>>>The idea is to create a list of a seemingly cards to provide an excellent limited format. Limited playability will be stressed, with a focus on fundamentals; attacking, blocking and two for ones. Legacy cube, this ain't. Flashback, Kicker, cycling, and variants of those mechanics will be preferred. So will 'iconic cards.' Commons and uncommons will be prioritized also. <<< >>>### The mono color archtypes:<<< {W} Tribal Humans. You like cards like [[Coppercoat Vanguard]] and [[Sanctuary Lockdown]]. Humans is an aggressive go wide deck. {B} Tribal Zombies. This deck has more of a sacrifice theme, with [[Undead Augur]] and [[Undead Gladiator]], but you can also go wide, with [[Liliana's Devotee]] or [[Gempalm Polluter]]. {U} Artifact Twiddle. For example, [[Colossus of Sardia]] and [[Everflowing Chalice]] to pair with [[Voltaic Servant]] and [[Galvanic Key]]. {R} Damage dealt. Burn with spells, use payoffs like [[Chandra's Incinerator]] and [[Fire Servant]]. {G}: Tribal Beasts. The most important card for you is [[Wirewood Savage]], and then combine it with something like [[Rampaging Baloths]]. >>>### The ten color pair archtypes:<<< {W}{U}- This is a cycling deck. Keep the cards flowing. You can go very slow control with [[Boon of the wish-giver]] and [[Akroma's vengeance]] or down and aggro with something like [[Flourishing Fox]] and [[Hekma Sentinels]] {U}{B}- This archtype is a control deck based around Surveil. You can use cards like [[Future sight]] with [[Nightveil Sprite]] or [[Enhanced Surveillance]] to consistently ensure the cards you draw are useful. You can combine this with cards like [[Merfolk looter]] and [[Drake Haven]] to make the most value. {B}{R}- This is a spell recursion archtype, half way between reanimation and spell slinging. Youre looking to combine flashback cards like [[firebolt]] with retrace cards like [[Syphon life]] with [[burning vengeance]], and play cards like [[recoup]] and [[Shreds of Sanity.]] {R}{G}- This archtype is aggro- midrange strategy, with a focus on kicker and landfall. Prioritize two drops, like [[Vine Gecko]] and [[Untamed Kavu]]. [[Hallar, the Firefletcher]] and [[Murasa Sproutling]] are good payoffs for you. {W}{G}- This a tokens deck. Use cards like [[Join the dance]] and [[Triplicate Spirits]] to flood the board, and then use cards like [[Gleam of Resistance]] and [[Marshal's anthem]] to push through. You've played this deck before. {W}{B}- This deck is based around life. There are payoffs, like [[Ajani's pridemate]] and [[Griffin Aerie]], and there are cards lifelinkers like [[vampire nighthawk]] and [[seraph of dawn]]. You can dig into white's token suite to form a sacrifice deck with cards like [[Gnawing Zombie]] or dig into black's reanimation suite with cards like [[Priest of the blood rite]] and [[phyrexian delver]] to more efficiently spend your life. {U}{R}-This is a spell slinging archtype, focused on instant and sorcery synergies. There is an aggro/ tempo build with [[Young Pyromancer]] and [[Warfire Javelineer]], and a more controlling build, with cards like [[Slice and Dice]] and [[Mental Journey]]. {B}{G}- This is a reanimator archtype. Some token generation is good, for some of your riders, like [[Victimize]] and [[Dread Return]]. Cycling fatties, like [[Angel of the ruins]], and [[Krosan Tusker]] have special value for you, but don't afraid of the self mill because the best targets need a little help to get in the hard. Discard, like from [[Noose constrictor]] is also useful, and don't be afraid to trade off resources. This archtype has a multitude of ways to use creatures in the graveyard. {W}{R}-This color pair is very aggressive but has a lot going on. The primary one is to take creatures with exert, like [[Gust walker]], and then pair it with equipment or auras that give vigilance, like [[Sigiled Sword of Valeron]]. There are also methods of untapping, like [[Puppet strings]] and [[Gideon, Martial Paragon]]. There is also some use for tokens. {U}{G}- Fundamentally a ramp archtype, this deck focuses on landfall, kicker, mana sinks, and untapping your mana sources. You use cards like [[Grow from the ashes]], to get double value from your [[Tatyova, benthic druid]] and have mana to kick your [[Academy drake]]. >>>### Shards and Wedges:<<< {W}{R}{G} Naya is a tokens deck that functions on a number of axises; Dig into Selesnya's token suite; you can spit out a large number of tokens with cards like [[Join the dance]] and simply use those color's suite of tools to go wide, or you can make use of a sacrifice outlet like [[Hellkite