I got a box of Innistrad Remastered for my birthday, and I opened a lot of cards that I want to play with so, here's some art changes and some card swaps with the goal of boosting the powerlevels of control and tokens.

• Treasure Cruise is a powerful card, but only in formats where you are filling your graveyard for very low investment quickly. This cube doesn't have fetchlands, and while it does have a ton of early cantrips to string together, Cruise saw very little play compared to the other graveyard payoff Murktide Regent. For this reason, I am trying Memory Deluge instead because it gets value twice, helps dig further for tools to control the board at instant speed, and I opened this old border foil. Cruise may come back in if/when I choose to bring in fetchlands.

• Alright look, I opened an old border foil Spider Spawning and I love this card. The issue is, as a long-time Golgari fanboy, I didn't want to get rid of any of the GB cards. And I know that people say that off-color flashback spells are not two color but I want to encourage new players to think that way at least until they get comfortable splashing. Spider Spawning is an awesome build around for GB but its also a reasonable card to play in GX tokens, which needs more tools AND often has been seen playing Lingering Souls. This change further emphasizes the potential for Abzan tokens to unseasoned drafters, and to be honest I'm gonna force Spider Spawning if given the opportunity in Pack 1 and that's going to bring me joy.

• Green has a lot of tools to deal with artifacts and enchantments in this cube. At 3 MV, it had 2 creatures with Thrashing Brontodon and Reclamation Sage. Sage was a fine card to play and blink, but only being a 2/1 never did it many favors, and honestly I think the brontodon working with the GB shell is much more interesting (and he survives a lot of red removal). Scute Swarm is coming in to boost the options in Green for GW tokens. Its a good card, and it also opens up a cool lane for landfall payoffs in Gx decks with Tireless Tracker.

• Sungold Sentinel is a fine 3/2 for 2 MV that has tiny gravehate and some weird flavor text about coven. Cathar Commando has flash, the same amount of power, and is also artifact/enchantment removal--something that White currently lacks. I like bringing this in for UW control decks and honestly its a great 2 drop roleplayer in any Wx deck.

Other than that, some art upgrades. I will be purchasing an old border foil Liliana of the Veil soon and a Join the Dance at the very least. Those won't get a blog post but I'm looking forward to next time around Aetherdrift release!

• Force of Will is a clean safety valve for a lot of the more degenerate things going on in the cube: discarding and reanimating a Griselbrand on T3, curving into Embercleave, etc. It can also be used to protect degenerate blue cards, which should be fine. I think blue can benefit from this effect and its an iconic and powerful card that will encourage people to get into blue. Sublime Epiphany was pretty cool, but at 6 MV and compared to Cryptic Command and Mystic Confluence it didn't really see much play.

• Pyrokinesis is a tough one. Right away with this cube I recognized the danger Fury posed to heavy creature-based aggressive strategies especially when paired with some of the reanimation available in this cube. It not being a creature helps. Red is already in a very good spot in the cube and while I worry that the addition of Pyrokinesis will further hamper GW tokens, I think it is more safe for the current environment than Fury. If it proves to be to problematic I will switch it out for either Flare of Duplication or Mine Collapse.

• Malevolent Rumble is a card whose existence I just discovered and other than being a sorcery, it seems to be all around better than Grapple with the Past. They have been swapped.

I have been wanting to give blue and red free spells for awhile now but was debating what the picks should be. While I am not sure either of these new additions will stay in the cube, I do want to test them and see if they are too powerful in their respective colors.

I am concerned with the power level of green being too low. While I think Green has good tools available to it, it does lack many payoffs or enablers for GW tokens specifically compared to its other archetypal cards. I am considering several powerful options to bring in to see if they can help boost the overall playability of Green and GW tokens.

I have gotten to play cube 3 times in the last month! That's triple last year already, so I am thrilled. Games in the cube have been feeling good recently with the exception of a few games of GW but I'm confident I can bring that playability up.

Until next time!

• Twining Twins was a cool card to try out in place of momentary blink because many decks were okay with a 4/4 flier with keywords in blue and the UWx blink decks liked another instant speed flicker effect--but it didn't see a ton of play either way. Kykar, Zephyr Awakener is clearly more of a UW specific card, but offers either the control deck or the blink deck multiple avenues of value in token generation or blink all on a 3/4 flier. Very excited to play with this one more in the cube.

• Kogla and Yidaro are a flexible pair that gives artifact/enchantment removal, creature removal, and a beater at a flexible cost, but saw little to no play unless the drafter was already in RG. Inspired by seeing it played in Canadian Highlander, I have decided to give Mawloc a try. It's much easier to cast, and offers early to late game flexibility and removal (sometimes card draw too).

