Art by Darek Zabrocki
Welcome to the Eldrazi Biology Cube! This cube is a 360 card lower-powered cube that is designed to create a unique draft and gameplay experience using a twist on the Lesson/Learn mechanic from Strixhaven as well as the inclusion of colorless spells. It has a heavy Eldrazi theme as well as a high density of “spells matter” support.
“Learn” means: “You may discard a card. If you do, draw a card. If you didn’t discard a card, you may reveal a Lesson card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand.”
What's the twist? The cube only has one unique rule:
Colorless instant and sorcery spells gain the Lesson subtype.
This change allows many of the cards in the cube to be used from the sideboard as utility pieces in combination with one of the 30 “learn” cards. Most notably, this includes Devoid spells!
Some things to remember:
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You can still run Lesson cards in your main deck.
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Cards that already have the lesson subtype still work as normal.
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Don’t forget that ALL colorless instant/sorcery spells gain Lesson, not just those with Devoid.
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The cube breaks singleton to include a second copy of each common with the “Learn” mechanic in addition to 8 wastes total that are included as draft picks.
I have always really enjoyed limited formats with mechanics that force you to make difficult decisions in the draft as well as in your games. Over the past few years we have seen this with snow lands in Modern Horizons 1 and Kaldheim, and then again in Strixhaven with the Lesson mechanic. These types of mechanics can lead to really interesting build-arounds as well as change the way you look at each pack. Do I take the payoff or the enabler first? Should I play this card in my main deck or keep it in my sideboard as a tutor target? These are the types of questions I looked to replicate when I sought out to build this cube.
The problem? Most of these mechanics are extremely parasitic. With very few cards to choose from and the ones that already exist not exactly playing well with others, I found it hard to come up with a solution that didn’t involve creating my own cards. When looking through scryfall in search of cool ways to use Wastes and colorless mana in a similar fashion to how Kaldheim used snow lands, I found myself ogling the many unique (and once again very parasitic) Eldrazi and Devoid cards from Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. I came up with this cube’s rule as a unique way to combine these interesting mechanics in a way that is (hopefully) both elegant and provides a thoughtful draft experience. As well as play a bunch of sick cards you won’t find in many other cubes!
My design goals:
- Use the Lesson/Learn mechanic to encourage players to curate a sideboard that synergizes with their deck.
- Utilize the inclusion of Wastes and colorless pips as a “sixth color” and have them be a genuine cost to a player’s picks in the draft.
- Keep the power at a low enough level for unique cards to shine.
- Make combat interesting through the use of thoughtful interaction and combat tricks. I don’t want games where both players can’t attack through a wall of tokens.
- Minimize power outliers to let players do the big things and sick plays that they want to do.
To be written upon the list being finished!