Goblins

I'd been going back and forth on some red themes, but I think goblins are where I want to end up. Goblins as a tribe, goblins as Rakdos sacrifice fodder, Goblins as Boros go wide, goblins as a value engine in blue. Goblins can be kind of whimsical, so I'm trying to use the art to guide me.

• Goblin Javelineer out, Fanatical Firebrand in
• Mudbutton Clanger out, Rigging Runner in
• Grotag Bug-Catcher out, Goblin Trailblazer in

Goblin Pirates!

• Countryside Crusher out, Goblin Ruinblaster in

Goblin Ruinblaster is a little sus, but I tend to think that a little land destruction to keep people fair is fine.

• Redcap Raiders out, Goblin Researcher in

A goblin that is also a wizard for the Adeliz, the Cinder Wind deck.

• Goblin Razerunners out, Brash Taunter in

Brash Taunter tells a great story. You punch like a Kobold!

• Tarfire out, Twinshot Sniper in

Cutting all the Tribal types since Tribal isn't really supported anymore. Twinshot Sniper is basically Tarfire with a body!

I still think the Joblins need some work, but this is a start.

Another color hate cycle

• Late to Dinner out, Divine Smite in
• Sleep out, Ray of Frost in
• Nameless Inversion out, Ray of Enfeeblement in
• Searing Blood out, Burning Hands in
• Predator's Howl out, Hunter's Mark in
• Encase in Ice out, Flashfreeze in

I really like this cycle from AFR. I did have to make a swap because the two blue color hate cards were very similar.

• Shepherd of Heroes out, Archangel of Wrath in

Archangel of Wrath is a card I really like, despite it being really pushy on the power level for this cube. I want to give it a try.

• Fact or Fiction out, Field Research in

The FoF experience is not great for inexperienced players. They're very bad at knowing what is actually important and will misplay a lot. And you never have to commit to FoF, at least with Field Research, you have to commit. Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths does the FoF experience better for new players, and I also have Flow of Knowledge for raw draw power. So as much as I love me a Fact or Fiction, it's home is in vintage cube.

Countermagic

• Turn to Frog out, Essence Scatter in
• Didn't Say Please out, Familiar's Ruse in
• Sage's Dousing out, Spell Snuff in
• Mana Leak out, Insidious Will in

I'm not really trying to bolster countermagic, but I think there are some opportunities to do some fun stuff here.

Enchantress

• Knight of Grace out, Flutterfox in

Flutterfox is another cute and reasonable creature, and I overdid the knight stuff.

• Valiant Changeling out, Mesa Enchantress in
• Auramancer out, Moon-Blessed Cleric in

A couple white creatures to better support the Enchantress theme.

• Emeria Captain out, Trusty Retriever in
• Crystal Dragon out, Rambunctious Mutt in

Cute doggos are cute! Crystal Dragon is a bit too much a strictly better Serra Angel.

• Oppressive Rays out, Chained to the Rocks in

A powerful card that fits in a narrow range of decks.

• Angelic Renewal out, Angelic Gift in
• Rally the Ranks out, Knightly Valor in
• Return to Nature out, Warbriar Blessing in

Some auras that don't have inherent card disadvantage.

• Treefolk Harbinger out, Generous Visitor in
• Wolf-Skull Shaman out, Herald of the Pantheon in
• Silverfur Partisan out, Setessan Champion in
• Keeper of Fables out, Blossom Prancer in

Some green creatures that support the Enchantress theme

Other Updates

• Mossbeard Ancient out, Bookwurm in

There's a lot of cards that could fit in this slot, but I like the library theme a lot.

• Great Oak Guardian out, Ghalta, Primal Hunger in

The biggest and dumbest of idiots.

• Displacement Wave out, Bury in Books in

I like how Bury in Books teaches players that using removal during combat is a good thing to do some of the time.

• Stinkdrinker Bandit out, Dread Presence in

Something for mono-black.

