zoydraft

[zoydraft]

Pink Sleeves Expanded @ Kung Fu Tea, August 11 2025

10 players, 3 packs of 15 | Pink Sleeves + Expansion | cubecobra.com/c/pink + cubecobra.com/c/pinkx

A few months ago I had the idea of creating a 90 card expansion to Pink Sleeves. The goal would be to add new gameplay specifically for 10 player drafts: more build arounds, different textures, etc. Transformative, not just the same experience stretched out. I got as far as assembling a rough draft from cards on hand, and on the Monday it turned out the choice for drafting wasn't prepped in time, so Pink Expanded was on deck for a 10 player draft.

And yes, it was a different experience. For me, it was surreal, seeing a bunch of barely thought through cards added into my cube I've drafted dozens of times. For the table, I think it was a net negative compared to the normal list, but may have been better than the alternative of smaller packs and smaller pools. There were two stories of the night:

Dom's Storm Deck(!? I'll get to that in a minute), and

The density of interaction

One drafter asked, "you said there is efficient removal, but is there a better black removal spell than Collective Brutality? Because I didn't see any." That gave me pause for a second, because I've had good drafters say they take Collective Brutality highly here, but the point being made was the density. My black removal suit is extremely "normal ass cube" staples: Dismember, Fatal Push, Ravenous Chupacabra, Bone Shards, Shriekmaw, Infernal Grasp, Murderous Cut, Disfigure, Fell... Y'know normal ass.

The problem was the density, and the people fighting over the same cards. We had ≥3 Blood Crypt-wanters at the table, and you can see a lot of this stuff went to one of the 3-1 RB decks. It also allowed the 3-1 GW deck to victimize decks that didn't get enough interaction... until it ran into that RB deck.

So obviously the expansion needs more removal. Easy enough. Very simple takeaway to move forward with.

However, the question also has me pondering a more philosophical question: is there anything to be done for untrusting drafters, either in design or presentation? The question was rhetorical, but also I think sincerely asking if I had misrepresented the cube when I described it as having efficient interaction.

I don't have an answer to the following, but are there choices designers can make that will re-assure drafters who are a little more skeptical? If this drafter had trusted that I was right that interaction was efficient, but none was coming around, it would have been a strong signal that black was not open in that seat. That's an oversimplification, because the expansion did drop the density by 20%*, and sometimes skepticism toward the designer serves drafters well ("you're telling me it's a 'fair' environment, but I think I'll just be taking every card that says 'Monarch' on it").

*that is, when you go from x/360 to x/450 you get a drop of, like, 2.8% to 2.2%. It's a 20% relative drop, not a 20 percentage point drop (like 30% to 10%).

One thing I try is to only provide information that is objective ("there are this many land cycles") or empirical ("these are things that have been successful in the past"), but mostly I don't want this cube to require an introduction.

It's something I'll be thinking about.

3-1 Ux Storm Control drafted by Dom Harvey

The other story of the night was this masterpiece. Dom is the polar opposite of my idealized drafted, but it was amazing to see him assemble an infinite loop that I had no idea was possible. I might be getting this wrong, but he used combinations of The Mirari Conjecture (from the expansion), Frantic Search, Noxious Revival, Galvanic Iteration, Mystic Sanctuary, and Universal Flicker (a custom card: {W/U} instant. Exile target permanent, then return it to play under its owner's control) to recur and copy spells, with duplicated or recurred Lightning Bolt or Fiery Confluence as a wincon. It was masterful.

To be clear, I'm quite sure he didn't know this was possible going in: The Mirari Conjecture was in the expansion, and I have it unlisted on CubeCobra. He figured it out on the spot.

Surrounding that was a wicked control shell, and the dual threat of Sprite Dragon and Laboratory Maniac, both of which put opponents on a clock, sometimes simultaneously.

Dom commented that if he ran custom cards, Universal Flicker would be the first, which feels like a ringing endorsement of it being the only one I have.

This really made me want to put The Mirari Conjecture back in the main list, even though it makes a combo technically possible... But I don't think many players would be able to see through time and space to assemble and then pilot this deck. It's also the only time Galvanic Iteration has been relevant, as far as I know, so that was validating.

What do you think?

3-1 SelesnyaDies2Pyroclasm.dec drafted by Nat

The deck that beat Dom.

Nat is a very good magic player, and also identified that this deck was extremely open in his seat. Under normal density removal I think this deck is slowed down a bit, but it's still very good. Esika's Chariot and Parallax Wave have both been winning a lot of matches, and again, I like that being where we're at.

Dom neutralized Rancor with Spellskite, which blew a minds. Briarhorn (another card that was long ago cut but then added to the expansion) was surprisingly effective. Mostly, this deck was able to just attack all the time.

3-1 Rakdos Confidant drafted by inferiorphilly

The deck that beat Nat. All it took was some kill spells.

Inferiorphilly: "someone needs to stop me from drafting Bob and Liliana every chance I get."

This sure is a Bob curve. The dual machine gun of Goblin Bombardment and Mayhem Devil is disgusting (positive). Young Pyromancer and Sedgemoor Witch provide fodder, with Manamorphose for a nice extra deck-thinning trigger. I love this deck.

Harmonic Prodigy is a candidate for call-up to the big leagues.

2-1 UWb Control, drafted by Scootland [deck & pick order]

The deck that beat inferiorphilly (and lost to Dom)

Inferiorphilly: "Close ass games but silly me casted my Devil's Play for lethal into a Mana Leak by paying extra into it in case he gained life somehow"

We chuckled when Dom grabbed Mindwhisker to read it. A couple turns later he decided to Swords to Plowshares it.

Dom declared Ashiok Dream Render to be "hateful," which, fair. Normal cube doesn't have the Landscapes, so it's normally less of an issue. I think I've mostly liked the play patterns, but yeah, shuts down Dom's deck.

2-1 WU Token Control drafted by CTide

Despite the rocks, Balance didn't do the whole thing. This is another example of the scripted plays being under-supported. Sublime Epiphany is very very good: fixed hands and made lots of Spirits.

