Welcome! You are a planeswalker competing against other planeswalkers to connect the planes of Magic's multiverse. This cube draws from eleven of Magic's most interesting planes and features the unique game play of microdecks and custom "plane cards."

Rules

1. Before play begins: Each of four players receives a card pool of 33 commons, 9 uncommons, and 3 rares. From this pool, each player builds at least one 15-card "microdeck."
2. At the start of each match: Each player selects one of their decks and a plane card that will be associated with that deck for the rest of the session. Decks can have only one plane card. Players can introduce new plane cards by selecting a new deck at the start of a new match, provided they built more than one deck from their card pool.
3. During each game: At the start of each game, players place their deck's plane card onto the battlefield under their control. Players may use the abilities on their plane card at any time. Players cannot interact with their opponent's plane card in any way.
4. Ending games and matches: Players do not lose to decking. When a player wins a game, they have "explored" their deck's plane. When someone gets their second win in a match, that player has "explored" the plane of their opponent's deck, and the match is over. Whenever a player explores a plane, that plane becomes "connected" to the last plane that player explored. Planes cannot be connected to themselves.
5. Ending the session: Matches continue until all players have played a match against each other player or until all planes have been connected, whichever happens first. Players receive one point for every connection to each plane they have explored. The player with the most points wins.

The Twelve Planes

This set draws primarily from eleven planes that have been visited just once or twice:

1. Eldraine
2. Amonkhet
3. Tarkir
4. Alara
5. Lorwyn-Shadowmoor
6. New Capenna
7. Arcavios
8. Ixalan
9. Ikoria
10. Kaldheim
11. Theros
12. New Phyrexia

As planes are revisited, they will be retired from this set and could eventually get their own cube, the way Zendikar has. This process will open up space for new planes to be added to this set as they arrive.

Why These Planes?

I came into Magic from board games and feel that every setting has the potential to be its own standalone game, with a unique feel and mechanics. I got so into this idea that I made a different set for every plane visited in a Standard-legal set. As I worked through this project, I found the planes that had been revisited numerous times provided more interesting decisions for me as the designer and more diverse environments for my players. The planes with just one visit tended toward sets that seemed more like "flashback" drafts to their original environments without offering anything new.

As a result, I decided to bring all these one-off planes together into a single set to see what they could offer. To my surprise, rather than a hodgepodge, there were actually some clear throughlines that helped bring the set together, creating a very interesting environment. I hope you enjoy it!

Themes & Mechanics

This set is designed such that each wedge has a unique theme. Within each wedge, each color pair has a slightly different approach, generating diversity within each theme:

• WBG Life Gain (lifelink, food, pests)
• URW "Prowess" (artifacts/enchantments, instants/sorceries)
• BGU Graveyard (mill, exile from graveyard, restocking)
• RWB Beatdown (exert, Phyrexian mana, cycling)
• GUR Ramp (landcycling, treasure, land tutors)

In addition, shards have less prominent themes that offer additional variety:

• GWU Blink (flicker, ETB effects)
• WUB Skies (fliers, ground blockers)
• UBR Counters (-1/-1 counters, proliferate)
• BRG Sacrifice (LTB effects, sac outlets)
• RGW Go Wide (tokens, anthems)

Tribal decks are also sometimes viable, and of course cards at higher rarities can inspire entire decks unto themselves.

Planar Mechanics

While anything goes at rare and to a lesser extent uncommon, at common I wanted to keep things a little simpler. There are ten non-evergreen mechanics at common (which is still a lot!), just enough so that each plane is represented:

• WU Foretell (Kaldheim)
• UB Proliferate (New Phyrexia)
• BR Dash (Tarkir)
• RG Landcycling (Alara)
• GW Shield counters (New Capenna)
• WB Learn (Strixhaven)
• UR Raid (Ixalan)
• BG Bestow (Theros)
• RW Exert (Amonkhet)
• GU Keyword counters (Ikoria)
• 5C Adventures (Eldraine)
• 5C Changeling (Lorwyn-Shadowmoor)

At uncommon each plane gets another mechanical "shout-out."