Cube drafting is a subset of drafting, often in trading card games, where “cube” is a curated collection of cards, designed to be drafted over and over again. The origins of cube drafting date back to late 1990s in the Magic the Gathering community but has then gained popularity in other games as well.
One of the appeals of a cube is that you can redraft and play with the same collection of cards multiple times without having to buy new boosters every time. Additionally, every curator of a cube can build exactly the type of cube they want to build.
I’ve been mostly cube drafting in Pokemon TCG, because the game isn’t designed for set drafts and requires extra curation and care to build a draftable collection and sometimes extra rules (like Mutant Draft where you can evolve Pokémon based on their type rather than their evolution line).
Cubes come in all shapes, sizes and themes. I love 2 player retro cube (Pokémon) or Pokemon TCG Pocket IRL 2 player cube (Pokémon) because they create an interesting draft environment for just two people and thus are more likely to be drafted compared to an 6 or 8 player cubes.
Some cubes are curated around their unique theme like MTG Bar Cube which is intended to be played with unsleeved cards in bar environments and has a special prohibition theme with marker adjusted cards.
100 Ornithopthers cube is a funny take on building a cube around 0/2 Artifact Creatures that players can add tally marks when that creature kills and customise their cards when they win. Check out Rhystic Studies’ great video on the topic.