OVERVIEW (and MULTICOLOR)
Welcome to the Snow Cube, designed to emulate the feel of late 90s Magic minus the full lockout wincons and atrocious mana fixing. Drafting two or more colors is recommended, although mono-W, -B, and -R are fully supported with standalone archetypes. The multicolor cards are almost exclusively designed to serve as archetype signposts for the rest of the cube. Those archetypes in no particular order: (1) R/W Hammertime (using Sigarda’s Aid, Stoneforge Mystic, Magnetic Theft, etc.) to cheat a plethora of potent equipment into play; (2) U/W or U/B Oscar Tan’s “The Deck” style control (Wraths, Counterspells, Propagandas, removal spells, and a big wincon or two); B/R/G graveyard and persist sacrifice combos (creature with persist + Grumgully/Rhythm of the Wild + sac outlet, or Varolz + Phyrexian Dreadnought); R/G big mana combos (Pandemonium + Saproling Burst, ramping into Star of Extinction + Stuffy Doll/Boros Reckoner/etc., Storm Cauldron/Life from the Loam + Borborygmos Enraged/Stormbind or Meteor Storm); 5-Color Domain (Collective Restraint + Tribal Flames + Territorial Kavu etc) thanks to “snow duals” in abundance; U/G Snow (Marit Lage’s Slumber, Spirit of the Aldergard, Isu the Abominable and tempo elements galore); and finally U/G/x Magical Christmasland nonsense (like Cadaverous Bloom + Prosperity + Stroke of Genius or Drain Life/any X-spell, or Heartbeat of Spring/High Tide + Frantic Search/Early Harvest + X-spells, or Mind Over Matter + Stroke or Braingeyser/etc. + literally anything).

That may sound like a lot of combos (and sure, ok, it is), but for the most part they are rickety as hell: intended to be complementary to well-drafted aggro, ramp, or control decks. The intended “fundamental turn” of the cube as whole is right around 5, not that all or even most games will end on that turn, but goldfishing a naked combo without interaction that doesn’t go off or stabilize by turn 5 will get you killed.

LANDS
Since this cube’s theme is oops-all-snow-basics, let’s start with the lands before the colors : yes, there are two copies of each Kaldheim “snow dual” to help unlock the multicolor shenanigans that abounds. Also present are the original duals and fetchlands, along with a ton of basic land fixing in order to further feature the snow basics. There are a few synergies and combos: (1) storage counter lands (Calciform Pools etc.) + proliferation (Animation Module or Merfolk Skydiver) = lots of mana; (2) Mycosynth Gardens looks an awful lot like Phyrexian Dreadnought if you pair them; (3) each color gets at least one nifty gifty aligned to their archetypes; and (4) of course Dark Depths + Thespian’s Stage or Mirage Mirror is here.

WHITE
White has one monocolor archetype: white weenie, the classic “cheap dorks + anthems + combat tricks” aggro deck (which gets extra gross if your curve ends at Hokori, Dust Drinker and/or Cold Snap and/or Jinxed Choker). It also offers plenty of Wraths, O-Rings, and spot removal for control decks, and forms the backbone of the Hammertime archetype (Sigarda’s Aid, Stoneforge Mystic, Steelshaper’s Gift, and Puresteel Paladin top the list). On the combo side of things: (1) Enduring Renewal turbocharges any sac outlet and goes infinite with Ornithopter or Rograkh; (2) Strict Proctor allows you to politely decline any negative ETBs (like Dreadnought or Wormfang Manta); (3) Anafenza is a persist combo enabler; (4) Pariah turns any creature into Stuffy Doll; and (4) Land Tax pairs very well with Scroll Rack, Seismic Assault, Stormbind, and other discard-powered tools. Finally, White contributes Leyline Binding to the Domain deck.

