5 legends added! (1 removed; although I'd hoped Kiki-Jiki could exist in the cube in a fun value way, our drafts have demonstrated that there are too many ways for it to be accidentally broken/infinite.)
Cut several aging mainstays that have been power crept out. The cube's power level is growing higher, and I'm watching for the potential need to make deliberate power-level cuts if low-curve goodstuff decks start dominating.
Green, blue, and white feel very "full." Black and especially red do not.
Edit: Accidentally submitted without final card update. Angel of Vitality → Elenda's Hierophant
No wholesale changes, just adding in new cards from the last four sets that fit existing themes and cutting cards that have been power crept out. 11 more legends are being added, with only 2 coming out, adding support to the burgeoning Legends Matter meta archetype featuring Jodah, the Unifier, Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful, and newly added Gimli of the Glittering Caves and Great Hall of the Citadel.
Omnath, Locus of Creation and Titania, Protector of Argoth are the two most pushed additions, in support of WUBRG/Domain/Lands Matter themes that typically go undrafted.
The biggest ongoing design challenge is red. Many of red's historical best cube cards are generic aggro without a lot of play to them, which I don't want to exist in this cube. I would like to lean further into red's role in Lands Matter (RG), Spellslinger/Draw-2 Matters (UR), or Token/Sacrifice themes (RW/BR), but every viable red card for these themes is already in the cube. These themes exist much more strongly in their non-red color, with red providing some support, but mostly just cards that are good on rate.
A long term goal was/is to have each three-color trio have a theme that stretches across all three, with one 3-color legend as a signpost and payoff. For Jeskai, this theme was cycling, which touched upon some of the looting/madness/draw-2 payoffs in UR and some of the token payoffs in RW. In practice, even a fully realized Jeskai cycling deck was too clunky to compete. Additionally, many of the cycling cards necessarily included to provide a critical mass of cycling were otherwise among the least appealing, least synergistic picks in the cube.
Has theme:
Sultai - self mill
Mardu - tokens aristocrats
Abzan - life gain
Grixis - madness
Jund - lands
Needs theme:
Jeskai
Temur
Esper
Naya
Bant
Most of the U/R/W cards being added are cards that were past cuts that still have a home in the cube's remaining archetypes. Also added in this update are some new cards to support the burgeoning WUBRG/Domain theme, which is increasingly achievable now that all 10 triomes have been printed. (And which conveniently doesn't require very many of dedicated card slots.)
Lastly, Disintegrate and Weakness join the cube in my quest to include as many playable cards printed in 1993 and 1994 as possible.
-Removed last of gray mana (Eldrazi) support.
-Now that I don't need a critical mass of lands/mana rocks that can produce gray mana, upgraded to less futsy dual lands. Once in play, all duals perform the same, no filtering or paying life.
-Made lifegain tertiary in green.
-Death's Oasis becomes honorary fifth Ascendancy, replacing Abzan Ascendancy. (SNC Ascendancies remain terrible and should be ashamed of themselves.)
-Added a little more support/payoff for domain decks.
-Increased legend count!