It's about that time again for us to dive deep into some Legacy Cube drafts! Many of our recent updates have changed only a few cards, so we didn't feel the need to make any significant posts regarding those changes. This time around, though, we've got a ton of new changes. It's also worth discussing the differences behind the three primary cubes that we offer: Vintage, Legacy, and Modern.

Changes

Removal of blue devotion and the devotion Gods

The devotion Gods and the blue devotion payoffs have been removed from the Legacy Cube. The reasoning behind this change is that we want to give identities to the different cubes we offer. Modern Cube is much more about putting permanents onto the battlefield and creature combat. As a result, we decided to move the devotion themes to the Modern Cube. This provides the Legacy Cube a few more toys to play with as it tries to strike a balance between the "fairness" of Modern Cube and the power of Vintage Cube.

Monocolored cards with flashback costs of a different color are now considered monocolored

Historically, we've considered a card like Lingering Souls or Ancient Grudge to be a white-black or red-green card, respectively. This has always felt a bit off as there are plenty of times people play these cards in monocolored decks. These cards taking up gold slots has prevented us from putting in exciting gold cards that actually reward you for being in the open color combinations. For that reason, all cards with flashback costs of a different color will be considered monocolored for the purposes of color balance.

Cards with Phyrexian mana costs are now considered colorless (except Birthing Pod)

I can't be the only one who's put Dismember and Phyrexian Metamorph in decks where I can only cast them with their Phyrexian mana costs. Given that these cards have proven to be powerful enough to go in decks of any color, they will now be considered colorless cards. Birthing Pod is the exception here, as the only reasonable way for this card to be viable is in a creature-heavy green deck.

More colorless cards

The ratio of colorless cards to colored cards in Legacy Cube is significantly lower than it is for the other cubes. We have decided to add a few more colorless cards to have it be more in line with the other cubes. The increased number of colorless cards should add a bit more flexibility during the draft.

Reduction in planeswalkers

Lots of people love planeswalkers, as they are hard to remove and consistently provide value over time. That said, we seem to be over on the number of 'walkers. More people are drafting five-color Superfriends with a relatively high frequency, and while we still want that to be an archetype, we don't necessarily want to see battlefields bogged down with a bunch of planeswalkers either. We are starting off by cutting six planeswalkers and two double-faced planeswalkers and will continue monitoring from there.

Differences between the Vintage, Legacy, and Modern Cubes

Vintage

Vintage Cube is where everybody wants to do the most powerful and degenerate things in the history of Magic. Many of these strategies are unlocked by the abundance of very powerful artifacts that provide mana: Moxen, Sol Ring, Black Lotus, etc. Reanimate Griselbrand on turn one, Channel out an Emrakul on turn two, Empty the Cheons for 20 on turn four. These are the types of things that you should expect to see from the Vintage Cube. We truly hold nothing back in this cube and want you to enjoy the power of our historically strongest combos and interactions.

Legacy

Legacy Cube is in an interesting spot as it lives in a space that's exactly between the Vintage and Modern cubes. In it, you'll find many of the powerful combos that are available in Vintage Cube, but the lack of the powerful mana artifacts means that players will be given a larger window to interact before you Through the Breach in your Emrakul. Still, many powerful strategies are viable. Leaning into those strategies during the draft will make it feel like you're drafting a Constructed deck rather than a Limited one. With Legacy Cube, you'll have access to powerful linear strategies but still have good windows for counter-play.

Modern

Modern Cube is the newest addition to our Cube lineup. The type of gameplay expected from the Modern Cube is more about playing out permanents and playing a "real" game of Magic. It is much more about creature combat and card advantage. You shouldn't expect to be combo-killed out of nowhere at the rate that is available in the older cubes.

There's a challenge when curating the Modern Cube, as it will inherently be weaker than both the Vintage and Legacy Cube. Competing with those other cubes on that axis isn't an option, so we're going to take a different approach to make it fun. Our solution is to have the Modern Cube be the one with the most card churn. Every time the Modern Cube is run, we will infuse it with themes from recent sets. Expect to see a lot of sideways changes, instead of the upgrades we usually apply to other cubes. This should keep the Modern Cube looking fresh and very different from one update to the next.

The changelog for this update is large but an overhaul for the Legacy Cube was a long time coming. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about the changes, make sure to send DMs to Luis Scott-Vargas, as he's always quick to yell at me about poor Cube decisions. Hope you enjoy the over 100 changes made this time around. Happy cubing!

Legacy Cube League

The Legacy Cube Draft League begins at approximately 10 a.m. on March 27 and continues until 10 a.m. on April 25, when War of the Spark events will begin. (All times/dates use Pacific time.)

You can find the League by going to the Play Lobby, then choosing the Limited Tournaments and Leagues filters.

and filters. A League course is a draft plus up to three games, played on your schedule.

Entry into the League is either 10 Event Tickets or 100 Play Points.

Prizes are distributed as follows: 3 Wins – 150 Play Points 2 Wins – 100 Play Points 1 Win – 40 Play Points 0 Wins – 10 Play Points



Legacy Cube Single-Elimination Queue

You can find the Single-Elimination Queue by going to the Play Lobby, then choosing the Limited and Queues filters.

and filters. Draft, then best-of-three game matches, each lasting up to 50 minutes, until you reach 3 wins or 1 loss.

Entry into the Queue is either 10 Event Tickets or 100 Play Points.

Prizes are distributed as follows: 3 Wins – 220 Play Points + 1 QP 2 Wins – 160 Play Points 1 Win – 100 Play Points



Legacy Cube, as are all Cube offerings, is a Phantom Draft experience. Cards drafted will not be added to players' collections.