!!! USE WITH CAUTION !!!
This Cube is custom designed for Megamind mental combat, so don't frick around.
Structure: This is a hypercube, meaning you should draft 4 packs of 12 cards each. In an 8-person draft pod, all 384 cards will be used.
Power Level: This cube aims for a variety of play patterns roughly from Legacy to Modern. Aggro and combo decks can win consistently by turn 4, but midrange and control decks have the tools to extend games much longer.
Color Identities:
White has a range of aggressive strategies supported by token generators + anthems and defended by taxing effects and strong removal. Slower white decks can utilize disruption and sweepers while closing out the game with planeswalkers or flyers.
Red is also very aggressive with a goblin theme and plenty of burn. Big Red strategies can embrace the lands and artifacts subthemes, burn opponents and their creatures, and finish the game with fatties or fireballs.
Black balances a bit of aggro, a bit of control, and a bit of combo/cheat to create a variety of deck-building options. Whatever direction you go, virtually all black decks will have some great removal and recursive card advantage.
Green is the color of ramp and midrange, sticking powerful threats ahead of schedule through mana dorks and rampant growths. Green can also grind out victories through land recursion, planeswalker abilities, and hard-to-kill beasts.
Blue is the slowest and most controlling color, but it can utilize its artifact synergies to play a more fast-paced, combo-oriented game.
Archetypes:
Aristocrats is best supported in Black, Red, and White. Gum up the board with little creatures, let them die while draining your opponents life, then resurrect them and do it all again.
Artifact synergies exist in Blue, Red, White, and (to a lesser degree) Black. Power out tons of colorless mana for your constructs or just destroy all the lands and use your mana rocks to stay in the lead.
Lands matter in Green, Red, Black, and (somewhat) White. Ramp, get landfall bonuses, sacrifice them for value, then bring them back. Utility and creature lands generate ever more advantage in these decks.
Reanimator and fatty cheat is possible in Blue, Black, and Red. Use cheap spells to dig for your combo pieces and fill the graveyard then run riot with your biggest monster.
Combos and Engines:
Grove of the Burnwillows + Punishing Fire is a grindy sweeper and potential win condition for any deck playing red. It’s especially strong in the Green-based land recursion decks.
Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek is another grindy engine which gains you life and clogs up the board. This combo is geared towards the Esper and artifacts matter decks.
Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage or Vampire Hexmage will create a 20/20 Marit Lage token which can win the game in one swing.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker goes infinite with Conspicuous Snoop in Red and Corridor Monitor in Blue.