Hatchling]] or [[Mask of Immolation]] to end games. {B}{R}{G} Jund can play similarly, to grixis but throws creatures and reanimation value in the mix. Flip your deck into your graveyard and grab what you need from there. Alternately, you can play a Gruul beef deck while splashing better removal. {B}{U}{R} Grixis is a value engine, trying to get the most value as it casts all of its spells. Surveil, retrace, and flashback combine with your spell casting triggers and the best removal options in the cube. {W}{B}{U} Esper combines the azorious cycling theme with the dimir surveilling theme to create a top of library deck. {W}{U}{G} Bant pushes into Flickering. [[Astral Slide]] beating heard of this deck, letting you get value from cards [[Coiling oracle]] and [[wall of omens]] repeatedly. {B}{W}{G} Abzan is an aristocrats deck. First, you'll want [[Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim]]. [[Slimefoot, the Stowaway]] will make saprolings, and pay you off for sacrificing them. [[Xathrid Necromancer]] gives you a zombie when you sacrifice a human, which [[Undead Augur]] gives you a card for. Then go with [[Denethor, Ruling Steward]] to get another human back. {W}{U}{R} Jeskai is a built around [[Vega, the Watcher]]! Cast your Flashback and Madness!! Pay attention to Rebound! Draft [[Syr Carah, the Bold]] and [[Abandoned Sarcophagus]] and expand what you have at your disposal! {B}{U}{G} Sultai plays pretty similar to Jund, with less flashback and more self mill. Try combining cards like [[Syr Konrad, the grim]] or [[spider spawning]] with Surveil, or self mill like [[Skull Prophet]]. {B}{W}{R} Mardu is built around [[Quintorius, Field Historian]]. Its a hybrid deck; Use card with flashback, or reanimate cards to flood the board with spirits. Use cards like [[Drogskol Cavalry]] to create spirits tokens to make use of his buff. You can sub other strategies depending on what you pick up, as always. {U}{R}{G} Temur combines landfall and kicker into a lands deck. You use Simic's ramp spells to enable your triggers. {W}{U}{B}{R}{G}: There also a five color archetype. There is a lot fixing. You can go deep on lands, but be careful not to go too deep: you want some basics so that you can get value off your Landcyclers and ramp spells. Speaking of cycling, you want as many as you can, preferably with colorless cycling costs. Your payoffs are cards like [[Golos, Tireless Pilgrim]] and [[Path to the World Tree]]. >>>Notes on desires:<<< Often when tightening up this cube, I make wishes as to what I wish WotC would print. For example, I wish for the enemy bad fetches and Bicycle lands. But it gets more specific. Blue needs some stuff. I would like at least one good mono blue flickering spell that fits in with the cubes themes. I would like more mono blue landfall cards. I wish [[Shadowstorm Vizier]] was u/w, so that way the tempo deck could have gold card. Blue also needs more landfall. Green has some cycling but is it too much to wish for a fight card with cycling? more green cycling would also make Valiant Rescuer a higher value card. Same with red and kicker: DMU, while very generous, did not give me my mono red kicker 2 drop. When I built this cube, Exert and Surveil were shiny and new. For a long time, cards were thin on the ground. While I wish [[Retreat to Coralhelm]] has Surveil on it, I do really appreciate the Surveil has more cards. With the addition of the Surveil lands, I now consider this issue solved. Also, I would like some tribal payoffs for beasts. The best one is [[Wirewood savage]] but the next best are [[Totem Speaker]] and [[Krosan Warchief]] which came out in freakin' onslaught, and cannot hang in the modern day, and [[Advocate of the Beast]] who is not powerful enough. I wish [[Ravenous Baloth]] would get an uncommon printing. Also, Warchief is a 3 drop (I would like to space out the payoffs on the curve) and uses regen (which isn't in the cube, although I guess its not terrible to include one offs.) The problem is that exert is thin on the ground, and that is actually the main reason I haven't expanded the cube more. I wish the rare cycling lands would get enemy color lands. I also wish I could switch some token producers around; There are a lot of 1/1 humans/ soldiers/ warriors/ vampires and I would make them all 1/1 human warriors with lifelink.I would really like limiting all the white token producers in the cube to humans, all the green ones to Saps and beasts. I could try it, but then I would have overstepped the self imposed limits of this game design challenge. [[Sazh's Chocobo]]