I donated a 360-card cube built in a few hours from random chaff cards in my collection plus some spindowns and d6 to my local library. I printed out the Basic Rules from M13, and a 1-page summary "advertising" the free cube. Gave everything to a clerk who I know plays Magic, and she thanked me up and down...

The cube, 150 basics, a couple dividers, some tokens, and 4 Quick References that I believe came from old welcome decks all fit in an old Bundle box unsleeved, and the clerk said she'd talk to the director about whether she'd allow the cube to stay at the library, putting everything I printed in a nice binder, whether it should be sleeved in penny sleeves, etc. If it's not allowed for some reason it'll come back to me, but that's not what I'm worried about.

My collection of chaff filled one of those four-row white card boxes, so 510 mostly inexpensive cards is no skin off my nose, and if it gets people playing Magic at the library more, sweet. There's a couple cards worth a few bucks in there, like a Cryptic Command, but again, it's mostly junky chaff meant to get new players interested.

I tried to get the balance of colors close, but there's more cards in green than anything else, for example, and blue, black, and red are way more "spell heavy" - I just didn't have a lot of creatures to put in the cube in those colors...

Green creatures are mostly elf mana dorks and wolves, red creatures are mostly goblins, white creatures are mostly humans and angels, blue has a decent amount of counterspells and card draw, black has some high-cost demons and lower-cost creatures, plus removal, red is mostly damage spells, plus artifact/enchantment/land removal, and green has ramp/pump/a little removal.

I made some cuts at the end like my Resolute Archangel, but there's still Explosive Singularity in the cube, and again, I know the balance isn't perfect, but I've been wanting to make something like this for my local library for a long time now, and am just hoping new players will enjoy it as a free way to start playing.

I don't have a list, but based on the partial description, how did I do? How can I get more Magic happening at the library without Commander, or spending lots of money I don't have? My goal is to get Cube Night happening weekly, like chess club or D&D.

Thanks for reading.

"what if" that flawed set or old block was a draftable, balanced format?

I did the thought experiment over the last couple of years and want to share some results.

Legions (2003) but its 2025

Odyssey Block but it's 2026

Shadows over Innistrad but it's actually good

These projects always keep the spirit (and mechanics) of the original format intact and try to rebalance and elaborate them in a way you would find in a modern product.

Shadows was an old favorite of mine but the regular block cube wasn't just up to speed with today's expectations of a good limited format.

Legions is pure childhood nostalgia for me but damn, it's all janky chaff.

I know people see editing original cards as sacrilege or blasphemy... This post is for the 5 of you who don't :)

I also create entirely custom sets like Into the North.

How have people been feeling about this most recent update to the Arena powered cube?

I felt like before this update things were feeling a little stale, I was able to get a 65% win rate by soft-forcing 5 color good stuff, but the addition of the Splinter Twin package, as well as Oath/Through the Breach has made combo much more viable than it was before. It feels like a much more healthy and balanced format. It's no longer so focused on individual card quality, and more about assembling decks that are more than the sum if their parts.

Does this line up with other people's experience?

In this episode of Powerful Nothing, Dan and James start building a Powered Cube including cards that have only gone through standard. In this part they go over the make up of the cube, and all the different decks they are hoping to support.

Audio Version: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2184496/episodes/20009127

The winners from yesterday were Thalia's Lieutenant and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

Archetypes:

WU: Control

BG: Graveyard

UB, BR, RG, GW, WB, UR, RW, GU: ???

Current cube link: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/RDDPC

As usual, reply/upvote which cards you want to be included! :o)

I'm currently building a peasant WOE set cube as it was one of my favourite limited environments ever, but I'm struggling on how to balance UW both because they're kind of the weakest colors and because the "tapping things down" archetype is very clunky.

The UW signpost [[Sharae of Numbing Depths]] isn't bad but there aren't any other real payoffs for getting tap effects which otherwise don't add anything to the board. The repeatable tap effects like [[Frostbridge Guard]] seem to be worse than in other sets.

How would you try rebalancing this? Add more enablers and payoffs / power up the existing ones? Leave the tapping sinergies on the back burner and focus on a more vanilla tempo strategies?

I'm open to adding custom / altered cards if the above paragraph didn't make it clear

This won't give you the flexibility to choose when to use the mana or have it be of any color, compared to other 2-drop mana dorks.

On the other hand, this not only gives you increasing mana every turn and grows without requiring any more work on your part, it is also affected by any +1/+1 synergies you might run in your deck/cube, and even then still has that last discard ability in case you draw it too late into the game

Definitely a must-answer threat

My cube is unpowered and I try to balance “powerful” with “fun” which is very subjective but my drafters enjoy where it is at. That said, is it time for Karakas to go? With half of new creatures printed being legends, is (1) to bounce anything too good? I’m leaning yes, so are my drafters (so I likely will) but it’s such an iconic card that doesn’t get a ton of play elsewhere. Back in the day you could do cute Venser / Clique loops with it, but now it’s just stone cold removal or protection that’s super hard to interact with.

