Card draw that comes at a cost in white!
So whatcha got? How do you make Armistice 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!
One of the biggest changes in my approach to cube hasn't been about cube design. It's been about people. When I first started curating, almost all of my attention went toward the list itself and the common questions that come with this task. Over time, after hundreds of drafts and many iterations, those questions have become less dominant. Now, I find myself asking something very different:
What experience is most likely to succeed with this particular group of people tonight?
That shift completely changed how I think about hosting cube. This article explores that evolution as I've realized that I'm not just curating cubes anymore; I'm curating experiences.
The article: Curating Beyond the Cards
I'd love to hear whether anyone else has found their thinking evolving in a similar direction!
Today we are picking from the "Juju's Classic Cube".
From the curator:
This is Juju's Classic Cube, one of the earlier old-border cubes to be made. It was started in 2011 as a response to my horror at Blastoderm getting power-crept out of my regular unpowered cube. I wanted a way to keep playing all of my favourite old cards in a cube environment.
Cube can be found here: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/3tt2r
Would you like your cube featured? DM me!
These cards have always screamed "magic" to me and I love the art across the different colours.
What's the best art for CoP: White?
Filling in for our esteemed ToT author this week!
It's time for This or That Tuesday. I will show you two or more cards with similar effects and power level and you tell me which one you'd pick if all of them were in a pack and/or which one you'd run in a typical old border cube. I try to avoid cards that need strong synergies to be good since you don't get any context in form of a specific cube, but for the sake of this thread just assume you have a typical old border cube that runs all of the best pre-Mirrodin old border cards, but no overpowered retro frame cards.
Today we'll talk about X based counterspell, Power Sink and Syncopate. What do you value more, the exile of the spell or the ability to tap your opponent out?
Bonus question: Do you prefer hard counters or soft counters in your cube?
I have never fathomed putting this card in a cube but really want to see it work!
So whatcha got? How do you make Atogatog 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!
As an old border cube enthusiast and designer I have spent the majority of my efforts and resources putting together cubes that contain cards printed before 2004. One of the things that I have learned along this journey is that while there is a captive audience, I needed more tools in my belt to continue to lure in new drafters with environments they would be familiar with. I was able to pickup a dual sided cube, one side vintage, the other a no banlist modern cube that has done a remarkable job of sparking fun with newer cards for my drafters and for me individually. It has taken some work to get the cube easy to transition, hence the stickers in the bottom left corner of some cards. Proxying the cube means I can put the stickers directly on the cards and not require double sleeving so it's been a great double feature to add to my cube list.
We had six drafters join us to crack packs and the decks that came out made all of the games really fun. We also settled on a group term for not having mana of the right color on board or in hand, "mana blind", as I fell victim to this travesty in my most important match up... This was a really fun night of Magic and has made me reconsider many of my opinions on playing with modern cards as there is a ton of really broken stuff that you can do in this cube but I was still able (for the most part) to understand what the cards do and not get traditionally blown out like I do in vintage. Full disclosure, the cube design is not mine, this is a net cube rip that has proven to be fun for the group.
The Cube: Glasgow Limited Magic No-Banlist Modern Cube (Circa 2024)
Onto the Decks!
Questing Behemoth 3-0 - Counters, ramp, and big boy beaters, what more could a green deck want???? I have looked over this list quite a bit and the first thing that jump out at me is the Questing Beast. I passed this to this pilot and he laughed and said "I can't believe you didn't take this." He then windmill slammed it and built the winning deck of the night. I love the use of [[Intrepid Adversary]] and [[Luminarch Aspirant]] to make the big boys even bigger and finishing games with Craterhoof is never a bad feeling. All without very much fixing... really good day for this pilot. The build was straight forward, and fun.
"And Then".... 2-1 - This deck is named after the phrase that the pilot used repeatedly through the night on every turn, every game. Nissa and Oko together are a powerful combination and the ability to make tokens and turn lands into beaters is just a very powerful thing to do AND combine that with one of my favourite archetypes in the cube - Lands featuring Titania and her Zuran Orb, this deck was so fun to watch pop off. This is one of our most experienced pilots and watching him play is always a pleasure, less so when he's beating your face in stone cold, but this deck just screams his style and his flash.
Transformative Experience - This deck was my first match up and it began its life as a reanimator shell with a lot of cool targets and some great mid range threats/shenanigans to buy some time to get the plan going. Unfortunately, there was a lot of fast Magic in this draft and the deck was just not fast enough to keep up with early threats, so a change was made. The pilot leaned into a more standard mid range build with a great control package using counter magic + [[Grief]] to keep himself insulated as he used Ledger Shredder to draw cards and find ways to get Uro and Krosa on the board to swing big. I can't tell you how many of my poor minions drowned in the loch outside his keep...
