JumpStart: SideQuests! Is my WIP custom JumpStart cube, where each pack is built around a sidequest: some objective that won't directly win the game, but will significantly increase the power of your deck (in turn making it easier to win).
For example, the mill pack isn't designed to completely deck your opponent, rather, it tries to mill your opponent enough that you can then beat them up with Jace's Phantasm and Expedition Lookout type cards.
The result is a vast variety of deck combinations, each with two distinct sidequests and, of course, a main quest of killing the opponent.
Inspiration
Jace's Phantasm might be the first non-land magic card I ever saw. A friend of mine in boy scouts had a couple decks and taught me how to play, his favorite deck was a mono-blue mill deck that ran Jace's Phantasm. At the time, that card was quite the menace, a 5/5 with flying for 1? Removing a t1 Jace's Phantasm before its condition was met was very important, otherwise it would kill you in very short order. Of course, nowadays, I look back and realize that Jace's Phantasm was terrible, not necessarily from a numbers view point, a 1/1 with flying and the potential to grow for 1 mana is perfectly reasonable, but because, systematically, rewarding mill with a big creature runs contrary to mills game plan. Mill wants to win be decking you, and Jace's Phantasm wants to win by reducing your life total to 0, two different goals with no real overlap. As time has gone on, I've identified many cards with similar issues, the entire corrupted mechanic, as seen on cards like Apostle of Invasion, is a great example, if you manage to get 3 poison counters on your opponent, might as well go all the way and get 10, rather than pivoting to regular combat damage. Despite knowing that these cards range from bad to awful, I kind of love them anyways. I'd never put them in a deck of course, but something about their Rube-Goldberg-esque design just tickles my fancy.
Recently, playing in-person Magic has become next-to-impossible, of the three game stores in reasonable driving range, only one of them has a large enough space to host games, and they've been struggling to get enough people together to even run a 4 player commander game. Which is unfortunate, but out of my control.I've tried to get my wife and/or brother into mtg, with varying degrees of success, and I'm currently working on creating a small, 180 card, cube to that end. However, I thought something more "shuffle up and play" would be a better starting point, and since I've never been too impressed with Wizard's "duel decks" I decided I'd look into JumpStart. I don't have a Vorthos bone in my body, however, so I knew I'd have to find themes with more mechanical depth than "dog tribal" or "angel tribal" or "elf tribal."
I came up with a list of ideas and started building, but quickly realized that I found my "greater than starting life total" pack starring Twinblade Paladin and my "opponent has less than ten life" pack starring Guul Draz Vampire far more interesting than many of my other ideas, so I started building more packages like those and eventually cutting many of the less interesting packs. Eventually, I decided to make ALL the packs these SideQuest packs. The result will be a very small collection of packs, but, in my opinion, much more interesting themes and combinations. More importantly, they're the kind of mechanics you can't really explore anywhere else.
Breaking Singleton
Most Jumpstart packs have 1 of each copy of card, or maybe 2 copies of one important card. It seems like most custom JumpStart packs follow the same guidelines, but I'm not a fan of singleton for the kind of cube I'm trying to create. It adds extra mental overhead for newer players, and makes the themes weaker (in particular, some themes in this cube only have 1-3 pay-off cards in the entirety of magic). It's also a lot easier to balance packs when you can adjust the numbers of certain cards.
Of course, the flip side is I don't want every pack to be 4 copies of 3 cards and lands, so, in general, I tried to shoot for 6-8 unique non-lands, and no more than 3 copies of a card.
The Packs
White Packs
Vitality (greater than 20 life)
Show
Hide
Vitality
Approximate Total Cost:
One of the first packs I made, interestingly, Serra Ascendant, despite being the inspiration for the pack didn't make the cut, 30 life would have been the highest lifetotal requirement in the deck. Speaker of the Heavens should be much more consistent, easier to turn on, and better stats (vigilance) when it's not turned on
Providence is a card I was uncertain about at first, but I've grown to like it more and more as time goes on. Gaining life is arguably the hardest SideQuest as your opponent will be actively trying to undo your progress. So giving them the dream of achieving their SideQuest on turn 0, plus giving them a Hail Mary if things are looking grim seems like a fair tradeoff. What's neat is that, unlike anywhere else, casting Providence isn't just buying time against the inevitable, if casting Providence turns on your cards, all you payoff creatures might actually put you ahead on board. Allowing you to STAY at that high life total and turn the tide. It is prohibitively expensive though, so it might still be cut.
Artificer (metalcraft)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
Court Homunculus and Toolcraft Exemplar are both omitted because I felt they were too easy, Ideally, all cards should have the same requirement in each pack, but for many SideQuests, that's not possible, here, it is though.
Ancient Den does put the list over it's budget, but can totally be cut.
