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How do you take a Cube that was meant to be a fun, visual, artistic experience and try to turn it into a practical, draftable, working Cube? Can you do it?
Back in 2014, I created a Pulp Cube that just took Pulp-inspired cards from Magic and then put them into a “Cube” for Cubetutor just to look at and draft if you wanted, although the colors were out of sync, and then made that available as a visually appealing view of Pulp-ness.
But we’ve had a lot of Pulp-stuff printed recently. You aren’t going to find a lot of Pulp goodness in Scars of Mirrodin, but Kaladesh? Amonkhet? Ixalan? You bet!
In fact, this project of taking the current artistic Pulp Cube and turning it into a properly draftable one is directly inspired by the Pulpy flavor of Ixalan. Check out my article a few weeks ago here for an example of what I mean.
I think the quality of Pulp-times is inspired heavily by recent sets, and I want to push in that direction, and hopefully get a playable Pulp flavored experience at the end. Now it’s going to take a lot of work to get there. But I think we’ll find it worth it.
What is Pulp? What do I mean when I use the word Pulp?
Pulp refers to the era of (mostly) disposable fiction from, roughly 1890 to 1950. It includes a number of similar, larger-than-life themes; with many common core concepts that are key to the entire era of fiction, including detective fiction, westerns, fantasy, and lost world fiction. And my goal is to try and recreate that sense of style in the Cube itself. Pulp was hugely influential and you can see its impact in modern movies, comics, books, and more. It’s the era of big heroes like Tarzan and Conan. And like many eras, there are masters of the writing genre that defy the tendency to see Pulp as just common literature for the masses and transcend it.
When written by a master, and set in the right place, something which could seem downright pedestrian in a modern fantasy context would be amazing. For example, in one story in the Conan series, writer Robert E. Howard spends paragraphs setting up the appearance of this powerful, nasty, and unnatural creature that just dominates this area of the forest. His description of the giant teeth, rippling muscles, and more is very intricate, and you can feel the palpable sense that this creature’s presence is not right. But this is not some Eldritch Horror or some many tentacled beast or even a nasty dragon. Nope, it’s a Sabretooth Tiger! That’s all you need!
And that is one of the key elements of pulp. Lower levels of science fiction and fantasy and horror, even in horror and fantasy stories. We’ll delve into that later.
So what I want to do is to look at various Pulpish subgenres that were radically popular during this era, and then delve into them.
Let me show a sample from my current Cube to show you what I am trying to do here.
The Egypt and Desert Subtheme
One of the biggest adventure subgenres in this era saw stories set in Egypt, the Middle East, North Africa, and other deserts. You cannot underestimate the impact that the nascent field of archeology had on people’s imagination. Most prolific writers would pen some stories out in the desert, regardless of their normal genre. Take Robert E. Howard, as one example, who wrote, “The Fires of Asshurbanipal” (Spoilers for a short story published around 100 years ago ensue) In this story, two travelers deep in Arabian deserts survive a sandstorm to find a long forgotten city uncovered. They arrive, search, and find this long forgotten throne with a giant red ruby. Local raiders arrive, they fight, and then the raiders take the ruby. Of course it’s a trap, and they are destroyed while our two heroes survive.
That’s a typical story in this genre, and everyone including HP Lovecraft wrote something like it.
Given that emphasis on the setting, I already included some cards in my initial Pulp Cube that fit this theme, location, and setting:
And to a lesser degree evoking this trope:
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Now that gives us some fun cards that suit the theme perfectly. But we now have a literal Desert Matters theme across two sets currently Standard legal. So I would not be surprised to see myself change up that sub-theme of the Cube considerably.
See what I mean?
Here my current Cube, for reference.
Pulp Cube - Cube | Abe Sargent
- White (0)
- Blue (0)
- Black (0)
- Red (0)
- Green (0)
- Gold (0)
- Artifacts (0)
- Lands (0)
This Cube includes subthemes like:
• Places to Explore
• Exploration Proper
• Lost World
• Dark Continent of Africa (The name used during the era).
• Pirates
• Dinosaurs and other Extinct Creatures
• Cosmic Horror
• Forgotten Knowledge
• Pan-Asian Themes
• Apes
• Elephants
• Jungles
• Tundra Exploring
• Traps and Treasures
• Monsters to Face
• Allies and Tools
• Things to Overcome, from Diseases to Natural Disasters
• Dark Places of the Earth
• Dark Cults
• Natives
• Creepy Horror Aspects
And more. I’m sure you can see the flavor value of a card like Ghost Town or Snake Pit, right?
