Welcome to Mono Blue Cube! Below is a short primer of the cube, describing different archetypes, the design philosophy, and a few notable build-arounds!

When I first got into cube, I wasn’t sure exactly what to build. I had played an unpowered legacy cube at my game store that I absolutely loved, but it somehow didn’t feel right as the cube for me. I did some research to see what really stood out, and heard stories of “mono colored” cubes. It was like a lightbulb hit! Mono blue seemed to not only be able to support the widest variety of archetypes, but also seemed to be by far the most interactive mono color, so that no one strategy or card could completely overtake the cube. Initially, I had the cube as powered, as I wanted a place to put cards like arcane savant and to get to play with the power nine.
However, the power level of these cards quickly overtook the cube and made many decks obsolete. Now that it has been unpowered, the cube has been running better than ever!

The biggest problem so far with the cube has been trying to explain to drafters what archetypes exist. While there are some clearly defined archetypes, the beauty - and also the most complex part - of a mono colored cube is that every deck can play every card, theoretically. This means that having exact archetypes is very difficult, because there is no inherent restriction to stretching out and grabbing powerful parts of other archetypes. Therefore, the focus of drafting is not on colors of cards, but instead of synergies of cards as well as what kinds of cards are wheeling. A 1 drop wheeling is way more informative than seeing a blue card wheeling in the cube, for example. Therefore, this primer is an attempt to help simplify the cube for drafters.

Aggro Variants: While all of these decks encourage the swords, strong 1-3 drops, and cheap interaction, each has its own flavor of synergy that you can choose to build around to varying degrees!

Affinity

This archetype is built from cheap artifacts on the bottom end coupled with expensive pay-off artifacts that either get bigger or cheaper depending on how many artifacts you have out. If artifact creatures are wheeling, look into this archetype!

Delver

This archetype sits much closer to tempo decks that you see in other formats. It combines the cheapest, most efficient threats in the cube with the cheapest, most efficient interaction in the cube. If one of the core one drops wheels, or if you see a bunch of cheap 1 mana counters wheel, this archetype may be open!

Flying Men

This archetype abuses the swords the best of any aggro archetype. Abusing evasive creatures, card advantage engines based on attacking, and “on damage” or power-boosting equipment, this archetype can smash apart the competition given the right combination of pieces. If drafters are allowing cheap fliers to wheel or somehow allowing powerful equipment to wheel, this archetype might be open!

Midrange Variants: These decks hope to go slightly over aggro, while overwhelming control, and generally require specific, powerful pieces to be supported. However, there is still some powerful decks here if you can get the right parts!

“Tron”

This is the ramp archetype of the cube. This deck combines huge threats and powerful ramp pieces to try to go bigger than the aggro decks and overwhelm the control decks. If mana rocks are wheeling, or some of the powerful 5+ drops, this deck might be open!

Devotion

Requiring more specific pieces than any other midrange deck, this deck is arguably a build around deck of one of these three cards. However, this archetype is very easy to go into if you have been picking powerful creatures throughout the draft and happen upon one of these three incredibly strong pay-offs.

Spell-Slinger

This list is the bigger version of Delver without the combo pieces necessary for Storm. As a midway archetype, it is good for drafters of either storm or delver to see if this archetype is open and rotate into it if necessary. This list really wants cantrips and to encourage counter-wars while you have one of your token producers, and can be surprisingly efficient if no other drafter sees the lane.

Control variants: These decks look down to lock down the game or flood your opponent in card advantage. While all archetypes in the cube have a lot of run over, the control variants tend to allow the most variety of deck types, as pieces of one shell almost always synergize with pieces of another shell.

Seinfeld

The archetype everyone thinks of when you hear “blue cube”, this deck is a combination of counterspells and win cons that don’t require tapping out. This archetype is hard to draft because of how highly drafters do/should take counterspells, but sometimes you can get enough counterspells - roughly 10 - to support this archetype. And if you do play this archetype, prepare to teach your opponents what a “zero sum” game means.

Tezzerator

Also known as artifact control, this list wants to use specific artifacts and tutors to lock the opponent out of the game, with a few choice interactive spells to keep their lock. This list has some overlap with the ramp archetype, but tend to be focused more on locking the game out then ramping out big threats. If you see lock pieces wheeling, this archetype may be open!

Tap-out Control

Generally a hard archetype to support, but dropping planeswalkers can win games. Drafting a bunch of board wipes really helps this deck, as does blending this archetype with seinfield. However, this archetype can resolve some of the strongest cards in the cube, so if you get enough pieces do not sleep on this archetype.

Build-around Archetypes: These archetypes are either combo, or based on a singular card, or both. They vary widely, but generally want a lot of cantrips.

STORM

The most parasitic archetype in cube, the important part of drafting this archetype is picking cantrips often and early and then not letting other players see these payoff cards. If multiple people are in this archetype, both won’t do well, but if only one is in it, they can do incredibly well. Reading the table is an important part of drafting this archetype well.

Upheaval

Upheaval is a very all-or-nothing build around, with either a bunch of mana rocks and early wins or no way to abuse upheaval and a wasted pick. This polarity makes it incredibly difficult to accurately draft - make sure you are getting rocks often and early, even above cantrips.

Opposition

This card, while definitely a build around, is mostly just token Aggro. However, the deck wouldn’t exist without turnabout, and allows you to really abuse some effects like winter orb. This list can also become devotion if you get master of waves, or just become a generic aggro deck, so it is very versatile even without the core piece.

Cheatyface

These cards all have slightly different payoffs - some of them overlap - but they are all about cheating huge, overpowered cards way too early. Man lands support polymorph and tinker, and show and tell/dream halls prefer huge card-advantage based threats instead of just raw “I win” cards. Given there are much more of these cards that overlap in general plan, these are quite build arounds, but aren’t just an archetype. Drafting this archetype is about either having the pay off or not, and then getting the necessary fatty for the deck.

Self-Mill

This list is very simple - get a piece that wins when your deck is empty, and then dump your deck into your graveyard! Out of all of the combo decks, this gives you the most room for interaction and other combos, as the actual combo tends to only be 1-2 cards. As with a lot of these build arounds, you need the core piece, and then you pick the appropriate synergy pieces very highly.

While this isn’t all archetypes in the cube, this is a good overview for new drafters to see what is and isn’t supported. Being mono colored, this deck has several viable archetypes, and you can easily make archetypes yourself given proper support (Mono Blue Ponza is the most famous example!). Most importantly, have fun!