Red

I like the card advantage that Anep, Vizier of Hazoret gives, plus the fact that it has trample over Scytheclaw Raptor's ability.

It's amazing how far we've come from Jackal Pup to Greasewrench Goblin.

Shock Brigade generates a token / sac trigger every turn and is great at carrying equipment.

Irreverant Gremlin is a card that everyone else seems to play, so I figured I'd try it out. Skittering Precursor is just okay.

Harried Dronesmith is fine, but red wants another big drop at 4, so Bloodfray Giant comes back in.

The fact that Cacophony Scamp can hit creatures makes it much better then Heartfire Hero, although this is another instance of having to remove some amazing artwork from the cube.

Green

[[Evolution Witness] is good once it gets going, but super slow. Sutina, Speaker of the Tajuru is Civic Wayfinder on crack, plus it opens up a little counters / landfall synergy.

Altanak, the Thrice-Called has a way to get itself into the graveyard, plus is bigger and easier to cast than Plated Crusher. It dies to removal, but does draw you a card in the process.

Migrating Ketradon does a good enough Generous Ent impression that it is welcome in over Great Oak Guardian, which i found never really generated the kind of combat blowout you think it could.

Being able to cast Monstrous Emergence before you have the ability to deploy a big creature makes it the best Rabid Bite effect IMO.

Greenbelt Guardian is an Untamed Kavu that you never have to commit to a mode on. Beastbond Outcaster has not impressed.

Streetwise Negotiator is a generically good card that does a bit of counters enabling, but Hydra Trainer additionally provides a nice payoff.

Similarly, Aloe Alchemist is generically good but I find the repeated "explore but no counter" trigger on Traveling Botanist to be very interesting.

Repeated exploring lets us cut Merfolk Branchwalker for Splinterfright, a fantastic card for green graveyard decks.

Aftermath Analyst is another, doing a bit of self mill, blocking small creatures well, and then giving value mid-late game.

I don't see Berserk played that often, but Synchronized Charge is another good counters enabler.

Elvish Regrower has 4+ power and graveyard recursion on ETB, what's not to love?

Gold

Reflector Mage has drawn a lot of complaints of being miserable to play against lately, so I'm swapping it out for Soulherder. I think a lot of complaints about the latter were due to its interactions with the former, but will still keep a close eye on it.

UG tends to be more of a tap out big mana deck, so Skyserpent Seeker seems more on theme than Mystic Snake.

Host of the Hereafter starts with counters on it and has a better payoff than Expanding Ooze.

Speaking of counters, BW has an emergent counters theme after intentionally building up GW and GB, so I'm putting in Ondu Knotmaster and Bartolomé del Presidio to solidify that.

Hybrid

I think the TDM cycles of 3-color two-brid mana cards are really interesting when you consider that they are basically 3 different 2-color cards, so I'm going to try some of them out. I really wish I could play Reputable Merchant instead of Kin-Tree Severance, because it makes so much more sense, but the body on it is just so bad for 4 mana.

White

Urdnan, Dromoka Warrior is a counters enabler and payoff, whereas Raffine's Informant is a generically good card that sometimes enables counters.

Sun-Blessed Healer has a worse statline than Phyrexian Missionary, but it reanimates straight to the battlefield and keeps the effect in mono-W.

Gloryheath Lynx comes in for those missionary stats, Illuminator Virtuoso is hardly triggering in this cube anyway.

I thought Rescuer Chwinga was the best Whitemane Lion you could get, an then they made Sunpearl Kirin.

For the low price of sacrificing one token, Duty Beyond Death does Take Up the Shield to your entire team.

Descendant of Storms is just a better Usher of the Fallen.

UW isn't turning on delirium ever to make Topplegeist worth it, so Mandibular Kite comes in to hopefully make equipment slightly better.

Dalkovan Packbeasts is kind of an insane card. 4-toughness wall that lets you swing for 3 every turn and also generates sac triggers / fodder. Ardenvale Tactician is kinda mid, and it's tapping ability is being replaced by the next card in this list.

