Hello, folks! Welcome back to a new Cube project that I’m working on. Inspiration always hits in odd places, so let me tell you the story of this one.

As the spoilers for Magic Origins began to roll in, I was hit by a very compelling issue at my gut level. This is the last core set, perhaps of all time—certainly for now. Ever since Alpha and Beta hit, we’ve had this core-set concept of cards that are always in play, being reprinted over and over again, for new generations of players. Magic Origins looked like a fun set, but . . . it didn’t feel like a core set, at least not to me. It feels like an expansion. And that’s odd to me. It’s not Magic Origins that was the last core set, it was Magic 2015. Magic Origins was simply released at the same time the following year.

So what would I have done instead? I was hoping for a sort of Magic’s Greatest Hits or some such. I can still remember the inclusion of a new card from every expansion set for Eighth Edition. We could have had something similar, but we skipped it.

Seeing this as a missed opportunity, I’ve been mulling over different ideas ever since. I felt that a Cube project would work. It would be a draftable opportunity to have Magic’s great icons. This would also give me the ability to put cards in that are on the reserved list, and I can still include them.

And that became my goal: to find and identify the greatest icons in the history of Magic and then to toss them into a playable Cube. We can have them in one draftable place. I hope I can create a balanced Cube with enough cards of each color to make the cut.

So what do I mean when I say iconic?

Iconic can mean a lot of things. But here are several definitions that I have used to unearth the icons of Magic.

We just need to accept that we’ll have a heavy usage of Alpha/Beta cards. Because those were the first sets, they are naturally going to have a lot of iconic cards in this set. It would be like asking people to tell you what the ten most iconic character classes are from all fantasy RPGs combined. Clearly, that list is going to have a lot of classes from the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons, like magic-user and fighting man (later, fighter). That's to be expected.

Here are some more good examples: What is the most iconic counter of all time? Force of Will? Mana Drain? Cancel? Nope, it's clearly Counterspell. Now there's a place for Force and the other stuff later, but Counterspell is obviously going to be the choice here. Similarly, your cheap, red, damage spell isn't going to be Shock, Firebolt, or Incinerate first. It has to be Lightning Bolt; there are no other options.

Used to Sell a Set — There are a handful of cards that we know are icons because they were used to sell sets. If you played during Time Spiral block, you’ll recall that Akroma was used to sell all three sets from that block. One of the most compelling aspects of that block was Damnation as a key spoiler to sell what Planar Chaos would be all about. This didn’t end then either. I’ve grabbed Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger for our Cube’s short list from Battle for Zendikar for the same reason.

Marketing Heavily — A lot of cards have been involved in heavy marketing by Wizards of the Coast. If you have a tee shirt or booster box with that card or its art on it, it’s a possible entry for iconic status. What cards really convey their iconic concepts? Cards that are used in marketing are usually different, and cards like Hurloon Minotaur, Serra Angel and, yes, even Force of Will have been used to market Magic.

Massive Success — Don’t forget that Magic is a game as well. Some cards achieve an iconic status by being heavily played or really good. Black Lotus is the single most iconic card in Magic, so if it’s not in my Cube, I’m taking stupid pills. Clearly, a card like Tarmogoyf has gained some serious status beyond just being a good card. Tarmogoyf’s infamous status as a strong player makes an obvious case for icon status. This is true of both the tournament table and the casual one as well. I’d argue that a card like Soul Warden or Wellwisher is every bit iconic as Dark Confidant.

Based on these six qualities, I hope to tease out many of the true icons of Magic and make a really interesting Cube.

Many icons of older sets and highly desired cards have lost their cachet. Take Jester's Cap as a good example. When it was printed in Ice Age, it was among the mostly hotly desired cards of the era, it was very different from anything that had come before, and there was a degree of flavor to it as well. But ever since, we've had a lot of this mechanic printed, and searching someone's library for cards and exiling them is a common mechanic. Does the Cap count?

Here's an even worse example: Balduvian Horde. There was a time before power creep when a vanilla 5/5 for 4 mana was so good that, despite the random discard attached to it, it was still heavily desired. The Horde was among the most sought-after cards from Alliances from that era. There was even a promo version made for when it was brought to the core set. We've come a long way since then, but it was an iconic card. Do we skip it and move on? Or do we grab it even though no one's going to play it in his or her deck? It looks downright bad next to modern creatures that would make the cut.

I’ve begun working on the Cube behind the scenes, grabbing cards and tossing them into the Cube or on the list for future consideration. So I wanted to bring the idea here and see what you thought. Then, I’ll make some modifications and ideas and take them to my Cube for final analysis before bringing it to you in two weeks’ time and giving you my analysis and reasoning for a lot of choices.

There are some fun ways that this Cube will be different from a normal Cube. Normally, Cubes want the best, most Spikiest, most powerful cards to draft around. And while we want some of those, too, we’re going off in a different direction. So yes, there’s a place for Hymn to Tourach and Birds of Paradise, but that’s because they are icons of their colors, not because of how good they are by default. The fact that a card is expensive or played a lot in Standard or even in Modern doesn’t make it icon-worthy. I wouldn’t call Cursecatcher, Through the Breach, Slaughter Pact, or Disrupting Shoal iconic. But all are pricey and played in tournaments.

And not every truly iconic card will make the cut either. There’re too many iconic legendary Angels, for example, for white to have, and I’m not sure I want to run just one or three cards with morph—they might not play well. Fallen Angel is certainly iconic, but it might lose out in the numbers for black stuff, for example.

So, are you ready to get your icon on?

I’ll have it all completed for you in two weeks!