Hello, I'm Kyle O'Neill (@imkyleoneill).

I have designed many different cubes and have organized a weekly Cube night for the six years I've worked at Wizards of the Coast. I am the senior retail development representative for the Wizards Play Network, working with game stores to build communities and bring our games to life through organized play. My other credits include working on the Ravnica Guild Kits, as well as playtesting a myriad of other Magic, Dungeons & Dragons, and Avalon Hill games.

Today, I'm here to talk to you about the Core Set Cube, which you can play November 7 on Magic Online.

The Core Set Cube

Core sets are wonderful. They set the tone of that period in Magic's history. They provide a consistent reference point, a place to "check in" and see what Magic is up to in the broader sense. Looking through the card list for Seventh Edition tells a very different story than the Core Set 2019 card list, for example.

Core sets offer straightforward and flavorful play experiences, designed to cater to all types of players. They also happen to include some of the most popular cards ever made.

When designing the Core Set Cube, I wanted to be true to both the nature of core sets and the traditional Cube experience. I've taken the best of the best in terms of power level, flavor, and nostalgia. In doing so, I discovered a unique Cube environment that is a little more powerful than you might expect.

The basic design rules of this cube are simple:

It only includes core set cards from Seventh Edition to Core Set 2019. It's 540 cards, singleton. It has its own personality.

I'm a big fan of limiting my selection pool for cubes and seeing what new experiences can come from it. We get to play in an environment with unique interactions and play with cards that are plenty good on their own but don't quite make the cut for a more traditional cube.

Of course, there wasn't room for everything. I've excluded a fair amount of the famous color hosers and some of the more degenerate bombs. However, you might find yourself on the receiving end of a mountainwalk attack from a bunch of buffed Goblins or find it hard to kill a gigantic enchanted creature (unless you came packing enchantment removal).

Core Themes

The Core Set Cube leans a little more on ten color-pair themes (and five monocolor themes!) that you can construct a strategy around. Many of the usual Draft archetypes are here, like white-blue control and red-white tokens. That said, these are not the only strategies available. Experiment with the card pool and discover new exciting strategies to try!

White-Blue Control

You have access to the strongest board wipes, paired with counterspells to keep the opponent at bay. How could you lose? But how do you win, you ask? Fair players might opt to swing in with their Frost Titan a few times, but the real champions will resolve Bribery and win with whatever the opponent has instead.

Blue-Black Reanimator

Transform

Draw cards and ditch big creatures to your graveyard, then reanimate them. How fast can you get a Demon of Death's Gate into play? This deck also works well with countermagic and some of the most powerful black removal options. Maybe you could take one of your opponent's cards.

Black-Red Sacrifice

There's no feeling quite like casting Threaten on your opponent's giant threat and either attacking with it or feeding it to one of your other creatures. Red and black both have small and recursive creatures that can stand to die a few times.

Red-Green Beatdown

Do you like to just cast huge creatures? We've got that, too. Apply early pressure with cheap beaters, then Overrun your opponent. If you want to go even bigger, try midrange instead! With plenty of acceleration, you can resolve a Bogardan Hellkite in no time.

Green-White Auras

Put Auras on things! Verduran Enchantress will dig you deeper into the deck while you make endless Angel tokens with Sigil of the Empty Throne. Put Angelic Destiny on a hexproof creature, like Troll Ascetic, and watch your opponent crumble under pressure.

White-Black Big Lifegain

With aggressive creatures running amok, this color combination has the tools to get itself out of reach. Double your life a few times, and put Archangel of Thune on your frontlines with a bevy of other life-gaining creatures. Dip into black for the game-ending Sorin's Vengeance. Take 10?

Blue-Red Spellslinging

Blue and red feature some of the more flexible cards that slot into a number of archetypes. Do you want to take a bunch of turns with Nexus of Fate? Would you rather sling powerful X spells like Mind Spring and Fireball? All-star cantrips like Ponder, Preordain, and Sleight of Hand help you keep the party going.

Black-Green Graveyard

Ach, Hans, run! It's the Lhurgoyf! Dump creatures into your graveyard and reap the rewards with huge graveyard scavengers and recursive payoffs like Bone Dragon. The value creatures in green mixed with efficient removal options in black adds up to a midrange deck that just keeps coming.

Red-White Tokens

Trumpet Blast is one of my favorite cards, so I had to include an archetype to enable it. Flood the board with tokens to go wide and destroy your opponent before they get a chance to stop you. Pump your team and get in for damage with classics like Glorious Anthem.

Blue-Green Value Bounce

Don't sleep on this one. Control the board and eke out value with the best enters-the-battlefield effects core sets have to offer. Sunken Hope will keep your opponent off balance, and beefy beaters like Stampeding Wildebeests crash in for damage while buying back your value creatures. How many times can you cast or copy Pelakka Wurm?

Monocolor

Due to the restrictive card pool, you'll notice that the Core Set Cube only has a small number of multicolored cards and mana-fixing lands. A side effect of this is that it has a lot of support for monocolor strategies. Each color has its own unique strengths, so don't worry if you end up with seventeen of the same basic land in your deck.

Mono-White Army

Transform

White wants to flood the board with cheap creatures and tokens, then pump the team up and plow through the opponent's forces. Some creatures—like Imposing Sovereign—also serve as ways to falter your opponent's efforts to slow you down.

Mono-Blue Artifacts

Core sets have some iconic artifacts, and they tend to work well with blue. Mana rocks ramp you to some of the bigger threats, or you could take to the skies with a brigade of Thopter tokens.

Mono-Black Swamps

Black likes Swamps. A lot of Swamps. Put Swamps in your deck and include other cards that care about Swamps! Straightforward. Super effective. Swampy.

Mono-Red Goblins

Goblins are the poster boys of red, and they're a lean, mean, face-smashing machine. Arguably the best Goblins we've ever made are in core sets, so get a piece of this action-packed tribe!

Mono-Green Ramp

Green ramps into beefy creatures. That's just what it does! Tower over your opponent faster than you can say "Forest, Llanowar Elves, go." You could also try building an Elf tribal deck if you fancy that instead.

20 Things to Try

That's all for now. I hope you enjoy this cube as much as I have and gain a fonder appreciation for the power of core sets. See you in the queues!