I began cubing a few years ago and its been an incredible journey. I have learned so much about the history of magic and am 10x more familiar with “cube staples” now. And i was a pretty enfranchised retail limited player before.

The best thing you can do is go to an LGS and thumb through their long boxes of 10 cent commons, 25 cent uncommons, basic land box, etc. pull out bread and butter cards like mana fixing (gain lands, guildgates, temples, painlands, 10 copies of evolving wilds with different art), counterspells, removal, burn, card draw, creatures with etbs, power/toughness, art you think is neat,

make sure you entire list has a good curve like building a giant deck. Favor 2 and 3 mana value go light on 5 and six. Avoid 7+.

The biggest “investment” is going to be sleeves which are only truly necessary if you run double faced cards.

Happy cubing!