• Oona, Queen of the Fae out, Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths in

Oona is just too much better than Shivan Dragon and Nightmare to play. Atris is a card that plays really well, and Fact or Fiction is probably too good.

• Soaring Thought-Thief out, Undermine in
• Deputy of Acquittals out, Absorb in

A couple of classics. I think "hard to cast countermagic" is okay.

• Jousting Dummy out, Papercraft Decoy in

My wife likes origami, and Jousting Dummy sucks.

Saga Cycle

• History of Benalia already in
• Time of Ice already in
• Strands of Night out, The Eldest Reborn in
• Ferocity of the Wilds out, The Akroan War in
• Howling Moon out, Song of Freyalise in
• Putrefy out, Binding the Old Gods in

Sagas are cool.

Landcycling Cycle

• Eternal Dragon already in
• Waker of Waves out, Tidal Terror in
• Topaz Dragon out, Gloomfang Mauler in
• Ore-Scale Guardian out, Cragsmasher Yeti in
• Timberland Ancient out, Warden of the Woods in

I really wanted landcyclers with the duals with land types. But this cycle was really hard for me to fill out, and I still don't really like it that much. This is one of those rare cases where the mechanic is something I really want despite the art/themes of all the cards with the mechanic being not quite up to snuff. I'm not wild about adding another mechanic (backup) to the cube, but my other options for red and black weren't great either.

Mono-color payoffs Cycle

• Portable Hole out, Lay Down Arms in
• Compelling Argument out, Flow of Knowledge in
• Duress out, Tendrils of Corruption in
• Igneous Elemental out, Sardian Cliffstomper in
• Hunting Triad out, Blanchwood Armor in

Cycle of payoffs for being more mono-colored, but they also play well with the duals with land types. Also, Elsewhere Flask is in the cube. Blanchwood Armor leads me down an enchantress theme, which I'll get to later.

Domain Cycle

• Oblivion Ring out, Leyline Binding in
• Strategic Planning out, Worldly Counsel in
• Coveted Prize out, Shadow Prophecy in
• Hoarding Dragon out, Meria's Outrider in
• Curious Pair out, Sunbathing Rootwalla in
• The Underworld Cookbook out, Jodah's Codex in

A cycle of Domain payoffs is kind of weird, but I think most of these are playable outside of the full domain.

Color-hosers Cycle

• Sunset Revelry out, Surge of Salvation in
• Frogify out, Encase in Ice in
• Warren Weirding out, Deathmark in
• Breath of Darigaaz out, Fry in
• Moment's Peace out, Sandstalker Moloch in

I'm considering adding a second cycle of these color hoser removal spells, and potentially the self-hoser spells like Hunt the Hunter. I want to teach the skill of sideboarding, and maybe color hosers are kind of heavy handed, but I think it might be a good way to go about it. I want to try it out.

Cards from Alpha

Here's really where I think my cube is starting to catch it's identity.

• Serra Angel already in
• Venomous Changeling out, Hypnotic Specter in
• Boggart Mob out, Royal Assassin in
• Nadier, Agent of the Duskenel out, Nightmare in
• Shivan Dragon already in
• Trepanation Blade out, Icy Manipulator in

I would like my cube to host some of the arguably most iconic cards from Alpha. I've already got dual lands with basic land types, mirroring Alpha. Having land types and color themes mirrors alpha. I've got the diamonds, mirroring the Moxes from Alpha. Kicker feels like an Alpha ability, because it's the basis for almost every other ability. This just feels right to me. I hope they're playable!

Faerie updates

Most of these changes are swapping mechanically similar cards for their Faerie versions.

