Hello, Welcome to Return to the Pastoral, a Nature Themed Cube.

This cube is a Magic: the Gathering effort to express my deep love for our planet and its abundant, diverse environments. Our planet truly is a wonder to behold, with all of its amazing landscapes, animals, plants, and waters. I'd like to see that same wonder reflected in the cool game system that is MTG. My dream-goal for this cube is that those that play it will be reminded of how truly awesome our planet is-- I hope the experience of this cube illuminates the fire under its players to care a bit more deeply about where we live, whatever that looks like for them. I know playing Magic is never going to save the planet, but if I can help someone see how badly our world needs us right now, even just a little bit, then I'm happy!

In an effort to follow these design goals, I've imposed the following creative restrictions on this cube:

I will do my best to avoid artwork, flavor text, or design elements that suggest fantasy or otherworldliness. Players should be reminded of our own world when they see a card from this cube.

I will do my best to avoid artwork, flavor text, or design elements that suggest urban society, modernity, and the trappings therein.

I will do my best to favor artwork, flavor text, or design elements that suggest non-human presence. I want there to be some humans in the cube, mostly so the player may see reflected their own appreciation for nature. Ultimately, I want it to feel like there are more plants and animals.

Please keep in mind that these are just design guidelines, too. :)
If a card has something about it that bends or somewhat breaks these rules, yet fits the theme perfectly in almost every other way, I’m going to lean towards finding ways to include it.

I’ve found through the process of building and maintaining this cube that the color pie of MTG really dictates how nature is expressed in interesting ways. For example, Black often looks to exploit nature for personal gain. The color often represents nature’s resilience on the fringes of life. Green , in contrast, is nature at its most lucid, however brutal or gentle. Blue is interested in nature’s vast systems of interconnection. It seeks to represent the world at its most curious. White’s tendencies are to impose structure and order onto something like a rugged landscape. That structure that White brings enables the human experience with nature, as humanity brings all their personal codes and rules to the wilderness. Red is truly unrestrained. It is nature at its most volatile— think of a natural disaster or, yes, even a bolt of lightning.

There is a land theme in this cube— expect to be looking at lands a lot, thinking about how to use them, and how to interact with your opponents’ lands.

Also, because of the prohibitively expensive nature of cards like Tropical Island, I’ll be making proxies for the vast majority of cards over 5$ I’ve never made proxy MTG cards before this and I’m honestly excited about the crafting opportunity!

Check out @Rarestar’s Earth Cube and @MirageJester’s Natural World Cube! Their projects lent me inspiration for this one— some of their picks are my own because their choices were just perfect for my goals too.

I hope you enjoy!