BLUE
Blue in this cube, much like the era it attempts to replicate, is full of absurdly strong spells and absurdly weak creatures—monoblue as an archetype is not particularly recommended. That said, it does include a vast array of combos as well as tutors, cantrips, and Persuasions, (such as Mystical Tutor and Serum Visions and Dominate) as well as the single card that I’ve designated the benchmark of the cube as whole: Marit Lage’s Slumber. (Nowhere near the best card in the cube, but if I’ve done my job it should be at least useful everywhere and a superstar in U/G Snow.) Blue’s combos range from game-ending (Trix) to magical Christmasland (High Tide + Early Harvest + Braingeyser) and are too numerous to list but very obvious to identify by theme: (1) Donate pairs with Illusions of Grandeur to gain you 20 life while your opponent loses 20 (Harmless Gift is a Red Donate, and Demonic Pact or Immortal Coil or Archfiend of the Dross from Black all say “lose the game,” you get the picture); (2) draw spells like Braingeyser and free spells like Frantic Search exist to power glass cannons like Pros-Bloom, Heartbeat of Spring/High Tide, Mind Over Matter, and Laboratory Maniac; (3) Meloku, the Clouded Mirror is an air force as well as Seismic Assault’s best friend; and (3) Heidar, Rimewind Master and Isu the Abominable are very much the exception to blue having bad creatures. Volrath’s Shapeshifter is a fundamentally absurd Magic card. Finally, Collective Restraint is one of the most powerful Domain cards ever printed.

BLACK
Black’s main monocolor archetype is Suicide Black, which is pretty self-explanatory: undercosted and overpowered dorks allow for an incredible curve out at the expense of your life total. Curving Carnophage into Flesh Reaver into Phyrexian Negator into Phyrexian Obliterator into killing or ignoring blockers with say Terror into a final Corrupt to the dome is the dream here. Black also has Withering Wisps and Pestilence which demand a strong commitment to the color but pay it back as both board control and wincons rolled into one. Graveyard interactions like Recurring Nightmare, Zombify, and Dread Return support the Jund persist combos, and tutors abound in the color (Vampiric Tutor Demonic Tutor Imperial Seal). Specific cards and combos worth pointing out: (1) Demonic Pact, Archfiend of the Dross, and Immortal Coil all have the words “lose the game” printed on them; (2) Hunted Horror becomes a 7/7 trampler for 2 with Illusionary Mask, Torpor Orb, or Strict Proctor; (3) a massive Drain Life or Consume Spirit powered by Cadaverous Bloom are the traditional endgame of its namesake combo deck Pros-Bloom; and (4) the card Hatred is present.

RED
Red’s two main monocolor archetypes are: (1) monored aggro, with the usual plan of curving out early on board and finishing with Fireblast to the face; and (2) big red (“red rocks”), where the early turns are spent controlling the board and ramping with rocks like Glittering Stockpile, then finishing with Rimescale Dragon or other monsters. Red also sports a number of combos: (1) high cmc cards convert into big damage with Erratic Explosion, Nahiri’s Wrath, Surge of Strength, etc; (2) damage-based sweepers like Star of Extinction likewise turn into game-ending burn with Stuffy Doll, Boros Reckoner, Toralf, etc. (and don’t forget Volcano Hellion for that extra flair); (3) Harmless Offering is the red Donate; (4) Pandemonium turns Saproling Burst into 21 to the face; (5) All Will Be One turns every cumulative upkeep (or other counters-matter) card into burn; (6) Goblin Bombardment is the premier persist or sacrifice combo outlet; (7) Seismic Assault pairs with Life from the Loam and Storm Cauldron; (8) Rograkh is one of two 0-cmc guys (Ornithopter is the other) for Fruity Pebbles (Enduring Renewal + sac outlet); and (9) yes Sneak Attack is here but the Eldrazi are not (can I offer you Symbiotic Wurm?). Finally, Red adds burn to the Domain package (Tribal Flames and Kaleidoscorch) and synergizes with the Stormbind/Meteor Storm discard package.

