(Still a Modern Horizons 2 update to come! This one's just a lot simpler.)

I intend on removing all the allied colour basic landcycling cards - for Ancient Excavation, it'll be Barrin's Spite I think replacing it, whereas it's less clear for Treacherous Terrain. I actually like it a lot more - it's a clear RG finisher even if it's potentially a bit too strong for draft level play. Having a clear "This is going to deal everyone 8+ if the game goes too long" is more important than some of the other effects anyway and, frankly, it makes more sense for RG of all colour combinations to have additional cycling access. I'm just disliking that, frankly, colourless landcycling makes deck construction a little easy. Think about it - the Onslaught block cyclers only fix for the colour of the card, and the Alara block ones require that you already have a source of that colour. It feels balanced for "Oh the spell side is harder to cast" to also mean that the cycling part is easier, but the effects are also... usually a lot stronger? Four birds doesn't seem too big but white/blue LOVES that effect, it's honestly very strong. Reanimation with haste? Great. Exiling enchantments and artifacts in a format rife with them? Sold. Even "Draw your hand then discard that many" really downplays a lot of the sadness you can sometimes have with a 60 card deck in draft by going "Ok, filter for that perfect hand then fuel Arambi ANYWAY". It's just a bit too good, and it makes the enemy coloured section feel worse. Originally I added the third set of multicoloured uncommons so that allied would get cycling, while enemy would get <more substantial effects>. Now I would prefer "draft indicators x2, powerful card x1". I feel the replacements live up to this! Bruenor is a CLEAR Equipment Deck Lord, while Hurl Through Hell is all about giving Rakdos the removal it loves in this sort of environment - exile a threat, but you draw a copy for the next turn cycle. Even better if you exile a flash threat. ;-) Detention Sphere is a safety valve choice for now - I feel there are better choices but, if tokens are a concern, it's nice to have something that can do something about it. Sythis is the obvious GW enchantress payoff should the cube need it and, if the cube doesn't, it is easily cuttable.

Now, other choices:

  • Winds of Rath: Wave doesn't do... much? Versus Winds allows you to set a board up more easily. Another way of clearly indicating "Hey, play enchantments" too.
  • Fiendlash: Weird realising I didn't have any equipment at rare in Red and this one is a doozy! Little bit of extra Reach (just realised the card gives that, huh, weird) and won't show up every game but, man, that's a clock when it does. Lavabrink feels at odds with what the cube wants red to do anyway, frankly. Sure there's a high top end for red but too often this feels like "three players between you decide to wipe the board" which could be worse but could be way better.
  • Vengeful Ancestor: Sometimes, a card feels like it was just MADE for this cube. 3/4? Dodges a lot of removal honestly. Goad synergy? HOW is this the first proper card to do something with Goad? I know the Impetus cycle is also great for triggers here, but I adore having a "If I goad your whole board it'll hit you too", it's great for a multiplayer environment. Very solid design, and I'm happy to play it! Hero... I'm going to miss it? But I hope Vengeful plays more like the Multiplayer environment wants to.
  • Flumph: Instant and obvious choice to include in the cube. Again, obvious multiplayer plant is obvious.
  • Clay Golem: Felt weird having a red specific equipment anyway. Sure, it reduces the number of equipment readily available to both W/x and R/x decks - and haste is a good thing to have access to! - but I prefer Clay Golem being great early with a painful Monstrosity ability you need to respect. Dislike d8s immensely, though - dice rolling is my least favourite part of AFR, frankly.
  • Blue Dragon: Jetting was THE blue bomb in Conspiracy, really, but Blue Dragon is another "I love this effect" inclusion. Remember, that's FOUR combat phases being affected in a four player game, that's pretty great.
  • Dragon Turtle: Blue needs early fat and, sure, it's less of an indicator for artifact synergies, but I feel that this is another "built for multiplayer" card. Remember, pick the only blocker for player 4 and three players will have a chance to smash their face.
  • Deadly Dispute: More variance in black effects, and reduction in the removal suite of the cube. Implant... sure it was an enchantment synergy card, but it's also very very weak. It barely avoided being replaced in Strixhaven but now I feel was the time to take it out. Especially given there are other things that might come in that do similar things (Absorb Vis, your days are numbered.)
  • Dueling Rapier: Madcap Skills is great, I love the card, but red's problem is that it's ALL burn. This is an actual combat trick for the red deck, it increases the number of equipment for R/x decks, and makes a lot of things decent threats honestly. Sometimes you get the fun of pairing this with Goblinslide for 1R 3/1 flash blockers which is funny.
  • Wulfgar of Icewind Dale: Admittedly doesn't synergise as much as you might like but, hey, Melee lord is a BIG deal. Makes a lot of cards a fair bit better, versus Tahngarth is multiplayer politics but also... not very good, frankly? Could be better!

Modern Horizons 2 has a LOT of cards I need to think about too, and will be updated soon, but this was an easier update for me to make. Adventures is a low powered environment, even if the Commander decks with this set launch gave a LOT more things to think about. Knowing from the start that Venture wasn't going to be used while Clay Golem is the only admission that dice rolling exists made the update easy - it was all about choosing cards that also ignored those concepts, helped by most of the other choices not being too good. Horizons is... wow, it's a defining set for a reason. There's creep and seep everywhere, very unique effects that need to be considered. And Innistrad spoilers are coming very soon? A LOT to be excited about in the cube world, for both this and my other three cubes. But this is my project that is the least set in stone currently so it's the one I wanted to update first.