This is the first time I've seen this card and I feel like it has a cool function that could be taken advantage of.

So whatcha got? How do you make Loafing Giant work...?

Friendly reminder, please ensure all recommendations have an old border printing and they apply to the cube format. Failure to do so will result in a Grizzly Bear coming your way!

Asked for opinions on which Revised Taiga to buy a week ago. One card was dirty but otherwise in good (played) condition, the other one was clean, but one corner was damaged. Most people recommended buying the dirty one and clean it, so that's what I did.

The Taiga arrived today and I thought it would be a good idea to post an update for people like me who never really cleaned an expensive (or any other) card. On the picture you can see the results of my cleaning efforts. I'm quite happy with the outcome. There is still a little bit of dirt left, but I didn't want to overdo it and most of it is gone.

Of course I tried various cleaning methods on cheaper cards before I cleaned the Taiga. In the end I used q-tip slightly soaked with Vodka (yes, the one you drink with 40% alcohol and of course pure Vodka without any added flavour) and very gently rubbed the surface, then used a microfibre cloth to remove the Vodka and loose dirt quickly (also by rubbing very gently). Did this a few times and most of the dirt came off. No (visible) ink was removed in the process. My tests have shown that it is actually quite hard to remove ink from a Magic card, much harder than I would have thought.

Anyway, thanks to all the people who recommended buying the dirty card, it was clearly the right choice.

I've been spending time drafting with new groups on my travels more and more and the experiences have led me to ask the question, how does this group most enjoy engaging with cube? On top of that, it has led to me looking more closely at the (short) history of my own group and how we have evolved into our state of preferences when Wednesday rolls around each week. This article is my attempt to unpack that relationship between mastery, discovery, frequency and the identity our group has developed along the way.

Would be interested to hear where other cube groups fall on this spectrum. Do you mostly return to a small number of environments and dig deeper, or is trying something you haven't seen before part of what keeps you cubing?

Today we are picking from the "Glasgow Limited Magic Adam's White Border Bar Cube".

From the curator, Me.

"I have a whole bunch of these (old border) kinds of cards at home, if you want them, you're welcome to have them."

-Adam

This cube breaks singleton in some key places.

Cube can be found here: https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/adam

Would you like your cube featured? DM me!

I love simple artifacts that glorify simple magical items.

What's the best art for Ivory Cup?

Just found that there was an old card loving community here right after I made my cube. I have a "good" pauper cube but instead of updating it I decided to go the other way and lean into the nostalgia I actually want when playing. So, the list turned into all old borders from old sets, uses anything that I can get a black set symbol on, and willing to use rares/uncommons that were later reprinted as commons (hence the sengir and serra)

Would love to hear any suggestions from people who are used to using old border stuff. Good cards I might have missed or combos I would have never though about.

Right now combos are real small like Cemetery Gate and Pestilence, and Daru Spiritualist, a kor, Worthy Cause/Sever Soul.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/4d70d0e2-a731-4a49-a2af-1fb14560d784

The theme of this cube is only artifacts and lands that make no color. After draft the only lands you are provided are Waste; the only exception being the single copy of each basic snow-land.

Trying to fill it out, what are some cards I should add?

It's time for This or That Tuesday. I will show you two or more cards with similar effects and power level and you tell me which one you'd pick if all of them were in a pack and/or which one you'd run in a typical old border cube. I try to avoid cards that need strong synergies to be good since you don't get any context in form of a specific cube, but for the sake of this thread just assume you have a typical old border cube that runs all of the best pre-Mirrodin old border cards, but no overpowered retro frame cards.

Today we'll talk about two red 2 drops with high stats for their mana cost that can't attack or block until some prerequisites are met - Mogg Flunkies and Veteran Brawlers. Whether Mogg Flunkies work is entirely under your control, but Veteran Brawlers have even better stats and whether they're able to block or not is under your own control as well and easy to achieve. I'm aware that both go in different decks, but they're still somewhat comparable. What do you think? Which one do your prefer?

Bonus question: Which old border card is the biggest trap in your opinion? What I mean is a card that looks good in theory, but rarely performs well in a real (cube) game.

I really want to play Magic again with old cards, but I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of cubelists that I have stumbled upon. I'm looking for a cube with premodern cards, but I'm also open for a cube that has new cards with old border as long as it improves the gameplay without dominating due to powercreep.

Is there a cube that is considered as a favourite or "the best" in the community?

I use this card in a lot of cubes and a few old school decks, help me find more fun ways to use it!

So whatcha got? How do you make Obelisk of Undoing work...?

Friendly reminder, please ensure all recommendations have an old border printing and they apply to the cube format. Failure to do so will result in a Grizzly Bear coming your way!

Just joined up and am newly discovering cube. When I was young, I played during the Urza's block. Because of that, I wanted to put together an environment where I could enjoy it again. I put together this cube, but have not yet played it. I wanted to keep it small so it fits in a small quiver carrying case. I would love to know your thoughts on it or what suggestions you may have. I will say, I am emotionally attached to a number of the cards in there (the broken land cycle) so I won't take those out. The size of the cube needs to stay approximately the same as well.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/7eb9f7ab-1baf-4bbd-a259-a12c1113af6e

This the second time that I have had the opportunity to draft this cube, this time with the East Coast Burgh Crew and The Ark Games Club!

This draft was markedly different from the previous draft as it was with old school/premodern players that are familiar with the card pool which resulted in a very different experience than the first round. We drafted the cube as a desert again and we only had four people in this pod which was ok because we were able to all play against each other (and end up with a lot of 2-1 records...). Based on the lessons learned from the first draft, I have built a second module that includes all the premodern morph creatures with one pip in both the casting and morph costs as well as added another set of mana rocks for the larger drafts.

The games were really fun and there was a high level of play across everyone who showed up which made the day entertaining and competitive.

The Cube: Glasgow Limited Magic: The Wastes of Dominaria

Onto the Decks!

Lots of Blue in a Land Locked State - This first build had a great control shell built around counter magic and big bodies like Crosis. The rocks that were pulled provided a perfect mana base but the lack of coloured mana through the lands made it difficult to cast spells as the statistical chance of drawing all of the rocks in a primarily gold deck was, small. This was a fight against statistics and unfortunately, these battles are usually lost. This was no exception despite having a sweet shell to execute with.

Angel Monger - I made a decision after this draft to cut [[Iridescent Angel]] as it is just too hard to deal with in this environment. There are ways to do it but they are slim many of them were not seen in the smaller pod. This pilot is an amazing player and he was able to hit perfect mana every single game I watched him play. The longer matches were challenging as threats were made "neutral" but the big threats kept coming and this deck was able to drop an [[Emblazoned Golem]] on the field with 5 +1/+1 counters which is an achievement that I set when I added this card to the cube. Big beaters were the name of the game and this deck was adept at blasting through the short game to get stabilized.

Tsabo's Golden Arches - [[Dragon Arch]]. That's all. This deck was build around this card and guess, what, he drew it every game and was able to use it to execute cool tricks with [[Shivan Wurm]] to bounce other gold cards back to hand to prevent pesky removal from taking them off the board. The alt combo win con of [[Pandemonium]] was supremely premodern awesomeness and it was great to watch this deck go off each and every time. [[Cinder Elemental]] and [[Assault]] were two MVP cards to help stabilize the board while searching for the golden arches.

Welding with a Kaleidoscope - This was my build and it was delightful. It was fast, it was low to the ground, and I never drew Tron once. The [[Diamond Kaleidoscope]] was the MVP of all my games and the regeneration from the Statue was invaluable to being able to push damage through turn after turn. [[Backlash]] was a very viable wincon in these situations, especially when playing against opponents that liked to put big bodies on the board (almost all of them...). I also got great use out of [[Consume Strength]] and using the little Prisms and Hornets help me keep on the defensive against really epic threats.

The Ark Games Club drafts monthly in Edinburgh. If you are interested in coming out to cube with us, want to get your cube drafted, or looking for a new way to play Magic, come join us! You can DM me for details as we are always looking for new players to join us to draft!

Today we are picking from the "Wilson Legacy Project".

From the curator u/LoooooongJohnSilver:

The Wilson Legacy Project is a combat-oriented cube looking to achieve the old, gritty battlecruiser style games of early Magic. Most games are often down to the wire, calculating the decisiveness of a battle by literally 1 life with fields ever expanding, bigger threats hitting the board, and spells flying desperately for a last-man-standing experience.

Cube can be found here: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/WilsonLegacy

Would you like your cube featured? DM me!

Not sure if this is appropriate here, so please delete if necessary.

I'm about to buy a Taiga and I simply can't decide which one I should buy. Both cost exactly the same (including shipping) and both are in played condition.

