I guess I'll do a comprehensive writeup of some of my thoughts in making the cube in case anyone was interested, as the primer was quite short. Do note that I haven't really playtested the cube to any real extent, so there's a lot of uncertainty for me in how games actually end up in practice (and in that sense I guess I'm okay with not placing first relative to personal effort invested).
Obviously, having your mana-base be full of Aether Hubs makes you very limited on colored mana. There are two main ways to counteract this, either by picking basic lands, which helps serve as broad archetype signals in terms of what colors are open; or by picking energy cards, which typically net you one colored mana when played, or two if you're able to produce that color. I think you can find some success with just picking a large density of energy cards, but I intentionally kept the power level of the energy cards on the low side because of their inherent strength in the format. The prevalence of Aether Hubs also means that every deck have great opportunities to splash other cards, which is why a lot of the proactive cards in the cube are very reliant on heavy color commitment or deck synergy in order to shine. Interactive spells like Harnessed Lightning, Path to Exile and Forsake the Worldly are, on the other hand, pretty much colorless (one even fixes your mana), and I imagine they are very high on the pick order. Anyway, archetype design:
Devotion
Devotion is one of the entry level archetypes in the cube, designed around picking lands in your color, hybrid cards, and devotion payoffs. I'm not entirely pleased with how this turned out, with green probably being the closest to what I imagine the ideal power level is. The lack of options in hybrid permanents and especially Devotion payoffs made this pretty hard to design, but I knew I wanted it to be a core aspect of the cube because of how it plays into the manabase. I believe blue and green are both on the weak side, while white, red and black all have very impactful payoffs in an environment that I imagine is prone to grindy games.
Multicolor
Spearheaded by Niv-Mizzet and deceptively enough not about gold cards, the intent here is to use the large number of hybrid cards in conjunction with All Suns' Dawn and Hero of Precinct One to amass an advantage. Notably, you can still execute this strategy while still being centered in very few colors because of the density of hybrid cards. Selesnya Guildmage is worth a look here for being able to take advantage of all the tokens you will potentially produce with Hero.
Colorless
There are a variety of different ways to approach the colorless payoffs in the cube, but the primary one is focused on colorless creatures. Ghostfire Blade, Flayer Drone and Ruination Guide all have synergy with your colorless creatures, and with Aether Swooper and Aether Poisoner as accessible ways to generate colorless bodies, Master Trinketeer also can function as another piece in the colorless aggro puzzle. The artifact-heavy density in the colorless cards also means you can alternatively use Traxos, Scourge of Kroog, Cranial Plating, Arcbound Tracker and Daring Archaeologist as ways to take advantage of your picks.
Snow
Blessing of Frost and Ascendant Spirit provide big incentives in the format to heavily prioritize picking basic lands and ways to find them, with a handful of other rewards for being in snow such as Spirit of the Aldergard, Icehide Golem and Winter's Rest. The converge cards are also a lot less punishing if you already play a lot of off-color basic lands for their snow synergy.
Ponza
Probably the most parasitic archetype in the cube, the ponza deck uses Sinkhole and Pillage to cripple your opponent's mana-development by targeting their few sources of colored mana, with Ghitu Chronicler being able to rebuy them for further misery.
Kicker
Roost of Drakes is a one-card archetype that rewards you for picking up copies of kicker cards, most notably Prohibit, Bloodchief's Thirst, Ghitu Chronicler and more copies of Roost, as Gnarlid Colony does not work as well in the shell.
Dynavolt Tower
Ghitu Chronicler makes another appearance here, as Dynavolt Tower and to a lesser extent Quandrix Pledgemage is a simple way to take advantage of having a high spell density, with Kaleidoscorch, All Suns' Dawn, Manamorphose and Rosethorn Acolyte as some noteworthy options.
Proliferate
Outside of refunding you an energy when cast, Bloom Hulk and Spread the Sickness also reward you for picking up copies of Thriving Rhino, Thriving Grubs, Thriving Turtle and Thriving Rats, among some other cards that naturally accrue counters. Gnarlid Colony helps ensure that anything big enough won't be stopped by random servo tokens.
