Welcome to the Cricket Cube!

I first started playing magic during Urza's Saga back in 1999. I picked it back up many years later during Battle for Zendikar (2016) and have been collecting cards from most sets since then. Along the way, some of the sets that I drafted a lot at the time will be reflected in the list: GRN/RNA, SOI, and THB.

384 cards is so 8 people can draft 3 packs of 16. Each player sees two cards from every pack. (Plus another 16 for Booster Tutor)

This cube began as a pile of cards in my collection. Around half the cards present have been collected by me through various bundles, booster drafts, or random packs cracked over the years. The rest are cards I like that I have curated to fit the power level of the cards I already owned. I hope you enjoy drafting my personal cube! - JimCricket42

Two-color archetypes

- Blink - (Control)

Blue has a ton of control pieces and white has the flicker. Bounce your ETB effects for max value while controlling the board and the skies. White also cares about vehicles and equipment which crosses into Blue artifacts.

- Value - (Control)

Blue based decks are going to be more controlling. Black gives this deck tons on value from sacrifice, discard and graveyard manipulation. Stealing your opponents stuff like a band of rogues. Evasive flyers like kitesail freebooter and spyglass siren allow for a ninja tempo strategy.

- Artifact Sac - (Aggro)

Red decks will tend to be aggressive. Rakdos has the most treasure generators and will want to be cracking artifacts and little critters. There are some self-reanimating 'skeletons' in black. blood artist lets this lean into a true aristocrats deck.

- Stompy - (Aggro)

When red and green get together, things get...stompy. Put +1/+1 counters on your creatures, give them trample/haste and smash face. Gruul is not particularly well supported... more like Mono-Green elves splashing Red, or Mono-Red humans splashing Green.

- Enchantments - (Mid-range)

Selesnya has the most concentration of enchantments and the best constellation payoffs. There is also some anthems and convokes to support go-wide tokens. Plenty of humans in green to support compliment Boros humans.

- Reanimator - (Mid-range)

Black has plenty of sac-outlets and recursive creatures. Orzhov says, "all my creature are recursive!"
Reanimator is also supported in UB with cards like Flash and The Modern Age. BR can also support reanimator with bitter reunion.

- Spellslinger - (Aggro)

Classically trained: Izzet spells. Cast your spells for value. This can be aggressive as a prowess build or controlling with bounce. Other spells payoffs include storm-kiln artist and electrostatic field. Storm! Also Lier, Disciple of the Drowned.

- Graveyard - (Mid-range)

More of the classics: Golgari graveyard. Profit from the things into your graveyard.

- Artifact - (Aggro)

Boros is an aggro build that benefits from playing equipment. Most of the equipment in the cube aggressively buffs power like heirloom blade and loxodon warhammer. Red has the seconds most humans after White which can benefit from the tribal payoffs.

- Landfall - (Ramp)

Simic ramp. Play extra lands each turn and pump out the big fatties on the top end. Benefit from the simple act of playing lands.

- Bolas - (Control)

This cube also runs a few enablers and payoffs for stretching into Grixis. I like that it is not green-based and therefore more difficult to pull off. There are more fixing enablers for izzet, rakdos and dimir to help support this color pair. Grixis players will likely be mono-black splashing izzet.

Mono-colored archetypes

- Humans - (Aggro)

Look at that curve! There are bunches of humans in this cube. Enough to fill out a mono-white aggressive strategy. Humans are all over this cube including (84 non-white humans). Humans will likely be drawn into WR or WG. Kenny gives another great reason to splash or pick up duals.

- Artifacts - (Tempo)

There is a sub-theme in blue to play artifacts. Make thopters and discount or buff other artifacts. Mono-U also has tempo pieces like tishana's tidebinder and daze.

- Devotion - (Control)

Play cards with black pips then cast and recast and reanimate Gary FTW!

- RDW - (Aggro)

Mono Red is going to burn face. Some classic RDW cards from standard's past. Payoffs for playing lots of red spells and permanents. Some Big-Red payoffs in glorybringer and Éomer of the Riddermark.

- Elfs - (Ramp)

The true ramp deck. Green is full of elves ready to swarm the board and tap for a ton of mana. Top end payoffs include old one eye and end-raze forerunners. I sprinkled elves into all the other colors to encourage mono-green drafters to splash. scuttling sentinel, tribune of rot, elderfang disciple, werefox bodyguard.

My intention is to encourage mono colored builds with some splashes or focused two color decks or Grixis. The focus on Grixis lends major support to Izzet, Dimir and Rakdos. Boros is the most aggressive deck. I think there is an aggressive Selesnya build or GW can go more midrange. Azorius and Dimir are THE control deck. Gruul, Orzhov, Golgari, and Simic are not extremely archetypal and can be built using cross synergies. Some guilds have less option for fixing.
I personally find myself drafting Jeskai control decks or multi-colored control. Looking to add some untapped duals like fast lands and shocks. Hoping to find other ways to boost aggro.

"Power 9" of the Cricket Cube

Combos
Thopter/Sword

Saheeli/Felidar

Channel/Fireball (currently cut)

Kiki Combo (currently cut)

Kiki Lite

Storm (currently cut)

A note on companions. My cube contains the MUL printings with the errata rules of paying to put the companion into hand.