3-4 player multiplayer commander
100 starting life
20 card decks
Each player starts with a Descent into Avernus in play
Don't bother with lands
Yeah.
A few words of advice to first time drafters...
(The Countdown is at One is not in the cube, it just seemed appropriate here)
As a result of the absurd nature of this environment, games will typically end during the third or fourth turn cycle. Players may be knocked out as early as the second. Those turn cycles will be dense, with players often taking actions during each other's turns. Expect games to take about an hour, but particularly intense games can take longer.
Because of the pace of this environment, at least half of your deck should playable at instant speed. More is better. Your opponents are going to cast existentially threatening spells, and you need to be capable of answering them immediately. Similarly, the best windows to cast your own game-winning spells will usually be on someone else's turn. Don't get caught waiting around.
By now you may have done the math: 20 cards, -1 for your commander, -7 for your starting hand. You're left with 12 cards. That's not very many, and once those are gone you're one draw away from losing. Mill is at least as likely to kill you as hitting 0 life. To that end, there are four copies of Elixir of Immortality floating around; the lifegain is nice, but the shuffle is existential.
Brain Freeze is its own beast among mill cards. It's the most powerful card in the cube and a centralizing presence. You need a plan for when this card is put on the stack or you will lose to it. Draft an elixir or keep in mind that storm is a single triggered ability and you're already well on your way.
When you first open up a pack of this cube you're going to shocked by how powerful the creatures seem. Reckless Fireweaver isn't a power outlier; it's the baseline for how much damage a threat should be doing in this environment. Aggressive (usually ) decks want a critical mass of pingers, but many other decks plan to win games in ways that don't benefit much from the pressure. Don't get distracted from your game plan by how absurd the numbers on these cards sound. Relatedly, keep in mind that these pingers resolving is often not a terminal problem in a cube full of truly terminal problems.
There are two prominent (and overlapping) infinite combos in this environment, centered in :
Complete the Circuit > Reenact the Crime
Complete the Circuit is too expensive to be playable and Reenact the Crime is exciting and efficient enough.
Thoughtpicker Witch > Thieves' Guild Enforcer
Thoughtpicker was definitely too cute. Thieves' Guild Enforcer also may be too cute, but at least it has flash.
Ruthless Technomancer > Halving Season > Into the Pit
Ruthless Technomancer has been just skirting by for a long time. Being sorcery speed and quite expensive for what it does has had me off it for a while. I briefly went insane and replaced it with Halving Season but that sounds like abject misery so lets try Into the Pit instead. At minimum its still an interesting sacrifice outlet.
This card rules. It's extremely below rate but it's sorcery speed removal so why not. I appreciate it doing a sacrifice outlet impression as well.
Marionette Master > Pactdoll Terror
Marionette Master has historically been a card that people overrate. It does as much damage as a 2-3 mana card for twice as much mana, but reads really flashy. Pactdoll is just a really solid pinger to replace it with.
Return to Action > Feign Death
Unexciting change. I just felt like this needed a better rate.
Contraband Kingpin > Cunning Nightbonder
This is really cute, arguably too cute, but neither were bringing home any awards. Flashing this in in response to countermagic would be pretty exciting.
Mystical Teachings > Memory Plunder
Mystical Teachings is so much mana for what it does.
Tor Wauki the Younger > Rakdos, the Muscle