Dominaria United Update

We've got quite a bit of things to add and change here. Life gain is commonly agreed to be annoying to play against with such small creatures, it becomes difficult to work through even small amounts of life gain. It is pretty fair all things considered, though so it will be powered down a bit.

Multicolor Additions

Ideally blue and black kicker cards will be impactful for the kicker deck but I'm excited for what are essentially some of the only multicolor cards I can run.
Runic Shot - Cutting a white card and Ajani's Welcome was noted as annoying to play with and against. Not worth using a removal spell on but single-handedly made games drag on without putting its own pressure on.
Rona's Vortex - Oh yeah baby! A Dimir Kicker card and it's a decent removal spell! Just gonna trim some vanilla blue card.
Claim // Fame - I debated this one for a long time, but I don't know why. Fame can't be cast without casting Claim normally. Seems like it fits my criteria. Cbut Bag of Devouring since black doesn't play much with artifacts anyway. The sac clause was nice, but I'd rather have a more aggressive reanimate spell. I'm beginning to take a more aggressive slant with my design philosophy for this cube.
Strength of the Coalition - It's seems fine. Putting counters on your whole team looks good and it's otherwise a mediocre combat trick. The ceiling is higher than Hunger and the floor is also higher.
Urborg Repossession - Card advantage is hard enough to come by in this cube, let alone in green. Ghastly Demise often never had enough cards in the 'yard to kill though high toughness creatures you needed dead.
Pixie Illusionist - Mausoleum Wanderer was so often just a flying man since the force spike text was very rarely relevant. Might as well have a flying man with kicker.
Nixmagus Elemental - He's coming back. I really like the choices this card offers and game states it can create. I think I'll be sad taking the cryptologist out but I do have quite a bit of looting and card draw in blue. Hypnotic Grifter does the cyptologist's job pretty well and even gets big.

Desert Package

Someone convinced me to add the cycle of pain deserts with a sacrifice ability and I really like the idea of 5 more pain lands and mana sinks. Gonna try these out for a bit.
Hashep Oasis - Cutting Hidden herd as I don't want to dissuade people from playing their lands, especially since most non-basics will help end games in a reasonable time.
Ipnu Rivulet - Careful study is probably the worst draw spell in blue. It's not even as good as Faithless Looting. At least this will offer mill support.
Ifnir Deadlands - Removal spell for removal spell. Slightly worse, but better for Font of Agonies decks.
Ramunap Ruins - Cutting red cards is very hard. Every card seems to belong to at least two decks. Zurgo is not a relevant tribe and is kinda just a vanilla dude that can't block well. The haste creature is something I'm losing, but I have plenty of haste and reach in red.
Shefet Dunes - Again, I want to direct life gain decks to be proactive and not just sit high on their laurels. The dunes will end games. Radiance made games go to time far too often.

Other DMU Additions

Combat Research - Third Curiosity effect. Cutting Slither Blade over Triton Shorestalker for minor tribal reasons and I'd rather keep the unblockable creature that's easier to kill.
Cult Conscript - One mana black creatures that come back are a cult classic and this looks to be no exception. Forsworn Paladin has won me some games by giving +4/+0 to something that went unblocked. It just doesn't feel like Black should be doing that. The paladin may come back though, very fun to play.
Evolved Sleeper - Tried to find a vanilla-ish creature without relevant creature types. The beetle can get very large in certain games. One to keep in mind.
Cut Down - Look, I know Vampiric Tutor is great, but there aren't really any combos in black aside from Cat/Oven which I'm sure most players would agree is fine to make more inconsistent. Price isn't usually a factor, but this card was the most expensive if you aren't counting specific versions of other cards. It just doesn't seem reasonable. There are few cards powerful enough to warrant a tutor and those that do, feel way more memorable when you have to work for them. Also Cut Down seems like a fine removal spell. Probably won't ever kill a Lagonna-Band Trailblazer though.
Rosnakht, Heir of Rohgahh - Red cuts are hard. Cutting a vanilla 2/3 for more synergistic body(s).
Phoenix Chick - With the addition of Ramunap Ruins, I am worried about critical mass of burn that can go to the face. I am taking preventive measures by cutting a card that rarely does anything unless it wins the game.

More Enchantment Support

With the addition of more heroic in Red, I'd like enchantments to bleed into red a bit more.
Evanescent Intellect - In keeping with the idea that I want to speed games up I'm tentatively adding more mill support. Screaming Shield comes in for Sylvok Lifestaff under this same notion.
Dragon Mantle - I want games to end in a reasonable time but also have players be able to work out of a sticky situation. BFBA was so often a one-card army. The axe will be tentatively placed on the banned to power list.
Immolation - This will likely be the most contentious swap. But As previously noted I am concerned for a critical mass of reach in red. Additonally, Bolt is just so much better than any other burn spell I want to make players make decisions on what kind of burn they want/need/can afford. Lightning bolt is a very strong spell and may come back in the next update. In the mean time, Immolation is still a removal spell and can still deal damage.
Hammerhand - Man I just kinda don't like Warden. It's not as fun to play as it looks.

End Notes

Lots of powerful cards being taken out this time. Hopefully I can learn more about the environment and what is important. How much burn is too much? How much mill is enough to make a viable deck for it? Is there such a thing as too much kicker? So many questions to have answered, if only I can get 7 other people together more frequently.