I travel four to five times a year on business and one of the best parts about being part of the cube community is that you instantly have friends wherever you land. This is my second trip to Berlin, almost exactly a year after my trip in 2025 and I posted two messages. One to the Berlin Elemental Blast (Old School Crew) and one in the r/oldbordercube subreddit. Both simply said, "come draft with me!" Three days later we drafted with a pod of seven, three from the old school crew, three from the sub, and me. 

I got to meet people live I have bee talking with on reddit for the past year and see old friends that carved out time to sling cards with me. This was essentially an all expenses paid trip to cube (and then run two days of consulting workshops in Berlin). This was a dream come true on so many levels.  full pod can't assemble. We drafted my 93/94 ante cube, stole cards from one another, and ended the night with a Chaos Orb flip to settle the final match as the owner of the bar was ready to go home! Rules on how the ante mechanic works and the supporting mechanics around it can be found in the overview. 



The Cube: [Rocky Mountain Yeti Old School Ante Cube](https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/rmyante)



Onto the Decks!

**Tim's Contract from Below (3-0) -** Tim introduced me to the BEB and has been a great international MTG friend. He won the evening by casting Contract from Below, preventing damage with the Samite Healer and being able to quickly pop out a board full of fatties before anyone could do anything about it. Giant Spider with reach and Ivory Tower to keep life points ticking up if games stalled out were solid mid range strategies. Tim is a damn good Magic player and it's always fun to watch him pilot his decks.  

**Ma'Ruf for One (2-1) -** This deck was full of flying problems that got out of hand very quickly. The pilot cracked the \[\[Ring of Ma'Ruf\]\] twice (which won him a game) and cracked open a \[\[Bottle of Sulieman\]\] twice and ended up with a 5/5 flyer BOTH times. Luck was at his side and with Time Elemental acting as a constant piece of removal - this deck had what it took to got to the finals and result in a 1-1 Chaos Orb flip off. 

**Xira Stone -** I was sitting next to the pilot of this deck game one of his first match and things escalated fast. Xira was an amazing card draw engine, land destruction and spot removal seemed to be in hand at all times and the combat tricks plus Copper Tablet were ready to win finishers. The best end to a match was a hurricane, bringing his opponent to 1 life with the Tablet on board, and an end of turn shatter from his opponent stabilising at one life and whittling him down to dead over the next few turns.  

**Reanimator Aggro -** This deck was a really cool mix of black/red early aggro into a mid range reanimator deck that had several options to pick things out of the yard. The paperback \[\[Jalum Tome\]\] kept moving cards from hand to yard and then \[\[All Hallows Eve\]\] would bring his full yard back to swing for the win. This was a really cool deck to watch win games. 

**Vise + Ankh = Fun for 1 -** Turn 1 vise, turn 2 ankh really made you think about your life choices coming to cube at the local Berlin chess bar on a Wednesday night. Combine these little pingers with things like Mana Short and Flood that kept you locked down pretty robustly, it was a no holds barred ass kicking as you made jokes about how fun it was getting slapped around in the pauper games that preceded the cube draft. This deck was a straight tool box and had so many answers to problems that made it fun to pilot and fun to watch. 

**Lotus, Timewalk, Flood Out -** This drafter joined us after a 20+ year hiatus from the game and has found himself getting back into the game and this was his first cube draft experience. His deck looks beautiful, has some strong pieces (two pretty solid options), and once it got working was able to use Stream of Life to gain 12-15 life at a time to stay in the game while he beat you down slowly. This was an awesome build for a first time pilot and someone returning to the game after stopping in Mirage. 

**ReMoat Control (My Deck) -** I had a hard time staying focused in my first pack and I was really worried that my plan wouldn't really come together to make something playable. I ended up taking two buys so that everyone who had not played the cube before could get a proper set of games in but the games I did play were.... really solid. I drafted the worst three card combo in Magic - \[\[Sorrows Path\]\] + \[\[Gauntlets of Chaos\]\] + \[\[Icy Manipulator\]\] and while I did not get to cast it, it was in my deck ready to be pulled together at a moments notice! Style points for me! Moat won me games, removal and counter magic won me others. It was a controlly beat down!

Thanks to my new live friends - u/cawkwood and u/thesensitivethug for coming out to play games IRL and meet face to face. This community truly is an incredible experience of The Gathering! 

Drafting in Berlin: Why You Should Plan Your Business Trips Around Cubing