WIP...

Update: New goal with latest round of cuts, try and limit most cards to 2-3 lines of text.

Context

This cube is intended to be a welcoming introduction to cube that is fun for players of varying Magic backgrounds.

• For novice players who have played starter decks, Jumpstart, the MTGA tutorial, or one draft, this cube should feel advanced but not hopeless.
• For intermediate players who have played constructed, made some decks, or drafted multiple sets, this cube should feel exciting and not overwhelming.
• For expert players who have played other cubes such as the MTGO Vintage Cube, or my other cube, this cube should feel dynamic and high-agency.

I will feel that this cube has accomplished its goal if:

• Novice drafters don't need to ask more than a few questions throughout the draft, and can build a reasonable deck afterwards.
• Intermediate drafters don't spend too long reading each pack, and think their deck is very powerful after deckbuilding.
• Expert drafters are happy to draft this cube multiple times.

Restrictions

The key restriction here is that every card is easily readable and understandable. Walls of text are mentally taxing, and doubly so for someone who hasn't played enough Magic to recognize cards by name or art. If I can reduce the average time spent reading a card, all players will have more time to think about their actual choices and the draft will be less overwhelming.

Beyond readability, each card should be intuitive in its purpose. Upheaval is a readable card but it's not immediately obvious why it's powerful. My goal is for even newer players to be able to form a game plan and draft/deckbuild accordingly.

Other restrictions:

• No shuffle effects. This speeds the game up significantly. Also, new players are slower at shuffling sleeved cards.
• No errata. Specifically, "target creature or player" and Companion come to mind.
• No non-evergreen mechanics unless they have reminder text.
• No dual-faced cards. I don't expect people to recognize that a card has a back face, let alone pull it out and turn it around.

Most cards in the cube adhere to Evergreen+ mechanics. Besides evergreen mechanics, I include:

• Flashback
• Landfall
• Kicker
• Saga (If its text isn't too long)
• Vehicle

Evergreen mechanics excluded in this cube:

• Protection
• Shuffle
• Ward (for now)

The focus during drafting should be on the player's gameplan, and I don't want players to have to worry about which lands enter the battlefield tapped and how much to value additional effects stapled onto dual lands. To that end, I included four copies of each dual land Volcanic Island, proxied for readability.

My goal here is for fixing to be plentiful enough that in pack one it's not a first through third pick.

Power

I want this cube to feel powerful and exciting compared to retail limited, but not broken. With abundant fixing and many more rares, players should be able to feel the difference when they open their first pack.

A flat power level is a goal that isn't always in line with simplicity. When in doubt, I will lean towards simplicity. I don't want to intentionally put bad cards into the cube but some powerful cards may stand out above the others because they're fun includes and their lower-power replacements are less elegant.

Gameplay

Aggro, midrange, and control should all be viable options. There is no combo deck in this cube. Drafters should have the option to draft synergistic decks but not every deck needs to be a synergy pile. The multicolor cards signal archetypes.

With abundant fixing, two-color decks should have solid mana bases and splashing a third color is generally a reasonable option. Four or five color piles are difficult by design due to the exclusion of fetchlands.

Creatures tend to be neutral or aggressively statted. With a fair number of board wipes, removal, and card draw, board stalls shouldn't last too long.

The goal is for games to be quicker than normal. Good fixing and no shuffling advance this goal.

Examples:

• Glorious Anthem over Force of Virtue.
• Lightning Bolt over Chain Lightning.
• Hero's Downfall over Murderous Rider.
• Counterspell over Mana Drain.
• Man-O'-War over Barrin, Tolarian Archmage.
• Llanowar Elves over Noble Hierarch.

Avoid

• Protection from X or other usually irrelevant lines
• Protection in general
• Shuffle effects for gameplay speed reasons

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Keywords

"addendum" 1
"adventure" 6
"afterlife" 1
"annihilator" 1
"constellation" 1
"cycling" 12
"deathtouch" 13
"defender" 1
"enchant" 21
"enrage" 1
"equip" 8
"fight" 4
"first strike" 3
"flash" 16
"flashback" 7
"flying" 48
"haste" 8
"kicker" 5
"landfall" 3
"lifelink" 14
"menace" 4
"mill" 9
"protection" 1
"prowess" 3
"reach" 1
"saga" 4
"scry" 5
"trample" 9
"vigilance" 3