• Overwhelmed Apprentice out, Faerie Seer in
• Merfolk Windrobber out, Pixie Illusionist in
• Zulaport Duelist out, Faerie Duelist in
• Amoeboid Changeling out, Metropolis Sprite in
• Sword Coast Serpent out, Brazen Borrower in
• Faerie Harbinger out, Animating Faerie in
• Flickerwisp out, Mysterious Pathlighter in
• Auntie's Snitch out, Thieving Sprite in
• Surveilling Sprite out, Tome Raider in
• Loch Dragon out, Sprite Dragon in
• Wydwen, the Biting Gale out, Halo Forager in

Cute Stuff

These are for my wife <3

• Soulknife Spy out, Thieving Otter in

Technically a downgrade but oh so cute! And the flavor text couldn't be more perfect.

• Spore Frog out, Placid Rottentail in

Swapping a cute-ish but mechanically cancerous creature for a slightly more cute-ish creature that promotes combat.

• Basalt Ravager out, Scrappy Bruiser in

That raccoon is about to f--- some s--- up! Trash panda my a--!

Miscellaneous Blue updates

• Step Through out, Time of Ice in

I would like to have a cycle of sagas in the cube.

• Wistful Selkie out, Tatyova, Benthic Druid in

One of my favorites from Dominaria getting in there!

At this point, I'm wondering if this is still actually a fairy tale cube or if it's turning into something else...

I've spent a lot of time looking at Alpha over the years. As I'm sure many Magicians of a certain age know, you have this kind of zealous reverence for the Alpha card file. You can't argue that it's not essentially the perfect set. I'm feeling like this cube is turning into more of a tribute to Alpha in a way. I'm designing it to hook newer players and the Magic curious, and Alpha did more for that goal than any other set. We wouldn't be sitting here building cubes if Alpha didn't hit exactly the way it hit.

I think this informs my first group of swaps.

Prophetic Prism out, Marble Diamond in
Prismatic Lens out, Sky Diamond in
Mind Stone out, Charcoal Diamond in
Mana Geode out, Fire Diamond in
Terrarion out, Moss Diamond in

The Mirage Diamonds are callbacks to the Mox cycle from Alpha. My goal is that this cube is the right power level where the Diamonds are desirable picks.

Ornithopter of Paradise out, Paradise Mantle in
Golden Egg out, Elsewhere Flask in

I know that Golden Egg is literally a fairy tale, but I think Elsewhere Flask is somehow more magical? I think Flask will play better in this cube, too.

Relic Golem out, Bastion Mastodon in
Gingerbrute out, Dukhara Peafowl in
Universal Automaton out, Prakhata Pillar-Bug in
Bloodline Pretender out, Weldfast Monitor in
Crashing Drawbridge out, Narnam Cobra in
Clockwork Servant out, Filigree Familiar in
Traveler's Amulet out, Eager Construct in
Wanderer's Twig out, Farfinder in

These swaps are an attempt to bump up the cuteness in the cube. My wife really doesn't like creepy stuff, and she likes Magic but gets turned off pretty easily by a lot of the art and themes. So we've got the mechanical animal cycle from Kaladesh. None of these cards are great, but my goal is for them to be serviceable bodies, as they were in Kaladesh limited. Farfinder also gets in here because it's adorable, and I think it will pick up enough equipment and auras to be a solid little playable.

Brass Herald out, Solemn Simulacrum in

Sad Robot feels like he should have been in Alpha. The art is just perfect, the abilities are good, the power level in this cube is low, and it also evokes the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz.

That's it for now!

Honestly, all I wanted was to have Aryel, Knight of Windgrace in the cube.

mardu woe-reaper out, dauntless bodyguard in
dragon hunter out, venerable knight in

2/1 swap. I'm not particularly interested in the party mechanic, so warriors aren't relevant anymore.

tormented hero out, knight of the ebon legion in

I think having a couple of "evil" knights is okay.

grim wanderer out, blacklance paragon in

The art on Blacklance Paragon is fantastic. The roses...

stonework packbeast out, jousting dummy in

More changeling cuts.

