The Cube Project
I play Magic, but I found myself mostly playing Commander, and mostly playing the same couple of archetypes (namely, Izzet Artifacts and Bant Counters). So I decided to shake things up and give myself a challenge. I was going to make a series of decks, that are balanced between the fiv colors, uses all 10 two color pairs, and that covr as many different game formats as possible. Since all together, the decks would be able to serve as a drafting cube, I decided to call it The Cube Project. Here I will document my thought process going through it.
Some rules I set for myself:
- All decks are singleton by default
- Decks started with cards I had on hand, but as new cards are released, they can be modified
- There will be five 60 card decks, plus three 100 card decks that can be split in to five more 60 card decks
- There will be six spells and four lands for each two color pair
- There will be sixty spells and forty lands For each of the five colors
- There will be no three, four, or five color cards
- Colorless cards and those with hybrid mana costs may be considered as any color they need
- Every deck will have fove commons of each color - this will enable the creation of two color pauper decks
- Outside of the 600 main singleton cards, there can be up to 12 duplicates and format specific cards (decks are sleeved in the same color Dragon Shield sleeves, which comes with two extra sleeves per each of the six boxes)
- There may only be up to 60 total duplicates, format-specific cards, DFCs, tokens, emblems, and other non game cards (with a maximum of two of each kind of token)
You may notice the first issue is that there are a total of eight decks that are meant to cover ten deck archetypes. How it works is that two of the hundred card decks are three color, the third is two color, with each of the first two sharing a color with the third. The template for each deck is this:
For the two color 100 card deck:
- 6 two colored spells
- 27 spells of each color
- 4 dual lands
- 18 lands of each color
For 60 card decks:
- 6 two colored spells
- 15 spells of each color
- 4 dual lands
- 10 lands of each color
The Decks
Azorious
Dimir
Rakdos Sacrifice
Gruul Dragons
This is the 60 card version of the Dragon Typal deck listed below. The game plan is pretty simple: Ramp out dragons as fast as possible, then attack with large flyers.
Selesnya Counters
Orzhov Flicker
Izzet Artifacts
My oldest deck, and a personal favorite of mine. I've had it for years before I started, and arguably one of the seends of this project came when I attempted to make a shell that I could swap cards around in to make it Izzet, Grixis, or Jeskai as I desired. This deck has a very basi strategy: play cards that reward me for playig artifacts, and play artifacts.
Golgari
Boros Aggro
Dragon Typal
Format: Commander
Commander: Atarka, World Render
The two color 100 card deck of the list. This is the 100 card version of the Gruul Dragons deck listed above. Got the red-green dragons commander starter deck for Christmas in 2022 and decided to keep it around, upgrade it, and incorporate it in to this list. A paired down version is the Gruul Dragons deck later in the list. The game plan is the same as for the 60 card version, with the added benefit that I can gaurantee that all of my dragons will have double strike once Atarka hits the field.
Mardu Aggro
Format: Canadian Highlander
Commander: Alesha, Who Smiles At Death
Bant Counters
Format: Commander
Commander: Falco Spara, Pactweaver
Saheeli Artifacts
Format: Oathbreaker
Oathbreaker: Saheeli, Filigree Master
Signature Spell: Fabricate
Pauper Half Decks
Format: Pauper
The reason every deck has 5 commons of each color is to allow for the creation of Pauper decks by pulling from all of them. Since they're all monocolor cards, we can actually create five 30 card half decks, one for each color, and mix and match them like Jumpstart. While every deck having the same number of commons keeps them relatively balanced, the drawback of making a deck by pulling from all of them is that the Pauper decks lack thematic coherence. It feels more like playing a Sealed deck than anything.
White Pauper Half Deck
Ainok Bond-Kin Cathar Commando Doomed Traveler Duelist of Deep Faith Generous Gift Harmless Assault Journey to Nowhere Kami of False Hope Loyal Pegasus Parish-Blade Trainee Pilgrim of the Ages Raffine's Informant Recommission Roving Harper Safe Passage Smite Spirited Companion Star Pupil Plains Plains Plains Plains Plains Plains Plains Plains Plains Plains Plains Plains
Blue Pauper Half Deck
Brokers Veteran Callous Dismissal Counterspell Crush Dissent Deceive the Messenger Experimental Augury Filigree Attendant Foil Flywheel Racer Iron Apprentice Logic Knot Machine Over Matter Negate Ornithopter Relentless Advance Snap Thrummingbird Treason of Isengard Island Island Island Island Island Island Island Island Island Island Island Island
Black Pauper Half Deck
Butcher Ghoul Doomed Dissenter Dunland Crebain Easterling Vanguard Gixian Skullflayer Haunt of the Dead Marshes Hooded Assassin Lazotep Reaver Mold Folk Mordor Muster Nasty End Nezumi Informant Orcish Medicine Phyrexian Vivisector Supernatural Stamina Undercity Scrounger Unhallowed Pact Unlikely Aid Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp
Red Pauper Half Deck
Barbed Batterfist Beamtown Beatstick Blood Petal Celebrant Crystal Slipper Desperate Ritual Goldhound Make Your Mark Patron of the Arts Rapacious Dragon Reckless Barbarian Rohirrim Lancer Sarkhan's Rage Scrapwork Mutt Simian Sling Sure Strike Tail Slash Towashi Songshaper Witty Roastmaster Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain
Green Pauper Half Deck
Abundant Harvest Cultivate Duskshell Crawler Ent's Fury Fertilid Fractal Summoning Gaea's Gift Kodama's Reach Pridemalkin Return to Nature Rootrider Faun Rot Shambler Sakura-Tribe Elder Servant of the Scale Simic Initiate Thrive Tuskguard Captain Wirewood Elf Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest