My name is Ryan Saxe (@rcsaxe), and I am extremely excited to share my Classic Cube with the world!

My vision for this cube is "Powered Cube, but where the fast mana comes at a cost." Powered Cube is an awesome experience, particularly because playing with Moxen and the like feels special. My goal is to let players power things out early while making those interactions more engaging. In Classic Cube, Moxen and other early fast-mana cards like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt are replaced by cards like Lotus Petal, Crystal Vein, and City of Traitors. You can still power out a crazy play on turn one or turn two, but you also need to calculate the risks associated with throwing away resources to do that. This leads to an unpowered cube that plays out much closer to Vintage Cube than Legacy Cube.

On top of my initial vision for this cube, I have three other purposeful design decisions:

1. Let Players Discover

Classic Cube is a "classic cube," so it is mostly full of historically good cards. But that doesn't mean you can't come up with novel strategies in the draft. I've seen players use Fae of Wishes to grab Oath of Druids from their sideboard to mill their whole deck and take infinite turns with Nexus of Fate. This cube is seeded with so many mini combos that, if you pay attention during the draft, you can always assemble some secret sauce!

2. Archetypal Diversity

I believe it is important to support many flavors of any color combination, and I purposefully seed unconventional cards in order to change the texture of what different archetypes look like. For example, Azorius Control can look very different if it ends up with Approach of the Second Sun as a finisher instead of planeswalkers like Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Every card in the cube is there for a reason, which allows the drafter to pursue different perturbations of any archetype and express creativity.

3. Create Tension with Speed

While there are many sweet things to do in this cube, you cannot ignore the speed of the combo decks and aggressive decks. The decks in this cube will trample all over you if you can't interact with them. Prioritize having a density of cards low on the curve regardless of archetype in order to keep up with the speed of other decks. This has the benefit of having games feel intense right from the get-go.

Archetypes

Green Creature Combo

My favorite archetype in my cube is a green deck focused on assembling a combo with some creatures. I love this deck because it's all about playing a midrange strategy with good creatures while pairing that with tutors to assemble an "I win" button if the opponent can't interact. It is the perfect Birthing Pod deck!

There are way too many viable combos for me to put into this article, but the most common and supported variant is persist. Draft a creature with persist, a sacrifice outlet, and any of the following cards: The Great Henge, Vizier of Remedies, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Good-Fortune Unicorn, Grumgully, the Generous, Metallic Mimic, or Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. I should note that there are quite a few other ways to combo off with these cards, too. For example, Basri's Lieutenant can work instead of a persist creature alongside most of these.

This strategy is most commonly Selesnya with a splash, but basically any green color pair will work. Furthermore, if you find yourself playing half of a combo and have some tutors, it could be a good idea to throw in the other half: Any green deck that plays Devoted Druid and has some X spells can toss in Vizier of Remedies. Any deck that's playing Walking Ballista can add Heliod, Sun-Crowned, and at that point maybe Spike Feeder. Don't be afraid to speculate on half a combo in this cube!

Blue Control Combo

Blue control is an all-time favorite Cube archetype. In a cube with as many combos as this one, it's pretty common for a combo to be the win condition in a control deck. Rather than trying to win the game with something like an Aetherling, blue decks in this cube will control the board until they can do something powerful with their counter magic up. And it really can be anything. Throw a Splinter Twin and a Pestermite in your Izzet deck. If you have enough non-basics, play Thassa's Oracle alongside Tainted Pact. If you end up with Timetwister, then try and pair it with Hullbreacher.

There are a lot of combos in the cube, and throwing basically any of them in a deck with Preordain and Counterspell is rarely a bad idea.

Cheatty Combo

Out of all the combos in the cube, some have more support than others. The examples I gave above with Splinter Twin, Thassa's Oracle, and Hullbreacher are cool, but the combo pieces don't have enough redundancy to yield a hyper-linearized version of that strategy. Cheating things into play, however, has a pretty high density. There are a lot of large creatures to put into play, and lots of tutoring, card draw, and discard outlets in blue, red, and black. This deck should be viable and strong at every table.

