Long story short, I'm making a MtG Cube because my friends want to play Magic again for cheap. Last time I played was 7th edition, so I was thinking of buying a full set of C/UC cards from it for $25.
My question is, is there a better core set to buy for cheap to make my Cube? Don't really know much about the new sets. Just asking for opinions on good, large sets to make a fun, customizable, balanced cube for less than $30. I'll slowly add more too it, just need a cheap base.
Origins is a pretty neat set, very cubeable, I think. m14 is doodoo tier.
Find a complete set of 4x Commons and 2x uncommons of a particular set or block is always a good start for cubes
If you're taking this cube seriously, 1x Booster Tutor and 2x Ashnod Coupons are a must.
>>45505800
I second this. Booster Tutor and Coupon are loads of fun. If you're willing to run rares, Who/What/When/Where/Why is great too.
>>45505800
I should throw some Unglueds in.
>>45505753
Lots of variety in cards? Pretty balanced. Afraid 7th would get old fast.
>>45505886
You could always make a "pauper" cube too.
>>45505928
I could, and that's the plan. Just figured buying a set would be a good start, make sure I get an evan mix of everything.
i don't play magic so be gentle anons but what is a cube? looking at that it looks pretty damaging to the cards themselves.
>>45506041
It does sound good, but in practice its actually shit, since either way you'd have to sort stuff out anyways and even if the set is "balanced" at all, there are many biases, and its a lot easier to go and buy stuff individually, testing it out and balancing around with the guys around you. Start by scavenging your bin, you'll probably come up with a lot of stuff if you buy packs every once in a while, from there you can go and think better, see what kind of removals are nice, draw spells and what not.
>>45506090
Imagine making a collection of cards that can be drafted as many times as you desire, that is a cube. Your draft, your rules.
>>45506129
Bummer, that's what I was afraid of. We are starting with literally 0 Magic cards. Sold them all when we cut cold turkey.
>>45506173
Then start calculating how many cards would be nice in a cube, how many players are we talking here?
>>45506198
2-4 players, cost is $40 max. Anything more than that, friends aren't interested in getting back into Magic.
I know it sounds stupid, but we have 2 people between jobs and another not super interested in spending money on Magic again.
My two cents:
Base your cube off the conspiracy set. It is explicitly designed for drafting, and all but a very few of the rares and mythics are dirt cheap at this point.
My cube consists of 4 of each common, 2 of each uncommon, and a single of each rare and mythic.
Over the last year I've been tweaking it by removing the least drafted cards and replacing them with upgrades to bring everything to an even power level.
When we draft I have made packs with 8 commons, 4 uncommons, 2 rares, and a single conspiracy card, which is a new card type that was created only for the conspiracy set.
Of note, I did have to add extra rares that were from out of the set to flesh out the numbers properly.
Ouch, 40$ may be not enough. You can get 4 of each common off ebay for that much.
Or maybe just go by a flgs and see if they have conspiracy extras, I'd be surprised if they didn't. Probably your cheapest option.
Jesus Christ some of you people are worthless. There are some good suggestions and mostly dogshit ones. Why are you telling this guy to buy fucking cards where 99% of them he's going to throw away.
Here. This is an "average" of all common-only Cubes in this database.
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/493
It is a power-max common-only mentality that generated this list. In time you may decide that your cube isn't about max-power but generally speaking most cube players are of the power-max mindset.
>>45506321
Thanks for the help Anon. I appreciate the help. Didn't know anything about Conspiracy, sounds fun.
>>45506387
Conspiracy is the most fun I've had with magic in a while, honestly the commons and uncommons are the backbone of the game and the rares end up being fragile bombs that often get passed for something more utilitarian. A set of just commons and uncommons along with a good array of the conspiracies tossed in would work quite well for fun casual games.
>>45506090
Magic has a format of tournament known as a Draft. Each player buys three booster packs. Then, everyone sits in a circle and opens their first pack. They choose one card, then pass the rest to the person on their left. Everyone does this until the first pack is empty, then opens their second pack, doing the same thing but passing the cards in the opposite direction, then do this with the third pack.
