Overall Vision
Highball 4k is a Cube designed to replicate the gameplay of constructed formats from the mid-2010s. It uses updated cards and design techniques for a fun, fresh, and balanced play experience. The Cube uses cards from more recent sets that complement the power level and play patterns of the past while still capturing that nostalgic feel.
I have two primary goals with this Cube. First, I want to re-create the feeling I had playing Magic when I was younger in a way that feels authentic without being forced. The goal is to create a dynamic Cube environment that takes things that I enjoyed about the past and iterates upon them to create an optimized, constructed-like game experience. To this end, the Cube makes use of fun cards printed more recently that complement the themes and archetypes I am trying to support. This is not simply a pile of cards from the mid-2010s. Second, I want cards that evoke memories from this era to be the best cards in the format and to set the tone for what works in the draft. The goal is not to build a Museum of Magic, but instead to build an environment where the good cards just happen to be ones associated with strong memories of the game. While this is primarily focused on mid-2010’s favorites like Siege Rhino and Young Pyromancer, it also includes some older cards like Unearth and spicy new inclusions like Fable of the Mirror Breaker which compliment the key pieces from the era of interest.
A good analogy for this Cube is the Talyllyn Railway in Wales. The Talyllyn Railway was originally built to haul Slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to the transport hub city of Tywyn. The Railroad would eventually be preserved in the 1950s as a passenger line, with very little time between the end of quarrying and the transition to exclusively passenger service. Today, the Talyllyn Railway is an authentic experience reminiscent of late Victorian narrow-gauge railroading. While the railway doesn't work exactly the same as in the past, the experience is similar enough to feel completely authentic. My goals mirror the history of the Talyllyn. I'm trying to use historic cards in an updated context, supplemented with modern design techniques and advancements in the field of Cubing.
Some cards I think exemplify my primary goals include:
My goals translate to archetype design in one major way. The key decks I am trying to replicate are primarily from constructed formats, specifically Standard and Modern. To recapture the play feel of these decks, I created a high-power, open-ended, decks-oriented environment. Most of the decks I am porting are from the Theros-Khans era. This time period represents the precursor to contemporary creature design, where creatures gained more value and resilience. It was also at the end of the old spell design paradigm. Cheap burn that damaged players was abundant, one-mana mana-dorks ruled green, and powerful cantrips backed up by good counterspells were still a recent memory. Replicating this era gives me access to the best of old Magic, minus the bad game design of the 90s and 2000s, while also getting the foundational elements of new Magic, without the power level mistakes or complexity creep.
The primary side effect of my vision is that most of the archetypes are going to be based on Standard decks. While I did look to Modern and Legacy for some archetype inspiration, most of the eternal format decks from this time period used poisonous components that don't translate well to a draft environment. Even in a non-singleton environment, many of these decks simply would not translate well to be limited by putting the draft "on rails," making the experience much less dynamic than desirable. This is the main reason the Cube is a draft environment rather than a deck gauntlet: it's fun to build a completely new deck on the fly and explore cards in new combinations!
The Standard decks from this time period largely avoided this trap because they were essentially advanced versions of core Cube archetypes such as Burn, Midrange, Control, and Reanimator. While the Standard decks used a different card pool than their common Cube counterparts, the basic plans are close enough to make them pretty straightforward translations. Just remember that this is not a Standard Cube; it simply shares some archetypes with the Theros-Khans Standard format. The increased quality of creatures over the past decade has allowed the power level of archetypes derived from Standard decks and archetypes derived from Eternal formats to be consistent.
Cube Details
384 Cards!
The Cube is 384 cards, so every pack wheels twice during a full 8-player draft. I think this makes the draft experience a little smoother because it removes the "will this pack wheel" mental gymnastics players sometimes have to go through. Likewise, it gives me an extra 24 slots to work with for my design, making it a little easier to offer the redundancy I desire while still allowing for a wide variety of cards and effects. A little bit of extra real estate goes a long way!
Nonsingleton!
This Cube was always supposed to feel like constructed. By using a non-singleton design approach for certain key enablers like Faithless Looting, the Fetchlands, and Thought Scour, I have been able to reduce negative variance and provide redundancy for the key to allow for gameplay with a constructed feel. Skilled drafters can now consistently get the right number of the right cards they need to work. Decks such as delve and reanimator don't feel like traps because it is easy to get enough enablers to prevent fizzling often. When coupled with the Cube's generally tight power band, the net result is a balanced and healthy environment. Note that I have only chosen to include duplicates of archetype enablers, not payoffs or win conditions. I want people to win the game with a diversity of cards. The non-singleton approach for select enablers simply ensures that fun decks are able to get the pieces they need to function.
Tapped Duals and Bridges in the Basic Land Box!
This Cube includes the Dominaria United tapped dual lands and the Modern Horizons 2 Bridges in the Basic Land Box. While these cards are good enough to play, they aren’t usually worth spending a draft pick on in this environment. Playtesting made it clear that these cards didn’t do what they needed to as a draftable element, as they weren’t much better than a basic land. The solution was simple: add them to the Basic Land Box! Players who need these cards for fixing (or synergy with Ensoul Artifact) have the opportunity to pick them up before registering their final deck. In the Basic Land Box, these cards have a place to shine!
