Building a Budget Old-School Cube to Restore My Faith in Magic the Gathering 

Man, these old card styles really do just hit different. It's like the game was based on fantasy art from the 60s and 70s

I remember seeing Shivan Dragon for the first time and losing my mind. Not knowing much about removal, I couldn't comprehend how you could even beat that card. A 5/5 flyer that can pump itself. Shivan Dragon with that art is the most iconic magic card for me.

Dev, man, you're a brother from another mother. You mentioned the exact thing that I have been ruminating since being drawn back into Magic after selling out of Modern earlier this year: Mirage block cube (Mirage, Visions and Weatherlight). I'll probably build a Peasant Cube (commons and uncommons only) initially, based upon a premade version that someone has created. Then the tricky part of finding players IRL and a mutually convenient schedule now that I'm hanging on to my 40s by my fingernails. Now can I start teaching my son and his friends (6 and 7 years old)

Obviously not suggesting a change in overall channel direction, but I'd love to see more videos like this. I especially loved watching you get so excited for old nostalgic cards and interactions. You're a passionate guy, and I dig that.

I love cube drafting. I made an Innistrad cube using Shadows Over Innistrad, Eldritch Moon, Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow. I built it around the various tribes, but I added another colour to have some of the spells that help with their archetypes.

Cube is life. I love my cubes. I love Dev.

Can’t “like” this video enough, and I’m only 10 minutes in! This is why I Patreon Dev, even though I next to never play Standard. You rock!

OMG, this instantly teleports me back to the 90s, I'm so old😭, thanks for this video tho, so good, especially the non-sleeved part, now I want a sleeveless cube too. Gonna have force my friends to wash their hands before they play it...

This is one of your best videos ever, well done sir.

Felt this for a very long time. My post childhood magic has been almost exclusively playing heads up with pre con decks from annual core that use to drop. More recently we took years worth of these decks and mashed them together in a core set exclusive cube of 360 cards with relatively even numbers of creatures spells and power curves for each color. It was a blast and brought back why I love core sets so much.

My nostalgia levels are dangerously high! Thanks for walking me through my senior year of high school playing unsleeved on ketchup stained lunch tables...

Thank you for taking me back to the cafeteria at my school in 1996-98. So many of these cards hold a big space in my heart

It warms my heart to hear someone gush over jester's cap. I too traded hard for it and loved it dearly.

"Riding your bike to go buy a pack of Ice Age." is when I started playing. In forth grade, when Jester's Cap was my 30 dollar chase, and I'd be salty when my rare was a land. Been playing off and on in limited and modern for years, but my friends all play Commander, so I got back in collector mode and joined them. First thing I picked up was a NM Jester's Cap. 15 bucks. And eventually the HP condition will be my fault. :D To be clear, your definition of "old school" matches mine exactly. I didn't get jaded until right after Invasion block. I think I got interested in the opposite sex or something. Came back around for Ranica, and we've been off and on since then. Still asking, "What does that do?" on Spelltable, while playing some obscure shit that I had laying around. The Commander starter kit, if anyone is wondering: Look at your collection, buy a Morophon, put your favorite cards in a stack. Done. Edit: Made it to 47 minutes, and sure enough, there's Jester's Cap.

Also, excellent little video for us that look at those cards with the smell of the 90's lingering in our memories when we see them.

Nice to see someone who does not sleeve their old school cube. I get all kinds of grief for it. But half the reason I am playing an old school cube is for the nostalgia. And like you, I had no sleeves in 1995.

stoked for this one! cube is my favorite thing about magic and i am so excited that you're talking about it!! EDIT: Okay I actually finished watching this now and it was so great! I really resonate with your feelings about how cube puts the magic back into the game. I would absolutely love it if you continued making cube videos!

Wow! That was joyous! I'm getting the card boxes out and assembling this. You forgot the Harvest Wurm to get the forest back from the Rogue Elephant though. And Whirling Dervish. Spreading the love and being kind here in Iowa!

