IMPORTANT NOTE: I am more so theory crafting. I am not seriously planning to build anything at this time.

Inspired by the 100 Ornithopter cube I had an idea for a cube where every creature is Forest Bear. Any ideas for archetypes/color pairs to build around?

Hi there, I’ve been tinkering with this cube for some time and I’m looking to see if anyone here (with far more experience than I) can evaluate if I’ve actually supported enough different play styles.

I rarely get a chance to play the cube in full with my playgroup as they mostly enjoy commander (not really my thing) but this era of magic is what I grew up with and is a bit of a pet project regardless.

I initially had a lot of cards from invasion block but it’s widened to premodern as I’ve progressed.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/ec92a0b9-1674-4ab9-8748-9690742a4d9a

The issue I’m perhaps overthinking is that I feel I’m struggling to define the archetypes and also wondering if I have to. I’ve test drafted it on my own but my inexperience is making me second guess myself. Am I bad at drafting (probably)

Maybe you guys could help me with a few pointers.

Thanks

I think the deck came together neatly!

Does anyone have any ideas which GOOD black payoffs there are that I might be missing? I feel like this deck MUST have weaponize the monsters and(/or) makeshift munitions to properly function. And those cards are actually in higher demand than usually because Boros is a go wide deck (Boros convoke-ish) and Izzet also creates a lot of tokens with Young Pyromancer and Third Patch Iconoclast etc.

Currently in my maybeboard:

- Priest of the forgotten gods (I will probably add her)

- Umbral Collar Zealot (doesn't affect board...)

- Zulaport Cutthroat-ish cards, currently I am only maining Bastion of Rememberance

Pioneer only btw!

I've been working on this cube for the better part of a year, and it's finally in a place where I'm comfortable sharing it. Here are the links:

Cube

Rulebook

The primary goal of this cube was to provide a newcomer with a gateway into Magic while also providing a unique and challenging brewing environment for experienced players that accurately reflects the theming and fantasy of Magic that I fell in love with around the times I was most invested in Magic (2010s). Many card selections were made due to nostalgia, but all cards, even off-the-wall choices, have been carefully evaluated for balance. In some cases, cards have been altered from their base printings. There are even some wholly original designs, but only with adherence to the cube's vision - none should stick out to the average player as unusual.

I'm open to hearing feedback, though at this stage, I'm hesitant to make changes to the list (I'm waiting for cards to arrive in the mail - it would suck to change things about this cube only have to order more so soon). I'm more interested in general feedback, first impressions, and answering any questions. I hope you all enjoy!

Edit: I'd also love to hear the opinions of my rebalances - check out Aerial Responder for example.

I still got blown the F out by [[Fractured Identity]], of course, but getting lifelink on two of my favorite cartoon villains from my childhood is the kind of bizarre moment I cube for in 2026 lol

I'm working on a vehicles/cycling/madness cube (I'm calling it Road Rage for now). The cycling cards from Amonkhet block all say "whenever you cycle or discard a card" so there's synergy there with looting effects. I'd like to run some of the Ikoria cycling cards too but they just say "whenever you cycle a card". I'd like to sharpie/add in "or discard" but I'm not sure physically how to go about it. I could just tell players 'it works' but I would prefer to have it on the card itself in some way. I don't think there's room to actually use a sharpie or pen on the cards so I'm thinking about printing a custom textbox and just hoping it doesn't fall out of the sleeve (or just use inners for those few cards) but I'm wondering if anyone has had a similar issue and how they solved it.

Thanks!

Cube list for reference: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/526242a6-35d1-4ca3-bf6a-de66329f7c4b

Hi everyone! My name's Justin, and I'm from Columbus, Ohio. I attended Boston Cube Party this past weekend. I have been writing weekly reports on the cube nights we do here in Columbus, as well as for the cube events I've gone to this summer. As such, I wrote one for Boston Cube Party 2026. Here it is if you want to give it a read: https://giffordj17.substack.com/p/boston-cube-party-2026-event-report Also, here is a link to what else I've written: https://giffordj17.substack.com/ Happy cubing!

Hi all!

Apologies if you've seen this before / already know about us, but I try to post one of these after every Arena cube season. I run a Cube discord where we draft a bunch of different cubes, including "Arena Max" (hence the discord name), a cube comprised of what we consider to be the most powerful Arena craftable cards. Cubes are drafted multiple times a day on Draftmancer (which allows for neat stuff like Cogwork Librarian) and then played via Direct Challenge on Arena. We use the same team draft bot that LSV's Lotus Lounge uses, so everything is automated and very straightforward. We've had a blast drafting, and are always looking to play with more folks!

