CubeOne
(420 Card Cube)
CubeOne
Cube ID
Art by Christine ChoiArt by Christine Choi
420 Card Cube1 follower
Designed by Tyrole
Owned
$72
Buy
$3,332
Purchase
Mana Pool$2201.61

Cube One is a 420 card cube designed to provide a fun and competitive limited experience. The cube is intended to appeal to a wide
variety of magic player preferences across colors, strategies, and psychographics (""Johnny, Timmy, Spike""). The cube can be
considered an ""advanced difficulty"" cube, in that there are no specific limitation in the sets and mechanics from which design
draws. It falls at roughly a 5N on the Strix Scale. (
https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgcube/comments/c2wyta/the_strix_scale_shorthand_for_cube_power_level/
[https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgcube/comments/c2wyta/the_strix_scale_shorthand_for_cube_power_level/]).
Cube One has been under active iteration since 2013. It began with simply "cards that I own" as the main design limitation. It was
an admittedly rough starting point, but the cube has come far through playtest and design theory. Early changes were expansive and
fundamentally changing. After roughly two years of major redesign, the modern form of the cube was established, and changes have
been smaller and more focused. Updates back to 2014 can be viewed here:https://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/16250
[https://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/16250]

In contrast to some traditional cube design limitations, Cube One breaks with tradition when it makes sense for good design.
Specifically, the cube is neither ""power-maxed"" nor singleton. Singleton is broken sparingly and only when multiples of a card
will improve gameplay and strategy. Cube One's power level is relatively flat between cards. A flat power level means that in a
pack, no single card should always be a definitive choice because it is clearly better than the other options. Instead of
individual ""bomb"" cards, Cube One encourages decks with synergy between their component cards. Drafting and deckbuilding with a
strategy in mind should lead to significantly improved decks that are more fun to play.
Cube One is not perfect. There are cards that are too powerful and cards that are not powerful enough. Hopefully there are not
many of these cards, and the number of bad cards should decrease with time. The best way to figure out how to make the cube better
is to play it; the more it is drafted, the better it will be!
With that said, here are some considerations to make your Cube One Experience even better:

DESIGN GOALS

  1. Provide an interesting, interactive, and competitive Limited Environment2. Inspire creative and unique deck design options
    (flexible archetypes)3. Reward strategic drafting with interesting synergies and combinations4. Promote cards and strategies that
    require meaningful decision-making in drafting, deck building, and playing

FLEXIBLE ARCHETYPES
While Cube One does not specifically promote linear drafting strategies, the cube does contain many archetypes that range from
obvious to subtle in nature. Most of these flexible archetypes must be discovered through repeated drafting and familiarity with
the cube. That said, Cube One contains a number of Indicator Cards that point drafters toward generally supported strategies and
their related archetypes. An example Indicator Card is Panharmonicon.

MANA FIXING
Mana fixing in Cube One is provided in a unique way. The cube contains 2 copies of all Fetchlands and Shocklands, 1 copy of each
Original Dual Land, and some additional land and spell options. This design provides drafters with the option of strong mana bases
across multiple colors, leading to more interesting and rewarding gameplay. A dedicated drafter can usually successfully support
decks with 3 or more colors.

UPDATES
Cube updates will be limited to (roughly) 10 cards rotated between each draft. This goal exists to manage overall card turnover to
reduce the complexity of drafting and playing the cube for returning drafters. Infrequent larger updates may occur to make a
larger improvement.

MULLIGAN RULES

  1. A 7 card hand with ALL or NO lands can mulligan for free (back to 7)2. Other mulligans follow the ""Scry System"": 6 cards,
    scry 1 | 6 cards | 5 cards, scry 1 | etc.
Tyrole posted to CubeOne -

Wow it's been awhile. COVID was not kind to cube drafting, but we're giving it a shot this weekend again. While my cube development time has been pretty limited for the past 2 (!) years, I have taken occasional notes and captured thoughts on what could be better. And, thanks to Arena, I'm probably more up to speed on limited than ever before. The next refresh will be larger, but for this weekend I wanted to keep things relatively stable. The changes listed have mostly been a long time coming. I'd prefer to get back into a cube headspace by drafting/playing before making larger changes. Nearly every update is to take a card intended to fill a specific role, and replace it with a card that will do that job better. So with that, here's what's going on!

Chromanticore is great, but sometimes you need a bit of a refresh to keep things spicy. Golos has continually impressed me in online cubes, and I think he'll be a fun addition to the cube a new twist on 5 color. I'm sure we'll see Chromanticore again.

If I'm being honest, Elite Arcanist never really worked. It's a really cool card in theory, but it's too slow and has too much of a target to really get working. In practice, it was either a blowout (basically never) or a 1 for 2 (basically always). Spellseeker should fill the intended role much more effectively, especially in decks that can harness ETB.

Eidolon of Rhetoric was supposed to be a solid defensive/control white card, but in limited no on really cared about the 1 spell limit. Mangara should accomplish what Eidolon never could.

Soulherder was in for exactly one cube draft. And that was enough. I love the idea, but the card is absurdly busted. Maybe it would be closer, if it weren't for the +1/+1 counter? I don't know, but the card was not a good time in the cube. Yorion should fill a similar niche, but open up a lot more interesting decisions. On top of that, I think companions are a wonderful addition to the cube arsenal, so this will be a good foray into that space.

Eldrazi Displacer was always pretty awkward. Fortunately, WoTC released Emiel, which is basically a fixed version of Displacer.

Bonesplitter was always, fine, but Eater of Virtue is just a more interesting Bonesplitter. We like interesting.

Magus of the Future has been a long-time role player and great cube card. That said, as curves have dropped, the 3 blue pips at 5 mana on a weak body became a tough sell, and he got cut from decks pretty often. The Reality Chip lets us fill that spot in a more flexible and interesting way, and I'm very excited to see how it plays.

Snakeform is fine, but it's kind of boring. Miscalculation should give us another (hopefully effective?) counterspell, which is probably what this slot wanted anyway.

Augury Adept always seemed neat, but never really played very well. Grazilaxx is quite the upgrade. Too much? That's certainly possible, but we'll see what happens.

Dralnu is one of my long time pet cards. I love the design, but the mana cost and the burnout potential was too much to make all but the zaniest decks use it. Connive//Concoct is an interesting Dimir card, and I have hopes that the next update includes some actual flashback love in blue.

I really like Duskwatch Recruiter (though maybe I'm wrong?). That said, Shigeki is probably my favorite card printed since Panharmonicon. I've had multiple NEO (side note: I think NEO is the best retail draft format since RoE, maybe ever) draft decks where I was able to go infinite on card recursion. In cube, the shenanigan potential is quite exciting.

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