The Blacktop Cube Table of Contents

1. Draft Format
2. Design Philosophy
3. Archetypes
   a. Graveyard
   b. Domain
   c. Spells Matter
   d. Madness
   e. Reanimator
4. Notes

Draft Format

• 3 packs of 15 cards
• Maximum number of players: 6

Design Philosophy

The Blacktop Cube was designed with the following goals in mind:

• Nostalgia: It's the year 2000 again. Invasion has just come out and the middle school me is excited about the multicolored cards, split cards, and the grand scale of the oncoming Phyrexian invasion that will require all of Dominaria to unite. With the Blacktop Cube, I wanted to capture the nostalgia of playing in the years between 1999-2003. The cube includes older and newer cards, but I wanted the mechanics to feel like the early 2000s (e.g. domain, madness, threshold, and kicker). When possible, cards are in the retro frame, and the Dominaria plane is preferred.
• Graveyard synergy: All the archetypes, except for the domain archetype, have synergy with the graveyard.
• Portability: There are no tokens, dice, or counters. Back then, we used upside cards from the bottom of our library (unsleeved of course) to represent tokens. I wanted to take it a step further and avoid them altogether. Also, the cube is small (270 cards) and designed for six players to draft the entire cube with no cards remaining.
• Budget-friendly: Back in middle school, I didn't have a job or a large budget. The total cost of this cube is under $100 (as of July 2024).
• Low power level: The power level is stronger than the Invasion and Odyssey blocks, but I wanted the staples from those sets to still be playable in this cube. For instance Psychatog used to be a powerhouse and it's still a good card in this cube.
• Inspiration: This cube is inspired by the Penrose Cube and the Bar Cube.

Archetypes Graveyard -

Domain -

Spells Matter -

Madness - , tertiary in

Reanimator -

Notes

• The exception to the “no counters” rule is Zethi, Arcane Blademaster, which uses kick counters cards exiled with it, but in practice, it's easier to track those exiled cards by setting them aside without counters.