This is a 540 card Powered Vintage cube which draws inspiration from multiple cubes across the landscape such as Alphafrog's cube, the MTGO cube, Caleb Gannon's Cube, and many more.

Powered Vintage cube is a high power draft environment with some of Magic's best cards across it's 30 year history, and yes this of course includes the infamous Power 9. Ever Magic player dreams of playing with these cards, but when entering into a cube draft with such high powered cards you're going to need to know what you can actually draft.

This primer will help familiarize yourself with what the most powerful cards are in the cube, what the archetypes and some of their signpost cards are, and how to actually draft a deck.

Table of Contents:

1. Card Rankings
   i. Tier 0 - Power & Power-Adjacent.
   ii. Tier 1 - Not Power, but Still Busted
   iii. Tier 2 - Engine/Build Around Cards
   iv. Tier 3 - Role-Players and "Good" Cards
   v. Tier 4 - The Rest...?
2. Lands
   i. Dual Lands
   ii. Fetch Lands
   iii. Tri-Lands
   iv. Fast Lands
   v. Manlands
   vi. Utility/Archetype Lands
3. Archetypes
   i. Aggro
   ii. Combo
   iii. Reanimator
   iv. Storm
   v. Ramp
   vi. Cheatyface
   vii. Artifacts Matter
   viii. Tempo
   ix. Control
   x. Midrange

---

---

Here we will go on a journey together and learn how we can think about the power of different cards in relation to one another. In doing so we must ask ourselves certain questions:

• What pick should I take this card?
• How should I prioritize this card over others?
• Is this card generically good, or is it more narrow and meant for a specific deck?

We will attempt to answer these questions and more here.

Note: These are obviously not objective rankings, and I must acknowledge my rankings are influenced by my own biases as well as the various cube content creators I prefer to watch such as Luis Scott-Vargas and NumotTheNummy (Kenji Egashira). These rankings are here more to walk you through some of the more powerful cards and get you familiar with how we evaluate cards in this format.

Tier 0 - Power & Power-Adjacent

Some of the most powerful and well-known cards in all of magic are the Power 9, a group of objectively busted cards from the original days of Magic.

Most Magic players being thrown into Vintage Cube would assume The Power 9 are the best cards in the cube, and while they are correct, there are a select few additional cards colloquially known as "power-adjacent" which join their ranks as top picks; our Tier 0 cards. Tier 0 cards are cards that demand to be picked first and should NEVER be passed (unless of course, you open multiple pieces of power).

Black Lotus, Sol Ring, Moxen

These are the best mana accelerants in the cube. Period.

Black Lotus and Sol Ring take the cake as the top 2 picks in the cube. If you ever get passed one of these cards you should assume the person who passed to you opened both and had to make a very tough decision. Black Lotus helps you throw out 4CMC bombs turn 1, and can be abused with cards that can return it to the battlefield (hello Lurrus of the Dream-Den). Sol Ring gives you more incremental value over the course of the game. We've all seen people go turn 1 Sol Ring into Signet in a game of Commander, now imagine doing that in a 1v1 format.

The Moxen are also busted, and are essentially an extra land drop. Regardless of what colour you are drafting, taking a Mox (even an off colour one) increases the power level of your deck by an insane amount.

Ancestral Recall, Time Walk

Two more cards from the original Power 9.

Time Walk: Extra turn for , hell ya. Extremely efficient, extremely splashable, and can just outright win games on it's own. The effect it hard to replace for the mana cost, and it get's even better with ways to recast it such as Snapcaster Mage, Eternal Witness, Regrowth, etc. Also sometimes you just need to make an extra land drop, and Explore is a solid card, especially in blue.

Ancestral Recall: Draw 3 for , do I need to say more? Just like Time Walk, it's efficient and splashable. The floor on this card is high and synergizes with many of the strategies in the cube. Example: looking to discard Griselbrand but you don't have a way? Why not Recall yourself main phase and then discard to hand size.

