Introduction Welcome to Commander Cube! It is exactly what it sounds like, a draft experience with an emphasis on Legendary Creatures and Planeswalkers. Drafting this cube instead of playing our personal decks might be a good idea during times when players are looking for inspiration to make a new deck from, want to practice deckbuilding, or just want to do something different. This project is really ambitious and it’s fun to draft but it’s very different from regular cubes so I wrote this to explain some of the broad ideas, design philosophies, and special card types you will find within. But first, the rules; these rules have changed slightly since when I first made this Cube. Sections that are important to read are marked with an asterisk*. Drafting Rules* ● You will be drafting an 80 card deck using four packs of 20 cards. You will want between 30 and 34 lands. (The equivalent of the normal 17 land draft deck would be 34 here.) (The equivalent of a normal 38 land EDH deck would be 30 lands here but keep in mind, a constructed EDH deck has a healthier mana base and so therefore doesn’t need as many lands as a limited EDH deck here does.) ● You will be drafting 2 cards at a time from packs. 4 packs total. Switch direction when you pass packs between packs. Left, then right, then left again, then right again. ● You will draft your commander in the packs with the cards you will build your deck with. Pay particular attention to legendaries in the early part of the draft so you can find a Commander to begin building around early. ● Any planeswalker can be your commander. ● Only one regalia of each type is allowed per commander. Partners share regalia. ● Friendly mulligan. Just don’t be a dick. ● Players start with 40 life in multiplayer games and 25 life in one-on-one games. This reduced life in one-on-one allows aggressive decks to compete. Single player games are Best of One. ● Winner of the game gets a card from the prize pool and gets to sign one of the basic lands you used in your deck. ● After the game, everyone votes for their favorite deck. You get 2 votes. Your first vote is worth 2 points, your second vote is worth 1 point. You cannot vote for your own deck. The deck with the most points also gets a card from the prize pool. ● Please be careful with Cubeamajigs (the reusable packs) Design Philosophy Feeling epic while drafting This cube is focused on making a draftable commander experience. I wanted the experience to include some of the most classic cards from the format so plenty of these cards are ones you’ve likely seen before. However many of the classic cards are alternate art/extended/full art versions designed to make the draft feel special (nearly all are professionally made proxies). Hipster EDH cards As the EDH format has become more homogenized, the usual cards we play with have unfortunately become a bit stale. I’ve made a special effort to include many cards that are underplayed or never seen in our playgroup and the wider EDH community while still being playable and effective with many of the Commanders in this draft environment. Facilitating Multiplayer When WOTC released Commander Legends, the first set designed for EDH draft, the response from the player base was that games stalled out and slogged on for too long. To prevent this, I’ve made a concerted effort to avoid pillowfort strategies, encourage aggressive gameplay, and provide ample ramp and card draw so properly built decks are less likely to run out of gas. Do we draft legendaries separately? Many similar edh cubes have participants first draft a pack made up only of legendaries, letting them pick from possible commanders before starting to build their deck. I didn’t want to do that. I instead wanted there to be potential commanders mixed in through the entire draft, so players could evolve their decks and consider different commanders throughout the drafting process. There are over 130 potential commanders in the cube and when you include partner commanders, there are over a thousand different possibilities. Draft Matters Cards* There are also cards that have effects specifically related to drafting. They usually say on them, “draft this card face up” or “immediately reveal this card to your opponents when you draft this card”. The effects of these cards make the draft feel dynamic and help break up the monotony. Why is there a star sticker on some cards?* Star stickers communicate a couple things to drafters. Green stars denote a special rarity regalia that comes with the card when you draft it; the regalia is in the same sleeve with the card right behind it. Yellow stars denote a creature that is legendary even though the card itself doesn’t say legendary on it. That means you can use them as commanders. Pink stickers denote a card is errata’d for the purposes of this cube. Flexibility in Deckbuilding, Regalia?