Magic: The Hattening continues with racing helmets. I dislike Start Your Engines! and Max Speed and a lot of the art and the piss borders.

But I love Skyserpent Seeker, and it is the only card from this set that I'll be adding, though I did consider a few others. As a 2-mana Flying Deathtouch with card advantage, it compares to Baleful Strix, though not as good. But it discourages strong attacks, ramps, flies, has +1/+1 counter synergy, and is all around good.

Other cards I considered but declined include Defend the Rider and Gloryheath Lynx.

In addition to these, I am also considering Wriggling Grub but haven't decided what to cut.

EDIT - A week later, I decided to swap out Zulaport Cutthroat for Vengeful Bloodwitch. They are functionally the same in a duel, while I can put the Cutthroat to better use in Commander, where it is strictly better. Plus, there's the full art version of Bloodwitch, which I am adding as I swap to the full art Swiftfoot Boots.

While I'm not a fan of the Duskmourn aesthetics and incorporation of modern technology, I did find some cards that intrigued me, mostly in red.

Norin, Swift Survivalist finally gives me a red aggro card I can get behind. It introduces a new impulse-style blink tactic and encourages people to swing more aggressively with cards like Ravenous Chupacabra, etc.

Untimely Malfunction offers some great modes. We've seen artifact removal before,and it's always welcome. But the redirection effect is awesome and can lead to some 2-for-1s. And the final mode could just win the game.

Irreverent Gremlin triggers for about 45% of my cube.

Arabella, Abandoned Doll is interesting, and I'd like to try it - it could even help define what Boros wants to do (small creatures). However, this inclusion seems to have forced two other inclusions.
I prefer the clean, easy-to-parse look of Goblin Oriflamme, but Defaced Gallery works better with Arabella (triggered abilities can be stacked in the most advantageous order, while the passive pump of Oriflamme will push too many creatures beyond 2 power before she can count them for the direct damage ability). After that, Painter's Studio is just extra utility.
And [Midnight Mayhem]] is very similar to Heroic Reinforcements, but it gives one more token and trades pump for lifegain and evasion.

Bloomburrow brought a surprisingly large number of changes to my cube.

Stoat is simple, clean, and effective.

Plumecreed is amazing - best card in the set for us.

Shoreline is an upgraded Looter.

Fell is sorcery-speed, but clean and unconditional.

Thought-Stalker I'm willing to test. I've never leaned into discard, but this one encourages some aggression to get full value.

Brazen Collector asks red to be aggressive to ramp.

Wolverine trades blowing up lands for an option to support +1/+1 counters. Also, the 5/4 body encourages attacks to speed the game along rather than hiding behind a 2/2 deathtouch blocker.

And Lilysplash brings Simic up to 6 guild slots (like the other 9 guilds). While blink is more an Azorius thing, it should work well here, too. As a 4/4 reach, it gives flying an obstacle, and it also supports the +1/+1 counters archetype.

Somehow in the least white set ever, I'm only adding white cards.

Keen-Eyed Raven supports flying and +1/+1 counters, while being a decent blink target.

And I've loved Reconnaissance for a long time and finally decided to cube it now that reading the card properly explains the card.

Also, I've decided to give Writhing Chrysalis a try. It wasn't in my initial batch from MH3, but three bodies plus ramp plus counters seems too good to pass up.

MH3 is ridiculously powerful, but these are my four initial changes.

I'm considering three other cards: Basking Broodscale, Fangs of Kalonia, and Horrid Shadowspinner.

I also decided it was about time that I replace Fleshbag with Plaguecrafter.

I've been considering this swap for a while, but I just picked up an extra copy. The two cards essentially cover the same role, but Rise can actually cheat costs because it's true reanimation and not just to-hand recursion.

I've run Cloudshift for ages and, despite knowing Ephemerate is the better card in a vacuum, I have resisted swapping it because Cloudshift can do one trick Ephemerate can't - it can turn temporary theft into permanent theft (return under your control vs. return under its owner's control). However, I only run four temporary theft spells in the cube, and I can't remember the last time, if ever, I've seen this interaction. But I've seen a wasted opportunity nearly every time Cloudshift has been cast. So it's time to make the switch.

Even though all of these replacements are slight tweaks to the cards they are replacing, they offer some really good additions.

Honest Rustein trades one creature recursion for coming out faster and ramping us into bigger creatures faster.

Requisition Raid adds removal to an already solid +1/+1 counter archetype signpost. Though I will admit that I kinda miss how simple and clean the text was for Solidarity.

Lavaspur Boots are cheaper and offer immediate pump and minor protection.

Rambling Possom makes the bounce optional while being an aggressive attacker (that also self-pumps should you have Kutzil to care about).

And Angel of the Ruins can landcycle, makes for a great reanimation target, and delivers solid exile removal to make sure no artifacts/enchantments are coming back.

Having never played Fallout, I have no opinion of the game itself. But as a Universes Beyond set in Magic: the Gathering, I am very opinionated.

