Taking advantage of some end of summer price drops, I'm making a few swaps to replace some more lackluster cards with some newer, more interesting options.
Indebted Spirit is just better in almost every way than Doomed Traveler, withe the ability to have a bigger impact than being a simple chump blocker later in the game.
Gods Willing has been "fine", but that's about it, so we'll replace it with a new(er) flexible removal spell - Get Lost.
Fblthp, the Lost is a cantrip on a 1/1 and the rest of his text rarely matters. Thunderclap Trainer is still a cantrip - although it trades a bit of flexibility for card selection, and the extra toughness means it will stay relevant longer. The offspring cost is pretty high, but if you have the mana, getting this effect twice can be game-changing.
Jhessian Thief is another card that's just okay. Chrome Host Seedshark fits in the same decks, but has more impact in almost every sense. If it's not answered, the Incubator tokens it creates can become a real problem.
Electrostatic Field should probably have come out of the cube a long time ago, and since the spells deck has plenty of support I'm going to take this opportunity to add a card I quite honestly didn't even know existed until I started seeing it pop up in other people's lists. Gut, True Soul Zealot is a Rabblemaster variant with a twist that will lead to spicier play patterns than the card it replaces.
There's nothing inherently wrong with Khenra Spellspear, except that sits in a red slot, but it's really just a 5th Izzet card - and not one that would make the top 10 options for that guild. We're going to try Emberheart Challenger, which the spells deck will still enjoy...but other decks should be interested in as well.
Finally, Trumpeting Herd has been nothing to write home about. It gives you two vanilla 3/3's for four mana, but the second body is so telegraphed, that your opponent can usually play around it without slowing themselves down too much. The bodies Esika's Chariot gives you two might be a little smaller, but if you untap with it, making a copy of ANY token you control should be worth the tradeoff. Will it be good? I guess time will tell, but it will almost definitely be more fun.
Now that Modern Horizons 3 cards have been out for awhile, some of the prices have dropped significantly, opening up a few new options to our budget. We've also picked up a couple of other random cards that I overlooked in previous updates.
WHITE
Aven Interrupter has dropped to below $3, so now is a prime time to add it to the cube. Kinjalli's Sunwing has probably overstayed it's welcome, so that's the most logical swap for me. We still have Thalia for the aggro mirror matches.
I've also seen Touch the Spirit Realm showing up in a lot of the cubes I follow. To be honest, I've never really given this card a second look until now, but I think I want to try it instead of Prison Realm. I think targeting artifacts over planeswalkers is going to be a wash, but the option to channel it to flicker an artifact or creature adds some versatility, should we ever need it.
BLUE
Blue got a few good upgrades last time, so there's nothing new in this update.
BLACK
I'm going to level with you...I've wanted to get rid of Heir of Falkenrath for awhile now, and I'm honestly not sure why I haven't. She only really supports the mill deck, and she doesn't even do that well. Emperor of Bones will be at least as good for that deck, while being interesting to other black decks. Maybe it will hang around, maybe not, but it's almost assuredy better than the vampire it replaces.
RED
Hello, Pyrogoyf! Cubefortwo sings the praises of this guy, and has even replaced cube staple Flametongue Kavu with it. In his environment, it's almost guaranteed to always come in with at least 4 power, but I'm not convinced it will be as reliable in ours. Still, I think it's worth a try. Besides, it can hit any target - not just creatures - so that alone might outweigh the odd time it comes in with 3 or less power.
GREEN
I think green is pretty stacked right now, so there's no need to do anything at the moment.
MULTI
Grist, the Hunger Tide has become a Golgari staple, and the MH3 reprint has put the price in the basement. Now is the perfect time to try Grist over Polukranos, Unchained. We've got plenty of big, impactful creatures in both black and green, so Polukranos isn't really necessary. It might be smarter to pull out Grisly Salvage, but it's such a good signpost for what that guild is doing, that I can't bring myself to do it. If we end up missing our big hydra buddy, that will probably be the swap I make to bring him back.
COLORLESS
No colorless adds in this update, either.
OTJ cards are finally back in stock and MH3 has just released, and both sets are full of powerful cards...many of which don't fit into our budget restrictions. That said, here are the ones that do...
WHITE
Unfortunately, there's not much for white this time around. Aven Interrupter would have been a winner...but even though the card is 6.99 here in Canada. That doesn't make any sense to me, but I guess I'll have to wait and see if the price drops.
BLUE
There's a lot of chatter around Duelist of the Mind, and I've been looking for a replacement for Sky Theater Strix for awhile now. Duelist has the potential to be a powerhouse and fits into more decks, so I think we've finally found a winner.
Niblis of Frost is another spells matter card that's starting to show it's age. Smirking Spelljacker still works in those decks (a spells enabler rather than a payoff), and is going to be of interest to control and blink decks as well.
BLACK
Dread Wanderer is the hardest of our self-recurring 1-drops to activate. Forsaken Miner is more aggressive and the decks that want it will be committing crimes all the time. I'm excited for this swap.
RED
I looked at Reckless Pyrosurfer for a minute, but the red 2-drop slot is so competitive that I can't really justify it right now. I think it'd be a fun card, but it probably isn't good enough without a dedicated landfall package.