Once everyone has 45 cards, they get all the basic land they like and make a 40 card deck, then play a tournament. Essentially, it replaces the Pay2Win aspect of pre-built magic decks with luck of getting good cards.
A Draft Cube is a special type of this, where instead of using pre-bought boosters, a player builds a selection of cards out of his collection and does it that way. It lets you control which cards are in the set, providing for an interesting bit of extra fun and keeping one person from winning just on having super good cards(hopefully)
>>45506499 >>45506499
It also means you don't have to buy into ever draft.
That's a pretty significant detail.
*every
>>45506241
you are not getting a cube for $40. sleeves will probably cost you around 20 for ultra pros. The cube tutor 360 pauper cube goes for 120 but if you cut the cards over a dollar you can get it for 70ish.
It is fairly pricey but worth it if you play it often. If you can spend the money yourself you can just get it yourself. I own my pauper cube and don't expect them to help pay for it though they do give me foils from new sets if they pull them.
>>45506241
>not super interested in spending money on Magic again
Dude sounds like he's sitting on boxes of commons/uncommons.
Dig through those first.
Import a Holiday cube from China.
>>45506941
Between us, we have less than 10 cards. Gave them/sold them years ago when we quit cold turkey
>>45506748
I feel at this point, it might just not happen, at least right now. Seems for a good, solid cube, you're spending more money than we have the budget for. I could put in a lot more money, but honestly, I want to play more than anyone else. I'd hate to drop even $70 on a card game we play for one night if people get bored.
>>45506241
Yeah no, you're fooling yourselves if you think that's even remotely enough for an even passably pleasant Cube experience.
Here's what you should've done from the get-go: Buy a lot of old busted bulk basic lands and sleeves for all of them, and turn the lands with backs facing out. Print out paper proxies and fit them tight into the sleeves.
Voilá. Great fun without having to spread your asscheeks for the cardboard kike.
Only the most mouthbreathing neckbeards in Magic care about proxies in casual play.
Anyone who dislikes not buying artificially scarce pieces of cardboard when you just want a fun game can go choke on a cock harpoon.
You can save a few bucks by getting those free intro starter trash packs but at that point you're pinching pennies to the point where you're not much better than Kabbalists of the Coast
>>45506378
>why are you guys giving retarded advice
"/tg/ sucks at Magic" has been a maxim that rings true since at least 2011.
I mean shit, there are legitimately retards who BUY fucking booster packs.
Not even to draft! They just crack them open! Wholes displays of boosters, dozens of draft pools, cracked because they want fucking Demonic Pact or whatever, it beggars belief but is realer than real
>>45506090
You don't actually make a cubic shape using the cards as building blocks to make a Cube. A Cube is just a collection of cards curated by a player for drafting, outside of the normal sets.
I have, however, made boxes and trays by folding Magic cards and especially those piece of shit ad and tip cards.
I mostly use them to organize unused sleeves of the same type in a shoe box so my friends and I can just grab one labeled "40 KMC Metallic Green" and not have to dig for and count up, and for keeping spare plastic beads and other miscellaneous garbage
>more than one copy of each card in a cube without good reason
>arbitrary themes like "commons only" rather than themes based on lore or game mechanics
Git gud at cubes /tg/. Here's a few interesting suggestions, OP. My suggestion is each person in your group contributes to the cube or each person builds their own cube for variety:
-Flavour cube: choose a lore focus for the cube. You could focus on a particular plane; take Zendikar for example, you can include cards from Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch as well as cards appearing from other set that reference the plane - eg. Zendikar's Roil from Magic Origins. Build around the themes established by Wizards in these sets and expand on them. Here is my Innistrad cube as an example: http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/37712
-Power cube - pretty straightforward; get cards known for their power, have about 10 archetypes (one for each colour pairing - eg. white/red is aggro, green/black is reanimator). See the legacy/legendary cube for Magic Online as a guide
-Come up with your own gimmick. Have a cube that focuses on artifact synergy, for example. Conspiracy is a good example of this, as is desert cube, where you need to draft land during the draft (http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/10432)
>>45507109
>Seems for a good, solid cube, you're spending more money than we have the budget for.
