Like so many cubers, I was introduced to cube through MTGO’s Vintage Cube and YouTube. I was so inspired by the wild drafts and gameplay as well as the nostalgia. So I created the Golden Gate Cube which looked a lot like the MTGO Modern cube since I don’t use proxies. But as time passed and my tastes evolved, I found myself moving further away from the Vintage Cube that inspired me and more toward fairer Magic. But recently I found myself wandering back to where I began. **Today, my design philosophy is reflected in the question “What do I love and hate about Vintage cube?”** >>> ### What I love about Vintage Cube <<< <<[[!Cataclysm]] [[!Phyrexian Dreadnought]][[!Squandered Resources]]>> - **Variety of decks:** Older Magic had a wider variety of ways to destroy your opponent that have since disappeared. You could destroy their hand, their lands, their decks, or their ability to play Magic. Vintage cubes enable mean spirited players to enjoy making their opponent’s squirm while vastly increasing the types of decks and games. On the other hand, vintage cubes inspire us to live the dream and draft a storm deck that you know will take you to the loser’s bracket but makes every game win feel like a trophy. - **Feeling clever:** Why have we watched hundreds of vintage cube draft videos? We love seeing what LSV, Caleb or Kenji cook up and serve. And what’s better than that is we can play Vintage cube and do something we haven’t seen before in spite of that. - **Old cards:** The nostalgia of seeing cards from my youth. Power from old cards that force you to think about how to warp your draft to meet the conditions. My collection solely exists to build this cube so it’s fun to acquire and build up the cube over time. >>> ### What I hate about Vintage Cube <<< The root of my dislike of Vintage Cube is the amount of games where I lose and have little fun. Two of the ideal ways I lose a game are when there has been a ton of back-and-forth or my opponent cleverly stays just in front of me. But Vintage cube has more blowouts because of features like: - **Super high rate cards:** [[Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes]], [[Broadside Bombardiers]] or [[Forth Eorlingas!]]. - **Variance:** The variance Power introduces into games, especially when followed by the above. - **Easy game-over combos:** that have little in-game setup or draft cost like [[Channel]] into [[Emrakul, the Aeons Torn]]. >>> ### More Love, Less Hate: <<< **Bias toward older cards:** - **1/3 of the cards are from before 2008:** I always want to retain an element of old school magic. I plan to strive to keep that balance to allow myself flexibility. - **Aesthetically, I want early printings and original art** to maximize the nostalgia of having the most recognizable cards. This cube is my collection so it’s fun over time to collect the cards I’ve been wanting to add. **Double down on classic buildarounds:** I love old build arounds that feel powerful but come at a cost, whether that be in game or during the draft. - **Cheating is vintage MTG** but so many of the best cheat targets in Vintage Cube are insurmountable. In this cube, cheating archetypes have some of their best enablers like [[Oath of Druids]], [[Sneak Attack]], [[Tinker]], [[Natural Order]] and [[Show and Tell]] but not the best payoffs. - **Powerful, narrow cards** that require the player to warp their draft and gameplay [[Balance]], [[Cataclysm]], [[Pandemonium]], [[Enduring Renewal]]. **Cube is a sandbox:** I want to encourage the players to engage their cleverness to blend archetypes in draft and deck construction. I want to avoid over supporting archetypes since that can quickly put a draft on-rails. Here are some ways I’ve been trying to do this: - **Lots of tutor effects:** Tutors allow you to give redundancy to many archetypes without oversupporting with fewer slots. - **Use great glue cards:** Cards like [[Commune with the Gods]] and [[Malevolent Rumble]] are great because they find creatures/enchantments which are the most common buildarounds while also supporting self-mill. Or a card like [[Lotus Field]] is powerful with the various untappers, can be used to cast powerful triple pipped cards like [[Doomsday]], [[Seismic Assault]] and [[Necropotence]].