CTide brought up Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis as potentially a rough play pattern with all the chumping and escaping. It's totally true that's something that can happen, but in the time I've been running it I don't think it's been a problem. It's a strong card, but it's often played proactively (especially as a repeatable source of Humans) and I haven't heard moaning about it. This is one where I want to wait for it to happen (or see a white planeswalker I like better).

Gx Golos Field drafted by Enzymat1c

Enzymatic had his first Golos activation!

When I added the lands deck two or three years ago I was unsure how well it would go over, and it very quickly became just one of the standard decks that someone always latches onto.

0-3 Rakdos Living Artist drafted by me

This deck was bad, it needed cards from the 3-1 BR deck 😁.

One stray thought: it's interesting that in these two drafts most of the decks were 2 colours, or 1 base colour with multiple splashes. Relatively even 3 colour decks have become much rarer since I moved to the triple shock mana base.

The Expansion needs a lot of revisions before Id be happy pulling it out again, but I knew that. Mostly just glad I got to draft more!

Not pictured: 2Sleepy, Gobi, and MoxPebble

[zoydraft]

Gravely Barren @ Steadfast, August 8, 2025 (Sicko Draft)

5 player draft of Gravely Barren | cubecobra.com/c/gydesert | 4 packs of 15, desert cube

After we'd already played 3 rounds of Pink Sleeves (and I'd had several beers), five of us drafted Gravely Barren, a graveyard desert bar cube, which, yeah, sounds like a lot of descriptors, but they fit together like, uh, a series of nested gloves I guess?

Sultai Stuff pick order

This was my first time drafting a desert cube and I over-valued lands. The density felt higher than necessary, but that's important to prevent trainwrecks.

I won my first match on the turn before I got milled out with a Restless Vinestalk activation. For my second match, well, I shuffled my sideboard into my deck and, uh, that was bad. Sorry!

Looting felt really good (Shoreline Looter & Vohar) and Victimize was great. There were lots of ways to fill the graveyard, but I think more Flashback style effects, or cards that can otherwise be cast from the graveyard would be nice. I'm not sure if that's because of the cube or just the way the packs broke.

There were a few cards that were unfamiliar and wordy enough that I just completely glazed over. I don't think they were particularly complicated, but I just wasn't in the cognitive state for it, plus the brewery was dim, so small text is just gonna be unfriendly in those conditions. I used Shigeki, so it's not insurmountable.

This made me strongly consider making Forbidden Trash a desert cube. I think it would work. We'll see.

I always have such a fun time with rougher-around-the-edges cubes where everyone is figuring it out as they go and this was no exception.. I'm looking forward to playing it again!

If you're on the /tagged/2508/chrono page, the next post continues below...

[zoydraft]

Pink Sleeves @ Steadfast, August 8 2025

8 player draft of Pink Sleeves [cubecobra.com/c/pink] | 3 packs of 15 + one Cogwork Librarian added to each pack 1 | Hosted at Steadfast Brewing Co | organized on the Toronto MtG Cubers Discord

My partner took our kids to see grandparents, so I got 3 cube drafts in over 4 days! First up was Pink Sleeves at Steadfast, the first time in a year and a half it has been drafted by a full pod. I had a great time, and got some good takeaways on the kind of player this cube doesn't work for that will inform some last minute changes before Untap TO in September.

WB Humans, drafted by me [pick order pic]

White felt open in both directions, and black in one direction. Most of my matchups felt like I needed my board wipes to stabilize, but I didn't have a good way to recover. Selfless Spirit would've been great; Recruitment Officer or Sevinne's Reclamation would have helped, but I did have Sun Titan.

I got some comments on my boardstates being awkward for opponents to navigate, and I like that as a dimension to overcome White's shortage of card advantage and the efficiency of removal. Thalia Heretic Cathar, Dauntless Bodyguard, Coppercoat Vanguard, and especially Hallowed Spiritkeeper are examples of what I mean.

I repeatedly forgot that Liliana's -1 isn't symmetrical, and Braids did not work in this deck.

Naya Sideways, drafted by inferiorphilly [check out Pre-Kaladesh Legacy]

My first match was against this Hardened Scales deck. I stole a game with Mirror Entity letting me attack for 17, and in another game we both flooded out and I spent over half a dozen turns attacking with Thalia's Lieutenant for 1 while holding up interaction, which was a pretty miserable way to finish a match.

Klaykl: "[This was] a very 'fair' strategy, and it seemed like it was missing some sort of value generation to overcome the disruption. My disruption was so efficient that it felt unfair to disrupt."

This looks like a steam-roller, but one reliant on drawing Hardened Scales early and getting a lot of value off of it, or getting out Glorybringer at an opportune time to finish the game while dodging interaction.

Rampaging Ferocidon, Scavenging Ooze, Dryad Militant, and Managorger Hydra all provide some hatred, but I'm not sure how much they came up in games, other than me feeling like I needed to immediately get rid of the Hydra.

The struggle to win by having the biggest creatures is something I have to pay attention to, and have made adjustments in the past, mainly with nerfing Black's stats (removing Rotting Regisaur for example, but also pushing more toward discard with Hypnotic Spectre and Thoughtstalker Warlock) so that Green is indisputably the rate monster.

🏆 RG Burn, drafted by CTide [check out Volcano Manner]

CTide: "I think Plow Under being in this cube made my deck actively worse, and I'm thankful for it."

My second match was against the eventual 3-0. I love seeing burn succeed. Maybe I secretly hate creatures, what with the way I always wanna see non-creatures in a central role. Price of Progress was useless against me 😈

CTide used the Cogwork Librarians to their full potential. We had some good discussion on the way that Cogwork Librarians are much more disruptive with a full table of 8 and such a wide powerband. They make the draft feel casual but they're still skill-testing and exploitable. I think that works better at a table of 4 drafters or even 6.