Blue

Faebloom Trick has what it takes to make Midnight Haunting playable again. I think we could do with 1 fewer counter, so Lose Focus comes out.

Refute costs an extra over Condescend's assumed default cost, but it also draws you a card and is always a counter.

I think the flying and base power from Mischievous Mystic's faeries will be mor relevant than the ramp from Emrakul's Messenger's spawns.

Stock Up is insane card advantage, and you don't have to eat your graveyard to cast it.

I feel like the Oracle of Tragedy / The Modern Age swap is one I've done multiple times back and forth. Maybe I will swap them again someday.

Phantasmal Shieldback is comparable to format all-star Hard Evidence, and I don't feel like the saga manlands have been doing too well lately.

Black

Orzhov Enforcer is maybe slightly too good and Wriggling Grub gives 2 tokens.

Sinister Starfish Needs 4 turns in play to get more value than Wreckage Wickerfolk's ETB, plus it can't kill x/1s and doesn't fly.

Shefet Archfiend has a built-in way to bin itself, and has 1 point of power over Archfiend of Sorrows.

Dreams of Steel and Oil has some of the best artwork in the cube, but Intimidation Tactics actually does something when you draw it mid-late game.

Yathan Tombguard is exactly the kind of counters payoff that black has been looking for.

Vampire Gourmand is a repeatable sac outlet that draws cards and pushes damage. Fleshbag Marauder effects are kind of questionable to me.

Honestly, I don't know why I didn't put in Conductor of Cacophany over Scurrilous Sentry in the first place. Counters enabler and payoff, and also a decent control card.

Desperate Measures is much more versatile than Scorn-Blade Berserker.

Losing berserker made me want another counters card, and really the best one available is Etched Slith. If the incidental hosing of other counters is still too strong, we can replace it with something like Dreamdrinker Vampire.

After playing the equipment deck a couple times, Koll's effect didn't come up too much, and Bruenor's would be much more useful.

I want Spider Spawning in as one more element for the graveyard value decks to work with.

Essence Reliquary is a nice Crystal Shard variant I missed from MH3.

All the rooms (Surgical Suite // Hospital Room, Bottomless Pool // Locker Room, Painter's Studio // Defaced Gallery) are just cards that have been in this cube before (Recommission, Fading Hope, Goblin Oriflamme) that additionally put other spells in your hand when you play them.

Brightblade Stoat is better enough than Knight of Meadowgrain that it's worth trying over what is usuallt a sideboard card, despite the different modes.

Sheltered by Ghosts is a really nutty removal spell, almost seems too good on paper.

Parting Gust is what Getaway Glamer always wanted to be.

Dewdrop Cure seems like an insane amount of value for one card.

White Hordeling Outburst is a much more reasonable card than Battle Screech, but I'm worried that Neighborhood Guardian is still too strong, even after de-powering tokens a bit.

Unnerving Grasp synergizes with spells deck, and you still get some blink shenanigans with it if you manifest a permanent.

Plumecreed Escort... Remember when we were playing things like Welkin Tern? Floodpits Drowner certainly doesn't.

Splash Lasher is interesting over Mist Raven for the 6-mana mode, and the fact that it plays nicely with Sharae of Numbing Depths.

Get Out is interesting over Exclude for letting you get back some ETB effects.

Eddymurk Crab is a much better finisher than [[Shipwreck Dowser, I think.

Kasimina, Enigmatic Mentor is good, but kinda slow. I like that Shoreline Looter is kind of a combination of Looter il-Kor and Enclave Cryptologist.

Fell has so many fewer words on it than Power Word Kill that I think the downgrade to sorcery is worth it.

Hollow Marauder has an ETB, has evasion, and lets you keep the cards in your graveyard to reuse later.

I missed the second half of Etched Slith's text box before and don't want to include narrow-ish hosers. Thought-Stalker Warlock is straight fire.