GREEN
Green plays the mirror opposite of Blue in this cube: strong creatures and (for the most part) blasé spells. Monogreen is likewise not particularly recommended—but combining the two into U/G Snow (where Green brings the beef) or U/G Wombocombo (where Green brings land ramp galore) very much is. And by “land ramp galore” I mean it: between elves, Exploration, and Rampant Growths there are upwards of 20 mana accelerating cards in the color. Green also has some combo chops: (1) Survival of the Fittest can singlehandedly assemble a persist combo; (2) Pattern of Rebirth is the “cheatiest” way to tutor a monster into play; (3) Heartbeat of Spring powers U/G Nonsense into the stratosphere; (4) Fecundity does likewise for every sacrifice archetype; (5) Life from the Loam does the Seismic Assault thing; (6) Crop Rotation does the Dark Depths thing; (6) Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft = infinite dorks; and (7) the card Whiteout secretly reads “Sacrifice a land: Draw this card” for discarding purposes.

ARTIFACT
The Artifacts in this cube are either combo pieces or draw-smoother-outers: (1) there are numerous pieces of equipment for Hammertime (Colossus Hammer of course among them); (2) Phyrexian Dreadnought is arguably the best p1p1 because there are so many ways to enable him (such as Illusionary Mask or Torpor Orb); (3) Draco puts the BOOM in the Erratic Explosion or Riddle of Lightning or Calibrated Blast-powered Draco-BOOM combo while also playing mascot to Domain; (4) Gauntlet of Might turbocharges both Red archetypes; (5) Eater of Days, like Dreadnought, would prefer to follow Torpor Orb; (6) Storm Cauldron is best friends with Seismic Assault; (7) Zuran Orb is best friends with Exploration and Life from the Loam/Crucible of Worlds; and (8) Hex Parasite and Everythingamajig do a shocking number of silly things in a cube full of cumulative upkeeps and other counters-matter cards.

ARCHIVED TEXT
Below you’ll find what Tony charitably called my “diary entry” primer on this cube—it’s unedited and outdated but useful as context.

OLD PRIMER TEXT

Welcome to frosty 1995, or 1999, or 2000-something… really, welcome to whatever year the borderline unreadable card you’re staring at was printed. All the basic lands for this Cube are Snow-covered.

WHITE: White Weenie is the main jam. Curve dorks 1-2-3, slam a Glorious Anthem, and peel a combat trick like Reverant Mantra or Blinding Beam for the win. This is also the primary color of Hammertime: one or more early aggressive creatures plus free equip cost hacks plus a big dumb piece of metal. If instead you prefer elegant weapons from a more civilized age, premium removal like Swords to Plowshares, general solvents like Oblivion Ring, and board clearing elements like Wrath of God round out the main pillars of this color.

More Key Cards: Mom/Giver of Runes, Stoneforge Mystic, Reverent Mantra, Land Tax, Cold Snap
Draft Tips: On-curve redundancy, so keep an eye on both your mana value ("CMC") spread and your creature-to-spell ratio. There are plenty of pro-color creatures and racing pants to strap on them—just remember that absent a Cold Snap or Jinxed Choker, monowhite has zero agency over your opponent’s life total outside of combat, so plan accordingly. Control decks that plan on stabilizing the board will probably need their Wraths to be on time and they all cost double W, so your manabase will need constant attention—a little slippage in the early turns at the sake of developing your mana should work itself out.
Shenanigans: Enduring Renewal + sacrifice outlet + Ornithopter = infinite activations (bonus points for Goblin Bombardment, collectively known to the ancients as 'Fruity Pebbles'), and Strict Proctor + nasty ETBs like Wormfang Manta = good clean Magic.
The More You Know: White has most of the effects that can send things to the exile zone in this Cube. Like the card Exile for instance.

BLUE: Buehler Blue, aka the monoblue deck that got Counterspell woodshedded for two decades, is kinda sorta here, though not the focus. You’ll find Snow Matters enablers and payoffs like Ascendant Spirit or Marit Lage’s Slumber, the Illusions-Donate “Trix” combo, and pieces of Domain, ETBs-No-More, and Pros-Bloom. Blue is full of shenanigans and almost always up to no good.

More Key Cards: Collective Restraint, Prosperity, pitch counters (Force of Will, Commandeer etc), Heidar, Rimewind Master, Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Draft Tips: Blue has a simple game plan: counter everything you can, bounce everything you can’t, draw extra cards, and win by annoying your opponent to death. Making land drops (always make land drops), counterplaying properly, and landing a way to win. This strategy pairs nicely with strong combos. Finally, Blue across the board should have fairly easy access to cantrips, looters, and creatures that fly. Also there are a lot of creative and valuable uses for putting extra cards in your hand.

