Adding a large chunk of Dragonstorm cards to the maybeboard, what essentially makes up the full list of cards I have any interest in. Many of these cards were discussed in my upcoming set review with Jank Diver Gaming. I expect around 25 cards from this list to get added, but as always, will wait to play the set and see some 17lands data before making final changes in a couple of weeks.

Quick change to reflect the fact that "draw matters" has become an important part of blue's identity in the cube.

Soulherder is good and Oji is fine, but ultimately both exist best in lower-removal environments. They haven't seen much success or even been drafted much in quite a long time, and mostly get played on the splash when they do. Soulherder specifically is worse in my environment than many, as many of my value 2-drops in the cube are "For Mirrodin!"-style equipment that can't be blinked by soulherder on turn 3.

Imhrahil gives UW a draw 2 signpost, giving 3 of the 4 blue pairs a clear "draw matters" signpost now. Faithless Mending plays well with blue's draw 2 payoffs along with Skyray and Containment Construct, but also has interesting potential in Esper shells, being able to trigger Snacker and Conscription on its own, while also triggering the WB life gain cards.

A large number of changes this time around, only half of which are actual Aetherdrift cards, with a lot of the other adds intended to support some of the Aetherdrift changes. Going color by color.

White
Gloryheath Lynx is the headliner here, performing increadibly well in the retail environment even with white lagging. Nesting Bot is a sideways change with Indebted Spirit, trying to leverage the artifact type here, though we lose some synergy with "heroic" effects. Veteran comes in as a bridge card, supporting some life gain / mill / discard, all themes that have either been boosted recently or in this update. Chwinga and Samwise are very similar effects, but ultimately think Chwinga plays better in my white section, especially alongisde For Mirrodin style equipment.

Blue: The headline addition from Aetherdrift is Skyray. I'm also bringing in Mako, and a number of cards intended to help support a small discard theme, including Lonely Sandbar. Filched Falcon and Cursed Windbreaker are attempts at upping the artifact count in blue, I don't feel confident about these, but blue is getting two gold artifact payoffs in this update, and the pickings are slim. Blowout I think is a massive get for blue in cube, and will play much better here than in retail.

Black
Black is all about synergy this update. Bauble and Momentum Breaker are good new Skyfisher targets. Wickerfolk plays in the artifact and graveyard space. Bitter Triumph is a removal spell that can trigger your discard payoffs. Archfiend is a test card to see how an expensive black creature with a buyout feels compared to Fell Beast, which was generally panned by my players. Thallid is another card that feels underpowered these days, so I'm bringing back Prowler as a different sacrifice option, though I don't feel strongly about that one.

Red
Galvanic Blast and Mako are the headline additions for different reasons, but I think Greasewrench is going to have a massive impact as well. Outpace Oblivion seems like a more relevant removal spell in the world of Skyfishers. Fuel the Flames is a test, I love Magic Missile, but Fuel can be a potential synergy card in the draw/discard space. Faithless Looting and Volatile Wanderglyph are very speculative additions...I like their potential to trigger draw/discard multiple times, something hard to find in the red section, but they'll be on a short leash.

Green
Two green 4-drops get switched out in the eternal search for relevant options...Witchstalker offers synergy potential, and Guardian can be a signpost for UG tempo, I'm interested to see how both play. Inkeeper was previously in the cube when there were fewer artifact and lifegain synergies, and I'd like to try it again. Incubation Sac has fallen off a cliff in terms of its play rate, and I think Dredger's Insight could be a fantastic cube addition, though might ask for a bit of support not currently in the cube.

Gold
UG gets a large makeover, starting with the fantastic Skyserpent Seeker. Vilespawn Spider was requested, and there are some new graveyard synergies entering with this update, so I think it could play well. Joint Exploration will get another run in the hybrid slot, it's basically just that vs Pond Prophet right now and Prophet didn't spark joy. I love Imoti but want to see what else can hold up in the expensive card advantage slot, and could imagine Make Your Own Luck performing well.