GREEN
Chainweb Aracnir has overstayed it's welcome. It was an iffy include to begin with, and I think it's the least attractive of the green 1-drops at this point. Ignoble Hierarch has been within the budget forever, and I was only holding off hoping to include Noble Hierarch at the same time. That seems unlikely to happen, so I'm pulling the trigger now.
Courser of Kruphix was included as a bit of a poor-man's Augur of Autumn, and it honestly isn't impactful enough anymore. Dune Chanter is a Chromatic Lantern effect and a mill enabler, so it should fit in every deck that Courser did and then some. I'm not sure how long it will stay in the cube, but I think it's a good include for now.
I really liked the idea of Bramble Familiar at first, but in practice, the mill mode is way too expensive to be useful most of the time. Take that away and you're left with a 2-mana dork that only makes green. With Ignoble Hierarch in the cube now, we can pull the Familiar to make room for a nice new piece of tech...Sandstorm Salvager.
MULTI
The biggest benefit to Regisaur Alpha in Gruul was the fact that it created two decently-sized bodies for 5 mana. I think that more often than not, Bloodbraid Challenger will create better value, and it can be recurred via Escape later on in the game. Bloodbraid Elf is a great card, so why wouldn't we play this too?
COLORLESS
Anything that caught my eye in colorless was a bit too expensive, so there are no changes in this section this time around.
There are a lot of fun-looking cards in this set, but none of them were in stock when I placed my order...so stay tuned for the rest in a later update.
For now, we're going to swap out Fervent Champion for Reckless Lackey. There are only 11 other Knights (4 of which don't really fit into the decks you'd want to play Champion in) and 6 equipment in the cube, so most of the time Champion's abilities are just flavor text. Lackey, on the other hand, has an ability that makes it useful in almost any deck, and it has an additional toughness, too? Oh - and did I mention that this thing is a common? Power creep is for real, folks.
It's become apparent that a few of the changes I've made to the gold section over time (while trying to introduce more powerful cards), are not properly supporting the archetypes in their color pairs. This means that our "guidepost" cards end up sending conflicting messages, leading to less efficient drafting, and ultimately, reduced synergy in players' decks. I'm hoping these changes will help better align the guild cards with my original goal for that section, and make sure that even new drafters to the cube are able to easily see the direction these cards are guiding them in.
It's the end of the year, which means it's time for the final upgrade push of 2023. Fortunately, I've been able to keep on top of releases throughtout the year, so there's not a lot of changes this time around. Without further ado, here we go:
LCI is a pretty decent set, with lots of cubeable cards - but this list is getting polished enough now that it's pretty hard for a new sub-$5 card to make the cut. That said, white gets nothing from Lost Caverns, although I'll be keeping my eye on Get Lost. It was just outside my budget constraints at the time that I purchased my playtests for this set, and has climbed a little since then, but I can't see it staying that high forever.
Blue, on the other hand, gets two nice upgrades, starting with Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel. Malcolm steps in to replace Suspicious Stowaway, which never seems to stay flipped for long, making Malcolm the better option most of the time. Flying isn't quite as evasive as "can't be blocked", but his Flash means he gets pseudo haste and dodges sorcery-speed removal for at least 1 turn. The fact that he always has 2 power, and the late-game ability to utilize the cards you discard, gives him a further edge.
Supreme Will gets edged out by Confounding Riddle, which bests the former in BOTH modes. The counterspell mode is strictly better - adding an additional mana to the tax, and the other mode lets us look at the same number of cards, but put the ones we don't want in the 'yard - which (in the right deck) means you may still have access to them.
Black also gets two decent upgrades in this set. Deep-Cavern Bat is nearly strictly better than Kitesail Freebooter, with the exception of having 1 less toughness. That's a small price to pay to be able to hit ANY nonland card from your opponent's hand...and lifelink is just a little gravy on top.
I'm calling it now - Bitter Triumph is a new staple black removal spell. Destroying a creature OR planeswalker for 2 mana - this spell hits as many targets as any black removal spell in our suite. There's hardly a target worth removing that you wouldn't gladly pay 3 life to get rid of, and again - in the right deck - the discard mode might just support your strategy. Why not bin a high-cost reanimation target? Out of our current 2- and 3-mana black removal, Power Word Kill hits the fewest targets, so that's the slot we'll give to Triumph.
I've always found that Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer didn't quite feel right in Boros. There's no objective reason why he shouldn't, and I was hard-pressed to find a better option...but he always felt a bit "off" to me. As soon as I saw Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon, I knew I had to have her. Dropping on turn 3, she's a cross between Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, and she does everything we want Boros to do. She doesn't have haste, but she also doesn't need it, since she triggers whenever ANY of your creatures attack. She can just sit back and let any of your expendable critters do all the work for you. I've been using her at the helm of a Historic Brawl deck in Arena, and she's just amazing. Plus, she's dirt cheap.
That's it from the new Ixalan set, but I do have one other change to make. I finally found Ebondeath, Dracolich for under $5, so I picked him up. We're going to play him instead of Mindwrack Demon, since he still supports our reanimator deck - just as a pay-off, rather than an enabler. Plus, he plays well with most other black decks as well, since all he needs is ANY other creature to die, and he can reanimate himself.
That's it for now. See you again in the next update!