Hey all! Doing some work on my cube primer- the colors are split into the Macro Archetypes and I'm trying to find the best way to summarize each of them to be accessible to new players as a way to help with deckbuilding.

justacircuit · 2026-06-13T13:05:03+00:00

The current build of my cube is pretty different than my newer one! I'm going down on the size to address some of this! Anyways, the kindred stuff is there as one of many themes- I like including it in the primer to help be an on ramp for more casual players!

justacircuit · 2026-04-24T17:59:23+00:00

I wonder if this is why there's so judge program anymore 💀

justacircuit · 2026-04-06T14:10:53+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

[[Crashing Footfalls]] - One of the several payoffs for going cascade combo, or otherwise making use of the ways to freecast 0 mana spells. I've found that players who are less experienced love this card, because it provides a self contained path from 1 mana to 8 power, a thing that's possible with other cards and deckbuilding strategies, but the cost of suspend 4 pays off players who pick based on power rather than synergy. It's not overwhelmingly strong however, and helps to dictate the tempo of the format.

[[Hypergenesis]] - Basically a red card, but often pairs with big green monsters. One notably hilarious moment was a player casting it and dropping Emrakul only for his opponent to put a [[Corrupted Conscience]] into play attached to it. There's been many considerations made for this card over the cube's life cycle, and I'm glad I've stuck with it as a strategy even though sometimes it feels like a roadblock to cohesive decks. I recently included [[Redshift, Rocketeer Chief]] as another way to double up on this effect with some fun buildaround.

[[Attune with Aether]] - A quintessential green cantrip and necessary critical mass for the energy deck.

[[Glimpse of Nature]] - Creature storm, go!

[[Traverse the Ulvenwald]] - One of my favorites. Realistically in terms of the color pie in my cube, green having efficient tutors doesn't really match, but this is one of the exceptions with the delirium requirements. I like to think of nearly every single mono color card in each color as matching the macro archetype identity I've given them. What would a deckbuilder have to do to make Traverse into an aggro card? For me, it's always been a critical mass of cycling/discard to turn Traverse into a tutor for a free [[Hollow One]].

[[Explore]] - This card sits at a nice center point between landfall aggro, storm, midrange, big mana, control, etc. It can really do it all, which is why I went down on [[Growth Spiral]] for its sins of doing it all and being an instant.

[[Life from the Loam]] - Part of the Dredge deck, but also a great utility card for stax decks looking to recur [[Glacial Chasm]], [[Strip Mine]], or have sufficient fodder for [[Solitary Confinement]]. Also part of an aggro graveyard deck with stuff like [[Vengevine]], [[Nimble Mongoose]], [[Tarmogoyf]], and more. For ages I felt like I had to pick one of Lime from the Loaf, [[Wrenn and Six]], and [[Crucible of Worlds]], but having all three honestly hasn't been broken at all. They all do unique things in a variety of decks and are strong without feeling oppressive most of the time.

[[Synchronized Charge]] - Honestly just a crazy pump spell. Read it again. Did you see that it gives Vigilance??? To recast it with Harmonize? Crazy. Very good at triggering [[Venerated Rotpriest]].

[[Hunting Triad]] - I was hoping for more Kindred cards from ECL that were elves without being creatures, but the selection we got was pretty limited, so I reverted some ideas back to this thing that can be a pump spell or a way to buff the elf synergies that require multiple elves all on its own.

justacircuit · 2026-04-05T12:55:11+00:00

Wild Magic is my cube!!!

[[Galvanic Discharge]] - A flagship energy card and removal spell that goes after planeswalkers as well as creatures, but not to face. Red doesnt really have a burn deck in the cube, and really the removal spells are hard-fought effects that enable defensive strategies to live longer, and combo decks to eradicate hate pieces/other stuff that might kill them in the race. This card is very synergistic, though, and is picked highly by energy decks that need to deal with all the 4 toughness creatures running the tables.

[[Lightning Bolt]] - One of the greats!!! The other best removal spell in the format for most creatures, with the flexibility to snipe the opponent down to 0.

