Miles' Cube since the summer of 2012!

How to you build the ideal Magic experience for a large group of friends with wildly different skill levels? Welcome to my 12-year-long attempt to answer that question: The California Premiership Cube.

Overview

Founded in 2012, the CPC is an unpowered Legacy+ 720-card singleton Magic: the Gathering drafting experience that gives players opportunities to cast some of the most memorable and exciting spells in the game’s 30-year history in a midrange-focused environment that’s generally fair and mostly combo-less, making for a much more forgiving format than its shared DNA with the MODO Vintage Cube might otherwise suggest.

This Cube is focused on delivering:

• Interactive gameplay between strong, synergistic decks with beloved cards.
• Accessibility to players across a large swath of skill levels.
• Opportunities for self-expression in drafting and deck-building.
• Celebrating the rich breadth of Magic design.

Beloved cards relegated from the California Premiership Cube will often find a new home in the California Champion's League Cube, found here: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/miles-reject

To maintain ease of play and lessen confusion during draft, all cards are in English and have unaltered artwork. The most iconic or basic printing of a card is generally preferred (particularly if it has reminder text for mechanics), but extended art, borderless art, and some light-touch Secret Lair editions are included on a case-by-case basis if the aesthetic upgrade overcomes potential complexity.

A 720-card cube is a boon in its ability to support a large playgroup and an even larger number of favorite cards, but the increased variance that comes with is not without design challenges. No two or three card combos can reliably be supported at this size, nor are strategies that rely on players drafting highly-specific cards to support tight themes, like being able to get enough fetch lands to make Crucible of Worlds useful in the typical draft.

The list of cards excluded for power level or complexity is quickly rivaling the size of the Cube itself, whether they are obvious power outliers like the Power 9, cards featuring mechanics scaled for multiplayer like Monarch or Initiative, or dual-faced cards that have entirely dissonant abilities between their front and back sides. Cards with repetitive gameplay and most tutors are generally barred from entry as well. Exceptions remain, but most with a strong defense.

Singleton Basic Lands https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/miles-lands?view=spoiler

Earliest Known List (Circa 2013) https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/miles-2013

Reject Cube https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/miles-reject