Mostly Based off Tom's commander cube.

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Table of Contents:

1. Overview
2. Archetypes
3. Draft/Commander Rules
4. Draft Primer
5. Rules Quick Guide
6. Other

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OVERVIEW

Since the release of Commander Legends, this cube has became my greatest MtG project. This cube is designed to replicate a fun and engaging EDH experience that is new every time you sit down to play. Supporting upwards to 16 players, draft with your friends and break into 4-player pods.

WHAT TO EXPECT

• Games feel like EDH: I've curated this list to include the staples that are synonymous with Commander. Cards are powerful, fun, splashy and decks should feel as though they were genuine-made Commander decks. To me, it isn't really Commander if everyone doesn't have a Sol Ring, someone isn't overloading a Cyclonic Rift, asking me to pay the for Smothering Tithe, or crashing in with a Craterhoof Behemoth for the win.

• Combos that reward creative deck building and player knowledge: combos exist but should be easy to interact with and require many pieces to achieve. I want combos to be a rare occurrence but vital to ensure that every game can end in a reasonable amount of time and decks don't devolve into boring goodstuff piles.

• Combat focused gameplay: the cube rewards combat to prevent boring board stalls and keep games shorter with effects like ninjutsu, goad, monarch, initiative, and more. I've pushed most archetypes into being aggressive in some way, such as curating with cards that require attacking for payoff.

• Archetypes that are well-supported and overlap together: many of the 3-color generals exemplify this. Each of the archetypes should have interesting synergies with each other to keep drafting and gameplay smooth and fresh every time.

• Streamlined drafting and deck building rules: I tried to keep from deviating from the standard rules of Magic. The draft rules from Commander Legends are used here with little innovation to make the process as simple and intuitive as possible.

• A handful of illegal cards in EDH: Mystery Booster playtest cards, Conspiracy cards, un-cards, and cards that are banned in EDH give a unique experience you can only get with cube. View the cards not legal in EDH by filtering with "legality!=Commander".

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ARCHETYPES

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This classic blink deck plays permanents with "enters the battlefield" effects and builds value by exiling them and returning them to the battlefield to re-trigger their effects.

Notable generals: Tivit, Seller of Secrets, Pramikon, Sky Rampart, and Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

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This deck is an aggressive version of the theft strategy. It heavily rewards dealing damage to opponents in exchange for taking their spells and/or drawing cards.

Notable generals: Sen Triplets, Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge, and The Mimeoplasm

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No pain, no gain. This group-slug style deck wants you and your opponents to sacrifice permanents to gain value. While the core theme is sacrificing, many cards in this archetype also deal increments of damage and cause opponents to discard cards.

Notable generals: Extus, Oriq Overlord, Nekusar, the Mindrazer and Henzie "Toolbox" Torre

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This deck is the go-tall stompy strategy. Ramp into large threats with attack and landfall triggers that put pressure on your opponents' life totals.

Notable generals: Haldan, Avid Arcanist + Pako, Arcane Retriever, Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, and Henzie "Toolbox" Torre

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This deck wants to go-wide with an onslaught of tokens. Utilize anthems and combat tricks to make an unbeatable army.

Notable generals: Phabine, Boss's Confidant, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, and Ghave, Guru of Spores

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This aristocrats style of play wants you to generate tokens or play creatures with death triggers and sacrifice them for greater value. There is a secondary strategy of "dark deals" where you offer your opponents small advantages in exchange for a bigger pay off.

Notable generals: Extus, Oriq Overlord, Tivit, Seller of Secrets, and Ghave, Guru of Spores

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This is the spell-slinging, combo-adjacent deck. Many of the cards in this archetype will care about the casting of non-creature spells and reward explosive turns where you cast many spells in succession.

Notable generals: Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge, Kykar, Wind's Fury, and Kalamax, the Stormsire

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This is the reanimator/morbid strategy. This archetype rewards you for putting cards in graveyards with discard and removal as well as allows you to use the graveyard as a resource to pull back from.

Notable generals: Myrkul, Lord of Bones, Lord Windgrace, and Muldrotha, the Gravetide

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This archetype is centered around aggression and controlling combat. It takes advantage of creatures with attack triggers, equipment to suit them up, and combat tricks.