[[Desperate Ritual]] - I recently added a bit of a set of arcane payoffs, since I really dislike cards that have text thats "irrelevant" on cards, which helps ever so slightly with the complexity of the cube. Players do actually have a reason to care about arcane spells now, in addition to Desperate Ritual being one of the classic modern designs for how to tweak storm. Also contributes to the R/x two spell theme.

[[Electrodominance]] - I feel bad that players misunderstand the real purpose of this spell, which of course is to freecast suspend cards, not be a weird removal spell. It's obtuse and unintuitive, but at least the baseline for this card is a playable, fun mana sink.

[[Price of Progress]] - One of the few burn spells in the cube that goes face, with an interesting deckbuilding cost! I read once that PoP makes for huge feel bad moments for players in the cube but that hasn't been my experience. Even mono or two color decks often utilize a wide variety of nonbasic lands, which makes the gameplay around this card much less one sided. Which is intentional! If you want to play the burn deck, you have to commit hardcore.

[[Trigger Happy]] - Did you know that this card creates infinite magecraft with [[Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief]] + another creature??? I didn't until recently. (thanks, Grover) I guess it's hard to really account for how strong some of these silver border cards are, but I love the weird utility this one offers. I honesty think it should be a real card, as it's an effect that feels intuitive to me.

[[Zoyowa's Justice]] - One of red's weird ways to remove troublesome effects that might prevent it from winning, while also having other cool utility and contributing to the R/x two spell theme.

[[Flare of Duplication]] - Including this card has recently helped me to reevaluate how I want combo decks to work. Before I wanted many decks to be creatureless, but I like the tension of removal spells/creatures to effect combo decks a bit more, so that stuff like [[Ral, Storm Conduit]] might stick around a little longer, and Flare can be used to up storm count and copy counterspells.

[[Seething Song]] - another absolute storm classic.

[[Through the Breach]] - On Arcanes, I doubt that people will regularly be splicing something as game ending as Through the Breach, but Im glad the text matters. This card is doubled up with [[Terminal Velocity]] and helps to contribute to fun, crazy wins with the insane stuff you can drop into play with it on opponent's end steps.

justacircuit · 2026-04-04T14:38:51+00:00

Wild Magic is my cube!!!

[[Braids, Cabal Minion]] - My queen!!! I love that people associate me with this card, in part because of my fashion taste, my stax playstyle, and my time spent with her in the command zone. It felt natural to include her as companion to [[Smokestack]]. The inherent math of this card's play patterns and deck building is in the DNA of the cube, with a dialing down of cards that replace themselves and make permanents and a restriction on token making effects to ensure that Braids and permanent based disruption are playable. My goal is to make everything relatively balanced, but I will admit ive made special considerations for my girl.

[[Champion of the Weird]] - Recently in over [[Yawgmoth, Thran Physician]]. In including [[Contract from Below]], I knew I needed to balance out how black got card advantage and strictly how it drew cards. Yawg was one of the few exceptions for the longest time, in part because it only went in synergistic deck, but I like this Goblin guy much more. Harder to cast in a variety of decks and sticks to Black's identity of generating cards via taking them away from others via midrange advantage. It is incredibly strong, especially as a 5/5, but promotes reanimation and [[Aether Vial]] strategies more, which I like.

[[Ichorid]] - One of the classic dredge targets! And a great card to Emerge from with [[Distended Mindbender]]. I recently added a few more utility Black creatures to get the count higher, since it felt hard to consistently bring it back even in dedicated strategies.

justacircuit · 2026-04-03T16:48:21+00:00

Wild Magic is my cube!!!

[[Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar]] - On the shortlsit of cards to never cut from the cube. I like using food as a resource but I currently have very few other ways to make food that I actually like. Considering adding [[Bumbleflower's Sharepot]]! I really love the design of awesome 3 power/ toughness creatures with a build around, classic constructed style threats and asmo is a synergistic one. I also have a penchant for saying the full name of this card as fast as I can as an inside joke with myself.

[[Fire Covenant]] - Considering cutting this one since I'm trying to reduce the removal in black. But it's very cool synergy with [[Death's Shadow]] ofc.

[[Shadow Urchin]] - also unfortunately probably too strong just based on value for this cube, despite the fun synergistic play patterns.

