Outline

• Type: Singleton bar cube
• Identity: Desert cube with learn / lesson and sharpie errata
• Plays: 2-4
• Speed: Unpowered midrange. Good cards have been banned.
• Theme: Prohibition era with mobsters, racketeering, and police corruption

Planar Council Adopts Prohibition Amendment 282 to 128

A new planar amendment has been passed banning blue from Magic the Gathering. Now, daring mobsters and outlaws need to Smuggle their Contraband spells into the game from their Cache. Be careful, however, authorities and opposing mobsters lurk around every corner, and might force you to Stash your valuables.

Cube Goals

Following my attendance of CubeCon 2023, I was inspired by multiple desert cubes that I played and encouraged by the success of the first annual Bar Cube Night. This cube comes off the heels of CubeCon, and it is my ode to the unique environments that I played there and to all of my new friends.

The goal of this cube is to present a desert cube in a smaller list that is draftable by 2-4 players. This cube has no land station, so players must draft all of the lands that they wish to include in their deck.

Laws & Regulations

• No sleeves
• Limited tokens
• Limited counters
• All lands must be drafted (no land station)
• There are no basic islands in the draft pool
• All players start with a copy of Agent of Acquisitions face up in their pool
• This cube features a new zone, type, and two keywords that appear as sharpie errata: Cache, Contraband, Smuggle, and Stash.

Drafting the Cube

Since this is a desert cube, be sure that you shuffle the lands into the cube when preparing to make packs.

• 4 player draft: 6 packs of 10 cards
• 2 player draft: 10 packs of 6 cards
• Alternate 2 player draft: Housman Draft using 10 packs and hands of 6.

New Mechanics

Bar cubes often make use of cheaper cards and liberal use of sharpie errata. To expand on this space, I've introduced a new mechanic that is inspired by Learn / Lesson mechanic featured in Strixhaven. Players will use Smuggle to obtain Contraband cards from their Cache. Many of these Contraband cards have significant sharpie errata so read carefully. The cards may do something different from what you are familiar with!

• Cache: Unlike Lessons from Strixhaven, Contraband cards do not remain in your sideboard. Instead, they occupy their own zone. Players begin each game by shuffling all Contraband they drafted into their Cache, which acts as a side deck. Some cards and effects interact with your Cache.
• Contraband: Blue cards cannot be added to your main deck, and are referred to as Contraband for this reason. During the game, all drafted contraband starts shuffled into your cache.
• Smuggle: You may draw the top card of your cache or put the top card of your cache onto the battlefield face down. It gains "stash this permanent: add one mana of any color"
• Stash: When instructed to Stash a card, players shuffle that card into their Cache, for later use. This means that some cards that are not normally Contraband may end up here, which might reduce your odds of smuggling in more powerful effects!

Fixing for blue

Since the planar amendment banned blue, the blue cards in this cube are incredibly powerful but very difficult to cast. You will need to make careful decisions during drafting to make sure that you have lands that produce blue or can filter blue using some limited fixing.

CubeCon Bar Cube Night 2024

I brewed this new cube for sharing with all of you at CubeCon 2024's Bar Cube Night... I finished the first draft of this environment on 10/27/23, so let's get to testing!

Special Thanks

I do almost nothing MTG related without my Madison, WI Cube community. Mingos, you are the real ones, and I appreciate all of you so much. Your love and support sparks so much joy. Special thanks goes out to Kai, Mike, and Ryan for being amazingly supportive and acting as my special cooking team on this hella weird cube.