Dev, you read my mind on this one. Trying to put together my first cube to help non-magic friends enjoy the game.

I have 90% of these cards.... and very few MTG friends... but I'm going to make a cube like this now. 100%.. Thanks Dev! You are the best. S-tier content creator!

One thing Rudy said stuck in mind: there're so many mtg products these days you just don't make a connection to cards. Back in the day, we made connection to cards and certain sets. Never thought of building a old school cube... awesome idea.

Hey Dev. I've been an off and on MtG player since Fallen Empires. Seeing this vid brought back so many memories about my early days with the game. I remember my amazement at pulling a Jester's Cap in the first Ice Age pack I cracked, not having ever heard or seen the card before. Lol. I remember my friends and I pooling our money to buy 2 packs of cards and splitting them up...I got the blue. I remember playing for ante, but immediately trading the cards back to each other because the game was about having fun, not winning. Thanks for making this vid, man.

Very cool, Dev! I was thinking about building a 93/94 budget cube myself!

A long time ago I realized that I enjoyed sealed and draft the most. But in my country it is not something you get to see that much. I enjoyed Adventures in the forgotten realms very much and after watching a Professor video on set cubes I decided to make one based on that set. It's missing some of the most expensive cards, but I have everything else. I have only played with it a couple times, but it will be there for whenever my friends and I get together.

A bit late on that, but what you described in your opening is basically what my friends and i tried to emulate with our own casual format. We called it "schoolyard magic" and its essentially that: We each share a booster box (9 packs for each of the four players) and we build decks from those 9 packs. So kinda sealed with a bit more cards. Though we keep these cards, its our initial collection. We are not allowed to add more to it through online shops or other sellers. You cannot even buy more boosters from that set (at least not for that purpose). Then, when a new set drops, we share another box. And expand our collection with these new cards. So we keep adding and expanding with each set, but always just a set amount. Just the stuff you pulled from those few boosters. Like, you know, back in the day. When all you could afford were a few packs each set with whatever pocket money you got. So whenever someone pulls a really good card, its always hype. And we created our own little economy, since you can still trade, but only within the enclosed collections we each have. Most fun i had in magic since idk, 2001/2002

The cuts are so spicy, some of my all-time favorite hits!

I started playing around return to ravnica but I love this video. There's something magical about old skool magic

Watching this for the third time and commenting for the second time. I would love to see more cubes from different eras of magic. I started back in 1996 and I built this cube myself because I wanted to go back to my childhood so badly. Thanks again Dev

I've been looking at building a cube for the last few months. And then this video comes out. Thanks Dev!

I've only been playing magic (and watching your videos!) Since about origins 2015. Commander fills a nice hole but cube is WHERE IT'S AT. I'm on my 4th different one (All innistrad blocks, Legacy unpowered, Old school Morph cube with onslaught and dragons of tarkir blocks with time spiral stuff and a silver border nonsense cube.) Welcome to magic at its core Dev

what a hit! would love to cube that on the carpet floor after scraping my knee. golden era casual kitchen table is an amazing format to have content about. thank you!

This is my favorite video I've watched of yours. Your enthusiasm is infectious. thank you for sharing this special project with us. I would absolutely be here for more cube videos. I've watched you videos off and on for a few years. I'm just now subscribing. thank you for sharing this special project with us.

This is awesome. Building an antiquities set cube and am almost done. Cubing has become my all time favorite format. Used to play legacy and modern.

An incredible experience, thank you for this Dev, I'd watch cube content from you any time.

what an insanely flavourful cube!

I happened to stop playing during Alliances and seeing all these cards from that set has been deeply satisfying to my nostalgia.

Hey friend! Love this video! You totally nailed the way a standard format Arena grinder gets burned out. Love the Cube idea. You reignited a nostalgia corner of my brain and inspired me to build your cube. Please keep up the great work and continue this series with the Tempest or Mirage blocks. Great stuff bud!

