New Capenna is here! We lucked out - I wasn't expecting Treasures to be as well-supported as they are. The cube's been performing well, though I haven't gotten as much practice since last update as I would've liked. Regardless, there are some clear adds from recent sets that should boost the artifact-based themes while providing opportunities for me to finally kick out some underperformers.
: Throwing control a bone with March of Otherworldly Light - importantly, it can hit artifacts.
: Kappa Cannoneer's been all the rage in Legacy lately, and I see the appeal. I'm trying it out here, though time will tell if it's good enough.
: Nothing, sadly. I've still got some work to do here. I want to make sure Reanimator has the tools it needs, but I dislike how confusing some of the better reanimation spells are to new players (Dance of the Dead, Necromancy, etc.), and, many of the best discard outlets are super parasitic. That being said, the artifact presence in black is weak, so maybe I should just bite the bullet and shove them back in.
: This color has really come into its own. I love how red's evolved into an aggro color that supports sacrifice, treasure midrange, and can blow up opposing artifacts when needed. WOTC delivered this set with Face-Breaker and Riveteers Requisitoner - excellent payoff and enabler creatures respectively.
: Titan of Industry is a perfect ramp target that also snipes an artifact while still being flexible.
: I was wrong about Blightsteel Colossus last update - it deserves to stay. The Hearse is exactly what I've wanted for a while - a scaling, Scooze-style artifact card.
For next update, I'm going to be watching a few things in particular:
- Black/Reanimator - is it getting the support it needs?
- RDW (non-artifact) - is the treasure stuff and cute sacrifice-esque cards hogging too many slots for classic to work properly? I know this cube's 1/2-cmc creature suite deviates greatly from the tried & true vintage-cube aggro template, so I want to take care not to smother those archetypes. If RDW can succeed at a 8-man pod, that means things are healthy, IMO.