u/HD114

Orcs last week, goblins this week...

What's the best art for Goblin Raider?

Let's continue discussing niche strategies that utilize lands!

So whatcha got? How do you make Ice Cave work...?

Friendly reminder, please ensure all recommendations have an old border printing and they apply to the cube format. Failure to do so will result in a Grizzly Bear coming your way!

In the beginning, Magic: The Gathering had an immense undiscovered frontier ripe for exploration. Between 1993 and 1996, the game moved quickly, ideas were tested and entire expansions were designed in parallel; some released, others left behind. During this chaotic time, not all of them disappeared completely.

The Never Cube gathers lost assets from that time. This 1,207 card set cube draws from five complete expansions that never saw official publication. Two of these sets were developed within early Wizards of the Coast design circles and never saw print. The other three are later, fan inspired, works built in the same spirit shaped by the limits and possibilities of the early game. Together, they form a cohesive environment that reflects both the recognized patterns of early Magic: The Gathering and the paths it might have taken. This project is designed as a full set library celebrating these pieces of history. The result is a modular environment where smaller draft formats, set-specific experiences, and blended limited formats can all be explored from a single unified archive.

The complete list and this overview can be found here.

The Sets

Branching Path

Branching Paths explores a version of Magic shaped by a different design direction in 1995. Set on the isolated world of Oldcove, it focuses on the relationship between domination and symbiosis. Across the sky-high expanses of Highprairie; the thick, suffocating mists of the Murkland swamps; the lush, yet dark forests of the Deepwoods; and the mountainside cities of the Empire and the complex ecosystems that link or oppose these environments and their inhabitants - not to mention the creatures that lurk in them!

This 125 card fan inspired set combines nostalgic tone with cohesive mechanical design, creating a strong draft environment within the cube. The Montreal Tundra Wolves original site and overview for this set can be found here.

Edge of the World

Not every set from Magic’s early years came from within the company. Edge of the World was designed by Donald X Vaccarino and formally acknowledged by Wizards of the Coast. It stands alone in that regard. Its cards reflect the experimentation of the time. Among them are early forms of ideas that would later appear in official releases, including creatures whose strength grows with the cards in hand. It remains a record of what was possible in those early years.

The original 90 cards were made as black/white "stickers" you could adhere to an existing Magic card. The card content has been updated with the old border card frame, new art, and existing WoTC IP. The unique history of this fan made set can be found here. 

Reflections

Reflections is rooted in early Magic design philosophy and operates within the 1993 to 1995 power band. It began to fill gaps in the early card pool and developed into an exploration of mechanics that feel authentic to the era while extending into spaces that were not revisited later.

This 370 card set takes place in the final days of a fractured realm of twelve kingdoms, Reflections emphasizes simplicity, resonance, and mechanical ideas that align naturally with Alpha-era design. The original post can be found here by u/Gunnarsonsnewbag2.

The Divine Comedy

Some worlds are built from imagination. Others are drawn from classic stories. Inspired by The Divine Comedy and illustrated through the engravings of Gustave Doré, this set follows a different path of imagination.

Its structure is deliberate, its inhabitants clearly defined. Guardians, Devils, Souls, the Damned, the Penitent, and the Blissful each hold their place within this 129 card classically inspired set. The original post can be found here by u/JulusGalt91.

Spectral Chaos

Designed by Barry Reich in the early 1990s, Spectral Chaos represents an early multicolour-focused expansion consisting of 429 cards that was fully developed and play tested but never released.

Its design took shape alongside sets such as Ice Age and Alliances. Many of its ideas later appeared in sets like Tempest and Invasion. Within Never Cube, Spectral Chaos contributes a strong multicolour identity that connects early Magic design with later structural developments. The original set design overview can be found here.

Structure

The Never Cube is built as a complete collection. Each set can be drafted on its own, preserving its original structure, or combined with others to create new environments. The full card pool supports a range of formats, from focused drafts to broader mixed experiences. A suite of custom fixing lands has been added to support play across all five sets while remaining consistent with early Magic design.

Magic’s early years left more behind than what was printed. The Never Cube brings those pieces together. It offers a way to explore them as complete works, to see how they function in play, and to experience a version of the game that exists just beyond its recorded history. Some of these paths were never taken; here, they can be.

My plan it to experiment with this collection by running chaos drafts based on the percentage distribution of each set. The calculator for this setup can be found here. I also added standard (new art, old border) fixing lands to help improve the overall ability to fix as well as several custom lands developed by players in my play group.

In the beginning, Magic: The Gathering had an immense undiscovered frontier ripe for exploration. Between 1993 and 1996, the game moved quickly, ideas were tested and entire expansions were designed in parallel; some released, others left behind. During this chaotic time, not all of them disappeared completely.

