The draft component of these packs is intended to be the commanders, after which each player chooses two of their drafts and builds their deck by shuffling each commanders' packs together. The method of commander selection can be as simple as randomly dealing them out to drafting.
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Table of Included Commander Packs
I can currently fit 23 commander packs in the draft box, so there are a couple of open slots.
Unnecessary Exposition
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Now I'll go back to the overall objectives: It should be a self-contained draft box that holds Commander 'packs' that, when 2 are combined, result in a legal commander deck. In terms of playstyle, I wanted each possible deck to be approximately even in game and due to the intrinsic nature of each combination to be stand-alone expected the target power level to be similar to the average heavy upgraded preconstructed deck. This should help make this a good way to introduce new players to commander and deckbuilding concepts, but should be built such that experienced players also enjoy the draft box "metagame".
The draft box size of 1000 cards means that 20 packs of 50 cards could fit. Legal decks mean that each pack has a commander with Partner, so an even distribution would be 4 mono-color partners for each color. Once that was determined, I split the 50 cards into a 31 card 'deck pack' and a 19 card 'mana pack'. The next problem was duplicates: if more than 1 pack had a common card, then those decks would not be legal. That means either no Sol Ring type cards, only one deck gets a Sol Ring, or some other method. I reduced it to a 17 card 'mana pack' for each and a 4 card 'fixing pack' that would be separate, which had the added benefit of reducing the number of cards required. This opened up enough space for three or four more 'Deck packs'. I increased the number of 'fixing packs' to handle 5 players, which is also nicely divisible into 20 packs.
The current division may be open to change if I want to more staples, as I expect that the shared 'fixing pack' will have an outsize impact on the utility in the mana base. This could also contain a sub-draft for generically good cards such as Strip Mine, Scavenger Grounds, Ancient Tomb and similar if the overall cube "power level" were to be increased. For now, the common 'fixing pack' is:
The Commanders will be mono-color, so that means that each 'mana pack' needs to be mono-color and can't be tailored to any given commander. I ended up with a simple 'mana pack' of just 17 basic lands of each color. Eventual space considerations and organizing boxes further reduced these to be 3 boxes, each containing 17 of a matching cycle of basic lands. This reduced the maximum number of players in a given color to 3, but opened up enough space for sub-boxes to help keep this organized. I ended up with these land boxes:
The draft box size of 1000 cards means that 20 packs of 50 cards could fit. Legal decks mean that each pack has a commander with Partner, so an even distribution would be 4 mono-color partners for each color. Once that was determined, I split the 50 cards into a 31 card 'deck pack' and a 19 card 'mana pack'. The next problem was duplicates: if more than 1 pack had a common card, then those decks would not be legal. That means either no Sol Ring type cards, only one deck gets a Sol Ring, or some other method. I reduced it to a 17 card 'mana pack' for each and a 4 card 'fixing pack' that would be separate, which had the added benefit of reducing the number of cards required. This opened up enough space for three or four more 'Deck packs'. I increased the number of 'fixing packs' to handle 5 players, which is also nicely divisible into 20 packs.
The current division may be open to change if I want to more staples, as I expect that the shared 'fixing pack' will have an outsize impact on the utility in the mana base. This could also contain a sub-draft for generically good cards such as Strip Mine, Scavenger Grounds, Ancient Tomb and similar if the overall cube "power level" were to be increased. For now, the common 'fixing pack' is:
Mana Fixing Pack - 1 Per Player
Approximate Total Cost:
The Commanders will be mono-color, so that means that each 'mana pack' needs to be mono-color and can't be tailored to any given commander. I ended up with a simple 'mana pack' of just 17 basic lands of each color. Eventual space considerations and organizing boxes further reduced these to be 3 boxes, each containing 17 of a matching cycle of basic lands. This reduced the maximum number of players in a given color to 3, but opened up enough space for sub-boxes to help keep this organized. I ended up with these land boxes:
Lands Packs
Approximate Total Cost:
Now for planning the playstyles. I wanted these to be as individually unique as possible, but as evenly matched as possible. I determined that each deck should bring a unique strategy as well as a unique win condition. This means that each deck gets one of either an on-theme combo or alternate win condition (including commander damage here for voltron). For example, the Red Decks each respectively have Umbral Mantle+Commander, Madcap Skills, Reiterate+Jeska's Will, Chance Encounter, or Golem-Skin Gauntlets for their win conditions. Deck's also include my tendency to avoid tutors in an effort to retain variance, and attempt to remain as on-theme as possible.
