Cube Draft Reports - San Francisco Bay Cube Clash

I was lucky enough to get a chance to attend the San Francisco Bay Cube Clash, as well as have A(n) Cube featured in the main event and have Chromatic Composition Cube played during the bar cube session. The event was an absolute blast; shoutout to all the organizers, judges, and attendees!

The event was entirely for charity, specifically the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund The various regions of the San Francisco Bay Area were a key theme: people could indicate where they were from in the event Discord, and upon arrival people got a card of the cardinal paladin corresponding to their origin as part of check-in.

There was also no top-8 cut, as there was at Cali Cube Champs. Instead, most of the competitive spirit came from two sources: the team competition and the bounty system.

The team competition was set up beforehand. You could optionally join into a team of three, and the wins of your team would be tracked together against other teams. The team with the highest number of wins by the end of the event would win a set of foil cardinal paladins, with each fetching around $20-35. Not bad for a competition that cost literally $0 to enter. I agree to join into a team with 2 of my friends from the weekly Wednesday cube night, and that was literally our extent of discussion. We were supposed to come up with a team name and, in fact, never did.

The bounty system, on the other hand, was day of. For 10 dollars on Saturday (or 5 dollars on Sunday), you could purchase raffle tickets for another person, with the number corresponding to the number of rounds on that day: 6 tickets on Saturday and 3 tickets on Sunday. They would get those 6 tickets, but also be marked with a bounty, and anyone who defeated them in a match would get one of those raffle tickets. The raffle, for which each person also got a single ticket entry during check-in, had a wide variety of prizes, ranging from some sets of old foil basic lands to an old Fallen Empires comic (booster pack included). I very happily bought bounties for some of my friends, and ended up with 2 bounties on myself in return.

As for the actual cubing, I kept it pretty simple: I avoided all three cubes at the event from my regular cubing night, which happened to be my own A(n) Cube, Hella Cube, and Pacific University. I ranked no other cubes, opting for full randomness. I also didn’t look at them at all, really; the extent of my knowledge about the various other cubes were the pack 1 pick 1s posted with each cube announcement in the lead up to the event.

Speaking of not looking at the cubes, my general disclaimer about how I do cube drafts:

• 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.

Cogwork Cookout (May 16, 2026)

The first cube I got put in was Cogwork Cookout. In Cogwork Cookout, everyone starts with a Cogwork Librarian. From the first pack, I could tell synergies, especially those involves card draw, discard, and graveyard shenanigans, were heavily represented. I for my part, picked Zenith Flare as my pack 1 pick 1 and hard-committed. I felt like there might be some sort of competition for the cycling plan in the pod, as I picked up a lot of value pieces for cycling, like Drake Haven, Fluctuator, and Astral Slide, plus some general draw support like Ominous Seas and the partner pair of Brallin, Skyshark Rider and Shabraz, the Skyshark, but not a lot of cheap cyclers. In fact, most of my cyclers were in the form of lands, meaning my fixing was excellent and I pretty freely ended up in a 4-color no-green pile. My suspicion of competition was confirmed when the person who had picked up Deal Broker asked if anyone had Zenith Flare^[1], so I was pretty sure they had the cheap cyclers I was hoping for.

My first match was against a Sultai graveyard deck.^{[2] [3]} My first game, I kept my hand on the basis that it had both Fluctuator and Zenith Flare. The hand did exactly what I expected it to: I cycled a bunch of stuff, but couldn’t chain enough cards together due to a combination of most of my cycling cards having at least one colored pip and also not having an insanely high density of cycling cards in the deck, and petered out eventually. Meanwhile, my opponent quickly ramped to flip Emet-Selch, Unsundered. I could have killed it with my Zenith Flare, but knew I wasn’t winning the long game and my best hope (and also most fun line) was to just dome them out in one go. That, in fact, did not happen, and I died. In game 2 I kept a one lander after a mulligan to 5, but had a Flourishing Fox and a Fluctuator. My Flourishing Fox got quickly Dead Weighted, but I still took what I feel was a respectable number of game actions^[4] before I perished to Omnivorous Flytrap making everything ginormous.

