CubeCon notes possibly forthcoming - the cube was only drafted one time during the main event so not a lot of actionable data. It got drafted twice more afterward and those players were very helpful with feedback and recommendations (I know, Inti, Seneschal of the Sun has to go, just looking for a good swap). I'm generally pleased with where things are so no major overhauls for now!

Foundations and its Jumpstart pairing were quite kind to Counters Cube. There were a few unique counter types but they mostly stuck to +1/+1 counters which was perfect here.

A few card-specific notes for posterity:

• Urdnan, Dromoka Warrior is my favorite add this time around. Bond Beetle start, single target on an aggressive ability, I'm stoked to get this on board. Sunhome Stalwart is generally a fine card, just not particularly interesting here and I'm hoping Urdnan will push toward a similar effect that isn't so punishing on defense.
• Neither Ashnod's Transmogrant nor Ravenous Amulet are particularly exciting, but I've never seen the Transmogrant on a table, you can't get a good printing with accurate text, and Ravenous amulet may have some interesting lines, so it's worth a check even with the odd 'soul counters.'
• Savage Gorger is just a worse Stromkirk Bloodthief, so interested to try the switch to Evereth, Viceroy of Plunder. It might prove too much with the built-in fling but I'm keen to test it. Just hoping the price comes down from their ambitious prerelease numbers (>$30 at time of writing).
• Inspiring Paladin is perfect, slam dunk here.
• Joust Through is a card I've wanted for ages. Shockingly, we've not had this effect at this MV without exile and Elspeth's Smite unnecessarily punished death effects, particularly modular cards. Thrilled for this change.
• Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate may prove to be too much, but Grenzo, Dungeon Warden has been broadly panned by my players and I'm open to trying a new spicy aggro card.
• Razzle-Dazzler has been consistently underwhelming. It's tough to 'do the thing' in a flow that makes sense. Gilded Scuttler seems fun and defensive/tempo-y so I'm pleased to give it a go.
• While Ruins Recluse is at a better spot on the anti-fliers curve, Treetop Snarespinner is a true wall and has the added upside of sharing counters around the rest of the team. We'll see if the theory bears out, but I'm hopeful.

CubeCon is coming up! A final few edits to get things ready for the event. Looking forward to seeing good friends here shortly.

A few notes for posterity:

• Psychic Frog has been on a consistent increase in popularity in several formats and has proved itself to be a terrifying threat on basically any board. In this cube where card advantage can be hugely impactful, the frog is going to be relegated to the sidelines for now. My hope is that Basim Ibn Ishaq will fit into a similar evasive/saboteur space without being oppressive. I would have preferred a non-Universes Beyond version but hey, at least it has reminder text for historic!
• Thopter Mechanic technically says "+1/+1 counter" on it but it mostly functions as a Doomed Traveler. Floodpits Drowner seems like a decent U tempo/removal option that I'm happy to try out.
• Possessed Goat is my favorite card by function from DSK for this cube. I only wish it had fewer eyes. Monk of the Open Hand wasn't cutting it and players were quick to say so.
• You'd think that Selesnya would be one of the easiest colors to populate in this cube but I've found it's particularly tricky to balance. Fall of the Impostor has been a bit of a placeholder and I'm thrilled to have a versatile, aggressive creature like Shrewd Storyteller in the slot.
• Book of Mazarbul is powerful, fast, and difficult to interact with. I'm game to try Hoarder's Overflow as a different tack for R to explore. Many of your key threats are 3+ mana so I'm hopeful that this plays into cool sequences. If it doesn't, the Book will be ready to slot back in.
• Vannifar, Evolved Enigma didn't hit the notes I was after and Lilysplash Mentor seems sweet.
• Upon reflection, Clearwater Goblet isn't what this environment wants. When it's firing on all cylinders it's functionally unbeatable and when it's not it's embarrassingly bad. 5 mana for that kind of risk isn't worth inclusion at this point. Engineered Explosives has been in the maybeboard for a long time and I'm comfortable giving it a run here. More token removal is valuable and have situational removal for multiple threats is big game. I find it especially interesting with proliferation being counterplay.