Archetypes
Please note the following discussion is not comprehensive! While I cover everything I am actively supporting, certain emergent decks aren't things that I am actively pushing. There are also archetypes that are subsets of other decks, such as the Blue White and Blue Black control builds that are a sub-component of the Esper Dragon decks.
Control Decks
Esper Dragons
Esper Dragons does a good job of illustrating what I meant when I said the inspiration for these decks are "advanced versions of core Cube archetypes." My version of the Esper Dragons archetype is modified to work better in a Cube environment. I dropped the weak Dragon synergy cards like Foul-Tongue Invocation and Silumgar's Scorn in return for more playable interaction like Counterspell and Go for the Throat. Some of the peripheral multicolor dragons have been dropped in favor of mono-color counterparts. For example, Dragonlord Ojutai remains but is supplemented by Timeless Dragon and Junji, the Midnight Sky. The Cube also plays better cantrips, so some of the pressure for an insane density of removal and board wipes is reduced. I have also biased my board wipes towards black more than the normal Cube. While white still gets board wipes, Black is given some of the conditional tools that replicate the play patterns of Crux of Fate, such as Crux itself and Languish. While the Cube deck loses some cards from its Standard counterpart, the basic game loop of "control the game and then kill them with a Dragon" remains intact. This is a repeating theme for many of the decks in this Cube– while they aren't 1 to 1 ports of their constructed inspiration, the most fun elements of the deck are preserved.
General Midrange Decks
Abzan Midrange
This "deck" is an amalgamation of several different Abzan variants from throughout the Theros-Khans standard season. Abzan evolved a lot between the time Khans of Tarkir was released and the day Theros block rotated out of Standard. For example, the Abzan Midrange deck Ari Lax piloted to victory in Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir looks different from the more aggressive Abzan deck Mike Sigrist played to third place in the same tournament. By Pro Tour Magic Origins, some versions of the deck would morph into a Control Build. However, the deck never settled into a single
"best" build by the end of the format, with both controlling and aggressive versions showing up in the top 3 of the 2015 world championships. The major through line in all of these decks is four copies of Siege Rhino and four copies of Thoughtseize. Otherwise, there are repetitive motifs of Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Sylvan Caryatid, Elvish Visionary, and Courser of Kruphix, however, these inclusions are not nearly as consistent.
Because of the intense amount of diversity in the space, I've opted to build Abzan as a fairly "normal" midrange deck, with care taken to include as many of the Abzan staples from back in the day as I can reasonably include. The result is a "choose your own adventure" style deck, where players can adjust their Abzan build based on what cards they're getting passed. This is a pretty nice way to draft the archetype, as it provides a wide range of potential decks based on player preference and "what's open." Cards like Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, and Languish help to reinforce the controlling builds of the deck, while Herald of Torment and Fleecemane Lion make aggressive builds more appealing.
34 Rhinos
One of the challenges of building a constructed-like Cube is ensuring the correct density of key effects while still maintaining a healthy draft environment. While key effects such as Thoughtseize can be replicated with similar spells and cards such as Faithless Looting can safely be played in multiples, not every spell is easy to duplicate. Finishers and gold cards are especially hard to work into a format because going too heavily on these cards can make games feel "samey." Siege Rhino especially represents a challenge because it is both a keystone of the mid-2010s while also being a 3-color gold card that only goes into Abzan Midrange decks. The solution to this issue lies with an "old against the odds" deck Seth "probably better known as Saffron Olive," played back in 2015:
In this deck, Seth uses Tutors and clone effects to get more than 4 Siege Rhinos into his Standard deck. We can use similar cards to help "increase the density" of key effects without actually needing to heavily support them in the Cube. Bring to Light is a great example of a card that can do this: it "tutors" for any creature, instant, or sorcery and lets the player cast the card. Cantrips such as Abundant Harvest can help with this goal as well. The nice thing about the "card selection and clones" method is that it helps make every card in the deck easier to find, meaning decks can be more consistent without feeling the same every game.
Green-Based Ramp
Green-based ramp decks are an important thing to "get right" in this Cube for two key reasons. First, Green Devotion was a very important deck in both RTR-Threos and Theros-Khans Standard. In fact, it was the best in the format for a while after Fate Reforged brought Mastery of the Unseen and Whisperwood Elemental into the format. Second, I played multiple green ramp decks during my first three years of playing Magic, including a mono-green deck during Theros block and various Temur decks after Khans was released. My first ever 3-0 at FNM was achieved with a Temur deck using Savage Ventmaw and Crater's Claws to one-shot the opponent. Needless to say, the history here makes getting these decks correct very important to me.
Luckily, green ramp is a staple Cube archetype, with basically everyone including some version of the deck in at least one of their Cubes. It's a very well-explored space, so it's not too difficult to build. The core of the deck, a turn one Elvish Mystic into a second mana dork or Courser of Kruphix into a thicc creature isn't too hard to replicate. I have access to better thick things than original Polukranos (including his Reborn Counterpart and a Cat Car), but I can get away with playing the old king alongside some new hotness here without ruining the balance of the format. Additionally, I'm going to use some fixing dorks, including the heirarchs, Birds of Paradise, and Gilded Goose to compliment the multicolor midrange decks in the format. This should help to keep mana dorks from being late, or commital picks while giving ramp players a more interesting draft environment to navigate.
