The BAD cube
A cube filled with drawbacked, underwhelming, and just plain bad cards. It fits ten people with a total of 450 cards. Packs when dealt will have two of each color, one random color, two artifacts, one multicolored, and one rare. This totals 15 cards per pack. There are lots of cards in this list that I personally like. Just because they are in the cube does not mean that I think they are bad in every way.
Storytime
My friends and I play with several different cubes and I wanted to make one that stood out somehow. I couldn't think of a set or theme to satisfy my desire to be different. Then I thought, "what do they have in common?" I remembered that every time I open a pack I think, "man all of these cards are so good." So I gathered up as many cards that were just too high costed, were conditional removal, or had awful drawbacks as I could. I began to realize a lot of cards that are usually bad become a lot better in this environment. About 75% of the cards have been replaced since the rough draft. With a little help from Onslaught block and everything that came before it I think it came together pretty well.
Making the cube
It was pretty easy finding cards for red and black. Blue was ok. Green and white were a chore. Eventually I added multicolored cards, and some of them don't seem to fit. I like having them in there for the heck of it. If you're trying to build a similar cube, you should consider starting with this list. Fair warning, this cube was very hard to make. Either way, I'll outline difficulties I've run into and how to deal with them.
Here's a checklist for what makes a good card for this cube
1. is it bad?
2. is it still bad next to the other cards?
3. is it better than nothing and are it's functions viable in a reasonabe situation?
4. well, does it at least have some good flavor? ex. eye gouge
Similar effects.
When I first built the cube a lot of cards had a twin. They would have similar costs and effects. One of the first changes I made to the cube was removing the same old bad cards and getting as much horrible diversity as possible. There are still a few dopplegangers lingering, but you can't perfect a monstrosity. There will always be a bunch of "additional cost of sac something" effects.
Different effects.
Having a wide variety of card functions is important. It makes the cube fun. However, the variety came at a price. Some of the cards aren't particularly bad, but I tried to make sure they were the worst of their kind. Instants can't be preferred less than sorceries just because they're basely better. This is why there is a good amount of morph. You get an instant speed ability, but the total cost is high and the creature is pretty crappy. I carefully considered card combinations and had to make some cuts. Some cards comboed with others a bit too well. I basically had to say "no, you're not allowed to be that good" and cut some cards out. ex. spine of ish sah and magmaw. My favorite are cards with self defeating abilities. ex. battlefield scrounger and sibsig muckdraggers.
Things I tried to avoid
Off color effects. ex. Selesnya sentry, or vashino skeleton. I don't know why I avoided these. I want to put in one for each color.
Set functions out of their element. ex. scornful egotist. He was in there at first because he's funny, but he is not supposed to function on his own.
Cards with too many words. You know, like this page. There are just too many words.
Banding, and phasing. I can't even...
Things I avoided after playtesting
Obviously, cards that I realized were good in the format. ex. yoke of the damned is like a conditionless doomblade. This will always be the biggest challenge as far as trying to balance the cube. There will always be a best card. Cutting a card only for being the most functional of the barely functional card pool will force you to cut every card.
Cards that are good in general, but I was too stupid to realize it. ex. soldevi sage. Just because the cost seems bad doesn't mean the effect isn't a huge advantage.
Things with regenerate. Well, reliable regeneration costs that is. They're too consistent, like the next thing.
Spellshapers. Discarding a card seems like a high cost, but they turn your draws into something you can rely on.
Things that are so bad they are bland and seem like filler. ex. aven trooper Yea, it's great that it's bad, but it's not any fun. If no one uses the ability, you shouldn't suggest that people even waste their time reading it by putting a card like this in the cube.
Things that are too bad. Ex. aku djinn and wall of shards. It pains me to cut these cards. My heart tells me they're functional, but my stupid brain won't let me add them. You should follow your heart, but I've been looking at other bad cubes, and have noticed a good deal of these. They might actually be holding back the bad cube genre. Cards that are so bad that they are much more likely to help the opponent than the caster are too bad. Yes, too bad. Cards need to be usually more likely to help the caster, or else they won't get cast and therefore will not provide players with any fun. They should be at least better than nothing, because nothing won't get in the way of your next land or your playable spells. Yes there may be a scenario where a card will help, but you shouldn't have to do mental gymnastics to justify it being a viable strategy for people drafting the cube. The structure of your cube should ensure that a card's overall goal is attainable, even while being a bad method of achieving it.
Notes
You might notice sets of things for each color, like these following green versions of their counterparts; elf replica, sylvan bounty, stonewood invoker. I tried to get in a cumulative upkeep and fading for each color but I'm not as anal as I'd like to be about that stuff. Lands aren't in the cube for one simple reason. People can just use basic lands. There are lands that are bad but people have just about no reason to use them. You'd have to create a rule where drafted lands must be in your deck, and that seems stupid. The cube has been played 3 times, and it seems good enough to share now. There are still changes I'd like to make and cards I'd like to add. I never really looked at extensive lists of bad cards, so I'm sure I'm missing a few gems. During revisions, I focused on the cube's strengths rather than the card's weaknesses. Cards that are bad aren't necessarily fun. People have fun trying to find the most acceptable drawback while drafting, so I added a lot of "give and take" kind of cards. Feel free to do whatever you will with this card list. However, if you take out the multiples of groffskithur specifically for the purpose of having a highlander cube, you should see a doctor for heart failure, because your heart has failed.