Molten Nursery
My personal favorite, Molten Nursery might seem like it belongs in the colorless category, but its lack of synergy with all the colorless token producers relegates it to its own little corner. Nursery is designed to take advantage of all the utility artifacts in the form of Puzzleknots, Spare Supplies and Pilgrim's Eye, together with Daring Archaeologist and Swiss-army-knife Aviary Mechanic to grind the opponent out with lava darts. Animating Faerie also works very well in the same shell, by turning your value artifacts into baloths, and is especially great with Terrarion. Ancient Stirrings ties it all together by being an excellent way of digging for Nursery, and hitting random artifacts and snow basics along the way.
Arcbound Tracker also helms a very dubious storm deck, Zirda, the Dawnwaker works very well with all the guildmages and utility artifacts, and Ravenous Squirrel is worth exploring, especially with Skyclave Shade.
Devotion
Devotion is one of the entry level archetypes in the cube, designed around picking lands in your color, hybrid cards, and devotion payoffs. I'm not entirely pleased with how this turned out, with green probably being the closest to what I imagine the ideal power level is. The lack of options in hybrid permanents and especially Devotion payoffs made this pretty hard to design, but I knew I wanted it to be a core aspect of the cube because of how it plays into the manabase. I believe blue and green are both on the weak side, while white, red and black all have very impactful payoffs in an environment that I imagine is prone to grindy games.
Multicolor
Spearheaded by Niv-Mizzet and deceptively enough not about gold cards, the intent here is to use the large number of hybrid cards in conjunction with All Suns' Dawn and Hero of Precinct One to amass an advantage. Notably, you can still execute this strategy while still being centered in very few colors because of the density of hybrid cards. Selesnya Guildmage is worth a look here for being able to take advantage of all the tokens you will potentially produce with Hero.
Colorless
There are a variety of different ways to approach the colorless payoffs in the cube, but the primary one is focused on colorless creatures. Ghostfire Blade, Flayer Drone and Ruination Guide all have synergy with your colorless creatures, and with Aether Swooper and Aether Poisoner as accessible ways to generate colorless bodies, Master Trinketeer also can function as another piece in the colorless aggro puzzle. The artifact-heavy density in the colorless cards also means you can alternatively use Traxos, Scourge of Kroog, Cranial Plating, Arcbound Tracker and Daring Archaeologist as ways to take advantage of your picks.
Snow
Blessing of Frost and Ascendant Spirit provide big incentives in the format to heavily prioritize picking basic lands and ways to find them, with a handful of other rewards for being in snow such as Spirit of the Aldergard, Icehide Golem and Winter's Rest. The converge cards are also a lot less punishing if you already play a lot of off-color basic lands for their snow synergy.
Ponza
Probably the most parasitic archetype in the cube, the ponza deck uses Sinkhole and Pillage to cripple your opponent's mana-development by targeting their few sources of colored mana, with Ghitu Chronicler being able to rebuy them for further misery.
Kicker
Roost of Drakes is a one-card archetype that rewards you for picking up copies of kicker cards, most notably Prohibit, Bloodchief's Thirst, Ghitu Chronicler and more copies of Roost, as Gnarlid Colony does not work as well in the shell.
Dynavolt Tower
Ghitu Chronicler makes another appearance here, as Dynavolt Tower and to a lesser extent Quandrix Pledgemage is a simple way to take advantage of having a high spell density, with Kaleidoscorch, All Suns' Dawn, Manamorphose and Rosethorn Acolyte as some noteworthy options.
Proliferate
Outside of refunding you an energy when cast, Bloom Hulk and Spread the Sickness also reward you for picking up copies of Thriving Rhino, Thriving Grubs, Thriving Turtle and Thriving Rats, among some other cards that naturally accrue counters. Gnarlid Colony helps ensure that anything big enough won't be stopped by random servo tokens.
Molten Nursery
My personal favorite, Molten Nursery might seem like it belongs in the colorless category, but its lack of synergy with all the colorless token producers relegates it to its own little corner. Nursery is designed to take advantage of all the utility artifacts in the form of Puzzleknots, Spare Supplies and Pilgrim's Eye, together with Daring Archaeologist and Swiss-army-knife Aviary Mechanic to grind the opponent out with lava darts. Animating Faerie also works very well in the same shell, by turning your value artifacts into baloths, and is especially great with Terrarion. Ancient Stirrings ties it all together by being an excellent way of digging for Nursery, and hitting random artifacts and snow basics along the way.
Arcbound Tracker also helms a very dubious storm deck, Zirda, the Dawnwaker works very well with all the guildmages and utility artifacts, and Ravenous Squirrel is worth exploring, especially with Skyclave Shade.
