Every cube primer needs a cube draft guide for the person who has never drafted. Not a strategy essay; a single page they can read in the car, with the five things that get a first-timer to a playable deck and a good night. The regulars will skip it. The new drafter will read it three times.
This article gives you the page, section by section, with the reasoning behind each line so you can adapt it to your cube. The version at the end is ready to copy. It is written for a standard eight-player booster draft of three fifteen-card packs; adjust the numbers if your table does something else. Deeper strategy, for the drafter who wants more, is in cube draft strategy.
What does a first-timer need to know before pick one?
Four facts and nothing else.
- How the draft works. Open a pack of fifteen, take one card, pass the rest. Repeat until the pack is gone. Three packs, passing left, right, left. You end with forty-five cards.
- What you are building. A forty-card deck: about seventeen lands and twenty-three spells. Lands are provided; you draft the spells.
- How many colors. Two. One main, one support. Three is a trap for a first draft, even when the fixing is good.
- What happens next. Deckbuilding for twenty to thirty minutes, then three rounds against other drafters. Win or lose, everyone plays all three rounds.
Everything else, from signals to curve to sideboarding, can wait until after the first pack. A first-timer who knows these four things will not be lost, and not being lost is the whole goal of the first night.
What should a first-timer take?
The guide needs a simple pick rule, and the simplest one that works is this: for the first five or six picks, take the card that would win the game by itself. After that, take the best card in the colors you have the most of.
Three things to say explicitly, because first-timers get them wrong in the same ways:
- Removal is good. A spell that kills a creature for two mana is almost always better than a creature of the same cost. Take it.
- Cheap is good. A two-mana creature you will cast every game is better than a seven-mana creature you will cast once a night. The deck needs many of the first and at most two of the second.
- Gold cards are commitments. A card that needs two colors is only good if you end up in both. Take them late, or take one early and treat it as a decision.
What not to put in the guide: a pick order, a tier list, or advice about reading signals. A first-timer cannot read signals; they do not know what the cards do yet. That skill comes in the fifth or sixth draft, and the primer’s archetype section is where it starts.
How many lands, and how do you build the deck?
The number that matters most on the page is seventeen. Seventeen lands, twenty-three spells, forty cards. A first-timer who builds a forty-five-card deck with fourteen lands will lose every game to their own mana and conclude the format is not for them.
The building method that fits on one line: lay out all the cards in your two colors sorted by mana cost, cut from the top until twenty-three remain, and add seventeen basic lands split by how many cards of each color you have. If you have no one- or two-mana cards, go back to your pile and find some, even if they are weak. A deck with no early plays does not get to cast its late ones.
For the cube’s own archetypes, the guide should name three that are easy for a first-timer and say so: usually a two-color aggro deck, a two-color midrange deck with removal, and whatever the cube’s most forgiving control lane is. Combo and graveyard decks are for the third draft. The primer’s archetype section describes all the lanes; the first-timer page should just point at the easy three.
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What five mistakes does everyone make once?
List them on the page. Naming them does not prevent them, but it shortens the time between making the mistake and understanding it.
- Drafting three colors. The fixing looked good. It was not good enough. Two colors.
- Too few lands. Sixteen feels like plenty. Seventeen is the number. Sixteen is for a deck whose most expensive card costs three.
- Too many expensive cards. Four cards at six or more mana is a deck that does nothing until turn six. Two is the limit.
- Ignoring removal for creatures. “I need creatures to win” is true and the removal is still the better pick.
- Not playing the cards you drafted early. A first pick that does not match your colors is a sunk cost. Leave it out. The deck is the forty you build, not the forty-five you took.
What should the page say about the table?
Two lines on etiquette, because a first-timer is more worried about looking foolish than about losing.
Nobody minds a slow pick in your first draft. Nobody minds a rules question; ask the regular next to you or the host. Everyone at the table was a first-timer once at some cube, and most of them remember it. If your table seats first-timers next to a regular during deckbuilding, say so on the page. Our own new-player night does, and the structure is in learn Magic with a cube.
The one-page version
Here is the page, ready to adapt. Replace the bracketed parts with your cube’s details.
Drafting [cube name] for the first time
How it works. Open a pack of 15, take one card, pass the rest. Three packs: pass left, then right, then left. You end with 45 cards. Build a 40-card deck: 17 basic lands (provided) and 23 spells. Then three rounds of games.
Pick two colors. One main, one support. Three colors is the most common first-draft mistake.
What to take. First five picks: the card that wins a game by itself. After that: the best card in your colors. Removal beats a creature of the same cost. Cheap beats expensive. Gold cards are commitments; take them late.
Building. Sort your two colors by cost. Cut from the top until 23 remain. Make sure at least eight cost two or less. Add 17 lands split by color.
Easy first decks here. [Lane 1, with two cards to look for.] [Lane 2.] [Lane 3.]
Five mistakes everyone makes once. Three colors. Sixteen lands. Four expensive cards. Passing removal for a creature. Playing your off-color first pick.
At the table. Slow picks are fine. Questions are fine. A regular will sit with you during deckbuilding. [House rules a first-timer needs: timer, sideboard, match format.]
Full primer and card list: [link]
It is about two hundred words. It fits on one side of a sheet with room for the cube’s name in large type at the top.
How does the page change for different cubes?
A Pauper cube’s page should say that every card has been printed at common, so there are no bombs to take over removal; the pick rule becomes “removal, then cheap creatures, then everything else.” A powered cube’s page should name the handful of cards a first-timer should always take and should warn that three-color decks are more viable but still not for a first draft. A themed cube’s page should put the theme in the first line, because it changes what “a card that wins by itself” means.
FAQ
How many lands should a first-time cube drafter play?
Seventeen in a forty-card deck. Sixteen only if the deck’s most expensive card costs three.
How many colors should a beginner draft in cube?
Two. A main color and a support color. Three-color decks need fixing and experience a first-timer does not have yet.
What should a beginner take first in a cube draft?
For the first five or six picks, the card most likely to win a game by itself, usually a cheap removal spell or a strong creature. After that, the best card in your two colors.
How long should a first-timer’s draft guide be?
One page, about two hundred words. Anything longer will not be read in the car on the way to the draft.
The page that gets them back
A first-timer who follows this page will build a real deck, win a game, and come back. That is all the page is for, and it is worth more than any other page in the primer. The game is the reason. The people are the point.
Subscribe to The Ludarium newsletter for the rest of this series on cube primers, one part a week. If you have never drafted and you are near Indianapolis, the easiest first draft we know of is at Cube Commonwealth.
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