I desperately want a Stormbreath Dragon for Peasant :(

I don't even need all the extra abilities, just give me a five-mana 4/4 flying + haste.

After about three minutes of testing, Shivan Branch-Burner is just not it. Drawing this dragon on an empty board feels like a wasted slot for Red aggro and if you can convoke it down to 4 or 5 mana, you might already be winning.

Viashino Sandsprinter joins the ranks for now.

Details to come

Details to come

House-Keeping:
Bulk updates to come on all colours. These updates reflect a change in archetype philosophy, switching from the rigid 10 tricolour builds to a variety of strategies. The support for Bant counters has been removed in favour of more diverse and powerful strategies. Flicker-Bounce, Mono-White Weenie, Temur Blitz (inspired by a Canadian Highlander build), and a minor aggressive white-based tokens deck are amongst these strategies.

Justification:
Rakshasa Gravecaller, a feature of my first 360 cube, returns as a top-end for midrange and attrition strategies alike. Happy to have it back.

Village Rites and Cling to Dust for additional card draw. Lash of Malice as both Black's first combat trick and a cheap removal spell.

Most cuts here were slow in the environment or supported the already well-positioned Aristocrats deck.

House-Keeping:
Bulk updates to come on all colours. These updates reflect a change in archetype philosophy, switching from the rigid 10 tricolour builds to a variety of strategies. The support for Bant counters has been removed in favour of more diverse and powerful strategies. Flicker-Bounce, Mono-White Weenie, Temur Blitz (inspired by a Canadian Highlander build), and a minor aggressive white-based tokens deck are amongst these strategies.

Justification:
Similar to Sprouting Renewal in Green's update or the Qasali Pridemage in the upcoming multicolour update, Raze the Effigy is here to assist against a growing abundance of artifacts while still remaining relevant in non-artifact matchups.

Dwarven Forge-Chanter is one of the more efficient Red prowess creatures, and offers a solid body to hold equipment with a built-in damage clause for removal spells.

Flame Slash returns, trumping out Unholy Heat. I previously cut this card on the grounds of it killing almost all threats in the cube, but with both Wall of Blossoms and Wall of Omens alongside larger midrange threats in Green and Black, I'm returning this card and cutting Unholy Heat in favour of a simpler design.

Otherwise, the Red bulk update aims to further support Burn and Aristocrats in Red, with a return of Hobblefiend as one of my favourite cross-archetype two-drops.

House-Keeping:
Bulk updates to come on all colours. These updates reflect a change in archetype philosophy, switching from the rigid 10 tricolour builds to a variety of strategies. The support for Bant counters has been removed in favour of more diverse and powerful strategies. Flicker-Bounce, Mono-White Weenie, Temur Blitz (inspired by a Canadian Highlander build), and a minor aggressive white-based tokens deck are amongst these strategies.

Justification:
Nimble Mongoose, Wary Thespian, and Centaur Chieftain enter to further push the Sultai graveyard theme, with a long-awaited return of celebrity superstar Werebear.

Quirion Dryad and associated pump spells aim to support Temur Blitz, an archetype which dips into Blue and Red for prowess alongside Gruul's trample creatures to create a hihgly-aggressive deck focused on combat tricks. Become Immense enters as one of the most 'swingy' cards in the cube, which I am cautious about, but it fits neatly into Sultai Graveyard and Temur Blitz.

Jewel Thief and Goyf-at-Home #3, Saddled Rimestag, neatly fill out the curve of most Green-based strategies alongside the BGx midrange and attrition strategies.

Finally, Wall of Blossoms, Wary Thespian, and other ETB creatures incentivize Green as a splash colour in WUx Flicker-Bounce strategies.

Future Considerations:

• Noting Become Immense as a potentially problematic card for its ability to end games on the spot.
• Hero of Leina Tower is slated for consideration. Most of the heroic creatures don't slot into the vision I have for Temur Blitz, but I like this as a 'some assembly required' version of Quirion Dryad or Go-Shintai of Boundless Growth.

Justification:

Simple update aiming to support midrange, Jeskai Spellslingers, and Bx graveyard strategies.

Justification:
Another quick update modifying the texture of removal.

In most instances in this environment, Choking Tethers has an equal or similar power level as Aetherize, and cycling allows for more flexibility.

Black removal has been shifted towards more restrained, cheaper spells, and Raven's Crime replaces Dreams of Steel and Oil for late-game relevance.

Justification:
Short description here - just pushing aggro with a suite of activated abilities, burn spells, and one-drops.

Justification:
The manabase of the Peasant format is notoriously unkind to multicolor aggressive decks, and often, other designers break rarity to include fetches and shocks. My issue with following this trend is that these lands quickly become the objective first pick in most strategies, and their power is drastically different than the vivid and bounceland cycles, which are too iconic in the Peasant Format for me to cut just yet. Furthermore, the cost of fetches and shocks are exorbitantly high compared to any other card in the cube, which conflicts with the design philosophy of Let the Peasants Eat BREAD!

