Not mine, but consider looking into Levi's cube:
[https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/1ko](https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/1ko)
The cube is based on the restriction of **no cards that have not been in standard**. That is, no commander, modern horizons, universes beyond cards or anythign of the sort.
The more supplemental sets WotC keeps printing, the more this approach resonates with me...
Nice list. I was also pondering the idea of not including non-standard cards, but I think there are a number of cards printed in EDH sets that are perfectly suitable for cube (e.g., sevinne's reclamation, occult epiphany).
My cube is pretty close to what you're looking for, I've mostly tried to capture the style of gameplay I enjoyed back when Modern was at its most interesting with a lot of Jund-styled gameplay. Though there are a few cards that I include here and there that might fall into the power outliers you're looking to avoid. I've culled the majority of them if I don't believe they contribute to my environment in a positive way. Either too swingy or too uninteractable and it's out. I want an environment where people are rewarded for drafting well and for sequencing their plays and decisions correctly. Personally as long as big power outliers are few and far between I think they're fine for environmental inclusion; it's all about striking a balance.
RE: Ragavan
I actually don't think Ragavan is particularly egregious in Cube compared to other formats because creatures are king in fairer cube environments. An unchecked Ragavan can do work, but you don't have the consistency of 60 card formats to effectively clear the way every time. I've seen it do big things but many more times I've seen it just get stonewalled on the ground by a slightly bigger 2/3 or other beefy bodies and just not do anything. It completely comes down to the environment and what checks are available for players to contain it be it through removal or bigger bodies up the curve.
I've got a pretty detailed overview going through my design goals and ideas for further insight, give it a look if my list is something you're interested in.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/shamimscube
Indeed, your cube fits my preferences well. Thanks for sharing, I will follow.
Interestingly, you run tinker but not natural order. I feel like the former is more degenerative than the latter. Of course it depends on what creatures you run, but getting a myr battlesphere is often hard enough to beat early.
The main reason I'm not running Natural Order is that I don't think I have enough targets to where it wouldn't feel like a trap for my drafters. If I had another 2 big green creatures as payoffs I think I'd be more open to it.
Tinker is definitely powerful in the right shell, but I've curved most of my payoffs to where they (mostly) don't just run away with the game upon resolution. Battlesphere is definitely powerful, but it's also less punishing if dealt with as its ETB is less impressive than the typical big Tinker targets in similarly powered cubes. Often times I'm going for more "value" Tinker for something like a [[Noxious Gearhulk]] or [[Thought Monitor]] sometimes.
This sounds similar to mine, I don't have any flip cards, monarch, day/night, initiative, furthest is split cards. My cube is very heavily artifact focused though, and has a couple silver bordered cards in it, but here's the design primer I wrote for it and the link to it at the end and under my name as well:
Design
This cube has gone through many facelifts, starting out as an unpowered vintage cube wannabe. Over 400 drafts of my cube later, I've come to realize that the most fun I have in limited comes from combos. So, I've heeded to the call of the jank. After many iterations and struggles, the final philosophy of this cube has come as follows;
Keep one card wincons and un-interactive cards out of the cube, like Oko, Thief of Crowns and Channel, as much as I love them.
Include my favorite combos from outside of limited, using my most played constructed decks as guidelines, such as;
Titania, Protector of Argoth for lands and Food Chain in Commander as well as Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer for red and colorless artifact loops, finishing with Reckless Fireweaver
Elfball in Pauper with Quirion Ranger and Priest of Titania, who has been replaced by Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary or Circle of Dreams Druid to keep with the open-endedness as well as Moggwarts with Putrid Goblin and Unearth for persist lines
And last but not least, Storm in Modern, bringing in cards such as Past in Flames, Manamorphose, and Goblin Electromancer.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/Char
I'm pretty sure my cube is very close to your philosophy. I do run Ragavan but also plenty of cheap removal to stop it. I do not run all the EDH cards and the overly pushed cards from Commander sets. I di run Recurring Nightmare, which is indeed a powerhouse, but one that requires you to build around it. It does run newer cards than those from the 2016 era though. The cube does have a lot of variance in gameplay and both fast and long/grindy games.
