At this point, I've had this cube built in paper for around a year, and I've been fortunate to have people who've been willing to play it both in-person and online. This gave me ample opportunities to observe how people were drafting. I wanted to take those insights and apply them, so I worked with my friend Silas, who graciously gave ten to twelve hours of his time reviewing the cube with me. Here's what we came up with.

• Increase the presence of more blue-based and controlling archetypes
• Give green players early-game options beyond ramp
• Move Golgari away from something graveyard oriented to a more generic “value” archetype
• Move Izzet towards a more dedicated spellslinger archetype

• Review each card for impact on gameplay experience and assign the following tags to cards:
  • Core (cards that define the experience of the cube; likely to never be cut)
  • Plus (more good than bad)
  • Minus (more bad than good)
  • Cut (cards that have been unpopular or unsuccessful)
• Rebuild the cube including all the Core cards, many of the Plus cards, some of the Minus cards, and none of the Cut cards
• Fill in gaps based on the needs of the color and archetypes

• “Signature Spell” for each color pair:
  • No More Lies
  • Tyrant's Scorn
  • Molten Collapse
  • Domri's Ambush
  • March of the Multitudes
  • Anguished Unmaking
  • Expressive Iteration
  • Abrupt Decay
  • Lightning Helix
  • Growth Spiral
• Surveil Lands
• Walking Ballista/Heliod, Sun-Crowned/Agatha's Soul Cauldron combo
• Nishoba Brawler and Herd Migration as Domain payoffs

Collective Brutality and Virtue of Persistence // Locthwain Scorn occupy a lot of the same space--they're essentially removal options that double as enablers/payoffs for reanimator decks. My theory is that people are escalating Collective Brutality much less often in this cube than they are in, say, the Vintage Cube. If this is correct, Virtue of Persistence will be a better card overall. I could see reincluding Collective Brutality in the future, though...we'll just have to see.

Despite some of the added complexity, I think Sentinel of the Nameless City will end up being a much more attractive pick than Jadelight Ranger.

I remembered this card existed after watching LSV's recent KTK flashback draft. This card looks to be a sweet inclusion for a few reasons: at four mana, this could be a great curve-topper for an aggressive deck, and it's got sacrifice synergy to go with the Orzhov/Rakdos archetypes.

Although Isshin is cheaper and more aggressive, the dedicated aggro decks are often not wanting to play three colors. I'm swapping in Kroxa and Kunoros because it's easier to imagine someone in three colors wanting to play a longer game, and Kroxa and Kunoros exemplifies that fairly well.

I'm adding in some more aggressive red one-drops. Keldon Flamesage is fine, but there isn't a dedicated burn deck that wants to capitalize on this effect, and aggressive decks typically want to attack with all their creatures. Plus, this card is one of two in cube currently that have Enlist and no reminder text, which causes some slowdown during the draft.

These are more changes that align with the overall goals for blue, as well as removing some remnants of the storm archetype. Nadir Kraken comes out because even though it is a good card, the gameplay is not particularly engaging. In my experience, games with it often come down to removal or bust.

Reckoner Bankbuster seemed confusing and redundant when compared with Treasure Map, and Crucible of Worlds is a lot less worth it when you don't have access to fetches, Wasteland, or Strip Mine. I'm putting in Agatha's Soul Cauldron and Chimil, the Inner Sun because they seem like more stimulating build-around pieces.

The pseudo-storm archetype just isn't going to be possible in a cube with 360 cards (none of which have the word "storm" printed on them). Instead, I want to make Izzet more of a generic spells-value archetype. Legion Loyalist goes in because red appeared to be lacking in cheap, aggressive creatures compared to the other colors.

Glorious Protector was in the cube for two reasons: to allow you to cash in on your ETBs more than once, and to add an extra possibility to any foretold card in play. It largely fails on the first point, because it isn't worth it to exile your whole board for value if you don't have a way to force the Protector to die. As for the second, there seem to be enough Foretell cards in the pool to keep things interesting. Benalish Marshal goes in because it aligns better with the color's overall philosophy, and points to the mono-white theme.

Some feedback I'd received from blue players was that blue had too many counterspells, and not enough generic value instants. This, plus the recent inclusion of Ojer Pakpatiq, made me want to swap out some of the duller counterspells for other instant-speed options.

Confounding Riddle's counterspell half is strictly better than Supreme Will, and the graveyard component of the card selection half could provide a more interesting texture to games.

I'm not gonna lie--I largely overlooked this card until I opened it in a sealed pool on arena. This card is a fun build-around and a total house. Plus, I mean...it's Quetzalcoatl!

I think the bat will play better overall. It has lifelink, which encourages the controller to put it into combat more often, and it hits creatures from the hand. Also, as the person playing against the bat, the lower toughness value could sometimes make the difference in allowing you to get out from under it.

I'm swapping this out because Bitter Triumph appears to be the better card in a lot of situations. I'll keep an eye on this and maybe swap it back if the complexity creep starts to get out of hand.

I'm very excited about this one. Laelia, the Blade Reforged is an all-star for aggressive decks in the vintage cube, but it was printed in a commander product, making it not legal for this cube. Inti is less powerful than Laelia, but a less powerful Laelia will still be quite good.

Call me back when Sheoldred isn't a hundred dollars lmao