>>># Introduction<<< Welcome everyone, my name is D0ubleDuffer and this is my cube. Cube has been ongoing project for years now and I'm always looking curiously for new cards to add to the cube. However due to budget limitations I am not constantly updating cube with every set release, but instead I update the cube in bigger batches a few times a year. As a sidenote, if you playtest the cube, I would ask you to also build your deck, that helps me as a designer to better understand my cube environment. If you think there are some cards that could be interesting in my environment, or have some other thoughts about my cube or Magic in general you can message on Twitter or Discord @D0ubleDuffer >>># Design<<< >>>## Design Goals<<< My basic design goal is to create environment that supports many different micro- and macro-archetypes and enable games where almost every decision feels important and meaningful to the games of (reasonable) fair Magic. >>>## Complexity<<< While the cube is certainly aimed towards advanced Magic players I've recently made an effort to remove overly complex cards from the cube if they don't have anything to especially meaningful to offer in terms of their effects. This is to make cube more accessible for newer players so I can have more people draft it. >>>## Power level<<< I aim to keep power level of the cube relatively high while staying true to my goals of fair Magic with lots of important decisions. Therefore the cube includes very little in terms of actual combos. For the same reason reanimator is the only type of "cheat" deck there is in the cube as I think it has more answers than other cheat decks (more on these under archetypes later). In terms of pure power level cards like [[Sneak Attack]] would be reasonable in the cube, but in my opinion that kind of cards lead to one-sided games way too often. That is why I am not interested in adding them (at least for now). For similar reasons cube doesn't include any fast mana or [[Ancient Tomb]] and the like. >>>## Draft<<< >>><<[[!Lore Seeker]][[!Cogwork Librarian]]>><<< Draft of the cube follows normal booster draft structure (3 packs of 15 cards)for the most part. Only important notes are the two draft oriented cards from Conspiracy: [[Lore Seeker]] and [[Cogwork Librarian]]. Cogwork Librarian doesn't have any specific rules attached to it, while Lore Seeker has a noteworthy rules modification: that pack contains 16 cards (this way in a 8 player pod every player gets 2 extra cards in case Lore Seeker is opened.) Additional note if you are drafting in CubeCobra: Lore Seeker and Cogwork Librarian don't work as intended so I would advice not to pick them. >>>## Archetypes<<< Cube design is intended so that many different types of decks are supported and the draft experience shouldn't be too archetype driven to make it an on-rails experience. Therefore it would be impossible to list all kinds of decks that can be drafted, this list is intended more as a guideline of what you could expect to see in a typical draft. >>>### Aggro {W}{B}{R}<<< >>><<[[!Adanto Vanguard]][[!Knight of the Ebon Legion]][[!Earthshaker Khenra]]>><<< Aggro is quite a broad term and the cube doesn't have just one aggro deck, but many different types of aggro decks. Probably the most efficient are mono-colored aggro decks, each with their own distinct playstyle. >>>#### White Aggro {W}<<< <<[[!Mother of Runes]][[!Skymarcher Aspirant]][[!Thalia, Guardian of Thraben]][[!Legion's Landing]]>> White aggro deck is all about cheap aggressive creatures and taxing effects. Cards like [[Adanto Vanguard]], [[Glory-Bound Initiate]] and [[Luminarch Aspirant]] are extremely powerful while attacking and less great while playing defense. These threats combined with protection of [[Mother of Runes]] or [[Dauntless Bodyguard]] gives you a deck that can kill your opponent very quickly. To