* The cube is singleton, meaning there’s only one copy of each card. The exception is regalia. Regalia are a draftable card type I created that help facilitate building a commander deck out of such a limited card pool. They aren’t magic cards in the sense that you actually play them or include them in your deck. Regalia belong in the command zone. This means they aren’t permanents and other cards can’t interact with them. When you decide to use them with your deck, they change the rules for deckbuilding, giving you flexibility in the form of an expanded color identity for your deck or bonus cards to add to your draft pool. There are 4 types of Regalia; Crowns, Scepters, Cloaks and Tattoos. Each type of regalia has a semi-consistent theme. Your commander can only bear one of each type of regalia. For example, if you draft 2 different crowns, you must choose to use only 1 when you begin building your deck. If you have 2 commanders, you still can only have 1 of each type of regalia between both commanders. You are required to reveal all regalia you are using to your opponent(s) at the start of the game. Regalia also have a rarity. There are three copies of each common regalia in the cube, so if you pass on one, you might see it again. Uncommon regalia have two copies. Rare regalia are singleton. Special Rarity regalia are included with a specific card as you draft it. I wanted to evoke the feeling of the commander format when players first discovered the game. The early part of the hobby where players start exploring through their card collection or their friends’ collections, piecing together unique synergies in piles of random cards throughout magic’s history. The challenge with this is that the commander format largely feels “solved” nowadays. By using online resources and their own trained natural instincts, players reliably know what the best cards are for specific commanders. The addition of Regalia to deckbuilding allows drafters to bend the rules of the commander format. My hope is that you will feel like you are in uncharted waters, even with cards you’ve seen hundreds of times before. Types of Regalia* Crowns : Crowns almost always modify your commander’s color identity. The Sapphire Crown, for example, allows you to include blue cards in your deck–even if your commander is mono-white. Your commander’s actual color does not change. Crowns do not influence gameplay, and you don’t have to track them other than to note what colors they let your opponent play. Scepters : Scepters generally pick a subset of cards (like auras or creatures) and let you add a few extra cards of that type to your draft pool during deckbuilding. All cards included with scepters must come from the undrafted card pool of the cube. (not players’ draft pool) Add these chosen cards to your draft pool and treat them like cards you drafted. After the draft, I will split up the undrafted cards into piles; if you have a scepter, pick a pile to look through for cards you might want to include. Once you’re done, you can swap your pile with one someone else is looking through, and see if there are any they aren’t using that you’d like. (This prevents conflicts over multiple people claiming the same card.) If your draft pod is the typical 4 player size, that means the total number of drafted cards will be over 300 cards, that leaves hundreds of cards to choose from when you use a scepter so they’re very powerful and versatile. Scepters do not let you choose regalia because they have no color, but you can pick cards to use as your commander. If you’re building a deck to a certain theme, it would be wise to grab a scepter to give you those last few playables you might need for your deck. You can safely ignore scepters during gameplay, as they are used exclusively in deckbuilding. Cloaks : Unlike the first two types of regalia, Cloaks do change gameplay in that they often make cards cheaper. (For example, The Cloak makes planeswalker spells cost 1 less generic mana to cast). Note that some cloaks let you include off-color lands in your deck, allowing you to use a tri-land that includes two of your colors. You might want to grab a cloak that allows this to give you access to some extra non-basic lands. Tattoos : Tattoos are more eclectic, and can have very odd effects. They often change gameplay, so you should read and track your opponent’s tattoos carefully. Some tattoos reduce commander tax, for example, while others allow a player to play two commanders as if they had the partner mechanic. They get weird. Iron Regalia : A smaller subset of regalia in each category focused on decks with two or fewer color identities. (One of these, for example, lets you build a smaller deck so you can be more focused, but only if your commander has two or fewer color identities.) Watch for these if you’re trying to build a mono-color or