People have been throwing around numbers, but it's actually not expensive at all.
>>45506748
>you are not getting a cube for $40.
This is right, but he's talking about 8 man cubes.
>sleeves will probably cost you around 20 for ultra pros.
This is also right, but you don't actually need sleeves.
(And you can always buy them later).
>The cube tutor 360 pauper cube goes for 120 but if you cut the cards over a dollar you can get it for 70ish.
This is right-ish, but again, for 8 man cubes.
>>45506241
>2-4 players
8 players cubes typically run 360-720 cards
4 player cubes could get away with 180-360
250 is probably a decent starting point
>>45505753
>Origins is a pretty neat set, very cubeable, I think.
>>45506244
>Base your cube off the conspiracy set.
>It is explicitly designed for drafting, and all but a very few of the rares and mythics are dirt cheap at this point.
These two know what they're about.
On a side note, one card in every conspiracy pack did special things during drafting. Pic related.
These cards generally work well in cubes, but try not to go too nuts with them.
With a few exceptions, commons and some uncommons from these sets will only cost ~15¢.
250 cards at 15¢ is $37.50
Basic lands cost ~5¢, and you'll probably need around 25 or each, so that's an extra $6.25
So a 4 player cube will only run you around $43.75
On a related side note, 12 boosters for a single 4 man draft cost $48.
>>45507872
>On a related side note, 12 boosters for a single 4 man draft cost $48.
*~$54.25 with basic lands.
>>45505431
Again, if you want a cube on the cheap then just print out some proxies. Then you can use whatever cards you want without having to shell out a lot of $$$.
My playgroup made a cube, but cheap aa we are, we bought sleeves and prices the whole thing. Our 700+ powered Cube costs around 70$. Last time we were only 4 people, so we decided to make a HL draft. That was awesome...
>>45509409
Think I'm going to do that with some Rares. Again, haven't played sense 7th Edition, but holy shit, Magic got expensive.
>>45507872
Thanks for the advice. I'll put it to good use and keep an eye out for cards.
>>45505431
M13 was, in my opinion, one of the better draft formats ever.
>>45507637
>more than one copy of each card in a cube without good reason
what exactly you consider "good reason," because breaking singleton has been one of the best things to happen to my cube.
>>45511379
Magic was always expensive, but now it's just flat-out retarded.
>>45507872
Huh, Conspiracy actually looks like a crapton of fun
>>45511379
Rare prices vary wildly.
Most are at least somewhat pricey, but almost all rares from Conspiracy are <20¢.
Here's a good article on designing Cubes.
>http://www.gatheringmagic.com/alexullman-021114-an-introduction-to-cube-design/
Essentially, keep all of your cards at a similar amount of good.
Mind your mana curves (by color).
Mind your card distribution (by color).
And make sure each color pair as an archetype to play into.
>>45513606
It is, but 1/15 cards doing drafting/deckbuilding shenanigans is a bit excessive.
>>45515482
Another important thing to keep in mind is BREAD pick order.
>Bombs:
Somewhere between 1/13 to 1/15 cards in your cube.
Removal:
Slightly more frequent than bombs, but only barely.
Add a bit more removal the more situational it is.
Efficient:
Somewhere around 2/3 to 1/3 of the cube should be "cost efficient".
Note that these cards don't actually have to be cost efficient, they only have to be cost efficient relative to the rest of the cube.
Non-bomb non-removal cards that do multiple things usually fall into this category (Pic Unrelated, it's removal).
Cards that do multiple things should usually be relevant to multiple archetypes.
Aggro:
These should comprise the rest of your cube.
Dregs:
There should be no dregs in a cube. Period.
>>45505928
I dont like this. Its better to go with a pauper feel than lock out rares completely. Make it a budget restriction.
>>45515482
>>It is, but 1/15 cards doing drafting/deckbuilding shenanigans is a bit excessive.
Oh, there's a Conspiracy card in every pack?
