This cube has an ambitious aim: to make a cube experience where decks feel like high powered constructed, without power. What does that mean? To begin, I want to look at the difference between powerful synergistic cards vs generically overpowered cards by looking at what is not in the cube.

Generally, I wanted to avoid cards that were auto includes in any deck. Sol Ring is the perfect example of a generically overpowered card. It goes into any deck, and if you were to open one in a pack, regardless of whatever else you previously drafted, the correct choice is always going to be Sol Ring. The same goes for most of the power nine cards like the moxen and Black Lotus. To me, the draft experience becomes less interesting when choices are limited in this way. Additionally, the gameplay experience in my opinion is made worse overall with the presence of these cards. T1 lotus into a channel emrakul is fun for a game, but repeatedly the gameplay gets boring.

But what cards get in despite their absurd power level?

The difference between these absurd cards and others in my cube is that they require a specific kind of deck to be good. You need a bomb to bring in with Sneak attack. You need to draft artifacts to make tolarian academy and tinker good. They are build around bombs, and with build arounds you risk getting the deck cut off by other drafters.

The core of the cube is mainly around the other cards you draft. I want my players to feel like like they are drafting a constructed deck, and constructed is often defined by the synergistic pieces supporting your other cards. Players should not draft a pile of bombs, they should draft a deck. Take these as an example:

Every deck would want a sol ring. But if you drafted survival of the fittest you really want Blazing Rootwalla. At its best, constructed decks are not a pile of staples, but rather staples that support the nuts and bolts of a deck. A prowess might run Monastery Swiftspear just like a Red Deck Wins, but would also fully want to run Defiant Strike.

This kind of design leads to some cards not being always desired in a draft. There should be cards in a draft that only specific players want at the table, and it should be expected that between some drafts that some cards aren't picked. It's a feature of the cube, not a bug. There are of course some generically good cards in the cube.

These I consider to be on a different scale to the other build around powerhouses of the cube. They can go in decks with the matching color requirements and fit well into a variety of archetypes.

This cube was inspired by @JimDavisMTG 's cube. Jim's cube design philosophy, approach to card choices, and sense of what makes a game of magic fun closely matches my own, and I think the recording of his cube sleeving stream is an excellent resource for cube design that I highly recommend anyone getting into cube design to watch.