Speaking of fire Brazen Collector, dang. Reckless Pyrosurfer was kind of a placeholder.

Flamecache Gecko is better than Stormblood Berserker when you fail to trigger bloodthirst, and letting you play 2x 2-drops when you do is a comparable benefit.

Heartfire Hero is a good card for the modified deck, RIP to Stonewright, you were a real one.

Norin, Swift Survivalist is a great 1-drop, remaining relevant lategame in being able to mess up combat and re-buy your ETBs.

Galewind Moose is certainly an impressive pile of stats.

Hivespine Wolverine is, I think, a more interesting version of Acidic Slime, and more fun to play.

I'm not sure Rx decks need Stump Stomp enough vs the extra benefits Hunter's Talent provides.

Under the Skin is an interesting Eternal Witness variant, opening up some neat lines for the GB graveyard decks.

Oblivious Bookworm is a much better early drop than Gretchen Titchwillow, actually letting you kill 2/x creatures, and letting you start drawing extra cards immediately.

Solar Transformer Can't get bolted.

O-Naginata should be great in "modified" decks, Grafted Wargear just a bit to strong.

Zephyr Boots gives evasion over Mask of Memory so the ability triggers more often.

Pacification Array lets control decks get on board much faster than Icy Manipulator.

Walking Skyscraper gives more play to "modified" decks, while not being awful to ramp into / reanimate.

Renata, Called to the Hunt to support counters and more counters payoffs. Cut Kitchen Finks to avoid infinite combo.

More support for power 4+ / CMC 5+.

Rambling Possum and Temur Sabertooth to enable ETB recursion.

equipment theme. A bit more support for power 4+.

Saheeli, Sublime Artificer comes back in as a mono-red token maker due to white's de-powering.

Pinnacle Monk & Ral and the Implicit Maze for big red control.

Add light counters theme to black.

With fewer tokens in white, black now needs to make a few more to sac.

[[Murderous Redcap] is gone because I want to play Renata, Called to the Hunt, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, and Good-Fortune Unicorn without enabling infinite combos.

Add a few tapping synergies for Sharae of Numbing Depths. Add some tempo bounce spells.

With fetchlands, Brainstorm may now be playable.

Threnody Singer is a much more reasonable control option than Echoing Truth, which we hopefully don't need anymore after token de-power.

Forbid is unfun, replace with Exclude.

Prosperous Thief comes in (along with Nezumi Prowler in black) for a little re-buying ETB synergy.

Add more counters support and new equipment-focused theme for . This also includes a few double-strikers which also play nicely with counters.

Add a few tapping synergies for tempo/control Sharae of Numbing Depths.

De-power tokens. Promise of Bunrei, Ministrant of Obligation, and Battle Screech were the worst offenders.

Lingering Souls is now a white / hybrid card.

MH3 Landscapes are pretty interesting at this level - they provide both fixing and untapped mana, but not both. They are definitely worth trying out, and they also have the nice side effects of making Brainstorm playable, and helping to make costs payable (e.g. Snapping Voidcraw).

There have been a few issues building in the cube for a while so I'm going to try to address them all at once! I have no idea if any of this will actually work, but hopefully it will be fun to find out! We'll start with the gold section to inform the rest of the decisions made.

I think counters is probably the strongest thing for that color pair to do in this format, but it's kind of parasitic. Luckily MH3 gave us some great counters cards, so we can expand a little in that direction.

At the same time, -based tokens have been a bit strong lately, so I am pivoting to an equipment strategy. The equipment from and counters from help solidify the power 4+ theme, and there are also some cards that care about "modifications" in general, so counters can help that out too.

Shifting focus further away from tokens, gets some cards that care about re-using creatures CMC <= 3 and ETBs.

As the actual control color pairs in this format, and get some actual control cards in their gold sections.

Due to various token cards getting cut, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer is coming back in as a card, so Third Path Iconoclast comes out for Balmor, Battlemage Captain, who can support her, Young Pyromancer, and Murmering Mystic.