This is MY Domain!!!! - This pilot is newer to cube and comes from a commander background and broke out of his standard draft patterns which was really cool to see. As a new member of GLM before he runs away to live in Australia for two years, this was a good learning experience. This was the first time that I had seen domain go off and after a few tweaks post his first match this deck went the distance. Fixing was perfect and it wasn't long each game before every creature became a largely terrifying threat thanks to Draco!
Blasting Goblins! - Infinite combos are one of my favorite ways for people to win in cubes I play and this pilot had the tools to get the job done with [[Metallic Mimic]] + [[Putrid Goblin]] + [[Blasting Station]] but the problem is, you need to have the three pieces assembled for it to do stuff.... But, this drafter also decided to take a page from my book and put A LOT of removal in his deck which was REALLY annoying to play against but the deck really fun to watch go off and play against as the games were very interactive.
Mardu Jitte - This was my deck and man was it FUN! Yes, I realize that [[Wurmcoil Engine]] is out of place here but in my defense, it was never a dead card and was really strong late game but yes, it was not the correct choice for the build. With that aside, the Esper Sentinel holding a Jitte did work in almost every single game and once Adeline hit the board, it was very difficult for my opponent to control the board at that point.... I had great red removal for smaller pesky ramping agents great fixing. Really had fun piloting this deck!
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 "White Frame Old Border Cube".
From the curator:
Revised through Seventh Edition White Border Cube
Cube can be found here: https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/whiteborderoldframe
Would you like your cube featured? DM me!
This card has a big range of different treatments! Really cool to see the different styles as the sets progressed.
What's the best art for Redwood Treefolk?
Signups are open. Cubing on Friday, old school constructed on Saturday. You'll play a minimum of three cubes and there are prizes for top 8!
Not only is the art on this card quirky and amazing, but it has a really cool effect that I'd like to abuse more efficiently.
So whatcha got? How do you make Reverse Polarity 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!
Happy father's day, OBC Dad's! May the day be filled with amazing spell slinging.
This cube was co-designed with a friend of mine, u/turbog16 as an experiment in building the lowest power cube in old border possible without making it unplayable and/or terrible (subjectively). It started out jokingly as a side project with the original premise that each person would attempt to draft the worst deck possible, pass it to their neighbour and games would ensue. We spent a lot of time on the early iterations of this cube and through a lot failure, we realized that it could be a really fun cube experience but we needed to take a different path to make this project work and have wider appeal. We removed around 40% of the cards that we had collectively put in and spent more time thinking about how to create a more cohesive experience that would challenge drafters to examine cards from a virtually unknown card pool (since the cards are very niche) and think hard about small synergies that make decks function successfully. Here, you've entered the realm of a cube built not on the classics of power but on the little played (or never played) relics of 93-96 MTG — think [[Aesthir Glider]] and [[Squire]], not "Lightning Bolt" or "Black Lotus."
I was fortunate that the crew that signed up to draft this week all enjoy a unique draft experience. I had a busy week at work and had not had the chance to put up the poll to allow democracy to do it's work and I took a chance and it ended up paying off. We had two guest drafters join us to make a pod of five and we cracked 4 packs of 12. The misfortunate part about drafting this cube is not that you have to consider cards like [[Meteor Shower]] as absolute bombs but that at the end of the draft, you’ll encounter the twist; you build your best deck and then hand it to your opponent. From there, the games begin! The winner of the cube is two fold, both the pilot that has the best record and the player that built the deck. Only one other drafter knew about this misfortunate event waiting to happen and the deck that they built came in second this evening! We only got pictures of four decks but the art of these sets makes for beautiful games and deck pictures.
The Cube Overview: Rocky Mountain Yeti Cube of Misfortune
Onto the Decks!
Birds, Ca Caw!!!! - This was the deck that I had the opportunity to pilot and the drafter clocked quickly the fliers, although small, are a great wincon in this environment. When this deck was working, I would have four to five fliers on the board by turn four and some extra enchantment support to beef them up and swing into bigger blockers with combat tricks to come out on top in each swing. When the games went longer, [[Psychic Allergy]] and [[Storm Seeker]] would help me sneak in damage to win the game. The Allergy was a key wincon that dealt between 6-8 damage each time I played it!
