>>> ### Welcome to the world of Cuba Cabbana <<< {T} First and foremost, drafting Cuba Cabbana is supposed to be a fun experience for players of all skill levels. While managing this from a designers perspective might sound like an impossible task, I did my best to create a "fair" eniviroment by excluding cards that can be devastating {X} for ones such as [[Wrath of God]] aswell as cards that are cheap and consiltently {2} for {1} and can swing the game heavily into one players favor [[Electrolyze]]. {T} The powerlevel of Cuba Cabbana can be compared to a Masters set, without splashy bombs and power outliers. You will not find cards, that create an absurd amount of value [[Mulldrifter]] or the most efficient removal [[Lightning Bolt]] featured in othercubes here. Removing these "overpowered" cards creates a more diverse and less punishing landscape. Where thinking outside of the box is rewarded more than picking the single best cards. >>> ### Design choices <<< {T} Green has the monopoly on efficient Ramp, mostly in the form of mana dorks and very few ramp spells [[LLanowar Elves]] [[Edge of Autumn]]. Due to the lack of their density and a lack of high mana payoffs, it is difficult to impossible to draft a dedicated ramp deck. Removing the heavy green ramp deck for the equasion, increases deck variety and makes the color more versatile. {T} Cuba Cabbana is relatively low curving cube, with lots of cheap spells and few high drop threats, leading to more interactive games and more decisions made by both players. {T} Instead of focussing on the ten guilds, I followed a different approach. I want all colors to interact with each other on different axes, enabling a more open draft experience. Continue reading for an overview of the most prevalent ones. {T} Cuba Cabbana leans heavily into colorless, while there are very few cards in the multicolored section. I love colorless spells since they allow you to break the color pie in a certain way and give colors access to effects that they otherwise wouldn’t. The same can be said for hybrid cards, which I favor over strictly multicolored cards, since they also allow for more versatile and creative drafting and deckbuilding. {T} Cuba Cabbana offers its drafters a large amount of cantrips, coming in different forms. [[Tithe]], [[Ponder]], [[Traverse the Ulvenwald]], [[Urza's Bauble]], [[Gitaxian Probe]]. These help you dig for a land drop when needed and increase consistency throughout the game and lead to fewer non games, here a player happens to screw or flood. If you pick up enough of them, the also enable you to cut down on the land count. I have found myself running less than {17} lands more often than not, which helps to prevent floods in the lategame. {T} Cheap removal is hard to come by: The few 1 mana removal spells included [[Spark Spray]], [[Meteor Shower]], are supposed to only deal with one drops [[LLanowar Elves]], [[Mardu Woe-Reaper]] and other X/1 threats [[Sparksmith]], [[Tandem Lookout]], which are heavily featured throughout the cube. >>> ### Cards/Packages worth knowing about >>> >>> Cycling Lands <<< I run the maximum number of decent available cycling lands in full cycles. Even though they are not the splashiest cards, they smooth out any deck, increase pick tension and interact fantastically with multiple themes in Cuba Cabbana. You most likely don’t want to take them to early but having a few in your 40-card deck will make it more consistent, regardless of synergy. But you need just a few pickups to make them great value engines. <<[[!Desert of the Glorified]][[!Smoldering Crater]][[!Tranquil Thicket]][[!Canyon Slough]][[!Indatha Triome]][[!Ash Barrens]]>> >>> Build Arounds <<< I absolutely love a good build-around. They can completely change your pick evaluation and deck building decisions. Cards that fall into this category also follow along with the other themes supported in Cuba Cabbana. Here are a few examples on build arounds you can pick up: <<[[!Tortured Existence]][[!Enduring Renewal]][[!Squee, Goblin Nabob]][[!Conduit of Worlds]]>> >>> +1/+1 Counters <<< +1/+1 counters are just inevitable in the modern era of magic. This might sound bitter at first, but I cannot complain at all. Cards that come with these counters are certainly good in any deck, but when paired with a few of these payoffs they can quickly come out of hand. Mostly {W/G} drafters will want to look out for the +1/+1 counter theme. <<[[!Abzan Falconer]][[!Cytoplast Root-Kin]][[!Tezzeret's Gambit]][[!Elite Scaleguard]]>> >>> Discard <<< There is just so many ways, why you would want to discard cards in Cuba Cabbana. From getting