Seasoned Hallowblade out, knight of dawn's light in
skeletal changeling out, knight of dusk's shadow in
seeker of the way out, knight of grace in
weirding shaman out, knight of malice in
dawnbringer cleric out, knight of meadowgrain in
samite herbalist out, knight of the white orchid in
acquisitions expert out, order of midnight in

Knights used to be the best two drops. I like that a lot of knights have unique, memorable names. Maybe Knight of Grace and Knight of Malice are kind of bland.

courageous outrider out, acclaimed contender in

I'm not sure if I will ultimately have the density of knights to make acclaimed contender playable.

avian changeling out, ardenvale tactician in
graveblade marauder out, belle of the brawl in

Pretty straight-forward swaps. I really like the "Belle of the Ball" pun.

Warteye Witch out, Midnight Reaper in

The "dark rider" trope. Warteye Witch being a goblin is kind of a big deal. I'm going to have to spend some time looking at Goblins and red black archetypes.

Expunge out, Murderous Rider in

I'm not sure why Expunge of all removal spells, was originally included. It's just a weird choice to me.

Sea Gate Colossus out, Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer in

Boros was missing a card! Removing a colorless party-matters card with kind of weird flavor is an easy fix.

nalia de'arnise out, aryel, knight of windgrace in

Here's the entire reason (not really) knights are a thing. I love aryel, knight of windgrace, she is one of my favorite cards.

irregular cohort out, gallant cavalry in
nature's chant out, oakhame ranger in
rally for the throne out, history of benalia in
obsidian battle axe out, sigiled sword of valeron in

Some "sideways swaps" that bolster knights as a theme.

titan hunter out, syr konrad, the grim in
magma phoenix out, syr carah, the bold in
cryptic serpent out, syr elenora, the discerning in
changeling hero out, syr alin, the lion's claw in

Removing some expensive off-theme creatures for expensive knights.

Spoils of adventure out, banish into fable in

I forgot Banish into fable even existed. We live in this weird world now where cards that aren't technically in the set are in the set and we get to discover things like we had to discover things in the old days. This card is just neat.

Can I kick it? (Yes I can!)

My original plan for updating this cube was to just pick at a few cards I didn't personally like and swap them with cards I did personally like, but more or less keep intact what was going on. Obviously, I updated the lands, then I spent a lot of time digging around various Scryfall searches for a couple of the different featured tribes. But I was having a hard time finding a foothold to get started, that is, until I started digging into the featured mechanic Kicker.

Kicker is the best mechanic in Magic. The joke is "every mechanic is just kicker," if you understand kicker, you understand basically every other mechanic in the game. It's a great mechanic to feature in a beginner friendly cube, and this cube already has, wait, only five cards with kicker?

I started a list of cards with kicker that are mechanically similar to cards already in the cube and came up with quite a long list. A lot of those cards are reasonably fairy tale compliant or at least thematically agnostic.

Kick off

Lets start the updates with kicker support and payoffs. Kicker doesn't really need much in the way of payoffs, since kicking the spell is the payoff, but there are a few cards that are pretty nice.

• Lat-Nam Adept out > Roost of Drakes in

Roost of Drakes is a pretty sick card. Its a 4-mana 2/2 flier at worst and a steady stream of Drake tokens at best. This might be too much, but lets aim high. Roost of Drakes doesn't really have anything mechanically similar in the cube, so I removed Lat-Nam Adept, which is probably the worst blue creature in the cube. I'm skeptical about the "draw two" theme, as drawing two is the payoff, and honestly I'm not here to cast Hill Giant.

• Grumgully, the Generous out > Hallar, the Firefletcher in

Hallar at ya boy! Hallar, the Firefletcher says you could try to draft a lot of kicker spells in red/green. Hallar also hits as an elf and also +1/+1 counters. If Grumgully, the Generous was a goblin lord, I probably wouldn't have cut him, but the "non-human" restriction is kind of lame. It is a powerful enabler for the +1/+1 decks, but I've got other things up my sleeve.