I think having a "Draft matters" in every pack isn't a bad thing for a Draft-only set, but I hope there are some cards that care that are less... forceful, than the ones in the picture.there's some really good art there though, especially in comparison to the shitshow that was BFZ
>>45507471
You realize according to wizards market research cracking packs just to crack packs is how the overwhelming majority of people buy into and play magic. The only by packs to draft or otherwise just buy singles crowd is like less than 10% of the player base
>>45516594
>Oh, there's a Conspiracy card in every pack?
Not just Conspiracy type cards; it's an of the 25 draft-matters cards shown in >>45507872
They were in the packs instead of basic lands.
The other gimmick of Conspiracy was that you were supposed to play 4-player matches after drafting.
>>45517008that's the joke you fucking retardand it doesn't make buying packs any less of an absolutely idiotic move that only the dumbest dregs of society would do, which is of course the vast majority of Magic's playerbase to begin with, so no surprise
>>45521295
Cracking packs is stupid, yes, but it is alsofunI crack packs because it is a cheap alternative to gambling and you always win something. Also, it's the only way I get cards for my decks
>>45521571
>the F-word
Hissssssssssyes it is really fun and that's why people react so strongly against it: they used to do it themselves before they got jaded with the game and the perpetual secondary market kikery and Wizards' inability to give a shit about its players because they keep giving money anyway
If you want to crack packs, just get together some friends and buy a booster box. Everyone drafts from your box and gives you the cards after you've played so you don't end with the sour aftertaste of Wizards' dick in your mouth when they came to rape your wallet.
At least if you draft, it becomes easier to pretend it was worth buying the packs despite pulling nothing but Hedron Alignments and tribal support
>>45521295
Gambling is stupid but smart people do it sometimes
Life is weird
>>45521916
>If you want to crack packs, just get together some friends and buy a booster box. Everyone drafts from your box and gives you the cards after you've played so you don't end with the sour aftertaste of Wizards' dick in your mouth when they came to rape your wallet.
Actually, I opened a fat pack of OGW yesterday
Kalitas, Chandra, Reality Smasher and Kozilek
It didn't rape my wallet
>>45522226
Congratulations, you cracked $43 worth of value from a $49 MSRP product
That's 43 bucks if you're selling at LGS prices by the way, otherwise it's $29 before shipping and payment fees
wew, lad, thank you for being a shining example of my point on how incapable of basic math people who crack packs for value are
>>45521995
Gambling at the lottery is small talk and maybe 40 bucks a month, and the "reward" that you can give yourself a little dream spot of getting is being fiscally stable for the rest of your life if you don't do dumb shit
Gambling in Magic, the reward is getting some pieces of cardboard whose only value is from the utility of actually using the fucking things, and that you would have gotten by paying half the price anyway.
Gambling in a casino is basically just paying for entertainment like going to the movies or going boozing so it barely even qualifies
>>45505431
Is it really that fun to play in official tourneys? What happened to underground cardgaming? We have had printers and torrents for ages, laminators, we even have fucking 3d printers for miniatures now. All that corporate greed makes me sick. If you are going to rip people off, at least charm them into thinking it was worth it.
>>45522638
So between the 5 other rares and all the commons and uncommons, he only has to have gotten $6 worth of value. Assuming the worst case scenario of the rest being dollar rares, that means he only needs $1 spread across all the rest of the cards. Plus, he got a stack of full-art lands, which tend to hold value as well.
I understand that it's difficult for you to not be a condescending twat, but please try your best to hold it in.
Here are some cube design articles
>http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:N8lrhGigV5kJ:archive.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx%3Fx%3Dmtg/daily/feature/193+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
>http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:prCqv1PY1VcJ:archive.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx%3Fx%3Dmtg/daily/eventcoverage/tpc12/unorthodox_archetypes+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
>http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IlVHnR66pigJ:archive.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx%3Fx%3Dmtg/daily/mm/303+&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
>>45523234
I'm baffled that you're so retarded you don't realize that citing TCG mid prices (which you have to be an idiot to buy at) was to demonstrate how astronomically far from a good decision buying packs is, when even cranked up LGS-tier prices don't make one break even.
