How to Create Your First Magic: The Gathering Cube

Building your first Magic: The Gathering cube can feel intimidating. Where do you even start? How many cards do you need? What if you pick the wrong ones? These questions swirl around as you stare at your collection, wondering if you are ready to take the plunge.

The good news: you are more ready than you think.

You might look at established cube lists and see hundreds of carefully chosen cards, balanced archetypes, perfect mana curves, custom draft rules, and years of tuning. It is easy to think that you need to understand everything before you start.

You do not.

Your first cube does not need to be perfect. It does not need to be flawlessly balanced or support every archetype equally.

Your first cube only needs to do one thing:

Give you and your friends a fun draft.

This guide will help you build a playable first version: choose a clear theme, assemble a starting card pool, run your first draft, and use what you learn to tune the cube over time.

Step 1: Choose the Kind of Cube You Want to Build

Before choosing cards, decide what kind of experience you want your cube to create.

This does not need to be complicated. For a first cube, a simple sentence is enough.

That sentence is not a rulebook. It is a filter. When you are unsure whether a card belongs in the cube, ask whether it helps create the kind of draft you described.

Try to avoid starting with “a cube that has everything I like.” That usually turns into a pile of individually cool cards that do not quite point in the same direction. A focused cube is easier to build, more fun to draft, and much easier to improve.

Cubes can be much stranger, sharper, and more personal than a generic list of good cards. You could build:

• a graveyard cube where every color uses the discard pile differently
• a combat-focused cube full of tricks, equipment, tokens, and board stalls that actually matter
• a build-around cube where weird rares and forgotten signpost cards are the stars
• a two-player cube designed specifically for Winston Draft, Grid Draft, or quick weeknight games
• a story-driven cube based on a plane, faction war, favorite characters, or a specific era of Magic
• a chaos-light cube where big splashy cards show up, but the games still stay interactive

The best first cube is the one that makes you want to shuffle it up and see what happens.

Step 2: Pick a Starting Size

The most common cube size is 360 cards.

That number is popular because it supports an 8-player draft with 3 packs of 15 cards per player:

8 players × 3 packs × 15 cards = 360 cards.

But you do not need to start there.

If you mostly draft with fewer players, a smaller cube can be easier to build and test. For example:

• 180 cards works well for small drafts or Winston Draft
• 270 cards gives you more variety while staying manageable
• 360 cards is the classic full-size starting point
• 450+ cards adds replayability but is harder to tune and handle

For your first cube, 180 or 360 cards are both reasonable choices.

If you are building digitally, starting with 360 is fine because you can add, remove, and test cards quickly. If you are building from paper cards you already own, starting smaller may be easier.

Step 3: Decide Your Main Archetypes

Archetypes are the draftable strategies, themes, or play patterns your cube encourages.

They do not have to be tied to neat two-color pairs. An archetype can be a mechanic, a card type, a speed, a resource, or even a mood. “Artifacts matter,” “graveyard value,” “go-wide tokens,” “spellslinger,” “slow control,” “lands in the graveyard,” and “big dumb creatures” are all valid archetypes if the cube gives players enough cards to make them real.

You also do not need every color pair to have a perfectly defined identity. If you cannot stand Dimir, do not force Dimir to have a dedicated archetype. It is your cube, so go wild.

For a first cube, it is better to choose a few clear themes and support them well than to include too many half-supported ideas.

A good rule:

If you want players to draft an archetype, include enough cards that make the archetype obvious.

One sacrifice card is just a card. Ten sacrifice cards, plus payoffs and enablers, become an archetype.

When choosing archetypes, think in terms of three types of cards:

Enablers Cards that make the strategy work.

Payoffs Cards that reward the player for drafting the strategy.

Flexible cards Cards that are useful even when the player is not fully committed.

Flexible cards are especially important in cube. If every card only belongs in one narrow archetype, drafts can become fragile. Good cube cards often support multiple strategies at once.

Step 4: Keep an Eye on Basic Balance

Once you know the main directions you want to support, check that the cube has enough basic balance to produce real draft decks.

That means each color should have a reasonable number of cards, but the counts do not need to be identical. If one color has 46 cards and another has 54, that is not a problem by itself. The real question is whether each color gives players something coherent to do.

For a first cube, focus on the basics:

• enough cheap plays that decks can start the game
• enough interaction that games do not become goldfish races
• enough threats that decks can actually win
• enough fixing or lands for the amount of multicolor cards you include
• enough overlap that cards work in more than one deck

A common beginner mistake is to fill the cube with splashy expensive cards and forget the glue. Big finishers are fun, but draft decks still need two-drops, removal, mana fixing, and flexible role-players.

Think of this step as a quick sanity check. It does not decide what makes your cube special. It just makes sure the drafts function once players sit down.

Step 5: Add Interaction

Interaction is what stops games from becoming repetitive.

If your cube has powerful creatures but not enough removal, games may become simple races. If it has too many removal spells, creatures may feel pointless. If it has no answers to artifacts, enchantments, graveyards, or planeswalkers, some cards may dominate every game.