further combat removal of your opponent you can use [[Thalia, Guardian of Thraben]] to make sure your opponents removal is much less efficient or [[Thalia, Heretic Cathar]] to slow down the tempo of your opponents and [[Skyclave Apparition]] to remove blockers out of the way. If the deck needs to go bigger in midrange or control matchups you can use the power of cheap and efficient planeswalkers [[Gideon Blackblade]] or [[Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis]]. >>>#### Black Aggro {B}<<< <<[[!Tourach, Dread Cantor]][[!Gravecrawler]][[!Glint-Sleeve Siphoner]][[!Thoughtseize]]>> Black aggro is the least supported mono-colored aggro deck these days but occasionally can still come together. Efficient threats like [[Knight of the Ebon Legion]] and [[Glint-Sleeve Siphoner]] pack quite a punch even on their own and combined with disruption in the form of discard effects, like [[Hymn to Tourach]] or [[Thoughtseize]]. Additionally [[Plaguecrafter]] or [[Ravenous Chupacabra]] can clear out creatures that are brickwalling your attacks. >>>#### Red Aggro {R}<<< <<[[!Bomat Courier]][[!Goblin Guide]][[!Eidolon of the Great Revel]][[!Lightning Bolt]]>> Red aggro is probably the fastest and most powerful aggro deck available. Cheap creatures like [[Monastery Swiftspear]] and [[Goblin Guide]] put a real clock on your opponent. Combine this with cheap burn spells like [[Lava Spike]], [[Lava Dart]] or [[Lightning Bolt]] and your opponent's life total is going to get reduced to zero very quickly. In drawn out games, [[Bomat Courier]] and [[Light up the Stage]] can prove to be very valuable way to refuel while the likes of [[Chandra, Torch of Defiance]] and [[Glory-Bringer]] can help you push through those last points of damage. >>>#### Two-/Three-Colored Aggro {W}{B}{R}<<< >>><<[[!Winota, Joiner of Forces]][[!Lurrus of the Dream-Den]]>><<< Multicolored aggro decks are typically just a combination of strengths of multiple mono-colored aggro decks. These aggro decks tend to go little bigger than the mono-colored versions but trade up speed for more resilience for stronger midgame against opponent who is able to stabilize. With multicolor aggro decks it is important to make sure you're not slowing yourself down ([[Thalia, Guardian of Thraben]] and [[Lightning Bolt]] aren't exactly best friends). >>>### Control {U}({W}{B}{R})<<< <<[[!Force of Will]][[!Wrath of God]][[!Doom Blade]][[!Snapcaster Mage]]>> Control is completely opposite end of the spectrum compared to aggro. While aggro decks are trying to kill their opponents as fast as possible, control decks are looking to survive the early turns by stopping key threats with the likes of [[Counterspell]] or cheap removal like [[Fatal Push]] or [[Path to Exile]]. While keeping the board clear with interaction control decks aim to look for more answers with cheap cantrips like [[Ponder]] and [[Preordain]] or card selection engine [[/Search for Azcanta]]. If opponent manages to slip through some threats, clearing the board with [[Wrath of God]] or [[Languish]] can turn the game in your favor. In the lategame, [[Torrential Gearhulk]] or [[Murktide Regent]] can close the game really fast, but planeswalker like [[Dovin Baan]] or even a land like [[Celestial Colonnade]] can wrap up games very quickly when unanswered. Control decks in the environment tend to always be blue with supporting colors typically being any combination of white, black and red. >>>### Tempo {G}{W}{U}<<< >>><<[[!