The 5 other rares are almost assuredly completely worthless bulk trash not even fit to be used to light up a fireplace, or he would've mentioned them, because the only other value rares aren't even a dollar off from Reality Smasher.
You are an imbecile, and I don't understand how no one around you has beat the good sense to shut your worthless trap.
Dollar rares are not a worst case scenario you confoundingly stupid child, not even an average pull. They are outliers, as you would know if you could do something as basic as counting.
The full-art basics are so saturated as to be worthless now, they don't sell or move, their value is entirely illiquid because it's based on mouthbreathers like you valuing them beyond their demand on the fallacious reasoning of
>"durr they wuz worth money back in the day why wouldn't they be now?!".
It's fairy dust.
Do your parents a favor and jump off a bridge. Save on funeral costs and save them the embarrassment of having raised a subhuman piece of living trash.
Now that, is value.
>>45505431
POWER 7???????????
>>45524145
alright
but think about this
I enjoy opening packs for the surprise
>>45524145
>>45524145
At what point in your sad little life did it become acceptable for you to tell someone to kill themselves over a card game? At what point did someone who disagreed with you become human trash?
Was it when some little kid, excited about his first pack of Magic cards, jumped up and down with joy at receiving a Craw Wurm, his pure, unadulterated joy shining through the store in a way that your tainted, calculating anger never could? Was that the moment that you realized that the light had gone out of your life? That you had been rendered incapable of experiencing any joy ever again, instead forever doomed to calculating the exact value of every card you'd ever owned down to the penny? Is that when you snapped? When you realized your joy could never be pure again, for it would be forever tainted by the idea that maybe, just maybe, someone else was doing better than you?
I think you need to step away form the computer, good sir, and examine the decisions that you made that brought you to the point that you're this angry over how someone else has fun.
>>45524145
*tips fedora*
>>45524145
People don't get that when they say, "This contains $X.XX value" it only has that value if someone is willing to give them something for it.
If some guy came up to me and said he'd give me 200 Zendikar full-art lands (worth a $1) for my Tundra, I'd tell him to go fuck himself. Yeah, go open your stupid fat packs with all those lands thinking they contain $40 more than the average fat pack. My personal problem is that I want those lands with specific art, but everyone wants me to trade them my gold for their shit. So fuck it, I'll go hungry.
There's no goddamn charity in this community. I wonder if there ever was. If I have this dogshit $1 rare that someone wants I'll just give it to them regardless if I know them or not. But more often than not with some random stranger if I want that dogshit rare they want to look in my binder - so I hand them my small little binder that only has cards valued above $5 or more (because I don't keep garbage cards) and they have the nerve to ask me for one of them like I'm some retard to be exploited; I mean they don't even consider that I might actually know my shit given there is absolutely zero garbage in my binder.
I don't fucking get it. People aren't willing to just give away a $0.25 piece of cardboard to make another person's day because it's "bad value".
And speaking of value, jumping off a bridge is great fucking value for the world. If people just killed themselves by asphyxiating themselves in their car it would just be a police report and autopsy plus funeral expenses. A person who jumps off the fucking bridge creates tonnes of work in addition to the above: boats must be dispatched, diving teams sent to search the floor, people have to review bridge safety/monitoring. And if the bridge isn't over water then you have to involve wildlife specialists who have to track all the directions the pieces of the corpse went after the animals got to it.
Great value killing yourself by jumping off a bridge.
>>45524439
>At what point in your sad little life did it become acceptable for you to tell someone to kill themselves over a card game? At what point did someone who disagreed with you become human trash?
You do realize this is 4chan don't you, fag?
If you want a hugbox, go back to whatever modern-day pretentious humanist drivel-spouting website you came from, /tg/ only became a carebear forum when the mods went off the deep end '12-'14.
You need to realize that the only profundity in what you're saying is how profoundly stupid you're sounding getting upset someone is calling you names over an anonymous imageboard.
>>45524466
I'm not sure why you're projecting the issue of Magic players being the crusty jizz on the bottom of the park bench of society on me.
