Art by Scott M. FischerCommons and Rares are no where to be found in this singleton uncommon cube. This synergy based cube was an idea I had back a couple years ago. I didn't want to build a normal budget cube or a pauper cube, so I had the idea to only include cards that were printed at uncommon at one point or another. Soon realizing powerful cards like Force of Will and Channel were printed at uncommon in their original set made this cube have validity as well as a fun aspect of power. After many years of balance and community feedback, I have landed on a cube that I find plays really well and generates a plethora of fun and interactive games. Bellow are the color pairs and strategies.
- Unblockable Steel
The Azorious color pair was always hard for me to find a good balance between fun and power level. Originally bringing a token/artifact based strategy with cards like skullclamp and Thopter Foundry, it was too powerful and still had access to great removal and tempo in the colors. Now, while still leaning into artifacts, is a tempo based fliers deck that revolves around picking up a couple good creatures and suiting them up with equipment and getting them through with good tempo based removal.
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
- Aristocrats
My favorite strategy in all of magic is that of the Aristocrats. It was pretty easy to put this archetype together in its best colors. If you know anything about aristocrats, basically you grab a Blood Artist type effect, a sacrifice outlet, and then make a bunch of creatures to sacrifice. is notoriously good at making a lot of dudes, and is notoriously good at getting rid of them. If you see aristocrat pieces floating around, make sure to pick them up.
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
- Equipment / Go Wide
With 's ability to fetch and use powerful artifacts and 's ability to go fast, Equipment based aggro is the logical choice for this color pair. Many cards also care about being modified, so splashing 
for a boost with +1/+1 counters and enchantments could go a long way.
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
- +1/+1 Counters
Rounding out the color pairs in . With small creatures running around, green is here to make things bigger and better. The Renown, Proliferate, and Outlast mechanics are your best friends in this deck. This is the closest deck to traditional midrange you will find in this cube.
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
- Mill
Everyone has strong feelings about mill, but either way, the Dimir are looking to put cards into graveyards. Blue has many cards that mill either players and black is very good at reanimating creatures. Thus, mill can go both ways. You can choose to lean more control and reanimate big threats, or go hyper mill and crab your way to victory!
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
- Draw 2 / Prowess
Izzet Spells? Of Course! Look to make the most of powerful early cantrips using token generators and prowess creatures to make you draw spells pack a punch. Something something "a Bolt from a Brainstorm"...
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
- The Land of Sagas / Enchantress
Have you ever wanted to force five color AND go 3/0 in a draft? Then a shell might be the deck for you! With many ramp, sagas, and landfall cards, the Simic are trying to go big and be as greedy as possible. With a strong cube mana base and the ability to search for basics, green can find your other four colors easy. A heavy blue focus allows you to draw into you bombs and not fall behind due to card advantage. As it is 5 color, this deck can go into any of the above or bellow strategies as well.
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
- Sacrifice / Treasure
Rakdos have become quite good in the past two years of magic. Since the release of treasure and homogenization of sacrifice decks going into these colors across many sets, it felt almost wrong not to make a sacrifice theme. Enjoy looping treasures to your Mayhem Devil.
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
- Reanimator
Putting big stuff into play has always been fun in mtg. Now you can do it at the low low cost of your life total. Instead of ramping like , you can dump big creatures into your graveyard with discard or mill cards and then bring them back into play with reanimation spells.
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
- Modified / Go Big
Last, but certainly not least, is Gruul. This is my cubes definition of Junding them out. Inherently you will be buffing you creatures with equipment, auras, and counters, so card that use the modified key word or care about these thing are always welcome. You are trying to overrun and out stat your opponent.
Good Pickups / Signs it's Open
Card Additions :
I wanted to add more support for lesser played archetypes (
&
) without pigeonholing them into a strict 24 card deck with no wiggle room. With the exit of Battle Screech, there was a need for mono white token support that wasn't too strong. With a small push toward Enchantress in colors, removal and supporting creatures were changed with that in mind. 
