Welcome to Tom's Commander Cube! Below will be a brief primer of the cube that gives an overview and my intentions with it, highlights the key archetypes present, and explains the alternate rule sets that this cube is designed around.

OVERVIEW

Since the release of Commander Legends, this cube has became my greatest MtG project. Inspired by Conspiracy, Battlebond, Commander Legends, and other Commander products, this cube is designed to replicate a fun and engaging EDH-multiplayer experience that is new everytime you sit down to play.

My mission with this cube was to as closely replicate the play patterns and experiences of mid-level EDH. Decks drafted from this cube are expected to land around a 7/10 on the Commander Powerlevel Scale. Expect higher power leveled staples that are integral to Commander, big, flashy effects, and fun, niche spells you can't play anywhere else. While combos exist, decks should never be able to pull of consistent and non-interactive wins (no Doomsday's, Thassa's Oracle's, or Flash Hulk's here). In addition, I've heavily curated the experience to reward combat and turning creatures sideways. Monarch, goad, and ninjutsu are just a few ways I've rewarded creature combat to keep games from stalling out.

In addition to a plethora of EDH staples, you'll find some fun "draft-matters" cards throughout the cube as well as some silver-bordered weirdness. Below, I've included the 3 general categories of cards you may want to consider removing to get a more, close to real, EDH experience.

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Conspiracy Cards

Look out for cards like these during the draft to possibly allow you to turn the draft on it's head and get some cool effects.

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Un-Set Cards

Whacky cards like these that you wouldn't normally be able to play with can be found to make games especially memorable.

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Banned in Commander Cards

A number of cards that are Banned in Commander are found in the cube. I'm not too worried about their power levels as decks are much more inconsistent due to being drafted rather than constructed. There are only a handful of cards and they honestly feel pretty fair.

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ARCHETYPES

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Cast creatures through the Blind Eternities as a powerful aethermage.

The classic blink deck. Abuse Chulane, Teller of Tales or maybe even Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant to generate insane value. This deck has some sweet tools to utilize creatures and other permanents with amazing "enters the battlefield" effects.

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Send in operatives to turn your opponents' strongest spells against them.

The somewhat control-centered colors are focused on taking things that don't belong the them. Use Sen Triplets or Volrath, the Shapestealer to steal and copy other peoples' spells.

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Harness pain magic that cause as much suffering to your opponents simultaneously.

No pain, no gain. Use Nekusar, the Mindrazer and Greven, Predator Captain to punish the table (and even your self, you little masochist) for incremental advantages. Many cards will have the entire table grumbling about the constant onslaught of pings or discard coming their way.

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Call upon the world to your aid. Crush your foes with the very land beneath your feet.

Obvious generals are Mina and Denn, Wildborn and Lord Windgrace. This deck wants to rinse, reuse, recycle land cards by discarding, sacrificing, or bouncing them to then replay them for those awesome Landfall triggers.

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Unite the many and overrun your enemies with the power of the largest army.

Go wide with commanders Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and Ghired, Conclave Exile to create a board state that is impossible to contest. Populate and Convoke cards really reward this game plan.

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Sacrifice the unworthy and beckon their spirits to do your bidding.

This aristocrats style of play wants you to generate tokens or play creatures with sweet death triggers and play around with sacrifice shenanigans. Use Extus, Oriq Overlord or Ghave, Guru of Spores to helm this deck.

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Become a mad scientist and assemble unorthodox combos that shock your way to victory.

Whether you are weilding a Kess, Dissident Mage or a Mizzix of the Izmagnus, there are tons of combos to be found in this archetype. If you like playing solitaire while your opponents stare in impending doom, this is the deck for you.

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Control the very circles of life. All things must die and new creatures will consume the remains.

This is the reanimator/morbid strategy. Discard cards and pull them back with commanders like The Mimeoplasm or maybe sacrifice small creatures to get crazy value from Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. While somewhat different strategies, one thing in common is that they want to see lots of cards in the graveyard.

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Master the arts of combat by wielding great weapons and controlling your opponents' every move.

This archetype is centered around equipment and various goading effects. With generals like Pramikon, Sky Rampart and Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, you are rewarded for combat and turning creatures sideways.

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Grow your creations and wield evolutionary sciences.

Use Pir, Imaginative Rascal alongside Toothy, Imaginary Friend or Animar, Soul of Elements to reap the benefits of building powerful threats with +1/+1 counters. Tons of creatures will reward you for counter manipulation.

