Art by Mark TedinWelcome to my Pie Breaking Cube affectionally called the "Color-Cracked Classy Cube".
The Concept: to break/subvert/bend the color pie as much as possible while still providing a semi-normal cubing experience
I wanted to make a really different feeling cube that's just as easy to pick up and draft as a normal cube. Anyone should be able to figure out what their colors should be doing while drafting without having to refer to a chart or ask about archetypes. This is achieved by just shifting the standard archetypes to new colors and working towards two goals:
- Each 3-color shard's archetype is based off it's opposing color pair. (i.e The WUB Esper archetype is designed based on the RG color pair's normal archetype)
- Each singular color on its own is banned from its defining attribute as much as possible. (i.e Blue doesnt get counters, Black doesnt get graveyard, Red doesnt get direct damage, and Green doesnt get ramp)
Obviously the cards that do break/bend the color pie are limited and I'm having to work within those constraints. Also, a lot of archetypes are split into more colors than just color pairs. Control decks can be UW or UB, Burn can be BR or RW, and artifact support is in basically every color but green (and even that is quickly changing with each new release). So I've had to make some concessions and just make a decision on what archetypes are assigned to what color pairs (like choosing UB for control so the control archetype can access white counterspells). So there can definitely be some debate on which archetypes should be where.
While not every card is necessarily a pie-break/bend on its own. The idea is that the cube as a whole should feel like the archetypes are bends/breaks and some "in color pie" cards are used to support those archetypes (like Red looting/rummaging effects are in color but its helping the Jeskai Graveyard archetype which is a lot more of a bend/break from the traditional BG graveyard archetype). So any questionable cards usually have an archetype based justification for their existence.
While the goal is so a guide shouldnt be needed, I will still provide one here for a reference of my aim for each archetype while I was building. However, I would suggest going in blind and trying to explore it while drafting.
| Colors | Color Pair Its Based On | Archetype |
|---|---|---|
Esper    |   | Landfall |
| Grixis | | Tokens |
| Jund | | Lifegain |
| Naya | | Control |
| Bant | | Burn |
| Abzan | | Spellslinger |
| Jeskai | | Graveyard Recursion |
| Sultai | | Aggro |
| Mardu | | Saga-chantress Value |
| Temur | | Sacrifice |