Spotlight

Project Spotlight: Pokécube

Featuring triggrhappy0 and DrDubz

This month, we are featuring Pokécube, a project being developed by triggrhappy0 and DrDubz. To see the project in full as it stands, check out its very own website, linked here: https://pokecube.io/index.html

In a few sentences, what is the premise of Pokécube?

"Pokécube is a top-down cube featuring Pokémon, trainers, and locations from Kanto and Johto. Evolution is the primary set mechanic, and players are highly rewarded for it. The set aims to be a good nostalgia hit for longtime fans while also being an engaging play experience for any Magic player."

What inspired you to begin creating Pokécube?

"We really enjoyed Star Wars: The Gathering (SWTG) and wanted to make something of our own in the same vein. We also considered doing Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. DrDubz was the big driving force behind getting the project started, doing the first drafts of nearly all the Pokémon designs."

Where would you say Pokécube is in the development process?

"We're on finishing touches right now. We ordered physical prints of the 540-card cube in March to do in person playtesting. We've set a deadline of 6/1, mostly because we're aware we could probably continue tweaking forever and need to draw the line somewhere."

Pokémon is an immensely popular franchise with its fair share of mechanical and flavorful baggage. How have you managed to retain the core seeds of Pokémon's identity in translating it to MTG's game system?

"It's very much a top-down set, but we also focused on making it feel like something WOTC would produce, and abandoned a lot of ideas that felt "too custom." Within those restrictions, we tried to give every card at least some flavor resonance, especially the noteworthy cards like Pikachu or legendaries."

What went into the decision to make this project a cube? What about cube structure made it the best choice for this project?

"SWTG is a cube structure, so that's the structure we adopted initially. We think it's a good format for actually playing the game in paper, which was our primary focus. We've done plenty of playtesting online, but our goal is to play it in person with friends."

What is your favorite card in Pokécube?

triggrhappy0 - "My favorite card is Unown. Alternate win conditions are cool and this card felt like a really big flavor win. We've gone through many iterations of it, and I'm very happy with where it's ended up. It's still on the watchlist power-wise, might nerf it so the copies can't block."

DrDubz - "My favorite has to be Sacred Fire. My favorite kind of magic is big, flashy, and risky. I love our exile theme in red blue, I love making spells cheaper, and I absolutely love bonking my enemy with an exiled Lugia and then dropping it on the board if they live. It took a lot of iteration, but it was definitely worth it."

Would you like to give any special thanks to anyone on this server for their help?

"SoulOfZendikar, one of the primary designers for SWTG, went through an early version of Pokecube card-by-card and gave us a tremendous amount of feedback."

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