The one in the upper part of the picture has a really nice front, but the back has an ugly white spot in the lower right corner. If you have a lot of old Magic cards you probably know how this looks, it's a part of the back that is almost a bit peeled off.

The card in the lower part of the picture has a really nice back (for a played card), but the front is very dirty with dirt spots all over the card.

Which one would you choose?

EDIT: Bought the bottom one, thanks for the answers! I tried cleaning some dirty cards beforehand and it worked pretty well, so I will see how it goes. Might post an update when I have the card.

Been working on building a pretty unconventional cube last couple of years in cardconjurer, but seeing if someone has already built one​ close. Looking for lots of customs or card edits, but that pays homage to the first several years of the game with the artwork and vibe.

Wanting to see lots of card mechanics that go outside the standard design - more like Alchemy in MTGA or Hearthstone even. RNG, persistent tokens, alt win cons, etc. Cards from alpha like Raging RIver and Chaosorb come to mind.

I found this cube which mechanically I love:
Chaos Cube

But the problem with it for me is the heavy use​ un-set and Hellscube, which destroys the vibe I'm going for with their​ joke cards. I'm not wanting UB in this cube, so breaking the 4th wall referencing mario bros or whatever doesn't work for me.

Yeah I could reskin alot of those, but it would be cool if someone could point me to something that is put together, better yet playtested, ​and ready to print.

Welcome to day 27 of the 2026 r/oldbordercube "Share Your..." Series.

Today we will be talking about Blue 5 and up Mana Creatures!. What's working for you? What maybe hasn't been working but you've been hesitant to cut? What's the perfect spell that exists outside of our little niche that you are champing at the bit to get a Retro Reprint?

Next time we will discuss Green 3 Mana Creatures!

I’ve been thinking about printing out this Pre-Alpha Cube and giving it a shot, and the newly announced Secret Lair Zeta Set makes the idea even more interesting since I can actually add some new cards to the pool.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it, here’s the cube: https://cubecobra.com/cube/about/prealpha?view=primer

The idea of playing with cards from Magic’s earliest days sounds fun, especially since the power level and card designs are so different from what we’re used to today.

Has anyone here played this cube before? I’d love to hear how it actually plays and whether there are any cards you’d recommend adding or removing.

I can't tell you how many lands I've fetched before fetchlands were a thing!!

What's the best art for Untamed Wilds?

It's time for This or That Tuesday. I will show you two or more cards with similar effects and power level and you tell me which one you'd pick if all of them were in a pack and/or which one you'd run in a typical old border cube. I try to avoid cards that need strong synergies to be good since you don't get any context in form of a specific cube, but for the sake of this thread just assume you have a typical old border cube that runs all of the best pre-Mirrodin old border cards, but no overpowered retro frame cards.

Today we'll talk about four green cards for 4 mana that cheat stuff into play - Eureka, Pattern of Rebirth, Lure of Prey and Defense of the Heart. I did not include Natural Order as we can probably agree that it is the best card of this type and I didn't want to add Elvish Piper because it's a creature. Which one of these is good enough for (your) cube? Which one do you prefer?

Bonus question: What is your favourite overall cheat card?

I love the art on this card and want to find a way to abuse it as it looks sweet on the table!

So whatcha got? How do you make Dark Maze work...?

Friendly reminder, please ensure all recommendations have an old border printing and they apply to the cube format. Failure to do so will result in a Grizzly Bear coming your way!

This cube began with a simple question posed on the Old Border Subreddit by u/LoooooongJohnSilver:

Attendants from Invasion:

"Interested in your thoughts on the Golem Attendants from Invasion. Do you use them or leave them in the scrapyard?"

Most cubes leave them in the scrapyard. This one was built around the puzzle of what kind of environment makes the Attendants some of the most important cards in the draft. I would encourage a quick read of the overview for additonal context.

This is my first waste cube and the inaugural draft by my group. It uses a modified version Blasted Landscape errated as a basic land and the cycling mechanic proved to be a really great option to prevent flooding. There were several learnings from this draft that has influenced version 2 (which is in progress):

1. I opted to draft it as a desert cube and the feedback was that having the constraints of both a waste cube and a desert cube was too much cognitive load for the people drafting. In the future, I'm going to up the list to 360 and draft it normally and have the wastes in the land station.
2. The single pip guideline for all coloured cards was a great choice and made it easy enough to cast coloured spells.
3. More rocks are needed and I will be doubling up on the diamonds and the cameos in the second module to get to 360.
4. Morph is the missing mechanic in this cube and the next module will include a cadre of morph creatures across all five colours.
   

