We tried the trapper but found it to be too slow and inconsistent.
Under the skin caused too many recursive play patterns. I do like sultai going infinite decksize but I dont want play patterns of matches taking forever.

https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/thoughtseize-you/

somehow i took out our duress. breaking alchemy rule to have better thoughtsieze

As a general philosophy of cube and magic I enjoy drafting cards that have upsides and downsides. This doesn't necessarily necessitate that those cards become more narrow in terms of archetypes, at minimum it recontextualizes the draft such that the drafter has new considerations given the contextual synergies to other cards, and ideally it allows them to push the upside and negate the downsides through careful deck building.

brainsurge Brainsurge has been a bit too strong for this kind of effect. I also would like to add discard to this card slot

I love the mobilize mechanic. In replacement of some token generators I've swapped mobilize cards such as dalkovan packbeasts. This is a very strong keyword so we will see how busted it actually is.

I think samwise is a sweet card that has a play pattern of using him proactively after an attack or reactively after removal. The one con I see in terms of play pattern is that the opponent doesn't have the opportunity to react or make decisions after having lost the encounter. In essence it feels the interaction is one-sided.
I've swapped him out for sunpearl kirin which will hopefully be more interactive between both players. This slightly enhances flicker and weakens orzhov

However the balance is somewhat maintained with the next swap of visionary augmenter, a card that is essentially only for tokens/go wide, to wayspeaker bodyguard, a card that returns critters and acts as evasion/interruption.

Psychic Pickpocket is swapped for Constrictor Sage. Sultai players rejoice

Kishla Trawlers has a more flexible effect as compared to slickshot in terms of getting the card back to use at any time (notably counterspells similar to how snappy would) with an additional cost of having creatures in the yard.

Spectral denial doesnt exile, but it can be a tad cheaper for the simic players

[Burst Lightning]] is just generically good. I swapped for Channeled Dragonfire as I like the benefit of multiple spells and supporting graveyard value at the cost of sorcery speed interaction.

I'm reducing the enablers for the roots package slightly

Slip out the back moves to shore up for the spells targeting creatures packages

phantom interference is swapped for a weaker card runescale stormbrood while you cant counter any spell, you do get to counter some and then get a dragon for izzet later. similar modality with more strict conditions. this is a nerf but I want to try its playpattern

similar reasoning for twinmaw stormbrood and obliterating bolt

Draw Packages!

UW - Draw 2 Go wide
UB - Draw 3 / Draw 2 death matters
UR - Draw 2 / Discard
UG - Draw 2 >4 power

Azorious: gets a few cross synergies with flickering card draw effects and effects like raff drawing off of tokens and spells. Mentor of the meek may end up being extremely powerful as a spell like reinforcements will do double duty and add 3 bodies to the board and draw a card. Reprieve also buys tempo while adding creatures to the board. I will assess how much support this pairing needs after a playtest

Dimir: gets its draw 3 synergy and cross synergizes with reanimator and spells in the graveyard.

Izzet: gets some value in drawing 2 but keeps its main identity with tempo spell slinging. I am adding alliance as a test to see if I want izzet to lean heavier into draw synergies or stay spellslinger.

Simic: Most interesting to me will be how simic adopts these fliers. with cards like hunters talent, trash the town, creature etb draw, and following up with overrun could be an interesting pattern. Testing needed.

Given the addition to the two token makers I'm ideally reducing the effectiveness of weaponize the monsters. No longer is this slot easily tutorable. This may have the opposite effect and be too powerful though.

Sweepers will become even more powerful and sought after with these changes. I'm adding shefet as dimir's and moreso golgari's way to control the midgame

Balance changes
Kor Skyfisher is replaced into blue as it had an overpowered synergy with oketras.

I'm very curious how 40 gold cards will feel in draft. Lets open up the draft even more. Also keep safe is for reanimate

A little bit more graveyard hate and roots triggers. Reanimating felidar in orzhov OR scouring it to the desert is a gameplay pattern I'd love to see. This blends well into abzan with the green creatures, renanimate, mill, etc.

Sprite dragon voltron isnt a fun gameplay pattern in izzet. I'm trying sanction here and seeing if players can get the damage doubling effects going for a nice midgame tempo blowout.

I'm removing stockpile as we have more ways to sac now and I want that to feel more like something rakdos wants to do. orzhov still has plenty of ways to sac but it doesnt solely care about sacrificing creatures to get cards in the yard.

I felt like serum visionary is saying its a flicker card, and it is, but it doesnt belong in most other decks. Plus we have plenty of ETB effects similar to it. My philosophy is have many flicker effects and few decent ETB triggers. ninjas will also look at those cards but only if they are evasive like hypnotic sprite.

