Welcome to the Sagas cube!!
Introduced in the new Dominaria, Sagas are a story card. Their art, often via real-world creations (i.e. sculptures, paintings, tattoos, and more) depicts stories that society tells. These creations can range from a tattoo, to a wood carving, to a cake. They highlight important story details or important world bits (worldbuilding sagas) or are reminders of past events (nostalgic sagas). The story aspect of some of these sagas is highlighted here, and some cards have other flavorful inclusions in the cube that are supported.
In gameplay, they act as pseudo-planeswalkers. Mark Rosewater shared that one of the initial design inspirations for sagas were planeswalkers, but planeswalkers that would cycle through pre-set abilities. A saga is just that- cycle through a few (two to six) pre-set abilities. Richard Garfield came up with the first iteration of sagas, wanting them to feel more like a mini-board game. It is for this reason that sagas play well. You can see what is going to happen a few turns ahead, meaning you can plan and will adjust accordingly. The “slowness” of the sagas mean players can plan and adjust in a way that most other magic cards do not permit players. Sagas are not only fun to play, but fun to play against.
This means an entire format designed around sagas should be fun right? Correct! Sagas have been a hit in limited, often offering small deckbuilding restrictions that entice players to do something… a little different. This cube breaks singleton for interesting uncommon and common sagas that are deck defining or interesting.
This cube is loosely designed around the following archetypes:
Mardu Trinkets
This is the deck that utilizes all the treasure red cards like Vault 21: House Gambit to juice up Sawblade Skinripper. This deck also utilizes Urza's Saga well, alongside Legion Extruder and cards like Mishra's Research Desk. Ultimately, make permanents, steal them with The Akroan War, and then sacrifice them!
Ramp
The main saga here is Azusa's Many Journeys. Alongside bouncelands, it will ramp you to some very powerful sagas. Cascade off of Wildsear, Scouring Maw and turn them into creatures with Bello, Bard of the Brambles!
Jund Bargain
Lots of sagas make small permanents and tokens from City of Death to Vault 21 to Origin of the Hidden Ones to Rite of Belzenlok. Use these treasures alongside and all the Bargain cards for value!
Naya Power Matters
Many sagas contribute to the board by buffing creatures, and many creatures in this archetype like to be buffed! Use cards like Michiko's Reign of Truth alongside Heartfire Hero and Rancor to really lay into your opponents.
Grixis Spells
This is best Gadwick's First Duel and The Mirari Conjecture deck deck. Copy powerful spells with high upfront costs (like sacrificng a permanent), or with weird kicker costs to get extra value. Savor the Moment, Final Vengeance, and Kiora's Dismissal are all ways to get extra value off these effects!
Jeskai Historic
Jeskai is the best home for historic payoffs. Cards like Sarah Jane Smith and Gloin, Dwarf Emissary let you create artifact tokens when you cast historic spells, while cards like Arbaaz Mir fits into an aggressive deck and Surtr, Fiery Jötun fits into more of a midrange deck. Either way, use lots of historic artifacts, enchantments, and creatures to power up your All that Glitters and Michiko's Reign of Truth to win!
Abzan Food/game objects
Abazan is the Food deck. You're often ramping, and recurring small sagas (Welcome to Sweettooth) with cards like Sevinne's Reclamation or Sun Titan. The real finishers are are Nacri, Fable Singer and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit. This is the best home for all the enchantresses.
Sultai Loop Grind
This is a slow, grindy deck. You want as much removal and permission as possible, supplementing your gameplan with adventures. You want to be using Mending of Dominaria, The Bath Song and Tamiyo Meets the Story Circle to mill deep and shuffle key cards from your graveyard back in! Grind out your opponents with efficient countermagic and re-buy your answers to out-last your opponents.
Proliferate
Fall of the Impostor gets the party started along a number of bant cards. Using cards like Thrummingbird, Twitching Doll, and Saproling Burst, this deck goes wide, proliferating sagas and forcing your opponent to deal with a number of things at the same time.
Esper Control Reanimator
Esper gets all the reanimation spells in Replenish, Resurgent Belief, and Abuelo's Awakening. Use cards like Tamiyo Meets the Story Circle and The Modern Age to dump sagas into your bin and then reanimate them! This is also the second best The Mirari Conjecture deck, able to cast reanimation spells to get it back and continue looping spells until you accrue and overwhelming advantage.
The Tom Bombadil + The Kami War Special
5-color in the sagas cube relies on having the sweet 5-color cards! The fixing in the cube is pretty good, and with bouncelands and all the cards that let you play extra lands like Azusa's Many Journeys you can ramp them out early.
These archetypes are just meant to guide you. You are completely free and encouraged to create your own path through the draft! The cube is set up to facilitate that too!
After the draft, each player will get 3 Valgavoth's Lair to add to their board for free. They may play these in their main deck.
Final note: the maybeboard of Void, Final Judgment, Conqueror's Pledge, Promise of Power, Dread Return, Balance, Upheaval, and more all feature art by Kev Walker. That's right; this is the Greatest Show in the Multiverse board, prepared specifically and brought with the cube. These cards do not go in any pack, but they are available to any brave soul who picks The