What’s good cubers, it’s your boy Matt, and this is my cube. It has been a work in progress for sometime. I would advise anyone who is just starting out to do something similar to what I did if money is an issue. I began with an allotted budget of 50 dollars a month for my cube. While it might not seem like much. You can have a very nice cube in a very short time if you will just be patient.

My cube uses hypergeometric calculations to determine the correct density of each effect to run. This is why cards like Persist appear in my list. While not the best reanimate effect, a good reanimate deck needs 5-6 reanimation effects, which means you need to run at least that many, if not more. You will also see hypergeometric math at work when you look at cantrips in blue, or 1 drops in the aggressive colors. Here is an example of the Hypergeometrics of this cube at the time of writing. Remember if you want something in your opening hand you need at least 7 copies in your draft deck.

To be successful in this environment, yes you need to draft strong cards, but truly successful drafters will draft redundancy for their decks, rather than just splashy effects. Still, let’s be honest, you are here to draft and see the decks, so let’s take a look.

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Weenie is the name of the game. Go aggro, draft your 1 drops, and murder your opponent as quick as possible. Be sure to draft your removal, as other decks will eat it, and you will find yourself sad and alone like a guy on a street corner.

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While uncommon, mono blue tempo is certainly a deck in our environment. The deck does not occur very often due to the color's overall popularity, but when it does, it is very strong.

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Another aggro color, black aggro relies on hand disruption and early drops to put the opponent on their heels. It’s one drops are often recursive, and its removal is more unconditional than red, whose burn maxes out at 3 mana. I cannot emphasize how important drafting your hand disruption is. It will not wheel the table.

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Mono red aggro is the oldest and best aggro deck. Utilizing burn to remove threats, ride your early drops to victory. You will notice a very dense section of burn removal. This not only helps red aggro but also 3 color control decks that splash red. Every cube I have ever looked at could use more burn. With that said, make sure you draft your burn, other decks will splash for it, and if you can't go face with some burn, you may find yourself unable to finish some matchups.

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Classic green stompy. This deck can be built as a ramp deck. Use the high density of cards like Birds of Paradise and Ignoble Hierarch to cast big fatties as quick as possible. However, the most efficient version of the mono-green deck will cast turn 2 Lovestruck Beast and turn 3 Questing Beast. Your midrange threats are the real deal, and the pressure you can apply to your opponent be intense.

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This is normally a control color, though tempo is another possible build. For control, Prioritize board wipes. You will want 4 to be consistent. Then fill your deck with spot removal, counter spells, cantrips, and a few walkers as win-cons. Your victory will be assured. For tempo, focus on bounce effects and counter spells, and a 12ish creatures/walkers that are 3 mana or less.

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This is a hard control deck. I have never seen dimir built any other way. In theory, it could be built as a tempo deck, using black’s hand disruption, but I have never seen it done… huh, ideas to force in the next draft. Regardless, if you build Reanimate Control, or just Hard control, prolonging the game and winning off a late game finisher is your gameplan.

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While I have seen this color built as a midrange deck, It is by far more successful as an aggro deck. It is also very possible to add an aristocrats sub theme to this deck. Cards like Judith, the Scourge Diva and Blood Artist should drive that point home for you. The deck also pairs nicely with Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion.

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Mmmmm… Midrange, sweet sweet midrange. Draft 6-7 1 drops mana dorks, followed by a top end at 4-5 mana threats. Play green’s beaters and red’s burn as spot removal and you can handle anything anyone would throw at you. Oh, and draft Embercleave on sight; I hear that card is pretty good. This color also has some key pieces for the lands deck. Wrenn and Six are worth splashing for if that's how you choose to go. Heck you can even just recycle Wasteland over and over if you want.

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More midrange. The goal here is cast above rate creatures and pressure your opponent early. White has the best removal, green has the best bodies, Let's combine them and put our opponents on a real clock. White also has plenty of disruptive 3 drops to help make this happen. However, this is another color pairing that can support the lands deck. Knight of the Reliquary can help you find pieces like Dark Depths, Thespian Stage or a simple but effective Karakas.

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This is another aggro combination. The aristocrat theme is a little stronger here, and here is where you will find the cube’s lone companion. Lurrus is fine in the main deck, but with the 1 and 2 drops I run, it is very possible to companion him, if you can do it, well, let's just say the Lurrus deck always finishes in the top 3.

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While it is possible to build a Golgari reanimate deck featuring the classic Survival of the Fittest, Recurring Nightmare combo. However, Golgari decks are at their strongest when they are emulating the old school Rock decks. Lots of removal, hand disruption and any card/creature that can do one of these effects, backed up by efficient difficult to remove threats like Liliana of the Veil or Garruk Wildspeaker.Wight of the Reliquary also provides some support for the Jund version of the lands deck.

