Art by Erica YangThis cube is my personal love letter to Magic: The Gathering. It celebrates clean, incremental midrange gameplay, where every decision matters and tempo is king. Each card is a piece of my journey through the game, adorned with artist autographs and limited tournament draft stamps, making it a unique and deeply personal collection.
Designed for fast-paced, decision-heavy games, this cube emphasizes efficient mana usage, disruptive interaction, and threats that generate incremental advantage. It’s most often drafted with four players—an excuse to get lunch on a rainy Sunday and spend an afternoon hanging out with friends, sharing laughs, and playing cards.
Efficiency is King: The cube rewards quick, decisive plays—prioritize low-cost, high-impact spells.
Disruption is Crucial: Interaction is abundant, so be prepared to navigate counterplay.
Resource Management: Card advantage matters, but maintaining tempo is often more critical than raw card quantity.
Versatile Builds: While decks often align with the outlined archetypes, hybrid strategies can emerge through draft decisions.
Origins:This cube is a branch off of Ryan Overturf's Tempo Twobert, originally forked in March of 2022. While Overturf’s version has come to focus more on Prowess and combat, this iteration shifts towards a midrange-oriented approach, incorporating grindy value plays and more resilient threats. (A comparison of our current cube lists can be found here.)
Drafting Formats:Four Players: 5 packs of 9 cards each, booster draft as normal, alternating directions for each pack.
Two Players (Minneapolis Draft): 8 packs of 7 cards each. Reveal both packs, pick them back up, draft one card, swap packs and draft two cards, swap packs and draft two final cards, trash last two cards facedown.
Deck Construction:-
Minimum 40 cards, typically 25 non-land cards and 15 lands due to compressed curves.
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Three-color decks are the norm due to strong fixing. Splashes are easy and encouraged.
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Archetypes serve as guidelines, not rigid deck constraints—drafting is dynamic.
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Snow basics are provided after the draft. (Snow super-type is currently only relevant for Ice-Fang Coatl, though eases future card additions.)
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The cube is updated with each set release to ensure a dynamic and evolving gameplay experience.
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Yellow tagged cards are newly added and are being tested. Pinks tagged cards are actively being considered to be cut.
Azorius (
) Tempo: Evasive threats backed by disruption and card advantage.
Dimir (
) Disruption: A mix of tempo counterspells, efficient removal, and graveyard value.
Rakdos (
) Aggro: Low-curve aggressive creatures with burn and discard.
Gruul (
) Aggro: High-tempo aggressive creatures with pump and burn spells.
Selesnya () Aggro: Resilient creatures with buffs and protective elements.
Izzet () Spellslinger: Cheap spells fueling card draw and burn synergy.
Golgari () Midrange: Graveyard recursion and resilient threats.
Orzhov () Value: Disruptive aggro with recursion and token support.
Simic () Card Advantage: Flexible play patterns with incremental value.
Boros () Aggro: Fast, disruptive aggression with burn support.
Moreso two updates in one. New cards from Tarkir: Dragonstorm join the lineup and a round of spring cleaning clears space for more interesting play patterns.
Of the new mechanics, Flurry’s push toward double-spelling fits naturally into this environment. Rally the Monastery and Cori-Steel Cutter replace Bulwark Ox and Fireblast, respectively. Rally may prove too expensive to consistently make decks, but the modality creates interesting tension. The Cutter is an interesting toy for red-based aggro and a powerful payoff for blue-based spells-matter decks looking to pivot on tempo. Fireblast had an undeniable ceiling but was often a trap: frequently gifted late, rarely worth the cost, and ultimately more punishing than rewarding.
Repeal finally exits after years as a perfectly acceptable 24th card. In its place is Floodpits Drowner, which gives blue decks more meaningful interaction with the board, a way to manage problematic creatures, and a flexible line that encourages instant-speed play and long-term planning.
Stalactite Stalker underdelivered even with support from fetches and cheap artifacts. Emperor of Bones enters as a proactive graveyard hate piece and a compelling build-around for grindier black decks. Interactions with +1/+1 counters (Luminarch Aspirant, Ornery Tumblewagg, etc) may prove awkward, but the upside is worth testing.
Finally, Vindicate is out and Orzhov Charm steps in. Vindicate’s power was never in question, but it increasingly felt like a blunt instrument in more synergy-driven decks. Charm trades raw power for flexibility: cheap removal, recursion, and corner-case reach, all while better supporting modern Orzhov shells.