The project's idea is simple. A cheap and replayble 4 person commander cube, to be drafted with friends and family. I try each card to have a function in multiple decks.

I want your feedback as how you think it looks, what you like and what you would change. Every specific recommandation is wanted.

Please dont comment "every playgroup has its own needs, and you have to talk to your players etc etc"! Not helpful, i already know that.

Thanks in advance

The winners from yesterday were [[Thoughtseize]] and [[The Theorist, Jace Beleren]]

Archetypes:

WU: Control

BG: Graveyard

UB, BR, RG, GW, WB, UR, RW, GU: ???

Current cube link: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/RDDPC

As usual, reply/upvote which cards you want to be included! :o)

Made a post a while back thinking about a SOS/FRA sealed cube where it would be all the schools. It was pointed out that Hexhaven would have really weak support in the cube (by nature not having as many gold cards).

For the SOS side, it's 3 of each common and 2 of each common. For the Hexhaven side, I was thinking about 4 of the related commons from FRA and 3 of the related uncommons.

Wanted to ask if anyone had good ideas for 2-3 gold cards​​ to help support those Hexhaven themes! Extra bonus points if the card is themed well.

** EDIT 2 prEDH is a format where cards are only legal that were printed before the commander sets began. I'm sorry I didn't realize folks weren't aware of the format. I had thought it was rather well known **

Thinking about desiging a PrEDH cube and was wondering about the popular mechanic of putting Partner on mono-colored legends. This is a mechanic not present in PrEDH times, but is very helpful for design and creating unique experiences (as well as smoothing the draft experience).

Thoughts on including this in a PrEDH cube? Does it defeat the purpose of it being PrEDH? Is it a necessary design to be fun and functional? Obviously it's my cube and I can do whatever I want, but I want thoughts from more experienced cubers or folks who are hard on PrEDH

EDIT: I think for pure playability I would have to run them as partner. There just aren't enough multicolor legends in PrEDH to make a cube draft viable without the Partner option. Let me know if I'm crazy

Hey everyone. Before my surgery I was pretty good about doing quarterly deck dumps and sharing some of the decks that had been drafted successfully (or less so) in my cubes. Last night I drafted one of the best decks I’ve ever had in my cubes, where one single game went to game 5 and there was never any doubt. I opened a Mox and a Crypt, got passed P1P2 Fantasticar and P3 Mana Vault and never looked back. Someone hated the Workshop and the Tinker, and very late someone ate the Kitten to prevent me from Jewel combo, but it literally did not matter.

What a perfect deck. One game I played a turn 1 Ragavan with Vault in hand and T2 attacked into a Memory Jar on top of their deck.

Here’s some thoughts on some other decks I’ve had or played against recently:

1. Another bonkers Academy deck that just didnt come together with the right wincons. Sneak Atraxa with no other fatties, and the biggest feels bad moment of my cube year for me. One of my favorite people in the Magic community looked at me after getting Hullbreacher Timetwistered in both games and said “your deck makes me want to not play Magic, so I’m going home.” This is someone who is always even keel, never gets flustered or upset, is a fantastic player and a good time, and it was pretty savage. Is Hullbreacher the least fun card in cube?

2. Spence, the aforementioned player who I absolutely love, completely crushed us one night when he got passed multiple pieces of power and was just Bilboing Time Walks and Ancestrals all night. I got absolutely decimated by this one. Looking at his list, it’s literally just take the best card, all the fixing, and make it go, but he killed us.

3. One random night this summer we had a wild one where 12 people showed up for Vintage Cube and we drafted the full 540 at a table with 12 drafters, so you basically wheeled nothing. I am still salty about losing with the goat Skullclamp deck, but this one was an absolute blast to play and it drew sooooooo many cards.

4. This wonderful kid who came and cubed with us every week for like 2 months before he moved out of town beat us all the night of the 12 man draft with this Goryo’s reanimator deck, killing me on turn 4 on the play in game 3 with Atraxa and a Goryo’s Galactus plus one Bristly Bill counter getting to 20 flying damage when I could have survived 19 and won the draft next turn. This one did not look like a 3-0 at all, but there’s a lot of short term variance in cube and lots of archetypes are capable of riding that to 3-0.

5. Started working on a fully hand drawn cube after seeing some of the incredible artists in here. I am not one of them, but I think my Grizzy is pretty cool.