Esika's Chariot was pointed out in this draft and the following as a power outlier but a healthy one. It's not unstoppable, but it can do cool stuff and ends games quickly if not answered.

CTide is so good at giving feedback. Yes, it's thoughtful and astute, but more notably it's so gentle. I want to know how these powers are used outside of cube feedback, because they're incredible.

2-1 Gx Lands drafted by Scootland [check out the Big Splash]

Scootland: "Icetill is cool"

My last match went up against the lands deck. The freshly proxied Icetill Explorer was great, and we talked a bit about Crop Rotation not having enough utility targets. I think that fits into a broader theme I'll get to later of cards not fulling their "scripting," but it's something I'll keep in mind. Repudiate was cast for good value, and Adult Gold Dragon got accolades for being a big dumb idiot that just plays well here. We had the talk about how Pacifism is not good. And yes, that's true. It's Pacifism. It doesn't do nothing, but it's here because it's Pacifism and it looks nice.

Suggestion that maybe Exploration should be in here, which I can't disagree with. I would just need to proxy it.

I mean this in the most neutral way possible, but cube design is inherently at least a little narcissistic. You're taking a game that already exists and editing it into a form of self-expression that you're inflicting on others. We are so lucky to have Scootland, who despite being a cube designer puts in the work to make sure other people's cubes are getting played. Communities just don't work without people like that.

2-1 BRw Pack Rat drafted by Cashew [check out the Dandy Cube]

The second best deck by tie-breakers notably struggled to find relevant targets for Claim the Firstborn.

Cashew: "In general, what I think you'd want with cards like Threaten that are already niche is additional power, not additional efficiency, since it's already a card you don't want to cast on every board state"

Klaykl suggested Harness by Force as an alternative, which I'm strongly considering.

2-1 UB Living Death Control drafted by klaykl [check out the 10oz Peasant Cube]

Klaykl: "I appreciate that this cube had no fetches. It added a very different texture to an otherwise powerful format. Thanks for help proving that hypothesis"

This deck got some oohs and aahs when laid out. Here are a lot of the hard control cards and they did their job. The second photo is notable sideboard cards. I saw a lot of sideboarding going on all night, which I love to see; I want cards to be contextually better or worse, and for your opponent to matter. Makes my heart grow, in a non-medically precarious way. Coincidentally, I think it's also something the 10oz Peasant Cube does a good job of encouraging.

Klaykl also played community-enabler by volunteering to handle results and pairings, using the still-best-in-class mtgarena.appspot.com. Give it a shot if you haven't, and round of applause to Klaykl.

UW Control drafted by todestrieb [check out Formless]

Todestrieb: "Upon reflection I think the main reason I didn’t do well was failing to read the signal that someone else was taking the harder control spells; what I did have and what was left open probably could have led me to a better tempo deck. I don’t think it particularly speaks to blue struggling or anything like that. Shark Typhoon and Mystic Confluence were also very good but you don’t need me to tell you that. I would have liked to have seen a Bind the Monster type effect."

I do not like blue enchantment-based removal (outside of, like, Control Magic). I would be super interested to see what a more tempo-oriented version of this seat would have looked like. I was the one taking the white board wipes, sorry.

4C Dredgeless Dredge drafted by 2Sleepy [impossibly, does not have a cube]

The magical, the legendary "person in a cube discord who does not have a cube." I had a really interesting time talking to 2Sleepy about the draft afterward. He's unfortunately right in my design blindspot.

He hadn't looked at the list before, and I didn't mention in my short spiel that there's no combo present. He opened some packs and saw cards he recognized for Caleb Gannon's Powered Synergy Cube and assumed this was like that. Sorry, but it's not. The cards to complete the combo are never coming around.

After the draft on Monday, CTide asked, "if it's not a combo cube, why are there these combo-adjacent cards?" and the quick answer was that the card in question is not a normal part of the cube (I'll get to that in my next post), but really, combo pieces are super well-aligned with my taste. I don't want capital-C combos, but I want to give tools that require, reward, and most of all encourage some creativity, and those are the kind of spells that combos exploit.

For naïve drafters, that's purely an exercise of, "what the hell do I do with this?" Which then leads them to think creatively, or opt out of engaging with that card for that draft. These friends are always front of mind when I'm making card choices.

For really strong drafters or drafters with a good understanding of the environment, these cards don't cause a ton of problems because they adapt to the context.

The in-between is the problem. 2Sleepy probably knows more than me about what cards "usually" do. What is the expected role of this card or that when it shows up in EDH or constructed or other cubes?

Ages ago, Matt Grenier had a great post that used Tendrils of Agony as its central illustration to differentiate "scripted" versus "improvised" play. Tendrils is a card that plays a part in some heavily scripted sequences, but it's also so fun just finding a way to cast it with the Storm count at, like, 4. That kind of improvised play is what I want to cultivate in my cubes.

Beyond preference though, I didn't play Magic for that long before getting into cube (and it was >90% retail limited) so I don't have a ton of "script knowledge," and I have very little interest in learning it. I think it's a serious weakness of mine, but not one I'm going to address head on.

In most ways I care about, I don't think it matters, but it does leave 2Sleepy disenfranchised when card inclusions are setting up expectations that I'm not going to fulfill. I don't want to do that if I can help it, and artifacts are specifically a problem. The cube either has too few or too many artifacts, including some that hint at play patterns that aren't present. I want to overhaul those ASAP, preferably before Untap T.O. (which you should be going to!!! Only a handful of tickets are left!).

...And then we drafted again.

Thanks y'all for the gift of friendship. Steadfast drafts are such good vibes!

If you're on the /tagged/2508/chrono page, the next post continues below...

[zoydraft]

Overdue post about how I normally make packs for Pink Sleeves

I periodically get asked this, and then Usman asked about seeding, so I am writing it down. Heavily inspired by the ol' "Novel Cube Shuffling Method" from Reddit.

