The Classic White Border Cube
(798 Card Cube)
The Classic White Border Cube
Art by Kaja FoglioArt by Kaja Foglio
798 Card Cube7 followers
Designed by PauperCube
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The Classic White Border Cube

by www.PauperCube.com ✤ Est. 03/08/2019


Do you like nostalgia and weird limited formats where the Power Nine and Bird Maiden are both equally playable? Have I got the cube for you!

I like white bordered cards. They're the cards I first started playing with and they hold a special place in my heart. There's also a lot of older, classic cards that wouldn't see play today but still hold a lot of nostalgia for me and others. I decided to build this cube out of those old cards and used the white borders as both a cost-saving measure and a design constraint.


Construction Information
  • The cube is rarity-balanced, much like a real set. There are five copies of each common, three of each uncommon, and one of each rare and mythic rare.
  • Rarities within the cube do not always match their real-life rarities. I have small colored stickers on each inner sleeve where set symbols go to indicate their internal rarity.
  • The Mirage Diamonds and the Circles of Protection each share a single common "slot", so there are only one of each. There are only four of each common nonbasic to allow for exactly 48 nonbasics; this ensures that every nonbasic will be seen in a 16-person draft or 8-person sealed.
  • Pack composition is 10 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare/mythic, and one nonbasic land of any rarity.
  • The vast majority of the cards are "real", however I do use proxies (counterfeits) for the ABU dual lands, Power Nine, and a small handful of other expensive cards.
  • I generally tried to go for the oldest available printings/artworks, but there are exceptions either due to availability in my area or due to specific artworks being preferred (compare the original artwork of Flight to the superior 5th Edition artwork).
  • There are a handful of cards in here that I do like to warn people about just in case -- I used the Sixth Edition artwork for Crusade, but there is no getting around Earthbind.

Archetypes (under heavy construction)

Due to the lack of signpost cards and clear synergy, most archetypes are less-defined than you'd find in many more modern cubes. However, there are still strategies that I have tried to "bake in" to help guide deckbuilders, and there are plenty of potent ways to mix-and-match individual cards.

w White Weenie
Flood the board with cheap creatures. We ride at dawn!

  • Crusade is probably the best card you can draft for this archetype; a boost to all of your creatures will help them punch well above their weight.

  • Other ways to help get your creatures through or make them tougher will be important -- Infantry Veteran, Master Decoy, and Warrior's Honor (note it's the misprint with a lower casting cost -- this is intentional!).

  • Defensive options like Samite Healer, Healing Salve, and Righteousness can make combat math a nightmare for your opponents.

  • Take to the skies! There are fliers available at every mana value along the curve from two to five.

  • Need something tougher? Buff your creatures with auras like Holy Strength and Blessing.

u Seas & Skies Control
Merfolk, birds, and making your opponents' life a living hell -- every blue mage's dream!

b Black Attrition
Play the long game -- after all, undeath is forever.

  • A lot of the most powerful cards are at uncommon to minimize one-sided games where one player doesn't get to do anything, but there is a discard theme running throughout black. You can absolutely build a Megrim deck.

  • Kill everything. With Terror, Befoul, and Weakness all available at common, there's plenty of removal to go around.

  • Reanimate creatures that give you a two-for-one (Gravedigger, Nekrataal) or that are difficult to deal with (Drudge Skeletons, Frozen Shade).

  • Take to the skies! There are fliers available at every mana value along the curve from two to five.

  • Need something tougher? Buff your creatures with auras like Holy Strength and Blessing.

rGoblin Burn
Either light it on fire or hit it on the head.

urg Typal
You may have noticed Merfolk, Goblin, and Elf typal themes in their associated colors. Each of their resident Lords (Lord of Atlantis, Goblin King, and Elvish Champion) has been downshifted to uncommon to enable this, although each color has its different strengths and struggles.

  • Merfolk has the lowest density of creatures and honestly those creatures tend to be less impactful on their own -- a Merfolk of the Pearl Trident is just not that great in most circumstances. What blue does have, however, is Phantasmal Terrain, which makes enabling Islandwalk significantly easier.
  • Goblins are in the unique position of having an additional lord at common in Goblin General and also a tutor in the form of Goblin Matron. This allows the strategy to be way easier to pull off due to the density and consistency of effects. Unlike the other colors, though, several of the goblins cannot block which means your only option is to be the aggressor.
  • Elves are somewhere between the other two. There's a higher density of generically useful creatures, but only the one lord. Elves does have a larger, inherently evasive closer in the form of Elven Riders, something the other colors lack.
  • Mystic Compass can be used as a way to filter your mana in most decks. But in typal decks, it can also turn your landwalk on. It's secretly the glue that holds the entire cube together.

Elder Dragon Legends wubrg
The original Elder Dragon Legends are each present in the draft. Due to their heavy color requirements, they're usually only draftable in pack one, or perhaps in pack two if you're already in at least two of their colors. However, if you do manage to build a deck around them and they stick around, they're liable to take over the game.

Auras wubrg
Creatures are in general fairly disappointing, especially at common, but there are a ton of auras that you can use to beef them up. It's especially easy to take late-pick creatures like Atog and tack on Blessing, Flight, or even Web. This lets the creatures punch above their weight.

Originally this was a mono-green archetype, but Rabid Wombat and Yavimaya Enchantress both didn't end up making the cut as the cube was refined. Verduran Enchantress is still in, meaning you can pick that up early and go base-green for card advantage, but there are good auras in all five colors.

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