Match 2 was versus yet another Sultai graveyard deck, but one that felt a little more tilted towards quantity of things in graveyards rather than enabling big hitters with specific graveyard conditions like the previous deck. In game 1, I had Astral Slide to continuously flicker some problem pieces to prevent me taking some big damage, but I was very low on cards to cycle and knew I couldn’t do it forever. Plus, Astral Slide didn’t deal with my biggest problem on my opponent’s side of the board: Grist, the Hunger Tide, which could freely pick off any of my bigger creatures while I had no great way to deal with planeswalkers outside of my bigger creatures. Eventually, I ran out of cards, and got Spider Spawninged to death. In game 2, I kept a land-heavy hand and on turn 7 slammed Valor’s Flagship. My opponent had no answer to a flyer, and the lifelink proved crucial to turn the tides and let me lock up the game. At this point, we were running real low on the round timer with maybe three minutes left, so we shuffled up for game 3 quickly. My opponent played a turn 3 Necrogoyf, but that proved especially beneficial to me and my turn 2 Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist. With Necrogoyf’s upkeep trigger, I was able to discard and get a Shabraz, the Skyshark on the cheap, followed by a big Magmakin Artillerist. The former let me chip in the air while the latter’s pings added up until, on turn 2 of turns, my opponent was low enough that I could Zenith Flare for the win.

Match 3 was, you guessed it, another graveyard-centric deck, but this one was Selesnya-flavored, and focused on dumping out tokens, with a bit of a blink/airbending package to boot. In game 1, Astral Slide went crazy, letting me continuously fend off Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis while Ominous Seas proved a lingering threat^[5]. A well-timed Slice and Dice swept up most of my opponent’s board and opened it up for Brallin, Skyshark Rider and Shabraz, the Skyshark to do huge damage until I could finish the game with Zenith Flare. This game ran incredibly long^[6] so we were again just a few minutes shy of the round timer when we started game 2. I really doubted my deck was fast enough to win against the clogged board of the previous game, so I focused my efforts on survival. My opponent had a blisteringly-wide start that led into a Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and I fell to single-digit life total relatively quickly. Most of my hope’s were pinned on yet another hard-cast Valor’s Flagship for some life gain, but my opponent had Chop Down from Giant Killer to get rid of my vehicle, swing out on turn 4 of turns, and I perished.

1-1-1, or, a cube match hat trick, as I like to call it. I feel like it is by far my most common matchline in the few cube conventions I’ve attended. Also, I’m pretty impressed with myself for building a deck that by and large cared very little about the graveyard, which I personally don’t love playing with, in a cube where it feels especially central. That’s a commitment to personal enjoyment I simply must respect for myself.^[7]

Melded Mardu Monarchy (May 16, 2026)

My next cube was Melded Mardu Monarchy, which is frankly incredibly self-descriptive. The cube owner came around and promised an additional prize to the winner of pod besides the event 3-0 pin: a literal “Mardu cube” in the form of a small stone cube of swirling white/pale-grey and burgundy with flecks of dark grey/black.

I wasn’t super sure what direction I wanted to go, but knew in a limited color cube like this I would have ample opportunity to pivot. I kept it pretty simple with a pack 1 pick 1 of Wrath of God, which I was likely to play in pretty much any deck. Pack 1 pick 3 I snagged Dragon Tempest, which I knew was extremely busted if just for its first ability of giving flying creatures haste. Still, I thought about angling towards dragons for the extra gravy of the second ability. However, around midway through pack 1, I nabbed Giada, Font of Hope. As the leader of the one Brawl deck I have on Arena, I knew Giada, Font of Hope really enabled the angels deck and got out of hand extremely quickly. Plus seeing her so relatively late made me think angels were open. I continued to focus on flyers in general, including some dragons, but by pack 2 it was clear angels were free to snap up, and so I did. I even managed to contruct my deck such that every single creature was an angel, which I was inordinately proud of.^[8]