Welder/Artifacts

Most commonly Izzet, but occasionally Rakdos, this deck is all about artifacts. Play as many mana rocks as you can and get a big artifact into play; or just cast Upheaval. One of the other benefits of this deck is that the strategy doesn't fall on its face without access to the expensive artifacts. Goblin Welder can gain good value off cards like Retrofitter Foundry and Chromatic Star. And as far as value goes, there is redundancy in Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Goblin Engineer, and Daretti, Scrap Savant. My main word of advice is not to forget about discard outlets, as getting the artifacts into the graveyard is the hardest part.

Izzet Spells

Thanks to the increased density of cheap red interaction and cheap blue cantrips, it is not uncommon to end up in an Izzet deck where most cards in the deck are instants and sorceries. This deck most commonly splashes white for Monastery Mentor but can also splash black with good enough mana to pair cards like Thoughtseize with Snapcaster Mage or gain access to Sedgemoor Witch.

The Rock

This is a Golgari midrange deck that often has ways to leverage the graveyard. Whether that is through Delirium, reanimation, or recursion is dependent on the cards you have access to. This deck very often splashes for gold cards like Bloodbraid Elf, Oko, Thief of Crowns, or Lingering Souls. Emrakul, the Promised End is often the best top-end if the deck is properly constructed to use it, and black comes with the tools to tutor for it. Additionally, there is a variant of this deck that is more heavily red to play Dragon's Rage Channeler and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer on turn one.

Green Ramp

It wouldn't be a Classic Cube if it didn't support one of the most "classic" Cube archetypes: green ramp. Drafting all the mana elves and expensive creatures is definitely a viable strategy, although you don't have to go all in. I personally prefer to draft green decks with less top-end, less ramp, and more of the midrange three- to five-drops that I can play ahead of curve with mana dorks. This leaves me less vulnerable to situations where my opponent can remove my Birds of Paradise all while letting me gain an advantage via ramp. That is why my cube lacks Hornet Queen and Avenger of Zendikar and fills those slots with cards like Voracious Hydra and Garruk Relentless.

Aggro

This cube supports aggressive decks in three colors: white, black, and red. Given this, it is quite rare for nobody to draft an aggressive deck at any given table, and it's not uncommon for there to be two. Each color, including hybrid cards, has access to at least ten one-drops, so these strategies are reliable and fast. Each aggressive deck plays a little differently, too. Each deck also has a subtheme. This subtheme is rarely a key part to success with the archetype, but it's a cool thing to do when the pieces come together.

The white aggressive deck has classic tax-style cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Esper Sentinel. To compete past the first few turns, it can scale those up with cards like Benalish Marshal, cast planeswalkers like Elspeth, Knight-Errant, or close the gap for the opponent to come back with Armageddon and Ravages of War.

Humans subtheme: The white deck in this cube has a Humans subtheme, making Thalia's Lieutenant and Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis better than normal. Additionally, it can create some fun deck-building challenges to maximize Winota, Joiner of Forces.

Black aggro has been in my cube since its inception and has put up high-performing results forever. What black provides that red and white don't are hand disruption and recursion. Picking apart opponents' hands is one of the best forms of disruption in cubes of this power level. Pair that form of disruption with threats that are resilient to removal, and you have a recipe for success.

Aristocrats subtheme: Many cubes support a Rakdos Aristocrats deck, but it's a little different in this cube. Judith, the Scourge Diva, Goblin Bombardment, and Falkenrath Aristocrat are all fantastic splashes for a black aggro deck. Think of Blood Artist as an extension of black aggro rather than its own separate thing.

Red has the fastest variant of aggro: cast one-drops, cast burn spells, and finish the game with some resilient top-end like Hazoret the Fervent or Sulfuric Vortex. It's a classic Cube recipe, and it's a good one.

Artifacts subtheme: The introduction of Urza's Saga and the red Goblin Welder archetype creates a fascinating perturbation of mono-red. There are many cheap artifacts to play, the best being Equipment, and this helps turn on Dragon's Rage Channeler, too.

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I am so excited to share this cube with you, and I hope you enjoy drafting it as much as I do. While I will be on vacation this week, I will still try my best to stream it on twitch (@ryancsaxe). Furthermore, I would love to hear all about your experience with the cube, so feel free to tweet at me (@rcsaxe) all week.

Enjoy!
Ryan Saxe