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This is an extremely versatile color combination. In addition to traditional “Spells Matters” archetypes, the Kiki/Twin combo deck also exists here, as does a cheat into play deck with Sneak Attack, Through the Breach, and Show and Tell. No wonder everyone wants to draft these colors first.

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Nothing flashy here. Straight meat and potatoes aggro. Draft as many one drops as possible and try to curve out around 3 mana. You might consider stretching to play a quality 4 cmc threat like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar or Chandra, Torch of Defiance, but otherwise, 3 cmc is the magic number. Lastly, your gold cards are bombs and other decks will steal them. Some color pairs can expect their gold cards to wheel, you cannot. Draft them on sight if you want them.

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Mostly a value/midrange, Simic is very strong. A guild where gold cards mandate splashes as they round the table. Simic midrange, supported by turn 2 Oko, Thief of Crowns, followed by turn 3 Questing Beast, is pretty deece. Don't think you can wheel your gold cards around the table. You are not like other guilds; take your Oko, Krasis, or Uro, early, they won't come back.

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This deck presents in 1 of 2 ways. The more common version is a Jeskai Control deck. This deck is base Azorious, but features red’s burn, or cards like Storm's Wrath. The second version is a spells matters deck using the best enablers and spells from each color. Monastery Mentor and Young Pyromancer are effects that are key to this version of the deck.

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This is the best version of the cheat deck. Supported by green’s fatties, and the cheat in both blue and red, this version of the deck is very strong, perhaps the strongest in the cube when everything comes together. Natural Order, Oath of Druids and Survival of the Fittest make the deck more consistent, while red’s burn and blue’s cantrips add further redundancy. Not to mention you get to play the best simic cards in the cube.

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Blend the aggro colors and what do you get? Three color aggro, but perhaps more fun than that, the best version of the aristocrats deck. If you mana is strong enough, this deck is incredibly fun to play. The draw back to 3 color aggro is not being able to play your 1 or 2 drops on time, so draft your lands kids.

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This trio of colors yields a Golgari rock deck with white removal, or a midrange aristocrats deck. This version of aristocrats is slower, more grind-y, and relies on cards like Ophiomancer and planeswalkers for sac fodder. The color trio is weirdly placed in my environment, and always seems to finish middle of the pack in large drafts.

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The best version of the reanimator deck. You have all the fatties from green and black along with blue’s contrips and cheat to make things really come together… did I mention this wedge includes Simic? I have even seen a Sultai walker deck that played black’s board wipes preform extremely well.

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Here we have the most control oriented of the control decks. In fact, the best control decks in the cube are from this shard. You have all the board wipes, counter spells, spot removal, and cantrips. I have seen a version of this deck win every game with just Finale of Glory. What that means in mtg speak is that you can win with a ham sandwich, so enjoy making them cry while you plus your Teferi into a win.

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Jund for fun baby. All your midrange good stuff is here. Hell, stick a turn 2 Goblin Rabblemaster off a mana dork, and then just keep the board clear with burn, and their hand empty with disruption. You can basically pretend you are playing modern Jund here. Or, if that is not your bent, try Jund reanimator. Sneak Attack large green threats and then reanimate them with recursion.

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A weaker shard to be sure, you can still do some very strong things, but you have to be more careful of busted color pairings. Midrange is your game. Lately, this tends to be either a "good stuff" deck, but with red's removal and Gut. Either way, Red and White’s removal can help make sure your guys always punch through. You will want to curve out around 4 mana.

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Grixis control is probably the more consistent Grixis deck. Essentially dimir control with Red removal and top end. Grixis has to be more careful with their boards wipes as they have fewer to begin with. Instead, this deck tends to 1 for 1 opponents, and then land a threat that carries them the rest of the way. Don’t underestimate Nicol Bolas, The Ravager. Being able to be cast on turn 4 is extremely strong against aggressive decks. God-Eternal Kefnet excels here as well. However, there is yet another cheat deck here if you are interested.

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A midrange deck that crushes aggro. White and green’s best midrange cards made incredibly consistent by blue’s cantrips and tempo cards. Toss in an occasional counter spell and you really have something going. The deck is evasive, can go crazy wide, and did I mention you get to play Simic.

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Ah, Five color good stuff. Yes, you could have drafted it without these payoffs. However, I have decided to actually include some actual rewards for this deck. Draft fixing, and then play with the best cards in the cube, or those unused gold cards that are just wheeling the table.

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