And finally, though Bloodbraid Elf is undeniably a great card, it has nothing to do with the monsters theme (and really encourages playing a much lower-to-the-ground deck), while Writhing Chrysalis (well-known for terrorizing MH3 drafts) both helps you ramp out a monster, and is, itself, a creature with power 4 (as well as some incidental counters).

Getaway Glamer is a slow blink that can also be removal.

Requisition Raid is Basri's Solidarity that can also be Return to Dust.

Nurturing Pixie plays well with counters and blink.

Battlefield Raptor's first strike is better at fighting tokens than Swooping Lookout's vigilance.

I'm not sure if Shepherd of the Clouds' restriction will make it worse than Custodi Squire, but the better stats make it worth trying.

Rhox Veteran's body is pretty bad for the effect. Thraben Watcher gains flying and gives a constant bonus.

I think Sunhome Stalwart was cut prematurely, and it's worth testing some more for the counter theme.

Slickshot Lockpicker is more Snapcaster Mage at home, definitely worth a try.

As much as I love the idea of it, More or Less never really materialized into much. The best use of it was to "counter" a token making spell, so Echoing Truth can come in to handle that.

Forsaken Miner is the latest in the new line of recursive 2/Xs for . Its combo potential with Goblin Bombardment worries me a little, but being limited by how much you can produce I think makes it safe to test.

All the -1/-1 sweepers are proving to be pretty good, so Neutralize the Guards comes in over Barter in Blood.

Reassembling Skeleton's role is covered a bit by Cult Conscript, and tokens are proving to be a little problematic, so Tooth Collector comes in to try to cover that a bit.

Flametongue Yearling is hard to cast on 2 and notably worst than Flametongue Kavu on 4. Cunning Coyote is a hasty 2-drop that can provide a burst with later drops as well.

Ferocification leans into the RG monsters theme, either providing additional power to trigger abilities, or by giving haste and evasion to your big drops.

Speaking of monsters Bloodrage Brawler comes in to trigger the 4+ power.

Spinewoods Armadillo is better than Krosan Tusker in just about every way (sorry tusky, you will be missed).

Raucous Entertainer is a version of the Good Fortune Unicorn effect that doesn't go infinite with a persist creature, so I'm eager to get it in. I think that's better than the single proliferate trigger that Contagious Vorrac offers.

Green has enough actual good 3 drops that we don't need Call of the Herd anymore. Arachnogenesis (uncommon online) is another way to counter tokens, and also just helps big green decks survive until they can start dropping bombs.

Neighborhood Guardian is very good, so Fallaji Vanguard seems much more interesting than Honored Crop Captain.

Baron Bertram Graywater is a great engine card for tokens, but something has to go (sorry Bart).

Honest Rutstein Only returns one creature, but on turn 6 it lets you cast a 4 drop that you are bringing back, and can also just be run out on turn 3 to ramp you up to 5.

Cactusfolk Sureshot is a clear signpost for RG monsters.

Trusty Machete has always felt overcosted compared to Bonesplitter for just 1 extra toughness. Lavaspur Boots giving haste and ward seems much better.

Artisan of Kozilek is almost never actually getting cast for 9, so Bane of Bala Ged costing 2 less and exiling on on attack seems much better.

Neighborhood Guardian triggers on more things than Sunhome Stalwart does, and though the bonus is temporary, you can get multiple triggers in one turn.

Ordruun Mentor I think is a much better version of Sunhome Stalwart, triggering on more things, and getting to give first strike to any of your creatures. Slaughter the Strong has never seen great play, and is even less needed now that we have Kirtar's Wrath.

Pushing spells as the UR theme meant that the gold section had gotten to be more good stuff rather than signposts Third Path Iconoclast is a truly gold Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. Ecstatic Electromancer takes over the hybrid slot as a card that still works in the spells deck, but can also be played in a wider variety of Ux and Rx decks.

Carnophage is definitely past its prime, while Snarling Gorehound carries buffs well and gives card selection to aggro decks.

