Isn't it wild how a few days of warmer weather and more sunlight will dramatically improve your mood? Yes, things are, by-and-large undeniably terrible, but sometimes you're just a dog trying to have a cup of coffee while a fire rages all around you or someone pushing middle age who feels much more alive when they can sleep with the windows open and spends a few days primarily listening to the first Tiny Hawks album. Spending a day with friends playing this game was also nice as was all of the time spent not playing this game. Thank you all so very much.

I am taking a pause from lamenting the passage of time and the changing of this game to make some changes to this cube by way of reintroducing a bunch of cards and adding some new ones. At some point I had it in my head that I wanted to streamline and simplify the cards featured herein but I don't think I have gotten there yet. Instead, I am introducing one of the wordiest cards in a moment in Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. In my defense, I watched a boshnroll video featuring the card in a "Hybrid Tempo Deck" and I am a sucker for the word "Tempo". Also the card was cool in the video, or what I was paid attention to while folding the laundry.

In support of this "hybrid tempo" thing I am re-adding Elusive Otter and going to give Mockingbird a shot. They are evasive creatures that can support Kaito's ninjutsu and are also cool in their own right. Vapor Snag is also a tempo card and can clear blockers but it is really just a classic that I love and it wouldn't be a cube update without at least one odd classic meant only for me. I considered adding Mischievous Mystic and Faebloom Trick but I don't think I am there quite yet. I am taking out Faerie Conclave which was really fun to see in a draft so we'll consider its addition a success, Delay, and Negate. There are probably better cuts to be made but these are what caught my eye at this time.

I am also removing Raven's Crime and Condemn as being too cute and standing out in the list while looking for cuts. Getting to play Recommission in Theseus reminded me that it's a good card actually and I like the "cost" of Murderous Cut and wouldn't mind another removal spell.

In terms of "reject modernity, embrace tradition" I'm going to throw in two Savannah Lions in Usher of the Fallen and Dauntless Bodyguard. Student of Warfare continues to underperform and trip people up and Hopeful Initiate really relies too much on hope.

I have got a billion red two-drops and should really clean the section up on a whole but for the time being Kari Zev, Skyship Raider is coming out for Searslicer Goblin. I am still a little skeptical about how good the card may be but I like goblins and this is more goblins.

Circling back to Theseus, I had a lot of fun being on the receiving end of Ajani Vengeant and think the card will attract more attention than Boros Charm.

Finally, I think vehicles are dumb. Don't like the mechanic that much and don't have any particular fondness for Esika's Chariot or Smuggler's Copter. Adding back in Ulvenwald Oddity as green beef and Phyrexian Revoker to return to its role as a sideboard card.

All done for now.

Time old test of simply flipping through the cube and grabbing two cards that don't really spark a lot of joy or thought and swapping 'em out for two shiny new/old things.

Thanks @Kapernaumov.

I have a beautiful foil copy of Faerie Conclave I want to play somewhere, if only just to look at in a draft, and I can get $50 selling these cards which is lol.

I have loved, or been awed by, Venser since I first saw the card many many years ago. I would like to play with it. That's it.

Tidehollow Sculler is a cool classic and I had a lot of fun getting my teeth kicked in by Gerrard's Verdict while playing premodern recently. Upping the hand hate / tempo playing in BW seems like it tracks with my design goals or whatever.

Hey, it's been another year of looking at cards instead of staring into an abyss! Time flies! I keep on not dying, the sun keeps on rising. (Again.)

Here are some final changes to the cube for 2024 and some words about the year and my feelings towards this cube and Magic and so on.

The end of 2024 sees the end of the final big butt three-drops. I drafted a very fun Raffine, Scheming Seer deck in a roto draft of the cube in 2022 and there was one time that Raffine was equipped with Batterskull which was extremely funny and cool but, on whole, the card has just rode sideboards. Glarb is Glarb and Glarb was funny to say and see and Glarb but a valiant player tried to draft a Glarb deck and it did not go hot and also Glarb is just Glarb. The card is a whole bunch of stuff and I don't know if we really need all those bells and whistles and Glarb on top of four toughness for three across three colors. Glarb.

