A flat power cube that focuses on fun drafts and rewards synergy. Legacy legality, but closer to Modern power levels.
ArchetypesBounce, flicker, and blink enter effects to turn incremental into overwhelming advantage,
Use discard effects to put your biggest creatures in the graveyard, then bring them to the battlefield for less than they cost to cast.
Unleash a horde of aggressive creatures using Madness costs to turn discard effects into card advantage.
Haste, trample, and big bodies.
More +1s than you thought was possible.
Outlast your opponent by gaining life. Draw cards and make your creature's bigger as a tasty side-effect.
Play lots of spells, draw lots of cards.
Fill up your graveyard for discounted mana costs and stat buffs.
Little guy? Not very scary. Little guy with a sword? Somewhat concerning. Lots of little guys packing axes, bolas, and a mortar? Fuck yeah.
Play a bit of ramp, a bit of card draw, and fill the rest of your deck with expensive threats.
Most of these decks have opportunities to splash cards in a third color, keep an eye out for synergies outside of the colour pair.
Other DecksThere's a range of other decks, although they may be harder to consistently draft than those above and work better as sub-themes that require a backup plan. Look out for Mill, Toughness matters, and 5 colour archetypes.
Design Notes Aesthetics Varied VisualsThis cube is a chance to showcase cards from a range of sets with a range of art styles. The most visually striking and unique versions have been chosen where possible.
CombosWhile there are some very powerful synergies, the cube has no known infinite combos.
Universes BeyondMtG as a game has evolved and changed a lot and I've made the cube reflect that. Some recent settings I've included don't feel like the magic of old, but the cards I've chosen from them have a timeless design once you look beyond the art and flavour. I'll continue to draw this line in arbitrary places as I see fit - if the vibes are off, it better add something great to gameplay.
Fiddliness Reminder TextUnusual and rarely used keywords have reminder text written on the card.
Banned MechanicsEnter the Dungeon, The Ring Tempts You, Monarch, and other mechanics that require an additional card to understand are excluded from the cube.
Restricted MechanicsMechanics that are moderately complicated or unusual are not added to the cube unless there will multiple examples of the mechanic in the cube. Excluded examples are Day/Night and Incubate, included examples are Ninjitsu and Backup.
Double Faced Cards and Split cards.Double faced cards are reduced in numbers to speed up the draft - one of each color + a multicolor + a colorless. Split cards have been excluded entirely as they are hard to read without turning sideways - often telegraphing to an observant opponent. A single battle has been included on a trial basis.
ShufflingTutors and cards that require additional deck shuffling are kept to a minimum.
CountersCounter types such as Oil have been excluded from the cube as they can cause confusing situations when in the same set as +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters. tracking game states should be easily doable with only a set of d6s and the cubes tokens.
TokensThere are far too many unique tokens in the cube. I'd like to reduce the numbers but good cards designs keep coming along and interfering.
Power Median CardThe baseline for the set is Vampire Nighthawk. This is a card that is always a solid reliable pick for any black deck, but an archetype specific card will usually make a better choice.
Mana BasesAlthough aggro decks are decent, the goal of gameplay is to match the speed of modern limited formats. While breaking pauper limits by adding rare dual lands is a popular choice in other cubes, I have found a slightly slower environment allows for more janky weird decks to be viable. Having a median spell cost closer to 3 than 2 allows for more decks to get a chance to 'do their thing'.
ExclusionsSeveral cards have been excluded due to being too powerful for the environment. These cards are common choices to exclude in popular Pauper cubes:
Sprout Swarm
Sol Ring
Skullclamp
Grafted Wargear
Loxodon Warhammer
Mother of Runes
Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Condemn have been excluded from the cube as one mana instant speed exile is not something that white gets access to in modern magic. This kind of removal is more efficient than anything else in the environment and can make even 4cmc creatures feel too clunky to play.
Strong First PicksNot sure what to draft? These cards are strong and versatile enough to go in almost any deck you draft.
White
Blue
Black
Red
Green
A lot of words on these cards, but most of them lead to interesting play patterns. Also cleaned out some hybrids that aren't meeting the intended utility goals.
WHITE Rescue Chwinga > Sunpearl KirinFlying over a point of toughness is more or less a strict upgrade.
Serves the same role as a two drop with flash, while acting as a removal spell as well. The lifegain and combat trick modes won't get played much but they do both serve niche archetypes in the cube.