The Never Cube gathers lost assets from that time. This 1,207 card set cube draws from five complete expansions that never saw official publication. Two of these sets were developed within early Wizards of the Coast design circles and never saw print. The other three are later, fan inspired, works built in the same spirit shaped by the limits and possibilities of the early game. Together, they form a cohesive environment that reflects both the recognized patterns of early Magic: The Gathering and the paths it might have taken. This project is designed as a full set library celebrating these pieces of history. The result is a modular environment where smaller draft formats, set-specific experiences, and blended limited formats can all be explored from a single unified archive.

The complete list and this overview can be found here.

The Sets

Branching Path

Branching Paths explores a version of Magic shaped by a different design direction in 1995. Set on the isolated world of Oldcove, it focuses on the relationship between domination and symbiosis. Across the sky-high expanses of Highprairie; the thick, suffocating mists of the Murkland swamps; the lush, yet dark forests of the Deepwoods; and the mountainside cities of the Empire and the complex ecosystems that link or oppose these environments and their inhabitants - not to mention the creatures that lurk in them!

This 125 card fan inspired set combines nostalgic tone with cohesive mechanical design, creating a strong draft environment within the cube. The Montreal Tundra Wolves original site and overview for this set can be found here.

Edge of the World

Not every set from Magic’s early years came from within the company. Edge of the World was designed by Donald X Vaccarino and formally acknowledged by Wizards of the Coast. It stands alone in that regard. Its cards reflect the experimentation of the time. Among them are early forms of ideas that would later appear in official releases, including creatures whose strength grows with the cards in hand. It remains a record of what was possible in those early years.

The original 90 cards were made as black/white "stickers" you could adhere to an existing Magic card. The card content has been updated with the old border card frame, new art, and existing WoTC IP. The unique history of this fan made set can be found here. 

Reflections

Reflections is rooted in early Magic design philosophy and operates within the 1993 to 1995 power band. It began to fill gaps in the early card pool and developed into an exploration of mechanics that feel authentic to the era while extending into spaces that were not revisited later.

This 370 card set takes place in the final days of a fractured realm of twelve kingdoms, Reflections emphasizes simplicity, resonance, and mechanical ideas that align naturally with Alpha-era design. The original post can be found here by u/Gunnarsonsnewbag2.

The Divine Comedy

Some worlds are built from imagination. Others are drawn from classic stories. Inspired by The Divine Comedy and illustrated through the engravings of Gustave Doré, this set follows a different path of imagination.

Its structure is deliberate, its inhabitants clearly defined. Guardians, Devils, Souls, the Damned, the Penitent, and the Blissful each hold their place within this 129 card classically inspired set. The original post can be found here by u/JulusGalt91.

Spectral Chaos

Designed by Barry Reich in the early 1990s, Spectral Chaos represents an early multicolour-focused expansion consisting of 429 cards that was fully developed and play tested but never released.

Its design took shape alongside sets such as Ice Age and Alliances. Many of its ideas later appeared in sets like Tempest and Invasion. Within Never Cube, Spectral Chaos contributes a strong multicolour identity that connects early Magic design with later structural developments. The original set design overview can be found here.

Structure

The Never Cube is built as a complete collection. Each set can be drafted on its own, preserving its original structure, or combined with others to create new environments. The full card pool supports a range of formats, from focused drafts to broader mixed experiences. A suite of custom fixing lands has been added to support play across all five sets while remaining consistent with early Magic design.

Magic’s early years left more behind than what was printed. The Never Cube brings those pieces together. It offers a way to explore them as complete works, to see how they function in play, and to experience a version of the game that exists just beyond its recorded history. Some of these paths were never taken; here, they can be.

My plan it to experiment with this collection by running chaos drafts based on the percentage distribution of each set. The calculator for this setup can be found here. I also added standard (new art, old border) fixing lands to help improve the overall ability to fix as well as several custom lands developed by players in my play group.

With spring turning the weather warmer here in Glasgow and the days getting longer, we are getting back into regular drafting with larger numbers and with those numbers, we are getting into drafting more modern cubes which has been an exciting change of pace. Our recent draft of the (now) legendary Mystery Booster cube was preceded by an inaugural draft of my No Banlist Modern Cube (Circa 2024). This cube was copied after looking at several options and was built prior the UB announcement. As such, it will likely stay as a time capsule cube. Having never played the "modern" format, I had no idea what to expect in terms understanding the cards and putting a deck together but this was a really cool environment to draft and experiment in. More of the cards were familiar than I thought and the power delta between this and Vintage landed in a sweet spot for me to have a really good time! The decks were very well matched across the pod and we had seven drafters rock up crack packs (despite only getting six deck photos).

The Cube: Glasgow Limited Magic No-Banlist Modern Cube

Onto the Decks!