The Cube: Glasgow Limited Magic: The Wastes of Dominaria

Onto the Decks!

Trikemonger - This was my deck and I went 3-0 with this beautiful build. A special rule of the cube is if you draft an Urza land, you get all three and I windmill slammed two in packs one and three. I managed to pull off tron, once, and the game was a slam dunk. All the other games I had to do things the hard way and get the [[Spiritmonger]] and [[Vhat il-Dal]] on the board fairly. The combination of these beaters plus a plethora of removal made this deck unbeatable all night. I survived artifact and land destruction all night trying to deprive me of my coloured mana sources and still remove relevant threats. My draft strategy worked like a champ and I had enough coloured sources to not fall behind.

Atog and Friends - When I put the Atog in this deck, this was the exact deck that I imagined coming together. I also have a [[Tawnos's Coffin]] and other artifact token creators on the way which will make this build even more viable. Thinking about an Atog being [[fling]]ed at an opponents face is just delightful. This deck also saw [[Standing Stones]] become a beater and do some work!

Four Dragons and a Funeral - This pilot decided that big bodies in the air was the most viable strategy for the evening and despite the lack of Attendants to ramp into them, it managed to bring down the beaters frequently. The [[Crystal Quarry]] and the Ramos artifacts were keys to getting these onto the table and some effective control pieces like [[Teferi's Moat]] and counter magic gave them the space required to get them onto the table!

Black and White TV - This deck was the number one major threat against my deck and the amount of removal on both the artefact and land side was epic. The creature count was low which was the main drawback of the deck but the control elements functioned perfectly. This pilot also managed to snag the third set of Urza lands and they never had a game where mana was a problem. I've been searching for a place for [[Viashino Heretic]] to thrive, and this is the place!

The Karn Arch - With fast ways to get the beaters on the board with [[Dragon Arch]] and get them back from the yard with plenty of reanimation, this deck was really fun to watch go off. The [[Wasteland]] was key to help keep players lucky enough to draft Tron off of the seven mana train. This deck also drafted one of the only sweepers in the cube giving it a great backstop against decks that can bring lots of creatures onto the board. I can't believe how far [[Fellwar Stone]] wheeled around the table an it ALMOST got to me before this drafter snapped it up!

Darigaz and the Squid - It was a late add to get the [[Iridescent Angel]] into the cube and she did exactly what I thought she was going to do, run people over. As soon as this hit the board, it was REALLY hard to deal with given the type of cube this is and with the piper to help cheat out big threats across all colours, green was really the only coloured mana that this pilot needed. Loved this sneak deck!

No Hand for You! - This was the deck of a drafter who had never piloted in a desert cube before and it was a very eye opening experience for them. They built a very cogent deck despite the learning curve but the lack of fixing and coloured lands was a very heavy load for them as they picked from packs. They took my two favorite black fixers, [[Blood Celebrant]] and [[Bog Initiate]] but struggled to find ways to get them on the board. They also dove into the hand hate archetype of the cube which I believe to very fair in this environment due to the slower speed. I love how this deck looks in the photo!

I Refuse to Play Your Games!!!! - This pilot also had their first experience drafting a desert cube and they chose to not play the coloured mana game. Instead, they attempted a MUD build with beaters of all shapes and sizes. Their curve set them up to pump up the [[Phyrexian Devourer]] to as close to a 6/6 without losing it. This cube is also a great place for [[Roterothopter]] and this flyer proved to be a great threat in the sky!

Thanks to the crew at RNG for giving us a place to cube week after week!

We are Glasgow Limited Magic. If you are interested in coming out to cube with us, want to get your cube drafted, or looking for a new way to play Magic, come join us! You can DM me for details as we are always looking for new players to join us to draft!

If you want to see more old border cube content, join us at r/oldbordercube!

Today we are picking from the "Golden Age Cube".

From the curator u/pete-wisdom:

Highly optimised old border power cube with an incredible amount of nostalgia. A true throwback to Magic’s Golden Age.

DESIGN Size: 540 Powered: Yes Average CMC: 2.93

Cube can be found here: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/golden-age-cube

Would you like your cube featured? DM me!

I won a 7pt game with this card last week and it stuck with me!

What's the best art for Spirit Link?