Splitskin Doll > Zack FairWhite decks pretty much never want the discard and always just get a draw so the doll just isn't very interesting in this environment. Zack does bodyguard stuff and the counters and equipment tricks serve as niche but interesting additions.
Lionheart Glimmer > Summon: Primal GarudaAll the summons seem to play better on defence than offence, Garuda most of all. It has a particular potential to swing losing races into winning ones that I like - removing a creature then pumping the team for two turns while being another temporary body should be a Moment.
Glimmer does the same thing but in a much more lackluster way that leads to slower games.
Theres more than enough finisher options for a control deck and Glasskite is one of the most frustrating to play against, like Glimmer above it tends to gum up boards rather than resolve games. Plumecreed is also annoying, but only temporarily.
Whirlwind Denial > Spectral DenialWhirlwind is too expensive for what it does. Spectral is perfectly okay in most blue decks, and really shines in Temur big aggro stuff when a board state needs protecting.
> Summon ShivaShiva does a similar job to Behold the Unspeakable - it stops attacks for a turn and draws cards. It can also be used offensively or in a way, modally - the decision space between trading off the saga on two or holding on for the third chapter value should be interesting.
BLACK Merciless Executioner > Sheoldred's EdictThe ability to remove planeswalkers is nice here as well as a Murmuring Mystic or Young Pyromancer that's already made some tokens.
> Shefet ArchfiendAnother good reanimate target, this one provides a little value with the ETB at least.
> Rotten ReunionSome counterplay to yard strats that doesn't completely hose them, it might see a home in aristocrats or spellslinger as well due to the handy flashback.
> Fang, Fearless l'CieThis half is mostly in here to let players live the meld dream. There's enough targets though to get value off the ability at least once in a grindy Golgari build.
REDThe tokens Gut makes are just too hard to deal with - menace + 4 power means there's no way to block them without losing at least a creature and the damage coming in is too high to ignore for long. The fact that Gut doesn't have to get in danger to make them really puts this card over the top and it's a remove or lose. Origin is an option for red control decks - a potential 4 menace creatures will be a headache in some matchups.
Valduk, Keeper of the Flame > Queen BrahneAnother army in a can, Valduk requires a bit too much work to get value, at which point he becomes a liability with all the resources going into one tempting rremoval target.
Queen Brahne is a Gut/Valduk that makes worse tokens and has to put herself in danger to get value. Prowess can be deceptively powerful on understatted creatures - optimistic this card finds a home in spellslinger.
Reins is a bit narrow and gets picked very late. Monk being an MDFC means its always a tempting pick, even for creature heavy decks.
GREEN > Strangleroot GeistUndying is a bit of a nonbo at times with +1 decks, but it's also very good the rest of the time. A hasty beater that might push some more aggressive green decks.
Overprotect > Mutagenic Growth0 mana is better than 2 mana and growth can be played by non-green decks too.
Satyr Wayfinder > Malevolent RumbleArguably a sidegrade, but rumble hitting any permanent makes it far more flexible.
Garruk's Packleader > Great Oak GuardianFor the most part green decks at 5+ mana don't want to draw things out, they want to end the game. The tree having flash helps catch out players and close games.
Poison Dart Frog > Torgal, A Fine HoundThe utility of the frog as a blocker is a bit undercut by needing to hold up mana with it as a threat. Most decks that want a mana dork, also want to use that mana to cast creatures in the maon. Torgal is the only dog/wolf currently in the cube, but still provides value on his own.
Squirrel Nest > Diamond WeaponNest is a bit slow and generally encourages long games of chumping from decks that can't always capitalize on the long game and just delay the inevitable. Weapon might also turn into a wall in some games, but graveyard decks are in a much better position usually to take advantage of a long grindy game.
Path to the World Tree > Vanille, Cheerful l'CieAn eternal witness that mills plays well on it's own and the body is fair for the rate. Melding into Ragnarok is the dream here and replaces Path to the World Tree's 5 color 'Achievement' with it's own for the sort of player that seeks to do the thing. Ragnarok itself is very powerful and has a much better chance than Path of leading to a won game.
Multicoloured Gandalf's Sanction > The Emperor of PalmeciaSanction is awkward early game, and often not the late game finisher you hope for. Emperor might not play that well but is a fine rate, and could lead to big moments if flipped.
Bladehold War-Whip > Zidane, Tantalus ThiefMoving away from Boros as an equipment focus so whip is the natural next cut. Zidane provides big swings in races, and incentivizes a splash from Rakdos and Orzhov aristocrats decks, or Azorious blink decks.