Ancestral Recall and Time Walk are easily some of the best cards in the cube, and are the number 3 and 4 cards respectivly. If given the choice, these should be taken over a Moxen.

A note on Timetwister
While there is another card that rounds out the set of Power 9, Timetwister, I omit it from this tier due to it not being as generically busted as the rest. It is more of an all-star in specific archetypes like storm or combo.

Mana Crypt, Mana Drain, Oko, Minsc & Boo, Mana Vault

These are the next best picks in the cube. They offer efficiency, power, and value.

Mana Crypt: Close enough to Sol Ring to make it up in the power-adjacent list. Costing is amazing, and the downside of losing coin flips isn't that big of a concern if you can kill your opponent fast, which this card helps you do.

Mana Drain: Maybe the best counterspell in the game. Sure it can't be cast for free like Force of Will or Force of Negation, but the mana boost this can give makes this one of the best two-for-one's in the cube.

Oko, Thief of Crowns: Oko is here because he does it all and to illustrate this I made a small list of examples:

• Makes artifacts for Tolarian Academy and Urza, Lord High Artificer
• Dumpsters on some of the more powerful creatures in the format like Blightsteel Colossus and Emrakul, The Aeons Torn along with all the powerful Reanimate targets.
• Comes down early and can easily start pumping out 3/3 elk foods.
• Against some grindy or even aggro matchups, don't sleep on the life gain!

Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes: This is kind of like Bitterblossom took steroids, let me explain. You immediately get a 4/4 with trample and haste, able to get in the red zone on an empty board or hold off any attackers. He can then be used as removal, card draw, or even a finisher (note that the damage can be done to ANY target, so your opponents life total is fair game). Don't sleep on Minsc & Boo.

Mana Vault: Although you may look at this card and scoff at the pay to untap, think of this card as the colourless Black Lotus that can sometimes untap. Allowing you to power out a 5CMC spell on turn 2 is insane, and trust me there are ways to untap it (Displacer Kitten or Pestermite to name a few) and it's also really solid Tinker fodder.

Tier 1 - Not Power, but Still Busted

These are exactly what you expect, extremely powerful cards that many will classify as busted or broken, but not exactly "power". Take these highly, take these often, splash for them if possible. Some of these cards are generically good, others might push you into a specific archetype but are still amazing in their own rights.

This list is not exhaustive and is simply a selection of the most powerful of these cards to help you understand what makes a card Tier 1.

Demonic Tutor: A second copy of the best card in your deck.

Swords to Plowshares: The most efficient removal spell in the cube. The gaining life is negligible, ignore that text.

Solitude: Swords #2 that can be cast for "free" and sometimes sticks around as a 3/2 lifelink. The other evoke elementals are also amazing cards, but Solitude is by far the best.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker: Banned in standard for a reason, the value it generates is insane and if left unchecked is an extra copy of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Fractured Identity: Exile removal that gives you a copy of your opponents best card.

Mind Twist: The best discard effect hands down. Just imagine playing this turn 1 or 2 with a mana accelerant like Mana Vault or Black Lotus.

Sheoldred, The Apocalypse: Puts your opponents on a clock, vintage cube is all about card advantage so it's extremely punishing. Combos with any draw 7 like Wheel of Fortune or Echo of Eons.

Library of Alexandria: One of the more questionable high tier cards. It's more situational than most, but the ceiling is so high on this card it deserves to be here. Amazing in your opening hand, powerful against control and midrange, and a very low opportunity cost to play since it taps for .

Karakas: Some of the most powerful creatures in Magic are Legendary. Like Library the opportunity cost is very low since it taps for mana, but this time . It also can combo really well with your own legends like Venser, Shaper Savant.

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer: A card so powerful it was banned in Legacy. In an aggro strategy this card coming down early can just dominate a game and demands removal.

Forth Eorlingas!: The Monarch mechanic is really fun in multiplayer formats, but in 1v1 it is broken. This card has the ability to be played early and grab you the Monarch giving you tons of card advantage, but it also scales with the game and can just one shot your opponents if you have enough mana.