• Ashiok, Dream Render was a tough cut to make but the other options are personal favorites. Ashiok saw some amount of play in reanimator decks and the occasional control list, but ultimately was relegated to the sideboard for gravehate. Psychic Frog is an absolute beast of a card that I looked over from MH3. Discard outlet, growing threat, and source of card draw all in one tiny frog--plus the borderless art is sick. This little guy gives me some powerlevel concerns after seeing him in action but I think this cube can handle it.

• As soon as I saw Kellan, Planar Trailblazer, I knew he had to make it into my cube. A one mana red 2/1 doing a modern-day Figure of Destiny impression is an offer I cannot refuse. Unfortunately, Fervent Champion was tonight's biggest loser even though I really liked forcing an equipment package into Rx decks and curving into Inti, Seneschal of the Sun. Maybe one day he will return.

• Eternal Witness received new art because its Secret Lair printing was confusing people who pick cards without reading text as it looked too similar to Wall of Omens Secret Lair art.

I sold a lot of cards at PAX Unplugged this year to buy some new showcase/bling treatments of cards for cube and am very excited to be on the way to blinging out the entire thing. That's a long-term goal though. I'm definitely looking forward to Innistrad Remastered for that gorgeous old border foil Liliana of the Veil and Snapcaster Mage (among other surprises, I'm sure).

I was also very lucky to play two rounds of this cube this December after a good year and a half without it. Even though my epic Sultai control pile went 0-2, I did win 2 games out of the matches and all the games were exciting. Hopefully my playgroup will actually draft more this year.

Until next time!

Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate is exactly what Rakdos wants to be doing in this cube. Sorry, Theater of Horrors but this is the new Rakdos 3-drop to beat!

Other than that, some art changes for now! I’ll be back in a month (post-finals) to see where we’re at with other cards.

BOO! I have some spooky upgrades for the cube from Duskmourn, a set whose limited environment I think is pretty darn cool.

• Radha's Firebrand was a cool 2 drop that turned off blockers and had an overcosted pump effect that occasionally was activated. Fear of Missing Out is a 2/3 for 2 in red, loots, and then if we hit delirium (which ideally you do in RB) gives extra combats. Sweet card, excited to try it.

• Rampaging Raptor is budget Questing Beast in red. You know it, I know it. It was a fine 4 drop among the bunch, but Piggy Bank is a 3/2 for 2 in red, that is two card types for delirium decks, and ramps you on death. Plus its a Boar.

• Sin Prodder was a personal favorite of mine, but here comes Screaming Nemesis with the steel chair! Screaming Nemesis is a 3/3 for 3 with haste in red for one R pip. It also is a Boros Reckoner. It also disables lifegain. This is a wild 3 drop that I think every deck will be interested in picking, unlike ol' prodder.

• Llanowar Visionary was a fine card, but it felt a bit awkward among the other 3's in green. Tireless Tracker doesn't provide mana, but is a growing threat that brings consistent card draw. Tracker is a cube staple and basically I just finally decided to throw him in here.

Cube is in a good spot, I've even been able to play it a few times in the last couple months! Looking forward to trying these changes soon.

Small Change

• Lifecreed Duo was an attempt at improving the survivability of Soul's Attendant while also giving evasion to see if it would get played in the UW fliers decks. Guide of Souls is way more akin to what I'm looking for. It's a 1 drop, it has 2 toughness to survive Orcish Bowmasters (and works with Bowmasters pretty well also). Granting a power boost to another creature and flying is great. My original reasoning for not including Guide was that it made energy, but honestly its the only card in the cube that does at the moment and I'm willing to have one-off mechanics if the quality of the card is high enough. Guide of Souls meets that criterion.

Bloomburrow is here and I like funny little critters.