Five other additions from the retail environment, heavily focused on artifacts, with Beastrider as the exception. I'm at a place now where I have artifact payoffs / synergy cards in all of my gold sections except for UG, but couldn't bring myself to add back Wavesifter this time around. If Make Your Own Luck underperforms, it could get another run.

Colorless
Containment Construct and Network Terminal are back, and nods to potential discard synergies entering the cube. Hoverbike I think was generally quite bad, and Racer I see performing better in Voyage Home / Haunt the Network decks (I never really wanted to take it out in the first place). Sandstorm Verge was pretty speculative, Mirage Mesa holds its slot for now based on desert synergies but Night Market has to come in.

Svella has just not stood the test of time. It's intended to be a card for RUG / Jund attrition decks, but it doesn't seem to be getting people excited in those spots either.

The problem is that RG's gold cards are generally extremely one-note...."efficient creatures smash". So, with this change I'm going to try to at least support a larger RG deck, as opposed to the lower to the ground approach that most of the rest of the section supports. Invigorating Hot Springs is a card I'm skeptical of, but points much more in a "big assertive" direction at least, and Raging Swordtooth is probably the best "big assertive" payoff available.

Using the opportunity of the Aether Revolt rotation to try to make deserts / crime happen again. I wasn't overly pleased with the attempt last time, but I've played with it in some other cubes and appreciated it. The only "crime" payoffs coming in are card advantage payoffs in blue and UB, and I've got a very light "desert" payoff package coming in WRG.

With this change, artifacts are getting a little bit less support, and this is a change I'm monitoring closely. I could easily see this broad change getting reverted with Aetherdrift, if we see a lot of good artifacts / artifact payoffs in that set.

Not a massive number of changes coming to the cube with Foundations, note that cards in the Jumpstart set and the starter decks are not eligible for this cube.

I think the additions are all pretty meaningful. You can hear more about my thoughts on individual cards in the review I did with Jank Diver Gaming here.

Vampire Gourmand is a card that I was down on in the set review, and I'm still skeptical that it'll perform well in a high tempo environment like cube, but it's overperformed in retail to a degree that I didn't expect (in all archetypes, not just RB steal and sac), so I think it's worth testing. I'm also skeptical about Revenge of the Rats, but want to give it a try. I think the Timeless Witness > Elvish Regrower switch is marginal and can imagine reversing that at some point. Of the cards in the maybeboard, I think Faebloom Trick and Guarded Heir are the two with the most potential to make it in at some point.

Two changes to green outside of FDN...with other colors getting more and more cards that can be cast for different mana values, I wanted to go back to two cards that have previously been in the green section in Spinewoods Armadillo and Beanstalk Giant, both that give green access to a little bit more modality out of its large threats. Rise of the Varmints was mostly a failed experiment, and I'm hoping that Revenge of the Rats performs better.

With a lot of play and some top player data to reference, here are the changes coming to the cube from DSK. Twenty-Five non-lands, and 10 duals. With DSK entering, the 3 cards from KLD rotate. No major archetype changes, though with the reduction in DMU duals, I took out 1 domain payoff.

One change I'm excited about is a shifting of blue's CMC down by removing 2 3-drops for the 2 uncommons 2's from DSK. These cards won't often be played on turn 2, but hopefully will increase blue's ability to keep up on mana efficiency, something it has struggled with since the cube's inception.

A large set of cards getting added to the maybeboard with DSK, which I think will be the norm in the plooster era. Delirium and Enchantment matters cards could theoretically go in as packages, but I don't see enchantments getting added with this set, there aren't enough multi-type enchantments to excite me. The lands interest me, though likely not enough to displace any of the lands currently being used.

In the end, I expect 20-25 cards to get added, but as always will wait for some data to come in.

Green needed an extra cheap ETB, and I think branchwalker is the best available, but Wary Thespian is also reasonable. Possum is probably the best other "blink" card available in green after Tech-Wrecker and Stickytongue, I'm a little bit skeptical but others have reported good results.