The key omission here is Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. If there is any card this deck needs that I don't have, it's this insane mono-green devotion enabler. No other card is so efficient at converting Green board presence into mana, except for maybe Gaea's Cradle. Unfortunately, since I use this Cube as the primary means to play with my collection, I'm not going to proxy Nykthos, and getting a copy is more expensive than I would like at the minute. Hopefully, it gets a reprint at some point in the near future, and the price of the card will decrease. I'm also not going to be playing Mastery of the Unseen. I have tested this card in the past, and it just doesn't match the power level of the other manifest cards without Nykthos around. Heck, even with Nykthos, it's probably not that great in limited. Instead, I'm opting to play Primordial Mist as a second copy of Whisperwood Elemental. This pushes the "Ramp into Manifests" version of the deck into a blue/green angle instead of Selesnya, but I don't think this is a big issue since the deck was always mostly green anyway.
Jund
Jund is such an iconic midrange deck that this Cube benefits from trying to replicate some of its play patterns. While Jund is less of a "supported archetype" than some of the other midrange decks in the Cube, it is still given some thought and is meant to be a playable deck. The presence of hand attack, good burn, and cheap oversized threats has meant that a sort of "Boomer Jund" deck can exist with a skilled pilot. The key here is that Jund has enough support so that it can exist but not so much so that it is upstaging the more interesting Midrange decks in the Cube. Jund is fun by itself, but it doesn't do anything particularly special. The best part of Jund is that it integrates Red cards into the Midrange dynamic of the Cube.
Graveyard and Reanimation Decks
Sultai Delve
The general idea behind Sultai Delve is to combine cheap cards that fill the graveyard with Delve cards. Delve cards can very easily become above-rate threats with minimal mana investment in decks that can fill the yard. Cheap self-mill cantrips like Winding Way, Thought Scour, and Ransack the Lab can both find and cast Delve threats. Imagine all of your card selection was also Dark Ritual. That is basically what this deck is trying to achieve. The Delve threats themselves are generally quite fun to play, with their abilities ranging from raw stats to synergy pieces. Cards like Hooting Mandrills and Gurmag Angler are piles of stats that can be easily cast for one mana. Meanwhile, cards like Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and Ethereal Forager offer more synergistic rewards for players. The Cube also plays Soulflayer and soon will play Murktide Regent, both of which will reward players for taking Delve builds in more niche directions.
Whip and Whipless Reanimator
Whip of Erebos was a fun and important card throughout its time in Standard. Whip was popular, especially during the first half of Theros-Khans standard, with the finals of the 2014 World Magic Cup being a face-off between two Whip decks. Team Denmark and Simon Nielsen's Abzan Midrange beat Team Greece and Panagiotis Savvidis' Sidisi Whip deck. My goal is to re-create a similar play pattern to the Whip deck, using Whip of Erebos properly supplemented by other reanimation effects to help build out a cool take on midrange reanimation. Priest of Fell Rites and Unburial Rites are both great examples of this paradigm, since they can be used to reanimate creatures multiple times, like the Whip. The big difference here is that the other reanimation effects, even the repeatable ones, don't exile the creature at end of turn. This means that reanimating big things for their ability to impact the board long-term can be relevant in some builds of the reanimator deck. I will still be erring on the side of things with good enters the battlefield effects for this deck, but I will be using some cards with good bodies like Apex Altisaur and Archon of Cruelty to help the non-Whip reanimation decks have more legs. Overall, this is an exciting deck for the format, and it has been one of my favorite decks to play so far.
Mardu Unearth
Mardu Unearth is an updated version of Mardu Pyromancer decks that were popular in Modern at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, a deck I'm calling Mardu Unearth. The basic idea behind this deck is to take high-value Spells Matter payoffs like Young Pyromancer, Monastery Mentor, and Sedgemoor Witch and combine them with cheap removal and card filtering to generate an advantage. In the event one of the good payoffs is removed, Unearth and its backup variants such as Recommission and No One Left Behind can bring them back to keep the loop going. This combo can be combined with "scammy" cards such as Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger to keep the value train rolling. This deck is one of the main success stories with nonsingleton design, with three copies each of Faithless Looting and Unearth along with an extra Young Pyromancer serving as cornerstones of the deck.
Aggressive and Tempo Decks
Prowess
One of the most popular eternal format decks of all time is Izzet Delver. These decks use the titular Delver of Secrets in conjunction with a rogue's gallery of cheap interaction and card draw to win a tempo-oriented game. Khans of Tarkir was an important set for Delver, introducing both Monastery Swiftspear and Treasure Cruise being printed. The post-Khans version of the Delver deck was so good that it earned it a place as the top deck during the first day of the 2014 World Championships. The delver list played by Patrick Chapin was the only 12-point deck of the day. Treasure Cruise's reign was short-lived, with it being banned in both Modern and Legacy in the first ban announcement after the card was printed, but Swiftspear has continued to be a relevant card in multiple decks ever since.