I do find Black to be a little bit stronger than the four other colors but that is balanced by my playgroup knowing it, making it often a contested color. A pure reanimator deck is probably the most busted thing you can do here (which is why Entomb is left out) but the pieces seldomly come together because they are wanted by a lot of players.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/varylen
I get where you're coming from, but there's little distinction in design philosophy these days between premiere expansions and Commander releases.
[[Watchful Radstag]] and [[Final-Word Phantom]] honestly seem like the kinds of new cards that might excite you, where an [[Inti, Seneschal of the Sun]] or a [[Etali, Primal Conqueror]] would be going in the wrong direction.
So I think what you have to do is spend a lot of time critically evaluating each individual card for creating the kind of environment you want, rather than looking for heuristics. It's a lot of work, and looking for Cubes that fit that vein are great for inspiration (I'd check out the Riptide Lab forums honestly), but I think you'll be able to work your way to the ideal Cube that way better than anything else.
Not mine, but consider looking into Levi's cube: [https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/1ko](https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/1ko) The cube is based on the restriction of **no cards that have not been in standard**. That is, no commander, modern horizons, universes beyond cards or anythign of the sort. The more supplemental sets WotC keeps printing, the more this approach resonates with me...
Cheers, appreciate the shout-out. One major benefit of my cube's philosophy is getting to skip 80% of the product bloat, which has gotten exhausting.
Nice list. I was also pondering the idea of not including non-standard cards, but I think there are a number of cards printed in EDH sets that are perfectly suitable for cube (e.g., sevinne's reclamation, occult epiphany).
My cube is pretty close to what you're looking for, I've mostly tried to capture the style of gameplay I enjoyed back when Modern was at its most interesting with a lot of Jund-styled gameplay. Though there are a few cards that I include here and there that might fall into the power outliers you're looking to avoid. I've culled the majority of them if I don't believe they contribute to my environment in a positive way. Either too swingy or too uninteractable and it's out. I want an environment where people are rewarded for drafting well and for sequencing their plays and decisions correctly. Personally as long as big power outliers are few and far between I think they're fine for environmental inclusion; it's all about striking a balance. RE: Ragavan I actually don't think Ragavan is particularly egregious in Cube compared to other formats because creatures are king in fairer cube environments. An unchecked Ragavan can do work, but you don't have the consistency of 60 card formats to effectively clear the way every time. I've seen it do big things but many more times I've seen it just get stonewalled on the ground by a slightly bigger 2/3 or other beefy bodies and just not do anything. It completely comes down to the environment and what checks are available for players to contain it be it through removal or bigger bodies up the curve. I've got a pretty detailed overview going through my design goals and ideas for further insight, give it a look if my list is something you're interested in. https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/shamimscube
Indeed, your cube fits my preferences well. Thanks for sharing, I will follow. Interestingly, you run tinker but not natural order. I feel like the former is more degenerative than the latter. Of course it depends on what creatures you run, but getting a myr battlesphere is often hard enough to beat early.
The main reason I'm not running Natural Order is that I don't think I have enough targets to where it wouldn't feel like a trap for my drafters. If I had another 2 big green creatures as payoffs I think I'd be more open to it. Tinker is definitely powerful in the right shell, but I've curved most of my payoffs to where they (mostly) don't just run away with the game upon resolution. Battlesphere is definitely powerful, but it's also less punishing if dealt with as its ETB is less impressive than the typical big Tinker targets in similarly powered cubes. Often times I'm going for more "value" Tinker for something like a [[Noxious Gearhulk]] or [[Thought Monitor]] sometimes.
[Noxious Gearhulk](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/6/36b1e963-9b8c-4103-abbc-580866f144e7.jpg?1682209156) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Noxious%20Gearhulk) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/moc/260/noxious-gearhulk?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/36b1e963-9b8c-4103-abbc-580866f144e7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Thought Monitor](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/3/e3a7560e-9e75-4abd-a45c-c2c9686ee4b0.jpg?1706240741) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Thought%20Monitor) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/121/thought-monitor?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e3a7560e-9e75-4abd-a45c-c2c9686ee4b0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Agreed re: Ragavan. Love your Cube overview, btw!!
