Magic Cube

A cube is a pile of Magic: the Gathering cards (one of each = singleton) that you draft with.

First cube (2011-2022) : Brett's

My first cube was Brett Allen's (updated list at Cubecobra), which has the most powerful Magic cards (Vintage + a few Un-cards).

I started to build my copy for Christmas 2010 and played the first time with it on 24/02/2011. I last played it on 03/08/2022. I updated my cube up to Brett's 22/02/2022 update (when Moat was still in the list).

Here is the latest list I used: Brett's cube (Aug 2022)

Changes :

Plague Sliver > Juzam Djinn (love the pic)
My list from 22/09/2013 at cubetutor

There were two problems with this cube:

getting combos with two players: too many cards
red is too weak, usually played as support colour

Second cube (2023)

Most of the time, I draft the cube one-on-one. Brett's cube is meant for 8-players drafts.

So, my second cube will have 360 cards, which is more suitable for two players, but can still be drafted with four.

I have not found a single list that I like so far (08/2023), meaning I will have to build my own based on what I see on https://cubecobra.com/.

Drafting the cube

There are many ways to draft a cube, here are some.

Two players

Solomon draft
- 96 cards: 13 W/G/R/B/U, 13 colourless, 12 lands, 6 multicoloured cards
- lay x cards (x can be 4, 5, 8…), player A separates them into two piles (must be at least one card in each pile), player B chooses a pile, player A gets the other pile
- alternate roles each turn
Winston draft
- 96 cards: 13 W/G/R/B/U, 13 colourless, 12 lands, 6 multicoloured cards
- set 3 piles with one card face down
- player A looks at the card(s) under the first pile, take them or put them back and add a card face down on the top of the pile (without looking at it), then looks at the next pile; if the third pile is not taken, draw a card from the not yet drafted cards
- player B does the same, starting with the first pile
- start over
Winchester draft
- 96 cards: 13 W/G/R/B/U, 13 colourless, 12 lands, 6 multicoloured cards
- set 4 piles with one card face up; player A chooses a pile, then adds one card on each of the 4 piles
- player B does the same
- start over
- each player drafts 24 piles
Grid draft
- 144 cards: 19 W/G/R/B/U, 19 colourless, 19 lands, 11 multicoloured cards
- player A sets 9 cards face up (3 x 3 grid), then chooses one column or one row (3 cards)
- player B chooses one column or row (2 or 3 cards), cards not drafted are removed from the draft
- alternate roles each turn
- each players drafts 16 times 2 or 3 cards (between 40 and 48 cards)
Pile draft
- 96 cards: 13 W/G/R/B/U, 13 colourless, 12 lands, 6 multicoloured cards
- shuffle into two piles of 48 cards, one for each player
- each player draws 5 cards, then picks a card and discards the 4 remaining cards; repeat until the pile is empty
- exchange the discard pile with your opponent; start over until no cards are left to draft
- source
Quilt draft
- deal out 64 cards in a grid, with each card rotated 90 degrees from the previous one (the quilt)
- you can only choose a card with a narrow edge exposed
- when 32 cards (i.e., half) have been drafted, you scoop up the board and deal out a second 64 cards and do it again
- at the end, each person will have drafted 32 cards, 16 from each quilt
- source
Minesweeper (démineur)
- 90 cards for 2 players (12 W/G/R/B/U, 12 colourless, 12 lands, 6 multicoloured cards)
- face down, 9 rows of 10 cards
- flip up the 2 cards in the middle
- first pick, flip up the 3 cards touching the drafted cards (up, down and left/right)
- go on until all cards are drafted

Four players draft

Booster draft

12 boosters of 15 cards:
- 23 of each colours, artifacts, lands
- 19 gold
in each boosters, put one of each
mix the rest and add 7 extra at random

Solomon draft

Each round the divider will be given 25 cards to divide into 4 face-up stacks
Like 1-on-1 Solomon the divider in each round will get the final stack remaining
Unlike regular Solomon, each stack MUST CONTAIN at least 4 cards

Rules questions

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker copies Kitchen Finks : does the token with persist comes back? (07/06/2012)
- No, tokens vanish once they hit the graveyard
Sower of Temptation on Solemn Simulacrum : when SS hits the graveyard, who draws a card? (01/06/2012)
- The owner of SS, as it goes to his graveyard (and then triggers)
flip Who/What/When/Where/Why with Dark Confident (Hugues had both cards in his deck, but it didn't happen)? (28/07/2012)
- Loss of 13 life (see What is the converted mana cost of split cards?)
Can a Psychatog survive Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite ?
When controling Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, is the first activation of an equipment countered? (23/02/2013)
- Yes
Can I play Shelldock Isle's ability to play a creature during my opponent's turn ? (23/04/2013)
- Yes (source)
Can soulbound trigger more than once with the same creature? (16/09/2013)
- No: “When a creature with soulbond enters the battlefield, you may pair it with another unpaired creature you control. When another creature enters the battlefield under your control, if you control a creature with soulbond that isn't currently paired, you may pair it with the new creature.” (source)
If an equipped creatured is targeted by Control Magic, does the equipment fall off? (03/12/2013)
- No: “Gaining control of an equipped creature doesn’t give you control of the Equipment on it. The Equipment remains attached to the creature, but only the Equipment’s controller can play its equip ability.”(source)
If I hit my opponent's Jace the Mind Sculptor with a creature that is equipped with a Sword of Fire and Ice, does the triggered ability happen? (19/05/2014)
- No (source)
When casting Bonfire of the Damned, can I target a Planewalker instead of the opponent? (03/07/2014)
- Yes (source)
If I animate an equipment (e.g. with Karn, Silver Golem), will it “fall off” the equipped creature? (23/07/2014)
- Yes (source, look for “Karn's Touch”)
Exalted vs Maze of Ith (23/07/2014)
- comprehensive rules: 702.82b A creature “attacks alone” if it's the only creature declared as an attacker in a given combat phase. See rule 506.5.
- this means than Maze of Ith shuts down Exalted, as only one attacker has to be declared for it to trigger
True-Name Nemesis vs Black Sun's Zenith rules
- TNN dies (source)
Can Phyrexian Metamorph copy Thrun, the Last Troll ? (27/07/2015)
- Yes, it can (source)
Can I animate a creature with protection from black with Diabolic Servitude? (29/11/2015)
Smokestack with 2 counters: can I sac for 2 creature + Control Magic? (26/02/2016)
- Yes, it counts as 2 permanents (source)
Copy of a copy (08/07/2020)
- Mathieu plays a Brimaz, King of Oreskos
- Carl plays a Phantasmal Image, copying Brimaz
- Mathieu plays a Phyrexian Metamorph, choosing to copy Phantasmal Image on Phantasmal Image to kill Carl's copy (since it has been targeted), which dies as a 0/0 creature; only Brimaz stays in play
- wrong (source: Chuff + comprehensive rules 706.3): Phyrexian Metamorph copies Phantasmal Image which is Brimaz → Phyrexian metamorph is a Brimaz copy with “destroy if targeted”, Mathieu has to choose which copy of Brimaz to keep (likely the original) and Carl keeps his copy
Can Kytheon, Hero of Akros's ability save him from The Abyss? Yes (indestructible prevents destroy)

Cool plays

24/06/2020 : Mathieu plays Abyssal Persecutor to bring me under zero life, then activates Mirror Entity for zero to get rid of all his creatures, winning the game

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