I dont want dragons rage channeler to make players think red aggro wants delirium. drc is an izzet card but newer folks may not read it that way. Heartfire Hero is everything I want in an aggressive one drop that can fling for double damage

Let me know your thoughts

Mh3 changes. Revision 2 coming soon

Thunder Junction updates

Adding a defender cluster/package inspired by Emma Partlow's peasant cube package.

I'd like to remove synergy exclusive cards like Wildwood Scourge as I want synergies to come about from cards that are just ok on their own and powerful with the syngery. Scourge is a x-1/x-1 if you aren't in the counters archetype which makes for not a reasonable pick in draft. In its place I swap Carven Caryatid as its a decent blocker on 3 against aggressive decks, is on rate as it replaces itself, and is amazing in the defenders package which now has a home in green.

Other cards that i've removed for the same reason are vanguard of the rose and hoverstone pilgrim.

I like the idea that thermo alchemist can work in both a spell slinger deck or a defender deck. Its possible to see a red-white defender deck running this card but more often than not it will probably be an izzet card or splashed in the defender deck. It can also be as effective as sunshot in aggro decks that don't go wide. Testing is needed

I'd like orzhov to have a stronger identity than aristocrats so im adding a recursive theme. This should help boros feel uniquely different from orzhov while still offering the mardu synergies. Adding a few more cards for simic. I feel like parhelion supports selesnya and boros better than acolyte and gives players an objective and reward in combat. This also makes flicker weaker slightly be removing a seldomly found blink target but this isnt the target azorious wants anyways.

Ixalan changes

• Upgraded supreme will
• a few more ways to reanimate
• messing around with discover
• will appraiser be as good as i want it to be?
• cute frog
• I like dusk rose in this cube. is it better than hole?
• I'd like to signal archetypes a bit better. i felt good fortune unicorn signals infinites rather than counters
• in a similar fashion changing the art of chart a course signals to players what they should be doing with the card.
• my favorite artifact from DMU

Seasons change. Formats change. Time goes by yet time is endless; we are the ones that change

Graveyard Edit!

Ages works as better reanimate target in dimir. Blue wants spells in graveyards as well
Dowser gives you payoffs for putting spells in graveyards just the same
Third path gives double prowess trigger, mills cards for reanimate/spells, and pays itself back eventually.
Express is too powerful. Holding is part of this new discard/mill package
Insight is a better Multi on 4 and can be played after milling. It can also be a late discard for reanimate.
Balmor is cool but didn't benefit from blue as much since it had fewer creatures. This card would probably be splashed more than anything else and would be confusing to players. --Gandalf's Sanction-- Enigma drake gives a much better signal as to what izzet wants to do.
Ashnod for counterplay
Flame Sweep is the sweeper I've been looking for. Your sprite dragon will live. Everything else dies.
Halo has the same problem as balmor to a lesser extent. Tainted gives more counterplay, discard target for reanimate!, and puts more spells in the yard.
Giving up rona is sad, but alchemy is just what the doctor ordered for this mill package. (Plus we introduced two new bounce spells)

delvers power slowly grows

Notes on changes from playtest:

Green needed some work. I've added some 2-3 drop threats to make midrange a more attractive option against the aggro decks. This also allows golgari to stabilize and grind down the opponent.
Additionally I've added colossal growth as a redundancy for trample tricks. (I'd like to fit in more combat tricks like this in the future)
Streetwise is a great way to pump a creature late game or comes down as a 3/3 for 2
Noose Constrictor signals golgari reanimate
Thrashing Brontodon is a beefier Rec Sage which should stabilize some boards against aggro.
Hound Tamer gives a reproducible effect for adding counters. This may be too broken.
Shadowbeast is effectively the same as Voracious Typhoon but cannot be targeted for reanimation

Fast and Furious has difficulty importing into arena. I will make a note of this for future drafts. I haven't found a good replacement for this slot yet.

Sylt made a good observation that Oni-Cult Anvil needed an artifact to get rolling. I've added Stormclaw Rager as an alternate sacrifice enabler that provides needed card draw for the sackdos decks.

Boros has all of the creatures it needs to get through. What it needs now (in addition to the tiny anthems/charges) is a powerful team pump. Heroic charge fits the bill.

Professor of Symbology's role was as a discard outlet as well as an "ok" two drop. We already have Seasoned Hallowblade and Raffine's Informant(a better version of this card) for reanimator discard enablers. Sunhome Stalward will work better as an aggressive two drop attacker that also wears counters well wink wink.

Blue gets better early interaction and improved late spells/card draw.

Red changes are minimal in terms of archetypal changes but replace cards with better alternatives.
Apple swapped with bloody betrayal as to signal that stealing should be something red is doing (even though apple is the best steal)