• Steel Hellkite is a sweet colorless card, but it saw nearly no play. 6 mana is a big ask, even for a decent colorless creature, but you know what is a better colorless creature? Wurmcoil Engine! With some really awesome new art, Wurmcoil may be a smidge on the strong side but I’d rather have a colorless card people will fight over than one that is relegated to sideboards. It’s on the watchlist for now, though.
• Soul’s Attendant is a card with a bit of a weird place in the cube. It is a solid card against the R-based aggro decks and good in GW tokens, but didn’t see a lot of play. Its also competing with some heavy hitters in the one-drop slot for W decks and most importantly I want to put it into a commander deck instead of it being here. Lifecreed Duo has two toughness and flies, which lets it hold equipment and finds a more interesting home in the UW fliers shell that has been drafted a few times while still being a solid pickup for the GW tokens decks.
• UR spells is a deck that I’d like to boost the power level of, and Coruscation Mage is a cheaper Guttersnipe that also can be two bodies at 4 mana. I like the flexibility of this card a lot and R decks weren’t really playing Embereth Shieldbreaker much anyway. Plus this cube has plenty of answers to the few problem artifacts in the cube already.
• Speaking of UR power boosting, Stormchaser's Talent is a 1-drop prowess creature that also returns a spell to hand from the bin and lategame takes over the board by pooping out a billion prowess tokens. Poppet Stitcher was a bit of a pet card that didn’t see a ton of play, so ideally this will be better at all points of the game for UR.
• Goblin Electromancer is way outclassed now by Stormcatch Mentor. ‘Nuff said.
• This might sound crazy, but nobody wanted to play Giant Growth! Overprotect does everything a green combat trick can do but for two mana. I hope this one will get some use in UG tempo but maybe other decks will be interested.
• I discussed this before, but Tatyova, Benthic Druid was not doing a whole lot for Simic other than drawing one card a turn and land drops get missed more often post-turn 5. Prophet of Kruphix is way more in line with what I want UG players trying to do at 5 mana. Might be a little bit oppressive but I’ll keep an eye on it.

There are a few more cards in Bloomburrow I have my eyes on, but these are the only ones I opened at prerelease so there may be a small update again soon. In the meantime, the cube has been playing well when I actually get a draft going. Hopefully that will happen again soon.

I put in Tinybones.

Unlike the last two Modern Horizons sets which completely took over cubes, I feel like MH3 is slightly more tame (with some niche archetype exceptions).

• Recruitment Officer was a solid 1 drop that mid game turned into a card advantage engine that cost too much mana to activate. Ocelot Pride is now the pride of token decks and honestly could go into most white shells as a free early game play that can snowball out of control. Easy include for the GW tokens piles.

• Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd is a 2 mana value creature that can blink things for you every turn. It can also remove blockers for you every turn. It also has flash and is a 2/2 for some reason. Sorry, Guardian of Ghirapur. Being a 3/3 flier was nice, but all of the dog's various upsides make this no competition.

• It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Citizen's Crowbar, but I want more things to support tokens decks and Oltec Matterweaver offers a lot there. White has enough answers to various problems in the cube as-is and I was the only one drafting crowbar anyway.

• Move over Vindicate, Abstruse Appropriation is an instant-speed Hostage Taker that can hit nonland permanents. Lands aren't really a problem in this cube, with the sole exception of Rogue's Passage, and there are ways to deal with it outside of gold cards anyway. Abstruse Appropriation can swing a game really quickly and exile is a big deal even if you don't end up casting the card down the road. Very excited for this one.

There are a few other cards from MH3 in consideration (MDFCs, for one thing) for changes down the line, but for now, these are the ones I'm most excited to play with.

• Nature’s lore bites the bullet for another elf. Please use your imagination to pretend this elf is Hatsune Miku until Scryfall updates. Land ramp is fine and all but more elves make Craterhoof Behemoth a more enticing strategy, so I have chosen to go with Elvish Mystic in addition to Fyndhorn Elves rather than replacing them.

• Torment of Hailfire is better for black in my cube than Exsanguinate and now I have a haha funny version that I’m sure drafters won’t complain about for any reason.

Currently considering putting Prophet of Kruphix in the cube to further emphasize Simic flash instead of Tatyova, Benthic Druid but that change will occur after MH3 wrecks my life (if finalized).

• Sylvan Might was a cool combat trick but with ol' reliable Giant Growth and Berserk in the mix, Sylvan Might was relegated to the sideboards for nearly every paper draft up until this point. Thrun, the Last Troll's Secret Lair Bonus card is awesome and I want to put him in cube. This gives green another resilient 4-drop creature to work with.

• Grim Tutor saw very little play, even though I believed it would see a decent amount as a slightly-increased-cost Demonic Tutor. Because I have one sitting around right now, Demonic Tutor is coming in. This change may be reverted in the near future, as I understand how powerful a card Demonic Tutor can be. Alternatively, this may become Diabolic Intent in the future. Black is already strong in the Treasure Cube, and Demonic may be another step that pushes it towards being too strong.

The other changes to the cube right now are just art, but as soon as the Secret Lair bonus cards are updated on Scryfall, Fyndhorn Elves will become the Hatsune Miku Elvish Mystic because I like Hatsune Miku and I think its funny for drafters to be met with Fortnite-like crossovers while drafting (especially when its actually Fortnite).

