Cube Updated – Automatic Post

Patch notes:

Dominaria United Changes:

Lion Sash has primarily been a midrange card, and didn't quite meet our expectations in terms of play pattern or enjoyment. Guardian of New Benalia will hopefully act as a backup Adanto Vanguard, the 2/2 body is a little smaller than the 3/1 but hopefully the enlist ability will allow it to push through damage that otherwise would get blocked.

Phoenix of Ash has remained in the cube due to it's ability to provide reach to decks that run out of gas, Squee, Dubious Monarch does that same job, at the same cost but is a callback to the classic rabblemaster style of card, seems like an easy swap for testing purposes and we take the more fun/interesting of the two.

Merfolk Branchwalker has existed with the purpose of supporting non-ramp decks which usually appreciate green 2 drops. Quirion Beastcaller will hopefully be more similar to Tarmogoyf than Branchwalker in decks that have lots of creatures. Only requiring a single creature cast to match Branchwalker's stats seems fairly achievable. Maybe the lack of card draw element will make it worse.

Vampire Lacerator has existed purely for blackggro density, the card was clearly the bottom of the pile of creatures and existed as support/filler. Evolved Sleeper is "effectively" a hasty 2/2 for 2, and we've seen the card draw ability be relevant. Feels similar to Knight of the Ebon Legion in that the threat of activation allows it to attack and then you use your mana for other things.

Saheeli, Sublime Artificer is definitely a unique and interesting card with some highlight plays when you are cloning your Glorybringer, but she has been struggling to find a clear home in terms of decks that love her. Hopefully Balmor, Battlemage Captain will fit nicely into UR aggressive/tempo strategies. There is definitely a risk that the UR section will be too easy to fall into while drafting with this card and that deck appears at too high a frequency so we can see a future where this swap is reversed for meta health later.

Balance Change:

Azorious Charm has been fairly uninspiring in the UW section, and under the same logic that UR feels a little too easy to fall into during the draft we are going to hurt UW control a little and instead encourage UW midrange/tempo decks a little more with the inclusion of Spell Queller. This card could see play in control decks but definitely takes on some risk in doing so while being good in decks that don't want to win via attrition.

Mystic Sanctuary is very skill based to execute optimally, and has lead to somewhat repetitive play when paired with Cryptic Command. Otawara, Soaring City should see a bunch of play in most blue decks without having the deckbuilding restrictions or feels bad moments.

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is only being cut because we were out of ideas for what to cut, but wanted to encourage the rise of blue creature decks we've seen, we felt that Phantasmal Image would support those decks well.

We traded for a foil old border Shardless Agent while drafting the other day and wanted to test it again, Decisive Denial has been a fairly playable card, and I'm not certain this is the right cut over Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse but we can always figure out what feels right with a bit of testing.

Steve_man_64 Data Changes:

These were cards we missed during the spoilers, or underrated upon initial evaluation, based on the results of others we are looking to test them in our own environment. Thanks to @SteveMan for the suggestions.

Fact of Fiction has been outdated for a while, having longevity due to how fun it is for both the player casting and resolving it. Occult Epiphany being card filtration whilst also interaction with the board via evasive creatures sounds great.

Caldaia Guardian is a spell that for 2 draws you a card, does 4 damage to the opponent and creates two 1/1 tokens as a floor. With a ceiling of even more.

Brother's War Tests:

Surge Engine seems like a very unique blue tempo card, being an evasive creature that you can use spare mana on at the end of your opponents turn seems great. Vendilion Clique is a card that we know what it does, so it is easy for us to know how it will play when we reflect on these tests later.

Other blog posts mention these changes, just messed up the changelist

Blast Zone -> Inkmoth Nexus

Colourless lands are always interesting from an inclusion space. They inherently support 2 colour decks better than 3 colour, and trying to put powerful enough colourless lands in to prevent multicolour piles. Blast Zone rewards control decks by giving them a board wipe, Inkmoth Nexus gives aggressive decks reach. The expectation is that it will play near identically to Mishra's Factory

Castle Ardenvale -> Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

Castle Ardenvale has always sat in a weird spot in that the floor is so high because it is an untapped white source but the ceiling was never that high. Paying 5 mana for a 1/1 is good value when you have nothing to do, but that's about it. Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire is also an untapped white source but the removal mode is a lot more relevant. Kim has fears this card is too good, and we'll see off colour decks splashing for this effect. We'll see!