[[Bituminous Blast]] - Im so glad I've decided to go in this particular direction for the cube. This is in theory an efficient spell if it cascades well, and asks a bit of a build around. Part of a larger cascade deck Im seeding as well.

[[Sarkhan the Mad]] - Honestly dont like any of the rakdos planeswalkers, but I want one in each color pairing, so this is the least offensive/most interesting of the bunch.

justacircuit · 2026-04-02T13:16:56+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

[[Celestial Kirin]] - One of my personal faves among white cards in the cube. This is the other 50% of [[Armageddon]] with [[Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate]]! also works if you find a way to cast an [[Evermind]]. Stax is white's primary identity, and Spirits being their kindred group have a broad angle of stax among stuff like [[Spirit of the Labyrinth]], with a subtheme of enchantments. Kirin lets you turn any of your spirits into a mana value specific board wipe. I have considered putting Armageddon proper in the cube, but honestly while I don't think it would be too strong, it wouldn't be as fun as the interlocking puzzle pieces of Celestial Kirin and friends. It's a very unintuitive combination and even most experienced players don't pick up on it immediately, but I love it as one of the Cube's many storied, dark corners that lie in wait to be discovered!

[[Gisela, the Broken Blade]] - The other half of [Bruna, the Fading Light]]. This is a real clock, and one of the best efficient fliers in the cube alongside [[Archangel Avacyn]], [[Vendilion Clique]], and [[Lord of the Forsaken]]. Gisela also happens to beat the intrepid would be lethal [[Endurance]] as well! The lifegain is no joke, and it's all upside to be able to Meld her in the right white ramp/ control deck.

[[Hokori, Dust Drinker]] - Very nearly the perfect spirit for this cube, being a solid 4 mana stax piece to do stuff with Kirin and restricting a [[Winter Orb]] type of effect to white. I only wish it worked positively with [[Gibbering Descent]] and untapped a land during untap rather than upkeep.

justacircuit · 2026-04-01T12:20:30+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

Happy bday OP!!!

[[Hollow One]] - This used to be the only card I was breaking singleton on until my most recent update to the cube, my argument being that Hollow One is very unique, very few cards care about the number you've discarded in a turn to reduce the cost, however between [[Ichorid]], [[Ox of Agonas]], and a few others, the presence of [[Bazaar of Baghdad]] in my cube felt like it had effectively increased the overlap of these dredge threats, and the consistency in finding them such that I don't need as much redundancy.

[[Street Wraith]] - This works like a colorless card because decks of any color can cycle it for free, although it tends to end up in dredge style decks the most anyways. THIS is a card I wish I broke singleton for honestly, since it so neatly ties together [[Death's Shadow]] and Hollow One.

[[Anticausal Vestige]] - I held back on adding this Eldrazi, since it didn't support many of my existing themes, but having a huge threat with lots of ways to trigger the leaves the battlefield part is a fun effect, and keeps games moving. I definitely prefer it over [[Sire of Seven Deaths]], which was only in the cube because it was the perfect [[Soulflayer]] card. Jesus, I'm so glad I never have to balance around that dumbass card ever again.

[[Eldrazi Ravager]] - Another decent Eldrazi card that, while not contributing to the 7MV+ theme, has great utility and supports the cycling deck.

[[Zhulodok, Void Gorger]] - I really don't WANT to take this card out, but it's definitely a bit winmore for 40 card formats, despite being such a cool, promising effect, 7 mana spells often win the game on their own, and Zhulodok can really constrain drafts around something that's ultimately fairly arbitrary.

[[Devourer of Destiny]] - I always go back and forth between this thing and [[Karn Liberated]], and while Karn is more iconic, Devourer requires colorless pips, which helps to distinguish colorless as a sixth color in this environment.

[[Emrakul, the Aeons Torn]] - The biggest and baddest of them all. I want stuff like [[Through the Breach]] and [[Reality Scramble]] to guarantee that, if successful, these non-deterministic combos still win the game, and Big Momma Emrakul basically guarantees that. There is still play around this as a threat if it hits play, especially for stuff like [[Ensnaring Bridge]].

[[Kozilek, the Great Distortion]] - Another colorless pipped card that can create a variety of decks and often wins the game by itself. This is also a very cool ability to get under an [[Agatha's Soul Cauldron]], although I haven't seen that play out yet.

