It's always good to see Wizards encouraging cube as a format, and this article is a decent and concise starting point for the big job of building a cube for the first time. Most of the advice here is pretty solid with regards to balancing for color and power, supporting archetypes, as well as being careful to limit the number of narrow archetype support cards. The most glaring omissions I see are that there is no mention of converted mana cost CMC curves, or how to balance aggro, midrange, and control. These are both areas that first time cube drafters often make mistakes with.
Just like good limited decks tend to thrive when they're heavy on spells and creatures that cost 2-3 mana, a good cube should also provide the tools for drafters to build decks with a good mana curve, by offering a lot of quality cheap spells and creatures, with more available at 2 CMC than any other casting cost, and gradually tapering off in either direction. The only exception to this would be if you are deliberately trying to build a slower play environment such as the MTGO Legendary Cube or an EDH/multiplayer cube.
I would have also liked to see some mention of the importance of supporting balance in the theaters of aggro, midrange, and control so that one particular type of deck doesn't dominate your drafts. Why this is so important has been discussed at great length on this forum here. Because aggro decks require a lot of redundancy to have a chance of beating control decks before they can stabilize and build inevitability, you typically need about twice as many dedicated aggro cards (e.g. 2-power 1-drops) as dedicated control cards (e.g. board wipes and card draw spells). In particular, smaller cubes tend to need at least 7 aggressive 1-drop creatures in each color aggro is supported (usually white, black, and red) in for aggro decks to come together. Midrange decks tend to require little specific support, they usually get by poaching aggro's better early drops, and control's finishers and removal spells, but I like to throw them a bone or two with good on-curve beaters in the 3 and 4 drop spots in green.
But enough criticism, the most exciting part of the article for existing cube owners was at the very beginning:
Eternal Masters contains some of the most powerful Magic cards of all time, and many of these cards fit perfectly into a Magic cube. Cube is one of my favorite formats to play, and designing your own cube is super fun and rewarding. With the release date of Eternal Masters quickly approaching, now is a great time to build your first cube.
It sounds like Wizards is keeping cube needs in mind as they develop EMA! Hopefully this means some new art choices and foils of cube staples are on the way.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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It's always good to see Wizards encouraging cube as a format, and this article is a decent and concise starting point for the big job of building a cube for the first time. Most of the advice here is pretty solid with regards to balancing for color and power, supporting archetypes, as well as being careful to limit the number of narrow archetype support cards. The most glaring omissions I see are that there is no mention of converted mana cost CMC curves, or how to balance aggro, midrange, and control. These are both areas that first time cube drafters often make mistakes with.
Just like good limited decks tend to thrive when they're heavy on spells and creatures that cost 2-3 mana, a good cube should also provide the tools for drafters to build decks with a good mana curve, by offering a lot of quality cheap spells and creatures, with more available at 2 CMC than any other casting cost, and gradually tapering off in either direction. The only exception to this would be if you are deliberately trying to build a slower play environment such as the MTGO Legendary Cube or an EDH/multiplayer cube.
I would have also liked to see some mention of the importance of supporting balance in the theaters of aggro, midrange, and control so that one particular type of deck doesn't dominate your drafts. Why this is so important has been discussed at great length on this forum here. Because aggro decks require a lot of redundancy to have a chance of beating control decks before they can stabilize and build inevitability, you typically need about twice as many dedicated aggro cards (e.g. 2-power 1-drops) as dedicated control cards (e.g. board wipes and card draw spells). In particular, smaller cubes tend to need at least 7 aggressive 1-drop creatures in each color aggro is supported (usually white, black, and red) in for aggro decks to come together. Midrange decks tend to require little specific support, they usually get by poaching aggro's better early drops, and control's finishers and removal spells, but I like to throw them a bone or two with good on-curve beaters in the 3 and 4 drop spots in green.
But enough criticism, the most exciting part of the article for existing cube owners was at the very beginning:
It sounds like Wizards is keeping cube needs in mind as they develop EMA! Hopefully this means some new art choices and foils of cube staples are on the way.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.