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Image 1 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 2 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 3 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 4 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 5 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 6 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 7 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 8 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 9 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 10 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
Image 11 — The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project
▲ 104 r/mtgcube

The Alternate Cube - A custom cube project

Hey everyone,

over the last seven months a group of friends and myself have created our own powered vintage cube designing 450 custom cards and it's been a real blast to play for the couple of times we got around to it so far. That's why we decided to share it with you :)

You can find the cards here alongside an overview sheet:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wd8DO3dKAMO0jcSGo1fWZ3EhSQ2Nyf_UsoPlWM7PjYA/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GqDDsO-NMqc-yU4uZvnGCQxNS1DiO34xNtM2seUBKng/edit?usp=sharing

Whats the idea?

This is meant to be a cube of a power level equal to a powered vintage cube.

Why did we do this?

We are cube enthusiasts. I've been drafting vintage cubes for around 15 years now and it is my favorite way to play magic. I also enjoy game design - so this was a challenge I had always looked at excitedly.

What can we expect to find in it?

There is a custom power 9 in this cube alongside many colorshifted cards, relics of magic's design history, loveletters to lore and mechanics and (hopefully) unique and interesting designs we came up with.

The cards are meant to be used in this specific environment - they are not aiming to be balanced with the rest of existing magic cards meaning some will be quite strong. I've added a couple of examples as a slideshow :)

There are technically 5 new mechanics in the cube - but only one is found on more than 5 cards. It's an ability called "<Type>Shape X" - like "Landshape 5" that allows you to shape your hand and dig for cards of a specific type. The other mechanics all explain themselves on any card they are on.

What archetypes are in it?

While there are standard cube archetypes like Reanimator, Lands, RDW, Wheenies or Ramp there are also a couple more specific archetypes like TopDeck-"Show and Tell" and Second Breakfast.

Where is the art from?

All art is taken from existing cards - often with the intention to give more spotlight to great pieces of art that is "lost" on mediocre draft commons and uncommons or obscure promos few people know. That doesn't always work, but we did our best.

Whats up with the frames?

Every person who wins a draft (and once for all designers) got to pick their favorite card of the day and give it a custom frame.

Feel free to download it and play it or simply let me know what you think :)

u/Second-Sunrise — 3 days ago
▲ 27 r/mtgcube

The Treasure Package: Which of These Four Do You Like Most in Cube?

I currently run Magda, Plunderer, and Scuzzback in my Vintage Cube. For me, Plunderer is clearly the best of the bunch, as it supports the ramp strategy by also serving as a solid attacker and providing extra damage. Scuzzback takes second place for me. It generates a Treasure during the first main phase, allowing me to cast cards like [[Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes]] or [[Ouroboroid]] before combat. Magda is a classic, but in my view, she’s somewhat on the decline. Sure, she enables that legendary combo with [[Smuggler's Copter]], but otherwise, she often feels like a "one-time trigger" that dies the moment she attacks. Scoundrel is cool, though I haven't tested the card yet. It seems to have earned a spot in Steve Man's Vintage Cube, which is why I wanted to bring it up for discussion here. Honorable mentions: [[Piggy Bank]] and [[Bejeweled Warg]].

u/Ancient-Progress6434 — 3 days ago
▲ 3 r/mtgcube

Your favorite black "life loss as a downside" cards?

I'm making a mono black cube, and I had the idea of having cards like [[Dark Confidant]], [[Phyrexian Rager]] and other cards that draws cards, kills permanents, disrupts the opponent's hand etc. so that aggro becomes more viable without having to push it too much. This is to also make lifelink creatures and cards like [[Tendrils of Agony]] higher picks.

Which would you say are the best cards that also has life loss, damage taking etc. as a downside? That are also appropriate for this cube, I will add, because [[Yawgmoth's Bargain]] for example is extremely hard for black decks to deal with and just not fun.

reddit.com
u/pimmen89 — 4 days ago
▲ 57 r/mtgcube

Teaching New Players Through Limited: A Case Study

We've had an interesting development at GLM recently. One of our younger players has started bringing friends along to cube nights, including people who have never played Magic before. When we had eight people turn up to draft, one of the newer players offered to just sit and watch so they wouldn't disrupt the group. I slapped my hand on the table and said, "No way, you can't learn this game by watching!"