two-color deck. These generally have different effects than the ones listed above, and are more powerful–but also more restrictive. Prize Pool* If you win the game or if you win the favorite deck vote, you get a random card from the prize pool. This is a card you get to keep. When I buy cards for myself, I keep an eye out for cheap, interesting cards. They range from 25 cents to a dollar. They aren’t anything special, don’t expect a Rhystic Study or a Smothering Tithe . These prizes are just intended to make the game a little more interesting. The cards I’ve included as prizes could be a very cheap pickup due a reprint, a unique card the community doesn’t play often, a special alternate art version of a card or just a weird old card that I think deserves attention. I’ve balanced the colors so there isn’t an excess of one color amongst cards as prizes. This pool of cards will evolve over time as I find new ones to add. Seriously, don’t get too invested in these. Cube List: (likely outdated) https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/5f31c6337649e8102a8c7d0c The many copies of Crown of Empires are placeholders for Regalia. If you playtest a draft on cube cobra, imagine the crowns as Regalia to get an idea how often you will see them in a real draft. Pink Sticker Erratas ● Booster Tutor- when you cast booster tutor, you may open a sealed booster pack as it says on the card if you happen to have one with you but otherwise, you instead take a new 20 card pack from the undrafted cards of the cube and put a card from that pack into your hand. Regalia List (spoilers ahead) Crowns (17) Pearl Crown (uncommon crown). Your commander has a White color identity in addition to its other colors. Sapphire Crown (uncommon crown). Your commander has a Blue color identity in addition to its other colors. Jet Crown (uncommon crown). Your commander has a Black color identity in addition to its other colors. Ruby Crown (uncommon crown). Your commander has a Red color identity in addition to its other colors. Emerald Crown (uncommon crown). Your commander has a Green color identity in addition to its other colors. Warrior's Crown (common crown). Your Commander deals Commander damage to opponents. When a player receives 21 points of commander damage, they lose the game. Iron Crown (uncommon crown). So long as your Commander has two or fewer color identities, you may construct a 60 card deck as opposed to an 80 card deck. Chromatic Crown (Rare Crown). Your Commander has all 5 colors in its color identity. No card in your deck can have more than one of the same mana symbol in its mana cost. Lotus Crown (Rare Crown). Dra this card face up and reveal it to your opponents immediately. You may exile the next card you dra beneath Lotus Crown. That card may not be put into your deck. Your commander has the color identities of any cards exiled with Lotus Crown. Scepters (20) Geomancer’s Scepter (Common scepter). During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any land into your deck. Beastcaller's Scepter (Uncommon scepter). Choose a creature type. During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any two with the chosen creature type into your deck. Clockwork Scepter (Rare scepter). During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any artifact into your deck. Enchanter's Scepter (Rare Scepter). During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any enchantment into your deck. Auramancer's Scepter (Rare Scepter). During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any two auras into your deck. Artificer’s Scepter (Rare Scepter). During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any two equipment into your deck. Spellslinger’s Scepter (Rare Scepter). During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any instant or sorcery into your deck. Iron Scepter (Uncommon Scepter). So long as your commander has two or fewer color identities, during deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any three to your deck. Pearl Scepter (Rare Scepter). So long as your commander has three or fewer color identities, During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any one white card into your deck. Sapphire Scepter (Rare Scepter). So long as your commander has three or fewer color identities, During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any one blue card into your deck. Jet Scepter (Rare Scepter). So long as your commander has three or fewer color identities, During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any one black card into your deck. Ruby Scepter (Rare Scepter). So long as your commander has three or fewer color identities, During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any one red card into your deck. Emerald Scepter (Rare Scepter). So long as your commander has three or fewer color