Patch notes summary:

• Creature overall creature density across the cube increased. 43% “true” creatures 45% dedicated token makers (ex: Raise the Alarm) to 44% “true” creatures, to 48%~49% depending on if you count cards like Timely Reinforcements that can make tokens, but need setup.
• More Enchantment removal in White, and Green. Black has an option, Extract the Truth, but the total option space is thin.
• Proactive Blue strategies buffed. Draw 2, Curiosity on-hit, Draw 2, and “Spells in Graveyards” added as themes.
• Black refocused on Graveyard & Reanimation. Aristocrats dropped as a major theme to subtheme, only surviving monocolor “Blood Artist” is Morbid Opportunist.
• Green beef reallocated. +1/+1 counters slightly de-emphasized, ramp slightly emphasized.
• Blue-White is not no longer explicitly “Flying”
• Blue-Green is about pulling stuff out of the graveyard. Also Neoform is here. You figure that one out.
• Black-White is about Lifegain. Reanimation subtheme slightly bolstered.
• Rat tokens buffed; Unbanned from blocking.

Notable single-card changes:

• Land cycles adjusted. Removed: Pain Lands (Shivan Reef), Bounce lands (Izzet Boilerworks), 5x Evolving Wilds. Added: Check Lands (Sulfur Falls), MH3 Landscapes (Perilous Landscape)
• Removed all off-color flashback/kicker/adventure cards. All cards are true monocolored or gold.
• Removed all preexisting “whenever cards leave your graveyard” triggers (Tormod, the Desecrator, Thran Vigil, and Chalk Outline). Added Kisla Skimmer.
• Removed all Evoke cards (Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw, and Wavesifter), and Portal of Sanctuary
• Removed (as implied by “no off-color flashback) Spider Spawning. Added: Revenge of the Rats.
• Added Perforating Artist and Garna, Bloodfist of Keld, as an attempt to push Rakdos towards “Aggro with minor Aristocrats subtheme” instead of “Aristocrats with minor Aggro subtheme”
• Added Cleansing Wildfire; Minor slap on the wrist to greedy mana bases. Would add Price of Progress but it’s not very bulk and Anathemancer just isn’t the same.
• Added Neoform. No thought went into it. It might be bad. Good luck figuring that one out!
• Added Angelic Accord.
• Added Crow Storm.
• Added Hidetsugu's Second Rite. Debated Triskaidekaphobia, but I’m more happy with Red than Black. That may come in once I get Black in a spot I’m happy with.
• Added Quirion Dryad, Werebear, and Grizzly Fate. Removed Wild Mongrel (sorry Alice! I just wanna try those other two for a bit!)
• Added Skirmish Rhino and Riverwheel Sweep. These are the only 3c cards in the list.

Note at the end about iconic cuts at the end.

Update Philosophy:
I was largely very happy with the previous version of the Cube. Dramatically increasing the fixing land density felt much better, if slightly overtuned for Sealed. Green had a cohesive identity and performed well. White and Red were already in a spot I liked. However, I felt Blue decks lacked a meaningful proactive gameplan outside of happening into Sphinx’s Tutelage, and Black felt like it only succeeded when paired with Green. And was slightly too consistently paired with Green, as Golgari felt like it was slightly overpreforming. Ultimately these observations inclined me to think the following:

• Blue needed a proactive gameplan
• Black needed work on its identity
• Green needed slightly less focus

These conclusions coincided with seeing Mark Rosewater’s updated set skeleton, and seeing his significant increase reminded me of how regularly I’d feel a squeeze on creatures and a glut on spells. As such, the following major changes were made to directly address these points:

• Significantly increase Blue’s access to quality creatures that can, potentially, close out a game.

While I was mainly looking to give good creatures to proactive decks, I thought slower decks also should have good options to close out games. However, proactive decks generally want good threats in the opening hand, whereas a slower and more controlling deck can wait a while. I did mostly try to include cards that fit well into both spells-y and controlling decks—namely keeping Eddymurk Crab and adding Rise from the Tides and Tolarian Terror—but I could see including a larger creature with Flash or Ward to give blue control decks easier access to a finisher.

• Refocus Black away from Aristocrats, and towards Reanimator.

Why cut Aristocrats? Largely two reasons. Firstly, Aristocrats tends to be at its best as a very high game-objects and game-actions playstyle. This is at odds with “manageable levels of [...] board state complexity levels for a wide range of skill levels” and while any individual Blood Artist isn’t that hard to understand, collectively Marionette Apprentice, Morbid Opportunist, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Cruel Celebrant, and Judith, the Scourge Diva all function just differently enough that you can’t just batch them together..
Secondly, reanimator in 1v1 Magic and Commander just play out differently. Zombify targeting Pelakka Wurm is a real and dangerous threat that could lose you the game almost on the spot here, whereas in Commander it’s… quaint. I also generally have a guiding light to try to do the thing that’s less “Commander-y” because that means that generally has a home if you’re willing to make one.
Ultimately the complexity issues and more bespoke-to-cube vibes lead me to lean towards downgrading Aristocrats as a major theme. A few elements have been retained, Act of Treason then feeding the creature to Dockside Chef is on the menu, but it’s not going to be a primary gameplan.