Shenanigans: Well it’s Blue, so where to begin… Illusions of Grandeur (or Demonic Pact) + Donate (or Harmless Offering) = 'Trix.' Volrath’s Shapeshifter for Phyrexian Dreadnought breakfast. Prosperity + Cadaverous Bloom = the literal oldest [tournament-legal] combo in the world.

BLACK: Suicide Black is a monoblack strategy wherein the player of a monoblack deck slowly commits suicide in front of his opponent in order to win. Another on-curve redundancy aggro deck like white weenie, except instead of having no clocks now there are two: yours and theirs. Finally, Black’s spells can discard and/or kill lots of things, making it useful as a control element, and Black’s tutors and reputation for odd drawbacks makes it home to a lot of combo pieces.

More Key Cards: Dark Ritual, Phyrexian Negator, Phyrexian Obliterator, Recurring Nightmare, Dead of Winter, Pestilence/Withering Wisps, Hatred (did I mention Hatred is in here?)
Draft Tips: Suicide Black follows a similar draft pattern to WW in that you want to start on turn 1 and stop only when one of you is dead. Pay attention to your creatures-to-spells ratio and do not be distracted by the beautiful celebrities from the other four colors because nothing punishes you for bad mana choices like monoblack. For example Justin did you know that basic Forest cannot pay any one of the BBBB required to cast Phyrexian Obliterator or activate Pestilence for 4? Seriously there are like ten different bangers that all want your manabase to be exclusively Swamps (or reliably get Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth into play). Black is also good at sacrificing its own stuff for fun and profit, most notably to end the game with a gigantic Carrion Feeder, recurring Recurring Nightmare, or as part of the Jund infinite Persist combos.

Shenanigans: Recurring Nightmare + Survival of the Fittest = Rec-Sur, which as far as I know is not a cereal. Vampire Hexmage + Dark Depths = Marit Lage. Hunted Horror + any ETBs-Be-Gone = 7/7 trampler for BB. Zombie Infestation + Howling Mine = lotsazombies. Demonic Pact + either Donate = “You lose the game” but for them. Hatred… Hatred is in this cube. Drain Life/Consume Spirit/Soul Burn + Cadaverous Bloom = how that deck really actually used to win the game.
RED: GOBLINS ARE DEAD LONG LIVE THE GOBLINS. In their place are efficient burn and reasonably playable creatures (it's 1999, remember?). Red also contributes big burn spells, the actual “BOOM” part of Draco-Boom (Calibrated Blast, Erratic Explosion, etc), and sweepers ranging from Earthquake to Jokulhaups and Star of Extinction. Star pulls double duty by bouncing off Stuffy Doll and friends to dome your opponent for 20.

More Key Cards: Magnetic Theft, Pandemonium, Seismic Assault, Goblin Bombardment
Draft Tips: Red is the central color in Jund and the Persist combo(s) runs right through it, also adding its burn to White Weenie makes it a respectable deck.

Shenanigans: Jokulhaups or Seismic Assault + Life from the Loam = grindfest. Magnetic Theft + high equip costs = 100% off sale. Star of Extinction or Blasphemous Act + damage redirection = lots of damage.

GREEN: Monogreen Stompy is a godawful beatdown deck, please don’t draft it. Green is half of UG Snow Matters, UG land shenans, RG beats, most Persist combos, 5c Domain… you get the picture. Green is here to make sure everyone has a good time.

More Key Cards: Fyndhorn Elves, Boreal Druid, Pattern of Rebirth, Green Sun’s Zenith, Survival of the Fittest, Natural Balance, Life from the Loam, Crop Rotation

Draft Tips: Green-based aggro is going to feature efficient beef. Whether you’re lucky enough to start with an Elf or not, you should be playing 2-3-4 drops that are bigger than everyone else’s. Survival of the Fittest is the ‘Sur’ half of Rec-Sur, and this color is chock full of spicy ETBs and when-this-dies effects. Life from the Loam is a deck in a card if you connect the dots. Pros-Bloom wouldn’t exist without Cadaverous Bloom. Finally, Five-Color Domain Green exists in all its fairy Godmother glory.

