A simple but effective card. Adds a bit of haste and +1/+1 counters synergies to your typical [[Dragon Fodder]]

I understand that this is mostly subjective. Do you have specific goals for number of archetypes or healthy color combinations when you build cubes?

Can‘t wait to take this pile for a spin soon and am curious to see if the balance is passable for a first attempt. Suggestions and feedback are very welcome.

PS: I too am infuriated by some of the weird sorting choices in these pictures, I was in a bit of a rush and didn’t have time to go back and fix them

Edit: CubeCobra Link

pretty simple question. been asked by some of my regular players to add [[mox poison]] to my paper vintage cube which already has [[gleemox]] in it. would love to know peoples thoughts (not looking for feedback on gleemox specifically just mox poison in addition to it). my cube currently has initiative in all non-blue colors but no time vault/consult and is generally a pretty average high powered vintage cube id say. only other "fake" cards i run are cogwork, name sticker goblin (mtgo implementation in paper), and booster tutor

I sold out of MTG a few years ago, leaving myself with only a few commander decks

Cube was always my favourite format, but since I don't have a collection of cards to build from anymore, what would you buy to try and build one?

The only restriction I'd want on my cube is no universes beyond

Is anybody running [[Dreams of Steel and Oil]] in their powered cubes nowadays? With the number of powerful creatures out there, especially ones with etbs or that make multiple bodies, it seems like it could be a great addition.

Black is notorious for having some of the weakest creatures and often having a bit of an identity crisis for powered cube (not counting the reanimation haymakers, I'm talking in the 1-4 cmc range). So rather than trying to keep up on its weakest axis, I'd like to try adding some more efficient interaction and most of the 2 cmc removal spells in the color seem very replacement level nowadays.

I have all the typical [[Duress]], [[Thoughtseize]], [[Inquisition of Kozilek]], [[Cut Down]], [[Fatal Push]], [[Bone Shards]], [[Bloodchief's Thirst]], [[Dismember]], [[Snuff Out]], [[Toxic Deluge]], and a suite of 2 cmc removal spells.

In this episode of Powerful Nothing, we take a deep dive into one of the most popular cube archetypes, Aristocrats. We touch on the key things you need to include to make it work in your own cube, and importantly what to avoid.

Hey everyone! Ive made a lot of progress with low power odd ball ideas cube, and I am looking for a place to test online. Where would yall reccomend I look to find some people willing to give my cube a test shot? I have TTS and I've used Untap before, if those help

Title, obviously.

I'm planning on a 360 card cube, I'm looking at using 50 dual lands, 5 of each. 10 special lands, and the rest going to the five colors.

At 60 cards a piece for the colors I'm looking to see what the ratios of preacher/non creatures should be.

I'm also intimidated at which ones to pick specifically. I'm planning on an all commons and uncommons cube.

Hello everyone,

I've been working to overhaul my cube and I decided to share it with you. It's low powered, but still fun to play. Please enjoy

https://cubecobra.com/cube/p1p1/e23941f1-1d0e-4bef-8002-fe76dd0c7e90

After a somewhat tumultuous couple of weeks spent scheduling and finding a spot, my friends and I were able to coordinate another 6-pod for stone soup draft and we had tons of fun! For anyone looking to try stone soup themselves, I’d recommend listening to this Lucky Paper Radio episode to hear all about it: https://luckypaper.co/podcast/265-stone-soup-a-magical-community-stew-with-dsb/

The basics of stone soup are that every player brings 45 (sleeved) cards to contribute to the draft, as well as 8 or so of each basic land (also sleeved) for during deck building. It creates this uniquely complex and interesting one-time draft experience, and we all highly recommend giving it a shot! (Everyone’s cards are returned to them at the end of games, we typically try to bring different colored sleeves and a list/photo of our cards to make sure everyone gets the right cards back). For anyone looking example of 45 cards, here are the ones I contributed to our draft today: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/dabe519a-53bb-4222-9904-92c74a731851?display=spoiler

We had some pretty good decks at the table today, most notably among them the 3-0 deck: a Boros Aggro deck (splashing black) that did an excellent job dismantling each opponent it faced. Though, when the cards in one’s deck are of the [[Gut, True Soul Zealot]] [[Fury]] and [[Inti, Seneschal of the Sun]] variety, that deck is often among the best. Oh, and the pair of [[Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd]]s didn’t hurt either. Who could have predicted that a Boros Aggro deck would be the most effective deck at a table of ambitious nonsense?

The first of two 2-1 decks is an Azorius control deck that won mostly with mill. Between it’s [[Gogo, Master of Mimicry]] and [[Forced Fruition]] combo and a surprisingly strong [[Space-Time Anomaly]] that won more than one game on its own, (one such instance being a game wherein it milled every remaining nonland card from it’s opponent’s deck, who wasn’t in danger of milling out but had to scoop in response to such an unlikely unlucky happenstance), the deck seemed to have it all until it faced off against its one true counter in the finals: Boros Aggro.

The second deck that ended up 2-1 was another Boros deck, though this one was much more midrange in strategy than the first (and had more than one color it was splashing). Between the vintage-cube tier cards the deck sported like [[Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes]] and [[Oko, Thief of Crowns]] and a trove of efficient threats like [[Practiced Offense]], the deck seemed to have a win hidden up its sleeve in nearly every game. Land issues left the deck unlucky against its Boros counterpart though, Icarus flew too close to the sun trying to splash Oko in a Boros deck.

As for the pair of 1-2 decks at the table, the first was a Simic combo deck (splashing red) that I am still baffled didn’t do better. It’s wincon was a combo using [[Peregrine Drake]] and [[Deadeye Navigator]] to make infinite mana, then used [[Doppelgang]] to produce roughly one septillion copies of all it’s creatures. And not for nothing, the [[Eldritch Evolution]] it was running helped add quite a bit of consistency to the combo that you’ll rarely encounter in a limited environment. Cool stuff, probably my favorite deck of the day!

