Cube Draft Reports - November 2025

A decent chunk of cube in November, but we’re wrapping it up a bit early as my family is coming to visit before I go on an overseas vacation with them that stretches into December (which I suspect will also be a bit cube-light). It was a good batch of familiar cubes this month, plus one new one for a bit of spice. As always, the caveat bullet points:

• I purposely don’t look at cube lists before drafting. The mystery and surprise of it all and having to piece together the puzzle on the spot is one of the main draws of Magic for me, and some of that is spoiled by knowing the shape of what is there in advance. I only really go in knowing what the cube owner says in their pre-draft setup spiel, and any loose memories knocking around from previous drafts.
• These draft reports are first and foremost for me, but format and level of detail about certain aspects are something I’m interested in experimenting with. If you want to hear more about say, my thoughts during the draft or my feelings about XYZ, let me know and I will almost certainly take it into account, even if I don’t seem to actively do anything about it.

Hella Cube (November 5, 2025)

We started the month with the now-classic-to-me Hella Cube, but with some extra spice in the form of testing cards from Avatar and also some sharpied Leovold’s Operatives that we all started with and could use once each, without having to pass on the next booster pack. Basically it served as a one-shot double-pick for each player that also made the pack sizes a little difficult to track, but it’s not like I keep track of that anyways.

My pack 1 pick 1 was one I had talked to the cube owner a fair bit about how both cool and strong it was: Summon: Primal Odin. My plan pretty much instantly became to ramp out Summon: Primal Odin and just keep recursively casting it until it worked. My second pick, Sazh’s Chocobo, fit into the ramp plan as well while also being a win con of its own. From there, I pretty much stuck on that plan, going Golgari ramp/recursion, with a bit of landfall for flavor that was solidifed by picking up Tifa Lockhart pick 1 of pack 3. My last pick of pack 1 was between Overgrown Tomb and Glacierwood Siege, so I definitely could have gone more all-in on lands, but I didn’t feel like blue was super open to pivot to, and mostly I had done a full-on lands deck last time I played this cube and wanted to do something different. Pack 2 I used my Leovold’s Operative to pick up Eternal Witness, which clearly fit into my strategy, along with Twilight Prophet, which didn’t quite fit but is a card I love and adore. Not fully committing to lands meant it felt less bad when The Gitrog Monster and Titania, Protector of Argoth were in the same pack during pack 3, but it still didn’t feel great. I ended up picking the former because I had Icetill Explorer but had passed the Glacierwood Siege so only had one piece of land recursion, and was a little light on lands that sacrifice themselves either way, whereas The Gitrog Monster represented card draw I was sorely lacking. Also: I again wanted something different than my last play of the cube, where Titania, Protector of Argoth had featured extremely heavily in my deck’s strategy. In the end, my deck landed pretty much where I planned, but with a lack of removal and lack of reach given my top-end creatures didn’t have the ability to close the game past chump blockers like trample or flying would have afforded, I wasn’t sure exactly how I planned to win.

My first match was against a mono-white aggro deck, splashing red. In game 1 I was on the ramp plan with Birds of Paradise into Animal Attendant, but didn’t have any big payoff and kept drawing lands. Meanwhile, my opponent swung over my potential chump blockers with Lightning Phoenix and an army of tokens from Resolute Reinforcements and Descendant of Storms that took to the skies thanks to Starry-Eyed Skyrider, and I perished. The next game I got an engine going with The Gitrog Monster and Icetill Explorer, to the point I had to be very careful with my lands I recurred as I had maybe 5 cards in library and either playing or sacrificing more dug me deeper towards decking. I needed to push damage to try and end the game before I decked, but that meant I had to pop my opponent’s Hallowed Spiritkeeper into a pile of four 1/1 flyers. Those tokens very easily could have just stalled me out until I decked myself, but my opponent very helpfully put me out of my misery instead by fully leveling up their Caretaker’s Talent and swinging in with their now buffed flying army.

