Overview:
This is a Cube with a mix of cards from Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, and Dragons of Tarkir. I tried to balance the power level by not including cards that just outright win the game by themselves - so mythics and a lot of the crazier rares are not included. The distribution of each pack is one rare, 3 uncommons, 10 commons, and one multi-color land. Typical decks will be two-color, but three-color is viable.
Archtypes:
Abzan Control (Black, Green, and White)
Outlast is the name of the game. Early high toughness creatures defend you while you grow a large force using +1/+1 counters and then overwhelm your opponent late in the game.
Red / Green Ferocious
As pure and simple as it gets. Efficient high-power creatures backed up by pump spells and burn. Smash face. Ferocious and Formidable give your guys bonuses the bigger they are.
Prowess Tempo (any combination of Blue / White / Red)
Use cheap Prowess creatues and tricky spells to knock your opponent off balance while also delivering big chunks of damage. Finish them off with burn or flying creatures. Spells with Rebound are especially valuable for this deck.
Black / Blue Exploit
A very control-style deck. Massive card advantage can be gained via Exploit and Exploit enablers, backed up by lots of removal. Delve is also very strong in this type of build.
Black / White Warriors
There are many creatures in the cube that are the "warrior" type and several spells that care about warriors. If you have enough of these, the synergies can be deadly.
Black / Red Aggro
Nothing fancy. Just swarm the opponent with a ton of cheap creatures and tokens. Keep the pressure up with the help of Raid and Dash creatures, black removal, and red burn.
5-Color Control
Because every pack has a mana-fixing land, if you prioritize picking multi-colored lands higher than other drafters, it should theoretically be possible to draft enough multi-colored lands to successfully play a deck with four or five colors. This is risky, but will allow you to potentially have a higher overall power level of cards, with the trade-off being that your mana base will likely not be as consistant as a two-color deck.
Mechanics:
Morph
Morph is a mechanic on creatues that lets you disguise their true identity until you turn them face up.
Morph creatures can be played for their mana cost as normal, or they can be played face-down as a 2/2 creature for 3 mana. A face-down creature spell is a 2/2 colorless creature spell with no name, no creature types, no abilities, and no mana cost.
Face-down morphs are creatures in every way. They can attack and block, and spells and abilities that target creatures can target them. You can look at your face-down creatures at any time, but you can't look at your opponent's face down creatures.
You can turn the face-down creature face up by paying its morph cost. This causes the creature to immediately turn face up so it has its normal characteristics.
IMPORTANT: no morph, when turned face up, will outright trump another face-down morph in combat for less than five mana.
In other words, if you block a morph with your morph, and your opponent has less than five mana available, the other morph is not going to kill your morph and survive whether it's turned face up or not. This is true across all rarities. If your opponent has five or more mana available, then all bets are off.
Outlast
The Abzan (the white-black-green clan) signature ability is outlast. Outlast is an activated ability all about endurance. Nothing prepares you for a long game better than growing your creatures over time. You can activate an outlast ability any time you could cast a sorcery. To outlast, tap the creature and pay the associated mana cost, then, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature. Several other cards in the cube give bonuses to creatures with +1/+1 counters.
Prowess
The Jeskai (the blue-red-white clan) signature ability is prowess. The Jeskai specialize in cunning and attacking in unexpected ways. Prowess is a triggered ability that activates whenever you cast a noncreature spell. When it resolves, the creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Instants work particularly well, as they become combat tricks that boost your attacking or blocking creatures in addition to whatever they normally do.
Delve
The Sultai (the black-green-blue clan) signature ability is delve. Spells with delve are very powerful, but have a high mana cost. The Sultai's ruthlessness leads them to use every resource at their disposal, even the dead. As you're paying for the spell, you can exile cards from your graveyard. Each card you exile this way discounts the mana cost. So, if you exile four cards from your graveyard -- you pay 4 less for the spell. Note, Delve can only pay for pay for colorless mana in the spell's mana cost.
Raid
The Mardu (the red-white-black clan) signature mechanic is raid. Speed defines the Mardu's every action, so if you want to win with them, keep on the move and attack! Raid is "unlocked" if you attasked with a creature that turn. Each raid ability is different, so read each carefully to determine what it does.
Ferocious
The Temur (the green-blue-red clan) signature mechanic is ferocious. The Temur rely on savagery to survive Tarkir's brutal landscape. Each ferocious ability is different, but they all rely in some way on controlling a creature with power 4 or greater. So if you control such a creature, you will gain a some kind of bonus.
Bolster
Bolster is a green-white mechanic. When you cast a spell or creature with bolster, find the creature you control with the least toughness. If there's a tie, choose one of those creatures. Then put a number of +1/+1 counters on that creature equal to the bolster number.
Exploit
Exploit is a blue-black ability. When a creature with exploit enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a creature you control. But you're not just sacrificing your loyal minions for fun. Each creature with exploit has an ability that gives you a benefit when it "exploits a creature."
You can sacrifice any creature you control when the exploit ability resolves, including the creature with exploit itself. You don't have to sacrifice a creature if you don't want to. If you do, you choose which one. To get the most out of your minions, look for creatures with abilities that give you an added benefit when they die.
Dash
Dash is an alternative cost found on black or red creature spells. It allows your creatures to strike and disappear before your opponent knows what's happened. Rather than paying a creature's regular cost, you may pay it's dash cost (usually one mana cheaper). If you do, the creature will have haste, so it can attack that turn. At the end of your turn though, you'll return the creature from the battlefield back to your hand.
Formidable
Formidable is a red-green ability. This ability is similar to the Ferocious ability. Every formidable ability is different, but they all care in some way about controlling creatures with total power 8 or greater. Read each one carefully to see exactly what it does.You must control creatures with total power 8 or greater in order to "turn on" the Formidable bonus.
Megamorph
If you understand how morph works, megamorph is almost exactly the same. The only difference is that if you turn a face-down creature with megamorph face up by paying its megamorph cost, not only will it suddenly have its normal characteristics, but you'll put a +1/+1 counter on it as well.
General Comments:
The format leans toward the slower side, so playing expensive cards is fine, as long as you don't have too many of them.
There aren't a ton of gold cards in the cube. The ones that are in there, are quite powerful though - especially the tri-color ones.
That said... don't get greedy with your lands. Three-color builds are viable, but try to stick with primarily two colors, with only a little bit of a third, or no third at all. Remember, morphs help smooth out your mana because they are colorless.
18 land decks are the norm, unless you have a ton of cheap creatures, in which case you can play 17, or in extreme cases, 16.
There aren't a ton of artifacts and enchantments in the cube, but there are probably just enough to make you consider picking up removal for those things. Just don't draft these too highly.
There aren't a ton of fliers in the cube, so the ones that are there are a little more valuable than average.
There are a ton of delicious two-card combos all over the place. Experiment. Enjoy!