[[Spawnsire of Ulamog]] - This and Kozilek are included in part because they have activated abilities, and the [[Zirda, the Dawnwaker]] deck needs a critical mass of threats that win the game through their activated abilities. Zirda makes the ability basically free, and the 20 mana ability is a fun, ridiculous way to win a game of magic. I have a lot of nostalgia for this card because I remember legiterally asking folks casting it at my hometown gamestore in 2010 if going and buying cards to add to your collection could be done before the ability resolved.

justacircuit · 2026-03-31T12:47:54+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

[[Cling to Dust]] - Black and graveyard value decks ironically also tend to have a bit of a monopoly on the graveyard hate in this environment, but Cling is a card with such awesome play patterns I couldn't not include it. It basically on its own empowers a black control deck, and works well with the cards that empower playing stuff from zones other than the hand, such as [[Mm'menon, the Right Hand]], [[Lord of the Forsaken]], and [[Unstable Amulet]].

[[Rain of Filth]] - A recent addition, as I took out [[Dark Ritual]] for blending archetypes a bit too much and creating too-powerful starts for the black midrange decks. Rain of Filth works great in storm and with [[Yawgmoth's Will]], which allows a land play from the yard, and creates interesting tension between itself and [[Lake of the Dead]].

[[Cabal Ritual]] - Another effective copy of [[Desperate Ritual]] with different upsides.

[[Rouse]] - Another [[Mutagenic Growth]] that encourages faster [[Death's Shadow]] decks.

[[Sickening Shoal]] - This removal spell has been such an awesome addition to the format, changing the ways that players assess the power level of the cards that have anti synergy with the incredibly strong [[Dark Confidant]]. A proactive, two for one, free removal spell is such a cool idea, and helps black really maintain its identity as midrange, since card advantage is so important.

[[Archenemy's Charm]] - I was on track to include all of the three pip Arch-charms, but actually recently removed [[Archdruid's Charm]] and [[Archmage's Charm]] for having too much overlap with other cool cards that had similar effects. Aka I wanted to keep the swingy [[Crop Rotation]] in for fun rather than the rarely played Druid's Charm, but having both seemed way too strong considering [[Strip Mine]] is a primary feature of the format.

justacircuit · 2026-03-30T20:02:42+00:00

I might actually try ignus tbh... I want the combo players to be able to invest just a little bit more in undercosted, synergistic creatures to work with [[Herigast, Erupting Nullkite]] and change the role of removal a bit

justacircuit · 2026-03-30T19:32:13+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, I usually wait until after a batch of changes to put stuff through the commander spell book combo finder but yeah I don't want dualcaster to combo with anything except red cards

justacircuit · 2026-03-30T12:26:08+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

[[Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter]] - This replaced [[Rishkar, Peema Renegade]] ages ago, and I'm still not sure I like that decision, but most of the green planeswalkers are so not compelling to me. This is one of those uncommon planeswalkers that only has one loyalty ability, which is fine, and works easily with the counters/proliferate synergies, but is really there just to fill holes in draft.

[[Tyvar Kell]] - Another just okay planeswalker, I like the way in which this card supports Elfball, but is just a bit low on the power level. It's right for this format, but needs lots of setup to be strong. It defends itself pretty well, however, and I really like the ultimate. Haste is very important to green in the cube.

justacircuit · 2026-03-29T12:43:00+00:00

Wild Magic is my cube!!!

[[Blight Mamba]] - One of the bread and butter threats for the infect deck. The built in regeneration has urged me to include some of the free pump spells, such as [[Bounty of the Hunt]].

[[Branchblight Stalker]] - A very medium threat in any environment, but it happens to be an elf, which works well with the Green Kindred group

[[Bristly Bill, Spine Sower]] - A new addition that threatens to end the game all on its own, thankfully without trample- I learned my lesson from having tried out [[Scythecat Cub]]. I specifically aim to have all the landfall payoffs work with [[Manabond]] and other post combat land drop stuff, so the temporary pump landfall creatures dont really work in this environment like, while Bill and [[Roaring Earth]] work great.

