Alpha Through Eldrazi Cube:

Goal: To achieve a competitive, fun, powered drafting environment of cards from Alpha through Rise of the Eldrazi that recreates iconic archetypes from this time period.

Description: Initially I had planned to create an old frame only cube of Alpha-Scourge. The ability for color identity to shine and synergy between cards in a deck felt stifled at times. Recently, I became aware of the format, Classic Legacy, with an arbitrary cut off point in Rise of the Eldrazi. After evaluating that card pool, some of my personal favorite archetypes/decks really blossomed with the inclusion of these sets.

Initially I will try to create a core of 360 cards before increasing the pool to 450. The plan to do this revolved around hoping to identify and reinforce themes/archetypes throughout each color and color pairing. By starting with a smaller card pool, this will allow for purposeful inclusion of additional cards in quantities sufficient for archetypes to succeed. My goal is to allow synergy within color(s) to assist with drafting decisions and decks that are on theme to succeed more frequently than good stuff decks.

I enjoy symmetrical objects and set an arbitrary goal of having an equal distribution of cards across each color, artifacts, and lands. I reduced the number of gold cards to approximately 10% of the total cube searching for cards that fit well within the color pairing/themes of the decks I plan to curate. I purposely included the wedge dragon cycle as a fun series of bombs and to allow for EDH cube play as desired (draft dragons followed by only allowing their colors within a deck)

Lands: I wanted color fixing to be prevalent throughout the cube but not overwhelming where 4/5 color good stuff decks would predominate. I purposely avoided inclusion of shock lands for this reason. ABU duals, pain lands, and allied/enemy fetches with the inclusion of artifact mana felt adequate for fixing. This is also the reason that rainbow lands and reflecting pool are not featured in the cube.
Another purposeful exclusion was the removal of man-lands aside from Mishra's factory. They may return with the addition of cards from 360 to 450 but my goal for completing cycles/symmetry across goals would need to be broken (forbidding watchtower as a 1/5 feels like it would result in board stalls).
Designed drafting strategies:

White:
Aggro/Aggro control, a suite of low to the ground creatures, Aether Vial to enable flashing in creatures, bouncing creatures to maximize ETB effects, Stoneforge Mystic with a few equipment choices, and board control elements.

Blue:
Merfolks
Artifacts/Affinity
Tradewind Opposition
Morphling
Storm
Countertop

Black:
Reanimator
Zombies
Pox
Necro

Red:
Goblins
Sneak Attack
Covetous Dragon

Green:
Elves
Ramp

White/Blue:
Control decks with a gameplay of card advantage, counter magic, board control elements. and a finisher of your choice. Exploit cards like Parallax Wave/Tide to lock things down.
Flyers - Utilizing a suite of birds/pegasus, token producers (Battle Screech, Sacred Mesa) and bird-lord Soraya to win the game through the air while supporting your arm with counter magic, bounce spells, and board control elements from white.
Opposition/Tradewind

White/Black:
Deadguy Ale (Clerics and discard): Utilize creature type synergy to produce free tokens via Rotlung Reanimator, sacrifice clerics to end the game with Cabal Archon, and pump your team using anthem effects. This can be combined with WB discard to generate tokens through Spirit Cairn while limiting your opponent's gameplay.
Potential Rack deck: Maximize hand disruption through spells and enchantments with a win-con of The Rack backed by white/black removal spells and threats of your choice.

White/Red:
Tribal Goblins: Create a suite of goblin creatures and token generation via Goblin Trenches to overwhelm your opponent.
Tax/Rack Aggro: Maximize card advantage via the Land Tax-Scroll Rack engine while playing creature threats and burn. Add land destruction to taste.

White/Green:
Oath:
Enchantments Matter:
Land Destruction:

Blue/Black:
Death's Shadow:
Mill:
Stax:
Storm:

Blue/Red:
Artifacts matter:
Counterburn:
Storm:
Sneak Attack:

Blue/Green:
Madness/Bounce:

Black/Red:
Tribal Zombie/Goblins
Aggro
Troll Disko

Black/Green:
The Rock:
Dredge:
Rec/Sur:

Red/Green:
Fires:

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09/19/23
Updates and changes. Trying to increase creature ratios and also decreased the amount of removal slightly.

Cube in progress, 24/08/23
Old frame format.
Adding customized Vanguard cards in the future.
Might need to expand to 450 to fit everything.