This era of Delver was defined by the new cards: you had access to both , a brand new aggro one drop, and , an overpowered draw spell! For my build of Delver, I've decided to eschew the namesake card in favor of focusing on the Monastery Swiftspear and Treasure Cruise portion of the deck. This makes the deck easier to draft because players will have more flexibility in the ratios of cards they need to play, and it lets me save space by not needing to include multiple copies of Delver of Secrets. The result is a prowess deck built around applying early pressure with scaling threats like Monastery Swiftspear, Soul-Scar Mage, and Sprite Dragon, supported by a cast of cheap interaction and card filtration. I also get to make use of cantrips that are banned in Modern and weren't in Standard since I don't have to worry about Storm or any other problematic combo decks. My version of the deck also bleeds a little bit into white, making cards like Leonin Lightscribe and Monastery Mentor into powerful damage and value engines. As a whole, my design philosophy for Prowess makes the deck fun and flexible in a way that I think most players will be able to appreciate.
Rabble Red
Mono-red aggro is one of my favorite Cube archetypes and, coincidentally, one that aligns very well with the goals of this project. Mono-red evolved a lot throughout the mid-2010s. The decks during this era almost serve as a template for most present-day Cube mono-red archetypes. Needless to say, this is perfect for my needs. There are two main schools of red during this time period: Atarka Red and Mono-Red. Atarka Red, exemplified by the deck Martin Dang came in 1st place at Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir with, used an aggressive start with roughly 12 one-drop creatures, curving out into bigger finishers like Goblin Rabblemaster. The deck would use Convoke spells like Stoke the Flames and team pump like Atarka's Command to win the game. When Magic Origins was released, a Mono-Red variant of the deck using the newly printed Exquisite Firecraft dominated the field. A more prowess-like version of the deck without Goblin Rabblemaster even won Pro Tour Magic Origins.
I've decided to combine the best elements of both decks into my Red section. I do run multiple different Goblin Rabblemaster variants supporting the original, including Legion Warboss and Squee, Dubious Monarch. I also get access to some newer cards such as Anax, Hardened in the Forge, and Phoenix of Ash, which feel like they could have come from this era, and good value cards like Bonecrusher Giant to help keep these aggro decks competitive against the midrange builds. Like with Abzan, I am able to help get the "feel" right by playing lots of popular cards from the deck for redundancy's sake, such as Lightning Berserker, Firedrinker Satyr, Zurgo Bellstriker, and Abbot of Keral Keep. Notably, this version of the deck has the option to use the Cube’s powerful fixing to splash other colors to add a bit more punching power. If the red player wants to try their hand with Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Sprite Dragon, or Lightning Helix, that is now a viable option. As a whole, I am happy with how this deck has turned out so far, and I look forward to continuing to play it in the future.
Temur Goyfs
This deck is all about getting big. The best way to describe this deck is "threshold reborn." While it shares many key elements with old Legacy Threshold and Miracle Grow decks, the Goyf deck in this Cube is more of a bridge between Prowess and the various graveyard decks that call this format home. The basic idea is to combine the efficient card filtering found in all three of the Temur colors with scaling threats including Tarmogoyf, Dragon's Rage Channeler, Sprite Dragon, and even Bedlam Reveler. This deck will also benefit from the inclusion of the artifact deck in the near future, getting powered up by cards like Mishra's Bauble and Urza's Saga. While the "Goyf Deck" is not quite as well fleshed out as some of the other archetypes in the Cube, it is still very well supported because of how well it fits with the other themes at play. I'm mainly drawing special attention to it despite its status as a mainly emergent deck because it is a deck I think about when working in other areas.
Thopter Scissors
This deck has one simple goal: play an early artifact and make it big! Cards like Spyglass Siren and Voldairen Epicure can make cheap artifacts. Meanwhile, cards like Ensoul Artifact and The Blackstaff of Waterdeep can turn an artifact into a large creature. These cards synergize well with indestructible artifacts like the Bridge cards in the Basic Land Box and Diamond Pickaxe. Thopter Scissors also plays some key Thopter Token producers from Magic Origins, like Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Whirler Rogue, and Hangarback Walker. I have also added a few more “generic” artifact synergy cards that can be fun buildarounds in their own right, like Urza, Lord High Artificer and Sai, Master Thopterist.
Zoo
Zoo was a staple aggro deck during the early stages of the Modern format, and it's roughly appropriate for this version of the Cube. I still remember reading the ban and restricted announcement where Wild Nacatl was unbanned and wondering, "Why was this card ever illegal in the first place?" It turns out that it's because Zoo is a good deck. In my Cube, the Triomes, in conjunction with the Shocklands and Fetchlands, make it very easy for decks that care about land types to get what they need. In fact, I have extended this deck to include domain cards such as Territorial Kavu, Scion of Drago, Leyline Binding and Prismatic Ending. This also gives some good gold threats, such as Fleecemane Lion, an additional place to call home.
Thanks for reading!
You can read more about my Cube, including the past 5 years of my Cube’s history, on my Riptidelab forum thread (you're here now, but if you click the link, you can give me another hit!)
