Domain Desert Cube Overview

Welcome to the Domain Desert Cube! This cube is inspired by the themes archetypes of Dominaria United, one of my favorite sets. It is not a DMU set cube, but as in DMU each color has a major theme and the 2-color archetypes arise relatively organically from the combination of the two colors.

This a medium power-level cube: Most of the cards are powerful commons and uncommons, "limited all-stars" and the hope is that this will feel like a juiced limited format with some interesting draft choices and synergistic decks. Rares that are included are meant as rewards for drafting particular archetypes or syneries, rather than overall great cards.

It's also a desert cube, meaning you DO NOT GET BASIC LANDS at the end of the draft. I've really enjoyed how the desert drafting environment makes every pick feel momentous and leads you down some interesting deck-building paths.

Themes

Each color has a broad theme, something that it does better than the others and that most of its cards play towards.

White

White loves to go wide. There are plenty of cheap creatures and token makers, as well as cards that pump your whole team.

Blue

Spells matter! Specifically, instants and sorceries. Blue has a lot of them, and lots of cards that care about them.

Black

Sacrifice, death triggers, and graveyard value are where it's at with black.

Red

Red is aggressive! Most of its cards help you get the game over quickly.

Green

Green cares about lands and mana. It has the most ramp and fixing of any color, as well as the most multicolor payoffs and enablers.

Draft Quirks Desert Draft

No basic lands are available after the draft is over. There are more lands in this cube than in a typical cube, including basic lands, and you'll draft four 15-card packs rather than the normal three. In addition, there are...

Non-singleton Cards

• 12x of each basic land
• 3x of each of the common dual lands from DMU
• 3x Nearby Planet

Draft Archetypes Go-wide Spells

Play a mid-range game with spells that make tokens or care about you having a wide board. White-blue also has a light blink/ETB theme.

Spells Control

Use removal, counterspells, and card draw to keep your opponent in check, then bring those spells back from the graveyard and repeat until they can't take it anymore.

Aggressive Sacrifice

Play permanents that don't mind being sacrificed or dying in combat, and nickel-and-dime your opponent into oblivion.

Domain Beatdown

Roll over your opponent with above-rate creatures that pay you off for having a colorful manabase.

Go-wide Counters

Build a huge board and then make it stronk with effects that use +1/+1 counters to permanently pump your squad.

Aristocrats

Play a grindy game by sacrificing tokens for value and recurring small creatures over and over.

Tempo Spells

Play cheap creatures that get buffed when you cast your spells, use efficient removal and bounce effects to keep your opponent off-balance.

Big-mana Graveyard Shenanigans

Leverage green's mana development to take full advantage of black's recursion, and never run out of gas.

Go-wide Aggro

Play cheap creatures and cards that make multiple bodies, then pump squad and full send!

Ramp & Spells

Use instants and sorceries to develop a huge mana advantage, then leverage it with powerful value creatures and huge threats.

5-Color Domain

The boundary between this deck and other green decks is a bit fuzzy, but if there are a few cards that will really pay you off if you fully commit to the bit.

Walls

Build-arounds

Here are a few more build-around cards I tried to support: