I hope everyone had as much of a good time drafting and cracking packs of Conspiracy this weekend as I did. I actually managed to draft the set seven times and I really, really enjoyed myself.
Conspiracy is unique, in that it is a new product that is not legal in Modern or Standard. It was also meant to be drafted and used for multiplayer. So if you’re like me, and you have a box of cards from multiple drafts / buying a box, what should you do? My friends and a lot of players I’ve spoken to seem to like the idea of creating a cube / draft simulation so that we can experience Conspiracy and multi-player draft as many times as we wish to in the future. I searched the internet and found many people with the same desire, but no one who had a well thought out list. Today I’m going to provide you with the list I’ll be sleeving up for future draft simulations. I hope it will be of some use to you, whether you copy it card for card, or use it as inspiration for your own.
Is it a Draft Simulation, or a Cube?
The easy answer is that it’s both. Usually with a draft simulation, you include four of each common, two of each uncommon, and one of each rare or mythic. My issue with this is that you end up with 356 commons, 136 uncommons, 43 rares and 10 mythics for a total of 545 cards. That’s nearly twice the size it needs to be for an eight player draft, and I don’t want to store / transport extra cards. It also doesn’t fully recapture the experience of drafting the set as Conspiracy / Draft Matters cards really need to be in each pack, rather than randomly distributed. My solution was to trim the set down to 360 cards, by omitting certain chase / filler rares and uncommons and cutting the commons to three ofs. I was careful to omit cards that I thought would not change the overall experience and feel of drafting the set. The packs will be slightly more powerful, because a lot of the bulk rares have been cut and cards like Exploration and Stifle that are chase rares but don’t feel like they fit the set were trimmed. This list is meant to serve as a loose guide, and is by no means written in stone. If you disagree with my choices, feel free to change your cube as you see fit.
Each one of these is a bomb in its own right, and I wanted to build a cycle of Mythics into the cube. One of each colour seems like the easiest way to go. Hydra Omnivore is probably the best of the bunch with Scourge of the Throne being a close second. Phage the Untouchable is a classic. While Muzzio, Visionary Architect is probably the weakest, someone who drafts artifacts heavily could make him do some work. There are 24 artifacts in the cube, and if drafted aggressively, I think Blue/Artifact Muzzio could be a thing. That is, if he’s opened early enough to be built around. Time will tell whether this works out or not. I’ll let you guys know in the comments if someone comes up with a good Muzzio deck. Besides, who does’t want to chain 14/14 Lurking Automaton into 14/14 Lurking Automaton, into 15/15 Cogwork Grinder? I hate artifact decks and that excites even me. I’m looking forward to trying to draft a Muzzio deck. While I am not known for tapping Islands (I usually hate blue, but I’m starting to give in) blue is my favourite colour in this set, with G/U Beef + Fliers and U/B Reanimator being my favourite archetypes so far.
* There are also a number of rare Conspiracies / draft maters cards
I wanted a cycle of 10 multicolour cards because they are only available at rare, mythic and uncommon. For the purposes of this cube, they’ll be available at uncommon and rare only. I also included 1 of each of the mono coloured rares I thought were strongest and rounded it out with three artifacts and a land. Paliano, the High City is unusable outside of a cube, but is good in basically any deck in this draft format so I included one. Silent Arbiter, Altar of Dementia, and Deathrender were really fun / interesting this weekend, so I wanted to include them as well.
I wanted a Worldknit for sure, because it is an interesting and unique effect. I think it’s actually the strongest card in the set if you get it first pick. Just make sure you use Plains as your basic lands in order to dodge landwalk! Backup Plan is another interesting effect, but isn’t as strong as I originally believed it to be. There is only one Power Play because I wanted the person who drafted that card to know they were getting the first turn. I omitted Advantageous Proclamation, because it practice, it actually wasn’t all that advantageous. Milling is a real concern in multiplayer (I actually won a game by milling this weekend) with 40 card decks, so it was trimmed. Deal Broker and Cogwork Grinder were included because they had interesting effects on the draft itself that I think are fun. I decided to omit Lore Seeker because it would be costly to add a pack to the draft every time and we want to keep it sleeved. While it is a fun effect, it’s just cleaner to omit it. Lurking Automaton is a 4 of because it’s one that almost everyone seems to like.
I had to cut the uncommons to 72 cards. I wanted roughly two of each card, but with 68 uncommons in the set that wasn’t possible. My solution was to cut some of the less powerful cards in each colour and cut the multi-coloured cards to one ofs. If you disagree with this approach when building your cube, you could just as easily use one of each uncommon and double up on a few of your favourites.
I was determined not to cut any commons from the cube in order to retain the feel of the set. I wanted to make it three of each, which conveniently gives us 240 cards. Again, if you disagree with this approach, feel free to change it as you see fit. You could cut some of the underpowered cards, or the ones you just plain hate. This was a tempting option for me (I really hate Fog effects) but my friends convinced me to maintain the integrity of the set, because while I have drafted it seven times, R+D has drafted it more than that. We’ll see how it goes, and if I make any major updates, I’ll let you know in the comments.
So that gives us 360 cards. The cube will be arranged into twenty four “packs” with one rare or mythic, three uncommons, one Conspiracy / Draft Matters card and ten commons prior to the draft. They’ll then be randomized amongst the players and drafted as normal as many times as we like, or until we get sick of it. I’ve heard from other players that they plan to put Conspiracies and Draft Matters cards into their regular cubes which I think could be fun too. If you have any suggestions or feedback on the list I’ve posted here, please let me know in the comments. Otherwise, have fun drafting!
Until next time,
Keith