• Green had some raw beef exchanged for value engines

Cards like Quirion Dryad and Werebear are very strong… if you get them online, but start the game fairly frail. Sixth Sense, Stocking the Pantry, and Hunter's Talent need you to be forwarding your gameplan to pay you off. There’s also a slight decrease in ramp, especially taking out the pseudo-dorks in 1-mana land enchantments, meaning that Green will likely have less frequent explosive curve-outs. It’s possible that this has not been a meaningful slap on the wrist for Green, as a lot of its best cards remain, but the average base stat line and general increase in creatures in the cube should hopefully keep it more in parity.

Some of you may notice that Day of Judgment, Dig Through Time, Persist, Anger of the Gods, and Collected Company are cards that… have not been printed at Uncommon before. The justification is that I want to experiment with adding an actual rare slot to bring this cube even more in line with retail limited. This also enables me to experiment with a few effects that would otherwise not be available at Peasant, mainly true sweepers. I have some debate on including Mastermind's Acquisition, Wish, or Chord of Calling, but will wait to see if a light sprinkling of rares even feels appropriate before experimenting further. Also the honest answer is I like Dig Through Time and wanna cast it again.

Finally, I’m contemplating supporting combo outright. I’m not sure if I will like how a true A+B combo will play out, but introducing combo is on my radar. The following considerations are not live in the cube, but something like Thopter Foundry+Sword of the Meek and/or Oketra's Monument+Whitemane Lion/Kor Skyfisher. Essentially mana-gated combos that would be infinite if you had infinite mana, though there should be no way to generate an arbitrary amount of mana in the list. Funnily enough this would also enable Persist (ala Putrid Goblin sty

I gotta get a better workflow.

Missed a few.

There are a few changes in design philosophy that have gone into this change. The overarching idea are to (A) continue to simplify and streamline the total amount of keywords in the cube (ex: cut Madness/Dredge for complexity, scry to not mix it, surveil, and explore), and to (B) give Green a more intentional design towards +1/+1 counters and the graveyard, and less towards "Big Ramp." Giving green that identity also had some splash in Black, making it very +1/+1 counters focused to better facilitate a shared identity between the two.

Changes are largely not 1:1 so for sake simplicity and my own sanity (and since these changes were made months ago physically, but not here), so I simply chose not to include any 1:1 changes.

Minor note: Fact or Fiction is intended to be Deep Analysis.

So apparently listing "Ash Barrens --> Evolving Wilds" five times is not good enough for CubeCobra so. Whoops.

ALSO! I apparently didn't buy a copy of Up the Beanstalk so that's also getting edited. Up the Beanstalk is a major subtheme I want to support in order to encourage bigger plays, but Fae Offering is still an interesting build-around-y replacement enchantment that hopefully will stand up enough to make me cut something else.

A lot of these adjustments are either to match printings, or there's some cards I just couldn't order and didn't feel like placing a new order again (ex: Cult Conscript).

A few quick thoughts, I would like to find the space for Fyndhorn Elves, Avacyn's Pilgrim, and Woodland Acolyte to both create mana dork density and maintain the off-color cycle aspect.

There are a few deliberate changes I am making for actual design purposes.

• Pegasus Guardian --> Urbis Protector: While it's nice to be able to bundle a blink and sacrifice engine to a Cloudshift, the card is wordy and dense to the point that I've decided that to reduce the word count of the cube that Urbis Protector probably plays a close enough role to play as glue rather than payoff for most of the same archetypes.

• Nightveil Sprite --> Foul Watcher: Makes it so that there are more Delirium cards so that Raving Visionary isn't a singleton. Also makes it so that there are no other Faeries in Blue, which hopefully will discourage people from expecting Faerie Tribal off Picklock Prankster and will use that mainly as "Mill 4, regrow Inst/Sorc"

• Ghost of Ramirez DePietro --> Cloudkin Seer: Ramirez is both very wordy, and very weird. It also introduces potential memory issues and Cloudkin Seer just plays into blink and fliers better.

• Gnawing Vermin --> Faerie Dreamthief: Gnawing Vermin is a holdover from when I was trying to push Twister Sewer-Witch as an include in the list. However, there's just not quite enough rat density in Peasant to pan out. Tragic, but that's Cube design.

• Rat Out --> Disfigure: Disfigure is just more iconic and there's already a -1/-1 card in Darkblast. Also, Disfigure was in the previous iteration of the Cube.