Thanks, I hate it!

I hate all the guns and modern/future tech in the art.
I hate a lot of the names and themes that feel like they should be (but aren't) silver-bordered.
I hate that these cards clash aesthetically with Magic's own IP; unlike LOTR, which is at least Magic-adjacent, these cards feel like an entirely different game.
I hate the mechanics that are too parasitic for cube.
I hate the cards that create complicated counters that they do not explain on the card ("Reading the card does not, in fact, explain the card").
I hate that Mark Rosewater said they are abandoning Universes Within.

Cathedral Acolyte is the only card I plan to test. I like that it fits in an existing archetype, even if the window for activation is very narrow. I like that it looks like it could have been in a real MTG set.

I had also considered Young Deathclaws (I do already run Dreg Mangler for a similar effect), but ultimately I decided against it.

Clue: the Gathering just doesn't do it for me. Not a fan of cloak, disguise, detective tribal, investigate matters, suspect, collect evidence, or even cases (the least bad mechanic?).

Strictly better Evolving Wilds/Terramorphic Expanse is fantastic.

And Gorehound isn't a particularly scary body, but it does offer repeatable surveil. I have 169 creatures that trigger this, along with 23 cards that produce tokens that trigger it. There's no "once per turn" clause, so this seems decent at setting up my next draw and fantastic for a reanimator deck.

Also using this post to update Supernatural Stamina to Feign Death. I realize it doesn't pump prior to death, but I'm hoping the +1/+1 counter synergy and pump post-death is worth the trade-off.

I still need to get a copy of Confounding Riddle.

I'm also considering Zoyowa Lava-Tongue but don't know if it's worth cutting anything.

I got really burned out with product fatigue partway through spoilers for this set. I did end up buying a small stack of cards, but they sat on the desk a while before I worked up the motivation to sleeve them and find cards to replace.

The House Mouse is nice and versatile as early game aggro or mid to late game evasion/pump.

Stroke of Midnight is a generally better Generous Gift/Beast Within - I may be cutting Beast Within in the near future.

I'm not a fan of the Role tokens, but I'll give it a try.

And I'm working on balancing the cube so every guild has 6 slots (we've never had a shortage of playables and often have far too many cards in our colors to cut), so Woodland Acolyte gets a chance.

Also, as a note - I will not be adding any cards from the Dr Who precons.

I've had Seer of Stolen Sight in hand multiple games and never really wanted to cast it. Which is fine, because Commander Masters really delivered in downshifts, and I am more than happy to add Yahenni, Undying Partisan.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade is another fantastic addition, providing both a +1/+1 counter enabler and payout that can help ramp into our wincons.

I decided to test out Troll of Khazad-Dûm, but it was hard to decide what to cut. I went with Vicious Conquistador because it shares so much design space with Mardu Shadowspear but can't gain haste.
Troll has a lot of potential, especially in a reanimator deck, but it's honestly the first time I'm worried about a card being too good and hard to answer. Turn 1 swampcycle, turn 2 Animate Dead is really gross and absolutely requires removal ASAP. I even had a vision of magical Christmas nightmare with Troll and Striped Riverwinder being cycled turns 1-2, drop a 1-drop, and then Victimize on turn 3. That would be super gross and very hard to answer. We'll see. Hopefully it's just strong and not broken.

Despite many misgivings about the LOTR set - including but not limited to an overly complicated tempt mechanic that requires a double-faced card to explain how it works, an overabundance of food tokens (the worst kind of tokens in a vacuum), and a general dislike of mixing IP (but at least it isn't Optimus Prime or the Walking Dead) - I did manage to find a few cards I like.

Reprieve is an excellent tempo piece, and it has a generic name, meaning it will likely be reprinted in a normal MTG set someday.

Meneldor, Swift Savior fits both my blink and flying archetypes, while being a decent beater on its own. It's also an obscure enough character to not be distracting, unlike Frodo or Aragorn.

Barrow-Blade is a card that I absolutely feel is being slept on. It can shut down first strike, double strike, trample, deathtouch, lifelink, indestructible, persist, undying, hexproof, shroud, protection, tribal anthem effects, death triggers, damage prevention abilities, damage dealt triggers, end of turn triggers, etc. It affects about 25% of the creatures in this cube. It strips Pelakka Wurm of both trample and the death trigger. It neutralizes Fog Bank's prevention effect. It prevents Soulherder from being able to blink something. And it keeps you safe from Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat - or alters your opponent's strategy because they don't dare attack or block with them now.

And Shire Terrace is good fixing, entering untapped and searching for only one mana. It's like if all the Panoramas were printed as one card.

I also considered Troll of Khazad-dûm as a powerful reanimator target. I still might add it, just need to decide what to cut.

I hate cutting cards. Grimdancer is going out for now so I can test Seer of Stolen Sight, but I wouldn't be surprised if it came back eventually.

I'd also like to test Kami of Whispered Hopes, but I honestly can't pick something to cut right now.

Cube Updated – Automatic Post