WIP

WIP

WIP

Pay no attention to the mass-rollback-of-updates-on-the-history-tab behind the curtain.

Kicking off this long delayed blog update with the removal of Mercurial Spelldancer, I am simply not in love with unblockable creatures in a cube so centered on trades in combat. Though I feel it would have remained should it have had an evasive keyword like flying or menace, I am perfectly happy to cut any reminder that Phyrexia: All Will Be One existed as a set. (Creeping Tar Pit gets a pass because it requires serious mana investment each turn.) Spelldancer’s spell copying ability occasionally led to some very neat lines, though this was a rarity and not the norm.

Stern Scolding slots in the for Mercurial Spelldancer, offering blue players a “narrow” counterspell that catches some 67 targets of the 78 creatures in the cube (as of time of writing.) I look forward to this seeing play for a long while.

Moving on to cutting Azorius Charm, it’s high time we accept that the era in which this card was good is long gone. I’ve never been a massive fan of it in this environment, and I suspect it stuck around for so long in Overturf’s list due to nostalgia of a Standard long past.

Pippin, Guard of the Citadel drops in for Azorius Charm, doing it’s best Mother of Runes impression while not being nearly as oppressive. I’ve greatly enjoy testing this card, playing a neat role in the aggressive blue and white creature shells.

On the other hand, I am not so in love with this change. Reflector Mage, much like Azorius Charm has generally not scaled well into eternal formats. While it is serviceable here in the tempo cube, I’ve found it to be consistently cut too much to warrant it’s slot.

In for Reflector Mage comes Prince Imrahil the Fair, a neat signpost for the second-draw-matters cards sprinkled within. While it’s no Jorael, Mwonvali Recluse, it is on color for the archetype and does what is asked of it when required. I have not greatly enjoyed his inclusion, so I will be actively looking for other (better) Azorius multicolor cards going forward.

The elephant in the room is the question concerning the addition of Orcish Bowmasters. In my preliminary testing, I found the card to simply be egregious in this environment. The card does it all, killing X/1s (36 of the 78 creatures in the cube), blocking up to X/3s effectively and hosing draws, all in a convenient flash package for 1B.

Overturf initially added it to his list during his LTR update but later cut it a number of months later citing essentially the same issues. Needless to say, I felt my feelings to be validated.

It’s quite late into the set’s season to be getting around this, truth be told. MOM has been a fantastic retail limited set, but not much has caught my attention for my cubes.

Overturf recently added Khenra Spellspear to his twobert list (among numerous other sweeping changes), but in my brief testing of Khenra Spellspear over Dire Fleet Daredevil, it has consistently fallen short. Time and again a player would sink mana into the Spellspear only for it to be swiftly removed and the balance to swing heavily in the reacting player’s favor. For now, the Daredevil has been given a reprieve.

Faerie Mastermind has also been often discussed among my drafters as a possible replacement for Ledger Shredder, due to the latter’s ability to get very large quickly and stonewall the aggro shells. While I can understand the sentiment, Mastermind’s ability to consistently generate card advantage via sinking mana is not something I’m actively looking for in this environment, particularly in blue. Shredder will remain for now, though I could see it getting swapped in the future.

Moving on to the changes that have actually been made, Deeproot Champion is out in exchange for constructed power house Endurance. The green spells deck that Deeproot aspires to be the lynchpin of never materializes, often leaving it as the draft gift you never asked for. In lieu of this, Overturf has recently brought Endurance into the fray of his own twobert list and it has certainly captured my attention. I’m quite worried it will be too much rate for too cheap of a cost, but I’m willing to give green a new toy for the time being.

Long gone is the year 2001 and the era of Alan Comer’s Miracle Gro in Extended. Quirion Dryad has seen underwhelming play in this environment, and while it is an absolute classic this fact has not saved it from the chopping block. Dryad’s newly minted cousin Quirion Beastcaller enters the fold, notably gaining the ability to redistribute it’s counters upon death. While I’m not sure it’s a perfect fix, I liked this idea much more than Overturf’s Quirion Dryad swap to Wild Nacatl, though time will tell if I called my shot right.