• Scorned Villager out > Vine Gecko in

Vine Gecko is both an enabler and a payoff, and it has great artwork! Kind of a cute little guy there. It doesn't have any relevant creature types, but it does get +1/+1 counters. Scorned Villager is a similar card, but to be honest, I don't know why this was in the cube to begin with. It's the only werewolf. I'd like to use the thematic complexity with kicker instead.

• Boggart Brute out > Bloodstone Goblin in

Bloodstone Goblin is going to be a two mana Boggart Brute a lot of the time with just kicker cards that the Goblin deck will want, and the goblin deck already has some kind of sketchy 2-drops.

• Growth spiral out > Lullmage's Familiar in

If Growth Spiral was only blue or only green, I wouldn't cut it. Multi-color cards are valuable space to signal what the color pairs can do. There's a lot of green and blue kicker, so Lullmage's Familiar signals really well. Also, he's kind of cute!

• Leaf Gilder out > Elfhame Druid in

This should be self explanatory. 2-drop mana elf swapped for 2-drop mana elf that supports Kicker.

Getting the Swift kick

I want to call out one egregious card.

• Boomerang out > Into the Roil in

With apologies to one of my favorite artists, Rebecca Guay, and also to the creator of the cube, but why in God's name is Boomerang in the cube? Do you just hate fun? Boomerang turn 2 on the play on your opponents only land (which probably entered the battlefield tapped), then opponent replays their land and moves to discard. Why would you do this to your players? This is the worst kind of card: busted on curve on the play and pretty weak in basically every other situation. This swap should be obvious.

Quick kicks

• Blades of Velis Vel out, Fires of Victory in

Weak card out, more removal in.

• Veteran Adventurer out, Grunn, the Lonely King in

Decreasing changeling count.

• Shock out, Shivan Fire in

I love that Shivan Dragon is in the cube, so Shivan Fire makes a lot of flavor sense.

• Brimstone Volley out, Roil Eruption in

Morbid out, kicker in.

• Concerted Defense out, Shell Shield in

Concerted Defense is just bad. Party is not worth this.

• Overcome out, Wild Onslaught in

Overcome seems over-costed, especially when white regularly gets this same power boost at instant speed for four mana.

• Changeling Berserker out, Skizzik in

Reducing the changeling count and removing Champion. Skizzik evokes the classic Ball Lightning slot for red.

• Opt out, Joint exploration in

More of a replacement for Growth Spiral actually.

• Mudbrawler Cohort out, Torch Slinger in
• Fissure Wizard out, Sprouting Goblin in

Moving more towards grindy goblins.

• Roughshod Mentor out, Gnarlid Colony in

Gnarlid Colony gets trample on the creatures with a bunch of +1/+1 counters.

• Wren's Run Vanquisher out, Yavimaya Iconoclast in

You can get 3 power for 2 mana without jumping through hoops.

• Reclaim out, Murasa Sproutling in

Reclaim seems really weak to me.

• Lull out, Colossal Growth in

Lull should really be up in the egregious category with Boomerang. Turbofog is a horrible experience.

• Heroe's Bane out, Territorial Allosaurus in

Big green lizard out, big green lizard in.

• Pack Guardian out, Wolfbriar Elemental in

I like Pack Guardian a lot, but the art is creepy, so I'm swapping it out for my wife's sake.

• Angler Drake out, Vodalian Mindsinger in

Have you seen the art for Vodalian Mindsinger?

Kicked out

I feel good about this list as a place to start. I know there are kicker cards I missed, especially since I didn't add any white or black cards. I think it's time to look at some of the other featured elements and circle back to kicker in a little while.

About this cube

First of all, props to @Myagic for their May's Fae Cube. I have been looking for a "beginner's experience" cube, and the bones on this house fit that bill extremely well. I like almost everything that's going on here, but I want to give this thing my own spin.

