Hello and welcome back to the Magic Super Cube!

For those unaware, I am working to make a massive Cube that contains cards from sets that were Standard legal or would have been Standard legal had the format existed.

Last time we took a look at Alpha/Beta/Unlimited to set the foundation of our Cube, and today we are going to be looking at Arabian Nights.

Here is a quick refresher of the criteria that I am going by when making this Cube: all cards must be from a Standard legal set or would have been in a Standard legal set had the format existed, there will be 30 cards from each set in the Cube with three of each from each color at the minimum, the Cube will be proxy friendly as to include some powerful and expensive cards, and that this is all for fun and not to be taken too seriously.

Looking over Arabian Nights was difficult because there are only 78 cards in the whole set, but I think I managed to pick some interesting cards for the Cube.

Let’s get started!

White

One thing I wanted to do is to do the opposite of what I did for ABU, so for white I was looking to choose more spells than creatures.

The creature was something that I think would useable as the Cube building goes on, so that wasn’t too much of an issue. What was an issue was picking the spells, again with the size of the set the spells I could choose was much more limited.

One made sense, especially for building a possible sub theme for the future, but the other one was going to be a more contentious choice. This is meant to be a celebration of Magic, including its weirdest cards so I decided to add a very controversial card to the list.

My picks for white are Eye for an Eye, Shahrazad, and War Elephant.

Blue

Looking to blue, there were more creatures that I could choose from, which meant working to narrow down which ones would be better.

As far as spells, that was difficult because there wasn’t much in terms of selection. There are literally only two noncreature spells in blue in Arabian Nights, and looking at the two of them, I decided on one that had fewer appearances than the other one.

The bevy of creatures to look at was difficult, especially with a huge number of unique ones that were available. In the end I decided on some more generic creatures would be better to have, while having a goofy include as well.

My picks for blue are Dandan, Fishliver Oil, and Serendib Efreet.

Black

Just like ABU, picking cards for black was comparatively much easier than other colors, for creatures and spells.

I wanted more creatures for black and there are plenty to choose from, but there are two iconic creatures in black from this set that choosing any others would not be doing the set justice, in my opinion.

The spells for black were also an easy choice, mostly because there is only one other noncreature spell in black that I could have chose, but it would have been the one I would have chosen regardless because of how iconic it is.

My picks for black are Cuombajj Witches, Juzam Djinn, and Oubliette.

Red

Red was one of the harder colors to pick for, and one that didn’t allow me to even out the number of spells and creatures from ABU, because there is again only one noncreature spell in red.

The creatures in red were hard to pick from, mostly because trying to figure out which would be useful as the Cube building went on. The creatures I decided on are iconic and flexible enough for the future.

Like I said, there is only one noncreature spell in red, and it is something that is not often associated with red. It does however open us up to a unique subtheme for the future as we develop the Cube.

My picks for red are Kird Ape, Magnetic Mountain, and Rukh Egg.

Green

Green provided some respite as it had a decent mix of creatures and spells to choose from, which meant that I had options to look at and consider.

Since I wanted some more spells, I took a look at those first and of the options that were available I chose some removal options, especially one that green doesn’t normally get to provide some variety as the Cube develops.

As far as choosing a creature, there were plenty of solid options to choose from, but again I think that having some generically good creatures will serve the Cube better.

My picks for green are Drop of Honey, Erhnam Djinn, and Sandstorm.

Artifacts

When it comes to the artifacts and lands, there are still some more artifacts than there are lands for this Cube, but there were some more varied options for both.

The options for artifacts were interesting because there were a couple of artifact creatures and a lot of noncreature artifacts to look at, with the noncreature artifacts also provided some interesting effects.

I debated adding an artifact that mentioned Ante, but thinking about it I decided that if I want to have this Cube be fun, there are some mechanics that can stay forgotten to time.

My picks for artifacts are Aladdin’s Lamp, Bottle of Suleiman, Brass Man, Dancing Scimitar, Ebony Horse, Flying Carpet, Jandor’s Saddlebags, Pyramids, and Ring of Maruf.

Lands

Arabian Nights is the set that started adding unique lands into the game, and there are some history defining lands in the set.

Of the eight lands introduced in the set, I went with six of them because I found them the most interesting to have in the Cube. Some of them are incredibly powerful, while others serve as an interesting utility.

My picks for lands are Bazaar of Baghdad, City of Brass, Desert, Diamond Valley, Island of Wak-Wak, and Library of Alexandria.

In Conclusion

Going through Arabian Nights was fun, and we have managed to expand on what we’re developing for the Cube, while setting the seeds for the Cube as we continue.

The next set is going to be Antiquities, which will start setting up a ton of artifact synergies and answers, and will have some more powerful cards.

I have also set up a Moxfield link to help keep track of the Cube as it’s being built, so that if you want to build it yourself, either legitimately or via proxy, then you can.

See you next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

Socials

Bluesky: @jmcasualnerd.bsky.social

Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/jmcasual