You do not need perfect answers to everything, but each color should have some way to interact.

Examples of interaction include:

• creature removal
• counterspells
• combat tricks
• bounce spells
• discard
• artifact and enchantment removal
• sweepers
• graveyard hate

For a beginner cube, prioritize interaction that creates good games. Cheap, flexible answers are useful, but too many hyper-efficient answers can make the cube feel more competitive than you intended.

The right amount depends on your power level. A casual creature-focused cube needs a different removal suite than a high-power cube full of fast combo cards.

Step 6: Pay Attention to Mana

Mana fixing is one of the easiest things to underestimate.

If your cube supports multicolor decks, players need lands and artifacts that help them cast their spells. Without enough fixing, drafts can become frustrating: players see exciting gold cards but cannot reliably play them.

For a first 360-card cube, 30 to 40 fixing lands is a reasonable place to start, depending on how multicolor you want the environment to be.

If you want mostly two-color decks, use enough dual lands to make those decks consistent.

If you want slower three-color decks, add more fixing.

If you want aggressive one- and two-color decks to be strong, avoid giving every deck perfect mana for free.

Mana fixing is not just a technical detail. It shapes the whole draft environment.

Step 7: Build a First Version, Not a Final Version

At some point, you need to stop planning and build the first list.

This is where many first-time cube designers get stuck. They keep researching, comparing lists, and replacing cards before the cube has ever been drafted.

Do not worry about getting every slot right.

Your first version is a prototype. It exists so you can draft it, play it, and learn what works.

A good first version should answer basic questions:

• Are all colors playable?
• Do players understand what the archetypes are?
• Are games fun?
• Are there enough early plays?
• Is there enough interaction?
• Are any cards obviously too strong or too weak?
• Do players want to draft it again?

You will learn more from one draft than from hours of theory.

Step 8: Draft the Cube

Once you have a list, draft it.

You can draft with friends in paper, test it digitally, or run solo drafts to see how decks come together.

Do not only look at whether the games are balanced. Also pay attention to the draft itself.

Ask:

• Were there interesting choices?
• Did players find open lanes?
• Did archetypes come together naturally?
• Were some cards always last picks?
• Were some cards always first picks?
• Did mana feel good or frustrating?
• Did players build decks they were excited to play?

A cube is both a draft format and a gameplay format. The draft should be fun before the games even start.

Step 9: Make Small Changes

After your first draft, you will probably want to change many cards.

That is normal.

But avoid replacing too much at once. If you change 80 cards after one draft, it becomes hard to know what actually improved the cube.

Start with the clearest problems.

Good first changes include:

• removing cards nobody wanted
• replacing cards that were too strong
• adding more two-drops
• improving mana fixing
• making archetype signals clearer
• cutting narrow cards that did not come together
• adding flexible cards that support multiple decks

Cube design is iterative. Each draft gives you more information.

The goal is not to “finish” your cube. The goal is to keep making it more fun.

Step 10: Keep Notes

A simple change log is incredibly useful.

Write down what you changed and why. After a few drafts, it becomes hard to remember whether a card was removed because it was too weak, too strong, too narrow, or simply boring.

Useful notes include:

• cards players loved
• cards nobody drafted
• archetypes that felt under-supported
• games that ended too quickly
• games that stalled too often
• mana problems
• cards you want to test later

You do not need a complex system. Even a few notes after each draft can help you improve the cube much faster.

Common First Cube Mistakes

Adding Too Many Expensive Cards

Big splashy cards are exciting, but decks need early plays. If every pack is full of five- and six-mana cards, games will feel clunky.

Supporting Too Many Archetypes

It is tempting to include every cool theme. But if an archetype only has two enablers and one payoff, it probably will not work consistently.

Forgetting Mana Fixing

Multicolor cards are fun, but players need the lands to cast them. Weak fixing makes drafts frustrating.

Overvaluing Raw Power

The strongest card is not always the best cube card. A slightly weaker card that creates better games may be the better choice.

Changing Too Much Too Quickly

Iteration is good, but huge changes after every draft can make the cube harder to understand. Make focused changes and learn from them.

A Simple First Cube Checklist

Before your first draft, check:

• Do all five colors have enough playable cards?
• Do aggressive decks have enough early creatures?
• Do slower decks have enough ways to stabilize?
• Is there enough removal?
• Is there enough mana fixing?
• Are the main archetypes visible in the draft?
• Are there cards that work in more than one deck?
• Are there enough exciting cards to pull players into colors?
• Can players build functional 40-card decks?
• Are you excited to draft it?

If the answer is mostly yes, your cube is ready to test.

Final Thoughts

Your first cube does not need to be perfect.

In fact, it probably should not be. A cube becomes better through drafting, playing, changing cards, and discovering what your group enjoys.

Start with a clear idea. Build a first version. Draft it. Take notes. Make small improvements.

When you are ready, create your first cube in CubeForge and start testing it.

That is cube design.

The best cube is not the one with the most famous cards or the most polished list. It is the one your players want to draft again.