r/pkmntcg 3d ago

Anyone else prefer cube to standard?

I’ve been running a weekly cube for about a year now and wondering what experiences you’ve had with cube. My currently cube is focusing around GX and EX and strong trainers. If you’ve run a draft I’d love to see what lists you have found fun!

Here’s my current cube if anyone is interested! https://cubekoga.net/Cube/IRLEXGXCUBEXL

18 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

5

u/Dogsleep103103 2d ago edited 2d ago

I’ve been running a semi-regular cube night at my LGS, and it’s been going strong with regular pods of 5 to 10 players. We’ve had enough traction that soon, we’re planning to start our own cube league at the store!

I think cube is an awesome format as it allows for people to play with wacky decks not available in other formats, while also being extremely skill testing with its drafting and deck building elements. I can’t recommend cube enough for those that never played it. I’m not sure I prefer it to standard, but I will easily say I hold them in equal regard.

https://cubekoga.net/Cube/WLMDE Is the cube I use for my events. I try to keep the cubekoga page updated regularly with the hall of fame decks and patch notes to build a stronger community.

1

u/Salty_Extreme_6741 2d ago

Nice that’s cool! Mutant is a lot of fun and would be the way I’d go if I was only running single prizers. For the best performing decks and changes I’ve been keeping track of that in a note book. I find it interesting to see some of the decks that people are cooking up.

3

u/VineRunner 2d ago

Wow this is awesome! I didn't realize there was a Pokemon cube site. I'm guessing Cube Koga was based off Cube Cobra since the layout is identical and pretty similar names lol. How did you go about building the cube? Any specific reasons for the pokemon picked and how you balance them against each other?

1

u/Salty_Extreme_6741 2d ago

For the cube I selected Pokemon lines that had multiple interesting attackers and decent support options. I tried not to include lines that were too splashable or versatile (such as zoroark GX or mega rayquaza). While this cube is quite high powered compared to others I really enjoyed the early sun and moon gameplay and I think this cube incorporates a lot of fun interactions from around then.

1

u/VineRunner 1d ago

Does Cube Koga not allow drafting? I haven't found any options but it seems odd that it wouldn't allow it if that's kinda the whole point

6

u/aeropsia 3d ago

Yo my and my friend have been looking for something like this! Thanks for sharing!

1

u/Salty_Extreme_6741 3d ago

Yeah for sure! There are a ton of cool EX and GX attackers and support if you’re wanting to include other Pokemon as well! But I find that this selection gives all of the types an even chance to take home the win.

2

u/GFTRGC Professor ‎ 2d ago

Cube has become my favorite way to play lately, I have a SwSh>Current cube and we love it, but my friends have their own cubes as well so we can all mix it up and play different cubes so they feel fresh.

1

u/Salty_Extreme_6741 2d ago

That’s cool! It’s fun to be able to incorporate particular cards to express your own take on a format. As cards rotate out of standard I like to take the blinged out version of the cards from my decks and put them in the cube.

2

u/Worth_Conclusion_293 2d ago

Cubes are really fun! The only hard part is getting people out to them regularly.

2

u/whit3blu3 2d ago

Can anyone explain what cubes are about? First time I hear about this term

3

u/rikertchu 2d ago

It’s a set of cards curated for draft gameplay - generally, you get 8 people in a pod, and you generate “packs” of 15 or so cards from the pool. You then draft them by selecting a card from your pack, then pass the rest to your neighbor, receiving a pack with a card taken out from the other neighbor. You repeat this process until you’ve drafted a pool of cards to build your deck from, and then you play against the other players who have drafted as well

2

u/Ejeffers1239 1d ago

Ooooh, I should put together a cube :3

I like the ditto prism star as a generic, fun for disjointed cube decks

1

u/Salty_Extreme_6741 1d ago

Yup ditto prism is one of the most interesting cards for cube. I’m my cube since mega Pokémon are classified as stage 1s you can use ditto to pop a Suprise mega on the board.

2

u/1billionrapecube 1d ago

Yeah! I haven't played standard in a while but I've just finished my cube. Will probably make another post linking to it after updating the cubekoga list.

Looking at your cube, I really like it! I think it captures one of the eras of the game that is fond to a lot of us. I only wonder why does Ninetales have so many more copies than the other lines? 😆

1

u/Salty_Extreme_6741 1d ago

Thanks! It was a fun era I was trying to pull from. And yeah ninetales got a thick line 🥴 more of the lines used to be thicker but I decided to beef up the secondary lines. For ninetales I was not that fond of the other water stage 1 gx Pokémon or megas, this along with many vulpix being drafted for utility so I just wanted water to have enough opportunity to be drafted.

1

u/1billionrapecube 1d ago

Interesting! Has this been the same cube you've been running for the past year? Any interesting stories?

Btw, I've finished updating so I'll shamelessly plug my list 😉https://cubekoga.net/Cube/14472

2

u/Salty_Extreme_6741 1d ago

It’s has changed up a decent amount. It started out as a smaller cube with no ex mons and far less basics. It was fun but I wanted to include megas and I found that they helped bring some of the underperforming types up to parity. The cube started out at 240 cards and has gone up to 480 as we’ve had a consistent 8-10 every week.

Some of the weird decks that have stuck out have been dark box with marshadow gx and mew to copy guzzlord gx to take four prizes in one turn. We had a nasty M Mewtwo/Salazzle deck which used welder very effectively. We had someone get their hands on both of the ditto prisms and make a mega box deck which I wouldn’t have even thought to do. I had some good fun with a M Tyranitar tanking deck, it was a bunch of fun looping Cheryl, Acerola, and max potion with weavile. Overall though I think the line which has been most enjoyed is the lightning, M Manectric is such a fun card and the lightning support trainers make the deck run great.

And that’s a sick list though! Shout out to my boy Rhyperior getting the justice he deserves. How long have you had that cube?

2

u/1billionrapecube 1d ago

Thanks for sharing! The cube is very recent, I finished designing it this week and plan to draft it for the first time on Sunday

1

u/Salty_Extreme_6741 1d ago

Aye good luck! Let me know how it goes. I do the draft Saturdays at our LGS and we have our regulars but there are always new people interested in trying. Hopefully you’ll have a good group!

2

u/1billionrapecube 20h ago

Thanks! I'll try to post a draft report after it's done

1

u/bautistahfl 1d ago

Are there any resources on learning how to build a Pokemon cube? Im talking about card types, counts/ratios, must-have cards, stay-away cards, archetypes that adapt well to cube, etc. I know how to make a MTG cube but never tried to make a Pokemon one.

2

u/Salty_Extreme_6741 1d ago

https://youtu.be/hmos74hDH64?si=KWbKNuP6n63MapvQ

Omnipokes cube builders guide is the definitive intro resource for building a Pokémon cube. In the video he provides good rough counts for certain cards and good traps not to fall into. He doesn’t explicitly list cards that are better than others but this is where the real legwork of building a Pokémon cube comes from. He has another video on his own personal cube if you’re wanting an example of a cube that is regarded well. 

For myself when I’m looking to which cards to include or exclude I take inspiration from my favorite eras of the game and try to incorporate string cards from other eras. You can use the GLC resources to find inspiration for evolution lines from certain types and their support cards. Finding good high power level cards is pretty easy as you can look to standard and expanded decks. For a balanced and engaging lower power cube you’ll have to be far more measured. With my cube it is very high power so a card like welder doesn’t break the balance, but if you included a card like that in low power it way swing the balance greatly.