Notable generals: Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, Pramikon, Sky Rampart, and Isshin, Two Heavens as One

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This deck wants to ramp into big threats and make them bigger with +1/+1 counters. Many cards in this archetype will care about power and toughness and the manipulation of counters.

Notable generals: Falco Spara, Pactweaver, Haldan, Avid Arcanist + Pako, Arcane Retriever, and The Mimeoplasm

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A theme to bring the entire cube together is tokens. Various cards will care about tokens in one way or another.

This strategy has some very deep veins you can explore and there is so much more you can do even outside of the main archetypes. Maybe you want to build a group hug deck with either Kwain, Itinerant Meddler or Selvala, Explorer Returned. Maybe you want to recur artifacts with Osgir, the Reconstructor or cast wheels with Nekusar, the Mindrazer. This cube has a near endless number of possibilities!

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DRAFT/COMMANDER RULES

Players draft from 3 packs of 20 from the cube and build a deck of 60 (59/58 + general(s)). Players draft two cards at a time. Each pack is seeded with two legendary creatures from the Commander section of the cube. "Partner with" cards are automatically drafted together and are treated as a single card for draft purposes (draft a Haldan, Avid Arcanist and get a Pako, Arcane Retriever for free). Any card with "Choose a Background" also has "Partner" and vise versa. Any legendary creature or planeswalker drafted may be used as a general. Additionally, players' starting life totals are 40.

In order to replicate the feel of commander (and for the sake of balance and drafting freedom), it is vital that some staples be made available to all players. Players each start the draft with the following cards in their draft pool:

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DRAFT PRIMER

I've found that this cube does a really good job of appealing to different types of drafters. Newer players should have an easy time grabbing the first legendary creature they like and forcing a deck that should work fairly well, however, the draft environment doesn't have to be all "on-rails" as you might expect. I've developed a guide to the value drafter that should help players build nuanced, effective, and fun decks.

During the draft you should prioritize your picks effectively. The following guide is to help beginners with the cube accomplish this:

There are 4 major card types to look out for in packs 1 and 2.

1. Game Enders -- the highest priority are the game winning cards. This includes cards like Approach of the Second Sun, Expropriate, Rise of the Dark Realms, Insurrection, and Craterhoof Behemoth. These cards are first pick-able, as resolving one will usually result in a game win.

2. Fixing/Ramp -- Second is mana fixing. Both lands and rocks fit nicely here. It is often correct to pick these up before you are even locked into any colors, as the ability to cast your spells more consistently greatly increases your deck viability.

3. Commanders -- Third is your general. Many players will snap up legendary creatures immediately, passing up on cards that would otherwise greatly improve their deck. I find it is often best to make sure you aren't passing either of the first two categories of cards first before making a move into locking your deck's colors and strategy down. This does still need to be a high priority as your deck legality hinges on it.

4. Haymakers -- Finally are cards that, no matter what, will always make the cut and are strong signals that a color is open when passed. Notable cards in this category are Luminarch Ascension, Teferi's Protection, Smothering Tithe, Cyclonic Rift, Rhystic Study, Deadeye Navigator, Reanimate, Summon the Pack, Revel in Riches, Dockside Extortionist, Etali, Primal Storm, Blasphemous Act, Avenger of Zendikar, Triumph of the Hordes, and Oracle of Mul Daya.

After these conditions are met, you should begin looking for cards that fit your deck appropriately and help along your game-plan.

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RULES QUICK GUIDE

• Start with Command Tower, Commander's Sphere, Sol Ring, and The Prismatic Piper
• Draft 3 packs of 20
• Draft 2 cards at a time
• Standard commander color identity rules
• Any legendary creatures or planeswalkers drafted at anytime may be used as a general
• Cards with "Partner" have "Choose a Background" and vise versa
• Commander damage is 21
• Minimum deck size is 60
• Starting life totals are 40
• Friendly mulligan rules (first mulligan is free)

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OTHER

For any rule not specifically covered, feel free to house rule it. Do what works best for your play group. For example: for cards like Booster Tutor, Summon the Pack, and Stocking Tiger that refer to a "sealed Magic booster pack", we use 10 cards at random from the undrafted portion of the cube.