I'm being hyperbolic because >>45523234
was being obtuse (or just genuinely really stupid) and escalation is the name of the game.
Supporting this bloated whore of a company by buying packs beyond the minimum necessary if you want to draft (for god-knows-what reason) makes you a chump.
I passed out the three Stormchasers I got from the prerelease to a guy who just got into Modern with a janky UR prowess deck. If you'll recall, they were selling at $2-3+ on TCG low at the time, because I do not care about what is barely pocket change.
I do, however, care about voting with my wallet.
Idiots and proles and mongoloids who buy packs of garbage en masse, make that impossible.
Magic is a terrible, terrible competitive game now.
It is shit, and it is directly the fault of casual fucks who've collectively given the go-ahead for Wizards to milk them for money, because they refuse to think for even a second about how idiotic they're being with their money.
You can go take your goddamned tirade about cutthroat kikes elsewhere, you're preaching to the choir.
>>45524439
How retarded do you have to be to not accept "a cube costs more than $40" when told by multiple people?
>>45524439
>At what point did someone who disagreed with you become human trash?
There's a difference between being wrong and expressing an opinion. He was addressing a statement that was flagrantly wrong. And while it is more effective to address ignorance with a bit more tact, it is sometimes worth getting angry about just to get the point through.
>At what point in your sad little life did it become acceptable for you to tell someone to kill themselves over a card game?
Man, people have been using hyperbole for years to tell people to go fuck themselves. Telling someone to go commit suicide is no different than telling someone to go fuck themselves or fuck off or that their mother maketh her living on her back.
I don't disagree with you for the most part. But the reality is that most people in this game are dumb motherfuckers and I'd sooner get salty about it and learn them good than the useless group-hug mentality that has ensured ignorant thinking and behavior has perpetuated in this 20+ year old game. While you're advocating for care and nurturing interactions, the reality is that being a grown up calls for both kindness and occasionally being a fucking dick to ensure that everyone in the room knows that shit is wrong. Exclusive angry behavior on one side engenders fearfulness and bad feelings while being too kind and not calling wrongness wrong leaves everyone thin skinned and unwilling to improve themselves.
For example, you rule lawyer someone and they get angry about it. Well, they were doing it wrong. You need to tell them to stow their salt and fucking acknowledge their ignorance. It's not your fault that you corrected them nor is it your fault their friends taught them wrong and it's certainly not your fault they didn't care to get a second opinion on rules. That way, they stop taking everything at face value and learn to question some things. There are times to be trusting and in Magic, there is never a good time to be trusting.
>>45524783
>It is shit, and it is directly the fault of casual fucks who've collectively given the go-ahead for Wizards to milk them for money, because they refuse to think for even a second about how idiotic they're being with their money.
I think Wizards has just tapped into the deep-rooted gambling kink in everyone's mind. It is illegal for minors to gamble, but Wizards has found a way to make money off that craving but access the marketplace that includes minors with Magic.
You only have to sit in the mall and observe the lottery booth or go into a casino and see the elderly burn their dollars and think, "How do we sell to minors who have this problem?"
It was going to happen eventually is what I'm saying. We'll never have the insider's info on this but you know at some point the emphasis on selling this game to addicts increased in priority (and it's easier to do) over selling this game to people who care about a good game. A good game with fresh ideas takes work; the science of addictive behavior and how to monetize it is well established and easy to adapt to pretty much any product.
>>45524903
>How retarded do you have to be to not accept "a cube costs more than $40" when told by multiple people?you're giving me a bit too much credit, I basically went off on an unrelated shitposting tangent
being even tangentially related to the OP's question was entirely unintentional
>>45524906
>There are times to be trusting and in Magic, there is never a good time to be trusting.
I really want to dispute this because I'm the dweebiest of moralfags in person, but it's hard to think of places barring interacting with the judge (or the judge giving the benefit of doubt in cases where cheating may be involved) where trusting someone is a good idea.
Whenever I see a new player (as in, a kid or someone who's DEFINITELY new) I tense up in fear of what ingenious new ways people will find to fuck them over, and sometimes the lines get blurred so much it's hard to fault a guy for just being forward-thinking.
By all rights, I should've been upset when people traded for Zen fetches back when it rotated out for what, 10 bucks a pop? I'm pretty sure they were traded for fucking Genesis Waves or whatever, but when the "market value" is equal, even if it obviously won't be for very long, I dunno.
>>45525128
And on the other hand, Wizards is just doing what their customers want (or at least what they think they want, which is probably even better), so it gets hard to tell them to stop being successful when we've defined success in terms of revenue and ROI.
Wizards being incompetent assholes pushing the boundaries of gouging is such a given at this point that I can't even get as mad at them as I get at the people who made anyone on this earth think Modern Masters 2 was a good idea.I mean, fucking COMET STORM?
REALLY?
Who on god's green earth wants to draft a $10 MSRP limited run booster with no set redemption on MODO?!
Where do these people come from?
>>45525150
I've often heard that getting fucked over in this game is a "good life lesson". I don't agree with that because it's only useful if someone who knows better tells you you got fucked; otherwise there is no lesson.
I am very strict with new players to the point where it seems like I am not very nice. But I know, with complete certainty, they will have learned from it and will be better players in the future for it. I can't fight their inherent gambling impulse, but I can force them to see that this asshole (me) is doing nice things; and if this sort of nice behavior is absent from "nice" people, maybe that means something.
Take the cut. I always take the time to explain to a new player the meaning of the cut. I always offer the cut and they simply cut it. I take the minute to determine whether or not they know they have the right to shuffle that thing. And if they don't I make sure they know why it matters.
The shuffle is an act of respect for your opponent to show that you are doing nothing wrong (by stacking the deck). It does not matter whether or not you are cheating, the shuffle is an (often) iron clad show that you have not cheated because intent is impossible to determine; and to make sure it is 100% faultless, your opponent may take the deck and randomize it again. Just like how traditionally, the handshake indicates you have no weapon in your hand.
Players need to learn not to dwell on past mistakes or instances of getting screwed. They need to learn all the measures to avoid getting screwed in the present. And from the perspective of trading, they need to understand that the only time where satisfaction matters is when the trade is made. One minute after if there is disappointment that doesn't matter because one minute before you were happy with your decision. Not feeling happy a day after a trade is one's own fault.
>>45525430
Please tell me that you're mentioning the shuffling as an example and not because someone has actually been stacking their deck or throwing bitchfits over "not being trusted"
I really want to believe that this hasn't been a practical problem, and is just a matter of wanting to ensure good habits and sportsmanship
>>45525502
It's just an example. It's not a reality. I just want the new player to know what all this effort put into shuffling and offering to cut means. Because one day they will encounter someone who takes things seriously, and they should be aware that the opponent is entitled to shuffle their deck.
Because it happens. You see new players acting awkward (or angry) when they're expected to allow their opponent to shuffle their deck as opposed to just cutting it as they've always experienced in the past.
So here I am. They've cut my deck by flopping one half on top of another and I'm telling them that if they wanted to they can shuffle that thing proper if they wanted to. They could even count the number of cards if they wanted to. Your opponent can do all those things and the new player has to understand that it's not about trust, it's about ensuring the absence of impropriety.
Then I just cut their deck by putting one half on top of another. I just told them I had the right to manhandle their deck by shuffling it and I didn't. I also just lectured them on how it's a good habit but hypocritically ignored all of it. That's how they know what I just told them isn't a load of shit; I didn't punish them for their ignorance by shuffling their deck; I showed that this time, I trusted them even though I just said I shouldn't.
When I correct them on the rules I tell them I'm going to look it up to show them and they say, "I trust you" and I say, "You shouldn't" and look it up anyways. I explain it's fine to trust people at the very moment because it's the polite thing to do if there's nothing at stake, but it's always a good idea to look it up yourself later, and in the event that they're wrong, then privately in inform them of their mistake and be satisfied that you've both learned something new and you're better for it.
New players need to be shown that this I could have taken advantage of them but took all the steps to show that I didn't.
>>45525502
People cheat all the time, some faggot got caught doing it on camera several times at an open last year
