Finally got around to updating for the second half of 2024: Modern Horizons 3 through Foundations. Quite a few shake ups. Foundations gave a better sphinx that showed off being a tricky sphinx (this time the player gets to sort the piles with some hidden information, like posing the riddle themselves). Bloomburrow's offsprings gave minor token synergy which is great for a new spellslinging pinger. Etched slith is a better answer to counters than the (mechanically) cute festering mummy. I also decided to cut down to only 1 pegasus token and move some tags around to include a new modal spell in white which answers enchantments and graveyards.

There are 2 changes that I am on the fence about. One is quilled greatwurm. Maybe this is too much juice being added to the counters deck, but nemesis of mortals never seemed to draw a player's eye. The other is indebted spirit, a fun card that is perfect for this cube. It overlaps a lot with doomed traveler though, so maybe the spirit should replace the traveler instead of murder investigation? That said, murder investigation always felt slow and awkward with white's larger-toughness creatures. Maybe it should be put back in to reward slower decks or incentivize looking to more aggressive colors like black for more power. I'm not sure. I figured I could play with it.

I try not get blinded by new and flashy cards. I'm adding things to the maybe board that I surely will look at one day instead of just the new cards, right?

Anyway, giant's skewer never seemed to do the job that I wanted. It felt slow and clunky, and the payoff of getting food tokens just seemed appealing enough to run it. Yeah, it buffs power too, but Rakdos already means I'm putting high-powered creatures in the cube. Speaking of, that's what it got replaced by. And by something that will generate the food more reliably. I'm sad to remove another actual artifact and the cube's only equipment, but maybe I can find a better equipment later. Plus, it's not like this would be in the graveyard for Silas to recur anyway.

Also, song of Totentanz is another card that I want to add. My LGS didn't have a copy, but I plan to replace battle squadron. I hate losing a flyer in red, but it still has a dragon and phoenix. Plus, this is an X spell to reward ramp and spellslingers while creating tokens that are aggressive. That's like everything that red wants to do in this cube.

Adding a card that investigates and controls and one that I found (or rediscovered?) after playing Jumpstart 2022.

I'm not sure what happened, but I updated Zegana to be the correct version.

Didn't realize this was creating a blog post. Anyway, I'm giving them the tags their predecessors had. Except I'm marking roaring earth as counters instead of ramp and letting blighted burgeoning take its place. I feel like that is more accurate to how a drafter would view them, anyway. Oh, and I added the "original" tag (meaning its slot was part of the original 120) to both the seedshark and the ledger shredder which I forgot to add previously.

I looked through all of the MoM and Co cards and found a few that I wanted to add to my list. I ended up adding no battles since most of the battles that felt right for the cube were in more control colors. I was worried they would have a hard time flipping them, and I didn't think they added anything worthwhile on their front side alone.

I did find a few worth changing. Red doesn't have a first strike combat trick, so I replaced crescendo with it. It's also changing impulse draw for scry and less power but the keyword and less mana. I added furious bellow if I thought the missing power was hurting red, but I don't think it will. I picked creatures with more power than toughness, so I think they already punch up. This just lets them punch first and thus survive. I also replaced rod of absorption and ooze flux which never really seemed exciting. The flying shark certainly is more exciting, and although it isn't an artifact, it makes artifact tokens and puts +1/+1 on the board. Blighted burgeoning also incubates so this slot is still green's only token maker. It is more ramp although it doesn't trigger landfall. Lastly, deadly derision is here because of my boy Daretti. And because it is an instant speed version of its predecessor. It's strictly better mechanically and flavorfully.

I like a lot of pyrewild shaman in how it signals that red needs to be aggressive. It can also recur itself, which is nice. However, I also noticed that red does not have as many instant and sorcery cards that it should have. I think in most sets, it is number 4 in terms of creatures. My cube does not really reflect that. And while that's fine, it does hurt that Izzet is supposed to be spell slinging here. So this is the same P/T combat trick, it just isn't a creature. And instead of getting itself back, it replaces itself. Also, it still signals to attack since it focuses on power, but this gets to be a little more flexible.

As I think I said in the last post, I'm making this change. While I like letting everyone explore, I think mini prime time is just a better option. It's one less enchantment in the cube, but this spot but green actually had 1 more enchantment than white anyway.

Looking at the new cards that came out at the end of last year, I found a few that I wanted to add. First, fiery impulse hitting only creatures always feels weird because it is not a true shock. It is also not the only one with this effect in the cube, but it was chosen for spell mastery. I decided to replace it with twinferno because it is versatile. It's one less direct removal spell for red, but it can double other removal spells, so I'm ok with this. I also replaced a charging dino with a charger. Kicked, they are the same MV, but I figured this way aggro can play it sooner while rewarding ramp for being able to kick it easily. It being a haste creature on turn 3 was important since I was removing bolt hound which previously filled that role. Its battle cry-like effect is instead replaced with a way to keep opponents from gaining life (looking at you nyx-fleece ram).

Lastly, I decided to replace path of discovery with primeval herald. It's one less enchantment, but I don't think that hurts the enchantment deck much. Plus this more directly helps ramp than a do-nothing enchantment. I like explore as a mechanic, but I can't deny that baby prime time looks to be a better bang for your mana-buck.

