Madison, Wisconsin
Time: Thursday October 16th - Sunday October 19th, 2024
Main Event Players: 569


Thursday - Coverage


First Impressions
The first thing any judge who applied to Cubecon encountered, was the odd shift structure: it’s $120/ shift, but shifts are only around 4-5 hours. Now $120/day is not good, but 240/day is actually just fine. It's not great, but because you can work four days, and you pick up a third shift on Saturday, or a setup or teardown shift, you can make about ~900 on the weekend, which is pretty similar to SCG keystone rate, which is completely reasonable. The other thing that drew me to Cubecon was the unique nature of the event. Cube drafts all weekend? But how would they keep players from stealing cards? What kind of security are they using? How many players are they getting? What is the actual structure of the event? I like trying new things and learning about different kinds of events, so I was pretty excited to get the opportunity to go to Cubecon!

Octagonal Development
I want to take a brief aside to mention how painless the software, Hedron Network, was. Many judges by this point hear "tournament organizer developed independent software" and start having to suppress a gag reflex. Many developers look at the current software on offer and think "I can fix him", but because the code to a lot that software is behind an army of highly-paid legal staff, their method of "fixing it" is building a newer and better version that inevitably fulfills that first adjective but not the second. However, I'm happy to announce that this software is actually totally fine. It has a bevy of excellent features, such as "having a mobile layout that is useable", "doesn't crash when you try to do a re-pair" and our favourite darling "manual pairings". All that aside, Cubecon has some unique requirements, such as requiring that players take photos of the cards in their pool at the beginning and at the end of the draft. In addition to this, players are able to submit a list of the cubes they'd like to draft, and the software takes those rankings into account when seating and players and designating the cube for each pod. The only complaint I had about it was the fact that it started the round timer the moment you clicked "pair round" which meant that the timer was always wrong. This could be easily solved by adding a "stop/reset/play" button suite. Overall, 9/10, software was an absolute rockstar.

Enter the Cubegeon
The entire process can feel a bit overwhelming at first, but after a few rounds it's pretty easy to fall into the general workflow. First, each round is paired in Hedron Network and players find their seats. The judges figure out which pods get which cubes by looking at the software, find those in the cube library, which is alphabetized and numbered and bring the cubes to the seats. For next year I think it would be helpful if the cubes were numbered in the software as part of their name, so that they'd be even easier to find in the cube library. Before starting anything, the judge should review any cube specific rules, since they may pertain to the draft process and should be told to players in advance. Then judges distribute all the cards in the cube evenly across all 8 players, then each player should mash shuffle twice and then pass half of their pile to the left. In cube shuffling, passing is more important than the actual shuffling. Afterwards, have the players each make three fifteen card packs and then exchange them with other players, so they aren’t drafting with any packs they created themselves. Then the players count the packs to ensure that they do indeed have fifteen cards each. Judges remind the players to "zone draft", outlining that there are three zones, a zone to a players left, the zone in their hand, containing the pack they're currently drafting from, and a zone to their right, and that if there's already a pack in a zone, they shouldn't put another pack there.

Another important thing to recommend to the players is that while they're drafting their first and second packs, they should put some kind of object on top of the stack of remaining draft packs, to further ensure that they don't get accidentally drafted. Something like a prize ticket or a die works just fine for this. During the draft the judge should count the remaining cards in the cube to ensure that the correct number of cards were handed out and should prepare the basic lands and tokens for the players, they can also hand out the 30 participation prize tix to each player. After drafting, all the players need to take photos of their pool and upload them onto Hedron Network. Players are encouraged to take photos of their decks but it's not required, as the event is run at regular REL with IPG fixes minus penalties, meaning players can change their game one deck in between matches. For coverage, the deck photo was mandatory, since the stream wanted to be able to show it to the audience. Then the draft would proceed as normal, players play matches, earning 20 tix per win. The players are able to report on Hedron Network in addition to judges. Because of the timer issues mentioned above it's highly likely judges will need to moderate their own round times. At the end of the draft each player takes another photo of their pool, then trades their pool with their last round opponent who then counts and verifies it's the correct number of cards, and hands it to the judge on behalf of their opponent.

Five Sides and a Lid
There were a little over 550 players, and that means a lot of cubes. So, I had a cube a while ago that was your typical "all the good cards" cube. There were some subthemes, like storm or reanimator and maybe you could assemble counter/top combo but that was about it. I drafted it a few times, but after realizing that it's hard to get eight people together I took it apart and mushed it into my collection. I heard one of the other players in my group was making an all-commons cube, but I never got around to drafting it. Then later I got invited to some other player cubes and had a similar experience, a bunch of the best cards ever in a pile. I'm not going to lie, it can be super fun to play with iconic cards from all across Magic that are often banned in other formats. But until this weekend that was basically my only exposure to cube. I was certainly surprised when I came to Cubecon and realized that there are more than just "good stuff" cubes! As it turns out, cubes are as diverse as commander decks, and if you like something, there's probably a cube about it!

