MH3 is another great set for cubes. Although I’m not adding any energy cards, I do think a few of them are playable just as is, I’d just rather not lead drafters into thinking energy decks can come together.

Ocelot Pride is a decent little beater, along the lines of Legion Landing, but not needing to dump a ton of mana into making tokens is a pretty nice upside. Gaining life is pretty easy most of the time too, so it gets a pretty decent boost as well. I’m cutting Law-Rune Enforcer as it just isn’t as needed in white anymore as it’s received a plethora of removal spells and paying two a turn is a lot.

Phelia, Exuberant Shepard is an awesome two drop. Having flash means you can hold up interaction or put it out of sorcery speed removal’s reach for a turn. Being able to blink blockers to get in makes killing it a lot harder, at least in the first combat step. It’s able to kill tokens, reset PWs, O-Rings, Parallax Wave, and at worst it can blink something of yours without an ETB just for a +1/+1 counter, and there’s still many more uses for it. Tithe Taker has been solid, but having no combat abilities on the front half made it one of the weaker two drops. Plus Phelia and Tithe Taker both mess around with removal a decent amount, so I’m ok making this swap.

Ajani, Nacatal Pariah is another great two drop. 3/3 worth of stats, half of which flips into a very good PW. Good with blink and sac outlets, it’s hard not to like it. Siege Veteren has been a decent card, a slightly worse Luminarch Aspirant is still pretty decent, but something had to give to make room and I couldn’t find another two drop I loved cutting.

Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student gives blue a one drop they aren’t embarrassed to play. A decent value body that can block lions, pikers and bears, and eventually flips into a pretty annoying ‘walker too. Hard Evidence looks a lot less great in the face of Tamiyo, so I’m making the easy switch here.

Basalt Monolith is a card that’s kind of fallen to the wayside, so I wanted to add a bit of a boost to it. Forensic Gadgeteer obviously goes infinite with Basalt, but also adds an interesting artifact matters card that doesn’t always need Basalt to be great. Sicarian Infiltrator is of course a great card with Gadgeteer, and I could see myself adding it back in again, but I couldn’t find another cut I loved for it.

Nethergoyf is a decent recursive one drop, hard not to want it in most black decks. Concealing Curtains is always solid, but I wanted to cut a less aggressive card, and Curtains is not very aggressive.

Springheart Nantuko is a cool little value engine for green decks. Always making a 1/1 as a floor and sometimes really popping off with a really high ceiling seems like a card I’m willing to give a go. I’m cutting Fauna Shaman to make space, as cube is getting faster, not having an ETB or haste has made it feel a bit too slow.

Fanatic of Rhonas looks like a fantastic ramp creature. Although it can be killed before you untap, having Eternalize at least gives you a little something back. Any time you get to have a 4 power creature in play with this thing is going to feel very powerful, getting you up to Eldrazi mana in a hurry. Honestly the only downside is it only makes green mana, so you need to a have a decent way to use it. Biophagus has been a solid accelerant, but seems a bit underwhelming in comparison, so I’m making this cut.

Sowing Mycospawn is a nice bridge between your early ramp and haymakers. Although I’m not playing Cradle or Academy, I still think it’s worth inclusion, as being able to fix or find a key land like Strip Mine or Urza’s Saga sounds pretty good to me. Conduit of Worlds was just too expensive, and not really what most green decks wanted. Being double green made it hard to splash as well, so it’s an easy cut for me.

Six is another good value card, being able to rebuy spent PWs seems appealing to me. It might be a little too slow, but I do want to give it a shot. Voracious Hydra is along the same lines, another value card that’s both decent early and late, so I’m making this swap for now, just to test out Six.

Char was a playable cube card for quite a few years, and Ghostfire Slice is simply better than that. Having no downside, and in fact a slight upside, makes it easy enough to try out. Lightning Strike is always playable, but seems like an easy swap to make here.

Phoenix of Ash has been quite good for us, so I’m more than willing to play Detective’s Phoenix. A little bit harder to recur, but the threat of recursion makes every top deck very threatening. Anax has been a pretty good cube card, but I’m willing to cut it for a little more evasion/reach in red.

Disruptor Flute plays along the same lines as Sorcerous Spyglass, but with the added upside of being able to flash it in in response to a PW being cast, meaning they’ll have wasted the mana and the card, where as Spyglass usually only gets one or the other plus an activation of the ‘walker if it was already played. I could see myself actually cutting Spyglass (I don’t think I wanna do Needle just for Urza’s Saga purposes), but want to try all three side by side and really see which is better, so I’m actually cutting Scroll of Fate. Scroll has been solid, but sure is a miserable top deck. It also doesn’t see play in a lot of decks either, as it’s a pretty unique effect.

I recently added Show and Tell back in, so I wanted to give that card a very solid target, so I’m adding Phyrexian Portal. It’s not great against every deck, but when it is, it’s devastating. Of course you can still Tinker or ramp it into play too. Mimic Vat is always a very fun card, but has definitely felt it’s age recently. Three mana a turn AND needing something to die first is a pretty big ask, so unfortunately this is the cut.

Psychic Frog is a very good threat that can snowball quite easily, similar to Thief of Sanity, while also being a discard outlet for when that matters. The Scarab God is another card that is just too mana intensive, and ultimately not really necessary for the cube, so it’s getting the axe here.

Kudo, King Among Bears is an interesting card. When you get to break the symmetry with things like anthems or equipment, it looks quite potent. Being able to turn 1/1 tokens into “threats” like every thing else offers a nice build around that GW doesn’t really have either. Making cheat targets look a lot worse too is a nice perk as well. Nature’s Chant has never really seen any meaningful play, so it’s a pretty easy cut here.

Cutting Ajani Vengeant hurts quite a bit, but Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury is just so powerful. A recursive threat is something Boros decks don’t have a lot of, with the worst case scenario of being a three mana Lightning Helix isn’teven the worst, which is still usually a better floor than Ajani is.

Nadu, Winged Wisdom is a lot of value stapled into a pretty efficiently costed body, with evasion. Offering a Leovold style protection is very strong, while also allowing you to some fun things seems like a perfect cube card. Coiling Oracle is always solid, but Nadu offers a lot more interesting choices in nearly every aspect, so this is the swap I’m making here.