It's been about two weeks since we released the last of our September changes, and I've been largely happy with them. I believe all of the entries "fit in" to our environment, including Overlord. Like I wrote in the September changes, I think it slots well into reanimator, and decently into the more creature-heavy UB builds. It seems to be performing exactly on par with our archetypes...but I yearned for more.

While I think Overlord is balanced here, maybe even strong, it doesn't really do anything that our black cards couldn't do previously. It is a solid execution and provides good redundancy. What it isn't, in my opinion, is exciting.

Enter Tyvar, the Pummeler. We had briefly discussed Tyvar as a competitor for the DSK slot in our original Duskmourn update. He's an efficient body with a two strong activated abilities. My main draw to him, however, is the whole he fills in our green cards.

Our green three-drop creature slot is generally made of defensive creatures (Courser of Kruphix, Ohran Viper) and utility creatures with poor stats for their MV (Wood Elves, Yavimaya Elder, Eternal Witness). Tyvar bends this mold and opens doors for more aggressive green strategies.

With WG's archetype being stompy, I want Tyvar in this environment to do the stomping. I think his presence in packs is an important signal to send to drafters. More important than having an efficient mill engine.

No shade on Overlord of Balemurk tho. Card's a house.

-S

Going into these choices, we were down on golgari cards from swapping Maelstrom Pulse to Mask of Riddles. Winter, Cynical Opportunist signposts our GB reanimator archetype well, both milling cards and reanimating permanents. Winter's third ability can return any permanent, which opens up a lot of possible targets that get missed by spells like Reanimate and utilizes non-permanent spells that reanimator decks typically don't care about.

I also think that our cube's golgari cards are very polarized, and this has become even more obvious after the loss of Maelstrom Pulse. We have two "classes" of cards in GB:

• Extremely efficient low-cost creature/spell (see Abrupt Decay, Grim Flayer, Lotleth Troll)
• Big Dude™️ (see The Gitrog Monster, Alpha Deathclaw)
  Winter defies these classes and gives GB an opportunity to build an engine on board, like most of our archetypes get. I think this will be a nice inclusion to smooth out the midgames for combo decks, as well as be splashable in decks that just want the free reanimation.

Duskmourn was a set with a lot of powerful and interesting cards. Cards like Chainsaw, Tyvar, the Pummeler, Twitching Doll, and the entire glimmer cycle have a lot of potential in this environment. We've gone with Overlord of the Balemurk because of its modality: being both a cheap, efficient Takenuma channel and an inevitable win condition that keeps cycling creatures and planeswalkers through your graveyard. Also doubles as reanimator target, which I love. Harvester of Misery does the same thing, and that card has quickly become one of my favorite black creatures. I have high hopes for overlord.

-S

Mardu Outrider is one of few possible picks from this set, with most of the other possibilities being Alchemy cards. Mardu Outrider itself is an efficient black threat that fills the graveyard, which is something the cube currently lacks. This slots well into turbo green-black, as discard outlets are useful for powerful reanimator spells.

Mask of Riddles makes any creature into an evasive value engine, allowing blue-black strategies to play and profit off of etb creatures. Maelstrom Pulse has been a second-rate multicolored removal that is frequently uninteresting.

-V

Sultai is a slot we've both wanted but have had trouble successfully filling. Sultai represents the crossover of our BG reanimator archetype and our UB evasion/ninjas archetype. We tried Tasigur, the Golden Fang, but I was consistently underwhelmed by its value generation and lack of synergy. Briefly, we tried Leovold, Emissary of Trest, but I likewise disliked it's lack of care for its adjoining archetypes. Glarb is specifically strong in GB for its surveil, but it has immense generic strength. Glarb offers a lot of card selection and card draw on a solid defensive body. I'm excited to see how he performs in this environment. May his moistness prosper.

I was, on the whole, not enthused by Assassin's Creed. We share the WR equipment archetype, but most of those selections still underwhelmed me. Rooftop Bypass is cute, but I think it falls short of Spear's flexibility. Even only activating on attacks, the three options cover a lot of ground in terms of versatility. Being an equipment in red is also a bonus. Hopefully it finds its home here.

Sakura-Tribe Elder saw a reprint in the new Love your LGS set, meaning our copy changes. That takes us back to Junior APAC Series promos. Most of them have not aged great. Of the six, two are cards we are either already playing or have played before. We're taking Soltari Priest here because of its ability to hold equipment and dodge/defend against red decks. GL to priest, I'm hoping it finds a niche here.

Agate Instigator fills a relatively new slot in our environment. It supports UR's burgeoning tokens archetype powered by cards like Third Path Iconoclast, Goblin Rabblemaster, and Whirler Rogue. I hope it will also find a home in the naya zoo decks and in lower-to-the-ground equipment decks as a decent source of effective bodies.

Also happy first real blog post! Only took 407 cards. See you for duskmourn :)

-S