>>> ### 3 OR LESS <<< A cube inspired by the "Tiny leaders format", everything in this cube has a CMC of 3 or less however unlike tiny leaders you do not draft or play with commanders, hence the cube was dubbed "The miniature cube". When playing, you might expect that the cube is very aggressive and while some strategies can be, the efficiency of interaction, card advantage engines and early blockers has resulted in this format being very diverse with a good amount of aggro, midrange, control and even combo strategies being present. While the cube is built with 10 key archetypes in mind, the card choices were made such that players can mix and match the themes as they draft leading to an extremely diverse array of potential decks. The result is that very few decks have been drafted more than once and some surprising power outliers have been found that fill a very specific niche. >>> ### Design Philosophy <<< >>> The general guidelines that I generally try to use to drive card choices. <<< >>> - The overall draft is fun when a variety of gameplay styles and themes are present in the final decks - Infinite combos, while generally fine, lend towards an unsatisfying end to a lot of games so they should be avoided without careful consideration - A toughness of 3+ makes a creature significantly more difficult to deal with in this environment due to most of the available wraths hitting creatures with 2 or less toughness, individual cards with greater toughness should be added sparingly and largely for defensive or utility purposes - Creatures that scale over time (eg. [[Luminarch Aspirant]]) should never have more than 1 toughness themselves. This way midrange and control decks have 2 turns and more options to deal with it before it scales out of control. Creatures like this are good to include but need to be easily dealt with - Any creature that is naturally large should require an additional deckbuilding constraint to be big [[Champion of the parish]] and [[Splinterfright]] for example - A good deck should be built with good cards, a great deck should be more than then sum of its parts. Make synergies a priority, especially across archetypes as this will lead to more dynamic drafts. - The curve of the cube should lean towards 1-drops and away from 3-drops. This gets the game started faster and ensures that players always have options for what to do - If a new drafter chooses two colours and picks cards at random within those colours, their deck should still be playable <<< >>> ### Primary Archetypes <<< >>> The main themes that you should expect to see when drafting the cube <<< >>> {U}{R} - Spellslinger {U}{B} - Control {U}{G} - Dorks {U}{W} - Flicker {R}{W} - Pure Aggro {R}{G} - Tokens {R}{B} - Sacrifice {W}{G} - Humans {W}{B} - Mass Reanimator {G}{B} - Stuff in graveyard matters <<< >>> ### Gameplay Notes <<< >>> Observations about the gameplay that players should be aware of before drafting <<< >>> - 1-Damage matters a lot | The average toughness of creatures in the cube is ~1.53 and most tokens have 1 toughness. This means that being able to use something like [[heart-piercer bow]] to deal 1 extra damage repeatedly is usually game-changing. 63% of all creatures or creature tokens have a toughness of 1. - Have enchantment removal | The most consistently strong cards in the cube are the 3-mana build around enchantment engines such as [[abiding grace]], [[recurring nightmare]] and [[Out of the tombs]]. Being able to either answer these permanents or keep up with them will be crucial. - Context matters | Don't be too attached to current card evaluation, [[Ragavan, Nimble pilferer]] is super strong in 60-card formats but only kind of average here because everyone nearly always has blockers available on turn 1. - Synergies Matter | This cube has been built with the synergies between cards in mind, often building an engine with multiple cards will - in general - yield a stronger deck than simply drafting the strongest cards. Having said that there's still plenty of interaction around so be sure to have a plan B if everything goes sideways. - {W} is generally the most aggressive colour as it has the overlap between the {R}{W} aggro and {W}{G} humans archetypes. The archetypes that {R} has tend to prefer a slightly more midrange game. <<< >>> ### The Cream of the Crop <<< >>> Cards to keep an eye out for and be cautious when passing <<< >>> <<[[!heart-piercer bow]][[!Mental misstep]][[!Lurrus of the dream-den]][[!Pest infestation]][[!underworld breach]][[!anje's ravager]][[!Urza's Saga]][[!Recurring nightmare]][[!Chthonian Nightmare]][[!forth eorlingas!]][[!Mother of runes]][[!Guul Draz assassin]][[!Currency Converter]][[!Orcish Bowmasters]][[!Lotus Petal]][[!All that glitters]][[!Plague Engineer]][[!Saw in Half]][[!Sylvan Library]][[!Master of Death]][[!King Darien XLVIII]][[!Grist, the hunger tide]][[!Shadowspear]][[!Kellan, Daring Traveler]][[!Sensei's Divining Top]][[!Springheart Nantuko]][[!Mawloc]][[!Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd]][[!Psychic Frog]][[!Kiora, the rising tide]][[!Mischievous Mystic]][[!Mercurial Spelldancer]]>> <<< >>> ### Ban List <<< >>> This list is mostly a reminder for myself of why I removed certain effects and why they shouldn't be re-added. <<< ##### Does not play well with the unique rules of the format - [[Lutri, the Spellchaser]] ##### Power Level - [[Hymn to tourarch]] - [[Hexdrinker]] - [[Pack Rat]] - [[Godsend]] - [[Mystic Monastery]] + all other tri-lands - [[Beastmaster Ascension]] - [[Oketra's Monument]] - [[Dark Ritual]] - [[Drana, liberator of malakir]] - [[Rampaging Ferocidon]] - [[Boros Reckoner]] - [[Blasting Station]] - [[Dauthi Voidwalker]] - [[Sol ring]] ##### Unfun to play with/against - [[Sphinx's Tutelage]] - [[Sword of fire and Ice]] - [[Maze of Ith]] - [[Thalia, Heretic Cathar]] - [[Isochron Scepter]] - [[Goblin sharpshooter]] ##### New Player Trap - [[Field of the dead]] - [[Ensnaring Bridge]] >>> ### Link to my friend's Cube <<< The Casual Special https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/7921361a-1ad9-40ad-b66c-bd4c071bc22a?fbclid=IwAR2Ua3BRQoTLWvkRMVdy-dJs5cK96vULr1U-pXqOdACh0emhwln9JLx9gpM The Timmy Cube https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/50d64a56-122d-4318-bd43-bc1dd33e20fd