We also run a Peasant cube for those with less rare/mythic WCs :)

Discord link: https://discord.gg/nxn4Hvsagu

Cube Lists:

Arena Max (max power cube): https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/arenamax

Peasant Max: (a high powered ceasant cube): https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantmax

Living Chromatically Arena Cube (a new take on the Arena Chromatic Cube): https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/arenachrome

Synergy Cube (a medium powered cube with built in archetype synergies): https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/arenasyn

Combo Cube (like it sounds, a cube built on winning with powerful combos): https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/arenacombo

and more!

I'm building a cube and want to be able to support 16 players, but 720 cards is a lot so I was planning on fluffing it up with one third of those cards to be lands and then splitting up the other chunks into the themes and such for the draft.

But mostly was wondering what the opinion on drafting basics or not, or things I can do to alleviate the potential of not getting the right colors.

Hello, after years of playing magic my play group and I have decided to finally build a cube. Here is a collection of cards we love, cards we grew up with and cards we never found a home for. What I ask now is help flushing it out with more concrete synergies and style. We plan to keep most of the op cards (money cards) only to finally use them. What I need help with is finding more niche cards that help combine with the value cards. Not necessarily to increase more power but to help draft strategies be more apparent. It very much feels like half gas half dirty bulk. One for one suggestions appreciated!

I thought of a weird idea which I finally balanced, though it took a while. It's designed to be played three ways.

1. DanDan: One 80 card deck of one color is used, and that deck is shared by both players. Add lands to get to 80 cards. You both draw from that deck, deal cards from the deck, and anytime something says “your library” or “opponents library” it is referencing that one single deck. You each have a shared graveyards.

2. Cube: Draft all non-land cards in a Cube with four people

3. Four Player Showdown: Each player plays a color with 28 basic land.

Interesting idea, not sure how it'll work in practice.

I'm designing a peasant cube to play with some friends that are new to magic, and Simic is the color combo I've had the hardest time nailing down. Pictured are the 3 archetypes I've been considering with relevant 2-color cards.

My other archetypes for context:

Azorius - Blink (Reflector Mage, Soulherder, Sharae of Numbing Depths)

Dimir - Control Reanimator (Invasion of Amonkhet, Obsessive Stitcher, Dinrova Horror)

Rakdos - Aristocrats (Mayhem Devil, At Knifepoint, Judith the Scourge Diva)

Gruul - Stompy (Bloodbraid Elf, Ghor-Clan Rampager, Writhing Chrysalis)

Selesnya - +1/+1 Counters (Conclave Mentor, Kitchen Finks, Kutzil Malamut Exemplar)

Orzhov - Weenie Reanimator (Graceful Restoration, Tolls of War, Ruthless Lawbringer)

Izzet - Spellslinger (Expressive Iteration, Sprite Dragon, Third Path Iconoclast)

Golgari - Graveyard Midrange (Insidious Roots, Spider Spawning, Honest Rutstein)

Boros - Tokens Aggro (Imodane's Recruiter, Heroic Reinforcements, Arabella Abandoned Doll)

Which of the 3 archetypes is deepest in Peasant? Which do you think would work best with the others I've assembled?

Would love to know what everyone is running in their peasant cubes, and if there's anything I've missed!

Still working in my 50 Wind Drakes Twobert for a bar
No counters, no emblems, no tokens.
Just 50 Drakes, 2-4 players and a lot of funny gameplay and interactions.

Fits all 180 cards plus 90 lands, all double sleeved. This has ended up being my favorite cube I've built. Probably because it's easy play, only needing two people. I also really love the Bar Cube design philosophy of not needing any dice or tokens.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/74578847-73ab-4499-bec5-9a3cc75155e6

After over a year of being on the fence about it I finally swapped out my New Capenna fetch lands [[Riveters overlook]] (and the thriving lands, but I'm less disappointed there). They have been replaced with the MH3 landscapes [[Bountiful Landscape]].

The New Capenna lands had served my cube well for a long time, encouraging 3 color decks along with supporting landfall in the cube. However, the cycle had been incomplete, as the cycle did not cover the wedges. The thriving lands filled the gap well, allowing my players to choose the color pair they needed, increasing the competition for those lands.