My first match was against a Rakdos aggro deck. In the first game I mulliganed to 6. Angels tend to be on the expensive end, so I was mostly single-spelling, leaving me especially vulnerable to my opponent’s edicts like Angrath’s Rampage and Plaguecrafter. Meanwhile, my opponent ran me down with a Kalain, Reclusive Painter boosted Goldhound before eventually finishing me off with Chain Lightning. In game 2, I kept a probably ill-advised hand of 6 lands plus Wrath of God. My opponent Pelakka Predationed away my Wrath of God, but I managed to draw The Wandering Emperor to stabilize the board, followed by Sanctuary Warden to churn value in my favor, especially with its ability to convert The Wandering Emperor’s +1 ability into cards. I made very poor use of that value, literally only drawing lands before my opponent got rid of The Wandering Emperor, but turns out 5 damage in the air adds up very quickly. My opponent had no answers for a big flyer, especially given the shield counter I kept on it as insurance. In game 3, my opponent mulliganed to 6, and was clearly stuck on 2 lands, but thanks to Kalain, Reclusive Painter had a 4-power Screaming Nemesis that I simply had to let keep hitting me, given my game plan was Archangel of Thune plus Righteous Valkyrie for massive lifegain and many counters. My opponent had a sick play, involving shooting their own Screaming Nemesis with Flametongue Yearling to have the former shoot me in the face and prevent any further lifegain, but it came a bit too late: my flyers had already grown too large, and I had Boros Charm to lock up extra bonus lethal in 2 different ways.

My second match was against a Mardu deck companioning Lurrus of the Dream-Den. In game 1 I managed to once again get out Archangel of Thune to bolster my life total while chipping away at my opponent, especially given they were already low thanks to their own Cecil, Dark Knight. However, it was my opponent who had the biggest life swing, when I stared down an attack from both Lurrus of the Dream-Den and a Cecil, Dark Knight that had flipped into Cecil, Redeemed Paladin. I had to chump-block away most of my board when Temur Battle Rage gave the latter double strike and trample and still just eat some damage, while they gained 11 life in one fell swoop. However, sacrificing my board wasn’t in vein as I got two clues via Merchant of Truth, and cracking them let me top deck Aurelia, the Warleader. Two combats in one turn proved plenty enough for me to kill my opponent on the crackback. In game 2, I got stuck on two lands for a bit, but my opponent had mulliganed to 6 and their hand was sufficiently slowed that I could slowly chain together my mana rocks to eventually be able to cast Aurelia, the Law Above for some flying/vigilance/haste damage. By then I had found the lands to follow it up with Aurelia, the Warleader once again, which was more than enough to close out the match in my favor.

The third match was shaping up to be a mid-2010s style duel deck with my opponent on big dragons against my big angels, with one slight addition: my opponent also had Forth Eorlingas!, a card I knew would kill me if my opponent ever drew it. However, the dragons were also a problem in and of themselves: I had gotten away with mostly ignoring my opponent’s board in the previous matches, as one of the benefits of playing only angels was that all my creatures had flying while by and large my opponents did not have any flyers of their own. Not so against the dragons. However, in game 1, it was actually Dauthi Voidwalker that did most of the damage to me ^[9], as removal picked off most of my creatures. Eventually, a hasty Glorybringer did the last points of damage to me. In game 2, Kaalia of the Vast for my opponent brought in Balefire Dragon. I had Boros Charm to block it without my creatures or me dying, letting me crackback with my board to put my opponent to 2 before sweeping everything up with Wrath of God. We then both got to topdecking, and it was very clear we were both topdecking quite a lot of lands. However, my opponent had a Restless Bivouac, and I was slowly and then more quickly dying to it. However, after top decking three lands, I found Aurelia, the Law Above for the hasty damage I needed to kill my opponent, and it was down to game 3. I kept my hand off the back of Dragon Tempest, the first time I had seen it in any of my matches. I managed to chip in a decent amount with Serra Avenger, but was generally short on things to do. Meanwhile, my opponent had Goldspan Dragon and used the bonus treasure mana to build out a board state I was forced to clean up with Wrath of God yet again with us both sitting at 7 life. My opponent had Glorybringer to bring me down to 3 life with lethal on board, but I managed to topdeck Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, with just enough lands to cast her. Thanks to the haste from Dragon Tempest, 10 damage was enough to secure the win and get me my first ever 3-0 at a cube event!

Let this be a lesson: always commit to the bit.