I believe this is the highest number of cards from a single set that I'm testing since March of the Machine. Seeing adapt return at manageable costs is delightful and (as expected from a Horizons set) there are several clever one-off designs that I'm keen to get my hands on here.

As a general note, I'm continuing to gradually bump the mana curve down. I like to think that it also helps the pattern of building up a threat rather than getting to the top of the curve and dropping a haymaker. Maybe.

A few card-specific notes:

• Based on feedback from a few friends, Abzan Battle Priest is getting swapped directly for Envoy of the Ancestors. It's bittersweet to see cards from the early days get cut, but it seems it's time.
• Similarly, Bloodcrazed Hoplite was in the earliest versions of the cube too, but I'm taking solace in that Etched Slith pays homage to the other Sliths that have all come and gone in years past. Heroic isn't really a theme here and while there have been some cool lines I think the Slith will play more consistently.
• Moss-Pit Skeleton reads like it should be a good fit but you generally never wanted to put it on top of your library. Expanding Ooze should be a decent draw into the color pair and act as a safer Oran-Rief Ooze.
• Feast of the Victorious Dead never really saw play. I thought for sure that it would be on the strong side but it turns out WB decks were happier to play more removal and efficient bodies. Ondu Knotmaster is a slam dunk for theme and I hope it looks as good on the battlefield.
• I'm not sure how Bestow will play here but I'm testing two cards in W to start. Nyxborn Hydra is up for consideration but I get a bit nervous about creating a big threat with trample and reach that you have to functionally deal with twice.
• Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd is likely too strong. I'd like to try it though... mostly because it's a Corgi.
• Emperor of Bones may be my single favorite card from this set. Josh Hass is a local and his art is always stellar, particularly on undead. The effect is also powerful and unique. The only potential mark against is the use of finality counters. Generally I want to be sure that players know what impacts power and toughness and this would be the only instance of finality counters. They act oddly in that you can remove them and avoid the... er, finality. Or you can find ways to move them to other creatures, possibly your opponent's! In any case, the Emperor is a deep well of possibility that looks to be worth exploring.

As always, many thanks to my friends who are quick to offer thoughts and suggestions. Excited to put the new iteration through a draft soon!

Running a few more small edits in preparation for CubeCon voting. MH3 spoilers are already loaded with cool +1/+1 counter cards and I'm stoked to review the full list once it's out.

• Exsanguinator Cavalry was as dominant as I expected. It survived one whole draft in paper. Unsurprisingly, Commander cards are really good in head-to-head play.
• I'm testing Clearwater Goblet to see if it's the sort of thing that allows a slower deck to push for a longer game against aggressive creatures. It may prove to have too low a floor and too high a ceiling, but I'm interested in the effect to see how tenable it is.

Balancing a few colors based on hybrid categorization.

It's that time of year again! Submission deadlines for CubeCon consideration are fast approaching and I have a few things to polish in hopes of potentially showcasing this Cube again this Fall.

A big part of this update is a further reduction of the Cube's size from 480 to 450. 480 was a short-lived experiment on 16-card packs that ultimately didn't bear out how I had hoped. 450 will be more in line with standard 15-card drafts, still allow for 10 players, and help focus the draft experience. (As a side note, I still prefer that the entire cube doesn't get drafted each time. At 360 I find the experience is less 'what did you put together?' and more 'who got X deck?' Totally preference - I wouldn't put this on other designers.)

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is a fun-looking set but it doesn't have a loud +1/+1 counters theme. I'll be testing out a few crime-centric cards in , but most are one-offs.

