u/Grixis08

Hello r/cube!!

I’m looking to build a commander cube, particularly because I want to try and recreate an old school commander environment with long, combat-focused, janky games, and I think commander cube is the perfect format for that environment.

There is one big issue I’m stuck on, do I draft commanders in the cube, or out of the cube in a separate mini draft? Here’s are the pros and cons I’ve found:

Seeding commanders into packs:

Pros - Allows the commander choosing to feel much more like a draft, and encourages spontaneous thinking for finding a strategy.

Cons - Archetypes would need to be streamlined to make sure you can have good synergy for your commander, along with 3+ colours being a difficult implementation and mono coloured commanders needing a rule 0 partner to be practical.

Seperate commander draft:

Pros: Allows players to choose a playstyle that fits them while still keeping the randomness of cube. It also easily accommodates building 3+ commanders since in draft packs they could be dead cards for some people, and can help promote battlecruiser decks with splashy plays.

Cons: The actual drafting experience would become way too selfish. A lot of the time strategy is involved in order to not only build yourself a good deck on the fly, but also disrupt your opponents. If everyone had already settled on their colour identities then it would be more difficult/pointless to hate draft and would also result in more dead cards.

I’d love to hear everyone’s opinions and experiences on the subject! I’m leaning more towards a separate commander draft but this thread could make me change my mind.