Usman's Articles: Cube Design
From 2010-present. Doesn't include set reviews.
This is a listing of all of the Cube Design articles I’ve done over the years (since 2010) as I’ve included the set reviews elsewhere. I stoppped writing about cube design around 2015 or so, but my inspiration for writing in that space has been back with a vengeance since I launched this Substack.
I’ll eventually revisit some of these concepts with a more long-term lens since some of these are over a decade old - not that I think the concepts are outdated, but time always does tend to give the gift of a long-term POV.
I’ve enjoyed all of the articles I’ve written but I’ve bolded the ones that I think were the most impactful.
Recent Cube Articles (Substack/Lucky Paper):
Micro and Macro Aspects of Cube Design - I wrote this article to talk about two lenses to look at cube through: the micro (individual cards) and the macro (big picture) views. I tended to see a lot more weight put on the latter, and this article talks about why both are important.
The Cube is Bigger Than You - For years, I’d wanted to do an article about defensiveness in cube design, as it’s something I’ve seen my fair share of over the years. I recently thought of the phrase “The Cube is Bigger Than You” which made me realize that cube design isn’t just for the designer and this article goes into that.
Stoneforge Mystic, Metallica's Load/Reload and Changing Contexts over Time - I've written a lot over the years about context can change how a card can perform in different environments. This article is about how in a cube, a card's role can change over time, and how time doesn't necessarily make cards worse over time.
How Heirloom Blade Made Me a Better Cube Designer - I had a gut feeling that Heirloom Blade was a card that could work in a cube world and it ended up being a card that taught me some valuable lessons in cube design. Probably as a drafter too, but there’s some red meat for drafting POV as well.
Challenging Dogma in My Own Cube - Something that I’d posted about looking to challenge some long-standing dogma that still exists in cubes in 2025 (even with the explosion in challenging things in cube design) and making some small design changes in my cube to symbolically be the change in the world. The main example I brought up was cubes strictly adhering to 15-card multiples as the strict guideline but it’s not solely limited to that.
Additive Distraction and Idealized Thinking - I’ve had this article in the works since 2017 but it was mostly just on an old drive and abandoned, picked back up in 2024. I’ve been wanting to talk about the concept of Additive Distraction in cube, as it’s been something I’d seen over the years from misevaluation of cards, and creating an article made more sense than linking a MaRo article that had the concept partway through the article.
Articles for Cool Stuff Inc.:
Cube Expansion Pack – I discuss the use of an expansion pack to accommodate for more drafters. I’m honestly surprised that this isn’t something used more, but IMO the concept of modules is something that’s pretty underutilized as well.
Articles for Star City Games:
(if an article link doesn’t work, go to the articles under my name right above this as SCG has changed the way that article links work.)
There were several videos of Cube drafts on SCG when the format was new - Justin Parnell and I were the first creators to create videos about the format when it debuted on MTGO. Unfortunately, the draft videos on the articles on SCG are dead, because they were hosted on non-YouTube sites, like blip.tv and archive.org doesn’t archive those. They don’t really have anything to do with design, so they wouldn’t make sense to list here anyway.
Holistic Wisdom: BCSM and the Ghost of Billy Mays. This article talks about how thinking in the absolute best-case (or worst-case in Best [Worst] Case Scenario Mentality) can lead to misevaluating cards. I’ll go more into the topic in future articles, especially how “the ghost of Billy Mays can whisper in your ears” through talking points, as understanding the concept is key to having a good cube. Props to Limited Resources to coming up with the concept of BCSM, although I don’t think that term’s been used in years in favor of Quadrant Theory.