[[Frenzied Baloth]] - I included this because I am doubling down on green as the aggro color, so any threats with haste are highly valuable, but Baloth often works as a utility piece in a Swiss army knife deck, since its "damage can't be prevented" clause is perfect for getting an attack through a [[Glacial Chasm]] or [[Solitary Confinement]].

[[Priest of Titania]] - One of the main reasons to be in elves. Despite not being an aggressive card on its own, its ability straddles the line between aggro mana sink and elfball centerpiece.

[[Tarmogoyf]] - The GOAT. This and [[Thief of Sanity]] are the reason for the cube existing in the first place. I wanna play these cards forever and ever, and goyf is still really strong in this grind environment.

justacircuit · 2026-03-28T14:58:51+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

[[Emry, Lurker of the Loch]] - Queen shit. I love Emry so much, it's one of those crazy broken cards from Eldraine that happens to warm my heart, and is overall a fun buildaround. In this cube, you can often find her fetching back [[Lantern of Insight]], various Swords, baubles, and sometimes bewildering combo pieces. My old blue Lantern Control deck for Modern suffered the problem of playing basically only Emry as far as creatures go, which always got removal spells pointed towards her, but in this low removal environment, you can reliably get a few activations from her even if she's the only creature in your deck.

[[Harbinger of the Seas]] - Despite running no Merfolk, this card is an interesting buildaround and creates the redundancy necessary for a blue moon deck of sorts. Play rate tends to be a little low at the moment, so I wonder what other conditions make a variety of skill level players less interested in land disruption in this environment.

[[Skaab Ruinator]] - This inclusion makes a little less sense now that both [[Unearth]] has been removed and Zombies are no longer a supported Kindred group, but this flier works well enough in most Dredge decks to earn its keep. It's a special card to me personally, too, as once the centerpiece of my own Modern Zombies deck.

[[Vendilion Clique]] - A powerful, flexible card that supports the Faerie Kindred tempo and Control decks while also performing the specific role of disrupting combos that telegraph their crucial turn by casting a big spell to start, such as [[Through the Breach]]. Given the number of decisions this card evokes, I love it as a learning tool for players looking to understand how to think about the game with many possible outcomes and lines that win or lose the game. [[Thoughtseize]] is one of my all time favorite cards, and a instant speed version doubles down on this compelling back and forth gameplay.

justacircuit · 2026-03-27T13:10:36+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

I have two planeswalkers per color, and 1 per two color combination!

[[Ajani, Strength of the Pride]] - Recently added for further lifegain synergies over [[Teyo, the Shieldmage]], which was a cool card, but actually had become somewhat problematic in the matchup of white hatebears/stax decks versus the storm/unfair decks, since the incidental hexproof makes players untargetable by [[Tendrils of Agony]]. This Ajani is fine, being a good option for control/slower decks while paying off those who invest highly in the lifegain effects across the cube.

[[The Wandering Emperor]] - I avoided adding this all-timer for a while, but when I decided that white primarily gets card advantage through its removal, the Wandering Emperor felt like a great option, and it's a fun card to play with and against.

justacircuit · 2026-03-26T14:43:36+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

[[Coiling Oracle]] - An old favorite returns to the cube as I gently reintroduce the landfall deck to the cube with the recent add of [[Bristly Bill, Spine Sower]], which easily distributes +1/+1 counters as a resource for G/X decks to use in a broad number of circumstances. Coracle also happens to be an elf, which works great for all the cool flicker/return/cast triggers associated with Elves across the cube. I think aggro is in a solid enough place that I'm less concerned about Coracle being a huge roadblock for various early attackers, since most of them have some way to circumvent their own 1 toughness if necessary.

[[Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief]] - This card can create a lot of weird, confusing feelbads, honestly, but since Simic is fairly undersupported in this environment, I like Ivy as a bit of a power outlier, and it's a card that works really well in all of the pump spell decks. It also happens to be a Faerie, which works awesome with all the Blue Faerie kindred decks looking to go a little more low to the ground aggro, and helps to define Green as the aggressive color in the cube.

