FAQ
What is "coindrafting" anyway?
Coindrafting is a Magic: The Gathering variant or "Cube". It is a popular, and highly skill-intensive drafting format. It uses the freeware Magic Set Editor to create proxy cards with coin values stamped on them. The winner of each draft is the person with the highest coin tally at the end of the evening.
Isn't the name pretty lame?
Yeah it is. Sorry. Please come up with a better one and I will change it.
How does it differ from normal drafting of a Vintage proxy cube?
There are three main differences:
1) Each card has a value printed on the bottom-left (hence "coindraft"). The numbers range from 99 (Black Lotus) to 1 (basic lands).
2) All duels are played for ante (two cards per person, per game: one card face up, the other face down).
3) The winner of each tournament is determined by their total winnings (i.e. the sum of all coins in all cards they have won).
Why is coindrafting harder than normal drafting or constructed Magic?
To succeed at coindrafting, you need a combination of drafting skills, deck-building skills (40-card decks) and comprehensive playing skills (the card pool is across all of Magic).
Hi-resolution proxy cards? Is this legal?
You can't sell (or otherwise transmit: lend, borrow etc) derived works or otherwise profit from any WotC material. Also, the coin is placed prominently so as to allay fears as to similarity to actual WotC published material. This blog is a repository for coindrafting rules. While technically you may copy up to 10% of published works for personal use (and there are 11000+ unique cards in Magic), I don't ever intend to push those limits. MSE is a product the the WotC staff use themselves (which is problematic in itself), but really, just use common sense. If you make cards using MSE, don't sell them. Ever. Not even to a friend.
As a side note, I have been playing this game since 1994 and have no desire whatsoever to detract from WotC's business or misuse their intellectual property. Thus, you will not find any MSE templates here.
Where can I get the MSE Template for this?
Not from here. You can probably work out how to add little coins into MSE and make your own. Or just buy stick-on dots and write the values on each
Does creating a full cube take a long time?
Oooooh yes. Days. Literally. It takes a few minutes create MSE entries, a while to print things out, and about 5-8 minutes per card to cut out, stick on, press, trim and sleeve. Multiply 5 minutes by 50 land (10 of each basic type) by 8 players = 2000 minutes. Just.For.Land.
This is actually one of the main reasons that I am happy to share my thoughts on this blog: to create a full cube is a huge investment. It is a labour of love and not for profit.
Why are players limited to 10 basic lands of each type?
See the above. We did come up with a novel solution for this though: each player gets given a 50 land pack as well as a bunch of dual lands (from any block). It's also aesthetically pleasing to have your basics keyed to a particular block.
I don't like some cards in the cube. What can I do?
Veto them (see the comp rules). Cards that have already been vetoed are: Time Vault, Sensei's Divining Top, and Isochron Sceptre.
Don't you mean "Isochron Scepter"?
The language is our cube is set to en-AU (I live in Australia). This includes all instances of the word "color".
What about typos?
Each card is derived from Oracle text, but we still make some: in the c3 list (the third release of the cube), Crystalline Sliver had a casting cost of GW, Stoic Angel had Jenara's casting cost (UWG), and Aeon Chronicler had a suspend cost of XU (instead of X3U... this was quite powerful). The golden rule is that you play with cards as they are printed (unless impossible: such as Terminate printed as an enchantment).
How have you printed your cube?
Our cube was printed on 230 GSM glossy photo paper after images were resized to fit 9-on-a-page using the MSE Companion software (can get this here). Each was chopped and pasted to a common MTG card and slipped into Player Choice sleeves.
How do you determine the coin values?
Each card is assigned a rating from 1 to 10 under 5 categories: aggressiveness, combination power, control, general utility and collectibility. These are hashed together in an algorithm to get a number from 1 (complete rubbish) to 99 (Black Lotus).
As a rough guide:
1-10 Very poor, no collector value, very narrow use.
Slivers, awkward removal from recent sets (Paralysing Grasp, Quiet Disrepair), poorly costed creatures from high-volume sets (Dakkon Blackblade). All basic lands are assigned a value of 1.
10-20 Common removal or solid creatures with little collector value or narrow application.
Disintegrate, Aeon Chronicler, Torchling, Doran, Oblivion Ring.
20-30 Classy removal, simple tutor effects, difficult but powerful combo cards, moderate collector value.
Eternal Witness, Wild Mongrel, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Path to Exile.
30-40 High-power artifacts, excellent mass removal, powerful tutor effects, classy creatures, high collector value.
Aether Vial, Scroll Rack, Skullclamp, Mystical/Enlightened/Demonic tutors, Wrath of God, Damnation, Mind Over Matter, Meluko, Morphling.
40-60 Best creatures, expensive lands, quick mana sources.
Dark Confidant, Baneslayer Angel, Tarmogoyf, Revised Duals (57), Ravnica Duals (50), Sol Ring.
70+ Power 9 and extremely collectible non-P9 card
Imperial Recruiter is 71 (the highest for a creature), Moxen 91, Black Lotus 99.
