Even though I'm not super into Aetherdrifts flavor, I've been a big fan of its limited environment and I've been forcing UR discard all the time because I'm curious to see how it similarly it plays to my cube. (Also it's fun)

There are a lot of great cycling cards in this set, a couple of great cycling matters cards, especially Monument to Endurance.

Still need to track down a copy of Abhorrent Oculus!

Took me a little bit to get these cards. I really loved Duskmourn and I have a few other cards I'm thinking about adding:

Abhorrent Oculus
Walk-in Closet // Forgotten Cellar
Ghost Vacuum

Also super interested in trying out Ivora, Insatiable Heir from Jumpstart.

I'm a little late here, but there's been a little too much Magic in 2024.

There's a lot more here that could be added for sure. Here are a few that are still on my list for the future possibly:

Nethergoyf
Spymaster's Vault
Cthnonian Nightmare
Eviscerator's Insight
Crabomination

Detective's Phoenix
Arena of Glory
Pyrogoyf

Shifting Woodland
Fanatic of Rhonas
Six

Twisted Landscape + friends

Thunder Junction wasn't a huge set for this cube, but I think there's some good stuff here.

I'll get my MH3 updates in here in a few days. There will be Goyfs!

It's finally happening. Adding in the rest of the surveil lands and removing the triomes. Haven't cubed in a bit, but excited to try these out.

It’s been a bit since I updated the cube, but I’ve been playing a bunch of commander lately and not so much cubing.

The main mechanics of this set aren’t necessarily what I’m looking for in cube, but the surveil lands and Collect Evidence are two things I’m really excited about.

I really love the idea of GW having a graveyard resource mechanic to use, and I think that Collect Evidence fits the bill. There just aren’t a ton of cards that I specifically wanted to see.

One note: I’m strongly considering just swapping all the surveil lands in for the triomes. We’ll see how that goes.

Clarion Spirit → Tenth District Hero
I’m not looking forward to explaining what Collect Evidence is in my next draft, but I think this card is a really excellent two drop and I’m excited to try to see how it plays.

Hoarding Broodlord → Vein Ripper
Big bad Blood Artist! I realize that this card is a house in Pioneer right now, but I also think its going to be a house in this cube. Super excited about this card.

Thrill of Possibility → Demand Answers
A super small upgrade, but I do like the added utility of being able to lean into some of the artifact tokens we have laying around everywhere in this cube.

The surveil lands are throwing me for a loop right now. They’re exactly what I wanted and I’m trying to figure out where to put them. I’d like to have a few less untapped lands. I’ve been having trouble deciding on the specific swaps, so a few of these are likely going to get changed in a future update.

—

Call a Surprise Witness
Novice Inspector

Conspiracy Unraveler
Reenact the Crime

N/A

N/A

Aftermath Analyst
Analyze the Pollen
Undergrowth Recon
Chalk Outline

Flotsam // Jetsam
Insidious Roots
Carnage Interpreter

I've been waiting to get my Evil Dead version of Field of the Dead to make this update.

Mostly just adding a few cards that have been on my list for a bit, and removing some that I'm less sure of.

Overall, I think this set looks really interesting. My general goals are to only swap in cards that feel like they are going to stick around in the cube and try to simplify the cube a little bit.

Explore is one of my favorite mechanics, and I’m down for a few more cards with explore to appear in this cube. Map tokens are also very interesting, I think there’s some potential with these, though it’s a bit of a bummer that they only work at sorcery speed. I think there’s potential to add a lot more of these cards, but I want to think about cube balance a bit more.

Descend X and Fathomless descent are very similar to Threshold / Undergrowth / Delirium. In this case it’s permanents. One thing that worries me about that is adding another very slightly different way of counting to the cube. I already have Delirium and Undergrowth that count different types in your graveyard.

I also have cards like Tarmogoyf and Necrogoyf that count both graveyards, so I don’tI want to add something that is just slightly different.

Descended is the most interesting aspect since it triggers off of self-mill, discard, and sacrifice (though importantly does not count tokens going to the GY), but nothing really stands out from the list of cards in this set.

