Our cube. No power. No power adjacent. Limited cheat and a focus on fair archetypes with a little creature-combo and reanimation mixed in. Lots of fun and constantly being updated!

Check out the "blog" tab for details on recent changes and past results.

Advice for new players:

If you are new to drafting cube the environment can be a bit overwhelming. Focus on the basics. Cube draft is, well, A DRAFT. All the normal rules of drafting still apply and you should be carefully observing which cards are being passed to you in order to try and work out which decks and colours are “open”, if there are three people at the table trying to draft mono-black then they are really going to struggle to find enough cards for their decks. A good drafter will work out which colours people are not picking early on and will take advantage of the situation. Beyond that, choose an archetype, a gameplan to pursue, and try and draft a focused deck to that end. In normal drafts it is enough to just pick “good cards” to win. In cube all cards are good, you need a strategy.

That said, some cards are still better than others and you should be looking to be able to identify and pick these cards right at the start of the draft, after which you can build your synergies around them. My top 22 picks that you should absolutely always play if you possibly can (ranked) are:

1. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
2. Once Upon a Time
3. Strip Mine
4. Forth Eorlingas!
5. White Plume Adventurer
6. Seasoned Dungeoneer
7. Arcum's Astrolabe
8. Mawloc
9. Snuff Out
10. Swords to Plowshares
11. Prismatic Vista
12. Daze
13. Umezawa's Jitte
14. Stoneforge Mystic
15. Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
16. Reanimate
17. Chaos Defiler
18. Hymn to Tourach
19. Ashiok, Nightmare Muse
20. Recurring Nightmare
21. Mother of Runes
22. Weeping Angel

Beyond these, taking any 1-mana removal spell, hand attack spell, mana dork or cantrip will also be a powerful first pick that will very likely make your final deck. Think Fatal Push, Lightning bolt, Preordain, Thoughtseize or Noble Hierarch.

With that out of the way the following are the archetypes I would most recommend for new drafters. This is not a comprehensive list of archetypes in the cube, not even close, just a shortlist of proven, powerful decks that shouldn’t be too challenging to construct for those still learning the environment:

• Burn (aggressive red creatures and burn spells, try and keep it mono-red). Think Lightning Bolt, Goblin Guide and Sulfuric Vortex.
• Black Aggro (Aggressive black creatures with ample removal. Can splash any other colours or none at all). Think Knight of the Ebon Legion, Thoughtseize and Smuggler's Copter.
• Green Ramp; Ramp spells with big, expensive payoffs. Think Llanowar Elves, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary and Carnage Tyrant.
• White Life (cards that gain life and cards that benefit from said lifegain. Monocolour, black-white or green-white). Think Soul Warden, Ajani's Pridemate and Heliod, Sun-Crowned.
• Blue artifacts, pick cheap artifacts and good blue cards to go with them, splash white, red or black for powerful removal options if required. Think Mishra's Bauble, Retrofitter Foundry and Urza, Lord High Artificer
• Gruul midrange: Aggressive red-green midrange decks featuring ramp, powerful 3-5 drops and removal. Think Ignoble Hierarch, Mawloc and Glorybringer.
• Reanimator, pick big bombs, cards that let you put them in the graveyard and reanimation spells. The reanimation spells are all in black but most of the best ways to put cards in the yard are in red or blue. Think Faithless Looting, Archon of Cruelty and Animate Dead.

List of Combos:

I do not generally recommend combo decks to newer drafters as they can be difficult to construct, however, for those interested I have compiled a list of all the combos in the cube as follows:

• Splinter twin + Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite/Zealous Conscripts gives you infinite hasty attackers.

• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + any of the above, Felidar Guardian or Restoration Angel gives you infinite hasty attackers.

• Saheeli Rai + Felidar Guardian does the same.

• Devoted druid + Vizier of Remedies/Swift Reconfiguration gives you infinite green mana. Walking ballista or Finale of Devastation should give you the win from there.

• Murderous Redcap + Vizier of Remedies/Metallic Mimic gives the redcap virtual invincibility, combine this with a sac outlet like Viscera Seer, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician or Carrion Feeder for infinite damage to your opponent's face.

• Kitchen Finks + any of those cards or Heliod, Sun-Crowned gives the finks virtual invincibility, and then infinite lifegain with a sac outlet.

• Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista gives you infinite damage to your opponent's face (give Ballista lifelink).

• Spike Feeder + Heliod, Sun-Crowned /Archangel of Thune gives you infinite life.

• Eternal Witness + Time Warp/Soulherder and Ephemerate gives you infinite extra turns.

• Grindstone + Painter's Servant can mill your opponent out instantly.

• Rosie Cotton of South Lane + Scurry Oak /basking broodscale gives infinite squirrels and makes Scurry Oak infinitely large or makes infinite mana and infinitely large broodscale.

• Scurry Oak + Heliod, Sun-Crowned + a soul sister such as Soul Warden gives infinite squirrels, infinite life and makes Scurry Oak infinitely large.

• Samwise Gamgee + Cauldron Familiar and a sacrifice outlet gives infinite drain. Cauldron Familiar is also just quite nasty with Witch's Oven.

• Wrenn and Six and either Strip Mine or Wasteland isn't strictly speaking a combo but it is very, very good.

• Grove of the Burnwillows allows you to repeatedly recycle Punishing Fire to kill all of your opponent’s creatures and then slowly grind down their life total.

Obviously some of those are significantly better and/or easier to pull off than others but all are possible. Have fun combo-ing! If you have any queries on the exact mechanics of these combos feel free to ask Aaron or myself.

Thanks for reading and have fun :)

Adrian