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A theme to bring the entire cube together is tokens. Various cards will care about tokens in one way or another. Whether it be "junk" tokens such as food, treasures, and clues, or creature tokens. You can make token copies of powerful creatures or tap them to copy spells!

This strategy has some very deep veins you can explore and there is so much more you can do even outside of the main archetypes. Maybe you want to build a group hug deck with either Kwain, Itinerant Meddler or Selvala, Explorer Returned. Maybe you want to go tall with Xenagos, God of Revels or recur artifacts with Osgir, the Reconstructor. This cube has a near endless number of possibilities!

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DRAFT/COMMANDER RULES

Players draft from 3 packs of 20 from the cube and build a deck of 60 (59/58 + general(s)). Players draft two cards at a time. Each pack is seeded with two legendary creatures from the Commander section of the cube. "Partners with" cards are automatically drafted together and are treated as a single card for draft purposes (draft a Haldan, Avid Arcanist and get a Pako, Arcane Retriever for free). Any legendary creature or planeswalker drafted may be used as a general. Additionally, players' starting life totals are 30 (this is an alternate rule we are playtesting).

In order to replicate the feel of commander and for balance reasons, it is vital that some staples be made available to all players. Players each start the draft with the following cards in their draft pool:

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DRAFT PRIMER

I've found that this cube does a really good job of appealing to different types of drafters. Newer players should have an easy time grabbing the first legendary creature they like and forcing a deck that should work fairly well, however, the draft environment doesn't have to be all "on-rails" as you might expect. I've developed a guide to the value drafter that should help players build nuanced, effective, and fun decks.

During the draft you should prioritize your picks effectively. The following guide is to help beginners with the cube accomplish this:

There are 4 major card types to look out for in packs 1 and 2.

1. Game Enders -- the highest priority are the game winning cards. This includes cards like Approach of the Second Sun, Expropriate, Rise of the Dark Realms, Insurrection, and Craterhoof Behemoth. These cards are almost always first pickable, as resolving one will almost always result in a game win.
2. Fixing -- Second is mana fixing. Both lands and rocks fit nicely here. It is often correct to pick these up before you are even locked into any colors as the ability to cast your spells more consistently greatly increases your deck viability.
3. Haymakers -- Third is cards that, no matter what, will always make the cut and are strong signals that a color is open, when passed. Notable cards in this category are Luminarch Ascension, Teferi's Protection, Smothering Tithe, Cyclonic Rift, Rhystic Study, Deadeye Navigator, Reanimate, Summon the Pack, Massacre Wurm, Dockside Extortionist, Etali, Primal Storm, Blasphemous Act, Avenger of Zendikar, Triumph of the Hordes, and Oracle of Mul Daya.
4. General -- Finally is your general. Many players will snap up legendary creatures immediately, passing up on cards that would otherwise greatly improve their deck. I find it is often best to make sure you aren't passing either of the first three categories of cards first before making a move into locking your deck's colors and strategy down. This does still need to be a high priority as your deck legality hinges on it. Don't worry, you will almost always find a general to fit your deck as this cube is chalk-full of legendary creatures.

After these conditions are met is when you should begin looking for cards that fit your deck appropriately and help along your game-plan.

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RULES QUICK GUIDE

• Commander color identity rules apply with 3 main exceptions:
  1. Hybrid mana spells and hybrid mana abilities may be counted as "or" rather than "and" for color identity
  2. Only one half of a split card or one side of a MDFC must be within your general's color identity to be legal to play
  3. Mana abilities that produce colors of mana not in your general's color identity are legal for deck construction. (You may play Jegantha, the Wellspring or Temple of Plenty in a Zedruu the Greathearted deck)
• Draft 3 packs of 20
• Draft 2 cards at a time
• Any legendary creatures or planeswalkers drafted at anytime may be used as a general
• Commander damage applies and is cumulative for all generals owned by a single player (experimental)
• Minimum deck size is 60
• Starting life totals are 30
• Friendly mulligan rules (first mulligan is free)

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OTHER

For any rule not specifically covered, feel free to house rule it. Do what works best for your play group. For example: for Unexpected Potential, we decided it was more in the spirit of that card to allow the named card to violate the color identity rules of the player's general. It effectively gains the errata text "Spells with the chosen name have no color identity."