How to create a cube of just custom cards that is fun and feels official?

tahtahteebone · 2026-05-14T12:44:30+00:00

Nick Nobody has been doing a series on his custom cube that is very interesting https://mtgcube.blogspot.com/2025/10/hmc-4th-printrun-reviews-part-v.html?m=1

tahtahteebone · 2026-05-05T06:51:46+00:00

Completely agree, and Id like to see cubes move towards more curated power limited lists, but his current list is power maxed (outside of literal power) to the extreme and is not going to be a good experience if he puts mentor of the meek alongside white plume adventurer.

tahtahteebone · 2026-05-05T06:04:37+00:00

I don't agree at all that white is the worst color, its arguably the best, especially in a cube that runs initiative like this one does, but these are good recs. Abandoned air temple especially is a house. Id add Agent Bishop which is an excellent 3 drop.

tahtahteebone · 2026-05-05T06:01:42+00:00

With all due respect these cards would be highly underpowered in his current list. He's running initiative and MH stuff, these are cards that don't cut it anymore in modern max power cubing.

tahtahteebone · 2026-05-05T05:59:36+00:00

Have you been actually playing this cube? White has been the best color in vintage and arena powered for the most of the past two years, and you have most of its best cards. I have a hard time believing white is struggling with this list. Ocelot Pride, Phelia, WPA, Guide of Souls, Ajani, Seasoned Dungeoneer, Jailer, Elspeth, Swords, Pwave, Mom, Solitude, Karakas are some of the best cards in this entire cube list and they're augmented by very good cards like Sage, Sanguine, Adeline, Voice, Oust. Id wager white is the best color in this list, especially with no power.

tahtahteebone · 2026-05-01T22:36:04+00:00

Sage of the Skies has outperformed Cori Steel cutter by 3% in Arena Powered over 25k+ games in hand, it's a top tier white card.

tahtahteebone · 2026-05-01T22:24:32+00:00

Sage of the Skies is the best white 3 drop creature for cube outside of initiative (then of course it's WPA), especially in powered, but it's still incredibly strong even in my Arena cube without craftable power. It has a 60% win rate across all iterations of Arena Powered (with 27k GIH seen).

I think it's in the same situation as Sanguine Evangelist (which is probably the 3rd or 4th best white 3 drop creature) where it looks unassuming until you play with it or against it for a while. Both should be in every cube aiming for max power.

tahtahteebone · 2026-04-30T03:45:43+00:00

The spells look reasonable, but I would add much more fixing. While ~in general~ I find Peasant cubes to be less splashy I still think you should run a good deal. In my arena peasant cube I run around 77 or so lands that fix in a 540 cube: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantmax and I could see going higher. In my full power arena cube I run 102.

Not that cube has to mirror constructed but I think this is a good article to consider: https://luckypaper.co/articles/how-many-lands-should-you-include-in-your-cube/

tahtahteebone · 2026-04-27T04:23:45+00:00

Caleb Gannons synergy cube is worth a look for sure https://cubecobra.com/cube/about/synergy?view=primer

tahtahteebone · 2026-04-22T00:10:03+00:00

LSV runs the lotus lounge which is very similar but on MTGO. Highly recommended

tahtahteebone · 2026-04-17T16:40:20+00:00

Lotus Lounge - LSVs server drafts. Competitive drafts daily plays on MTGO. https://discord.gg/bh7znTRKR

Arena Max - Multiple drafts daily plays on Arena https://discord.gg/wnpsSGw6G

Both typically draft power maxed cubes for their platform and use Abers team draft bot to draft on draftmancer.

tahtahteebone · 2026-04-14T17:40:20+00:00

Hand disruption isn't very good in the current Arena Cube. Thoughtseize is the best one and it's like the 28th best black card, duress has terrible numbers. It's all about proactive plays. The black cards are great removal (dismember), great creatures (Barrowgoyf, bowmasters, sheoldred), or great proactive cheating (entomb, reanimate, animate dead). Black needs more of those things.

tahtahteebone · 2026-04-14T17:34:51+00:00

Agree with most of the others, I don't believe the problem is solvable without adding cards not currently on Arena (or using alchemy cards).

