The general philosophy of this cube is to revisit old-school kitchen counter magic. Power and vintage level fast mana is avoided and instead replaced with old-border fixing and signets.

When possible, single pips are preferred over double. This has lead to a preference for creatures with shadow in the BW sections over the more traditional first strike knights. The inclusion of shadow also means for fewer board stalls.

In the absence of bonkers spells in blue, I've added a less traditional tempo-prison shell. So the cube supports blue tempo and blue control equally well.

Green gets to cheat things since signets do a lot of the ramp. 4+ toughness is also common within the color.