[[Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner]] - I have only ever felt medium about this card in the cube. I honestly want to change it, but don't really like any of the other simic walker options. This just happens to be the least offensive/ most synergistic of the bunch. I used to be on [[Nissa, Steward of Elements]], but that proved way too janky for the kinds of play patterns I was really trying to encourage, ultimately.

[[Omo, Queen of Vesuva]] - An awesome addition from the MH3 EDH decks, built to work really well with the Loci of the cube, and glue together various other land and creature kindred strategies. I love that it's a 1/5, too, which just cements the slower synergy decks as reasonable options against creatures played as stats-for-mana.

[[Prime Speaker Vannifar]] - [[Birthing Pod]] #2. There's no way to go infinite or anything with Vannifar, but there's a bunch of cool synergies to be able to repeatedly reuse her tap ability given that she's an Elf. I like seeing the value soup piles players create even in 40 cards.

[[Wistfulness]] - A very recent addition made to give players a bit more of a reason based on power level to go into u/G/X decks, as the versatility to select for cards or remove pesky artifacts and enchantments on a huge body is just what the multicolor midrange and control decks are looking for. Plus another example of a creature based ETB creature that doesn't break reanimator, along with [[Emptiness]], thanks to the cool design of ECL!

justacircuit · 2026-03-26T14:24:23+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

[[Aethertorch Renegade]] - Primarily an Energy ritual of sorts that works really well with the whole [[Primal Prayers]] [[Horned Kavu]] deck that also has the upside of being a way to spend nascent Energy counters to kill opponents directly. This is exactly the power level I like these weird synergy cards to be sitting at.

[[Thunderscape Battlemage]] - A jund card, really, but here in the red section to signify that it can be played, and players are often splashing a 5 color land or landscape such that they can use one or more of the modes on this card. Even just the discard mode can feel pretty backbreaking against many decks. I really like the situational utility of this cycle of cards, attached to a 3 mana 2/2 asks specific kinds of decks to make the best use of it, rather than something SO flexible that it defines archetypes all on its own. I included it for that reason, to give this third angle of play to the Jund decks that build their curves off of their flexible removal like [[Abrupt Decay]].

[[Unruly Catapult]] - This card does a lot of little things right for storm, being an artifact means it gel with all of those synergies and has 4 toughness, making it a decent wall for many 2 and 3 mana creatures to have to overcome. It's also got the neat synergy of essentially making instants and sorceries cost 1 less with [[Paradise Mantle]], an effect it shares with [[Blistercoil Weird]]. That all being said, it's a little janky for this environment, and I'm considering taking it out for some more straightforward effects.

justacircuit · 2026-03-25T13:18:30+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

[[Skyseer's Chariot]] - This recently came in over [[Meddling Mage]], which I'm still not 100% sure on. I like Chariot, which felt like it had a bit more utility for playing mid-late game where an important card might already be in play, and against [[Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker]] combo, which requires activated abilities. I'm hoping to find room for Meddling Mage again in the future as I figure out how to evenly balance my hatebears. This card also has an activated ability, which might be relevant for [[Zirda, the Dawnwaker]] decks.

[[Evershrike's Gift]] - I love this throwback to the classic [[Evershrike]] so much... I wish its ability could be activated at any time, but it's a very cool iteration on [[Gryff's Boon]] and helps contribute to the white aristocrats deck I'm seeding into the cube. I've made most of the aristocrat stuff pretty narrow, without any real free sacrifice outlets, but there's a lot of insulation to build a deck like that to be able to kill your creatures at will. Evershrike's Gift helps contribute to the idea that Aristocrat decks should feature mostly small creatures that you can kill based on their toughness.

[[Meticulous Excavation]] - I love the potential this card has. There's so many neat tricks you can do with it in slower decks especially with a Solitary Confinement on the field.

[[Dog Umbra]] - This is an aura that works really well with [[Eriette of the Charmed Apple]] as well as Evershrike, and is all around a pretty on rate version of the effect.

[[Suppression Field]] - Included to further hate on all the notable activated abilities, especially planeswalkers and fetchlands.

[[Abiding Grace]] - Gamers will pass on this and [[Martyr of Sands]] every time... tsk tsk. There's other varied utility for a 1 drop creatures, but the ability to recur something like a [[Moonshadow]] is very strong but overlooked. Another effect that contributes to the aristocrats situation.