Shenanigans: Saproling Burst + Pandemonium = (n)(n+1)/2 damage for n = 7. So 21. Pattern of Rebirth + sacrifice outlet = MONSTER. Natural Balance + Squandered Resources = 10 mana on the cheap. Crop Rotation + Dark Depths combo = Marit Lage.

The More You Know: Did you know that there are only five 1-cmc mana ramps and four of them are Elves? (Jeweled Amulet completes the set.)

MULTICOLOR: There are fewer Gold cards in this cube than the main colors (70) as is fairly customary, and I swallowed my pride and made them signposts in the hope that would help smooth out what is otherwise a nightmare of Faulknerian gibberish for anyone who started playing after about Mirrodin.

Key Cards: (U/B) Lazav, the Multifarious is premium ETBs-Be-Gone. Psychatog is a premium UB Control wincon. Narfi, Betrayer King is likewise but with more snow. (U/G) Abominable Treefolk and Isu the Abominable are the poster children of UG Snow Matters. Hydroid Krasis is here because I so desperately want Pros-Bloom or another big mana combo to win even just one game—he is also about as power-crept as it gets. (B/R) Murderous Redcap is probably the best Persist combo persister. (B/G) Varolz, the Scar-Striped is absolutely filthy with Phyrexian Dreadnought and all its impersonators (nasty ETBs). Cadaverous Bloom has a whole deck named after it. (R/G) Grumgully, the Generous and/or Rhythm of the Wild make the Persist combo work. Borborygmos Enraged is best friends with Storm Cauldron, a 5-cmc artifact that will have to be pried from my cold dead hands before it gets cut. (R/W) Bruenor BattleHAMMER works really well with HAMMERtime. Boros Reckoner is happy to eat a Star of Extinction. (G/W) Kitchen Finks is the upside-down Murderous Redcap for Persist combos. Mirari’s Wake is present. Finally, it’s worth noting that the converted mana cost of the card Who//What//When//Where//Why is THIRTEEN.

ARTIFACTS: At long last we come to my personal favorite card type, Artifacts. Lots of the artifacts in this Cube cost 0 or 1, and that is because I either (a) painstakingly ensured they would appear in most games and play an outsized role, or (b) got really lazy at the last minute and threw in a bunch of favorites. For the most part they will help you fix mana, smooth out early turns, or inefficiently-but-still-for-real solve “protection from” creatures… or enable criminally insane nonsense. The important ones are signposts such as:

Such As: Colossus Hammer, which gives Hammertime its name. Phyrexian Dreadnought, the other side of the best first pick argument (imho). Illusionary Mask is the original gangster of avoiding nasty CMCs, and please use the translation card because almost nothing printed still applies, the text box might as well be blank. Torpor Orb turns off ETBs. Scroll Rack rolls Draco-Boom stacks. Howling Mine is a sleeper hit with all the discard outlets running around. Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod’s Altar, both of which enable AND pay off Persist combos. Crucible of Worlds, like its bff Life from the Loam, can be a deck unto itself. Gauntlet of Might is probably too good but I got it from Tony and we both love seeing it so tough. Storm Cauldron is like a lightsaber in that it’s insanely powerful and we’ll all cut our own hands off with it eventually. The Mirari, of Mirari’s Wake fame, is also present. Finally Draco and his Scion of Draco both go BOOM.

LANDS: The nonbasic land section of this Cube is designed to encourage snow-covered basic play and so includes: (a) almost every good way to fetch one; (b) the OG Duals; and (c) the new-ish Snow Duals, of which there are 2 copies apiece. From there we have a few manlands (Green is the only color that gets one all to itself), and a handful that deserve individual mention.

Individual Mentions: Dark Depths and Thespian’s Stage, which need no introduction. The World Tree turns all your lands into perfect 5c once you hit six total. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx allows the monocolor decks to really blow up. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth earn gold stars for helpfulness. Finally, Field of Ruin is it when it comes to land-on-land violence.