Hanging out in Cube’s Proximity

After the back-to-back drafts, I was feeling pretty fried, but still wanted to hang out with people. There was an after event setup to play some more offbeat cubes that couldn’t be included in the main event at a bar, so after getting some delicious tacos for dinner^[10], I sat between two of my friends^[11] while they drafted Norritt Cube, a cube delightfully filled with some of the weirdest old cards I’ve ever seen. I had a great time hanging out while they showed me their packs and discussed picks, and served as de facto oracle text source for some of the more odd selection, and watched as they drafted the exact same color pair of Dimir sat next to each other. Satiated and sleepy but delighted to have been presented with these oddities of cards, I bid farewell after the draft to get some sleep.

Khans of Tarkir Set Cube (May 17, 2026)

After an actual lunch and dodging the remnants of Bay to Breakers, I made it to the venue, where my main event was rounded off by a Khans of Tarkir Set Cube. This is a set I vaguely remember drafting once or twice when it came to Arena a couple of years ago, and I really only knew a few things about it: 5-mana is the breakpoint for un-morphs to kill morphs, tapped gain lands are a staple, and the format was generally slow.

The pack did have rarity slots, so absent much else interesting in the pack I opted for my rare as the pack 1 pick 1: a Clever Impersonator. I figured it was flexible enough to slot into any blue deck I was playing. Next pack, I saw an Abomination of Gudul. I tend to do better in drafts when I commit early^[12], and a beefy flyer seemed like an excellent win con for a slower format, plus it would mean I could play my pack 1 pick 1, so I snapped it up and committed to Sultai. The Sultai plan went decently for the rest of pack 1, but pack 2 I felt rather cut. I found out after the draft the person to my left had drafted Villainous Wealth and hard-committed to Sultai as well. Pack 3 mostly got my deck back on track, with some notable holes: one, for a slower paced, ostenstibly grindy deck, I was really lacking on removal to ensure I lived that long. My main plan was just stalling with creatures like Monastery Flock, and I wasn’t familiar enough with what more aggressive clans like Mardu and Jeskai had up their sleeves to not get blown out by combat tricks given blocking was my main plan. Second, I had very little fixing: I had picked up two tap lands in a Thornwood Falls and a Jungle Hollow, but otherwise I was relying on the inevitability of drawing cards to get me the colors I needed for my frankly ludicrous pile of Sultai gold cards, and whether I would get the time to draw those cards seemed like it was frankly not up to me or my deck.

The first match seemed to pretty much reflect my concerns about the deck, as I was playing against a Jeskai aggro plan. Game 1 felt more like it was a win for Richard Garfield than a fault of mine, though: I had perfect Sultai basic lands in my opening hand, but saw 5 lands off of Scout the Borders and then never saw another land after that. Stuck on 4 lands, I couldn’t really cast any of my heavy-hitters, and was slowly whittled away by my opponent. In game 2, my opponent mulliganed to five, letting me get down some early aggression, but Efreet Weaponmaster proved a huge obstacle. I got my opponent down to 2 life, but couldn’t find any way to pusht trhough the last pieces of damage I needed before my opponent stabilized and overwhelmed me with their board.

My second match was against an Abzan deck. Game 1 was a huge grind, but the Rotting Mastodon I had sided in match 1 and kept in my deck held down the fort well. I managed to Kheru Spellsnatcher two of their removal spells in a Rite of the Serpent and a Kill Shot, giving me room for my multiple Abomination of Guduls (including one that was a Clever Impersonator copy) to swing in the air for the kill. Game 2 my opponent mulliganed to 6, while I managed to draw my one 1-drop turn 1 in Embodiment of Spring and ramp to an early start while my opponent proved clearly stymied by their limited options. That gave me the extra lands and turns to Khenru Spellsnatcher my opponent’s morph, which turned out to be a Woolly Loxodon. From there, I got to beat them up with their own 6/7 and close out the game from there.