Thoughtseize: Hand disruption is extremely important for some archetypes, especially when playing against control. Letting you know your opponents next moves, and sometimes even dictate them puts Thoughtseize up there with the greats.

Tier 2 - Engine/Build Around Cards

I took the term from LSV and his Ultimate Guide to Vintage Cube article because I think it describes them perfectly. These are cards that are very powerful in the right deck, and if you build around them correctly they will be the best card in your deck.

Tier 3 - Role-Players and "Good" Cards

These are cards that you're always happy to play. They are not broken, they are not pulling you into a specific deck, but they have flexibility and can fit in multiple archetypes.

Here you're looking for cheap, flexible and interactive cards. Cards like Lightning Bolt, Dismember and other good removal are also in this list, but when given the choice you want something that can deal with multiple types of threats, like Mana Leak.

Tier 4 - The Rest...?

I could probably go on forever and make 10 tiers of cards, but at this point I'm going to stop myself here at Tier 4. Tier 4 is all the other cards you will draft, they aren't bad by any means and help fill out your playable count.

Sometimes these cards don't make the main deck, but they may shine in your sideboard. Yeah that's right, this isn't a commander game, this is a best of 3 1v1 format! Some cards are just too narrow to main deck for your strategy, but against the right matchup going into game 2 they can demolish your opponents game plan. Think about your sideboard if no pick in a pack fits your deck.

---

---

Picture this, you opened Black Lotus, Time Walk and a Moxen in your packs. You drafted a bunch of good cards and you're a 2 colour deck splashing for perhaps a Swords to Plowshares. You have powerful cards and good ways to win the game. Now imagine you're playing 17 basic lands to go alongside it because you didn't draft any lands. Yeah you're gonna lose.

Your deck lives and dies by the mana base.

Dual Lands

Here we have access to all the best lands in Magic's history, and of course that starts with the original dual lands and their counterparts the shocklands (ignore the 2 life, it rarely makes an impact).

Note: Blue is considered by many to be the stronger colour in cube, when in doubt lean towards taking blue duals. This can help you splash cards like Ancestral Recall.

Fetch Lands

Fetchlands are really powerful in conjuction with duals. They allow you to optimize your mana base and fetch out exactly the right colours you need, in addition to synergizing with cards like Crucible of Worlds, Dig Through Time and Tireless Tracker.

Thinking of fetches as pseudo-dual lands can help you make the right decision and bolster your mana bases.

What do I mean by pseudo-dual land?
Example: You have a Bayou and Godless Shrine in your draft pool. You get passed a pack with Arid Mesa and Polluted Delta in it. If you take the Arid Mesa it can fetch your Godless Shrine, making it essentially a land. However, if you take the Polluted Delta, then it can get both Bayou and Godless Shrine, making it a land. So your fetchland is essential a 4 colour land. Note: the here is because it can also fetch a Mountain.

Thinking of fetchlands like pseudo-dual lands this way is not intuitive at first, but doing so helps smooth make your mana bases way more consistent.

Tri-Lands

Here we have all of the 3 colour fetchable tri-colour lands from Ikoria and New Capenna.

These are kind of self explanatory for evaluation. Yes they are good because they fix extremely well and are fetchable, but they do enter the battlefield tapped. Generally you won't want to fill your deck with too many tapped lands, but these ones are some of the best.

Fast Lands

Fast lands ETB untapped if you have 3 or less lands in play. In a fast paced environment like vintage cube, these can really help bolster the aggro decks and keep them competitive. Solid fixing, but not every deck will want these.

Manlands

These lands are more tricky than the rest. You really need to think about if your deck will want these lands since they always ETB tapped, but have the added benefit of possibly being a finisher.

More often than not control decks will be able to use these lands to their advantage when playing the long grindy game. Creeping Tar Pit and Celestial Colonnade are the two best of these since they have amazing forms of evasion and are in the best control colours.

