Art by Titus Lunter- Every player starts with a single Urza's Saga, then drafts 3 15-card packs for a pool of 46 total cards. They may choose to put the Urza's Saga in their deck or not.
- There are no additional copies of Urza's Saga available during the draft.
The cube started as a relatively low-curved "artifacts" cube that showcases the unique power and beauty of Magic's most broken card type. While looking through cards for the cube I kept thinking "Wow, this would go great with Urza's Saga," and "Wow, the player who drafts Urza's Saga will wreck everyone." As the search continued I found tons of interesting artifacts in the 0-1 mana value range that see virtually no constructed play, as well as many high-power targets frequently tutored up in Modern and Legacy.
It became clear that just a single copy of Urza's Saga in the cube would be an outrageous power spike. Then it dawned on me. Rather than giving a single player a huge power outlier we can give an Urza's Saga to everyone and level the playing field by raising the floor. From there major archetypes fell into place around marquee 0-1 mana artifacts.
Complementing the suite of Urza's Saga targets are a ton of powerful artifacts, as well as non-artifact cards with heavy artifact-synergy (or -hate). There are also many 1-for-1 artifact removal spells at your disposal, so don't expect precious trinkets or heavy machines to last long! While there are damage-based removal spells, non-artifact permanents are much stickier than usual in this environment.
A core part of the format's gameplay is interacting with Urza's Saga directly. Artifact removal spells often have enchantment splash damage. You can also deal with it in the traditional ways. Recursion is plentiful and you can add or remove Lore counters to prevent or remove an activation.
The format is relatively aggressive; every deck has a floor of 2 3/3s and a tutored artifact. That does not mean it is a fast format. Aggro, Midrange, and Control are all viable macro-archetypes, and there are many low-curve answers for artifacts. However, there are few ways to win outside of attacking or decking. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and do some combat math.
Because so much of the cube is colorless your deck's colors don't necessarily dictate your archetype. Each color has a cohesive mechanical identity and you can mix and match to build the engine of your choice:
White: Equipment, Recursion, White Weenie
Blue: Theft, Cheat-into-play, Tezzerator
Black: Sacrifice, Removal, Combo
Red: Welder, Direct Damage, Goblins
Green: Lands, Artifact Hate, +1/+1 Counters
Color fixing is intentionally lower-powered in this cube; you won't find fetches or duals. Instead, there's 1 of each Mirrodin artifact land, 1 of each MH2 artifact dual (etb tapped), 1 of each fastland, and the full set of Talismans. Luckily, a huge portion of the cube is colorless and cards with low color requirements are preferred.