The Format

This cube adheres to the traditional Peasant format (only commons and uncommons) while also including Rare dual lands to increase the pace of play. It’s meant to be familiar to my playgroup of friends who draft Standard retail sets and on Arena but don’t play outside of that. You won’t find cards from sets that weren’t draftable on Arena, such as JumpStart or the Historic Anthologies.

The Meta

The four macro-archetypes found in Magic are:

• Aggro, in which you win quickly with a barrage of cheap, efficient creatures. Think of curving out on board before playing Heroic Reinforcements.
• Midrange, in which you win by drowning your opponent in value. Think of playing creatures with powerful ETB effects like Alirios, Enraptured and Pelakka Wurm.
• Combo, in which you win by constructing an unstoppable engine. Think of playing Sprite Dragon, combined with several cheap draw spells like Opt, to burst your opponent’s life total before they can respond.
• Control, in which you win slowly through inevitability. Think of denying your opponent access to their better creatures with counter and removal spells, while relying on Ill-Gotten Inheritance to make sure they lose before you do.

Most Guilds in this cube can support multiple archetypes. Rakdos can play a Combo style with Mayhem Devil and Weaponize the Monsters, or a Control style with Kardur’s Vicious Return. Orzhov can play an Aggro style with Seasoned Hallowblade and Poison the Cup, or a Combo style with Attended Healer and Bushmeat Poacher.

One of my primary goals in curating this list is to maintain a balance between threats and answers. In considering the strength of removal, I've also considered the strength, cost, and impact of what it will be removing. Cast Down and Heartless Act are two of the strongest pieces of removal the Historic format can offer but, in my opinion, a 2 CMC card should not be able to answer a 6 CMC card. The ramp player who spends six turns hard casting Titanoth Rex, and who then sees it answered by a 2 CMC instant, feels bad. Good removal needs to exist but, just as Peasant threats are not so difficult to handle, should not be so good at handling threats.

In Closing

Please: go forth, draft, and enjoy the experience I'm actively working to curate! COVID-19 being a thing means that I haven't been able to test with my group, so please reach out with feedback, criticisms, or questions if you've been able to do so. Message me at u/lupinefiasco on Reddit. Happy cubing!