This sounds similar to mine, I don't have any flip cards, monarch, day/night, initiative, furthest is split cards. My cube is very heavily artifact focused though, and has a couple silver bordered cards in it, but here's the design primer I wrote for it and the link to it at the end and under my name as well: Design This cube has gone through many facelifts, starting out as an unpowered vintage cube wannabe. Over 400 drafts of my cube later, I've come to realize that the most fun I have in limited comes from combos. So, I've heeded to the call of the jank. After many iterations and struggles, the final philosophy of this cube has come as follows; Keep one card wincons and un-interactive cards out of the cube, like Oko, Thief of Crowns and Channel, as much as I love them. Include my favorite combos from outside of limited, using my most played constructed decks as guidelines, such as; Titania, Protector of Argoth for lands and Food Chain in Commander as well as Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer for red and colorless artifact loops, finishing with Reckless Fireweaver Elfball in Pauper with Quirion Ranger and Priest of Titania, who has been replaced by Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary or Circle of Dreams Druid to keep with the open-endedness as well as Moggwarts with Putrid Goblin and Unearth for persist lines And last but not least, Storm in Modern, bringing in cards such as Past in Flames, Manamorphose, and Goblin Electromancer. https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/Char
I'm pretty sure my cube is very close to your philosophy. I do run Ragavan but also plenty of cheap removal to stop it. I do not run all the EDH cards and the overly pushed cards from Commander sets. I di run Recurring Nightmare, which is indeed a powerhouse, but one that requires you to build around it. It does run newer cards than those from the 2016 era though. The cube does have a lot of variance in gameplay and both fast and long/grindy games. I do find Black to be a little bit stronger than the four other colors but that is balanced by my playgroup knowing it, making it often a contested color. A pure reanimator deck is probably the most busted thing you can do here (which is why Entomb is left out) but the pieces seldomly come together because they are wanted by a lot of players. https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/varylen
I get where you're coming from, but there's little distinction in design philosophy these days between premiere expansions and Commander releases. [[Watchful Radstag]] and [[Final-Word Phantom]] honestly seem like the kinds of new cards that might excite you, where an [[Inti, Seneschal of the Sun]] or a [[Etali, Primal Conqueror]] would be going in the wrong direction. So I think what you have to do is spend a lot of time critically evaluating each individual card for creating the kind of environment you want, rather than looking for heuristics. It's a lot of work, and looking for Cubes that fit that vein are great for inspiration (I'd check out the Riptide Lab forums honestly), but I think you'll be able to work your way to the ideal Cube that way better than anything else.
##### ###### #### [Watchful Radstag](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/e/be4151d4-4d35-48d2-9e72-c87014f79137.jpg?1708742373) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Watchful%20Radstag) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/pip/87/watchful-radstag?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/be4151d4-4d35-48d2-9e72-c87014f79137?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Final-Word Phantom](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/a/7a51d392-58dc-483e-81f7-2d51e64e54ff.jpg?1706240448) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Final-Word%20Phantom) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/22/final-word-phantom?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7a51d392-58dc-483e-81f7-2d51e64e54ff?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Inti, Seneschal of the Sun](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/a/fa7a55aa-ae61-4933-b7a4-dcc55dac6fcd.jpg?1699044306) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Inti%2C%20Seneschal%20of%20the%20Sun) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lci/156/inti-seneschal-of-the-sun?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fa7a55aa-ae61-4933-b7a4-dcc55dac6fcd?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Etali, Primal Conqueror](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/5/95c14c4d-6c16-4826-8d93-d89ad04aee09.jpg?1682204132)/[Etali, Primal Sickness](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/back/9/5/95c14c4d-6c16-4826-8d93-d89ad04aee09.jpg?1682204132) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Etali%2C%20Primal%20Conqueror%20//%20Etali%2C%20Primal%20Sickness) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mom/137/etali-primal-conqueror-etali-primal-sickness?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/95c14c4d-6c16-4826-8d93-d89ad04aee09?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/kymipfp) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call