Big Time Cube (No Planeswalkers, No Power)
(360 Card Cube)
Big Time Cube (No Planeswalkers, No Power)
Cube ID
Art by Alex KonstadArt by Alex Konstad
ANNOUNCEMENT

Over the past year or more I have become disillusioned with the way Wizards of the Coast has been taking the game. The problems are many and I do not feel like getting into all of it right now, or ever really.

Further compounding issues is the Global Pandemic and also my continued disinterest in Magic the Gathering. I have been playing since 2003, with one real break of about 16 months in 2018-19. Magic will always be the best game I have ever played, and no, I will not be selling my collection or parting out my Cube.

Thank you everyone who has drafted my cube and all those out there that keep making awesome Cube content every day.

BIG TIME CUBE DECLARATION OF INTENT:
  • Have low-middle levels of Polarization. No Planeswalkers or Monarch mechanic.
  • Linear strategies at 2+ CMC.
  • Broad flavors of midrange.
  • Incidental Archetypes: Most color combinations can be played different ways. Example: Azorius can be Flying (Dream Trawler), Blink (Kykar, Zephyr Awakener) or Tempo (Reflector Mage).
w WHITE w
  • Flying creatures to soar over Midrange.
  • Token Generation.
  • Destroy all creatures.
  • Targeted Removal.
  • Double Pip Cycle: Flowering of the White Tree
u BLUE u
  • Flying creatures to soar over Midrange.
  • Counterspell and Cantrip focused.
  • Modality whenever possible.
  • Double Pip Cycle: Counterspell
b BLACK g
  • Hand disruption.
  • Recursive Creatures.
  • Targeted Removal.
  • Double Pip Cycle: Bloodghast
r RED r
  • Creatures Interact with Instants and Sorceries.
  • Direct Damage.
  • Direct damage, multiple targets.
  • Double Pip Cycle: Flametongue Yearling
g GREEN g
MULTICOLORED

w-u Azorius w-u


Description: Azorius excels in control and permission, with access to counterspells and board wipes. It's great at maintaining board presence and stalling the game. Flying is the standout incidental archetype that utilizes the abundance of White and Blue flying creatures to attack in the air. This may include using Drake and Spirit Tokens, buffs such as Flowering of the White Tree and Favorable Winds in order to have a massive evasive army.
Key cards: Favorable Winds, Luminous Broodmoth, Dream Trawler

u-b Dimir u-b


Description: Dimir is the realm of stealthy control tactics. It offers card draw, removal, and graveyard interactions, often leading to strategic victories. Dimir deploys large amounts of Blue permission (Counterspell) and Black Removal (Doom Blade) and Hand Disruption (Thoughtseize) to cast large threats and protect them.
Key cards: Brazen Borrower, Murderous Rider, Dragonlord Silumgar

b-r Rakdos b-r


Description: Black and Red creature aggro beatdown opponents and use Removal (Fell, Incendiary Flow) to secure their path for victory. This can be played mostly as a Disruptive deck (Rankle, Master of Pranks) or a Linear turn-things-sideways aggressive deck.
Key cards: Dauthi Voidwalker, Squee, Dubious Monarch, Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

r-g Gruul r-g


Description: Gruul is all about ramping and big creatures. It can quickly deploy threats and has access to efficient beaters and mana acceleration. Using Green's access to Mana Dorks (Llanowar Elves) to power out larger threats earlier and using the flexibility of Red Burn (Arc Trail) to quickly pivot from offense to defense.
Key cards: Tectonic Giant, Thragtusk, Dragonlord Atarka

g-w Selesnya g-w


Description: Selesnya excels in token generation, go-wide strategies, and creature synergy. It can swarm the board with powerful creatures. Using the flexibility of both colors the resulting deck can be a well-rounded deck that can grind out incremental advantage or beat face.
Key cards: Eternal Witness, Resolute Reinforcements, Knight of Autumn

w-b Orzhov w-b


Description: Orzhov excels in removal and control tactics. It offers a mix of board presence and permission-style gameplay. It can be a general hard Control deck that uses White and Black sweepers (Day of Judgment), removal, recursive cards (Ebondeath, Dracolich) or tokens to clear the board and respond with threats.
Key cards: Spectral Procession, Pack Rat, Lingering Souls

u-r Izzet u-r


Description: Izzet focuses on spell synergies. It combines creature interactions with spellcasting for versatile strategies. Red has a multitude of cards that care about Instants/Sorceries, and Blue has an abundance of Instants/Sorceries for it to cast. Since this Cube does not play Planeswalkers the Talrand, Sky Summoner's of the world become the new ways to take over the game.
Key cards: Young Pyromancer, Murmuring Mystic, Sprite Dragon

b-g Golgari b-g


Description: Golgari thrives on graveyard recursion, midrange strategies, and resilience. It can efficiently trade resources and recover from setbacks.
Key cards: Virtue of Persistence, Dread Wanderer, Vengevine

r-w Boros r-w


Description: Boros specializes in aggressive, creature-based strategies. It's known for efficient creatures, combat tricks, and quick damage output. No card is more genre defining than Boros Charm. It is a Prowess enabler and a great for attacking. There are so many ways to draft from either: basically just drafting either hyper aggressive creatures that are real low to the ground, or drafting heavy one color and splashing the other.
Key cards: Monastery Mentor, Heartfire Immolator, Boros Charm

g-u Simic g-u


Description: Excels in ramping mana, card draw, counterspells, and creature versatility. Focuses on adapting to different game states, and offering an array of threats and answers for a well-rounded draft experience.
Key cards: Brazen Borrower, Nightpack Ambusher, Prophet of Kruphix

So what is left to do?
  • Run only 5-6 different Tokens.
  • Every keyword to become Evergreen.
  • Reduce the amount of text on cards overall. I find that new players get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of text on a card (Gonti, Lord of Luxury) they either tend to take forever reading it, or impatiently pass it so they can draft more cards.
  • Reduce additive distraction cards and unsupported archetype signals (Aphemia, the Cacophony) which is probably just #cubeproblems.
  • Find an identity for Black. It's sort of in a weird spot where it is kind of mid-range, kind of aggressive and ultimately a splash color.
  • Mostly everyone putting together a cube, there are some color combinations that have no depth. Rakdos in my opinion is probably the worst. There are no cards that say "I should splash x". Boros, Izzet, Simic, Golgari. Hope is that Wizards of the Coast manage to remedy that in future sets.
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