The Noob Cube Introduction

An introduction to fundamental magic and the fundamentals of drafting, the 'Noob Cube' is designed to teach higher-level Magic with a multi-layer drafting experience. There's 2 of every common, 1 of every uncommon, signpost gold uncommons, and a fairly even ratio of payoff cards for every 2-color pairing archetype while trying to make cross-over synergies possible (such as the +1/+1 counters from life gain or sacrifice going nicely with the 'counters-matters' theme).

This cube design specifically focuses on keeping a powerful and flexible environment that doesn't feel 'boring' or 'basic' while not alienating new players with too much information overload. Think of this as the anti-Time Spiral for limited accessibility, without losing the depth. An important consideration is keeping cards clean and elegant; cards should say what they do (no hidden complexity behind keywords) and I've attempted to limit the breadth of keywords wherever possible, barring cases where the gameplay is too good to ignore (like with Blitz or For Mirrodin!).

2-Color Archetypes Flyers

Assemble a squadron of winged allies to strike down your enemies from the skies!

: Graveyard (Self-Mill/Reanimator)

Control the battlefield using removal spells and card draw, all while filling your graveyard to enact your master plans.

: Sacrifice

Fill your battlefield with pesky little minions that you can dispose of in all manner of imaginative ways. Attack relentlessly, throwing your creatures into the meat gringer if it means whittling down your opponent's life total.

: Landfall

Ramp yourself while pumping out large creatures, then use your ramp to outsize your enemies and roll them over.

: +1/+1 Counters

Command efficient creatures that continue to grow with +1/+1 counters as the game goes on.

: Lifegain

Support your forces by healing yourself, putting you out of the opponent's reach while you strengthen your creatures.

: Morbid

Get the most out of life by channeling death! Morbid makes the long game favor you, so a battle of attrition where you get value out of sacrificing disposable minions or remove enemy threats is a winning strategy.

: Card Draw

Defend yourself early and draw cards so you always have options on how to react to your opponent's plan. When you have an overwhelming board, your early card draw turns around to strengthen your biggest creatures.

: Spellslinger (Instant/sorcery tempo)

Channel your inner spellcaster - cast instants and sorceries to empower your prowess creatures and outmaneuver your opponent with clutch plays at the last second.

: Voltron (Auras/Equipment)

Attack your opponent quickly with fast, low-cost creatures, then buff them up with equipment to help scale your army with your opponents threats.

"Spreadsheet" Notes

• Each two-color archetype has a specific draft archetype associated with that pair (although this is not meant to be the only way to draft, they are very "loud")

  • There are two gold "signpost" uncommons for each color pair. They're farily explicit, as they're designed to be; both to pull players into that pair and to inform what that pair wants to do.

• Each color has four archetypes it supports based off its two-color draft archetypes. These were designed to optimize cross-synergy, and to lean into the color's core mechanical identity.
  | | | | | | |
  |---|---|---|---|---|---|
  | | --- | Flyers | Graveyard | Voltron | +1/+1 Counters |
  | | Flyers | --- | Graveyard | Spellslinger | Draw 2 |
  | | Lifegain | Graveyard | --- | Sacrifice | Morbid |
  | | Voltron | Spellslinger | Sacrifice | --- | Landfall |
  | | +1/+1 Counters | Draw 2 | Morbid | Landfall | --- |

• Each individual color has 60 total cards allocated to it.

• Of the 60 cards in each color:

  • 12 are uncommon
    • At least one of each uncommon is designed to see play in two of the archetypes (such as Envoy of the Ancestors working with both red/white "voltron" and green/white "+1/+1 counters matter.")
    • There is one iconic uncommon (i.e. Serra Angel)
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  • 48 are common
    • 12 of each common in each color are designed to be played in two particular archetypes (ideally, leaning to one or the other more strongly).

• There are