For my previous build (snapshot here: https://imgur.com/5w1fevE), I wanted to focus on two-color archetypes and attempted to fill in as needed. I started with a template cube, and built a catalogue of cards to fill it, and for the most part I chose the most interactive and re-playable cards. This created a muddy, but also...hard-to-digest environment (that said, it was my first PLAYABLE environment that didn't just degenerate into t1 losses). My focus on establishing two-color archetypes hid a lot of what is great about the format. Almost all of the feedback I received was that the environment was indecipherable as is (ouch). MY biggest problem was that some decks were just better, and with enough hard-to-run cards, variety was low to nada.

So let's approach it from a different direction.

Starting with what we know about the format, and how can that inform my card choices?

1. Players Need All of Their Lands

• No Land or "Any-Permanent" Destruction, No More Blind Mill or Discard without it ending the game.

1. The Clock is Different (the game has no end)

• Aggro decks shouldn't have be able to outpace lategame payoffs. Boards need to be playable after the cards have been played, or draws will never work.

1. Many Cards End their Usefulness in Exile

• Graveyard Effects are metered to this, but return from exile is a win-condition effect.

1. Draw makes low-curve (aggro) decks faster, and matter less to high-cmc (late game) decks.

• 3-4CMC draw does not matter, cantrips/cycling/draw+effect is stronger on Lower CMC cards.
• Scry is an aggro effect, and allows for consistency in late game decks.

1. Mulligans are orders of magnitude more consistent than 30-card deck drafts (~300x more)

• Decks can run fewer lands and still hit gas.
• Aggro strategies are simply more available when needed
• Midrange strategies are available when needed.

1. Lands have a limit, but mana doesn't.

• Using the 40% heuristic of standard, decks run 6 lands. Mulligans can pull that number easily down to 5 with just basic lands and no fixing. Curves mutate in favor of 1 and 2 drops, and shy away from 5+.
• Cards like Braid of Fire, Storage Lands, etc make a lot out of very little.

1. Deck End is inevitable, and the deck will never be larger than 15 cards.

• LabMan et.al. lets a player win without...well, any strategy. Deck size effects are similar, so be cautious.

1. Recursion extends the live of decks, and makes many decks playable. Recursion is fallible, and can be broken.

• Shuffle-into-library effects, recur from graveyard, flashback, all play a role.
• Re-castable spells are what enable late-game plays. They must be supported.
• I need to be extremely careful about what effects I choose to include.

1. Removal and Deactivation needs to be intentional.

• Removal should have threatening targets, and should come at a fair price.
• Effects that limit lines of play need to be susceptible to removal.

1. Magic was not designed for this.

• Enabling this might require some card editing. CMCs, effects, etc. No Card is Immutable.

For this next build I am radically restructuring, and taking a new approach. Stripping back to just the color-defining threats (and lands), I want to know how and when my games end, and work backwards from there.