/Delver of Secrets]][[!Reflector Mage]]>><<< Tempo is curious combination of aggro and control. Like an aggro deck, it aims to take a quick victory, with efficient threats like [[/Delver of Secrets]], cheap countermagic like [[Daze]] or [[Spell Pierce]] to protect threats and maintain card advantage with cheap card draw [[Chart a Course]] and [[Treasure Cruise]]. If board gets stalled out, a [[Reflector Mage]] can get blockers out of your way. >>>### Ramp {G}({W}{U}{B}{R})<<< <<[[!Llanowar Elves]][[!Azusa, Lost but Seeking]][[!End-Raze Forerunners]][[!Rampant Growth]]>> Ramp is green-based deck archetype that aims to cast expensive spells ahead of curve. Deck aims to gain additional mana by playing additional lands with the likes of [[Explore]] or [[Azusa, Lost but Seeking]] or playing cheap mana producing creatures like [[Noble Hierarch]] or [[Elvish Mystic]]. This way you should be able to play huge creatures like [[Ghalta, Primal Hunger]] or [[Hornet Queen]] very early to force your opponent to play defense against your big creatures. Ramp decks are mainly green, with a chance to splash some cards of other colors if wanted, but a mono-green is perfectly reasonable deck to play. >>>### Lands {G} ({W}{U}{B}{R})<<< <<[[!Summer Bloom]][[!Explore]][[!Rampaging Baloths]][[!Knight of the Reliquary]]>> Lands is a deck that in many ways reminds the ramp deck, but it is also different in a way it cares about lands. Early parts of a game it reminds the ramp deck, with cards like [[Summer Bloom]] and [[Explore]] getting you ahead of curve. Summer Bloom also works wonders with landfall effects like [[Rampaging Baloths]]. Lands has a few different variants that are all green at their core but can play any number of colors in addition. >>>#### Dark Depths<<< >>><<[[!Dark Depths]][[!Thespian's Stage]][[!Vampire Hexmage]][[!Marit Lage]]>><<< [[Dark Depths]] is probably to most powerful style of lands deck in the cube, but is also the hardest one to draft successfully. Depths only has two enabler cards [[Thespian's Stage]] can copy Dark Depths to create [[Marit Lage]] while [[Vampire Hexmage]] can remove all counters from Depths. Unfortunately without one of these enablers, Dark Depths basically not functional without one of them. >>>#### Field of the Dead<<< >>><<[[!Golos, Tireless Pilgrim]][[!Field of the Dead]][[!Primeval Titan]]>><<< [[Field of the Dead]] is another powerful variant of the lands deck. Core concept of the deck is to ramp to seven lands with one of them being Field of the Dead to start making 2/2 Zombies. After you've managed to get seven differently named lands, each land you play afterwards gets you additional Zombie. Most important for the deck to function is to find Field of the Dead and have enough different lands. Cards like [[Golos, Tireless Pilgrim]] or [[Traverse the Ulvenwald]] help you find that important engine card while. To guarantee having enough different lands, you'll have to draft very high number of lands and also play abnormally high land count in your deck. With high number of non-basic lands, the Field of the Dead is able to play any number of colors for some very specific answers to other decks. >>>#### Loam Lands<<< >>><<[[!Life from the Loam]][[!Strip Mine]][[!Wasteland]][[!Ramunap Excavator]]>><<< [[Life from the Loam]] deck is all about stripping your opponent of out of resources, or to be more precise, lands. [[Strip Mine]] can destroy one of your opponents lands which by itself is already quite powerful. But what if you could do that every turn and get rid of one your opponents lands? Well, that is exactly what this deck wants to do. Using Strip Mine, [[Wasteland]] or [[Ghost Quarter]] to destroy your opponents lands, then getting them back with Life from the Loam or [[Ramunap Excavator]] to do it every single turn. And if you combine Ramunap Excavator with [[Azusa, Lost but Seeking]] your opponent ends really quickly without any lands at all. Additionally, you can even play this deck without any true win condition as Life from the Loam prevents you from decking out, so you can keep destroying your opponent off lands until they are all in the graveyard. (But in a more serious note, please play some creatures that can win you the game for your opponents sake). >>>#### Lands