your synergy pieces into the graveyard, to activating build-around cards. Add a few cycling cards to the mix and you have can create a lot of value. The discard theme is supported in all colors, though {B} {R} and {U} lean into it most heavily. <<[[!Anger]][[!Containment Construct]][[!Dying to Serve]][[!Valiant Rescuer]]>> >>> Lands <<< When I started playing magic almost 20 years ago, I thought of lands as the most unexciting part of the game. Now two decades later my view has drastically changed. This change of view has also transitioned into my cube design. Thus, Cuba Cabbana is filled with lands, which can be divided into two categories. >>> Fixing Lands <<< These lands are supposed to enable my drafters to do the thing they actually came for, play magic. A good manabase is just necessary to cast your spells and take part in the game, but don’t worry, in Cuba Cabbana, there is enough fixing for everyone. <<[[!Polluted Delta]][[!Breeding Pool]][[!Caves of Koilos]][[!Savai Triome]]>> >>> Utility Lands <<< Since players will usually want to run a 40-card deck in limited, there’s is only 22-25 spells, which would mean, that around half of the picks you make during the draft will go waste. How do you combat that? By spending some of your picks on utility lands, that give you different angle of attack, make it more consistent, or add more threats to your deck. Lands that go into the graveyard, such as the cycling lands are also great in the {G/B} based lands deck, that loves to rebuy or reanimate lands in the graveyard, or even wants them to stay there. <<[[!Pendelhaven]][[!Roadside Reliquary]][[!Needle Spires]][[!Shefet Dunes]]>> <<[[!Worm Harvest]][[!Tilling Treefolk]][[!Terravore]][[!Grim Discovery]]>> >>> Artifacts <<< Artifacts are a great deal in Cuba Cabbana. They fit into every deck, being colorless and also enable great synergies throughout the colors {W}, {U}, {R}. While not directly supported I also felt like {B} plays quite well with a lot of the artifact synergy pieces. If you want to go all in, there is a lot different ways to build an artifact heavy deck. Like an aggressive {R/W} a midrangy {U/B} or a controlly {U/W} Deck, or anything else you can dream of. 😊 <<[[!Daretti, Scrap Savant]][[!Tezzeret the Seeker]][[!Thopter Engineer]][[!Trinket Mage]]>> <<[[!Kuldotha Flamefiend]][[!Thirst for Knowledge]][[!Cranial Plating]][[!Lodestone Myr]]>> >>> Tribal <<< While there’s quite a lot of incidental tribal support [[Cenn's Tactician]], [[Battle Cry Goblin]], the two tribes that you can actually draft a whole deck around are Wizards and Zombies. The wizards in Cuba Cabbana are just great in any {U} deck and if you find a wizard payoff, it might be smart to actively look out for them. A deck, that is heavy on creatures of the wizard archetype will most likely want to be in the colors {U/R} and be a midrangy tempo deck. <<[[!Adeliz, the Cinder Wind]][[!Voidmage Prodigy]][[!Sage's Dousing]][[!Goblin Wizardry]]>> While I don’t expect there to be a wizard deck in every draft, the same is not true with the zombie archetype. Watch out for the signposts of the Zombie deck, especially the 4* [[Undead Servant]] package, which is also mentioned below. Pick {B} cards and watch your opponent be overrun by a horde of the undead. <<[[!Cruel Revival]][[!Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor]][[!Noxious Ghoul]][[!Undead Augur]]>> >>> ### Special inclusions <<< >>> Packages <<< Undead Servant Myr Servitor Empty the Warrens: Pick one, receive multiple. Sounds like a good deal and it is. If you pick the Undead Servant in Cuba Cabbana, {3} more will magically appear in your pool, after the draft is finished. Having one of available can completely change, the way you evaluate cards, while they are also not overpowered. Servant goes great into Zombie tribal aswell as other graveyard focussed decks. {2} copies of Empty the Warrens let you commit to the fair Storm Deck planted in {U}{R}{W} <<[[!Undead Servant]][[!Undead Servant]][[!Undead Servant]][[!Undead Servant]]>> <<[[!Empty the Warrens]][[!Empty the Warrens]]>> >>> Conspiracy cards: <<< Not a lot to say here, other than I think they are fun and create memorable moments during the drafts itself. Cuba Cabbana features {2} copies of Lore Seeker and {1} copy of Cogwork Librarian. <<[[!Lore Seeker]][[!Lore Seeker]][[!Cogwork Librarian]]>> >>> ### Wrap Up <<< If you made it all they way here, I would like to thank you for showing interest in this long-time project of mine. I would love some feedback and if Cuba Cabbana seems intriguing to you feel free to do a test draft and experience it yourself. >>> ### Gol3m <<<