Leering Onlooker is a great blocker with a good "flashback" effect for after it dies, gets sac'ed, or gets milled. Cutting Lazotep Reaver reduces keyword complexity as it is the last card with amass.

The CMM creatures appear to be alright, so we can scale back the extra removal (Go for the Throat) and instead add what I assume is an insane card for any aggro or sac deck in Afterlife Insurance.

Frantic Scapegoat is pretty similar to Phoenix Chick, but I like the idea of being able to pass menace on to one of your larger creatures more than the chick's ability which feels a little "win more."

Lightning Mauler is mid, while 3 toughness on Reckless Detective is pretty big, as is the fact that it can filter cards.

Lagomos, Hand of Hatred has been pretty good, so Harried Dronesmith should be as well. I had to take something out, and Arc Trail has honestly probably always been a little too good.

Fight with Fire is never getting cast with kicker, so Torch the Witness should be a much better scaling removal spell, with a little bit of extra value.

Rubblebelt Maverick does just about everything a green deck could want to do with a 1-drop. Something had to go, so I'm going to see if ramp still functions with 1 fewer dork.

Predatory Rampage is fun, but a 5 mana card that requires you to have multiple creatures in play to make it good is asking a lot. Scuttling Sentinel is Snakeskin Veil stapled to a pretty good 2-mana body, and I like this effect being available to Ux tempo decks.

Hard-Hitting Question costing half what Ram Through does makes up for the difference in cost, I think.

Reclamation Sage's body is pretty below-rate for a 3-drop, while Pick Your Poison is an efficient, versatile removal spell.

Continuing the tradition of cutting generic goodstuff, Meddling Youths is top end that rewards you for the RW go-wide plan, while being at worst 4 haste damage.

Escape Tunnel is a strictly better Evolving Wilds. Sweet.

Insidious Roots is a really intersting card that I thought it was worth trying to support. In that vein, Grisly Salvage is also out for Nyx Weaver.

In addition to a few other cards above that trigger Insidious Roots, we also have:

Hooting Mandrils in over Once and Future, which hasn't seen much play that I've noticed.

Reassembling Skeleton in for Fearless Skald in order to re-balance the colors with all the new hybrids added in this update.

Reduce complexity by taking out the only ascend card. Replace with a new interesting 1-drop.

Unbounded Potential is a sweet card for counter synergy that I wanted to fit in to the last update. We can de-power removal a bit, and Ossification can be a little complex to track.

Skyship Plunderer's ability is relevant now, so swap it back in.

Drown in Ichor is interesting with proliferate, and -4 actually kills more things than non-black.

Evolving Adaptive is good, but confusing with the influx of +1/+1 counters. Swap it out for Kessig Prowler which also has the capability to grow later on.

Being able to split Candy Trail's cost over 2 turns is nice, as is a little incidental lifegain, but I would rather have another proliferate source from Tezzeret's Gambit.

Eternal Taskmaster isn't appearing in a lot of other cubes anymore, but Victimize is, so let's test it out.

The Shatter mode of Abrade hasn't seemed to be used very often, so the card selection from Fire Prophecy is probably better.

I haven't seen Twinferno played a lot, and Inspired Tinkering has been great, so Big Score might be another interesting card for the big red decks.

I've been wanting to get Saddled Rimestag back in for a while, because it really seems like green's best aggro 2-drop. Taking a step back, Beast Within just seems terrible when compared to all other removal spells, so it can go.

THanks to Taco for some sweet foils

The generic tokens theme has felt pretty directionless lately, so I decided to finally give in and swap to +1/+1 counters. I had not done so initially since it feels like a lot of dice to keep track of, but I feel like the gameplay of decks moving forward will be improved for it.

Notes for cards that aren't just straight swaps counters for tokens:

Accorder Paladin is very fragile for something that you want to be attacking every turn. Sunhome Stalwart gets first strike to fix this.

Ministrant of Obligation is another card MTGS is pretty high on, so I swapped it for Prava of the Steel Legion as a card that can make multiple bodies without implying a token theme that is no longer there.