Doomed Artisan → Sanguine Evangelist: I wasn’t sold on this card at first, but what I really like is how many tokens this thing makes for aristocrats, and how it goes nicely with aggro and other tokens. Doomed Artisan has done work in this cube and I can see it coming back, but for right now I want to try to keep supporting aggro decks.

You Find the Villains' Lair → Confounding Riddle: I almost added Supreme Will back in recently. This version is what I really wanted — Something that gives you options and fills the graveyard.

Bitter Triumph → Infernal Grasp: Like Bone Shards this is the kind of removal spell I love. Black just wants to discard some cards.

Bloodrage Brawler → Inti, Seneschal of the Sun: Inti is a card that I know will fit in with this cube synergistically, but seems so powered up that it makes me wonder if it’s just going to take over games. I’m fine with adding it now and letting someone wreck face with this thing (hopefully it’s me).

I’m a little sad about cutting Bloodrage Brawler, but I think that it’s time for it to leave. I’ve seen multiple people live the dream by discarding an Anger to this card, so great memories there. It might come back when I’m feeling nostalgic.

Deathbonnet Sprout → Cenote Scout
Sprout just never quite got there, while I'm excited to see how the scout performs.

Hidden Stockpile → Bartolomé del Presidio
First free sac outlet in a while. I love Hidden Stockpile, but I'm still trying to figure out if Aristocrats has enough support with sac outlets so trying this out.

Sulfurous Springs → Restless Vents
Creeping Tar Pit → Restless Reef
There’s a pretty strong chance that I’m going to add more of the restless lands at some point, but vents strongly fits. Reef is also very synergistic, and I just happened to open one so I added it in.

Abuelo's Awakening
Helping Hand
Dusk Rose Reliquary
Get Lost

Spyglass Siren
Subterranean Schooner

Altar of the Wretched
Bloodthorn Flail
Stalactite Stalker
Souls of the Lost

Trumpeting Carnosaur

Jadelight Spelunker
Sentinel of the Nameless City

Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon
Quintorious Kand

Arm-Mounted Anchor
Three-fold Thunderhulk

Wilds of Eldraine seems like a pretty sweet set. I’m a huge fan of the mechanics after one sealed pool, and there are a ton of cards that I’m curious about, but not quite sure where they fit.

Bargain is a fun mechanic that fits in nicely with what I’m already doing with the cube. I’m curious how much I’d need to include to support a food/clue/treasure theme in green, that really rewards you for sacrificing and artifact ETBs.

My current goals for the cube are to try to keep simplifying, and make sure I don’t add too many cards that people stare at in the draft and go ‘Whaaaat?’.

Werefox Bodyguard
It’s downgrade in power from Skyclave Apparition but it makes up for it in doing more interesting things. It’s both removal and rescue, as well as a potential infinite combo with Sun Titan, etc.

Virtue of Persistence
Love everything about this card. Enchantment won’t always get cast, but that’s fine.

Rowan’s Grim Search
I cast Hostile Negotiations once and didn’t like it at all. This card kind of does a little bit of everything I wanted. Find to cast just on its own, but with bargain you get a ton of card selection and stuff in your graveyard.

Redcap Gutter-Dweller
Similar to Siege-Gang Commander but slants more aggressive.

Tough Cookie
Synergy! Food! Synergy!

The Goose Mother
No notes, love everything about this card.

Cruel Somnophage
I’m not sure if this cube needs more of these two effects. There is so much self-mill and a lot of cards that care about creatures in the graveyard, but stapled together? Could be something!

Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender
I’m still planning on swapping this in, but I’ve played with this a couple of times in WOE limited and it hasn’t done much for me. Could be the decks I've been playing it in though.

Interesting cards to check back on later

White
Court of Ardenvale
Regal Bunnicorn
Three Blind Mice
Virtue of Loyalty

Blue
Farsight Ritual

Black
Lord Skitter, Sewer King
Lich-Knights' Conquest

Red
Charming Scoundrel
Embereth Veteran
Torch the Tower

Green
Blossoming Tortoise
Bramble Familiar
Gruff Triplets
The Huntsman's Redemption

Multicolor
Devouring Sugarmaw
Mosswood Dreadknight

Artifact
Agatha's Soul Cauldron
Collector's Vault

Land
The Restless lands seem great!