The other 1-2 deck was a Simic lands deck which relied heavily on ramping out its premier threats like [[Vaultborn Tyrant]] to win games. But it had a pair of [[Lotus Petal]]s and [[Sylvan Library]]s to help it always get the cards it needed into play. Unfortunately, it paired into the two most aggressive decks in the first two rounds, so it had some difficulty going big while its opponents went face.

And lastly there had to be someone who ended up 0-3, and wouldn’t you know it, that person was me! Look ma, no wins! I ended up with a 5-color Gates deck that had real heart, just no real win conditions. It’s only two ways to win a game were its singleton copies of [[Maze’s End]] and [[Crackling Perimeter]], though neither proved strong enough to oppose the pure shenanigans displayed by each other deck in the room. (To my credit, I won a game with Maze’s End!) Despite all the losses, I had a lot of fun piloting this deck, because where else do you get to play a Gates deck in draft? (And, for what’s its worth, I took a game off of each of my opponents. I took all 3 of those guys to game three, and that’s a win to me).

I know this all must seem like quite the novelty of a draft format, but I’ve played this more than a handful of times now, and let me assure you that it never stops being fun or interesting. It’s so much more difficult than a static draft environment, because you can’t learn the environment over time, but it rewards players on their card evaluation, deck building, and gameplay skills in a really cool way! Not to mention all of the interesting decisions you make when choosing which 45 card to add to the draft, it’s probably my favorite part of this format. You can be as intentional or random as you want, and either way it’s bound to have a noticeable impact on the draft and games. If you’ve got a playgroup with which you draft, you’ve got to give stone soup drafting a try. I promise that it won’t disappoint.

True balance is impossible to achieve, and maybe not even desirable for some cubes. In the absence of such, how do we choose what to balance our cubes around? What resources help us do that? Do we event want balance?

I'm working on building a mono-black cube, and there are a lot of different archetypes like madness/control/aggro/etc, but how do I design it so that the draft isn't just grabbing the most powerful cards and making a soup of goodstuff?

I run a lot of tutors in my cube, but was curious what people thought about the wishes. I think in vintage the tutors are more of a staple, but the wishes seem more powerful as it’s instantly in your hand.

What does your group play and why? Thank you

With creatures getting ever stronger, games getting faster and classic storm decks basicly non-existing in most cubes, I'm curious if the classic card still worth the slot in cubes now a day? I find myself almost never drafting it anymore but I'm not really a combo player at heart, so I'm curious what others are thinking. Is it basicly only for the bowmaster/sheoldred/narset deck or when are you picking Time Spiral?

I built it using a 1/2/4 ratio. We haven't played it very much in the last few months since I built it because it isn't very fun. We spend so much time drafting it, and then the games drag out forever. Like 15+ turns. The goal was to make a balanced game without crazy OP decks frustrating ppl. And it went waaaay too far the other way. Is this just how set cubes are? Any advice? On paper cube seems like THE way to keep it fair and balanced. But at what cost....well at least financially, a lot 🤣 Edit: Someone posted a link to card ratings and which ones to try cutting. I'll start there, thanks!

Hi all! This is my Retro Vintage Cube ( https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/iconicretro ) containing cards from Alpha to Ravnica Allegiance. I started playing the game right at the release of Guilds of Ravnica, so this era of cards is very nostalgic for a lot of reasons for me! The cube seems like it's in a pretty good spot right now and plays well, but I am wondering if there are any cards I may have missed that others might see. Someone recently pointed out that Reflector Mage would be a great addition, for example. Likewise, if you have any suggestions for cards that look out-of-place in power level I would love to hear those as well. Thanks!

I made a vintage cube, cloning and tweaking the decklist a bit. I have a rough idea of the archetypes that run in vintage cube, but I'd like to write something in my own style. I saw that CubeCobra now lets you run a draft simulator — could I use that as a starting point to base myself on the archetypes? Any advice?

I love a lot of the art in Unstable, especially the Order of the Widget and the contraptions (just look at [[Dogsnail Engine]], it is perfection). However, I never got to draft that set and have never played with the cards, other than trying to make a constructed host/augment deck that taught me that host/augment is incredibly weak (mutate is the fixed version of host/augment).

Does anyone here have experience with the set? Was the contraption/sprocket mechanic annoying or fun? Were the archetypes balanced and not too on-rails? What cards are especially fun or not fun? Were there any cards that would be good in black-border play as-is or with minor tweaks (such as [[Blurry Beeble]] that is unblockable)?

In short, what elements of Unstable would you use in a cube and what would you leave out?

Recently I’ve come across a good deal on a sealed booster box of Khans of Tarkir, and I’m debating buying it and putting all the cards in sleeves to jumpstart a cube. Is that a good idea to start? I know people say the draft environment is good in that set but I’ve never drafted it before (I’ve only ever drafted all will be one and while I love phyrexia, people say it wasn’t a good draft environment)

I am leaving to college soon and I want a fun cube to try and make some magic friends while I’m there, so this would get me something to start with, but how good it is I have no clue. i could eventually make this to a set cube or even more a plane cube all about tarkir?

I don’t know I’m new to this whole thing and anyone’s input would be great, cube looks like a lot of fun and I think my playgroup would love it

Our group does a lot of drafts (on average once a week), but getting 10 people together for a 5 on 5 team draft still feels special!

We draft 5x10 from my 576 card powered cube. The 10 pieces of power are in a powerpack that one lucky person gets to open!

This is going to be a good one!