Highball 4k is a Cube designed to replicate the gameplay of constructed formats from the mid-2010s. It uses updated cards and design techniques for a fun, fresh, and balanced play experience. The Cube uses cards from more recent sets that complement the power level and play patterns of the past while still capturing that nostalgic feel.
I have two primary goals with this Cube. First, I want to re-create the feeling I had playing Magic when I was younger in a way that feels authentic without being forced. The goal is to create a dynamic Cube environment that takes things that I enjoyed about the past and iterates upon them to create an optimized, constructed-like game experience. To this end, the Cube makes use of fun cards printed more recently that complement the themes and archetypes I am trying to support. This is not simply a pile of cards from the mid-2010s. Second, I want cards that evoke memories from this era to be the best cards in the format and to set the tone for what works in the draft. The goal is not to build a Museum of Magic, but instead to build an environment where the good cards just happen to be ones associated with strong memories of the game. While this is primarily focused on mid-2010’s favorites like Siege Rhino and Young Pyromancer, it also includes some older cards like Unearth and spicy new inclusions like Fable of the Mirror Breaker which compliment the key pieces from the era of interest.
A good analogy for this Cube is the Talyllyn Railway in Wales. The Talyllyn Railway was originally built to haul Slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to the transport hub city of Tywyn. The Railroad would eventually be preserved in the 1950s as a passenger line, with very little time between the end of quarrying and the transition to exclusively passenger service. Today, the Talyllyn Railway is an authentic experience reminiscent of late Victorian narrow-gauge railroading. While the railway doesn't work exactly the same as in the past, the experience is similar enough to feel completely authentic. My goals mirror the history of the Talyllyn. I'm trying to use historic cards in an updated context, supplemented with modern design techniques and advancements in the field of Cubing.
Some cards I think exemplify my primary goals include:
My goals translate to archetype design in one major way. The key decks I am trying to replicate are primarily from constructed formats, specifically Standard and Modern. To recapture the play feel of these decks, I created a high-power, open-ended, decks-oriented environment. Most of the decks I am porting are from the Theros-Khans era. This time period represents the precursor to contemporary creature design, where creatures gained more value and resilience. It was also at the end of the old spell design paradigm. Cheap burn that damaged players was abundant, one-mana mana-dorks ruled green, and powerful cantrips backed up by good counterspells were still a recent memory. Replicating this era gives me access to the best of old Magic, minus the bad game design of the 90s and 2000s, while also getting the foundational elements of new Magic, without the power level mistakes or complexity creep.
The primary side effect of my vision is that most of the archetypes are going to be based on Standard decks. While I did look to Modern and Legacy for some archetype inspiration, most of the eternal format decks from this time period used poisonous components that don't translate well to a draft environment. Even in a non-singleton environment, many of these decks simply would not translate well to be limited by putting the draft "on rails," making the experience much less dynamic than desirable. This is the main reason the Cube is a draft environment rather than a deck gauntlet: it's fun to build a completely new deck on the fly and explore cards in new combinations!
The Standard decks from this time period largely avoided this trap because they were essentially advanced versions of core Cube archetypes such as Burn, Midrange, Control, and Reanimator. While the Standard decks used a different card pool than their common Cube counterparts, the basic plans are close enough to make them pretty straightforward translations. Just remember that this is not a Standard Cube; it simply shares some archetypes with the Theros-Khans Standard format. The increased quality of creatures over the past decade has allowed the power level of archetypes derived from Standard decks and archetypes derived from Eternal formats to be consistent.
Cube Details
384 Cards!
The Cube is 384 cards, so every pack wheels twice during a full 8-player draft. I think this makes the draft experience a little smoother because it removes the "will this pack wheel" mental gymnastics players sometimes have to go through. Likewise, it gives me an extra 24 slots to work with for my design, making it a little easier to offer the redundancy I desire while still allowing for a wide variety of cards and effects. A little bit of extra real estate goes a long way!
Nonsingleton!
This Cube was always supposed to feel like constructed. By using a non-singleton design approach for certain key enablers like Faithless Looting, the Fetchlands, and Thought Scour, I have been able to reduce negative variance and provide redundancy for the key to allow for gameplay with a constructed feel. Skilled drafters can now consistently get the right number of the right cards they need to work. Decks such as delve and reanimator don't feel like traps because it is easy to get enough enablers to prevent fizzling often. When coupled with the Cube's generally tight power band, the net result is a balanced and healthy environment. Note that I have only chosen to include duplicates of archetype enablers, not payoffs or win conditions. I want people to win the game with a diversity of cards. The non-singleton approach for select enablers simply ensures that fun decks are able to get the pieces they need to function.
Tapped Duals and Bridges in the Basic Land Box!
This Cube includes the Dominaria United tapped dual lands and the Modern Horizons 2 Bridges in the Basic Land Box. While these cards are good enough to play, they aren’t usually worth spending a draft pick on in this environment. Playtesting made it clear that these cards didn’t do what they needed to as a draftable element, as they weren’t much better than a basic land. The solution was simple: add them to the Basic Land Box! Players who need these cards for fixing (or synergy with Ensoul Artifact) have the opportunity to pick them up before registering their final deck. In the Basic Land Box, these cards have a place to shine!