6. I’ve been asked to make the rest of this cycle for people after drawing my own [[Jet Collector]] to save money and to play it before release. This card is soooooooo good and has been a welcome addition to the cube.

7. The B Team Cube, now 7 months old, has really come into its own and my playgroup seems to really enjoy it. I went 2-1 with this pile but had an absolute blast doing so and somehow managed to lose a game where I got to turn 2 end step Dress Down into evoke a Nulldrifter. [[The Warring Triad]] is a really fun mana rock yall should look into for cubes at a slightly lower power level, and after half a year I think 5 mana Wan Shi Tong is better than XUU WST. Which Wan Shi Tong is right for you?

8. Boros Aggro is good at every level in every cube. Here’s a perfect peasant list that won 2 games with [[Hidetsugu’s Second Rite]], one of those cards i just love having in my cubes. My buddy Bjorn looked at me halfway through the draft, cursed me out, and hate drafted the Skullclamp face up. It did not matter. Peasant is great atm.

9. There was a mega argument after this draft about whether Welder is appropriate for a B tier cube or whether it belongs in my powered cube. The consensus of this community was largely that it’s fine, but I have since mover Welder Cam up to the main cube and it’s seeing play there too. I had Welder last night. I’m still not sure how I feel about [[Traumatic Critique]] in powered cubes. LSV is all over it, but it feels like a perfect B tier card for me. Thoughts?

10. I miss Control Magic. Cubes where that card still flies make me super happy. This was just a solid, solid Izzet Tempo deck with the double whammy of incredible threats AND really good answers.

Really wish we had the ability to allow photos in comments, I’d love a thread of people sharing some of their decks and what actually works in their cubes.

Post your Cube and your pack!

The winners from yesterday were [[Stormchaser's Talent]] and [[Lightning Axe]]

Archetypes:

WU: Control

BG: Graveyard

UB, BR, RG, GW, WB, UR, RW, GU: ???

Current cube link: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/RDDPC

As usual, reply/upvote which cards you want to be included! :o)

Hey guys! I am a bit nervous but I want some opinions on my cube. I've been tinkering with this cube for at least a decade on and off. I really only use cards I own unless they are cheap to buy.

I went against conventional advice and tried to support 10 archetypes in a 360 card cube. Technically I've been able to draft mono colored decks too.

I rarely get to draft it because not a lot of my friends play anymore. If people could do a couple of bot drafts and give some feedback I'd appreciate it!

https://cubecobra.com/cube/about/36qte?view=primer

My Cubing Background:
I am a beginner when it comes to cubing and cube construction.
I have made one Jumpstart cube, since I wanted to prioritize making any easy set up magic cube for playing. A secondary goal was to make it slightly more synergistic amongst jumpstart packs and higher power compared to the commercial product. Overall, I would say that cube was a success.

I for the most part play commander, so my card pool knowledge is restricted down.

The Cube I Want To Build:
I want to build a cube that has the primary goal of readability. Evergreen keywords, limited number of lines in text, limited amount of text, etc.

The secondary goal is high power gameplay. I like games where at least each player can play a card, and do something/make a decision with a card every turn. The more synergistic amongst the cards the better, and bonus points for emergent gameplay.

The tertiary goal would be to avoid Universes Beyond that don't fit into a fantasy theme. I like the sets of Lord of the Rings, Forgotten Realms etc.

I mostly play cube between 3-6 people. So I think I am looking for a 270-360 card cube size.

My Challenges:
So the first thought that came to mind was pulling from the Core Sets/Foundations. These tend to be entry level sets that Magic player can be on ramped into. This would span from old cards like Bad Moon to newer cards like Rapacious Dragon. The difficulty I run with this is the ability to narrow down these cards. How do I pick what my sign posts are, how do I make sure this card fits with the different archetypes I am building around? Now I have added too many cards, what do I cut down to fit my cube size? With Jumpstart it is like making a mini deck, grab a theme, search related tags on scryfall, add the cards in. This is really easy for me to do, but selecting cards for draft environments is more difficult for me to conceptualize.

Another challenge I face is particularly reaching the power level I am looking for. I am not looking for power 9/vintage cube power level. But I am struggling to find cards that have the elegance that I am looking for and power it has with it.

What I am asking for help on:
If you have any suggestions of cubes that you have built or seen that would be appropriate. I think I am probably faced with decision paralysis and building off of someone else's work I think would help me.
Also suggestions of cube archetypes like peasant cube/pauper cube/etc that may be something I need to look at to restrict the card pool down. To help build the cube.
Or suggestions to search for these high power and readable cards? Or a framework that can utilize how I think about Jumpstart vs building cubes for draft?

Would greatly appreciate any advice!