This week we’re in the lab, talking all about cube experiments! Something between a normal limited format and a custom set, a cube is a way to test out all varieties of Magic in just the right conditions. To help him, Tim brings on cube organizer Alex and format mastermind Sam to go through more than a dozen cube pitches!
Phenomenal Cosmic Power (itty bitty living space) Cube
by Wobbles
This cubes aims to mix the best of vintage cube and desert cube! Players draft 2 cards each from a pack of 20 in this 480 card cube, but 160 of those cards are 5x of each moxen, 6x of each dual land and 15x of each basic land (plus other nonbasics and power). To add tension, themes include lots of artifact and nonbasic land hate, and basic land love. Think Price of Progress, Pest Control, Yasharn! If you’re seriously debating between a basic land and a piece of power, I’ve built it correctly
Beef Legions
by Redbay
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/7d7bd0e4-865f-4774-89b1-6ac31d51a455
This cube aims to include all the common creatures that cost six or more and are available in paper as of my scryfall search on January 07, 2024. That this happens to be exactly 360 cards was very amusing to me. Use Morph, Suspend, Delve, Affinity, Adventure, Evoke, and Cycling to use your card board before your opponent does!
Conquest and Revolution
by IgnitedxSoul
A Multiplayer FFA “draft-sim like” cube with the theme of “Conquest and Revolution” that utilizes the monarch, conspiracies, “as you draft” effects, vehicles, Revolt, and repeatable token generation. Packs are 16 cards: 9 Common 5 Uncommon 2 Rare/Mythic Cards are in multiples based on rarity: Common x3 Uncommon x2 Rare/Mythic x1
The Has-Cube
by Khord
The Has-Cube is a silver bordered cube built around the toyification of magic, you draft not only cards, but objects as well! Draft MLP toys, for your Applejack deck. A booster pack for Booster tutor, or a nerf blaster for Nerf War!
Nonwordy Cube
by Bradley Rose
Each card has three or less lines of rules text.
Boat Cube
by OreoOrca
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t1lE1RvW9sqpUPKuXngrdWATwtfgqcYK/view?usp=drive_link
this cube is a 8-12 player draft with all custom cards* played 1v1, 20 life best 2 out of 3 matches. Players are given 1 Cogwork Librarian like card at the start of each pack and draft as normal. The cube is focused on player creating and using the main 6 tokens. All colors will have a focus on their main Token but as players draft they may discover the need to use multiple types of tokens to best utilize their effects.
Cubed Cube
by MonoWhiteBorder
This is a cube where when you pick a common you automatically get 3 copies of that common. The cube has maybe 1-3 non-commons and encourages players to build around these using the commons as support cards. It also allows us to encourage cards like Squadron Hawk that reward having multiple copies. The cube is singleton so we avoid people getting 6+ copies of a card and making cube really redundant. We can also influx some parasitic mechanics by adding in the best version of them.
Unique Cube
by Juliet
Every card in the cube has a unique mana cost from each other card in the cube. This works for a 480-card cube, though to keep overall manacurves down, expect roughly 1/10th of the cube to have X in its mana cost. This would be a custom cube (juliet built out a whole empty MSE file with just the card-costs), but these cards are two examples of costs you’d be likely to see – phyrexian mana, and more X spells where the X is like an optional kicker, rather than being the only thing the card does.
Survival of the fittest (The Living Cube Project)
by IgnitedxSoul
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ae1o4fYI6j7xgONo1Ven5NzmCHxyNopnre3PnTtjEpU/edit?usp=sharing
Survival of the Fittest is a singleton, 360 card “living cube” which receives upgrades by the players every time it is drafted! Players will play rounds of swiss each draft and receive a certain number of “saves” (prevent a card they drafted from changing in the following draft) or “upgrades” (change a card from their draft pool within a specific parameter) after each draft based on their performance. (More upgrades for higher game losses and more saves for higher game wins) This cube is mainly an exploration of the way cubes would naturally develop in a “Darwinian” manner.
Penta
by IgnitedxSoul
This 270 card singleton cube is intended to be drafted with 5 players who are randomly seated after the draft and play the Penta format (also known as Pentagram, Star, or Five-Point). Except we would exclude the color restrictions.
This cube would have cards from multiplayer and team based formats (Commander, Conspiracy, Archenemy, and Battlebond) with an emphasis on your immediate neighbors being on your “team” and the other two being your “opponents”. Heavy politics will ensue.
Rowdy Piper
by Wobbles
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/rowdy
This is a cube I already have a bit of a sketch for, but the basic premise is a creatureless commander cube where players get Prismatic Pipers to buff and duke it out in a battle royale
Relic Cube
by Redbay
In the same vein as Dinrova Horror’s Companion Cube, Relic Cube offers players a card in the command zone at the start of each game. The difference? They’re all noncreature artifacts and enchantments!
The draft format would include two special draft picks before pack 1 and after pack 2, where each player is offered one of three Relics to select to add to their draft pool.
Relics and decks would not be bound to any color identity restrictions.
The Nostalgia Standard Cube
by IgnitedxSoul
This is less a specific cube and more a cube design concept. The idea is to pick a favorite set and construct a 360 card singleton cube of only cards in standard at the time of that sets release. My favorite set of all time is WAR so I’d be constructing a cube out of cards from: IXN, RIX, DOM, M19, RNA, GRN, and WAR.
100 Brainstones
by Redbay
From somebody that heard about 100 Ornithopters cube, here’s 100 Brainstones– everybody is checking out the top of their library all the time, enabling Miracle spells like Bonfire of the Damned or Entreat the Angels, or top of library engines like Bolas’s Citadel and Augur of Autumn. Your Riddles of Lightning will never miss in this environment! A game-action-heavy combo-players dream!
The High Low Cube
by OreoOrca
I plan to use custom cards as these theme are too narrow but here are some official cards that match the ideas. Sorry its so many examples but getting the 5 axes feels necessary so each enemy color pair has both a high and a low theme.
- W theme is have a high live total – [[Serra Ascendant]]
- B theme is have a low life total – [[Death Shadow]]
- U theme is have a high number of cards in hand – [[Body of Knowledge]]
- R theme is have a low number of cards in hand – [[Hazoret the Fervent]]
- B theme is use high mana value spells – [[Pyretic Rebirth]]
- G theme is use low mana value spells – [[Collected Company]]
- R theme is cast many spells in a turn – [[Brimstone Roundup]]
- W theme is cast no spells in a turn – [[Prairie Dog]]
- G theme is have high land count – [[Avenger of Zendikar]]
- U theme is have low land count – [[Gush]