Introduction

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• Type: Eternal Legacy Cube
• Identity: Midrange and Synergy Focus
• Plays: Up to 10
• Speed: Unpowered midrange
• Variance: As a 450 card list, there is light-to-moderate variance in an 8 player draft.

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Table of Contents

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1. Quick Reference Guide
2. A Brief History
3. Drafting the MAD Cube

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Quick Reference Guide

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🔂 Singleton Breaks: We break the standard singleton rule with all ten fetchlands. This helps to make diverse mana bases a bit more accessible to all players - not just the players focused on eating their vegetables.
🐌 Limited Acceleration: Placing less emphasis on playing "ahead" of opponents, acceleration is limited both in quality and quantity. Generally, our accelerants may be conditional or color-restricted at low costs, offering bit more flexibility and/or versatility on higher-cost pieces. Where more powerful and traditional acceleration often wants you to "ramp" out big threats early, in MAD it will often be the bridge that helps you go from to top of your curve to a big, exciting play.
🛠️ Objects: All colors can make token objects of some variety. Some colors create things easier, some utilize them more creatively. Don't be afraid to try building your own Cube Golberg Deck.
🚫 Free Spells: Eschewing a conventional power trope, we decided that MAD was not the place for free spells. When players "tap out", we want to deliver on the expectation that they are tapped out.
🏛️ Foundations: Rather than on-rails archetypes, our aim was to provide mono-color identity "foundations" for players to build up from. Each color should feel like it wants to do something special and unique. When colors intersect, it should feel like a natural building-up from both of these goals.

• White decks really want to make friends - sometimes taking that a bit too literally.
• Blue decks are for rules lawyers real mages: make, use, and abuse the rules.
• Black decks want to have and do everything - especially whatever their opponents are doing.
• Red decks always want the next best thing, and trade in their maybe later for right now.
• Green decks just want to keep growing, and doesn't care if it's wide or tall.

There is a more in-depth descriptions of color foundations and combinations available below in the full primer.

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A Brief History

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Dan @BearlyLupe X/Twitter

I attended CubeCon in 2022, and this was my first real experience with cube. At the time my play group primarily played commander and did some retail limited, so I built this cube in November of 2022 to introduce that group to cube. Many of the card choices then and today promote the kind of splashy environment that this original group enjoyed.

Mike @Mikujin X/Twitter

I almost didn't attend CubeCon in 2022, but did thanks to prompting from my partner. As a veteran player that had been out of the game for nearly a decade, I wasn't sure what I'd find. Turns out: a great friend and cube-obsessed-designer, as well as a great local community because of where I found myself.

Mingos

Today, the Madison "MAD" Cube is our primary design project. Our passion-project, we love to maintain this environment for the Madison Mingo cube group. MAD Cube is our way of exploring synergistic and interactive gameplay. With its generous land base, players are encouraged to find splashy interactions across all slices of the color pie. During a typical MAD draft, we expect players to look for exciting build-arounds, splashy bombs, and wrenches to toss into everyone else's plans while you aim to assemble your own MAD engine of victory.

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Travel Log for this MAD World

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Our Cube has been featured at events near and far.

• Ice Cube Tournament, January '24 at The Mana Vault in Milwaukee, WI
• Commander Sealed, September '24 in Rochester, NY
• CubeCon, October '24 in Madison, WI

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Drafting the MAD Cube

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MAD has come a long way from its strict Commander-oriented roots. It has gone through plenty of iterations of change: at times focusing on big, bombastic threats, and at others on efficient and conventional pieces of action. With every change, we get MAD just a little bit closer to our ideal - if chaotic - environment.

In the current MAD World, players are encouraged to build and draft around core foundational strategies. Some cards might advertise some 'on-the-rails' strategies, while others might make players imagine what could be. A core goal in this iteration of MAD was to meet player expectations at the drafting table: if a card looks like a signal, it probably is.

At the end of the day, we hope all players get to explore MAD in a way that lets them build something amazing and entirely their own.

Below is a more in-depth look at our ideas behind color-driven foundations in MAD, and how they might interact with other colors.

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No matter what you're doing or where you're going, always bring a buddy. And maybe a snack. The foundation of White in MAD is all about assembling a lot of stuff - whether it's friends or all the things for them to play with. Expect to see things that create a variety of creature tokens and game objects - and plenty of things to reward you for making 'em!

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Tapping into Blue mana means you want to tap into the infinite possibilities of magical mastery. Sure, there are rules, but the measure of a mage is their ability to bend and break them. In MAD, Blue decks want to find their best options - or sometimes decide that opponents had an idea worth borrowing. Blue drafters should expect to be given the opportunity to explore creative options to try to create something new and all their own - though they an expect just as many opportunities to try to bend rules, or make new ones for everyone to wrack their own brains about.

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The world is full of experiences to have and things to see - and Black is the color of wanting them all. When drafting the color of ceaseless greed, players may consider what they are hungry for. Are you willing to pay any cost to get ahead? Or maybe you're the sort that just won't let things go? Regardless of what you're hungry for, Black strategies revolve around greedily attempting to satisfy their otherwise insatiable appetites.

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If you're the sort of player who doesn't care where you're going, so long as you're getting there fast, then the Red foundation of MAD is for you! Red decks always want to see all their options - even if they can't always take them! Thought that might seem short-sighted to some players, Red strategies also know that you can get ahead in more ways than one, even if it's only just for now. Red leans into being a little impulsive - after all, who knows what you'll find buried just under a few cards?

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Green's foundation is simple and straightforward: never stop growing. How players want to pursue that, though, is entirely up to them. Perhaps they relish the idea of their little critters growing up and getting bigger. Or, maybe they're excited to create an endless swarm of creatures to overwhelm opponents. Still, others may find that everything helps you grow, and diversication is the best way to ensure a lasting legacy.

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Below is a brief look at what sorts of ambitions each color pair might have, and at least one gold card pairing that we think embodies some of that dynamic. During a draft, you might seem more, similar effects, in mono- or multi-color pairings, that align with these goals. They are by no means, however, the only thing we'll imagine plays can and will do with these color combinations.

There and Back Again. White loves friends, Blue loves to bend rules: players can expect to find some old and new cards that support their objects (especially creatures) coming and going in this color intersection.

It's fair, I said so. Change the rules to your benefit, and your opponents' dismay. Players should expect to feel like The Bad Guy Mastermind with all the plans (whether or not they were yours).

Haaaaave you met Rob? Take the impulsiveness of Red, mix in the greedy desire from Black, and you'll find a mix that wants to see what your opponent might have wanted to do next. Y'know, if you hadn't thought to do it first.

He's actually very friendly. Strategies leveraging Green and Red will find a variety of ways to turn impulsiveness into opportunities to grow up and glow up their creature and object counts.

New Kids on the block. First, you make friends. Then, you make them bigger. White and Green strategies meet in a common place, attempting to put together a merry band of friends to roll over the opposition.

I picture a society of equals, where I'm more equal. Friends are meant to be gathered, when we want. How we want. Doing what we want. That's REAL friendship. Right?

We didn't cut lightning bolt, it's right there in the art! Blue and Red share a kinship over bending and breaking rules, imagining possibilities, and, apparently, otters.

Just eat it, trust me. Green knows the importance of stocking up for winter so you don't go nuts, and Black wants to remind you that everything is food if you're strong (or brave) enough. Expect to make the most of all your provisions if you're mixing these two colors.

And for my next trick... Rabbits aren't the only things White and Red decks want to pull of... everywhere. Find friends, make friends, imagine friends - and then hurt people. Together.

Have a honkin' good time. Blue sees opportunity to bend rules in its favor, and Green sees the possibility of unchecked, rampant growth. Just, y'know, without Rampant Growth.