I’ve certainly played a lot of them. I’ve played powered Cubes, unpowered Cubes, Adam Styborski’s Pauper Cube, the Magic Online Cube, and more. But at no point was it appealing to me to put together all of those cards, balance it for Limited, lug around the box, and try to actually fire off a Draft.

Until Modern Masters.

This set, limited in distribution and high in cost though it was, was basically created for me. It syncs pretty perfectly with the time period when I played the most Magic and is basically chock-full of my favorite cards of all time, including Gifts Ungiven, Reveillark, Electrolyze, Yosei, the Morning Star, and more. So, I was clearly psyched to be able to draft it.

The obvious problem was that drafting it in real life would be virtually impossible more than a few times. The obvious solution was to create a Modern Masters Cube.

The formula for a Modern Masters Cube is relatively simple: four of each common, two of each uncommon, and one of each rare and mythic. It doesn’t balance out the appearance of mythics terribly well, and when you don’t sort the Cube by rarity (which is an option), you have packs such as the Keiga, the Tide Star, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Gifts Ungiven pack I opened at Grand Prix: Houston.

But it approximates the experience pretty well. In that particular Draft, the team of Martin Juza, David Ochoa, and I squared off against Adam Styborski, Nate Price, and my friend and erstwhile Magic player Tyler Hanft. Though having two of the best players in the world on my team might seem to stack the deck heavily in our favor, we actually ended up barely winning the Draft 5–4.

But what we learned from that Draft was that, despite the distribution issues, the Cube really does approximate a Modern Masters drafting experience. Not only were we able to draft some of the obvious archetypes, we learned a few things about the format that had been percolating at the back of my mind as I drafted in real life and online. In advance of Vegas, I can share a few of the insights I’ve gained and talk a little bit more about actually constructing the Cube and other variations on how to build it.

Modern Masters Limited Highlights

One reason is, yes, Thundercloud Shaman, but the deck has a few other advantages. For one, you’re not particularly fighting over much with other decks. Crush Underfoot is an incredibly efficient, strong removal spell that you can table several times over if no one else is in Giants. Same goes for Stinkdrinker Daredevil and Blind-Spot Giant. Literally no other deck wants them, and in a Giants deck, they’re some of your best cards.

Add to that the fact that you are able to grab some of the other best removal in the set—Path to Exile, Rift Bolt, Torrent of Stone—and you are able to play with one of the unsung heroes of the format in Otherworldly Journey, and the deck can truly be a monster.

In the Cube Team Draft I was talking about, our six-man table actually supported two Giants drafters in Adam and Ochoa. Ochoa was mostly on the changeling plan while Adam’s Giants were occasionally flung skyward by Elspeth, Knight-Errant, but both decks were relatively solid. I didn’t get to see Ochoa’s deck in action much, but Adam wrecked my U/R good-stuff deck pretty hard.

However, the archetype I actually like the most is Affinity/Robots/whatever-you-want-to-call-it because it can function as both a fast aggro deck—of which there are few in this format—as well as a grindy, tricky, long-game deck—And all with the same cards.

I’ve been toying with the idea that forcing the artifacts deck might be viable, but all it takes is someone upstream of you opening Arcbound Ravager or Esperzoa to knock that wind out of your sails. Still, Mechanists and Sculptors have been such ready pickups that it seems to be a viable strategy. I would say that if you open Ravager, Academy Ruins, Auriok Salvagers, or something similar, don’t hesitate to dive in.

Here’s a sample decklist from the one non-Cube, real-life Draft I did.

"W/U Artifacts MMA Cube Draft"

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Epochrasite
• 1 Esperzoa
• 2 Arcbound Stinger
• 2 Arcbound Worker
• 2 Myr Enforcer
• 2 Sanctum Gargoyle
• 3 Etherium Sculptor
• 3 Faerie Mechanist

• Spells (9)
• 1 Shrapnel Blast
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge
• 1 Aether Vial
• 1 Paradise Mantle
• 2 Pyrite Spellbomb
• 3 Aether Spellbomb

• Lands (15)
• 3 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 8 Island
• 1 City of Brass

Buy This Deck

The deck was very, very good. I started by first-picking a City of Brass out of a mostly directionless pack (it didn’t hurt that I needed it for my Cube), following up with Thirst for Knowledge, Spellstutter Sprite, and a Faerie Mechanist I thought was hedging on either Artifacts or Faeries. As the artifacts started to flow from there, my deck took shape.

