Goldfish Cube Design


goldfish

This is a discussion of designing a cube of cards for play with the Goldfish Draft format. These design principles were refined over time, and apply to version 9 of the Goldfish Cube.

Basic Design Principles

This cube is designed to have all the most powerful cards available for the format, for a maximally wacky result. The cube mostly contains a mix of card draw, mana acceleration, and cards to convert one type of resource into another. Cards to get additional turns are also included (at the rare level only).

Rarities

The cube is divided into "rarities", which are chosen based entirely on the power level of the cards, with rares being considered better than uncommons and uncommons better than commons generally. The intention is to build packs of 15 cards which contain 2 rares, 4 uncommons, and 9 commons. We have found that having two rare quality cards gives interesting choices from the start and ensures everyone gets a chance at some of the best cards. In total there are 240 cards, enough for eight players to draft two packs each.

Rares are the cards so good you couldn't possibly pass them, and are varied in terms of what they actually do. They're cards that will be good in any deck and may be completely broken in some. All of the extra turn effects are in the rare slot as well.

Uncommons are solid cards that most decks will want, and include all of the best mana fixing and card draw outside the completely broken ones in the rare slot. Black Lotus can be found here which, while still good, has been seen as late as 12th pick!

Commons are the remaining role-players and mostly consist of cards which convert one resource to another, either repeatedly in the allowed direction or in a limited fashion in the reverse direction. There's also a smattering of cards just to do things you would normally expect to be able to do, such as deal damage or put a cheap creature into play.

Avoiding Infinite Combos

Infinite combos are not desirable for Goldfish Draft, so this cube goes to great lengths to avoid containing any. The following policies are followed to avoid them:


Some Specifically Excluded Cards


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mezzacotta | Comic Irregulars' Magic: The Gathering | Goldfish Draft

Last updated: Tuesday, 28 April, 2020; 00:33:58 PDT.
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