Phyrexian Revoker comes out again as is its fate and I look forward to finding a way to add it back in just to take it out. Anointed Peacekeeper has some of my least favorite art in the cube and always makes me think, "damn, I wish I had drafted Elite Spellbinder instead".

In their place I am bringing back three cards and trying Supreme Verdict for the first time. When I took out Batterskull I wrote that "Batterskull does not fit comfortably in this cube. It is antithetical to the type of Magic I like beyond the sheer joy I find in Stoneforge Mystic tutoring for Batterskull. That is so cool. Stoneforge Mystic is capable of doing so many other cool things whereas Batterskull is basically a very annoying roadblock that slowly batters at your skull." That was six months ago. In the time sense, I think my thinking has gotten simpler. Do I really know what type of Magic I enjoy? Tutoring for Batterskull brings me joy. Getting sweaty palms facing down Batterskull brings me joy--and stress. The risk/reward of picking Batterskull in the draft and wondering if you'll see Stoneforge Mystic. I love the card and if I can't play the cards I love in this cube what am I really doing?

Flickerwisp originally got cut because it is a good generic card and Voice of Resurgence got cut to make room for Knight of the Reliquary. Now I have space for those cards again. Neat.

Supreme Verdict is... I dunno, I want to try out another wrath and maybe angle towards a control deck that folks draft every now and then.

I do not know what this counts or truly reflects but, if one were to go through all the change blogs I wrote this year and tallied up the card changes it comes out to 152 changes. Now, some of those changes were me doing essentially nothing--adding Insist, Overmaster, and Savage Summoning and then taking them back out for the same cards they originally replaced before any drafts--and a good chunk of them were some of the same cards cycling in and out of the cube (e.g. Twinshot Sniper); but, still, that seems like a lot? Or is it? I am not sure. It's an interesting little number to fixate on and what is cube if not fixating on a bunch of numbers and endowing them with varying degrees of importance.

I think I am at a point where I like being fiddly and not precious with cards in this cube; more "classics" and cards with some "personal" importance/affinity than hot new things and making changes whenever I feel like it as opposed to when a new product appears. At the same time, it would be good just to sit with stuff for a while. This will likely be pretty possible in 2025 given that the announced sets/"products" look icky to me.

Oh! This seems kind of relevant or worth noting: with these final changes, and despite those 152 changes over the course of the year, I seem to be running only 22 cards printed in 2024. Of those, 10 are the surveil lands--never coming out of the cube; no notes; great cards--so I don't know how much those count for. Is that something? I mean, the cube made it a whole year without any supplemental products so I skipped over MH3 but also nothing there really inspired much temptation or interest. Weird year for Magic? Weird year for my personal interests? Weird year in general but maybe that's every year?

There were other things that I believe I wanted to touch on in this blog when I first opened this tab about two weeks ago but in the ensuing time I drafted an old border desert cube I am working on and now my mind is full of sand--in a good way.

Okay, that's all. The odds of a follow-up correction blog seem low.

Haven't been feeling very inspired to write a lot of words about Magic cards for a while now but still caught in this routine of writing words all the same. Here are some changes because more new cards were recently released and due to some feedback following a recent draft--the feedback was that black removal felt too free and easy. Did I truly address that? Maybe not. We'll see. "Nonartifact" in this cube was largely irrelevant re: Go for the Throat and Pile On has been pretty unremarkable.

Aven Interrupter comes out because I am getting rid of the references to Plot and it wasn't that impressive. I really like Maul of the Skyclave and generally love Stoneforge Mystic so one more target is welcome as is the fact that it also functions like a combat trick. Looking forward to Celestial Armor.

Elusive Otter was an elusive feature in decks and... look, sometimes you gotta make a cut for the sake of making a cut. Kitsa, Otterball Elite was pretty wild when I played it last week and I don't love that it is upside, upside, upside, but it is also more in line with this cube's power/vibe. I am not sure if Sphinx of Forgotten Lore can keep up in the cube but I welcome another Snapcaster effect and it's hard not to be excited by the potential of a big flasher. I know what I wrote there.

Pile On has been fine but nothing to write home about. I was impressed by Dreams of Steel and Oil in a recent draft and, while Despise shows its age a bit in how it doesn't do as much as that card, I think Despise has similar potential. It also has a cool FNM promo.