GW Can of Wurms - The top end threats of the Wurmcoil Engine and the Balustrade Wurm with a supporting case designed to keep them safe with Giver or Ruins were bombs that were difficult to deal with. There were plenty of threats to keep the board stalled along the way and a backup mill plan using tokens as sac outlets to ensure that victory was within grasp. Very cool deck to watch play out and a solid curve that got a lot of creatures on the board very fast.

Hexdrinking Colosus - You may be able to guess that the pilot of this deck is the brother of the Can of Wurms deck above. They both love big green beaters (and in this drafters case, Dinosaurs). Good removal and big threats is a simple, but effective path and the Hexdrinker leveled up A LOT making a beater with a plan.

RB Command - This pile was strong. [[Deep-Cavern Bat]] was an all star in this build and the low curve rolling into Bowmasters was disgusting. Combine all of this with the fun of Lurrus and you've got a really steep hill to climb. The games were smooth and victorious for this pilot.

UR Drawslinger - This deck was played in the first round and game 1 of round 1 took a good 45+ minutes. It was fun to watch and the board was.... complex, to say the least. [[Remand]] is one of the groups favorite cards (at least for the better drafters) and whenever I see a deck playing this card I know what's going to follow! Classic spell slinger with lots of card draw. Beautiful deck.

3-0 Jeskai Midrange - Dressdown, Elspeth, Teferi, this deck went 3-0 for a reason . Very strong starts led to planeswalker heavy games with lots of loyalty flyling around and a lot of opponent removal. [[Fury]] is one of my favorite cards in this cube and every time it was summoned or evoked. When paired up with Laelia, opponents had problems.

Ramp Me, Nissa! - This was my deck and I was the envy of the other green drafters as I was able to vacuum up most of the dorks and focus these into casting Nissa and the Bankbuster. I have been beated by the latter several times and it was fun to put it in a deck, draw a bunch of cards and end up with a 4/4 mini beater. Bloodbraid Elf was also sweet and the cascade effect helped me retrieve removal. The walking ballista ended up being more of a pinging removal engine rather than a big ramped threat but it did work game to game.

Thanks to the crew at RNG for giving us a place to cube week after week!

We are Glasgow Limited Magic. If you are interested in coming out to cube with us, want to get your cube drafted, or looking for a new way to play Magic, come join us! You can DM me for details as we are always looking for new players to join us to draft!

Today we are picking from the SBMTG Old School Cube!

From the curator:

"I've been playing Magic for 28 years, but lately, I've gotten tired of facing the same standard decks over and over, and as much as I'd like to play formats like Modern and Legacy, the bar for entry is way too high for my wallet to clear. I eventually decided the best way to get back to my roots and start truly enjoying Magic again was to build an old-school Cube."

Cube can be found here: https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/25g4n

Would you like your cube featured? DM me!

Orcish Artillery is hilarious, always has been...

What's the best art for Orcish Artillery?

I love the modern landfall mechanic and this is a fun twist to see how you can get your opponent to buff your beater.

So whatcha got? How do you make Dirtcowl Wurm work...?

Friendly reminder, please ensure all recommendations have an old border printing and they apply to the cube format. Failure to do so will result in a Grizzly Bear coming your way!

Today we are picking from the Old Border Cube Niche Card Combo Cube by all of us!

From the curator:

The OB Combo Cube is designed to be drafted for one on one games and the environment varies in speed but always centers on winning through combos rather than traditional draft archetypes like aggro, control, or midrange.

Cube can be found here: https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/OBCNCC

Would you like your cube featured? DM me!

Nature's Lore has a great variety of treatments, including a cool reprint! Give me more forests in green and I'm a happy camper!

What's the best art for Nature's Lore?

I often find myself in situations with less cards in hand than my opponent and I've always wanted to find a way to lean into this pattern.

So whatcha got? How do you make Dark Suspicions work...?

Friendly reminder, please ensure all recommendations have an old border printing and they apply to the cube format. Failure to do so will result in a Grizzly Bear coming your way!

The first round of the Starter Deck Experience battlebox was awesome and after the games, one of my fellow drafters I discussed the lack of agency that simply opening packs and putting the cards that you open into the shared library for the next round. For those of you that missed Part 1 of this draft report, you can check it out here.

The Box: Glasgow Limited Magic The Premodern Starter Deck Experience

What really stood out to me this round of gameplay was truly how "random" the first round feels with 70 white border cards (and no gold cards) and how much it reminds me of how it truly felt to play a white border starter deck that came fresh out of the box. What I was able to do this time was provide a bit of "narrative" like a GM would in a roleplaying game prior to the first game talking about "how you just learned about this cool new game called Magic that your friends are getting into" and set the scene for the first game being wonky.