A few individual card notes for history:

• Lost Jitte - Outliers are inevitable, but I still try to avoid 'obvious' or automatic choices in draft. This plays with both +1/+1 counters and charge counters, but if it proves to be too polarizing it may get lost again.
• In the spirit of pushing for Reasons rather than Rewards for multicolor, most unconditional and/or non-thematic gold removal is going by the wayside. While cards like Lightning Helix and Putrefy are fine, they're not the sorts of cards that pull you into a color. As the years have gone by there are more options in each color and I'd rather celebrate cards that function uniquely here (as opposed to Mortify that just works everywhere).
• High Sentinels of Arashin has been around since the Cube's inception. It's been an absolute hammer and I believe it has run its course. A huge flier that makes itself bigger and makes combat math a nightmare is something I don't mind dropping.
• Similarly, Ruinous Path and Sheer Drop have been around since the beginning. Awaken hasn't aged well as such a high-cost mechanic and Sheer Drop in particular requires so much to go right to be useful.
• Pyre Hound's retirement (RePyrement?) is a marker of how far the game has come. It was outclassed by Pyroceratops, then again with Electrostatic Infantry, but I was originally okay with a measure of redundancy. Now, almost a decade after its printing, it really shows its age compared to new cards. Even Spellgorger Weird hangs better because of its lower mana cost plus it triggers on artifacts in this environment versus only instants and sorceries.
• Price of Betrayal suffered for being unable to remove most creatures. Yes it's a clean answer for a Hangarback Walker or similar, but much of the time it's not worth spending a card to make a 4/4 a 2/2, especially when the target is likely to grow again soon.

MKM and it's counterpart sets (in which I'm including CLU) don't have a particularly loud counters theme. There are a few cards with Disguise that care about counters in the main set and several in the Commander lists, but none that play particularly well on the axis of this cube. Vannifar, Evolved Enigma is highly speculative, but I'm hopeful that there is a unique theme to build around there.

The big update here is mostly a back-of-house one. I'm reconsidering how I define Hybrid cards and as such, numbers are getting a bit redone. While I loose the beauty of symmetry between columns on the page, treating hybrid as not gold because it's not gold will help me make more informed swaps in the future.

As part of this change, all but two of the 3-color cards are being removed. None of them overperformed and were in fact seldom played. Removing Immard, the Stormcleaver also means I can go back to saying there are no non-+1/+1 counters on creatures... except stun counters but I think the point is clear. I like the 3-color cards in concept, but if they're not actually getting used I'm happy to put in more cards that will be.

Finally, it's the end of an era for "Counter Lords." Players have spoken and the sensibility has finally caught up to me: 2- and 3-drop creatures that increase counter production (think Pir, Imaginative Rascal, Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion and the like) have a tendency to warp the game around themselves. While they don't all grant immediate value, they force subsequent decisions to all revolve around them to avoid value snowballing out of control. Cards in this lane may come back someday, but for now I'm inclined to look toward more even-handed options.

A few individual card notes for posterity:

• Exocrine was never as oppressive as I feared, I'm just not interested in waiting for the moment when it does wreck a game. Gearbane Orangutan should give more play and counterplay to artifact-centered decks.
• I like casting Chart a Course, but without any real graveyard synergy and with raw card advantage being a defining factor of many games, it's time for this to go.
• I hadn't considered it until Bones pointed it out, but Cenote Scout is likely better in this environment than Merfolk Branchwalker on a bunch of axes. 1 less mana for 1 less power is a fine exchange in all but the most narrow cases - the tempo pickup is far more valuable.
• Did you know that when Tyranid Prime enters the battlefield, it causes all creatures already on the battlefield to evolve? Most folks don't! Another card that is cool in theory but doesn't play how I'd like.

More complete written thoughts coming when I'm awake. Short synopsis is that some of the cards I was most excited about from LCI played in ways that I'm not interested in for this environment. This set pushes the envelope for power in some ways that I believe will prove fun but several cards look to be far too efficient (looking at you Subterranean Schooner).

I'm also 3/4ths of the way through processing CubeCon pool images so I'll have some broad conclusions to document soon.

So many thoughts to come. For now, I'm laying the groundwork for what I hope to be important quality of life updates for the cube.

A valuable piece of feedback I received at CubeCon was that while the gameplay itself was fun, the draft felt unfocused. While I consider it a feature that it's difficult to end up with a non-functional deck, I do want to have more clarity during the draft itself.

To this end, I'm starting by reducing the cube size to 480 from 540. The original design intent was for up to 12 players, something that hasn't been needed in our local play group for a long time. 480 is still 10 players at 16 cards per pack. This should allow for the variance I want draft-to-draft while not being so broad that I'm stretching to fill out colors with playable options.

