Cube Draft Masterclass pt1: Perfecting Pick 1 with F.O.C.U.S.

[@Frog_Cat_]

Before the draft: "I'll pick the best cards" During the draft: "I'll just draft my favorite cards" After the draft: "what have I done..."

[@CulticCube]

Too real.

[@Devynwithawhy]

before the draft, you forgot to account for the "human factor" and under compensated

[@Devynwithawhy]

3,216 views, 153 likes, and 0 dislikes. I have never seen a video with even a thousand views and 0 dislikes. This cubemunity is very very wholesome. Moi Grande!

[@CulticCube]

It is a great community! And regarding the numbers, we don't need balance in *all* things, so please don't go correcting the ratio, lol!

[@seanedgar164]

We've definitely found for my cube that there's 2 main ways of drafting a deck; pick a commander early and commit hard, or pick bombs or engines in one or two colours and then lean into a strategy as a commander comes up

[@scottkaczmarski5238]

Some of the best MTG content completely changed changed my cube for the better love ur vids never stop.

[@CulticCube]

That makes my day. Thank you so much for stopping by to say so. :)

[@lovis8424]

I will probably show this to my playgroup, who are new to cubing and have trouble with drafting it. the music is a bit loud, but besides that, this was a great vid!

[@CulticCube]

Please do! Good note about the volume. Are you listening via headphones or in some other fashion? I thought I'd achieved a pretty good mix, but also I'm ancient and probably half deaf. And hey, thanks for liking the video on all of the Discords where I posted it! We share all the same circles.

[@kolmis11]

I also recomend some compression for the speech. Apart from that, the video and topic is excellent.

[@CulticCube]

​@@kolmis11 You think my vocals should be more compressed? I run them through a leveling filter, but honestly I don't know what I'm doing. I've learned bits and pieces about audio production as I've made these videos, but really I'm flailing around in the dark. If you have any recommendations for resources that might be helpful to me, I would love to hear about them! My email and twitter are in the video description. Thank you!!

[@emilschroder4796]

never clicked a video so fast

[@CulticCube]

Lol, glad I can help keep your clicking finger fighting fit! :)

[@DanSternofBeyer]

Wow. I completely agree with all of this. You have put into words what I have been striving to create for my cube. When building with these qualities in mind I've moved away from tribal, color hosing, and gold cards in favor of fixing, cheats, tokens, graveyard, and more generally mid range. I can't wait for your next video. (also, if you are interested in the old boarder cube : cubetutor.com/cubeblog/146182)

[@CulticCube]

I am totally with you on how you describe refocusing your cube's priorities and modes of interaction. Old border cube sounds awesome! I am sure it's a blast to play!

[@An_Otter_Dennis]

Great Video as always. I would have loved a some seconds inbetween revealing the pack and discussing your pick to have time to pause the video and think about it for myself.

[@CulticCube]

That's a good idea! I can think about how to balance that in future videos. Maybe a short countdown timer before putting picks on the screen.

[@An_Otter_Dennis]

@@CulticCube Just say something like "pause the screen and take some time as if you would open this for real and than return to see if we agree and if not what would you made differently write it in the comments" or something similar :D

[@CulticCube]

I love it. That's great, thanks! :)

[@taikidd2320]

Just subscribed, I started my cube 2days ago. Thanks for the tips

[@CulticCube]

Hey, glad you found something of use here! And yay for the new cube journey!!

[@Rev0care]

new cultic cube poggers

[@alwaysdowhatsright]

Another wonderful video! Well done John keep up the great content!!

[@CulticCube]

Thanks so much Jonathan! And congrats to you for maintaining your habitual -- though hard-won! -- place at the top of the MTGO Vintage Cube trophy boards this season. Stop making cube look so easy! Go TeamJbro!

[@Zolthux]

FOCUS. I like it

[@antoinenguyen5430]

great video !

[@SoulsNThings]

Nice to see you back. Happy New year to you and yours.

[@CulticCube]

Thanks so much CBEpyon! Same to you!

[@richanderson1275]

I needed this last week lol

[@snackplaylove]

Rich Anderson commenting as my MTG Chanel so I can find this easier lol

[@girlsinacoma]

One of these two codes is good for 6 packs on mtg arena (I think it's the second one): EHH-tkbB-4kf KN9-8btL-nBu

[@CulticCube]

Thanks for sending these! I haven't gotten into MTGA, but I am so excited to learn that WotC plans to support cube there - so I'm sure that I will! It's very kind of you to share these codes - thank you!

[@ruttokyrpa3472]

Do you have any experience/opinions about slivers in cube? Arcane Adaption made me think about those bastards. I think they are pure dirt for someone not going for them so thats a red flag for me

[@CulticCube]

None, I'm afraid. I don't care for tribal support as a rule, as it can lead to an "on rails" draft experience. Though I'm sure it can be done well or in an interesting way. I think humans can work without much effort and some incidental support.

[@cabzxs]

Really love your content, sorry that it never took off. I think your sound editing may have something to do with it, as well as the overall narration. I know it was not easy to make a video like this, and I thank you for the information.

[@hopehawk]

Not sure I agree with tossing BREAD in favor of FOCUS....especially when midway through the video you're like, well actually, I'll take all of these before fixing....you know what "these" were? Yeah, those were the bombs which constitute the B of BREAD.

[@CulticCube]

Hey, good to hear from you, hopehawk! It sounds as if we're on the same page when it comes to the upper echelon of first pick material! It is my experience that many people have a much broader (and often more creature-centric) definition of "bomb" than I do. I elected to use different nomenclature in the hope of reducing misunderstanding, creating categories that carry more descriptive weight than BREAD, and underscoring that I'm always picking a fetch over Grave Titan.

[@hopehawk]

@@CulticCube You're always so nice in response to my sassy self. I like fetches too, but I'm not sure I'd pick them over Grave Titan P1 P1. Titan is a monocolor (doesn't commit you to multiple colors) hardcastable, reanimator friendly, scaling pressure, guaranteed to trade, bomb. There are certainly many cards I'd pick over Titan but probably not fetches.

[@CulticCube]

Fair enough! :)