Thrullggro - The drafter across from me spent a lot of time fighting over black. They picked up a lot of cards that I wanted in my deck including both of the better Thrulls and primo removal in [[Broken Visage]]. I watched this deck play a few times and faced off against it with my flock of seagulls and while the suicide aggro strategy was initially effective, it didn't have the later game threats to finish off an opponent. It was awesome watching the Caretaker bring back the [[Necrite]] to keep forcing blocks or the opponent losing creatures to the sac trigger.
Getting the Band Back Together - Banding is one of my favourite things and it's one of the combat mechanics that has proven to be very strong and very effective in this cube, especially when you know the rules and know how to take advantage of them! This was the 2-1 deck built by the person that knew he would have to trade his deck away and he built essentially the same deck that he had the previous draft that went 3-0. The beauty of this deck is the combo with [[Armageddon Clock]] and [[Martyr's of Korlis]]. The counters either rack up kick and kill your opponent or they waste most of their mana in upkeep trying to keep from getting damaged. Meanwhile, they sit back behind a cadre of banding buddies and soak up damage without losing any ground. Unfortunately, the pilot of this beauty mistakenly boarded in a bunch of wall support realizing only after the games were finished that he only managed to get two walls into the deck... Woops.....
Cosmic Crown - This was my deck that went 3-0 and piloted with perfection by its player! While I did not end up with some choice cards as discussed above, the combination of burn/lots of removal, [[Crown of the Ages]] to deal with those drafters who thought they would get creative with enchantments. and [[Cosmic Horror]] took the evening. For those of you that have never had a Horror in play and swung to victory while tapped out are missing out on a bucket list item!
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!
This cube was co-designed with a friend of mine, u/turbog16 as an experiment in building the lowest power cube in old border possible without making it unplayable and/or terrible (subjectively). It started out jokingly as a side project with the original premise that each person would attempt to draft the worst deck possible, pass it to their neighbour and games would ensue. We spent a lot of time on the early iterations of this cube and through a lot failure, we realized that it could be a really fun cube experience but we needed to take a different path to make this project work and have wider appeal. We removed around 40% of the cards that we had collectively put in and spent more time thinking about how to create a more cohesive experience that would challenge drafters to examine cards from a virtually unknown card pool (since the cards are very niche) and think hard about small synergies that make decks function successfully. Here, you've entered the realm of a cube built not on the classics of power but on the little played (or never played) relics of 93-96 MTG — think [[Aesthir Glider]] and [[Squire]], not "Lightning Bolt" or "Black Lotus."
I was fortunate that the crew that signed up to draft this week all enjoy a unique draft experience. I had a busy week at work and had not had the chance to put up the poll to allow democracy to do it's work and I took a chance and it ended up paying off. We had two guest drafters join us to make a pod of five and we cracked 4 packs of 12. The misfortunate part about drafting this cube is not that you have to consider cards like [[Meteor Shower]] as absolute bombs but that at the end of the draft, you’ll encounter the twist; you build your best deck and then hand it to your opponent. From there, the games begin! The winner of the cube is two fold, both the pilot that has the best record and the player that built the deck. Only one other drafter knew about this misfortunate event waiting to happen and the deck that they built came in second this evening! We only got pictures of four decks but the art of these sets makes for beautiful games and deck pictures.
The Cube Overview: Rocky Mountain Yeti Cube of Misfortune
Onto the Decks!
Birds, Ca Caw!!!! - This was the deck that I had the opportunity to pilot and the drafter clocked quickly the fliers, although small, are a great wincon in this environment. When this deck was working, I would have four to five fliers on the board by turn four and some extra enchantment support to beef them up and swing into bigger blockers with combat tricks to come out on top in each swing. When the games went longer, [[Psychic Allergy]] and [[Storm Seeker]] would help me sneak in damage to win the game. The Allergy was a key wincon that dealt between 6-8 damage each time I played it!
Thrullggro - The drafter across from me spent a lot of time fighting over black. They picked up a lot of cards that I wanted in my deck including both of the better Thrulls and primo removal in [[Broken Visage]]. I watched this deck play a few times and faced off against it with my flock of seagulls and while the suicide aggro strategy was initially effective, it didn't have the later game threats to finish off an opponent. It was awesome watching the Caretaker bring back the [[Necrite]] to keep forcing blocks or the opponent losing creatures to the sac trigger.
Getting the Band Back Together - Banding is one of my favourite things and it's one of the combat mechanics that has proven to be very strong and very effective in this cube, especially when you know the rules and know how to take advantage of them! This was the 2-1 deck built by the person that knew he would have to trade his deck away and he built essentially the same deck that he had the previous draft that went 3-0. The beauty of this deck is the combo with [[Armageddon Clock]] and [[Martyr's of Korlis]]. The counters either rack up kick and kill your opponent or they waste most of their mana in upkeep trying to keep from getting damaged. Meanwhile, they sit back behind a cadre of banding buddies and soak up damage without losing any ground. Unfortunately, the pilot of this beauty mistakenly boarded in a bunch of wall support realizing only after the games were finished that he only managed to get two walls into the deck... Woops.....