My second game was against a Dimir mill deck. In the first game a combination of Lotus Cobra, Harrow, and one of my Landscapes let me swing for 16 damage with Tifa Lockhart on turn 4 and take my opponent out. In the second game, Zellix, Sanity Flayer was milling me out at a steady clip while also dumping out a pile of chump blockers, but one of the cards milled along they way was my Lasyd Prowler. All the cards I milled included a bunch of lands that let me buff my Twilight Prophet with a cool seven +1/+1 counters and my opponent had no way to beat a 9-power flyer before they died.

The last game was against an Azorius flicker deck. The first game Birthing Ritual dumped out an early Trostani Discordant tokens and the lifelink put the game out of my reach even if I was able to get past the tokens. The next game I was lucky to have Soul Enervation for my opponent’s Galepowder Mage, and my board of Icetill Explorer, Undertaker, and Thrashing Brontodon made my opponent’s primarily exile-based removal close to useless. My opponent chose to eventually remove my Undertaker so I had to stop using it to essentially cycle the same creature in and out of my graveyard for Soul Enervation drains. Instead, as my opponent built their board wide, I recurred Escape Tunnel to let me sneak through exactly enough unblockable damage. The last game I kept my hand based on Sazh’s Chocobo and The Gitrog Monster. The former got Journey to Nowhered, The Gitrog Monster got bounced by Venser, Shaper Savant, and I didn’t have removal for Galepowder Mage this time which repeatedly bounced Venser, Shaper Savant to get rid of any threats I tried to stick until Birthing Ritual dug up some more aggressively-oriented blink targets like Trostani Discordant and I died.

I only ever saw Summon: Primal Odin when the board was gummed up in the last game of match 1 and the most relevant text on it was the huge liability of losing 2 life in its final chapter. Tragic. However, a standout card for me was True Ancestry; I was always happy to draw it no matter the game state as having both recursion and card draw was huge. I already have plans to stick it in my own primary cube.

West Coast Cube (November 12, 2025)

The next cube for Wednesday cube night was West Coast Cube, a cube I’ve played several times by now. The cube designer has often made sweeping changes to the cube in the past, and this time featured the biggest one yet after a re-evaluation and explicit stating of the design goals. To this end, over half the cube had been changed since my last play of it. One thing that hadn’t changed though was its ability to be split it ally and enemy-colored halves for smaller groups. We were at 5 people for cube night, so we played the enemy-colored half of the cube, plus some hand-picked cards from the ally-colored side. With the number of cards pulled, we ended up doing 4 packs: 2 packs of 11 followed by 2 packs of 10.

This is a low-curving cube where its often correct to play 16 lands. I, however, cannot remember the last time I didn’t play 17 lands in this cube, with my curve often being a fair share higher than average or double-spelling being an important part of my strategy. I continued this trend by picking Verdurous Gearhulk pack 1 pick 1, which I remembered being one of the highest mana value cards in the cube. My last pick of pack 1 was between Heritage Reclamation and Ozolith, The Shattered Spire; removal had seemed quite light, and artifact and enchantment removal seemed especially at a premium, but I opted for the latter especially given the flexibility of being able to cycle it. From there, I was fed what must be every repeated +1/+1 counter increaser in the cube: I already had Ozolith, The Shattered Spire and got Winding Constrictor, Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, Hardened Scales, Innkeeper’s Talent, and Benevolent Hydra. I also picked up pretty much every creature that could have or add +1/+1 counters, plus any trample enablers so as to not fall into the problem I had last week. Luckily I could get pretty much all of those in green, without worrying too much about my colors. I also tried to pick up removal but it was still a scarce commodity.

