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Intro
I’m Usman Jamil and I’ve been writing and podcasting about Magic: The Gathering’s format since 2010, talking about cube design and cube theory. I’ve written for sites like Star City Games, Lucky Paper and Hipsters of the Coast and work on the Magic Online Vintage Cube and The Pauper Cube, and here’s my current home…
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Episode of the Casual Magic podcast with Shivam Bhatt
Last week, I was on Shivam’s Casual Magic podcast to talk about cube, as we had interviewed before but the episode became lost media and I wanted to make sure that I recorded with him before he retired the show. It went differently than expected, but it was very fun. Check it out below. š
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Secrets of Strixhaven: Cube Follow-Up
Over the years, Iāve done a few follow-up articles on previous sets and mused about the purpose of post-mortem cube reviews. In previous ones, Iāve done re-evaluative looks at how each card that I rated shifted in evaluation, but Iām going to take a more broad approach and look at either cards that I didnāt…
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Cube Review: Marvel Super Heroes & Its Supplemental Products with Kai
This article talks about Marvel Super Heroesā impact on cube. As this article is my 75th set review for cube, Iāve learned to refine my method over time, but Iāve found that seeding cards into my own cube (tl;dr itās currently a āLegacy-lite cubeā) and getting in several reps before the prerelease has worked well. …
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Cube Review: Initial Impressions of the 5/2/26 previews.
This weekend, we had some previews of things from the upcoming Hobbit, Marvel and Reality Fracture sets. I figured that Iād talk about them for a bit. Also, for set post-mortems, for new sets, Iām thinking that about a month out from when I post my articles (which Iām now aiming for the Monday after…
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My original 2010 cube list.
I had been doing some digging at Evan Erwin’s cube site, cubedrafting.com (one of the earliest attempts to be a hub of cube discussion and articles not hosted on a major site, since it was essentially a pet project from Evanās then-passion for Cube) to find some old articles that I did to update the…
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Cube Review: Secrets of Strixhaven and SOS Commander
(Originally posted on my Substack on 4/13/26.) This article discusses Secrets of Strixhavenās impact on cube, using a higher-powered non-thematic perspective for evaluation via real-world cube testing. Although I physically test cards with reps in my own cube (tl;dr itās currently a āLegacy-lite cubeā), that isnāt the sole context of evaluation; as someone who works…
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Cube Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & TMNT Commander
(Originally posted on my Substack on 2/27/26.) As this round of previews has ended, Iāve written an article about how the TMNT set impacts cube. As usual, this cube review focuses more on āhigh powerā cubes than thematic ones, using a more high-powered, generalist perspective for cube card evaluation. Although I physically test cards with…
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Cube 101: Building a Cube for Dummies (Video)
In 2024, I was invited out to CubeCon by Jonathan Brostoff (RIP) to do a video panel about designing a cube for first-timers who may be intimidated by the process, since it’s a daunting process. I came back in 2025 to record the panel as well. There were various attempts to record the panel at…
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Cube Review: Lorwyn Eclipsed & Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander
(Originally posted on my Substack on 1/16/26.) As this round of perpetual previews has ended, as Iāve done for the most of the past 15 years, Iāve written an article about how the set impacts cube. As usual, this cube review focuses more on āhigh powerā cubes than thematic ones, using a more high-powered, generalist…