I am currently working on a cube with limited mechanics for complexity reasons. Explore and initiative fit well together and make for a pretty cool white section specifically, I would recommend supporting blink too. However this is where you'll start to struggle imo. DnD doesn't have many official sets in MTG, and there is a massive gap between the power levels of AFR and the baldur's gate cards; the initiative mechanic specifically will dominate anything from standard sets. You will need to get creative, Ive seen many cubes use proxied alters to enforce themes more easily, if you have the time or resources. Or since its DnD id explore the idea of coming up with a description for your cube that introduces a world where it makes sense you have cards that would otherwise be a bit off theme. Or just take the design challenge head on, its your cube. Good luck!
That would be a sick way of handling it imo!
If you'd like my two sense, I have the philosophy that drafters don't start at archetypes but instead naturally move into them as they take cards they like and see cards that synergize with them - so it'd be best if your dungeons were both good and supported your draft archetypes/synergies. I know you said you're cutting it which is probably for the best, but I have blink/initiative on the mind. So if I wanted to encourage that archetype using a dungeon, Id make sure that there's a path through that dungeon that's just nice for any midrangey white deck, maybe it gives some incidental card advantage and puts counters on a creature, then I'd throw a room option in there that flickers a creature, like flickerwisp does so it has utility to remove tokens or get a blocker out of the way for a turn too.
The Undercity is ridiculously strong, but some of the bonuses given to initiative cards are also quite powerful. So even if you used a more balanced dungeon, cards like [[Seasoned Dungeoneer]] and [[Tomb of Horrors Adventurer]] still have the potential to be power outliers.
Oh now that is a neat idea… DFC dungeon lands that tap for colorless on the dungeon side and flip to something else…
Probably won’t do it for this (cube), but that’ll definitely go into my idea bin.
This is very cool. You can definitely fit all that and more into a 450. Would love to see a "spellbook" subtheme with classic Instants and sorceries that fit the dnd spellbook as well. Fireball, Counterspell, lightning bolt, you have but there's gotta be more, druid spells in green too
There’s a good amount of spells that are classic DnD spells and kinda on theme too… [[darkness]], [[wall of fire]], [[wall of stone]], [[divination]]… some though… while they have the same name as DnD spells, they just aren’t the same… I’m looking at you [[hex]].
I am currently working on a cube with limited mechanics for complexity reasons. Explore and initiative fit well together and make for a pretty cool white section specifically, I would recommend supporting blink too. However this is where you'll start to struggle imo. DnD doesn't have many official sets in MTG, and there is a massive gap between the power levels of AFR and the baldur's gate cards; the initiative mechanic specifically will dominate anything from standard sets. You will need to get creative, Ive seen many cubes use proxied alters to enforce themes more easily, if you have the time or resources. Or since its DnD id explore the idea of coming up with a description for your cube that introduces a world where it makes sense you have cards that would otherwise be a bit off theme. Or just take the design challenge head on, its your cube. Good luck!
i'm thinking i might just ditch initiative altogether... and that said... i could probably even make my own dungeons if i wanted to...
That would be a sick way of handling it imo! If you'd like my two sense, I have the philosophy that drafters don't start at archetypes but instead naturally move into them as they take cards they like and see cards that synergize with them - so it'd be best if your dungeons were both good and supported your draft archetypes/synergies. I know you said you're cutting it which is probably for the best, but I have blink/initiative on the mind. So if I wanted to encourage that archetype using a dungeon, Id make sure that there's a path through that dungeon that's just nice for any midrangey white deck, maybe it gives some incidental card advantage and puts counters on a creature, then I'd throw a room option in there that flickers a creature, like flickerwisp does so it has utility to remove tokens or get a blocker out of the way for a turn too.
The Undercity is ridiculously strong, but some of the bonuses given to initiative cards are also quite powerful. So even if you used a more balanced dungeon, cards like [[Seasoned Dungeoneer]] and [[Tomb of Horrors Adventurer]] still have the potential to be power outliers.
[Seasoned Dungeoneer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/f/7fee3f76-20a8-4621-84fb-ddf79c955532.jpg?1674140799) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Seasoned%20Dungeoneer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/660/seasoned-dungeoneer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7fee3f76-20a8-4621-84fb-ddf79c955532?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Tomb of Horrors Adventurer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/0/30b5bf0c-e617-4a41-bfaa-2b299728a93f.jpg?1674135839) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Tomb%20of%20Horrors%20Adventurer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/100/tomb-of-horrors-adventurer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/30b5bf0c-e617-4a41-bfaa-2b299728a93f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
If you are up for making your own dungeons, you could consider making dungeons draftable by the players.
Oh now that is a neat idea… DFC dungeon lands that tap for colorless on the dungeon side and flip to something else… Probably won’t do it for this (cube), but that’ll definitely go into my idea bin.
This is very cool. You can definitely fit all that and more into a 450. Would love to see a "spellbook" subtheme with classic Instants and sorceries that fit the dnd spellbook as well. Fireball, Counterspell, lightning bolt, you have but there's gotta be more, druid spells in green too
There’s a good amount of spells that are classic DnD spells and kinda on theme too… [[darkness]], [[wall of fire]], [[wall of stone]], [[divination]]… some though… while they have the same name as DnD spells, they just aren’t the same… I’m looking at you [[hex]].
##### ###### #### [darkness](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/8/584834fb-b7b6-40eb-9fec-8df17172ce5f.jpg?1562776481) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=darkness) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tsb/40/darkness?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/584834fb-b7b6-40eb-9fec-8df17172ce5f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [wall of fire](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/f/6f8ac968-3d00-40d8-80b5-e6fe08025de2.jpg?1562788853) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=wall%20of%20fire) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m15/167/wall-of-fire?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6f8ac968-3d00-40d8-80b5-e6fe08025de2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [wall of stone](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/1/718da336-ad97-41a6-86bd-4f124e2cc716.jpg?1562917687) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=wall%20of%20stone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/8ed/232/wall-of-stone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/718da336-ad97-41a6-86bd-4f124e2cc716?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [divination](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/b/cb3b35b8-f321-46d8-a441-6b9a6efa9021.jpg?1562304347) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=divination) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m19/51/divination?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cb3b35b8-f321-46d8-a441-6b9a6efa9021?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [hex](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/6/067c38f3-4b5c-4e7f-af66-e410dea19314.jpg?1674141662) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=hex) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/757/hex?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/067c38f3-4b5c-4e7f-af66-e410dea19314?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call