Welcome to Caleb's rendition of Tom's Commander Cube! Below will be a brief primer of the cube that gives an overview, highlights the key archetypes present, and explains the alternate rule sets that this cube is designed around.

RULES QUICK GUIDE

Draft FOUR packs of 20 cards (6 packs for 100 card deck- maybe 7 still testing)

• Draft 2 cards at a time
• Any legendary creatures or planeswalkers drafted at any time may be used as a general
• Commander damage applies.
• Minimum deck size is 60 (100 for regular)
• Starting life totals are 30 (40 for regular)
• Friendly mulligan rules (first mulligan is free)

Commander color identity rules apply with 3 main exceptions:

1. Hybrid mana spells and hybrid mana abilities may be counted as "or" rather than "and" for color identity
2. Only one half of a split card or one side of a MDFC must be within your general's color identity to be legal to play
3. Mana abilities that produce colors of mana not in your general's color identity are legal for deck construction. (You may play Jegantha, the Wellspring or Temple of Plenty in a Kykar, Wind's Fury deck)
4. Cards with dual costs only need to partially match your identity. (You may play Alesha, Who Smiles at Death in a Boros or Rakdos deck.

• 1. Any creatures with background are treated as if they have partner, and Friends Forever=Partner as well.

DRAFT/COMMANDER RULES

Players draft from 4 packs of 20 cards from the cube and build a deck of 60 (59/58 + general(s)). Players draft two cards at a time. Any legendary creature or planeswalker drafted may be used as a general.

In order to replicate the feel of commander and for balance, it is vital that some staples be made available to all players. For this reason, there is 4 copies of the following cards in the draft, so mana fixing is not a have-to-take draft selection. If you draft multiples of these cards, that is allowed.

OVERVIEW

I wanted to make a draft experience of commander without taking the longer amount of time/cards needed to make a 100 card deck and also allowing for newer players to have a fun drafting experience with many options to pick from. There is a lot of higher-power EDH cards in the cube, but with a typical draft this is part of the fun as getting bombs can make/break your deck. Creature combat is a priority in the cube with many cards like monarch to encourage attacking.

There is a few fun draft cards included/ not legal cards included to spice up the experience even more, (INCLUDING SILVER BORDERED) but I took out conspiracy cards and booster draft cards as they were hard to integrate onto an online medium.

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Banned in Commander Cards

A number of cards that are Banned or not legal in Commander are found in the cube. I'm not too worried about their power levels as decks are much more inconsistent due to being drafted rather than constructed. There are only a handful of cards and they honestly feel pretty fair.

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ARCHETYPES

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Cast creatures through the Blind Eternities as a powerful aethermage.

The classic blink deck. Abuse blink effects for insane value. This deck has some sweet tools to utilize creatures and other permanents with amazing "enters the battlefield" effects.

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Send in operatives to turn your opponents' strongest spells against them.

The somewhat control-centered colors are focused on taking things that don't belong the them. Attack in with evasive creatures and remove anything in your way!

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Harness advantage from exile to maintain cards in hand and deploy wincons. Also has a subtheme of Goading that can encourage everyone killing each other while you accrue advantage

A archetype in emerging new Rakdos that I really enjoy as a new way to get value in colors normally in pain/gain strategies.

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Call upon the world to your aid. Crush your foes with the very land beneath your feet.

These deck wants to rinse, reuse, recycle land cards by discarding, sacrificing, or bouncing them to then replay them for those awesome Landfall triggers. Gruul is getting some exile matters cards that I will also be testing.

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Unite the many and overrun your enemies with the power of the largest army.

Go wide with tokens and counters to create a board state that is impossible to contest. Populate and Convoke cards really reward this game plan.

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Sacrifice the unworthy and beckon their spirits to do your bidding.

This aristocrats style of play wants you to generate tokens or play creatures with sweet death triggers and play around with sacrifice shenanigans and recursion from the graveyard.

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Become a mad scientist and assemble value off casting instants and sorceries that shock your way to victory.

Whether you are weilding a Kess, Dissident Mage or a Mizzix of the Izmagnus, there are tons of synergistic cards to be found in this archetype. If you like playing solitaire while your opponents stare in impending doom, this is the deck for you.

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Control the very circles of life. All things must die and new creatures will consume the remains.

This is the reanimator/morbid strategy. Discard cards and pull them back with commanders like The Mimeoplasm or maybe sacrifice small creatures to get crazy value. While somewhat different strategies, one thing in common is that they want to see lots of cards in the graveyard.

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Master the arts of combat by wielding great weapons and controlling your opponents' every move.

Boros beats with artifact synergy backup- all the good boros beatdown cards are in here with some fun ways to aggro down your opponents from 30 life or use artifacts to buff up your board and take down your opponents! Splash into Naya or Mardu to get some interesting creature-based synergies!

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Grow your creations and wield evolutionary sciences.
Build big threats and ramp out hard. Tons of creatures will reward you for counter manipulation and making tokens!

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A theme to bring the entire cube together is tokens. Various cards will care about tokens in one way or another. Whether it be "junk" tokens such as food, treasures, and clues, or creature tokens. You can make token copies of powerful creatures or tap them to copy spells!

This strategy has some very deep veins you can explore and there is so much more you can do even outside of the main archetypes. A lot of the 2-color commanders have a specific theme that can be capitalized on, but will take some effort.
Have fun drafting!!

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DRAFT PRIMER

See Tom's notes for picking cards for the draft!

During the draft you should prioritize your picks effectively. The following guide is to help beginners with the cube accomplish this:

There are 4 major card types to look out for in packs 1 and 2.

1. Game Enders -- the highest priority are the game winning cards. This includes cards like Approach of the Second Sun, Overwhelming Stampede, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Command the Dreadhorde and Tidespout Tyrant. These cards are almost always first pickable, as resolving one will almost always result in a game win.
2. Fixing -- Second is mana fixing. Both lands and rocks fit nicely here. It is often correct to pick these up before you are even locked into any colors as the ability to cast your spells more consistently greatly increases your deck viability.
3. Haymakers -- Third is cards that, no matter what, will always make the cut and are strong signals that a color is open, when passed. Notable cards in this category are Luminarch Ascension, Teferi's Protection, Deadeye Navigator, Reanimate, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Dockside Extortionist, Etali, Primal Storm, Blasphemous Act, Avenger of Zendikar, and Oracle of Mul Daya.
4. General -- Finally is your general. Many players will snap up legendary creatures immediately, passing up on cards that would otherwise greatly improve their deck. I find it is often best to make sure you aren't passing either of the first three categories of cards first before making a move into locking your deck's colors and strategy down. This does still need to be a high priority as your deck legality hinges on it. Don't worry, you will almost always find a general to fit your deck as this cube is chalk-full of legendary creatures.

After these conditions are met is when you should begin looking for cards that fit your deck appropriately and help along your game-plan.

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OTHER

For any rule not specifically covered, feel free to house rule it. Do what works best for your play group.