Instead of the fetches and shocks, I've settled with painlands, which are available in beautiful full-art renders for under $5 each. While these lands are powerful in aggressive strategies, they are not without drawback in control, which is exactly the design space I want currently. All the cuts for the lands are 3+ colour fixing lands with severe drawback.

Mind Stone and Prismatic Lens are now in, with Sphinx of the Guildpact and Desert being cut. The Sphinx promotes a draw-go control style which I want to avoid and a niche ramp strategy that has other alternatives. Desert doesn't kill enough attackers and can't produce coloured mana. Mind Stone and Prismatic Lens accelerate decks and either draw a card or fix your mana if their primary ability is no longer useful, and I appreciate the wide array of decks the cards can slot into.

Justification:
Simple replacement of a couple cards here. The Aristocrats archetype has enough free sacrifice effects that Hobblefiend and Legion Vanguard don't advance the strategy much, while Scrapwork Mutt and Ashnod's Harvester fit in not only as sacrifice fodder but as recursive aggro creatures and fuel for Delirium thanks to the Artifact + Creature typing.

Future Considerations:
Combat Courier, just haven't yet decided what to swap out.

House-Keeping:
Not much to be said here, mostly just adding cards that encourage more aggressive gameplay or support archetypes in a manner I prefer.

Justification:
Song of Freyalise, Obsessive Skinner, Elite Scaleguard, Hagra Constrictor: Support the +1/+1 counters archetype.

• Obsessive Skinner is more niche than Werebear but I like Reclusive Taxidermist more and don't feel the need for repetition of the effect.
• I don't like Basri's Acolyte. Lifelink can be oppressive against aggro decks and I think the card is just kinda ugly compared to Relief Captain. Not much other justification here.
• Hagra Constrictor is just okay as a 2/2 menace for 3, but I like that it encourages a strategy otherwise outside of Black and has some incidental value with Bloodsky Berserker, Electrostatic Infantry, and other aggressive cards.

Unholy Heat, Heartless Act: After my "All Removal Comes with a Price" update, I wanted to find removal that would deal with large threats without feeling unearned. Unholy Heat offers even more reach than Flame Slash did, but I like that it feels more earned than the unconditional 4 damage did. Heartless Act is an unconditional removal spell in a lot of environments, but in the context of this proliferate & counters heavy cube, I think it punishes more of the "cheat" threats like Tolarian Terror without punishing the high-investment counters archetype. Interested to see it in action.

Frenzied Saddlebrute, Thrill of Possibility, Deceiver Exarch: These cards offer effects that are quite common to their respective colours and underrepresented in the current design.

Alirios, Enraptured replaces Mirror Image. As much as I would like to keep a clone effect in the cube, I find there aren't enough large creatures that you'd want to copy, and playing it on curve is just not effective. Alirios, on the other hand, is just a very efficient two-creature body with some caveats. Pretty happy to play this in most Blue decks.

Akoum Hellhound replaces Flametongue Yearling to encourage aggressive decks and support the emerging landfall-aggro pocket archetype. Great synergy with the bouncelands and Evolving Wilds, less mana-intensive.

Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage gives Black its first monocolour planeswalker and replaces the only card with the foretell mechanic.

Future Considerations:
If more foretell cards are printed, I'd be happy to add Vengeful Reaper and a selection of other cards back to the cube. I think the mechanic does a great job of encouraging splashier decks, but I don't like it without more uncertainty as to what the card being played is.

Justification:
Update to encourage aggressive / lower-curve decks in Green.

HOT TAKE: I don't like Llanowar Elves. Birds of Paradise? Fixes your mana. Holds a sword. Blocks fliers. Iconic.

Arboreal Grazer is not Birds of Paradise by any stretch of the imagination, but I like the versatility the card provides compared to Elvish Mystic. It allows players to keep hands with one too many lands, triggers landfall, blocks early aggressive creatures / fliers, and notably, it is not a defender, so putting counters on it or making it hold a Skyclave Pick-axe isn't out of the question.

On the topic of triggering landfall, Sakura-Tribe Scout is a weird little card that I would like people to see and experiment with, plus getting two lands into play from this card is just insane mana production for a one-drop. Requires significant card-draw to support, but I like the potential it has.

Abundant Harvest is one of the best sorcery-speed cantrips, and it's in Green. Weird. 10/10.

To round out the "atomic unit" additions of Green (shoutout to Lucky Paper Radio for their great episode on this concept exactly), we have Gnarlwood Dryad and Wasteland Viper. These two function as pseudo-removal spells in Green, with Wasteland Viper providing a valuable combat trick and Gnarlwood Dryad playing as a more interactive Nimble Mongoose that isn't a nonbo with equipment.

