Welcome to a new kind of drafting experience: Alara, one of the best draft blocks in history, turned entirely on its head.

Loved beating face with a huge Bant exalted lad? Try Black/Red here. Thought the vicious efficiency of Jund really piqued your interest? White/Blue token sacrifice is the way to go (complete with dragons!)

Stun your friends, confuse your enemies, break the color pie wide open.

This cube is focused around the allied color pairs, using mechanics lifted from their opposing shard. Each color is doing exactly what it's not supposed to; White is all about cheating mana, Blue has ramp, Black is stompy, Red controls, and Green loves spells.

To those familiar with the mechanics of the Alara block, the mechanics may come more easily, but if not, here's a brief overview, followed by an in-depth color guide:

"Bant"	"Naya"	"Jund"	"Grixis"	"Esper"
Single-creature combat, typal support, protection	Big monsters, ramp, burn	Tokens, sacrifice, dragons	Control, discard, reanimator	Artifacts/Enchantments, card advantage, tempo

"Bant"

These colors love equipment! You'll want to find synergies with your creatures, have repeatable combat modifiers, and use them to buff a single lethal threat. The creature suite here has plenty of resilient bodies using the Exalted keyword, and some typal payoffs using either the Party mechanic or Knights. Some of your strongest picks are early evasive bodies with strong keywords, like Gingerbrute or Order of the Ebon Hand. Look for the Defender subtheme using Catapult Fodder! These colors, as they bleed into the artifact and ramp archetypes, have a good deal of incidental card advantage and late-game payoffs if you are forced to survive by flooding the board, e.g. Cranial Plating.

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"Naya"

Unleash your inner Timmy in this pool. You want two things: ramp and HUGE bodies! Find plenty of early-game dorks and board control (either via removal or token generation) in order to keep your life total high before slamming down some truly untouchable beasts, like Inkwell Leviathan. Plus, keep an eye out for some strange Polymorph effects to cheat out those beasties as early as turn 4. Landfall serves as an alternate strategy that plays nice with a white or green splash, as there lie several fun outlets for all your big mana.

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"Jund"

DRAGONS! DRAGONS! DRAGONS! But in all seriousness, you want to go as wide as possible, fuel your graveyard with sacrifice outlets, ping your opponent down with chip damage, then use massive, scaly bodies to close out the game. If you're feeling lucky, load up on early synergies like Dragon's Disciple or Sunseed Nurterer to maximize on your flying friends. Reanimation is a valid strategy that plays well with finishers in all colors, if you're feeling cheeky, as is using Prodigal Sorcerer effects to just burn your opponent to death outright, no dragons needed.

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"Grixis"

Here's where to go if you'd rather have a graveyard than a life total. Control is the name of the game, using your second hand to keep the board fully under your control. Aggro decks are easy pickings with cards like Choking Fumes and easy-to-pump discard outlets like Fleeting Spirit. Slow-burn threats like Algae Gharial or Masked Admirers can really close out games with the advantage they provide, then you might cheat out an Archon of Valor's Reach to really lock up a game.

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"Esper"

Artifacts and enchantments are everything to R/G. You'll want a healthy number of utility ones, like Conqueror's Galleon to start your engines, or repeatable generators like Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter. You have some the best card advantage in spells like Escape to the Wilds, so use it liberally to outpace your opponent. Payoffs exist at all points of the curve, from Teething Wurmlet and Reckless Fireweaver to late-game tech like Rampage of the Clans. Be quick though, since most of your best removal and synergy artifacts might be snatched up by the other decks, since anyone can use them!

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What if I'm stuck off-color?

Don't panic! Sometimes bad pools happen, especially with a format THIS janky. So how should we go about splashing?

First and foremost, you're best off creating a three-color deck centered on your bombs, rather than going rogue with an unsupported color pair. Centering your pool on a single color allows you to pull from both support colors, and can pull off some really powerful combos.

If all else fails, and your good stuff just doesn't line up, here's what you're going for:

Battlecruiser

Ramp and reanimation are everything if you go this route. These colors have great removal options, and compliment a late-game curve full of big threats, but can suffer in the early game. High-pick small removal spells and expendable bodies to fill the gap.

Weenies

These colors may struggle to ramp into any of Blue's big beaters, or Red's equipment payoffs, so may be best to get value from a critical mass of small creatures with effects. Blue Prodigal Sorcerer effects paired with protective enchantments is a potent path to victory.

Bogles

Between all the deathtouch, menace, and flying creatures on offer in these colors, you can build around early threats to gain a snowballing advantage. If you go for the best equipment and auras in each color, your Scryb Sprites can become dangerous indeed!

Control

Both colors center on resource advantage and spongy bodies; combining them makes for a solid board presence, with strong removal to hold it. Do be aware this combination has a fairly weak curve, so definitely pick up some mana accelerants and Colorless spells to round it out.

Midrange

You can profit from Green's efficient bodies, and Blue's early-game interaction to make for a decent grindy build. Some true Simic bleeds through with the potential for overwhelming ramp and value.