16 card packs is also an experiment I'd like to try. Getting to see two cards from every pack makes drafting decisions matter differently since you know get two looks at every pack, including pack 8. This is hardly set in stone, but it seems worth exploring.

Speaking of exploration, LCI prerelease is in two weeks. I'm thrilled for the return of explore and there are already several spoilers that I have my eye on. I'll endeavor to have more thoughts to jot down here when the full spoilers are up. I plan to detail some of the decisions I'm making, at least for myself for posterity.

Here we are! After months of preparation I finally have to lock in all of my decisions. I'm thrilled to get to share this with a new group of cubers and I'm looking forward to the feedback and stories that go with it.

Final Changes:

• Agatha's Soul Cauldron is the new hotness in constructed. A card that spikes so heavily in price and is so ubiquitously playable in a cube like this warrants further testing before being put on show. I'd hate to have a low-cost bomb that any deck can play without being sure how bomb-y it is.
• Blood Aspirant is simply bad here. There aren't enough worthy sacrifices and Swarming of Moria lets me add a bit more amass.
• Render Inert, while on-theme, has never been resolved to my knowledge. Players do like drawing cards though, so a touch more Amass with the draw ought to do the trick.

A hearty 'thank you' to so many friends who have helped immeasurably through testing, conversation, and card acquisition. I'm so grateful to be able to pester folks with potential swaps and theory chatter - and to have them listen! This cube is infinitely better because of your contributions. I'm so excited to celebrate this cube with y'all at CubeCon!

Never say 'never' I suppose! More changes prior to the CubeCon lock.

We got to do a draft through the CubeTalk Discord and it was so helpful to get more new eyes on the environment. I got to see fresh lines of play (which is always exciting) and I received the greatest blessing of getting live reactions of folks reading new cards and realizing their value in this context.

I'll note a few reasonings in particular then touch on two broader ideas that warranted change.

• Laelia, the Blade Reforged has been a card that I've worked tirelessly to convince myself is not too good for this environment. Turns out, it's not the kids but it's me who's out of touch.
• I hoped that Talion's Messenger was going to be a 'fixed' Ledger Shredder. It is, but as you might imagine, a fixed Ledger Shredder is still proving too efficient. Evasion, a growing body, and card selection are too much here.
• Soul Shatter is a bit kinder to Modular (and other) decks than Blot Out. Exile has continued to be very punishing.

I've taken recent feedback regarding B to heart, in particular that too many cards push into a sacrifice theme that's difficult to support. I'm leaning more into Amass as an option as it plays quite cleanly on average and generally plays well with the remaining sacrifice cards. Cards like Lazotep Reaver and Easterling Vanguard both act as multiple bodies for example.

U has solidified it's identity as being quite evasive here, so I'm working to keep an eye on just how much there is. It's tough to make many swaps at this point but I'll be looking for viable non-fliers where possible in coming sets. There may be one or two more before the list is locked in but there simply aren't many competitive options in U.

As always, feedback is welcome! Thanks so much to all who've helped so far through testing, conversation, and playing. Looking forward to taking it on the road here in a month!

This is likely the second-to-last update before CubeCon lists are locked in. After the land-count update I should be down to single card swaps for tuning. I'd love to get hands on cardboard before the 12th but if in doubt I'll leave some cards in the maybeboard until after the event.

I wasn't sure how much to expect in a set like WOE that isn't centered around counters. Other than Freeze in Place somehow already being a strictly better Impede Momentum there are a number of compelling new effects to test. A few notes for those curious.

