Breach -> Kess: Make storm take a little more work than the 3-card combo Breach enables, but give it another tool.

Storm -> Loot: Storm mostly makes already good spells even better, while Loot could lead to some more variety in gameplay while still being powerful.

Crackling Spellslinger -> Stadium Headliner: Trying to lower the curve on red; Spellslinger has same issue as Storm, above. Not sure whether Headliner will stay--it might not have enough impact--but thought it worth a try because of its modality.

Angel of Invention: Help the aggro decks close the game.

Kozilek: Add more top-end for "mono-brown" decks, etc.

Further tweaks to make aggro (mostly R/W) require more commitment to draft (while still being viable). Also added more R storm/ramp cards and swapped in Darkslick Shores for Restless Reef b/c UB isn't leaning into mill as much as it used to.

It's been a while since I last engaged with this cube, so I aimed these last few updates at getting it to a comfortable base where I could just make minor tweaks going forward. I did this mainly by:

• Swapping in new cards
• Streamlining the multicard "side" archetypes
  • Cut: archetypes with relatively low power, even with their key card(s)
    • Sacrifice (Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz, Feaster of Fools, etc.)
    • 3+ MV artifacts (Simulacrum Synthesizer, Ancient Stone Idol, etc.)
    • Food, a subset of Sacrifice (Osteomancer Adept, Academy Manufactor, etc.))
  • Boosted: Landfall, which was already reasonably playable. It should be easier to go all-in on this archetype now.
• Adding a couple of one-card "archetypes" that can change a draft's direction without taking up much space in the cube:
  • Lurrus of the Dream-Den
  • Oath of Druids

I also started the process of slowing down the cube's play speed. While the state of cube speed and play patterns deserves its own discussion, my goal in short is to be able to bring back some of the fun 4+ MV cards that don't see play anymore because games end too quickly. (Glen Elendra Archmage, Consecrated Sphinx, and...some non-blue cards, I'm sure.)

I've started by cutting Broadside Bombardiers and Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes. They tend to nullify the game that preceded them and massively punish any non-combo deck.

(As with the previous updates/post, this is one of several, progressive updates to get my cube current. More detailed design notes in the final update.)

Mostly completing the Verge cycle, increasing the number of current cards, and some preliminary additions from Tarkir: Dragonstorm.

(Had several removals and swaps from the Maybeboard, but an error occurred with Cube Cobra and I'll do the cleanup in a subsequent update.)

Partial update--will finish and include design notes in next update.

Augur is more generally useful than Gix, with some interesting gameplay decisions.

Didn't see much play, so I'm moving it to a different cube.

Mondrak feels like it takes more work to enable than its payoff warrants, but Warren Warleader can pop off immediately.

While Baylen also requires setup, it's a nice "signpost" and can get value as soon as it hits the battlefield.

Overprotect lives up to its name and was requested by one of my regular players, so it's in on a probationary basis.

Swapping out some cards that have been less exciting than I'd hoped. (Though admittedly, a lot of that has been during practice drafts in the "Playtest" tab lately.)

• The Claire D'Loon, Joy Sculptor archetype rarely comes together and has been a bit underpowered even when it does. Dance of the Manse was mostly there to support this strategy by getting back artifact tokens, so it's also out.

• Atraxa has ended up being as one-sided as expected in the reanimation decks, de facto closing out the game when it's cheated into play. It's the kind of, "Oh, I guess what I did this game didn't actually matter," play pattern that I try to avoid. Admittedly, this is exacerbated by Entomb being an instant and Reanimate being so cheap, but I'm not quite ready to nerf or remove those.

...and adding Tarfire for additional support.

Might still not have quite enough for Hogaak, and Maelstrom Pulse is great against tokens, but trying for science.

Argoth isn't included in the draft; whoever drafts the corresponding Titania gets Argoth added to their pool for free.