My first game was against a Mardu aggro/equipment/tokens deck. My first game Bonesplitter into Adorned Pouncer into suiting it up and Reckless Charge meant I ate 12 damage on turn 3. I declined to block with my Scavenging Ooze because I thought lifegain would be important and I figured scaling out with Rishkar, Peema Renegade would be more relevant in the long run, especially as it let me hold up Overprotect with my ability to tap my creatures for mana to try and steal a 2-for-1. But a Maul of the Skyclaves put all that strategy to naught as the Adorned Pouncer sailed through the skies to murder me. The second game I curved turn 1 Hardened Scales into turn 3 Managorger Hydra into turn 4 Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager suited up with Audacity. My opponent couldn’t remove either creature, the trample on both meant chump blocking was out of the question, and my opponent could put me to 1 life but that meant growing the Managorger Hydra to the point I could easily kill them on the crackback. They opted to Eternalize their Adorned Pouncer which didn’t grow my Managorger Hydra but provided a big enough blocker that meant they could live if I couldn’t cast two spells, but my Withering Torment plus Spectacular Tactics sealed their fate in multiple different ways. The final game my opponent and I both kept vaguely sketchy hands. They had a Sword of War and Peace (modified in this cube to grant menace and Ward 2 rather than color protection) but only one creature that I picked off with Fateful Absence, but I was also lacking threats. They eventually drew a Samurai’s Katana. I had a Withering Torment and mana for the Ward cost but decided it would be better to play Managorger Hydra plus Innkeeper’s Talent to grow my board. Plus, I was trying to see if I’d draw another way to deal with the Hero token, like a creature to double-block, so I could use the Withering Torment to take out my opponent’s Warleader’s Call instead, which I had no other answer to. This was a mistake, as I underestimated exactly how much damage I would take when they suited the hero token up with the Sword of War and Peace^[1] and had to spend the Withering Torment and my mana to clear it the next turn, putting me in basically the same situation just down a bunch of life. From there, I was at a precarious enough life total that between my opponent’s Warleader’s Call and the Zulaport Cutthroat they played that meant any creature on my opponent’s side spelled death I couldn’t deal with without dying in a different way, which is exactly what happened.

My second and final match was against an Esper control deck, which from watching part of their last match I knew had Control Magic and Entrancing Melody that would be very bad for my “make-big-creatures” plan. My first match, I played Innkeeper’s Talent turn 2 into Siege Veteran turn 3 into Champion of Dusan for an insurmountable amount of trample damage very quickly. The second game I had an early opening with Hardened Scales plus Siege Veteran, but couldn’t develop anything further as my threats got eaten by counterspells and bounce spells, and I didn’t have enough threats to try and double-spell to dodge. My opponent took a while to get a threat on the table, but they needed not rush because I saw 13 of my 17 lands that game. Eventually, they took me out with a sizeable Haughty Djinn. The last game got off to a slow start. My two 2-drops got Spell Snared as I mostly expected, but the real kicker was my Lasyd Prowler getting Remanded twice, the second time thanks to Snapcaster Mage, while my opponent got a pile of flyers I couldn’t deal with from Lingering Souls. I managed to eventually land a Managorger Hydra and quickly get it to 8 +1/+1 counters to pose a lethal threat, and felt as stable as I could at 11 life facing down 4 1/1 Spirit tokens, a Haughty Djinn only at 3 power, some ground creatures I could block, and my opponent’s 2 cards in hand. My opponent drew with Think Twice, then played Merfolk Pupil and discarded Beetle, Legacy Criminal, which they then exiled from their graveyard to let their Snapcaster Mage fly. Between the now 3-power Snapcaster Mage, the 4 Spirit tokens, and a now 4-power Haughty Djinn, that was 11 damage in the air I could do nothing about, which was exactly my life total.

In pretty much every game I died to fliers, and honestly I don’t think there was much I could’ve done about it; I don’t believe there’s a single creature with reach in the pool we played with or maybe in the cube and removal was quite light all around during this iteration of the cube (an opinion echoed by all of the players). Still, I think I built an exceptionally coherent and cool deck showing off what the cube owner wanted to emphasize with +1/+1 counters. I do feel bad I never drew my best cards of Bristly Bill, Spine Sower and Verdurous Gearhulk though. That one’s on me.