I'm building this cube card-for-card and am so in love with this collection. I tried building an old school cube with a ton of disparate cards and it was a total failure (I started playing in 2005). This list is exactly what I've been looking for for years, brought to me by my favorite Wizard of all time.

The stronger the cards get over time the less fun the game becomes, I've been saying this for years. Draft a core set with some friends, beer , pizza, no sleeves , in person. And youll realize what we have lost with arena and MTG as a whole. I hope one day magic will return to the kitchen table style of special game that made it was it is today, but that's asking a lot from a company that wants to make money and not a good game nowadays.

Beautiful cube and happy to see the Tim being part of it!

So I finally just finished my first cube ever! Thanks for all the advice and inspiration. Now I just have to draft it and see how it runs

When you said Ice Age I was like bro, that's around the time I started too. Miss those days

This video was so nostalgic because it was the era that I too played MTG. Back when Deflection was a chase card in Ice Age right behind the $25 Jesters Cap and the $10 Jesters Mask. When Shivan Dragon a $50 card was worth more than Black Lotus. An era when Lord of the Pit, Royal Assassin and Force Of Nature were the creatures to have. Ali from Cairo was the biggest Card from Arabian Nights and No one knew what bazaar of Baghdad was. Mirror Universe was the must have legend and sets were easy to collect. Ahh the Good ol days. Thanks for bringing me down memory lane. Great video!

Man, what a nostalgia trip this was. I started playing in 97 when my dad started picking up cards and Portal. But my cousin and his friends had been playing for a couple of years and had a bunch of those old cards. I miss when having a Serra Angel on turn 5 was the best play for mono-white aggro. And then play another one on turn 6 or cast a balance and get rid of the opponent's side of the field. Good times.

1:47-2:08 You just took me back to some of the greatest times of my life. As you where saying it I could picture actual events happening. Actual excitement of pulling up on my bike to my friends house after Id went by our local shop to buy a few packs to crack that night. Nd all of us getting our cards out of our back packs, in a revised starter pack box Non sleeved. Along with packs and random cards to trade. 🙏🏼 back when it was fun and afforadable.

Great Cube, the nostalgia kicks in...

Watching all this beautiful cards unsleeved being played is so amazing to me. Nice way to remind me that for many of us MTG is still a game first and a collectible second (or third).

As a tip for any Cubers who don't have a photographic memory of all MTG cards since alpha... I used advanced search on Gatherer a lot to search for synergistic and thematic cards, especially the rules text and flavour text searches can be really useful

Dev, I did something like this in a different draft format (2 players) using a pile of Homelands cards with an old-school player who hadn't played Magic in a while, and it was a lot of fun. He built an incredibly defensive white deck that I couldn't break through with my blue/black deck until I finally drew Serrated Arrows and I was able to kill his Mesa Falcons and get through in the air. There's something clean and fun about old cards, I'm not quite sure what the difference is now. I do think complexity creep is a problem Wizards is not paying enough attention to, and a lot of the complexity is little nitpicky stuff like "only at sorcery speed" and "once per turn" and "only to cast nonartifact spells, but activated abilities are okay." Old cards had these effects occasionally too, but it seems like ALL cards have them now. While I like modal cards and their flexibility, they also add a lot of complexity to the decision-making of the game and there are a lot of times where I feel like there was no way to know what the correct play was in a game, which feels bad. I feel pretty confident I could identify my mistakes and correct plays using your cube cards.

This list is fantastic and cubes are super personal and this is maybe my favorite video on your channel. Thank you so much for sharing! That being said I would absolutely love to see a couple of other gems (mostly from ice age) Disenchant, braingeyser, kjeldoran dead, jackal pup, raging goblin, viashino heretic, shatter, stone rain, and of course gargantuan gorilla.

thank you so much for this breath of fresh air Dev had to edit after watching all the way through. to answer your question at the end. I personally love the change up from standard coverage. its nice seeing your builds and listening to your stories from old school days. I personally really enjoy some of your off standard videos like this. or the best 5 lands to buy in each color. or your commander deck tech. its nice seeing your other layers and not just the standard power house weve all come to love

Maze of ith was one of those cards I saw people playing that left an impression on me. One of those cards I always wished I had. Recently bought 2 LP for about $25 each and happy with the purchase. Cool jungle troll as well. I pulled him from my very first magic purchase of a mirage starter. Made a red green deck and he was the all star of it.