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White Commander Packs
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Ardenn is an aura based voltron deck with an enchantress subtheme. Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice allows Auras stack up quickly, while also getting interaction through Darksteel Mutation type effects that can then be moved around by Arden. An unexpected but effective strategy has been to stack auras on the partner deck.
Aura Voltron
Commander
Voltron Auras
Aura Support
Approximate Total Cost:
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This pack is intended to apply slight early aggro pressure that ramps quickly once the commander lands. The alternative win condition of Angel of Destiny drives a subtheme of lifelink, and the angel theme supports the anti-lose condition of The Book of Exalted Deeds. Finally, Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Nevinyrral's Disk offer a board control route.
Akroma - Angel Keyword Tribal
Commander
Angels
Angel Support
Creatures with Keywords for Curve
Approximate Total Cost:
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Livio is a blink value deck. There are opportunities for politics by using Livio to flicker important creatures that another player wants. Abdel and Preston allow for infinite flicker and tokens.
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Prava is an aggro token deck. It applies enough pressure that it has not required a backup method to combo or win beyond applying pressure to life totals for the majority of the game.
Commander
Mana for Tokens
Attack for Tokens
Interaction
Approximate Total Cost:
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Katerina is build around cat tribal, with highlights including Coat of Arms and Cathars' Crusade.
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Blue Commander Packs
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Brinelin, the Moon Kraken is intended to ramp the hardest of these decks, while playing enough control to be able to establish persistent interaction into infinitely controlling the battlefield or the stack via Tidespout Tyrant, Hullbreaker Horror, or Omniscience.
Brinelin Big Mana Combo/Control
Approximate Total Cost:
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This pack is a scry focused deck which focuses on card advantage after Eligeth resolves. It has the highest amount of card selection or advantage in the box. It can't attack life totals well, but can win with Triskaidekaphile.
Commander
Creatures that Scry
Win Condition
Approximate Total Cost:
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This pack is intended to use self-looting effects as card advantage. It should have enough draw and self-mill to enable a win with Jace. As of March 19, 2023 the deck is in it's second draft, but it may need additional support for it's win conditions.
Looting
Approximate Total Cost:
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This pack is built around value over time and leveraging dealing damage with Malcolm. There aren't many evasive pirates, so some additional evasive creatures round out the low mana values. Finally, Mechanized Production allows for an alternative win condition.
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This pack is entirely clones and copy spells. It's intended to help the partner do more of it's plan.
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Black Commander Packs
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This pack is intended to use Keskit as repeatable value. Nim Deathmantle loops for infinite tokens or mana while generating value for Keskit. This is the most value engine oriented commander, and makes use of many sources of tokens in its own pack or its partner's for repeated card advantage.
Aristocrats
Approximate Total Cost:
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Sengir intends to limit the number of creatures opponents have on the battlefield, and for the commander to become quickly lethal in size after he lands through the same methods. The heaviest board control deck of the black decks.
Sengir Sacrifice Voltron
Commander
Sacrifice Board Control
Voltron
Approximate Total Cost:
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This pack is built around Lifelink, both for card draw and regaining the life spent. The win condition is based around gaining life such as Sanguine Bond. It can perform an excellent support roll for focused decks as consistent draw, and can double up on other packs by naming words from those partners, such as 'target' or 'token'.
Lifelink Draw
Commander
Creatures with Lifelink
Spells with Lifelink
Approximate Total Cost:
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Tormod is a sacrifice engine and token deck intending to capitalize on self-recurring creatures. It provides a large amount of recursion, but may need some additional tribal support for zombies.
