Standard isn't the only way to play the Pokémon TCG. Of all the homemade formats out there, a cube is probably the most rewarding one to build: you pick every card, you write your own rules, and no two games play out the same way. Here's how to get started.
What is a cube?
A cube is a closed, hand-picked pool of cards. Everything you need to play is inside it, so nobody has to bring their own collection. It's close to a product like Battle Academy, with one big difference: the decks aren't prebuilt. Players assemble them on the spot, from cards they just drafted.
Drafting works like this: packets of cards get passed around the table, everyone takes one card at a time, and you repeat until each player has enough cards to build a deck.
Start with a constraint, not a card list
Facing every card ever printed is paralyzing. The trick is to set a narrow frame before you choose a single card. A few angles that work well:
- A region or a video game. Every Pokémon from one region, Trainers included.
- Two or three types only. Much easier to balance than a cube covering everything.
- A time period. Cards from one era or one family of sets.
- A mechanic. Coin flips, special conditions, long Evolution lines.
Also look at what you already own. A cube builds beautifully out of duplicates sitting in a box.
How big should your cube be?
Common sizes run from roughly 240 to 720 cards. The cube built by the Pokémon team held 520, designed for eight players: not every card got drafted, but every card was seen at least once over the night. Each player finished the draft with 43 cards and built a 40-card deck from them.
Balancing the pool
A few reference points that prevent bad surprises:
- Roughly half Pokémon, the rest Trainer cards. That's a starting point, not a law.
- Basic Energy stays outside the cube. The host supplies an unlimited pile in the middle of the table. Nobody should have to draft their Energy.
- Leave out Pokémon with a Rule Box (ex, V and friends). It flattens the power level, keeps games close, and makes the cube far cheaper to assemble.
- Two or three genuinely appealing Pokémon per type. These are what make a player commit to a color on the first pick.
- Count your draw and search Supporters. They're always the most contested resource. Too few and the games crawl.
Decide whether you're going singleton, too. One Caterpie, one Metapod, one Butterfree makes drafting tense, because the card you need can disappear to the player beside you. It's chaotic, and that's usually the point.
Write your house rules down
It's your cube, so bending the rules is fair game. The most common tweaks:
- 4 Prize cards instead of 6, to shorten matches and fit in more rounds.
- Picking an Evolution line before the draft, so every player has a guaranteed base.
- Loosening the first turn, for example allowing an attack or a Supporter.
Two pieces of advice here. Put everything on a sheet and leave it on the table. And keep that list short: the fewer special rules there are to remember, the easier it is to welcome a new player.
Running the draft
There's no single correct method. The easiest one to explain:
- 1. Split the cube into equal packets, say 15 cards each.
- 2. Give every player the same number of packets.
- 3. Everyone opens their first packet, picks a card, sets it aside face down, then passes the rest to the left.
- 4. Repeat until only a few cards are left. Those go to the middle and stay out of play, so everyone finishes with the same card count.
- 5. On the second packet, pass right. On the third, left again. Alternating keeps one player from always feeding the same neighbor.
A variation puts the packets in the center rather than in players' hands: draft a fixed number of cards from each one per round, set the rest aside, and rotate who picks first. Both work. Only two rules really matter: everyone ends with the same number of cards, and the direction changes from round to round.
Building your deck and playing
Once the draft ends, each player builds a 40-card deck from what they took, plus the Basic Energy provided. Three habits worth having:
- Check Energy costs before you spread out. A three-type deck won't work.
- Don't stack Stage 2 lines if you don't have the Trainers to get them out.
- Take the Trainers when they come around. They're scarce in a cube, and a player short on them loses without ever really being outplayed.
A cube is a living thing
No cube is balanced on the first attempt, and that's fine. After the night ends, ask players which cards were too strong, which never got played, and which strategy felt impossible to assemble. Cut, swap, add. That's exactly why people come back to it.
Source:
https://www.pokemon.com/us/features/learn-how-to-build-and-draft-a-pokemon-tcg-cube