Archetypes
Please note the following discussion is not comprehensive! While I cover everything I am actively supporting, certain emergent decks aren't things that I am actively pushing. There are also archetypes that are subsets of other decks, such as the Blue White and Blue Black control builds that are a sub-component of the Esper Dragon decks.
Control Decks
Esper Dragons
Esper Dragons does a good job of illustrating what I meant when I said the inspiration for these decks are "advanced versions of core Cube archetypes." My version of the Esper Dragons archetype is modified to work better in a Cube environment. I dropped the weak Dragon synergy cards like Foul-Tongue Invocation and Silumgar's Scorn in return for more playable interaction like Counterspell and Go for the Throat. Some of the peripheral multicolor dragons have been dropped in favor of mono-color counterparts. For example, Dragonlord Ojutai remains but is supplemented by Timeless Dragon and Junji, the Midnight Sky. The Cube also plays better cantrips, so some of the pressure for an insane density of removal and board wipes is reduced. I have also biased my board wipes towards black more than the normal Cube. While white still gets board wipes, Black is given some of the conditional tools that replicate the play patterns of Crux of Fate, such as Crux itself and Languish. While the Cube deck loses some cards from its Standard counterpart, the basic game loop of "control the game and then kill them with a Dragon" remains intact. This is a repeating theme for many of the decks in this Cube– while they aren't 1 to 1 ports of their constructed inspiration, the most fun elements of the deck are preserved.
General Midrange Decks
Abzan Midrange
This "deck" is an amalgamation of several different Abzan variants from throughout the Theros-Khans standard season. Abzan evolved a lot between the time Khans of Tarkir was released and the day Theros block rotated out of Standard. For example, the Abzan Midrange deck Ari Lax piloted to victory in Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir looks different from the more aggressive Abzan deck Mike Sigrist played to third place in the same tournament. By Pro Tour Magic Origins, some versions of the deck would morph into a Control Build. However, the deck never settled into a single
"best" build by the end of the format, with both controlling and aggressive versions showing up in the top 3 of the 2015 world championships. The major through line in all of these decks is four copies of Siege Rhino and four copies of Thoughtseize. Otherwise, there are repetitive motifs of Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Sylvan Caryatid, Elvish Visionary, and Courser of Kruphix, however, these inclusions are not nearly as consistent.
Because of the intense amount of diversity in the space, I've opted to build Abzan as a fairly "normal" midrange deck, with care taken to include as many of the Abzan staples from back in the day as I can reasonably include. The result is a "choose your own adventure" style deck, where players can adjust their Abzan build based on what cards they're getting passed. This is a pretty nice way to draft the archetype, as it provides a wide range of potential decks based on player preference and "what's open." Cards like Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, and Languish help to reinforce the controlling builds of the deck, while Herald of Torment and Fleecemane Lion make aggressive builds more appealing.
34 Rhinos
One of the challenges of building a constructed-like Cube is ensuring the correct density of key effects while still maintaining a healthy draft environment. While key effects such as Thoughtseize can be replicated with similar spells and cards such as Faithless Looting can safely be played in multiples, not every spell is easy to duplicate. Finishers and gold cards are especially hard to work into a format because going too heavily on these cards can make games feel "samey." Siege Rhino especially represents a challenge because it is both a keystone of the mid-2010s while also being a 3-color gold card that only goes into Abzan Midrange decks. The solution to this issue lies with an "old against the odds" deck Seth "probably better known as Saffron Olive," played back in 2015:
In this deck, Seth uses Tutors and clone effects to get more than 4 Siege Rhinos into his Standard deck. We can use similar cards to help "increase the density" of key effects without actually needing to heavily support them in the Cube. Bring to Light is a great example of a card that can do this: it "tutors" for any creature, instant, or sorcery and lets the player cast the card. Cantrips such as Abundant Harvest can help with this goal as well. The nice thing about the "card selection and clones" method is that it helps make every card in the deck easier to find, meaning decks can be more consistent without feeling the same every game.
Green-Based Ramp
Green-based ramp decks are an important thing to "get right" in this Cube for two key reasons. First, Green Devotion was a very important deck in both RTR-Threos and Theros-Khans Standard. In fact, it was the best in the format for a while after Fate Reforged brought Mastery of the Unseen and Whisperwood Elemental into the format. Second, I played multiple green ramp decks during my first three years of playing Magic, including a mono-green deck during Theros block and various Temur decks after Khans was released. My first ever 3-0 at FNM was achieved with a Temur deck using Savage Ventmaw and Crater's Claws to one-shot the opponent. Needless to say, the history here makes getting these decks correct very important to me.
Luckily, green ramp is a staple Cube archetype, with basically everyone including some version of the deck in at least one of their Cubes. It's a very well-explored space, so it's not too difficult to build. The core of the deck, a turn one Elvish Mystic into a second mana dork or Courser of Kruphix into a thicc creature isn't too hard to replicate. I have access to better thick things than original Polukranos (including his Reborn Counterpart and a Cat Car), but I can get away with playing the old king alongside some new hotness here without ruining the balance of the format. Additionally, I'm going to use some fixing dorks, including the heirarchs, Birds of Paradise, and Gilded Goose to compliment the multicolor midrange decks in the format. This should help to keep mana dorks from being late, or commital picks while giving ramp players a more interesting draft environment to navigate.