• Agatha's Soul Cauldron reads quite powerfully, but it's so on-theme and offers some clever lines of play. Investigator's Journal is one of those modern designs that uses non-charge counters so I'm not as heartbroken as I should be about the swap.
• Ingenious Prodigy is one I'd love to see on-board, mostly to see if it can hang in this pace of play.
• Talion's Messenger reads like a safer Ledger Shredder, which I'm pretty excited about. My initial fear is that drafters may think this points to a Faerie archetype that doesn't exist. I have similar reservations about Exsanguinator Cavalry and the new Faerie Bladecrafter (neither of which are currently included).
• I'm still not 100% convinced where to consider off-color Adventurer cards, but for the moment we're treating Callous Sell-Sword as BR, meaning that it's time for Rakdos Cackler to go. Even aggressive decks aren't particularly thrilled with Cackler outside of an Ordeal start. Not being able to block isn't really where you want to be here.
• Finally, in spite of how well it fulfilled the role of a hasty 3/3 for 3, I'm glad to see Sunrise Cavalier go since it represents the last of only two Day/Night cards that were in the cube. I was hoping to replace it with Ash, Party Crasher but Baird, Argivian Recruiter looks like it'll provide a new angle for RW decks to explore. Not explicitly referencing counters certainly meant I missed it in an earlier survey.

This is a big 'un! In concept anyway.

I've had privilege to draft a bit more in recent months and it's been incredibly helpful to get more hands and helpful feedback on the cube. This update aims to address a comment I've heard from many - players want more fixing.

In a 540 cube, 45 lands represent 8.3% of the cube. A bit lower than average but not untenable. I don't know why I hadn't considered it before, but while listening to a cube podcast a host noted that density as compared to the cube doesn't matter as much as density per draft. I realized that with 8 players in a normal draft (a standard setup at our shop) lands would only make up an average of 5.5% of the cards you'd see. In a two-player Hexagon draft (another favorite of ours) you'd only see 10-11 lands total - less than 2%! These changes bring us to 65 lands and brings the total density up over 12%.

In keeping with my design goals, I don't want to push multicolor piles as an ideal play pattern. I'm fine with it happening but I don't want it to consistently be the best deck. That said, I am interested in making gold cards more playable and having fewer duds left at the end of the draft. With a broad theme like +1/+1 counters, so may cards play well together automatically and players are left with more cuts than usual. Upping land density should provide more picks that make it into the final deck and more opportunity to play the cards you picked (shocking, I know!).

I've explored a number of options, but I'll note that this isn't really a fetch-shock format in my experience (and preference). I've also been pleased with how few search effects there are in general. Less time playing leaves more time for playing in this case. After lengthy conversations, until a few rare cycles are finished out I'm going to test two additions:

• The tapped uncommon tri-lands from ALA and KTK. They should provide similar fixing opportunities as triomes without being loud first picks.
• Similarly, I've loved how flexible Thriving lands have been and the parallel 'Thriving' Gate cycle allows me to expand this effect while still maintaining singleton.

We'll see how these changes impact play, but I'm hopeful. There's still plenty of time before CubeCon changes need to be locked in so more testing is needed! Excited for upcoming WOE additions as well.

Several changes this go around, but much fewer than I anticipated with counters being a theme in both the main and Commander set. Many of the counters-matter cards spread into multiple counter types (looking at you, Arwen, Mortal Queen) or introduce The Ring. There are certainly enough playables, I don't want to muddy the water with a bunch of extra trinket text or tokens. Additionally, the power level on this set is slightly lower than the cube on average and I don't want to introduce a bunch of straight-to-sideboard options.

I anticipate a few more swaps as more decisions are made and more testing is done. For the moment, I'm most excited to try out Goldberry, River-Daughter - she seems like a sweet value engine that can play in neat ways with Sagas and artifacts, plus 3 toughness means she can often slow down early plays.

Report and further thoughts forthcoming, but some initial ideas after a draft yesterday.

There are several cool +1/+1 counters cards but most of them are either more narrow or more powerful than I'm interested in for this environment. A few considerations that haven't found a home:

• Ayara's Oathsworn - Seemed like a perfect fit at first, but the current theory is that it will snowball very quickly and be tough to answer early game.
• Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin - Exactly 1 life lost is difficult to reliably trigger in an environment that typically promotes higher power.
• Rocco, Street Chef - This one may stay in my back pocket as a potential tri-color option. It's only loosely on-theme though, and for three colors you want your investment to count.
• Undercity Upheaval - Overrun effects tend to feel pretty badly, but this may be okay considering that it doesn't grant trample.