archetype summary<<< As you see, there are many different lands deck available in the cube, with each of them with their own distinct playstyle. To give you more consistency, if you are able you could combine multiple archetypes to give more win conditions and Loam is a very good support card in any lands deck. Lands decks are very risky to draft, but starting with a solid green ramp shell will keep you an option open to draft lands deck if one of the payoffs comes around, with failcase being a reasonable green ramp deck. >>>### Reanimator {B} ({W}{U}{R}{G})<<< <<[[!Griselbrand]][[!Sundering Titan]][[!Exhume]][[!Faithless Looting]]>> Reanimator is another deck that looks to play a big creature way ahead of curve. Basic idea of a reanimator deck is to put your big creature like [[Drakuseth, Maw of Flames]] or [[Griselbrand]] to the graveyard, either by discarding it to something like [[Faithless Looting]] or [[Chart a Course]] or to mill it straight to the grave with [[Stitcher's Supplier]]. After that creature is in the graveyard, you get it into play with something like [[Exhume]] or [[Dread Return]]. Reanimator decks require black for the reanimator spells, but each other color has something for the deck, with white probably the least. Red and blue both have some good ways to discard cards while green has some good self-mill cards. Reanimator is very vulnerable to graveyard hate, which this cube does have very little, but an [[Endurance]] can completely ruin your plans. Reanimator is also very risky to draft and quite inconsistent, but it really feels great when it comes around and you end up with turn two Griselbrand. >>>### Spellslinger {U}{R} ({W}{B}{G})<<< <<[[!/Thing in the Ice]][[!Young Pyromancer]][[!Monastery Mentor]][[!Dreadhorde Arcanist]]>> Spellslinger is another quite self-explanatory archetype. Spellslinger deck is looking to cast lots of cheap instant and sorcery spells for powerful effects. Cheap cantrips like [[Opt]] or burn spells such as [[Lava Dart]] are perfectly reasonable on their own, but what if you could get additional benefits from them? Well, let me introduce you to [[Thing in the Ice]] and [[Monastery Mentor]] (which by the way are horrible in the same deck). Each of these cards has their own benefits. Monastery Mentor brings friends with him, while Thing in the Ice can give you a two mana 7/8 for casting just a couple Opts. It gets even better, when you can get another casts with [[Snapcaster Mage] or [[Dreadhorde Arcanist]]. >>>### Midrange {G}{B} ({W}{U}{R})<<< <<[[!Scavenging Ooze]][[!Liliana, the Last Hope]][[!Edric, Spymaster of Trest]][[!Deathrite Shaman]]>> Midrange is not necessarily a specific deck, but a broad archetype bit like aggro. Unlike many deck archetypes, midrange are not looking for specific synergies or combos, midrange decks are so-called "good card piles". What this means is that midrange decks in the cube are looking to play powerful cards that incremental value over time and are looking to grind out the game burying their opponent in small advantages gained over time. For example [[Scavenging Ooze]] or [[Tireless Tracker]] isn't that scary at face value, but if unanswered they provide so much value in the long game. Typically midrange decks in the environment are green- or black-based combined with any combination of other colors to compliment strength of those cards. Green provides lots of very value-oriented efficient creatures, while black can provide lot of value with excellent removal spells and effective creatures. >>>### Five-Color "Pile" {W}{U}{B}{R}{G}<<< >>><<[[!Omnath, Locus of Creation]][[!Golos, Tireless Pilgrim]]>><<< Five-Color is something I've added more support quite recently in the form of [[Omnath, Locus of Creation]]. Manabase is going to be your highest priority to pull this deck of. In the deck you're looking to combine