With the release of new cards and a few drafts done (although not as much as I would like), I wanted to make some updates. Thing in the ice, while I love it, is in the same space as Ludevic's test subject which also happens to better synergize with the proliferate cards. For that reason, it was replaced with a card that has minor +1/+1 synergy and rewards spell slinging. The "blink and get a +1/+1 counter" was replaced with "phase out and get a +1/+1 counter" which I think plays more favorably with built up creatures and auras, thus making it worth no longer resetting planeswalkers. The hoard robber was here to get artifacts, but it never connected. It was replaced with an actual artifact that can sneak in for the same cost. The cauldron is a bit generic and the shiny new vehicle also gets to be a sac outlet that is an artifact but does other things. It doesn't gain life for Ayli, but I don't think that is super relevant. The rusalka is nice to mirror the white one in its cycle and be a spirit for spirit bonds, but I wanted another sacrifice payoff instead of another outlet. The underdog is also ok with being milled and can be aggressive. Undergrowth scavenger played too close to the millipede and Stickfingers as "make graveyard big so I'm big", so I replaced it with brawn which has the same mana value and wants to be a card in the graveyard. Titanic brawl is in here to reward +1/+1 counter decks, but it isn't much of a reward. I decided fertilid does a better job in that slot and had the fight effect be part of green's generic stuff. I also switched out the cost reduction for artifact generation (that refunds), since green was the only one to not do anything with artifacts. And lastly, the retreat was replaced with roaring earth because they are very similar. It is trading life gain for a possible spirit, and I'm fine with that. Also gets land animation in the cube.

First off, I noticed a glut of 3-drop cards. I wanted to replace one with a similar creature but at a higher cost. I have a soft spot for acidic slime, and I appreciate it's deathtouch which is rare in this cube. Then enchantments got a pair of good creature auras, counters got rewards for having counters, graveyard got cards to help get creatures in the yard, ramp finally got courser (one reason I was fine replacing the brontodon is that I feel better having the courser here) and something so everyone can explore. Lastly I got a giant growth variant that leaves behind a counter and a naturalize variant that can hit things in the graveyard. I got a token-maker now, and I made sure to give more stuff at 4 cost. No artifacts here, but I figured it wasn't worth making one fit. Possible variants on in the maybeboard (which I have been using instead of writing down my wishlists in here; so much more convenient).

Here are the additions for red. I knew I wanted some actual cards at 4, and I wanted some more 1 drop creatures. I was also looking to squeeze in another MDFC with a land on the back, and I decided that a way to exile a dying creature was worth it. I also added a threaten effect, this one with a little discount if it hits the tokens that this cube makes. Speaking of tokens, I opted for more 1/1 elemental tokens and the other hero. Red also got a phoenix and a prowess creature and a cantrip. Bloodrush gets in the cube, and soulbond via a creature that gives firebreathing. I figured that makes blocking difficult and gives red something to pump any excess mana from ramping into. I purposefully avoided other enchantments and artifacts (include treasure creators) because I like red having all of that in the legendary Hammer of Purphoros. It's also the only legendary outside of the gold cycle, so I like keeping it so unique.

I added some cards at different mana values, added an enchantment that likes big graveyards, a way to recur from other graveyards, a way to investigate that doubles as removal, and finally a discard spell that doubles as self-mill. Of particular note is marionette master which should be strong in this cube given the amount of token artifacts. However, most involve a cost to sacrifice them, so I think that is ok. This card also adds counters and tokens to black which I withheld from it previously.

My goal for blue was to give it more options on the mana curve as well as break my previous rules about no enchantments or tokens. Also, I went back and forth on it, but I want to try daring sleuth as a little reward for all of the clue stuff going on. I also added parcel myr so that it would work with the sleuth, be an artifact creature for the spy network, and can easily be an artifact in the graveyard for Silas. I realized a little late that most of the artifacts created for that archetype are tokens which isn't what Silas wants.

Next, white gets 10 cards. I gave more defensive options to the control deck, another way to sacrifice a creature and then a way to recur it, a pair of ways to make more tokens, two more cards that like a lot of tokens, a boardwipe that can cater to white's lower overall power, and then spirit bonds because it feels like it is at the crossroads of all the archetypes. Overall, this feels like an injection of power.

I also decided to lax on my earlier restrictions. I didn't want white to have artifacts or +1/+1 counters as it wasn't in those archetypes. I've decided it would be best if there was some of those in other colors.

I'll add mace of the valiant and captivating unicorn to the wishlist.

First up in the expansion, I wanted to add the colorless cards. I already had thought about these before. I am opting for the vivid cycle over the thriving cycle as they do better at fixing and can have some synergies with proliferate. I also like having the colorless common lessons to do some hole filling without pushing for more colors. And I wanted a non-titan eldrazi and settled on this one as it forces the game to move.

I noticed that the number of multi-colored cards seemed high in our drafts. It was not uncommon for me to walk away with 3 gold cards and enough of the tri-lands to support them (I know the lands are colorless, but they look gold on the table while drafting). While I still want the tri-lands and the gold cycle, I don't want so many that they appear to dominate the packs. Maybe they just stick out easily? Regardless, I wanted to limit how much gold there appears to be which is why I'm going with this approach instead of adding another 10 card cycle.

We've played a few games, and essence capture only hitting creatures became a problem that tripped us up. I think it is better to go with a more universal counter spell. I had thought about You Find the Villain's Lair, but this one also stops planeswalker abilities which I thought was interesting enough to try out first.