6 piles of cards: W, U, B, R, G, and everything else

Put three cards from each mono-colour pile into each other mono-colour pile. That is, the White pile gets 3 blue cards, 3 black, 3 red, 3 green, and all but 12 white cards.

Split the "everything else" pile (already shuffled) evenly among the five piles. Shuffle the five piles. Make packs with 3 cards from each pile.

Why do I bother doing this?

Mainly because it's a process I can do instead of wondering, "have I shuffled enough?" This was a bigger deal in the days before the broadcast shuffle.

It maintains rough colour balance, even if you only draft a portion of the cube.

It cuts down on the possibility of a pack having way too many or way too few cards for a drafter. I did the math at one point and don't remember the exact results (it would also depend on the cube), but there's a significant reduction in the number of packs outright missing a colour.

It still allows any possible combination of cards to form a pack (even 15 white cards), which I just think feels good aesthetically; anything is possible!

It allows better but imperfect signalling. You never know for a fact that something has been taken (like you would if you were seeding a land per pack or whatever), but a color missing is a stronger signal than full random, because the process makes more-but-not-entirely uniform packs. Importantly, more deterministic seeding would grant a slight edge to people who are aware of the specifics over people who don't know.

I do this probably 90% of the time with Pink Sleeves.

[zoydraft]

Exercises to analyze and kind of test your cube if you can't get people to draft it

Do you have one person to draft with?

Do a two player draft. I like 5 packs of 15: pick 1, pass; pick 2, discard 2, pass; pick 2, discard 2, pass; pick 2 discard 4.

If not...

Do a cubecobra draft and see what archetypes you can force

Look at a pack and think about how each pair of cards interact, either in the same deck or against each other

Do a digital draft against bots using xMage or Forge and play games out, paying attention to what interactions you enjoy and what you don't.

Look at a pack and think about all the things you need to know to make an informed decision during a draft

Try to build the best version of a deck and goldfish with it. How fast can it win? How much does it feel like you're curving out vs making engaging decision vs enacting some coherent strategy

What is the fastest win that can possibly happen? 

Look at the Cube Cobra Recommender and articulate why you're not playing the highest recommended cards, and why you are playing the "least core cards" 

Look at mana sinks, curve toppers, and x-spells and think about how the game progresses once they're active.

Maybe these will help you realize something about your cube. Hit me up with other ideas you have and I'll add them here!

"I just do a million test drafts on cubecobra. The most important part imo is to actually build the decks. The bots aren’t perfect, but if you find yourself with a lot of a particular effect when you’re in a certain deck, or something that never makes the main board, those are valuable data points!" Ollie [Beeks on CubeCobra]

"I have found a lot of value in doing 1v1 Grid and or Winston drafts I do my fair share of bot drafts and list pondering, but sometimes I just need to sit at the table and touch cardboard to get a full understanding of the cube" Harrison [Izzetskill on CubeCobra]

"I've done a mock "team sealed" a few times before, which gives me the chance to see if multiple synergistic decks could be built from a reasonable pool, which gives me something draft-like without making me emulate an entire 8 person draft." Terra []

"A big thing I try to do is have my goals solidly defined before I start on a cube. Occasionally I return to my goals and then just comb through card by card and reassess how well they align" Athena [Anathemareno on CubeCobra]

[zoydraft]

Recross the Paths

Kade was very gracious to invite me onto his excellent cube podcast, Recross the Paths, and the episode is now live. I'm beyond appreciative for the lengths he went to accommodate me, and the experience underscored how special Recross the Paths as a project and Kade as a person are.

This week, zoydraft guides us through Pink Sleeves, the blog and the eponymous cube. We discuss atomic effects, a library of agency, how accessibility and simplicity aren't the same, and much more!

RSS | Spotify

[zoydraft]

June 28 🏳️‍🌈 Pride Draft 🏳️‍⚧️

cubecobra.com/c/pink | four player draft | 5 packs of 15, trash last 7 from each pack

ML graciously insisted that we have one last draft before I go back to work (even though it's children, not work stopping me from drafting freely). We did not buy a box of Final Fantasy, because that price point is abhorrent. Magic has never been selling better, and Cube has outlived it.

🏆 3-0 (6-2) Boros Parallax Bombardment drafted by SJ

DF: "Playing against your deck was fun and also frustrating."

Hallelujah, a trophy deck that isn't BGx! This deck won by setting up an aggressive board presence and then waiting for a tipping point where Parallax Wave, Goblin Bombardment, or Mirror Entity could end the game. Thalia, Heretic Cathar kept opportunities to attack open, and Arc Lightning is consistently a 2-for-1. Clarion Spirit was really easy to trigger with the low curve, and Hallowed Spiritkeeper put opponents into lose-lose situations.

Notably, multiple times Swords to Plowshares felt especially good for preventing death triggers or graveyard shenanigans, and I was never in a position where my opponent was going to gain much life off the most tempting target.

Parallax Wave is probably a power outlier, but it's been a fun, interesting one that people don't complain about. I think there's a class of cards like Memory Lapse that are very good, but feel like they're keeping the game close ("I just needed one more turn!"), and that's a good space for the vibes at the table.

2-1 (5-3) A Really Jund Deck drafted by DF

DF: "I enjoyed the Azra and Copter card draw silliness."

Playing against your deck was fun and also frustrating.

Bet on Smuggler's Copter with Azra Oddsmaker. It's a good bet!

In my games I felt like I absolutely had to answer Managorger Hydra immediately, and my loss was to Embercleave on a pumped up Electrostatic Infantry. Pest Infestation also seemed high-impact.

WUb Artifact Herder drafted by DR

DF: "DR pulled off a Living Death in our first game that completely shifted the course of the game and got him a win. Was very cool."

This is the most Artifact-y deck anyone has drafted in quite a while and it didn't end up with the best result. In my match it just didn't get going fast enough, except when I got stuck on two lands. There was a fun interaction with Scrap Trawler dying at the same time as another artifact creature which was fun (although there was some friction with figuring out exactly how it resolved), and it made me feel good about adding Myr Retriever on a whim the other day to add more artifact recursion nonsense.