Utility/Archetype Lands

There are tons of powerful lands in Vintage Cube. Sometimes they just fix your mana like Mana Confluence or City of Brass, sometimes they accelerate you like Ancient Tomb, and other times they're more comparable to spells, requiring you to evaluate them on a deeper level.

Card's like Strip Mine and Wasteland are premium removal in this cube, especially with cards like Tolarian Academy, Gaea's Cradle, and a bunch of non-basic lands floating around. Others like Dark Depths and Thespian's Stage are legit finishers in the right deck.

Think about how some of these lands synergize with your deck's archetype; are you going to be casting a lot of artifacts? Well then maybe Mishra's Workshop would be the best land in your deck. Are you looking to lock out your opponent with Mind Slaver? Well maybe pick up Academy Ruins to seal the deal. Shelldock Isle may seem odd at first glance, but remember this is a 40 card format with tons of card draw, this land is premium in most blue decks.

---

---

Here I'll go through most of the archetypes you will see in the Cube. Click on the title of the archetype to see a filtered list of cards that slot into it.

Aggro

The classic two main aggressive strategies are in White and Red. They are categorized by cheap low-to-the-ground creatures, usually with above average stats, haste and good abilities. Your decks mana curve aims to be very low tapering off around 4CMC where you will find solid finishers which allow you to go-wide and swarm your opponents with tokens.

Since your mana requirements won't be hard to meet, splashing by picking up some multicolour lands will be easy.

White weenie has a lot of solid hatebears that punish your opponents allowing you to keep pumping out your efficient aggressive creatures.

White also has some amazing interaction, ways to make lots of tokens and some brutal ways to seal a quick kill.

Watch out for grindier matchups where your opponents will attempt to stabilize with efficient board wipes and ways to slow you down.

Similar to White Weenies, RDW plays tons of cheap, efficient and usually hasty creatures to threaten your opponents life total early. RDW's has a lot more cheap removal when compared to White Weenies in the form of burn spells which can easily start picking off your opponents value creatures or even just go face with the damage to seal the win.

---

Combo

Since we are playing with some of the most busted cards in the game, it's only natural we will have some very powerful combos in the cube, many involving just 2 cards. That being said, it is still a harder archetype to assemble since your whole game plan will revolve around usually 2-3 cards in your deck and getting them out ASAP.

This form of is all about surviving long enough to assemble a game-wining combo, typically either or both of Twin/Kiki. Pestermite, Deceiver Exarch and Zealous Conscripts all combo with Splinter Twin and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to make infinite attackers with haste.

A typical Tombo deck has many of the same elements as a Tempo deck, but typically you will be more inclined to splash and sometimes to help tutor up your combo pieces and make the deck more efficient.

based combo decks can be built but are more control decks. Walking Balista + Heliod, Sun-Crowned are in the cube, but currently splashing or is usually the way to go.

---

Reanimator

In traditional financial investing strategies, the risk-return tradeoff states that the potential return rises with an increase in risk. This pretty much sums up Reanimator in a nutshell. Your goal is to attempt to throw a big fatty into the graveyard and then reanimate it as fast as possible.

You can draft reanimator in slightly different styles; balls to the wall style where you're trying to Reanimate as early as turn 1 with the help of a Dark Ritual and Entomb, or a more grindy recursion/value themed deck with cards like Recurring Nightmare and Eternal Witness.

On the splash and have solid reanimate targets that don't always require you to even play lands in those colours, while and offer a lot of solid ways to discard your fatties for later.

Note: Usually you wouldn't dream of reanimating a card like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn due to it's shuffle clause, but some reanimate spells work at instant speed like Necromancy and Shallow Grave. Although you don't get the cast trigger, you still get to smack for 15.

---

Storm

Storm if not for the faint of heart. Although it is one of the most fun decks to cobble together in cube, it's also probably the hardest to pull off. You want to get some key specific cards and a lot of cheap acceleration (i.e. any Moxen and on-colour Talisman) in order to chain together enough spells in a turn to win with cards like Tendrils of Agony or Brain Freeze.