Combat Professor and Radiant, Archangel I think are the most cuttable cards in their slots, as fliers isn't a deck anymore.

Now that tokens are greatly reduced, Banishment is much less likely to take out multiple bodies, so it's better to have cycling on Cast Out.

Devoted Druid has a bit of synergy with the new counters theme, but its ability to just ramp you from 2 to 5 is pretty nice on its own.

Merfolk Branchwalker gives one less trigger than Wary Thespian, but plays well with the counters theme to give it more appeal.

Somehow I missed that Planar Disruption hit artifacts when I last read it. Whoops.

Spyglass Siren is better than Faerie-Seer in non-blink decks, and maybe even in blink, too.

Confounding Riddle is strictly better than Supreme Will in every way.

Jace's Sanctum is kind of clunky, and I think the spells deck does well enough without it. MTGS is pretty hign on Hour of Need, so let's see what it's about.

The extra treasure from Deadly Dispute isn't worth havign to leave an extra mana open over Village Rites, and an artifact is hardly ever getting sacrificed in this cube.

Bitter Triumph hurts more than Infernal Grasp, but the alternate cost makes it much better for control and gives the potential for upside with graveyard decks as well.

Deep-Cavern Bat is enough of an upgrade over Mesmeric Feind that it seems very playable, while I haven't been too impressed with Gravelighter.

Sling-Gang Lientenant's effect is kind of restrictive, and it feels a little bad at 4 mana. Lazotep Reaver gives you multiple bodies to sac for half the mana. The same goes for Beetleback Chief and [[Mogg War Marshal].

Dark-Dweller Oracle hasn't been played much as a sac outlet, so we swap it out for Belligerent Yearling which is pretty pushed statwise. We can replace it with Bogardan Dragonheart which is an unrestricted sac outlet, which can also be played in aggro to help convert 1-drops into something that can close out a game. Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner occupied a similar role for aggro decks, but was a bit mana-intensive.

Careless Celebrant is pretty different from Heartfire Immolator, but I like how it continues to lean into red control.

Frontier Warmonger should have replaced Angrath, Captain of Chaos originally, and Geological Appraiser is obviously very good.

Deathbonnet Sprout is a little narrow, while Cenote Scout is an amazing 1-drop that can go in a wide range of decks while still providing a little for graveyard decks.

Poison Dart Frog might be the best rainbow maa dork in this format, its ability to convert into a blocker that can take out anything lategame is huge.

Trostani's Summoner is good, but really more of a mono-green or graveyard card. Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar protects you on your turn and gives card draw in colors that don't have too much.

Stormclaw Rager being restricted to sorcery-speed only is annoying, while Zoyowa Lava-Tongue can be a 2-mana Torment of Scarabs in the right deck.

Bartolomé del Presidio is an unrestricted sac outlet over Hidden Stockpile.

I like that playing Scampering Surveyor still gives you board presence for your 4 drop vs Hedron Archive, and the fact that it can color fix is also nice.

Intangible Virtue made combat a little too easy for tokens, while Pianna, Nomad Captain is useful for non-token strategies as well.

I only saw Spectral Sailor activated once or twice, while Cloudfin Raptor can be a good body to encourage blue tempo.

Speaking of encouraging blue tempo, we need a few more creatures to do that. Watcher for Tomorrow and Zephyr Winder come in, while we remove Behold the Multiverse as the worst draw spell and Founding the Third Path for not having done too much.

Supernatural Stamina being a combat trick that can help a creature punch up I think will have more utility than Undying Evil

Rolling Thunder was pretty disappointing in red control when I played it last and Meteor Blast would have been better in every situation.

Strength of the Coalition hasn't seen any play, so I'm swapping it back for Song of Freyalise, which a lot of people seem to run anyway.

Queen Allenal of Ruadach also hasn't seen much play, so we will swap back to Shanna, Sisay's Legacy for the lower cost.