Insanity (mill)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
Something that was important to me when building this deck was to make sure decking your opponent rarely became the primary wincon. For that reason, there is very little repeatable mill (just the 2 Merfolk Windrobbers) and the mill requirements are pretty light to compensate. There are a number of cards that reward the player for milling 20 or more cards, but that seemed too extreme, either the mill would be too weak and you'd never achieve your SideQuest or your mill would be too strong, and it would be too easy to take it the rest of the way and mill the last ~10 cards from your opponent.
Didn't Say Please is sweet in this deck, functionally mills 4 cards (because the countered card also goes to the yard). There's actually a functionally identical version of this card, but I love the sass on this card.
Level Up (level up)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
Nothing fancy, one could argue that their should be 3 Venerated Teachers and only 2 Champion's Drake. But Champion's Drake falls more in line with what a SideQuest should be (either you have it, or you don't). And it's not a dead card if everything is leveled up.
Spreading Seas might be a bit mean for a goofy JumpStart cube, but I wanted to give Halimar Wavewatch at least a chance to become unblockable against any deck.
Hada Spy Patrol is suspect, I don't like the idea of shroud in an environment that I'm intentionally not putting any board wipes in. But it's a one-of and it requires investment to get there, so I think it's fine.
Blood Lust (opponent has less than 10 life)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
You could make the argument that getting your opponent to 10 or less life isn't really a SideQuest, after all, that's just the first step to everyone's main quest which is to get a player to 0 life. However, I think it's good to have an honest-to-goodness aggro deck, that still has a strong theme. Besides, the SideQuest does change a lot of play. The phrase "The only life point that matters is the last one" isn't so true when letting the Vampire Lacerator through will also turn on your opponents 2 Guul Draz Vampires.
I'm really happy with Clawing Torment as it does everything this pack wants, it removes a blocker while also dealing more damage. Who cares if your opponents creature survives, as long as it's out of the way.
Mechanically, Tyrant's Choice is great in this deck, 2 mana 4 life should help you turn on your payoffs, or heave over the finish line. However, aesthetically, I don't like the whole irrelevant-in-a-one-a-one voting. So if I find a good alternative, it might get cut.
I also considered Sorin Markov as a way to turn on your payoffs even if the board is clogged up, but first of all, that's a pricy magic card, second of all, the aggro pack shouldn't be playing 6 drops.
Witch's Brew (Bogbrew Witch combo)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
Apparently, Bogbrew Witch was Tier 3ish back when it was in standard, but I never got to play with it then, so this is new for me.
Only one Bubbling Cauldron might be ambitious, but you only need one, and Bogbrew Witch tutors it up uncounterably, so I think I prefer giving myself some additional room in the pack.
Echoing Return is sweet, you want to save it until you've used all 3 Festering Newt to get them all back and go again, but it can also be used to get back Bogbrew Witch if your opponent managed to counter/kill it before you tutored everything up (or just use it on something important in your other pack).
Zhentarim Bandit isn't anything special, but the deck doesn't do much until it gets Bogbrew Witch out, so a body with decent stats that can ramp into her should be a good fit.
Witch's Cottage would be a flavorful inclusion to sub out a swamp, but, realistically, with no fetches, unless you are lucky enough to get into a monoblack deck, you probably won't see 3 other swamps until VERY late game.
Dinosaur Turtle (Yidaro, Wandering Monster)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
Name is WIP, suggestions welcome XD
I actually made the entire pack before throwing Squee in, but it's one of my favorite engines, so I'm glad I found a home for it (I don't really think it would work as a dedicated theme in this cube).
I love this pack and the Dragon's Approach pack, but they are very similar: dig through your deck while casting/cycling the same card until it gives you a huge pay-off, so, for the sake of variety, I'm thinking it might be best to only include one, in which case, it'll definitely be this one. Then again, If they are both really cool, maybe I shouldn't over think it and I should just run both.
Spelleater (spellmastery and similar effects)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
Very basic pack, Ghitu Lavarunner is a pretty weak magic card, but it fits the theme so I forced it in. Fiery Impulse is a strictly worse Lightning Bolt, but that's not saying a bunch, and, again, Fiery Impulse fits the theme.
Corruption (3 or more poison counters)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
There's a couple ways to take this theme, and I'm not sure I picked the best one, but I like it well enough, it's got a lot of ramp, but most of its outlets are gated behind achieving corrupted, meaning opponents would be wise to fight tooth and nail not to get poisoned.
A second Venerated Rotpriest would probably be good for the deck, but I don't want it to be too easy to achieve corrupted in the early game. (Again, benefit of ignoring singleton, if I decide this pack needs a boost I can put more rotpriests in).
Prosperity (controlling enough lands)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
Prosperity is the best name I could come up with, other suggestions are welcome.