Beyond those two archetypes, all of the suspend creatures have been incredibly strong. Errant Ephemeron, Giant Dustwasp, Durkwood Baloth, and Riftwing Cloudskate are all very much first-pickable. In fact, the G/U suspend deck can be incredibly deadly just by loading up on these value creatures. Everyone wants them, however, so the chances of that deck materializing often are fairly slim. For example, I probably wouldn’t hesitate to play Errant Ephemeron in my Affinity decks.

One last thing to note is that drafting Modern Masters is much closer to drafting Cube than a normal set. The general power level is high across the board, and chances are very good you’ll pick up playables down to the twelfth, thirteenth, or even last pick. That means, if you read the table correctly, don’t be afraid to switch out after a few picks. If you see a fifth-pick Esperzoa, definitely jump into artifacts. If you see yourself staring at Thundercloud Shaman sixth, consider taking a Giant leap. And if you see a fourth-pick Vedalken Shackles, well, you’re drafting with idiots and should just take anything with a symbol from there on out.

P.S. Shackles is unbeatable. Never pass it.

A Modern Cube

That is unless you follow my lead and build a Modern Masters Cube. It actually wasn’t terribly difficult.

To start off with, I’ve been playing for a long time and keep a stable of cards from much of the Modern era even though I don’t play the format. I have a pair of Vendilion Cliques, several Reveillarks, a play set of Gifts Ungiven, Cryptic Commands, and more sitting in binders or Commander decks. That gave me an immediate leg up.

The difficult part, believe it or not, was the commons and uncommons. So, what I did was I bought my one box (I was fortunate enough that Dragon’s Lair, a local games and comics store that definitely has the customer in mind) sold its boxes at retail and had enough that I was able to buy one without preordering (they actually didn’t allow preorders on limited products).

I then put out notice that I was building a Cube and wanted any commons and uncommons anyone had no use for. If someone gave me a bunch—one guy supplied more than sixty cards—I traded for it. If someone gave me just a few commons, he or she usually just handed them over. After all, it’s not as though Dampen Thought is actually worth something.

The rares weren’t terribly difficult once I was able to scour my collection for stuff I had, and after help and trading with other players in my community, I only needed nine cards at Grand Prix: Houston—including my white whale Tarmogoyf. I ended up selling off a bunch of bulk and some Standard rares to acquire enough credit and cash to buy the last few cards for the Cube. The hardest card to find?

It was made stranger by the fact that I had to pass a Squee in the artifacts Draft I mentioned above to take an Esperzoa.

At any rate, it’s very much doable, and I recommend putting together a Modern Masters Cube in your community if possible. While I play a lot of Magic, I don’t spend a ton on the game and am in no way a value trader, and the only reason my collection is of any size (it’s not terribly large) is that I’ve been playing for seventeen years. Any longtime player or anyone who plays a decent amount of Modern should be able to put one together.

And if you do, there are a few variations to the four-two-and-one configuration I’m working with now. You could, if you wanted to work for it a little bit, organize everything by rarity and attempt to randomly distribute as such. That takes a little prep work, but it does provide a drafting experience that’s a bit more true to drafting the packs. Still, you can’t really avoid stuff such as the pack Martin Juza opened that had three Stinkdrinker Daredevils in it. That’s just going to happen in Cubes that have multiple copies of cards.

You could, if you’re filthy rich, also create a larger Cube that separates the rarities even more, something like six copies of commons, three of uncommons, two of rares, and one each of mythics. I have no idea how much closer that ratio is, but it would be something to experiment with. You could also, I suppose, make it just commons and uncommons, but the rares are something that really make the format awesome, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Another option is to make the packs smaller or vary the number of cards drafted. You could, for example, do five packs of nine cards each. This separates things out a bit, makes multi-rare packs less likely, and makes signaling more important. I’ve done it before with powered Cubes and liked the results.

However you cube, I highly recommend the Modern Masters Cube, especially if you’re a veteran of drafting all of these sets before.

Things I Think I’m Thinking

• I’ve done coverage for several of the most attended Grands Prix ever, but Las Vegas is going to blow them out of the water. I’m actually a little scared—but very excited.
• That said, I really wish I were playing in Vegas, too. I love this format.
• The Modern (Constructed) format appears to have a ton of space for innovation that hasn’t been explored yet. No experience here—just a sense.
• Modern would be so much better if Greater Gifts were a viable deck. Ban Deathrite Shaman!
• WTB Modern Masters unopened box. Again.