Year 2024 edits

The cube was spun up late summer this year. Since then there have been four drafts with 6, 4, 4, and 5 players respectively. Multiple matches were played after each draft, ranging from 3 player FFA to 5 player kingdom. Based on these experiences, the following edits will be made for 2025.

Balancing interaction

The amount of interaction was fine for white, black, and blue, but felt lacking in green and red. In addition to increasing red and green interaction spells, some blue and white spells were swapped for better and/or more interesting choices.

In
Hunter's Talent
Contest of Claws
Brotherhood's End
Mizzium Mortars
Lightning Bolt
Arcane Denial
Wash Out
Banishment

Out
Crawling Infestation
Acidic Slime
Defiler of Instinct
Visions of Phyrexia
Trash for Treasure
Commence the Endgame
Ixidron
Unexpectedly Absent

Induce combat

One main philosophy of this cube was to make combat relevant in EDH. After some deliberation, some cards were slotted in to further push players towards the red zone.

In
Eagle Vision
Brave the Sands
Always Watching

Out
Brainstorm
In the Trenches
Aerial Surveyor

Lifegain ()

The Orzhov colors main theme is lifegain. A pure lifegain deck was drafted once with large card pool, but it turned out much too slow to compete against other strategies. One of the lifegainy goodstuff Orzhov commanders was replaced by the new Eleneda, and two goodstuff white slots were replaced by two pridemate-esque creatures. This update will hopefully help lifegain strategies to have more presence on the battlefield.

In
Elenda, Saint of Dusk
Exemplar of Light
Essence Channeler

Out
Liesa, Forgotten Archangel
Hanweir Militia Captain
Extraction Specialist

+1/+1 counters ()

The Simic commanders have not seen a single deck between them. It feels like the deck should be there, but just in case it was improved slightly more with one synergistic punch spell in Contest of Claws, and one more repeated source of counters.

In
Sylvan Scavenging

Out
Reclaim

Spellslinger ()

This is probably the most hit-or-miss deck. It has been drafted couple times and it has fared well, but it seems to lack in finishers. Lightning Bolt was added as interaction and as a copyable spell to hit face. It will be closely monitored, since non-combat wins run against the main philosophy of the cube. Some changes to induce prowess-decks were included.

In
Balmor, Battlemage Captain
Stormchaser's Talent
Party Thrasher
Elemental Eruption

Out
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Aboleth Spawn
Wildfire Devils
Dire Fleet Daredevil

Graveyard ()

The deck has been fine, although it has been mainly led by Tasigur, the Golden Fang. This will also be monitored, as it should not always trump each Golgari commander. Some more self-mill was added.

In
Ripples of Undeath
Dread Summons

Out
Curtain's Call
Reassembling Skeleton