Art by Steve PrescottCloned from Clone of Ryan Saxe's Classic Cube
The one-line description of this cube is: vintage cube, but where the fast mana comes at a cost. Unlike a normal powered cube, attempting to accelerate to explosive turn 1/2 kills comes at a cost. Unlike Moxen, the fast mana in this cube puts you down on resources. City of Traitors. Lotus Petal. Dark Ritual. Peat Bog. And more. This increases the archetypal diversity in classic cube by incentivizing interaction. Interacting with an accelerated combo in this cube places you ahead on resources, where in the normal powered setting, it does not.
To push this further, my goal as a cube designer is to maximize archetypal diversity and cultivate a complex draft environment that is both competitive and fosters creativity. I include more narrow cards, such as Approach of the Second Sun, in an attempt incentivize thinking about your deck differently. This spawns unique permutations of archetypes and creates a draft experience that never gets stale, greatly rewards drafting well by utilizing knowledge of the novel and complex interactions between cards in the environment.
FAQ
Is this the Classic Cube that was on MTGO?
Yes. You can read the spotlight article about it here
Why is this called "Classic Cube"?
"Classic" is an old format on MTGO that was vintage, but without power (yes my cube has Timetwister, but I really don't think that counts as power in cube). I originally titled this cube "Busted Cube", as it's meant to be "Busted" like powered cube, but unpowered. However, WotC wanted to rename it to "Classic Cube" as an homage to that format.
What is the coolest thing that has happened in your cube?
While all these cards aren't in it anymore, I watched somebody cascade Bituminous Blast -> Bloodbraid Elf -> Shardless Agent -> Two-Drop.
What is your favorite deck in the cube?
Probably decks with creative ways to win with Nexus of Fate. One of the most interesting of this I have seen is Azorius Control with no creatures, splashing Oath of Druids to mill the entire deck and take infinite turns with Nexus of Fate.