Cosmic Crown - This was my deck that went 3-0 and piloted with perfection by its player! While I did not end up with some choice cards as discussed above, the combination of burn/lots of removal, [[Crown of the Ages]] to deal with those drafters who thought they would get creative with enchantments. and [[Cosmic Horror]] took the evening. For those of you that have never had a Horror in play and swung to victory while tapped out are missing out on a bucket list item!
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 the "with Elves Old Border Good Stuff" cube.
From the curator:
All old border!
Archetypes WIP:
Ux Artifacts UWb Control UR Spells Gruul Aggro G Ramp u/G Squirrelcraft opposition GB Rock UW Flicker
Cube can be found here: https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/7a5d5f4c-2028-4daa-bba3-a371a2f3ba1f
Would you like your cube featured? DM me!
Nostalgia is a fight for me on this one!
What's the best art for Bog Imp?
This card has captured my heart since I was a wee lad. I love the art, I love the flavor, it's encapsulates old school so well.
So whatcha got? How do you make Angry Mob 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!
This cube has been a labour of love with a friend of mine over the past few months. While this could be considered a "custom" cube, it has a very rich history that has come together to create a very special experience for those that have an opportunity to draft it. This environment is completely new and requires you to read every card in every pack and evaluate each of them to decide if you're going to put it in your pick list. We had five drafters come to the table to take part in this mind bending experiment! From the five sets in the cube, I built packs for each and we drafted chaos style.
The Never Cube gathers lost assets from that time. This 1,390 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. There is a lot of custom work that went into this cube and I will say before you go any further, AI art has been used instead of the original sticker cards for Edge of World to keep the aesthetic of the cube consistent.
The Cube Overview: The Never Cube
Onto the Decks!
Mono Black Strategic Drafting - Going mono coloured in a cube like this seems like a really good strategy as black traditionally has all of the things that make a deck tick, removal, creatures, direct damage, etc. Sword of War, a remake [[Sword of Ages]] and Improvised Fortifications functioned really well to close out games and live an extra turn by preventing loads of damage. Perimeterradactyl and Shadow having the opposite of shroud (which is really cool), were big winners in terms of inflicting damage.
Banding Deck Wins - The Mary Celeste won games by attacking in with an unstoppable horde of banding creatures. The Great White Wolf was a P1P1 windmill slam and this creature (I thought it was an enchantment before it ripped my arms and legs off) is amazing. This pilot built a great deck with a killer curve and plenty of enchantments to buff the board and swing in for plenty of lethal!
Sheherazad - This is one of my favourite Spectral Chaos cards and it is a duplicate of [[Shahrazad]]. This pilot has an amazing level of grit and at least four games of Magic were played across two games within the first match. The trusty "cover your playmat with another and go to town" strategy worked like a champ and while this deck did not post a winning record, it won the evening for style points, including running Cave of the Oracle which tapped for 0 mana most turns! I really enjoyed watching this deck being piloted and how it came together!
UW - Interaction - Control = Strugglebus - This was my deck and where the mono black player sought black because it had all of the required elements of success mentioned above, my blue/white adventure did not end up being as fruitful! I did have a cool combo with Ever-Watching Eyes + Trenches + Humming Pond to create buffed fliers that would be able to block and swing in for damage. Copy Spell is such a cool card that I never got to cast but I learned that creatures with 4 in their stat line on either side, first strike and enchantments (auras) are key elements to success in this cube.
The Burn Ruined the Picture - Can you see anything in detail in this photo? Nope. That's because the burn package was so strong that it was too hot to photograph. Like the mono black player (who frankly just set a great example for drafting an environment in which you have never seen the cards before), this pilot stayed true to burn doing what it unmistakably does, damage things to smouldering remains. Combine that with first strike on most of your creatures and you have a fiery recipe for success!
Thanks to the crew at RNG for giving us a place to cube week after week!
Thank you to two members of our community, u/Gunnarsonsnewbag2 and u/JulusGalt91 for amazingly innovative work and giving us two of these beautiful sets to include!
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 “Old border pre-modern cube".
From the curator u/percemilo34
This is a brand new cube! (An overview would be awesome.)
Cube can be found here: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pmod
Would you like your cube featured? DM me!
A fireball with a different name! I love X spells!!
What's the best art for Blaze?