The key omission here is Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. If there is any card this deck needs that I don't have, it's this insane mono-green devotion enabler. No other card is so efficient at converting Green board presence into mana, except for maybe Gaea's Cradle. Unfortunately, since I use this Cube as the primary means to play with my collection, I'm not going to proxy Nykthos, and getting a copy is more expensive than I would like at the minute. Hopefully, it gets a reprint at some point in the near future, and the price of the card will decrease. I'm also not going to be playing Mastery of the Unseen. I have tested this card in the past, and it just doesn't match the power level of the other manifest cards without Nykthos around. Heck, even with Nykthos, it's probably not that great in limited. Instead, I'm opting to play Primordial Mist as a second copy of Whisperwood Elemental. This pushes the "Ramp into Manifests" version of the deck into a blue/green angle instead of Selesnya, but I don't think this is a big issue since the deck was always mostly green anyway.
Jund
Jund is such an iconic midrange deck that this Cube benefits from trying to replicate some of its play patterns. While Jund is less of a "supported archetype" than some of the other midrange decks in the Cube, it is still given some thought and is meant to be a playable deck. The presence of hand attack, good burn, and cheap oversized threats has meant that a sort of "Boomer Jund" deck can exist with a skilled pilot. The key here is that Jund has enough support so that it can exist but not so much so that it is upstaging the more interesting Midrange decks in the Cube. Jund is fun by itself, but it doesn't do anything particularly special. The best part of Jund is that it integrates Red cards into the Midrange dynamic of the Cube.
Graveyard and Reanimation Decks
Sultai Delve
The general idea behind Sultai Delve is to combine cheap cards that fill the graveyard with Delve cards. Delve cards can very easily become above-rate threats with minimal mana investment in decks that can fill the yard. Cheap self-mill cantrips like Winding Way, Thought Scour, and Ransack the Lab can both find and cast Delve threats. Imagine all of your card selection was also Dark Ritual. That is basically what this deck is trying to achieve. The Delve threats themselves are generally quite fun to play, with their abilities ranging from raw stats to synergy pieces. Cards like Hooting Mandrills and Gurmag Angler are piles of stats that can be easily cast for one mana. Meanwhile, cards like Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and Ethereal Forager offer more synergistic rewards for players. The Cube also plays Soulflayer and soon will play Murktide Regent, both of which will reward players for taking Delve builds in more niche directions.
Whip and Whipless Reanimator
Whip of Erebos was a fun and important card throughout its time in Standard. Whip was popular, especially during the first half of Theros-Khans standard, with the finals of the 2014 World Magic Cup being a face-off between two Whip decks. Team Denmark and Simon Nielsen's Abzan Midrange beat Team Greece and Panagiotis Savvidis' Sidisi Whip deck. My goal is to re-create a similar play pattern to the Whip deck, using Whip of Erebos properly supplemented by other reanimation effects to help build out a cool take on midrange reanimation. Priest of Fell Rites and Unburial Rites are both great examples of this paradigm, since they can be used to reanimate creatures multiple times, like the Whip. The big difference here is that the other reanimation effects, even the repeatable ones, don't exile the creature at end of turn. This means that reanimating big things for their ability to impact the board long-term can be relevant in some builds of the reanimator deck. I will still be erring on the side of things with good enters the battlefield effects for this deck, but I will be using some cards with good bodies like Apex Altisaur and Archon of Cruelty to help the non-Whip reanimation decks have more legs. Overall, this is an exciting deck for the format, and it has been one of my favorite decks to play so far.
Mardu Unearth
Mardu Unearth is an updated version of Mardu Pyromancer decks that were popular in Modern at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, a deck I'm calling Mardu Unearth. The basic idea behind this deck is to take high-value Spells Matter payoffs like Young Pyromancer, Monastery Mentor, and Sedgemoor Witch and combine them with cheap removal and card filtering to generate an advantage. In the event one of the good payoffs is removed, Unearth and its backup variants such as Recommission and No One Left Behind can bring them back to keep the loop going. This combo can be combined with "scammy" cards such as Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger to keep the value train rolling. This deck is one of the main success stories with nonsingleton design, with three copies each of Faithless Looting and Unearth along with an extra Young Pyromancer serving as cornerstones of the deck.
Aggressive and Tempo Decks
Prowess
One of the most popular eternal format decks of all time is Izzet Delver. These decks use the titular Delver of Secrets in conjunction with a rogue's gallery of cheap interaction and card draw to win a tempo-oriented game. Khans of Tarkir was an important set for Delver, introducing both Monastery Swiftspear and Treasure Cruise being printed. The post-Khans version of the Delver deck was so good that it earned it a place as the top deck during the first day of the 2014 World Championships. The delver list played by Patrick Chapin was the only 12-point deck of the day. Treasure Cruise's reign was short-lived, with it being banned in both Modern and Legacy in the first ban announcement after the card was printed, but Swiftspear has continued to be a relevant card in multiple decks ever since.
