The Salt Box

A Two-Day Magic: The Gathering Cube Event in Baltimore, MD

The Salt Box will be returning in March or April of 2027. Check back for updates!

Location

Emmanuel Episcopal Church
811 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD

The event is located near downtown in the Mt Vernon neighborhood, close to transportation and hotels. It’s walking distance from the Penn Station train station (3/4 mi) and LightRail Station (1/4 mi) which goes directly to BWI airport.

Event Schedule

Saturday

Draft #1

9am - 1pm

Lunch Break

1pm - 2pm

Draft #2

2pm - 6pm

Sunday

Draft #3

9am - 1pm

Lunch Break

1pm - 2pm

Draft #4

2pm - 6pm

The Cubes

Take Five

A desert cube drafted in three standard, fifteen-card packs, resulting in players only being allowed five cuts during deckbuilding. It’s designed to make ambitious, clunky synergies and charmingly bad cards strategically optimal by dramatically limiting each player’s card pool.

- Andy

Wetlands

Humanity fights for a place in the ecological new epoch. A desert cube with Eastern Seaboard flavor. The humans are small and fragile compared to the wilds that have arisen.

- Holly

Red Terror

A local cube focused on red and its allies vs its enemies. You will probably be playing red, but you can see how flexible red is on the aggro-control spectrum. Lightning bolt is a surprisingly modal spell.

- Andrew

Reading Rainbow

Its all gold baby! It’s not just about multicolor, its all about that golden look. Start with a Pillar of the Paruns in play to enable you casting all your spells. How many lands are you supposed to play? We don’t know! Admire cards you might have never seen before and remember, every card is splashable and the mana will probably work. Probably. This is one of my favorite cubes I’ve ever played.

- Daniel

Arcane Lessons

All Instants and Sorceries are Arcane Lessons! Kamigawa collides with Strixhaven. Worry not as you are given a few tools to start with in a bag of school supplies. Explore old kamigawa with a few more recent cards to guide you.

- Bones

Oldest School

Many cubes are inspired by old school magic, but often they take inspiration from magics competitive scene. Now what about a cube that is more about how most people actually played. Find out how good flying is as a keyword, or how hard you used to have to work for a little card advantage. (Played unsleeved)

- Alex

Zoso

Local desert cube that explores the tension between multicolor and high devotion cards. Your mana is going to suck, but luckily you’ll have time while you and your opponent figure it out. However, don’t discount threat goblin patrol can put out.

- Alex

Regular Cube

Whats the power level? Somewhere in the middle. Complexity? In the middle. Quality of gameplay? High. Regular Cube contains play patterns that bring that limited feeling while still playing pretty good cards. It’s the distilled version of what magic is designed for.

- Anthony

The Odyssey

A loose combination of Odyssey Block and The Odyssey: A fight between the Davids and the Goliaths. Heavy focus on graveyard themes as the old classics fight their way back into the epic tales.

- Owen

The United States Environmental Protection Agency

Regulation is in order in this context-shift cube. You share control of the EPA, a Rule of Law effect that transforms into the Smokestack once the rules have been removed. Figure out how to manage playing through a game where the stax pieces are already in play. Which side will you try to favor? How will you deal with an opponent with a different environmental ideal?

- James

Super Magic Fun Times

Play with some of magic’s more powerful cards in this legacy cube. If you like casting ragavan, this is where the monkey lives. There are still some classics that keep up with grave titan, thalia, and snapcaster existing as baselines for comparision.

- Adam

Virtually French

Virtually French evokes the feeling of a core set with conventional gameplay and understandable cards. Attacking and Blocking with combat tricks and removal. The basic magic rules are great, just roll with those.

- Max

Emerging

This is a (mostly unpowered) vintage cube, that serves as a museum of Magic while replicating the power level, play patterns, and archetypes of vintage cube circa 2017. It features the classic vintage cube archetypes against a backdrop of altered cards, artist proofs, artist-signed cards, or premium treatments (foils, promos, Secret Lairs, etc.)

- Lincoln

Trenchfight

A low mana value cube focused on combat with an emphasis on white. There are no haymakers here. All you’ve got is the little scraps to push your way past your opponent. Feel the horror of war as your creatures and your life is never safe.

- Gabe Nott

Kuleshov

In film editing the Kuleshov Effect describes how the mental correlation of two shots shown together can create more meaning than either shot might in isolation, so can we apply the same concept to cube design? Medium power eternal cube featuring prominent enchantment and graveyard themes, a reduced number of trinkets, and no Red cards.

- Brendan

Sacred Geometry

Sacred Geometry is a celebration of Magic's most elegant cards. Card choices are driven primarily by sophistication of design, resulting in a broad power level band and emergent archetypes and synergies.

- Andy

Event Structure and Draft Pod Organization

Players will be organized into pods for each draft slot using the Cube tournament software. Read more about how the event is structured.

Which cubes will be played?

The list has been selected from participant designed and submitted cubes. 2025 Cube List.

Local Amenities

Visiting from out of town? Check out Andy’s guide to local food and more.

Parking

There’s a large parking lot behind the church available to attendees.

Accessible Entrances

There is ramp and elevator access to the event space. For detailed info contact max.richards97@gmail.com.

Why “The Salt Box”?

The event is named after the iconic “Salt Boxes” of Baltimore City. The city provides salt boxes filled with salt and sand for de-icing sidewalks to residents during the winter months. More on Wikipedia