Also received new cards from Tarkir and the 1 MH3 addition from these changes in Angel of the Ruins. This should help strengthen Whites core as well as steering away from "Battle Screech or Bust"
Card Additions :
Blue now has a new archetype! As one of the "weakest" colors in peasant cube blue has to lean heavily into synergy rather than good spells = good deck. Storm was a pipe dream and it almost worked, but it consistently was "the coolest 0-3 deck you've ever seen". With 
focusing primarily on slower enchantment/saga gameplay, 
focusing a mill/control style of gameplay, and 
using artifacts to get wins, 
was in a weird spot. Either all in on storm or never pick any of those cards at all. This was fine when the cube was slower, but storm couldn't win the arms race against 2020+ Magic. I then scoured my favorite limited sets and tried to find a good fit that would meld well with my other 3 archetypes. Enter "Draw 2". With many enchantments supporting the mechanic as well as small flyers supporting the payoffs, it was perfect. Like White, Removal was changed to help support . now has more payoffs on earlier turns with strong sagas, and has some more reach with cards like Take Flight.
Card Additions :
Black feels almost perfect in my cube. One of the more popular colors and more appealing to newer drafters. I am very happy with Black, but with the overall power of the cube dropping, I needed to make some replacements. I used these slots to lift up 
, as it is the least drafted color pair in my cube since its nerf in 2018. Mostly added card draw so control decks can get to their win conditions and aggressive decks and refuel for cheap.
Card Additions :
Like was said before, "Draw 2" is replacing storm, so new cards were added to help support that. Many of the creatures added lower the top of the curve from 3->2. Modified now has more early game and relies less on heavy hitters from universes beyond and MH3. Red took the heaviest hit from the power down of these changes, so it also received some reach and game finishers with Fiery Inscription,Kuldotha Flamefiend, and Dragon Mantle.
Card Additions :
With the power falling across the board, green was hit the least. 
being hit the hardest, new Tarkir Cards and the addition of powerful Auras were added to help soften the blow: Modified now doesn't just mean +1/+1 counters and Equipment. is now the main enchantment color pair. With the biggest resource pool of sagas, auras, and enchantment creatures, you can now punch through with a board of enchantments. 
and 
remain unchanged, but naturally benefit from the added removal and modified buffs.
Card Additions (Colorless):
Nothing crazy here. Ferropede is a slam dunk I had never seen before. We'll see how well it stands on its own against planeswalkers, +1/+1 counters, and ability counters. "Draw 2" now has a couple artifacts at its disposal, and 
can benefit off these baubles as well.
Card Additions (Multicolored):
With all of the Talisman with the Cube, I will see how this effects the strength of 4 cost cards and ramp as a whole. I wanted to ungroup the hybrid and kicker cards as "mono-color" and officially put them with their color pair, so many of the adds are there to reaffirm strategies and fill out 9 cards per guild.
Cards Exiting the Cube (In order of Annoyance to the Player Base)
I listened to feedback and did a lot of research. Rejoice that games will be more balanced and interactive. This however, does not mean stagnate. With the addition of 20 new cards and the removal of 10+ "first picks", decisions will mean more and deck diversity will be at an all time high. Now the pessimist may be asking "where's Sol Ring, Crimson Caravaneer, Reanimate, etc?" I have left these cards in for now. There always has to be a "best" card in the cube. I firmly believe each color now only has 1-2 "best" cards each and Sol Ring is the only colorless card worthy of "best" in my opinion. I will mostly likely remove these cards one day, but for now, a dash of variance can spice up a format and the last thing I want my cube to be is boring. Its sad to see some of these cards go and I will never get the money back (looking at you Cloud of Faeries...), but I am excited for the new era of Un-Common drafts. As the UCI era ends, we now start anew as the SLGS era rises on a new day.
In future, I will most likely never make a post like this again, but I will do small tidbits here and there with each new set release and make sure to make a blog post.
GG,
Buns