Okay. Buckle up. There’s a lot to unpack here.

Peema Outrider > Voracious Typhon
I really wanted to try out Typhon especially with green moving more into self mill. The theoretical cut for me was Rampaging Hippo but that received pushback from absolutely everyone I asked. Peema Outrider did nothing wrong, and if Typhon comes out, Outrider will be waiting. Both have counters matter relevancy. Peema Outrider was a theoretical workhorse in both the proliferate strategies and offered a token to sacrifice in GB shells. So it may come back regardless.

Tajuru Pathwarden > Silverback Shaman
This one is a result of me thinking more and more about the power of removal and resiliency of threats. Vigilance is a powerful keyword, especially on a bigger body. But being resilient in the face of impending removal is key, for now.

Trusted Forcemage > Harvesttide Sentry
Oh so long ago I remember being the staunch supporter of Trusted Forcemage. It wasn't originally in Ixoran's cube, but after many talks with him about it, he finally added it. Years have gone by and it may be showing it's age. It may just be that I wanted cuts and a lot of other cards have themes they work with swaying me from cutting them. But Sentry would have been an easy swap if I still ran Initiate's Companion as I think this card is much better, just not strictly. However I finagled a few changes so the swap wasn't so easy.

Abundant Harvest > Eccentric Farmer
This is the card from MID that I knew I wanted in the cube but almost didn't get added as Deepwood Denizen was actually in change slot. After a bit more deliberation I decided that more decks would be happy with Farmer. While both cards nudge you into a theme (counters and self-mill) I feel the Denizen feels more awkward out of theme than Farmer does. Gonna keep my eye on Denizen, though.

Epic Confrontation > Smell Fear
If your jimmies haven't been rustled thus far, I think this is the part where they start to shake. Smell Fear has a way lower floor and a way higher ceiling and encourages you to think about counters matter as you draft. This is something that I would like to nudge more and you will see that again in this update.

Crimson Mage > Dragon Fodder
I was not particularly enthused with Crimson Mage and not entirely sure what to replace it with. Red has a lot of cards I want in and am really not sure how I'm gonna get them in. Dragon Fodder is a start as it fits into spells matter, go wide, and sacrifice. But in general I have a lot to think about when it comes to red.

Gouged Zealot > Scourge Devil
Gouged Zealot has my heart but I think delirium may be a little to hard to consistently make work in red. At least for now. If I ever try to push harder on madness/discard effects adding cards like Thrill of Possibility I will be taking a second look at this big boy with one eye.

Dead Reveler > Nantuko Husk
This was a hard one. I knew I wanted Husk but it's hard to put in the sacrifice theme without just taking out solid cards. Dead Reveler played a nice role in aggro decks and also fed into the counters theme, so it may come back one day.

Mortis Dogs > Unwilling Ingredient
This is one of those that you saw and probably went "Wait, what?" Yeah I just cut a four drop for a one drop. And aside from both vaguely wanting to be sacrificed, they really aren't in the same wheelhouse. The problem is I did not want to cut any of the one drops for Ingredient. That meant cutting something that was NOT a one drop, and thus the waters muddy. Mortis Dogs has always overperformed when I've seen it played, but it's getting people to put it into their decks that I've had the problem with. It often looks bad on paper and is similarly bad while behind. It may come back one day.

Burglar Rat > Elderfang Disciple
Ifnot Elf and Canbe Elf make Elf
It may never matter but there may eventually be an update where I put a tribal or elf-matters card in the cube, and when that day comes it will make my life a whole lot easier when things that can be elves, are already elves. Whew, what a run-on.

Disturbed Burial > Morgue Theft
This one is gonna grind some of those value seekers. "But muh infinite value!" they will say. And I will agree, but this one is actually a concession for the self-mill archetype. This is also one of those buyback cards that paralyzes you into making play errors for the value, when often it's correct to just disentomb. Morgue Theft has less feelbads!

Lose Focus > Condescend
Card selection and nostalgia has beaten out value on mana this time. There will likely be a round three sometime in the future.

Aether Adept > Queen of Ice
So this came with some feedback of the creatures being a little too oppressive with their ETBs. So I'm going to undo this add and instead play around with another cool blue card that plays in the same space but requires more investment.

Cartouche of Knowledge > Winged Words
I will forever be playing around with blue cards that say draw a card. I just really don't know where I want them. Winged Words can be a blowout on both sides. Eating a removal in response means that you lose your creature and don't draw a card. While landing the Cartouche means hitting them for a lot and drawing a card. Overall I'm gonna try the boring approach of one of LSV's favorite cards, divination (but with upside).

Combat Professor > Stalwart Valkyrie
While very obviously power creep, the Professor's lessons seemed a bit boring. So we are going to try another new flier that works well in a lot of shells.

Kor Sanctifiers > Rambunctious Mutt
This one I've been coinflipping on for weeks. The Sanctifiers flaunts the modality of playing on curve or using the kicker, which is deece. But the 2/3 body for three isn't very exciting and neither is sandbagging in the hopes of getting their key artifact or enchantment. On the other side this super good pup has a beefier body for the rate (although admittedly less than green's options) and works with white's blink effects! I'm not too worried about the overall cost going up because the overall cost of these white cards is going dowwwwwn...

Break Ties > Phantom Nomad
As much as I want to love Break Ties I think that if I ever need that effect Light of Hope will probably fit better. That being said, it was the slot I found for Phantom Nomad. I've wanted to try the card, it seems good with the counters matter synergies, and the slot was pretty replaceable.

Dauntless Cathar > Search Party Captain
This is a scenario of two 2-for-1s getting swapped. Cathar, Fairgrounds Patrol, and Lunarch Veteran are three cards with very similar effects that I would like to revisit later, especially as it pertains to the self-mill in Green.

Anointer of Valor > Star Pupil
I can just hear Ixoran screeching over this one. I was never a fan of Anointer. I think the card is slow, is not resilient, and is only good if you are able to hold parity into a long game in which it will slowly grind the game out. Star Pupil and it's green sibling (Servant of the Scale) are really interesting to me as counters matters cards as any counters you proliferate on them will pass along. Or the counters they pass will proliferate well. The sacrifice well. I just wanted to try one, if I like it, the other will go in. If it's bad, we tried!

Scion of Ugin > Porcelain Legionnaire
Scion is one of those theoretical "take the colorless card to stay open" cards that's much better in regular draft. As soon as you hop into draft those cards better be performers because if not all you are doing is wasting an early pick. Legionnaire on the other hand IS one of those colorless cards. I know Ixoran had a whole ladder from 1-8 of colorless creatures, I don't see the allure, I'd rather focus more on creatures you actually want to play.

Five Color and Utility Lands > Cycling Lands
I feel like the five color lands were more oft than not just bad. And while we are taking a hit by losing some of the utility lands, Desert persists. Cycling lands are just way easier to get people excited about. They help delirium if/when that matters. They are good with bounce lands. They are good with Murasa Behemoth. Just overall an easy swap for me.

Forever thinking about Bouncelands vs Kaldheim duals. Thoughts?