Cloned from Commander Cube

In the Commander Cube, big games are king! This is a multiplayer, battlecruiser-style cube that aims for the feel and variety of constructed Commander circa 2014-2019.

My goal is to promote decks at the 6-7 / 10 power level, where 1/10 is a precon and 10/10 is cEDH. Some notable EDH staples have been excluded to ensure that aggressive, midrange, and control strategies all have a fighting chance. The cube supports broad commander archetypes across 3-5 colors (sacrifice, tokens, equipment, reanimator, +1/+1 counters, spellslinger, big mana, etc.).

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Commanders are shuffled into the main cube and drafted alongside the rest of the cards. Decks are drafted from a pool of around 60 cards per person, and depending on how many people show up, we’ve found success with:

• Standard Draft: 4 packs of 15, 5 packs of 12, or 3 packs of 20 (pick two)
• Rochester Draft: 4 packs of 15, 5 packs of 12, or 3 packs of 20 (pick two)
• Burn Draft: 6 packs of 15 (pick 2, burn 1)
• Grid Draft: 20-25 grids of 9 (2-player only)
• Winston Draft: 20-25 picks per person (2-player only)
• Solomon Draft: 15 packs of 9 per person (2-player only)
• Sealed Deck: 120 cards

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Deck construction follows normal Commander rules, with a few house rules:

• Partners: If it sounds like a partner, it is a partner. Background, Choose a Background, Friends Forever, and Doctor's Companion are all errata'd to have "Partner".
• Splashing: Monocolored commanders are allowed to splash one color. All cards that reference color identity are errata'd to include this splash color.
• Deck Size: Minimum deck size is 60 cards plus commander(s).
• Free Card: Each player receives a free Command Tower after the draft.

All other Commander rules apply: 40 life, 21 commander damage, etc.

A typical deck breaks down into around 26-27 lands and 33-34 nonlands, with a goal of at least 5-6 ramp sources, at least 5-6 draw sources, and enough removal and interaction to suit your strategy.

The partner and splash rules are our solution to color identity's "drafting on rails" problem. We tested other ideas - like granting all monocolored commanders partner, restricting color identity to basic lands but allowing splashing through nonbasics, or ignoring color identity completely - but they all proved too format-warping with this cube's card pool or too big of a violation of the spirit of Commander.

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When balancing the cube and swapping out cards, I focus on maintaining the density of key effects like card flow, ramp, and removal:

Commanders:

• tag:Commander: All available commanders.
• tag:Partner: All partners under the cube's errata.

Ramp and Draw:

• tag:Ramp: Grows your manabase. Does not include land-to-hand tutors or effects that only fix colors.
• tag:Card-Flow: Scries/surveils/explores, filters/rummages, cantrips, replaces itself, tutors land to hand, etc. Does not increase net cards in hand.
• tag:Card-Flow-Engine: Repeatable scry/filter/etc. effect that does not increase net cards in hand.
• tag:Draw: One-shot draw effect that draw at least 2 cards under normal circumstances.
• tag:Draw-Engine: Repeatable draw effect that has the potential to draw at least 2 cards under normal circumstances.
• tag:Tutor: Searches your library for a nonland card.

Recursion:

• tag:Recursion: Replaces itself by returning another card from a graveyard ("pseudo-card flow").
• tag:Self-Recursion: Can replay itself from the graveyard at least once ("pseudo-card flow").
• tag:Recursion-Card-Advantage: Returns at least 2 cards from graveyards under normal circumstances ("pseudo-draw").

Removal:

• tag:Creature-Removal: Removes almost any creature immediately, though not necessarily permanently.
• tag:Conditional-Removal: Removes a subset of creatures but not all; or removes creatures very temporarily; or lets your opponent choose which creature they remove; or removes a creature after a delay; etc.
• tag:Board-Wipe: Removes (almost) all creatures.
• tag:Conditional-Board-Wipe: A board wipe with similar conditions to tag:Conditional-Removal.
• tag:Artifact-Removal: Removes one or more artifacts.
• tag:Enchantment-Removal: Removes one or more enchantments.
• tag:Planeswalker-Removal: Removes one or more planeswalkers.
• tag:Counterspell: Counters a spell.
• tag:Graveyard-Hate: Prevents recursion. Includes traditional graveyard hate and creature removal that exiles rather than destroys.

Other:

• tag:Board-Protection: Protects one or more permanents from removal.
• Ratio of creatures ("type:creature or tag:pseudo-creature") to noncreatures to lands.
• Curve and average mana value by color identity.
• General quantities of micro-archetype support, such as +1/+1 counters, self-mill, spells-matter payoffs, token generators, etc. Each micro-archetype has different needs, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach.