Mr T and his Cube Draft

It’s a lazy evening, and a friend of the Ender family, Mr T, is coming to visit! What would he bring this time? One time it was Prophecy, another time it was Agricola, another time it was Zooloretto, and still another time it was honey garlic chicken wings (admittedly we didn’t play those, but ate them - but I would rate them a 10 on the BGG scale!).

Well, as it turned out, on this occasion Mr T came with several mysterious long white rectangular boxes under his arm. The initiated and enlightened will immediately be able to identify the contents of these containers: a collection of Magic the Gathering cards! And so indeed it proved to be – Mr T had built his own Cube Draft! And in a country of millions of people, the Ender family were the privileged few that were to be the Chosen Ones with whom he would take this Cube Draft on its maiden voyage!

But first, a brief word about a Cube Draft. Unlike regular drafts, which use booster packs, a Cube Draft is a carefully constructed draft pool of several hundred singles chosen individually for their excellence in game play, particularly drafts. The cards are then are shuffled at random to make 15 card packs for the players to draft from. The draft pool for a Cube Draft as originally conceived has well been described as follows: “The cube is, quite simply, the 50 best cards of each color, the 50 best multicolor and artifact cards, and the 50 best lands ever printed.” Mr T is a good chap, but he doesn’t own big money cards like the Moxes of The Power Nine. So Mr T’s cube was of his own making and careful design, since he had wisely decided to limit himself to commons and uncommons. It consisted of about 30 cards in each colour, 30 gold cards, 30 artifacts, and 30 lands and other colour fixing – approximately 270 cards altogether, but all great for drafts.

Stage 1: Preparation

With the trademark green Ender family felt lovingly placed on the kitchen table, and the trademark rectangular white boxes lovingly placed on the felt, Mr T didn’t need to look very far to find some willing participants to join him for a draft: Mr Ender (yours truly), and three junior Enders: son B (age 12), daughter K (age 10), and son N (age 8). The first order of business was shuffling the card pool, which was accomplished in short order with the help of several enthusiastic volunteers, all eager to get the draft under way. The commons and uncommons were randomly mixed together (since many of the commons were arguably just as good as the uncommons), so it was a simple matter to make piles of 15 for the draft. These would be our "booster packs".

Stage 2: Drafting

Those familiar with drafting will know the routine: every player takes one card from their pile of 15, then passes the pile to the player on their left. When each player has 15 cards, the routine is repeated with new piles of 15, this time passing to the player on the right. After a third and final round (once again passing to the left), each player has 45 cards and is ready to build their decks.

Even though the Ender juniors had not seen most of these particular cards before, they had little difficulty in figuring out how the cards worked and which ones they wanted, so the five player drafting was concluded in relatively short order.

Stage 3: Deck-building

Now the excitement of deck-building began! Mr T had put all the cards in blue card sleeves (of course!), and had also included a suitable number of sleeved lands, so we were all curious to see what lands the others would need, to get some idea of what colours had been drafted.

As it turned out, I was the only one who was drafting red and black, and managed to construct a rather vicious looking deck, with lots of removal and general nastiness. Mr T had opted for a blue and green deck. Son B (age 12) and daughter K (age 10) had both built blue and white decks, and despite the close attention to blue son N (age 8) managed to build himself a mono blue deck. Now let the games begin!

Stage 4: Playing

Pictured below is the family friend and Cube Draft Extraordinaire Mr T, along with the three participating Ender juniors.



Special note should be made of my daughter's "draft horse" (get the pun?).



Her Webkinz Clydesdale horse is not only a warm and cuddly toy that accompanies her wherever she goes, but this "draft horse" also made a perfect mascot for a draft, and sat obediently on the table alongside her for every game!



To be honest I can’t really remember too much about the individual games that followed. I do recall that my nasty red/black baby dispatched most of my opponents in short order, although I was greatly benefited by the fact that I was the only one drafting those colours. In one draft game son N (age 8) almost managed to topple Mr T (age 30+), but some late game land issues prevented him from securing a well-deserved win, despite having what seemed to be a superior deck.

The junior contenders

Some photographic highlights from the action:


Caption: Beware of the Kid: 8 y/o son N unafraid to take on adult competition!


Caption: Don't Underestimate Girl Power: 10 y/o daughter K competing in the draft


Caption: Words of Wisdom: 12 y/o son B receiving some sisterly advice

Concluding thoughts

In the end, winning and losing really wasn’t important. All that really mattered was that everyone had a grand old time! A draft is a great way to ensure a level playing field for all players. There's also a variety of elements: first the drafting, then the deck-building, and finally the game-play. As far as the Ender Juniors are concerned, it’s the absolute best way to play Magic the Gathering. If Mr T ever returns carrying those mysterious rectangular white boxes, he is certain to be given an enthusiastic and warm welcome!