Art by Igor KierylukI've always been a Melvin at heart. My favorite part of Magic is the moment when you realize that two cards in your hand synergize in a way that you never would have expected. This cube is a testament to the depth and texture available in cards across Magic's history.
Play Interesting Cards: Cards in the cube are optimized for large mechanical surface area that creates a lot of room for interesting interactions with other cards
The Aha Moment: Games in this cube tend to have a moment where you go "Woah, I didn't realize my deck could do that"
Bottoms-Up Design: As much as possible, I want the decks that people create to be emergent from the draft rather than prescribed by me as the designer. My strategy while building the cube was to find cards that are mechanically interesting & rich and trust that cool themes and decks would materialize.
Rehome the Bulk Rares: There are so many interesting bulk rares that are not quite good enough for most higher-powered cubes & Constructed but are too good for Peasant+ cubes. This cube aims to play at a power level between Peasant+ cubes and classic Legacy/Vintage cubes so these cards have a place to shine.
Pockets of Synergy: Decks in this cube typically don't have just 1 thing they are focused on. The goal is to find 2-3 synergies that overlap in interesting ways. This allows for more replay-ability because there are so many combinations of possible packages.
Who should play this cube?
You should play this cube if:
- you like the feeling of discovering an unexpected interaction between cards
- you like finding creative lines on complicated board states
- you want an opportunity to play with cards that tend to get ignored in other contexts
- you like the craziness and weird situations that can happen in EDH, but you still want to play tight Magic
You should avoid this cube if:
- you don't want to read too many cards you haven't seen before
- you prefer simple cards that do just 1 thing
Themes
Like I mentioned above, I try to avoid prescribing archetypes as much as possible. The following is a non-exhaustive list of some of the possible strategies that you can explore while drafting.
DiscardThese cube includes have a lot of cards that want you to discard + cards that love to be discarded. A personal favorite of mine is playing Squee, Goblin Nabob in my deck full of looters to draw a free card every turn.
EnchantmentsEnchantment packages can vary between classic Enchantress-style synergies with Sythis, Harvest's Hand and Sanctum Weaver and aggressive Aura-based strategies using cards like Geist of Saint Traft and Staggering Insight.
Baby ReanimateWhy bother reanimating Griselbrand when you can reanimate Monastery Mentor instead?! Almost all of the reanimation in the cube is focused on reanimating creatures with mana value 3 or less. Combining this alongside ETB creatures, sac outlets and discard can create a potent engine.
Artifacts