What a year ! Welcome to my EOY cube update for 2023:

Cutting the fat: To reduce the amount of generally good stuff in the cube and make drafting archetypes tighter, I've replaced some cards that, in my opinion, were awkward picks. Some notable examples:

Leyline of Anticipation > Bribery (Theft, Spellslinger)
Sengir, the Dark Baron > Archfiend of Despair (Group Slug, Reanimator)
Crypt Ghast > Woe Strider (Aristrocrats, Graveyard, Tokens)
Luminarch Aspirant > Welcoming Vampire (Tokens)

Ok, maybe not too much fat...: On the flipside, I've added cards that would fit into multiple archetypes and replaced some extremely narrow cards, giving every color combinations more options for ramp, draw and interaction. Notable examples include:

Thassa, God of the Sea > Palantír of Orthanc
Valki, God of Lies > Cityscape Leveler
Dragon Turtle > Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus
Avacyn's Pilgrim > Delighted Halfling
Fire Diamond > The Reaver Cleaver

Theft Archetype : There are 2 new signpost gold cards now: Fallen Shinobi and Thief of Sanity. This archetype is coming into its own now, just needed a little more support, hopefully these cards will do.

Reducing lifelink: As much as I love Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper and Whip of Erebos, these cards have been proven too strong in a cube designed around short games and combat. Games would be simply be decided on who stayed at the highest life total. That is why the are replaced by counterparts that are in more inline with the cube's philosophy.

Adding board wipes: Since owning the cube for almost 4 years now, I've noticed games would usually stall out and boards would reach ridiculous (and often hard to interact with) presences. With a low amount mass removal, it is long overdue for these staples to enter the cube. Let's all welcome:

Big Daddy: Back in Black. One of my favorite card and my opponent's not-so-favorite one, Griselbrand is finally in the cube. This is still a expiremental change, we'll have to wait and see how this edh-banned inclusion shakes things up.

...and New Commanders !:

Happy new year !
LB

Re-defining Archetypes (Again)

Simic, boros and selesnya was always trickier to pinpoint what they wanted to do as colors. Hopefully with these changes they are more focused and easier to understand.

Tokens-Matter -> Draw Matters

Simic was probably the worst combination of colors for producing tokens, I thought I could slap "Junk" to it and call it a day. It did not make any sense for it to hold the archetype. With the abundance of draw effects in blue and green, simic is now "Draw" archetypes with cards like
Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix, Prime Speaker Zegana, Lord of Change and Psychosis Crawler. Hopefully going to add more payoffs in the future to solidify this playstyle without putting down the other archetypes.

Humans, Artifacts -> Aggro Tokens, Artifacts

White and red has always had a strong token identity and this streamlines the archetypes into something more tangible for drafters. Humans with Winota are still definitely viable and very strong, but will be a hidden archetype for now on.

Enchantress, Legends -> Big Tokens, Enchantress

As white,red and green were strong contenders for the token archetype, it was hard to define what green-white could look like. With the abundance of creature pump-spells in green, it seems that Selesnya is great for creating large token threats while also differentiating itself from Boros. I also like how green-white and red-white are now mirror opposites of each other too.

The legends archetype was always doomed to fail in green-white due to the little payoffs and cards centered around this. With the greater abundance of legends in , I hope that Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge will glue together this obscure archetype.

As for now, I'm honing green-white's pure token strategy with King Darien XLVIII at the helm of it all.

Theft

I'm really liking how this archetype is coming on its own and hopefully will continue to support it. Brainstealer Dragon, Mnemonic Betrayal and Nautiloid Ship are a clear step in that direction, at the cost of some of red's power.

Spicing Up the cube

I want to increase the fun factor and deal broker was so well received that I'm now adding draft-matter cards such as Agent of Acquisitions and Lore Seeker to increase interactivity during the drafting phase.

This also goes for adding cards that are illegal in edh that will probably be fine in this cube. Tolarian Academy, Mirrored Lotus, Primeval Titan and The Big Top are all fun and powerful cards in their own right.

Redefining archetypes to cause less confusion witht dual color archetypes Whirlpool Warrior; Tomebound Lich are more in line what you'd want from these colors. Also there's no esper commander, thinking Alela, Artful Provocateur fits in perfectly.

Gods and graveyard strategies are stronger than expected, efficient removal could be help against them DismemberScavenging Ooze The Meathook Massacre

Also removing unfun cards for more interactive ones. Spark DoubleScourge of the ThroneWishclaw Talisman

Replacing clunky cards to make the cube feel and play stronger Ornithopter of ParadiseGemstone CavernsKlauth, Unrivaled AncientArcane SignetFauna Shaman, although I'd keep an eye on Umezawa's Jitte

Increasing The Power Level

• Oath of Nissa didn't have a place anywhere, I've always wanted to add The Great Henge so this seems reasonable.
• Cursed Mirror is fun, intuitive and can easily replace Heart of Ramos.
• Wandering archaic is busted and adds dynamic to game play
• Kytheon lengthy's mechanics can turn-off anyone and Esper Senitel, a future staple, replaces him quite nicely.

Archetype Re-definition

• Green-white and Red-Black have always been a grey-area in terms of the archetype. With these new additions, hopefully people drafting the cube won't be as lost.

White-Green ==> Enchantments
Black-Red ==> Group-Slug/Sacrifice
Blue-Green ==> Junk

With the release of C21, I've decided to renew and replace some commanders:

Laelia is card advantage in red and can be picked as a commander. Seasoned Pyromancer is still an all-star in the cube, it might make a return who knows.

Elsha was never picked due to the abundance of Jeskai commander combinations. Samut will fill in the Zoo/Naya void I've been looking for.

Tasigur is a much more interactive commander and does not dominate as much as Muldrotha.

Kalitas is always a weird pick and I think Breena will bring interesting politics and motivate players to attack each other.

I'm currently looking at Esper option such as Aminatou, the Fateshifter. Court of Ambition's replacement, Author of Shadows, is graveyard hate and will be a nice card for blink in black, if it were ever to exist.

Vilis and Shelldock are back temporarily while I get those cards.

Toggo and Siana are rarely picked as commanders or mainboard picks, I think their replacement are much stronger and serve as great card advantage.

Paradox Engine, Immerstum Predator and Shelldock Isle, while being formidable cards, are too specific and used in very niche strategies.

Chopping Board:
Muldrotha, the Gravetide > Tasigur, The Golden Fang
Seasoned Pyromancer > Laelia, the Blade Reforged
Elsha of the Infinite > Samut, Voice of Dissent