say any archetype seemed particularly OP in my limited experience though. Equipment might be a little thin on the ground since there's only 3 commons, and one sucks and another is likely to get poached by pirate decks, so if I was picking a weakest one it'd probably be that. Haven't seen anyone actually try to draft it, though.

I'm counting 5 common equipment? Ancestral Blade, Amorphous Axe, Armory of Iroas, Haunted Cloak, and Pirate's Cutlass. I can see the competition for pirate stuff, though.

[DirkGently]

I'm counting 5 common equipment? Ancestral Blade, Amorphous Axe, Armory of Iroas, Haunted Cloak, and Pirate's Cutlass. I can see the competition for pirate stuff, though.

How dare you make fun of my secret inability to count

[WolfWhoWanders]

Is 361 cards enough for a cube? Do you intend to add duplicates? If so, might it be more interesting to try and find functional reprints or alternate cards?

[DirkGently]

Is 361 cards enough for a cube? Do you intend to add duplicates? If so, might it be more interesting to try and find functional reprints or alternate cards?

I already outlined my recipe but maybe you missed it:

6x commons (142x6=852 cards)
3x uncommons (120x3=360 cards)
1x rares/mythics (99x1=99 cards)
total of 1311 cards. Definitely plenty large for a cube, even with 60 draft cards per person - could work for up to 21 people.

I've got most of the cards done already. I just went around to a lot of drafts and asked for everyone's chaff afterwards - got me most of the commons and uncommons that way. Though damn is it annoying to watch people waffle about whether or not to part with a 6 cent uncommon.

[Dunharrow]

I think if I were to do it, it would be a singleton cube and it would follow the same draft rules - so minimum 480 cards. I am not sure if I would want to push it higher... if I did it would probably be 600 cards on the off chance there were 10 people.

I would include all the Partners (including the 2 color options), but probably none of the Partner With (which I find very frustrating when they are in the deck and can tutor each other).

I would then make all the 3+ color legendaries pretty narrow to avoid something like Chulane, Teller of Tales good stuff.
For this type of cube I would think there should be a minimum of 15 two color partners, all the 40 monocolor partners (prismatic piper would be with the basic lands, not in the packs).

Then maybe 10 x 3 color legendaries? I would not want to flood the draft with them but allow niche builds to exist around cards like Marchesa, the Black Rose that may not be supported by the partners.

I don't think I would include the 4 color generals, mainly because I think they are not well balanced.

And I think it would be up to you if you want to put any 5 color options in the cube. I would focus on narrow options like the two Tazris, Scion of/The Ur Dragon, Sisay, Horde of Notions, etc. Things like Golos, Jodah, and Kenrith ought to be avoided in my opinion.

That being said, I can't wait for Commander Legends 2 to come so we can pick and choose which partners to include.