Once the first game ends, the narrative picks up with, "now that you've been playing for a little bit, you have mowed lawns, babysat annoying children, and done everything you can to save up some money to buy your first booster packs to help give you the edge over your friends!" While this is all cute and has no real effect on the game, I found that it really added to the experience overall provided that additional injection of nostalgia that takes this over the top. We opened our booster packs and it was a VERY different experience searching for the five cards that you want to add to your Keep rather than just deciding what cards you wanted to add to the shared library.

Here are the updated rules for giving players agency with the cards that they open in their boosters. After game one and game two players will open a booster pack and pick five cards to add to "The Keep" and ten cards that will be shuffled into the shared library. During the game, a player may:

• Pay 3 at sorcery speed
• Choose one of the cards in their Keep and put it into their hand

Each card from The Keep is cast normally and follows normal rules after it is cast. Cards from The Keep can only be added to your hand once from outside the game. If a card from The Keep is not used, it can be carried into the next game but a players Keep can never exceed five cards.

This new mechanic TOTALLY changed how the games were played and the most interesting part is that everyone treated their keep differently. I used mine as a tool box for prime removal, board altering effects and focused on the main shared library to provide me with the appropriate threats to close out the game. One of my opponents took a different path and used theirs to curve into above average value threats to help stabilize their board faster. This was the most unique aspects of the games with this new mechanic was how it reflected how each of us prioritizes cards when opening a pack!

In short, this new mechanic functioned really smoothly and I'm excited to share the outcomes from the first round of playtesting. Thanks for reading!

Thanks to the crew at RNG for giving us a place to cube week after week!

We are Glasgow Limited Magic. If you are interested in coming out to cube with us, want to get your cube drafted, or looking for a new way to play Magic, come join us! You can DM me for details as we are always looking for new players to join us to draft!

If you want to see more old border cube content, join us at r/oldbordercube!

Today we are picking from Manne's Desert Bar Cube by u/manneyney

From the curator:

"All lands must be drafted (No land station) All cards must be played (No deck building) Bar cube

No counters No tokens Miscellaneous

Old border only Graveyard theme"

Cube can be found here: https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/mtcrgdbc

Would you like your cube featured? DM me!

This card has some really cool treatments that give a lot of character for different builds.

What's the best art for Coercion?

Soul Scourge provides a cool life loss/gain effect based on ETB and LTB.

So whatcha got? How do you make Soul Scourge work...?

Friendly reminder, please ensure all recommendations have an old border printing and they apply to the cube format. Failure to do so will result in a Grizzly Bear coming your way!

Lazy Saturday drafts are some of my favorite times to come together and as the weather turns in spring, it's always fun to turn cards sideways with the sun coming through your window as opposed to hiding from the weather. After completing my large honey do list today, I sat down with three OBC veterans to draft my 180 card 93/94 combat cube. This cube has been around for a while and is the perfect environment for four players!

The Cube: Rocky Mountain Yeti Old School Combat Cube

The OBC Discord Channel Invite Link

Onto the Decks!

The Danger Cruiser 2-1 - Counterburn is one of my favorite old school decks and this came together really well in this deck today. The fliers were tough to deal with and the answers both on board and off, [[Brine Hag]] among others, kept the opponents on the back foot and [[Disharmony]] wasn't cast without being a punchy two for one!

Zombie Rats 2-1 - If you did not know that [[Plague Rats]] are zombies, you now know! I have only drafted this archetype a couple of times but it came together really well in combination with some other choice beaters. I started off P1P1 with Icy Manipulator, P1P2 with Psionic Blast and then rapidly pivoted to this zombie fest blowout! The games I lost were to The Danger Cruiser as I could just not keep up with the pressure he relentlessly brought down.

Crazy Cockatrice Combo 1-2 - The [[Lure]] of this deck was backed up by two board wipes on a stick but unfortunately, the combo did not come together... but it certainly was threatening. The Unstable Mutation, Giant Growth, and Berserk combat tricks were also hard spells to deal with. This deck also had the [[Juggernaut]] + [[Invisibility]] combo to create an unblockable beast!

WU-Tang Combat 1-2 - This deck gets the spice award today and watching the [[Hand of Justice]] clear the board turn after turn. The Wall of Swords and the Farrel's Zealot provided perfect defensible positions and Crusade was a prime anthem to allow the Clan to come over the top. This deck took down The Danger Cruiser in game three and it was a really fun match to watch!

Thank you to everyone who came out to draft! This was an amazing old school draft that contributed to a delightful Saturday.

Do you want to draft more? Join the OBC Discord and come jam some games!

Today we are picking from PreModern Cube [2026] drafted by u/gamerqc last week!

From the curator:

"Welcome to the PreModern No Banlist Cube!"

Cube can be found here: https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/4b6vv

Would you like your cube featured? DM me!