Classifying MTG Cubes
This stems from a conversation I had with a friend a couple days ago.
In my view, there are three categories of Magic: the Gathering cubes that all pull in different directions. It's not that they are fundamentally incompatible, just that they require design decisions that make them not 1:1 equal.
To start off, we have "normal" draftable cubes. Your Modo vintage, Bun cube, pauper cubes, whatever. They range from 1000-card commander cubes to 100 card micro cubes. Regardless of their form, limitations or theme, they are designed to have you choose one or more cards from a smaller denomination of cards and form a discrete deck around those.
Next, we have shared deck cubes. These involve a deck of any size which is shared between usually two opponents. Dandan, Battle-boxes, cubelets, and whatever, are all in this category. These generally have a few specific things removed compared to normal cubes. They tend to have less graveyard manipulation, as well as fewer instances of land ramp. Oftentimes, these decks are more aggressively balanced, as power inequalities are more apparent than in normal cubes. The plus side is that a card like Memory Lapse, or the scry mechanic directly affect the game, due to the shared nature of the deck.
Lastly, is the premade deck category. This is a bit fast-and-loose with the definition of "cube," but I still think it's a crucial delineation. These can vary significantly, but what I'm generally thinking is something like a gauntlet of old. You have a handful of premade decks -- Standard, Modern, Premodern, Pioneer, Commander, Pauper etc. -- that are all made to play against one another. They don't necessarily have to be directly balanced to play each other, but they serve as a discrete environment that doesn't rely on outside players' buy-in. "Hey non-gamer friend, want to learn a card game? You do? Great, here's a deck. I also count jumpstart cubes in this category as well, because they're awesome, and don't really fit anywhere else.
One last note: proxy proxy proxy. If you want to play Magic, monetary constraints shouldn't stop you. If you can't afford more premium proxies, such as those from makeplayingcards.com (mpcfill.com), then you can swing to your nearest office supplies store or library and get a cube or some decks printed for pretty cheap. Magic is awesome, and there are so many amazing ways to play it.