value-providing cards from all colors for some kind of midrange/control deck. >>>### Combo {W}{U}{B}{R}{G}<<< Finally, the infinite combos. As mentioned earlier, there are two different infinite combos in the cube, both achieved with two cards. One of them actually should be able to win you the game on the spot, while the other one needs some payoff to win.. >>>#### Felidar-Saheeli {W}{U}{R}<<< >>><<[[!Felidar Guardian]][[!Saheeli Rai]]>><<< This combo is actually very simple. You need in play [[Felidar Guardian]] and [[Saheeli Rai]]. With both of those in play, you activate the -2 ability of Saheeli targeting Felidar Guardian and create a copy of it. With the enter the battlefield trigger of Felidar Guardian copy you blink the Saheeli. Now you can activate the same ability again and again to make an infinite amount of Felidar Guardians with haste. Then just attack with all of those Felidar Guardians for infinite damage. Possibly the best deck for this combo is some kind of Jeskai {W}{U}{R} control deck with this combo as your win condition. >>>#### Devoted Druid-Vizier of Remedies {G}{W}<<< >>><<[[!Devoted Druid]][[!Vizier of Remedies]]>><<< Another pretty simple two-card combo. Tap [[Devoted Druid]] for mana, use the ability to untap it, but now thanks to [[Vizier of Remedies]] no -1/-1 counter is placed on Devoted Druid. This way you can tap and untap Devoted Druid as many times as you want. Now you have access to infinite mana, now just have to use it. At worst you can cast your whole hand as long as they're green cards, or you have access to colored mana needed for them. To go even further very large [[Walking Ballista]] or using [[Green Sun's Zenith]] to get [[End-Raze Forerunners]] should often times be enough to outright win you the game. >>>## Manabases<<< >>>### Dual-lands<<< Let's start with dual-lands. Cube includes five full cycles of dual lands: Painlands, Checklands, Fetchlands Shocklands and Fastlands (examples below). >>><<[[!Llanowar Wastes|ec5506fe-695a-4747-b377-4d806215e121]][[!Dragonskull Summit|91570836-9e36-4774-8d5d-7cbcee0012ba]][[!Polluted Delta|ff2f5f58-9a95-4ca6-93a0-813738f0072f]]>><<< >>><<[[!Steam Vents|b8ebe3cf-7143-453a-b0ef-2f5bdaac3185]][[!Copperline Gorge]]>><<< Main design goal with these land cycles was to make splashing cards easy but putting a cost if you want to play a true 3+ color deck. Fetchlands are the most versatile at fixing many colors, while also filling graveyard for delve spells like [[Treasure Cruise]] and thinning lands out of your deck. In addition to full cycles of duals there are few partial cycles to support design goals of specific colors/colorpairs. Green colorpairs have access to Ravnica bounce lands to better support ramp and land strategies (more about those archetypes later). >>><<[[!Simic Growth Chamber|27ba2a33-a9f2-414c-889b-d80b175bec92]][[!Selesnya Sanctuary|b082e600-4cfe-44ce-aeb2-b0c22c3482c1]]>><<< To make it possible to draft a very pure blue control deck with very little creatures Azorius{U}{W} and Dimir{U}{B} have access to Zendikar manlands, [[Celestial Colonnade|e2915763-2b63-4408-b014-49d52e3d65f6]] and [[Creeping Tar Pit|0f427f0b-034c-4821-8758-e395c0042d8a]] respectively. >>><<[[!Celestial Colonnade|e2915763-2b63-4408-b014-49d52e3d65f6]][[!Creeping Tar Pit|0f427f0b-034c-4821-8758-e395c0042d8a]]>><<< >>>### Other fixing lands<<< In addition to dual-lands cube also includes a few other types of fixing lands. Cube has four five color lands: [[City of Brass]], [[Grand Coliseum]], [[Aether Hub|25ea04d8-5d85-49d3-8d8d-7fe123d0ed6c]] and [[Reflecting Pool|18a1b3f5-473d-45ca-be0d-e67e77ba30ce]]. <<[[!City of Brass]][[!Grand Coliseum]][[!Aether Hub|25ea04d8-5d85-49d3-8d8d-7fe123d0ed6c]][[!Reflecting Pool|18a1b3f5-473d-45ca-be0d-e67e77ba30ce]]>> In addition to fetchlands there are two lands with similar effects that can grab only basic lands: [[Fabled Passage|e374f1a8-0b90-4f62-9af5-3bbb11a0fbc4]] and [[Ash Barrens|9f4dd417-43fd-4dee-aaf2-80d425bd0191]]. >>><<[[!Fabled Passage|e374f1a8-0b90-4f62-9af5-3bbb11a0fbc4]][[!Ash Barrens|9f4dd417-43fd-4dee-aaf2-80d425bd0191]]>><<< >>>### Other Lands<<< In addition to those lands cube has actually very few lands, with most of them being utility lands of some sort. First category of their own is land destruction. Cube has a total of five of those effects: [[Wasteland]], [[Strip Mine|a5899b46-226b-4be6-8e80-d2396f54210d]], [[Field of Ruin|3e84e179-9d59-4d08-8a36-51ad2fc32ae3]], [[Tectonic Edge|f8442521-57b8-4353-b6d0-61f1837567e1]] and [[Ghost Quarter|ccc1c460-64c5-47be-a633-439863baa6a1]]. >>><<[[!Wasteland]][[!Strip Mine|a5899b46-226b-4be6-8e80-d2396f54210d]][[!Field of Ruin|3e84e179-9d59-4d08-8a36-51ad2fc32ae3]]>><<< >>><<[[!Tectonic Edge|f8442521-57b8-4353-b6d0-61f1837567e1]][[!Ghost Quarter|ccc1c460-64c5-47be-a633-439863baa6a1]]>><<< Next three are each kind of unique and don't have any kind of category so I'm just going to go through these individually. >>><<[[!Mishra's Factory]][[!/Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun]][[!Mystic Sanctuary]]>><<< [[Mishra's Factory]] is technically a colorless manland similar to [[Celestial Colonnade]] and [[Creeping Tar Pit]], but in reality fits into very different decks than those lands. Colonnade and Tar Pit are mainly for blue control decks, while Factory is more suited for mono- or dual-colored aggro decks, but in those decks Mishra's Factory provides some sweeper-protection as well as flood-protection with at least one of your lands being a threat. [[/Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun]] is budget replacement for [[Gaea's Cradle]] and really powerful in a ramp deck in a deck full of [[Birds of Paradise]]. [[Mystic Sanctuary||170e792c-80d5-4775-ad95-37614574ab84]] is a powerful lategame land in blue decks, being able to buy-back your crucial instant or sorcery spell. Only downside is that you need to be quite heavily into blue for the effect to actually work, but luckily there are quite a few dual-lands that are Islands to better guarantee you getting the ability. Final three lands each have very unique effects. >>><<[[!Dark Depths]][[!Thespian's Stage]][[!Field of the Dead|470ca3f4-29aa-4c4c-8ff2-8cdd70c69943]]>><<< These three we've already covered earlier in the archetypes section so I don't really have anything to add here. >>>### Basic Lands<<< Now the aesthetically the most important design choice: basic lands. Basic lands I've chosen for the cube are these gorgeous full-art basics from Zendikar Rising. (They're also delightfully cheap). >>><<[[!Plains|9591fd15-78d9-4089-a075-031ab2affd2d]][[!Island|1ba4b3ad-1aef-44d3-889a-aedd9e070975]][[!Swamp|95a58ce4-e07f-4c9c-98ae-3173d6d63cc5]][[!Mountain|96297bcc-8480-4b14-8612-1c395d481bce]][[!Forest|e2ef9b74-481b-424b-8e33-f0b910f66370]]>><<< >>># Summary<<< I think that's about it. I could go on for ages, talking about each card and their use cases, but I don't think it would really bring anything interesting to the table. I playtest draft my cube quite a bit against CubeCobra bots, and get some quite cool decks so you can check there for some examples of what decks in this environment could look like. (Please note that older drafts are from previous iterations of the cube.) I will also plan to post all decklists of all future playthroughs of this cube with their win-loss records and other relevant information, so if you're interested stay tuned for those! If you end up trying this cube yourself (online or in-person), please message me with your thoughts of the cube. Especially, if you find some awesome deck that I haven't thought of, please let me know and I will gladly add it to this overview (with credits of course). You can reach me in Twitter or Discord @D0ubleDuffer. Enjoy!