My final match was against yet another Abzan deck. In game 1 my terrible mana haunted me and I was forced to mulligan to 5. I got to a relatively decent board state, but was stuck on five lands when the previous matches proved my ideal land count was about nine lands. Meanwhile, my opponent accumulated +1/+1 counters via Ainok Bond-Kin, Armament Corps, and Incremental Growth, and I got run over. Game 2 was yet another grindfest. Early on my opponent cast Incremental Growth, but with only their Ainok Bond-Kin and Longshot Squad on board had to give a +1/+1 counter to my Rakshasa Vizier, which promptedly gained some counters of its own after I delved away my graveyard for Sultai Scavenger, turning into an 8/8. Then, I managed to Khenru Spellsnatcher awy their Feat of Resistance, making attacking me a terrible prospect. Instead, we stared across from each for around 6 turns, as they slowly outlasted their creatures to try and outsize my Rakshasa Vizier, even with the threat of Feat of Resistance, while I built up an army of Abomination of Guduls and chump blockers. Eventually, I found Rite of the Serpent to pick off their Longshot Squad, removing their reach and letting me swing in with my flyers with impunity. By then, their creatures had grown to the point where attacking was back on the menu, but I had Kheru Dreadmaw to sacrifice my chump blockers and keep myself with enough life total to ensure my flyers could seal up the deal without dying on the crackback, with another morphed Khenru Spellsnatcher as onboard backup.

In game three Scout the Borders on turn 3 revealed a Hooting Mandrills which I took. The Scout the Borders gave me the perfect graveyard fodder to cast the Hooting Mandrills turn 4, and that plus the Sultai Scavenger I paid retail for on turn 5 beat into my opponent’s face. My opponent scrambled to stabilize, an Incremental Growth helping immensely on that front, but the early aggression on my end proved too much. I was one mana short of flipping my Khenru Spellsnatcher, and they managed to pick off my main threats, but were just a bit too low, and didn’t have an answer to my Archers’ Parapet pinging them for the rest of the damage.

I had pretty low expectations going into this deck, especially after match 1, so the last two proved a pleasant surprise. Genuinely, six turns of draw, dump your topdeck, board stall continues, pass, is one of my more preferred forms of occasionally Magic.

White-Bordered Ante Desert Bar Cube (May 17, 2026)

Free play/bar cube time! I set up some people with Chromatic Composition Cube, which that morning I had prepped in Jeskai mode, and sat down to play the White-Bordered Ante Desert Bar Cube. There was a whole handout about how the ante component worked, but honestly I was more focused on the desert component, as this would be my first desert cube ever.

I wasn’t sure exactly sure what I wanted to do, but Creeping Mold sure sounded like a good time for me and me specifically, so I nabbed it, and from there every other Stone Rain effect I saw. As the draft progressed, it became clear I was the only person in the four in green, and ended up in good honest Magic, by which I mean a bunch of big statted creatures and absolutely no way to interact with any of my opponent’s creatures if not through combat-trick-less combat.

My first match was against a Boros deck. In game 1, Creeping Mold, cast Reclaim, cast Creeping Mold against my opponent to take out their Mishra’s Factory and their only red source because it seemed like a good time. It was a good time, and it wasn’t like I had a way to deal with their creature once it took the skies via Serra’s Embrace anyways, so might as well milk the joy out of the game with what I had. In game 2, I ramped out Shivan Dragon, and the combination of Fertile Ground plus Ley Druid and another Mountain let me fire-breathing pump it for 5 each turn, and my opponent quickly died from there. In game 3, I cast all my creatures. I then died when I had no more creatures. Good honest magic, baby.

Match 2 was against a 4 color deck. I ramped a bunch but died to Dark Ritual into Sengir Vampire. I did dump out my hand quickly enough that Disrupting Scepter was useless, which I consider a moral victory. Game 2 was much the same: I invalidated Disrupting Scepter by dumping out my hand, and Sengir Vampire invalidated my life total. Equivalent exchange.

When I said to alert the presses about how flyers are good, I did mean me specifically, actually. But also, good honest white-bordered magic is exactly what I planned on doing, and I genuinely enjoyed it, just hanging out jamming and enjoying the casual vibes. The ante stuff was mostly a fun minigame; I did end up anteing away most of my land destruction, which was a little said, but since I really only ever saw the first 12 cards of my library with no influence, and had more than enough replaceable green big statted vanilla creatures, it was mostly just a fun minigame, which I was totally down for.

Conclusion

San Francisco Bay Cube Clash was a blast; 10/10 would recommend it or any local cube events in your area. Just a lovely way to hang out with a bunch of people and jam some unfamiliar cubes.

Footnotes