Look for card draw and ways to rebuy your spells. Draw 7s will be really good to help you churn through your deck, along with Control elements can help you hold off your opponent until you're ready to pop off. Keep some alternate wincons in mind, in case you don't end up getting their with your main game plan. As usual, if your manabase is good enough feel free to splash for some spells that help you go off.

Here you'll notice the final piece of the Power 9, Timetwister, becomes an all-star. I didn't include it in the Tier 0 section with the rest of it's contemporaries because I find it's uses a bit too narrow compared to them. It's amazing in this deck, but otherwise it's kind of just okay.

Note: In the case you're going for the Brain Freeze mill plan and your opponent happens to have an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or another creature that reshuffles into their graveyard, don't forget that you can mill yourself. This can lead to interesting lines where you may be able to sideboard in a token creator like Saheeli, Sublime Artificer and go wide for the win

---

Ramp

Aggro, ramp, combo, kind of has it all. There are tons of mana dorks to pick up to help you power out your big payoffs, or go even faster and sac them to Natural Order to throw out something like Atraxa, Grand Unifier.

It's very easy to splash in since you have access to the premium ramp and dorks like Noble Hierarch. has some nice payoffs like Hydroid Krasis and of course has Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes. Look to make the most of your mana base here, pick up your ramp before you start taking the large fatties!

While this deck could be put in the Combo section, it very much is a Ramp based strategy so I think it fits better here. There are tons of busted lands in Vintage Cube and ways to abuse them. Recurring Strip Mine is sometimes all you need to win the game and sometimes a 20/20 flying will do the trick.

The ramp deck offers a good shell for a degenerate land strategy because there's so many great synergies and ways to get value.

---

Cheatyface

Much like reanimator, mana cost doesn't really matter here. This archetype is all about feeling like you've broken the rules of the game by cheating out some of the biggest of fatties as early as possible. There are many different enablers in Vintage Cube for this archetype spread across the colour pie, and you'll want to prioritize those first before finding your huge cheaty threats.

This one will have a very similar shell to the Combo deck, but will be built around cards like Sneak Attack and Show and Tell. Both allow you to skip on the mana cost of your largest bombs, as well as capitalize on any ETB and attack triggers.

Since you don't care much about mana cost, some of the good big threats will have some overlap with the Reanimator deck, however you need to think about matching your threats with your cheaty cards.

Through the Breach and Sneak Attack only give your creatures one turn to stick around, so make sure it counts.

While Ramp decks can usually power out huge fatties early on, there are ways to make it even faster.

The core is similar to a Ramp deck, but you may lean more heavily on your combo pieces and just use your ramp package as a means to an end. I mean, who wouldn't want to turn a Llanowar Elves into a Progenitus or Atraxa, Grand Unifier? Or turbo our Emrakul, the Aeons Torn on turn 2 with Channel.

When paired with , this deck can really get cooking by abusing Flash. How does 3 5/5s on turn 2 sound? Or maybe a bunch of 3/3s with nice abilities. One could build a deck based on Flash alone and sneak in other backdoor wincons very easily.

I think the appeal of this deck is that you can take an early Tinker and if things don't fully pan out, say you only have one good tinker target going into pack 3, you can still draft a solid artifact deck since you'll be taking those highly. There are tons of great tinker targets in the cube that can blow out your opponent, or take over the game if left unchecked.

---

Artifacts Matter

Much like Storm, the Artifacts deck is difficult to put together but is extremely fun to play. It features some of the most powerful cards in the format. Of course here you're on the lookout for the infamous Tolarian Academy and any talisman or fast accelerant you can find.

Splashing here is usually pretty easy since you're main colour is brown. Be on the lookout for some cards that can generate insane amounts of mana like Candelabra of Tawnos. You can even end up in some sort of Artifact storm deck with cards like Time Spiral.

This deck is a solid shell for Tinker since you will have lots of cheap artifacts to sacrifice to it.