• Goldvein Hydra is an excellent X cost creature for most of the Gx archetypes that is cool and makes treasure. Voracious Hydra was originally going to be the cut, but Primal Might sees so little play that I think more creatures would be better.

• Gideon Blackblade is a card I personally enjoy but he’s not very interesting and he’s not very good. Aven Interrupter is a very powerful disruptive creature that serves as a Remand on a stick. The bird is hella good, sorry Gideon.

• Hostile Investigator is a solid statted 4 drop that makes your opponent lose a card and gives you one for later. Subsequent discard effects generate you more card advantage. While I love Gonti, Lord of Luxury, he often was an overcosted blocker that looked at 4 useless cards, so for now he’s out.

• Twinferno was one of the lowest picked red cards in the cube and it was basically only there for a red 2-drop spells matter synergy. Return the favor is a vastly superior wild ricochet — another personal favorite that didn’t make the initial cut for cube. However this version has a lot of flexibility and some ridiculously cool high-level plays like copying an opponent’s animate dead trigger. (If you’re unaware, look that up, its a wild interaction).

This is a small Thunder Junction update before finals.

• Stoic Sphinx is exactly what the UG flash decks want. God-Eternal Kefnet was a solid card that was resilient but his text allowing him to return in 3 turns rarely mattered and his upkeep trigger even less often. The Sphinx is a bigger, more annoying flier to deal with, trading toughness for flash and occasional hexproof.
• Lost Jitte is a cool homage to a card that I love but that card is too powerful for the current cube environment. Adding more equipment is something I am interested in, and at a certain threshold I can put in Stoneforge Mystic. Wayfarer's Bauble saw very little play and this can ramp you in addition to killing your opponent.
• Dire Fleet Daredevil never really did much other than be a 2 drop in red. Occasionally, you'd be able to steal a ramp spell or removal spell from an opponent's graveyard, but rarely. Slickshot Show-Off is a flying Kiln Fiend with haste. You can plot it to dodge hand attack and then slam it and "storm off" the turn it comes down to get in a huge attack in UR spells. I am much more excited to see this card in a pack than Daredevil, even if it decreases my pirate count. /s

This is probably the only changes I'll be making until MH3, at which point the cube will have to reevaluate many of its includes I'm sure. Until finals are through, this is my cube.

Small change:

• Eerie Soultender was a fun one that I enjoyed milling over to use as an expensive raise dead from the bin later but Zulaport Cutthroat adds another blood artist to support a potential sacrifice/aristocrat package.

• Doorkeeper Thrull gives a bit of hate to the dreaded RB Chupacabras pile (or FTK pile for the boomers). It also hopes to stop people from blinking their Palace Jailer as much (I was usually the one doing this). Sadly I must say goodbye to Myrel, Shield of Argive who was really just worse Hero of Bladehold anyway.

• Narset, Parter of Veils never really had a direct home in the cube and while she drew a non-creature spell for the control player sometimes, usually she got slapped into the sideboard piles unless the drafter also got ahold of Reforge the Soul. This was also not super fun. Intrude on the Mind isn’t Fact or Fiction, but an instant-speed, weird spell-version of Mulldrifter sounds pretty hype and maybe even the UB reanimator piles will give this one a go.

Changelog

• Novice Inspector is coming in as another 1 drop that supports tokens and blink a bit, and Cleansing Nova is coming out because white already has enough sweepers and Nova didn't see a lot of play.

• Connecting the Dots seems like a ridiculously powerful card in a Rx aggro shell, allowing all of your creatures to become Bomat Couriers, a card I like a lot and one that almost made it into the cube on its own. I foresee Connecting the Dots providing greater card advantage and reach to Rx decks than Light up the Stage ever did, but time will tell.

Potential additions to come...

I am also looking into getting a Doorkeeper Thrull to combat blink decks and the RB Chupacabra piles that have been performing well recently. Intrude on the Mind also seems like a solid possible addition, but I'm not sure what I want to cut from blue right now and it's no Fact or Fiction.

Small Changes

• Callous Bloodmage is a Phyrexian Rager upgrade. Having options is always nice.
• Big Score is just a better Unexpected Windfall. I kind of blacked out and forgot most of New Capenna.

An Unexpected, Major Cube Update!

Alright, I've been playtesting this cube non-stop for the last few weeks and I've come to the conclusion that even I am not drafting a lot of my pet cards. And if that's not happening, they need to make room for better cards. Having sorted my collection, and made note of cards that have been recommended as cuts by multiple people now and by CubeCobra, some things have got to go. I think that this update may be upping the overall power level of the cube, but with the addition of some other cards recently that upped the power of specific colors, I think that this is okay.