UBw Snapcaster Restoration drafted by ML

ML: "Snapcaster Mage was my MVP, got a couple of Disfigures in with that, could have been even nastier with some flickering but never really got it to pop off. Amazing card though, I'd love to get better at drafting blue."

I love all the cantrips here, and Disfigure and Fatal Push were great at trading up in value. Mindwhisker with Threshold held me up for a minute; unfortunately for ML I was able to pump my way past it. Good reviews for Snapcaster Mage here, and lamentations that Soulherder didn't find its way into this pool.

Stray Thoughts

I tried uploading deck pics with the Snapdrafter app to CubeCobra. It worked, it was pretty low friction. It's here. I don't know if I get any value from this information. I'll probably keep trying it.

Special thanks to my mom for being in town, which lets me leave the house without children outnumbering my partner.

Happy Pride!

[zoydraft]

I finished Downtown Loop, my first (only?) TTRPG zine! It's an imagination and dice adventure through Toronto's subway tunnels, playable by my pre-schooler. By donation over on itch.io!

[zoydraft]

Transit Puzzle Game Playtesting

Notes from May 24, 2025 playthrough of the Transit Puzzle Game.

Oldest kid found one of our old maps and asked to play the game. Surprisingly, he held attention for the entire time, which was probably around 30 minutes. I made some rules modifications on the fly that I think worked well for him, which might be improvements or might just be changes.

Parallel Play. We kept the parallel play from my last session with my dad. In this case, I helped him manage his map (I showed him options, he picked his moves, I marked up his map), he rolled all the dice.

Naming Stations. Kid wanted to name his stations. I'm very happy to oblige.

No Line Management. Kid wanted to be more free form with his line colours. I think the game loses some depth when the network isn't divided into lines (with the rules about what makes a contiguous line, and the opportunity to have them factor into victory points), but it undeniably was simpler.

End State. The game ended when we rolled two dice in a row with no legal moves. I was prepared for either that, or someone placing their 20th station. It felt a little aggressive. Three rolls (which I see I previously landed on) would probably feel better.

Alternative Final Scoring

Without distinct lines, the "achievements" of most connections, longest lines, etc. were mostly unusable

Although we rolled origins and destinations on the hex grid as previous (after the placement of Station 10, and then again at the end of the game), we ended up abandoning those for a much simpler option

We rolled two D20 to determine starting and ending stations. Whoever had a shorter trip between their numbered stations won a point. We repeated these rolls until someone got 3 points

Because it's likely that players will not have the same number of stations (in this game I had 15 and my kid had 14), some rolls result in wins by default. I capped this at a maximum of one point, because otherwise I would have won just through the luck of us rolling too many 15's, when my network actually sucked.

Thoughts for the Future

It's tough to know where to draw the line between simplicity and depth. The ruleset we played today felt ideal for the kid, but lost a little bit of depth

The lines were part of that missing depth, although honestly I didn't miss them too much

The 2D20 Station to Station trips felt like an elegant solution, but it did make it feel more random, like we weren't being evaluated on the same thing. It strongly rewards building an interconnected network, which I think is a good thing.

The real big miss was not having the trip objective revealed part way through. Maybe that's still doable with the 2D20 system, but I'm worried it won't have the same "oh shit, now we have to fix our system" feeling. Maybe it actually would, since no player will have an 11th station. There's a 75% chance that the station hasn't been placed yet, which will be weird, but interesting. It just doesn't as nicely match up with the fiction. I'll have to think about that more.

This game is a stickier than I expected, and I was surprised at the level of sustained interest from my pre-schooler.

[zoydraft]

May 14, 2025 Pink Sleeves Draft Report

cubecobra.com/c/pink | four player Housman draft | hosted at Steadfast Brewing Co. | organized on the Toronto MtG Cubers Discord

I'm so glad I got to do this draft instead of watching the Maple Leafs lose very badly. Not that I would have cancelled for that, but that would have been a much worse night.

Thank you to Gray for organizing this off-night draft for while my mom was in town so I could get out of the house without my wife being outnumbered by our children and I'm really grateful for that. He is also organizing the Untap TO cube event in September, you should get tickets!

Housman Draft

At Gray's request we tried a four player Housman draft, which I've never done before. I enjoyed it, but I saw some dynamics that would work better in some groups than others.

During the draft I commented that it felt slow, and it did, because everything is happening in series instead of parallel. However, I don't think it actually takes that much longer. We each made 27 exchanges, which meant in a group of 4 we had 108 total "moves". If we had been picking 3 packs of 15 (just using that as a baseline) we would have had 45 moves each, and the draft would progress as quickly as the slowest person. A fast drafter can speed up a Housman draft, but normal booster draft always depends on the slowest picks.

What made it feel slower is that you have a lot more downtime. You're making fewer decisions and spending more time watching others. There is also a bit of a need for book-keeping that makes the process less self-reinforcing than opening boosters.

That sounds all very negative but you have to remember that 4 player drafts are already janky compared to 8, so you're trying to find a way to make it work. I still like 5 packs of 15, discard 7.

We had a very chill group, so I think it worked well, but because you're working with open incomplete information you can get stuff like insecure drafters needing to make their picks in the open, which can be intimidating. We also got into a groove where Gray (acting in his own self-interest) was sending me really good cards for my deck and it was obvious in a way that some players could feel was unfair, bordering on collusion. In reality, it's not that different from reading signals, but it feels different when it's out in the open.

I would be reluctant to Housman draft with strangers—I would want to know that everyone at the table is either at a similar level, or is going to be unbothered by the above dynamics. However, it felt strategic in a really fun way and I would definitely try it again in a group that knows what they're getting into.

🏆 3-0 (6-2) Abzan Parallax Conduit, drafted by Gray

ML: "Lesson of the night: always take Parallax Wave"

I am resisting the urge to think that black-green is a problem.