Bryan’s Good Clean Magic (November 16, 2025)

I filled in a spot on a Sunday afternoon at someone’s place for Bryan’s Good Clean Magic. This is a cube I had never played but was told was “just kind of a normal cube,” which suited me fine. My pack 1 pick 1 was a solid but deeply uninspiring Selfless Spirit in comparison to cards I saw later in the pack that I absolutely did not want to pass and pulled me into multiple different directions. Control Magic pulled me into blue. I flirted with a flicker theme with Flickerwisp and Venser, Shaper Savant^[2], but when the Soulherder I saw pack 1 didn’t wheel I mostly abandoned that plan. Meanwhile, I absolutely could not pass the Yawgmoth, Thran Physician^[3], even though it meant passing the Cruel Celebrant in the same pack I would have loved for an aristocrats theme. I then picked up a Recurring Nightmare and tried to maybe lean into a token/recursion angle, but I didn’t see much fodder for it, so instead just picked up good midrange cards like Thief of Sanity, Celestial Colonnade, Mulldrifter, and three different board wipes in Damnation, Wrath of God, and Winds of Abandon. By the end of the draft, I wasn’t surprised to learn a player was playing Orzhov aristocrats and another was playing Azorius blink, two themes I had tried but hadn’t been able to assemble and had felt them being fought over. What was a surprise was the person to my left had also drafted an Esper deck, though their’s was very counterspell-control based. Knowing all of that competition for cards was happening, plus a lack of a super strong plan, meant I was very skeptical about the quality of my deck.

My first match was against a four-color no-white ramp deck. My first game the Blade Splicer Golem with first strike easily gummed up the ground while I secured the win in the air with Mulldrifter suited up with Grafted Wargear and my Celestial Colonnade. My game two I kept a five land hand with a plan to board wipe on turn 4 with Damnation and then play Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. That plan went off without a hitch, but I possibly should have been more detailed in my plan because only drawing lands during this whole process was not part of it. My opponent had thankfully little going on until they dropped a Thopter Assembly and suddenly had a lot going on. I got extremely lucky and topdecked Hangarback Walker, and all those lands paid off in the form of 8 mana to give it four +1/+1 counters, and sacrifice it and all of the Thopters to pick off the Thopter Assembly before it became a problem. That process also refilled my hand while my opponent was out of gas and I closed up the game from there. We started a for-fun game 3 where we accidentally swapped decks in the cutting decks process, but didn’t quite finish it before other matches finished up.

The Azorius blink drafter was my second opponent. I kept a sketchy hand with no black mana and was rewarded by drawing all of my black cards, but it wasn’t as sketchy as my opponent’s who kept a 1-land and didn’t draw another for four turns, letting me snowball with Precinct Captain. The second game Reflector Mage repeatedly bounced all my stuff as it was copied with Phantasmal Image and flickered with Ephemerate and I just got beat up without being able to stick a threat. The third game I managed to get down some early threats and chip my opponent down to about 8 life, but I failed to draw my sixth land to let me activate Celestial Colonnade to try and get in those last points of damage. That gave my opponent time to assemble a terrifying engine of Reflector Mage and Angel of Invention and Soulherder. My sided-in Wrath of God ate a Counterspell, but tapped my opponent out so I could pick off the Soulherder via Oblivion Ring. However, my opponent immediately replaced it with a Thassa, Deep-Dwelling to keep the value rolling. I had a window when my oponent swung out and I had Yawgmoth, Thran Physician to pick off Vendilion Clique and block the rest to just about survive at two life. I sacrificed my already persisted Kitchen Finks to try and draw a board wipe, but drew Recurring Nightmare instead. I could’ve started looping my Kitchen Finks for life, but as it stood I didn’t have enough mana to do that and put up enough blockers to still live Thassa, Deep-Dwelling’s tap ability, and Wall of Omens was too big of a wall to try and win on the crackback with my opponent at a respectable 11 life, so I scooped it up there.