Mentioned Go for the Throat previously. It has no downside, hits almost everything, etc. Raven's Crime is a card that has some emotional resonance from "back in the day" and I want to explore hand hate options more. That you can dump lands to continue to shred an opponent's hand seems neat and pairs nicely with a card we'll get to in a moment.

Slickshot Show-Off is pretty cool when you're playing Arena BO1 and just want to go wild in some sort of RDW. As a single card in this cube I have found it to be less impressive and tricky to time in a way that isn't fun to me. Can't say I'll miss it a bunch. Going to give Magmatic Channeler another shot.

Taking Cathartic Pyre out because no one seemed to ever play it except for, of course, in the last draft when it was used in a 5C Slogurk deck and was really cool. Flame Jab can also go in a Slogurk deck and is a classic so score one for the jab.

Twinshot Sniper will probably pop back in again at some point because it is just one of those good, functional cards. Maybe? In the meantime, Tarfire is also a good functional card with some weird benefits given the Kindred thing.

Utopia Sprawl similarly can come back in again another time maybe. Instead, here's another classic card: Life from the Loam. I find Loam to be an intimidating card because, to me, it sure seems like it requires some big brained thinking. That said, it's the fun sort of thinking. I think. I look forward to misplaying it.

Prismari Command is totally fine but doesn't see a lot of play so I am adding back in a totally fine card that is maybe also a little nuts in this environment, Electrolyze.

People loved to make jokes about how Lost Jitte sure isn't Umezawa's. It's kind of funny but also I think I would rather have a single Jitte in the cube--one that inspires fear and sweaty palms. I love fightning against Umezawa's Jitte and Witherbloom Command can help in that fight. It can also support the lands stuff going on with Loam. It can also drain an opponent... does anyone do that?

Have a nice weekend.

Sunday cleaning continues. I think the overarching trend is to have cards that read directly and simply. Fewer one-off keywords and paragraphs and unique tokens. Good clean Magic.

Torrential Gearhulk has sat in my little box of cards for a long time because I took apart my artifact cube before I got a chance to add it. I have avoided it here because having a six mana card felt "off". However, everyone else is already running it and very happy with the way the card plays and it is just a bigger Snapcaster Mage and Snapcaster Mage is cool and good. Tishana's Tidebinder has been fine and also cool but it's a lot to read, it introduces weird edge cases, and you do all that reading and thinking and then the card dies to Shock/Twinshot Sniper or whatever.

Caustic Bronco is also cool and I had fun playing it but, man, I dunno whatever I don't need "saddle". It can sit in the little card box until I come to my senses again or I have another mood swing. Much like Gearhulk, the people of the internet seem to love Harvester of Misery. Okay.

Gnomes are funny, Boros Adeline is not. Card's not bad, I think? Did it do anything? Didn't make an impression. Boros Charm is a classic and doesn't create tokens. It is a lot of text, my Gatecrash version has incorrect rules text, and it's a combat trick. Pobody's nerfect.

Beautiful Sunday to undo some recent changes to the cube with older cards that I have previously said don't get respect or pull their weight. Whatever.

For a while I was thinking it was important to have some mechanical density/repetition to make-up for all the shit that happens on cards these days. However, I think that results in adding cards I don't really care that much about. For instance, Ornery Tumblewagg. Oh, and Hauntwoods Shrieker. What am I even doing if I am not willing to play Primeval Titan?

Anyway, I am bored and unhappy at work/home. So here are some classicos.

Don't have a great number of words in me. Gonna make these changes and maybe play the cube some time in November.

Cryptic Coat is pretty cool but I want to try out the other facedown card mechanic for a little bit. Also, it's cool, but unblockable is pretty annoying. As is having to remember the ward 2 on the cloaked card. I am overthinking things.

Valley Floodcaller got played in a deck which is all I ever wanted for the card. It's not screaming in your face powerful which is a funny thing to write as if that's a downside but such is the state of this cube and Magic in 2024.

Primeval Titan also got played in a deck and, thus, a dream of mine was realized. I dunno. Card seems unnecessary? I think I would rather have another three mana baneslayer than a classic six mana titan.