I love seeing relatively creature-light decks win. In my match Parallax Wave and Accursed Marauder were huge parts of the gameplay, and that made me so happy. I have been thinking of cubes as libraries of agencies, and those two cards are such good examples of giving players tools that expand how games are able to play out.

I question whether there's too much recursion in the cube, but it's a part of Magic I really like. Conduit of Worlds' one spell per turn limitation straddles the line of being a too-clever solution and I can't tell if I really like it or find it tedious. Maybe a little more grave hate would balance it out but that's not an exciting mini-project.

UBr Scrawling Maniac, drafted by DR 2-1 (4-3)

DR: "This was the weirdness I was so happy to pilot tonight"

On the penultimate turn of my game 1, DR cast Windfall with Scrawling Crawler on the battlefield to deal 7 to me. Game 2 I was stupid and didn't hold up mana to counter Living Death with my Miscalculation, which mattered because that brought back Laboratory Maniac in time for Ashiok to empty his library. First Lab Man win in the cube and I was overjoyed to be on the receiving end.

Naya Ghalta-cleave, drafted by ML 1-2 (4-5)

ML: "My weirdly effective and unintentional combo from last night: Den of the Bugbear with Metallic Mimic as goblin, I got it off a few times despite my only goblin being Ignoble Hierarch"

Izzet Mage, drafted by SJ 0-3 (2-6)

This deck was partly to see whether How to Keep an Izzet Mage Busy and Guttersnipe are too good together. They are not! But they can do a lot of damage.

This deck was a lot of fun but would have been a lot better with more fixing (I just don't think any was opened that I didn't take), more burn spells (I got opponents down to bolt range a couple times), and another couple counterspells.

I think the ideal draws for this deck are basically unbeatable, but people were definitely still able to use their windows of interaction to disrupt it. I think there's a meaningful takeaway about Izzet decks being more fragile than the (very popular) Golgari+ decks, but I'm not sure if there's something to do with that.

Stray Thoughts

It thrills me to have cards like Parallax Wave, Accursed Marauder, Windfall, Laboratory Maniac, and How to Keep an Izzet Mage Busy be an important part of the gameplay. It lets the game be... Magic, instead of Creatures. There's an old school (important context: I am a millennial but first played Magic in 2018—this is not nostalgia) feeling to it. Like playing a TTRPG and having spells that do something to the world, and not just "I roll this much damage". Creatures are still important, but they're part of the eco-system, not the whole thing.

We did get some interest from the D&D players once they were finished up their sessions. I was able to give a quick spiel on cube and then Gray was able to mention the weekly drafts on Friday nights, but unfortunately the handiest thing to give them was the QR code for my cube, which is not the best pathway to joining weekly drafts. If you're drafting in public, have something to give people! Physically or as a QR code.

I was an idiot and forgot to close out my tab so had to contact the brewery the next day to settle up. Don't do this!

[zoydraft]

For posterity, the twelve different ways the five colours of Magic: the Gathering can be divided into five even-ish three colour factions. Useful for cube and custom set designers who want to venture out from traditional wedges and shards

[zoydraft]

Playing Oppression

Lucky Paper Radio did Playing Oppression as a book club. I read it last year and enjoyed it. I recorded a hot take and then wanted to cut it down cuz it was a couple minutes long, but then this morning they posted the episode. Anyway, this is the transcript of what I was planning on saying. I haven't finished the episode yet, so this is without context from their discussion.

Available as a rough recording with my infant in the background:

I got Playing Oppression from the public library.

My big question coming out of the book is: what do these games do to players? It's easy to understand when the games are straightforward propaganda, but it's less obvious how people are effected by like, Catan. I'm not skeptical that there's an effect, but I'd be really interested in empirical evidence.

It's not a knock against it, I think it's just out of this book's scope, and would be interesting further reading.

The one spot that stands out as kind of answering that is when they talk about reviews or message board posts that say, "be careful who you play this with." At that point, games are actively creating exclusionary communities.

The most surface level application of that in cube, is like... Don't play those cards that were banned for being too racist. A step beyond that, I night not mind Earthbind making puritans squirm, but I don't want to exclude people who are sensitive to sexualized depictions of violence.

I have thought about some of the narratives that are communicated during gameplay in my cubes, especially how the idea of collective action and self-sacrifice in white are completely subverted by everyone being controlled by you, but I also don't think people really experience the game that way.

Not that we shouldn't think about it, but there are probably more effective avenues toward liberatory play.

I'm really excited that this book is getting this spotlight in the community and I'm looking forward to hearing other people's takeaways, so thank you for covering it, and thank you for the gift of cube!

Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games by Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson. The MIT Press 2023.

[zoydraft]

Pink Sleeves May 9, 2025

cubecobra.com/c/pink | 6 player draft | 4 packs of 15, burn the last 4 | Cogwork Librarian added to each pack 1

SH was back in town! So we ordered pizza and folks brought over an absurd excess of candy and soda. DR and I watched the Leafs game out of the corner of our eyes while I wore my infant in the BabyBjörn [not a sponsor], and we had the slowest draft, only getting through two rounds, but getting to spend lots of time with friends.

We tried putting Cogwork Librarians in the first pack instead of everyone starting with them. I liked that, but didn't feel strongly about it and no one commented on it at the time.

🏆 Golgari Living Life // Death drafted by DR 2-0 (4-2)

DR: "Life // Death won a couple games, both with and without Garruk. I think Field of the Dead procced one single time. I should have splashed blue, the deck would have been incredible with a little more card draw. Oh and Pest Infestation is busted."

I had the misfortune of choosing to allowing Life to resolve while holding up counter-magic... Only to have DR activate Garruk's ultimate, ending the game. In my match Living Death was decent although not game-ending and Accursed Marauder had some value.

Esper Intangible Lurrus drafted by SJ

I was super excited to have this deck come together. Token Control with Lurrus (P1P1) companioned isn't something I specifically designed into the cube, and no one has drafted it before.