After the last draft, I decided I really want to up the density of removal and interaction in the cube. It felt like nobody quite had enough, so we'll find out when we draft again.

I had to remove Esika's Chariot again because I keep learning the lesson that it feels too strong every time. Love that card though, it'll probably come back.

Last weekend I was able to play my cube for the first time in over a year and it felt great to get back to business. We did a smaller 4-person draft with 6 packs of 9 cards.

One of the things that’s tricky about this cube, and I’ve heard a bit every time we draft is that not every player is super comfortable with themes like discard matters, self-mill and aristocrats, so there are a lot of cards that are tough to understand.

I think I’ve made that even more tough by adding in a lot of cards from multiplayer sets that not everyone has seen or played. I’ve also added cards because they’re sort of interested or I’m thinking about supporting that archetype, but they don’t quite fit in. That definitely happens when you don’t cube that often.

I think that it might be easier if I trim back on some the complexity a bit, and work towards some more beatdown archetypes. I’m basically planning on supporting more of a go-wide tokens strategy in Naya colors, and including a few convoke cards to make it nice and straightforward. We already have so many tokens for sacrifice it’ll fit right in with the rest of the cube.

Excited to try to get out and playing the cube again.

Quick recap of the draft

Mardu Aristocrats
I started in really hard on aristocrats and nabbed an early Blood Artist but failed to come up with any other artist cards or any of the persist creatures. (They all ended up in the other half of the cube) I basically had all the free sac outlets and actually had to cut a couple. The deck was strong though just leaning on the absurd value from Woe Strider and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

Yorion Discard matters
Despite the size of this deck, it was a great example of a good controlling Esper version of discard matters. Lots of cycling, tempo and ridiculous value from the blinks.

5-Color Graveyard Matters
This deck was going in a few different directions, but the strong ‘Undergrowth’ style cards that cared about creatures in the graveyard were the highlight.

Abzan Tokens
I pushed for a big, big tokens archetype with populate for a little bit, but I think it was just a little too cute. I saw a hardcast Decree of Justice and some effective use of Conduit of Worlds.

Just a short update here, I'm super keen to try out some battles in the cube. Favorite cards are definitely Guardian Scalelord and Deeproot Wayfinder

Honorary mentions for future remembering

--Recruitment Officer - Possible upgrade to Mardu Woe-Reaper?
Recommission - If this had cycling, I’d been down.
Siege Veteran - Super close, not sure if I have the soldier support.
Steel Seraph - Really strong, but not quite right for this cube.

Arcane Proxy Flashback some spells and be a cool artifact baby.
Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim

Phyrexian Fleshgorger

Mishra’s Command: Not quite there for me. Maybe a replacement for Collective Defiance though?
Mishra’s Research Desk Artifact and discard shenanigans type thing
Bitter Reunion: Sorcery Thrill of Possibility that has a little hasty upside and some delirium synergies.
Scrapwork Mutt

Simian Simulacrum Solid value Unearth artifact
Perennial Behemoth Playing lands from your graveyard has always been fun.

Portal to Phyrexia Big Goofy Reanimation Target
Third Path Iconoclast - Go wide spells support. Would replace Sprite dragon which I love.

Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor: Fun three color legend that has some synergies.

Argoth, Sanctum of Nature: I’m curious about how this plays out, but I’m not super interested in adding the other Titania. Maybe you get both halves if you draft one.

This being a graveyard cube, seems like I would have more for October, but for now just a few updates I've been thinking about for a bit.

I'm really interested in some of the artifact and unearth stuff coming in The Brothers War. The spoilers seem like they might be good for supporting artifact reanimator and some saucy unearth shenanigans.

A few updates I've been meaning to make. I made some proxies for Bazaar of Baghdad and Lion's Eye Diamond. Excited to try these out.

I made a bunch of updates last month and I...instantly regret many of them, so rolling a few things back a bit. Also adding just a couple of more removal spells in Black/White.