Dom Harvey
Contributor
Time to grow up and actually get my main Cube list in a tangible form. What better way than to reinvent it from scratch in public?
I'll be working on the template here and talking through it in this thread. For similar Cubes I've been drawing a lot of ideas from:
- Returning the love to Nanonox and their Cube
- Erik Twice and inscho
- Julien Henry's Compost Cube (I've CubeCobra drafted it an obsessive-ish amount, it's nice!)
For broader context you can check my general thread here (and the OP quoted) but I want this to be a ~complete summary + intro to it. Here's the brief:
Size: In flux but I expect 450+ to be right/required for everything I want
Power level: Mid-high; think Vintage Cube minus the P9/fast mana/top-shelf Commander cards (Minsc & Boo etc)
Fixing: A high quality and quantity of fixing: double fetches + triple typed duals (shocks + OG duals + surveils) + misc XY lands as well as various 5c lands (some generic, some themed), mana rocks/dorks, green ramp, Treasures etc
Complexity: High; this is aimed at experienced and adventurous drafters (with some safer fallbacks for a less hungry crowd). Literal complexity is tolerated to a point; gameplay complexity is encouraged.
Philosophy: The heart of this Cube is Good Cards that are good at their jobs - and you'll build a synergistic engine that makes them more than the sum of their parts. You can put together normal UR Control with some neat flourishes or you can build combo-control UR that looks and feels unique
You'll find a lot of Magic's most iconic staples (Counterspell and STP) and unique build-arounds (Sneak Attack or Greater Good) as well as cards that mean a lot to me personally (if you see something that looks weak or odd, I probably find it cool as hell or miss casting it). I want each card to mean something - even among the bread-and-butter effects, you'll find the classics you never tire of casting alongside the weird ones you want to try and the themed ones that are ideal for your deck. You can pair Lightning Bolt with Galvanic Blast and enjoy a Blast from the Past.
The guardrails are mostly vibes-based. You won't die on T2 to Channel + Emrakul but there is a lot of degenerate nonsense as well as play patterns (mass LD and hard locks) that would make the Commander crowd burn you in effigy. I'm fine with UB stuff that fits in high fantasy and my paper list has a sprinkling of exotic Alchemy stuff.
There is a lot of card filtering and mana sinks abound; most cards have at least some use at most stages of the game. I want games to feel contested and complicated but satisfying.
Themes: There are loosely defined archetypes for colour pairs etc but the important themes are felt throughout the entire Cube. There is a lot of bullshit coming from the titular graveyard and other themes/ideas converge there; every colour wants to reanimate something but red is Welding while green is churning through lands and white is shuffling its pawns around or summoning its enchantments. Every card type matters in this Cube but they all matter there and all the classic archetypes have that inflection - your UR Spellslinger deck is rebuying its best spells or doubling down on triggers with escape, flashback, et al; your RG Madness deck uses those synergies for a fast finish; your combo decks use the GY as a stage for their big show.
There's an explicit historic theme throughout the colour pie; a lot of artifacts and a lot of trinkets. Tokens are supplied; this is not a Bar Cube in any sense.
Notes on archetypes, cards etc to follow
I'll be working on the template here and talking through it in this thread. For similar Cubes I've been drawing a lot of ideas from:
- Returning the love to Nanonox and their Cube
- Erik Twice and inscho
- Julien Henry's Compost Cube (I've CubeCobra drafted it an obsessive-ish amount, it's nice!)
For broader context you can check my general thread here (and the OP quoted) but I want this to be a ~complete summary + intro to it. Here's the brief:
Size: In flux but I expect 450+ to be right/required for everything I want
Power level: Mid-high; think Vintage Cube minus the P9/fast mana/top-shelf Commander cards (Minsc & Boo etc)
Fixing: A high quality and quantity of fixing: double fetches + triple typed duals (shocks + OG duals + surveils) + misc XY lands as well as various 5c lands (some generic, some themed), mana rocks/dorks, green ramp, Treasures etc
Complexity: High; this is aimed at experienced and adventurous drafters (with some safer fallbacks for a less hungry crowd). Literal complexity is tolerated to a point; gameplay complexity is encouraged.
Philosophy: The heart of this Cube is Good Cards that are good at their jobs - and you'll build a synergistic engine that makes them more than the sum of their parts. You can put together normal UR Control with some neat flourishes or you can build combo-control UR that looks and feels unique
You'll find a lot of Magic's most iconic staples (Counterspell and STP) and unique build-arounds (Sneak Attack or Greater Good) as well as cards that mean a lot to me personally (if you see something that looks weak or odd, I probably find it cool as hell or miss casting it). I want each card to mean something - even among the bread-and-butter effects, you'll find the classics you never tire of casting alongside the weird ones you want to try and the themed ones that are ideal for your deck. You can pair Lightning Bolt with Galvanic Blast and enjoy a Blast from the Past.
The guardrails are mostly vibes-based. You won't die on T2 to Channel + Emrakul but there is a lot of degenerate nonsense as well as play patterns (mass LD and hard locks) that would make the Commander crowd burn you in effigy. I'm fine with UB stuff that fits in high fantasy and my paper list has a sprinkling of exotic Alchemy stuff.
There is a lot of card filtering and mana sinks abound; most cards have at least some use at most stages of the game. I want games to feel contested and complicated but satisfying.
Themes: There are loosely defined archetypes for colour pairs etc but the important themes are felt throughout the entire Cube. There is a lot of bullshit coming from the titular graveyard and other themes/ideas converge there; every colour wants to reanimate something but red is Welding while green is churning through lands and white is shuffling its pawns around or summoning its enchantments. Every card type matters in this Cube but they all matter there and all the classic archetypes have that inflection - your UR Spellslinger deck is rebuying its best spells or doubling down on triggers with escape, flashback, et al; your RG Madness deck uses those synergies for a fast finish; your combo decks use the GY as a stage for their big show.
There's an explicit historic theme throughout the colour pie; a lot of artifacts and a lot of trinkets. Tokens are supplied; this is not a Bar Cube in any sense.
Notes on archetypes, cards etc to follow
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