Ah yes Cube. The bourbon of Magic. The following is a brief introduction to Cubes as well as some specific information about the Greyboy Cube and what you can expect from it.
What's a Cube?
A Cube is a curated set of cards used for drafting. You sort through your collection for cards you find interesting or fun, and create a static card pool to make packs from. Often there will be subthemes or potent combinations, but the point is more to create a unique limited environment that has a lot of replayability while not costing you anything. Drafting is done the normal way; there are 15 cards a pack, with three packs a person which alternate which direction they are passed in.
Two things in particular define a Cube. The first is that there is only one of each card. Obviously you can have as much basic land as you want as per a normal draft, but other than that all your cards will be unique. The second is that Cube cards are powerful. All cards in a Cube are cards you would be happy to play in almost any deck that you draft. When drafting a Cube, you don't have to worry about making a playable 23 cards. You will get there.
How to Draft a Cube
So what does it mean if all the cards are good enough to play? Yeah Serra Angel is a great card, and may still be good in your deck, but it doesn't really have more or less raw power than Phytotitan. In Cube, you should draft more to a strategy. Early on you may take a card that you find interesting, that you might be able to abuse (Doubling Season, Buried Alive) and craft a synergistic deck around it. Or you pick cards that fit nicely into an archetype (a deck that goes Carnophage, Vaporkin, Man-o'-War, Nekrataal is still a great deck even if it doesn't break the game).
One advantage of drafting Cube is that its easier to abandon a failing strategy or color part-way into the draft, as you're guaranteed to still be getting good cards. Cube encourages you to take risks. Many of the archetypes in the Cube have some overlap, and individual cards often support more than one archetype (i.e. Siege-Gang Commander, Mobilization). That being said, Lightning Bolt is still better than Lightning Strike, so not all cards are created equal.
The Greyboy Cube
So this brings us to our specific Cube. I made the Cube with some specific guidelines in mind, which all are directed towards the goals of simplicity and fun. The keyword here is "grokability." Something is grokable when you understand it on a very gut level. Wrath of God, Murder, and Volcanic Geyser are all very grokable. You get what they do right after you read them. Plus many of the cards in the Cube are old stand-bys that everyone knows by now even if they're a bit weird (Kird Ape, Ball Lightning). The only keywords in the Cube are Devour and Convoke, which I feel are both very grokable, and to make things even easier, there are no multicolor cards. Most decks will be two colors, though more is certainly possible (looking at you Joiner Adept).
Then beyond those cards that are intuitive are the more complicated cards that provoke certain strategies. These cards often do nothing by themselves, but are strong together. I'll use the example of Goblin Bombardment and Reassembling Skeleton, both weak individually, but strong together. And finally there are the cards that look bizarre and totally out-of-place (Braids, Conjurer Adept, Fecundity, Dream Halls) but if you can unlock the potential of these cards, you can end up with one of the most powerful decks in the Cube. There are at least two in each color, so see if you can spot them and feel free to spend some time brainstorming.
As for mana-fixing, there is one of each of the Guildgates (Rakdos Guildgate and don't forget Gatecreeper Vine!) as well as one of each of the Signets (Simic Signet). Beyond that, you're looking at artifacts or green to smooth your mana base.
Cube drafting is an exercise in the best parts of Magic. You tailor your deck, sorting through fun and powerful cards like constructed, but with the thrill of cracking a pack and the randomness contained within like limited. You will probably not go 5-0 on the first try. But this hopefully won't be the only time you draft. Besides, its not costing you anything!
Archetypes Even with the above assurance approaching a Cube is a daunting task. The following are some tips, archetypes, and synergies that will give you a better idea of what's possible in this Cube.
Tokens This Cube has a lot of tokens. Token makers like Captain of the Watch, Pentavus, and Scatter the Seeds. Token helpers like Overwhelm, Intangible Virtue, and Glorious Anthem. Things to do with tokens like Nezumi Bone-Reader and Barrage of Expendables. There's a lot of token cards and they're in pretty much every color but blue. Swarm with green and white tokens. Sacrifice red and black tokens. Keep an
Big Dudes Just as there are many tokens, there are many big dudes. Dudes like Plated Slagwurm, Verdant Force, and Frost Titan. There are many ways to get big dudes out; for example, Llanowar Elves, Braids, Conjurer Adept, Doomed Necromancer. Its hard to go wrong with big dudes.
Control Control is for people who love saying no. Classic control cards are Counterspell, Wrath of God, and Serra Angel. In black there's Reckless Spite and Magus of the Abyss. Win with one or two creatures. Cruise through the game on an Archaeomancered Cataclysm. Keep blue mana open.
Tempo Tempo plays creatures with come-into-play effects. It negates opponent's creatures and leaves behind 2-power bodies. Cards like Frost Lynx, Doom Blade, and Hypnotic Specter are tempo cards. Cheap guys with discard and counterspells.
Aggro Whether its Zoo (red, white, green weenie), Goblins, or Suicide Black, Aggro decks close out the game on turn 5. Pack burn, cheap high-power creatures, and if you're lucky an Armageddon. Flexible in card-pool, inflexible in strategy. Some good cards are Wild Nacatl, Lightning Bolt, and Carnophage.
Five-Color Good Stuff The original Cube archetype, five-color good stuff is all about power. If there's a busted card, grab it. If not, take as many dual-lands and signets as possible. This deck is just a pile of reason to quit playing Magic. It usually is based around a green shell for cards like All Suns' Dawn, Joiner Adept, and Quirion Dryad. Not for the faint of heart.
Weird Little Synergies Those are the main archetypes that I had in mind while making the Cube, but that doesn't mean that that's all you can make. Muzio, Visionary Architect, Empyrial Armor, and Howl of the Nightpack all have their place, but those places are for you to explore and define.