Lands

So... it might look like I hated the original mana base. I swapped out almost every single land, all but two, I think? But I honestly don't find much fault with what was there, these changes really boil down to my personal aesthetic preference.

Dual lands

• added DMU duals
• added KHM snow duals
• removed KTK gain lands (x2)

I think the KTK gain lands are the best lands ever printed for low-power limited. Gaining life feels good, and I love how they promote longer games. But I cut them. I am building a Khans of Tarkir set cube, I am finishing up a Neon Dynasty set cube, and Ikoria is on my short list of set cubes I want to build. What do all three of these sets have in common??

I like the aesthetics of non-basic lands with basic land types. It really calls back to the original Alpha duals. It's kind of amazing it took almost 30 years for these simple but evocative designs to see print! I decided not to double up on DMU duals and added the KHM snow duals instead. I'm not going to be adding any "snow matters" cards; Snow is just a descriptor. The KHM duals have gorgeous art, and, not for nothing, but a lot of fairy tales take place in winter.

• added AKH cycling duals
• removed cycling lands

The AKH cycling duals have basic land types, cycling is a deciduous mechanic, and the art and names are fine flavor-wise. The original Fae Cube has some "lands in graveyard" stuff going on that I might want to preserve, so these lands are an easy upgrade. I did think about adding the Ikoria triomes, especially because of their gorgeous full-art versions, but the names are too tied to Ikoria for me to justify, and I'm not sure I want to encourage 3+ color decks. There is a slight imbalance as there aren't enemy-colored cycling duals, but it's not a deal-breaker.

Utility lands

The rest of my changes will probably discourage 3+ color decks, and that's by design. I don't really want newer drafters to think that they should be playing all these colors. The reality is that a preponderance of dual lands inherently encourages splashes and 3+ color decks, and I think it's fun to discover that.

• removed all the "bad" mana-fixing lands

All these Shimmering Grotto variants have got to go. I don't think I've ever drafted a Shimmering Grotto in my life and I don't plan on starting any time soon. Evolving Wilds-like lands and the Uncharted Havens of the world are playable, but they're just so much worse than dual lands, even for splashing. I'm cutting all of these.

• added the rest of the ELD Gingerbread Cabin cycle

If this is a fae cube, how can you not add this cycle? Fortunately, we have dual lands with basic land types to make these a little better for the average 2-color deck. It's worth noting that Dwarven Mine adds a new token to the cube.

• added the ELD Castle cycle

Throne of Eldraine coming through with another cycle of lands that are perfect for a Fae Cube. The duals with land types also make these easier for 2-color decks to play.

• added AFR creature-lands
• removed LOR Vivid lands

I'm not a fan of Vivid lands making a mockery of color requirements. This is not the kind of fixing that I want. But I am a fan of all the names of the AFR creature-lands. Want to make people feel like adventuring? They're named after D&D adventures for crying out loud! I might consider swapping Faerie Conclave back in for Hall of Storm Giants though.

Flex slots

• added Mutavault, Reflecting Pool, and Roadside Reliquary

These are a couple of flex spots I'm trying out. It is possible that as I update the cube further that other, better options will reveal theselves. Mutavault is an extremely good card in a cube full of creature-types-matter stuff, so I'm not sure that this is ultimately going to stay in the cube.

Reflecting Pool has some really nice art, fits in with the Fae theme, and is a rare multi-color land that enters untapped. But it doesn't really fix your mana, so I'm not in love with it.

Roadside Reliquary is a fun-of for decks with enchantments and/or artifacts. It's got a nice flavor of travelers out on the wilderness highroads finding a little stash. Of the three flex spots, I think I like this one best.

Closing

So there you have it! I'm really excited to update the rest of this cube. I'm especially excited for all the lands with basic land types, I hope to fit some "land types matter" spells in. I am a little wary of having 3 cycles of mono-color utility lands though, but I do want to encourage the 10-7 or 11-6 manabase in most drafts.