On the splash, is most likely your best bet seeing as it has some other cards that play really well with Artifacts.

---

Tempo

Tempo decks take advantage of all of the great permission that has to offer and combining it with disruption and damage from colours like and . You're looking to get some cheap and effective threats into play, while disrupting your opponent long enough to grind out the win.

Tempo leans on 's innate ability to draw cards and interact on the stack and 's cheap and efficient threats. Taking high-tier and cards is generally enough to get a solid deck.

Keep your eye peeled for synergistic cards because you will be casting a lot of instant and sorceries.

Note: Tempo can also be drafted as a backup plan when failing to draft a Combo or Storm.

White has many efficient and cheap creatures to help apply pressure early on. Combine this with card draw and permission, or even hand disruption and kill spells to remove threats and grind out your opponents.

This deck can have some control elements, but is mostly creature-based so you may not want to cast that Wrath of God...

I put it here because I believe the grindy and taxing elements help push your board state along while hampering your opponents plays enough to consider it to me a type of tempo deck.

This strategy uses based disruption and based taxes to stop your opponents from doing basically anything. Make them discard and tax their spells while you gain incremental value and swarm the board over time.

Splashing can give you more elements of control, while and can help you make tokens for sacrifice fodder and removal.

---

Control

Ahh yes, another archetype mainly focused around as it's base. Did I mention is the best colour? There are many ways to go about building a control deck but fundamentally they all are on keeping your opponents from playing Magic.

Regardless of the colours you end up in it's a fairly straight forward archetype to draft and you can do so by applying two simple rules:

1. Draft a good mana base
2. Draft a good mana base

Many of the best control cards tend to have double pips in them so you will need to craft your mana base to accommodate. Take duals early, take fetch lands earlier.

Oh also, have you heard of a board wipe? Ya, those are good.

focuses a lot on the value you can gain from Planeswalkers and shares some similarities to the Tempo deck, but you'll focus more on controlling the game early to end it with some big splashy bomb later on.

I heard you want to have your cake and eat it too. and pair so nicely together in a control shell that on any given draft, you're most likely going to see some form of this deck. Not only do you get access to counterspells, but also amazing hand disruption and you can even sprinkle in some reanimation for your wincon if you're feeling cheeky.

Splashing if your mana base is good enough is always fun in this style of deck as well, so remember to pick up those lands!

Of course this is similar to many of the other decks floating around in the cube, but here you can lean into value engines and maybe even some Planeswalkers while you're at it.

There are elements of an Artifact deck you can throw around as well seeing as both of these colours play really well with brown cards.

---

Midrange

Midrange is the archetype in Vintage Cube most colloquially referred to as "fair magic". It's kind of the "goodstuff" style decks you end up just having generically good cards in your colours but usually nothing too broken. These style decks will typically win by just curving out and having value plays at each point in it's mana curve.

Most Midrange decks have a base colour and typically dip their toes into 1 or 2 more. These can all be generally described as good shells to throw random combos in while also having a mostly fair value based deck.

If a Midrange deck can stabilize against an aggro deck or out-value a control deck, they're in a good position for a win. It's hard to really pin down this archetype, so I'll try and do my best below to just give some examples of good cards that fit in the shell.

makes a really good base for a Sultai build because it has good value cards to begin with. Of course you may end up heavier if you want more control elements early game, or if you pick up good colour fixing mana dorks like Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch.

Of course if your mana base is solid, you can basically do anything.

Heavier gives opportunities for good mana with lots of dorks. You can kind of lean into other colours aggressive top-end and burn to help finish off the game, or just pick up all the value creatures you can find.

can do it all in cube and as the base to a Midrange strategy it's very solid. It pairs well with black for reanimation value with Lurrus, of the Dream-Den, for solid creatures like Elder Gargaroth and for removal and value like Glorybringer.

---

That's it for now, I'll continue to keep this up to date as best I can. There will be a section soon talking about some of the maybeboard/sideboard cards as well.