The cube building mistakes in this list are not embarrassing. They are the default. Most first cubes make several of the ten, and plenty make more than half. They happen because the instincts that make someone a good deckbuilder, favoring powerful cards and personal favorites, are the wrong instincts for building a draft environment.
Each entry below names the mistake, how it shows up at the table, and the fix. None of the fixes requires spending money.
1. The curve is too high
How it shows up: games start on turn three or four, nobody is dead before turn eight, and the six-drops feel great because nothing pressures them.
Why it happens: exciting cards are expensive cards. Rares skew toward four mana and up, and a list built from “cards I want to see” drifts upward.
The fix: cap each color at three or four cards costing six or more, and fill 45 percent of each color at two mana or less. The target counts are in the cube mana curve.
2. There is not enough fixing
How it shows up: deckbuilding takes half an hour, decks run 18 lands, and games are decided by color screw more than by anything the drafters did.
Why it happens: lands are boring to buy and dual lands feel like a luxury.
The fix: at least four fixing lands per color pair in a 360 cube, plus eight to ten mana rocks. Tapped duals are fine for a first cube; untapped ones are the first upgrade. No other change improves a first cube as much.
3. Aggro has nothing to draft
How it shows up: every deck is midrange or control. The player who tries red aggro finishes 0-3 and never tries again.
Why it happens: one-drops look like bad cards on a spreadsheet, and the owner cuts them first when space is tight.
The fix: white and red each need ten or more one- and two-mana creatures that attack well, plus a few burn spells and a piece of equipment. The reasons are in why aggro dies in most cubes.
4. Removal is all the same kind
How it shows up: either the first bomb creature wins every game, or planeswalkers and enchantments are unanswerable while creatures die on sight.
Why it happens: owners count removal as a single number and fill it with whatever destroy-target-creature spells they own.
The fix: mix cheap unconditional removal, conditional removal, sweepers, edicts, and flexible answers that hit noncreature permanents. Diagnose which kind is missing before adding more.
5. Pet cards fill slots they have not earned
How it shows up: cards that wheel every draft and never make a main deck, and an owner who defends them.
Why it happens: the cube is personal, and a card from your first deck feels like it belongs.
The fix: allow yourself five pet slots, label them in the primer as pet slots, and hold everything else to the standard of “would a drafter be happy to pick this at pick six.” When a pet card wheels three drafts in a row, it goes back in the binder, pet slot or not.
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6. The archetypes exist only in the owner’s head
How it shows up: drafters cannot tell what the cube wants them to do, stay open too long, and build generic good-stuff piles. The clever graveyard deck you designed never gets drafted.
Why it happens: the owner knows the plan and assumes it is visible.
The fix: every two-color pair needs two or three gold cards that say the plan out loud, and each color needs enough support that the plan is draftable from mono-colored cards alone. Then write it down in a primer. If a drafter cannot name the pair’s plan after reading one sentence, the sentence or the cards need work.
7. One color is stronger because the owner likes it
How it shows up: the same color is in six of eight decks every draft and wins most matches.
Why it happens: nobody is neutral. A blue player builds a deeper blue section without noticing.
The fix: count, do not feel. Track color pairs drafted and wins by color over five drafts. Ask a friend who prefers a different color to review the list. The checks are in color balance in a cube.
8. The cube changes too much after each draft
How it shows up: forty-card swaps after the first night, a different cube every week, and no way to tell whether a change helped.
Why it happens: feedback feels urgent, and the loudest drafter’s opinion is fresh.
The fix: change five to ten cards per update, write every change in a changelog with the reason, and give each change three drafts before judging it. Structural problems like fixing get fixed at once; single-card complaints go on a watch list.
9. The power level is uneven
How it shows up: a peasant cube with eight rares that win the game alone, or a rare cube with twenty commons that are strictly worse than everything around them. Drafts feel like lotteries for the top cards.
Why it happens: the owner adds a few favorites from above the cube’s band and a few fillers from below it.
The fix: decide the band and stay inside it. A card above the band gets cut even if it is fun; a card below it gets cut even if it fills a slot. Flat power levels make picks interesting, because the choice is about role and archetype rather than raw strength.
10. There is no plan for the first draft
How it shows up: the owner drafts, plays, has a good time, and learns nothing. Three months later the cube is unchanged and attendance has dropped.
Why it happens: a cube feels finished the day the last card is sleeved.
The fix: treat the first several drafts as tests. Sit out if you can, watch picks and deckbuilding, tally what decided each game, and write a short change list the next morning. The checklist is in your cube’s first draft.
Which mistakes matter most?
| Mistake | Severity | Fix speed |
|---|---|---|
| Not enough fixing | Breaks every draft | One order of lands |
| Curve too high | Makes every game slow | One afternoon of cuts |
| Aggro unsupported | Removes a third of the archetypes | Ten to fifteen cheap swaps |
| Removal all one kind | Makes one card type unbeatable | Five to ten swaps |
| Uneven power | Turns drafts into lotteries | A hard look at the list |
| The other five | Slow erosion | Habits, not swaps |
If you fix only the first three, your cube is already better than most first cubes.
FAQ
What is the most common mistake in a first cube?
Too little mana fixing. It shows up as long deckbuilding, awkward splashes, and games lost to color screw, and it hides every other problem until it is fixed.
How many cards should I change after a bad draft?
Five to ten, with a written reason for each. Structural problems like fixing get fixed immediately; individual card complaints go on a watch list until they repeat.
Should a cube have pet cards?
A few, labeled as such. Five pet slots in a 360-card cube is reasonable. When a pet card wheels three drafts in a row, it comes out anyway.
Why does nobody draft the archetype I designed?
Usually because the cube does not signal it. Each color pair needs two or three gold cards that state the plan, enough mono-colored support to make it draftable, and a sentence in the primer.
Make the default mistakes faster
Every owner makes these. The good ones make them in the first month, count the results, and fix them. The game is the reason. The people are the point.
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