In Chromatic Cube, be prepared to draft decks with more expensive spells, more colors, and more dreams to live in the newest addition to MTG Arena‘s growing cube offerings! Read on for more event details and the philosophy of this big-mana environment.

PHANTOM EVENT

Chromatic Cube is a Phantom event. Cards you draft are not added to your collection.

Event Details

Dates: June 25–July 8

Format: Draft Best-of-One and traditional Best-of-Three

Entry: 4,000 gold or 600 gems

Rewards:

Historic ICRs grant cards from pack releases on MTG Arena. They do not include cards that were released outside of packs (e.g., cards from Historic Anthologies). Historic uncommon ICRs have a 5% upgrade rate to rare. Historic rare ICRs may upgrade to a mythic rare; each rare is twice as likely to be awarded as each mythic rare.

CHASING THE RAINBOW

The main goal of this cube is to deliver a cube experience unlike Arena Cube or Tinkerer’s Cube. If you’ve followed my exploits elsewhere, on Magic Online I created the Live the Dream Cube. So, I simply applied that cube’s philosophy to MTG Arena and its Historic card pool: lots of big-mana decks and a plethora of crazy interactions to help emulate Commander, all in the context of a cube!

While Arena Cube is a great overall representation of Cube and Magic, and Tinkerer’s Cube involves a great deal of synergistic small pieces to craft a deck with a unique and holistically strong mechanical identity, Chromatic Cube replaces aggressive creatures with mana rocks so we can get to the good stuff: cards that cost more and do more! This is a cube where Alloy Myr makes a great ally, and there’s more to Maskwood Nexus than meets the eye . . .

AS GOOD AS GOLD

Some cubes are pure “good stuff,” meaning all the cards are individually powerful, and you take the “best card per pack” in your deck of two or maybe three colors. Other cubes are synergy driven, which means you may draft a deck that is “on rails” and is looking for a very specific piece to complete your linear, sometimes parasitic, puzzle.

This is the dichotomy of Arena Cube and Tinkerer’s Cube. Chromatic Cube lies somewhere in the middle. A lot of the cards are individually good in decks, but there are eleven archetypes for ten color pairs in the game to guide drafters. Not all decks of the same two colors will be the same of course, but if you see an off-the-wall card, you can trust that the cube can support it. And since this is Chromatic Cube, you can bet that there will be enough fixing available to often play more than two colors.

Of course, there are many, many small strategies outside of these eleven archetypes; these are just the loud directions the cube will call out for you to try. Just don’t try too hard to draft an aggressive deck that aims to curve out in the early turns with small creatures. This ain’t that kind of cube.

Let’s just take a look at the ten archetypes, shall we?

WHITE-BLUE TOKENS

In an unusually aggressive archetype for these two colors, you’ll want to “go-wide” and create a veritable cornucopia of creatures for your opponents to handle. Hint: they won’t be able to. Sure, this strategy is normally green’s territory, but can green cards draw as many cards as blue? Actually, don’t answer that.

BLUE-BLACK THIEVERY

Sure, your deck might be sweet, but what about your opponent’s? Utilize your opponent’s cards in this controlling archetype to beat them at their own game. Just make sure you’ve got enough removal, as this is the slowest archetype, and you better hope your opponent drafted a good deck! Take all the fun, and give nothing back.

BLACK-RED DRAGONS

Dragons! Ramp into Dragons! Destroy creatures that aren’t Dragons! This deck often splashes for Dragons. Dragons are better than the creatures your opponents will play. Make sure you can cast your Dragons by picking up some mana acceleration. And if your Dragons die, reanimate them back to the battlefield. Dragons.

RED-GREEN POWER MATTERS

Power is powerful. In this deck, you’ll want some mana acceleration, but then you’ll be pumping out creatures that are large and in charge with big numbers in the bottom right of the card. But not only do they hit hard, they also draw cards . . . hard? There’s more payoff than just damage for the discerning Gruul mage in this cube, but still lots of damage.

GREEN-WHITE COUNTERS

In perhaps the most aggressive archetype in the cube, you’ll be placing fat stacks of counters onto your critters. How tall can a creature get? If each +1/+1 counter is a foot, then you’ll be able to make creatures as tall as Matt Tabak, and almost as fun.

This deck tends to go wide, which blends well with the White-Blue deck. Since this is Chromatic Cube, three-color decks tend to be the norm, so go ahead and dip into blue for some goodies. I won’t mind.

WHITE-BLACK LEGENDARY

Use legendary creatures and removal spells to lead your ragtag band of heroes (and villains) to victory! Like most strategies in this cube, this can be relatively slow, but this color pair tends to even the odds by killing anything that moves. And if your champions were to be killed in turn, they won’t be dead for long. There are lots of sneaky synergies with everybody’s favorite supertype, and since your opponent’s creatures won’t even have name tags, they’ll have no chance.

BLUE-RED STORM

Draft some mana ramp, big spells, and some copy effects, and what do you get? The most fun you can have! There are lots of pieces to this strategy, but if the plan all comes together, you’ll be playing a completely different game than your opponents. Extra turn effects are particularly potent in this cube, so don’t waste any time in taking them.

BLACK-GREEN DEATH

This deck likes things to die: your creatures, your opponent’s creatures, your opponents. While this deck is generally fairly creature heavy, it’s so you can utilize their delicious life force to further your plans of total game domination. In other words, make more mana, play more creatures, and stop your opponent from doing those things. So, for black-green decks, just a regular Tuesday.

RED-WHITE EQUIPMENT

Rule number fifteen says a hero is only as good as their weapon. Red-White takes that rule to heart, and you won’t be lacking in steel or sorcery in this archetype. This color combination is both fast and furious, so try to draft the Equipment-loving family first, and then their implements later. Once you play both edges of this double-edged sword of creatures and swords, you’ll have more edges in the game than you’ll know what to do with!

GREEN-BLUE LANDS

Every deck should have lands, but this deck should have the most, since that’s how you win! Often in Magic, the player with the most mana wins. And in this cube, that axiom is especially true, so be sure to grab all the land acceleration you can! You’ll most likely be able to splash all the other good cards you see, so you mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

FIVE-COLOR DREAM

And finally, we have the bonus eleventh archetype that uses every color we can throw at you. You’ll be the slowest deck, the most eccentric deck, and the deck with the most lands (I hope). What you’ll also be, though, is the deck with the sweetest turns, as you’ll be playing some of the most individually powerful cards in the cube. If you can dream it, you can do it!