Scute Mob brings me happiness, it might be my favorite magic card (and no, Scute Swarm, while cool, does not bring nearly as much joy). Pretty basic list, Topiary Stomper is worth a pretty penny, but works so well for this pack that I went ahead and splurged anyways. Probably could use a bit higher of a mana curve to make use of all the ramp, but I always struggle to find a good mana curve once ramp is involved, so I'll leave it as is for now.
One more land then the base outline to make it just a bit easier for the deck to get enough lands out.
Rejected Themes
Show
Hide
Shadow of Mortality: Directly conflicts with the Vitality package, and Death's Shadow already sees play in eternal formats, so I elected to include the less-popular mechanic.
Ferocious: It seems too easy: playing creatures with a high power is just generically a good idea, and MOST packs are capable of achieving this side quest on their own. Coven and, to a lesser extent Pack Tactics are similar mechanics with a bit more promise in my opinion.
Hellbent: First of all, it doesn't play nicely with other packs, even if all the Hellbent pack cards in your hand can be played early/don't mind being pitched, it's likely that the other pack will include some important, lategame plays which you'll have to wait for. Second of all, I don't really like how much hellbent status flips on and off, pretty much every sidequest can be turned back off (mill could have the opponent exile some cards from their GY, Vitality could be dealt some damage, Bloodlust's opponent could gain some life), but at least they require SOME interaction from your opponent for that to happen, Hellbent just gets turned off every draw step and can be turned back on if you are able to cast your top deck. (Besides, the hellbent payoffs aren't particularly exciting, so it's no great loss).
Hedron Alignment: When I think "ridiculous mini-game" this is probably the first card that comes to mind, but any alternate win-condition is a no-go in this cube. The idea is that you have two themes in your deck, with wildly different SideQuest, but they both, ultimately, are geared towards reducing your opponent's life points to 0. Obviously, depending on the boardstate/cards in hand, a player might be more aggressively trying to complete one SideQuest over another, but it's pretty undeniable that the mos powerful option is to complete both sidequests. Hedron Alignment, and any other alternate win condition don't help reduce your opponent's life total, so you end up with 2 packs with no overlap whatsoever.
I made a pack around Dragon's Approach, but it was pretty bad so I cut it:
Dragon Rider (Dragon's Approach)
Show
Hide
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
I ultimately decided on Bogardan Hellkite as the dragon of choice, I wanted something with a strong ETB effect to make sure that you at least got something out of achieving your SideQuest if your opponent immediately removed it. I did consider Lightning Shrieker, It's much more castable if it ends up in your hand, and afterwards shuffles itself back in so that you can still grab it with Dragon's Approach. However, the reward for completing your sidequest being "5 damage" seems a bit underwhelming, especially because I suspect this SideQuest won't always be completed, and I want it to be exciting when you do. Besides, Fire Prophecy is a good card anyways that fixes the problem.
Bitter Reunion is sweet, it bins a Dragon's Approach while digging deeper for more, and when you do get your Bogardan Hellkite, you can give it haste! I considered running one of these and one Cathartic Reunion, especially because the deck doesn't have a lot of variety to begin with, but Bitter Reunion is too perfect for the deck.
While not a hard rule, I've been trying to keep each packs budget to ~$10 and this one costs $35. Turns out Dragon's Approach is a $5 card. Not much I can do about it though.
Themes that I haven't gotten to work (yet, hopefully)
Show
Hide
The City's Blessing: Is kind of a perfect SideQuest, but the payoffs just aren't there. White has two great 1-drop payoffs, and then a mediocre 5 drop. Blue has a few more options, but it's mostly just CA and more CA. I suppose I could include some generic evasive beaters and turn it into a bit of a tempo shell? Expel from Orazca is a beating.
Complete a Dungeon: Initiative is far to polarizing to be in this cube, but the OG venture mechanic would be fine. Problem is, once again, pay-offs. White has two decent pay-offs, but they are both 3 drops, and black has Acererak the Archlich, which I really want to make work, I just need to figure out how to make sure people are incentivized to go through the Tomb of Annihilation over the other two options. (also, the only other payoff in black is a mediocre removal spell)
Coven: Just haven't gotten around to it yet, White seems like a no-go, as most of the white pay-offs all have 3 power, but green might work out nicely.
Complete a Dungeon: Initiative is far to polarizing to be in this cube, but the OG venture mechanic would be fine. Problem is, once again, pay-offs. White has two decent pay-offs, but they are both 3 drops, and black has Acererak the Archlich, which I really want to make work, I just need to figure out how to make sure people are incentivized to go through the Tomb of Annihilation over the other two options. (also, the only other payoff in black is a mediocre removal spell)
Coven: Just haven't gotten around to it yet, White seems like a no-go, as most of the white pay-offs all have 3 power, but green might work out nicely.