My overall goal is still to have a relatively simple, low number of mechanics cube for newer drafters to enjoy with a power level that mostly avoids infinite combos and favors aggressive decks with control tools that allow dedicated tempo or control lists to keep up pace. In that regard, I think this update doesn't stray from those ideals as these changes only add one new mechanic to the cube (Boast, and it has reminder text).

The Changes:

• Thousand-Year Storm is a sick card which I have forced in limited before and had the time of my life with. It's not very good, and it's too slow. If I want storm to be a thing, I should just put storms spells in here. That's a mechanic for a vintage cube when I retire, not for a cube that's trying to be casual and friendly. Goblin Electromancer needs no introduction, hopefully he can guide UR decks to seeing more play.
• Mind Flayer is getting an upgrade to Sower of Temptation. It flies and it works the same with Thassa, Deep-Dwelling.
• Rest in peace Goblinslide; Krenko's Command will probably see more play. The recent discourse around KTK limited returning to arena has opened my eyes--it is simply too slow.
• Archon of Emeria is a cool card that I think isn't a bad idea for this cube, but it never saw play. Guardian of Ghirapur is another 3 mana flier that has better synergy with the recommended UW flicker archetype.
• Wild Slash is a shock with more text that often only had relevance against protection effects. Arc Trail is a highlander staple that gives red more flexibility and will ideally see more play.
• Court of Ambition was fun but only picked if players already were into the discard sub-theme for black. Hymn to Tourach will see play in those decks and make them better, I imagine. This one is on the watch list.
• The Ruinous Powers is another one I am sad to see go. In a 540 cube, it would still be standing. Here, it just doesn't warrant staying in. To fill the same conceptual space as Powers, Theater of Horrors seeks to be cheaper and allow the RB to have more control over their card advantage (even if it isn't as funny as stealing your opponents' stuff).
• Chaos Warp was here just for Red to have a way to answer enchantments and thus saw no play. Unexpected Windfall adds another medium cost instant for Red and ideally will see play in UR spells and RBx reanimator.
• Prayer of Binding was okay, but Cube Cobra didn't love it and white had better options for removal. Council's Judgment gives white a way to kill Carnage Tyrant and Thrun, Breaker of Silence. I also have this dope borderless copy.
• Skeletal Swarming was an attempt to get my brother to want to draft more. That didn't work and although this card is sweet, Skull Prophet is probably better and GB needed a cheaper gold spell.
• Giver of Runes is a great card, but this cube can handle Mother of Runes. The question is whether another card will come out of White to make room for Giver as well.
• Knight of Dawn's Light was okay but Usher of the Fallen is a one-drop for tokens lists, and better for Aggro.
• Windborn Muse was an attempt at putting a Ghostly Prison effect in the cube. Ghostly Prison is better at that. Sorry Red players.
• Knight of Dusk's Shadow, similar to Knight of Dawn's Light, was a solid creature but Lord Skitter, Sewer King is a better creature that hates out reanimator players and it has rat synergy.
• Pongify is pretty good in commander, but didn't do a whole lot for me here. Preordain will ideally be better for UR spells.
• Drawn from Dreams was here for its Dig Through Time impression and because I didn't want the player who wanted to be in Ux delve to have to strain their graveyard for another spell. Chart a course is cheap, draws the same number of cards, and goes good in Ux decks that like attacking with their fliers and reanimator decks.
• Electrostatic Infantry was a cool Rx spells deck card that in the absence of additional UR blitz support was not spectacular and didn't see much play. Bloodthirsty Adversary is a two-drop with haste for all the general Red populace and has synergy with the UR spells deck that I like.
• Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma didn't see much play as a Green four-drop, which is not what you want your Green four-drops to be doing. Ulvenwald Oddity is a fast, scary creature that mid-late game anthems your board for tokens players and RG stompy. I have seen much discourse about this card being good, and I like having a Green transform card.
• Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar was intended to be a Green creature that you could recur from your graveyard in grindy matches, but never saw his ability activated to do so. Thrun, Breaker of Silence is a Green creature that will get you through your grindy matches before they get unbearable and is definitely a better reanimate target. Thrun is on the watchlist for now, but I put an answer in just for him and Carnage Tyrant in Council's Judgment so ideally he can stay.

Thoughts

In addition to the above changes, some art was changed. I think that these changes improve the overall card quality for this cube. While I will silently mourn the loss of some of my pet cards, I hope this will improve the quality of the limited experience. Time and trial will tell.