So this is the current Cube, and it’s unbalanced. Some concepts are over represented, and others under. There are also cards in here that are for the style and flavor, not as something properly draftable. Take Volcanic Eruption or Active Volcano for example. I’m sure you can see just how flavorful they are, while totally unplayable in a modern context.
You can read more about the flavor and selection of this Cube here.
Before I start adding in cards, playability, and more, I want to strip this skeleton down to its bare bones. My goal is 360, with 50 cards for each color, 2 of each two color combo, and 90 total for lands and artifacts. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that. Right now, I’m at 399 and need to add a lot of cards.
There are a lot of strong cards in here that I can’t ever touch, like Lair Delve, Big Game Hunter and Stone Idol Trap. But there are others that I can begin to check out.
Another set of cards I want to pull out are the one-ofs that are meant to be that rare moment, but a card like Shivan Dragon or Sun Titan that are meant to evoke a certain flavor, but even fantasy during this era lacked stuff like this. Clark Ashton Smith and R.E. Howard are more likely to have a Giant Scorpion, a person, or a magical creation and abomination be their foe than a dragon.
For some of the cards being removed, I wanted to pull a character or place too specific to Magic, like Godo, Bandit Warlord, but some, like Ior Ruin Expedition, I feel are sufficiently generic to leave in.
Out
White
Siege Mastodon – Probably cut for numbers, but I might want to push Elephants later as a flavor theme.
Heal – Too slow and weak. I might do Bandage or something similar instead later
Helionaut – Fun card, and if it were 2/2 instead of 1/2 I’d leave it in. But it’s too weak.
Blue
Frontline Sage – Too many Looters
Muzzio, Visionary Architect – Too known a character. Otherwise the Da Vinci evocation would fit in nicely with professors that are clearly in that mold running around pulp land.
Giant Shark – Good concept. Weak ability
Psionic Gift – We have a few other psychic cards, and this is just cut on numbers
Soldevi Machinist – Weak effect
Talas Explorer – Weak, and I already have some Pirates in mind to replace it later . . .
Black
Bog Witch – Still have more Witches.
Diabolic Revelation – I have three tutors. Need to pull one.
Sacrifice – Great concept, poor card.
Circling Vultures – Requires a certain theme in your Cube to make it work. Currently, that theme does not exist here.
Exotic Disease – Domain theme is random and unsupported
Red
Dromosaur – Duplicative of Raging Gorilla, which I want to retain for my Ape theme.
An-Zerrin Ruins – Good place to go explore! But it’s odd to use right with its tribal issues.
Magmasaur – A little too Magical for my tastes.
Green
Snake Pit – Love the flavor, but the card isn’t draftable here. Keeping Cobra Trap though.
Mammoth Harness – Again, great flavor! But gotta pull for playability.
Tropical Storm – Sad I know. I can’t really justify this and Hurricane too.
Locust Swarm – Way too weak.
Bee Sting – Same here. Too weak in a modern context
Trained Cheetah – I have Hunting Cheetah too.
Ice Storm – I have too many green spells that destroy lands since I’m keeping Desecration Plague, Desert Twister, etc .
Colorless
Pyramids – Good flavor, nothing else.
Horn of Plenty – Expensive, helps everyone, rarely played in anything.
Sandstone Deadfall – Too weak
Altar of Dementia – I have other “Altar” effects, milling is not a supported theme.
Gold
Marsh Crocodile – Dimir is too valuable and heavy to use on a simple natural creature like this.
Ramirez DiPietro – Love the card’s identity, but it’s weak, and again, fights for territory. Also, I have Pirates elsewhere in Ixalan. Not needed here.
Selvala, Explorer Returned – Again, too much of a main character here
Overgrown Estate – Perfect flavor. Overgrown Estates are everywhere in Pulp, especially horror, mystery and other stories. But the colors are off, and I don’t have space right now for it.
On Notice
Evil Presence – Such a great concept and card. So Pulp-ish too. But is it the effect good enough?
Hmmm . . . That’s nice, but that is not enough. We need more space here.
I’d like to drop to no more than two traps/color instead of an uneven list. I’m still keeping three in Red because of how good some are on hitting flavor and how useful another is as removal.
Out
Ravenous Trap – Graveyard removal not needed. And if it is, I can always put something in later like Honor the Fallen
Lavaball Trap – Not the most important effect to have
I pull out my removals first, so I can see where I am moving on.
