It's been a while. A friend borrowed the cube for a few months. These updates have been waiting since then. Nothing special, just some upgrades.
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Some more fringe strategies and cards have made way for more generically useful things. Lowering the mana value of cards is another focus of this update. Treasure tokens have also been removed with this update.
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I wanted lands that entered the battlefield untapped. I added two smaller blue changes two that I've had some fun with as well.
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With the removal of artifact creature tokens, artifact-based aggro decks dissapeared. Because of this, I think Steel Overseer is a safe addition, even though it seems to be too high powered for this cube.
A few other artifact creatures have been added to hopefully bolster aggro (but also sacrifice) enough to become something.
I've also reintroduced "Double Strike" cards, as that keyword is just an extention of "First Strike" anyway
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Throne of Eldraine is my favorite set of all time. So much so, that one of the 3 non-evergreen mechanisms originated there: Adventures.
So it's no surprise Wilds of Eldraine adds a lot of new toys for this cube! Even more so, the two Eldraine sets combined have contributed 28 cards (about 15%) to this cube!
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With enchantments out of the cube, planeswalker were the obvious next victims. Their rules headache and play patterns just didn't warrant their inclusion. On top of that, the new cards were able to push a few other keywords out of the cube.
Removed:
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As you might've noticed if you've followed this cube for a while is that I put a lot of requirements on the cards added for this cube. This makes filtering cards in Scryfall quite difficult, so I wrote a searching syntax to help me out:
(-o:enchantment -o:planeswalker -o:upkeep -o:vehicle -o:mills -o:defender -o:token) (-t:plane -t:battle -t:enchantment -t:vehicle) commander:WUR (game:paper) -fo:/([^\s]+\s+){30,}/ frame:2015 -is:doublesided -color:multicolored cmc<5 year>2017 f:commander (-set:mb1 -set:plist -set:dbl) is:nonfoil
only Jeskai colors
only Dominaria+ frame
no foils or special frames
less than 25 words oracle text
less than mana value 5
no enchantments, planeswalkers, or battles
no vehicles or defenders
no mentions of the upkeep
no mention of the word "mill"
no mentions of tokens
This syntax is entirely for myself and you can completely ignore it if you want!
A few wordy and cards with older bolders were removed. I also opted to make every multicolored card a legendary create to up the amount of those. A few often-unchosen cards were swapped out as well.
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Another keyword bites the dust! 'Reconfigure' is very wordy, and harder to parse than I thought at first glance, when you're just used to normal equipment. It also makes it easier to include references to equipments that wouldn't work with 'Reconfigure'
I also bit the bullet and removed the last two references to 'Commander'. I wanted to sharpie those parts of the card away at first, but that actually brings more attention to those parts. Both cards were quite wordy to begin with.
Removed:
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In a cube with only three colors, it's really easy to have an abundance of playable cards. This means that a lot of them end up being the 23rd, 24th and 25th pick of any deck.
Lands fix this issue by being far easier inclusions. As long as they produce mana, many fill their role just as well as their basic counterparts. I'm testing the addition of an abundance of additional lands, which will hopefully take the place of the 23rd+ picks for the deck
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In an everlasting battle to decrease the number of Magic's elements from this cube, the following two have bitten the dust:
Kicker was an experiment but didn't add enough for my taste. Enchantments are interesting: there were only a few enchantments in the cube and only a few references to them. Their difference to artifacts is in flavor only, and WotC seems to prefer artifacts these days anyway.
Is is worth it? Who knows... I like it though!
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A few changes here and there, but mostly this update illustrates the additions of a few lands to the cube. With a higher number of these the available card pool will decrease and hopefully provide more tension when drafting
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With the addition of Loran, Disciple of History, some legendary creatures are added to create or of a mini-theme in the cube. Blackblade Reforged is also added as a second payoff that can (probably?) even be worth it without legends.
The red legends are a continuation of the themes within red without explicitly calling them out. For example, I prefer Feldon of the Third Path over Glint-Horn Buccaneer for discard-matters, because he could also fit in other decks like value-oriented builds.
Further legends mainly replace cards that haven't been too popular yet and themselves fit in a wider range of decks. I especially want to see a Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero-based eggs-like deck!
As an additional benefit for this update, both the keyword "menace" and the "1/1 thopter" tokens are now fully removed from this cube.
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Third Path Iconoclast is a nice addition to the effect of Saheeli, Sublime Artificer and EXACTLY the kind of effect I want in this cube. Sprite Dragon is a little too strong so will be replaced by it. Levitating Statue also plays very well into the themes of this cube and will replace Monoskelion, which has become less relevant as +1/+1 counter synergies have disappeared.
Both Lorans (Loran of the Third Path and Loran, Disciple of History) are nice additions as well that play with the artifacts in this cube as well as reinforce its themes. I will be adding a legend package to tick up the relevance of the disciple as well.
Soul Partition and Recommission are nice clean and versitle spells that'll replace the fairly unpopular Not Forgotten and Barbed Spike
A very white update!
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With kicker added with Dominaria, I've decided to finish the simplifying process by getting rid of the last few mechanics:
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I wasn't as big of a fan of multiples as I thought I would be. Expecially them being an exception in the cube I had to explain was a little meh. Back to singleton I guess...
Hall of Oracles was as nice as I thought it would be in distributing +1/+1 counters, but just doesn't fix mana very well. It should be considered a colorless land for these purposes.
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Academy Loremaster and Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart are nice glue cards for draw- and flash strategies. I really like their place on the mana curve, and especially Raff has provides additional support or slower go-wide strategies which I find a little lacking right now. They will replace Gadwick, the Wizened and Glassdust Hulk
Battlewing Mystic, Timely Interference, Fires of Victory and Ghitu Amplifier are a big new drop for my Izzet section. Izzet has the fewest playable hybrid cards, and I really like how each of these off-color kicker costs reads, so this is a big trial for each of them to see if they are a better option over their hybrid counterparts. With the inclusion of Balmor, Battlemage Captain too, the whole Izzet section is getting a makeover.
Twinferno and Phoenix Chick are nice little cards with a very promising low mana value. They will replace Risk Factor and Lightning Phoenix respectively
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Sometimes I draft with new players or players who haven't played Magic in a while. I find that over time, this cube has gotten a lot more wordy and complicated. This update is an attempt to remove some keywords and ability words that mainly add complexity:
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For a set about commander, Baldurs Gate added a lot of cards relevant for my cube. This is mainly because I believe the adventure mechanic is one of the best mechanics Magic has, and this cube is perfect for it! 5 of them were added and replaced either similar effects or underplayed cards
Greatsword of Tyr and Javalin of Lightning both feel like direct upgrades for their equipment slot. I also like how both incentivice attacking.
Candlekeep Inspiration seems like a better finisher than Soulblade Djinn. I like how it looks at things in exile as well as adventures, and interacts with both +1/+1 counters and tokens.
Ascend from Avernus is the kind of reanimation card I've been looking for for a while. I really want white's indentity in recusion to shine and feel like this card does that better than Imperial Recovery Unit
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Sometimes I draft with new players or players who haven't played Magic in a while. I find that over time, this cube has gotten a lot more wordy and complicated. This update is an attempt to remove some keywords and ability words that mainly add complexity:
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