Fetches & Tangos -> Trilands Miracles Damnation -> Terminus Saheeli Rai -> Bonfire of the Damned Sun Titan -> Entreat the Angels Oblivion Stone -> Counterbalance Pod Worldly Tutor -> Prime Speaker Vannifar Cathar's Crusade -> Vivien on the Hunt

Deranged Hermit > Deep Forest Hermit

Deep Forest Hermit does pretty much everything its deranged brother does but 'better'. I mean this less in a power-level sense and more in a gameplay sense. It synergizes more with flicker synergies because it sticks around until your next main a little bit easier & I'm trying to incidentally support more of that. I also think that Vanishing is a better mechanic than echo, because echo costs like these are fairly rare to actually use & Vanishing is (almost) always going to be relevant.

Inkwell Leviathan > Triplicate Titan

In a gameplay sense, I think Triplicate Titan is also almost strictly superior. I love to maximize the number of cards with cross-strategy application, and, whereas Inkwell is only relevant to reanimation and artifact cheating, Triplicate Titan also has applications in G(x) ramp and Rx breach decks by virtue of its mana-costs and death trigger respectively.

I also think that Inkwell is just an unfun card. Not only is it a french-vanilla, Islandwalk is an unfun mechanic (not only is it randomly all-or-nothing, when its turned on, it makes things completely uninteractive) and shroud also makes interaction nearly impossible. I think the only real downsides to this are that it potentially makes reanimate weaker (which could be a positive? unclear) and its objectively an art downgrade.

It also makes the imbalance in # of cards between blue and everything else smaller, which is nice ;)

Baneslayer Angel > Halvar, God of Battle

Baneslayer is iconic and I could honestly see bringing it back for that reason alone. However, at the moment, it's in that cube for only that reason. I don't understand it to be particularly good, it's a trap for new players, it doesn't synergize with anything, and it's boring via being a french vanilla.

To contrast, I think equipments are actively fun. Halvar's main form fits in a similar slot in the curve while also lowering the curve (even more if you count the backside!). While I don't think equipment as a theme is powerful enough to be supported in the cube, I'm happy to add more of them where I can & I've heard positive reviews of Halvar (particularly Sword of the Realms). TBD on this one though.

Banishing Slash > Giant Killer

In a similar vein, I've heard negative things about Banishing Slash. Obviously, being WW and a sorcery are both downsides for it (although I don't think these are necessarily downsides from a fun standpoint), but I think the real downside here is in terms of fun for the cube.

Banishing Slash was inserted to try to add more safety valves for the busted things in cube, as its intended to be played without a sideboard. Looking at it now, I think that the main "scary" unfair things in cube look like they are either a) big creatures or b) things from hand. It's nice that Banishing Slash answers artifacts, but its almost a downside that it answers enchantments, as many of the enchantments in the cube are "live the dream" enchantments that aren't necessarily going to be causing power level problems.

All in all, Banishing Slash is plain and unexceptional - the only thing interesting is the last clause, and I don't think that it will come up often or that players should particularly play with it in mind, so it might as well be there.

I'm not sure I'm 100% sure on Giant Killer, but my current theory is that what white needs to be more compelling is decisions (and variety). Typically, this comes in the form of card draw, but white's whole thing is that it's not really supposed to get card draw. With that in mind, Giant Killer provides multiple decisions (adventure + activated ability) while still fulfilling the biggest role that Banishing Slash was.