identities, During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any one green card into your deck. Master’s Scepter (Rare Scepter). During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any 5 cards into your deck. You cannot use any other Regalia aside from Special Rarity Regalia. Rat King's Scepter (Special Rarity Scepter). When you dra Rat Colony, you receive this scepter in the sleeve behind Rat Colony. A er the dra has finished, you are awarded 19 extra copies of Rat Colony to be used during deckbuilding. Bureaucrat's Scepter (Special Rarity Scepter). When you dra Persistent Petitioners, you receive this scepter in the sleeve behind Persistent Petitioners. A er the dra has finished, you are awarded 19 extra copies of Persistent Petitioners to be used during deckbuilding. Scepter of the Mazerunner (Special Rarity Scepter). When you dra Maze’s End, you receive this scepter in the sleeve behind Maze’s End. A er the dra is finished, you are awarded the 10 guildgates to be used during deckbuilding. You may put non-basic lands in your deck regardless of color identity. Cloaks (10) Mantle of the Gods (Rare Cloak). You may put non-basic lands in your deck, regardless of their color identity. You may put enchantment cards in your deck, regardless of their color identity. Iron Cloak (Uncommon Cloak). So long as your commander has two or fewer color identities, lands in your hand have Cycling 2. (Pay two generic mana: discard this card then draw a card.) Conjurer's Cloak (Uncommon Cloak). Note the name of a card you dra ed. You may include that card in your deck regardless of its color identity. You may spend mana of any color to pay that card’s casting cost or to activate its abilities. Coat of the Master (Rare Cloak). Your commander has all five colors as their color identity. Non-basic lands you control gain “Tap: Add one colorless mana or one mana of any color. You may not cast creature spells other than your commander. Ninja Hood (Rare Cloak). Your commander starts the game face down in the command zone and is a ninja in addition to its other types. When you cast your commander for the first time it is revealed but before then, its identity is concealed. Mantle of the Planeswalker (Rare Cloak). You may put non-basic lands in your deck, regardless of their color identity. You may put planeswalker cards in your deck, regardless of their color identity. During deckbuilding, you may search the undra ed cards from the cube (those that weren’t made into packs) and add any three planeswalkers into your deck. Cloak of the Devoted (Uncommon Cloak). So long as your commander has one color identity, spells of that color cost 1 generic mana less for you to cast. Tribemaster’s Cloak (Uncommon Cloak). During deckbuilding, you may note the names of 3 creatures you dra ed. They all gain a creature type of your choice in addition to their other creature types. Additionally, creature spells you cast of that type cost 1 generic mana less to cast. Tattoos (8) Mark of Destiny (Uncommon Tattoo). During deckbuilding, you may designate a non-legendary creature as your commander. It counts as legendary. Give it a name. Mark of the Fate-bonded (Rare Tattoo). During deckbuilding, pick one legendary creature or planeswalker you dra ed. That creature or planeswalker costs one more generic mana to cast and gains partner. (It may partner with another creature or planeswalker that has partner naturally) Mark of Mutation (Uncommon Tattoo). Choose another type of Regalia. Your commander may bear two, instead of one, of that type. Mark of the Oathbreaker (Rare Tattoo). Your commander must be a planeswalker. You may also choose a Signature Spell. This signature spell is an instant or sorcery that you dra ed. It starts the game in the command zone with your commander. It can only be cast while your commander is on the battlefield, and it always returns to the command zone upon resolution, overriding all other effects and rules. Mark of the Archenemy (Rare Tattoo). If you deal a killing blow to an opponent (combat damage, non combat damage or any effect that causes them to lose the game), you become the archenemy. If your life total is below 50, you gain life up to 50 life, if you have less than 7 cards in hand you draw cards until you have 7 cards in hand and all commander damage that has been dealt to you this game is reset. Your remaining 2 opponents are now teammates. If you are eliminated, the 2 remaining players become opponents again. Mark of the Reaper (Special Rarity Tattoo). When you dra Reaper King, you receive this tattoo in the sleeve behind Reaper King. During deckbuilding, you may note the names of 8 artifact creatures you dra ed. They are scarecrows in addition to their other creature types. Regalia ideas to be included eventually Tattoo of the Coveted- you may take a card you own from outside the game/dra and add it to your deck.