Welcome to my cube, an unpowered environment that I have been working on since 2016. Below you will find my goals and design philosophy, as well as a brief overview of the archetype you might find. >>> ### History <<< My first experience with cube was in the 7th grade in Mr. Gussin’s after-school magic club. We met once a week after school, and usually played decks we had made from whatever cards we had laying around, or sometimes standard decks we had copied from watching the Pro Tour. Rarely did we venture into the world of limited, but one day our fearless leader Mr. Gussin brought in his peasant cube for us to draft together. As an avid zoo-lover at the time, I was immediately hooked on the prospect of drafting [[Cerodon Yearling]]s and [[Charging Troll]]s. The idea of creating a custom limited environment where I could play any cards I wanted was mind-blowing for 12 year-old me, so following the draft I went home and built a cube with my brother using the miscellaneous Shards of Alara and Zendikar cards we had lying around. Needless to say, it was not a particularly balanced draft environment (I included 3 copies of [[Beast Hunt]] for God’s sake), but it was nonetheless some of the most fun I’d had playing Magic. The opportunity to both be a game designer and a player was immensely fun, and completely opened up the ways in which I thought about the game. Following my formative cube experiences, I began designing the first versions of this cube on tappedout.net and cubetutor.com around 2016 (link for your general amusement: https://tappedout.net/mtg-cube-drafts/lovesosa/). It has undergone multiple top-to-bottom makeovers over the years, but this is its current iteration after many years of love and work. Thank you for checking out my cube, and I hope you enjoy! >>> ### Gameplay Goals <<< I believe that Magic is at its best when players’ strategic abilities are pitted against each other to the fullest extent. Games that are interactive and rich in decision-making mean that players have the most agency to control their own destiny in the draft and pilot their deck to victory in the tournament. Many cube designers choose to include the most powerful cards from across Magic’s history in their cubes, and while previous iterations of this cube have included legacy-level cards like [[Sneak Attack]], I’ve chosen to exclude many of them. After having played with these cards for many years, I came to dislike the way that they both monopolized decision-making during the draft and create non-games during the tournament. In general I want doing the cool thing to also be doing the good thing, and it simply feels bad when your BR Aristocrats deck grinding with [[Blood Artist]] gets run over by a deck rocking [[Sneak Attack]] into [[Emrakul, the Aeons Torn]]. I exclude power for similar reasons. In general, decks in this cube play on a “fair” axis of card advantage, tempo, and synergy, rather than cheating the resource economy. In this vein, there are many cards like [[Oko, Thief of Crowns]], [[Forth Eorlingas!]], and the many initiative creatures that—while not immediately ending the game the way that [[Griselbrand]] might—I have chosen to exclude because they are simply more efficient than almost every other midrange card and push out synergy-based midrange strategies. With this in mind, I have developed a couple general guidelines for what types of decks and games I want to foster in my cube. >>> ### Design Goals: <<< - Deep, skill testing gameplay and drafts - Synergy is powerful but not required. Synergistic decks and midrange piles should be equally good. - Cards are either powerful, synergistic, or both—but not so much so that they warp the draft or gameplay - Versatility. Micro archetype payoffs should be playable in many strategies, and kept to a minimum if not - Pay homage to classic cards and archetypes throughout Magic’s history >>> ### Archetype Overview: <<< Modern retail limited design often will include draft guides breaking down the 2-color archetypes and decks players might expect to encounter, and while this is a very popular design strategy, I haven’t found this to be quite right for my cube. Both WoTC and amateur cube designers alike will often design or choose multicolored cards to be “signposts” for specific 2-color archetypes, and while there is certainly merit to this, I feel as though it too tightly constrains what a 2-color deck can be in my cube. Consequently, you will find that decks in this cube will almost always fit into the major macro archetypes of aggro, midrange, and control, with the color pie informing the particular flavors and synergies that the decks take on. One of the great joys as a cube designer is actually seeing the innovative decks that people draft that blend synergies and transcend strict archetypes, so the following is less of a comprehensive list and more of a general guide for what synergies you might expect to encounter and incorporate into your unique deck. ***Aggro-Control and Tempo:*** Proactive controlling strategies are very strong in this cube, with cheap snowballing threats like [[Third Path Iconoclast]] and [[Sprite Dragon]]. After deploying a threat, protect it with countermagic and removal before digging for more gas with powerful delve spells like [[Treasure Cruise]]. These decks are always very happy to play in the graveyard and can often flashback or delve spells for big value later. ***Aristocrat Decks:*** Primarily in black, red, and white, these decks look to grind value and win via attrition. [[Goblin Bombardment]] [[The Meathook Massacre]], and [[Yawgmoth, Thran Physician]] are all-stars, with [[Bitterblossom]], [[Goblin Rabblemaster]], and [[Monastery Mentor]] acting as enablers. As with many decks, artifact synergies abound so keep your eyes peeled for synergies with [[Oni-Cult Anvil]] (green is definitely a sleeper color here). Potentially look to pick up a cheeky [[Korvold, Fae-Cursed King]] as well. ***Artifact Decks:*** Perhaps the most inclusive archetype, every