Great to see that you've gotten into cube, it's by far my favorite format. I'm looking forward to getting into the video!

Okay, I'm just 2:30 in at this point and this is my favorite Dev intro. So f-ing relatable! simple and perfectly stated. Okay now for the rest of it :D

Thanks dev, ive been watching all your cube videos. It my callenge for 2024 to make a cube

Thank you for sharing this! I really enjoy how much you appreciate the older cards and their art styles. It's great to see you sharing something that you really love.

I agree with enjoying seeing some wear and tear on your cards. It's reminds me of the days of playing unsleeved magic, and your favorite cards would always get the most wear. Nowadays people double sleeve their entire deck, I guess they think they'll become black lotuses in 20 years.

This is very very sweet!!! I love day dreaming up cube themes and archetypes :)

i used to sing will of the wind while casting will-O-The-Wisp back then lol, nostalgic af

Thanks for making this video! I love your decks and my all time favorite is your mono blue mid-range from a few years ago. It absolutely dominates in historic, and I would love to see you update it with some of the newest cards available now. I play many decks, and it is the most fun to play. I strongly encourage you to dig it back up to relive how amazing it is! I also want to thank you for keeping magic alive!

39:56 great burn Dev.

Been waiting patiently for this, keeping up with the updates. Loving the balance of jank and power and that the cards have been loved up too.

Great video. I’ve been away from Magic for a bit and this reignited my interest. I think I’ll get some beat-up cards from my favorite sets from the past, create my own cube, and not use sleeves. Time to go old school. Thank you Dev.

Damn. When you talked about riding a bike to grab a pack of ice age, you got me bro, it was simple back then. Scaled wurm was it. I'm only half way through the cube but I love it! Your awesome sir.

Love this video Dev, you are a very valuable old school magic card. From one alpha aged player to another

Great video Dev! I love to see people playing the game the way they want to play it!

Really sweet, I might try to put this very cube together one day.

Haven't even started the video but you already have my like, more cube stuff please I beg

Nice. Great video, I'm 40 so I agree with what you're saying here. I think I have every card here just sitting in a box in my closet maybe minus 1 or 2.

Cool cube Dev! I really respect the no sleeve choice. Such a shame I didn't play in my childhood so it's awesome to listen to your stories

Thanks for the memory lane video. Sweet cube.

I'm going to have to try making a half cube sometime sounds like a lot of nostalgic fun.

This inspired me to build beginner decks focusing on key elements to each color and a mixture of old and new art.

Arena needs a cube building format to play with friends

River Boa was a beast back then lol there's a probability it will make you scoop if you were playing blue back then and weren't able to counter it because you were on the draw haha

Thanks for sharing :) Your cube definetly got some personality! I try to build a premodern one too, but more centered around Onslaught Era, where i got sucked into Magic

Love this. Personally missing Samite Healer, Roc of Kher Ridges and Brass Man from that list, but so happy for Frozen Shade. Where's Mind Stone, though? It's notable how heavily tilted towards defense the early creatures were. Some deep cuts from the cheaper early sets (that is, stuff from Fallen Empires onwards) that could actually work really well in an environment like this include: - The early proto-equipment stuff, especially the more aggressive ones like Zelyon Sword, Aegis of the Meek and Ashnod's Battle Gear, maybe even Celestial Sword and Whalebone Glider. Forbidden Lore is similar, but riskier with all the land destruction running around. - Horn of Deafening is definitely (or should I say deafinitely) annoying and can be used offensively or defensively - Aysen Bureaucrats and Heavy Ballista are similar, preventing attacks or making blocking difficult - Paralyze, versatile and very cheap removal for the early game - Ashen Ghoul and Eron the Relentless, a little more haste never hurt anyone - Aeolipile, the holy hand grenade - Reveka, Wizard Savant and her best friends Instill Energy, Jandor's Saddlebags and Seeker of Skybreak - Goblin War Drums to break through stalled boards - Wind Spirit for the double evasion And so on. Then again, crafting the absolutely perfectly balanced limited environment might not be the most important point of a cube like this. :)

Magic really was just better back in the day. There have been games that have come out since that are technically better than Magic, Android Netrunner being the main one that comes to mind, but no matter how many TCGs I play, I will never stop loving and playing old school Magic. It really did just hit different.