In this shell Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls felt busted, and most of my games involved holding up a lot of interaction and then having an explosive turn where I was triple spelling, or casting Secure the Wastes for X>5 on my opponent's turn.

The downside of this deck is I often went down a lot of life early, and I had to be cautious about spending life on Thoughtseize, Prismatic Vista, or shock lands. This deck probably would have failed without two board wipes, and it probably wouldn't have been able to afford Toxic Deluge. On the other hand, Dark Confidant felt free.

Curious Obsession plus Shoreline Looter felt gross, as did casting Phantasmal Image repeatedly with Lurrus. I actually had to discard to hand size a couple times which never happens.

This deck was such a treat to discover, and I hope others find it too.

Rakdos Sacrificial Dance drafted by DF

DF: "The highlight of my night was using Captivating Crew to take over Ghalta and then equip him with Embercleave to do 24 damage."

Captivating Crew creates a story just by doing what it does.

Boros Intrepid Dragons drafted by SH

My match with this deck was really tight, and probably came down to SH not drawing his burn. It's so easy to get value out of Arc Lightning, even if it's just taking out one creature and dealing some damage to face.

Simic Elf Krasis drafted by CC

CC: "I started drafting blue white flicker but just drafted blue. Later on I realized I wasn't getting enough white, so I tried to get some green for my blue. i got some but not much. Most of my blue was based on etb so wasn't great without the flicker."

Sidisi Big Folk drafted by GL

GL: "Hypnotic Specter did some good work for me. I did get Hogaak out but it didn't win me anything"

CC: "Copying Hogaak [with Phyrexian Metamorph] was fun. I had to blow mana on Managorger Hydra."

GL: "Yeah, I think [Hydra and Splinterfright] both threatened DF a bit."

DF: "The game you beat me your Managorger was like an 8/8 or something. Got big so fast."

GL: "Oh yeah, I remember that, two dice!"

Glad to hear that no one has been complaining about Hypnotic Specter so far. I'm probably close to take it off my mental watch list. Hogaak, Managorger Hydra, and Ghalta are also cards that create a story just by functioning. I love that.

Stray Thoughts

A Golgari deck having the best record at the table when two out of six drafters were taking those cards might be concerning. Golgari has had a few good showings lately, but it's also a really heavily drafted colour pair, so it's hard to get too worried about it. Something to notice though.

All the matches went to three games, which might be encouraging (it makes matches feel close), but was probably just a fluke.

We took fucking forever to play, but I think that was just the mood people were in. I don't think it had much to do with the design. My games were especially long, but it's hard to tell how much of that was "I am holding a baby"-related. They still felt like they were progressing and engaging, it wasn't like they just stalled out.

I am really liking the triple shocks test. Everyone has access to awesome fixing, but it comes at a real cost of life, and it gives a little extra potential value to my other non-basics, although probably not to the point of changing pick orders.

[zoydraft]

What am I asking players to pay attention to?

I’m spending a chunk of my parental leave learning more about game design and my current read is Unboxed: Board Game Experience and Design by Gordon Calleja (The MIT Press, 2022, check your local library). The second chapter argues that attention is the foundational aspect of game experience, and a central constraint for all games. I hope this perspective can make us better at achieving our Magic: the Gathering cube design goals.

Calleja illustrates the concept with a story about his own game, Posthuman Saga. The game was intended to have a rich narrative alongside strategic puzzles. The interlocking systems created challenging, consequential, and absorbing decisions. They weren’t too complex for players but they placed too much demand on players for them to also pay attention to the narrative. The effect was that players are so focused on decision-making that the experience of playing failed to live up the goal of providing an interesting narrative.

This sounds a lot like a complexity budget, but it’s a more generalizable idea. It can incorporate complexity budgeting, but it also provides the “why?” Complexity budgets (allegedly coined by Richard Garfield) show up in engineering, project management, and of course game design as a rough mental accounting of how much complexity a project can afford to incorporate. That usually means offsetting necessary complexity by simplifying other elements of the project or design.

In cube design I most often see complexity budgets treated as a curb-cutting accessibility tactic, and prioritized accordingly. After all, it’s rare for a cube to reach the absolute fail case of an overwhelming, exhausting, and ultimately negative play experience. Thinking about attention helps me understand how the cube experience is tinted by complexity, but also by other design decisions that divert attention in one direction or another, even when we’re well clear of the fail case.

Think about some of the most common cube design goals:

Gameplay with interesting, skill-testing strategic decisions

Exploring interesting mechanical spaces, such as context shift cubes

Evoking a specific setting, such as the fae or a favourite plane

Evoking a specific fiction, such as class warfare or monopoly

Cultivating a visual aesthetic

Creating a positive social environment.

Most cube designers will relate to at least one of the above, and each of those are areas they would like their players to pay attention to and engage with.

Magic is a deep game. In a 50 minute match you’ll divide your attention between sequencing decisions, combat math, and navigating difficult trade-offs. You’ll spend time shuffling cards, organizing your battlefield, and trying to find the right token (or giving up, settling for an upside down sideboard card, and then trying to remember two turns later whether it was a Soldier or a Human Warrior). You’ll also spend time reading reminder text, parsing unfamiliar designs, and squinting to decipher what a Secret Lair actually is.

You probably won't be overwhelmed--although some players might be--but all of those elements, from understanding cards to physically maintaining the board state, take your attention away from other aspects of the game you could be engaging with.

Complexity is only one aspect of this, and thinking about attention this way is agnostic to your goals. Even in the Spikiest environment designed for the most enfranchised players you can still consider what you want your players to pay attention to and rethink the design decisions that distract from that. This could mean running the most recognizable printings of cards, or adjusting your power distribution to make the most difficult strategic choices central to games.

I want to think through one example: obscure cards and mechanics.

Imagine for a second you were playing chess without 100% knowing what the pieces did, and each piece included reminders. You’ll probably be able to navigate the game, but time spent double-checking what pieces do means relatively less time thinking about strategy. Is that a satisfying use of your time?

