Tl;dr: this cube is power optimized except no card in the cube is allowed to trigger Alexander Clamilton

INTRODUCTION

Are you tired of drafts taking up your entire day because your players have low attention spans and terrible memories, forcing them to read every single card, every single time they’re passed a pack?
Do you want to play more powerful Magic but hate that every card these days is a two sided Swiss Army Knife with size 2 font?

Well look no further! Introducing the Powered Simpleton Singleton Cube!

This cube is designed with the express and explicit purpose of power optimizing while also maximizing simplicity.
Simplicity is a complicated subject, but this cube wants every card to be accessible to new players, easy to read and understand, even if it can have complex interactions when paired with other cards.

DESIGN NOTES:

Criteria Overview:

For the first version of the cube the basic idea is to play all the most powerful cards in magic with less than 4 lines of rules texts. Because the cube will be all proxies, alternate versions and fake cards like the Magic 30th variants can be used. Many Borderless variants of cards condense the text and spacing sufficiently as to allow them to fit the bill for the cube even if no normal version of card would.

Legibility, card frames, and reminder text are all aspects that should be considered when deciding if cards are new player friendly and/or “simple” enough for the cube, beyond just the raw number of lines of text on the card.

This version of the cube also doesn’t worry too much about unique mechanics/tokens. Lots of unique tokens and/or game objects can lead to very complex board states. While this may not be an issue for some curators, other curators of lists like this may want to consider limiting unique tokens/mechanics in favor of further maximizing simplicity, even if this comes at the expense of raw power-level.

The List:

The list was initially compiled from the three power optimized cubes I’m most familiar with. Namely, the MTGO Vintage Cube, Wtwlf123’s Vintage Cube, and andymangold’s “Bun Magic” Cube.

I believe this list predates andymangold’s Sacred Geometry Cube, however recent updates were inspired by some of the design philosophy and decisions made surrounding that card, so I felt I should also shoutout that cube list as well, even though this cube and the Sacred Geometry Cube are quite different in how their various design goals are implemented.

From there, cuts and adjustments were made to remove all true duplicate cards and any cards containing more than 3 lines of rules text. All silver border and play-test cards were removed if present.

Notable exception(s):

In order to help maintain functional mana bases, all fetchlands have been left in the cube despite technically breaking the rules of the cube. This may change eventually but because they’re so powerful and easy to play with despite the extra text they’ve been given a pass for now.

Currently, the cube does allow functional duplicates, however these may be weeded out as the cube is cut down to 360 and evolved over time.

DISCLAIMER: This specific version of the cube is less friendly to new players. Many cards in this list are pushed further up the power axis and versions in this list are selected to reduce the amount of text on the cards as much as possible. The trade off here is that many cards don’t have reminder text for unique or complicated mechanics. Curators of cube’s like this should try to be mindful of unique tokens, mechanic reminder text, card frames/styles, and other factors as well ESPECIALLY if your goal is new player friendly.