Minor update with some cards that have been sitting on my desk for a couple months. Chard Dragon was also swapped out for Skybox Ferry two weeks ago but didn't make it into an update. This update just replaces a few of the most unexciting cards in the cube with some good stuff. Equipment that are also creatures are rad. Adding Oversee back is risky, so I'll keep an eye on her just in case white is getting a little too much love. Hydra is actually an extremely fun card, but bestow as a mechanic is slightly weirder than I want in this cube.

o7 for Savannah Lions. You will be missed (by me, not by anyone drafting the cube). Jackal Pup had better watch its back.

A fairly short list of MH3 cards make the initial cut, but I am thinking about a few other options and may make a second MH3 update later. MH3 added a lot of powerful common removal options, so I am trying to be careful in balancing adding new removal spells and keeping a consistent amount of removal to avoid making removal too easily accessible.

One change that did not involve any MH3 cards was swapping Inspiring Overseer for Holy Cow. Overseer is a limited powerhouse so it may seem like a surprising decision, but one of this cube's goals is maintaining "typical" color balance and identity. White having access to the best card draw creature in the cube offsets this. White will still have access to powerful evasive threats including the Cow, and also a number of great two-for-ones like Militia Bugler and the adventure creatures.

Goodnight sweet prince. Gone but not forgotten TT.TT

Based on player feedback I am cutting the blink theme entirely from the cube.

Blink was de-emphasized dramatically as the UW archetype in the last year. Blink decks create long, slow games that eat up time and are an unpleasant experience for the opponent who has to sit and watch the blink player take game actions. A few cards in particular (ghostly flicker and ephemerate in particular) could be used to build control decks with unparalleled inevitability. These decks both create a bad play experience and dis-incentivize players from drafting any of the other slower decks in the cube such as UG Ramp or UB Control for fear that they would face the unbeatable UW Blink deck.

After the initial blink nerfs, the small blink package that was left in the cube proved undesirable in different ways. The cards were generally unappealing at best and, especially for players new to a pauper cube environment, confusing at worst. They created the impression that there was a supported UW Blink archetype that did not actually exist and could trick a player into trying to build a deck that would never work as expected.

As a result of these two issues, I am removing the blink package entirely and focusing on supporting UW Tempo more actively going forward. I will be looking for more ways to make proactive & disruptive UW decks more appealing in the future.

This update does represent an increase in the amount of removal in the cube. I have generally been happy with the amount of removal currently available, so if this increase in removal proves problematic I may make future adjustments to reduce removal again. I am will be watching Lyev Skyknight in particular, as white already has access to some of the strongest single-target removal in the cube.

I can't believe they power crept my favorite bird

Crusher just isn't fun

This is a pretty big update to the cube based on some recent feedback. The goal is to address two issues. First, this update cuts the amount of removal in the cube. It was clear that just grabbing every piece of removal you saw was slightly too strong a strategy, and it was also easy to prioritize strong threats and card advantage early and be confident that playable removal would wheel. Cutting back on the removal should force players to make more choices between picking removal and proactive cards and should help prevent durdly games where every threat is immediately answered. Second, the cube clearly had too many multicolor cards in its last iteration. Multicolor cards were often floating around at the bottom of every pack. The gold cards available in pauper are generally too low-impact to be worth splashing, so unless a multicolor card was in your specific colors it was often dead. Replacing these with more mono-color playables and lands will both fix this problem and help improve the available fixing.

Breath weapon might be too good, we'll see

I just think it's neat

Based on the feedback that Ephemerate is "a bit much" and/or "fucking bullshit" compared to the average power level of the rest of the cube

2X2 introduced a bunch of powerful new commons, so my cube gets some upgrades! I am also finally swapping the gold uncommons for commons, making the cube 100% pauper (ignore the banned cards).

Delver really doesn't play that well with so many adventures