Justification:
I want the environment of this cube to be fairly aggressive, and I find I don't enjoy the gameplay of "draw-go" control decks. This update pushes control closer to a Death & Taxes build by adding high-value creatures such as Keening Banshee (Mist Raven's best friend), Cloudblazer, and Plague Spitter. Flickerwisp and Glimmerpoint Stag allow the reuse of ETB effects attached to these creatures, and while I still refuse to support an entire flicker archetype (rant for another day), these two are powerful enough on their own without requiring players to build around them entirely.

Siren Stormtamer, Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea, and Vryn Wingmare are included as means of protecting your threats, imitating Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Mother of Runes and other classic D&T cards.

Creeping Bloodsucker, Topplegeist and Stinging Lionfish are here to support control decks in the early game and become irritating threats as the game progresses.

Oketra's Attendant and Sinister Starfish are card selection effects that enable delirium and similar graveyard-based mechanics. The attendant in particular has a wonderful design as a poor card replacement effect that can become a threat in the late game. Twisted Image also offers card replacement while doubling as a combat trick, an effect which I feel the cube is lacking in.

Finally, Ominous Seas is a fun little card that fits in the same niche as Myth Realized, Levitating Statue, and Untethered Express, help control decks to dodge sorcery-speed removal spells and encourages proliferate shenanigans.

RIP to Loyal Cathar, one of the best white weenie two-drops in Peasant. I would love to keep the card in, but I encourage three-colour decks and this just doesn't fit on curve as much as I'd like it to.

Future Considerations:
Soulherder: I prefer this unique effect to Mulldrifter 2 aka. Cloudblazer, but I worry the card may be too warping as it can quickly take over the game in a rather oppressive manner.
Mother of Runes: One of the most powerful one-drops in peasant, and similar to Soulherder, perhaps one that is too powerful.

I adore the design of Gut, True Soul Zealot and if I ever decide to build a more powerful cube, I'd love to include the lil' guy.

In peasant, however, this is one of the most oppressive three-drops imaginable.

House-Keeping:
This post marks a change in how I'll be updating the cube going forward. Where previous updates aimed to flesh out the idea for a cube without sharing rationale, future ones will aim to reinforce the character and gameplay of the cube while (hopefully) providing some helpful information for any new cubers.

Justification:
The aim of this update is to reduce the amount of unconditional removal in the cube without sacrificing speed and power. Dismember, for example, is a card which would be played in almost any deck and any colour combination. Green decks will happily take a removal spell that kills almost any creature in the cube for one mana and 4 life, while black decks will either lose out on a card or play it for a similar, albeit more flexible, removal spell.

Dismember will not be making a return to this cube, and I would consider it a problematic or banlist-worthy spell in a peasant environment. Instead, I'll be adding Snuff Out, another powerful spell that can be cast for a ludicrously cheap price. Unlike Dismember, however, Snuff Out requires a commitment to black and the not-insignificant cost of 4 life or 5 mana. The speed of removal here is still the same in a Black deck, with Snuff Out being even cheaper, and the question of paying life to remove a threat still remains.

Similarly, Go for the Throat and Power Word Kill have been cut in favour of a more versatile but life-costly Feed the Swarm and one of the few larger board wipes in Peasant, Famine; Bone Shards replaces Tragic Slip with more flexibility in its target and in its additional cost.

As for Red, I made the difficult decision to cut Flame Slash. While it is an iconic removal spell, 4 damage is an oppressively large amount on a one-mana spell in this format. While Lightning Bolt is more useful due to its ability to hit players and planeswalkers, the difference between 3 damage and 4 damage in Let The Peasants Eat BREAD is quite drastic, and the lack of versatility can lead to repetitive, feel-bad game interactions. There will come scenarios where a Red player uses their Lightning Bolt as creature removal and has to justify losing a card which could close the game later.

As a replacement to Flame Slash, I have added Galvanic Blast. While the card is only a Shock without metalcraft active, there is a growing number of powerful artifact cards in Red such as Rabbit Battery, Gold Hound, Twinshot Sniper, and a host of equipment. Not to mention Storm-Kiln Artist and Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith which will almost single-handedly activate metalcraft. Kami's Fire replaces Searing Blaze which, despite the higher ceiling, the double-red mana cost restricts its use and landfall does not reinforce an existing archetype in the same manner that kami's Fire does. Finally, for Red, I chose to cut Staggershock in favour of Fire Prophecy as I find the former offers a rather vanilla effect spread over two triggers while Fire Prophecy provides both removal and card selection on one card.

Other Notes:
While not included in this update, I would say Bind the Monster is an addition which represents the same removal principles that I want to strive for in the future.

For unconditional removal, Infernal Grasp remains (for now) as I do think near-unconditional removal supports a healthy control environment, just not in the sheer amount that it was before. Infernal Grasp, when put in the context of Snuff Out, Night's Whisper, and Read the Bones gives control players powerful card draw and removal, but the cumulative drain on your life total discourages the "Draw-go" style of control that I seek to avoid.