I just like how Wreck and Rebuild is a little cleaner and easier to parse for what is basically the same modal effect (ramp or disenchant, with flashback). Rampage can also hit lands, which makes it more flexible, but it also ramps your opponent without the instant-speed flexibility of a Boseiju. Since it wasn't seeing play, let's try this simple swap.
The cube used to have a Conspiracy called
Roaming Throne is thematic and powerful, but in a non-typal or non-kindred cube it often serves as merely part of a two-card combo. I want to try something cheaper that can go in more decks. Goading and Cloaking face down creatures have mechanical payoffs with other cards in the Cube, but even just cycling Ransom Note to surveil and cantrip is totally fine. It might allow me to look for more Aristocrats payoffs for artifacts in the future to go with all the cards that make Food, Treasures, and Clues.
The Cube currently has three "chaos warp" effects
Each is subtly different, but for the most part the original Chaos Warp is outshined by the other two (one hits two targets, and the other is cheaper). Now we have an option with Demonstrate, which, along with Gift and Monarch, are my favorite mechanics for the type of multiplayer games the Cube generates. There is a drawback in that the opponent can target your own things, but with careful politicking this can become a 3 for 1.
Eon Frolicker and Coveted Jewel have never seen play in all drafts of the Cube, so they are out.
Denethor is another cool Monarch card; even though it has a red pip in the activation cost I'm categorizing it as a blue card. The Troll and Waker of Waves should give the reanimator decks something to prime the graveyard with, and the Troll is a great mana fixer too.
I attended Magic Con Chicago 2025 in February and brought the Monarch Cube along, managing to fire a draft of it in the free play area with some Cubers from Discord.
Players: 7, split into a pod of 4 and a pod of 3 after the draft. During the draft, an Agent of Aquisitions was used to abscond with 3+ on-color playables, and the colors of a Paliano were voted on. Fixing and Signets were picked highly, and hardly wheeled.
Pod A (4 Players)
BR (Rakdos) Goad
WRG (Naya) Landfall (WINNER)
UBG (Sultai) Reanimator
WBG (Abzan) Politics/Group Hug
Pod A's game got off to a quick start, with Goblin Diplomats encouraging attacks and Monarch getting introduced on turn 3 via Abzan's Marchesa's Decree. A Karazikar on Rakdos' turn 5 encouraged people to get into the red zone further, but a Nils, Discipline Enforcer from the Abzan player, combined with the promised life loss of the Decree, kept most of the focus on the Naya and Sultai players. Abzan made a fun play of casting Mirrorwave targeting a High Priest of Penance to collude towards the destruction of Karazikar. A Court of Embereth by Rakdos started dealing damage to all other opponents, prompting the UB player to use Coffin Queen to reanimate a destroyed Azure Fleet Admiral for the Monarch steal before the Court eliminated them. With Naya getting stronger via a Nesting Dragon and a growing Scute Mob, Rakdos cast Feast of Succession to wipe the board, only to realize too late that the Nesting Dragon, with a +1/+1 counter from Nils, still survived. This set Naya in the lead heading into the latter half of the game. Rakdos tried to get the players to vote for Naya's destruction via a Coercive Portal, but the players didn't want to get set back again, and Rakdos had to contend themselves with a pricier Howling Mine. Finally, with all players below ten life, Abzan took out Sultai via combat, and Rakdos eliminated Abzan. Rakdos had a shot to survive another round with the Monarch in play and win via the Court, and so attacked Naya with a flying, lifelink 4/3 Nighthawk Scavenger to reclaim the crown. Naya responded by casting Atarka's Command with modes of "3 Damage" & "Prevent Lifegain" and followed up with a Boros Charm for the instant-speed direct damage win.
Pod B (3 Players)
UBG (Sultai) Counters
WURG (Bant splash Red) Monarch (Winner)
WURB (Grixis splash White) Control
Pod B had a great, swingy game in which all players, by their recounting, got to take turns as the threat, and one player (Grixis + W) even got close to being decked. Monarch was passed around the table, and the game included three board wipes (Subterranean Tremors, Chain Reaction, and Play of the Game, on which another player Assisted to lower the cost!).
Highlights included a Booster Tutor to find a timely Palace Jailor out of the leftover cube cards, using Roon of the Hidden Realm to slow-blink a creature out of harms way of a wrath, and a very cool tech play discovered by the Grixis/White player to sac myriad tokens to Gut, True Zealot during combat for an extra skeleton a turn.
Ultimately the Bant/Red player amassed a headlock of a board state with Archon of Coronation, Xyris the Writhing Storm, and Emberwilde Captain, such that players had to take damage to attack them and take the monarch, but even if they did, Xyris made snakes when the players drew extra cards under the monarchy, which gave them the tokens to swarm and take the Monarch back. Xyris ended up taking home the victory in the air.
Feedback:
Happily, everyone seemed to have a great time with the Cube, and the games were fun and tense and not too long or too short. One player remarked it was the snappiest game of 4-player magic they'd played in a while, and another was pleased they had enough fixing to play their cards and that the mechanic complexity wasn't too high. No one got mana screwed. I think the Monarch mechanic showing up early in both games had a lot to do with the momentum. The UBG player noted that they were really drawn to their preferred draft archetype with a first-pick Reanimate, but that they found it hard to get big creatures into the graveyard early.
Card that made people laugh: Varchild's War Riders
Card that got called FUN: Keen Duelist
Card that got called BUSTED: The Council of Four
Card that got called BAD: Hunted Phantasm
Takeaways:
Cards with reminder text are really helpful. My copy of Park Heights Maverick is the full-art version with no rules text for Dethrone, and we had to look it up.
People drafted Initiative cards and main-decked them but they never saw play, and I saw at least one wither in hand at game's end; I wonder if an aversion to adding complexity to a loaded board state was ever a factor.
The cycle of "Hunted Cards" were perpetual last picks in the packs they appeared, and none saw play (although the Abzan player slotted up Hunted Lammasu and asked for the corresponding 4/4 Horror token, only for me to be sadly reminded that none was ever printed).
I also need a 3/1 Red Knight token to go with Court of Embereth. Another token I can't believe has never seen print!
I want to add more big creatures in UBR that can discard themselves for the reanimator decks. Troll of Khazad Dum, Oliphant, and Tidal Terror look promising.
It’s time to try removing The Initiative from the Cube. I still like the mechanic! For flavor reasons it’s fun to track the Dungeon rooms and I like how it encourages entering the Red Zone. But it is, unfortunately, too much cognitive overhead for casual meetups. The rules for the initiative are hard to remember by even the standards of enfranchised players, and the dungeon room that causes a player to lose 5 life (Trap!) was balanced for Commander games, not ones with starting life totals of 20. It's also a pain when someone manages to repeatedly blink the creature creating the Initiative, which limits the amount of that type of card I want to put in (I wouldn't pair Ephemerate with White Plume Adventurer, for instance). When I play this cube with strangers it can bring a draft to a halt to explain everything (there is no reminder text). I’ll keep the cards in case a future play group likes them, but for now I’m just going to make the cube about the Monarch mechanic and combat steps.
Reverting versions to retain reminder text and preferred art.
Helm of the Host is one of those cards that is just very generically good. I think most decks in the cube environment would play it because games usually go long enough for it to offer a lot of additional value. I want to try a piece of equipment that rewards drafting legendary creatures and can be a payoff for the ramp decks, while still being playable in any deck.