Tormod Graveyard Durdle
Commander
Self Recurring Creatures
Returning Creatures
Sacrifice and Discard
Approximate Total Cost:
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Red Commander Packs
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This pack is intended to play large creatures, drastically increase their power, and use the commander to generate mana for firebreathing. With either of the equipment, a creature with at least 4 power can generate infinite mana, so direct damage or large creatures with trample can finish a game.
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Jeska is a damage based board control and aggressive deck. The commander provides either removal or a large damage output. Additional damage multiplication replacement effects allow even small creatures to become potent threats. Jeska appears to partner well voltron and evasive packs for quick commander damage based wins.
Damage
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Krark is a spellslinger deck that is intended to multiply the number of spells available through the typical Krark asymmetry of copying the coin flip. Limited compared to typical Krark decks to mono-red, this relies on resolving and copying Harmonic Prodigy for a full storm turn, or incremental value using Twinning Staff. Alternate Win condition though Chance Encounter or typical Krark spellslinging.
Krark Flips Too Many Coins
Approximate Total Cost:
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This pack is built as a landfall and artifacts matter pack. This is the one deck that wants fetchlands for value, and stacking up rocks on an equipment-matters creature can deal massive damage. Holding up rocks as a removal threat can be highly effective, while stacking up a pile can win with Hellkite Tyrant.
Equiping Rocks
Commander
Landfall
Equipment Matters - Creatures
Artifacts Matter
Approximate Total Cost:
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Kediss will be intended to play a direct commander voltron threat with auras and equipment. This is the most in flux as I try to fit the cards into the box.
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Green Commander Packs
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This pack ramps to higher MV cards and generates card advantage by casting 6 MV spells. Replacement effects for mana allow Gilanra to draw more than one card per tap, so long as the mana is spent on multiple spells.
Big Green Value
Commander
Ramp
Assorted Bombs
Unsorted
Approximate Total Cost:
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This pack is the most board control oriented in green, and uses a large number of deathtouch creatures to deal damage through Halana. The deathtouch also provides a large disincentive to be attacked and allows damage triggers to provide advantage via Toski, Bearer of Secrets effects.
Deathtouch Tribal
Commander
Creatures with Deathtouch
Creatures dealing Damage Matters
Deathtouch and Trample is Good
Approximate Total Cost:
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This pack is golem tribal with a heavy emphasis on the tokens that Academy Manufactor cares about. I hadn't remembered that the Colossi are golems, so ramping into those large threats is the main plan. Backup win condition makes use of Krark-Clan Ironworks and/or Cogwork Assembler for infinite artifacts.
Golem Tribal Treasure
Commander
Golems
Artifacts to Sacrifice
Stuff
Approximate Total Cost:
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Slurrk is a stompy deck that plans to win through persistent, aggressive pressure. Slurrk and other cards add resiliency for stacking up counters while also enabling persist looping combos.
Slurrk Ooze Counters
Approximate Total Cost:
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As of March 2023, there have been enough packs done for several game sessions, including playing decks in 3 to 6 player games and against normal decks. Some general concerns are about game quality. It seems as though 1/4 players on the average gets mana screwed. I have attributed this to insufficient shuffling, but it may be a sign that some packs are underperforming. Alena, Kessig Trapper has some difficulty landing more than one threat, while Brinelin, the Moon Kraken has been limited by the amount of blue mana. Ghost of Ramirez DePietro was taken out of the pool for a revamp, and the current list hasn't been played. As the deck combinations exceed 200, it will take a while to play enough games.
The other concern is that some packs overperform. Krark and Prava specifically are value engines only, but still have a high win and threat rate. My intention is to bring the other packs more in line, but I may need to determine a way to power them down instead. I think that most packs are in the target range. Nearly every pack has been a threaten or grind out a value win.
The last consideration is trying to not make "best" pairings. This is why Kodama of the East Tree isn't in the green decks, as I could only choose it or Sakashima of a Thousand Faces to avoid a direct combo in the command zone. An example of a strong pairing would be Jeska, Thrice Reborn and Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist or Gilanra, Caller of Wirewood and Brinelin, the Moon Kraken, but neither of these reach a threshold of the same concern. A method to minimize this would be to decrease the number of commanders dealt out, as there would be reduced opportunity for the best possible pairings.