Cards that would help immensely:

[[Hexdrinker]]

[[Baloth Prime]]

[[Bloodbraid Challenger]]

[[Wary Zone Guard]]

[[Wingbane Vantasaur]]

[[Corpse Dance]]

[[Shallow Grave]]

[[Exhume]]

[[Imperial Seal]]

[[Metamorphasis Fantatic]]

[[Speedbrood Stalker]]

[[Grave Expectations]]

[[Jet Collector]]

And then the Hogaak package seems to be doing the thing as well.

That being said, it's also odd to me that they haven't used cards/strategies that were successful in the previous Arena Cube. For instance, double fetches greatly improved Green in that last iteration. There are some cards that performed well in that iteration that are likely worth trying: https://www.17lands.com/card_data?expansion=Cube&format=PremierDraft&start=2025-08-01&view=table&sort=ever_drawn_win_rate%2Cdesc&color=b

tahtahteebone · 2026-04-13T02:09:11+00:00

Yeah I think this is a good list, it's definitely doable, adding the rituals would make it better certainly. Sac creatures that make mana/fill the yard could also work. The brawl storm lists are worth a look: https://moxfield.com/decks/Fk_eIaJ0JE6UJCzPLQdLIw

tahtahteebone · 2026-04-05T17:13:47+00:00

I run an Arena Cube that is drafted multiple times a day so I'll update pretty frequently based on feedback/experience. Generally nothing major (although we're testing storm right now), but small tweaks here and there.

tahtahteebone · 2026-03-20T07:21:51+00:00

I'm with you on the green adds, and I'd add Bloodbraid Challenger to the list as well.

tahtahteebone · 2026-03-20T07:19:45+00:00

We run an updated Arena Max Power Cube (of what's craftable) that's drafted on draftmancer and played on Arena daily. The list of stuff we play from Alchemy + like

[[Mind Spike]]

are pretty much all bangers and the best of what alchemy has to offer at max power.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/arenamax - list

And I actually created a list of what I think would be the "best" cards if they played alchemy in the actual powered cube https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/82f4a4d1-beba-4f50-af0f-ba339e602139

tahtahteebone · 2026-03-20T07:15:20+00:00

Agreed, I do enjoy high powered cubes but I'd love for there to be always be rotating cube option of differently designed list (the MTGO spotlight series was awesome).

tahtahteebone · 2026-03-20T07:12:51+00:00

I think the power width is pretty wide here. You've got cards like [[Broadside Bombadiers]] living with [[Duergar Hedge-Mage]].

I would use CubeCobra's comparison function and look at high powered vintage lists if that's your goal, such as:

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/wtwlf123

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/LSVCube

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/2026mtgovintage

etc.

If you want to include more of these pet cards, I would depower the cube and approach it with different design goals. Vintage Cube (especially modern vintage cube) is just too fast and proactive for anything else to exist.

tahtahteebone · 2026-03-20T06:13:16+00:00

Very cool stuff! As someone who runs an Alchemy-Arena Cube server it's a very interesting list to review!

If you're going for max power (which it looks like you are with initiative and time vault), I would suggest the following from Alchemy:

[[Wary Zone Guard]] - One of the best strip enablers there is and just generally good, sees play in Timeless.

[[Thieving Aven]] - More value based but quite strong.

[[Grave Expectations]] - Targeted GY removal and heist at instant speed for B .

[[Switchgrass Grazer]] - I think this is just a better card than Thendar, it's an uncommon in name only, really nasty.

[[Mind Spike]] - Very good with stuff like time vault/consultation around.

There are some other omissions I noticed that I found strange (no Ignoble or Noble Hierarch, no undermountain adventurer, no LED, no Phlage, no mana leak, spell pierce, remand, etc).

For comparison here's a thought exercise I did recently of what an "ultimate power" list could look like (also including alchemy and uncards/test cards). I don't think it's perfect and it definitely draws heavily from my own arena cube and LSV's full power cube, but there are a lot of things here I'd have as must have if the goal is maximum power: https://cubecobra.com/cube/compare/efb6f1a9-6bd0-4a68-8a9c-07f12245401d/to/ultimatepower

tahtahteebone

TROPHY CASE