color in this cube can offer something to an artifact deck. White offers token generation with [[Thousand Moons Smithy]] and go-wide payoffs like [[Urza, Prince of Kroog]] and [[Angel of Invention]], as well as opportunities to flicker for value. Blue offers heavy-hitters such as [[Thought Monitor]], [[Kappa Cannoneer]], and [[Urza, Lord High Artificer]], as well as the one-card archetype [[Opposition]]. Black is often a support color coming from the gold section, with cards like [[Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas]] and [[Oni-Cult Anvil]] offering different flavors of midrange and aristocrat strategies as well as support with graveyard-based artifact decks. Red often ends up being a secondary rather than primary color but can bring recent powerhouse [[Broadside Bombardiers]], as well as [[Goblin Engineer]] and various treasure and trinkets to sac for value. Lastly, a slew of green cards make incidental artifact tokens that can increase affinity count or buff your karnstructs. Colorless players [[Walking Ballista]] and [[Urza's Saga]] provide the glue for all of these strategies. Somewhat (dis) honorable mention to thopter-sword for being broken. ***Blink / CoCo / Pod Decks:*** While less of a dedicated archetype, many creatures have enters-the-battlefield abilities that you can extract value from using the eponymous [[Birthing Pod]], [[Collected Company]], and various flicker effects. Every color has something to offer here, but heavy hitters include [[Thragtusk]], [[Fury]], [[Restoration Angel]], [[Blade Splicer]], and [[Palace Jailer]]. [[Recurring Nightmare]] can often be backbreaking in these types of decks. Shoutout to [[Ephemerate]] as well for being broken. ***Draw-Go / Tap-Out Control:*** Both flavors of control are viable in this cube, with draw-go decks having the ability to lean heavily into blue to leverage [[Mystic Sanctuary]], [[Torrential Gearhulk]], and [[Cryptic Command]]. [[Brainstorm]] and [[Sensei's Divining Top]] also allow opportunities to abuse [[Terminus]]. Tap-out decks often use white planeswalkers to take over the game, often with [[Balance]]. Black supports both blue and white here with combination hand attack, removal, and sweepers. ***Domain:*** Appearing in both aggro and midrange styles, 5-color decks can go low to the ground with [[Wild Nacatl]], [[Nishoba Brawler]], and [[Scion of Draco]], or go over the top with [[Golos, Tireless Pilgrim]] and [[Omnath, locus of creation]]. Midrange styles of this deck often synergize well with the lands package. ***Lands Decks:*** Green is king for this archetype, with cards like [[Primeval Titan]], [[Titania, Protector of Argoth]] offering explosive late-game power, and role-players like [[Tireless tracker]] and [[Life from the loam]] providing ways to grind midrange value. This deck is very happy to abuse the graveyard, with [[Wrenn and Six]] & co. providing ways to recur fetches for value or strip mine for pain. Four-color all-star [[Omnath, Locus of Creation]] provides a powerful domain payoff, and [[Knight of the Reliquary]] and [[Golos, Tireless Pilgrim]] offer ways to build around [[Field of the Dead]]. Keep an eye out for opportunities to capitalize on your mana advantage as well with [[Up the Beanstalk]], [[Lorien revealed]], and [[Capture of Jingzhou]]. ***Hardened Scales:*** A newer addition, this green-based deck looks to take advantage of the many incidental +1/+1 counters that green creatures in particular generate with [[Hardened Scales]] and [[Ozolith, the Shattered Spire]]. As with all micro-archetypes in this cube, the goal is for most cards to be playable outside of their specific shell. Examples include [[Verdurous Gearhulk]], [[Tireless Tracker]], and [[Walking Ballista]]. [[Arcbound Ravager]] and [[Steel Overseer]] also have the ability to tie-in with the many artifacts running around. ***Humans & Winota:*** Yet another micro-archetype sub-package, this deck very simply wants to beat face with [[Champion of the Parish]], [[Thalia's Lieutenant]], and [[Eomer, King of Rohan]]. [[Winota, Joiner of Forces]] is a one-card archetype that presents drafters with a mandate during the draft that pays off by allowing them to cheat in big humans for free such as [[Queen Marchesa]], [[Death-Greeter's Champion]], and Eomer. ***Red Deck Wins / White Weenie:*** These decks need no introduction. Get ‘em low with [[Sulfuric Vortex]] and [[Goblin Guide]] before sending 6 to the face with [[Fiery Confluence]]. White offers the other primary aggro strategy, with a suite of disruptive creatures such as [[Mother of Runes]], [[Thalia, Guardian of Thraben]], and [[Elite Spellbinder]]. ***Reanimator:*** Reanimator comes in two flavors in this cube, either as a quasi-combo deck with [[Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis]] and [[Scourge of Nel Toth]], or a scam-style deck with [[Troll of Khazad-Dum]], [[Grief]], and [[Harvester of Misery]]. Hogaak decks absolutely love [[Vengevine]]s, [[Stitcher’s Supplier]]s, and [[Bloodghast]], while more midrange strategies are happy to ditch their guys for early value and pick them up later with a cheeky [[Reanimate]] or [[Persist]]. Efficient role-players [[Entomb]], [[Bone Shards]], and [[Faithless looting]] all do work here. Honorable mention to [[Recurring Nightmare]] as well for being its own one-card archetype in this ***Zombies:*** Calling zombies an archetype may be generous, but [[Gravecrawler]] is a very powerful card if you can keep another zombie in play. Being able to act as infinite sac fodder for your [[Yawgmoth, Thran Physician]] can easily take over a game, and warrants consideration as a build-around during the draft. Look for [[Headless Rider]] for even more value. >>> ### Final Thoughts <<< If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! Cube is one of my great passions in life and and I'm both grateful and flattered that you've taken the time to read about my cube project and as well as my many thoughts about the game we all love. Cheers, and happy cubing!