Holistic Wisdom: Opportunity Cost. I talk about the concept of opportunity cost and how it applies to cube. I may end up developing this further as talking about “slots in a cube” and how it can be something that can be thought of in a rigid manner.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: The Cube’s Supporting Cast. In this article, I talk about how some cards require support (Life from the Loam, Stoneforge Mystic, Abyssal Persecutor) but still shine in cube and how to gauge what cards require too much support to be worth it.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: All Hands On Deck. I talk about the use of an “on-deck” box/binder/shelf/drawer, essentially cards that aren’t in your cube but are in consideration for your cube. All cubes should have one and this article talks about how and why.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Same Card, Different Cube. I talk about how cards can play differently from cube to cube based on supported archetypes and card support using a few Limited examples – Lone Missionary in Rise of the Eldrazi vs how it’d be in Zendikar draft and how Harrow performed differently in Zendikar and Invasion – applying this to cube.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: The Pain of Letting Go of Cards. Hard cuts are hard. This article talks about how to make them from your cube.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Cycles. Article about how cycles manifest in cube and how that can result in people using suboptimal cards just to fill in cycles, the guild system, etc.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Ravnica Pillars: Signets and Bouncelands in Cube. It has become a misconception that signets and bouncelands are too good for cube and that in order to have a well-balanced cube, you have to cut them. In this article, I explain why that’s untrue.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Non-Rare Cubes and Why You Should Have One. In this article, I talk about why having a non-rare cube (in addition to others) is a useful tool to help become a better cube designer through looking at cube from a different perspective.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Initial Impressions. In this article, I talked about initial impressions and how to temper initial thoughts on cards for cube and how to think not in extremes with the then-new Innistrad cards.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Kaizen and being ROTTY. I talk about how the concept of Kaizen (continuous improvement) is a vital concept for all cubists (ie not just having no bad cards in your cube, but shaping it into a good format) and how being “ROTTY” (overly results-oriented) is a disservice for cube card evaluation.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Cube Anatomy 101. In this article, I do a bit of a retrospective about the history of cube and how that historical context can cause people to think in constrictive ways (all sections having to be a multiple of 5, for example.) It’s a concept that I’d like to expand on in the future.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Rooster Drafting. A draft format created by former Limited Resources co-host and present WoTC R&D employee Ryan Spain – it’s a variant of limited which is a mix of rotisserie and sealed where you essentially draft the packs. Article includes a walkthrough of the format. Really interesting format that I’d like to do more in the future.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: SCG Ranks Blue Card Draw Spells For Cube. I asked a bunch of SCG writers to rank some “safe” cards for blue in cube. I was surprised by how highly the first card was placed (but still think it’s a stellar card.)
Cube Holistic Wisdom: The Importance of Four Mana. 4 mana is an important mark for cube decks and archetypes and I explain why.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Second Fiddle Can Be Good Enough. Often, I find people tend to dismiss cards that are “secondary” to other cards that perform similar tasks for cube, like dismissing Viridian Shaman because of Wickerbough Elder (in the MTGO cube.) In this article, I discuss how to avoid that pitfall.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Finishers. In this article, I talk about finishers with regards to protection abilities, etc.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Unique Effects. I talk about “Unique Effects” like Sunlance/Harmonize and others like Chaos Warp, talking about their use in cube for archetype support and balance.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: The Case For Data. Data’s an important thing for cube designers to be able to track mana costs and archetype support and in this article, I talk about how to utilize it for cube design.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Outsourcing. This was one of the articles that I’m most proud of – many people tend to “outsource” evaluation of cards to other formats without evaluating context (this card was a draft windmill slam, so it must be good for the cube!) In this article, I show how outsourcing evaluation can be good, bad and how to do it best.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Enablers, Part 1, Reanimation. I talk about how some cards can be used as support cards for multiple archetypes. In this article, I discuss reanimation enablers.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: The Case for Testing in Cube. In this article, I talked about how useful testing can be for evaluating cards for cube.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Enablers, Part 2, Symmetrical Disruption. I talked about how other cards can be used to support “symmetrical disruption” decks, like Wildfire. I touched on cards like Pox/Death Cloud, which later became “a thing” in cubes.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Multicolor. In this article, I talk about the role of multicolor for cube, written pre-PAX party in Seattle, before the spoilers hit.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: The Case for Answers and Versatility. In this article, I talk about the role of flexible cards in cube and how they can be useful; as well as how far to go with flexible cards without going too far down the rabbit hole.
Cube Holistic Wisdom: Magic Online Holiday 2012 Cube Update. In this update, the MTGO cube went from 720 cards to 540 cards, added power, signets and bouncelands. Since the article was long and had a lot of room to cover, I talked about how the changes will affect the cube and not as much discussion on power. In the green section, I talk about the trope that signets and bouncelands “make aggro too good” that I dispelled in the “Ravnica Pillars” article.
Cube Holistic Wisdom – Pitfalls of Rigid Evaluation. I talked about how looking at cards in an overly linear fashion can result in rigid forms of evaluation; and how to avoid doing so.