This era of Delver was defined by the new cards: you had access to both , a brand new aggro one drop, and , an overpowered draw spell! For my build of Delver, I've decided to eschew the namesake card in favor of focusing on the Monastery Swiftspear and Treasure Cruise portion of the deck. This makes the deck easier to draft because players will have more flexibility in the ratios of cards they need to play, and it lets me save space by not needing to include multiple copies of Delver of Secrets. The result is a prowess deck built around applying early pressure with scaling threats like Monastery Swiftspear, Soul-Scar Mage, and Sprite Dragon, supported by a cast of cheap interaction and card filtration. I also get to make use of cantrips that are banned in Modern and weren't in Standard since I don't have to worry about Storm or any other problematic combo decks. My version of the deck also bleeds a little bit into white, making cards like Leonin Lightscribe and Monastery Mentor into powerful damage and value engines. As a whole, my design philosophy for Prowess makes the deck fun and flexible in a way that I think most players will be able to appreciate.
Rabble Red
Mono-red aggro is one of my favorite Cube archetypes and, coincidentally, one that aligns very well with the goals of this project. Mono-red evolved a lot throughout the mid-2010s. The decks during this era almost serve as a template for most present-day Cube mono-red archetypes. Needless to say, this is perfect for my needs. There are two main schools of red during this time period: Atarka Red and Mono-Red. Atarka Red, exemplified by the deck Martin Dang came in 1st place at Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir with, used an aggressive start with roughly 12 one-drop creatures, curving out into bigger finishers like Goblin Rabblemaster. The deck would use Convoke spells like Stoke the Flames and team pump like Atarka's Command to win the game. When Magic Origins was released, a Mono-Red variant of the deck using the newly printed Exquisite Firecraft dominated the field. A more prowess-like version of the deck without Goblin Rabblemaster even won Pro Tour Magic Origins.
I've decided to combine the best elements of both decks into my Red section. I do run multiple different Goblin Rabblemaster variants supporting the original, including Legion Warboss and Squee, Dubious Monarch. I also get access to some newer cards such as Anax, Hardened in the Forge, and Phoenix of Ash, which feel like they could have come from this era, and good value cards like Bonecrusher Giant to help keep these aggro decks competitive against the midrange builds. Like with Abzan, I am able to help get the "feel" right by playing lots of popular cards from the deck for redundancy's sake, such as Lightning Berserker, Firedrinker Satyr, Zurgo Bellstriker, and Abbot of Keral Keep. Notably, this version of the deck has the option to use the Cube’s powerful fixing to splash other colors to add a bit more punching power. If the red player wants to try their hand with Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Sprite Dragon, or Lightning Helix, that is now a viable option. As a whole, I am happy with how this deck has turned out so far, and I look forward to continuing to play it in the future.
Temur Goyfs
This deck is all about getting big. The best way to describe this deck is "threshold reborn." While it shares many key elements with old Legacy Threshold and Miracle Grow decks, the Goyf deck in this Cube is more of a bridge between Prowess and the various graveyard decks that call this format home. The basic idea is to combine the efficient card filtering found in all three of the Temur colors with scaling threats including Tarmogoyf, Dragon's Rage Channeler, Sprite Dragon, and even Bedlam Reveler. This deck will also benefit from the inclusion of the artifact deck in the near future, getting powered up by cards like Mishra's Bauble and Urza's Saga. While the "Goyf Deck" is not quite as well fleshed out as some of the other archetypes in the Cube, it is still very well supported because of how well it fits with the other themes at play. I'm mainly drawing special attention to it despite its status as a mainly emergent deck because it is a deck I think about when working in other areas.
Thopter Scissors
This deck has one simple goal: play an early artifact and make it big! Cards like Spyglass Siren and Voldairen Epicure can make cheap artifacts. Meanwhile, cards like Ensoul Artifact and The Blackstaff of Waterdeep can turn an artifact into a large creature. These cards synergize well with indestructible artifacts like the Bridge cards in the Basic Land Box and Diamond Pickaxe. Thopter Scissors also plays some key Thopter Token producers from Magic Origins, like Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Whirler Rogue, and Hangarback Walker. I have also added a few more “generic” artifact synergy cards that can be fun buildarounds in their own right, like Urza, Lord High Artificer and Sai, Master Thopterist.
Zoo
Zoo was a staple aggro deck during the early stages of the Modern format, and it's roughly appropriate for this version of the Cube. I still remember reading the ban and restricted announcement where Wild Nacatl was unbanned and wondering, "Why was this card ever illegal in the first place?" It turns out that it's because Zoo is a good deck. In my Cube, the Triomes, in conjunction with the Shocklands and Fetchlands, make it very easy for decks that care about land types to get what they need. In fact, I have extended this deck to include domain cards such as Territorial Kavu, Scion of Drago, Leyline Binding and Prismatic Ending. This also gives some good gold threats, such as Fleecemane Lion, an additional place to call home.
Thanks for reading!
You can read more about my Cube, including the past 5 years of my Cube’s history, on my Riptidelab forum thread (you're here now, but if you click the link, you can give me another hit!)
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