• Vampire Lascerator --> Diregraf Ghoul: While I think Lascerator plays more interesting, Ghoul is just more straightforward. The only upkeep triggers in the entire cube are Delver of Secrets, Rebound on Ephemerate and Staggershock, (all very finite memory checks) and Vilespawn Spider (a multicolor card). Everything else triggers during combat or end-step. This isn't an intentional design decision, the Cube just kinda panned out that way so I figured I'd just lean into it more and streamline it just that bit more.

• Bloodchief's Thirst --> Fatal Push: I want to test Push and see if I end up liking it or Thirst better. I could see either working, but while I'm running 5x Evolving and Mystical Teachings, Push plays slightly better into this version.

• Spiteful Prankster --> Witty Roastmaster: Probably should have replaced Hissing Iguanar but I own that and not Spiteful so here we are. Witty Roastmaster is more bespoke so I decided to add diversity instead of redundancy, though the two cards play on similar axis to fill similar roles.

• Insolent Neonate --> Dragon's Rage Channeler: Oh this one was hard. This was just a temporary filler, but I wasn't really sure what to slot Neonate back in for. They both fill the bin and have evasion, but Neonate pushes the Madness and Aristocrats whereas Channeler pushes spells decks. It's honestly a tough call and I want both in, but I want to try the other cards present (Pheonix Chick and Satyr's Cunning) to see how they play. Tragically this leaves Neonate without a home, even though I do want to slot it back in.

• Cradle Clearcutter --> Beanstalk Giant: Gonna keep this for good. The idea with adding so much Prototype was to increase the Reanimator target density (and let the flicker deck play on a new axis) while still trying to provide playables lower on the curve. However, Cradle Clearcutter doesn't reanimate or flicker particularly threateningly, and Beanstalk Giant reanimates better in longer grindy games.

• Kami of Whispered Hopes --> Eternal Witness: Actual swap. Eternal Witness is just more iconic, and if I want more Hardened Scales variants there's Conclave Mentor and Winding Constrictor, and they're most likely to go to the player that actually wants it. I could even go grab Mowu if I wanted.

• Beckon Apparition --> Silverquill Pledgemage: Beckon made more sense when there was both reactive and proactive uses with Quintorius and Tormod. But I cut Quint, so now Pledgemade makes sense to enable Wx/Bx Spellslinger.

• Colossal Skyturtle --> Frilled Mystic

• Fractal Summoning --> Quandrix Pledgemage: So this is actually a notable philosophy shift. This is an intentional shift to try to move Simic away from big idiot graveyard value and more towards UG Tempo. This is almost entirely down to not being able to pick up a Colossal Skyturtle due to Pioneer Discover Combo. I might want to go back if I wanna push Simic Beans, but I feel like Simic Tempo might have more support than Mana Value 5 as a theme. And on that note...

• Satyr Wayfinder --> Quirion Dryad: Further enables Green tempo lists, and gives a reason to be multicolored Green Stompy instead of Mono Green stompy.

• Imodane's Recruiter --> Keldon Strike Team: Imodane's Recruiter plays better in longer games due to it's overall better stats (three 2/2s vs two 1/1s and a 3/1), but Keldon Strike Team can get its full value on turn 5, whereas Recruiter needs to split it's value or get to 8 mana. I might return to Recruiter if I decide that either Boros needs to slow down, want to enable White to have access to Train Troops (Team is either mono-red or gold. Recruiter and Rally the Peasants are both closer to hybrid cards), or just because I kinda feel like it.

• Midnight Haunting --> Lingering Souls

• Reanimate --> Unburial Rites: Something something making sure that I have pairs of off-color cards something something. Also Reanimate is expensive.

• Consider --> Joint exploration

• Jewel Thief --> Elvish Hydromancer: Again, further trying to incentivize UG specifically, even though Hydromancer is acceptably playable on it's own. Do kinda wanna fit both, but I'm debating having a few copy effects in the Cube to see how it goes. Other considerations include Hulking Metamorph, Mirror Image, Self-Reflection, and Moritte of the Frost.

As for the "I just couldn't buy a copy" cards:

• Clarion Spirit --> Resolute Reinforcements
• Cathar Commando --> Lightwalker
• Stroke of Midnight --> Generous Gift
• Dauntless Bodyguard --> Usher of the Fallen (tbh I just don't wanna find a lose copy)
• Jeskai Elder --> Spellweaver Eternal (I swear I had a copy...)
• Stitcher's Supplier --> Undead Butler
• Cult Conscript --> Clay Revenant
• Tyvar's Stand --> Blossoming Defense
• Watcher of the Spheres --> Thunderclap Wyvern
• Conclave Mentor --> Arcus Acolyte
• Wee Dragonauts --> Expressive Iteration
• Stormclaw Rager --> Fireblade Artist
• Campus Guide --> Prophetic Prism
• Circuit Mender --> Filigree Familiar
• Mortarpod --> Culling Dais
• Ash Barrens --> Evolving Wilds

Cube Updated – Automatic Post