I've Got it Covered
My first cube of the day was the "Changeling Cube". This cube granted all creature cards in all zones every creature type. Neat. I was reminded that "Mount" was a creature type during this cube. I also got to see some seldom-played lords really get to shine. As a short aside, when I saw I was on coverage all weekend I was a little apprehensive. Watching a single game of Magic and doing little else can get a bit boring. On the other hand, when the format is "a strange and wacky cube" every three rounds, it's hard to get bored. There was also more to do than I was initially expecting. It was my responsibility to deal with the draft and get the cube for the players. I had to figure out who my "featured drafter" was and ensure they were sitting in the filming seat for the draft portion. The software didn't know or care who the featured drafter was, so depending on their seat number, the other players would need to reorient around the featured drafter. It was my responsibility to pair the round and then transmit the matches in text to the production staff, ensuring they knew which match was at which camera. I would try to keep the featured drafter on camera for at least the first two rounds, but would always put the undefeated players on the camera for the final match. I needed to teach the players how to operate the life tracker tablets, and instructed them on correct dice etiquette (basically, "use the large dice provided, but not the green ones those are for poison"). During games I'd make sure players were using tokens that were intelligible to viewers (Most cubes came with tokens, but I had the opportunity to make some of my own which stumbled onto stream at some point during the weekend, I think in the future if I know I'm on coverage I'd probably bring a set of tokens or something). I was also responsible for communicating with the coverage team when the players were ready so they could start the timer for the coverage players. All in all, coverage ended up being a lot less of a nothing burger than I first thought.

The Cheesiest Draft
Something pretty unique that was on offer was a "cheese draft" wherein the victor won a giant pile of various fancy cheeses, as well as a novelty foam cheese hat and a custom cutting board. What an awesome little side event! The cube for this one was the Chicago Cube, which to me just ended up looking like a normal unpowered goodstuff cube. The games were still pretty fun to watch though.

An Event that Would Make Even cEDH Players Blush
This event was quite weird. It felt like an event that both wants to be a big tournament and a league and ODEs all at the same time. It's a big tournament, because each win you get contributes to your overall point total at the end, and your ultimate eligibility for top 64, and then top 8. It felt like a league because there was also some kind of preliminary tournament on Thursday that only earned you one point per win and zero for draws for the main event? The zero for draws was odd and I think perhaps draws should've been worth a half point and used as a tiebreaker if players ended up with a half point, but maybe that's impossible to program into the software, who knows. Anyways, then it felt like ODEs because while all the drafts started simultaneously, each draft would have its own individual round timer and many would end at wildly different times.

Geist of Rulings Past
AP casts Duplicant on their Geist-Honored Monk and controls no other creatures, what is Duplicant's power and toughness? It will be a 1/1, and if AP plays another creature it will become a 2/2 and so-on. Geist-Honored Monk's power and toughness setting ability is a characteristic-defining ability and functions in all zones. (CR 604.3)

Devoted Reconfiguration
AP enchants their Devoted Druid with Swift Reconfiguration and activates its untap ability three times, putting three -1/-1 counters on it, what happens? Nothing if AP doesn't crew it, currently its a vehicle but is not a creature, so the -1/-1 counters don't do anything. AP can generate infinite mana this way. Neat.

Friday – Coverage


Cubes Intensify
My first cube of the day was the World War of the Spark cube, which seemed to be some kind of planeswalker-centric cube. The only special rule was that each player began the game with a tapped Interplanar Beacon. I... was not a big fan of War of the Spark limited back when it came out, and this wasn't super different, so watching this cube play out was a slog and a half. That being said, the owner didn't provide many tokens so I got to do a lot of drawing during the day.

My second cube was Wheeler's One Drops. There were a few neat things about this one. First, the software randomed Wheeler, the cube designer, into a pod with his own cube. To no one's surprise he won. Second, after the slog fest that was the World War of the Spark cube, this was a refreshingly blitzy cube that didn't fail to keep me on my toes.

Peekers Get Beaters
One of the major things that judges need to be aware of during drafts is peeking. Peeking is a super easy way for a player to gain a major advantage over the other drafters. Knowing what the player beside you is drafting allows you to make better decisions about what colors you should be taking, and what probably isn't going to wheel. During the second draft, I saw a player I thought might be peeking, but obviously it's hard to tell if their eyes are just wandering or what. I pulled them aside and asked a few questions. A non-negligible factor in my cheating investigations are the stakes: what does the player have to gain from this cheat, where they are in the tournament and what are the prizes are contribute to this factor. While players playing for a pack at FNM aren't necessarily immune to cheating, as things become more "worth it" the incentive for a player to do something suspect increases. I wanted to know the prizes for the event, but Cubecon being Cubecon, it was hard to find this information without squirreling around the website for ten minutes. I decided instead, to ask the player, maybe he knew? He seemed to not, which pointed away from cheating, clearly he didn't care about prizes. His current record in the tournament was 2-1, which while good, wasn't stellar (though this could put him just on the bubble of top 64). I then asked what they thought the person beside them was in, and they didn't really know, and just mentioned what had felt open. Oh well. I got the impression the player thought this was some kind of limited oriented tech interview, as opposed to a cheating investigation so at least we didn't stress them out that much. I sent them back to the table and decided that they were probably just dumb and let the whole thing go.

