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Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Overview & Philosophy
3. Archetypes to Watch
4. Notes

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Introduction

Hey, thanks for checking out another weird cube project of mine! My name's Adept | Connor (he/they), and I've been in the cube community since ~2017. It's been my favorite way to enjoy Magic since then, and I love using cube as a vehicle to deliver a one-of-a-kind experience to players. It's what stands out to me and what continues to make this experience and game enjoyable, and I hope from this cube it's clear why that's the case.

Overview / Philosophy

My experience with monocolored cubes goes back to 2018, when I drafted a mono-white cube that an employee at my LGS at the time had (since then, both the LGS and I have moved, but I moved way farther). I drafted the mono-white enchantment deck you see below and finished badly, but I was immediately hooked on the unconventional depth the environment offered and knew that invoking that same feeling I had was exactly where I wanted to go in my cube design career.

(It's been over 5 years now, forgive me for not remembering what the other card under the glare is besides Starfield of Nyx.)

One quick look at the cube list would reveal to you that this is not truly a monocolored cube. While the cube does center around blue, there are some multicolored cards in color identities containing blue involved. The catch to these cards is you have to draft your fixing, only basic Island is available to add after the draft. Fixing is probably more abundant than it should be, at 2x fetchland + 2x shockland + fastland + check land + creature land available in each blue color pair. Plus, there's 1 of each of the other basics available to draft, Signets, and Talismans available to be drafted as well. Even writing this out has made it clear that the basics should be cut in an upcoming update, but I want drafters to confirm my suspicion.

Regardless of multicolored presence or not, the purposes of this cube are many:

• To challenge traditional notions of color pie in Magic by demonstrating the breadth of archetypal diversity that can be achieved in one small subset of Magic's color theory.
• To recontextualize cards that may be overshadowed by adding depth to the roles that they can fill.
• To create an exploratory space for new card combos in a combo-rich color.
• To give me an excuse to play the Tolarian Academy I bought at SCGCon Baltimore, and an excuse to buy a CE Time Vault.

Key Archetypes

I could write an essay here. I'm... not going to do that. Because I have a lot to say, I'm feeling lazy right now, and because if I write something long, you see something long, and you're going to either not read it or not learn much. So I'm going to try something different.

Combos

It's a mono-blue cube. Of course it's full of combos. I'm pretty sure you could draft a different combo deck every draft and be satisfied for a while, or at least find a lot of different redundancies for the same combos. This is an underlying goal I have when designing the cube, because combo is a unique space blue occupies better than other colors imo.

I've divided this section into two parts beyond this introduction: Combos You Already Know Of - a gallery of cards that are in the cube and are supported combo pieces - and Build-Arounds/Spotlight Combos - some more complex lines that you might not recognize from traditional cubing. Disclaimer: If you show me a combo I haven't seen before, I'll figure out some kind of reward for that. You deserve one for making this environment more interesting.

Combos You Already Know Of

Build-Arounds/Spotlights

I just saved you from having to read a lot of words hopefully. These are all very typical cards that spring to mind when we think about blue combos ranging from very powerful to actual infinites, so I'll assume we all know how they work. If not and you're being thrown into a draft, ask the person next to you and I'm sure they'll explain, if not look for ways to break these. This is cube, so if you're even at the table with me just stop me and say "hey, how does Thopter Foundry do its thing?" and I'll help you out.

Let's go over a couple special combos/buildarounds that I think deserve some special attention for this environment though.

I feel like Triskaidekaphile is easy enough to grasp. It is, however, the only card in the cube that can on its own win off the back of the nature of a blue mirror. Cantrips are abundant, card quality is great, and this Wizard scales with all of that and then some.

Emry is also a bit more straightforward in her approach. She is part of the recurring value that artifact decks can get, but can also be built around with keys and other cards that can go infinite with Time Vault.

Another card in the strong buildarounds category. Oona's downside here is just nonexistent as you will always choose blue (if you don't, I have questions for you), so big mana blue decks have a toy they're not quite used to having.

I'm unsure whether this should be considered a combo card or not. I run 2 copies of High Tide in the cube because I believe it's a strong ritual effect for either big mana decks or for storm-oriented builds, but because it ramps both sides it feels too risky for me at least to go all-in on it as a combo. If you try it though, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it and how you approached using it.

Other Archetypes Notes