Searing Blaze -> Abrade
Turntimber Symbiosis -> Boseiju, who Endures

Both are these swaps are about including enough removal to Artifacts (and Enchantments). This helps us to depower cards such as Smuggler's Copter and Umezawa's Jitte whilst having them be worthwhile cards to play.

Atarka's Command -> Kird Ape

Atarka's Command is somewhat of a noob trap. The card is fine if you want to do 3 damage to your opponents face with upside. Kird Ape will fit that style of deck much more easily. It is still to be demonstrated how easily Kird Ape can be online.

Rather than representing "New Cards" that we want to try and continue to support things we already expect decks to do. These cards represent a shift in balance to either create new archetypes or buff current ones

Braids, Cabal Minion -> Vampire Lacerator

See Smokestack for reason behind Braids cut.
Vampire Lacerator is being put in to better support black aggro. There needs to be sufficient density of creatures in the Mardu colours to support 2 decks across 6 players. Going from 4 to 5 black aggro 1 drops, is very helpful.

What is the purpose behind the green 2 drops?
Rofellos, LLanowar Emissary and Sylvan Caryatid are redundancy for green ramp decks. That's fine if you are base green. But where do you rank those cards amongst the ramp pieces. We have concluded that they often end up cut as the dorks are significantly stronger.

What if you're not playing ramp? What green cards are good for you? That is the question we are trying to answer with our new green 2's. Green 3 and 4 mana cards are already played in Gx decks, but what about decks are that not base green.

Introducing:

Tarmogoyf, Scavenging Ooze, and Merfolk Branchwalker

These early beaters join Duskwatch Recruiter in being relative large bodies with some utility (or just a big boi in Tarmogoyf). Hopefully this will split green drafters into one of two camps. Dork heavy ramp decks, and decks that are competing for those green 3's and 4's but intending to curve out rather than power out their top end. We don't expect this to impact the ramp drafter because like we said we ended up cutting the 2 mana ramp from our ramp decks anyway. So hopefully this is the removal of "dead" cards and addition of new playable green decks :)

These are cards we wanted to play from various sets that we didn't get around to.

Skymarcher Aspirant -> Usher of the Fallen

Should be relatively similar change, our expectation is that the Boast ability will trigger more often than Ascend.

Elite Spellbinder -> Lion Sash

Mostly had to find a cut to test out Lion Sash, card has some pretty strict white requirements, but nice equipment and artifact synergy.

Sunlance -> Prismatic Ending

Justin's dream swap, Sunlance has always overperformed in our mind, being cheap interaction and hitting 59% [67/113] (or 76% [67/88] if you assume you are the majority white drafter) gives us a useful measure of what effective removal looks like. Prismatic Ending hits 3 colours fairly consistently, due to the way people splash using off colour shocks that they fetch out. Using this bar then we can look at the targets that Prismatic Ending has:

For comparison Lightning Bolt has 85% (99/116)

Winds of Abandon -> March of Otherworldly Light

Cheap-ish removal -> Cheap-ish versatile removal

Legion's Landing -> Esper Sentinel

Legion's Landing is a nice card when the games go long, but isn't considered a very high pick and rarely flips. Esper Sentinel will perform well in aggro and midrange decks and supplements the taxing package we already run in white.

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar -> The Wandering Emperor

The Wandering Emperor is a very interesting card, but has big boots to fill. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar was won from a Standard Showdown by Kim and has been in our cube since its inception, a feat shared by only 10 other cards. It used to be the best card in the cube, and our design philosophy has often gone back to a statement that Gideon should always be a justifiable p1p1 choice in any given pack. This test is mostly to see if The Wandering Emperor is fun, and try a flash planeswalker. Our initial prediction is that this will not be here to stay.

Parallax Wave -> Solitude

It is always disheartening to cut old cards, especially ones with janky wording that new players look confused about. There is something great about experiencing and understanding these cards. Unfortunately as the cube moves forwards these cards often end up showing their age. Solitude joins a handful of free spells in the cube and will lead to massive tempo advantage at the cost of card advantage early and big upset late. Pack 1 Pick 1 this card, because it's not going to wheel!

Castle Vantress -> Mystic Sanctuary

Both of these cards are rewarding players who are heavy blue. The hardest part about realising Mystic Sanctuary's power is remembering that you can fetch it to use it at any time. Combos nicely with Cryptic Command to soft lock your opponent out of the game.

