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Overview

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I would like to thank my friends who have spent countless hours discussing aspects of this cubing project and for the many, many trades I have conducted to get this project up and running! The revamped cube project has been a vision of mine for a while and I am super happy at how far it has evolved with the help of many others!

This cube by far is my biggest and greatest MTG project to date! The goal of this project was to provide a seamless drafting experience akin to traditional MTG drafts, focussed around the EDH format. A curated list of cards that fit into well-known deck archetypes, and the inclusion of EDH staples make games feel like the typical EDH experience. This cube encourages engaging deck-building through its careful card selection that has, in practice, translated to subsequent games replicating the fun of EDH many players can relate to. Games are often full of meaningful interaction, have decks that have focussed strategies, and reward players with drafting experience whilst not punishing players who have never drafted before. Card familiarity within the cube makes the drafting process simple for well-versed and newer drafters alike, and the archetypes supported in the cube crossover slightly, aiding the deck-building experience.

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What to Expect

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Games that Replicate the Feel of EDH

• Most players who play Commander know that the format contains some of MTG's most powerful and splashy cards! I have carefully curated this cube list to include Commander staples that are synonymous with the format. Drafted decks should feel although they were brewed at home, and were made outside of a draft environment.

Streamlined Drafting Rules

• The inclusion of "Starter Cards" such as Sol Ring and Command Tower given to all players at the beginning of the cube session makes deckbuilding simpler. Additionally, the 4 step drafting process described below allows players to focus on selecting cards in the main deck directly related to their gameplan! Standard drafting rules apply throughout unless otherwise stated, and there is no deviation from the standard rules of MTG.

Combos and Creative Deck Building

• It was important to include several combo pieces within the cube list, allowing players to utilise their knowledge of MTG and employ creative deckbuilding strategies to enable these combo inclusions! Combos are generally easier to interact with, and harder to pull off in a draft environment making them a relatively rare win condition when cubing!

Well-Established Archetypes

• Each 2 colour combination has been assigned a general archetype. The archetypes chosen are well-supported, and archetype overlap allows for greater card selection for all players whilst drafting. The majority of 3+ colour Commanders are a mixture of all the respective 2 colour primary archetypes chosen for this cube.

A Careful Selection of Non-Legal EDH Cards

• A handful of playtest and silver-bordered/acorned cards exist within this cube list. Cards such as Sword of Dungeons & Dragons and Mirrored Lotus don't break the format unlike other playtest and/or silver-bordered/acorned cards, and have proven to be fun inclusions in the draft environment!

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Archetypes

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The blink/flicker strategy takes advantage of permanent cards with strong ETB effects, utilising spells such as Ghostly Flicker, Flicker of Fate, and Ephemerate to retrigger their ETB effects, increasing advantage and building value.

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The theft strategy is aggressive, heavily rewarding dealing damage to opponents to steal spells and/or draw cards. Powerful spells such as Extract Brain and Silent-Blade Oni steal directly from opponents' hands, whilst Evil Twin, Mirrormade, and Thieving Skydiver steal/copy permanents directly from the battlefield.

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The go-tall stompy strategy is supported by powerful spells such as Atalan Jackal and Mina and Denn, Wildborn which ramps into large threats. Supporting cards such as Fires of Yavimaya act as team enhancements whilst also providing a way to win the game through sheer combat.

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The go-wide token strategy beats down opponents with an onslaught of creatures. Utilising anthems and combat tricks to buff its armies, this strategy makes it difficult for opponents to defend. Notable cards supporting the go-wide strategy of tokens include Tendershoot Dryad, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and Mirror Entity.

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Aristocrat strategies sacrifice permanents with death triggers or to trigger death or LTB triggers to generate greater value. Dictate of Erebos and Doomed Artisan are great support cards for this strategy. Artistocrats often make dark deals in exchange for a bigger payoff, or to deny your opponents of resources.

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Spellslinger decks utilise cheap // cantrips to generate early-game value. Racking up a storm count to cast powerful late-game spells such as Mind's Desire or controlling the game with countermagic are some of the many aspects of Magecraft the spellslinger strategy utilises.

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The morbid strategy of the reanimator makes use of all player's graveyards, casting spells and reanimating creatures directly from the grave. The graveyard is seen as a resource for reanimator strategies and often rewards players for putting cards into the graveyard. Supporting cards for this strategy include Deathbloom Ritualist and Old Rutstein.

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This archetype is centered around combat aggression, often including an equipment subtheme to buff its best creatures. The Boros aggro strategy often makes use of creatures with attack triggers, combat tricks, and Myriad to break through opponents' defenses. Cards supporting this archetype include Legion Loyalty, Duke Ulder Ravengard, and Deflecting Palm.

