huge updates!

We've got enough new stuff that we can clean out the 3 color junk. We've got good removal across 3 colors. We've got interesting and supported color pairs. We've got stuff for doing big things. We got stuff for doing fast things.

We have a new archetype: WB has gone from small creature recursion to life gain. I think life gain is a more fun archetype, and I think people enjoy playing both with and against it. We just haven't had quite enough cards to support it before now. Recursion felt samey and didn't stand apart from the other archetypes, most the WB decks were WR decks that also had black.

overall, pretty happy where the cube is at right now. We are missing some important cards still. Farmer Cotton, Bonecrusher Giant, Reflector Mage are some of the big ones but they'll remain on the buy list and we'll get to them one day.

One major potential change that I have been considering is adding a control deck. I don't want this to be in the typical UB or WU pairs because I really like where those archetypes are at. The most likely candidate is probably BR. Sacrifice is such a hard archetype for this cube because either they don't make alt arts of the kinda chaff we need to sacrifice or cards with good and cheap recursion tend to be expensive dollars wise. Both of these are major hindrances, but unfortunately I don't think we're quite there on being able to switch yet.

With the loss of a bunch of multicolor, I would like to shore up the colorless section of cube because it's very bad. That's probably not something that's gonna improve dramatically or quickly, but it's a long term goal.

Hopefully we'll get a cube update after Thunder Junction, but it depends on how much there is to add. Historically the horizons sets have been very good for the cube, but it has tended to take awhile for the prices to come down for the alt arts. They get there eventually. Which is all to say next update either soon or awhile.

A huge chunk of the cube has rotated. The major goals of this update were to hone in on each color pairs strengths. With the help of the double feature black and white treatments we have access to a lot of role players. They're not necessarily the most powerful cards, but they fit better within the plan.

The most major changes are the removal of most the mutate and ninja cards. The Ikoria showcase cards are, for me, some of the best looking cards magic has done, but mutate is a hard mechanic to fit in a cube. We also wished happy trails to the draft fodder Ninja's. Baleful strix retro frame is not ideally what we would like from our alt arts. We would like more than just a frame swap. The inclusion of the retro frame artifacts is less of an issue since they include actual alternate schematic art. Those schematic artifacts are also the third major overhaul for the cube. The mana rocks and a few of the worst artifacts have been overhauled for more relevant choices. I went back and forth on cutting the mana rocks, but with almost no artifact synergy on the cube and most decks not really wanting to take a turn off to play a mana rock anyways it was decided they were a safe cut.

What we're thinking with the weirder inclusions:

Vorthos: gives the RW legends deck some flexibility in going to 5 color legends

Vivisection: the idea is that it's a narrow card draw spell aimed at a late pick for UW or UG, which can't prioritize card draw spells as early.

Trovolar: Trying out wolves and werewolves to give RG a more flavorful identity while retaining the basic strategy of mid range beatdown.

Tapping at the window: a little more boon to the BG deck. I remember this playing better than it looked, but it might not be powerful enough for the cube.

Grey Knight Paragon: placeholder until we finally can get the cards in or swords to plowshares and path to exile.

Next update is not expected until after Ixalan.

little bit of housekeeping in preparation for a significant overhaul coming in the next week. G/W continues to be a problem child, and for right now I've gone back to tokens for that color pair. There's some key areas that I want to focus on in the near future

1. reducing creature count. it's hard because they make so many more alt art creatures

2. Overhauling the artifacts. They're kinda bad.

3. Stripping out some of the filler sub archetypes for better and more interactive cards. ninjas, enchantments, and my golden goose mutate.

I'm still limited by budget constraints and the small, uneven card pool. We're getting there though.

The first cube updates are in place, mostly focused on refining the color pairs so their archetypes are more focused. Notably UW, which was being pulled in multiple directions is now more solidly on endless swarm type plan with weenie and card draw and UB is the focus for flicker, though it would be happy to play esper as well.

Also I remembered double feature exists, which gives so much needed breathing room especially to green. Green is in a tough spot in this cube as it stands. Because removal is lacking I've tried to avoid loading it up with huge ramp targets, but that does mean it can sit there with tons of ramp and not much to do with it. And I think this intuition is mostly correct. Battle mammoth was an absolute headache every time he hit the table. At the same time green just doesn't have interaction. There are no budget alt arts for fight spells, or at least I thought. Double feature brings some bad interaction for green to the table, but it is interaction. I think it's going to be just enough to start pushing green a little further. GB graveyard will pick up some good stuff as well.

Additionally, I've decided to bite the bullet and add swords to plowshares and path to exile to the to buy list. The cube still wants for more good interaction, and white needs it. Those two cards along with some double feature stuff will be tacked on to the next single orders after commander masters or wilds of eldraine.

Before that though in the next update we'll add in some new proxy lands and some secret lair stuff.

We actually got to run the cube through its paces in person, and it was pretty good. The last batches of proxies and secret lair cards are on their way, which should help smooth out the cube a little.

Overall balance and gameplay felt pretty good. Grixis value took down first place, and Naya humans took second. Colorwise most people were in two colors and a splash, which is where I'd like most bets to be. I will examine fixing in a little more detail because I would like for there to be a 5 color deck without the format being 5 color good stuff.

Current task list:

1. get it all uploaded here
2. insert new cards
3. replace some under performers