A color-restricted cube inspired by my favorite card. Aims at being a legacy/modern powered cube that pushes the density of overlapping synergies.
TLDR:Players may not put basic Forests in their decks, however they may put in basic Wastes if they want. There is currently no reason to do, but you can.
Pillars Over ArchetypesInstead of adhering to strict archetypes the cube tries to ensure that every color in some way has access to/cares about to the following mechanics:
So while certain colors might have more access to a particular "pillar", for example blue and artifacts --
-- Each other color can still draft around that particular pillar:
There is also a specific focus on including cards that interact with more than one of these mechanics. For example, take a card like Bomat Courier:
Decks focusing on artifacts, sacrifice, or discard all have synergistic reasons draft it on top of it's face up value as a hasty card advantage creature. The hope, is that by pushing the density of cards that overlap synergistically like this both the draft and the games gain layers of depth and fun.
Here are some example decks that utilize this flexibility to craft interesting and synergistic builds outside the traditional strengths of their color:
It Ain't Easy Being GreenWith the exclusion of green comes vacuum of one of cube's most prevalent archetypes; ramp.
That being said, mana acceleration and it's payoffs still live on in the colorless section of the cube to allow any color to have the ability to go a little bigger as a viable strategy.
In some ways that can also be said for traditional aggro. While certain color's claim to aggressive starts remain unblemished there is a purposeful attempt to play a high density of colorless aggressive creatures to give any deck the ability to leverage a bit of tempo for position.
Land GrabCutting a color also makes the ability to go the proverbial "5-Color" that much easier, meaning fixing is more powerful and more relevant to a wider number of drafters.
For example, in a cube supporting all five colors a land such as Scalding Tarn has:
However in a 4-Color cube:
So, for an average 2-color deck a fetch land has an 83% chance to grab an on color shock land, which mapping this to a pod means that just under 7/8 drafters will have good reason pick it highly.
That One Ok Go Music VideoWhile there is no two card kill in the cube, there is a vein of combo running throughout the list with cards like Krark-Clan Ironworks, Scrap Trawler, Jeskai Ascendancy, Parallax Wave, and more scatter about.
However with a lot of key pieces being colorless, synergistic with other mechanics, and a higher than normal density of disenchantment-style interaction it's more of a "Rube Goldberg" than a "Well-Oiled" machine.