Phantasmal Image -> Thing in the Ice

With the recent trend Hard Evidence and Spellskite showing up in winning decklists we have had to go back and reflect on how strong some cards we previously cut might look in our current environment such as Thing in the Ice. TiTi will not fit into the more tempo oriented Ux decks, and could end up as a sideboard card in control. Intuitively it isn't obvious where this card slots in best, but I'm sure our drafters will establish a home if it has one.

Volrath's Stronghold -> Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

Fundamentally these cards are very similar and play on the same axis. The question is do we value peaks or average more highly. "Feast or famine" style cards are something that historically we've tried to avoid. But Volrath's Stronghold has never felt oppressive. It wins some small number of games, and is an untapped colourless source a bunch of the time. In comparison Takenuma, Abandoned Mire has a much higher floor, being an untapped black source, and it "draws" rather than changes your draws. We expect that the higher floor will end up being worth it.

Spawn of Mayhem -> Blade of the Oni

Spawn of Mayhem has always been an big beater, but struggles to find a home in that it's great in aggro decks, but competes for a very competitive slot in the 3's section. Blade of the Oni has a good body (only 1B 3/1 menace ever printed) and a couple of relevant upsides. Being an equipment means it can avoid wraths, and be tutorable by Stoneforge Mystic. We expect Blade of the Oni will play well in aggressive and midrange decks.

Bloodthirsty Adversary -> Fury

This one is on me. Magic is hard! I evaluated Fury incorrectly at launch, when we did initial testing this one didn't even see play, unlike Esper Sentinel and Solitude which we have a good idea how they play already. Fury is borderline too good, and will be watched with careful eyes. In a fair format such as ours it will often trade 2 for 2 OR better for 0 mana. We were never that impressed with Bloodthirsty Adversary so it made sense as an easy cut.

Sulfuric Vortex -> Laelia, the Blade Reforged

Sulfuric Vortex has always been a polarising card, often reading "Win the game" against control players. However in the aggro and midrange MUs it is a pretty interesting card, providing massive amounts of burn but giving up a card and tempo. Sulfuric Vortex is perhaps not gone for good, especially with all the enchantment hate. However Laelia, the Blade Reforged is a card we wanted to test for fun. She has a good track record and we've heard many designers talk about how they enjoy her gameplay.
We expect she will earn a slot, but potentially not Sulfuric Vortex's.

Teferi, Time Raveler -> Azorius Charm

Teferi, Time Raveler is objectively a very strong card. We found that it represents a very strong hate piece against control, rather than supporting control. As well as promoting un-interactive magic. Azorius Charm is basically going to help support control decks with an interesting but not too powerful card. We expect this will get cut when more powerful UW cards get printed (Can you believe that's possible? UW has always been so stacked).

Sylvan Caryatid -> Hornet Sting

How good is 1 damage for 1 mana? People consistently laugh when presented with the idea of Hornet Sting being in the cube. But the reality is that it hits nearly 50% of all creatures. Whilst the long term prospects of this card aren't good, it'll be a fun card while it exists and hopefully show people how surprisingly powerful 1 mana removal is, even when it hits so few cards. For discussion as to Slyvan Caryatid see "Changes to Green"

Fiend Artisan -> Chevil, Bane of Monsters

Fiend Artisan always seems to play worse than it reads. The card looks great, a beater that is also an X mana Birthing Pod? Sadly the number of decks it has seen play in have dwindled so we are trying a new Golgari card in it's place. Chevil, Bane of Monsters rewards GB players for the already hefty removal suite they run.

Dack Fayden -> Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Dack Fayden has always felt a little weird in this environment, which archetypes is he designed for? On the other hand, we've never found a great replacement so.... testing Saheeli, Sublime Artificer again until a better Izzet card is printed.

Bonesplitter -> Eater of Virtue

Bonesplitter with a minigame, we are not able to determine if this is better or not, we intend to have fun trying to find out.

Smokestack -> Cogwork Librarian

Smokestack and Braids, Cabal Minion are cards that we have loved over the years. Smokestack represents an archetype, that two cards have singlehandedly been able to support. How good is that archetype? We have consistently considered T2 or T2.5. These may return later, but we're going to take a break from a much loved "fun deck" from the cube. Cogwork Librarian will hopefully add s