That puts me at 344 cards, but with some serious unbalancing. 32 White, 54 Blue, 66 Black, 36 Red, and 49 Green. We definitely need to pull things out in Black and Blue and a little of Green still.
Hmmm . . .
How about:
Sunspring Expedition - Love the quest and would enjoy keeping it in, but the benefit of 8 life just isn’t worth it long term
Woolly Mammoths – I am not running Snow Covered Lands
Pirate Ship – So sad . . .
Sunken City – Love the flavor, but it’s hard to matchup with anything else mechanically
Caustic Tar – Great flavor, need to cut cards
Forsaken Wastes – Ditto
Poison Arrow – Duplicative and expensive
Baron Sengir – Again, characters we are know can feel a bit jarring. Should I pull Sengir Vampire and Sengir Nosferatu for more generic Vampires as well?
Plague of Vermin – Expensive and unreliable
Cackling Witch – This leaves me Plague Witch and Bogbrew Witch in themes.
Altar of the Lost – Love the card and concept, but we aren’t running a flashback-heavy Cube for it to work.
Surveyor's Scope – Not guaranteed to do anything
Crash – I have a card to put in for it later that’s better
Executioner's Hood – A few too many artifacts and such here. I am about to add in a lot more.
That’s not bad. 327 cards. Now, I want to make sure that my mana base works. I want an in-flavor Pulp themed land. Now I don’t have to run all of the cards in a certain cycle. But let’s begin with one set of lands right now.
In
Tropical Island – I like Hinterland Harbor or Lumbering Falls. But Tropical Islands are a core central location for a lot of Pulp stuff, as are . . .
Volcanic Island - . . . Volcanic Islands. Spirebluff Canal? Highland Lake?
Underground Sea – This evokes stuff like the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth with a large Underground Sea. (You could do Underground River here as well.) The land I am currently running is River of Tears, and that works as well. Or Sunken Ruins, for that matter.
Glacial Fortress – Artic exploring is a key theme both in Cubes and as one of my sub-themes. I initially had Tundra here. But Glacial Fortress works so much better evoking this theme, right? Right! Port Town is cool too.
Sunpetal Grove – I think the name and concept certainly fits a little more than Savannah, even though that also fits the very common African adventuring Pulp theme. I think Fortified Village is also a very good card too.
Graven Cairns – This is, by far, more flavorful than something like Badlands or Urborg Volcano which were also on my list.
Woodland Cemetery – This is a very creepy looking card and concept. You could also do Jungle Hollow, Overgrown Tomb, or Twilight Mire.
Inspiring Vantage – I think Ancient Amphitheater or Stone Quarry would be good as well, but this is a little addition to the Pan-Asian Pulp theme I want to push more coming up.
Isolated Chapel – You could toss in Concealed Courtyard much like Inspiring Vantage above, but I like this.
Rugged Highlands – I also thought about Shivan Oasis, but this has better art, is a slightly better card, and has a more generic concept.
I make swaps over for these ten and add in the missing colors. That puts me at 332. While looking at lands, let’s let go of:
Out
Wasteland – What will there be to take out?
Sheltered Valley – Too weak
Scorched Ruins – Too disruptable
Meteor Crater – Doesn’t fix mana or have a useful ability instead.
Svogthos, the Restless Tomb – It’s hard to play it as the only land out there with an activated cost of two different colors.
Ice Floe – Weak
Petrified Field – Not needed
Let’s just have one land of each color in there that can use that mana for an effect. I currently have Keldon Necropolis, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, Kjeldoran Outpost, Heart of Yavimaya, Lake of the Dead, and Crypt of Agadeem. Black has two. Let’s pull one:
That drops me to 324 spells and 36 lands.
Wrap-Up
Now I want to take a break from the project. Commander 2017 is out and Ixalan spoilers are about to hit, and I want to come back with fresh eyes in a week or two. I always like to come back to a project later and honestly ask myself what I was doing here and there. I think this is a good place to rest in the first stage of the project. We have taken my current Cube, hacked it back hard, and layered in some lands and such here and there to give me the pure bones I need to succeed.
So there we are, first aspect completed. Next I want to come back, cut more cards after my time away from the project, and then hit this up by looking at the draftable archetypes available, as well as adding in more Pulp cards that are bringing new themes to play with! In the next few weeks I expect to be hitting hard many sets and cards released in the last few years!
Let’s do it!