My last match was against the Orzhov aristocrats player. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician ran the show in the first game. My opponent cast The Meathook Massacre for X=1 to try and remove my Selfless Spirit and Dark Confidant, and I threw into the Yawgmoth, Thran Physician mill to get rid of my opponent’s Thalia, Guardian of Thraben before The Meathook Massacre could trigger and to make sure their Deathrite Shaman perished in the massacre as well. I played the Luminarch Aspirant I had drawn as a bonus and kept putting the +1/+1 counters Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. Protection from Humans meant he was free to waltz past the Human Soldier tokens pumped out by my opponent’s Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis and swing in for the win. The second game I could not beat Priest of Forgotten Gods. The first activation gave my opponent extra mana to Finale of Glory for X=4, and the second let them dump out both Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Spear of Heliod. All the while, Cruel Celebrant was sitting pretty on the board. I unfortunately was one mana short of overloading Winds of Abandon to really turn the tides of the game^[4] before my on-board death, and opted to get rid of the Priest of Forgotten Gods actively killing me as opposed to the Cruel Celebrant passively killing me. I was able to carefully construct blocks to make sure my opponent’s stuff didn’t die and I could live a turn longer than I had any right to and pick off the Cruel Celebrant, but it getting resurrected by Extraction Specialist was a spare nail in my already-bolted-shut coffin. The last game I looked at my hand and immediately knew and said it was my best hand all cube, and possibly my best hand across the last several months of cubes. I had 3 lands, Isamaru, Hound of Kondo for my one-drop, Luminarch Aspirant for my two-drop to start growing the dog for large chunks of damage, and then Phyrexian Metamorph and Ultimate Price to react to my opponent. I drew Flesh Carver as a filler turn 3 play. My opponent played a Blood Artist which I was more than happy to copy with Phyrexian Metamorph. The next turn, I drew Carrion Feeder, and broke the Blood Artist symmetry with Ultimate Price, and my opponent scooped before I could sacrifice all my creatures into the Carrion Feeder’s gullet for the Blood Artist drain win.

Going from two very synergy-driven decks and cubes, it was a nice change of pace playing good cards that are still fun and good. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is very good obviously, but Celestial Colonnade was really my finisher game plan most of the time. Now, if only I could be reminded and take to heart to pick up more removal or think more about the limitations of the removal I do have: I thought the Ultimate Price would be quite good given all my biggest threats were mono-colored double-pip creatures, but I sure stared at it in my hand a lot while I was dying to Soulherder and Cruel Celebrant.

Welcome to Value Town (November 19, 2025)

Welcome to Value Town was on the docket for this Wednesday cube night, a cube I had previously played and semi-ignored the main thrust of the cube by playing mono-red aggro. We started a bit late due to traffic in the area, so I was pretty sure we’d only get 2 rounds in, but we had a full pod of 8. The special things of note in the opening spiel: we had moved up to 3 packs of 16^[5], it was old companion rules (so no mana needed to get it into hand), and there was a Loreseeker somewhere in the cube and the Loreseeker pack was not seeded in any way; it was just cards from the cube.

My first two picks were relatively flexible as Birds of Paradise as my pack 1 pick 1 and Luminarch Aspirant as my pick 2. From there, I saw Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar and figured some sort of +1/+1 counter boosting strategy was a good direction and picked it up. I did also speculatively pick up a Yuriko. the Tiger’s Shadow midway through pack 1 given I had passed 2 other ninjas beforehand, but none of them wheeled, so I pretty quickly ditched that plan for a Selesnya counters strategy. I was shockingly diligent about eating my vegetables too, picking up an Arid Mesa and a Misty Rainforest all in pack 1. My responsibility paid off too as I picked up Wan Shi Tong, Librarian pick 1 of pack 2; it fit with my counters theme and felt like it’d be generically good past that, especially with the 10 Prismatic Vistas in the cube, so I just had to figure out how to cast double-blue pips. In Bant colors now, I started to contemplate if I was supposed to be in a flicker deck instead, as I picked up some pieces like Soulherder and was a bit torn, but most of the cards I got were still centered in green/white counters. Early in pack 3, maybe pick 3 or 4, I decided to take the Lore Seeker, and was rewarded by opening and taking Yorion, Sky Nomad. I didn’t know how much, if any, synergy it would have, but a constant 5 mana 4/5 flyer seemed like a great rate no matter what. It was then I counted exactly how many spells I had picked to figure out what I was going to have to do to play it. I had only picked up 3 off-color spells, but had been possibly too responsible with my mana. I wasn’t sure exactly how many spells I was supposed to have for a 60-card deck, but the numbers sure seemed like I needed to only pick playable spells for the rest of the draft, so that’s what I did.^[6]

During deckbuilding, the cube owner reported 24 lands as standard for a 60-card deck, but since I had a companion I could eat a little mana flood as I would always have access to a spell, so 26-28 lands was recommended. Laying out the cards I had, cutting the 4 flicker-synergy-centric cards got me to 32 nonlands^[7], so I called it a deck there. I didn’t even have to play the Lore Seeker.