Took / Trail / Greta / Minstrosity takes the number of GB food producers in the cube up to 18...there are already artifact and token synergy cards that work well with this, and then Greta and Trail as the only 2 cards that care specifically about food (with 2 cards in Took and Provisioner that can produce them over time). A little bit of graveyard recursion was sacrificed to make this happen, but in general I think those strategies were a little bit too strong to begin with, and we're adding in the UG "blink" as an alternative value approach. Savvy Hunter is probably the other card I'd be most interested in bringing in to support this, but feel that Great is probably a bit better.

A couple things to note with the BLB changes...

1. Trying to expand the reach of both UG "blink" and GB "food". I'll drop a companion changelist after this, to supplement the changes here.
2. Had hoped to be able to support UR spells more with this update, but I just don't think we got much of interest in BLB, unfortunately.
3. Overall think white makes out the best, but am hopeful that green gets some new ways to play.
4. There are a few cards that I think could have been added here, but just missed out and have a high chance of being added in the future:

Brightblade Stoat
Long River Lurker
Playful Shove
Flamecache Gecko

And a few more that would've been speculative / narrow, but I still have an eye on:

Blacksmith's Talent
Bonecache Overseer
Stocking the Pantry
Sunshower Druid
Tangle Tumbler

MH3 brings a large cube update. The largest change is again, to the mana base. Deserts / crime didn't end up playing as well as I hod hoped (a bit too parasitic) , and the MDFCs in MH3 seem very strong. I'm also intentionally giving white a couple more attrition tools with this update.

A massive influx of cards into the maybeboard for MH3. The focus here is on lands, particularly the MDFCs. Most likely, the full cycle of dual MDFCs will be coming in, alongside at least 1 of each of the MDFC boltlands for each color, but perhaps 2. Most likely, the just added deserts and crime synergy cards will have to be sacrificed to make room.

As always, will wait a couple of weeks to get a feel for the new cards in the MH3 environment, and see their 17lands stats before making changes.

Multicolor will forever be the hardest section to choose favorites on, and I have a larger gold section than most. In addition to these changes, UB gets the 2 crime payoffs. One of the things I'm tracking here is Gandalf's Sanction...I'm curious if it can be built around to create a new potential archetype. Honorable mentions: honestly too many to list, gold cards are cool.

Green is the best color in OTJ, and as such, gets a lot of additions, 4 of which were already referenced in the green section. Honorable mentions:

Narnam Renegade
Noose Constrictor
Racous Entertainer
Arborback Stomper
Crested Herdcaller
Somberwald Stag
Grapple with the Past
Betrayal at the Vault

Red is the worst color in OTJ, but it gets some tools that I expect to perform much better in cube than in OTJ where aggro is just not really a thing. Red gets a bunch more haste with this update, and some 4-power matters synergy. Honorable mentions:

Reckless Lackey
Viashino Pyromancer
Longhorn Sharpshooter
Rockslide Sorcerer
Cathartic Reuinion

A lot of small upgrades / sidegrades for the cube's best color, but the largest addition is clear...Ravenous Chupacabra comes in with extended cardpool. I assume this immediately will become one of the best cards in the cube, so I guess the rich get richer. Gothmog comes in over Rictus Robber which has been a disappointment in OTJ. Honorable mentions:

Diregraf Ghoul
Kitesail Freebooter
Servant of the Stinger
Vault Plunderer
Syr Konrad
Fungal Infection
Lively Dirge
Ifnir Deadlands

The eternal quest to improve blue in the cube continues. Flying tempo and spells matter got the majority of the attention here, though I want to call out Micromancer, a card I'm bringing back due to the Spree cards getting added from OTJ. Honorable mentions:

Outlaw Stitcher
Visage Bandit
Marauding Sphinx
Jailbreak Scheme
Arrester's Admonition
Reverse Engineer

White gets a host of new removal options, card advantage "engines", and 1 drops. Honorable Mentions that I could see giving a change to in the future.

Adanto Vanguard
Prairie Dog
Omenport Vigilante
Aerial Responder
Ministrant of Obligation
Prosperity Tycoon
Conclave Tribunal

Also bringing back Resolute Reinforcements, as it seems like a missing piece in the list right now.