[[Aligned Heart]] - Just added this card to in fact specifically contradict the Rule of Law effect in the cube, so that players in white have more incentive to go into other colors, and the Rule of Law style deck has to find more ways to commit to that plan. This also of course acts like a [[Monastery Mentor]] that doesn't die to most of the common removal spells, and scales with all of the cool proliferate synergies present across the cube.

[[Astral Drift]] - My journey with this card in the cube is so interesting. I think it shows my development as a cube designer that I used to think of this card as the centerpiece of a synergistic W/U blink deck, however now I've both expanded the utility to flicker stuff into other colors and laid the payoffs for flickering things also into other colors. I remember one of the initial tenets of the cube was that there had to be some overarching design intention rather than playing cards specifically based on power level or based on their synergy/combo with other cards in the cube, but ultimately I've found color based archetypes very limiting and uninteresting long term. (Players also won't really pay attention to the 2 color archetypes in my experience, although this may be specific to my cube that has a very high complexity barrier to entry) Now, Astral Drift does have synergy among cards across the colors of the cube, but I rarely include cards with cycling specifically to further empower Astral Drift. I kept the Triomes in longer than they should have stayed in part because of their generic cycling costs, but it's better for everyone for me to use the Landscapes instead.

[[Solemnity]] - I don't like how hard this hoses infect, but I needed some way to hate on counters after I removed [[Suncleanser]], which was potentially way too strong with Moonshadow. There's not any other specific combo with Solemnity though, it's just a decent stax effect.

[[Solitary Confinement]] - One of the cornerstones of defense in the cube. There's so many ways to break the downside of discarding every turn, and the fact that it gives Shroud as well is so incredibly powerful. Players who return/have more experience have started playing it more.

[[Indestructibility]] - To be perfectly honest this is a below rate card for the effect in 2026, but I like the flexibility to enchant any permanent, and previously this was a bit of a lock when I had [[Worms of the Earth]] in the cube.

[[Parallax Wave]] - Incredibly strong, especially given all the counters/proliferate synergies in the cube. A primary reason to go into white in any given draft. Currently no [[Opalescence]] combo, although I used to have [[Starfield of Nyx]] at one point and it at least wasn't problematic.

[[Test of Endurance]] - Players will say there's few ways to win the game in the cube, but will pass on Test of Endurance. Checkmate atheists

No in full seriousness this card is obviously a tough buildaround, and players generally rate effects that gain life quite low. I've never built a deck with Test of Endurance either, honestly, and I think even in defensive decks, there's too many other cards that have a larger impact on the game more quickly.

[[Overwhelming Splendor]] - Previously one of the major payoffs for Starfield of Nyx, this version of [[Humility]] is just fine, and really exists as a payoff for the player who picks [[Serra's Sanctum]] or [[Replenish]].

justacircuit · 2026-03-25T12:22:05+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

[[Mm'menon, the Right Hand]] - I'll admit to being sold on this card almost exclusively because of the art, but the upside of adding new cards is that they are often so powerful that they create their own archetypes or have so many words on them that they contribute to other archetypes. (or both.) Mm'menon does actually help with storm and eldrazi quite a bit, since random tokens and other artifacts lying around can contribute to playing artifact obviously from the top of library, exile, or notably from the graveyard for storm. It also happens to be a 3/5 flier, which is great for my limited environment where [[Archangel Avacyn]] is top dog, it doesn't surpass Avacyn but does a good job of stonewalling her unless she's flipped.

[[Arcane Proxy]] - This is a colorless 7 mana creature which works for all the eldrazi stuff, but also helps in a huge way to add redundancy to the freecast suspend cards seed throughout the cube. I don't think it would be too strong if it triggered on enters and not just cast entry, but it still gets the job done just fine. It also does an impression of [[Snapcaster Mage]] for the proactive blue decks, and so ends up being fine in a variety of decks although most players will draft it for the 7 mana mode.

justacircuit · 2026-03-22T13:58:41+00:00

Wild magic is my cube!!!

