Jun 7, 2026 · 1 hr 23 min · 16 segments
In this episode of Powerful Nothing, Dan and James discuss the key role that cube staples have in both building and playing a cube, then go through what are the key cards that can see play in every…
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So the goal of today is to go over a number of cards and card types that we would consider cube staples.
These are cards that you can basically run in any cube.
This episode is sort of a companion piece to a recent episode we did on, uh, the cube skeleton.
In that episode, we broke down the number of different types of cards you need to run in a certain cube.
But in that episode, we also highlighted room for staples.
Like, we highlighted in each different size of cube how many bits of white interaction you need to run, or black hand attack, that kind of thing.
In this episode, we're actually gonna be giving examples of those cards.
And what's important about these staples is that basically these are cards that can go in effectively any cube.
These are cards that if you saw them in the highest power level c- cube, you would be like, "Cool, yeah, I get why that's there." But also, these are cards that if you saw in, like, a peasant, a pauper, or, like, a budget cube, you'd also say, "Yes, these belong here.
That makes sense." These really are, like, the building blocks of any cube.
And as we go through the episode, it will be important to remember that we are giving staples for every cube.
Like, a card like Black Lotus is a staple in a powered cube, but it's not a staple anywhere else.
A card like Lightning Bolt, however, we'll see play in every cube that could possibly run it.
Those are the staples that we're talking about today.
And what's nice about these staples is that the majority of them are actually pretty cheap.
We will highlight the one or two cards that kinda go above the $10 mark.
But these staples aren't just staples in cube.
These are often staples in a bunch of other formats where they've been printed a lot of times.
In the odd case where the card is more expensive, we will highlight that as well.
Yeah, and the other nice thing if, if you are working on a budget with these is that, um, most of these cards are pretty interchangeable in reality.
Not necessarily from a power level point of view.
Like, obviously in each of these categories, there are gonna be some that are more powerful than others, right? Um, but the few that are, are a bit expensive.
You know, I'm look- for example, if we're looking at green mana dork, say, there's Noble Hierarch is one of the ones you see all the time.
That's, I, I think, like, 20, $25, something like that.
Um, it's really easy to cut that for a $1 card and not notice that much difference.
So the goal of today is to go over a number of cards and card types that we would consider cube staples.
These are cards that you can basically run in any cube.
This episode is sort of a companion piece to a recent episode we did on, uh, the cube skeleton.
In that episode, we broke down the number of different types of cards you need to run in a certain cube.
But in that episode, we also highlighted room for staples.
Like, we highlighted in each different size of cube how many bits of white interaction you need to run, or black hand attack, that kind of thing.
In this episode, we're actually gonna be giving examples of those cards.
And what's important about these staples is that basically these are cards that can go in effectively any cube.
These are cards that if you saw them in the highest power level c- cube, you would be like, "Cool, yeah, I get why that's there." But also, these are cards that if you saw in, like, a peasant, a pauper, or, like, a budget cube, you'd also say, "Yes, these belong here.
That makes sense." These really are, like, the building blocks of any cube.
And as we go through the episode, it will be important to remember that we are giving staples for every cube.
Like, a card like Black Lotus is a staple in a powered cube, but it's not a staple anywhere else.
A card like Lightning Bolt, however, we'll see play in every cube that could possibly run it.
Those are the staples that we're talking about today.
And what's nice about these staples is that the majority of them are actually pretty cheap.
We will highlight the one or two cards that kinda go above the $10 mark.
But these staples aren't just staples in cube.
These are often staples in a bunch of other formats where they've been printed a lot of times.
In the odd case where the card is more expensive, we will highlight that as well.
Yeah, and the other nice thing if, if you are working on a budget with these is that, um, most of these cards are pretty interchangeable in reality.
Not necessarily from a power level point of view.
Like, obviously in each of these categories, there are gonna be some that are more powerful than others, right? Um, but the few that are, are a bit expensive.
You know, I'm look- for example, if we're looking at green mana dork, say, there's Noble Hierarch is one of the ones you see all the time.
That's, I, I think, like, 20, $25, something like that.
Um, it's really easy to cut that for a $1 card and not notice that much difference.
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