Hauntwoods Shrieker is a three mana baneslayer so we're going to give it a shot. Abhorrent Oculus is definitely something. An Unearth/Reanimate cheat target? A control finisher? Murktide at home? We'll see. Gush was in the cube like a year or so ago and is now back because sometimes it's fun to include old busted cards.

Some cards that were previously in the cube coming back. Some new ones. I keep on not dying, the sun keeps on rising.

I played Bloodghast the last time the cube was drafted and, honestly, it was too persistent. Kind of bummer, but such is life. Stalactite Stalker has been inoffensive but I am not terribly fond of how oddly it reads due to "descended". Evolved Sleeper, and Warden of the First Tree, coming out are the closest I will get to cutting Student of Warfare and Figure of Destiny at this time. You are welcome @Lemem.

A year or so ago I bought an original Liliana of the Veil and Huntmaster of the Fells because it seemed absolutely wild that I could buy both cards for under $10 total. Lili was immediately added to the cube and Huntmaster has sat in my little collection box and was briefly in a Wizard's Tower before returning to the box. I have been ambivalent about Radha since forever. I was thinking of testing that new scarecrow from Duskmourn but I don't have a copy of it and am not terribly motivated to get one. Huntmaster has shown its age in so many ways but if I can't give it a shot in here what I am even doing?

Abundant Growth felt needlessly cute and not great for a cantrip. Edge of Autumn plays into the general spells-matter vibe and can also cantrip.

Finally, I was hoping to maybe try a little manifest package with Whisperwood Elemental, Abhorrent Oculus, and Hauntwoods Shrieker but, per the above, I feel no real desire to get new cards. So, just going to give the one I have a shot and see what happens.

I think I had picked up copies of Treetop Village and Barbarian Ring for this cube at some point and simply forgot to ever make the swaps. Sylvan Library was cut from the cube just shy of a year ago and I wrote at the time it "is a generically good card and sparks very little joy in me." Have my opinions on it change? Not entirely sure but seeing it in the box made me think it would be fun to add in again. Faerie Vandal comes back in because, well, again, it is fine and good and it does get dumb with Sylvan Library.

Shout out to my brother for giving me his Shadowspear.

A matter of cats and dogs. And not really liking vigilance. And being bored and unhappy at work. And not using my copy of Wolfbriar Elemental in my other project.

The cube was drafted this past weekend at the first Capitol Cube Championship and, while I kind of wanted to wait and see what information I could gleam from draft photos and data shared via the Hedron Network, it is Monday, there are a bunch of Bloomburrow cards on my desk, and I don't really want to do my job.

Cube content, and hopefully personal contentment, here we come.

First and foremost, I am basically swapping out all of the manlands for another cycle of shocks. I am doing this because, a lot of the manlands are dumb and bad, it makes little sense to have a complete cycle of cards just for the sake of having a cycle, and I have a shocklands that I am not using regularly and would like to change that.

I am keeping Celestial Colonnade, Creeping Tar Pit, and Restless Vinestalk as they all do see some play and "fit" broadly within those colors. That said, I am also adding another Hallowed Fountain, Watery Grave, and Breeding Pool and simply removing Chromatic Sphere, Chromatic Star, and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim. The Chromatic cards weren't really played that much and the baubles are my preferred colorless cantrips. As to Golos, I really don't care about the card. If I am going to have a five mana artifact it is going to be Batterskull and I am not adding Batterskull back at this time. Since adding Field of the Dead, the card has performed remarkably well and does not seem to need Golos to do so. There are two other adds that may help out Field and generally fit in this cube that we'll get to.

So there are three Bloomburrow cards that I want to give a shot and also Force of Will. Lol? I don't have much in way of thinking beyond, over the summer, I have watched a decent amount of boshnroll and am becoming legacy-pilled or something, and it is just one of those cool classics that it would be fun to own and play. Maybe I am wrong in that assessment. Snap is an easy card to take out.

As to the cute animal set, I am adding Stormchaser's Talent, Kitsa, Otterball Elite, and Valley Floodcaller. Kitsa is upside upon upside and another seemingly pushed blue two-drop so that "makes sense" here. I think Stormchaser's Talent is better than it lets on and the same is true for Valley Floodcaller who also allows a player to do one of my favorite things--cast spells at instant speed. Faerie Vandal is aggressively fine and I have commented before about Stormwing Entity gets no respect so this is par the course. If I am being honest, one of these cuts should probably be Elusive Otter but, whatever, otters are fun(ny).

