Art by Jakub KasperWelcome to my cube!
The cards I love most and represent this cube:
Play commons and uncommons from Magic's past and present! See beloved cards often left to the wayside in constructed such as Lingering Souls! See cards from the past that pack a punch like Goblin Bushwhacker! See powerful limited staples from modern sets like Diregraf Horde brought to a new environment! Fun and nostalgic for players accustomed to the sets of new and sets of old, this peasant cube aims to establish a card's ability to make it into the mainboard rather than its ability to promote deck builds. The goal for this cube was to include cards that are not only always great for someone drafting that color to see, but also to have just enough compatability with other cards to generate established "archetypes."
As seen above, the heart of this cube is its hybrid section. When drafting many cubes, monocolored decks are often unfavored next to multicolored decks, and this cube's hybrid section aims to promote these monocolored decks, and make the cube worth redrafting!
Breakdown of the cube:
72 each monocolor
40 hybrid
50 multicolor
30 colorless + colorless lands
60 multicolor lands
Monocolor Archetypes
: White is the synergy color of the cube—it plays well with others and contains a number of synergies within itself. White's themes include early aggro, ETB effects, tokens, and creature-based value and chaining. Cards that may be seen in each theme are shown below:
: Blue is the tempo color of the cube, with modality, creatures that bounce and tap, draw, and evasion. Cards that may be seen in each theme are shown below:
: Black is the midrange color of the cube, with themes such as sacrifice, drain, reanimator, and tempo. Cards that may be seen in each theme are shown below:
: Red is the aggressive color of the cube, with themes such as burn, pinging, sacrifice, and evasion. Cards that may be seen in each theme are shown below:
: Green is the goldfishing color of the cube—It plays basically only to support its own objective with themes such as ramp and card filtering, and plays creatures that don't mind attacking into clogged boardstates, with themes such as beefy creatures or creatures that regenerate. Cards that may be seen in each theme are shown below:
Multicolored Pairings
: "Tempo Team": Azorius Tempo: This tempo archetype is less making sure your opponent uses their mana inefficiently and more you making sure you use your mana efficiently. The archetype uses instant speed spells and creatures that prevent your opponent from getting to aggressive, both of which are shown below:
: "Value Valet": Dimir Tempo: A basic tempo archetype: Use bounce/removal to clear the way for creatures that keep you drawing cards or maintaining the tempo chain. Both spells and creatures shown below:
: "Insult to Injury": Rakdos Aggro: This archetype is more of a value aggro, with creatures or spells that benefit from attacking or have multiple beneficial effects, such as damage and discard. Some creatures and spells below:
: "Sudden Death": Gruul Aggro: This is a volatile archetype in the cube, with explosive attacks that can be easily interacted with. The strategy involves sudden damage by pumping creatures midcombat and playing hasty creatures, some of both below:
: "Go Wide or Go Home": Selesnya Tokens: A basic archetype—flood the battlefield with tokens and overwhelm your opponent. Some token producers below:
: "The Expendables": Orzhov Synergy: Another classic archetype for its colors, the W/B deck plays small creatures to sacrifice them for draining or use them for other value. Some creatures that produce these synergies are seen below:
: "Zap and Tap": Izzet Aggro: The archetype is pretty standard for U/R: Play creatures that benefit from you casting noncreature spells, and with either throw an amass of tokens or pure value. Some creatures that produce these effects are seen below:
: "Fermented Fruit": Golgari Midrange: The archetype specializes in reanimation and recursion. The Goal is to either reanimate bombs early or cycle smaller creatures, both of which are seen below:
: "CamaREDerie": Boros Aggro: The boros aggro theme centers around pumping up Smaller creatures that often produce multiple other creatures, as seen by cards below:
: "Rampy Pampy": Simic Ramp: A basic archetype—play rampers, play pampers. Some of both below:
Drafting the Cube
Setup for the cube involves creating a 360 stack to divide 3 15card packs among 8 people. The 360 stack is composed of a random assortment of 50 cards of each color, 20 hybrid cards, 33 multicolor cards, 20 colorless cards, and 37 lands.
Why 540?
This cube was originally a 180 cube, then became 360, and finally 540. Why? There is a single reason, which was homogeneity. When you have few enough cards, those who draft tend to take only their favorite cards or force synergies they like/believe do well. By having cards sometimes never make it to the pool, drafters can't rely on specific cards to round out their deck, creating for more dynamic drafts rather than certain colored/color combo decks looking the exact same. For example, each multicolor pairing has a suite of cards that work well for generally one theme, but drafters can't rely on getting those cards open or even passed to them, making these decks often different every draft. While the cube is rarity-restricted and only has one of each card, it makes the draft feel more like that of a traditional booster draft.
Drafting Monocolor
Like mentioned before, the cube has synergies and themes, but many of the cards are just good cards that do good things. Most cards are simply cards that do effects in the given color's range that can benefit all decks using them. Many of them are fan favorites, and are so for a reason:
Also, some of the synergies in the cube that you may see are cards that actually benefit from a player pursuing a monocolored approach:
This peasant cube has a specialized hybrid section that is primarily dedicated to supporting monocolor archetypes, while still being good in their respective multicolored pairings. For example, cards like Murderous Redcap is a great card to sacrifice for black and red monocolor archetypes and deals direct damage for either the tempo purposes of black and burn purposes of red. Other cards, such as Burning Tree-Emissary are simply just good cards for a respective broader archetype, in this case green or red monocolored aggro.
While these creatures are often better when put in decks that use both their respective colors, they function and perform well as intended in decks that only use one of their respective colors. Furthermore, when drafting monocolored, don't look past lands of your color that can produce off colors to support cards like these, such as the vivid lands!
Drafting Multicolor
Drafting multicolor is fun! Because most of the cards are often good on their own, drafters who aim to add colors to their deck can draft cards for both synergy purposes and simply power purposes. Themes like aggro and tempo span a range of colors, allowing drafters to mix, match, force, and change their deck as they draft. For example, some cards from different colors and color pairings have very similar effects and may draft well together, as seen below:
Of course, no multicolor deck is so without its fixing, and the cube provides a good number of bi and tri-color fixing, such as the cards below:
Artifacts in the Cube
In its 180 and 360 evolutions, this cube actually never played artifacts. In the 180, the artifact section was replaced with the hybrid section to increase variety. In the 360, the artifact section was replaced with more lands to support multicolored drafting. Now in the 540, artifacts were added but were still restrained—artifacts can be rather powerful due to their ability to be played in any deck, and on the flip side, artifacts that have explicit uses tend not to be drafted in favor of better cards with actual colors. Artifacts run in the cube are to support themes rather than become them, and the themes supported are broad rather than specific. The four main themes found here are aggro, midrange, combo, and fixing, as represented by the cards below:
In fairness, most of the artifacts in the section are mana producers or fixers, and this was to accommodate the land section, as a larger cube means that a fewer number of lands can be a detriment to fixing; in this manner, the artifacts allow fixing without needing to be "on-color."