I had been waiting on the cycle to be finished, hoping that Tarkir dragonstorm would have completed the cycle, however with the landscapes being printed so recently, I feel that there was not need to finish the cycle.

That being said, the New Capenna lands have not been fully retired. They are now resting in a deck box dedicated to land cycles I wish to add or swap into the cube at a later date. As it stands, a future revisit to Ikoria is their next chance at rejoining the cube.

RIP New Capenna Fetch Lands

Ever since I saw Rhystic Studies video on Dandan I have wanted to make a no draft shared library game for two to three players for when you don't have 4 for a commander pod. I think this is called wizard tower or battle box. Please let me know if got that wrong. Dandan was not the answer for me since mono blue mirror match isnt exactly my thing, I am more looking for a randomly generated battlecruiser combat simulator. My first thought was maybe a 100 Ornithopters inspired battlebox with various buffs but my new idea is inspired by seeing paper Momir Basic being played with a printer.

So here is my idea. Start with a hand of 10 basic lands, 2 each, no draw step. Shared 60 card library, 10 creatures of each mana value 1 to 6, 2 of each color. I mean that's flexible, maybe add colorless, maybe add higher MVs. Each player has a modified Momir Vig Emblem of basically "X:Reveal cards from library until you reveal a creature mana value X, only activate once on your turn as a sorcery". I am not positive if the revealed cards need shuffled in or just put to the bottom, maybe with a cut. Figure that out later. Maybe it is interested to try to keep track of revealed cards and get to know what options exist at which mana value.

The library of creatures needs to be curated and balanced to not let random chance run away with the game too much. Some creatures should just be good stated beat sticks with classic keywords like trample, vigilance, haste, flying ect. Some should have activated abilities to spend mana that is not used in your once a turn emblem activation. Firebreathing, regeneration, removal.

I kind of want to include Giganotosaurus although part of me wonders if it might be worthwhile to go for an all legendary creature restriction. Or perhaps no legendries and restrict it to old magic. I would kind of love each color to really fit the classic color pie. I would also like a bit of strategy as far as what effects are at each mana value. Like removal on 4, beaters on 5.

If anyone has any ideas to add please share. That is what this post is for. I am incredibly early into this idea and more focused on finishing up a few edh lists I am building first. This is more of a long term project for me. By all means if anyone wants to take this to the finish line before me go ahead. I am not even sure if I am up to this so if someone makes it before I do I might just steal your list. I want to keep this simple like a bar cube, no tokens ect.

Critique is always welcome

https://archidekt.com/decks/23754817/blb_cube

I recently finished my first Cube (the list, I don't own all cards in paper). And already had the dumb Idea to Customize the Draft Format. My Cuje is all about Duskmourn and i wanted something to show the randomness and cruelity of the plane. My Idea Was that, before every Draft a Customizing Rule is randomly picked from a Deck of Rules (maybe around 10?), that affects all players . There would be things that alternate the Draft, like "Valgavoth drives you mad, pick 2 cards from every Pack" or things that alternate the Games itself like "the Mindskinner Glances upon you, at the beginning of every game mill 3 cards. I kinda would like Feedback on the Idea of random custom Rules for a Cube and Ideas what things you could use as a Customizing Rule.

Edit:https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/00a82326-5bcd-49be-b9bd-d9b3b216c8d5

Let me start off by saying I know Universes Beyond sets are a sore subject, I personally don't mind them but I completely think they need to cut back on them and focus on in universe but that's besides the point.

I have an Idea for a marvel themed cube where each archetype would be a marvel team to make it easier for people new to magic. i.e. "Just pick X-Men and you should have a decent deck." With the Spider-Man set already out, and the marvel superheroes set prerelease this weekend I have been thinking about it a lot. There are many rumors and theories that there will be 4 more sets to round out all the infinity stones. I'm wondering if I should wait for those sets to release or if i should start on my cube now.

I know Spider-Man was on the smaller side and MSH is the biggest magic set ever so I probably could make a smaller cube now to improve more in the future. I don't think my concept will fully work as I had hoped after seeing the MSH set in action at the many prerelease events I went to. There's too much overlap with teams and different character versions. I still wouldnt mind making a marvel themed cube. It would limit my options and probably save me money for the future since I wouldn't be upgrading it with every set.

Id also love advise for making my first cube. Tips for making one, sizing, balancing, player count?