The Bun Magic Cube is a vintage, unpowered cube designed to push Magic's core strategies — aggro, midrange, and control — to their limits. It prioritizes a low curve, mana fixing, interaction of all kinds, modal and otherwise flexible cards, and symmetrical effects.

For more information about the philosophy underpinning this Cube, you can listen to me every week on Lucky Paper Radio.

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Context

The Bun Magic Cube is designed to be played primarily with three different groups of people: in person with my large, local playgroup in Baltimore, a.k.a. The Bun Magic Kitchen Table Pro Tour (6-8 player pods), online with people from various Cube communities (6-8 player pods), and one-on-one with friends (2 players).

Restrictions

I maintain a spirit of singleton restriction, not running multiple copies of the same card or cards that are strictly worse than others I include, with very few exceptions, though I do break singleton for shock lands. I also only include black-border cards — no unsets, playtest cards, or conspiracies. Other than that, my card choices are unrestricted.

Power

I aim to optimize my cube for power and consistency within the scope of what I deem to be 'fair' strategies. I exclude individual cards which offer their caster an outsized advantage with minimal or no deckbuilding cost (The Power Nine, top-tier fast mana like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt, Mind Twist, Mana Drain, etc.), strategies that are linear and largely non-interactive (combo and storm), and cards that cheat mana costs (Tinker, Natural Order, reanimator, etc.). My goal is to push the core strategies of the game — aggro, midrange, and control — to their most powerful limits while still remaining in balance with one another.

Gameplay

I want to enable my players to express their skill and empower them to control their fate through their draft, deckbuilding, and gameplay decisions. While I believe variance is an inherent and essential part of the game, I want to offer my players the opportunity to minimize that variance with an abundance of mana fixing, modal cards, and efficient card selection. My ideal games are relatively fast, with the deciding plays happening before turn five, and narrow wins that are one decision or card away from the opposite outcome. I accept the occasional non-games and swingy plays as a byproduct of the power-level at which I choose to play, but only if those non-games are the result of conscious deckbuilding and gameplay decisions, like the successful execution of an Upheaval deck, rather than on the back of singular, powerful cards, like Mind Twisting away your opponents hand. I am especially interested in 'symmetrical' effects that can be abused with selective deckbuilding.

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Cube description derived from The First Four Questions Cube Designers Should Ask.