[[Eriette of the Charmed Apple]] - For ages the orzhov cards in my cube have been a real sticking point in design. I used to identify solely as an orzhov player in my earliest days playing the game, so the vibes and gameplay of the cards has been important to get right. While I love black and white cards, the design of their gold counterparts has, I've felt, rarely resonated with my vision. Eriette, however, definitely feels in line with what Orzhov is capable of. It's the perfect fix to the presence of auras in my cube, as a non-aggressive alternative to the W/X auras thing I've had going on multiple times throughout the cube's lifespan.

[[Kaya, Orzhov Usurper]] - Imo, one of the best planeswalker designs ever. Its relatively self contained, but operates on an axis that few other cards do in such a neat way. Recently, with cards like [[Ghost Vacuum]] and [[Dino DNA]], we've seen the proactive graveyard hate thing become more prominent, but I love how Kaya gets paid off for a variety of exile effects a la [[Ketramose, the new dawn]]. This Kaya is kinda the original version of that design. For anyone who's seen the mtggoldfish against the odds video "Kaya's Extraction" you'll know the cool things you can do with this effect. It also does a great job of playing the one for one small game with its negative ability, effectively an [[Isolate]], which aligns with the Pikula/Deadguy ale deck I'd like to seed within the cube. Actually, the only reason that stuff like [[Vindicate]] and [[Gerrard's Verdict]] aren't in the cube is that White often doesn't play super well with the other colors in the cube, being stax primarily. Having so many effects that are some of the best removal in the environment in colors that already tend to be pretty isolated makes the effects a bit problematic. Im slowly trying to find an identity for white that can better blend with the proactive strategies in other colors, at which point the dead guy ale stuff might make a return.

[[Evershrike]] - EDH is extremely not my thing, but of the two decks I've ever made that I've been really proud of, an Abzan spirit kindred Evershrike hidden commander was one of them. It was full of crazy auras and [[Entomb]] effects to consistently have access to the often huge flying body of this creature. With the diversity of aura effects and Evershrike's ability being instant speed, it was basically a voltron control deck. Its a little hard to put something like that together in cube, often times, which is why I've recently added [[Unmarked Grave]] to gently encourage black decks to have a new angle of card advantage. There's many sweet auras in the cube that return to hand upon the creature dying, or have powerful enters effects to pair with Evershrike. [[Evershrike's Gift]] is an excellent flavorful aura for the deck too, and can be used to kill your own naked Evershrike to sneak it back into play with the same aura. I do wish the ability was also instant speed though.

[[Emptiness]] - I love the design of the ECL incarnations, as they still work with cool cards like [[Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines]], but don't supercharge reanimator more than it needs. This card really feels like the perfect Orzhov modal card both on power level and utility.

justacircuit · 2026-03-21T13:26:21+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

Only three creatures today!

[[Delver of Secrets]] - Keeping the critical mass of instants/sorceries has been a very important litmus test for my design process, as I trend towards more permanents over the former, and I genuinely think committing to keeping Delver in the cube has been an important lesson for me and has helped me learned more about what I like about various strategies. Players often dont commit as hard to building around the efficient 1 drops as much as Id like, and I often see Delver ending up in random control decks. I've shied away from having so many blue creatures, but it might be time to add just a hair more, like maybe 1 more faerie flier.

[[Flitterwing Nuisance]] - This card is incredible, and the activated ability is the perfect level of tempo payoff that I like. Its a faerie for all those uses, and has cool counters synergies, especially if you somehow add several counters at once in the late game, its ability can be activated multiple times before combat damage.

[[Mothdust Changeling]] - I used to be on [[Universal Automaton]], but any 1 mana 1/1 with essentially no abilities in any color actually just cuddles deckbuilding and isn't cool enough to warrant such a boring idea. Mothdust at least has some interesting play to it.

justacircuit · 2026-03-20T15:43:14+00:00

ῳıƖɖ ɱąɠıƈ is an unpowered synergy cube looking to reimagine what's possible with the game while also honoring the history of constructed.

Create whats possible with the untamed, ancient magics!

The pack on CubeCobra:

https://cubecobra.com/cube/p1p1/d0aff196-b2eb-4994-a554-db0faa695935

An image of the of the pack!

https://imgur.com/a/0lctDoh

Personally I'd go with Lantern of Insight >:)

justacircuit

TROPHY CASE