Cube Holistic Wisdom – Alternate Categorization. Back before Cube Tutor and when categorizing Kird Ape as a Gruul card was still considered heresy, I wrote this talking about how to categorize cards.
Cube Holistic Wisdom – Of Changes and Updates. Talked about making changes.
Cube Holistic Wisdom – Late Picks. I discussed the role of late picks and how to evaluate them more than just “bad cards.”
Cube Holistic Wisdom – Critically Evaluating Underperformance In Your Cube. I talked about how to critically evaluate when decks and cards underperform and how to look into solutions.
Cube Holistic Wisdom – Pauper Cube Overview. Back before pauper cube became… semi-popular…ish (?), I wrote this article talking about pauper cube for people unfamiliar with the format.
Cube Holistic Wisdom – Cube Sections for Beginners. Discussion of sections of cube for basic construction.
Holistic Wisdom: Hosers in Cube.
In this article, I talked about the use of hosers in cube, talking about traditional ones (Great Sable Stag is obviously good against blue and black) as well as others which attack archetypes (Smash to Smithereens and Gatekeeper of Malakir both being solid control-hosers, since those decks tend to use a lot of artifacts and few creatures respectively while having enough “universal” use to make them maindeckable.)Holistic Wisdom: Holistic Approach.
In what should have been my debut article, I talk about what exactly a “holistic approach” to cube entails, by looking at a cube from an overall “big picture” view and other such things I learned when I went to grad school.
Articles for Quiet Speculation:
Six Degrees of Foundations. This article talks about how to start a cube – like the restrictions (power/no power/no fast mana, commons vs com/unc vs “rare”, etc.)
Six Degrees: Jump in the Pool! This article talks about developing a pool of cards to draw from when starting the cube design process. It talks about using other online lists, the Cube Comparison Thread on MTGSalvation, etc. (Back in my day, we didn’t have these things and we had to walk 3 miles uphill in the snow!)
Six Degrees of Newness. This article talks about how to critically evaluate new cards. The article briefly touched on a lot of concepts (BCSM, exaggeration of drawbacks/benefits) which I’ve gone into in future articles and will do so in the future.
Six Degrees: Get Out of the Pool! This article talks about taking an initial pool of cards and paring it down into a final list. It talks about how paralysis of analysis can happen and how breaking down information can help, since a cube is a pretty daunting task.
The next 7 articles are the “Cube SWOT” series, analyzing the 5 colors in cube from a holistic point of view, showing that understanding the strengths, weaknesses and archetypes in each color is key to a solid cube (ie since red is mostly aggressive, putting a ton of red X-spells isn’t going to be good as they’re not that great in aggressive decks.)
Since this was written in 2010, some things have changed, like with green card advantage, but it’s important to take a holistic look at what your colors are doing in your cube, even in a post-Covid timeline.
Six Degrees: Governing the Guildless. This article talks about the various methods used to classify multicolor and multi-color aligned cards: Literal (Stormbind is red-green, Kird Ape is red, Raging Ravine is a land,) Functional (Stormbind is red-green, Kird Ape is red-green, Raging Ravine is a land) and Guild (Stormbind, Kird Ape and Raging Ravine are all red-green) along with how these classifications affect a cube overall. It also talks about, if you don’t like any of these but want to use your own, how to do so.
Six Degrees: Don’t You Forget About Timmy. As spike-y as a cube is, this article talks about how to appeal to the Timmy types with “build-around-me” cards like Venser, the Sojourner that are “big and flashy” but still win games in cube.
Articles written before I became a regular cube writer:
Cube Design Theory: Aggro in Cube. This article was originally written for MTGSalvation back when the idea of aggro in cube was winning on turn 12 instead of turn 18. It talks about how to support aggressive strategies in your cube (something that many cubes still struggle with.) Arguably in need of an upgrade but the tale of “play a lot of small creatures to make sure that aggro decks have a good clock” hasn’t changed over time.
Six Sides of Context for ManaNation (now CoolstuffInc) an article addressing the role of context and how to use it when evaluating cards for a cube.
A Grizzly Fate for a 5 Mana Sorcery. This article talks about how sometimes, you really want a card to be good, but it just doesn’t compete with similar cards (similar cost and/or function) anymore. (on archive.org, so its existence may be temporary.)
FYI “Cube Holistic Wisdom – Of Changes and Updates” links to Alternative Categorization. I’ve learned a lot!