Contraptions in an Unstable-ish Cube
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Posted on Dec. 24, 2019, 11:54 p.m. by PIayswithFlRE
Does this seem like a reasonable way to include contraptions, 2 per pack, so 48* total?
- 1 mythic
- When you draft it, you may reveal it.
- If you do, take the other four mythic contraptions, then remove four of them from the draft face down
- 5 rares, one from each faction
- When you draft one, you may reveal it.
- If you do, take the other faction rare, then remove one of the two from the draft face down.
- 10 uncommons (the other five are set aside face down; see below)
- Uncommon scry 2 and scry 3
- When you draft one, reveal it, then look at the top # cards in the set aside uncommon pile.
- Take one of them, then remove this card and the other(s) from the draft face down
- 30 commons, two of each of the fifteen options
I like that it both makes every card available and stays as close to singleton as may be practical without flooding the contraption pool with rares and mythics, but I'm curious what others think.
* though it takes me 60 cards plus 2 placeholders to fill those 48 slots
PIayswithFlRE says... #3
"When drafting Unstable normally, each pack has one contraption card in it, and there are no special rules for drafting them. "
I thought that Unstable packs were 1 rare/mythic, 3 uncommons, 8 commons, 2 contraptions, 1 basic land (or, very rarely, steamflogger boss).
For now (still kind of brainstorming), I'm good on assemblers, because I'm starting with (roughly) 3 of each non-land common, 2 of each uncommon, and 1 of each rare and mythic, which means 44 non-contraption cards that assemble contraptions and 4 more that reassemble them, plus 2 contraptions that assemble more contraptions.
- 480 cards total
- 360 non-land, non-contraptions
- 48 rare/mythics
- 120 uncommons
- 192 commons
- 24 lands
- 96 contraptions
- 16 rare/mythic
- 32 uncommon
- 48 common
- Pre-draft, select cards randomly to create 15-card packs that mirror actual Unstable pack distribution
- hand out 20-card packs, but, when you take a rare/mythic, uncommon, or contraption, you also remove one from the draft, which essentially takes it down to commercial pack counts
- just give out 20-card packs
Your proposed drafting solution seems overly complex to me but it could work too.
Yeah, I think part of it is that what I want is actually a little convoluted, but another part is that I may have put it in unnecessarily wordy terms. The basic ideas is that, among the 48 contraptions, there's
- 1 mythic, but instead of being one chosen at random, you get to pick any of the five
- 5 rares, but instead of one chosen at random, you get your pick of two
- when I wrote it up here, I limited your choice to the two from the same faction, but I'm thinking that's unnecessary
- 12 uncommons; this is where the numbers get weird
- I think a better way to do it would be to put in 10 contraptions and 2 conspiracies. If you take either conspiracy, you can remove it and, if you do, pick any of the five contraptions that aren't included
- 30 commons: 2 of each
Maybe putting a random assembler with each contraption in each pack, so they can get drafted both at once (similar to the way partners were drafted in battlebond) could be cool.
I hadn't considered that, but that's an interesting idea. I'm also thinking about kind of flipping it, though, and, whenever you draft a card that assembles/reassembles a contraption, you also get a random contraption (contraptions not included in packs). That way, you maintain control of your deck's color mix. Because it's Unstable, I'm thinking maybe handle the randomness with rolling dice. Roll 2D6 and get a contraption based on the roll (probably letting you look at some number of them, potentially as high a 5, and picking one)
| Roll | Rarity | Statistically rolled/Available |
| 12 | Mythic | 1/5 |
| 10-11 | Rare | 7/10 |
| 8-9 | Uncommon | 12/15 |
| 2-7 | Common | 28/30 |
Really appreciate the feedback.
Rzepkanut says... #2
When drafting Unstable normally, each pack has one contraption card in it, and there are no special rules for drafting them. I only did a few Unstable drafts, but I did have one where I was able to make a contraption deck happen. The problem is that the contraptions need to be "assembled" in game too. You need to draft not only a functioning draft deck of creatures and spells, but a bunch of assemblers and contraptions. I would definitely make sure you have more than one copy of every assembler there is available in the cube. I think a 1:1 ratio of assemblers to contraptions might be a good starting point if you can fit them in.
I have an EDH deck that uses a Contraption deck, and I found that in order to reliably trigger Contraptions I've had to run just about every single assembling card there is. Also about half of the Contraptions they printed kind of suck so my deck only uses the good ones. It's a fun mechanic to play with but It's tricky to build with.
Maybe putting a random assembler with each contraption in each pack, so they can get drafted both at once (similar to the way partners were drafted in battlebond) could be cool. It's possible that adding more cards to the draft might make it easier to draft a functioning Contraption assembling deck reliably. For example making the packs 20 cards each or maybe drafting four packs instead of three. Your proposed drafting solution seems overly complex to me but it could work too.
Fun idea, good luck on it.
December 25, 2019 11:34 a.m. Edited.