If you've ever felt burned out by constant spoiler seasons, rotating formats, or the overwhelming pace of Magic: The Gathering releases, you're not alone. I sat down with Pleasant Kenobi, to talk about why Cube might be the best way to reclaim Magic on your own terms. We explore how building and drafting Cubes like his Mono-White Milk Cube and his chaotic, joy-first Party Box can rekindle the excitement that first made you fall in love with Magic.

The Milk Cube: A Love Letter to Mono-White

Pleasant Kenobi started designing the Milk Cube with one clear goal, "Prove that White is not the shallow, underpowered color it's often made out to be." Rather than just jamming the best 540 white cards, PK learned early on that pure power-level selection leads to problems. He wanted to create an environment that did the following.

• Showcases White's depth and versatility
• Challenges the old narrative that White is the "worst" color
• And most importantly creates a fun, diverse draft environment

You won't find Sword of War and Peace or any other cards would abuse the format. Instead, you will find thoughtful inclusions that allow a variety of archetypes to succeed, and a large enough card pool that keeps drafts from feeling redundant.

In Pleasant Kenobi's words, the Cube is about "80% baked." It's a living project that needs more time to refine, and this speaks to an important design lesson. Build your project quickly, iterate often, and get to the actual game play sooner rather than later. No project is perfect on its first draft.

Party Box: A Joy-First, Chaos-Centric Cube Cousin

Beyond traditional Cube, PK has also built a Cube-adjacent format called Party Box, a multiplayer, shared-deck experience designed for a fast set up that can be enjoyed between rounds of a tournament.

How Party Box Works (In Brief)

• Everyone plays from one big shared stack of cards, and shares a graveyard and exile zone.
• Any card can be played face down as a land that taps for any color (including colorless).
• It mixes Magic cards, tokens, emblems, and even cards from other games like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon.
• Many non-Magic cards keep their original game logic where possible (for example, using Yu-Gi-Oh!'s level system as a pseudo-mana cost).

Over time, Party Box has grown into a story object, where players add signed, dated cards when they cast Booster Tutor. Cards like Teferi, Who Slows The Sun's emblem and cards from Uno have found their way in. It's messy, ridiculous, and exactly the point. Party Box is a pressure-free way to just enjoy the game and the people you're with, and it speaks perfectly to Pleasant Kenobi's overall design philosophies. More info on Party Box can be found here.

Packs Without "Correct" Picks

One of the most insightful parts of our interview came from looking at a random pack of the Milk Cube. I asked Pleasant Kenobi what he thinks the "Correct" pick is vs. what he might pick.

He expressed that, "In contrast to Arena's Vintage Cube data, where aggressive Red and White decks are often statistically 'correct.' I explicitly avoid those experiences in my own Cubes." He wants drafters to avoid prescriptive play patterns, promote emergent gameplay, and let players explore the environment rather than follow solved heuristics. Pleasant Kenobi and many modern Cube designers are more interested in emotionally impactful card choices over ones based on power level.

Emotionally Impactful Cards

1. Lotus Cobra - The Green Red Herring

Lotus Cobra is iconic in any Cube packed with fetchlands. In the right environment, it's a lynchpin of explosive Green decks, but it can also be a subtle trap. In Cubes with few landfall enablers, Lotus Cobra underperforms to the point that it has become a long running meme in his chat.

Pleasant Kenobi has this to say, "If you tune into my stream the chat explodes when they see Lotus Cobra. Regardless of the Cube, regardless of its power level, and regardless of the colors I've already drafted, if we see Lotus Cobra, it means Green is open. That is the power of emotional impact. The card isn't always right, but it always makes a story."

2. Minsc & Boo - Too Good for Its Own Good

Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes is a beloved flavor home run for fans of Baldur's Gate, but in practice is a problem card in many powered environments. It's strong to the point that it is often correct to abandon your first few picks and colors if it gets passed to you. For designers of Vintage Cube-style lists, PK sees Minsc & Boo as emblematic of a larger tension. How do you include exciting, powerful new cards without letting them warp an already maxed-out environment?

3. Restoration Angel - Never Wrong

As someone who fell in love with the flicker archetype around the time that people were combining Restoration Angel with Thragtusk in Standard, Pleasant Kenobi notes Resto Angel as a weak spot. This is a card that has lost some of its shine in recent years as cards like Ephemerate have taken the spotlight, but PK retains a soft spot for Resto Angel and approves of any Cube designer willing to put it in their list.

Cube as an Antidote to Magic Burnout

One of the most important themes Pleasant Kenobi brings up, zooms out beyond design and touches on the emotional role of Cube in a difficult world.

In a time when Magic's release schedule feels relentless, certain formats feel neglected, and the broader world is full of real, heavy problems, it's easy to feel like your primary hobby is drifting away from you. For many players, Magic has been a safe space that gives them space to decompress from the world around them. When that hobby stops feeling like "yours," it can be hard to deal with and often causes players to fall out entirely. Pleasant Kenobi's has some final words as to what makes Cube so special.

• Lets you control the cards, themes, and tone
• Allows you to recreate old Standard or Limited formats you loved
• And gives you a chance to share an experience with friends and recapture the "Magic" that made Magic: The Gathering so great to begin with.

In his words, Cube lets you "take back Magic for yourself." It won't fix the world, but it can restore a meaningful, joyful corner of it.