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This strategy wants to ramp into large threats and make them bigger with +1/+1 counters. Supporting cards for Simic counters care about the manipulation of counters and the power/toughness of creatures. Notable cards in this strategy include Master Biomancer, Fathom Mage, and Momir Vig, Simic Visionary

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The Rakdos sacrifice/discard group-slug strategy wants all players to sacrifice permanents or discard cards to gain value. Notable cards in this strategy include Juri, Master of the Revue, Stormfist Crusader, and Mayhem Devil.

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Draft Rules

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Players all begin the draft with all 5 of the "Starter Cards" (outlined below)! These cards fix drafting discrepancies and contain cards synonymous with the EDH format, replicating the classic feel of Commander in a drafted format.

Players begin by drafting one single pack of 20 cards from the Commander Pool. Players then move onto 3-5 packs of 20 cards from the Bulk Pool (the more packs you draft, the higher the power level of the draft will be - for my playground 4 of these packs is perfect!). Finally, players draft a single pack of 20 cards from the Mana-Fixing & Utility Lands Pool.

This adapted method of drafting makes deckbuilding simpler and makes the drafting process more focussed. Newer drafters are punished less by having early access to a large Commander Pool at the start of the draft, whilst more experienced drafters can more easily tailor their decks to fit their chosen Commander's strategy!

Starter Cards

Each player starts the draft with the following cards:

• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Cryptic Spires
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x The Prismatic Piper

Drafting Stages Stage 1 – Commander Pool (containing 160 unique Commanders)

• 1 single pack of 20 cards from the Commander Pool.

Stage 2 – Bulk Pool (containing 1200 unique cards)

• 3-5 packs of 20 cards each from the Bulk Pool (the more packs you draft, the higher the power level of the draft will be - for my playground 4 of these packs is perfect!).

Stage 3 – Mana-Fixing & Utility-Land Pool (containing 160 Lands)

• 1 single pack of 20 cards from the Mana-Fixing & Utility-Land Pool.

Cube Rules

1. Standard Commander rules apply unless stated in this section.
2. Players draft 1 card at a time, changing rotation between packs.
3. Players may choose any legal Commander - any Legendary Creature or alternate card-type specifically stating that it can be used as your Commander (there are plenty of alternate Commander options other than the 160 options in the Commander Pool, and players can choose to draft those if they wish, however this may be more difficult of a drafting experience only to be attempted by experienced drafters or those who want a unqiue challenge).
4. Deck size must be a minimum of 80 cards and a maximum of 100 cards in size (including the chosen Commander/s).
5. Any number of basic lands can be used to construct your deck.
6. Friendly London mulligan rules apply (the first mulligan is free).
7. Any cards referring to a "sealed Magic the Gathering booster pack" utilise 1 single pack of 20 cards from the undrafted Bulk Pool.

Commander Specific Rules Myra the Magnificent

• If a player drafts Myra the Magnificent, they will be given a dedicated pack of 20 Attractions to use as their Attraction Deck. The Attraction Deck is not drafted, and is instead a preconstructed deck given to the player who needs it!

Supplementary Cube Rules Planechase

• If desired, Planechase can introduced into subsequent games after drafting. Once drafting has concluded, and players have built their decks, randomly select 3 Phenomenon cards and 17 Plane cards per pod of 4 players (a full draft with 8 players will use all 6 Phenomenon cards and all 34 Plane cards, creating 2 unique Planar Decks per pod of 4 players). The Phenomenon and Plane cards contained in the cube have been carefully chosen so the format and "feel" of Commander isn't lost/broken.
• The 20-card Planar Deck (comprised of 3 random Phenomenon and 17 random Plane cards) is shared by the whole pod. During each player's turn, that player may choose to roll the Planar Die, the first roll of the Planar Die is free, and each subsequent roll of the Planar Die past the first costs perpetually increasing 1 generic mana.

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Footnotes

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1. Not all cards contained within the cube will be drafted (even if the draft is at full 8-player capacity). Space to include even more than the 8-player maximum capacity is feasible!
2. Players who draft cards with specific pairings (Meld, Specific Partners, etc.) are not required to draft both cards and instead get given the other paired card as they draft the first (players may ask to see the specific pairing cards at any time during the draft).
3. Silver-bordered cards contained within the cube are ones thought to have little to no impact on game mechanics and can be removed from the cube before play if desired. The same is true for "Heroes of the Realm" cards and "acorned" cards.
4. Dragonshield V2 Cube Shells are used to organise this cube, each replicates the feel of "cracking packs" whilst keeping up to 20 single-sleeved cards safely contained within!
5. A small handful of cards in this cube have been proxied, with particular mention of the use of Heroes of the Realm cards and Original Dual Lands proxies. Heroes of the Realm cards are not accessible to regular players, and whilst the cycle of Original Dual Lands is accessible, playing with a full set can be expensive!
6. Remember!!! The most important aspect of cubing is to have fun! Enjoy the draft!