This is my actual cube - not a mere thought experiment! Originally a Peasant cube, I try to keep the power level relatively close to Peasant while sprinkling in a few rares to round out certain archetypes - or showcase cards that I like. Cards such as Ramunap Excavator and Crucible of Worlds are present, but with not fetchlands their relative power decreases significantly.

No matter how heady my cube design gets or what other directions I decide to take it, I want this to be a home for cards that I think are cool that I don't have homes for in other places. In order to prevent these cards from being power-creeped out of the cube, NO MORE THAN 10% of the cards in this cube at a given time will be rare! (I may make an exception for lands once I finally get around to updating that section).

INSPIRATION AND DESIGN

I built this cube after reading a brilliant article on Riptidelab by user Japahn, "Archetype Shapes." I fell somewhere between "tetra" and "pivot" in the way that I built my archetypes. Each color serves as a pivot for a certain strategy - for example, W/x tokens - while other enablers/payoffs are scattered in other colors. However, one color is excluded from each four-color archetype!

Different combinations within a given archetype fall into different theaters, or different sub-archetypes. A WR tokens deck will likely be an aggressive beatdown deck, while WB may play with a more midrange-y aristocrats strategy. There are many, many potential combinations within this framework, and sometimes the decks that come together surprise me!

PRIMARY ARCHETYPES

Wgrb: Tokens
Gruw: Lands
Rbuw: Noncreature spells
Bugr: Graveyard
Uwgb: ETB effects

SECONDARY ARCHETYPES

Additionally, there are a few Secondary Archetypes that are much less heavily supported. They tend to rely on a few key payoffs, but on rare occasion may come together with their strange synergies. These are:

Wgu: Enchantments/Auras
Gbw: 1/1 Counters
Rbu: Burning Vengeance
Uwb: Saboteurs
Bwg: Sacrifice

ARCHETYPE BREAKDOWNS:

TOKENS
Primary Color: White
Secondary Colors: Green, Red, Black
Key Cards: <under construction>
Sub-Archetypes: Aggro, Go-Wide, Sacrifice
Overlaps with: Noncreature spells such as Raise the Alarm or Dragon Fodder. For the few artifact-matters cards around, many of the tokens are Servos or Thopters. Many creatures generate tokens on ETB, making them solid choices for flicker decks.

LANDS
Primary Color: Green
Secondary Colors: Red, Blue, White
Key Cards: <under construction >
Sub-Archetypes: Ramp, Landfall beatdown, Turbolands, Multicolor goodstuff
Overlaps with: Graveyard. Many of the lands-matter payoffs such as Trade Routes or Magmatic Vortex generate value by discarding lands. Some cards care about lands in the graveyard, making spells such as Ramunap Excavator or Splendid Reclamation an excellent choice with the proper enables. Some creatures generate tokens with their Landfall effects.

NONCREATURE SPELLS
Primary Color: Red
Secondary Colors: Black, Blue, White
Key Cards: <under construction>
Sub-Archetypes: Spellslinger, Prowess, Counterburn, Artifacts
Overlaps with: Graveyard. A plethora of looter effects and cards with Flashback mean that these two archetypes are interested in many of the same cards. Many instants and sorceries put tokens on the field.

ETB EFFECTS
Primary Color: Blue
Secondary Colors: White, Green, Black
Key Cards: <under construction>
Sub-Archetypes: Tempo, Control
Overlaps with: Tokens, with a plethora of creatures bringing in tokens on ETB. Additionally, graveyard, specifically reanimator-style decks that like to have powerful ETB effects to cheat in. Ramp can sometimes feel a little cheat-y, so perhaps there is some overlap with Lands as well, though this feels like a bit of a stretch.

GRAVEYARD
Primary Color: Black
Secondary Colors: Blue, Green, Red
Sub-Archetypes: Dredge, Reanimator, Flashback, Recursive Aggro
Overlaps with: Noncreature spells with the plethora of Flashback cards in this cube. Some ETB and Tokens with reanimator-style decks. A number of archetypes get good mileage out of recursive creatures.