🟦Let’s face it, blue is the best color in MTG🟦 Blue Cube leans into the color warped history of MTG’s unpowered vintage card pool. In this cube, High Tide storm decks commonly battle Merfolk aggro decks. You can draft fixing to be able Pyroblast, Tsunami, or Silence your blue opponents! When everyone is blue, how will you rise above? Blue Cube is what I want to call an "Oasis Cube," like a desert cube, but by default drafters have access to Islands in the basic land box after the draft. The cube includes a single, draftable copy of Plains, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest; those lucky enough to draft these basics unlock access to them in the basic land box. For example, if a player drafts Plains, they have access to 17 more during deckbuilding. Casual Conversation with the [Squares that Cube Podcast about Blue Cube](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4gHz1RBUu9niUUAJBw6SMv?si=CKSgvsPpQKijgwvrBHbGbQ) Blue Cube removes the highest echelon of Vintage Cube cards (Power 9, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, etc) and sets BLUE, the color of on-the-stack-interaction, MTG power outliers, as the core of the gameplay experience. Combo-out, lock-down, or beat-up your opponents in the Blue Cube! <<[[!High Tide]] [[!Tolarian Academy]] [[!Lord of Atlantis]] [[!Lion's Eye Diamond]]>> 🟦Supported Archetypes: Storm, Merfolk, Mill, Thoracle Combo, Miracles, Artifact Aggro, Artifact Midrange, Tinker decks, and more! At the bottom of the Overview is the Storm Quicklook. 🟦Manafixing: 2x Blue Fetches ([[Flooded Strand]], [[Polluted Delta]], [[Scalding Tarn]], [[Misty Rainforest]]) 2x Blue Shock Lands ([[Hallowed Fountain]], [[Watery Grave]], [[Steam Vents]], [[Breeding Pool]]) 1x Blue OG Duals ([[Tundra]], [[Underground Sea]], [[Volcanic Island]], [[Tropical Island]]) 1x Blue 'Triomes' ([[Xander's Lounge]], [[Raffine's Tower]], [[Spara's Headquarters]], [[Zagoth Triome]], [[Raugrin Triome]], [[Ketria Triome]]) 1x Blue Surveil Lands ([[Meticulous Archive]], [[Undercity Sewers]], [[Thundering Falls]], [[Hedge Maze]]) Plains, Swamp, Mountain, Forest (any player who drafts a basic land can add any number of those basics to their deck, in addition to the Islands provided.) Blue Signets and Blue Talismans. 🟦 Design Motivations 🟦 My sort of thesis with this cube is that unfair cards are most fun in an environment of other unfair cards and *counterspells*. A key issue, in my diagnosis, of the MTGO cube, if you're familiar with it, is that almost only blue gets to interact with many of the combo decks which is a shame because those combo decks, or decks designed around other blue power spikes, are the main appeal of playing the MTGO Vintage Cube. My goal, then, is to make a cube that supports storm (and has plenty of interaction against it), enables many other MTGO-esque powerful/unfair cards/decks (Opposition, Oko, Tinker, Thassa's Oracle), and supports the tendency for MTGO decks/drafters to be base blue. So, my design solution is to skew the typical color design of a cube and center the cube in blue to support these design principles. Having this cube be base blue makes stack interaction available to *all drafters* and it allows for the inclusion of some of MTG's most hateful anti-blue cards. Who doesn't want to maindeck [[Pyroblast]]? These hate cards not only give an incentive to splash but they can compete on rate and interact with blue's strongest cards and gameplans. To acheive this color focus, the cube only provides Islands as basics after the draft and is 70% blue or colorless spells, the remainder is about 15% lands, 15% non-blue, colored cards. For further discussions, comments, or feedback, please feel free to DM me. I'd love to talk more about the environment! I omit original moxen, ancestral recall, time walk, black lotus, sol ring, mana crypt, and mana vault due to poor draft and poor gameplay patterns. Generally, players always P1P1 a moxen or power which leads to less interesting draft decisions. I want the most powerful cards to have a niche and not be hands down the best pick. Similarly, in gameplay these cards quickly accelerate the mana of whoever gets to draft and draw them in a way that isn't interesting. That said, I will hold some powered drafts of the cube for the spikes of dopamine that these cards provide. Generally, my design goals for the cube do not include these outliers. ⏹️Banned Cards: [[Clocknapper]], [[Tasha's Hideous Laughter]], [[Seasoned Dungeoneer]], [[White Plume Adventurer]], [[Oko, Thief of Crowns]], [[Hull Breacher]], [[Sublime Epiphany]] (due to [[Arcane Savant]] combo) ⏹️Storm Quicklook: Storm is different here than the MTGO cube but still viable. With the lack of P9 moxen combined with the prevalance of counterspells in the environment, typical storm decks play somewhat controlling. Storm Cards: <<[[!Brain Freeze]] [[!Mind's Desire]] [[!Crow Storm]][[!Tendrils of Agony]] [[!Grapeshot]]>> Fast Mana: 2x <<[[!High Tide]] [[!Lion's Eye Diamond]] [[!Mox Diamond]] [[!Mox Opal]] [[!Chrome Mox]] [[!Tolarian Academy]]>> Draw 7s: <<[[!Timetwister]] [[!Time Spiral]] [[!Echo of Eons]] [[!Commit // Memory]] [[!Memory Jar]] [[!Wheel of Fortune]] [[!Sail into the West]]>> Land Untap: << [[!Frantic Search]] [[!Time Spiral]] [[!Treachery]] [[!Turnabout]] [[!Snap]] [[>> Every color can give different effects for storm: {B}: <<[[!Dark Ritual]][[!Demonic Tutor]] [[!Vampiric Tutor]] [[!Yawgmoth's Will]]>> {R}: <<[[!Wheel of Fortune]][[!Ral, Monsoon Mage]] [[!Past in Flames]][[!Underworld Breach]] >> {G}: <<[[!Wilderness Reclamation]] [[!Heartbeat of Spring]] [[!Fastbond]]>> {W}: <<[[!Silence]] [[!Teferi, time raveler]]>>