When hearing about draft formats for Keyforge using a cube, I hear the following two common complaints:
- It takes too long to draft.
- It doesn’t “feel” like Keyforge.
I am proposing a different way to use a Keyforge cube that addresses these two complaints. I call it Sealed Cube. It should be compatible with any existing Keyforge cube. The idea is to simulate the feeling of Sealed format Keyforge without having to open fresh decks every time you play.
Here’s what you need:
How to Play
- A Keyforge Cube (or just a big pile of decks)
- A different set of opaque card sleeves for each player
- A way to determine house combinations (see below)
To start, sort all the cards in the cube into piles by house. If there are any paired cards in your cube, like Timetraveller, Four Horsemen, Ortannu, Igon, Xenos/Toad, or Brews, put just one card from the pairing into the house pile and set the rest aside. For Blasters, put the Blaster in the pile and the matching officer aside. Shuffle each pile separately.
For each player, determine which houses they are going to play. If you have a complete set of house chain trackers, you could use those. Or just use one card from each house. Shuffle the seven or nine house cards together and then deal three to a player. That is the house combination they will be playing for this game. Collect the house cards, shuffle, and deal again for the next player.
For each house a player was given, deal that player twelve cards from the matching house pile. If a player was dealt a paired card, randomly replace cards from that house with the matching paired cards that were set aside earlier. Sleeve each deck of 36 cards, and you are good to go! A randomly generated Sealed Keyforge deck.
Benefits and Drawbacks
Benefits of this method:
- Faster than draft
- Feels like Keyforge (no deck construction)
- Cheaper than regular Sealed
- Fun use for bulk decks
Here are some potential drawbacks of Cube Sealed vs. regular Sealed:
- The algorithm. There is a lot about the algorithm that we don’t know, and it is possible with this method, depending on the composition of your cube, to generate decks that the algorithm did not intend. For example, if there is a card that is limited to one per deck but there is more than one copy in your cube, or if the algorithm makes sure there is a minimum number of creatures in a deck, these factors are not accounted for in Cube Sealed.
- Cross-set mixes. If you have cards from more than one set in your cube, that could create decks that are not possible with the algorithm.
- Ambassadors and Plants. I’m not sure of a good way to include cards that are dependant on the other houses in your deck.
- Not an actual deck. If you get a deck you like, you can’t play that deck at official events.
What do you think? Even if the decks are slightly wonky, it would still make for a fun night of Keyforge. If you try out this method, let me know your thoughts.