Saturday – Coverage


Cube Cornucopia!
Saturday, as usual was the big day. Three drafts meant a long day for those of us that wrote "give me as many shifts as possible" on their applications. Luckily, coverage is not physically demanding, so overall I had a fairly chill day.

My morning cube was < href="https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/100-ornithopters">100 Ornithopters. I think the gimmick with this one is pretty self explanatory, but it also came bundled with some other baggage. Each Ornithopter in the cube was numbered, and if you killed someone with any particular Ornithopter, you would put a tally mark on it. Whoever won the cube got to choose and name an Ornithopter. It was such a charming cube, and was a joy to watch it play out.

My Afternoon cube was the Yidris Graveyard Cube. Maybe it was it's because it was following the Ornithopter cube, but I found this one kinda boring. The only unique things about it are that each player started with an Ash Barrens in their pool (snore), and that it had no white cards in it (whatever). This one rivalled the Chicago cube for being one of the least interesting cubes to watch over the weekend.

My evening cube was the Monored Cube. There's nothing like a good 'ol monored mirror to wake you up after a long day of watching grindfests. I wonder if the One-Drop and Monored Cube were both intentionally placed as the last cubes of the day to help things wrap up more quickly? Probably not, but it definitely kept my evenings from dragging on, which I appreciated. This one was kind of quirky to watch, but the games didn't look super fun, it felt like the person going first had an overwhelming advantage, more often than not.

Not-So-Hidden Agenda
AP has a Hidden Agenda, but as there is only one in the entire cube, they want to know when they need to announce that they have it to their opponent. As it turns out, AP needs to announce it at the beginning of the game as it starts in the Command Zone. (CR 702.106a, CR 103.2e)

Sunday - Coverage


This is Why We Used to Make Fun of Tron Players
The entire event cut to top 64 on Sunday, so the room was a lot emptier. First up was the Pro Tour Cube. I liked the concept for this one a lot, it featured any card that had ever been in a Pro Tour winning, constructed main deck. It had a few additional rules, if you drafted one tron land, you got the complimentary two tron lands. So if you drafted Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine and Urza's Power Plant would be added to your pool. Also, if you drafted one Squadron Hawk, you got two more Squadron Hawks. I swung by one of the drafters on the end and saw that he'd drafted all three tron lands, which meant his pool would have nine total tron lands in it. Gross. To complement this he'd also managed to snag an Ulamog, Ceaseless Hunger as well as a Karn, the Great Creator. A few staples from Tron decks later, and this guy had something that looked very close to a constructed deck.

Powerful Picks
The final draft of the day, and the tournament, was the MTGO Vintage Powered Cube. I was a little nervous about being responsible for someone's power, but it's not like I've never done deck checks on a vintage event before. There was a bit of a kerfuffle about whether the top 8 draft would be called or not. No other drafts throughout the weekend had been called, but there were some concerns about getting out of the venue on time. I spoke with coverage and the HJs about this, and coverage really wanted to push for the called draft on the argument that it would be quicker. This shocked me since conventional wisdom has always been that called drafts are longer! Coverage staff mentioned that a called draft takes around 25 minutes, while the previous uncalled drafts all weekend had been taking upwards of 30. In the face of actual evidence, I conceded that I was wrong, and we opted for a called draft for top 8. Perhaps it's the nature of cube and the fact that many players will need to spend more time reading cards they're unfamiliar with that was making things take longer? But I'm not really sure, it could also be that conventional judge wisdom is actually wrong, or has changed over the years as cards have become increasingly more complex, but I guess more data is required.

Finders Keepers, No Trade-Backs
AP activates Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker on their Gilded Drake, and trades the token to NAP for their Storm Crow, what happens at the end of the turn? AP puts Kiki-Jiki's delayed trigger onto the stack, but can't sacrifice a permanent they don't own. (CR 701.17a.) So NAP will just keep the Drake token forever. Wild.

Check This Out
I didn't actually get to spend much time with the top 8 because the judges that weren't the HJs got pulled to help out with cube checkout, which was a cumbersome process of laying out every card in a cube, taking photos, uploading them to Hedron Network, then counting all the cards. This doesn't sound too bad, except each cube is upwards of 300 cards and requires a non-negligible amount of table space to lay out, and necessitates taking multiple photos. All of which combines to make a rather laborious process.

...In Conclusion
I had a surprisingly great time at Cubecon, and while Saturday was exhausting, I overall enjoyed myself. I had a great time doing coverage, which I don't actually do very often, and really enjoyed watching the different cubes. I'm interested in how the logistics will evolve for next year and am excited to see this event grow!