Discussion Nostalgia cube draft! Pokemon classic version!

[Draaka]

Hey guys, was wondering has anyone tried a cube draft with pokemon? I'm thinking of making one for my local play group seeing as I have a playset of base, jungle, fossil and team rocket sitting around doing not much.

(A cube draft is a Magic the Gathering originated TCG format where a "CUBE" is built from a set of cards, all players take it in turns to draft from the cube, taking one card at a time until all cards are gone and everyone has an equal number, most cubes have 600-1200 cards, and fit 6-8 players, and either contain 4 of each card or 1 of each card. Once every card has been drafted then the players have 30 minutes to construct their decks. Then you play a small tournament of swiss rounds to determine the winner like in a normal booster draft or prerelease event. At the end all the cards go back into the cube so it can be used again. There is normally unlimited energy/land/resource cards available that don't have to be drafted, you just pick however many you need)

So there will be 4 of each named pokemon (things with two versions will get a 2-2 split, such as 2 normal pikachu, 2 jungle pikachu).

But I'm considering putting in more than 4 of some trainers.

Also do you think it's worth keeping to the original rules? Or should some of the older trainers like Bill and Professor Oak have a supporter rule inflicted upon them? Back in the day you could play four bills and four professor oaks (just like sycamore) and other draw cards as much as you wanted in a turn. If you thought Shaymin EX was bad for fast games imagine just being able to spam N and Sycamore as much as you wanted in a turn.

 

[Scubasage]

I think the original rules is probably fine. The old format was incredibly slow without Bills and Oaks, and since it's a cube with a limit of 4 of each pokemon, you won't be seeing Rain Dance everywhere. If someone even does manage to make Rain Dance, they'd be forced into playing suboptimal pokemon in their list. So, having Bill and Oak be used as they were helps keep the game from being just "draw pass" for multiple turns. It also helps with the nostalgia factor, since that's how it worked back then

 

[Draaka]

That's a good point bro, I'm still unsure as to wether I should have more than 4 of each trainer. Some stuff was pretty OP like the energy removal strategies. But some o the card draw stuff might be nice to let more people take. Keep games quick.

 

[Scubasage]

I feel like Bill, Oak and potentially Challenge! should probably have more than 4 copies each in the cube, if only so more players can get access to a copy or two of each. Energy Removal, Super Energy Removal, and Lass I would probably restrict to 4 copies, if even having that many. The other disruptive trainers, like Sleep! and Rocket's Sneak Attack (I can't think of any others off the top of my head) are weaker and probably are okay at 4 or more copies.

 

[Sevus]

I've never built a cube, so take what I say with a grain of salt...

Something worth noting is that an 8-person draft is only going to open 360 cards. There are 257 unique cards in Base through Rocket, giving you a complete cube of 1,028 cards, 904, once we account for the 31 duplicated Pokémon, 780 if you count Dark Pokémon as being the same as their original evolutionary line. So even with the smallest number, there will be less than half the total card pool represented at the table, meaning there is, on average, less than 2 copies each of your important trainers floating around. At a table with 8 drafters.

Curating your cube so that the proportion of Trainers to Pokémon is right is going to take a lot of effort.

 

[Draaka]

I've never built a cube, so take what I say with a grain of salt...

Something worth noting is that an 8-person draft is only going to open 360 cards. There are 257 unique cards in Base through Rocket, giving you a complete cube of 1,028 cards, 904, once we account for the 31 duplicated Pokémon, 780 if you count Dark Pokémon as being the same as their original evolutionary line. So even with the smallest number, there will be less than half the total card pool represented at the table, meaning there is, on average, less than 2 copies each of your important trainers floating around. At a table with 8 drafters.

Curating your cube so that the proportion of Trainers to Pokémon is right is going to take a lot of effort.

Thanks for the maths dude, that has changed slightly how I think about constructing it.

For repeat pokemon it was gonna be two of each, so two jungle pika two base pika.

I don't need every card to be taken I don't think, or at least it doesn't matter if it is.

I feel like Bill, Oak and potentially Challenge! should probably have more than 4 copies each in the cube, if only so more players can get access to a copy or two of each. Energy Removal, Super Energy Removal, and Lass I would probably restrict to 4 copies, if even having that many. The other disruptive trainers, like Sleep! and Rocket's Sneak Attack (I can't think of any others off the top of my head) are weaker and probably are okay at 4 or more copies.

I was going to limit it so you can only take one trainer per draft pick, so it stops someone picking all four oaks first round. But having one copy of each draw per player makes sense. Maybe more than that even.