Darklands

Cube ID
Art by Matt StewartArt by Matt Stewart

180 Card Unpowered Budget Cube

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Designed by TrufflesnoutRSSQR Code

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Owned
$271
Buy
$155

Overview

This cube was designed for 1v1 grid drafting and a fairly low power environment with lots of interaction and some spicy inclusions. It generally is quite a midrange-y environment, but you can certainly play aggro decks with a pretty low curve - there is also a good chunk of burn and barely any life-gain. On the other end there are also seriously strong control cards, so I think I cover a good spectrum of deck speeds.

I only run four colors (non-white) to increase competition on cards for two drafters. There is also a decent chunk of color fixing and some hybrid mana and split cards which should make it easier/worthwhile to splash a third color.

Archetypes & Synergies

The rough archetypes and mechanics per guild are
Gruul: RG Stompy; Ferocious/Formidable
Dimir: Control; GY synergies
Rakdos: Aggro; Madness
Izzet: Tempo; Spellslinger
Golgari: Midrange; GY Value
Simic: Ramp; Energy
but the archetypes and synergies also overlap and often go beyond the guild-colors.

There is a general graveyard theme going on that various decks make use of. There is also a large emphasis on cards with kicker, flashback, or other mechanics that make them scale into the later game. I think this helps to give aggressive decks more lategame tools as well as giving lategame decks more early game tools, so there are meaningful things to do for any deck throughout the game.

Ways to draft

The main draft method this cube is designed for is 1v1 grid draft. Traditionally that would use 18 packs for 9 = 162 cards. I either remove 18 cards before the draft and do that or quite often (especially with people new to the cube) I just draft all of it. This makes the draft a bit more forgiving and you also get to see every card which makes for a good introduction to the cube.

3 player draft

With 3 players I am a bit unsure what the best option is. 3-player grid draft usually takes more cards than I have. Instead one option I came up with is a kinda soft burn draft making 6 packs of 10 and always discarding the last 3 cards of a pack. Every player ends up getting 42 cards this way, and you get ~2 cards per pack.

4 player draft

With 4 players you can just draft regularly. I'd make 5 packs of 9 which makes it so everyone gets ~2 cards per pack and 45 cards in total.

Final Notes

If you are interested in seeing a very early version of this, check out https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/darklandsold

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