We've had a few weeks to sink our teeth into the cube. Now that many of the archetypes have been seen and tested in drafted decks, it's time to make a few adjustments based on the cube's philosophy, balance, and new exciting cards from Kamigawa Neon Dynasty.

There are changes to each color, some larger than others. Largely, the substitutions are meant to solidify the cube's themes and ensure that unique artifact synergies are preferred over generically powerful cards. It's fun to use vintage cube-power level cards, but I don't want this list to look identical to the MTGO vintage cube template. So, while some 'staples' are getting cut, it's for good reason - and I'll explain why each replacement is a better choice for THIS cube.

White has been refined to lean a little more into historic aggro. Kamigawa has been a big help here, and I think we're finally ready for Tempered Steel to shine. Losing Intrepid Adversary hurts, but it's by far the most generic of the 2-cmc threats and I think the cube is equipped to help push small through to victory.

Blue's been performing well, as expected. However, there is room for artifact-based cards to shine that fit more with what blue is usually trying to do. For example, Master of Etherium is rarely played since no one playing blue is trying to use him as a win condition or going wide with artifacts. They're playing control, drawing cards, and doing 'blue' things.

Black has been something of the runt so far. Many of the artifact strategies within black are weak, and so we've had to rely on more classic archetypes (sacrifice, reanimator). Luckily, recent sets have been able to bump the artifact count by replacing standard pieces of these archetypes with artifact versions. I'm hoping these inclusions (among others in red/gold) will increase sacrifice and reanimator decks' potency.

Red has, by far, the largest number of changes. I saw several opportunities here establish aggro with an artifact flavor thanks to new Kamigawa cards. Some of red's classic 'RDW' staples needed to go to make room, but I believe the aggressive red decks will still be able to succeed while supporting other themes at the same time. In tandem, there are substitutions here meant to augment existing decks; we have treasure generators for big-mana decks, discard outlets for reanimator and welder-style decks, and a touch more artifact destruction. Finally, I'm including Hellkite Tyrant as a very potent top-end card in this environment and Banefire as a combo outlet for the BIG-mana combo decks using Paradox Engine and Krark-Clan Ironworks.

Green is the natural enemy of artifact decks. It's time we REALLY lean into that. I noticed that green drafts, due to the lack of artifact synergies, tend to look like generic green vintage cube decks. I'm giving them more tools to be specifically artifact-hosers to help keep the other drafters honest and punishing them for going too deep.

Nothing too large here - I've been pretty happy with these sections. I was initially concerned with the above-average concentration of mana rocks, but they tend to get evenly distributed among drafts. Since it's the cornerstone of this cube's experience, I'll be keeping an eye on the colorless section, but so far nothing has stood out as a big problem.

The gold section sees some quick replacements of cards that were too cute with ones that do more of what their respective color combinations want. Boros, for example, never liked to sacrifice their own army to durdle with Osgir's tokens - they wanted to kill people. I'm very hopeful for Oni-cult Anvil; we'll see how it performs as an artifact sacrifice engine.

That's it for NEO! I'm already liking how this cube is shaping up - it's beginning to have an identity rather than just being a collection of powerful cards. Here's to hoping the new cards succeed!

If you have gotten this far, wow, I applaud you. Please simulate a draft of your own and leave me some feedback! I appreciate anyone that's willing to test it out and get a feel for this project.