In Magic, enfranchised players are unphased by this, taking it as a requirement of playing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a distraction. Sometimes the novelty of an environment is the point. In a context-shift cube understanding unfamiliar cards and mechanics (hopefully with reminder text as necessary) may be an important part of the experience. However, if your goals are to have players focus on decision-making or aesthetics, unfamiliar mechanics ask for players’ attention, even if they’re necessary, and will mean less attention available where you want it.

For my own cubes, I would like my players to have more space for socialization at the table, and for players to pay more attention to what their opponent is doing. I don’t think there are any revelations here that spur me to overhaul my lists, but it is a consideration I will take forward with me. It also gives me a better explanation of why I believe managing complexity specifically is important, even though the idea isn’t limited to complexity.

I like that this framing draws a clear connection between our goals and our decisions without simplifying it down to “accessibility is good.” Accessibility is good, but it often gets mischaracterized as designing for new players. Thinking in terms of what you want players to pay attention to and what can distract from that applies to any design goal, and any audience.

Anyway, the next chapter of the book is about complexity, so maybe I’ll need to rewrite this once I read that :D

Thank you to ChampBlankman, klaylk, and Stu for providing feedback on my first draft!

[zoydraft]

Pink Sleeves, April 1, 2025

List: cubecobra.com/c/pink

4 drafters (one of them a pre-schooler); 5 packs of 15, discard the last 7 from each pack

🏆 Busy Izzet Mage 2-0 (4-1), drafted by me

How to Keep an Izzet Mage Busy made 20 tokens or do. It was great. Faithless Looting was also huge for me, getting to the cards I needed, as were DRC, Ponder, and Shoreline Looter. Threshold was effortless. Sprite Dragon won a game as a lone threat. Izzet izn't a trap.

Goblins❤️💛Humans 1-1 (3-2), drafted by CC.

Goblin Rabblemaster kicked my ass. Coppercoat Vanguard is a really nice to play against: a complication, but not insurmountable value or anything. Inspiring Paladin was also good, although CC didn't realize it during deck-building. I'm curious if that's a personal blindspot, or if others might underrate it too.

Gx Field of the Dead, drafted by DF

Repudiate actually got some value, that's nice to see. Mindwhisker may have been the MVP. There was a heartbreaking turn cycle where DF was ready to cast Ghalta, only for CC to cast Captivating Crew, which he couldn't answer.

Pre-schooler Draft Pool

Build your own deck from this pool!

[zoydraft]

There are too many fun things for them all to be the good thing

Another mini podcast about Magic: the Gathering cube, and where "make the fun thing the good thing" breaks down.

[zoydraft]

Looking at a pack of Magic cards and thinking about the texture of different cubes

Is shuffling a part of gameplay? Are you using fetches to shuffle after a Brainstorm, or are you just using Evolving Wilds to reset your library to preserve uncertainty?

How is land fixing gated? Is it primarily based around damage, or coming into play tapped?

What is the combat economy? How do power, toughness, and keywords translate to mana-value? Is there a slant of more aggressive, defensive, or square power and toughness?

How does interaction line up against creatures? How much of a mana advantage (or disadvantage) is typically gained through removal? What's the economy for targeted damage? How much damage can a certain amount of mana do? E.g. are you running Lightning Bolt and shocks with upside, or do you progress from Shock to Lightning Strike and so on? Is there removal that can be activated without mana available?

How often are players able to gain life? Is this repeatable? Is it happening early game, or restricted until later? Is it incremental, or in big chunks? Does it coincide with inevitability?

Is mass removal available? How much?

How prominent are N-for-1's? Do they tend to make the game state bigger (e.g. more relevant cards in relevant zones - making tokens, drawing cards, milling sometimes) or smaller (e.g. removing permanents, reducing hand size)?

Does combat favour attackers or blockers? By default Magic's system benefits blockers, so in practice this question reduces to checking the presence of mechanics that benefit attackers

How often are cards able to be recurred from the graveyard? Is that indefinite, or tightly capped? How narrow or universal are those effects?

Are there combat tricks? Do they tend to be onboard or in-hand (or ((yuck)) in the graveyard?)

Are there ways (other than counterspells) to thwart interaction? How frequent are these effects, and again, are they on-board or in hand? E.g. Dauntless Bodyguard in this pack, or Snakeskin Veil or Giver of Runes.

What is the counterspell economy? What is represented by open mana? Compare Force of Will + Daze, versus Force Spike + Quench + Cancel, versus Mana Leak + Counterspell. Are counterspells more tempo-focused? E.g. Remand, Memory Lapse, or Reprieve. Are counterspells universal, or narrow? E.g. Stern Scolding, Spell Pierce, Negate.

Can cards be "dead"? Are cards given cycling, or additional modes to prevent them from being irrelevant? Does this encourage or discourage sideboarding?

Do lands that conditionally come into play tapped encourage you to play them early, or late?

Is the O-Ring trick present and exploitable?

Do card types matter? E.g. are there kindred synergies, or cards that check for basic land types?

How much attention and/or accounting needs to be devoted to the graveyard?

Are there cards that can be played outside of their nominal colour? E.g. Phyrexian mana, Damn, off-colour lands that offer some kind of benefit (bicycles, surveils, scrys, bounces)

What is the card draw economy? How prevalent is card selection/filtering vs raw card advantage?

Do cards tend to be self-contained packages, or do they need to be combined?

Are there cards that impose deck-building restrictions, either explicit (e.g. Companion) or implicit (e.g. Dark Confidant)

I'm not sure how to word this but are there common game actions or mechanics than provide additional value? E.g. are some or most decks equipped to get extra value from things like sacrifice, milling, artifacts, landfall, discard, etc? Are these relatively obvious / common, or are they more specific to the environment, like Constellation in Theros? Are they spread across the cube or limited to specific archetypes?

Are there A+B synergies or combos, are they unbounded, and do they end the game? Pointing out that Jegantha and Golos fit tightly together, but wouldn't be called a "combo," but certainly contribute to the texture of games.