Art by D. Alexander GregoryWelcome!
"A vast and abundant landscape unfolds before you and in the distance, a city."
This cube is a decadent exploration of mana and its implications.
The draft is 3 packs of 20 cards and every pick in the draft you get to take TWO cards!
What will you find inside the cube?
You'll find lands! Lots of lands! You'll need them to cast your spells here, as well as to explore the design space i've laid out for you.
Lots of lands means lots of opportunities to play with powerful gold cards!
Singleton breaks! I've provided you with two copies of select constructed powerhouses to build around.
I've kept the overall rate of the cube efficient whenever possible. It's important to interact early and often!
What WON'T you find in my cube?
- Pure Land Destruction.
- A+B Infinite Combos.
- Extremely Disruptive or Punishing Effects.
- Broken Fast Mana.
What are some effective ways to approach drafting the cube? (Tips & Tricks?)
Given the amount of mana fixing lands (20%-ish) you can comfortably build a three color mana base. This should be your baseline when drafting + deckbuilding. The strategic applications of your mana base are present in the card curation -- Gush and Radha's Firebrand are easily maximized. Be mindful to concentrate on your base colors and the effectiveness of your splash.
You will be ultimately tested by your ability to draft and build a strong, coherent gameplan. Identifying a strategy -- spells, the graveyard, lands, creature combo, control -- will take full advantage of the cardpool and achieve something greater than the sum of it's parts.
While there are singleton breaks which point to specific gameplans, they are merely suggestions and not necessary.
Prioritize being proactive wherever possible.
Build a sideboard! 60 card pools mean you'll have plenty of picks to use for game 2 and 3.
Archetype Overview
While I have seeded archetypes and themes into the cube, they are not prescriptive. Taking these archetypes into account during the draft will lead your curiosity through this playground of mana and potential synergy into something both effective and marvelous.
You will ultimately be rewarded for your deckbuilding abilities. I have given you not only extra picks from each pack, but a larger overall draft pool to help realize your final build.
Here are the central themes:
Lands -- Lands are both the centerpiece of the cube and a strong, resilient gameplan. Use land drops to your advantage, whether it be to ramp into something that overwhelms the opponent, tutoring up lands like Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle or Dark Depths for a combo kill, or simply outvaluing your opponent with recurring landfall triggers via Gruul Turf. Lands are overwhelmingly centered in Green, but each color can offer support for your land strategies.
Spells -- Noncreature spells are the focal point, and more specifically how you convert those resources into a gameplan. The most popular execution is an all-in Arclight Phoenix build, but a base plan of Delver of Secrets, delve threats, and some disruption is a tried and true recipe. Spells decks often rely on protecting key threats and can be easily disrupted, so different angles of attack are encouraged. Decks are base Blue and supported well by anything but Green.
Creatures -- The largest slice of the cube is populated with creatures (and rightfully so) so fundamental gameplans are about attacking and blocking. For this reason, i've taken care to ensure creatures have functional stats wherever possible. Running Vraan, Executioner Thane over Blood Artist is an illustrative example of how a card's base rate is always in consideration.
Graveyards -- Modern Magic continues to expand on the usefulness of the graveyard, and the list embraces this with a variety of strategic choices. Lands moving to the graveyard via Verdant Catacombs is a primary focal point, but further exploration will yield fruit. Seek to compound graveyard strategies: mill, recursion, delve, discard, and sacrifice for overwhelming value. Whether you're powering out Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis early or using Goblin Bombardment as a Fireball, the graveyard is a primary zone of interaction.