I'm in the pre-pre-planning stages of a JumpStart cube! I backed the Cubeamajig Series 2 Kickstarter, which is perfect for it. While I do love drafting, I like JumpStart because it can still be a fun, deep Magic experience, but one that can be had when short on time.
I'm really thinking about general themes at the moment. They can be mechanical (elves, affinity, aristocrats, etc.) or thematic (hat tribal, buff dudes, bad art, etc.). The sky's the limit. I'm trying to focus on mono-colored options with plans to go into multicolor themes. I also want a relatively consistent power level, which will likely mean only 1-2 rares per pack, but nothing is set in stone.
The general template is:
12 cards dedicated to theme
7 basic lands
1 dual land (likely one of the Thriving cycle
A few themes I've been thinking about already, starting mostly with well-worn archetypes:
White: Gideon, knights, white weenie
Blue: affinity, sea creatures, Ensoul Artifact
Black: zombies, devotion, reanimator
Red: RDW, goblins, madness
Green: elves, fight, stompy
I know I want to also include many others, including thopters, heroic, prowess, soulbond, cycling, landfall, and basically anything else that could be remotely fun. One of the many advantages of this format is that you can constantly add to it without having to take away. I will probably also have some straight pickups from JumpStart itself.
Do you have any cool ideas or hidden gems? Please please PLEASE share them with me! Let's talk!