Neal's Micro Cube
In this micro cube players draft 20 cards (2 packs of 10) and decks are exactly 15 cards. The only gameplay modifications are that players do not lose if they would draw from an empty library, and if both players are unable or decline to take game actions then the player with the higher life total wins.
9 spells and 6 lands is the standard (equivalent to 23/17 for limited), but decks can also have 5 or 7 lands. Every extra land to play more powerful cards means one less spell, so be careful!
Games are intended to end around turns 7-9 in this cube. Aggro decks ending the game around turn 7 means that the adjusted deck size did not matter, and control decks ending the game around turn 9+ have usually found a way to shuffle cards from their graveyard into their library, loop their library, and/or win with a mana sink.
A frequent heuristic is that aggro decks may play 0 effects that shuffle cards from their graveyard into their library, midrange decks may play 1, and control decks may play 2.
Due to the recursive nature of some decks, graveyard interaction is powerful but not free. Most repeated effects of exiling cards from graveyards require mana or attacking.
Although I have intentionally supported some archetypes (eg: white/black/red aggro, green ramp, black sacrifice, tokens, etc), I encourage you to find pockets of synergy and push them! For example, I have not tried to explicitly support goblins but you can certainly draft a deck that curves Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin into Beetleback Chief into Siege-Gang Commander! Given that you start with almost half of your deck in your hand that 3 cards is already 30% of your spells, these synergies you plan for in deck building are very likely to come up in the games.
This cube has no infinite combos, planeswalkers, or cards under 7 mana that are powerful enough to win a game just by themselves. There are also no ways to mill cards from your opponent's library or to interact with your opponent's lands.
This cube is intended to be drafted with 2 packs of 10 cards (20 card pools), and Housman drafting with 20 card pools (4 packs of 5, trade row of 9) has also worked really well.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I first saw a micro cube during the voting season for CubeCon 2023. My main cube is a fairly traditional Legacy+ cube and I had primarily designed 360ish card size cubes that follow the standard magic rules. Micro cubes were extremely interesting to me right away because I liked the idea of a potentially faster draft and gameplay experience that could entirely fit in a fairly small box for me to bring to various magic events. This has allowed me to get a lot of testing done in both 2 person and 8 person drafts, and I am very proud of where this cube is now. Some additional testing is needed to continue to identify power outliers, but on the whole the cube feels fairly balanced with a lot of variety. Additionally, I am extremely happy to have a home for many cards that I love but are no longer powerful enough for my primary cube.
I also want to express how proud I am of my friends and community for helping with this cube. This cube has changed so many design tenants and cards as we continued to iterate on it for over 1 year, and I am grateful for all they have done.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
CubeCon has asked that I cut Five-Finger Discount for this cube to be submitted. This Cube Cobra list reflects that change, but it will still be in the cube for non-CubeCon drafts. I have also cut some cards for the event that while I believe are not too strong or a bad fit, I do recognize that they may not be enjoyable to play against in your first and only draft of this cube. These cards are identified in the Maybeboard with a different color.