To the surprise of no one, Loran’s Escape suffered from the same issues as Faith’s Shield (undrafted or early cut). I’m instead electing to move away from white having a protection spell. Green’s current lineup of Snakeskin Veil and Blossing Defense are safe, the flexibility they permit with battle tricks and the like due to P/T modulation in addition to granting hexproof massively increase their playability over Faith’s Sheild or Loran’s Escape just being rigid reactionary spells in this environment.

Following the recommendation of some friends of mine who actively play Pauper, I was advise to try Recommision. I greatly enjoyed the card in BRO limited events, in addition to being fond of the similar play patterns Unearth allows for.

I look forward to seeing what Recommision has to offer, I believe it will find a welcoming home here.

Currently testing out Loran’s Escape over Faith’s Shield, a holdout from the original Overturf design.

I greatly dislike Fateful Hour as a mechanic, and this card consistently ended up being undrafted or a very early cut during deckbuilding. I don’t expect this “white protection spell” slot to remain and I’ll likely be changing this in the near future.

Unezawa’s Jitte has proven to be incredibly oppressive, skewing games far harder than any other card even in an environment as interactive as this one. Nothing usually would illicit a groan more than putting it on the stack.

I’ve read just about ever equipment ever put to print in hopes of finding a solid replacement to maintain a solid suite of Stoneforge Mystic targets, and I’ve settled on Sword of Body and Mind. SoBaM has a steeper mana requirement, and while the protection from blue and green is a factor, I feel the large swaths of white, black and red removal will allow for far more points of interaction than Sword of Fire and Ice, for example.

I look forward to giving Body and Mind it’s moment in the sun, though I will be actively searching for possibly better alternatives as new sets release going forward.

I’ll keep it short and sweet on this one to avoid waxing poetic on four different changes.

Alseid of Life’s Bounty was consistently underplayed and undrafted since Lurrus got cut a while back. One off protection effects just aren’t great in this environment, and Alseid does a really shitty Mother of Runes impression. Esper Sentinel is a fine midrange card that has proven impressive in testing.

To be frank, I just don’t like Mana Tithe. Blasphemous, I know. I’m reverting this back to Overturf’s original Legion’s Landing to hopefully give white based aggressive shells a boost.

Agadeem’s Awakening was just a basic Swamp that could occasionally win a game, something I find is antithetical to a cube built on incremental advantages. Unearth should slot in nicely.

Lorescale Coatl sucked and it shouldn’t have been in here. Three mana is a lot to ask and a lack of evasion makes the investment often go to waste. I searched high and low for cheap Simic cards to take the slot, but often they’re retail limited draft signposts that entail ramping or manipulating +1/+1 counters, neither of which really belong here. Shardless Agent from the original draft of the cube makes it’s return, due to lack of better options. Expect this one to change again if a new set provides a better alternative.

Flickerwisp has triumphantly returned to reclaim its rightful spot in the cube. I had severely underestimated how effective it was in its role of playing a disruptive flyer temporarily removing problematic permanents, in addition to the small amount of ETB synergies it has in the cube. Very much a jack of all trades and master of none, I look forward to seeing in my future drafts.

In comparison, Elite Spellbinder was always on the list of cards you could play, but didn’t love. While it was solid on curve and gaining opposing hand information was incredibly useful, the moments it would stand out were few and far between. When it found itself coming down later in the game, the two mana tax rarely mattered to the point of just being comedic. For now, the poor man’s Vendillion Clique getting shelved.

After Ledger Shredder’s breakout weekend in Modern, the card has impressed a number of folks on a lot of fronts, me included. I feel that it’ll have a fine home here in this environment, annoying opponents with an odd “tax” on an evasive and growing body, fixing the hand and setting up the graveyard.

Mental Note is a perfectly acceptable card in this domain, but is unfortunately easily the weakest and least flexible cantrip in the cube. It’s cut for now, but could possibly make a reappearance if Ledger Shredder fails to take flight.

We all saw it coming. Lurrus would appear in a pack, it’d get first picked by the player that opened it and it would invalidate the handful of 3+ mana permanents in the cube. This occurred in nearly every single draft it appeared in. I had considered removing the companion clause and leaving it as a maindeck option, but I enjoy playing cards as written and dislike erratum.

There’s no clean replacement for Lurrus, obviously. Orzhov only has a small handful of acceptable cards of the quality I’m looking for, and I had considered giving the multicolor slot to another pair. I’ve settled on Vanishing Verse for now, thought this slot could eventually become Vindicate or something else entirely, time will tell.