Love this video and couldn’t agree more Dev! Cube is my favorite way to play.

3:58 had me laughing. When I saw the first one, it was definitely a "ooh, what is This?" excitement for uniqueness. Unexpected joke.

I built a Momir basic "cube" to create a level playing field because my friends run the gamut from 'knows how to play, but doesnt own cards' to me who has a $1k commander deck and just pulled out 4000 bulk to offload because I need more space. The Cube is basically 50-60 creatures at every mana value up to 7 or 8, then past that its whatever I could support, with a few X costs to fill in a bit more, treating them as if they were paid for with the appropriate value. Gameplay works pretty much exactly like Momir Basic on MTGO, except instead of getting any card from all of magic, you pull a card from that mana value stack and that card comes into play as a token.

I love the nostalgia videos! I've been thinking about building some budget old-school decks, so it was great to see them as a cube.

Can't wait to see the mirage cube

Thanks Dev. I appreciate you telling this story and I love all the unsleeved cards. Also, thanks for reminding me to get off my ass and finish my cube!

Great video, more cube content please.

Thats a cool cube Dev, it made me want to make a Theros block cube which is almost completed!

Thanks for this, Dev! I haven’t played lately because it just doesn’t feel like the same game anymore. I have most of these cards in my collection and think I’ll build something similar to re-experience what I loved about the game so long ago.

I love it and I might build one of these as well. I already have almost all of the cards you've shown.

It's funny how much much we think alike dev. I started working on a cube i call the classic cube about 1 year ago. I originally decided i wanted to make a cube of every card printed 10 times in in core sets and regular expansion sets ( no portal, commander, masters or remastered sets). However i set the bar to high and had to pull do the printings to 5 times. After about 3 months of grueling research through all the magic cards ever produced I narrowed down the list to 360 cards. I then ordered said cards and the cube is now complete. I plan to do an auction style draft with 3 other people and make a game night out of it. The great thing about the cube i built is that cards can/will be replaced or rotate over time. For example i had some higher costing cards in the cube (winter orb and one other). However as of Dominaria United, lightning strike and bone splinters reached their 5th printing in the core/expansions set. So I replaced the two higher costing cards with these. As more sets come out over the years I plan to "rotate" cards in and out this way. If anybody is interested in the cube list i have posted it with this post. Hope you like it. cubecobra.com/cube/list/62097f5773bd2a7f48664042?view=table&scale=medium

Great video Dev! Had heard about cube, but never quite knew what it was.

Watching this video was a walk down memory lane and I loved every minute of it ❤

Its crazy to see how many cards in this cube are the namesake of effects and keywords now. Exile, Blinking Spirit, Anthem, Wrath of God and so on

Took me back to freshman year of High School with some of those picks

shut up couch Dev, we love the intros...

That table isn't nearly as dirty as the public school picnic tables we played unsleeved magic on in 8th grade - this cube brings me back!

Man, the old art on the cards looked so good and cool. Now all we have is the same cookie-cutter avengers-like artwork every damn time

I’ve been waiting for this, but I feel bad I was only just now able to get to it.

Dev, this video rocks. Love your cube. (And cube movie references)

Dev I need a full track of all your openings love your openers so catchy!!

I liked the video. Reminds me of the old days. I guess that's why I play Old school. Also I'm shutting Liliana down in standard with Biolume Egg. Trying to do something different. Agressive blue in a black standard. Deck builders rule!