Instead, we split the pod. Four people drafted a cube while the other four played my Starter Deck Battle Box, which has unexpectedly become a fantastic way to introduce people to Magic and Limited without throwing them straight into the deep end.

Since that night, I've watched these players go from learning the fundamentals to drafting their first decks, recognizing interactions from Battle Box in my Old School cube, and even winning some games against people who have been playing Magic for a long time.

This experience has also had me reflecting on how I learned to play Magic back in 1994 and how different (and painful) that environment was. The question I'm still working on is what it means to bring new players into an established cube community without sacrificing the experience that keeps everyone coming back week to week.

I've written about my case study here:

You Can't Learn This Game by Watching!

I've seen posts, and largely agree with them, that cube is not a great place to teach new people how to play Magic. I'm interested to hear how other cube organizers handle this, or if it has ever come up in your group.

  • Do you actively accommodate people who are completely new to Magic, or do you generally expect players to know the fundamentals before joining a draft?
  • Have you found ways to introduce newer players without turning the whole evening into a teaching session for the group?
rockymountainyeti.online
u/HD114 — 4 days ago
▲ 7 r/mtgcube

Eternal Format All Stars that rarely make it in powered cubes: Why and what conditions would make them good?

This is inspired by thinking about [[Kozilek's Command]], a card that is a dominant force in modern and legacy but because of the two colorless pips is not something that generally makes it into vintage/legacy cubes. I think some shift to make the package of modern/legacy eldrazi an interesting thing to include would need to happen, I think that's unlikely philosophically for cubes and as a likely are for further power creep in that particular archetype.

Conversely, perhaps not an "all star" anymore but a legacy-pedigree card in [[Goblin Welder]] somewhat recently saw the conditions to be worth including arise in powered cube.

This makes me curious about any cards on your radar as a card that just needs the environment to shift enough to be good.

reddit.com
u/No_Giraffe_1551 — 3 days ago
▲ 15 r/mtgcube

Finished building out the cube!

After months of building, tuning, printing, and sleeving, my cube is finally done: Powers of Creation, a 1,000-card Commander cube.
It started as a Commander deck I called Holy War, a Mardu tokens-and-sacrifice deck full of angels, gods, and soldiers dying for a cause. Eventually the tinkering outgrew one 100-card deck, and this is what happened next.

The theme: a cosmic final war. The Heavenly Host, the Abyssal legions, primordial gods and elementals, the restless dead, and the mortal armies caught in the middle. Players are planeswalkers gathering the world's powers to their banner.

How it plays:
4 players, 5 packs each, take 2 cards per pick, 100 cards drafted per player
Every pack is seeded: one card of each color, a multicolor card, one of each card type, two fixing lands, two commanders, and five wildcards — so no pack is ever a dud for your colors
Standard Commander rules with a few twists: any two 1–2 color commanders can partner (up to 3 colors total), drafted cards can go in your deck regardless of color identity (your basics still have to match your commander), and a Texas mulligan (draw 10, keep 7).

The entire thing has been proxied on photo paper, laminated and then cut out. I had to sell off a majority of my collection to pay for bills, so this was cathartic to include the power 9 in a way haha.

Hope you enjoy the list!
Mainboard
Primer

u/HellotoHorse — 4 days ago
▲ 124 r/mtgcube

Just wanted to share how I create a seating order.

I shuffle these up and deal one to each player before the draft.

u/ImportantFudge3131 — 11 days ago
▲ 15 r/mtgcube

What cards do you just like to see in cube?

I'm not talking about instant-win snap picks or the biggest bombs in vintage. Just cards that you really like seeing and playing with.

I only started playing around Bloomburrow, and I feel there have been many fun cards from then until now. [Sunspine Lynx] and [[Exalted Sunborn]] especially come to mind.

Mostly, though, there are so many cards in TDM that just feel really good to see in a pack. I love [[Dragon Sniper]], [[Twinmaw Stormbrood]], and [[Voice of Victory]]!

The card that got me interested in MtG was a [[Goblin Grenade]] that my friend showed me, and it just told me everything I needed to know about the game.

In two years I feel I've played about as much as possible when you have kids. But there are many sets I haven't played, and many cards I have not seen. So I'm curious: which are your favorites?

reddit.com
u/VerasEros — 10 days ago