Objectives: embrace 3 color, shape up red and blue.
Innistrad, like most limited formats, was based around color pairs. I wanted to honor that with this cube and encourage players to stick to drafting two colors, specifically ally color pairs. However I think this runs contrary to the goals of cube. Cube drafters want access to more powerful cards and efficient decks than normal limited formats have. As such it's natural to want to splash a third color. I've decided to lean into that, adding some more lands and multicolor cards. I still want people to "splash" as opposed to having a true three color deck, so the fixing isn't that amazing. To keep the emphasis on tribes, I tried to add splashable incentives for tribal decks.
I felt that blue and red are being outshone by black, white, and green. Blue and red weren't by any means bad, but I felt they had fewer "signpost" cards. There weren't as many cards in blue and red that you saw in a pack and thought "wow... what a banger. I want to play those colors now". As such blue and red were relegated to more of a supporting role. I tried to give them some more standalone good cards: gifts ungiven, cathartic reunion, bonus round.
I also wanted to solidify the identity of the color pair somewhat. There is a surprising amount of "copy spell" effects in original innistrad, so that's what I decided to go with. The main wincon of this archetype will be to cast a bunch of discounted spells from the graveyard or triple copy a burn spell to the face. Could be fun.
I also wanted to give blue in particular some value options. Blue based control decks were struggling even if they could trade one for one often because they lacked ways to catch back up in the face of efficient threats. Their best option was usually very expensive flashback spells. I don't think it's that far behind, so I wanted to give it a bit of a nudge with some value creatures that can serve as efficient blockers with some other potential upside and incremental value: chasm skulker, baral, and laboratory drudge. Baral would have been in this cube way sooner if he wasn't such an obvious flavor break, something I'm still conflicted about. At least the art is dark and moody.