Mind sculptor was long ago deemed too powerful for the cube (at the cube's outset)
Jace, who was banned in Modern until 2018 now hardly sees play in that format.
Removal like Bitter Triumph and Fateful Absence now automatically includes anti-planeswalker text.
We'll try Jace now.
With this update I'm trying a few new things:
Collector's Cage and Windbrisk Heights to support a new Mono-White Hideaway subtheme.
Birthing Ritual is replacing Vivien on the Hunt as a pod support card, which lets me play a generic planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker insted.
I want 1 less flying 4-drop creature in White, and Reprieve is a new and interesting card that can help flash in white.
Emperor of Bones is another two-drop that can be a decent midrange card or a reanimator card, but it allows for more explosive reanimator plays (turn 2 vs turn 6)
Marionette Apprentice Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat have both been in the cube previously, and it looks like third time's the charm. The apprentice makes two bodies, which merits its inclusion.
Psychic Frog seems like a slight upgrade to the thief. Just trying it out.
Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury is another 'just trying it out'.
Glimmer Lens gives a bit more long-game power to white aggro, and combos better with Staff of the Storyteller
Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd fits in the blink deck and the white/x flash deck as well.
Excited to see how these play out.
I want to power up the sacrifice deck a little bit, so a recursive guy that comes back for free seems great.
As much as I don't want to add the monarch to this cube, I need to remove flying from one of my white 4-drops.
We'll test this out.
This is the only OTJ change I know I want to make to this cube. Gravecrawler has gotten worse as I've removed zombies from the cube, and the miner should be easier to trigger.
As cool as the Illuminator is as a mini future sight, I really want to give blue another removal spell.
Steel Seraph:
After adding fleshgorger, I've decided to double down on the blink/prototype combo. It's also a good, flexible card.
Unruly Krasis looks fun to try. Imagine turn 1 dork, turn 2 krasis, turn 3 attack for 8.
Fleshgorger does double duty as both a good 3-drop and a big threat. This should slot into both reanimator and blink decks, allowing for a little more synergy in the cube.
Years ago when I created this cube I decided not to play boring massacre wurm and use Demon of Dark Schemes instead.
In the intervening years the power level of the cube has gone up slightly, which makes me more likely to accept the wurm. All other energy cards have disappeared, so Demon is no longer a good fit in that way.
Also, all of the black top-end cards have flying currently and I want that not to be the case.
Dress down is a cool card that doesn't have any cool synergy with this cube. Slip out the back is a unique tool for tempo decks.