My first match was against a Dimir tempo packed with cheap flyers, counters, and a bit of reanimation for spice. The first game my initial threats got countered and removed by Mana Leak^[8] and Bitter Triumph, but The Ozolith helped me preserve at least a bit of value. I got to Yorion, Sky Nomad flicker my impending Overlord of the Hauntwoods, which was sick, but my opponent had a bunch of flyers I couldn’t deal with, peak among them Wan Shi Tong, All-Knowing, and they just kept bouncing and nullifying my flying blockers to get in for damage. It was close at the end; they had swung out completely leaving us both at maybe 5 life. On my turn Elspeth Conquers Death went to its final chapter, bringing back my Birds of Paradise with a +1/+1 counter. If I had some way to flicker or remove my own Birds of Paradise, it plus the two +1/+1 counters already sitting in wait on The Ozolith would have pushed my Wolf token to enough power to win. But I didn’t, so I lost. The second game, Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd repeatedly bouncing The Ozolith racked up counters and damage quickly, but my opponent had a swarm of flyers in the form of Faerie Seer, Faerie Dreamthief, and Deep-Cavern Bat and swung back pretty hard themself. I cast Yorion, Sky Nomad to try and put up a flying wall, but it got countered and Animate Deaded for good measure.The Yorion, Sky Nomad gave them a ton of value. Deep-Cavern Bat also took away my opportunity to get Yorion, Sky Nomad back with Journey to Nowhere, so I had to Elspeth Conquers Death it away instead. Meanwhile, Floodpits Drowner nullified my Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd for long enough for my opponent to win the race. A bounced Hormagaunt Horde with 5 +1/+1 counters for ravenous meant Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd could be absolutely stacked with counters before I died, but I didn’t have another piece of removal for their second potential blocker and I would have been 3 damage short anyways thanks to Deep-Cavern Bat lifelink bolstering their life total.

My second match was against a Rakdos aggro/tempo deck, companioning Obosh, the Preypiercer. My takeaway from game 1 is that Norin the Wary is a deeply annoying card to play against, especially with Bonecrusher Giant, as removing it hurts but blocking it is worse. The first game I just about got to clear the board and stabilize at 2 life by casting Getaway Glamer to pick off one of my opponent’s two 1-mana 2/1’s, then Yorion, Sky Nomad flickered my Elspeth Conquers Death and my Journey to Nowhere with Bonecrusher Giant trapped underneath. When they came back, Elspeth Conquers Death got to exile the Bonecrusher Giant instead and Journey to Nowhere picked off the other 2/1. However, my opponent had previously foretold Delayed Blast Fireball, and the game had run to the point that they had 8 mana to cast it even through my Elspeth Conquers Death active second ability. My second game hand seemed okay with Hardened Scales, Ranger Class, and Phyrexian Metamorph, plus a Sunfall, but I had no white mana and kept drawing white cards and staring at them plus Yorion, Sky Nomad I couldn’t cast. I just about scraped my way to Sunfall mana by turn 6, but I was at 3 life and my oppoent had Den of the Bugbear and drew the fifth land they needed to activate it. We played a for fun game 3 as well, where I got to once again Yorion, Sky Nomad flicker my impending Overlord of the Hauntwoods. I then copied their Obosh, the Preypiercer with Mockingbird and swung for in the range of 30 damage.

The biggest takeaway: shuffling 60 cards absolutely sucks; 0/10 do not recommend. The smaller takeaways: I in several games I had the cards and mana to live out the Terrasymbiosis and Ajani, Mentor of Heroes “build-your-own-repeatable Ancestral Recall” dream, but decided to go for the responsible “play as if your opponent can’t kill you” outs, which feels against the spirit of the cube. Also, Devoted Druid and The Ozolith? Both synergy and anti-synergy, all at once.

Footnotes