I am pretty excited about Iridescent Vinelasher and Darkstar Augur and extremely high on Fell. It is time I acknowledge that maybe Murderous Rider is not cutting it and Tenacious Underdog is just an underdog. I don't have anything witty to say about Innocent Blood.

Hired Claw seems pretty spicy and what's note to love about a 2MV red creature with haste and prowess a la Emberheart Challenger? Will the Valiant text ever prove relevant? Let's find out. Playful Shove is being tested as part of my search for cantrips in all colors. The fact that it can remove a decent amount of the creatures in the cube helps mitigate the cost, and speed.

Highway Robbery comes out without ever getting played because it has cowboy hats. Zurgo Bellstriker is the least impressive of my current one-drops IMHO and Shivan Devastator doesn't really spark a great deal of joy which is a real shame for a big dragon.

Okay, so, for a while now it has felt like a big "thing" with this cube is low curve, low curve, low curve. That kind of runs counter to what green is known for which I have largely been fine with because I find ramp really boring. Does that all get undone if I add Primeval Titan? Because, I have a copy of the card that I would like to play and I think it would be fun here and if someone is going to spend a lot of mana to search for Field of the Dead I would rather they do it with a titan rather than an artifact scout. To further add to the "lands" identity, I want to give Crop Rotation a shot. If nothing else, it is easier to read than Feral Encounter. I am also adding Pawpatch Recruit.

Goldvein Hydra is just a big dumb generic hydra. Don't really love the vigilance on it either. It can take a break for a bit.

Glarb, Calamity's Augur is a card that is more than a card but also still just a card. Will it be good here? Hard to say. Will it see more play than Quandrix Command? Also hard to say but I think that card saw like zero play so the bar is low.

I am fairly convinced that there is real potential for a Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar deck in this cube but that will have to wait for another time as I am re-adding Renegade Rallier.

Can't wait to see what I did wrong or what changes have to be made after the fact.

Glarb.

It is taking a lot not to name this blog "Almost Crimes" but I am home alone this week and I do not know if I can handle going down some sort of Broken Social Scene rabbit hole on top of getting lonely. I'll just stick with listening to Bjork and Kickball. Doing great. God. What is time.

Actually, I could have probably sidestepped another weird mental spiral and simply put it as @Lemem has: "The cowboy hats are getting to me."

This is the final change I am making before the cube is drafted in the Capitol Cube Champs in August and it isn't so much of a change as it is more unwinding. I have "big" plans for a whole bunch of Bloomburrow cards but won't get my hands on them until after the event. As such, I would rather play with known cards that I enjoy as opposed to those that I am actively looking forward to taking out.

Okay, goodnight.

Classic change made while looking at cards in paper. I previously wrote that I really wanted to keep Townsfolk for some silly synergies with Leonin Lightscribe but that's awfully cute whereas Elspeth's Smite is just more good clean smiting.

Walking back some changes made in prior weeks before ever testing them out in a draft. The desire for cantrips across colors in Overmaster and Insist feels at odds with how spells that cannot be countered would play. I cast Insist... my opponent counters it because they can't counter the coming creature? They look at the removal spell they have in their hand and smile? Are either of these sequences interesting? It's not meant to be a strife. It's not meant to be a struggle uphill. I feel like that's the sort of circumstance making spells unable to be countered creates. You know? If nothing else, it maybe feels less in line with the rest of the play patterns and stated goals of this cube and how combat "tricks" play into that.

I will also note that I am very Bloomburrow-pill'd and excited about Valiant mice. Adding back in the green pump/protect spells will compliment those cards nicely and probably help continue to further Gruul as the deck to beat.

God, I love Bjork.

Two funky adds as I continue to experiment with cantrips... and uncounterable spells? I mean, hopefully that is not what these cards are about. I think Savage Summoning looks like a very cool, again, very funky, tempo play; in my strange journey to make every color be able to contribute to a spellslinger deck, it seems like it could fit nicely.

Crash Through was run because of the second line. I don't think that was ever fully appreciated. The same thing may happen with Overmaster but overmaster has cooler art so that's okay.